MADSTONES with an ACCOUNT of SEVERAL from VIRGINIA* by WYNDHAM B

MADSTONES WITH AN ACCOUNT OF SEVERAL FROM VIRGINIA* By WYNDHAM B. BLANTON, M.D. RICHMOND, VA. MBEDDED in the folklore more, though it often adhered of of many nations is a belief its own accord. It was then removed in the efficacy of all sorts of and placed in warm milk. If bubbles medicinal stones and among and a greenish color appeared in the them the madstone is of particularmilk the stone was supposed to be interest.E Madstones have been vari- giving up the poison it had extracted. ously known as snakestones, Chinese The stone was then reapplied to the snakestones, Indian snakestones, ser- surface and theoretically the process pent stones, adder stones, sucking was kept up until no further bubbles stones and bezoar stones. Typical and no more discolorations of the specimens are usually small, light, milk were to be observed. porous, stonelike objects, often with The theory upon which these porous one surface flattened. They possess stones were used was clearly one definite absorptive qualities and are of physical absorption. Some have believed to be capable of extracting been shown to increase their weight the poison from a poisonous bite, as much as 5 per cent when applied especially the poison of a mad dog. Ob- to a wet surface, but in a number of jects from many sources and of many instances well-controlled experiments different compositions have been con- with animals injected with snake sidered to possess the miraculous venom have clearly demonstrated the powers ascribed to madstones, but utter worthlessness of the madstone. in general real madstones are com- The explanation of the popularity posed of (i) a light porous substance of the madstone is due to the fact made by a secret process such as was that contrary to common belief most known to certain natives of India; dog bites are inflicted by animals (2) some porous form of calcareous who are not mad and are therefore rock, such as halloysite, a mineral of themselves harmless. Extreme fear capable of absorbing moisture with is usually associated with the bite of avidity and of adhering to moist an animal supposed to be poisonous surfaces until nearly saturated; or and this fear may well be effectively (3) concretions recovered from the combatted by the application of a intestinal tracts of herbivera, such as stone around which hovers the aura enteroliths, calculi, and hair balls. of many previous successful cures. To extract the poison from a wound Madstones of course have no in- the stone was first moistened. The trinsic value, but the reliance placed flat surface was then applied to the in them by simple folk made them surface of the injury, and the stone frequently bring large prices. In the was held in position by bandages Middle Ages they are said to have for a given number of hours, eight or sold for the equivalent of from $5 to * Read before the Section on the History of Medicine, Richmond Academy of Medicine, October 23, 1934. $35°- Their historic value as objects “the hair of the dog is good for the connected with the life of a people bite.” makes them valuable today to col- The Abbe Grossier in his “Descrip- lectors and museums. Recently one tion of the Chinese” gives one of the is said to have been offered the earliest accounts of these stones in Smithsonian Institute for $1000. Tang Kiang, calling it a Chinese Rudolph of Venice had a fine col- snakestone. A Chinese work by ChuYu, lection. There are collections in the dating from the twelfth century, men- Hofmuseum, Vienna, and the Museum tions madstones and advises that they of Scottish Antiquities. Inquiry among be worn in finger rings. a number of American museums re- In the thirteenth century, I bn Bai- vealed none except in the United tar, in his “Collection of Simples,” States National Museum (Smithson- quotes the works of older Arabian ian). Here six specimens have been authors who describe the Bezoar preserved. One or two are of doubtful stones, and assigns to them the power classification. One is of halloysite; of neutralizing poisons.2 Abu Mansur, another is a highly polished seed in the oldest Persian work of medicine of the Kentucky coffee tree; another mentions them. is the gallstone of an ox; another is Several old as well as modern writers a pebble of calcium carbonate re- refer to snakestones in India. Jean puted to have been found in the Baptieste Tavernier in his “Travels stomach of a deer by an Apache in India” written in the seventeenth Indian of New Mexico. This may century records the fact that the have been a pebble swallowed by the natives believe these stones grow on deer as its surface is etched by