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The Therapeutic Use of Precious Stones: Abraham

In the Babylonian Talmud we read of a marvellous precious stone belonging to Abraham. This was perhaps a diamond, or possibly a pearl; the accounts vary, and the same word is often used to designate "precious stone" and "pearl." The following version represents it to be a diamond: (New edition of the Babylonian Talmud, ed. and trans. by Michael L. Rodkinson, vol. v (xiii), Baba Barat, New York, 1902. See also Beer, "Leben Abraham's," Leipzig, 1859.) R. Simeon, ben Johanan said: "A diamond was hanging on Abraham's neck, and when a sick man looked upon it he was cured. And when Abraham passed away, the Lord sealed it in the planet of the sun."

The Hindus believed that it was extremely dangerous to use diamonds of inferior quality for curative purposes, as they would not only fail to remedy the disease for which they were prescribed, but might cause lameness, jaundice, pleurisy, and even leprosy. As to the use of diamonds of good quality, very explicit directions are given. On some day regarded as auspicious for the operation, the stone was to be dipped in the juice of the kantakara (Solanum jaquiri) and subjected for a whole night to the heat of a fire made by dried pieces of the dung of a cow or of a buffalo. In the morning it was to be immersed in cow's urine and again subjected to fire. These processes were to be repeated for seven days, at the end of which term the diamond could be regarded as purified. After this the stone was to be buried in a paste of certain leguminous seeds mixed with asafoetida and rock salt. Herein it was to be heated twenty-one successive times, when it would be reduced to ashes. If these ashes were then dissolved in some liquid, the potion would "conduce to longevity, general development of the body, strength, energy, beauty of complexion, and happiness," giving an adamantine strength to the limbs. (Surindro Mohun Tagore, "Mani Mala," Pt. I, Calcutta, 1879.) An Austrian nobleman, who for a long time had not been able to sleep without having terrible dreams, was immediately cured by wearing a small diamond set in gold on his arm, so that the stone came in contact with his skin. (Andrea Spigello, "De semitert."; cited in Gimma, "Della Storia naturale delle gemme," Napoli, 1730.) The fact that in this case, as in many others, the stone was required to touch the skin, proves that the effect supposed to be produced was not altogether magical, but in the nature of a physical emanation from the stone to the body of the wearer.

We are told that when Pope Clement VII was seized by his last illness, in 1534, his physicians resorted to powders composed of various precious stones. In the space of fourteen days they are asserted to have given the pope forty thousand ducats' worth of these stones, a single dose costing as much as three thousand ducats. The most costly remedy of all was a diamond administered to him at Marseilles. Unfortunately, this lavish expenditure was of no avail; indeed, according to our modern science, the remedies might have sufficed to end the pope's life, without the help of his disease. (Raumer, "Historisches Taschenbuch," I Ser., vol. vi, Leipzig, 1835.) The old fancy that the diamond grew dark in the presence of poison is explained by the Italian physician Gonelli as caused by minute and tenuous particles which emanated from the poison, impinged upon the surface of the diamond, and, unable to penetrate its dense mass, accumulated on the surface, thus producing a superficial discoloration. The diamond, being a cold substance, may have condensed moisture from the body, and the one suffering from the poison may have emitted exudations. But this elaborate explanation of a phenomenon which never existed except in the imagination of those who related it is characteristic of Gonelli, who was always ready to elucidate in some similar way any of the marvels recounted in regard to precious stones. (Josephi Gonelli, "Thesaurus philosophicus, seu de gemmis," Neapoli, 1702.) Emerald The emerald was employed as an antidote for poisons and for poisoned wounds, as well as against demoniacal possession. (Lapidario del Rey D. Alfonso X, Codice Original, Madrid, 1881, f. xv.) If worn on the neck it was said to cure the "semitertian" fever and epilepsy. (Marbodus, l. c., f 48.) The use of the emerald to rest and relieve the eye is the only remedial use of a precious stone mentioned by Theophrastus in his treatise on gems, written in the third century B.C. Alluding to its powers as an antidote for poisons, Rueus asserts (Rueus, l. c.) that if the weight of eighty barley-corns of its powder were given to one dying from the effects of poison, the dose would save his life. The Arabs prized emeralds highly for this purpose, and Abenzoar states that, having once taken a poisonous herb, he placed an emerald in his mouth and applied another to his stomach, whereupon he was entirely cured. (Morales, "De las piedras preciosas," Valladolid, 1604, f. 101.) A certain cure for dysentery also was to wear an emerald suspended so that it touched the abdomen and to place another emerald in the mouth. Michaele Paschali, a learned Spanish physician of the sixteenth century, declared that he had effected a cure of the disease by means of the emerald in the case of Juan de Mendoza, a Spanish grandee, and Wolfgang Gabelchover, of Calw, in Wurtemberg, writing in 1603, asserts that he had often tested the virtues of the emerald in cases of dysentery and with invariable success. (Andreae Bacci, "De gemmis et lapidibus pretiosis," Francofurti, 1603 (annotation of Gabelchover to his Latin version).

