TALISMANS
"He had the ring of Gyges, the talisman of invisibility."
--HAMERTON.
"The quack astrologer offers, for five pieces, to give
you home with you a Talisman against Flies; a Sigil to
make you fortunate at gaining; and a Spell that shall as
certainly preserve you from being rob'd for the future;
a sympathetic Powder for violent pains of the
Tooth-ache."--_Character of a Quack Astrologer._
"So far are they distant from the true knowledge of
physic which are ignorant of astrology, that they ought
not rightly to be called physicians, but deceivers; for
it hath been many times experimented and proved that
that which many physicians could not cure or remedy with
their greatest and strongest medicines, the astronomer
hath brought to pass with one simple herb, by observing
the moving of the signs."--FABIAN WITHERS.
In the minds of most persons the terms talisman, amulet, and charm are
synonymous. This may be more or less true as far as they are used
to-day, but in the days when these terms meant something in real life
there was a distinction. The talisman was probably at first an
astronomical figure, but later the term became more comprehensive.
Pope portrays this astrological import in his couplet,
"Of talismans and sigils knew the power,
And carefully watch'd the planetary hour."
The amulet was always carried about the person, while the other two
might be in the possession of the person in the case of the talisman,
or, in the case of the charm, if a material object it could be placed
entirely outside of one's care. The talisman and amulet must be a
compound of some substance, the charm might be a gesture, a look, or a
spoken word. Notice the example of charms according to Tennyson's
words,
"Then, in one moment, she put forth the charm
Of woven paces and of waving hands."
They were all used for defensive purposes, _i. e._, to keep away evil,
in the form of demons, disease, or misfortune, but they might,
especially the talisman, also attract good. Their power was of a
magical character, and was exercised in a supernatural manner.
The idea of the talisman probably originated from the belief that
certain properties or virtues were impressed upon substances by
planetary influences. "A talisman," says Pettigrew, "may in general
terms be defined to be a substance composed of certain cabalistic
characters engraved on stone, metal, or other material, or else
written on slips of paper." Hyde quotes a Persian writer who defines
the Telesm or Talismay as "a piece of art compounded of the celestial
powers and elementary bodies, appropriated to certain figures or
positions, and purposes and times, contrary to the usual manner."
We are told by Maimonides that images or idols were called Tzelamim on
account of the power or influence which was supposed to reside in
them, rather than on account of their particular figure or form.
Townley has opined that the reason for the production of astrological
or talismanic images was probably the desire of early peoples to have
some representation of the planets during their absence from sight, so
that they might at all times be able to worship the planetary body
itself or its representative. To accomplish this purpose, the
astrologers chose certain colors, metals, stones, trees, etc., to
represent certain planets, and constructed the talismans when the
planets were in their exaltation and in a happy conjunction with other
heavenly bodies. In addition to this, incantations were used in an
endeavor to inspire the talisman with the power and influence of the
planet for which it stood.
Pettigrew says: "The Hebrew word for talisman (magan) signifies a
paper or other material, drawn or engraved with the letters composing
the sacred name Jehovah, or with other characters, and improperly
applied to astrological representations, because, like the letters
composing 'The Incomparable Name,' they were supposed to serve as a
defence against sickness, lightning, and tempest. It was a common
practice with magicians, whenever a plague or other great calamity
infested a country, to make a supposed image of the destroyer, either
in gold, silver, clay, wax, etc., under a certain configuration of the
heavens, and to set it up in some particular place that the evil might
be stayed."[76]
The Jewish phylacteries must therefore be considered talismans and not
amulets. The writings contained in them are portions of the law and
are prepared in a prescribed manner. Three different kinds are used:
one for the head, another for the arm, and the third is attached to
the door-posts. The following is a Hebrew talisman supposed to have
considerable power: "It overflowed--he did cast darts--Shadai is all
sufficient--his hand is strong, and is the preserver of my life in all
its variations."[77]
Arnot gives an account of some Scottish talismans not unlike the
phylacteries of the Jews, which were for use on the door-posts. "On
the old houses still existing in Edinburgh," he says, "there are
remains of talismanic or cabalistical characters, which the
superstitious of earlier days had caused to be engraven on their
fronts. These were generally composed of some text of Scripture, of
the name of God, or, perhaps, of an emblematic representation of the
resurrection."[78]
The connection of astrology, or, as he calls it, "astronomy," and the
talisman with medicine is well portrayed by Chaucer in his picture of
a good physician of his day. He says:
"With us there was a doctor of phisike;
In al the world, was thar non hym lyk
To speke of physik and of surgerye,
For he wos groundit in astronomie.
