Part 21
‘Hath a most excellent Wash to beautifie the Face, which cures all Redness, Flushings, or Pimples. Takes off any Yellowness, Morpheu, Sunburn, or Spots on the Skin, and takes away Wrinckles and Driness, caused too often by Mercurial Poysonous Washes, rendring the worst of Faces fair and tender, and preserves ’em so. You may have from half a Crown to five Pound a Bottle. You may also have Night Masks, Forehead Pieces, incomparable whitepots, and Red Pomatum for the lips, which keeps them all the Year plump and smooth, and of a delicate natural colour. She has an admirable Paste to smooth and whiten the Hands, with a very good Tooth powder, which cleanses and whitens the Teeth. And a Water to wash the Mouth, which prevents the Scurvy in the Gums and cures where ’tis already come.
‘You may have a Plaster and Water which takes off Hair from any part of the Body, so that it shall never come again. She has also a most excellent Secret to prevent the Hair from falling, causing it to grow where it is wanting in any part of the Head. She also shapes the Eye-brows, making them perfectly beautiful, without any pain, and raises low Foreheads as high as you please. And colours Grey or Red Hair to a lovely Brown, which never decays, changes, or smoots the Linnen. She has excellent Cosmeticks to anoint the Face after the _Small Pox_, which wears out any Scars, Marks, or Redness; and has great skill in all manner of sore Eyes.
‘She has a most excellent Dyet Drink which cures the worst of Consumptions, or any Impurity of the Blood: And an Antiscorbutick spirit, which, being taken one spoonful in the Morning, and another at Night, with moderate Exercise, cures the _Scurvy_, tho’ never so far gone, and all broke out in Blotches: with many other Secrets in Physick, which you may be satisfied in when you speak with her.... She has an approved Remedy for Barrenness in Women.’
Very late in the preceding century (he died May 12, 1691), there was a most famous quack, Dr. Thomas Saffold, one of whose handbills I give as a curiosity:
‘Dear Friends, let your Disease be what God will, Pray to Him for a Cure--try _Saffold’s_ Skill, Who may be such a healing Instrument As will Cure you to your own Heart’s Content. His Medicines are Cheap, and truly Good, Being full as safe as your daily Food. Saffold he can do what may be done, by Either Physick or true Astrology: His Best Pills, Rare Elixirs, and Powder, Do each Day Praise him Lowder and Lowder. Dear Country-men, I pray be you so Wise, } When Men Back-bite him, believe not their Lyes, } But go see him and believe your own Eyes; } Then he will say you are Honest and Kind, Try before you Judge, and Speak as you Find.
‘By _Thomas Saffold_, an Approved and Licensed Physician and Student in Astrology, who (through God’s Mercy), to do good, still liveth at the _Black Ball_ and Old _Lilly’s Head_, next Door to the Feather-Shops that are within _Black-fryers_ Gate-way, which is over against _Ludgate_ Church, just by _Ludgate_ in _London_. Of him the Poor, Sore, Sick, and Lame may have Advice for nothing, and proper Medicines for every particular Distemper, at reasonable Rates ready prepared, with plain Directions how to use them, to cure either Men, Women, or Children of any Disease or Diseases afflicting any Body, whether inward or outward, of what Name or Nature soever (if Curable); Also of this you may be sure, he hath Medicines to prevent as well as Cure.
‘Lastly, He doth with great certainty and privacy: Resolve all manner of Lawful Questions, according to the Rules of Christian Astrology, and more than Twenty One Years’ Experience.’
Talk of modern quacks--they are but second-rate to Saffold! His _Pillulæ Londinenses_, or London pills, were advertised that ‘not only the meaner sort of all Ages and each Sex, but people of Eminence, both for their Rank in the World and their parts, have found admirable success in taking these Pills.’
This _panacea_ was warranted to cure ‘Gout, Dropsy, Coma, Lethargy, Caries, Apoplexy, Palsy, Convulsions, Falling Sickness, Vertigo, Madness, Catarrhs, Headache, Scald, and Sore Heads, sore Eyes, Deafness, Toothache, sore Mouth, sore and swollen Throat, foul Stomach, bad Digestion, Vomiting, Pain at the Stomach, sour Belching, Colic, Twisting of the Guts, Looseness, Worms, all Obstructions of the Pancreas, of the Mesaraic Veins, of the passages of the Chyle, and of the Liver and Spleen, the Jaundice, Cachexy, Hypochondriac Melancholy, Agues, Itch, Boils, Rheumatism, Pains and Aches, Surfeits by Eating and Hard Drinking, or by Heats and Colds (as some call them).’
