During the year 1596, Jean Jacques Vuccher published “De Secretis” (“The secrets and marvels of Nature”), wherein, at p. 166, he thus advises the application of a loadstone for curing the headache: “La pierre d’aymant appliquée et mise contre la teste, oste toutes les douleurs et maux d’icelle-ce que nostre Hollerius escrit comme l’ayant prins [sic] des commentaires des anciens.” And, in 1754, Lenoble constructed magnets that were readily used in the treatment of various diseases (“Practical Mechanic,” Vol. II. p. 171).
The application of the magnet for the relief of various complaints is treated of at pp. 334–335, Vol. II. of J. Ennemoser’s “History of Magic,” where will be found a list of works containing accounts of the oldest and most extraordinary known cures on record. Additional references to cures by the magnet, as well as with iron or amber—besides those named more particularly at A.D. 1770 (Maxim. Hell) and at A.D. 1775 (J. F. Bolten)—are to be found in the following works:
Avicenna, “Canona Medicinæ,” Venice, 1608, lib. ii. cap. 470; Pliny, “Natural Historie,” Holland tr., 1601, Chap. IV. p. 609; Hali Abas, “Liber totius medicinæ,” 1523, lib. i.; Serapio Mauritanus, “De simplicibus medicinis,” Argent., 1531, pp. 260, 264; Antonius Musa Brasavolus, “Examen omnium simplicium medicamentorum,” Rome 1536; Santes de Ardoynis Pisaurensis, “Liber de Venenis” (Venetiis, 1492), Basilæ, 1562; Oribasius, “De facultate metallicorum,” lib. xiii.; Joannes Baptista Montanus, “Metaphrasis Summaria ...” 1551; G. Pictorio, in his poem published at Basel in 1567, or in the 1530–1531 editions of “Marbodei Galli Poetæ vetustissimi de lapidibus pretiosis Enchiridion” (J. A. Vander Linden, “De Scriptis Medicis,” 1651, pp. 210–211); Rhazès, “De simplicibus, ad Almansorem,” Venetiis, 1542, lib. ult. cap. 295; Joannes Lonicerus (author of “De Meteoris,” Frankfort, 1550), “In Dioscoridæ Anazarbei de re medica ...” 1543, p. 77; Matthæus Silvaticus, “Opus Pandectarum Medicinæ,” 1498, 1511, 1526 (1541), cap. 446; Petrus de Abano, “Tractatus de Venenis,” 1490, also “Conciliator Differentiarum Philosophorum” (1496), 1520, 1526; Nicolaus Myrepsus, “Liber de compositione medicamentorum,” 1541, 1549, 1567, 1626; Joannes Manardus, “Epistolarum medicinalium” (Basilæ, 1549); Dioscorides Pedacius, “De materia medica,” Spengel ed., 1829, Chap. CXLVII. or in the 1557 ed. p. 507, or in the translation made by Joannes Ruellius in 1543; Nicholas Monardus, “Joyfull newes out of the new-found worlde,” Frampton tr., London, 1596; Arnaldus de Villa Nova, “Tractatus de virtutibus herbarum” (1499); Amatus Lusitanus, “Enarrationes Eruditissimæ,” 1597, pp. 482, 507; Gabriellus Fallopius, “De Simplicibus Medicamentis purgentibus tractatus,” and “Tractatus de compositione Medicamentorum,” Venetiis, 1566, 1570; Joannes Langius, “Epistolarum Medicinalium ...,” Paris, 1589; Petri Andriæ Mathiolus, “Commentarii ... Dioscoridis ... de materia medica,” 1598, p. 998; W. Barlowe, “Magneticall Advertisements,” 1616, p. 7, or the 1843 reprint; Albertus Magnus, “De Mineralibus” (1542), lib. ii.; Oswaldus Crollius, “Basilica Chimica,” 1612, p. 267; Nicolaus Curtius, “Libellus de medicamentis ...” Giessæ Cattorum, 1614; Rudolphi Goclenii—Goclenius—“Tractatus de magnetica curatione,” 1609, 1613, also “Synarthosis Magnetica,” Marpurgi, 1617 (Eloy “Dict. Hist. de la Méd.,” Vol. II. pp. 359–360); Luis de Oviedo, “Methodo de la Coleccion y Reposicion de las medicinas simples,” 1622, p. 502; W. Charleton, “A Ternary of Paradoxes of the Magnetic cure of Wounds,” 1650; the “Pharmacopœia Augustana,” Augsburg, 1621, p. 182; Patrick Brydone in “Phil. Trans.,” Vol. L. pp. 392, 695, and Vol. LXIII. p. 163. Consult also the abridgments by Hutton, Vol. XI. p. 262, Vol. XIII. p. 415; Waring’s “Bibliotheca Therapeutica,” London, 1878.
“The magnet ... gives comfort and grace, and is a cure for many complaints; it is of great value in disputes. When pulverised, it cures many burns. It is a remedy for dropsy” (I Sermone ... di F. Sacchetti ... § 18).
According to Dias, “the magnet reconciles husbands to their wives,” and Platea remarks that “it is principally of use to the wounded,” while Avicenna says “it is a remedy against spleen, the dropsy and alopecian.”
For additional information, consult J. Beckmann’s “History of Inventions,” Bohn, 1846, Vol. I. p. 43, and the article “Somnambulism” in the “Encyclopædia Britannica.”
A.D. 543.—The Japanese say that at about this date the Mikado received from the Court of Petsi in Corea “the wheel which indicates the south.”
Reference.—Knight, “Mechanical Dictionary,” Vol. II. p. 1397.
A.D. 658.—As shown by Kaï-bara-Tok-sin, in the “Wa-zi-si,” the first magnetic cars were constructed during this year in Japan; the loadstone was not, however, discovered in that country until A.D. 713, when it was brought from the province of Oomi (Klaproth, “Boussole,” p. 94). The “Journal of the Franklin Institute” (Vol. XVIII. for 1836, p. 69), gives a description and illustration of one of these magnetic chariots, taken from the thirty-third volume of the Japanese Encyclopædia.
A.D. 806–820.—Between these dates, under the Thâng dynasty, were first made the cars called Kin-Koung-yuan, which were magnetic chariots similar to those previously known, but bearing in addition a drum and a bell. Both the latter were struck at regular intervals by an erect male figure placed at the head of the car (“American Journal of Science and the Arts,” Vol. XL. p. 249).