He kept his pacient a ful gret del
In hourys by his magyk naturel;
Wel couth he fortunen the ascendent
Of his ymagys for his pacient."
Fosbrooke has divided talismans into five classes, examples of some of
which I have already given. They are: "1. The _astronomical_, with
celestial signs and intelligible characters. 2. The _magical_, with
extraordinary figures, superstitious words, and names of unknown
angels. 3. The _mixed_, of celestial signs and barbarous words, but
not superstitious, or with names of angels. 4. The _sigilla
planetarum_, composed of Hebrew numeral letters, used by astrologers
and fortune-tellers. 5. _Hebrew names and characters_. These were
formed according to the cabalistic art."
The doctrine of signatures bears a close resemblance to talismans,
and some believe that talismans have largely grown out of this
doctrine. Dr. Paris[79] defines the doctrine as the belief that "every
natural substance which possesses any medical virtues indicates, by an
obvious and well-marked external character, the disease for which it
is a remedy or the object for which it should be employed." Southey
says,[80] "The signatures [were] the books out of which the ancients
first learned the virtues of herbs--Nature having stamped on divers of
them legible characters to discover their uses." Some opined that the
external marks were impressed by planetary influences, hence their
connection with talismans; others simply reasoned it out that the
Almighty must have placed a sign on the various means which he had
provided for curing diseases.
Color and shape were the two principal factors in interpreting the
signatures. White was regarded as cold and red as hot, hence cold and
hot qualities were attributed to different medicines of these colors
respectively. Serious errors in practice resulted from this opinion.
Red flowers were given for disorders of the sanguiferous system; the
petals of the red rose, especially, bear the "signature" of the blood,
and blood-root, on account of its red juice, was much prescribed for
the blood. Celandine, having yellow juice, the yellow drug, turmeric,
the roots of rhubarb, the flowers of saffron, and other yellow
substances were given in jaundice; red flannel, looking like blood,
cures blood taints, and therefore rheumatism, even to this day,
although many do not know why _red_ flannel is so efficacious.
Lungwort, whose leaves bear a fancied resemblance to the surface of
the lungs, was considered good for pulmonary complaints, and
liverwort, having a leaf like the liver, cured liver diseases.
Eye-bright was a famous application for eye diseases, because its
flowers somewhat resemble the pupil of the eye; bugloss, resembling a
snake's head, was valuable for snake bite; and the peony, when in bud,
being something like a man's head, was "very available against the
falling sickness." Walnuts were considered to be the perfect signature
of the head, the shell represented the bony skull, the irregularities
of the kernel the convolutions of the two hemispheres of the brain,
and the husk the scalp. The husk was therefore used for scalp
wounds, the inner peel for disorders of the meninges, and the
kernel was beneficial for the brain and tended to resist poisons.
Lilies-of-the-valley were used for the cure of apoplexy, the signature
reasoning being, as Coles says, "for as that disease is caused by the
drooping of humors into the principal ventrices of the brain, so the
flowers of this lily, hanging on the plants as if they were drops, are
of wonderful use herein."
Capillary herbs naturally announced themselves as good for diseases
of the hair, and bear's grease, being taken from an animal thickly
covered with hair, was recommended for the prevention of baldness.
Nettle-tea is still a country remedy for nettle rash; prickly plants
like thistles and holly were prescribed for pleurisy and stitch in
the side, and the scales of the pine were used in toothache, because
they resemble front teeth. "Kidney-beans," says Berdoe, "ought to have
been useful for kidney diseases, but seem to have been overlooked
except as articles of diet." Poppy-heads were used "with success" to
relieve diseases of the head, and the root of the "mandrake," from its
supposed resemblance to the human form, was a very ancient remedy for
barrenness and was evidently so esteemed by Rachel, in the account
given in Genesis 30:14 ff.
