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 FAITH-HEALING 
 
 IN THE SIXTEENTH AND SEVENTEENTH 
 CENTURIES 
 
 READ BEFORE 
 
 THE AMERICAN FOLK-LORE SOCIETY 
 
 NOVEMBER 29, 1890 
 BY 
 
 CHARLES F. COX 
 
 NEW-YORK 
 
 THE DE VINNE PRESS 
 
 i8qi
 
 FAITH-HEALING 
 
 IN THE SIXTEENTH AND SEVENTEENTH CENTURIES. 
 
 By Charles F. Cox. 
 
 Read before the American Folk-lore Society, November 29, 1890. 
 
 There is no absolutely new form that superstition can 
 assume. It long ago passed its highest point of evolution, 
 so that species of this genus do not now originate. Such 
 varieties as occasionally seem to arise anew and flourish for 
 a while are merely reappearances of the ancient stock, greatly 
 weakened in character, and with a decidedly reversionary 
 tendency. For, happily, over-credulous supernaturalism is in 
 the condition of those organisms described by Darwin, which 
 have become out of adjustment to their environment and are, 
 therefore, inevitably yielding place to fitter forms, and slowly 
 but surely approaching extinction. They renew the struggle 
 for existence from season to season, but with less and less 
 vigor, and less and less success, until, by the inexorable law of 
 natural selection, might at last becomes right. 
 
 This is true, also, of all phases of occultism, which is being 
 gradually superseded by rationalism — if I may be allowed 
 to use a much-abused word in its proper sense. Reason 
 
 652650
 
 refuses to take cognizance of results attributed to inscruta- 
 ble causes, and insists upon testing all phenomena by known 
 laws. Not that all the laws of nature have been formulated, 
 but that enough are determined to deprive mystery of its 
 awfulness, and to give man courage and confidence in ap- 
 proaching that which he does not understand. A thorough 
 and well-grounded faith in the uniformity of nature is the 
 antidote to those epidemic delusions which have periodically 
 swept over the world, carrying off their myriad victims like 
 pestilent diseases. It is not because the sum of our know- 
 ledge is greater, but because our confidence in the results of 
 inductive logic is stronger, that we are not driven hither and 
 thither by the force of morbid imagination, as were the poor 
 Convulsionnaires and Flagellants of the fourteenth and fif- 
 teenth centuries, and the wretched Witch-maniacs of the 
 sixteenth and seventeenth. 
 
 The law of evolution does not demand the entire elimination 
 of primitive forms, but by its operation they cease to be the 
 types of prevailing organization, and, in successive epochs, are 
 relegated to more and more subordinate places. The course 
 of development is like a progression in musical harmony. As 
 we raise the key some of the lowest notes of the chord drop 
 out and some notes are added at the highest point, but the 
 modulation is mostly a change of relative position and value 
 of tones which have remained in the chord all the time. So, 
 as the general scale of human intelligence moves upward, 
 some of the traits characteristic of the earliest and lowest of 
 mankind disappear entirely, and some new faculties are ac- 
 quired by the expanding minds of the very highest; but the 
 principal change which occurs is a readjustment of relations, 
 resulting in an average betterment. 
 
 There are to-day perhaps a few lofty intellects which are 
 wholly emancipated from the bondage of superstition. At the 
 other end of the scale, however, is a vast number of men re- 
 moved but one degree of cousinship from their quadrumanous 
 relatives — cowed and crushed beneath the fear of that which 
 they imagine " stands over " them, but which they cannot see, 
 nor feel, nor comprehend, but only endeavor to placate and
 
 5 
 
 appease. In between there exists every grade of mental ob- 
 liquity or perversion, from that of the man who objects to 
 beginning a journey on Friday, or the maiden who will not 
 be married in May, down to that of the confiding worshiper 
 of doubtful relics, or the self-seeking pilgrim to " Our Lady of 
 Lourdes." 
 
 The number of those who dislike to see the moon over the 
 left shoulder, or to pick up a pin with the point in the wrong 
 direction, or to spill salt, or to raise an umbrella within doors, 
 or to sit in a company of thirteen at table, is probably larger 
 than most of us suppose. But the survival of these attenuated 
 forms of superstition, together with the fancy amongst intelli- 
 gent people for four-leafed clovers, for cast-off horseshoes, 
 and for rabbits' feet, and the like, does not necessarily indi- 
 cate any abiding faith in demons and charms and spells, but 
 may be only a sort of poetical reflection, a traditional reminis- 
 cence of sentiments that once were deep-seated and serious 
 in the minds of earlier and more impreapible generations. 
 
 Still, the inherited experience has a^feSaigenough hold upon 
 the average man to make him liable to occasional outbreaks 
 of the original proclivity. This tendency often becomes 
 strongly marked in a single person, who will infect a large 
 number with whom he comes into contact, and we may then 
 have, for a time, the appearance of an epidemic delusion, like 
 the delusions of primitive times. Such in the main has been 
 the recent craze for mind-cures, faith-cures, and " Christian 
 science." It would be very easy to demonstrate that these 
 are merely revivals, in slightly modified forms, of notions 
 which have periodically taken possession of feeble minds since 
 almost the beginning of history. What I propose to show in 
 this paper, however, is, that similar manias were prevalent 
 during the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, more particu- 
 larly in England. 
 
