madstone

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“
Among the Sontals in Bengal the snake stone, found within the head of the Adjutant-bird, is applied to a snake bite exactly in the same way and with the same supposed results as the Texas madstone, an accretion found, it is said, in the system of a white stag.

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Definitions (1)

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  1. A stone popularly reputed to cure hydrophobia, or to prevent it when threatened. It is applied to the wound, from which it is supposed to draw the poison. The belief in its value has no scientific sanction. [U. S.] Among the various individuals in Pennsylvania who profess ability in exorcism and charms, we occasionally find one who is reputed to possess a mad-stone. These pebbles are of various sizes, and appear to have been selected on account of some peculiarity of color or form. A specimen which had a high reputation in the State from which it had been brought was described by the present writer as consisting of a worn piece of white feldspar, and possessing none of the properties of absorption attributed to it. Proc. Am. Phil. Soc., XXVI. (1889), 336.

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Examples (5)

  • Among the Sontals in Bengal the snake stone, found within the head of the Adjutant-bird, is applied to a snake bite exactly in the same way and with the same supposed results as the Texas madstone, an accretion found, it is said, in the system of a white stag. —  Ranching, Sport and Travel
  • The madstone is popularly supposed to be an accretion found somewhere in the system of a white stag. —  Ranching, Sport and Travel
  • Abraham Lincoln with all his lofty mind, acquiesced in the vulgar belief when he took his son Robert to have the benefit of a "madstone," at a distance from where the boy was dog-bitten. —  The Lincoln Story Book
  • When it does so, the bitten man at once starts off to Texas, where at certain places one can hire the use of a madstone. —  Ranching, Sport and Travel
  • "madstone," at a distance from where the boy was dog-bitten. —  The Lincoln Story Book
 

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