Wood County reporter. [volume] (Grand Rapids [i.e. Wisconsin Rapids], Wis.) 1857-1923, 1891-12-24
They Were Known in Ancient Times.
and Healing Power Claimed
for Them.
Quotations from Treatsies on this
Queer Belief, and Examples of
its Application.
Interesting Stories of Stones Being
Found in the Heads Of Venom
Gus SerpentS.

current regarding the virtues, real or i'm
agined, Of certain bodies knowa as snake
stones and mad, stones, which are asserted
to have the power Of absorbing poisons
from wounds. The literature OF 200 years
ago contains references to these substan-
ces; and even now some persons have a
lingering belief In their efficacy. The
subject is a curious one. and a briet &C
count of it may be of interest, particularly
of the origin and Identification Of one of
these peculiar bodies.
Jean Baptiste Tavernier, the great ORR
entail traveller of the seventeenth century,
IN his Travels In India" (see DR.. Valen-
tine Balls translation in two volumes
London and New York, 1889, pages 429,
1861, says: Il will finally make mention
of the snake-stone, which is nearly of the
size of double doublOon "a Spanish gold
coin), some Of them tending TO an oval
shape, being thick IN the middle and o.
coming thin towards the edges The
Indians say that it grows on the heads of
certain snakes, but | should rather believe
that i is the priests Of the idolators who
make them think so, and that this stone is
d composition which is made Of certain
drugs. Whatever it may be, it has an
excellent virtue in extracting all the
poison when one has been bitten
by a poisonous animal. If the part bitten
is not punctured it is necessary to make an
incIsion so that tde blood may fJw, and
when the stone has been applied to it, 1t
does not fall eff until 1t has extracted all
the venom, which is drawn to it. In oroer
to clean IL it is stepped IN woman's milk,
or in default of it, In hat of a COW; and
after having been stepped for 10 or II
hours, the milk, which has absorbed all
the venom, assumes the color of matter.
The day when dined with the archbishop
of Goa, he took me into his museum,
where ne had many curiosities. Among
other things he showed me one of the mad
stones, and in telling me Of its properties
assured me that it was three days since he
had made trial OF it, after which he pre-
sented it to me. AS he traversed marsh
on the Island of Sals9tte, upon which Goa
is situated, OF his way to house In the
country, one of his palaquin bearers, who
was almost naked, was bitten bya serpent
and was at once cured by this stone.
have bought many of them and it is that
which makes me think that they make
them. You employ two methods to ascer-
tain if the snake-stone is good and that
there is no fraud. The first Is by placing
the stone in the mouth, for then, if it IS
good, 1t leaps and attaches itself immedi-
ately to the palate. The other is to
place it in glass full of wafer, and i'm
mediately, if it is genuine, the water be
gins to boil.
Thevenot says in his Voyages page
"a, that snake-srones were made o. The
ashes of the root Of a certain plant, mixed
with a particular kind of clay Some
snake-stones appear to have been made of
cnarred bone. [See, for an exhaustive ac-
count of this subject, Yule BarnelI, Anglo
Indian Glossary. The belief in their
efficacy is still very general in India; by
some they are supposed to be found in the
head of the adiutant bird. See Jungle
Life in India" page 49,
Francisco Redi describes in his "Exper-
menta" Amsterdam, 1857, pages 4 to 8,
the extraordinary healing powers attrio
uted to stones obtained from the heads of
certain serpents called by the French
''corbas de capello," found throughout
Hindoostan and Farther India. These
stones are claimed to be an infallible rem
edy for the bites and stings Of all kinds Of
venomous reptiles or animals, and like
wise for wounds made by poisoned arrows,
etc. He repeats the usual tales Of their
adhering powerfully when applied to the
bite or wound, and clinging to it like
cupping glass until they had absorbed all
the poison, when they would fall off spon-
taneously, leaving the man or animal
sound and free. Then follows the account
of stepping the stones in milk to remove
the poison, the milk assuming color be-
tween yellow and green. These wonder
full stones and the variations concerning
them had been brought to Italy by Catho-
lie missionaries, who seem to put entire
faith IN their powers; so that Redl says
they offered to prove the accounts by any
number Of experiments, such as would
satisfy the most incredulOus, and
prove to medical men that Galen
was correct when he wrote Chapter
xiv. book u that certain medicines attract
poison as the magnet does iron. For this
purpose search for vipers, etc, was rec.
commended, but, the season being later
ard colder then usual, none could at that
time be obtained, az they bad not emerged
from their inter quarters. An expert
ment was therefore substituted, after
much consultation among the learned men
Of the Academy of Pisa, whereby oil of
tobacco was introduced into the leg OF a
rooster. This was regarded as one Of the
most fatal of such substances, and was adj
ministered by Impregnating thread with
it to the width Of four fingers and drawing
it through the punctured wound. One of
the monks forthwith applied the stone,
which behaved in the regular manner de-
scribed The bird did not recover, but 1t
survived eight hours, to the admiration Of
the monks and other spectators of the ex-
pertinent.
Up to the present time no one has appa
rently identified what Tavernied referred
to In speaking OF ke-stone, it, however,
occurred to the writer, after receiving a
quantity of tobasheer from DR.. F. Il. NAL
let, of the geological survey of India, who
obtained it at the bazaar of the Calcutta
fair in November Of 1888, that the Indian
snake stone Is evidently tabasheer. Ia |
basneer is variety of opal that is found |
in the joints OF certain species Of bamboo |
in Hindostan, Burmah and South Ameri |
ca; it is originally juice which by evapo-
ration changes INTO mucllaglnous state, |
that then becomes solid substance. It |
ranges from transluC emit to Opaque IL color. |
| found it either white or blush white by |
light, and pale yellow or slight |
cherry red by transmitted light. Upon |
fracture it breaks into irregular pieces |
like starch. As In Tavernier's account of !,
its clinging to the palate and causing !
water to boil when immersed, it actually |
has the property of ronely adhering to |
tire tongue, and when put into water emits
rapid streams Of minute bubbles Of air. |
1t has strong siliceous odor, but after
absorbing an equal bulk Of water be-
comes transparent, ike a Colorado hy- |
drophane described by the writer several