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
Buchingham, 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