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THE POWDER OF SYMPATHY: A CURIOUS MEDICAL SUPERSTITION Bygone Beliefs | ||
5. V
THE POWDER OF SYMPATHY: A CURIOUS MEDICAL SUPERSTITION
OUT of the superstitions of the past the science of the present has gradually evolved. In the Middle Ages, what by courtesy we may term medical science was, as we have seen, little better than a heterogeneous collection of superstitions, and although various reforms were instituted with the passing of time, superstition still continued for long to play a prominent part in medical practice.
One of the most curious of these old medical (or perhaps I should say surgical) superstitions was that relating to the Powder of Sympathy, a remedy (?) chiefly remembered in connection with the name of Sir KENELM DIGBY (1603-1665), though he was probably not the first to employ it. The Powder itself, which was used as a cure for wounds, was, in fact, nothing else than common vitriol,[46] though an im-
Sir KENELM DIGBY appears to have delivered a
discourse dealing with the famous Powder before a
learned assembly at Montpellier in France; at least
a work purporting to be a translation of such a discourse
was published in 1658,[47] and further editions
appeared in 1660 and 1664. KENELM was a son
of the Sir EVERARD DIGBY (1578-1606) who was
executed for his share in the Gunpowder Plot. In
spite of this fact, however, JAMES I. appears to have
regarded him with favour. He was a man of romantic
temperament, possessed of charming manners,
considerable learning, and even greater credulity.
His contemporaries seem to have differed in their
opinions concerning him. EVELYN (1620-1706), the
diarist, after inspecting his chemical laboratory,
rather harshly speaks of him as "an errant mountebank".
Elsewhere he well refers to him as "a teller
PLATE 9
[Description: FIG. 15. Sir KENELM DIGBY, from an engraved Portrait by HOUBRAKEN,
after VANDYKE.]
To return to the Late Discourse: after some preliminary remarks, Sir KENELM records a cure which he claims to have effected by means of the Powder. It appears that JAMES HOWELL (1594-1666, afterwards historiographer royal to CHARLES II.), had, in the attempt to separate two friends engaged in a duel, received two serious wounds in the hand. To proceed in the writer's own words:—"It was my chance to be lodged hard by him; and four or five days after, as I was making myself ready, he [Mr Howell] came to my House, and prayed me to view his wounds; for I understand, said he, that you have extraordinary remedies upon such occasions, and my Surgeons apprehend some fear, that it may grow to a Gangrene, and so the hand must be cut off....
"I asked him then for any thing that had the blood upon it, so he presently sent for his Garter, wherewith his hand was first bound: and having called for a Bason of water, as if I would wash my hands; I took an handful! of Powder of Vitrol, which I had in my study, and presently dissolved it. As soon as the bloody garter was brought me, I put it within the Bason, observing in the interim what Mr Howel did, who stood talking with a Gentleman in the corner of my Chamber, not regarding at all what I was doing: but he started suddenly, as if he had found some strange alteration in himself; I asked him what he ailed? I know not what ailes me, but I
Sir KENELM proceeds, in this discourse, to relate
PLATE 10
[Description: FIG. 16. JAMES HOWELL, from an engraved Portrait by CLAUDE MELAN and
ABRAHAM BOSSE.
(By permission of the British Museum. Photo by Donald Macbeth,
London.)]
The belief in cure by sympathy, however, is much older than DIGBY'S or TALBOT'S Sympathetic Powder. PARACELSUS described an ointment consisting essentially of the moss on the skull of a man who had died a violent death, combined with boar's and bear's fat, burnt worms, dried boar's brain, red sandal-wood and mummy, which was used to cure (?) wounds in a similar manner, being applied to the weapon with which the hurt had been inflicted. With reference to this ointment, readers will probably recall the passage in SCOTT'S Lay of the Last Minstrel (canto 3, stanza 23), respecting the magical cure of WILLIAM of DELORAINE'S wound by "the Ladye of Branksome":—
And with a charm she stanch'd the blood;
She bade the gash be cleans'd and bound:
No longer by his couch she stood;
But she had 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,
Whene'er she turned it round and round,
Twisted as if she gall'd his wound.
Then to her maidens she did say
That he should be whole man and sound
Within the course of a night and day.
Full long she toil'd; for she did rue
Mishap to friend so stout and true."
FRANCIS BACON (1561-1626) writes of sympathetic
cures as follows:—"It is constantly Received, and
Avouched, that the Anointing of the Weapon, that
maketh the Wound, wil heale the Wound it selfe. In
this Experiment, upon the Relation of Men of Credit,
PLATE 11
[Description: FIG. 17. NATHANAEL HIGHMORE, M.D.. from an engraved Portrait by A. BLOOTELING.
(By permission of the British Museum. Photo by Donald Macbeth, London.)]
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.
PLATE 12
[Description: FIG. 18. FRANCIS BACON, from the Frontispiece to his Sylva Sylvarum
(6th edition 1651).]
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."[52] As Dr PETTIGREW has pointed out,[53] 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
Green vitriol, ferrous sulphate heptahydrate, a compound of iron, sulphur, and oxygen, crystallised with seven molecules of water, represented by the formula FeSO4 . 7H2O. On exposure to the air it loses water, and is gradually converted into basic ferric sulphate. For long, green vitriol was confused with blue vitriol, which generally occurs as an impurity in crude green vitriol. Blue vitriol is copper sulphate pentahydrate, CuSO4 . 5H2O.
A late Discourse . . . by Sir KENELM DIGBY{sic}, Kt. &c. Touching the Cure of Wounds by the Powder of Sympathy . . . rendered . . . out of French into English by R. WHITE, Gent. (1658). This is entitled the second edition, but appears to have been the first.
This advertisement is as follows: "These are to give notice, that Sir Kenelme Digbies Sympathetical Powder prepar'd by Promethean fire, curing all green wounds that come within the compass of a Remedy; and likewise the Tooth-ache infallibly in a very short time: Is to be had at Mr Nathanael Brook's at the Angel in Cornhil."
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THE POWDER OF SYMPATHY: A CURIOUS MEDICAL SUPERSTITION Bygone Beliefs | ||