UNITED STATES STONES
Precious, semi-precious, or gem stones are found in nearly every State of the Union. The most important are enumerated below:
| Alabama | Beryl, blue and yellow; smoky quartz. |
| Arizona | Agatized wood, azur-malachite, turquoise, garnet, peridot. |
| Arkansas | Rock-crystal, smoky quartz, agate, diamond, novaculite. |
| California | Agate, benitoite, californite, diamond, gold quartz, tourmaline, abalone pearl, chrysoprase, kunzite, morganite. |
| Colorado | Beryl, aquamarine, phenacite, garnet, amethyst, agate, gold quartz, pyrite. |
| Connecticut | Beryl, yellow and green; rose quartz, tourmaline |
| Delaware | Pearl. |
| Florida | Chalcedony, conch pearl. |
| Georgia | Ruby, beryl, amethyst, gold quartz, garnet. |
| Idaho | Opal, agate, obsidian. |
| Illinois | Fluorite, pearl. |
| Indian Territory | Obsidian, pearl. |
| Indiana | Pearl. |
| Iowa | Fossil coral, pearl, chalcedony. |
| Kansas | Chalcedony. |
| Kentucky | Pearl. |
| Louisiana | Chalcedony. |
| Maine | Tourmaline, beryl, rose quartz, pearl, topaz, amazonite, smoky quartz, rock-crystal. |
| Maryland | Beryl, clam-pearl. |
| Massachusetts | Beryl. |
| Michigan | Agate, hematite. |
| Minnesota | Chlorastrolite, thomsonite, agate. |
| Mississippi | Pearl, chalcedony. |
| Missouri | Pearl, fluorite, pyrite. |
| Montana | Sapphire, beryl, smoky quartz, agate, amethyst, agatized wood, obsidian. |
| Nebraska | Chalcedony, pearl. |
| Nevada | Gold quartz, rock-crystal. |
| New Hampshire | Beryl, rock-crystal, garnet. |
| New Jersey | Fowlerite, willemite, prehnite, smoky quartz, agate, pearl. |
| New Mexico | Turquoise, garnet, obsidian, peridot, rock-crystal. |
| New York | Beryl, brown tourmaline, rose quartz, fresh-water pearl, clam-pearl, chondrodite. |
| North Carolina | Aquamarine, beryl, emerald, almandite garnet, rhodolite, prope garnet, diamond, cyanite, hiddenite, amethyst, ruby, sapphire, smoky quartz, rock-crystal, rutile. |
| North Dakota | Chalcedony, agate. |
| Ohio | Fossil coral, chalcedony. |
| Oregon | Agate, obsidian, hydrolite. |
| Pennsylvania | Amethyst, beryl, sunstone, moonstone, amazonite, almandite garnet, pyrope garnet, rutile. |
| Rhode Island | Hornblende in quartz, amethyst, rock-crystal. |
| South Carolina | Beryl, smoky quartz, rock-crystal. |
| South Dakota | Quartzite, beryl, agate. |
| Tennessee | Pearl. |
| Texas | Beryl, pearl, tourmaline. |
| Utah | Topaz, garnet. |
| Virginia | Amethyst, spessarite, garnet, beryl, moonstone, staurolite, allanite. |
| Vermont | Beryl, pearl. |
| Washington | Pearl, agate. |
| West Virginia | Rock-crystal. |
| Wisconsin | Agate, pearl. |
| Wyoming | Moss-agate, agate. |
[XI]
On the Therapeutic Use of Precious and Semi-Precious Stones
THE medicinal use of precious stones may be traced back to very ancient times. It has been conjectured that their employment for such purposes was introduced to Europe from India, whence many of the stones were derived. Nevertheless, the earliest evidence we have rather points to Egypt as the source, and, indeed, it appears that in early Egyptian times the chemical constituents of the stones were much more rationally considered than at a later period in Europe. The Ebers Papyrus, for instance, recommends the use of certain astringent substances, such as lapis-lazuli, as ingredients of eye-salves, and hematite, an iron oxide, was used for checking hemorrhages and for reducing inflammations. Little by little, however, superstition associated certain special virtues with the color and quality of precious stones, and their virtues were thought to be greatly enhanced by engraving on them the image of some god, or of some object symbolizing certain of the activities of nature. Later still, the science of astrology, most highly developed in Assyria and Babylonia, was brought into combination with the various superstitions above indicated, so that the image was believed to have much greater efficacy if the engraving were executed when the sun was in a certain constellation or when the moon or some one of the planets was in the ascendant at the time.
If we exclude certain fragmentary notices in Egyptian literature—notably the statements in the Ebers Papyrus—and the very uncertain sources in Hindu literature, the earliest authority for this branch of the subject is the Natural History of Pliny. In this connection, however, it is only just to call attention to a fact which has been often ignored—namely, that Pliny himself had very little faith in the teachings of the “magi,” as he calls them, in regard to the superstitious use of gems for the prevention or cure of diseases; indeed, he seems to have been almost as sceptical in his attitude as many modern writers, for certain quite recent authorities still credit amber and a few other mineral substances with therapeutic effects other than those which can be explained by the known action of their chemical constituents. Still, Pliny yielded so far to the taste of his time as to preserve for us many of the statements of earlier writers on the subject, naming them in most cases and so enabling us to form some idea of the character of this pseudo-science in the Roman world in the first century of our era. With the gradual decay of ancient learning, the less valuable elements of popular belief came more and more into the foreground, and the old superstitions were freely copied by successive authors, each of whom felt called upon to add something new on his own account. This explains much of the confusion that reigns in regard to the attribution of special virtues to the different stones, for the wider the reading of the author the greater became the number of virtues attributed to each separate stone, until, at last, we might almost say that each and every precious stone could be used for the cure of all diseases. Nevertheless, it is comparatively easy to see that either the color or constitution of the stone originally indicated its use for this or that disease.
INSCRIPTION ON A SMALL PIECE OF LIMESTONE, IN CURSIVE EGYPTIAN WRITING.