Duffin, Christopher J.. “Fish Otoliths and Folklore: A Survey.” Folklore 118 (2007): 78 – 90.

The folklore associated with fish otoliths is traced from classical times to the present day for the first time. Otolithomancy involved divination of maritime weather conditions by consulting the properties and morphology of the “stones.” In folk medicine, they were employed in the treatment of renal problems, malarial fever, nose bleeds, jaundice, pain, and swellings in the groin. They were also believed to act as aphrodisiacs. Modern applications include the treatment of urinary tract infections in Turkey, fever in Spain, and asthma and back pain in Brazil. 

Lapis Judaicus or the Jews’ stone: the folklore of fossil echinoid spines

• C. Duffin Art 2006

O conhecimento ictiológico tradicional dos pescadores da cidade de Barra, região do médio São Francisco, Estado da Bahia, Brasil

• E. M. C. Neto, Cristiano Villela Dias, Márcia Nogueira de Melo Environmental Science 2008 Results show that Barra’s fishermen still hold an important theoretical and practical knowledge that should be taken into account in the management, conservation actions, and sustainable use of the local fishing resources.

Some Mineralogical Problems in Theophrastus’ De Lapidibus

• D. E. Eichholz GeologyThe Classical Quarterly 1967 The notes that follow are concerned with certain mineralogical problems which could not be discussed at length in my edition of the De Lapidibus (Oxford, 1965). For the most part, only the bare… 

The western lapidary tradition in early geological literature: medicinal and magical minerals

• C. Duffin Geology 2005 Nowadays, when someone refers to lapidary they usually mean the process of polishing, engraving or working stones. The term is much broader than that, however, encompassing an entire genre of… 

The Curious Lore of Precious Stones

• J. J. History Nature 1914 DR. KUNZ’S wide knowledge and experience in connection with precious and semiprecious stones, and his familiarity with the voluminous literature dealing with the subject, afford a sufficient… 

[Kidney stones].

• K. Høeg MedicineTidsskrift for den Norske laegeforening : tidsskrift for praktisk medicin, ny raekke 1968 Development of kidney stones is often associated with affluent cultures and annually accounts for 175,000 to half a million cases per year in the United States. About 1 of every 1000 hospital… 

Fine Structure and Function of the Ear

• C. Platt, A. Popper Biology 1981 This chapter suggests that dividing up of auditory and vestibular functions between the different otolithic organs of the ear may not be as absolute as has been often implied, so it may be necessary to reconsider some of the basic “classical” assumptions of auditory organ functions at least with regard to the teleost ear.

Ovid, Metamorphoses 1.2

• D. Kovács HistoryThe Classical Quarterly 1987 The purpose of this paper is, first, to demonstrate to future editors of the Metamorphoses , whether conservative or sceptical, just how improbable is the reading of the majority of MSS, illas , and… 

The Magic of Jewels and Charms

• G. F. Kunz Political ScienceNature 1916 The Magic of Jewels and Charms. By Dr. G. F. Kunz. Pp. xv + 422. (Philadelphia and London: J. B. Lippincott Co., 1915.) Price 21s. net.

Multilingual Illustrated Guide to the World’s Commercial Coldwater Fish

• C. Frimodt Environmental Science 1995 This guide to the world’s commercial coldwater fish is bilingual and can be used as a guide to any country or collection of countries.

La cinaedia, pierre précieuse dans la tête d’un poisson

• Gaël Piquès Art 2003

References Cited

• Gordon Fretwell, S. Pritchard, S. Intner 2000

Isidori Hispalensis episcopi, Etymologiarum sive Originum libri XX, recognovit brevique adnotatione critica instruxit W. M. Lindsay. Oxonii, e typographeo Clarendoniano, 1911. (Scriptorum classicorum bibliotheca Oxoniensis.)

