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Magic Stones and Electric Gems: Magnes

That the loadstone was highly esteemed in the sixteenth century was well versified by Robert Norman in "The Newe Attractive." The Magnes or Loadstones Challenge Give place ye glittering sparkes, ye glimmering Diamonds bright, Ye Rubies red, and Saphires brave, wherein ye most delight. In breefe yee stones enricht, and burnisht all with gold, Set forth in Lapidaries shops, for Jewels to be sold. Give place, give place I say, your beautie, gleame, and glee, Is all the vertue for the which, accepted so you bee. Magnes, the Loadstone I, your painted sheaths defie, Without my helpe, in Indian Seas the best of you might lye. I guide the Pilots course, his helping hand I am, The Mariner delights in me, so doth the Marchant man. My vertue lies unknowne, my secrets hidden are, By me the Court and Common-weale, are pleasured very farre. No ship could sayle on seas, her course to runne aright, Nor compasse shew the ready way, were Magnes not of might. Blush then, and blemish all, bequeathe to mee thats due, Your seates in golde, your price in plate, which Jewellers doo rewe. Its I, its I alone, whom you usurpe upon, Magnes my name, the Loadstone cald, the prince of stones alone. If this you can denie, then seeme to make reply, And let the Painefull sea-man judge, the which of us doth lye. The Mariner's Judgement The Loadstone is the stone, the only stone alone, Deserving praise above the rest, whose vertues are unknowne.

The Marchant's Verdict The diamond bright, the Saphire brave, are stones that beare the name, But flatter not, and tell the troath, Magnes deserves the same. It was reported in the seventeenth century that ruptures were cured in Belgium by the help of the loadstone. The patient was first given a dose of iron filings, reduced to a very fine powder; thereupon a plaster made of crushed loadstone was applied externally to the affected part. This was said to produce a cure in the space of eight days. Probably the plaster was believed to draw the iron filings or some emanation from them through the affected parts toward the surface.