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BUFONITAE

Volume 4 · 198 words · 1815 Edition

in Natural History, the toad-iron. This has been received not only among the list of native stones by the generality of authors, but even has held a place among the gems, and is still worn in rings by some people; though undoubtedly it is an extraneous foil. There has been a strong opinion in the world, that it was found in the head of an old toad; and that this animal voided it at the mouth, on being put on a red cloth. The general colour of the bufonite is a deep dusky brown; but it varies greatly in this respect in several specimens, some of which are quite black, others of an extremely pale simple brown, a chestnut colour, liver colour, black-gray, or whitish. The bufonite are usually found immersed in beds of stone; and so little doubt is there of what they have originally been, viz. the petrified teeth of the lupus piscis, or wolf-fish, that part of the jaw of the fish has sometimes been found with the teeth petrified in it. The bufonite are said to be cordial and astringent; many other fanciful virtues are ascribed to them, which the present practice has rejected.