Powder of sympathy was a form of early

pseudoscientific Pseudoscience consists of statements, beliefs, or practices that claim to be both scientific and factual but are incompatible with the scientific method. Pseudoscience is often characterized by contradictory, exaggerated or unfalsifiable cl ...

navigation and

alchemy Alchemy (from the Arabic word , ) is an ancient branch of natural philosophy, a philosophical and protoscientific tradition that was historically practised in China, India, the Muslim world, and Europe. In its Western form, alchemy is first ...

, in the 17th century in

Europe Europe is a continent located entirely in the Northern Hemisphere and mostly in the Eastern Hemisphere. It is bordered by the Arctic Ocean to the north, the Atlantic Ocean to the west, the Mediterranean Sea to the south, and Asia to the east ...

, whereby a

remedy Remedy, Remedies, The Remedy or Remediation may refer to: Computing and gaming * Remedy Corp, an American software company * Remedy Entertainment, a Finnish video game developer Law, politics, and society * Environmental remediation, the remov ...

was applied to the

weapon A weapon, arm, or armament is any implement or device that is used to deter, threaten, inflict physical damage, harm, or kill. Weapons are used to increase the efficacy and efficiency of activities such as hunting, crime (e.g., murder), law ...

that had caused a

wound A wound is any disruption of or damage to living tissue, such as skin, mucous membranes, or organs. Wounds can either be the sudden result of direct trauma (mechanical, thermal, chemical), or can develop slowly over time due to underlying diseas ...

with the aim of healing the injury it had made. Weapon salve was a preparation, again applied to the weapon, but based on material from the wounded

patient A patient is any recipient of health care services that are performed by Health professional, healthcare professionals. The patient is most often Disease, ill or Major trauma, injured and in need of therapy, treatment by a physician, nurse, op ...

rather than on any remedy for the wound.

History

The powder is said to have consisted of

green vitriol Iron(II) sulfate or ferrous sulfate (British English: sulphate instead of sulfate) denotes a range of salts with the formula Fe SO4·''x''H2O. These compounds exist most commonly as the heptahydrate (''x'' = 7), but several values for ...

, first dissolved in water and afterward recrystallized or calcined in the sun. The

Duke of Buckingham Duke of Buckingham, referring to the market town of Buckingham, England, is an extinct title that has been created several times in the peerages of England, Great Britain, and the United Kingdom. There were creations of double dukedoms of Bucki ...

testified that

Kenelm Digby Sir Kenelm Digby (11 July 1603 – 11 June 1665) was an English courtier and diplomat. He was also a highly reputed natural philosopher, astrologer and known as a leading Roman Catholic intellectual and Thomas White (scholar), Blackloist. For ...

had healed his secretary of a gangrenous wound by simply soaking the bloody bandage in a solution of the powder (possibly due to the

oligodynamic effect The oligodynamic effect (from Greek language, Greek ''oligos'', "few", and ''dynamis'', "force") is a biocide, biocidal effect of metals, especially heavy metal (chemical element), heavy metals, that occurs even in low concentrations. This effec ...

). Digby claimed to have got the secret remedy from a

Carmelite The Order of the Brothers of the Blessed Virgin Mary of Mount Carmel (; abbreviated OCarm), known as the Carmelites or sometimes by synecdoche known simply as Carmel, is a mendicant order in the Catholic Church for both men and women. Histo ...

friar in Florence, and attributed its potency to the fact that the sun's rays extracted the spirits of the blood and the vitriol, while, at the same time, the heat of the wound caused the healing principle thus produced to be attracted to it by means of a current of air — a sort of wireless therapy. The powder was also applied to solve the longitude problem in the suggestion of an anonymous pamphlet of 1687 entitled ''Curious Enquiries''. The pamphlet theorised that a wounded dog could be put aboard a ship, with the knife used to injure the dog left in the trust of a timekeeper on shore, who would then dip said knife into the powder at a predetermined time and cause the creature to yelp, thus giving the captain of the ship an accurate knowledge of the time.

References

Alchemical substances Magic powders Obsolete medical theories Superstitions {{med-hist-stub

History

See also

References