In Discoverie of Witchcraft, first published in 1584, English Member of Parliament Reginald Scot offered the following observation about the popularity of paediatric coral amulets in contemporary English society:

Scot’s early modern denunciation of amulets might not be entirely unexpected in a Calvinist excoriation of superstition, witches and the devil. Yet his scepticism of this custom appears within a chapter that actually affirms the practical and medicinal virtues of stones. ‘The excellent vertues and qualities in Stones, found, conceived and tryed by this Art, is wonderful,’ he wrote, thereafter providing a list of lapidary materials and their corresponding therapeutic applications. In this chapter, I explore how the object of Scot’s scorn – the use of red coral for children’s amulets – was not, in fact, simply the popular superstition that he labelled it. Instead, it was a physical manifestation of paediatric and obstetric medical theories that had endured and evolved in Western pharmacology for nearly two millennia to ultimately find wide acceptance among early modern English medical consumers, much to Scot’s consternation. My examination traces the development of coral-based treatments for children and their labouring mothers and draws upon a variety of written and iconographic sources, from mineralogical and medical treatises to early modern popular advice manuals, apothecary inventories and works of art.

From the ancient world to early modern Europe, coral was prized not only for its beauty as a precious ornament, but also as a valuable therapeutic for addressing numerous medical conditions. Premodern remedies sought to utilise the healing virtues of coral through external applications, such as branches fashioned into amulets, ligatures or suspensions (i.e., bound to a body part or hung around the neck), or by means of internal cures received in the form of lozenges, troches, tonics, syrups, tinctures, oils, salts or quintessences.