A species of ruby, called _Balassius_, or _Palatius_,[177] is said to restrain fury and wrath. There is a story of this stone by Ælian.[178] Heraclis had cured the fractured thigh of a stork. The creature flying in a dark night by a palace where one of these stones lay flaming like a lamp, took it up and brought it to Heraclis and cast it into her bosom, as a token of the acknowledgment of the favor which it had received from her in the cure of its harm. Andreas Baccius, speaking of a rubine of his inclosed in a ring, says that on the fifth of December, 1600, he was travelling with his wife Catharina Adelmania to Studgard, and, in his travel, he observed his rubine to change its glory into obscurity, whereupon he told his wife and prognosticated that evil thereupon would ensue either to himself or her, which accordingly did; for, not many days after, his wife was taken ill with a mortal disease and died. After which, he saith, his rubine, of its own accord, did again recover its former lustre, glory, beauty and splendor. A perfectly pure deep carmine-red ruby often exceeds in price a diamond of the same size[179] It has been written, that, if the carbuncle be worn in an amulet (or drunk) it will be good against poison and the plague, and will drive away sadness, evil thoughts, terrible dreams and evil spirits; also that it cleareth the mind and keepeth the body in safety, and that if any danger be towards it the stone will grow black and obscure, and that being past, returns to its former color again.[180] The jacinth or hyacinth is said to have the faculty to procure sleep when worn in a ring on the finger. Cardanus says he was wont to wear one to the intent to procure sleep, to which purpose “it seemed somewhat to confer, but not much.” The amethyst is said, by Aristotle, to hinder the ascension of vapors; and that this is done by the stone drawing the vapors to itself and then discussing them. Andreas Baccius says that it sharpens the wit, diminishes sleep and resists poison.