Morning journal and courier., 1889-06-25
WHAT ARE mADsTON Bsa
Many of Them are Fossil COraI-Eh
 Question of Their Virtue Consfa

Msny of Then ars Fos;iI E,4,ss CersIarhe saa
 From the St. Louis Republic.l What are madstones. Geologioally, the
 writer can speak of quite @ number he has
 seen and of others he has heard described.
 They seem to be mostly fossil corals. Dur- ing the great mad-dog scare at Hannibal,
 Mo-, some three years ago, number of mad
 stones from various sections of the country
 were obtained by the mayor of that city. The majority of these stones were Dsvopian favosites. At least three madstones the wri-
 ter has seen were fossil coral from the lower silurian, while others are tertiary fossils. In claimed for those singular caloutf, or balls of lime and hair that are sometimes found in the stomach of the OK.
 One object used as a maidstone in Illinois
 is said to have been taken from an ancient
 mound in Kentucky. It is one of those pretty perforated badge stones made of vari- egated slate, and made by the old mound builders. I was unable to see that it had absorbent qualities.
 Other forms of rock, such as tufs from thermal springs, lava and stones of volcanic origin, have been used as madstones, but 8 majority of these objects claimed as remedi- al agents are, as before remarked, found to be ancient coralines The most irregular stories are sometimes told of the origin of madstones by those that possess them, these people not always being among the best in- formed. The history of one maidstone that has great reputation Is that 1t was taken \ from the stomach of 6 beef and had been | formed there, yet almost any geologist would \ recognize in the stone an old silurian coral. Another maidstone, widely known and ! much used, has its history given as of me \ teoric origin, having been picked up near the | spot where 8 large meteor was once seen to | descend to the earth. This maidstone, too, N f-1 oS ,ro- diating cells that were once the home of poi ypi of Devonian seas.
 The history of still another and somewhat \ similar stone of great repute gives 1t mi.
 raculous origin in Mexico, yet we have found ! precisely such a one in an old Devonian reel ia Calhoun county, Illinois.
 Now we come to the most important ques | tion in this investigation. What evidence have we that madstones really have the vir ' tua ascribed to them of removing virus from the human systsmi Are they really of anl ! beneita
 | The last question is very much more easil. | answered than the first. In the first ques ! tion it is very difficult to get evidence tha ! the bite of the dog has left any virus in tn | system of the person bitten. It is probabl. ! very seldom that we have positive evidenc that the dog was mad, or had real rabies Negative evidence is not always convincing Among the country folk, where the mad
 ! stone IS mostly useu, NOAuElco oA ONiOOAo could be obtained that would read we'll, bu , | it might not all be reliable. Of the matte
 professional and scientific men know little o
 ! nothing, from the fact that it Is thought t
 be dangerous to their reputation to take es
 pecial interest in such investigation. We know of 8 prominent physician wh ] went off into an adjoining State to have , ! maidstone applied to a wound made by do
 thought to be rabid. He acknowledged ths l his mind felt relieved afterward, but elaine 3 1 that any benefit to be derived from @ max stone was simply in this relief from appre , hension.
 One peculiarity about the application 9 sessil ooralines is their strange adhesion, 2 times, to wounds The writer happened or q day to see 6 noted maidstone applied to thr , children, two boys and girl. They we U U all bitten on the hands or arm. The ston d after being placed in boiling water, was aI
 piled to one of the boys, and adhered, seen
 ing to absorb something from the woun l. but after fifteen or twenty minutes dropp' ;. off, After being boiled again and applied # the wound on the second day ir would n :. adhere, but did 50 to the wound on the gir [; arm. The excited parents of these childr }; started home, apparently satisfied that ,: great calamity had been averted. We cou