One of the chief virtues of the mo-jio is to render the person of the wearer invulnerable; and many an unlucky mo-jio has succumbed to the popular test, which is to wrap it in a cloth and fire a bullet at it at short range. If the man misses the cloth, the authenticity and power of the charm is at once established; if the stone is fractured it is held not to be a real mo-jio.

Fire will not consume a house which contains one, though I never heard of this ordeal being attempted. Last but not least is the known fact that the owner of a real mo-jio can cut a rainbow in half with it.

Certain recent happenings have suggested that the name "aviator-stone" would be a peculiarly appropriate designation for meteorites, and indeed this new name would only serve to emphasize the legendary belief, that he who bore with him a meteorite when he was in deadly peril would escape all injury. By a strange coincidence those who are willing to take great risks and chances are generally more or less superstitious regarding small things, and a daring aviator recently remarked that on one occasion, when his machine had suddenly fallen fifty feet, he felt for his tie and said to himself: "This accident has happened because I forgot to put on my opal pin, but I have been saved from injury because I carried a meteorite." This aviator, having mentioned the incident to Harmon, a few minutes before the latter made his successful attempt to win the DoubledayPage aviation prize, Harmon immediately took the meteorite which had been shown to him, saying: "Let me have it." He accomplished his task, and although both the competing machines were injured, the aviators themselves were saved.

A meteorite, of course, cannot be claimed to be a preventive of danger on all occasions, but several who have always carried them have seemed to escape all sorts of harm. Some years ago a meteorite was given to Edward Heron Allen, the famous writer on palmistry and the violin, and this gifted man always wore it about him. One morning he awakened to find that the entire roof above him had fallen

in, except just that portion over his bed. He told the story to one of the best known ladies in Boston; one who is known for her public spirit, her love of art and her faultless manner of entertaining. This lady successfully urged Allen to give her the meteorite. A few days later, while out driving, a great truck with two runaway horses attached to it struck her carriage. Instinctively she raised her muff to protect her face; the muff was almost cut in two, but the lady was not hurt. A few days later, while she was walking under some scaffolding, it fell, and the open part where the hoists went up proved to be just where she stood. Although surrounded by ruin, she remained unharmed.

IN

III

Stones of Healing

his commentary on Theophrastus, Sir John Hill touches upon the question of the medicinal virtues of precious stones. His researches regarding the causes and conditions determining color in stones, led him to the conjecture that the active principle, if it really existed, was to be sought in the coloring matter. As the opinion of a very clever student in his day, his words will bear quotation: 1

The greatest part of these [medicinal virtues] cannot but be seen at first view to be altogether imaginary; and as to the virtues of the Gems in general, it is now the reigning Opinion, that they are nearly all so, their greatest Friends allowing them no other than those of the common alkaline Absorbents. However, whether the metalline Particles, to which they owe their Colours, are, in either Quantity or Quality, in Condition to have any effect in the Body, is a Matter worthy of a strict and regular Tryal; and that would at once decide the Question between us and the Antients, and shew whether we have been too rash, or they too superstitious.

The so-called "doctrine of signatures" treated of the marks set by nature upon certain objects to denote their usefulness in the cure of diseases affecting different parts of the body, or their power to neutralize the effects of the bites of certain animals or reptiles. Of this theory Martius says that the "signatures" are not to be sought in a fanciful resemblance to the form of the objects with the diseased parts of the human body, but rather in the color, odor, taste, composition, etc., of the objects.2

'Theophrastus's "History of Stones," with an English version by John Hill, London, 1746, p. 73.

'Martius, "Unterricht von der Magia Naturali, Leipzig, 1717, p. 290.

Medieval medical literature has no more interesting example than the treatise entitled "Thesaurus Pauperum," or the "Poor-man's Treasury," written by Petrus Hispanus, who later reigned for a brief period as pope under the name of John XXI (1276–1277). The birthplace of the author was Lisbon in Portugal, and he studied for some time at the University of Paris, where his learning earned him high praise. Prior to his election as pope, he served for a time as first physician to Pope Gregory X (12711276). Most of the remedies prescribed in this little treatise are naturally such as had long been popular among the peasantry, and the ingredients of which could easily be secured; vegetable growths, plants, herbs and flowers, and certain parts of the more common animals, served here, as in Pliny's day and earlier still, as those most highly favored. Of the comparatively few mineral substances whose use is recommended may be noted the red variety of chelidonius or "swallow stone," for the cure of epilepsy; the powder of the "iris" (probably an iridescent variety of quartz) was also a cure for epileptics. Then we find, strange to say, a recommendation of such costly remedial agencies as emerald and sapphire, either of which if touched on the eye would heal diseases of that organ. Cold stones placed on the temples and tightly bound on were said to arrest bleeding from the nose, and coral was a great help in syncope. For stone in the bladder two mineral substances, "humus" and "songie," are warmly recommended (the former can scarcely be held to signify mere "soil"), as are also "stones found in the gizzards of cocks" (the alectorius) and those from the bladders of hogs. All these were to be reduced to powder, dissolved in liquid, and taken in the form of potions. The use of stones and coral rather as amulets or talismans than as remedies is occasionally mentioned. Thus the loadstone, worn, is said to remove discord between man and woman;

if

coral, if kept in the house, destroyed all evil influences, and if a woman wore touching her skin a concretion taken from the stomach of a she-goat that had not had young, this woman would never bear a child.

The curious old medical treatise in verse called the "Schola Salernitana," was translated into English by Sir James Harington in 1607. The following lines give advice that is as appropriate to the conditions of our own age as to those of any other:"

Use three physitians still, first doctor Quiet,

Next doctor Merry-man and doctor Dyet.

Whether with or without intention, the translator has omitted to render the qualification given in the original: "Si tibi deficiant medici" (if other doctors are lacking).

The terrible plague known as the Black Death is said to have claimed 13,000,000 victims in Europe in the years 1347 and 1348. A contemporary, Olivier de la Haye, in a poem describing this fearful visitation, gives a number of recipes used, or to be used as remedies. In one of these there appear as ingredients pearls, jargoons, emeralds and coral, one-sixth of a drachm of each of these materials entering into the composition of the prescription. The symptoms of this form of the plague, as described by the old writers, are said to resemble closely those of the disease that was prevalent not long ago in some parts of Asia, especially in northern China and Manchuria.

A famous class of medical remedies used in medieval

'From a fourteenth century Italian MS. translation of the treatise in the author's library; see fol. 8, recto, col. 2; fol. 9, recto, col. 1; fol. 10, recto, col. 2; fol. 14, verso, col. 1; fol. 17, verso, col. 1; fol. 25, verso, col. 1; fol. 26, verso, col. 1; fol. 26, verso, col. 2; fol. 29, verso, col. 2.

• Regimen sanitatis Salernitanum, ed. Sir Alexander Cooke, Oxford, 1830, p. 125. This edition contains reproductions of many curious woodcuts from the old German editions of Curio, published in 1559, 1568 and 1573.

"Havard, "Histoire de l'orfévrerie," Paris, 1896, p. 359; Olivier de la Haye, "Poème sur la grande peste de 1348," verses 3162 sqq.