Unfortunately the wearing of amulets did not stop with the early civilizations or even with the Middle Ages. People in our own supposedly enlightened age indulge in them. The negro carries the hind foot of a rabbit, and the children see great virtue in a four-leafed clover; men carry luck pennies, and certain stones are worn in rings and scarf pins; camphor is worn about the person to avert febrile contagion, and anodyne necklaces of "Job's tears" and other equally harmless and inefficacious substances are placed on babies to assist them in teething. The camphor and necklaces are probably not supposed to be endowed with magical power, but a mistaken medical virtue is assigned to them. There was neither rule nor reason for the composition of most amulets, and one would have to be well acquainted with the superstitions of the various ages to account for them. Sometimes the shape, rather than the material of which they were composed or the inscription on them, was the efficacious factor. Perhaps material, shape, and inscription would be combined in one object; or many objects, each purporting to contain magical properties, might be grouped for special efficacy, as when inscribed pieces of different stones of peculiar shape were formed into necklaces or bracelets. Precious stones were often employed as amulets, and some even ground them up and took them internally in order to be more sure of their magical effects. "Butler quotes from Encelius, who says that the Garnet, if hung about the neck or taken in drink, much assisteth sorrow and recreates the heart; and the chrysolite is described as the friend of wisdom and the enemy of folly. Renodeus admires precious stones because they adorn king's crowns, grace the fingers, enrich our household stuff, defend us from enchantments, preserve health, cure diseases, drive away grief, cares, and exhilarate the mind."[92] Some further quotations portray to us the efficacy of other stones: "Heliotropius stauncheth blood, driveth away poisons, preserveth health; yea, and some write that it provoketh raine, and darkeneth the sunne, suffering not him that beareth it to be abused." "A topaze healeth the lunaticke person of his passion of lunacie." "Corneolus (cornelian) mitigateth the heate of the minde, and qualifieth malice, it stancheth bloodie fluxes." "A sapphire preserveth the members and maketh them livelie, and helpeth agues and gowts, and suffereth not the bearer to be afraid; it hath virtue against venoms, and staieth bleeding at the nose, being often put thereto." Aetius "attributed great obstetrical properties to the lapis aetites, and gagates stone. The sapphire when taken as a potion pulverized in milk, cured internal ulcers and checked excessive perspiration. The amargdine was highly recommended for strabismus...."