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STONES OF HEALING 153
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should be returned to the Abbey. It is said to have borne the name Kaadman, which Mr. Thomas Wright regarded as a corruption of cadmeus or cameus, early forms of our "cameo."86
In
Geneva and in the neighboring regions great virtues are ascribed to a
cut and facetted iron (pyrite), very hard, susceptible of a high polish
and of resplendent lustre. This is cut to resemble the rose or
brilliant form of diamond, and is set in rings, buckles, and other
ornaments. In appearance it resembles polished steel and is called pierre de santé, or "health-stone," for it is believed to grow pale when the health of the wearer is about to fail.86
This substance is known as marcasite and is a bisulphide of iron. In
the time of Louis XVI it was largely used for ornamental purposes ; at
present steel has almost entirely taken its place, although it is still
utilized to a limited extent. Many believe that this is the material to
which Victor Hugo alludes in his great romance, "Les Misérables," as
having been manufactured by Jean Valjean.
Medical
men in Rome, in the first century, attested that no better cautery for
the human body could be used than a crystal ball acted upon by the
sun's rays,87 and this use of the material seems to have been very general at that time.
In
his commentary on Andrea Bacci's gem-treatise, Wolfgang Gabelchover,
the German translator, says that a German name of rock-crystal in his
time, the early sixteenth century, was Schwindelstein ("vertigo-stone"), be-
"
Thomas Wright, " On Antiquarian Researches in the Middle Ages," in
Archeologia, vol. xxx, London, 1844, pp. 444-446; cut on page 444. *
Collin de Plancy, " Dictionnaire Infernal," Bruxelles, 1845, p. 415.
"Plinii, "Naturalis historia," lib. xxxvii, cap. 10.
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