 This state of things was due, I think, more to Paracelsus 
 than to any other one person, for the mystical element which 
 he introduced into the practice of medicine continued to 
 dominate the profession for nearly two hundred years. But 
 he, himself, was a product of the supernaturalism of the times, 
 lA
 
 and in his character epitomized the spirit of the age. It was 
 a period in which astrology and alchemy were enjoying a 
 lively revival ; when the ignorant, but honest, believer in plan- 
 etary influences and metallic transmutations could hardly be 
 distinguished from the sordid trafficker in unlawful secrets, 
 either social or political, which were often concealed under 
 the garb of a pretended science, or conveyed from person 
 to person in the language of a pseudo-philosophy. Men 
 claiming intellectual authority over their fellow-men were 
 seeking not to instruct and to elevate, but to mystifj/ and to 
 overawe. It was a time, too, when even religion spoke in un- 
 known tongues, and when incoherency of utterance stood for 
 inspiration and prophecy. A mongrel jargon of science, 
 theology, and philosophy had taken the place of the homely 
 vernacular, or the lucid Latin, and the professions of the clergy, 
 the doctor, the scientist, and the magician had become hope- 
 lessly mixed. Hence the Church was encouraging the pursuit 
 of demons and witches with exorcisms, burnings, and drown- 
 ings ; the legal authorities were searching out right and wrong 
 by ordeals, tortures, and appeals to chance and fate, and the 
 physicians were going about curing diseases by amulets, touch- 
 ings, incantations, and prayers. There was but little medicine 
 in Paracelsus's wallet, but much magic in his sword-hilt, and 
 great piety in his discourse. 
 
 Like some of his modern imitators, he justified his methods 
 by ascribing magical powers to Christ and the apostles, as 
 exemplified in their healing the sick by the laying-on of 
 hands, and by appealing to Christ's promise that his true fol- 
 lowers would do even greater things of this kind than he did. 
 He declared that while a dead saint had no power to heal, 
 a live saint might work recovery from sickness by means of a 
 divine influence working through him. For this purpose, 
 faith, he said, had more potency than merely physical reme- 
 dies. In fact, through faith, he held that one might accom- 
 plish what he pleased, even overcoming nature, since faith is a 
 spiritual force and superior to nature. He also advanced the 
 doctrine preached in these later times, that the possessor 
 of these supernatural curative powers is specially ordained of
 
 God, and acquires his gift through personal holiness rather 
 than by special learning. According to Hartmann,^ Paracelsus 
 taught that " imagination is the cause of many diseases ; faith 
 is the cure for all. If we cannot cure a disease by faith, it is 
 because our faith is too weak ; but our faith is weak on account 
 of our want of knowledge ; if we were conscious of the power 
 of God in ourselves, we could never fail. The power of amu- 
 lets does not rest so much in the material of which they are 
 made as in the faith with which they are worn ; the curative 
 power of medicines often consists, not so much in the spirit 
 that is hidden in them, as in the spirit in which they are taken. 
 Faith will make them efficacious ; doubt will destroy their 
 virtues." 
 
 Unlike modern faith-healers, Paracelsus did not wholly 
 abandon the use of material remedies. On the contrary, he 
 is generally regarded as the originator of the whole system 
 of chemical medicine, and we have abundant evidence that 
 he paid much attention to botanical drugs. But, as we have 
 already seen, he regarded both vegetable and mineral prep- 
 arations largely as means for the awakening and directing 
 of the curative power of faith. For the same purpose he 
 employed amulets, talismans, and magical ointments, and in 
 the preparation of all these he gave careful heed to the super- 
 stitious requirements of alchemy and astrology. 
 
 In this connection he bestowed his approval upon the 
 curious doctrine of signatures, which was afterward so elabo- 
 rately set forth as regards plants by Giambattista della 
 Porta." This theory had two applications : first, to the 
 ascertainment, by some appearance in the thing to be em- 
 ployed as a remedy, of its fitness for application to the par- 
 ticular part to be healed ; and, second, to the selection of a 
 plant or other object into which the disease could be trans- 
 planted, because of some similarity believed to exist be- 
 
 l"The Life of Philippus Theophras- See, also, " Paracelsi Opera Omnia." 
 
 tus Bombast, of Hohenheim, known by Geneva, 1658. 
 
 the name of Paracelsus, and the Sub- 2 « Phytognomonica," 4to, Naples, 
 
 stance of his Teachings, &c." By Franz 1588; 8vo, Francofurt, 1591. 
 Hartmann, M. D. London, 1887.
 
 tween it and the affected organ, through which both would 
 have an affinity for the particular disease. This affinity was 
 supposed to be signified by the physical characteristics of herbs, 
 roots, etc., so that the red juice of Sanguinaria, the liver-like 
 leaf of Hefiatica, and the eye-like inflorescence of certain of 
 the Composit(£, indicated the appropriateness of these plants 
 respectively in affections of the circulatory, the digestive, and 
 the optical organs.* 
 
 The power by which ailments might be removed from 
 the human body and conveyed into a plant or an animal, or 
 other fit receptacle, was conceived to be a sort of magnetism ; 
 and an intermediate object was generally used in the process 
 of transplantation, and was called a magnet. Thus, in a case 
 of toothache the gums were to be rubbed with the root of 
 Scnecio vulgaris until they bled, and then the root was to be 
 reburied in the earth, whereupon the cause of the pain would 
 be carried away with the blood and retained at a distance 
 by the attraction of the plant. Or, for the same malady, the 
 tooth might be picked with a splinter of blackthorn or willow, 
 after which the toothpick was to be grafted into the original 
 tree, whither the toothache would be securely banished.' These 
 cures were spoken of as accomplished sympathetically ; that 
 is, through a magnetical sympathy existing between the inani- 
 mate object to which or by which the disease was conveyed 
 and the animate one from which it was taken. 
 
