Chapter III: Front Matter (3)

The so-called Brazilian emeralds mentioned by the Dutch mineralogist, Johann de Laet, as having been found shortly before 1647 in mines near Spiritus Sanctus, may perhaps have been green tourmalines. These crystals were described by Gesner as of cylindrical form, striated, and of a vitreous lustre; their color was like that of the prase and they were transparent. Although De Laet adds the assertion that the Oriental emerald (green corundum) was as hard as the sapphire, the Brazilian emeralds approached more closely to the Oriental in point of hardness than did emeralds from any other source of supply;[95] and green sapphires have never been found in Brazil, while green tourmalines have been.

The earliest published work in which the electric properties of tourmaline are noted appears to be an anonymous or quasi anonymous treatise published in 1707, certain initial letters of the quaint title being italicized to indicate the initials of the author’s name.[96] The first scientist to derive the action of the so-called _Aschentrekker_ or “Ash-Attractor” from electric energy is said to have been the great Linnæus, who bestowed upon the tourmaline the name of the “Electrical Stone.”[97]

The attractive properties of the tourmaline are said to have been first brought to scientific notice by M. Louis Lémery, in a report made during 1717 to the French Academy of Sciences; however, Lémery was inclined to attribute them to magnetic influence. That these phenomena of attraction and repulsion were really due to the electric properties of the stone was first clearly brought out by the German physicist, Franz Ulrich Theodor Aepinus, and his conclusions were communicated to the Berlin Academy of Sciences in 1756.[98] Aepinus made his experiments upon two specimens of tourmaline from Ceylon, which had been furnished him by Lehmann, a fellow-member of the Berlin Academy, who, as Aepinus frankly admits, first drew his attention to the electric action of the stone. That not only friction but heat also should develop the electric energy, both positive and negative, of the tourmaline, serves to differentiate it from many other potentially electric substances, in the case of which friction alone is effective.

A SIMPLE APPARATUS FOR ILLUSTRATING THE ELECTRIC PROPERTIES OF THE
TOURMALINE

The stone is suspended from a hollow rod and will be attracted by the
finger, if the latter be brought within a short distance of the
tourmaline. When the stone has been slightly heated, its positive
electricity will draw toward it the heart-shaped piece of paper,
just as amber attracts paper, or magnetic iron does iron filings.
]

The specimen shown by M. Lémery to the French Academy of Sciences in 1717 is stated to have come from “a river in the Island of Ceylon,” and is described as being of small size, flat, orbicular, quite thin, of a brown color, and smooth brilliant surface.[99] Its peculiar property of attracting and then repelling ashes or iron filings as well as bits of paper, was duly noted. This specimen had cost M. Lémery 15 livres. After reciting the constant repulsion and attraction exercised by a magnet upon the needle, the attraction by the opposite pole, and repulsion by the same pole, he proceeds to remark that this Cinghalese stone acted quite differently, since it first attracted and then repulsed the same object presented in the same way. This intermittent or irregular action was in his opinion to be explained by the theory that a vortex was intermittently developed in the substance. As it begins the small bodies are attracted, when it ceases they remain stationary, but when it is renewed “and there emanates from the stone a material analogous to the magnetic emanation” then the bodies are repulsed. Another peculiarity was that the body which had been repulsed could not again be attracted, whence the conclusion was arrived at that the stone’s repellent force was superior to its attractive power. These necessarily somewhat inexact observations are interesting as marking one of the earliest attempts to explain these phenomena, even although the explanation is faulty.

The great French crystallographer, Abbé Haüy, relates his experiments on a tourmaline crystal.[100] He set this crystal in steel clamps, with a long stem which was inserted in a wooden handle, and then subjected the tourmaline to the heat of a brasier. As the heat augmented and penetrated the stone, its natural electric force became decomposed, the two component fluids being forced to separate from each other. It was now necessary to cool the tourmaline off a little; when too much heated the electrical phenomena were interrupted; they were also diminished in intensity when the stone became cool again. The perfect crystal chosen for experiment clearly showed the negative and positive electrical poles; even the smallest pieces showed this, and, indeed, if a very small piece were broken off the positively electric side of a crystal, it would preserve this positive electricity and soon develop a negative electricity also.

We may be somewhat loath to doubt the tale that little Dutch children were the first to note what to them was the queer action of some bits of tourmaline, but preference should probably be given to the statement that the discovery of the electric phenomena induced by heating in these stones was due to the fact that some Dutch jewellers put specimens of tourmaline in the fire to test their hardness, and then found that the stones attracted or repelled the ashes of the fire.[101]

Toward the middle of the eighteenth century Dr. Haberden, of London, confirmed the deductions of Lémery and the somewhat later experiments of the German physicist Aepinus, and the gay world of London took up the idea, causing the new stone to become a great favorite with the fashionable. One of Hogarth’s inimitable designs depicts a spendthrift fop who has just been arrested while his attention was riveted on the strange phenomena shown by the tourmaline.

