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, one of the best surgeons of his
time. He was fully aware that a part of the real secret of the Unguentum
Armarium consisted in the washing and bandaging the wound and then
letting it alone. But he could not resist the solemn assertions
respecting its efficacy; he gave way before the outcry of facts, and
therefore, instead of denying all their pretensions, he admitted and
tried to account for them upon supernatural grounds. As the virtue of
those applications, he says, which are made to the weapon cannot reach
the wound, and as they can produce no effect without contact, it follows,
of necessity, that the Devil must have a hand in the business; and as he
is by far the most long headed and experienced of practitioners, he
cannot find this a matter of any great difficulty