serpent-stone
1. = ammonite 1. Now Obs. or local.
| 1681 Grew Musæum iii. §i. i. 261 The Helick Serpent. Stone, Ophites Ammoneus. 1807 Vancouver Agric. Devon (1813) 73 The serpent-stone, or cornu ammonis. 1851 N. & Q. Ser. i. IV. 261 At Whitby, where these fine fossils of the Lias are called ‘St. Hilda's Serpent-stones’. |
2. An artificial ‘stone’ used as a remedy for the poison of serpents. Also = bezoar 2 a.
| 1681 Grew Musæum i. §iii. 52 The Serpentstone. Said by some, to be factitious. c 1711 Petiver Gazophyl. vii. 62 East India Serpent Stone..much esteemed in the Indies as a certain Remedy for the Bite of the Cobra de Capello or Hooded Snake, out of whose Head some affirm this to be taken; but it's more probable..that it's factitious and said to be composed of burnt Elephant's Bones. 1731 Medley Kolben's Cape Gd. Hope II. 167 The artificial Serpent-Stone..is shap'd like a Bean. 1774 Pennant Tour Scot. in 1772, 297 The Glain naidr or Druidical bead..is..made of glass, marked with figures of serpents coiled up. The common people in Wales and in Scotland..call it by the name of Serpent-stone. 1861 Hulme tr. Moquin-Tandon ii. iii. 68 Bezoars:..(serpent stone, cobra de capello). |
3. ? = serpentine stone.
| 1757 tr. Henckel's Pyritologia 361 Ophites or serpent-stone. |