In view of the important experiments made by Benjamin Franklin in the then almost unexplored field of electricity, it is easy to understand that the accounts of the newly-discovered electric properties of the tourmaline should have possessed considerable interest for him. This is testified to by a letter he addressed to Dr. William Haberden, June 7, 1759.[102] Herein he expresses his thanks for two tourmalines his correspondent had sent him, and states that he is returning the smaller one. Of the electric phenomena he writes that he had heard some “ingenious gentlemen abroad” had denied the negative electricity displayed by one side of a tourmaline, but he believes the failure to observe could be explained by defective cutting of the specimens used, the positive and negative planes having perhaps been obliquely placed; to obviate this he suggests that the positive and negative sides should be accurately determined before the operation of cutting begins. The larger of the specimens sent by Dr. Haberden was retained by Franklin, who had it mounted on a pivot in a ring, so that either side could be turned outward at will. He notes as a curious circumstance that when he wore this ring, the natural heat of the finger sufficed to charge the stone, causing it to attract light bodies. Several of his experiments were made with a cork ball suspended by a thread, and he claims that the attractive force of the positive face was increased by coating it with gold-leaf attached to the stone by white of egg. This greater effect he supposed “to be occasioned by the united force of the different parts of the face collected and acting together through the metal.”

While the various corundum gems, ruby, sapphire, Oriental topaz, Oriental amethyst, etc., offer a remarkable instance of the many varieties of beautiful coloration observable in a practically identical substance, no single gem-mineral can be said to equal tourmaline in this respect, more especially, however, in the combination of several colors sometimes disposed in bands, at other times in concentric circles in the same crystal. When to this we add its peculiar electric qualities, we may truly say that a fine tourmaline answers our idea of what a talismanic gem or a gem-amulet should be better than any other of the beautiful crystals with which bountiful nature has provided us. These most attractive stones are to be found in widely separated regions on the earth’s surface, as fine examples have been discovered in the State of Minas Geraes, Brazil, and in our own land, in Maine and California especially. Where the color is homogeneous we may have the splendid red or rose-colored variety called rubellite, from its resemblance to the ruby, or the blue tourmaline gem named indicolite.

In times of old there was a belief that stones of various kinds would guard against the assaults of evil in the form of witchcraft, disease, and other disagreeable visitations. It was a warlike period in which peace was an unheard-of doctrine, and now that the idea of peace has become one of the ideals of present-day conditions, it is interesting to know that nature has furnished us with a stone at once beautiful, interesting, and illustrating the great fundamental principle of unity and peace.

The Peace Stone is formed by the union in one crystal of the green and the red tourmaline, with an intervening band or zone of white, the latter strikingly beautiful effect being due to the combination at this point of the red coloring matter, manganese, and the iron constituent, the source of the green hue; these two materials, by their union, neutralize each other, furnishing the transparent, colorless vein or zone. A slightly different combination of colors appears in a fine crystal, found some years ago at Mount Mica, Oxford County, Maine; this even offers a kind of “triple alliance,” as it shows blue in its lower half, passing through white and pink to a grass-green at the upper end.[103]

These three hues combined in one body, in indissoluble union in spite of the differences of quality and color, yet represent one principle. This action of manganese in neutralizing the iron is well known to glass-makers; otherwise white glass could not be made. It would all be greenish in tint were it not for the use of oxide of manganese, or “glass-maker’s soap,” as it is termed, which neutralizes the production of a green tint by the iron and makes the white hue.

This beautifully symbolic stone is found in Paris, Maine, in San Diego County, California, and in Brazil. At times the outer edge of the stone is green, a transparent white zone surrounding the interior red zone, the whole looking for all the world like a section of watermelon, and hence it is sometimes called the “Watermelon Stone.” Then again, the colors are joined in longitudinal strips, showing them side by side. This variety of tourmaline, although rare, is not especially costly, and is one more addition to the stones of sentiment, and more especially to those appropriate as symbols of our fair ideal, universal peace.

We can see symbolized in them the great and consoling fact that, however marked may be the differences between any two peoples, they need not be cause for enmity, but may instead become true and enduring sources of peace and bonds of union. The characteristic talents of each one will supplement and complete those of the other, so that working together in harmony they may accomplish far more for each other and for humanity in general than either could do singly.

At an early date amber was brought from the Baltic coast to Rome, and Tacitus states that those who collected it called it _glæsum_, a name later applied to the glass introduced into that region by Roman traders. The natives knew nothing of the nature or growth of amber, and had no use for the material, only collecting it for export to Rome, where it commanded such a high price as to excite their astonishment. Tacitus gives in the following words his theory of the origin and character of amber—his chief error being due to his belief that the substance was of very recent formation.[104]

Now you must know that amber is a juice of trees, since various
creatures, some of them winged, are often found in it. They have
become entangled in the liquid and then inclosed when the matter
hardened. Therefore I believe that, as incense and balsam are exuded
in the remote East, so in the luxuriant groves and islands of the West
are juices which are forced out by the sun close to them. These flow
into the neighboring sea and are washed up by the tempestuous waves on
the opposite shore. If you test the quality of amber with fire, it may
be lighted like a torch and burns with a small, well-nourished flame;
then it is resolved into a glutinous mass resembling pitch or resin.

Both Juvenal[105] and Martial[106] relate that effeminate Romans used to hold balls of amber in their hands to cool them during the summer heat. If any such agreeable sensation was really experienced, it must have been due to the well-known electric properties of this substance. It is stated that the Chinese often place pieces of amber on or in their pillows,[107] a use that may have been suggested by the same considerations.

As a proof of the extravagant value set upon amber by the Romans of the first century, Pliny notes that a very diminutive figure of a man, cut out of this substance, sold for a higher figure than did a healthy, vigorous slave. The popularity of this material was also attested by the fact that in the gay world of Rome the term “amber hair” was used to designate a rare and peculiar shade that became fashionable in this period.[108] It seems probable that this modish shade was somewhat lighter than the “Titian hair” once so much favored, although the difference may not have been very great.

A change of hue in amber was thought to portend a waning of love on the part of the giver, as is shown by the following not especially melodious lines from “The Fruits of Jealousy” published by Richard Tofte in 1615:[109]

Thy tokens which to me thou sent
In time may make thee to repent;
Thy gifts do groan (bestow’d on me)
For grief that they thee guilty see.
The amber bracelet thou me gave
(For fear thou shouldst shortly wave[110])
From yellow turned is to pale,
A sign thou shortly will be stale.

Not only for curative purposes and for general use as an amulet was amber prized, but an amber necklace was sometimes regarded as an especially auspicious decoration for a bride at her wedding, as is shown by an exceptionally fine necklace of facetted amber beads from Brunswick, Germany, made in the eighteenth century.

Our earliest authority on the curative use of amber, the great encyclopædist Pliny, states that in his day the female peasants of the valley of the Po, in northern Italy, might be seen wearing amber necklaces, principally as ornaments, but also because of their remedial powers; for even at this early period it was generally believed that amber had most excellent effects in diseases of the throat and tonsils. The peasants of this region were especially subject to such disorders, and Pliny conjectures that they were caused by the different sorts of water in the neighborhood of the Alps.[111] He probably refers not only to diseases of the throat, properly so called, but also to a swelling of the glands of the neck, the _goître_ with which so many of the peasants living on the slopes of the Alps, and in other mountainous regions of central Europe, are afflicted.

The golden-hued amber was called _chryselectrum_ by Callistratus, as cited by Pliny. This was said to attract the flame and to ignite if it came in contact with the fire. If worn on the neck it was a cure for fevers; if powdered and mixed with honey and oil of roses it was beneficial for dimness of vision, and its powder, whether taken by itself or in water with gum mastic, remedied diseases of the stomach.[112] In ancient and medieval times the fear of poison being administered in food or drink was very great, and any substance that was credited with the power to show the presence of poison, by some change in clearness or color, was highly valued. An amber cup was said to reveal the admixture of any of the various kinds of poison with the liquid it contained.[113]

The use of amber as a preventive of erysipelas finds a defender in Rev. C. W. King, who writes as follows:

NECKLACE OF FACETED AMBER BEADS

German. Eighteenth century.
]

That the wearing an amber necklace will keep off the attacks of
erysipelas in a person subject to them has been proved by repeated
experiments beyond the possibility of doubt. Its action here cannot be
explained; but its efficacy in defence of the throat against chills is
evidently due to its extreme warmth when in contact with the skin and
the circle of electricity so maintained.[114]

The electrical property of amber was remarked as early as 600 B.C. by the Ionic philosopher Thales, and from this observation may be dated the beginnings of the study of electric phenomena.

That faith in the magic powers of amber beads still exists is illustrated in the case of an old Russian Jewess who recently died in one of our charitable institutions. This woman is said to have reached the age of one hundred and six years, and she ascribed her extraordinary longevity to the possession of a necklace of very large amber beads, which had been given her by her mother, who also lived more than a hundred years. The daughter, a few days before her death, bestowed this treasured heirloom upon _her_ daughter, for it is generally believed that the virtues of gems largely depend upon their being received as gifts.

In northern Germany, also, for more than a century a string of amber beads was looked upon as a favorite and necessary gift. The writer has seen hundreds of these strings, many of which have been worn for one, two, and sometimes more generations. The beads are round and usually facetted; however, they have been abraded against each other for so long that they are often flat disks, and a string originally fifteen or sixteen inches long will be twelve, and often only nine inches in length, so much of the original spheres having worn away.

A well-known physician of the sixteenth century, Johann Meckenbach, claimed, in 1548, to have discovered the process of producing oil of amber. Although Meckenbach was not entitled to the credit he claimed, as the experiment had already been successfully made, he gained great repute by this means, and when he communicated to Duke Albrecht of Prussia the secret of his process, the rulers of other lands overwhelmed the duke with requests for a supply of the precious remedy. Ferdinand, Archduke of Austria, sent a special messenger the long journey to Berlin, twice in a year, for a few flasks of the oil, which was regarded as a cure for many diseases.[115] The oil of amber—_oleum succini_ of the Pharmacopœia—has maintained its repute as a cure for various affections up to the present day. In some forms of gout and rheumatism it relieves the inflammation and pain in the joints; and its antispasmodic action makes it a valuable remedy in cases of asthma, whooping-cough, hysteria, bronchitis, and infantile convulsions.[116]

An early version of the strange tale that ships were attracted by masses of rocks, or even mountains of loadstone, is given by Palladius (c. 367–c. 431 A.D.). He relates that the loadstone was produced on a group of islands called the Maniolæ, which were on the route to Taprobane (Ceylon), and continues, “if any ship constructed with iron nails approached these islands they were drawn by the power of the loadstone and their course was arrested. For this reason those voyaging to Taprobane use ships especially put together with wooden pegs.” Probably the legend arose from the fact that wood was often used in the case of vessels trading in this region, because iron was scarce and expensive. This is the view of Procopius, who found the same story still current in the sixth century.[117]

It has been noted as a curious fact that none of the ancient writers who treat of the loadstone recognized that the attractive energy exerted by this substance on iron was also exerted by iron upon the loadstone; on the contrary, they constructed many ingenious hypotheses to explain why this was not the case.[118] The strange fancy that in the presence of a diamond a piece of loadstone was robbed of its attractive force, must have arisen from an observation of the well-known electric properties of the first-named stone, and from the idea that the much more valuable stone should have the greater power. Here, as in many other cases, we see how little interest was taken in actual experiment by ancient writers, a pre-conceived idea of the eternal fitness of things being the main criterion.

