owder; nor does it appear to have been DIGBY who
brought the claims of the Sympathetic Powder before the notice of
the then recently-formed Royal Society, although he was a by no means
inactive member of the Society. HIGHMORE, however, in the Appendix
to the work referred to above, does refer to DIGBY'S reputed cure of
HOWELL'S wounds already mentioned; and after the publication of DIGBY'S
_Discourse_ the Powder became generally known as Sir KENELM DIGBY'S
Sympathetic Powder. As such it is referred to in an advertisement
appended to _Wit and Drollery_ (1661) by the bookseller, NATHANAEL
BROOK.(1)

(1) 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_."

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":--

"She drew the splinter from the wound
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 o