" He was
rash enough to go further and say that the cures effected by the relics
of the saints were also due to the same cause--a statement which led to
a great discussion with the theologians and to Van Helmont's arrest for
heresy, and small wonder, when he makes such bold statements as "Let the
Divine enquire only concerning God, the Naturalist concerning Nature,"
and "God in the production of miracles does for the most part walk hand
in hand with Nature."
(16) An English translation by Walter Charleton appeared in 1650,
entitled "A Ternary of Paradoxes."
That wandering genius, Sir Kenelm Digby, did much to popularize this
method of treatment by his lecture on the "Powder of Sympathy."(17) His
powder was composed of copperas alone or mixed with gum tragacanth.
He regarded the cure as effected through the subtle influence of the
sympathetic spirits or, as Highmore says, by "atomicall energy wrought
at a distance," and the remedy could be applied to the wound itself,
or to a cloth soaked in the blood or secretions, or to the weapon that
caused the wound. One factor leading to success may have been that
in the directions which Digby gave for treating the wound (in the
celebrated case of James Howell, for instance), it was to be let alone
and kept clean.
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