# Lodestone

**Magnes**

**Known today as.** Magnetite, naturally magnetic iron ore.

Kind: Mineral

## What was it used for?

Worn against pains and melancholy, taken in powder, and, by Paracelsians, used to draw diseases out of the body.

## What does modern science say?

No proven effect on health.

## Pharmacognosy and toxicology

- **magnetite**: iron(II,III) oxide, naturally magnetised

**Mechanism.** A natural magnet. Worn against pain it has been tested: a 2007 meta-analysis of nine trials of static magnets for pain found no effect beyond placebo (Pittler), and the field of a wearable magnet does not reach deep tissue or move the iron in blood, which is not ferromagnetic. Taken in powder it is an insoluble iron oxide. Mesmer’s magnets of 1774 were the lodestone’s last medical office before he dropped them for his hands.

**Dose.** Inert.

**Standing.** Magnet therapy is sold and does not work; pulsed electromagnetic fields in fracture healing are a different, licensed thing.

## What lore surrounds it?

Thales of Miletus, about 600 BC, is the earliest recorded observer of the lodestone’s pull on iron, and explained it by supposing that the stone had a soul. Long before the compass guided ships, Chinese diviners used lodestones on divination boards to read the future and to set buildings and graves in harmony with the earth, the practice from which the navigator’s compass later grew.

## What did the older authorities say?

**William Gilbert.** Tested the magnet’s fabled powers in *De magnete* (1600), dismissing many, and showed the earth itself to be a magnet.

## Sources

- Gilbert, W. (1600). *De magnete*.
- National MagLab, on lodestone.
- Pittler, M. H., et al. (2007). “Static magnets for reducing pain: systematic review and meta-analysis of randomized trials.” *CMAJ* 177.

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*Lodestone.* In *Materia Medica*, edited by B. C. P. Statema. Version 1, revised 2026-09-25. The Thinking Press. https://thethinkingpress.org/materia-medica/lodestone

Historical description, not medical advice.