 A certain degree of rapport was usually insisted upon as 
 necessary between the patient and the practitioner also, and 
 hence the literature of this subject came to abound with never- 
 ending discussions, physical and metaphysical, respecting the 
 operation and effects of sympathy and antipathy. 
 
 Paracelsus has the credit of having invented a most extraor- 
 dinary method of applying the principle of magnetical healing, 
 which attracted attention and retained its adherents for more 
 
 1 See "Occult Physick; or, the three 2 gee " Hermanni Grube, Med. & 
 
 principles in nature antagonized, of the Phil. D. De Transplantatione Mor- 
 
 magical and physical vertues of Beasts, borum." Hamburg, 1674. And also 
 
 Trees and Herbs, of Medicines for all Bartholinus, "De Transplantatione Mor- 
 
 Diseases, &c.," by W. W., 1660. boruni," Hafniae, 1673.
 
 9 
 
 than a hundred and fifty years, and which gave rise to what 
 we cannot but regard as a school of practice, in which Van 
 Helmont, in Brussels, and Robert Fludd,^ in London, became 
 the leaders fifty years after the death of Paracelsus in 1541. 
 The remarkable invention to which I refer was that of the 
 so-called sympathetical ointment, of which Paracelsus himself 
 says : " Simpathy, or Compassion, hath a very great power to 
 operate in humane things : As if you take Moss, that groweth 
 upon a Scull, or Bone of a dead body that hath lain in the Air, 
 to wit : 
 
 Take of that Moss | ii- 
 
 Of Man's Grease • • 3 "• 
 
 Of Mummy and Man's Blood, each 1 ss. 
 
 Of Linseed Oyl 3 n. 
 
 Oyl of Roses and Bole-Armoniack, each 3 i- 
 
 Let them be all beat together in a Morter so long, until they 
 come to a most pure and subtil Oyntment ; then keep it in a Box. 
 And when any wound happens, dip a stick of wood in the 
 blood, that it may be bloody ; which being dryed, thrust it 
 quite into the aforesaid Oyntment and leave it therein ; after- 
 wards binde up the wound with a new Linen Rowler, . . . 
 and it shall be healed, be it never so great, without any Plais- 
 ter, or Pain. After this manner, you may Cure any one that 
 is wounded, though he be ten miles distant from you, if you 
 have but his blood. It helpeth also other griefs, as the pain 
 in the Teeth and other hurts, if you have a stick wet in the 
 Blood, and thrust into the Oyntment and there left. Also, if 
 a Horses foot be pricked with a nail by a Farrier or Smith, 
 touch a stick with the blood, and thrust it into the Box of 
 Oyntment, and leave it there, it will Cure him. These are the 
 wonderful Gifts of God, given for the use and health of man." 
 In another place he says: "There may also an Oyntment be 
 made, wherewith if the Weapons be annointed (wherewith a 
 wound is inflicted) the said wounds shall be cured without 
 pain. This is made as the other, except only ^ i. of Honey, 
 and 3 i. of Ox-fat is to be added to this. But because the 
 
 1 See Robert Fludd's "Anatomic nis III., Partis III., Liber Secundus, 
 Amphitheatrum," Sectionis I., Portio- Capita VIII., IX. et X. Francofurt, 1623. 
 IB
 
 lO 
 
 Weapons cannot alwayes be had, the Wood aforesaid is bet- 
 ter." ' But the magnctical method was not confined to the 
 treatment of wounds. Paracelsus gives us a formula for "A 
 Sympathetical Oyntment against the Gout," and his works 
 contain numerous prescriptions for the preparation of charms 
 for the removal of particular diseases. 
 
 The introduction of magical ointments gave rise to spirited 
 discussions as to whether they operated beyond the presence 
 of the patient and without his cognizance, and whether they 
 acted by natural or by supernatural influence. On the first of 
 these points we have seen that Paracelsus affirmed that what 
 is nowadays called " absent treatment " was entirely practi- 
 cable, and that the salves worked as well for beasts as for 
 human subjects. Van Helmont afterward testified on this 
 point: "I have seen also that Vulnerary Oyntment to cure 
 not only Men, but also Horses, between whom and us certainly 
 there is not so great affinity (unless we are Asses) that there- 
 fore the Sympathetical Unguent should deserve to be called 
 common to us and Horses." - 
 
 One of the latest writers on the subject'' describes the oper- 
 ation thus : " A magnetick virtue is propagated from the 
 weapon anointed to the wound, by reason of the cognation 
 and continuation of Nature, which a successive impulsion 
 follows through the middle of the air, impregnated by the 
 universal and primary spirit of the world, with a magnetick 
 vigour and power." 
 
