distinguishing diseases and knowing the proper remedies. It is also good for hæmorrhoids and quickly stops the flow of blood.” The same authority recommends for good luck in buying and selling “Aquarius cut on a green jasper,” which is also termed “a stone of good counsel for traders” (all trade is under Mercury, the ruler in astrology of the signs Gemini and Virgo). A man’s head facing and a bird holding a leaf in its beak, cut in jasper, was held to give riches and favour; a hare cut in jasper protected from evil spiritual forces. The green jasper, as before stated, was also known as the Heliotropion (Heliotrope), a word derived from Greek HELIOS, the sun, and TROPOS, a turn—probably in allusion to the planet Mercury which turns nearest the Sun. It is stated that if this stone were placed in water it would reflect the blood-red disc of the sun, and if held before the eyes it would assist in the observation of the Solar and Lunar eclipses. Trallianus, a 6th century philosopher, recommends the jasper for pains of an acute nature in the stomach or bowels—a use for which it was especially esteemed by all ancient scholars. Mottled jasper was worn to protect from death by drowning, or from death whilst on or near the water, and this presents one of the many instances of what astrologers term “sign reflection,” for the water sign of the Fishes (Pisces) is opposite to the earthy sign Virgo and serves as an apt illustration of antipathetic action. Another virtue ascribed to jasper was the calming of uneasy minds and the securing of victory in battle. In this latter connection, Cardanus, physician, philosopher and astrologer of the 16th century, says that it has action on the feelings, causing something akin to timidity which induces caution and the evading of needless risks—a distinctly Mercurial attribute. De Boodt advises the wearing of jasper to check hæmorrhage and relieve stomach pains. The stomach was regarded as the seat of the soul by the remarkable Baptista van Helmont. Deleuze credits him with “creating epochs in the histories of medicine and physiology, and of first giving the name of ‘gas’ to aerial fluids,” adding that without him, “it is probable that steel would have given no new impulse to science.” Van Helmont writes: “In the pit of the stomach there is a more powerful sensation than even in the eye or in the fingers. The stomach often will not tolerate a hand to be laid upon it because there is there the most acute and positive feeling which at other times is only perceived in the fingers.” For purposes of experiment Van Helmont touched a root of aconite with the tip of his tongue—a risky action—taking care, however, not to swallow any of it. “Immediately,” he says, “my head seemed tied tightly with a string and soon after there happened to me a singular circumstance such as I had never before experienced. I observed with astonishment that I no longer felt and thought with the head but with the _region of the stomach_, as if