Spaniards of the thirteenth century believed that the magnetic power of the loadstone would depart from it if it were steeped in the juice of leek or onion for three days; but the virtue would return to the stone if it were bathed in goat’s blood. This recalls the queer notion that the diamond could only be broken when moistened with goat’s blood, both fancies having their origin in the idea that goat’s, or rather ram’s blood, was endowed with warmth and vitality to a higher degree than other blood.

An ingenious magnetic oracle is described by De Boot.[119] This consisted of a round board, about the edge of which were marked the letters of the alphabet, while in the centre there stood a small wooden figure, set on a pivot, and holding extended in one hand a little wand. One foot of this figure was slightly advanced and within it was concealed a small iron ball. The experimenter held in his hand a wooden sceptre, with a powerful loadstone at its top, and as he touched with his sceptre the lower side of the board, beneath the spot on which any one of the letters was marked, the attraction exercised by the loadstone on the iron made the figure revolve on its pivot so that the little wand pointed toward the letter indicated. In this way any word could be spelled out and appropriate answers given to any question. The device would be too obvious at present, but in De Boot’s time it would have served well enough to mystify the spectators.

That the loadstone was highly esteemed in the sixteenth century was well versified by Robert Norman in “The Newe Attractive.”

THE MAGNES OR LOADSTONES CHALLENGE

Give place ye glittering sparkes, ye glimmering Diamonds bright, Ye Rubies red, and Saphires brave, wherein ye most delight. In breefe yee stones enricht, and burnisht all with gold, Set forth in Lapidaries shops, for Jewels to be sold. Give place, give place I say, your beautie, gleame, and glee, Is all the vertue for the which, accepted so you bee. Magnes, the Loadstone I, your painted sheaths defie, Without my helpe, in Indian Seas the best of you might lye. I guide the Pilots course, his helping hand I am, The Mariner delights in me, so doth the Marchant man. My vertue lies unknowne, my secrets hidden are, By me the Court and Common-weale, are pleasured very farre. No ship could sayle on seas, her course to runne aright, Nor compasse shew the ready way, were Magnes not of might. Blush then, and blemish all, bequeathe to mee thats due, Your seates in golde, your price in plate, which Jewellers doo rewe. Its I, its I alone, whom you usurpe upon, Magnes my name, the Loadstone cald, the prince of stones alone. If this you can denie, then seeme to make reply, And let the Painefull sea-man judge, the which of us doth lye.

THE MARINER’S JUDGMENT

The Loadstone is the stone, the only stone alone, Deserving praise above the rest, whose vertues are unknowne.

THE MARCHANT’S VERDICT

The diamond bright, the Saphire brave, are stones that beare the name, But flatter not, and tell the troath, Magnes deserves the same.[120]

It was reported in the seventeenth century that ruptures were cured in Belgium by the help of the loadstone. The patient was first given a dose of iron filings, reduced to a very fine powder; thereupon a plaster made of crushed loadstone was applied externally to the affected part. This was said to produce a cure in the space of eight days.[121] Probably the plaster was believed to draw the iron filings or some emanation from them through the affected parts toward the surface.

In medieval Europe this mineral was greatly valued for its therapeutic virtues. Trotula, the first of the female physicians connected with the celebrated School of Salerno, the centre of medical culture in Europe in the Middle Ages, and who wrote a treatise on female diseases, recommended the use of the loadstone in childbirth. The stone was to be held in the right hand, and the learned lady asserted that the wearing of a coral necklace would aid its beneficent effect. Both these substances are prescribed for this use by the Oxford teacher, John Gadesden (1300), in his “Rosa Anglica.” Francisco Piemontese, who taught in Naples about 1340, also recommends the loadstone, but he directs that it be strewn with the ashes obtained by burning the hoof of an ass or a horse; according to this last authority, the stone should be held in the left hand.[122]

That wounds caused by burning could be healed if powdered loadstone were sprinkled over them was confidently taught even in the seventeenth century. However, some ill effects were occasionally remarked when the substance was used medicinally, for it sometimes produced melancholia. In this case an antidote was found in the emerald, and we are assured that if a solution made from this stone were taken thrice a day for nine consecutive days, the melancholia would pass away.[123]

In the sixteenth century in India, it was believed that a small quantity of loadstone taken internally preserved the vigor of youth, and Garcias ab Orta relates that a king of Ceylon, when an old man, ordered that cooking utensils of this material should be made for him, and had all his food cooked in these. Garcias claims to have this information direct from a Jew, Isaac of Cairo, who was ordered to make the vessels.[124]