 This explanation is, for lucidity of style and brilliancy of 
 conception, quite worthy to stand by the side of some of the 
 
 1 " Paracelsus of the Supreme Mys- Translated by Walter Charleton, Doctor 
 teries of Nature. Of the Spirits of the in Physick and Physician to the late 
 Planets. Of Occult Philosophy. The King." London, 1650. 
 
 Magical, Sympathetical, and Antipa- And " Oriatriice, or Physic Refined, be- 
 
 thetical Cure of Wounds and Diseases," ing a new Rise and Progress of Phylos- 
 
 &c. Englished by R. Turner. Lon- ophy and Medicine, for the Destruction 
 
 don, 1656. of Diseases and the Prolongation of 
 
 2 "On the Magnetick or Attractive Life." London, 1662. 
 
 Curing of Wounds," in Van Helmont's 3 "The Art of Curing Sympathetic- 
 Works, made English by John Chandler, ally or Magnetically," by H. M. Her- 
 London, 1664. wig, M, D. 1699. 
 See also "A Ternary of Paradoxes.
 
 II 
 
 lucubrations of the faith-healers of the nineteenth century. 
 But, fearing that his theory may not be wholly conclusive, our 
 author goes on to say that, " However it is done, it is infal- 
 libly true that, by the permission of God, men are cured after 
 this manner, . . . and that Wounds are healed, although at 
 some miles distance.^ To what purpose then is it to shut our 
 eyes against the light manifest of experience, although we 
 cannot trace out the true and adequate causes how these things 
 
 come to pass Galen says that good hope and 
 
 confidence are beyond Physick, for he cures most whom most 
 repose trust in." 
 
 This too, you see, is quite in the line of recent argument by 
 advocates of Christian Science ; and the doctor's zeal, like 
 theirs, grows by what it feeds upon, and so he goes on to say : 
 " God would have Physick accompanied with Piety, and ex- 
 pects himself to be acknowledged and worshipped in the use of 
 it. Nevertheless, many things lye hid in the bosom of Nature, 
 not to be apprehended by humane sence, which although by 
 reason of our ignorance they seem superstitious and irrational 
 (because their causes are unknown to us) yet are very far 
 from being guilty of that crime." For some reason or another, 
 however, this ingenious writer was not content to leave the 
 matter here, but must add a train of reasoning in the line of 
 modern theories of suggestion, expectancy, or mental bias, by 
 saying : " I think that a perswasian in itself, either by Faith 
 or Credibility [creduHty ?] cannot effect anything, but it causes 
 a sudden motion of the Spirits and Minds, in very soft and 
 tender Natures, by which the blood is carried about by a 
 various Flux, and at once removes the morbifick causes from 
 the parts aggrieved, by which means the distemper ceases. 
 Here is no superstition, unless superstitious persons create it 
 by attributing the effect to other causes." 
 
 On this question of the naturalness or superstitiousness of 
 the method, Van Helmont entered into a heated controversy 
 
 1 See " Medicina Diastatica, or Sym- Paracelsus, by Andrea Tentzelius, 
 
 patheticall Mumie; teaching the Mag- translated out of the Latine by Fer- 
 
 neticall cure of Diseases at distance, dinando Parkhurst, Gent. London, 
 
 illustrated from the Works of Dr. Theo. 1653."
 
 12 
 
 with the elder Professor Rudolph Goclenius, of Marburg,' who, 
 it seems, " endeavours to shew, That the curing of Wounds by 
 the Sympathetical and Armary or Weapon Unguent, invented 
 by Paracelsus, is merely natural." From this it might be in- 
 ferred that Van Helmont took up the contention that the cure 
 was simply supernatural ; but such does not appear to have 
 been the case. In fact, he seems to have devoted himself to 
 drawing a fine distinction between sympathetical and mag- 
 netical action, attributing the healing to the latter, and thus 
 repelling the charge of Goclenius that the Paracelsian method 
 depended upon magical and superstitious practices. *' Dost 
 thou," he says, " perhaps maintain it to be diabolical because 
 it cannot be understood by thee, that a natural Reason 
 thereof doth subsist? I will not beheve that thou couldst 
 utter so idle a Sentence, from thine own Infirmity, of its 
 Virtue : For thou knowest that the weaknesse of Understand- 
 ing is our Vice, not that of things. Make hast, therefore; 
 From whence knowest thou, that God hath not directed 
 such a magnetical Virtue unto the use or benefit of the 
 Wounded." 
 
 This was the line of argument pursued by all the Paracel- 
 sian school ; sympathetical healing, even in those days, seemed 
 incapable of a rational explanation, and was relegated to the 
 realm of the miraculous. As the philosophy of hypnotism had 
 not then made its appearance, and the theory of mental 
 "expectancy" had not begun to germinate, the assailants and 
 the defenders of the new practice, apparently agreeing that 
 cures were actually effected, referred for the cause, on the 
 one hand to the direct interposition of the beneficent Crea- 
 tor, working through chosen human agents of personal purity 
 and exalted goodness, and on the other hand to the un- 
 canny influence of the chief of demons operating through 
 men whose souls he had bought with this sort of magical 
 endowment. 
 
