OLD RINGS. PART III. MEDICAL RINGS. Οὐ γὰρ κακὸν ἔχω, μηδ' εχοιμ' εαν δ' αρα Στρέψῃ με περὶ τὴν γαστέρα ἢ τον ομφαλον Παρὰ Φερτάτου δακτύλιος ἔστι μοι δραχμῆς.--(Antiphanes.) FROM very early classic times we read that doctors wore rings. Many, but not all, of these were supposed to possess hygienic properties, resident either in the metallic hoop, the stone set in it, or else in some nostrum enclosed in the bezil. The ring considered by Hippocrates as necessary to complete the toilet of the man of medicine, was probably one supposed to be thus curative in its effects: that, however, which Antoninus Musa, Augustus's physician, used to exhibit on his finger, was a mere show-ring, announcing to all who saw it glittering there, that the Emperor had given him permission to don this gold badge of distinction in consesequence of the high regard he entertained for the preserver of his life.* There were two varieties of the annulus medicus, or ring medical, -the one used for surgical operations, the other adopted by physicians. The surgical practitioner, with his cuffs turned up, and showing nothing on his hands but a costly ring, could approach without difficulty, and lay them lightly on the skin of the most timid patient, and then, gently exploring his way, and chatting facetiously as a further blind (your surgeon is never so jocose as just before he operates), could press a spring against a lancet or bistouri caché, which darting forth, swift and pungent as a hornet's sting, into the vein, abscess, or artery he might design to open, was as instantly retracted; and while the sufferer, if a Greek, was ottottattoing over the pain, or, if a Roman, resenting it with a mehercle! and other expressions of indignant surprise, the bland assassin was already holding a basin under the wound, and patting the excited martyr on the back, congratulating him on his admirable courage and stoic indifference to pain! The rings of physicians, though the functions assigned to them were more diversified, produced no such strikingly efficacious effects as those of their chirurgical brethren: still, they enjoyed a wide vogue, and were confidently prescribed to the sick in a great variety of maladies. Plain iron hoops-especially when scored with cabalistic traceriesworked, it was affirmed, wonderful cures.t Alexander Trallianus, a doctor of quondam renown, speaks with great assurance of an iron annulus of his own devising, which was invaluable in hypochondriasis from hepatic derangements, and generally for that class of dyspeptics afflicted with what are popularly called 'blue devils;' a disorder which we now often vainly seek to exorcise with blue pill. This useful little amulet-in case any of our readers should be disposed, on Trallianus's authority, to order one from Weigel -must be octangular and alithic, and moreover it is imperatively necessary that it be inscribed all round with the following words: peûye, φευγε ιουχολη. It was no doubt the known magnetic capabilities of iron which first recommended rings of this metal in the treatment of diseases; and as the ancients applied the electric battery of the narke to the removal of painful nervous affections, so it is by no means unlikely that they employed iron rings mag Augustus gave to this distinguished physician, who had brought him safely through a dangerous malady, a handsome gold ring, and in further acknowledg ment of his services, ceded to the Roman doctorate, through him, the 'jus annuli,' or power of wearing the same, with all its annexed privileges. Anuli qui Magici non ferris inutilis arte Cum tuæ sideris est rota picta notis.'-Grotius. netized as we do-in hemicrania and brow-agues. The stones set in rings were supposed to exercise a still greater control over diseases than even the iron hoop, albeit well magnetized and impressed with mysterious characters or symbols. Thus, a dangerous hæmorrhage which neither sedatives, absorbents, nor yet astringents could control, would cease (on the homoeopathic principle of similia similibus) as soon as the patient donned a blood-red cornelian; coral-which in annulo the ancients prized much more than the moderns-was, on the very doughty authority of Metrodorus and Zoroaster, an infallible remedy for, as well as antidote against, nervousness and causeless fears; wine-coloured amethysts protected their wearers from intoxication, and all its pathological consequences; hyacinths secured sleep as infallibly, and of a far more refreshing quality, than that procured by opium; arates stood high in the esteem of most mineralogist doctors, for the cure of that else incurable malady of the eyes, called amaurosis; and finally (not to swell a list which those who are curious for further information may easily consult, in all its length, in Camille Leonard's work On Stones), jaspers enjoyed great fame for their powers in discussing dropsies, driving away fevers, and above all, when the specimen was well selected-viz., a stone of green surface, interspersed with yellow veins-invaluable as ergot of rye, in cases of tardy accouchements. Maxime virides cum croceis venis prægnantibus seu parturientibus auxiliantur.t Other physicians placed much confidence in pot-herbs, which, culled at the right season of the year and phase of the moon, proved ofttimes more efficacious in restoring 585 health than blister, bolus, leech, or linctus. First in place among simples stood pennyroyal, a sprig or leaf of which, enclosed in a locket or bezil, was held to be almost a specific against catarrh. Put a bit of pulegium in your ring,' says the agricultural patriarch, Cato, ' and you shall not take cold.' 