Tag: Rocks
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Pterion and Pteron Notes
The pterion is the region where the frontal, parietal, temporal, and sphenoid bones join. It is located on the side of the skull, just behind the temple. Structure The pterion is located in the temporal fossa, approximately 2.6 cm behind and 1.3 cm above the posterolateral margin of the frontozygomatic suture. It is the junction between four bones: These bones are typically joined by five cranial sutures: Clinical significance Haematoma…
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Adrenaline has been isolated from the plant Scoparia dulcis found in Northern Vietnam
Scoparia dulcis is a species of flowering plant in the plantain family. Plantaginaceae, the plantain family, is a large, diverse family of flowering plants in the order Lamiales that includes common flowers such as snapdragon and foxglove. It is unrelated to the banana-like fruit also called “plantain.” Common names for Scoparia dulcis include licorice weed, goatweed, scoparia-weed and sweet-broom in English, tapeiçava, tapixaba, and vassourinha in Portuguese, escobillo in Spanish, and tipychä kuratu in Guarani. It is native to the Neotropics but it can be found throughout the…
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Baetylus
Baetylus (also Baetyl, Bethel, or Betyl, from Semitic bet el “house of god”; compare Bethel, Beit El) are sacred stones that were supposedly endowed with life, or gave access to a deity. According to ancient sources, at least some of these objects of worship were meteorites, which were dedicated to the gods or revered as symbols of the gods themselves. Other accounts suggest that contact with…
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Oltu stone aka black amber, a kind of jet
Oltu stone (Turkish: Oltu taşı) is a kind of jet found in the region around Oltu town within Erzurum Province, eastern Turkey. The organic substance is used as semi-precious gemstone in manufacturing jewellery. Location and extraction Oltu stone, sometimes called also “Erzurum stone”, is principally mined in the villages northeast of Oltu town, around Tutlu Dağı (Yasak Dağ) as well as in Alatarla, Hankaskışla and…
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Jet
Jet is a type of lignite, the lowest rank of coal, and is a gemstone. Unlike many gemstones, jet is not a mineral, but is rather a mineraloid. It is derived from wood that has changed under extreme pressure. The English noun jet derives from the French word for the same material, jaiet (modern French jais), ultimately referring to the ancient town of Gagae. Jet is either black or dark brown, but…
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Wood Opal
Wood opal is a form of petrified wood which has developed an opalescent sheen or, more rarely, where the wood has been completely replaced by opal. Other names for this opalized sheen-like wood are opalized wood and opalized petrified wood. It is often used as a gemstone. References
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Petrified Wood
Petrified wood, also known as petrified tree (from Ancient Greek πέτρα meaning ‘rock’ or ‘stone’; literally ‘wood turned into stone’), is the name given to a special type of fossilized wood, the fossilized remains of terrestrial vegetation. Petrifaction is the result of a tree or tree-like plants having been replaced by stone via a mineralization process that often includes permineralization and replacement. The organic materials making up cell walls have been replicated…
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Tongue stone
According to Renaissance accounts, large, triangular fossil teeth often found embedded in rocky formations were believed to be petrified tongues of dragons and snakes and so were referred to as “tongue stones” or “glossopetrae”. Glossopetrae were commonly thought to be a remedy or cure for various poisons and toxins; they were used in the treatment of snake bites. Due to this ingrained belief, many…
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Toadstone aka bufonite
The toadstone, also known as bufonite (from Latin bufo, “toad”), is a mythical stone or gem that was thought to be found in the head of a toad. It was supposed to be an antidote to poison and in this it is like batrachite, supposedly formed in the heads of frogs. Toadstones were actually the button-like fossilised teeth of Lepidotes, an extinct genus of ray-finned fish from the Jurassic and Cretaceous periods. They appeared to…
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Lyngurium
Lyngurium or Ligurium is the name of a mythical gemstone believed to be formed of the solidified urine of the lynx (the best ones coming from wild males). It was included in classical and “almost every medieval lapidary” or book of gems until it gradually disappeared from view in the 17th century. Properties and history As well as various medical properties, lyngurium was credited with the…
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Shaligram
A shaligram, or shaligrama shila (Devanagari: शालिग्राम शिला Śāligrāma-śilā), is a particular variety of stone collected from riverbed or banks of the Kali Gandaki, a tributary of the Gandaki River in Nepal, used as a non-anthropomorphic representation of Vishnu by Hindus. They are typically fossils of ammonite shells from the Devonian–Cretaceous period of 400 to 66 million years ago. The fossils are considered holy by Hindus also called Astamurti, and also they resemble…
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Madstone
In the folklore of the early United States, a madstone was a special medicinal substance that, when pressed into an animal bite, was believed to prevent rabies by drawing the “poison” out. The Encyclopedia Americana described it as “a vegetable substance or stone”. Researchers publishing in 1958 reported “130 cases of healing attributed to the madstone” and “three authenticated stones in the United States today.”…
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Adder stone aka hag stone
An adder stone is a type of stone, usually glassy, with a naturally occurring hole through it. Such stones, which usually consist of flint, have been discovered by archaeologists in both Britain and Egypt. Commonly, they are found in Northern Germany at the coasts of the North and Baltic Seas. In Britain they are also called hag stones, witch stones, serpent’s eggs, snake’s eggs, or Glain Neidr in Wales, milpreve in Cornwall, adderstanes in the south of Scotland and Gloine…
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Snake stone aka viper stone, snake pearl, black stone, serpent stone and nagamani
A snake-stone, also known as a viper’s stone, snake’s pearl, black stone, serpent-stone, or nagamani is an animal bone or stone used as folk medicine for snake bite in Africa, South America, India and Asia. The early Celtic era European Adder stone is also called a snake stone, and is usually made from coloured glass, often with holes. Its purpose is for protection against evil…
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Bezoar
A bezoar is a mass often found trapped in the gastrointestinal system, though it can occur in other locations. A pseudobezoar is an indigestible object introduced intentionally into the digestive system. There are several varieties of bezoar, some of which have inorganic constituents and others organic. The term has both modern (medical, scientific) and traditional usage. Types By content Food boluses (or boli; singular bolus) have the…
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Chert
Chert is a hard, fine-grained sedimentary rock composed of microcrystalline or cryptocrystalline quartz, the mineral form of silicon dioxide (SiO2). Chert is characteristically of biological origin, but may also occur inorganically as a chemical precipitate or a diagenetic replacement, as in petrified wood. Chert is typically composed of the petrified remains of siliceous ooze, the biogenic sediment that covers large areas of the deep ocean floor, and which contains the silicon…
