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Honore de Balzac - "Another Study of Woman"

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Memoirs of Extraordinary Popular Delusions

C >> Charles Mackay >> Memoirs of Extraordinary Popular Delusions




Among good omens, one of the most conspicuous is to meet a piebald
horse. To meet two of these animals is still more fortunate; and if on
such an occasion you spit thrice, and form any reasonable wish, it
will be gratified within three days. It is also a sign of good fortune
if you inadvertently put on your stocking wrong side out. If you
wilfully wear your stocking in this fashion, no good will come of it.
It is very lucky to sneeze twice; but if you sneeze a third time, the
omen loses its power, and your good fortune will be nipped in the bud.
If a strange dog follow you, and fawn on you, and wish to attach
itself to you, it is a sign of very great prosperity. Just as
fortunate is it if a strange male cat comes to your house and
manifests friendly intentions towards your family. If a she eat, it is
an omen, on the contrary, of very great misfortune. If a swarm of bees
alight in your garden, some very high honour and great joys await you.

Besides these glimpses of the future, you may know something of
your fate by a diligent attention to every itching that you may feel
in your body. Thus, if the eye or the nose itches, it is a sign you
will be shortly vexed; if the foot itches you will tread upon strange
ground; and if the elbow itches, you will change your bedfellow.
Itching of the right-hand prognosticates that you will soon have a sum
of money; and of the left, that you will be called upon to disburse
it.

These are but a few of the omens which are generally credited in
modern Europe. A complete list of them would fatigue from its length,
and sicken from its absurdity. It would be still more unprofitable to
attempt to specify the various delusions of the same kind which are
believed among Oriental nations. Every reader will remember the
comprehensive formula of cursing preserved in "Tristram Shandy:" --
curse a man after any fashion you remember or can invent, you will be
sure to find it there. The Oriental creed of omens is not less
comprehensive. Every movement of the body, every emotion of the mind,
is at certain times an omen. Every form and object in nature, even the
shape of the clouds and the changes of the weather; every colour,
every sound, whether of men or animals, or birds or insects, or
inanimate things, is an omen. Nothing is too trifling or
inconsiderable to inspire a hope which is not worth cherishing, or a
fear which is sufficient to embitter existence.

From the belief in omens springs the superstition that has, from
very early ages, set apart certain days, as more favourable than
others, for prying into the secrets of futurity. The following, copied
verbatim from the popular "Dream and Omen Book" of Mother Bridget,
will show the belief of the people of England at the present day.
Those who are curious as to the ancient history of these observances,
will find abundant aliment in the "Every-day Book."

"The 1st of January. -- If a young maiden drink, on going to bed, a
pint of cold spring-water, in which is beat up an amulet, composed of
the yolk of a pullet's egg, the legs of a spider, and the skin of an
eel pounded, her future destiny will be revealed to her in a dream.
This charm fails of its effect if tried any other day of the year.

"Valentine Day. -- Let a single woman go out of her own door very
early in the morning, and if the first person she meets be a woman,
she will not be married that year: if she meet a man, she will be
married within three months.

"Lady Day. -- The following charm may be tried this day with certain
success: -- String thirty-one nuts on a string, composed of red
worsted mixed with blue silk, and tie it round your neck on going to
bed, repeating these lines --

'Oh, I wish ! oh, I wish to see
Who my true love is to be !'

Shortly after midnight, you will see your lover in a dream, and be
informed at the same time of all the principal events of your future
life.

"St. Swithin's Eve. -- Select three things you most wish to know;
write them down with a new pen and red ink on a sheet of fine-wove
paper, from which you must previously cut off all the corners and burn
them. Fold the paper into a true-lover's knot, and wrap round it three
hairs from your head. Place the paper under your pillow for three
successive nights, and your curiosity to know the future will be
satisfied.

"St. Mark's Eve. -- Repair to the nearest churchyard as the clock
strikes twelve, and take from a grave on the south-side of the church
three tufts of grass (the longer and ranker the better), and on going
to bed place them under your pillow, repeating earnestly three several
times,

'The Eve of St. Mark by prediction is blest,
Set therefore my hopes and my fears all to rest:
Let me know my fate, whether weal or woe;
Whether my rank's to be high or low;
Whether to live single, or be a bride,
And the destiny my star doth provide.'

