stones" are obtained in the East from deer,
antelopes, and even monkeys, as well as goats, and must have a
different chemical nature in each case. Minute scrapings from these
stones are used in the East as medicine, and their chemical qualities
render their use not altogether absurd, though they probably have not
any really valuable action. It is probable that their use had a later
origin than that of the "stones" connected with magic and witchcraft.
Sixteenth century writers, ever ready to invent a history when their
knowledge was defective, declared the bezoar-stone to be formed by the
inspissated tears of the deer or of the gazelle--the "gum" which
Hamlet remarked in aged examples of the human species.

The substance called "ambergris" (grey amber), valued to-day as a
perfume, is a faecal concretion similar to a bezoar-stone. It is formed
in the intestine of the sperm-whale, and contains fragments of the
hard parts of cuttle-fishes, which are the food of these whales.
"Hair-balls" are formed in the intestines of various large vegetarian
animals--and occasionally stony concretions of various chemical
composition are formed in the urinary bladder of various animals, as
well as of man. The "eagle-stone" is also a concretion to which
magical properties were ascribed. I have seen a specimen, but do not
know its history and origin. Glass beads found in prehistoric
burial-places are called by old writers "adders' eggs," and
"adder-stones," and were said (it is improbable that one should say
"believed") to hatch out young adders when incubated with sufficiently
silly ceremonies and observances. A celebrated "stone" of medicinal
reputation in the East is the "goa-stone." This is a purely artificial
product--a mass of the size and shape of a large egg, consisting of
some very fine and soft powder like fullers'-earth, sweetly scented,
and overlaid with gold-leaf. A very little is rubbed off, mixed with
water, and swallowed, as a remedy for many diseases. The deep
connection of medicine with magic throwing light on the strange
application of stones and hairs, bones and skins, by imaginative
mankind, in all ages and places, is exhibited in the common practice
of writing with ink a sentence of the Koran (or other sacred words) on
a tablet, washing off the ink and making the patient swallow the water
in which the sacred phrase has been thus dissolved! How convenient it
would be were it possible thus to impart knowledge, virtue, and