repared with mysterious ceremonies.

According to popular report, the recipe was brought from the East by a
Carmelite friar, and was introduced in England by Sir Kenelm Digby, a
noted chemist and philosopher of the seventeenth century, who was also a
Gentleman of the Bedchamber of Charles I. He published a volume on the
healing of wounds by means of this preparation. Portions of the
patient's bloodstained apparel were immersed in a solution of the
sympathetic powder, the wound meantime being cleansed and bandaged. A
strictly enforced regimen also formed part of the treatment.

As may readily be inferred, this wonderful powder, like the
weapon-salve, was equally efficacious, whether used at a distance from
the patient, or near by.

But it has ever been true, that the positive and reiterated assertions
of a charlatan will usually avail to delude not only the wonder-loving
public, but even persons of intellect and distinction. The secret of the
sympathetic powder became known to Dr. Theodore Turquet de Mayerne (at
one time the chief physician of James I), who is said to have derived
considerable profit from the sale of this once famous nostrum.[146:1]

The system of therapeutics known as Mesmerism, originated by Friedrich
Anton Mesmer (1733-1815), a German physician, affords a notable example
of the influence of the mind upon the body through the imagination. In
its essential principles, it does not materially differ from the ancient
method of healing by laying-on of hands. As a young man Mesmer became
interested in astrology, believing that the stars exert, according to
their relative position at certain times, a direct influence upon human
beings. He at first identified this supposed force with electricity, and
afterwards with magnetism. Later he claimed to be endowed with a
mysterious power available for the cure of various diseases. Removing to
Paris in 1778, Mesmer at once began to demonstrate his theories,
maintaining that he was able to exercise a therapeutic effect upon his
patients, by virtue of a magnetic fluid proceeding from him, or simply
by the domination of his will over that of the patient.

He asserted that the magnetic fluid is the medium of a mutual influence
between the stars, the earth, and human beings. By insinuating itself
into the substance of the nerves of the human body, it affects them at
once, being moreover capable of communication from one body to other
bodies, animate or inanimate. It pe