pulled from text at an online newspaper clippings archive
THE COURIER
ALEX A. WALL, Editor and Proprietor
Vernon, Alabama
Friday, December 24, 1886
THE STORY OF MAD-STONE
[Fort Worth (Texas), December 4th - Cor. New York Mail and Express]
Miss May Bartlett was bitten yesterday by a dog which, from all
indications, is mad. A mad-stone owned by W. R. Sanner, of this city,
has been applied and adhered several times, drawing out the poison.
This stone has something of a history. In 1848 Captain Wilson, of
Alabama, killed a white deer in Talladega County, and search was made
in the stomach for a stone. One was found a little larger than a
goose-egg, with a flat surface on one side It resembled a petrified
sponge. The stone up to this time has been used in upward of one
thousand cases. Captain Wilson gave the stone to Mr. Cowan, who lives
near Handley, in this county. Mr. Cowan, as a token of great
friendship, gave the stone to W. R. Sanner, who would part with it for
no amount. The philosophy of the operation of the stone and the reason
it is found in the stomach of the white deer is given by the Indians
as follows: "The white deer is more susceptible to vegetable poisons
taken into the stomach when eaten with grass. To preserve the life of
the animal, nature has placed in the stomach this porous stone, which
at once absorbs the poison, neutralizes it, and saves the deer's life.
The stone applied to a bit into which poison has been injected at once
draws it out, and when its pores are filled drops off; being soaked in
milk the stone is made pure again and ready for another application."
