Tabasheer, as known among mineralogists, is a corruption of the word tabixir, a name which was used even in the time of Avicenna, the Grand Vizier and body surgeon of the Sultan of Persia in the tenth century. It played a very important part in medicine during the Middle Ages. As to its origin, Sir David Brewster[468] says that tabasheer is only formed in diseased or injured bamboo joints or stalks. [Illustration: SPECIMENS OF TABASHEER At the upper right-hand corner is figured a hydrophane, or “Magic Stone,” at the upper left-hand corner is a floating stone from Oregon. The tabasheer was bought at the Fair held in Calcutta in 1888. ] Guibourt[469] differs from Brewster, inasmuch as he attributes the different rates of growth to the fact that when there is a superabundance of sap the tabasheer is formed from the residuum. More recently, Henry Cecil[470] says, “In the onrush of tropical growth in the young shoot, nature, after flooring the knot, has poured in, as it were, sap and silica sufficient for a normal length and width of stem to the knot next above it. But by some check to the impulse, or by irregularity of conditions, the portion of stem thus provided for is shorter or narrower than intended, and the unused silica is left behind as a sediment, compacted by the drying residuum sap.” This latter view is sustained by Dr. Ernst Huth, who discusses the name, history, origin, and reputed virtues of this substance with much fulness.[471] In regard to its use in medicine during the Middle Ages, he quotes a remarkable list of applications to the ills that flesh is heir to. Here it is cited as a remedy for affections of the eyes, the chest, and of the stomach, for coughs, fevers, and biliary complaints, and especially for melancholia arising from solitude, dread of the past, and fears for the future. Other writers speak of its use in bilious fevers and dysentery, internal and external heat, and injuries and maladies. The writer has examined a large number of so-called madstones, and they have all proved to be an aluminous shale or other absorptive substance. But tabasheer possesses absorptive properties to a greater degree than any other of the mineral substances examined, and it is strange that it has never been mentioned as being used as an antidote. It may be confidently recommended to the credence of any person who may desire to believe in a madstone. [Illustration: Cobra de Capello. From Tavernier’s Travels, English translation by John Philips, London, 1684. ]