Should you have no dream that night, you will be single and miserable
all your life. If you dream of thunder and lightning, your life will
be one of great difficulty and sorrow.

"Candlemas Eve. -- On this night (which is the purification of the
Virgin Mary), let three, five, seven, or nine, young maidens assemble
together in a square chamber. Hang in each corner a bundle of sweet
herbs, mixed with rue and rosemary. Then mix a cake of flour,
olive-oil, and white sugar; every maiden having an equal share in the
making and the expense of it. Afterwards, it must be cut into equal
pieces, each one marking the piece as she cuts it with the initials of
her name. It is then to be baked one hour before the fire, not a word
being spoken the whole time, and the maidens sitting with their arms
and knees across. Each piece of cake is then to be wrapped up in a
sheet of paper, on which each maiden shall write the love part of
Solomon's Songs. If she put this under her pillow, she will dream
true. She will see her future husband and every one of her children,
and will know, besides, whether her family will be poor or prosperous
-- a comfort to her, or the contrary.

"Midsummer. -- Take three roses, smoke them with sulphur, and exactly
at three in the day, bury one of the roses under a yew tree; the
second in a newly-made grave, and put the third under your pillow for
three nights, and at the end of that period burn it in a fire of
charcoal. Your dreams during that time will be prophetic of your
future destiny, and, what is still more curious and valuable (Mother
Bridget loquitur), the man whom you are to wed, will know no peace
till he comes and visits you. Besides this, you will perpetually haunt
his dreams.

"St. John's Eve. -- Make a new pincushion of the very best black
velvet (no inferior quality will answer the purpose), and on one side
stick your name in full length with the very smallest pins that can be
bought (none other will do). On the other side, make a cross with some
very large pins, and surround it with a circle. Put this into your
stocking when you take it off at night, and hang it up at the foot of
the bed. All your future life will pass before you in a dream.

"First New Moon of the Year. -- On the first new moon in the year,
take a pint of clear springwater and infuse into it the white of an
egg laid by a white hen, a glass of white wine, three almonds peeled
white, and a tablespoonful of white rose-water. Drink this on going to
bed, not making more nor less than three draughts of it; repeating the
following verses three several times in a clear distinct voice, but
not so loud as to be overheard by anybody:--

' If I dream of water pure
Before the coming morn,
'Tis a sign I shall be poor,
And unto wealth not born.
If I dream of tasting beer,
Middling then will be my cheer-
Chequer'd with the good and bad,
Sometimes joyful, sometimes sad;
But should I dream of drinking wine,
Wealth and pleasure will be mine.
The stronger the drink, the better the cheer-
Dreams of my destiny, appear, appear!'

"Twenty-ninth of February. -- This day, as it only occurs once in four
years, is peculiarly auspicious to those who desire to have a glance
at futurity, especially to young maidens burning with anxiety to know
the appearance and complexion of their future lords. The charm to be
adopted is the following: Stick twenty-seven of the smallest pins that
are made, three by three, into a tallow candle. Light it up at the
wrong end, and then place it in a candlestick made out of clay, which
must be drawn from a virgin's grave. Place this on the chimney-place,
in the left-hand corner, exactly as the clock strikes twelve, and go
to bed immediately. When the candle is burnt out, take the pins and
put them into your left-shoe; and before nine nights have elapsed your
fate will be revealed to you."

We have now taken a hasty review of the various modes of seeking
to discover the future, especially as practised in modern times. The
main features of the folly appear essentially the same in all
countries. National character and peculiarities operate some
difference of interpretation. The mountaineer makes the natural
phenomena which he most frequently witnesses prognosticative of the
future. The dweller in the plains, in a similar manner, seeks to know
his fate among the signs of the things that surround him, and tints
his superstition with the hues of his own clime. The same spirit
animates them all -- the same desire to know that which Infinite Mercy
has concealed. There is but little probability that the curiosity of
mankind in this respect will ever be wholly eradicated. Death and
ill-fortune are continual bugbears to the weak-minded, the
irreligious, and the ignorant; and while such exist in the world,
divines will preach upon its impiety and philosophers discourse upon
its absurdity in vain. Still, it is evident that these follies have
greatly diminished. Soothsayers and prophets have lost the credit they
formerly enjoyed, and skulk in secret now where they once showed their
faces in the blaze of day. So far there is manifest improvement.


