The great Greek physician Hippocrates of Cos, a contemporary of Plato, advised that resort should be had to the operation of trephining in many cases of injury to the head, and that the ancient Hindus were to a certain extent familiar with it as a method of treating diseases of the brain appears in one of the Buddhist recitals from a Tibetan source. Here it is related that Atreya, master of the King of Physicians, Jîvaka, when appealed to for help by a man suffering from a distressful cerebral disorder, directed the man to dig a pit and fill it up with dung; he then thrust the man into this soft and savory mass until nothing but his head and neck protruded, and opened his skull. From it was drawn out a reptile whose presence had caused the malady. Jîvaka seems to have been in consultation with his master in this interesting operation, and is said to have later extracted a centipede from a man’s skull after making an aperture therein with a golden knife.[588] In neither of these cases, however, do we have any hint that disks or fragments from the human skull were used as amulets. A ghastly object much favored in France in the Middle Ages, as it was believed to give the owner the power to discover hidden treasures, was the so-called _main-de-gloire_, or “hand of glory,” which was the desiccated hand of one who had met his death by hanging.[589] A remarkable talismanic bracelet owned by Catherine de’ Medici was set with a skull-fragment and with a representation of a “_main-de-gloire_.” This is described in the catalogue made in 1786 of M. d’Ennery’s collection. The settings of the bracelet, ten in number, comprised the following objects, to each of which was probably ascribed some special significance and virtue.[590] An oval “eagle-stone” (ætites), on which was graven in intaglio a winged dragon; above this figure was the date 1559, the year in which the bracelet was composed and that of the death of Catherine’s husband, Henri II. An octagonal agate, traversed by a number of tubular apertures, the orifices of which could be seen on either side of the stone. A very fine oval onyx of three colors, bearing graven on its edge the following names of angels: Gabriel, Raphael, Michael, Uriel. A large oval turquoise with a gold band. A piece of black and white marble. An oval brown agate, with a caduceus, a star and a crescent engraved in intaglio on one of its faces, and on its edge the name Jehovah and certain talismanic characters; on the other face were figured the constellation Serpens, the zodiacal sign Scorpio and the Sun, around which were the six planets. An oblong section of a human skull. A rounded piece of gold on the convex side of which was graven in relief the “hand of glory” (_main-de-gloire_); on the concave side appeared the Sun and Moon done in repoussé work. A perfectly round onyx, bearing graven in the centre the name or word “Publeni”; this possibly designated the original Roman owner of the stone.