A loadstone amulet for the cure of gout is stated to have been worn by a native of the English county of Essex. The stone was sewed up in a flannel covering to which was attached a black ribbon for suspension from the neck. Of course it was worn beneath the clothing, although the encasing flannel must have prevented direct contact with the skin. This piece of magnetic iron ore measured about an inch and a half in width, and was two-tenths of an inch thick. The patient, a Mr. Pelly, was an elderly man, who had suffered for some time from annually recurring attacks of gout which prostrated him for from three to four months. Learning of the reputed virtues of loadstones, more especially of those of Golconda, he sent to India for one and he is said to have been thereby relieved of his disease.[125]

Vignette from the “Lapidario de Alfonso X, Codice Original” (fol. 12).
Published in Madrid, 1881. This design shows the finding of the
“Stone of Sterility.” Author’s library.
]

In Persia a certain stone received the name of _Shahkevheren_ or “King of Jewels,” for it was reputed to attract all other precious stones, as the loadstone did iron. The greatest of the Sassanian monarchs, Khusrau II (590–628), had occasion to test the power of this wonderful stone. He had lost a ring of great price in the river Tigris, near the spot where some time later the Mohammedans founded the city of Bagdad. Taking a _shahkevheren_ the monarch attached it to a line and literally fished for his ring, using the magic stone as a bait. We are told that the ring was recovered, and this must have greatly added to the reputation of the “King of Jewels.”[126]

In the ninth century Arabic treatise, translated from an earlier Syriac text and falsely attributed to Aristotle, a number of fabulous stones are noted. All of these were said to have attractive properties, and as the loadstone attracted iron, they attracted various substances, each having its special affinity. First, we are told of the stone that attracted gold, then, in turn, of stones that attracted silver, copper, and other metals.[127] Probably the legend of the finding of these stones is based upon the employment of certain mineral substances in the purifying of gold, silver, etc. Among other fabulous or almost fabulous stones was one called _askab_, which, although of mean appearance, was able to break the diamond just as the diamond broke all other stones.[128] Have we here an allusion to the polishing of the diamond by its own dust? It is not improbable that this art, in an incomplete form, was known to the Hindus long before it was practised and perfected in Europe.

The stone that attracted hair was the lightest of all stones and very fragile; a piece as large as a man’s fist weighed but a drachm. It looked like a piece of fur, but when touched was found to be a stone. The strange powers of this extraordinary substance could easily be demonstrated, for if placed on a hairy spot of man or beast the hair was extracted, while if it were rubbed over a bald spot the hair was made to grow.[129] Probably the appearance of certain minerals covered with fine, hair-like spines, suggested the idea that the body of the stone had attracted hair to itself, and thus gave rise to this strange belief in the depilatory power of the stone, or it may have been a form of amber that, owing to its opacity, was not recognized as being the same as the transparent variety.

The Arabic Aristotle relates many wonderful tales of stones found by Alexander the Great during his Asiatic campaigns (327–323 B.C.). While these are all apocryphal, there can be no doubt that it was subsequent to these campaigns that western Europe was first made familiar with many of the precious stones of Persia and India. One of the stones reported by “Aristotle” bore the name _el behacte_ or _baddare_, rendered in a Hebrew version _dar_ (pearl?). This was the stone that attracted men, as the loadstone attracted iron. A quantity of these stones were found on the seashore by the soldiers of Alexander’s army, but the men were so fascinated by their aspect as to be unable to gather them up. Therefore Alexander ordered that the soldiers should veil their faces, or close their eyes, and, after covering the marvellous stones with a cloth, should take them away without once looking at them. Hereupon Alexander gave commands that a wall should be built around “a certain city.”[130] Possibly we have here a distant echo of the pearl gates of the New Jerusalem.

Two other strange stones are described, one of these appearing on the surface of the water only during the night, while the other shows itself during the daytime and sinks beneath the surface as soon as the sun sets. The “daystones,” according to the legend, were quite useful to Alexander in his campaigns, for if they were attached to the necks of horses or beasts of burden, the horses would not neigh, and the other animals would be equally mute as long as they bore the stones, so that the passage of the army would not be revealed to the enemy. The “night-stones,” on the other hand, produced an entirely opposite effect, for when wearing them the animals uttered their respective cries unceasingly. We are not told that Alexander ever used them to provide an animal symphony as martial music for his soldiers.

Referring again to the subject of amber, as the objects placed in Roman sepulchral urns were always chosen because of some supposed religious or talismanic quality, there is considerable significance in the fact that an urn of this type, preserved by Cardinal Farnese, contained a piece of amber carved into the figure of an elephant. Coming down to modern times, there is record that the Macdonalds of Glencoe handed down as heirlooms four amber beads said to cure blindness, and there seems reason to conjecture that this substance was sometimes credited with being an antidote for the poison of snake bites, as a small perforated stone used as late as 1874 in the Island of Lewis for this purpose appears to be a semi-transparent amber.[131] Indeed, amber set as a jewel to cure rheumatism is said to be offered for sale in London to-day, and the writer has learned that the late Rev. Henry Ward Beecher long carried amber beads with him to ward off this malady.

II
On Meteorites, or Celestial Stones

It is somewhat difficult to obtain trustworthy accounts regarding the occurrence of meteorites in medieval and ancient times, as there was a strong tendency to confuse the real meteorites with flint arrow-heads and hatchets derived from the stone age. A number of interesting facts bearing on the history of certain real or supposed aerolites were given in a recent lecture delivered by Prof. Hubert A. Newton in New Haven, Conn.[132] Some of the more striking instances are here presented.

