St. Paul daily globe. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1884-1896, 1886-09-06
THE EYE-STONE.
A Curious Little Bone That Acts az
ifIt Were Alive.


If 1t Were Alive.
New York Sun.
Eyes, we keep eye-stones. said an up
town druggist, ''but we don't have 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 collect
ing them on their voyages. Did you ever
see an eye-stone?"
mo" said the reporter. s'But they are
found in the stomachs of crayfish, be-
lieve."
''Then your belief is about as far wrong
| as it could be.n said the druggist, as he
took small bottle from the drawer. 1t
was half full of what seemed to be very
small, round fiat pieces of polished bone.
Emptyng 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
side was composed of numerous concentrlc
grooves.
THAT is an eye-stone," said the drug
gist. pouring some liquid out of a bottle on
to smooth plate and dilutlng it with water.
''And this is weak solution of lime
juice"
The druggist took one of the eye-stOnes
and put it into the solution. Presently the
stone began to move as if it were alive. 1t
made its way slowly about in different di-
rectiOns in the liquid in mysterious man
her.
THAT strange movement of the eye
stone when placed in weak solution OF
lime juice or vinegar has given rise among
ignorant and superstitiOus people to the no.
+lox - FD 4bo+ Inun xrirln-
gar, and loves to swim in it above all
things. But there is no more life in an
eye-stone than there is in a paving stone.
1t is composed of calcareous ma
terial, and when placed in the solu-
| ton named is made to move about
like carbonic acid gas. which is evolved by
the contract with the liquid acid. These
| little stones and all genuine eye-stones
| once were the front doors to the shells OF
| little mOlluScous animal that lives among
| the Venezuelan and other South American
| coasts. The shell is a univalve. This cal
careous formation Is on the tip end of the
| little animal, and when he draws himself
| into his shell to escape danger or TO 90 to
Sleep the end. of course, is the last part of
| him that is drawn into the cavity or mouth
of the shell, where it fits SO closely and is
so hard that it affords perfect protection to
| the animal against enemies from without.
The native inhabitants collect the eye
stones in large quantities, AMI egard them
with great awe. Sailors engaged on the
fruit trading vessels that visit these regions
obtain the stones and fetch them to New
York for sale to the wholesale druggists.
There are two little bones found in the
head of the crayfish. just back of and be-
meath 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 found in the real crayfish is crab
stones. In Poland and parts of Russia
| quite a trade is done in collecting crab
| stones. The crayfiSh are buried in deep
| pits and left there until they rot. The
| refuse is then washed and the stones
are picked out. They are used in many
| parts of Europe as corrective OF the
| stomach.
There is nothing better to remove for
eign 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 in
serted at one corner of the eye, with the
groOved side next to the lid. The pressure
of the eyeball forces it to move about in
the eye, and the grooves collect the foreign
matter and retain it. After making
thorough circuit of the eye the stone will
come out at the corner next to the nose.
No inconvenience is caused by its presence
in the eye."