 1 See other disputations on the same nius. Van Helmont, Fludd, Becker, 
 
 topic in " Theatrum Sympatheticum," Borell, Kircher, Sennertus, Fracas- 
 
 a collection of twenty-five tracts by torius, and others. Nuremburg, 
 
 Digby, Strauss, Rattray, Papin, Gocle- 1662.
 
 13 
 
 It was on this issue that Robert Fludd entered into his 
 bitter contention with the Rev. Mr. Foster, who had taken it 
 upon himself to show that "the wonderfuh manner of healing 
 by the weapon-salve, is diabolicall, or effected onely by the 
 invention and power of the Devill." 
 
 Against the charge that the cure of wounds by the weapon- 
 salve is " witchcraft and unlawfull to be used," Fludd maintains: 
 "Theologically, the Cure of the Weapon-Salve to be good and 
 lawfull, and proveth it by the authority of holy Writ to be the 
 Gift of God and not of the Devill " ; and, theophilosophically, 
 he shows " how it is grafted or planted by God in the Treasury 
 of Nature."^ 
 
 We need not be surprised to hear that quarrels arose about 
 the purity of doctrine held by the different branches of the 
 Paracelsian school, and that one charged another with having 
 corrupted the master's teaching and with transmitting a spu- 
 rious practice. Thus Van Helmont declared that " Goclenius, 
 that he might satisfie his own Genius, hath altered the Descrip- 
 tion [prescription ?] of Paracelsus, affirming that the Usnea or 
 Moss is to be chosen only from the Skuls of hanged Persons ; 
 of which his own and false Invention, he enquiring the cause, 
 blusheth not to dream that in Strangling the vital Spirits 
 entered into the Skul, and there remain so long, as until that 
 six years from that time being accomplished, the Moss shall 
 under the open Air grow up thereon. Paracelsus hath taught 
 the express contrary, and by practical Experiences it is con- 
 firmed, that the Moss of the Skuls of those that have been slain 
 or broken on a Wheel is no less commendable, than that of 
 those who were strangled with an Halter."^ 
 
 Fludd, with his taste for mystical anatomy and physiology, 
 attached little importance to the usnea or moss, but placed 
 great stress on blood as an ingredient of the healing ointment, 
 and explained its efficacy in the following ingenious manner: 
 " We see that this Oyntment is compounded of things pass- 
 ing well agreeing unto man's nature ; and consequently that it 
 
 1 " Doctor Fludds Answer unto M. Foster, or The Squesing of Parson Fos- 
 ters Sponge, ordained by him for the wiping away of the Weapon-Salve." 1631. 
 2 Van Helmont's Works, Chandler's translation. 1664.
 
 14 
 
 hath a great respect to his health and preservation, for as much 
 as unto the composition thereof, wee have in the chief place or 
 ranke Blood, in which the power of life is placed. Here, I say, 
 is the essence of man's Bones growing out of them, in forme 
 of Mosse, termed Usnea ; here is his Flesh in the Mummy, 
 which is compounded of Flesh and Balsame; here is the Fat 
 of Man's Body, which concurreth with the rest unto the per- 
 fection of this Oyntment. And with all these (as is said) the 
 Blood is mingled, which was the beginning and food of them all, 
 for as much as in it is the spirit of life, and with it the bright 
 soule doth abide, and operateth after a hidden manner. So that 
 the whole perfection of Man's Body doth seeme to concurre 
 unto the confection of this precious oyntment. And this 
 is the reason, why there is so great a respect and consent 
 betwecne this Oyntment and the Blood of the wounded 
 person."' 
 
 This sympathetical, or, as he otherwise calls it, " balsamicke " 
 nature of blood, he explains, " is nought else, but a volatill and 
 essential salt, that is full of vegetating and multiplying vertue, 
 which it receiveth from above as a precious soule to vivifie and 
 animate it, the which vertue is that Calidum innatuni, or Natural 
 heate, by whose vertue every creature doth exist, and the vola- 
 tile vehicle in which it is carried, is that Hicniiduni Radicalc, or 
 Radicall Moisture, or Humidity, by which, and in which, the 
 foresaid vertue doth immediately move, and act unto life, vege- 
 tation, and multiplication." - 
 
 As an illustration of the modus operandi of this wonderful 
 "balsamicke nature" in the "Weapon Oyntment," I quote 
 the following narrative from Fludd, merely remarking that a 
 volume of such stories could easily be collected from the 
 
 1 For other extraordinary explana- cina Magnetica; or The Rare and 
 
 tions of the process, see " Medicina Wonderful Art of Curing by Sympathy 
 
 Magica tamen Physica: Magical but &c. By C. de Iryngio [C. Irvine], 
 
 Natural Physick ; or a Methodical Chirurgo-Medicine in the Army." 
 
 Tractate of Diastatical Physick." By Edinburgh, 1656. 
 
 Samuel Boulton. London, 1656. 2 "Doctor Fludds Answer unto M. 
 
