Chapter viii. of Book II. is headed: De
infantium recens natorum galeis, seu tenui mollique membrana, qua facies
tanquam larva, aut personata tegmine obducta, ad primum lucis intuitum se
spectandam exhibet.
The belief in the efficacy of the caul goes back at least to the time of
St. Chrysostom, who, in the latter part of the fourth century, preached
against this with kindred superstitions. Advertisements of cauls for
sale, at prices ranging from twenty guineas down, have from time to time
appeared in the London papers as recently as the middle of the present
century, if not even later.
No. 60.--See "Current Superstitions," _Journal of American Folk-Lore_,
vol. ii. No. V.
Nos. 116-118.--The custom of consulting in augury the occasional white
spots on the finger-nails still survives, despite the protestation of old
Sir Thomas Browne. He says:--
"That temperamental dignotions, and conjecture of prevalent humours, may
be collected from spots in our Nails, we are not averse to concede. But
yet not ready to admit sundry divinations vulgarly raised upon them. Nor
do we observe it verified in others, what _Cardan_ discovered as a
property in himself: to have found therein signs of most events that ever
happened unto him. Or that there is much considerable in that doctrine of
Cheiromancy, that spots in the top of the Nails do signifie things past;
in the middle, things present; and at the bottom, events to come. That
White specks presage our felicity; Blue ones our misfortunes.
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