Eighteenth Century Waifs

‘I replied, “Since, then, you feel already so much good of my medicament, I advise you to cast away all your plasters; only keep the wound clean, and in a moderate temper, betwixt heat and cold.”

‘This was presently reported to the Duke of Buckingham, and, a little after, to the King, who were both very curious to know the circumstances of the business; which was, that after dinner, I took the garter out of the water, and put it to dry before a great fire. It was scarce dry before Mr. Howell’s servant came running, and saying that his master felt as much burning as ever he had done, if not more; for the heat was such as if his hand were betwixt coals of fire. I answered that although that had happened at present, yet he should find ease in a short time; for I knew the reason of this new accident, and would provide accordingly; for his master should be free from that inflammation, it might be, before he could possibly return to him; but, in case he found no ease, I wished him to come presently back again; if not, he might forbear coming. Thereupon he went; and, at the instant, I did put the garter again into the water; thereupon he found his master without any pain at all. To be brief, there was no sense of pain afterwards; but within five or six days the wounds were cicatrized, and entirely healed.’

Faith worked wonders, and a credulous imagination formed an excellent foundation for healing. Take another instance in the same century – the case of Valentine Greatraks (who cured by the imposition of hands), who was nearly contemporary with Sir Kenelm. It would serve no good purpose to go minutely into his history: suffice it to say that he was an Irishman of good family, and, as a young man, served under Cromwell. After the disbandment of the army he was made Clerk of the Peace for the County of Cork, Registrar for Transplantation (ejection of Papists who would not go to church) and Justice of the Peace, so that we see he occupied a respectable position in society.

After Greatraks settled down in his civil capacity, he seems to have been a blameless member of society; but his religious convictions were extremely rabid, and strong on the Protestant side. Writing in 1668, he says: ‘About four years since I had an Impulse, or a strange perswasion, in my own mind (of which I am not able to give any rational account to another) which did very frequently suggest to me that there was bestowed on me the gift of curing the King’s Evil: which, for the extraordinariness of it, I thought fit to conceal for some time, but at length I communicated this to my Wife, and told her, That I did verily believe that God had given me the blessing of curing the King’s Evil; for, whether I were in private or publick, sleeping or waking, still I had the same Impulse; but her reply was to me, That she conceived this was a strange imagination: but, to prove the contrary, a few daies after there was one William Maher of Salterbridge, in the Parish of Lissmore, that brought his Son William Maher to my house, desiring my Wife to cure him, who was a person ready to afford her Charity to her Neighbours, according to her small skill in Chirurgery; on which my Wife told me there was one that had the King’s Evil very grievously in the Eyes, Cheek, and Throat; whereupon I told her that she should now see whether this were a bare fancy, or imagination, as she thought it, or the Dictates of God’s Spirit on my heart; and thereupon I laid my hands on the places affected, and prayed to God for Jesus’ sake to heal him, and then I bid the Parent two or three days afterwards to bring the Child to me again, which accordingly he did, and then I saw the Eye was almost quite whole, and the Node, which was almost as big as a Pullet’s Egg, was suppurated, and the throat strangely amended, and, to be brief (to God’s glory I speak it), within a month discharged itself quite, and was perfectly healed, and so continues, God be praised.’

This may be taken as a sample of his cures, albeit his first; and, although he excited the enmity of the licensed medical profession, he seems to have cured the Countess of Conway of an inveterate head-ache, which greatly enhanced his reputation. He died no one knows when, but some time early in the century.

And in our time, too, have been the quacks, the Zouave Jacob and Dr. Newton, who pretended to have the miraculous gift of healing by the imposition of hands, so that we can scarcely wonder that, in an age when the dissemination of accurate and scientific knowledge as the present is (imperfect though it be), a man like Valentine Greatraks was believed in as of almost divine authority at the period at which he lived. But it is a very curious thing that some men either imagine that they have, or feign to have a miraculous gift of healing. Witness in our own day the ‘Peculiar People,’ who base their peculiar gift of healing on a text from the Epistle of St. James, chap. 5, v. 14 – ‘Is any sick among you? let him call upon the elders of the Church; and let them pray over him, anointing him with oil in the name of the Lord.’

So also the Catholic and Apostolic Church (Irvingites) teach this practice as a dogma, vide their catechism,[100 - ‘The Liturgy and other Divine Offices of the Church.’ London, Bosworth, 1880, p. 638.] ‘What are the benefits to be derived from this rite?’ ‘St. James teaches us again that the prayer of faith shall save the sick, and the Lord shall raise him up; and, if he have committed sins, they shall be forgiven him.’ After this, who can say that the age of faith is passed away?