 The following work is almost an ex- Foster." 
 act duplicate of the foregoing: "Medi-
 
 IS 
 
 treatises on this subject. The narration is given on the 
 authority of Sir Nicholas Gilbourne, who was brother-in-law 
 to Fludd, and is to the effect that, at Chatham, in Kent, " the 
 servant of one Poppee, a ship-wright, was cut with his axe 
 into the instep, so deep as it could passe, and not cut it off; 
 upon the hurt (which was in the afternoone), hee was brought 
 unto me ; but I refused to meddle with it. . The next 
 
 morning early I did dresse the axe, and after dressing it I did 
 send to know how the fellow did. Answer was made that hee 
 had beene in great paine all the night; but now lately was at 
 ease. The next morning, comming into my study, I strucke 
 my Rapier down upon the Axe, the hilt whereof strucke the 
 oyntment off from the axe, which when I found, I sent to 
 understand how hee did ? and had answer, that he had beene 
 exceeding well that night ; but this morning he was in great 
 paine, and so continued: I therefore anointed the axe againe, 
 and then sent againe unto him, and heard that hee was 
 then at great ease : and within seaven dayes was perfectly 
 well." 
 
 Fludd's reference to an "essential salt" in which the " bal- 
 samicke nature " of blood resided, and which was the bond of 
 sympathy between the wounded person and the healing oint- 
 ment, marks a transition in the philosophy of this subject 
 which finally resulted in the substitution of a simple, dry, in- 
 organic powder in the place of the complex unguent of animal 
 substances. Thus came about the celebrated " Powder of 
 Sympathy," concerning which Sir Kenelm Digby delivered 
 his " Discourse in a Solemn Assembly at Montpellier," in 1657.^ 
 He had been one of the first council of the Royal Society, was 
 prominent in its management, was a friend of Des Cartes and 
 other eminent men of learning, and was high in political favor 
 and influence. His advocacy of sympathetica! healing, there- 
 fore, carried great weight and attracted unusual attention. Sir 
 Walter Scott refers to him as an authority for the lines in the 
 
 1 See his work " Of Bodies and of Discourses, Of the Powder of Sympa- 
 Man's Soul. To Discover the Immor- thy and Of the Vegetation of Plants." 
 tality of Reasonable Souls. With two London, 1669.
 
 i6 
 
 " Lay of the Last Minstrel," in which it is said of Ladye 
 Margaret : 
 
 " But she has ta'en the broken lance, 
 And washed it from the clotted gore, 
 And salved the splinter o'er and o'er,"^ 
 
 and quotes at length Digby's account of the case of Mr. James 
 Howel,- which is to the following effect : 
 
 " Coming by chance as two of his best friends were fight- 
 ing in Duel," he " did his endeavour to part them," but " one 
 of them, roughly drawing the blade of his sword, cut to the 
 very bone the nervs and muscles of Mr. Howel's hand," and 
 otherwise wounded him badly. "They bound up his hand 
 with one of his garters, to close the veins which were cut and 
 bled abundantly." The surgeon attending the wounded man 
 was a neighbor to Sir Kenelm, and had heard that he had 
 " extraordinary remedies upon such occasions." Having some 
 fear that the sore might " grow to a Gangrene, and so the 
 hand must be cut off," the surgeon invited Sir Kenelm to visit 
 his patient and to "view his wounds." He found the man in 
 nearly insupportable pain " in regard of the extream inflam- 
 mation." " I told him," he says, " that I would willingly serve 
 
 1 " Lay of the Last Minstrel," Canto Third, Stanza 23, is as follows: 
 
 " She drew the splinter from the wound, 
 
 And with a charm she staunched the blood; 
 
 She bade the gash be cleansed and bound : 
 No longer by his couch she stood ; 
 
 But she has ta'en the broken lance, 
 And washed it from the clotted gore. 
 And salved the splinter o'er and o'er. 
 
 William of Deloraine, in trance, 
 
 When'er she turned it round and round, 
 
 Twisted as if she galled his wound." 
 
 See also Scott's " Earl Richard," — note to the lines 
 
 ''The maiden touch'd the clay-could corpse, 
 A drop it never bled." 
 In this note reference is made to the cure of wounds effected by applying salves 
 and powders, not to the wound itself, but to the sword or dagger by which it had 
 been inflicted; "a course of treatment which, wonderful as it may at first seem, 
 was certainly frequently attended with signal success." 
 See also Dryden's "Tempest," Act V,, Sc. I. 
 