the the heads of certain serpents. He him- action of the digestive juice. Another self thought that most were of some is a “brown, striated porous pebble” synthetic composition, but he believed purchased in Wisconsin and said to them none the less effective when have cured a victim of mad dog bite. properly applied. He refers to the One is a “matted ball of hair such as custom of steeping the stones, in is occasionally found in the stomach order to cleanse them after use, in of domesticated cattle, buffalo and human milk.3 perhaps other ruminants.”1 Thevenot thought the Indians made Belief in the madstone is found the stones from the ashes of the root somewhere in the records of nearly of a certain plant mixed with clay.4 A all nations. A search of Pliny’s “Natu- more recent writer on Indian mad- ral History” however is disappointing. stones quotes the owner of one as He who wrote so much of what went saying: on in the Roman Empire about the time of Christ makes no mention of These stones are prepared by religious hermits who live in the heart of the them, although he gives many current virgin forests, and who give themselves remedies for the bite of a mad dog— up to vows of various kinds, in all of the liver of a he-goat, the dung of a which charitable acts predominate. These she-goat, of a badger, cuckoo and mendicants give these stones to snake swallow, the menstrual blood of a charmers as a guard and antidote against bitch, and a receipt often on the accidents, which often happen in their tongue of every mother’s son of us: dangerous calling, and snake charmers in turn may give away these stones but In France we read of Ambroise never sell them. Pare taking part in an experiment to The part bitten should be slightly determine if a bezoar stone could save moistened with water and the stone the life of a criminal who had been applied, the stone will adhere very given a lethal dose of the bichloride of firmly to the spot and after a time it will drop off, having absorbed all the venom. mercury. If the stone now be quickly immersed In England we find mentioned in a small quantity of milk the poison among the effects of Queen Elizabeth absorbed by it will exude and the milk “one greate Bezar stone . one will turn blue.5 other large Bezar stone, broken in peeces delivered to our owne handes, Another recent writer refers to the by the Lord Brooke.”7 popular belief that the stones are often In Somersetshire and Cumberland to be found in the hills and represent madstones are said to be in use to this the solidified saliva of certain wild day. In Northern Scotland particu- goats.6 larly stones and crystals have been In the fourteenth century prose long cherished for their healing power. Edda of Icelandic literature there is To the Highland Exhibit in 1908 reference to medicinal stones. many of the clans lent their medicinal The bezoar stones are first encount- stones. Madstones have been described ered in Europe about the tenth cen- in Dutch South Africa.8 Java has tury. They were highly prized by the furnished some of them.9 populace and the princes who often Most interesting from a literary forced their use upon physicians. Re- point of view are two stones, each turned Catholic missionaries are said believed by its owner to be the stone to have brought them to Italy. Fran- referred to by Sir Walter Scott in cisco Redi, who gave the first jolt to “The Talisman.” The first is described the then respectable doctrine of spon- in the Encyclopedia Americana as taneous generation, attests their ex- having been brought from Scotland traordinary healing power in his in 1776 and as being in the possession “ Experimenta” written in 1685. He speaks of their having been recovered of a Virginia family named Fred. It from the heads of certain Indian was chocolate colored and measured snakes and states that they cling like 2 X 1 X M inches. No less than 130 a cupping glass to a poisonous bite or persons were reputed to have been wound until they have extracted all saved from hydrophobia by it.10 The the poison. He mentions the necessity second is reported by Charles W. of placing them in milk to remove the Dulles as an authentic Virginia mad- poison, saying that the milk should stone whose owner believed that it was turn yellow or green. He records an the Talisman “sent by the Sultan as a interesting experiment on a rooster, wedding present on the occasion of in which not being able to use the the marriage of the Earl of Huntingdon poison of a serpent or a mad dog, to Edith Plantagenet.” How true nicotine was rubbed into an incision were these claims must be left to the in the leg.

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