Mr. Katterfelto Will, after his Philosophical Lecture, discover various arts by which many persons lose their fortunes by Dice, Cards, Billiards, and E.O. Tables, &c.’
He was a charlatan pur et simple, and to his other attractions he added a performing black cat,[103] ‘but Colonel Katterfelto is very sorry that many persons will have it that he and his famous Black Cat were Devils but such suspicion only arises through his various wonderful and uncommon performances: he only professes to be a moral and divine Philosopher, and he says, that all persons on earth live in darkness, if they are able, but won’t see that most enterprizing, extraordinary, astonishing, wonderful, and uncommon exhibition on the Solar Microscope. He will this day, and every day this week, show, from eight in the morning till five in the afternoon, his various new Occult Secrets, which have surprized the King and the whole Royal Family: and his evening lecture begins this, and every night, precisely at eight o’clock; but no person will be admitted after eight; and after his lecture he will exhibit many new deceptions. His Black Cat will also make her appearance this evening at No. 24, Piccadilly. His exhibition of the Solar Microscope has caused him lately very grand houses; also his wonderful Black Cat at night; many thousands could not receive admission lately for want of room, and Katterfelto expects to clear at least above £30,000, in a year’s time, through his Solar Microscope and surprizing Black Cat.’
He also invented a sort of lucifer-match.[104] ‘Dr. Katterfelto will also, for 2/6d. sell such a quantity of his new invented Alarum, which is better than £20 worth of Phosphorus matches, and is better in a house or ship than £20,000, as many lives may be saved by it, and is more useful to the Nation than 30,000 Air Balloons. It will light 900 candles, pistols or cannons, and never misses. He also sells the very best Solid, Liquid, and Powder Phosphorus, Phosphorus Matches, Diamond Beetles, &c.’ Katterfelto died at Bedale, in Yorkshire, 25th of November, 1799.
There also lived Dr. Graham, who was not heard of before 1780, and he was an arch quack. About that year he took a mansion in the Royal Terrace, Adelphi, which he fitted up sumptuously. It was inscribed ‘Templum Æsculapio Sacrum,’ and was called both the ‘Temple of Health,’ and the ‘Hymeneal Temple.’ Here, in air heavy with incense, he lectured on electricity and magnetism. He was a past master in the art of puffing, and published several books in glorification of himself. In one, called ‘Medical Transactions at the Temple of Health in London, in the course of the years 1781 & 1782,’ he gives a wonderful list of cures worked by his ‘Electrical Æther, Nervous Æthereal Balsam, Imperial Pills, Liquid Amber, British Pills,’ and his ‘Bracing, or Restorative Balsam,’ which, in order to bring within the reach of ordinary people, he kindly consented to sell at half-price, namely, ‘that the bottles marked, and formerly sold at one guinea, may now be had at only half-a-guinea; the half-guinea bottles at five shillings and threepence; the five shilling at half-a-crown, and the two-and-sixpenny vials at only one shilling and threepence.’
In this book, too, are some choice specimens of poetry, all laudatory of Dr. Graham, one of which is worth repeating, as a specimen—
‘An Acrostic, by a Lady.
D eign, to accept the tribute which I owe,
O ne grateful, joyful tear, permit to flow;
C an I be silent when good health is given?
T hat first—that best—that richest gift of heaven!
O Muse! descend, in most exalted lays,
R eplete with softest notes, attune his praise.
G en’rous by nature, matchless in thy skill!
R ich in the God-like art—to ease—to heal;
A ll bless thy gifts! the sick—the lame—the blind,
H ail thee with rapture for the cure they find!
A rm’d by the Deity with power divine,
M ortals revere His attributes in thine.’
In this temple of ‘Health and Hymen’ he had a wonderful ‘Celestial Bed,’ which he pretended cost sixty thousand pounds. He guaranteed that the sleepers therein, although hitherto childless, should become prolific; but it was somewhat costly, for the fee for its use for a single night was one hundred pounds. Still, he had some magneto-electric beds, which, probably, were as efficacious, at a lower rate, only fifty pounds nightly. The title-page of a pamphlet on his establishment is noteworthy.
‘Il Convito Amoroso,
Or a Serio—comico—philosophical
Lecture
on the
Causes, Nature, and Effects of Love and Beauty,
At the Different Periods of Human Life, in Persons, and
Personages, Male, Female, and Demi-Charactêre;
And in Praise of the Genial and Prolific Influences of the
Celestial Bed!
As Delivered by Hebe Vestina,
The Rosy Goddess of Youth and of Health!
from the
Electrical Throne! in the Great Apollo-Chamber,
At the Temple of Hymen, in London,