Hoorah for Victorian Scepticism

[shanmonster]

An excerpt from the excerptalicious Extraordinary Popular Delusions & the Madness of Crowds (pg 321):

As this new doctrine of magnetism spread, it was found that wounds inflicted with any metallic substance could be cured by the magnet. In process of time, the delusion so increased, that it was deemed sufficient to magnetise a sword, to cure any hurt which that sword might have inflicted! This was the origin of the celebrated "weapon-salve,' which excited so much attention about the middle of the seventeenth century. The following was the reipe given by Paracelsus for the cure of any wounds inflicted by a sharp weapon, except such as had penetrated the heart, the brain, or the arteries. "Take of moss growing on the head of a thief who has been hanged and left in the air; of real mummy; of human blood; still warm--of each, one ounce; of human suet, two ounces; of linseed oil, turpentine, and Armenian bole--of each, two drachms. Mix all well in a mortar, and keep the salve in an oblong, narrow urn." With this salve the weapon, after being dipped in the blood from the wound, was to be carefully anointed, and then laid by in a cool place. In the mean time, the wound was to be duly washed with fair clean water, covered with a clean, soft, linen rag, and opened once a day to cleanse of purulent or other matter. Of the success of this treatment, says the writer of the able article on Animal Magnetism, in the twelfth volume of the Foreign Quarterly Review, there cannot be the least doubt; "for surgeons at this moment follow exactly the same method, except anointing the weapon!"

Comments

[admnaismith.livejournal.com]

That book is the BEST. It made me want to give up a stable career as an attorney and become a gentleman highwayman who would appear on horseback on the road, causing beemers to screech to a halt. I would produce a blunderbus and call out, "Stand and deliver!". I would releive fat wealthy idiots of their valuables. I would tip my hat to the ladies. I would speak in Shakespearean verse before my captive audience. If the car was a good one, I would take it, and leave my victims some money for a bite to eat and a cab home. I would share the spoils with the less fortunate. I would perform daring escapes from the local jail.

That way, everyone would love me.

These crooks these days, they got no sense of style. Always cussing and using unnecessary violence. No wonder our society's shot to hell...