'Put it behind your ear,' says the sarcastic Lucian- Pulegiumve potens una super aure locabis'-where, perhaps, it might have proved equally serviceable. Besides these rings, whose curative properties occupied only some portion of the annular structure, there were others wholly remedial. These disinfected the most poisonous atmosphere, and kept plague and the miasmata of fever at a distance, as effectually as Davy's lamp protects miners from fire-damp. Annule qui pestem foedumque arcere venenum ; as Grotius sings in Gorlaus. Confidence in such rings was not extinct in England so lately as the reign of Queen Elizabeth, to whom her gallant chancellor, Hatton, sent one, with minute and pointed instructions for her guidance-A ring against infected air, to be worn between the sweet dugs of her bosom.' To prove that ladies' rings might occasionally become chirurgically serviceable in sword-cuts, we may cite the following interesting case: Reginalda, the lovely daughter of Haquin, whilst nursing, like another Rebecca, a wounded knight, bethought her to place her ring in the yawning gash: its contact immediately putting new life into the inflamed parts, healthy granulations shortly appeared, and the fortunate youth was soon quite restored to health. It would be unpardonable to suppress the sequel. As the That they magnetized rings is certain, for poets were compared to them, every bard in turn communicating, from the great magnet his muse, the divine aura he has received to another; each thus helping to form that long-linked, mutually dependent, and closely connected chain of harmony, by which Poetry would draw the sons of men to her heavenly throne, not as Jupiter once threatened the Coelicolæ, with violence, but by a gentle, pleasing traction. + Isidore, like a sensible man, ridicules Paul of Egina and his followers here, for absurdly supposing, as he says, that the external gestation of green jasper, could, any more than a bit of other coloured pebble, assist internal gestation: the believers in such fables, display not their faith, but their folly! Credere jaspidem gratie vel utile esse gestantes non fidei sed superstitionis est. Q. Serenus. gentleman got well, his nurse fell sick-dangerously sick; and when pressed by her anxious father to reveal the cause, she frankly told him that the knight whose wounds she had tended, had inflicted on her a much deeper wound, and, from the symptoms, she felt convinced that nothing but the same remedy which had healed him could heal her, and she could only recover on the application of a ring bestowed by his hand. When the grateful and happy knight knew that his benefactress lay sick, and that the cure for her disorder was in his power, he begged for an interview; and after a few interesting words of explanation which seemed greatly to revive her, he put the finishing stroke to the patient's convalescence by lovingly passing the pledge-ring over her fair pronubus. Tormina and tenesmus-very different affections to Reginalda's, but very painful ones in their waymight be radically cured if the proper ring for holding these complaints in check were procured. This Antiphanes teaches : I'm in good plight; just now in rare condition; But should fierce colic torminously twist And gripe m' inside; to Phertatus I'll hie, Give him a drachm, and buy the proper ring. Saints and sages in those days were as credulous as doctors in ascribing curative powers to certain rings. Both St. Augustine and Clement of Alexandria profess to have seen, on sundry occasions, Men who 'ad spent all upon physicians' fees, Nor ever slept, nor known one moment's ease, Restored, as roaches sound, and all as brisk as bees, entirely through the intervention of rings. St. Augustine circumstantially details the case of one woman in particular, who, by wearing a ring in a girdle wound round her loins, enclosing a portion of an ox's calculus, was effectually cured of a deep seated organic disease. The man indisposed to believe this he considers in a dangerous frame of mind, and likely to doubt the great truths of the Christian religion itself!* Rings might become curative in consequence of subtile emanations exhaled from the bodies of living or from the shrines of defunct saints: St. Demetrius wore one equally potent, says Biancho, 'A sanare tutti i morsi di serpente ed a scacciare ad un cenno i diavoli dei corpi degli uomini i confinarli in quelli delle bestie;' and he adds, what is most certain, that they who read the (lying) lives of the saints will find like dispelling powers frequently attributed to rings. A French bishop, rejoicing in the name of Grossetête, dealt largely in these trinkets; and as they were extremely miraculous, he must needs have been -even if other evidence were wanting to show it-an extremely sacred personage. As to certain Brummagem recipes of Marcellus Empericus-who pretended to make such rings without any pretensions to holiness-they have been justly repudiated, and looked upon as more likely to entail a disease upon him who should venture to manufacture or sell them, than to remove one. Of a very different kind from these was that which, during his lifetime, decorated the pronubus of Hugo, bishop of Gratianopolis (Grenoble). The miraculous cures wrought by this little instrument in every kind of disease were, says Guigo, his biographer, not to be counted. Even after death, while the sacred corpse yet lay in state above ground, many mothers who had brought sick children to touch his bier, joyfully returned with their little ones cured; and almost as soon as the bishop's body was interred, his sandals and ring were found to be endued with like powers, and to exercise them with the same kind catholicity as the corpse had done. Who, then, but a surgeon, physician, or accoucheur seeking for a lucrative practice, could, in sane mind, have Non credunt hoc etiam Dominum nostrum Jesum Christum non per integra Virginalia matris enixum et ad discipulos suos ostiis clausis ingressum fuisse non credunt; yet what evidence can, he asks, be more conclusive? Clara, femina est, nobiliter nata, nobiliter nupta, Carthaginis habitat, ampla civitas, ampla persona, rem quærentes latere non sinunt hæc si vera invenerint; illa credunt. 