A passage in the treatise on stones by Theophrastus, pupil of Aristotle, might seem to indicate that the ætites was already known in the third century B.C. The words he employs are as follows: “The most astounding and greatest power of stones (if indeed this be true) is that of bearing progeny.” As both Pliny and Dioscorides name this stone or geode and fully describe its character, laying especial stress upon the loose, rattling material enclosed in its hollow interior, this fact giving rise in later time to the half-poetic name of “the pregnant stone,” there is every reason to believe that it was already known of three or four, or even more centuries before their time.[[356]]
Marbodus of Rennes calls this stone “the guardian and defender of nests.”[[357]] Enclosing as it did one or more smaller stones, it was thought to be symbolically designated as an aid to parturition. According as it was attached to the left arm or to the left thigh, it either retarded or accelerated the natural processes. This, however, by no means exhausted the virtues of the stone, for when worn on the left arm of man or woman, it conferred sobriety, increased riches, and moved the wearer to love; it also brought victory and popularity, and preserved children from harm. In addition to all its other powers this stone seems to have possessed a certain detective quality, to judge from the following words of Ætius, who wrote in the sixth century A.D.:[[358]]
The ætites serves to discover thieves, if anyone places it in the bread which they eat; for whoever has committed a theft is unable to consume the bread. It has also been stated that, if cooked with any kind of food, the ætites unmasks thieves, since they cannot eat such food. If taken with wax from Cyprus, with fresh olive oil, or with any other calefacient, this stone greatly helps those suffering from rheumatism and paralysis.
Ætites. From Johannis de Cuba’s “Ortus Sanitatis,” Strassburg, 1483.
The loose, enclosed concretion was named in Latin callimus, and we have a detailed description from the sixteenth century of one of these, which belonged to Georgius Fabricius. Because of its curious markings he had it set on a pivot in a ring, so that both sides of the stone could be easily seen. The material was in part as clear as a rock-crystal, evidently a very translucent chalcedony, but the chief interest centred in the images or figures traced by nature upon the stone. These showed what seemed to be two forms, one of a cowled monk, and the other that of a tall, beardless man; there was also a third, showing an undefined form. On the under side of this callimus was marked the outline of a crescent moon.[[359]]
A seventeenth century writer, not otherwise uncritical, does not hesitate to declare that he had himself witnessed, in the case of a fig-tree, an instance of the special power exercised by the ætites. One of these stones having been attached to this tree, all the fruit dropped off in, the space of ten hours, although tree had apparently lost nothing of its vigor, its foliage remaining as luxuriant as before.[[360]]
An old treatise on the ætites gives the following names as applied to it in various languages:[[361]]
Italian: Aquilina, pietra d’aquila, pietra aquilina, ethite.
French: Pierre de l’aigle.