BOOK III.

THE MAGNETISERS.

Some deemed them wondrous wise, and some believed them mad.
Beattie's Minstrel.

The wonderful influence of imagination in the cure of diseases is
well known. A motion of the hand, or a glance of the eye, will throw a
weak and credulous patient into a fit; and a pill made of bread, if
taken with sufficient faith, will operate a cure better than all the
drugs in the pharmacopoeia. The Prince of Orange, at the siege of
Breda, in 1625, cured all his soldiers who were dying of the scurvy,
by a philanthropic piece of quackery, which he played upon them with
the knowledge of the physicians, when all other means had failed. [See
Van der Mye's account of the siege of Breda. The garrison, being
afflicted with scurvy, the Prince of Orange sent the physicians two or
three small phials, containing a decoction of camomile, wormwood, and
camphor, telling them to pretend that it was a medicine of the
greatest value and extremest rarity, which had been procured with very
much danger and difficulty from the East; and so strong, that two or
three drops would impart a healing virtue to a gallon of water. The
soldiers had faith in their commander; they took the medicine with
cheerful faces, and grew well rapidly. They afterwards thronged about
the Prince in groups of twenty and thirty at a time, praising his
skill, and loading him with protestations of gratitude.] Many hundreds
of instances, of a similar kind, might be related, especially from the
history of witchcraft. The mummeries, strange gesticulations, and
barbarous jargon of witches and sorcerers, which frightened credulous
and nervous women, brought on all those symptoms of hysteria and other
similar diseases, so well understood now, but which were then supposed
to be the work of the devil, not only by the victims and the public in
general, but by the operators themselves.

In the age when alchymy began to fall into some disrepute, and
learning to lift up its voice against it, a new delusion, based upon
this power of imagination, suddenly arose, and found apostles among
all the alchymists. Numbers of them, forsaking their old pursuits,
made themselves magnetisers. It appeared first in the shape of
mineral, and afterwards of animal, magnetism, under which latter name
it survives to this day, and numbers its dupes by thousands.

The mineral magnetisers claim the first notice, as the worthy
predecessors of the quacks of the present day. The honour claimed for
Paracelsus of being the first of the Rosicrucians has been disputed;
but his claim to be considered the first of the magnetisers can
scarcely be challenged. It has been already mentioned of him, in the
part of this work which treats of alchymy, that, like nearly all the
distinguished adepts, he was a physician; and pretended, not only to
make gold and confer immortality, but to cure all diseases. He was the
first who, with the latter view, attributed occult and miraculous
powers to the magnet. Animated apparently by a sincere conviction that
the magnet was the philosopher's stone, which, if it could not
transmute metals, could soothe all human suffering and arrest the
progress of decay, he travelled for many years in Persia and Arabia,
in search of the mountain of adamant, so famed in oriental fables.
When he practised as a physician at Basle, he called one of his
nostrums by the name of azoth -- a stone or crystal, which, he said,
contained magnetic properties, and cured epilepsy, hysteria, and
spasmodic affections. He soon found imitators. His fame spread far and
near; and thus were sown the first seeds of that error which has since
taken root and flourished so widely. In spite of the denial of modern
practitioners, this must be considered the origin of magnetism; for we
find that, beginning with Paracelsus, there was a regular succession
of mineral magnetisers until Mesmer appeared, and gave a new feature
to the delusion.