• Victor Mortet Art 1912

A lapidary : or, The history of pretious stones : with cautions for the undeceiving of all those that deal with pretious stones

• T. Nicols History

Magical Jewels of the Middle Ages and the Renaissance Particularly in England

• Joan Evans History 1977

Curious Lore of Precious Stones

• G. F. Kunz Art 1913

Onomasticon zoicon, plerorumque animalium differentias & nomina propria pluribus linguis exponens. Cui accedunt mantissa anatomica; et quaedam de variis fossilivm generibus

• Walter Charleton Geography 1974

Pliny, Natural History. With an English Translation in Ten Volumes. Volume III, Libri VIII-XI

• R. P. Johnson, H. Rackham History 1941

English mediaeval lapidaries

• Joan Evans, Mary S. Serjeantson Art 1933

Isidori Hispalensis episcopi Etymologiarum sive originum libri XX

• W. M. Lindsay Art 1911

Pliny Natural history

• H. Rackham Geography 1940

On the characteristics of animals

• rd cent. Aelian, A. Scholfield Art 1958 In On the Characteristics of Animals, Aelian (c. 170 after 230 CE) collects facts and fables about the animal kingdom and invites the reader to ponder contrasts between human and animal behavior.

Stones for the stone: minerals and fossils in the treatment of renal calculi.

• C. Duffin Art, Medicine Pharmaceutical historian 2006

Chromis” is most likely the marine sciaenid perciform, Sciaena umbra (Linnaeus 1758), commonly known as the Brown Meagre. This might well also be the identity of “Sciaena

On the Characteristics of Animals IX. 7; see Aelian 1959) (c. 175-235) suggested that “Cinaedius” might be the Bass, and thus synonymous with Lupus

Historiae Piscium Naturalis Promovendae. Missus Primus. De lapillis eorumque

• Craniis Piscium, cum praefatione: de Piscium Auditu. Accesserunt 1. Anatome Tursionum. II. Observata in Capite Raiae. Gedani: Litteria Schreiberianis

Volume IV. Historia Animalium

• The Works of Aristotle Translated into English 1910

O conhecimento ictió logico tradicional dos pescadores da cidade de Barra, região do médio São Francisco

• Cristiano Villela Dias, and Márcia Noguiera de Melo 2000

Abstracts of the 51st Symposium of Vertebrate Palaeontology and Comparative Anatomy

• The Western Lapidary Tradition in early Geological Literature: Medicinal and Magical Minerals

Première Décade Ichthyologique, ou description complète de dix espèces de poissons nouvelles ou imparfaitement connues, habitant la mer qui baigne les cô tes de l’ile de Cuba

Hortus Sanitatis. 358 leaves Augsburg: J. Schö nsperger

Cinaedia invenitur in cerebro piscis eiusdem nominis, candida et oblonga. Praesagare his ferunt maris signa tranquillitatis vel tempestatis

• 1911

Der Arzneigelahrtheit Doktors und Mitgliedes einiger gelehrten Gesellschaften, Apothekerlexikon

• Ersten Theils erste Abtheilung: A -E, Ersten Theils zweite Abtheilung: F-K, Zweiten Theils erste Abtheilung: L-P, Zweiten Theils zweite Abtheilung: Q-Z. Leipzig: Siegfried Lebrecht Crusius

Systema naturae sive regna tria naturae, secundum classes, ordines, genera, species, cum characteribus, differentiis, synonymis, locis. Laurentii Salvii, Holmiae. Systema Nat

Synodus

• a name indicating direct opposition of teeth in the upper and lower dentitions during occlusion, probably refers to a sea bream, possibly Sparus aurata (Linnaeus 1758), the Gilthead Sea Bream (Perciformes, Family Sparidae), or Pagellus bogaraveo (Brünnich 1768), the Blackspot Sea Bream, both species 1768

Citations

Fishing for “lucky stones”: Symbolic uses of otoliths in Brazilian shell sites

• Daniela Klokler Environmental Science 2020

A Survey of Birds and Fabulous Stones

• C. Duffin Environmental Science 2012 The records of fabulous stones associated with birds are here examined systematically for the first time. Some were purported to be obtained from within the bird and others obtained from the nest.…

