Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 50.djvu/109

Rh root," commonly known as the sanicle, or Sanicula marylandica. The roots of the plant are crushed, one part being made into a poultice and applied to the wound, while the remainder is boiled in milk, which is freely administered internally.

The following procedure was formerly practiced in northern Lehigh County, and obtains even at this day in Cumberland County. The operator recites the following words:

The speaker then with the extended index finger makes the sign of the cross three times over the wound, each time pronouncing the word tsing.

In connection with the extraction of serpent venom may be mentioned the use of the snake stone or mad stone, the latter without doubt having originally been employed in snake bites.

The earliest notice of stones used in extracting or expelling poisons occurs about the middle of the thirteenth century, though the knowledge of them and their use by the superstitions of Asia Minor appears to antedate that period. They are called bezoar stones, from the Persian pad-zahr, signifying to expel poison. This substance is a calculus or concretion found in the intestines of the wild goat of northern India known as the pazan. Various other ruminants also possess similar concretions, but the Oriental variety seems always to have been the more highly prized and entered largely into various therapeutic remedies two centuries ago.

In addition to the fact that the fable of poison-extracting stones may be traced back to the middle ages, and that they had been used long anterior to that time in Asia Minor, it is more than probable that a knowledge of their reputed properties and possibly specimens were brought back to Europe by crusaders on their return from the Holy Land.

Several objects found in 1863 at Florence, on the site of the old church of the Templars, dedicated to St. Paul, may be briefly noticed. One of these was a vase and another a medal. Among other figures upon the vase is one of St. Paul bitten by a serpent, and the Latin inscription signifying, "In the name of St. Paul, and by this stone, thou shalt drive out poison." On the other side is engraved in relief the cross of the temple between a sword and a serpent. On the medal is represented a dragon with an Italian legend signifying, "The grace of St. Paul is proof against any poison."