As an illustration of the way in which meteorites may have come to be reverenced in former times, we have the modern instance of a stone that fell in the region north of Zanzibar, on the East African coast, and was seen and picked up by some shepherd boys. At first all the efforts of the German missionaries to buy this stone were fruitless, because the neighboring Wanikas looked upon it as a god, and, after securing possession of it, proceeded to anoint it with oil, clothe it with apparel and decorate it with pearls. They also built a temple wherein the stone received divine honors. This worship endured for some time, but when, three years later, the nomad tribes of the Masai swooped down on the Wanikas and burned their villages and massacred many of the inhabitants, the Wanikas lost all respect for the stone and were glad to part with it. This conduct was, after all, not entirely unreasonable, since the fetish had failed to prove its divine power.

By Courtesy Soule Photo Co.

THE “MADONNA DI FOLIGNO,” BY RAPHAEL

In the Vatican Collection, Rome. The white curve in the middle of the
background shows the passage of the meteor to the earth.
]

This occurrence in the nineteenth century may well be typical of what must have happened in past times. A case from the fifteenth century, narrated by Professor Newton, is very interesting, since the treatises on precious stones of that period and somewhat later contain many notices of supposed meteorites. We are told that, on November 16, 1492, a stone weighing 300 pounds fell at Ensisheim, in Alsace. Emperor Maximilian, who was then in Basel, caused the stone to be brought to the neighboring castle and summoned a state council to determine the character of the divine message associated with its fall. The council decided that the event signified some important occurrence in the approaching conflict between the French and the Turks, and the stone, with an appropriate inscription, was suspended in the church, the strictest injunctions being given that it should not be removed. Conrad Gesner, in his treatise, “De figuris lapidum,”[133] states that a fragment of this stone was given to him by a friend and that it resembled ordinary sandstone.

We are told that nineteen years later a shower of stones fell near Crema, east of Milan; these stones fell in French territory and at that time the Pope was engaged in hostilities with the French. During the following year, the French, who had long threatened the States of the Church from their possessions in Lombardy, were forced to withdraw from Italy. In the celebrated painting by Raphael, known as the Madonna di Foligno, one of the greatest treasures of the Vatican, this Crema fire-ball is depicted.

Naturally the recitals from ancient times are not as easily controlled as the more modern accounts and it is always possible that stones other than meteorites were given a celestial origin by superstitious zeal. The black stone of the Kaabah, which is probably noted by early Greek writers and was an object of adoration for the Arabian tribes before the time of Mohammed, was believed to have dropped from heaven together with Adam, and in many Greek legends images were said to have fallen from heaven. Of course in the case of real statues this is simply a vague superstition, but the stone venerated in Phrygia as an image of Cybele may possibly have been a genuine meteorite.

The following facts in relation to this stone are presented by Professor Newton:

It was a conical mass bearing a rude resemblance to a human head, and
was said to have fallen near Pessinus. It was placed in the Temple of
Cybele and worshipped as her image. During the second Punic war, in
205 B.C., because of Hannibal’s prolonged invasion of Italy, the
downfall of the Roman state was feared, and the Romans were terrified
by a shower of stones from the sky. On consulting the Sibylline books,
some verses were found to the effect that a foreign enemy could be
driven from Italy if the Idæan mother (Cybele) was brought from
Pessinus in Phrygia to Rome. An embassy was sent to King Attalus of
Pergamos to request his consent to the transfer of the stone, and
although he even refused obedience to the commands of the Delphic
oracle, which required him to surrender the stone as an act of
hospitality, he at last yielded when a violent earthquake shook the
country, and the voice of the goddess was heard, enunciating these
words: “It is my will. Rome is a worthy place for any god; delay
not.”[134]

Herodian, who relates this story, proceeds to narrate the arrival of the stone at Rome, where Scipio Africanus was chosen to bear it to the Temple of Victory. A silver image of the goddess was made, the conical stone serving as the head. For five hundred years this image, later transferred to the Temple of the Great Mother of the Gods, was an object of Roman worship. It has been described very fully by Arnobius (fl. 300 A.D.).[135] He states that it was a small stone which could be easily and lightly carried in the hand; it was of a black hue and of rough surface, and had many irregular projecting angles. As it was naturally marked with the form of a mouth, it was inserted in the face of an image of the goddess to figure that feature.

As the stone was valueless, modern explorers long hoped that it might not have been carried off from Rome by the spoilers, but the search for it has been in vain. In a rare volume describing excavations made in the Palatine hill in 1730, Professor Lanciani is stated to have found a stone that had been unearthed at that time in a chapel, lacking any inscription to indicate the divinity to whom it was dedicated. This stone was said to be “of a deep brown color, looking very much like a piece of lava, and ending in a sharp point.” The similarity of this description to that of Arnobius indicates that the Cybele stone may really have been found in 1730, but it has since disappeared. It would have been extremely interesting for mineralogists if they could have been enabled to examine this supposed meteorite, perhaps the very earliest regarding which we have such definite information.

To throw it into greater relief it was surrounded by a silver rim. When first brought to land from the ship on which it had been transported to Rome, the sacred stone was confided to the care of a company of Roman matrons who passed it on from one to another as it was solemnly borne to the Temple of Victory.[136]

Whether this stone was really a meteorite, as tradition taught, or whether it was a fossil of the type later known as _hysteriolithus_, as was conjectured by M. Falconnet, in 1770,[137] remains doubtful. Its light weight, upon which quality Arnobius lays stress, and its peculiar form seem to favor somewhat the latter supposition. A similar stone to which divine honors were paid was in a temple on Mount Ida.