In the treatment of small-pox red bed coverings were employed in
order to bring the pustules to the surface of the body. The patient
must be indued with red; the bed furniture and hangings should be red
and red substances were to be looked upon by the patient; burnt
purple, pomegranate seeds, mulberries or other red ingredients were
dissolved in their drink. John of Gladdesden, physician to Edward II,
prescribed the following treatment as soon as the eruption appeared:
"Cause the whole body of your patient to be wrapped in scarlet cloth,
or any other red cloth, and command everything about the bed to be
made red." He further says that "when the son of the renowned King of
England (Edward II) lay sick of the small-pox I took care that
everything around the bed should be of a red color; which succeeded so
completely that the Prince was restored to perfect health, without a
vestige of a pustule remaining."
The Emperor Francis I, when infected with smallpox, was rolled up in a
scarlet cloth, by order of his physicians, as late as 1765;
notwithstanding this treatment he died. Kampfer says that "when any of
the Japanese emperor's children are attacked with the small-pox, not
only the chamber and bed are covered with red hangings, but all
persons who approach the sick prince must be clad in scarlet gowns."
By a course of reasoning similar to that used in the treatment of
small-pox, it was supposed that flannel dyed nine times in blue was
efficacious in removing glandular swellings.[81]
The astrological factor in talismans was most important because it
was considered that certain stars and planets in certain relations
produced certain diseases and contagious disorders. Astrologers, for
example, attributed the plague to a conjunction of Saturn and Jupiter
in Sagittarius, on the tenth of October, or to a conjunction of Saturn
and Mars in the same constellation, on the twelfth of November. Burton
makes the most generous melancholy, as that of Augustus, to come from
the conjunction of Saturn and Jupiter in Libra; the bad, as that of
Catiline, from the meeting of Saturn and the moon in Scorpio. If these
disorders were produced by planets it was reasonable to suppose that
they could be cured by planets.
The virtue of herbs depended upon the planet under which they were
sown or gathered. For example, verbena or vervain should be gathered
at the rising of the dog-star, when neither the sun nor the moon
shone, but an expiatory sacrifice of fruit and honey should previously
have been offered to the earth. If this was carried out it had power
to render the possessor invulnerable, to cure fevers, to eradicate
poison, and to conciliate friendship. Notice also, that black
hellebore, to be effective, was to be plucked not cut, and this with
the right hand, which was then to be covered with a portion of the
robe and secretly to be conveyed to the left hand. The person
gathering it was to be clad in white, to be barefooted, and to offer a
sacrifice of bread and wine.
Not only the planets and the stars, but the moon has had a potent
influence on medicine. For instance, mistletoe was to be cut with a
golden knife, and when the moon was only six days old. Brand[82]
quotes from _The Husbandman's Practice, or Prognostication Forever_,
published in 1664, the following curious passage, "Good to purge with
electuaries, the moon in Cancer; with pills, the moon in Pisces; with
potions, the moon in Virgo; good to take vomits, the moon being in
Taurus, Virgo, or the latter part of Sagittarius; to purge the head by
sneezing, the moon being in Cancer, Leo, or Virgo; to stop fluxes and
rheumes, the moon being in Taurus, Virgo, or Capricorne; to bathe when
the moon is in Cancer, Libra, Aquarius, or Pisces; to cut the hair off
the head or beard when the moon is in Libra, Sagittarius, Aquarius, or
Pisces."
