ystical, medical lore of the "Physiologus"--that Byzantine cyclopaedia
of "wisdom while you wait"--deliberately discarded all attempt to set
down the truth; they simply gave that up as a bad job, and recorded
every strange story, property and "application" (as they termed it) of
natural objects with solemn assurance, adding a bit of their own
invention to the gathered and growing mass of preposterous
misunderstanding and superstition.

In the seventeenth century the opposition to this method of omnivorous
credulity (which even to-day, in spite of all our "progress,"
flourishes among both the rich and the poor) crystallised in the
purpose of the Royal Society of London for the Improvement of Natural
Knowledge--whose motto was, and is "_Nullius in verba_" (that is, "We
swear by no man's words"), and whose original first rule, to be
observed at its meetings, was that no one should discourse of his
opinions or narrate a marvel, but that any member who wished to
address the society should "bring in," that is to say, "exhibit" an
experiment or an actual specimen. A new spirit, the "scientific"
spirit, gave rise to and was nourished by this and similar societies
of learned men. As a consequence the absurdities and the cruel and
injurious beliefs in witchcraft, astrology, and baseless legend,
melted away like clouds before the rising sun. In the place of the mad
nightmare of fantastic ignorance, there grew up the solid body of
unassailable knowledge of Nature and of man which we call "science"--a
growth which made such prodigious strides in the last century that we
now may truly be said to live in the presence of a new heaven and a
new earth!

[Illustration: Fig. 4.--Representation of a man extracting the jewel
from a toad's head; two "jewels", already extracted are seen dropping
to the ground. From the "Hortus Sanitatis," published in 1490.]

It was, then, a real "stone," called the toad-stone, to which
Shakespeare alluded. It is mentioned in various old treatises
concerning the magical and medicinal properties of gems and stones
under its Latin name, "_Bufonius lapis_," and was also called Borax,
Nosa, Crapondinus, Crapaudina, Chelonitis, and Batrachites. It was
also called Grateriano and Garatronius, after a gentleman named
Gratterus, who in 1473 found a very large one, reputed to have
marvellous power. In 1657, in the "translation by a person of
quality" of the "Thaumatographia" of a Polish physician named
Jonstonus, we