It speaks not a little for the beauty of the emerald that so good a judge of precious stones as Pliny should have pronounced this gem to be the only one that delighted the eye without fatiguing it, adding that when the vision was wearied by gazing intently at other objects, it gained renewed strength by viewing an emerald. So general in the early centuries of our era was the persuasion that the pure green hue of emeralds aided the eyesight, that gem engravers are said to have kept some of them on their work-tables, so as to be able to look at the stones from time to time and thus relieve the eye-strain caused by close application to their delicate task. (Plinii, "Naturalis historia," lib. xxxvii, cap. 16.) Psellus says that a cataplasm made of emeralds was of help to those suffering from leprosy; he adds that if pulverized and taken in water they would check hemorrhages. (Psellus, "De lapidum virtutibus," Lug. Bat., 1745.) They were especially commended for use as amulets to be hung on the necks of children, as they were believed to ward off and prevent epilepsy. If, however, the violence of the disease was such that it could not be overcome by the stone, the latter would break. (Johannis Braunii, "De Vestitu sacerd. Heb.," Amstel., 1680.) Hermes Trismegistus says the emerald cures ophthalmia and hemorrhages. The great Hermes must have had a special preference for this stone, since his treatise on chemistry (peri chemeias) is said to have been found inscribed on an emerald. (From an old book the title-page of which reads: "In hocvolumine de Alchemia," etc., Norimberghe, 1541.) By the Hindu physicians of the thirteenth century the emerald was considered to be a good laxative. It cured dysentery, diminished the secretion of bile, and stimulated the appetite. In short, it promoted bodily health and destroyed demoniacal influences. In the curious phrase of the school the emerald was "cold and sweet." (Garbe, "Die indische Mineralien; Naharari's Rajanighantu, Varga xiii," Leipzig, 1882.) Teifashi (1242 A.D.) believed that the emerald was a cure for haemoptysis and for dysentery if it were worn over the liver of the person affected; to cure gastric troubles, the stone was to be laid upon the stomach. Furthermore, the wearer was protected from the attacks of venomous creatures, and evil spirits were driven from the place where emeralds were kept. (Teifashi, "Fior di pensieri sulle pietre preziose," Ital. trans. by Antonio Raineri, Firenzi, 1818.) The direction to place the stone on the affected part, a recommendation often met with in the treatises on the therapeutic use of ornamental stones, shows that these were believed to send forth emanations of subtle power. Probably enough, the brilliant play of reflected light which proceeds from many of these gems suggested the idea that they radiated a certain curative energy. This theory need not surprise us, for, a although it is altogether fanciful in the case of the diamond, ruby, emerald, etc., the newly discovered substance, radium, really possesses the active properties ascribed by old writers to precious stones.

Jade A stone the therapeutic quality of which was specialized is the jade or nephrite. Strange to say, although there are very few places where this mineral can now be obtained,--the chief sources of supply being the province of Khotan in Turkistan and New Zealand,--in prehistoric times the stone must have been found in many different localities, since axe-heads and other artefacts of jade have been discovered in many lands both of the old and new world.