Treating Rabies with Madstones

Absent the benefits of modern medicine, remedies based on folklore were often the only option

London, 1826. A rabies scare is satirized in a cartoon, as a dog creates panic. National Library of Medicine.

Madstones were taken from the stomachs of ruminants such as cows and deer and were believed to have magical healing powers.

Sounds like the kind of therapy that Robert F. Kennedy Jr., might promote.

What Is a Madstone?

Among ruminant animals, madstones begin as hair balls that might be swallowed during grooming. Slowly, minerals accumulate in the hair and harden to form a stone-like substance in the animal’s stomach. They were retrieved after the animal was dead.

Newsbreak.com notes that “Madstones were believed to have absorptive properties which could explain how one could draw poison from a wound. The stones have a porous texture which might have affected a wound to some degree. Maybe. Maybe not.”

In Europe, they were called bezoars and were believed to have medical qualities. Early settlers brought the mythology across the Atlantic with them and belief in their curative powers took hold in the Ozarks and Appalachian regions.

Writing for appalachianhistory.net, Dave Tabler comments that “Madstones have always been greatly prized by anyone fortunate enough to come into possession of one, and would be handed down in the same family for generations. Before Pasteur’s immunization came to North Carolina in 1915, some owners charged up to $100 for lending a madstone, or required a $1,000 bond to guarantee its return.”

People having such a valuable stone, would advertise in local newspapers and clients would come from some distances.

There was money to be made, so charlatans would try to pass river pebbles off as the real thing. (Sort of like promoting cryptocurrency as a good investment).

Selling a madstone was believed to destroy its ability to help patients.

What the victim of a rabid animal or snake bite was looking for is a madstone taken from an albino deer. But, such a commodity was extremely rare and the poor unfortunate would likely have to settle for a brown deer stone.

Madstones. Wikimedia.

The Strange Case of Adam Rarely

Farmer Rarely of Missouri was bitten by a rabid dog. It was 1923, and Rarely knew he was going to die, and die horribly. Unless. Unless he could get to Reverend William Newton Sutton.

So, Adam Rarely saddled up his horse and rode 25 miles to where the good pastor ministered to his flock. Reverend Sutton was known to be in possession of a madstone that he had used to cure many people.

Writing for Atlas Obscura, author Colin Dickey describes the treatment process that he gathered from a folklorist who claimed to hear it directly from Sutton.

(It’s a rather wobbly chain of evidence, but let’s proceed).

Dickey recounts how Sutton soaked the stone in milk and then applied it to the bite, where it stuck. The Rev. and his patient waited for a few hours as the stone performed its magic and sucked the poison out of the wound.

The process was repeated, and “On the fourth try, the stone would not stick at all — Rarely was healed.”

There is no independent and reliable source that confirms that Farmer Rarely was cured, so surely, the word “allegedly” should be included.

What Is Rabies?

Suppose Rev. Sutton’s medical care failed, because it probably did, poor Farmer Rarely would have had a rough ride. The technical term is hydrophobia because the sufferer develops a fear of water, but that’s the least of their troubles.

The first evidence of rabies is flu-like symptoms. But, by then it’s already too late to avoid the Grim Reaper.

The virus attacks the nervous system so, after the sniffles, come “neurological symptoms, like aggression, seizures or paralysis. It’s extremely rare for someone to survive after rabies symptoms start. People who do survive usually have severe brain injuries” (Cleveland Clinic).

The full suite of symptoms includes: delirium, hallucinations, racing heart, hyperventilation, fever, paralysis, and, blessedly, coma, followed by death.

In 1885, Louis Pasteur invented a vaccine but it took a long time to reach the isolated mountain communities in the United States.

In the minds of some, even those in the highest levels of the Trump administration, vaccinations are still viewed with deep suspicion.

Before Pasteur’s cure, St. Hubert’s Key was available to the afflicted.

A piece of iron, often in the shape of a cross, was heated until white hot and then pressed against the bite.

According to the U.K.’s Science Museum, “This could actually help because if the heated key was applied immediately it could cauterise and sterilize the wound, effectively killing the rabies virus.”

It was still in use at the start of the 20th century.

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Summing up

Some pretty extravagant claims are made for the efficacy of madstones. Colin Dickey writes that “the Milam Mad Stone of Collin County, Texas, supposedly saved more than 400 lives in its 47-year career, failing only twice. The Lightburne Stone was in use for over a century, with its owners stating it was called into action at least once a week,” Notice “supposedly” and “stating.”

These claims don’t stand up to serious inquiry.

Thanks to Louis Pasteur, we no longer have to rely on hooey, hope, and St. Hubert’s Key.

If you are bitten by a dog, raccoon, bat, or any of the other rabies-carrying critters, get the jab immediately; don’t wait to find out if the animal was rabid or not.

Bonus Factoids

According to the Centres for Disease Control, “Each year, 1.4 million Americans receive healthcare for a possible rabies exposure, 100,000 receive post-exposure prophylaxis, and fewer than 10 die from rabies due to robust prevention efforts.” The World Health Organization puts the worldwide death toll at between 59,000 and 70,000.

One medieval cure for rabies was to place some of the fur from the attacking animal, usually a dog, on the wound. From this we get the phrase “A hair of the dog that bit you,” usually referring to a shot of alcohol to cure the hangover from the previous night’s overindulgence.

According to Edgar Lee Master, a biographer of Abraham Lincoln, the yet-to-be president believed in the efficacy of madstones. He recounts how Lincoln took his son Robert to a madstone practitioner in 1852 after the boy had been bitten by a dog. The fact that Robert survived suggests the dog was not rabid.

Sources

“The Tale of the Mad Stone, the One-Time ‘Cure’ for Rabies.” Colin Dickey, Atlas Obscura, March 7, 2024.

“Discovering Missouri’s Madstones: An Ancient Remedy or Ozark Folklore.” C.J. Coombs, newsbreak.com, April 29, 2024.

“The Madstone Would Stick to the Wound and Draw the Poison Out.” Dave Tabler, appalachianhistory.net, February 15, 2018.

“Rabies.” clevelandclinic.org, April 14, 2026.

“St. Hubert’s Key.” U.K. Science Museum, undated.

© Copyright Rupert Taylor 2026