c: wherefore it is that
many doctors prescribed always an odd pill, an odd draught, or drop to
be taken by their patients. For the perfection thereof they allege
these following numbers: as 7 Planets, 7 wonders of the World, 9
Muses, 3 Graces, God is 3 in 1, &c." Ravenscroft, in his comedy of
"Mammamouchi or the Citizen Turned Gentleman," makes Trickmore as a
physician say: "Let the number of his bleedings and purgations be odd,
_numero Deus impare gaudet_" [God delights in an odd number].

Nine is the number consecrated by Buddhism; three is sacred among
Brahminical and Christian people. Pythagoras held that the unit or
monad is the principle and end of all. One is a good principle. Two,
or the dyad, is the origin of contrasts and separation, and is an evil
principle. Three, or the triad, is the image of the attributes of God.
Four, or the tetrad, is the most perfect of numbers and the root of
all things. It is holy by nature. Five, or the pentad, is everything;
it stops the power of poisons, and is dreaded by evil spirits. Six is
a fortunate number. Seven is powerful for good or evil, and is a
sacred number. Eight is the first cube, so is man four-square or
perfect. Nine, as the multiple of three, is sacred. Ten, or the
decade, is the measure of all it contains, all the numerical relations
and harmonies.[122]

Cornelius Agrippa wrote on the power of numbers, which he declares is
asserted by nature herself; thus the herb called cinquefoil, or
five-leafed grass, resists poison, and bans devils by virtue of the
number five; one leaf of it taken in wine twice a day cures the
quotidian, three the tertian, four the quartan fever.[123]

The seventh son of a seventh son was supposed to be an infallible
physician as the following quotations would indicate: "The seventh son
of a seventh son is born a physician; having an intuitive knowledge of
the art of curing all disorders, and sometimes the faculty of
performing wonderful cures by touching only." "Plusieurs croyent qu'en
France, les septiemes garcons, nez de legitimes mariages, sans que la
suitte des sept ait este interrompue par la naissance d'aucune fille,
peuvent aussi guerir des fievres tierces, des fievres quartes, at
mesme des ecrouelles, apres avoir jeune trois ou neuf jours avant que
de toucher les malades. Mais ils font trop de fond sur le nombre
septenaire, en attribuant au septieme garcon, preferablement a tous
autres, une puissance qu'il y a autant de raison d