A novel theory in regard to the formation of a type of snake-stones is given by an old Chinese writer. This is that snakes, before they begin to hibernate, swallow some yellow earth and retain this in the gullet until they come forth again in the springtime, when they cast it forth. By this time the earth has acquired the consistency of a stone, the surface remaining yellow, while the interior is black. If picked up during the second phase of the moon this concretion was thought to be a cure for children’s convulsions, and for gravel, and was powdered and given in infusion. The infusion could also be applied with advantage externally to envenomed swellings.[[461]]
An old manuscript found in a manor house in Essex, England, contains a translation, made in 1732 by an Oxford student, E. Swinton, of some details on the snake-stone, taken from a work published in the same year at Bologna by Nicolo Campitelli. After noting that these stones came from the province of Kwang-shi in China and from different places in India, their appearance and qualities are described. In color they were almost black, some having pale gray or ash-color spots. The test of the genuineness of such a stone was to apply it to the lips; if not a spurious one, it would cling so closely to the membrane that considerable force must be exerted to separate it therefrom. The usual directions are given for its employment in the cure of snake bites, but its usefulness by no means ended here; its curative power was also exhibited in the case of “Scrophulous Eruptions and Pestilential Bubos,” and it could be used in the treatment of malignant tremors, venereal disorders, etc. With the manuscript was found a specimen snake-stone. This was described as being a thin oval body, about an inch in length and three-quarters of an inch broad; the color was gray with light streaks, and the surface was bright and polished. It was of the consistency of horn, and the writer of the note in the “Lancet” believes that it was part of a stag’s antler or some similar substance, from which the animal matter had been removed by the action of heat; many of the Oriental snake-stones are of this type, but, as we have already seen, a great variety of more or less porous materials have been and are still used in this way in different parts of the world. A practical experiment was made in 1867 by Dr. John Schrott, who excited six cobras to bite a number of pariah dogs. Without delay the snake-stones were applied to the wounds, but they proved absolute failures, death resulting as speedily as though nothing had been done.[[462]]
Jean Baptiste Tavernier, the great Oriental traveller of the seventeenth century, gives the following description of the “snake-stones” found in India:[[463]]
Finally, I will mention the snake-stone, which is about the size of a doubloon, some approximating to an oval form, being thicker in the middle and tapering toward the edges. The Indians say that it forms on the head of certain snakes, but I rather believe that the priests of these idolators make them think this, and that this stone is a composition of certain drugs. However this may be, it has great virtue to draw out all the poison, when anyone has been bitten by a venomous creature. If the part that has been bitten has not been punctured, an incision must be made, so that the blood can flow out, and when the stone has been applied, it does not fall off until it has absorbed all the poison which gathers about it. To clean it, woman’s milk is used, or should this be lacking, cow’s milk, and after ten or twelve hours steeping, the milk which has drawn out all the poison takes on the color of pus. Having dined one day with the Archbishop of Goa, he took me into his museum, where he had several curious objects. Among other things he showed me one of these stones, and having told me of its properties, he assured me that but three days before he had seen them tested, and presented the stone to me. As he was traversing a marsh on the Island of Salsate, whereon Goa is situated, to go to a country house, one of those who bore his palanquin, and who was almost entirely naked, was bitten by a snake and was immediately cured by this stone. I have bought several of them, and they are sold only by the brahmins, which makes me think the brahmins themselves make the stones. There are two methods of testing whether the stone is good or the product of some deception. The first of these tests is to place it in one’s mouth, for then, if it be good, it springs up and cleaves to the palate; the second test is to place it in a glass full of water; if it is not sophisticated, the water begins to seethe, small bubbles rising from the stone at the bottom to the surface of the water.
Thevenot, a French traveller who visited India in 1666, about the time Tavernier was there, asserts that the famous “Stones of the Cobra” were manufactured in the town of Diu, in Guzerat, and that they were made “of the ashes of burnt roots, mingled with a kind of Earth they have, and were again burnt with that Earth, which afterwards is made up into a Paste, of which these Stones are formed.” After describing the process employed for cleaning the stones after they had been used, Thevenot adds that if not freed from the absorbed venom the stones would burst.[[464]]
Dr. J. Davy examined and analyzed some of these “stones,” and found one of them to be a piece of bone partially calcined. When applied to the tongue or to any other moist surface it adhered firmly. Another, which lacked all absorbent or adhesive power, was said to have saved the life of four men. It therefore appears that while some of the “snake-stones” really possessed some possible curative virtues, others were esteemed only because of a superstitious belief in their magical properties. Kaempfer, writing in 1712, informs us that these stones should always be used in pairs, and applied successively to the wound.[[465]] The belief in the efficacy of such stones is still general in India, and one of the varieties is supposed to be found in the head of the adjutant bird.[[466]]
Francisco Redi[[467]] describes the extraordinary healing power attributed to stones obtained from the heads of certain serpents, called by the Portuguese “cobras de capello,” found throughout Hindostan and Farther India. These stones are claimed to be an infallible remedy for the bites and stings of all kinds of venomous reptiles or animals, and likewise for wounds made by poisoned arrows, etc. He repeats the usual tales of their adhering powerfully when applied to the bite or wound, and clinging to it like a cupping-glass until they had absorbed all the poison, when they would fall off spontaneously, leaving the man or animal sound and free. Then follows the account of steeping the stones in milk to remove the poison, the milk assuming a color between yellow and green. These wonderful stones and the narrations concerning them had been brought to Italy by Catholic missionaries, who seemed to have entire faith in their powers; so that Redi says they offered to prove the accounts by any number of experiments, such as would satisfy the most incredulous, and prove to medical men that Galen was correct when he wrote (Chapter XIV, Book I) that certain medicines attract poison as the magnet does iron. For this purpose a search for vipers, etc., was recommended; but, owing to the season being later and colder than usual, none could at that time be obtained, as they had not emerged from their winter quarters. An experiment was therefore substituted, after much consultation among the learned men of the Academy of Pisa, whereby oil of tobacco was introduced into the leg of a rooster. This was regarded as one of the most fatal of such substances, and was administered by impregnating a thread with it to the width of four fingers and drawing it through the punctured wound. One of the monks forthwith applied the stone, which behaved in the regular manner described. The bird did not recover, but it survived eight hours, to the admiration of the monks and other spectators of the experiment.
Frontispiece and title-page of Francesco Redi’s “Experimenta naturalia,” Amsterdam, 1675, and two specimen pages of this treatise, referring to the snake-stones believed to be taken from the Indian Cobras de Capello, or hooded snakes.
