Anecdotes are numerous, proving the power of imagination in healing. Some of them are referred to in Science and Health. Dr. C. L. Dodge, in The Christian At Work, has called attention to others. From his history of the famous Sympathetic Powder are gleaned a few facts. Does not this instance point to Animal Magnetism, as the so-called curative agent?
This powder was said to heal injuries, if applied to the bloodstained garments of a wounded person, even though the sufferer was far away. A friar, returning from the East, brought the receipt to Florence. Sir Kenelm Digby was fortunate enough to do the friar a favor, and so learned the composition of the powder.
Sir Kenelm was, at different periods of his life, an admiral, a theologian, a critic, a metaphysician, a politician, and an alchemist. Soon after his return to England, an opportunity offered itself to try the powder. Mr. J. Howel was wounded, in parting two friends who were fighting a duel. Four days afterward Sir Kenelm dipped one of Mr. Howel's garters into a solution of the powder, and immediately, it is said, the wounds, which were very painful, grew easy, although the patient had not the slightest idea what his friend was about. Mr. Howel returned home, leaving his garter in the hands of Sir Kenelm, who hung it up to dry. Soon Mr. Howel sent his servant to say that the wounds were paining him badly. The garter was therefore replaced in the solution, and the patient recovered in five or six days.
