Charms employed in cattle diseases / [Robert Day].

  • Day, Robert.
Date:
[1910?]
Catalogue details

Licence: In copyright

Credit: Charms employed in cattle diseases / [Robert Day]. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    15, 1840, its possession became the subject of a lawsuit at the police office, Cork, before Alderman Saunders, on a summons to show cause why a felony information should not be taken against a man named Cornelius Sheehan for unlawfully possessing himself of and detaining a murrain stone, the property of Mrs. McAuliffe, otherwise Meares, residing at Kyrls Quay, who claimed descent from the MacCarthys. In evidence it was sworn that MacCarthy More, King of Cork, when hunting one day was given this stone by one of the “good people,” and that it had the virtue of curing cattle when sick, the sign of the cross being made with it on the animal’s back on three successive mornings while fasting. The stone had been lent and the miracle of curing per¬ formed, when it was sent home by a boy, who mistook Mrs. McAuliffe’s house and gave it to one Con Sheehan, who refused to return it, and would give the rightful owner no satisfaction, although told if he con¬ tinued to retain it “he would thaw like ice.” However, even this had not the desired effect, and the case was dismissed, the court having “no jurisdiction.” The ancient family to whom this murrain stone originally belonged is fortunate in the possession of another, which has been treasured as an heirloom at Coomlegane for quite 400 years, during which time it was in frequent use among the farmers of Cork and Kerry as a medicinal cure for the murrain and other ailments to which cattle are liable. When so lent a formal receipt was given, which was signed by two responsible sureties, by whom it was afterwards restored to the owner. To effect the cure the stone was placed in a vessel of water, or in a stream immediately above where cattle drank, as it was believed that from the hidden virtues possessed by the stone, water in which it was placed became impregnated with its healing powers. This highly interesting object is composed of a central stone set in a silver-gilt oval frame, with seven projecting rosettes, two having settings of carbuncle, which are wanting in the remaining five. These were probably lost by the farmers in the rough treatment to which the amulet was subjected. The stone, like others from the county Cork, is of reddish brown polished agate, striated with veins of a lighter shade. It forms the central object in a rayed vesica, surrounded by an engrailed border from which the jewelled bosses spring. The collets in all these spaces are hammered up, so as partly to hide the setting, which was the fashion in Oueen Mary’s reign. The reverse shews the back of the stone through a space formed by a cruciform opening in the metal, the surface of which is engraved with a floriated device terminating in each of the seven projections with fleur-de-lys. It has a ring for suspension,