112 THE SEVEN FOLLIES OF SCIENCE 



was never to be brought into contact with the powder. A 

 bandage was to be taken from the wound, immersed in the 

 powder, and kept there until the wound healed. 



This beats the absent treatment of Christian Science ! 



The powder was simply pulverized vitriol, that is, ferric 

 sulphate, or sulphate of iron. 



There was another and probably an older method of 

 using sympathetic powders and salves ; this was to apply 

 the supposed curative to the weapon which caused the 

 wound, instead of the wound itself. In the " Lay of the 

 Last Minstrel," Scott gives an account of the way in which 

 the Lady of Buccleuch applied this occult surgery to the 

 wound of William of Deloraine : 



" She drew the splinter from the wound, 



And with a charm she stanched the blood. 



She bade the gash be cleansed and bound : 



No longer by his couch she stood ; 

 But she has ta'en the broken lance. 



And washed it from the clotted gore, 



And salved the splinter o'er and o'er. 

 William of Deloraine, in trance, 

 Whene'er she turned it round and round 

 Twisted as if she galled his wound. 



Then to her maidens she did say, 

 That he should be whole man and sound, 



Within the course of a night and day. 

 Full long she toiled, for she did rue 



Mishap to friend so stout and true." l 



That no direct benefit could have been derived from 

 such a mode of treatment must be obvious, but De Morgan 

 very plausibly claims that in the then state of surgical and 

 medical knowledge, it was really the very best that could 

 have been adopted. His argument is as follows : " The 



1 Canto III. Stanza 23. 



