Madstone (folklore)
In the folklore of the early United States a madstone was a special medicinal substance that, when pressed into an animal bite, was believed to prevent rabies by drawing "the poison" out. Researchers publishing in 1958 reported "130 cases of healing attributed to the madstone" and "three authenticated stones in the United States today."
Researchers speculated that there might be some connection between the belief in the madstone and fictitious Talisman written of in a novel by that name by Sir Walter Scott which cures a dog bite victim and is brought back from The Holy Land by crusaders, "...but though many cures were wrought by means of it in Europe, none equalled in success and celebrity those which the Soldan achieved. It is still in existence, having been bequeathed by the Earl of Huntingdon to a brave knight of Scotland, Sir Simon of the Lee, in whose ancient and highly honoured family it is still preserved; and although charmed stones have been dismissed from the modern Pharmacopoeia, its virtues are still applied to for stopping blood, and in cases of canine madness."[1] [2]
References
- ↑ Way, Phocion R. (Autumn 1960). Duffen, William A., ed. "Overland via "Jackass Mail" in 1858: The Diary of Phocion Way (Part III)". Arizona and the West. Journal of the Southwest. 2 (3): 289. ISSN 0004-1408. JSTOR i40004452.
. . .they tell me there is one danger which threatens out door sleepers during July and August, which fills me with more dread than all the venomous reptiles and Indians thrown in- this new danger is from "mad wolves."37 I have always associated everything that is horrible with the disease Hydrophobia and I would run faster from a Mad Dog than I would from a legion of Devils. The wolves are numerous here and in the two above named months they sometimes go made [sic] and in this condition they will enter a camp or town or even a house if the door is left open and bite everything in their course. At this season the Mexicans generally (those that have no doors) sleep on top of their houses out of reach of this danger.This horrible disease is much more common here among the wolves than it is among our dogs in the States. They are a terror to the whole country. One of our men told me of six persons who were bitten in this thinly settled neighborhood last year. One of them was badly mangled by the rabid animal, and in one instance the wolf entered a house and bit two persons. But what appears very singular to me, only one of these persons died. I have always been accustomed to look upon this disease as incurable, but here they have a stone which attracts the poison and when it is applied in time it never fails to cure.38 This fact is so well established that I cannot reasonably doubt it, and it should be known far and wide that others may profit by it. Footnote 37:The wolf was common in the area at that time. Way's informant probably included the coyote, with the wolf, as subject to hydrophobia. Footnote 38: An interesting documented instance of the use of a madstone to draw poison from an animal bite. Described by the Encyclopedia Americana as " a vegetable substance or stone which, when applied to a wound caused by the bite of a mad dog, is said to prevent hydrophobia," the madstone has been celebrated in literature (e.g. Sir Walter Scott's The Talisman') and is occasionally chronicled in the annals of Western lore. Some 130 cases of healing, attributed to the madstone, are on record; and there are reported to be three authenticated stones in the United States today. Madstones and Twisters, ed. Mody C. Boatwright, Wilson M. Hudson, and Helen Maxwell (Southern Methodist U. Press, 1958), is reviewed in Arizona and the West, v. 1 (1959), p. 185.
- ↑ Randolf, Vance (1933). "Ozark Superstitions". Journal of American Folklore. 46 (179): 1–12. doi:10.2307/535847.
... The madstone treatment for rabies was once popular in many parts of the United States, and is still well known in the Ozarks. ... I have never seen the madstone in actual use, but they tell me that if the dog was really mad the stone sticks fast to the wound and draws the "pizen" out. ...