Then there comes a charming bit of candour almost sufficient to disarm the unwary: ‘They are also good in taking the Waters. I would not advise them by any means in the Bloody Flux, nor in continual Fevers, but they are good to purge after either of those Diseases is over, or to carry off the Humor aforehand. They must also be foreborn by Women with Child. Otherwise they are good for any Constitution, and in any Clime. They are Durable many years, and good at Sea as well as on Land.’
Thomas Saffold knew well the value of advertising, and scattered his very varied handbills broadcast. Presumably, like modern quacks, he made money. Of course he died, and his epitaph is as follows (he originally was a weaver):
‘Here lies the Corpse of Thomas Saffold, By Death, in spite of Physick, baffled; Who, leaving off his working loom, Did learned doctor soon become. To poetry he made pretence, Too plain to any man’s own sense; But he when living thought it sin To hide his talent in napkin; Now Death does Doctor (poet) crowd Within the limits of a shroud.’
There was a harmless remedy advertised, even though it was a fraud--and this was the loan, or sale, of necklaces to be worn by children in teething.
THE FAMOUS AND VIRTUOUS NECKLACES.
‘One of them being of no greater weight than a small _Nutmeg_, absolutely easing Children in Breeding _Teeth_ without _Pain_; thereby preventing _Feavers_, _Ruptures_, _Convulsions_, _Rickets_, and such attendant Distempers, to the Admiration of thousands of the City of _London_, and Counties adjoining, who have experienced the same, to their great comfort and satisfaction of the Parents of the Children who have used them. Besides the Decrease in the _Bills of Mortality_, apparent (within this Year and a half) of above one half of what formerly Dyed; and are now Exposed to sale for the Publick good, at _five shillings_ each _Necklace_, &c.’
Then there was a far higher-priced necklace, but, as it also operated on adults, it was perhaps stronger and more efficacious. ‘A necklace that cures all sorts of fits in children, occasioned by Teeth or any other Cause; as also Fits in Men and Women. To be had at Mr. Larance’s in Somerset Court, near Northumberland House in the Strand; price ten shillings for eight days, though the cure will be performed immediately.’ And there was the famous ‘_Anodyne Necklace_.’
In the preceding century there were some famous quacks, notably Sir Kenelm Digby, who, with his sympathetic powder, worked wonders, especially one instance, an account of which he read to a learned society at Montpellier. He recounted how a certain learned gentleman, named Howell, found two of his friends engaged in a duel with swords, how he rushed to part them, and catching hold of one of their blades, his hand was severely cut, the other antagonist cutting him severely on the back of his hand. Seeing the mischief they had done, they bound up his hand with his garter, and took him home. Mr. Howell was of such note that the King sent his own physician to him, but without avail; and there was expectation that the hand would mortify and have to be amputated. Here Sir Kenelm, who knew him, stepped in, and, being applied to by his friend to try his remedies, consented. Let him tell his own tale.
‘I asked him then for anything that had blood upon it; so he presently sent for his garter, wherewith his hand was first bound, and as I called for a basin of water, as if I would wash my hands, I took a handful of powder of vitriol, which I had in my study, and presently dissolved it. As soon as the bloody garter was brought me, I put it in the basin, observing, in the interim, what Mr. Howell did, who stood talking with a gentleman in a corner of my chamber, not regarding at all what I was doing. He started suddenly, as if he had found some strange alteration in himself. I asked him what he ailed.
‘“I know not what ails me; but I feel no more pain. Methinks that a pleasing kind of freshness, as it were a wet cold napkin, did spread over my hand, which hath taken away the inflammation that tormented me before.”
‘I replied, “Since, then, you feel already so much good of my medicament, I advise you to cast away all your plasters; only keep the wound clean, and in a moderate temper, betwixt heat and cold.”
