there is a superabundance of sap the tabasheer is formed from the residuum. More recently, Henry Cecil61
says, "In the onrush of tropical growth in the young shoot, nature,
after flooring the knot, has poured in, as it were, sap and silica
sufficient for a normal length and width of stem to the knot next above
it. But by some check to the impulse, or by irregularity of conditions,
the portion of stem thus provided for is shorter or narrower than
intended, and the unused silica is left behind as a sediment,
compacted by the drying residuum sap."
This
latter view is sustained by Dr. Ernst Huth, who discusses the name,
history, origin, and reputed virtues of this substance with much
fulness.62 In regard to its use in medicine during the
Middle Ages, he quotes a remarkable list of applications to the ills
that flesh is heir to.
Here
it is cited as a remedy for affections of the eyes, the chest, and of
the stomach, for coughs, fevers, and biliary complaints, and especially
for melancholia arising from solitude, dread of the past, and fears
for the future. Other writers speak of its use in bilious fevers and
dysentery, internal and external heat, and injuries and maladies.
The
writer has examined a large number of so-called madstones, and they
have all proved to be an aluminous shale or other absorptive substance.
But tabasheer possesses absorptive properties to a greater degree than
any other of the mineral substances examined, and it is strange that it
has never been mentioned as being used as an antidote. It may be
confidently recommended to the credence of any person who may desire to
believe in a madstone.
The
writer believes that Taverniere snake-stones may all have been
tabasheer, or again, while some of them were of this substance, others
may have been artificially compounded
" Nature, xxxv, p. 437.
**
" Der Tabixir in seiner Bedeutung für die Botanik, Mineralogie, und
Physik"; X. Sammlung. Naturwissenschaftlicher Vorträge, Berlin, 1887.