Leptolepid otoliths from the Hauterivian (Lower Cretaceous) Lower Weald Clay (southern England)

• Joseph T. Flannery Sutherland, Peter A. Austen, C. Duffin, M. Benton Environmental Science 2017

Alectorius: The Cock’s Stone

• C. Duffin History 2007 Alectorius is the name given to a stone derived from the gizzard of a cock or capon. In a folklore pedigree extending from the first century to the middle of the eighteenth century, it was… 

Alectorius: The Cock’s Stone

• Christopher John Duffin History 2007 Alectorius is the name given to a stone derived from the gizzard of a cock or capon. In a folklore pedigree extending from the first century to the middle of the eighteenth century, it was… 

Chemical analysis of Brown meager (Sciaena umbra) cephalides and traditional medicinal usage in urolithiasis

• O. Ergin, S. Tümer, S. Yıldız Medicine 2017 It is suggested that citrate and magnesium intake in a short period of time has supported the change in the stone diameter and spontaneous stone passing and as a result of this, it has gained importance in folkloric usage.

Otolith atlas for the western Mediterranean, north and central eastern Atlantic

• V. Tuset, A. Lombarte, C. Assis Environmental Science 2008 The sagittal otolith of 348 species, belonging to 99 families and 22 orders of marine Teleostean fishes from the north and central eastern Atlantic and western Mediterranean were described using morphological and morphometric characters, providing information that complements the characterization of some ichthyologic taxa.

‘Serpent stones’: myth and medical application

• Rachael Pymm GeographySpecial Publications 2016 Abstract ‘Serpent stones’ have been credited with medical efficacy since antiquity. Likely having their root in ancient traditions from India, accounts are now widespread across much of the world.… 

Greek khrόmis between sound and smell. Anthropozoology of a fish

• Andrea Guasparri Biology, Environmental ScienceAnthropozoologica 2016 Trying to explain the reason behind Rondelet’s misidentification deepens the understanding of the anthropozoology of the fish actually called khrómis by the ancients, while at the same time providing a possible interpretation to immunda chromis (lit. ‘unclean chromis’), an obscure syntagm found in Ovid’s Halieutica.

Some early eighteenth century geological Materia Medica

• C. Duffin Geography 2013 Abstract The transition from the late seventeenth to the early eighteenth century represented an interesting time in the development of the Materia Medica, with the traditional ‘Galenical’ approach…

Biological and population parameters of Tiger Shark Galeocerdo cuvier, landed in Tanjung Luar, West Nusa Tenggara

• I. Jatmiko, Suciadi Catur Nugroho Environmental Science E3S Web of Conferences 2020 Tiger shark is one of the important catch for small scale fisheries in West Nusa Tenggara. It is considered nearly threatened according the IUCN, thus information regarding to its estimated… 

Recovery of meagre (Argyrosomus regius) population in the Balearic coastal ecosystem (Western Mediterranean)

• G. Oviedo, M. Mar Geography 2013 espanol Este proyecto de Tesis Doctoral ha sido disenado para cubrir todos los aspectos relevantes relacionados con el programa de repoblacion de la corvina Argyrosomus regius en los ecosistemas… 

Greek khrόmis between sound and smell

• Andrea Guasparri Biology 2016 Trying to explain the reason behind Rondelet’s misidentification deepens the understanding of the anthropozoology of the fish actually called khrόmis by the ancients, while at the same time providing a possible interpretation to immunda chromis (lit. ‘unclean chromis’), an obscure syntagm found in Ovid’s Halieutica.

Cryptopalaeontology

• E. Liñán, M. Liñán, J. Carrasco Geography 2013 Abstract Fossils were credited with magico-medicinal properties in lapidary books written from the second century BCE onwards. The analysis of historical references to fossils in these ancient… 

Book review Dictionnaire des Pierres Magiques et Médicinales, C. Lecouteux (2011), 283 pp., Imago, Paperback, £18.45 (22 euros), ISBN-10: 2849521124, ISBN-13: 978-2849521120

• C. J. Duffin Art 2012