‘This was presently reported to the Duke of Buckingham, and, a little after, to the King, who were both very curious to know the circumstances of the business; which was, that after dinner, I took the garter out of the water, and put it to dry before a great fire. It was scarce dry before Mr. Howell’s servant came running, and saying that his master felt as much burning as ever he had done, if not more; for the heat was such as if his hand were betwixt coals of fire. I answered that although that had happened at present, yet he should find ease in a short time; for I knew the reason of this new accident, and would provide accordingly; for his master should be free from that inflammation, it might be, before he could possibly return to him; but, in case he found no ease, I wished him to come presently back again; if not, he might forbear coming. Thereupon he went; and, at the instant, I did put the garter again into the water; thereupon he found his master without any pain at all. To be brief, there was no sense of pain afterwards; but within five or six days the wounds were cicatrized, and entirely healed.’
Faith worked wonders, and a credulous imagination formed an excellent foundation for healing. Take another instance in the same century--the case of Valentine Greatraks (who cured by the imposition of hands), who was nearly contemporary with Sir Kenelm. It would serve no good purpose to go minutely into his history: suffice it to say that he was an Irishman of good family, and, as a young man, served under Cromwell. After the disbandment of the army he was made Clerk of the Peace for the County of Cork, Registrar for Transplantation (ejection of Papists who would not go to church) and Justice of the Peace, so that we see he occupied a respectable position in society.
After Greatraks settled down in his civil capacity, he seems to have been a blameless member of society; but his religious convictions were extremely rabid, and strong on the Protestant side. Writing in 1668, he says: ‘About four years since I had an Impulse, or a strange perswasion, in my own mind (of which I am not able to give any rational account to another) which did very frequently suggest to me that there was bestowed on me the gift of curing the King’s Evil: which, for the extraordinariness of it, I thought fit to conceal for some time, but at length I communicated this to my Wife, and told her, That I did verily believe that God had given me the blessing of curing the King’s Evil; for, whether I were in private or publick, sleeping or waking, still I had the same Impulse; but her reply was to me, That she conceived this was a strange imagination: but, to prove the contrary, a few daies after there was one _William Maher_ of _Salterbridge_, in the Parish of _Lissmore_, that brought his Son _William Maher_ to my house, desiring my Wife to cure him, who was a person ready to afford her Charity to her Neighbours, according to her small skill in Chirurgery; on which my Wife told me there was one that had the King’s Evil very grievously in the Eyes, Cheek, and Throat; whereupon I told her that she should now see whether this were a bare fancy, or imagination, as she thought it, or the Dictates of God’s Spirit on my heart; and thereupon I laid my hands on the places affected, and prayed to God for Jesus’ sake to heal him, and then I bid the Parent two or three days afterwards to bring the Child to me again, which accordingly he did, and then I saw the Eye was almost quite whole, and the Node, which was almost as big as a Pullet’s Egg, was suppurated, and the throat strangely amended, and, to be brief (to God’s glory I speak it), within a month discharged itself quite, and was perfectly healed, and so continues, God be praised.’
This may be taken as a sample of his cures, albeit his first; and, although he excited the enmity of the licensed medical profession, he seems to have cured the Countess of Conway of an inveterate head-ache, which greatly enhanced his reputation. He died no one knows when, but some time early in the century.
And in our time, too, have been the quacks, the Zouave Jacob and Dr. Newton, who pretended to have the miraculous gift of healing by the imposition of hands, so that we can scarcely wonder that, in an age when the dissemination of accurate and scientific knowledge as the present is (imperfect though it be), a man like Valentine Greatraks was believed in as of almost divine authority at the period at which he lived. But it is a very curious thing that some men either imagine that they have, or feign to have a miraculous gift of healing. Witness in our own day the ‘Peculiar People,’ who base their peculiar gift of healing on a text from the Epistle of St. James, chap. 5, v. 14--‘Is any sick among you? let him call upon the elders of the Church; and let them pray over him, anointing him with oil in the name of the Lord.’
So also the _Catholic and Apostolic Church_ (Irvingites) teach this practice as a dogma, vide their catechism,[100] ‘What are the benefits to be derived from this rite?’ ‘St. James teaches us again that the prayer of faith shall save the sick, and the Lord shall raise him up; and, if he have committed sins, they shall be forgiven him.’ After this, who can say that the age of faith is passed away?