In prehistoric times meteorites were quite naturally supposed to possess a special sanctity, and were indeed regarded as animated by the very essence of some divinity. The name bætylus, given to these stones by Greeks and Romans, is derived from the Hebrew בֵּית־אֵל(bethel) or “house of God,” a term indicating clearly enough the belief held by the ancient Hebrews in regard to meteorites, or supposed meteorites. However, long before this designation had reached the Greeks, certain meteorites had been accorded a peculiar reverence, and even worship. One of these was a black stone, called the Omphalos of Delphi. This was said to be the stone given by Rhea to Kronos when she substituted a stone for her offspring Zeus, to save him from being devoured by his father, Kronos. Zeus himself (or Kronos) threw it down to the Earth and the spot where it struck was supposed to be the centre of the Earth, hence the name Omphalos, or “navel-stone.” Meteorites probably played an important part in the development of civilization, for it is believed that the earliest iron tools and weapons were made from meteoric iron, apparently the only supply available before the art of treating iron ores had been evolved.[138]

While there is admittedly but scant evidence of the existence of a Stone Age in China, and still less to indicate that Chinese civilization passed through such a period, a certain number of stone artefacts, all polished, have been found within the limits of China. However, curiously enough in view of this state of things, we find that here, as almost everywhere else, these objects were popularly regarded as “thunderbolts.” Thus Chien Tsang-Ki, the author of a Materia Medica, composed in the first half of the eighth century of our era, states that objects of this kind “have been found by people who explored a locality over which a thunder-storm had swept and dug three feet in the ground”; and he adds that some of these stone implements have two perforations. They were named _pi-li-chen_, “stones originating from the crash of thunder,” and a still earlier writer, Chang (232–300 A.D.) applies a similar designation to stone axes and wedges “frequently seen among the people.” Several centuries later Shen Kun (1030–1093 A.D.) testifies that the people of his time found many stone “thunder-wedges,” in all cases after a thunder-storm; these were unperforated. It is generally believed that most of these stone implements had been made by a Tungusian tribe, akin to the Manchus.[139]

This is partly due to the fact that it was natural, after a thunder-shower, for a search to be made. Then again, as thunder-showers are usually heavy rains, they were apt to loosen the soil and leave on the surface heavy objects, more especially such materials as jade, of the density of 2.9, or jadeite, of the density of 3.3. These are much heavier than the quartz, feldspar and other ingredients of the soil, which vary from 2.6 to 2.7 and are washed away. Finally, there is the natural disinclination on the part of the Chinese to dig, from their belief that it is wrong to explore the soil, and this disinclination on their part has done much to prevent a better knowledge of the Stone Age, and our knowledge of the races which must have preceded the civilization of China; many facts of mining interest have been neglected, as well, on account of this prejudice. Perhaps within the next twenty years we may learn something about a prehistoric race in China, for as traces of the existence of such races have been found in every other country of the world, there can be little or no doubt that such a race existed in China, although as yet we have no distinct evidences of it.

The Babylonian royal astrologers taught that the mere fact of the passage of a meteor across the heavens, whether its course were from east to west, or from north to south, was a good omen, portending victory and the successful issue of the royal projects. Especially favorable was the augury when the meteor was very brilliant and left behind it a trail that might be likened to the tail of a scorpion. This not only foretold joy for the ruler and his house, but for the entire country; evil would be overcome, righteousness would reign supreme, and prosperity would prevail. A meteor of this type is recorded as having appeared at the time Nebuchadnezzar laid waste Elam about 1150 B.C. This refers to the elder Nebuchadnezzar.[140]

A curious series of cuneiform texts treats of the prognostics to be drawn from the transformations of stars into various animals, metals, stones, etc. This is explained as referring to the apparent form or hue of the meteor itself, or of the trail it left behind. The transformations into stones concern the dushu-stone, porphyry (or some other dark red or purple stone) and lapis lazuli. This omen is invariably a favorable one.[141]

The Old Testament offers abundant testimony of the ancient belief that certain stones were animated by a divine spirit. In regard to this, Benzinger writes:[142] “It was not Yahweh who found Jacob at Bethel but rather Jacob who found Yahweh there. He anoints the stone; that is, he sacrifices to it, for the divinity residing in the stone has caused his dream.” According to Benzinger’s opinion the Ark of the Covenant originally served as receptacle for a stone of this type, and was hence regarded as sheltering a divinity.

