Chalcedony and Childbirth: Precious and Semi-Precious Stones as Obstetrical Amulets **

It is also profitable to wear about them gemmes and precious stones, as the The custom of wearing or holding an amulet during pregnancy and childbirth is probably as ancient as the need for comfort and reassurance. For reasons not entirely clear, precious and semi-precious stones throughout recorded time have been considered to possess protective virtues."'8 The medical benefits ascribed to each stone were listed in medical and lapidary manuscripts and books. This review is concerned chiefly with the records from Western Europe. The aetites or eagle stone was perhaps the best known obstetrical lapidary amulet. Although the aetites is not a gem, it was prized for its supposed efficacy not only in preventing abortion and easing childbirth but also in detecting thieves and poison and in treating epilepsy. The stone, in a sense, is "pregnant," for it is hollow and contains a pebble, sand, or other material, as can be demonstrated by the rattling which occurs when the aetites is shaken. It has been known since the days of the Assyrians.'" Bromehead' points out that there are at least a hundred references to the aetites between Dioscorides' manuscript in the first century A.D.7 and Quincy's Pharmacopoeia in the eighteenth.8 The stone acquired its name because it was said to be found in the eagle's nest. Pliny gave authority to this idea; he states that the aetites are of both sexes and that a male and a female are always found together in the nest.' Lucan (39-65 A.D.), the Roman poet, perhaps with his tongue in his cheek, referred to eagle stones which explode noisily when heated by *Professor of Anatomy and Associate Dean.