Dodge City times. [volume] (Dodge City, Kan.) 1876-1892, 1891-03-06
OLD-TIME FAITH CURlSTS.

Ofntment-Royal Laying On Of Hands.
Some marvellous faith-curc recipes O.
the middle ages were recently read be
fore the American Folklore society a
Hamilton Hall, Columbia college. The
title of the paper was Faith Healin,
in the Sixteenth and Seventeenth Cent
uries," and the author showed that the
laying on of hands, the curing of the
absent, and other of the schemes of the
modern faith curists were in vogue sew
eral centuries ago.
In the dark days of the middle age.
there were different ways of curing
toothache. One way was to rub the
gums of the afflicted person until the
gum bled with certain root possessing
supposedly magical qualities. This
having been accomplished the root was
to be buried in the ground with the
blood on it. The burial of the root
with the blood upon it was be.
lieved to afford immunity from a
second attack of toothache. Another
method was frequently employed in
dealing with this ailment. The gum
was pricked until it bled with a black
thorn or willow splint, which latter
was then grated on the parent bush or
tree.
There flourished in the sixteenth cent
ury wonderful quack named Paracel-
sus, whose fame as a curer was world
wide. He pretended to he able to cure
every disease under the sun, and his
chief medicine was called by him a
Sympathetic ointment" 1t was COM
posed as follows:
Moss from the skull or bones of a
skeleton that had lain for some time in
the open air, mans grease, mummy's
blood, mans blood, linseed oil, oil of
roses, bole armOniack.
These cheerful ingredients were to be
mixed in a mortar, in the proportion of
three drachms of each, and, after being
compounded into a pure and subtle
ointment, were to be inclosed in q
box and set away, like jar of
preserves, for future use. Whenever
e. person came to Paracelsus af-
fiicted with a grievous cut or other in
jury the learned quack would gravely
jab stick into the blood of the patient.
AS soon as the blood was dry on the
stick Paracelsus would thrust the stick
into his sympathetic ointment. This
proceeding caused the wound or injury
to speedily and permanently heal.
Like all great men Paracelsus had q
horde of followers, and when their
leader departed his life some of his
imitators introduced new ingredient
into the sympathetic ointment, or,
rather, they substituted an ingredient
Whereas, formerly it had been deemed
sufficient to take moss from any skull
or skeleton exposed for time to the
air, the second generation of quacks
gave il out that an ordinary skeleton
had no virtue. Only moss, they de-
clared. that had come from the skull Of
one who had been hanged was effica-
cious, their reason for this being that
hanging produced strangulation and
strangulation drove the vital spirit" of
the victims body up into his skull,
where they remained for . period of
six years, 50 that moss of this descrip-
ton maintained its mysterious remedial
properties for six years
From rare chronicles of those days
was read number of quaint accounts
of cures of wounds by the use of the
ointment and the strange sympathetic
power that came into use later. There
was q laborer in Kent who cut his ankle
with an axe. The axe, with the blood
on it, was carried post haste to q faith
curer," who dressed the implement
with the ointment, whereupon, by uni
versal testimony, the wound on the an
kle began to heal But the curer, &C
cidentally scrapinS the ointment from
the axe with hir sword, straightway
there came = msu running from the
patients house 10 say that the wound
was worse. Tho axe was bathed once
Doge In ointment and the wound IN