1856.] Old Age and Youth. hesitated where to fix his residence, 66 A host of poets, among whom Homer and Moschus shine conspicuous, have felicitously contrasted, while they compared, the longevity of trees with man's brief day on earth, his poor threescore years and ten," with no return of spring; but though the Psalmist gives this as the usual limit since the flood, there have been, it seems, every now and then, in striking opposition to the general rule, instances of both men and women who not only greatly transgressed the common bounds of life, but who have, moreover, from time to time, actually renewed their youth, and become again young and lusty as an eagle,' 6 thus literally fulfilling, it has been *The royal touch for the cure of another complaint, probably originated from the story of this ring. The practice continued till Queen Anne's reigu: Dr. Johnson was, we believe, the last patient who, as a child, was brought to the palace to experience the benefit. Hunc in archives Vestmonasterri templi regum annulum custodiri passim annales Anglicani docent.-Poly. Virgil. rounded arms and shoulders, completed the abbess's transformation. The nuns soon began to omit the ' reverend mother,' in addressing the now youthful superior, but fondly and familiarly designated her as their 'dear sister.' When this extraordinary matter had been bruited abroad, persons flocked from all quarters to see with their own eyes the interesting phenomenon; so much so, that the incessant staring became too emphatic to be pleasant; the bashful object of it took alarm, and at length modestly hid herself entirely from the public gaze! No less wonderful things are recorded of an Indian, deceased some hundred and fifty years ago, in the presidency of Bengal, who, on the indisputable evidence of unbroken consecutive tradition, reached the extraordinary age of three hundred and thirty-four years, leaving at his death a son who from personal knowledge vouched for nearly a hundred anniversaries of his sire's birth-day. During this long existcnce he renewed his youth several times, acquiring each half century or so a new set of teeth, a vigorous growth of fresh hair, and a beard at once curly and juvenile; aliquoties jam deciderent dentes aliis continuo subnascentibus, et barba ubi prorsus incanuisset in atrum denuo colorem inque paulatim semetipsa vertebat,' &c., as Pietro Maffei, his veracious chronicler, relates. Effects so striking were sometimes supposed to be the mere result of an unknown physiological caprice, independent of all foreign aid; but at other times, the current ancient and mediæval idea was, that they might be secured also through the intervention of certain annuli, possessing this particular property, and worn for this particular purpose. Lucian alludes to such rings, in his prayer to Mercury, where he beseeches that divinity to give him one which should bestow all sublunary bliss; ending the suit by intreating that all the blessings conferred may be perpetual; that his body may be endowed with undying vigour; each part of the frame renewing its life, while life itself is in the spring, an organization fitted to pass from blooming youth to the prime of early manhood, and then back again to puberty and a downy chin, with power to cast his skin, like a serpent, every seventeen years; and to look and to be a Hyacinthus, a Hylas, or a Phæon, throughout all generations. We have hitherto seen only what wonderful influences rings may exert over the human body, we may now show that they exercise a control no less remarkable over the mind of man. 'Give, oh Mercury,' again prays his bantering votary, give me a ring which shall make me irresistibly loveable by all the world, pleasing to every man, woman, and child, without an effort, only requiring to show myself to make every heart capitulate.' We do not know whether the secret of the great Cicero's success in pleading lay in his possessing such an annulus, but Juvenal tells us that in his day, Tully without his ring would have pleaded in vain; and in another place, that a fine ring would supply any lack of eloquence in an orator (as Paulus found), though his address were ever so mean. That Demosthenes possessed and harangued in a krikos is certain, and many other public spokesmen have done the like; but how far they owed their success in winning over factions or juries to their sentiments, to any latent virtues resident in their rings, we pretend not to conjecture. One of the most remarkable instances of the extent to which annular fascination might reduce the doughty heart of a hero is that of Charlemagne. This mighty monarch loved a certain mistress so passionately that for the enjoyment of her society he came at length utterly to neglect all his kingly duties. While the court was in a state of great uneasiness at the strange vehemence of so disastrous a passion, the lady was taken ill in the city of Cologne, and shortly after, to the great relief of his statesmen, died there. Now comes the wonderful part of the relation. Death did not abate an iota of the king's ardent devotion, or break the spell that bound him to her; the dead body being embalmed, he caused it to be dressed out and placed on a couch; then taking his seat by the side of the senseless clay, he would, in his infatuation, appeal to it for comfort and counsel, never absenting himself long from |