The Loseley manuscripts provide us with further examples. "Here
begyneth ye waxingge of ye mone, and declareth in dyvers tymes to let
blode, whiche be gode. In the furste begynynge of the mone it is
profetable to yche man to be letten blode; ye ix of the mone, neyther
be nyght ne by day, it is not good." They also tell of a physician
named Simon Trippe, who wrote to a patient in excuse for not visiting
him, as follows: "As for my comming to you upon Wensday next, verely
my promise be past to and old pacient of mine, a very good
gentlewoman, one Mrs. Clerk, wch now lieth in great extremity. I
cannot possibly be with you till Thursday. On Fryday and Saterday the
signe wilbe in the heart; on Sunday, Monday, and Tuesday, in the
stomake; during wch time it wilbe no good dealing with your ordinary
physicke untill Wensday come sevenight at the nearest, and from that
time forwards for 15 or 16 days passing good."[83]
Not unlike this is an incident of the year 686, given by Bede, where
"a holy Bishop having been asked to bless a sick maiden, asked 'when
she had been bled?' and being told that it was on the fourth day of
the moon, said: 'You did very indiscreetly and unskilfully to bleed
her on the fourth day of the moon; for I remember that Archbishop
Theodore, of blessed memory, said that bleeding at that time was very
dangerous, when the light of the moon and the tide of the ocean is
increasing; and what can I do to the girl if she is like to die?'"[84]
"So great, indeed," says Fort, "became the abuse of medical astrology,
whether by the direct juxtaposition of stellar influence, or through
apposite images, that a celebrated Church Council at Paris declared
that images of metal, wax, or other materials fabricated under certain
constellations or according to fixed characters--figures of peculiar
form, either baptized, consecrated, or exorcised, or rather desecrated
by the performance of formal rites at stated periods which it was
asserted, thus composed, possessed miraculous virtues set forth in
superstitious writings--were placed under the ban and interdicted as
errors of faith."[85]
We shall see that magnetism developed from astrology, and some other
forms of mental healing from magnetism. One of these, sympathetic
cures, was talismanic in its character, and therefore I give a brief
account of its method of working, in this place.
Sympathetic cures probably started with Paracelsus, although Von
Helmont tells us that the secret was first put forth by Ericcius
Wohyus, of Eburo. As a development from magnetism the former
originated the "weapon salve" which excited so much attention about
the middle of the seventeenth century. The following was a receipt
given by him for the cure of any wound inflicted by a sharp weapon,
except such as had penetrated the heart, the brain, or the arteries.
"Take the moss growing on the head of a thief who has been hanged and
left in the air; of real mummy; of human blood, still warm--of each,
one ounce; of human suet, two ounces; of linseed oil, turpentine, and
Armenian bole--of each, two drachms. Mix all well in a mortar, and
keep the salve in an oblong, narrow urn." With the salve the weapon
(not the wound), after being dipped in blood from the wound, was to be
carefully anointed, and then laid by in a cool place. In the meantime,
the wound was washed with fair, clean water, covered with a clean soft
linen rag, and opened once a day to cleanse off purulent matter. A
writer in the _Foreign Quarterly Review_ says there can be no doubt
about the success of the treatment, "for surgeons at this moment
follow exactly the same method, _except_ anointing the weapon!"
[Illustration: SIR KENELM DIGBY]
The weapon-salve continued to be much spoken of on the Continent, and
Dr. Fludd, or A Fluctibus, the Rosicrucian, introduced it into
England. He tried it with great success in several cases, but in the
midst of his success an attack was made upon him and his favorite
remedy, which, however, did little or nothing to diminish the belief
in its efficacy. One "Parson Foster" wrote a pamphlet entitled
"Hyplocrisma Spongus; or a Spunge to wipe away the Weapon-salve," in
which he declared that it was as bad as witchcraft to use or recommend
such an unguent; that it was invented by the devil, who, at the last
day, would seize upon every person who had given it the least
encouragement. "In fact," said Parson Foster, "the Devil himself gave
it to Paracelsus; Paracelsus to the emperor; the emperor to the
courtier; the courtier to Baptista Porta; and Baptista Porta to Dr.
Fludd, a doctor of physic, yet living and practising in the famous
city of London, who now stands tooth and nail for it." Dr. Fludd, thus
assailed, took up his pen and defended the unguent in a caustic
pamphlet.
The salve changed into a powder in the hands of Sir Kenelm Digby, the
son of Sir Edward Digby who was executed for his participation in the
Gunpowder Plot. Sir Kenelm was an accomplished scholar and an able
man, but at the same time a most extravagant defender of the powder of
sympathy for the healing of wounds. This powder came into sudden and
public notoriety through an accident to a distinguished person. Mr.
