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STONES OF HEALING
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have
been anything but favorable. Λ friend of De Boot once told the latter
that a dose of six grains of powdered malachite acted as a purgative,
but the wary doctor confesses that he never ventured to test the
efficacy of this prescription.80 In Bavaria, at the present
time, mothers and midwives are fond of wearing pieces of malachite set
in rings or strung for use as necklaces. These are believed to help the
dentition of children and are also thought to bring more clients to the
midwives. Amulets of this and other kinds were sold in Bavaria, in the
seventeenth century, by wandering students and by gypsiest81
Of the so-called Median stone we read, in Konrad von Megenberg's "Buch der Natur,"82
that it had powers of good and evil; "for when dissolved in the milk of
a woman who has borne a son, it restores sight to the blind." It also
cured gout and insanity. If, however, anyone were so ill-advised as to
dissolve the stone in water and partake of the solution, he would die
of hasty consumption ; or if he simply bathed his forehead with the
liquid, he would be robbed of his sight.
A famous medicinal stone was at one time in the Abbey of St. Alban, founded in 793 a.D. by
Offa, King of Mercia, in honor of the British protomartyr. In 1010,
under Abbot Geoffrey de Gorham, a sumptuous shrine was erected to
receive St. Alban's body; this shrine was principally of silver, and
was richly adorned with precious stones, chosen
" Ibid., loc. cit.
"
Höfler, " Volksmedizin und Aberglaube," München, 1893, pp. 38, 39. "
Konrad von Megenberg " Das Buch der Natur," ed. by Dr. Franz Pfeiffer,
Stuttgart, 1861, p. 452.
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