Rensselaer Republican, Volume 16, Number 9, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 8 November 1883 — The Madstone. [ARTICLE]

The Madstone.

Several instances of applying the mad stone to poisonous snake bites have been reported by the Western newspapers recently, and the testimony of the patients is that in every case the stone has absorbed the poison. It is a popular lielief in the South and the 'West that,a person who possesses one of these stones is armed against all venomous creatures; but the savants agree that the madstone is nothing more than the concretion found in the stomach at the deer, and that it has no

medical properties whatever. Prof. Holmes, the Atlanta Constitution dissected one the size of a hen’s egg, and found its nucleus to be a perfect white oak acorh. It was covered by four layers of phosphates and carbonate of iron and some silex. There were two impressions, apparently made by the teeth of the deer before swallowing the nut. Acorns are a favorite food of the Carolina deer. In another specimen Prof. Holmes found the nucleus to be a bullet.