James Howell, the well-known author of the Dendrologia, in endeavoring
to part two friends in a duel, received a severe cut on the hand.
Alarmed by the accident, one of the combatants bound up the cut with
his garter and conveyed him home. The king sent his own surgeon to
attend Mr. Howell, but in four or five days the wound was not
recovering very rapidly and he made application to Sir Kenelm. The
latter first inquired whether he possessed anything that had the blood
upon it, upon which Mr. Howell produced the garter with which his hand
had been bound. A basin of water in which some powder of vitriol had
been dissolved was procured, and the garter immediately immersed in
it, whereupon, to quote Sir Kenelm, Mr. Howell said, "I know not what
ails me, but I find that I feel no more pain. Methinks that a pleasing
kind of freshness, as it were a wet cold napkin, did spread over my
hand, which hath taken away the inflammation that tormented me
before." He was then advised to lay away all plasters and keep the
wound clean and in a moderate temperature.
To prove conclusively the efficacy of the powder of sympathy, after
dinner the garter was taken out of the basin and placed to dry before
the fire. No sooner was this done than Mr. Howell's servant came
running to Sir Kenelm saying that his master's hand was again
inflamed, and that it was as bad as before. The garter was again
placed in the liquid and before the return of the servant all was well
and easy again. In the course of five or six days the wound was
cicatrized and a cure performed.
This case excited considerable attention at court, and on inquiry Sir
Kenelm told the king that he learned the secret from a much-travelled
Carmelite friar who became possessed of it while journeying in the
East. Sir Kenelm communicated it to Dr. Mayerne, the king's physician,
and from him it was known to even the country barbers. Even King
James, the Prince of Wales, the Duke of Buckingham, and many other
noble personages believed in its efficacy.
It would be a waste of time, had we space, to present fully Sir
Kenelm's profound and lengthy explanation of the cure. He tried to
make the cure more reasonable and acceptable by bringing forth certain
alleged phenomena which he thought proved sympathy, and were therefore
analogous in character. Surgeon-General Hammond calls attention to the
fact that these inferences were invariably false. "It is a very
curious circumstance," says he, "that of these, there is not one which
is true. Thus he is wrong when he says that if the hand be severely
burnt, the pain and inflammation are relieved by holding it near a hot
fire; that a person who has a bad breath is cured by putting his head
over a privy and inhaling the air which comes from it; that those who
are bitten by vipers or scorpions are cured by holding the bruised
head of either of those animals, as the case may be, near the bitten
part; that in times of great contagion, carrying a toad, or a spider,
or arsenic or some other venomous substance, about the person is a
protection; that hanging a toad about the neck of a horse affected
with farcy dissipates the disease; that water evaporated in a close
room will not be deposited on the walls, if a vessel of water be
placed in the room; that venison pies smell strongly at those periods
in which the 'beasts which are of the same nature and kind are in
rut'; that wine in the cellar undergoes a fermentation when the vines
in the field are in flower; that a table-cloth spotted with mulberries
or red wine is more easily whitened at the season in which the plants
are flowering than at any other; that washing the hands in the rays of
moonlight which fall into a polished silver basin (without water) is a
cure for warts; that a vessel of water put on the hearth of a smoky
chimney is a remedy for the evil, and so on--not a single fact in all
that he adduces. Yet these circumstances were regarded as real, and
were spoken of at the times as irrefragable proofs of the truth of Sir
Kenelm's views."[86]
We need have no doubt concerning the operation of sympathetic cures,
for Sir Kenelm has told us of their virtue in his own words.[87] His
method was what was called the cure by the wet way, but the cure could
also be effected in a dry way. Straus, in a letter to Sir Kenelm,
gives an account of a cure performed by Lord Gilbourne, an English
nobleman, upon a carpenter who had cut himself severely with his axe.
"The axe, bespattered with blood, was sent for, besmeared with an
anointment, wrapped up warmly, and carefully hung up in a closet. The
carpenter was immediately relieved, and all went well for some time,
when, however, the wound became exceedingly painful, and, upon
resorting to his lordship it was ascertained that the axe had fallen
from the nail by which it was suspended, and thereby become
uncovered."
