The Republican journal. [volume] (Belfast, Me.) 1829-current, 1897-09-23
the caldron: Human fat, human blood,

mummy, the moss that grows in dead
mems skulls or hog brains, and the chief
schism among the great masters of the
sympathetic school arose from the ques-
tion-whether it was necessary that the
moss should grow absolutely in the skull
of the thief who had hung on the gallows,
and whether the medicine, while COM
pounding, was to be stirred with muir
derer' knife? Some, anxious to avoid the
strong charges which were urged against
this practice, defended it on philosophical
principles, and from the analogy of other
natural operations. Any lutte, said they,
being tuned in unison with another, is af-
fected when the other is struck; the mag
net turns by sympathy to the pole; amber
attracts light bodies; loadstones hung to
the breast make us cheerful and merry,
and the wearing of jewels secures chasti-
ty. All acknowledged sympathetic cures
were successful, and the established sur
geons of that day refused to practice the
treatment only because it was impious
and unlawful; for, said they, how can we
contradict matters of fact?
1.-The second of the great medical delu-
sionS in question was that which attrib-
uted to the royal touch Il sanative power
in scrofulous cases. This is supposed to
have been a monkish invention to increase
the reverence for kings, and was practiced
ia England and France. Beckett a writer
in the time of Charles H., fully describes
the royal gift of touching for the evil,
which gift had been confirmed and con
tinued for $50 years, (Scrofula was thus
known by the name of kings eyil.) 1t is
proved. he tells us, out of the Corinthians
I .hnn vii t1'n bpr tba Ci #
to healing by the same spirit and they
must needs be allowed no good subjects
who dare deny this sanative faculty, when
so many thousands had received benefit!
'Clovis l., the fifth king of France
who resigned about 500 years after the
birth of Christ. is reported to have been
the first who had the gift of curing this
disease. William of Malmesbury states
that Edward the Confessor was the first
in England who healed strumous patients
by the touch. Dr.. Plott describes piece
of gold of this monarch, found in ST.
Giles Fields, near Oxford, having e. c.
over the head, as well as two small holes
through it, by which it was hung on
riband, and used at the ceremony of touch
ing for the evil. Some have considered
this gift as the most etficacious part of
the cure; others imagined that the success
was principally owing to the sign of the
cross made on the swellings. The power
of healing by the royal touch does not
seem to have been very frequently prac-
ticed till the time of Charles |. and H.,
after which it almost ceased.
''Mr. Evelyn gives full description of
the ceremony, which is not without in
terest as showing how bit of royal hum
buggery was perpetrated. His majesty
says he, began to touch for the evil ac-
cording to custom thus: His majesty,
sitting under his state in the Banqueting
House, the Outrageous cause the sick to
be brought or led up to the throne, where,
they kneeling, the King strokes their
faces or cheeks with both his hands at
once, at which instant chaplain, in his
formalities, says: ''He put his hands
upon them, and he healed them This
is said to every one in particular. When
they have all been touched they come up
again in the same order, and the other
chaplain, kneeling, and having angels of
gold strung on white ribands on his arm,
delivers them one by one to his majesty,
who puts them about the necks Of the
touched as they pass, whilst the first
chaplain repeats. mat is the true
light who came into the world' Then
follows an episte, with the liturgy, and
prayers for the sick, with some alteration;
lastly the blessing. Then the lord cham
beIlain and comptroller of the household
bring basin, ever and fowl for his majes-
ty to wash. John Bird says the King ex.
presses his belief in the cure being effected
through the grace of God, saying at the
of ba
heals One of the historians of the
royal touch gives table Of the number of
persons touched by Charles Ii. from Nav.
1860, TO 1850, distinguishing the exact
number of each year. The grand total
amounts to the incredible number of 92.
l07, at the average of y every day.
''But i'll time royalty seems to have lost
the monopoly of healing by touch, and
quite a number set up the business of
healing by touch. The seventh sons of
seventh sons were supposed to have more
than usual virtue inherent in them. One
Valentine Greatrakes, called the strok-
er,' went from his native Ireland to Eng
land, and is said to have made great
cures. | think, however, that we have
discussed the deeds of this magnetic heal
er before. A Mr.. Morley wrote on the
Vi Ntres of the vervian root as an effectual
CT for scrofula. 4 recommend says
he, "a piece Of the root of the common
purple vervian, fresh, about three or four
inches long, all the fibres to be cut off,
and it is to be always worn at the pit of
the stomach, tied with one yard of white
satin riband, half-inch wide; no other
color is proper, because the dye may be
prejudicial.''
sit is the fate of all useful discoveries
or Improvements to meet with bigoted or
interested opposition from those who
would willingly remain in the beaten path
of habit rather than acknowledge any
change to be profitable. That most i'm
portant discovery of the circulation of the
blood by Harvey was at first furiously OPP
posed, and was proved, according to the
laws of hydraulics, to be both impossible
and absurd; yet when it was vain to dis
pute the fact, it was undervalued, as one
almost knows long before incubation,
it is we'll known, as means of rendering
smallpox less severe, was introduced into
England by Lady Mary Wortley Mon
tague, who had frequent opportunities Of
seeing the operation performed when re-
siding in Constantinople with her hus-
band, the English ambassador there. She
was so thoroughly convinced of the safety
Of this practice, that she resolved to sub
NIT her only son to it, a boy about years