One of the very earliest references to meteorites appears in the Book of Joshua (chap, x, verse 11), where we read, in the account of the battle fought by the Israelites against the Amorites and their allies, that “the Lord cast down great stones from heaven” upon the Amorites, so that more of the latter were killed by these stones than by the weapons of the Israelites. Admitting the historical character of the account, this fall of meteorites probably took place in the twelfth century B.C. In an Assyrian cuneiform inscription, there is mention of the seven black stones of the city of Urka in Chaldea. These were _bætyli_ and were regarded as representations of the seven planets.[143]

The fall of meteors is noted frequently in Chinese records, the first instance dating from 644 B.C. Of a meteor that fell in 213 B.C., we are told that it descended as “a star which turned to a stone as it fell.”[144] A meteorite that fell in China in 211 B.C. is said to have been the indirect cause of many deaths. The event took place during the reign of the tyrannical emperor Chi Hoang-ti, who had incurred the resentment of all the Chinese litterati by his wholesale burning of books. Some believer in the power of sorcery caused an inscription to be cut on this stone predicting the death of the hated emperor within a year, and when news of the fact came to the monarch’s ears he gave orders to have the stone split up, and to put to death all the inhabitants of the place where it was found, this being no doubt looked upon as a most effective conjuration of the spell.[145]

In 405 B.C., Lysander won his great victory over the Athenian fleet at Ægospotami in Thrace, and Plutarch writes, in his life of Lysander,[146] that a stone which fell from the heavens a short time before the battle was regarded by many as a portent predicting the dreadful slaughter that was to ensue. At the time Plutarch wrote (circa 150 A.D.) this stone could still be seen at Ægospotami, where it was regarded with great veneration by the Chersonites. The Greek philosopher Anaxagoras is said to have predicted the fall of this meteorite, as he had observed certain perturbations in the movements of the heavenly bodies. As Anaxagoras died in 428 B.C., his prediction must have long antedated the fall of the meteorite.

A detail given in one of the early recitals might possibly have constituted the basis of a prediction by some contemporary physicist. In the latter part of his account of the phenomenon Plutarch quotes from a Treatise on Religion, by a certain Daimachus, to the effect that, for seventy-five days before the fall of the meteorite, a vast fiery body was seen in the heavens, in appearance “like a flaming cloud.” This well describes the appearance of a great comet, and might be regarded as significant when we consider the latest modern theory of the origin of meteors, according to which these bodies are detached particles of a cometary aggregation. Of this meteoric mass said to have fallen at Ægospotami, Pliny states that it was as large as a wagon and of a dusky hue, adding that a brilliant comet was visible at the time of its fall. Regarding the assertion that Anaxagoras predicted the occurrence, Pliny declares that this prediction, if true, was a greater miracle than the fall of the meteor. A portion of the stone was preserved as a venerated relic in the town of Potidæa.[147]

The site of the city of Seleucia is said to have been determined by the fall of an aerolite, and this stone is figured on some of the coins of the Seleucidæ, a thunderbolt appearing in its stead on other coins.

In the Temple of Diana, at Ephesus, there was a stone partly fashioned into the conventional form of the Ephesian Diana. This, it was asserted, had fallen down from the heavens. The stone is mentioned in the Acts of the Apostles (xix. 35), where we read that the city of the Ephesians was “a worshipper of the great goddess Diana, and of the _image_ which fell down from Jupiter.” In this text the word “image” has been supplied by the translators, a more literal rendering being “that which fell down from the sky.” This clearly shows that the stone only faintly indicated the human form.

Tacitus says of the stone sacred to the Astarte (or Aphrodite) of Paphos, that it was a symbol of the goddess, not a human effigy, since it was an obscurely formed cone.[148] In his life of Apollonius of Tyana, Philostratus, also, mentions this stone and tells us that when Apollonius visited Paphos, he admired there “the famous symbolic figure of Aphrodite.”[149] These “living stones” λιθοι εμψυχοι were often covered with ornaments and vestments, and it has been conjectured that these adornments were, in some cases, changed so as to accord with the garments appropriate to certain special festivals of the respective gods.[150]

The colossal emerald of the temple of Melkarth at Tyre is designated in the fragments of Sanchoniathon as an αεροπετῆ ἀστέρα, or star fallen from heaven. It was said to have been raised up by Astarte, and this last myth is represented on the silver coins of Marium in Cyprus. Here the radiance and splendor of the object suggested a stellar or celestial origin, and we see the same tendency at work in the application of the name _ceraunia_ (thunder-stones) to certain brilliant gems by Pliny.[151]

Virgil[152] seems to confound with thunder the detonation of a bolide, followed by a train of light, and he seems also to confound the bolide itself with a lightning flash, for he says that its fall diffused a sulphurous vapor far and wide. Seneca was more critical, for he regarded the fact of thunder sometimes accompanying the fall of a meteorite as merely a coincidence.

Although, in the absence of exact and trustworthy contemporaneous accounts of the fall of these sacred stones, we cannot be absolutely certain that they were meteorites, the testimony in several cases is sufficient to render this almost certain, while in many other cases there is no reason to doubt the substantial accuracy of the tradition. The choice of some of the _bætyli_, however, was determined by their form alone, to which was ascribed a religious significance, not exactly compatible with our religious ideas of to-day, but quite easily understood when we remember that the divine creative energy was concretely represented in ancient times by many symbols offensive to our sense of propriety.

In the treatise “On Rivers,” attributed to Plutarch, a stone is said to have been found on Mount Cronius, which bore the name of “cylinder.” When Jupiter thundered, this stone, terrified by the noise, rolled down from the top of the mountain.[153] This passage is interesting as suggesting one of the reasons which caused the name “thunderbolt” to be given to certain stones, for stones adapted to ornamental use might easily be exposed by the weathering of the rocks, and then detached by the concussion produced by heavy thunder. Of course, the cylinder-stone here mentioned must have more especially signified one of the prehistoric celts, but it is not unlikely that the name was also given to other, unworked stones, having a similar form.