iQO On Popular IIIu/mu, 



till the publication of Dr. Heifter's, and hj 

 MgrhofF, in his Princeps Medicus, where he 

 afferts the operation to be miraculous. Wife- 

 man declares exprefsly, that fome of the worft 

 fcrophulous cafes he had ever met with, yielded 

 to this remedy. 



Van Helmont was the principal fupporter of 

 that opinion which fuppofed a magnetic fpirit in 

 the human body, by adion on which he explained 

 all the phsenomena of difeafe, and all the fatEls 

 of demonology. Other philofophers contented 

 themfelves with believing, in general, that thofe 

 appearances, and particularly in the cure of 

 diforders, depended on an emanation or tranf- 

 miffion of fpirits, and it was thought that even 

 the faculties and affeftions of the mind could be 

 t^hus tranfmitted. This was the opinion of 

 Bacon*, and the foundation of that expreflion 

 of the poet : 



. - Spirits are not finely touch'd. 



But to fine iffues. -.------ 



In confequence of this, it was fuppofed that the 

 fympathy which had fubfifted among the parts of 

 an individual, continued after the feparation of 

 thofe parts : hence the cure by fympathy, that is, 

 without application to the parrs affected. Lord 

 Verulam alledges his own experience of this 

 method; '* The taking away of warts," fays he, 



» Svlv. Sylvar. Cent. X. 



<f by 