 2 Author of the " Familiar Letters" and of " Dodona's Grove."
 
 him ; but if, haply, he knew the manner how I would cure 
 him, without touching or seeing him, it may be he would not 
 expose himself to my manner of curing, because he would 
 think it, peradventure, either ineffectual or superstitious." To 
 this Mr. Howel replied : " Let the miracle be done, though 
 Mahomet do it." Having aroused his faith to this satisfactory 
 pitch. Sir Kenelm says : " I asked him then, for anything that 
 had the blood upon it, so he presently sent for his Garter 
 wherewith his hand was first bound ; and as I called for a 
 Bason of water as if I would wash my hands, I took a handful 
 of Powder of Vitriol which I had in my study and presently 
 dissolv'd it. As soon as the bloody garter was brought me I 
 put it in the Bason, observing the while what Mr. Howel did, 
 who stood talking with a Gentleman in a corner of my Cham- 
 ber, not regarding atall what I was doing. But he started 
 suddenly, as if he had found some strange alteration in him- 
 self I ask'd him what he ail'd ? I know not what ails me, 
 said he, but I find that I feel no more pain : me thinks a pleas- 
 ing kind of freshness, as it were a wet cold napkin spread 
 itself over my hand ; which hath taken away the inflammation 
 that tormented me before. I reply'd, since then you feel 
 already so good an effect of my medicament, I advise you to 
 cast away all your plaisters, only keep the wound clean and in 
 a moderate temper twixt heat and cold. After dinner I took 
 the garter out of the water, and put it to dry before a great 
 fire. It was scarce dry but Mr. Howel's servant came running 
 to tell me that his master felt as much burning as ever he had 
 done, if not more; for the heat was such as if his hand were 
 betwixt coals of fire. I answer'd that although that had hap- 
 pened at present, yet he should find ease in a short time; for 
 I knew the reason of this new accident, and I would provide 
 accordingly, so that his master should be free from that in- 
 flammation, it may be, before he could possibly return unto 
 him ; but, in case he found no ease, I wished him to come 
 presently back again ; if not, he might forbear coming. Away 
 he went ; and at the instant I put again the Garter into the 
 water, thereupon he found his Master without any pain atall. 
 To be brief, there was no sense of pain afterward ; but within
 
 i8 
 
 five or six days the wounds were cicatriced and entirely 
 healed. "» 
 
 I am sure I need not call your attention to the practical con- 
 fession, in the foregoing narrative, of the employment of men- 
 tal suggestion in its most effective form ; and of course I have 
 no occasion to remark upon the unimportance of the pow- 
 der used in the experiment as related, notwithstanding the fact 
 that Digby himself regarded it as an essential element, and 
 devoted many closely printed pages to an exposition of the 
 virtues of vitriol and to an elaboration of a theory of its oper- 
 ation. Although other and more complex powders had been 
 employed in the process of sympathetical curing. Sir Kenelm 
 declares that he had seen " as great and admirable effects of 
 simple Vitriol of eighteen pence the pound, as of that Powder 
 which is us'd to be prepared now at a greater price." The 
 secret of the sympathetic powder he claimed to have obtained 
 from " a Religious Carmelite that came from the Indies and 
 Persia to Florence," who had refused to disclose it to the Duke 
 of Tuscany, but who made it known to Digby in return for " an 
 important courtesie." " And the same year," says he, " he re- 
 turn'd to Persia, that now there is no other knows this secret 
 in Europe but myself." Nevertheless, he goes on to explain 
 that he had given some of the powder to King James II., "in- 
 structing him in all the circumstances," and afterward the 
 King's first physician, Dr. Mayerne, obtained the secret and 
 carried it to France and communicated it to the Duke of 
 Mayerne, from whom it passed to his surgeon, who sold it 
 "to divers persons of Quality," through which "the thing 
 being fall'n thus into many hands, remain'd not long in termes 
 of a Secret, but by degrees came to be so divulged that now 
 there is scarce any Country Barber but knows it.""*^ 
 
 The avidity with which the sympathetic powder was sought 
 after by all classes of people was merely one of the signs of the 
 times. Every sort of mysterious curing was in vogue, and it 
 is a wonder that the regular practice of medicine was not 
 completely supplanted and exterminated. With the faith- 
 
 1 Digby, " Of The Powder of Sympathy." 
 2 See " La Poudre de Sympathie Justifi^e." By L'Abb6 Baudelot. Pahs, 1658.
 
 19 
 
 healers all pretense of physical agency was dropped, and even 
 the simple solution of vitriol gave way to the laying-on of 
 hands and stroking.^ Thus there arose a whole tribe of 
 Ophiogenes who, like their prototypes of ancient times, went 
 about extracting the virus and easing the pains of every sort of 
 infection and corruption by the mysterious virtue residing in 
 the tips of their fingers. It is said of Pyrrhus, King of Epi- 
 rus, that he was able to cure certain diseases by the application 
 of the big toe of his right foot. After the same manner the 
 sovereigns of England and France^ had for centuries been ac- 
 customed occasionally to apply a supposed remedial influence, 
 through the touch of the royal hand.'^ But now the mania for 
 supernaturalism, which had become rampant during the time 
 of the Commonwealth, upon the restoration of the Stuarts laid 
 its irresistible grasp upon the king himself, and forced him into 
 an extensive and elaborate conduct of the business usually given 
 over to the professional physicians. An imposing function was 
 carried out at stated intervals, at which crowds of eager invalids, 
 whose expectations of relief had been raised to a feverish point 
 by previous examinations and registrations, were admitted to 
 the presence of his Majesty and the chief officers of state, and, 
 after taking part in a solemn religious service especially ap- 
 pointed for such occasions, and conducted by the court chap- 
 lains, were severally presented to the king by his attending 
 surgeons, and, kneeling, received not only his healing touch 
 upon the affected part, but also golden amulets ^ strung upon 
 silk ribbons which were hung about the recipients' necks. In 
 
 1 See "Wonders no Miracles; or By Henry Stuble, Physician." Oxford, 
 
 Mr. Valentine Greatrakes Gift of Heal- 1666. 
 
 ing examined, Upon occasion of a sad '-^ See Andreas Laurentius, " De Mira- 
 
 effect of his Stroaking, March 7, bili Strumas sanandi vi Solis Galliae 
 
 1665." Regibus Christianissimis divinitus con- 
 Also, " A Brief Account of Mr. Val- cessa." Paris, 1609. 
 
 entine Greatraks and Divers of the 3 See Shakespeare's " Macbeth," Act 
 
 Strange Cures by him lately performed, IV., Scene 3. 
 
 written by Himself." 1666. 4 For pictures of these amulets, see 
 
 And "The Miraculous Conformist: Thomas Joseph Pettigrew, " On Super- 
 
 or An account of several Marvailous stitions connected with the History and 
 
 Cures performed by the stroaking of Practice of Medicine and Surgery." 
 
 the Hands of Mr. Valentine Greatarick. London, 1844.
 