With them, also, is a great function for the benediction of oil for anointing the sick; the rubric for which is as follows:[101] ‘In the Celebration of the Holy Eucharist on a Week-day, immediately before the elements are brought up and placed on the Altar, the Elder or Elders present shall bring the vessel containing the oil to the Angel, who shall present it uncovered upon the Altar; and then kneeling down at the Altar, and the Elders kneeling down at the access to the Sanctuary, the Angel shall say this PRAYER OF BENEDICTION.’
Here follows a not very long prayer, in which the Almighty is intreated to impart to the oil the virtue which is dogmatically asserted that it possesses, in the catechism. The rubric then continues, ‘The oil which has been blessed shall remain on the Altar until after the Service, and shall then be delivered by the Angel to the senior Elder, that it may be reverently carried to the Sacristy, and there deposited in the proper place by the Angel.’
In the ‘Order for anointing the Sick’ (p. 602), the rubric says: ‘This rite shall be administered only to such as have, in time past, received the Holy Communion, or to whom it is intended presently to administer the Communion; also, only in such cases of sickness as are of a serious or dangerous character. In order to the receiving of the rite, opportunity should, if possible, be previously given to the sick person to make confession of his sins.
‘A table should be provided in the sick person’s room, with a clean cloth thereon, upon which may be placed the vessel of holy oil.... The Elder in charge shall be accompanied, when possible, by the other Elders, the Pastor, and the Deacon.’
A somewhat lengthy service follows, and in the middle is this rubric: ‘Then the Elders present shall anoint the sick person with the oil on the head or forehead, and, if the sick person request it, also on any part affected.’ And it winds up with the subjoined direction, ‘All the holy oil that shall remain after the anointing shall be forthwith consumed by Fire.’
I had intended to confine my subject entirely to English quacks, but the name of Mesmer is so allied to quackery in England that I must needs refer to him. He was born at Merseburg in Germany on May 23, 1733, and died at the same place March 5, 1815. He studied medicine, and took a doctor’s degree in 1766. He started his extraordinary theory in 1772 by publishing a tract entitled, ‘_De Planetarium_ _Influxu_,’ in which he upheld that tides exist in the air as in the sea, and were similarly produced. He maintained that the sun and the moon acted upon an etherial fluid which penetrated everything, and this force he termed _Animal Magnetism_. But there is every reason to believe that he was indebted for his discovery to a Jesuit father named Hel, who was professor of astronomy at Vienna. Hel used peculiarly made steel plates, which he applied to different portions of his patient’s body. Hel and Mesmer subsequently quarrelling about the prior discovery of each, the latter discontinued the use of the plates, and substituted his fingers. Then he found it was unnecessary to touch his patient, but that the same magnetic influence could be induced by waving his hands, and making what are called _mesmeric passes_ at a distance.
But the Viennese are a practical race, and his failures to cure, notably in one case, that of Mademoiselle Paradis (a singer), who was blind, caused charges of deceit to be brought against him, and he was told to leave Vienna at a day’s notice. He obeyed, and went to Paris, where he set up a superb establishment, fitted up most luxuriously. The novelty-loving Parisians soon visited him, and here, in a dimly lit room, with pseudo-scientific apparatus to excite the imagination, and a great deal of corporal manipulation, tending to the same purpose, to the accompaniment of soft music or singing, hysterical women went into convulsive fits, and laughed, sobbed, and shrieked, according to their different temperaments.
Having reached this stage, Mesmer made his appearance, clad in a gold embroidered robe of violet silk, holding in his hand a magnetic rod of wondrous power. With slow and solemn steps he approached his patients, and the exceeding gravity of his deportment, added to their ignorance of what might be coming next, generally calmed and subdued those who were not insensible. Those who had lost their senses he awoke by stroking them, and tracing figures upon their bodies with his magnetic wand, and, on their recovery, they used to testify to the great good his treatment had done them.
A commission of scientific and medical men sat to make inquiry into ‘Animal Magnetism,’ and they reported adversely. He then endeavoured to get a pecuniary recognition of his services from the French Government, but this being declined, he retired to Spa, where, the bubble having been pricked, he lived for some time in comparative obscurity.
