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Shakespeare himself was simply making use of what was considered to be "common knowledge" in his day when he made the Duke compare adversity to the toad with a magic jewel in its head commonly known as "a toad-stone," although that "common knowledge" was really not knowledge at all, but like an enormous mass of the accepted current statements in those times, about animals, plants and stones was an absolutely baseless invention.
The name alone simply the name "Batrachites," the Greek for toad-stone was sufficient to lead the fertile imagination of the mediæval doctors to invent all the other particulars! It is a case precisely similar to that of the old lady who was credited with having vomited "three black crows."
All these and the Echites, or viper-stone, were credited with extraordinary magical virtues, and many of the assertions of later writers about the toad-stone are clearly due to their having calmly transferred the marvellous stories about other imaginary stones to the imaginary toad-stone. The only stone in the above list which has a real existence is that in the fish's head.
These are often found singly, and stained of a dull brown colour by the rock in which they were embedded. It was the colour of these fossil teeth, like that of a toad's body, which led to the assertion that they were produced in the head of the toad. a. A single detached tooth or "toad-stone" seen from the bright unattached surface. b. The same seen from the attached surface. c.
We have not, it must be noted, any specimens of the toad-stone at the present day actually known to have been brought from Coptos. It is quite possible that the fossil fish-tooth was substituted ages ago for Pliny's Batrachites, and was never found at Coptos at all! Whether that is so or not, the fact is that Pliny never said it came out of a toad, but merely that it was of the colour of a toad.
The topaz cured and prevented lunacy, increased riches, assuaged anger and sorrow, and averted sudden death. Such was the faith placed in stones until the end of the sixteenth century. Dr. Donne speaks of “A compassionate turquoise, that doth tell, By looking pale, the wearer is not well.” But the most curious of all these superstitious beliefs attached itself to the crapaudine, or toad-stone.
Representation of a man extracting the jewel from a toad's head; two "jewels", already extracted are seen dropping to the ground. It was, then, a real "stone," called the toad-stone, to which Shakespeare alluded.
He then describes the actual stone which passes as the toad-stone, or "Bufonius lapis," and says that it is also called batrachite, or brontia, or ombria. His description exactly corresponds with the "toad-stones" which are well known at the present day in collections of old rings. The palate of the fossil fish Lepidotus, showing the stud-like teeth in position.
Whatever, therefore, shall be ascertained with regard to our whin-stone, may be so far generalized or extended to the countries of Norway, Sweden, and Germany. The whin-stone of Scotland is also the same with the toad-stone of Derbyshire, which is of the amygdaloides species; it is also the same with the flagstone of the south of Staffordshire, which is a simple whin-stone, or perfect trap.
There is a mediæval story of a necromancer introducing himself to another professor of magic by showing him a serpent ring, upon which the latter, who did not desire any one to interfere with his practice, produced his toad-stone ring, observing that the toad might swallow the serpent, thereby intimating his power to overcome him.
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