Dryden in "The Tempest" (Act V, Sc. I) makes Ariel say, in reference
to the wound received by Hippolito from Ferdinand:
"He must be dress'd again, as I have done it.
Anoint the sword which pierced him with this weapon-salve,
and wrap it close from air, till I have
time to visit him again."
And in the next scene we have the following dialogue between
Hippolito and Miranda:
"_Hip._ O my wound pains me.
_Mir._ I am come to ease you.
[_She unwraps the sword._
_Hip._ Alas! I feel the cold air come to me;
My wound shoots worse than ever.
[_She wipes and anoints the sword._
_Mir._ Does it still grieve you?
_Hip._ Now methinks, there's something
Laid just upon it.
_Mir._ Do you find ease?
_Hip._ Yes, yes, upon the sudden, all the pain
Is leaving me. Sweet heaven, how I am eased!"
Werenfels says: "If the superstitious person be wounded by any chance,
he applies the salve, not to the wound, but, what is more effectual,
to the weapon by which he received it. By a new kind of art, he will
transplant his disease, like a scion, and graft it into what tree he
pleases."
The practice at the time was varied and general. All sorts of
disgusting ingredients were gathered together to form the salve. Some
idea of the condition of the science of medicine at that time may be
gathered when we remember that a serious discussion was long
maintained between two factions in the sympathetic school concerning
the question "whether it was necessary that the moss should grow
absolutely in the skull of a thief who had hung on the gallows, and
whether the ointment, while compounding, was to be stirred with a
murderer's knife."
There is no doubt that the sympathetic cures were really the most
rapid and effective. The modern surgeon wonders how a wound ever
healed prior to this treatment. There seemed to be little that could
be imagined to prevent a wound from healing that the pre-sympathetic
surgeon did not try. When the manipulations, doses, and treatments
were transferred from the wound to the weapon, they did not injure the
weapon, and did give the wound a chance to heal. In fact, leaving out
the weapon part of the treatment, which could have none but a mental
influence, the treatment would be recommended to-day. The wound was
kept clean, the edges were brought in apposition, temperature was
modified, and rest given. Under these circumstances, wounds which the
surgeon had irritated so as to take weeks to heal, united in as many
days. Mark this, however: the wounds treated were simple incisions,
the ones which most readily united if cleansed, brought together, and
left alone. Gunshot and similar wounds were not treated by this
process.[88]
[76] T. J. Pettigrew, _Superstitions Connected
with ... Medicine and Surgery_, pp. 63 f.
[77] _Gentleman's Magazine_, LVIII, pp. 586 and 695.
[78] H. Arnot, _History of Edinburgh_.
[79] _Pharmacologia_, p. 51.
[80] _The Doctor_, p. 59.
[81] For a discussion on the doctrine of signatures see
T. J. Pettigrew, _Superstitions_, etc., pp. 33 f.; E.
Berdoe, _Origin and Growth of the Healing Art_, pp. 327
and 416 f.; A. D. White, _History of the Warfare of
Science with Theology_, II, pp. 38 f.; Eccles,
_Evolution of Medical Science_, pp. 140 f.
[82] J. Brand, _Popular Antiquities_, III, p. 153. In
references to this work, the edition used was that
edited by W. Carew Hazlitt.
[83] _The Loseley Manuscripts_, pp. 263 f., quoted by
Berdoe.
[84] Bede, _Ecclesiastical History_, bk. V, chap. III.
[85] G. F. Fort, _History of Medical Economy During the
Middle Ages_, p. 299.
[86] W. A. Hammond, _Spiritualism and Nervous
Derangement_, p. 175.
[87] Sir Kenelm Digby, _A late discovery made in solemne
assembly of nobles and learned men, at Montpellier, in
France, touching the cure of wounds, by the Powder of
Sympathy_, etc.
[88] I am indebted to T. J. Pettigrew, _Superstitions
Connected with the History and Practice of Surgery and
Medicine_, pp. 201-213; C. Mackay, _Extraordinary
Popular Delusions_, pp. 266-268; W. A. Hammond,
_Spiritualism and Nervous Derangement_, pp. 170-176; for
the material on the subject of sympathetic cures.