ON THE VIRTUES OF FABULOUS STONES 167
about with poverty."12
A writer of the same period affirms that if the toad-stone were touched
to any part, ' ' envenomed, hurt, or stung with rat, spider, wasp, or
any other venomous beast," the swelling and pain were diminished.13
The
bones of the lizard were supposed to have medicinal virtues similar to
those attributed to various "stones" found in animals. The following
directions are given by Encelius for securing these bones: "Put a green
lizard, while still alive, in a closed vessel filled with the best
quality of salt. In a few days the salt will have consumed the flesh
and the intestines, and you can easily gather up the bones."14
These were used as remedies for epilepsy and were considered to be as
efficacious as the hoofs of the elk, a recommendation which seems to
have been regarded as sufficient to convince the most sceptical of the
remedial virtues of the lizard's bones.
The
crab furnished the stone called the crab's-eye, because in form it
resembled an eye. Like almost all the animal concretions, it was
principally used as a remedy for those suffering from vesical calculi,
and no other concretion was believed to be so efficacious in breaking
up or dissolving the calculi in the case of those who had long been
afflicted with them. Those referred to by Encelius were from the
crawfish and are often used as eye-stones.15
In
the last joint of a crab's claw was sometimes found a small concretion
closely resembling in size and appearance a grain of millet-seed; it
was in no wise like the "lapillus" found in crab's eyes. We have the
testimony of Cardanus that he had preserved two such concretions, one
of which he had himself come across, while the other had been found
""Anatomy of absurditie," 1589; p. 40 of Collier's reprint. Lean's Collectanea, vol. ii, Pt. II, Bristol, 1903, p. 643. u
Lupton, " One Thousand Notable Things." » Encelii, " De re metallica,"
Francofurti, 1557, pp. 219, 220. * Idem, pp. 218, 219. See also p. 121
of the present book.
