The Healing Powers of The Bezoar Stone: What is a Mad Stone?

Never heard of a mad stone. Sounds intriguing. Wish I had one.

Harry Potter movie. Cured Ron from a poison....

Any Harry Potter fans out there?? Harry saves Ron’s life with a Bezoar!

I have a madstone and so does my husband. We are Cherokee and these have been passed down. They are used often! They work well on the brown recluse bite. You must boil the stone in milk before and after each use to remove the toxin and stain from the stone. Ours are much smoother than the one shown here. I believe it is the porousness that allows it to stick and draw.

My great grandmother had a madstone from a white deer that has been passed down to me. Lots of people would come to her for rabied dog bites. My mother used it on boils my brother would get. She used it on me for an infected sore. After boiling it was put on my sore and a handkerchief applied loosely to catch the stone when it would fall off. It stayed on for about 9 hours the first time. Then got to where it wouldn’t stick. I only have part of one because it was applied too hot and was thrown off and broken. I wonder who the rest of it went to.

Had to look up what was a mad-stone, I've never heard about this! My great-great grandfather was a doctor treating a man that was attacked by a mad-dog (or rabid dog). He then went to use a mad-stone for rabies. Newspaper: The True Citizen Waynesboro, Georgia Saturday, March 28, 1896 Jefferson County. News and Farmer, March 19th. Sunday last Mr. W. S. Clements was attached and bitten by what was supposed to be a mad dog. He got out of the buggy to open the gate when the dog rushed at him and bit him on the leg. Mr. Clements try to keep it off by kicking it, but failed. He then ran to get into the buggy, but the dog caught him again, and then they had a terrible struggle. Mr. Clements succeeded and get the dog down, but was bitten again twice. while he held the dog down his wife handed him a pistol, and he shot the dog in the head and killed it. The dog’s tongue was badly mangled, and showed signs of madness. Mr. Clements came to town at once and had the wounds sacrifice by Dr. Kelley. He then went to miss V. A. Brinson’s and had a mad stone applied. We hear is stuck five times to the wounds.

These accounts are so interesting. I had never heard of a madstone before!

Reading a book about the history of Lavaca County in Texas and came across this. Had never heard of a madstone before. "Hiram G Foley was known far and wide because he had a wonderful madstone that he was reported to have found while hunting. He saw a deer bury something and upon unearthing it found it to be a mad stone that was later applied to hundreds of snake and dog bites." The History of Lavaca County, Paul C Boethel, The Naylor Co, 1936, pg 11

I believe in these stones. I grew up in the Philippines and when i was a kid i was bitten by the neighbors dog. My mom have a stone for dogbites and you just place it on the bite. The stone sticks on the wound. I was bitten 3 times and never had any rabies shot. When moved here to the US we lost the stone. Did not even know what it was called. But we knew it was magical. It was a small sized stone. It was definitely old. We never soaked it anywhere just wiped it with alcohol after use.

Mad stones are real. My mother in law had one that came from somewhere in the WV mountains.. I have seen it used many times and it is not a myth, it's real. I've heard a lot of stories also. A man was dying with blood poison in the early 1900s and the stone stuck to his leg for 2 days, but the poison was completely gone when it let go. It even worked for poison Ivy. It was a stone that had to be passed down through the family and we are not sure who has it now, because it was passed to her brother and he is deceased.