History About Aetite Stones

A passage in the treatise on stones by Theophrastus, pupil of Aristotle, might seem to indicate that the aetites was already known in the third century B.C. The words he employs are as follows: "The most astounding and greatest power of stones (if indeed this be true) is that of bearing progeny." As both Pliny and Dioscorides name this stone or geode and fully describe its character, laying especial stress upon the loose, rattling material enclosed in its hollow interior, this fact giving rise in later time to the half-poetic name of "the pregnant stone," there is every reason to believe that it was already known of three or four, or even more centuries before their time.

Marbodus of Rennes calls this stone "the guardian and defender of nests." Enclosing as it did one or more smaller stones, it was thought to be symbolically designated as an aid to parturition. According as it was attached to the left arm or to the left thigh, it either retarded or accelerated the natural processes. This, however, by no means exhausted the virtues of the stone, for when worn on the left arm of man or woman, it conferred sobriety, increased riches, and moved the wearer to love; it also brought victory and popularity, and preserved children from harm. In addition to all its other powers this stone seems to have possessed a certain detective quality, to judge from the following words of Aetius, who wrote in the sixth century A.D.: