Beckherius gives the recipe for effecting a “sympathetic cure” of fever by clipping the finger and toe-nails of the patient and tying these clippings in a rag to the door of a neighbor’s house. “Si resegmine unguium e manibus et pedibus deprompta, cera involvantur, matutininoque tempore ante solis exortum alienæ januæ affiguntur.” And wicked people were in the habit of preparing a draught composed of equal parts of their dirty finger-nails and cantharides, and whoever drank that in his liquor fell into a condition of atrophy (Med. mic. pp. 15, 16). When the patient’s own hair was used in these cures, it was placed in an egg and thrown to chickens.—(Idem, p. 8.)
Frommann speaks of enclosing fragments of the patient’s nails and clippings of his hair in knots and throwing these in the road to be untied by some curious person who would catch the disease.—(“Tract. de Fascinatione,” p. 1003.)
The blood, urine, or excrement of the patient was to be placed in an egg-shell and fed to barn-yard fowl.—(Idem.)
“Id quod alio modo per urinam ægri quoque fieri valet; qua ratione cum sanguine, urina, excrementis, ægrotantis multæ sympatheticæ curæ fieri possunt;” and to this class belong such remedies as cutting an apple or a piece of bacon in half, then hanging the piece up in the chimney to melt or rot; as fast as this was effected, the disease disappeared. Speaking of transplantation, he says: “Prioris exemplum est dum applicato stercore humano ad certam aliquam partem transplantatur eo ipso morbo in plantam cujus semen in terram hoc stercore mistam inferitur.” The first example is where the ordure of the patient is applied to a certain plant, and thus transfers the disease from the patient to the plant.—(Etmuller, “Opera Omnia,” vol. i. p. 69, Lyons, 1696.)
Etmuller teaches that clippings of the toe and finger nails tied to the back of a living crab, which was then to be thrown into a stream by a man who would perform the duty and return home without speaking would effect cures; similarly, for the alleviation of gout, he recommends that these clippings be buried in a hole made in the bark of an oak which should then be closed with a wedge: “Abscinduntur ungues manuum et pedum, alligantur dorso cancri viventis, et cancer istis unguibus oneratus, immittitur in flumen retrofaciem redeundo sine loquela, donec in domum facta fuerit reversio. Instituuntur qq. transplantationes pro viribus recuperandis per ungues. Sic in podagræ.... R.; Ungues pedis, atque immittuntur in foramen excavatum in quercum et super foramen ponunt cuneum ex quo subito fit, ut remittat dolor ac desinat Podagra” (vol. ii. p. 270.)
Etmuller mentions the cure by tying the fragments of finger and toe nails to a crab, in another place in his works. For the recovery of impaired strength, these clippings should be buried in the bark of a cherry-tree, which should then be closed with ordure: “Ad recuperandos vires abscissos ungues et capillos cerasi radici incisæ imponunt, vulnusque fimo co-operiunt.”—(Idem, vol. ii. p. 265.)
“Denique si quid aliud singulare est si quis accipiat ovum recens, hoc coquat cum urina propria ad assumptionem medietatis, quo facto urina superstes projiciatur in flumen secundum ejusdem cursum, ovum vel ita coctum leviter apertur immittatur in acervum formicarum. Unde quando formicæ assumpserunt ovum solutem erit fascinum” (idem, vol. i. p. 462). “Finally, there is this singular method of taking a fresh egg and putting it in some of the patient’s own urine, which is boiled down one half; the supernatant urine is then to be thrown into a stream (down current) and the egg itself buried in an ant-heap; as fast as the ants consume the egg, the effects of the witchcraft vanish.”
Again, for the cure of gout, toe and finger nails were to be cut and placed in an aperture in the bark of an oak-tree: “Vel dum ungues pedum abscissi et in quercum terebratam inclusi, hominem liberum reddunt a podagra.”—(Idem, p. 69, vol. i.)
Urine was of great use in curing people bitten by serpents. “Per urinam solent fieri curationes magico-magneticæ morborum, si scillicet lardum vel potius caro porcina coquatur ter in urina ægri et caro ista incoctionis urinæ postmodum propinetur cani vel porco devoranda, sic enim sit, ut quam plurimi morbi curentur per transplantationem in animalia quæ devorant carnem et urinam.”—(Etmuller, p. 271.)
Hog-lard or a lardy hog-skin, rubbed on warts and then suspended in the chimney or buried in horse-dung, caused the warts to disappear as fast as it decayed. “Suspendatur in camino furni, vel in fimo equino sepeliatur.... Sicut exsiccatur in fumo, vel putrescit in fimo lardum ita exsiccetur et putrescat verruca.” (Idem.) Half a dozen methods of employing hog-dung are given.