Mesmerism was introduced into England in the year 1788, by a Dr. De Mainauduc, who, on his arrival at Bristol, delivered lectures on ‘Animal Magnetism’; and, as his somewhat cautious biographer, Dr. George Winter, observes, he ‘was reported to have cured diseased persons, _even_ without the aid of medicines, and of his having the power of treating and curing diseased persons at a distance.’ He found many dupes, for the said authority remarks, ‘On looking over the lists of Students that had been, or then were under the Doctor’s tuition, it appeared that there was 1 Duke--1 Duchess--1 Marchioness--2 Countesses--1 Earl--1 Lord--3 Ladies--1 Bishop--5 Right Honourable Gentlemen and Ladies--2 Baronets--7 Members of Parliament--1 Clergyman--2 Physicians--7 Surgeons--exclusive of 92 Gentlemen and Ladies of respectability, in the whole 127.
‘Naturally fond of study, and my thirst after knowledge being insatiable, I also was allured to do myself the honour of adding my name to the list; and to investigate this very extraordinary Science: and, according to the general terms, I paid 25 Guineas to the Doctor, and 5 Guineas for the use of the Room; I also signed a bond for £10,000, and took an affidavit that I would not discover the secrets of the Science _during the Doctor’s natural life_.’
So we see that this wonderful power had a market value of no mean consideration, and, indeed, an anonymous authority, who wrote on ‘Animal Magnetism,’ states that Dr. Mainauduc realised £100,000. So lucrative was its practice, that many pretenders sprung up, notable one Holloway who gave lectures at the rate of five guineas the course, besides Miss Prescott, Mrs. Pratt, Monsieur de Loutherbourg the painter, Mr. Parker, and Dr. Yeldal; but the chief of these quacks was Dr. Loutherbourg, who was assisted in his operations by his wife. A book about his wonderful cures was written by one of his believers, Mary Pratt, ‘A lover of the Lamb of God,’ in which he is described as ‘A Gentleman of superior abilities, well known in the scientific and polite Assemblies for his brilliancy of talents as a Philosopher, and Painter: this Gentleman is no other than Mr. De Loutherbourg, who with his Lady, Mrs. De Loutherbourg, have been made by the Almighty power of the Lord Jehovah, proper Recipients to receive divine Manuductions, which heavenly and divine Influx coming from the Radix _God_, his divine Majesty has most graciously condescended to bestow on them (_his blessing_) to diffuse healing to _all_ who have faith in the Lord as mediator, be they Deaf, Dumb, Lame, Halt, or Blind.’
That thousands flocked to these charlatans is undoubted, for Dr. George Winter (above quoted) says, ‘It was credibly reported that 3,000 persons have attended at one time, to get admission at Mr. Loutherbourg’s, at Hammersmith; and that some persons sold their tickets for from One, to Three Guineas each.’ And this is corroborated by crazy Mary Pratt. ‘Report says three Thousand People have waited for Tickets at a time. For my own part, the Croud was so immense that I could with difficulty gain the Door on Healing Days, and I suppose, upon conviction, Report spoke Truth.’ De Loutherbourg charged nothing for his cures, and Mary Pratt is extremely scandalized at those who, having received a ticket gratis, sold them from two to five guineas.
Many cases are given in her book of the cures effected by this benevolent couple; how the blind were made to see, the deaf to hear, the lame to walk, or the dumb to speak--nay, could even cast out devils--as the following testimonial will show.
‘The second case I shall mention is that of a woman possessed with Evil Spirits, her name Pennier, lives at No. 33 Ogle Street, Mary-le-bone, near Portland-Chapel; her husband lives with the French Ambassador: her case was too terrific to describe; her eyes and mouth distorted, she was like a Lunatic in every sense of the word; she used to say that it was not her voice that spoke, but the devil in her. In short, her case was most truly distressing, not only to her family, but the neighbourhood; she used to invite people in with apparent civility, then bite them, and scratch like a cat; nay, she would beg a pin of women, and then scratch them with it, &c., &c., &c.’
‘Mrs. De Loutherbourg, a lady of most exquisite sensibility and tenderness, administered to this Mrs. Pennier; she daily amended, and is now in her right mind, praising God, who has through his servant performed such an amazing cure, to the astonishment of hundreds who saw her and heard her.’