CURIOUS SUPERSTITION.
The ring of which we here give a sketch has been selected by us as a subject for engraving and comment, because it embodies a curious superstition which was very prevalent in England in the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries.
The setting is of silver, and the jewel which it carries is called a toadstone. This stone was popularly believed to be formed in the heads of very old toads, and it was eagerly coveted by sovereigns, and by all persons in high office, because it was supposed to have the power of indicating to the person who wore it the proximity of poison, by perspiring and changing colour. Fenton, who wrote in 1569, says—"There is to be found in the heads of old and great toads a stone they call borax or stelon;" and he adds—"They, being used as rings, give forewarning against venom." Their composition is not actually known; by some they are thought to be a stone—by others, a shell; but of whatever they may be formed, there is to be seen in them, as may be noticed in the engraving, a figure resembling that of a toad, but whether produced accidentally or by artificial means is not known, though, according to Albertus Magnus, the stone always bore the figure on its surface, at the time it was taken out of the toad's head. Lupton, in his "1000 Notable Things," says—"A toadstone, called crepaudina, touching any part envenomed, hurt, or stung with rat, spider, wasp, or any other venomous beast, ceases the pain or swelling thereof." The well known lines in Shakespeare are doubtless in allusion to the virtue which Lupton says it possesses:—
"Sweet are the uses of adversity;
Which like a toad, ugly and venomous,
Wears yet a precious jewel in his head."
Ben Jonson also in the Fox, has,—
"Were you enamoured on his copper rings,