In this _Experiment_, upon the Relation of _Men of Credit_, (though my selfe, as yet, am not fully inclined to beleeve it,)you shal note the _Points_ following; First, the _Ointment_ . . . is made of Divers _ingredients_; whereof the Strangest and Hardest to come by, are the Mosse upon the _Skull_ of a _dead Man, Vnburied_; And the _Fats_of a _Boare_, and a _Beare_, killed in the _Act of Generation_. These Two last I could easily suspect to be prescribed as a Starting Hole; That if the _Experiment_ proved not, it mought be pretended, that the _Beasts_were not killed in due Time; For as for the _Mosse_, it is certain there is great Quantity of it in _Ireland_, upon _Slain Bodies_, laid on _Heaps, Vnburied_. The other _Ingredients_ are, the _Bloud-Stone_in _Powder_, and some other _Things_, which seeme to have a _Vertue_to _Stanch Bloud_; As also the _Mosse_ hath.... Secondly, the same _kind_ of _Ointment_, applied to the Hurt it selfe, worketh not the _Effect_; but onely applied to the _Weapon_..... Fourthly, it may be applied to the _Weapon_, though the Party Hurt be at a great Distance. Fifthly, it seemeth the _Imagination_ of the Party, to be _Cured_, is not needful! to Concurre; For it may be done without the knowledge of the _Party Wounded_; And thus much hath been tried, that the _Ointment_ (for _Experiments_ sake,) hath been wiped off the _Weapon_, without the knowledge of the _Party Hurt_, and presently the _Party Hurt_, hath been in great _Rage of Paine_, till the _Weapon_ was _Reannointed_. Sixthly, it is affirmed, that if you cannot get the _Weapon_, yet if you put an _Instrument_of _Iron_, or _Wood_, resembling the _Weapon_, into the _Wound_, whereby it bleedeth, the _Annointing_ of that _Instrument_ will serve, and work the _Effect_. This I doubt should be a Device, to keep this strange _Forme of Cure_, in Request, and Use; Because many times you cannot come by the _Weapon_ it selve. Seventhly, the _Wound_ be at first _Washed clean_ with _White Wine_ or the _Parties_ own _Water_; And then bound up close in _Fine Linen_ and no more _Dressing_ renewed, till it be _whole_."[1]
[1] FRANCIS BACON: _Sylva Sylvarum: or, A Natural History . . .
Published after the Authors death . . . The sixt Edition_ ?. .
(1651), p. 217.
Owing to the demand for making this ointment, quite a considerable trade was done in skulls from Ireland upon which moss had grown owing to their exposure to the atmosphere, high prices being obtained for fine specimens.
The idea underlying the belief in the efficacy of sympathetic remedies, namely, that by acting on part of a thing or on a symbol of it, one thereby acts magically on the whole or the thing symbolised, is the root-idea of all magic, and is of extreme antiquity.
DIGBY and others, however, tried to give a natural explanation to the supposed efficacy of the Powder. They argued that particles of the blood would ascend from the bloody cloth or weapon, only coming to rest when they had reached their natural home in the wound from which they had originally issued.
These particles would carry with them the more volatile part of the vitriol, which would effect a cure more readily than when combined with the grosser part of the vitriol.
In the days when there was hardly any knowledge of chemistry and physics, this theory no doubt bore every semblance of truth.
In passing, however, it is interesting to note that DIGBY'S _Discourse_ called forth a reply from J. F. HELVETIUS(or SCHWETTZER, 1625-1709), physician to the Prince of Orange, who afterwards became celebrated as an alchemist who had achieved the magnum opus.[1]
[1] See my _Alchemy: Ancient and Modern_ (1911), SESE 63-67.
Writing of the Sympathetic Powder, Professor DE MORGAN wittily argues that it must have been quite efficacious. He says:
"The directions were to keep the wound clean and cool, and to take care of diet, rubbing the salve on the knife or sword.
If we remember the dreadful notions upon drugs which prevailed, both as to quantity and quality, we shall readily see that any way of NOT dressing the wound would have been useful.
If the physicians had taken the hint, had been careful of diet, _etc_., and had poured the little barrels of medicine down the throat of a practicable doll, THEY would have had their magical cures as well as the surgeons."[2] As Dr PETTIGREW has pointed out,[3]
Nature exhibits very remarkable powers in effecting the healing of wounds by adhesion, when her processes are not impeded.
In fact, many cases have been recorded in which noses, ears, and fingers severed from the body have been rejoined thereto, merely by washing the parts, placing them in close continuity, and allowing the natural powers of the body to effect the healing.
Moreover, in spite of BACON'S remarks on this point, the effect of the imagination of the patient, who was usually not ignorant that a sympathetic cure was to be attempted, must be taken into account; for, without going to the excesses of "Christian Science"in this respect, the fact must be recognised that the state of the mind exercises a powerful effect on the natural forces of the body, and a firm faith is undoubtedly helpful in effecting the cure of any sort of ill.
[2] Professor AUGUSTUS DE MORGAN: _A Budget of Paradoxes_(1872), p 66.
[3] THOMAS JOSEPH PETTIGREW, F.R.S.: _On Superstitions connected with the History and Practice of Medicine and Surgery_(1844), pp. 164-167.
