e influence of imagination; and the wearing of
gold.

To these objections he answers, 1st. That many of those cured were
inhabitants of the city. 2d. That the subjects of treatment were
frequently infants. 3d. That sometimes silver was given, and sometimes
nothing, yet the patients were cured.

A superstition resembling this probably exists at the present time
in some ignorant districts of England and this country. A writer in a
Medical Journal in the year 1807, speaks of a farmer in Devonshire, who,
being a ninth son of a ninth son, is thought endowed with healing powers
like those of ancient royalty, and who is accustomed one day in every
week to strike for the evil.

I remember that one of my schoolmates told me, when a boy, of a seventh
son of a seventh son, somewhere in Essex County, who touched for the
scrofula, and who used to hang a silver fourpence halfpenny about the
neck of those who came to him, which fourpence halfpenny it was solemnly
affirmed became of a remarkably black color after having been some time
worn, and that his own brother had been subjected to this extraordinary
treatment; but I must add that my schoolmate drew a bow of remarkable
length, strength, and toughness for his tender years.

One of the most curious examples of the fallacy of popular belief and
the uncertainty of asserted facts in medical experience is to be found
in the history of the UNGUENTUM ARMARIUM, or WEAPON OINTMENT.

Fabricius Hildanus, whose name is familiar to every surgical scholar,
and Lord Bacon, who frequently dipped a little into medicine, are
my principal authorities for the few circumstances I shall mention
regarding it. The Weapon Ointment was a preparation used for the healing
of wounds, but instead of its being applied to them, the injured
part was washed and bandaged, and the weapon with which the wound was
inflicted was carefully anointed with the unguent. Empirics, ignorant
barbers, and men of that sort, are said to have especially employed it.
Still there were not wanting some among the more respectable members of
the medical profession who supported its claims. The composition of this
ointment was complicated, in the different formulae given by different
authorities; but some substances addressed to the imagination, rather
than the wound or weapon, entered into all. Such were portions of mummy,
of human blood, and of moss from the skull of a thief hung in chains.

Hildanus was a wise and learned man, o