Paracelsus boasted of being able to transplant diseases from the
human frame into the earth, by means of the magnet. He said there were
six ways by which this might be effected. One of them will be quite
sufficient, as a specimen. "If a person suffer from disease, either
local or general, let the following remedy be tried. Take a magnet,
impregnated with mummy [Mummies were of several kinds, and were all of
great use in magnetic medicines. Paracelsus enumerates six kinds of
mummies; the first four only differing in the composition used by
different people for preserving their dead, are the Egyptian, Arabian,
Pisasphaltos, and Lybian. The fifth mummy of peculiar power was made
from criminals that had been hanged; "for from such there is a gentle
siccation, that expungeth the watery humour, without destroying the
oil and spirituall, which is cherished by the heavenly luminaries, and
strengthened continually by the affluence and impulses of the
celestial spirits; whence it may be properly called by the name of
constellated or celestial mummie." The sixth kind of mummy was made of
corpuscles, or spiritual effluences, radiated from the living body;
though we cannot get very clear ideas on this head, or respecting the
manner in which they were caught. -- "Medicina Diatastica; or,
Sympathetical Mummie, abstracted from the Works of Paracelsus, and
translated out of the Latin, by Fernando Parkhurst, Gent." London,
1653. pp. 2.7. Quoted by the "Foreign Quarterly Review," vol. xii. p.
415.] and mixed with rich earth. In this earth sow some seeds that
have a congruity or homogeneity with the disease: then let this earth,
well sifted and mixed with mummy, be laid in an earthen vessel; and
let the seeds committed to it be watered daily with a lotion in which
the diseased limb or body has been washed. Thus will the disease be
transplanted from the human body to the seeds which are in the earth.
Having done this, transplant the seeds from the earthen vessel to the
ground, and wait till they begin to sprout into herbs: as they
increase, the disease will diminish; and when they have arrived at
their full growth, it will disappear altogether."

Kircher the Jesuit, whose quarrel with the alchymists was the
means of exposing many of their impostures, was a firm believer in the
efficacy of the magnet. Having been applied to by a patient afflicted
with hernia, he directed the man to swallow a small magnet reduced to
powder, while he applied, at the same time, to the external swelling a
poultice, made of filings of iron. He expected that by this means the
magnet, when it got to the corresponding place inside, would draw in
the iron, and with it the tumour; which would thus, he said, be safely
and expeditiously reduced.

As this new doctrine of magnetism spread, it was found that wounds
inflicted with any metallic substance could be cured by the magnet. In
process of time the delusion so increased, that it was deemed
sufficient to magnetise a sword, to cure any hurt which that sword
might have inflicted! This was the origin of the celebrated
"weapon-salve," which excited so much attention about the middle of
the seventeenth century. The following was the recipe given by
Paracelsus for the cure of any wounds inflicted by a sharp weapon,
except such as had penetrated the heart, the brain, or the arteries.
"Take of moss growing on the head of a thief who has been hanged and
left in the air; of real mummy; of human blood, still warm -- of each,
one ounce; of human suet, two ounces; of linseed oil, turpentine, and
Armenian bole -- of each, two drachms. Mix all well in a mortar, and
keep the salve in an oblong, narrow urn." With this salve the weapon,
after being dipped in the blood from the wound, was to be carefully
anointed, and then laid by in a cool place. In the mean time, the
wound was to be duly washed with fair clean water, covered with a
clean, soft, linen rag, and opened once a day to cleanse off purulent
or other matter. Of the success of this treatment, says the writer of
the able article on Animal Magnetism, in the twelfth volume of the
"Foreign Quarterly Review," there cannot be the least doubt; "for
surgeons at this moment follow exactly the same method, except
anointing the weapon!

The weapon salve continued to be much spoken of on the Continent,
and many eager claimants appeared for the honour of the invention. Dr.
Fludd, or A Fluctibus, the Rosicrucian, who has been already mentioned
in a previous part of this volume, was very zealous in introducing it
into England. He tried it with great success in several cases; and no
wonder; for, while he kept up the spirits of his patients by boasting
of the great efficacy of the salve, he never neglected those common,
but much more important remedies, of washing, bandaging, &c. which the
experience of all ages had declared sufficient for the purpose. Fludd,
moreover, declared, that the magnet was a remedy for all diseases, if
properly applied; but that man having, like the earth, a north and a
south pole, magnetism could only take place when his body was in a
boreal position! In the midst of his popularity, an attack was made
upon him and his favourite remedy, the salve; which, however, did
little or nothing to diminish the belief in its efficacy. One "Parson
Foster" wrote a pamphlet, entitled "Hyplocrisma Spongus; or, a Spunge
to wipe away the Weapon-Salve ;" in which he declared, that it was as
bad as witchcraft to use or recommend such an unguent; that it was
invented by the devil, who, at the last day, would seize upon every
person who had given it the slightest encouragement. "In fact," said
Parson Foster, "the devil himself gave it to Paracelsus; Paracelsus to
the Emperor; the Emperor to the courtier; the courtier to Baptista
Porta; and Baptista Porta to Dr. Fludd, a doctor of physic, yet living
and practising in the famous city of London, who now stands tooth and
nail for it." Dr. Fludd, thus assailed, took up the pen in defence of
his unguent, in a reply called "The Squeezing of Parson Foster's
Spunge; wherein the Spunge-Bearer's immodest Carriage and Behaviour
towards his Brethren is detected; the bitter Flames of his slanderous
Reports are, by the sharp Vinegar of Truth, corrected and quite
extinguished; and, lastly, the virtuous Validity of his Spunge in
wiping away the Weapon-Salve, is crushed out and clean abolished."

