For the “sympathetic” cure of hernia, the root of the herb “wall-wort” was smeared with the ordure of the patient, and then buried in the ground. “Radicem Symphti Oleto Proprio delibutam et in terram defossam.”—(Idem, p. 787.)
To stop hemorrhage “sympathetically,” whether from wounds or other injuries, some of the flowing blood was taken, and mixed with the ordure of the patient, and the mixture then exposed in a jar to the action of the air. “Contra hæmorrhagias, sive in læsonibus et vulneribus, ut sanguis sistatur, misce sanguinem ex sanguine profluentem cum proprio stercore et in olla ad desiccandum æri libero expone.”—(Idem, p. 787.)
A patient suffering from yellow jaundice should urinate upon horse-dung while warm. This same remedy seems to have been in vogue in helping women in the expulsion of the placenta. One of the prescriptions given by Schurig states that the horse-dung must be from an animal that was not tired at the time of the evacuation,—“non defatigati.”—(Idem, p. 812 et seq.)
A “sympathetic” cure by the use of the dung of horses seems to be implied in the case of infants’ small-pox, where we find it suspended in beer; “pendatur in cerevisiam ... propterea ne fauces affligantur a variolis quod alias solet esse casus periculosissimus.”—(Etmuller, vol. ii. p. 264.)
“There is no doubt that the practice was at one time very general, but it would now be a waste of time to go into particulars respecting the various compositions of the sympathetical curers; the manner in which their vitriol was to be prepared by exposure for three hundred and sixty-five days to the sun, the unguents of human fat and blood, mummy, moss of dead man’s skull, bull’s blood and fat, and other disgusting ingredients.”—(“Medical Superstitions,” Pettigrew, Philadelphia, 1844, p. 206.)
For ague, “let the urine of the sick body, made early in the morning, be softly heated nine daies continually untill all be consumed into vapour.”—(Reginald Scot, “Discoverie,” p. 196.)
In Great Britain and Ireland, “ague in a boy is cured by a cake made of barley-meal and his urine, and given to a dog to eat; the dog, in the case cited, had a shaking fit, and the boy was cured.” (“Folk-Medicine,” Black, p. 35. In a footnote there is added, “Pettigrew, ‘Superstitions connected with the practice of Medicine and Surgery,’ p. 77.”) Madame de Scudery mentions a similar cure for fever in a letter of date 20th of October, 1677, to the Comte de Bussy. Speaking of an abbé of fame, “On dit qu’il ne fait que prendre pour toutes les fièvres de l’urine des malades dans laquelle il fait durcir un œuf hors de sa coque, après quoi il le donne à manger à un chien qui prend en même temps la fièvre du malade qui par ce moien en guérit. C’est une question de fait que je n’ay pas éprouvée.”—(“Notes and Queries,” 5th series, vol. viii. p. 126.)
The following are given as cures by “transplantation.” “Seven or nine—it must be an odd number—cakes, made of the newly emitted urine of the patient, with the ashes of ash wood, and buried for some days in a dunghill, will, according to Paracelsus, cure the yellow jaundice.” In the journal of Dr. Edward Browne, transmitted to his father, Sir Thomas Browne, we read of “a magical cure for the jaundice: Burn wood under a laden vessel filled with water; take the ashes of that wood, and boyle it with the patient’s urine; then lay nine long heaps of the boyld ashes upon a board in a rank, and upon every heap lay nine spears of crocus.”—(“Medical Superstitions,” Pettigrew, Philadelphia, Penn., 1844, p. 103.)
We are likewise informed of “the cure of jaundice by the burying in a dunghill a cake made of ashes and the patient’s urine. Ague in a boy was cured by a similar cake made of barley-meal and his urine, and given to a dog to eat; the dog had a shaking fit, and the boy was cured.”
“Boys were cured of warts by taking an elder-stick and cutting as many notches in it as there were warts, and then rubbing it upon the warts, and burying it in a dunghill.”—(Idem, p. 104.)