ever, that a ring should be put on the middle finger of the left hand,
adding that the cure was immediate. Probably the explanation is to be
found in the fact that rings were rarely worn by the Romans on the
middle finger, and hence the unusual sensation produced by placing a
ring on this finger operated to check the nervous spasm causing the
sneezes or hiccoughs. It is well known that any nervous shock,
sometimes a very slight one, will suffice to cure such spasms; indeed,
Pliny also advises the immersion of the hand in very hot water.
Since
lizards were believed to recover their sight by natural means after
they had been blinded, this fancy led to the use of a strange method
for procuring remedial rings. A blinded lizard was put into a glass
vessel, in which iron or gold rings were also placed. When it became
apparent that the creature had regained its sight, the rings were
taken out and used for the cure of weak and weeping eyes. Something of
the natural force that operated to restore the lizard's vision was
supposed to communicate itself to the rings.4
In
a treatise incorrectly attributed to the Roman physician Galen ("De
incantatione "), the statement is made that the wearing of a ring set
with a sard weighing twenty grains will ensure deep and tranquil sleep
and give protection against bad dreams or fearful " visions of the
night." For nervous derangement, often a cause of nightmare, Marcellus
Empiricus, who practised medicine in the Roman world of the sixth
century a.D., recommended
a finger ring made out of the hoof of a rhinoceros, asserting that any
patient suffering from " obstruction of the nerves " would surely
experience relief by wearing such a ring. On the other hand a
* Punii, " Naturalis historia," lib. xxix, cap. 38.
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