Shortly after this dispute a more distinguished believer in the
weapon-salve made his appearance, in the person of Sir Kenelm Digby,
the son of Sir Everard Digby, who was executed for his participation
in the Gunpowder Plot. This gentleman, who, in other respects, was an
accomplished scholar and an able man, was imbued with all the
extravagant notions of the alchymists. He believed in the
philosopher's stone, and wished to engage Descartes to devote his
energies to the discovery of the elixir of life, or some other means
by which the existence of man might be prolonged to an indefinite
period. He gave his wife, the beautiful Venetia Anastasia Stanley, a
dish of capons, fed upon vipers, according to the plan supposed to
have been laid down by Arnold of Villeneuve, in the hope that she
might thereby preserve her loveliness for a century. If such a man
once took up the idea of the weapon-salve, it was to be expected that
he would make the most of it. In his hands, however, it was changed
from an unguent into a powder, and was called the powder of sympathy.
He pretended that he had acquired the knowledge of it from a Carmelite
friar, who had learned it in Persia or Armenia, from an oriental
philosopher of great renown. King James, the Prince of Wales, the Duke
of Buckingham, and many other noble personages, believed in its
efficacy. The following remarkable instance of his mode of cure was
read by Sir Kenelm to a society of learned men at Montpellier. Mr.
James Howell, the well-known author of the "Dendrologia," and of
various letters, coming by chance as two of his best friends were
fighting a duel, rushed between them, and endeavoured to part them. He
seized the sword of one of the combatants by the hilt, while, at the
same time, he grasped the other by the blade. Being transported with
fury one against the other, they struggled to rid themselves of the
hindrance caused by their friend; and in so doing, the one whose sword
was held by the blade by Mr. Howell, drew it away roughly, and nearly
cut his hand off, severing the nerves and muscles, and penetrating to
the bone. The other, almost at the same instant, disengaged his sword,
and aimed a blow at the head of his antagonist, which Mr. Howell
observing, raised his wounded hand with the rapidity of thought, to
prevent the blow. The sword fell on the back of his already wounded
hand, and cut it severely. "It seemed," said Sir Kenelm Digby, "as if
some unlucky star raged over them, that they should have both shed the
blood of that dear friend, for whose life they would have given their
own, if they had been in their proper mind at the time." Seeing Mr.
Howell's face all besmeared with blood from his wounded hand, they
both threw down their swords and embraced him, and bound up his hand
with a garter, to close the veins, which were cut, and bled profusely.
They then conveyed him home, and sent for a surgeon. King James, who
was much attached to Mr. Howell, afterwards sent his own surgeon to
attend him. We must continue the narrative in the words of Sir Kenelm
Digby:- "It was my chance," says he, "to be lodged hard by him: and,
four or five days after, as I was making myself ready, he came to my
house, and prayed me to view his wounds; 'for I understand,' said he,
'that you have extraordinary remedies on such occasions; and my
surgeons apprehend some fear, that it may grow to a gangrene, and so
the hand must be cut off.' In effect, his countenance discovered that
he was in much pain, which, he said, was insupportable, in regard of
the extreme inflammation. I told him I would willingly serve him; but
if, haply, he knew the manner how I could cure him, without touching
or seeing him, it might be that he would not expose himself to my
manner of curing; because he would think it, peradventure, either
ineffectual or superstitious. He replied, 'The many wonderful things
which people have related unto me of your way of medicinement, makes
me nothing doubt at all of its efficacy; and all that I have to say
unto you is comprehended in the Spanish proverb, Hagase el milagro y
hagalo Mahoma -- Let the miracle be done, though Mahomet do it.'

"I asked him then for anything that had the 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 find that 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 cicatrised and entirely healed."

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