 20 
 
 this way Charles II., during twenty-two years of his reign, 
 from May, 1660, to May, 1682, bestowed his beneficent influ- 
 ence upon 92,107 of his unfortunate subjects. 
 
 Dr. John Browne, "One of His Majestie's Chirurgeons in 
 Ordinary," who took part in these imposing ceremonies, has 
 left an intensely interesting account of the whole matter,' in 
 which he declares: "I do humbly presume to assert that 
 more Souls have been Healed by His Majesties Sacred Hand in 
 one Year, than have ever been cured by all the Physicians and 
 Chirurgions of his three Kingdoms ever since his happy Resto- 
 ration."'" But these cures were not exclusively of what is known 
 as the " King's Evil." Many described as blind are reported to 
 have been restored to sight, and some who came lame were im- 
 mediately able to walk out of the king's presence. Of course 
 Doctor Browne insists that the working of these "miracles" 
 was not only proof of the king's divine right, but also evi- 
 dence of his being " a Holy and good Man. " ^ While he urges 
 that " there is and must be God Almighties hand going along 
 with it," he quaintly but candidly admits, as to the beneficia- 
 ries, the fact of " their Faith being as a great Ingredient to this 
 Composition." He says that some were cured the first time, 
 but others required a second touch; some had strong faith only 
 to be touched at particular times — as on Good Friday; some 
 attached superstitious importance to the gold, and some who 
 did not, and who therefore sold it, had their disease seize them 
 afresh. On the whole, he concludes that the healing power 
 
 1 " Adenochoiradelogia : or An Anat- 3 See " Explicatio totius Quaestionis 
 omick-ChirurgicalTreatise of Glandules de mirabilium sanitatum gratia . . . 
 & Strumaes, or Kings-Evil-Swellings, cui Reges Angliae, rite inaugurati, divi- 
 Together with the Royal Gift of Heal- nitus medicati sunt." By Rev. Ur. Wil- 
 ing, or Cure thereof by Contact or Im- liam Tooker, Chaplain to Queen Eliza- 
 position of Hands, performed for above beth. London, 1597. 
 640 years by our Kings of England," Also, "A Right FrutefuU and ap- 
 &c. London, 1684. prooved Treatise, for the Artificiall 
 
 ■-^ See Badger's " Cases of Cures of the Cure of that Malady called in Latin, 
 
 King's Evil, perfected by the Royal Struma, and in English, the Evill, 
 
 Touch." London, 1748. cured by Kinges and Queenes of 
 
 Also, "A Free and Impartial Enquiry England." By William Clowes, Sur- 
 
 into the Antiquity and Efficacy of geon to Queen Elizabeth. London, 
 
 Touching for the Cure of the King's 1602. 
 Evil." By William Beckett. 1772.
 
 21 
 
 is " not a gift of Nature, but of Grace, neither does it live in 
 Man but in his Maker; not in human confidence, as [to] these 
 Charms and Characters, but in the power of Faith derivative 
 from the Almighty." 
 
 For myself, I believe that cures have been, and are nowa- 
 days, effected by the methods employed by the different 
 species of faith-healers. But I explain such cases upon the 
 principles which have been comprehensively and convincingly 
 expounded by Dr. William B. Carpenter,^ with, perhaps, a 
 reference also to the still later theories respecting that wonder- 
 ful phenomenon known as hypnotism. I admit, however, that it 
 is the old story of escaping one mystery by taking refuge in 
 another. Still, I am not sure that even this is not a strictly 
 scientific process, for Science, as I understand it, does not pre- 
 tend to abolish mysteries, but only to furnish ground for a 
 belief in an unbroken sequence of natural causes, finally ascer- 
 tainable everywhere except as a first cause. Superstition, 
 which is the opposite of Science, is that state of ignorance 
 which argues at once from its own lack of knowledge to the 
 non-existence of a knowable cause. The scientific spirit is 
 that habit of self-restraint which accepts the uniformity of 
 nature as the fulcrum upon which to move its own knowledge 
 to a higher position. Superstition is self-important, and ex- 
 pects nature to change to its requirements. Science is humble 
 and self-abasing, always striving to adjust itself to invariable 
 law. Superstition fixed man and his little world at the center 
 of the universe, but Science disclosed the true path of progress 
 when it demonstrated that everything human and mundane is 
 eternally moving onward through infinite regions of new truth 
 and new experience, inseparably bound, however, to a never- 
 failing source of light and life. Thus it is that the dark days 
 of centuries past can never return, and that Science has gained 
 a supremacy which can never be lost. 
 
 iSee his " Mental Physiology." Also, his " Mesmerism, Spiritualism, &c."
 
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