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STONES OF HEALING
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times bore the generic name theriac, or theriac, this designation being derived from the Greek therion, signifying
a beast, more specifically a poisonous animal and hence also a serpent.
These preparations were primarily antidotes for poison, but were also
freely administered for any form of "blood-poisoning," for malarial
infection, malignant fevers and the like. Principal ingredients were
the "Armenian stone" (a friable, blue carbonate of copper), pearls,
charred stag's-horn, and coral. The Veronese physician, Francesco
India, confidently affirms that this remedy not only cured the plague,
but also protected those who had partaken of it from contracting the
disease ; this was said to be more especially true of the theriaca Andromachi, or
Venice treacle as it was popularly called, which purported to be the
invention of a Roman or Greek physician, Andromachus, who composed
some medical poems dedicated to Caesar.6
In
medieval Bohemia the knowledge of precious stones and their employment
for curative purposes is well attested. There exists a Bohemian
manuscript list of precious stones dated in 1391, in which no less than
55 different gems are noted. Their medicinal use in Bohemia at this
time is vouched for by the Synonima Apothecariorum where precious
stones are listed among the materials of the apothecaries'art.7
In
the testaments of royal and princely personages, medical stones are
often bestowed as precious legacies. Thus in the will of the Hessian
prince, Henry VIII of Fürstenberg, the following stones are mentioned
as especially costly objects: a "crabstone" (Krebstein), a
bloodstone, and a gravel-stone, the latter being a piece of jade or
nephrite.8 The crabstone, sometimes called crab's-eye, is a chalky concretion which forms on either side of the stomach
•Francisci Indie, "Hygiphylus eive de febre maligna dialogue," Verone, 1593, pp. 125, 126.
'Dr. B. Jezak, "Aus dem Reiche der Edlesteine," Prag, 1914, p. 65. •Kobert, "Ein Edlestein der Vorzeit," Stuttgart, 1910, p. 36.
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