Madison times. (Tallulah, Madison Parish, La.) 1884-1???, 1886-09-04
THE EYE.STONE.
A Curious Little Bone That Does
Useful Work. and Acts as
ifIt Were Alive.

USe1ul w OFh. anu -hetS
IL 1t Were Alive.
"Yes. we keep eve-stoneS, Said an
uptown druggist. but we don't have
a call for one once in five years. Yet
there must be quite demand for them,
for wholesale dealers purchase all that
are brought them BY sailors who make
business of collecting them on their
VOYAGES. Did you ever see an eye
stODe?'
NO" said the reporter. But they
are found in the stomachs of craytlsh,
| believe"
Then YOUR belief is about as far
wrong as il could be-" said the drug
cist, rs he took a small bottle from
drawer. 1t was half full of what
seemed to he very small. round, fiat
pieces of polished bone. Emptying
few of the pieces on the counter. he
picked one up and handed it to the re-
porter to examine. There was nothing
notable about the little bone except
that one dc was composed OF nunler-
Gus conccntric grooves.
That is an eyc-stonc,' said the
druggist, pouring some liquid out of a
bottle on to a smooth plate and diluting
| il with water, land this Is weak So
luton of lime juice
The druggist took one Of the eye
stones and put it into the solution.
Presently the stone began to move us if
it were alive. 1t made lis way slowly
about in different directions in the
| liquid in mysterious manner.
That strange movement of The eve
stone when placed in weak solution
| of limc-iu:ce or vinegar has given rise
among ignorant and superstltious pco-
! pie to the notion that it has life, and
that it loves vinegar. and loves to swim
in it above all things. But there is
no more fe in IN eye-stone than there
is in paving-stone. 1t is composed OF
calcareous material, and when placed
in the solution named is made to move
about by carbolic acid gas, which is
evolved by the contact with the liquid
acid. These little stones and all genu-
inc eve stones once were the front doors
to the shells of little mOlluscous ami
NAL that lives along the Venezuelan and
other South American coasts. The
shell is a univalve. This calcarcous
formation on the tip end of the little
animal, and when he draws himself in
to his shell TO escape danger or go 10
sleep. the end, of course, is the last
part of him that is drawn into the cavi-
tv or mouth of the shell, where it fits
so closely and is so hard that it affords
perfect protect on to the animal against
enemies from without. The native in
habitants collect the eye-stones in large
quantities, AMI regard them with great
awe. Sailors engaged on the fruit
trading vessels that visit these reg ons
obtain the stones and fetch them to
New York for sale 10 the wholesale
druggists.
There are two little bones found in
the head of the craytish. just back and
beneath the eyes, which resemble the
eye-stone, except that they are smooth
all over. These are called eye-stOnes,
and are used as such in Ohio and other
western states, but they have none Of
the virtues of the real eye-stone. The
proper name for the stone in the cray
fish is crab stones. In Poland and
parts of Russia quite trade is done in
collecting crab-stones. The Graz fish
are buried in dep pits, and left there
until they rot. The refuse is then
waShnd aud the stones are picked out.
They are used in many parts of Europe
as corrective of the stomach.
There is nothing better to remove
foreign substances from the eye than
one of these south American eye-stones.
Before using them many people think
it necessary to put them in vinegar TO
give them life. but it is not necessary.
The stone is inserted at one corner of
the eye, with the grooved side next to
The lid. The pressure of the eyeball
forces it 10 move about in the eye, and
the grooves collect the foreign matter
and retain it. After making a thorough
circuit of the ec the stone will come
out at the corner next the nose. No
inconvenience is caused by its presence
in the eye. '-NcW IorI Sun.