ich before lay secretly hid. The fifth
virtue is, he who is afflicted with any disease, if he
taketh the stone in liquid, it is soon well with him.
The sixth virtue is, that sorcery hurteth not the man
who has the stone with him. The seventh virtue is, that
he who taketh the stone in drink, will have so much the
smoother body. The eighth virtue of the stone is, that
no bite of any kind of snake may scathe him who tasteth
the stone in liquid."

Even as late as 1624, Sir John Harrington, writing in his "School of
Salerne," says: "Alwaies in your hands use eyther Corall or yellow
Amber, or a chalcedonium, or a sweet Pommander, or some like precious
stone to be worne in a ring upon the little finger of the left hand;
have in your rings eyther a Smaragd, a Saphire, or a Draconites, which
you shall bear for an ornament; for in stones, as also in hearbes,
there is great efficacie and vertue, but they are not altogether
perceived by us; hold sometime in your mouth eyther a Hyacinth, or a
Crystall, or a Garnat, or pure Gold, or Silver, or else sometimes pure
Sugar-candy. For Aristotle doth affirme, and so doth Albertus Magnus,
that a Smaragd worne about the necke, is good against the
Falling-sickness; for surely the virtue of an hearbe is great, but
much more the vertue of a precious stone, which is very likely that
they are endued with occult and hidden vertues."

Precious metals as well as precious stones were used in the
manufacture of amulets. The Scandinavians carried metal effigies
carved out of gold or silver, or incised upon tiles, perpetually as
amulets. They were safeguards against diseases and physical
infirmities. They were also administered internally in cases where
powerful cures were needed. Chaucer says:

"For gold in physic is a cordial,
Therefore he loved gold in special."

The Basilideans, and other sects developed from the Gnostic systems,
assigned great power to stone amulets, and prepared them for their
initiates, who used them for identification and for curative purposes.
They quickly acquired a celebrity undiminished for ages, and were
known under the general name of Abraxas. They were composed of various
materials, glass, paste, sometimes metals, but principally of various
kinds of stones. Through the irresistible might of Abrax, their
supreme divinity, the Basilideans were protected and cured. Clement of
Alexandria strictly interdicted the use of gems for personal
ornamentation