402 



NOTES AND QUERIES. 



[2«"i S. VII. May U. '69. 



WEAPON-SALVE. 



(2°* S. vii. 231. 299.) 



I add that Birch, Hist. Roy. Soc. (vol. ii. p. 82.), 

 in his list of Digby's works, mentions nothing but 

 White's translation of 1658 ; but seems to transfer 

 the date to the original French memoir. He does 

 not give any writing on the subject as of 1644: and 

 I suppose Watt's announcement of such a writing 

 to be a mistake arising out of the treatise on the 

 Nature of Bodies (Paris, folio, 1644 : London, 

 4to., 1645). In this book (cap. 18.) Digby speaks 

 of the sympathetic powder in the following way : 

 — First, as already known, "esteemed by some to 

 be magicall." Secondly, as known to himself only 

 by report, and as one of several things so known ■• 

 "... if the reports be true, they have the per- 

 fect imitation of nature in them. As for example, 

 that the weapon's-salve or the sympathetic pow- 

 der . . ." And he then refers to the effecls of 

 the powder as having been tried by men on whose 

 judgment he can rely, but implies that he has not 

 tried it himself. It is strange that in 1658, 

 E. White should translate what purports to be 

 Digby's assertion that he had obtained that pow- 

 ' der from a Carmelite friar, had often used it, and 

 had satisfied Charles II. and the Duke of Buck- 

 ingham. If the French tract exist at all, I hope 

 some of your readers will be able to certify it : 

 though even then its genuineness must be matter 

 of discussion. If not, and R. White be an im- 

 postor, he probably intended to help the deception 

 by taking the surname of Thomas White, who 

 translated Digby's Institutiones Peripateticw in 

 1651. A. De Morgan. 



The following account of the preparation of 

 the Sympathetic Powder may be worth quoting. 

 It is taken from Chymical Secrets : London, 

 printed for the author, 1682, — a small work by 

 George Hartman, who states in his dedication 

 that he " had the Honour and Happiness, for 

 several years, to Serve " Sir Kenelm Digby : — 



" The Preparation of Sir Kenelm Digby's Sympathetical 

 Powder, as we prepared it every Year in his Lahoi-atory, 

 and as I prepare it now, is only thus : — 



" Take what quantity you please of good English Vi- 

 triol, dissolve it in warm water, but use no more water 

 thau will dissolve it, leaving some of the impurest part at 

 the bottom undissolved ; then filter the dissolution, and 

 evaporate it until you see a thin skin upon it, then put it 

 in a cool place, and let it stand without stirring it for two 

 or three days, covering it loosely only, to keep things 

 from falling in. It will shoot into fair, green, and large 

 Crystals, which take out, and spread them abroad in a 

 large flat earthen Dish, and expose them to the heat of 

 the Sun in the Dog-days, turning them often, and the 

 Sun will Calcine them white; when you see them all 

 Vhite without, beat them grosly, and expose them again 

 to the Sun, securing them from Rain; when they are 

 well Calcined, powder them finely, and expose this 

 Powder again to the Sun, turning and stirring it often. 



Continue this until it be reduced to a white Powder, 

 which put up in a Glass, and tye it up close, and keep it 

 in a dry place. 



" As for the Vertues of this Powder, I will only saj', 

 that I have seen great Experience of it in my time, in 

 stanching of desperate bleedings at the Nose. 2. In 

 stanching the Blood of a Wound. 3. In curing with it - 

 any green Wound (where there is no fracture of Bones)iaii 

 without any Plaister or Oyntment, in a few days." . ., , • 



The author then narrates one of his own expe- 

 riences of the efficacy of the powder : — 



" A Girl about twelve Years of Age bleeding desperately 

 at the Nose for two or three days together, her Mo- 

 ther having used all the means she could devise (in 

 vain) came to me, telling me that she had heard I had a 

 Powder that would stanch Bleeding ; she desired me to 

 let her have a little of it, for she feared her Daughter 

 would bleed to Death. I gave her some of the Powder, 

 and bid her put a: little of it in three or four spoonfuls of 

 fair water, and to bath her Nostrils with it with a clean 

 Linnen rag, putting it up into the Nostrils, which she 

 did, and her bleeding stopped immediately; the next, 

 day she did bleed a little again, and then using it again, 

 it did stanch it, and she never bled again afterwards." — 

 pp. 270—272. 



R. S. F. 



Perth. 



Napoleon Bonaparte and Sir Gilbert Elliot (2"*^ 

 S. vii. 364.) — The story which is here brought 

 forward as an instance of great events springing 

 from slight causes, is, as for as regards Sir Gilbert 

 Elliot, entirely without foundation.. At the time 

 when Corsica came into our possession, and when 

 Sir Gilbert Elliot was appointed Viceroy, viz. the 

 year 1794, Napoleon had already distinguished 

 himself in the service of France, and he was 

 never in the island at any time while we held it. 

 Indeed, before being sent to Corsica, Sir Gilbert 

 Elliot had had occasion to learn something of the 

 abilities of young Napoleon ; for, at the siege of 

 Toulon in 1793, Sir Gilbert acted as one of the 

 English Commissioners ; Napoleon commanded 

 the French artillery, and forced us to evacuate 

 the place. G. Elliot. 



There was never anything more absurd than 

 this fabrication, for it can be called nothing less. 

 It represents Admiral Cosby as telling that when 

 Lord Minto was Governor "of Corsica, Paoli in- 

 troduced to him and the Admiral, Napoleon, then 

 a young man, and willing to serve in our army, 

 and that this offer being rejected, he entered the 

 French service. 



Now the fact is as well known, as certain as 

 the existence of Napoleon, that we landed in Cor- 

 sica for the first time in 1794, and that in 1792 

 Napoleon was an officer in the French army. At 

 the siege of Toulon in November, 1793, he com- 

 manded the artillery, and eventually, in 1794, in 

 consequence of his conduct at Toulon, was made 

 brigadier-general, to the great discontent of older 