With them, also, is a great function for the benediction of oil for anointing the sick; the rubric for which is as follows:[101 - ‘The Liturgy and other Divine Offices of the Church,’ p. 584.] ‘In the Celebration of the Holy Eucharist on a Week-day, immediately before the elements are brought up and placed on the Altar, the Elder or Elders present shall bring the vessel containing the oil to the Angel, who shall present it uncovered upon the Altar; and then kneeling down at the Altar, and the Elders kneeling down at the access to the Sanctuary, the Angel shall say this Prayer of Benediction.’

Here follows a not very long prayer, in which the Almighty is intreated to impart to the oil the virtue which is dogmatically asserted that it possesses, in the catechism. The rubric then continues, ‘The oil which has been blessed shall remain on the Altar until after the Service, and shall then be delivered by the Angel to the senior Elder, that it may be reverently carried to the Sacristy, and there deposited in the proper place by the Angel.’

In the ‘Order for anointing the Sick’ (p. 602), the rubric says: ‘This rite shall be administered only to such as have, in time past, received the Holy Communion, or to whom it is intended presently to administer the Communion; also, only in such cases of sickness as are of a serious or dangerous character. In order to the receiving of the rite, opportunity should, if possible, be previously given to the sick person to make confession of his sins.

‘A table should be provided in the sick person’s room, with a clean cloth thereon, upon which may be placed the vessel of holy oil… The Elder in charge shall be accompanied, when possible, by the other Elders, the Pastor, and the Deacon.’

A somewhat lengthy service follows, and in the middle is this rubric: ‘Then the Elders present shall anoint the sick person with the oil on the head or forehead, and, if the sick person request it, also on any part affected.’ And it winds up with the subjoined direction, ‘All the holy oil that shall remain after the anointing shall be forthwith consumed by Fire.’

I had intended to confine my subject entirely to English quacks, but the name of Mesmer is so allied to quackery in England that I must needs refer to him. He was born at Merseburg in Germany on May 23, 1733, and died at the same place March 5, 1815. He studied medicine, and took a doctor’s degree in 1766. He started his extraordinary theory in 1772 by publishing a tract entitled, ‘De PlanetariumInfluxu,’ in which he upheld that tides exist in the air as in the sea, and were similarly produced. He maintained that the sun and the moon acted upon an etherial fluid which penetrated everything, and this force he termed Animal Magnetism. But there is every reason to believe that he was indebted for his discovery to a Jesuit father named Hel, who was professor of astronomy at Vienna. Hel used peculiarly made steel plates, which he applied to different portions of his patient’s body. Hel and Mesmer subsequently quarrelling about the prior discovery of each, the latter discontinued the use of the plates, and substituted his fingers. Then he found it was unnecessary to touch his patient, but that the same magnetic influence could be induced by waving his hands, and making what are called mesmeric passes at a distance.

But the Viennese are a practical race, and his failures to cure, notably in one case, that of Mademoiselle Paradis (a singer), who was blind, caused charges of deceit to be brought against him, and he was told to leave Vienna at a day’s notice. He obeyed, and went to Paris, where he set up a superb establishment, fitted up most luxuriously. The novelty-loving Parisians soon visited him, and here, in a dimly lit room, with pseudo-scientific apparatus to excite the imagination, and a great deal of corporal manipulation, tending to the same purpose, to the accompaniment of soft music or singing, hysterical women went into convulsive fits, and laughed, sobbed, and shrieked, according to their different temperaments.

Having reached this stage, Mesmer made his appearance, clad in a gold embroidered robe of violet silk, holding in his hand a magnetic rod of wondrous power. With slow and solemn steps he approached his patients, and the exceeding gravity of his deportment, added to their ignorance of what might be coming next, generally calmed and subdued those who were not insensible. Those who had lost their senses he awoke by stroking them, and tracing figures upon their bodies with his magnetic wand, and, on their recovery, they used to testify to the great good his treatment had done them.

A commission of scientific and medical men sat to make inquiry into ‘Animal Magnetism,’ and they reported adversely. He then endeavoured to get a pecuniary recognition of his services from the French Government, but this being declined, he retired to Spa, where, the bubble having been pricked, he lived for some time in comparative obscurity.

Mesmerism was introduced into England in the year 1788, by a Dr. De Mainauduc, who, on his arrival at Bristol, delivered lectures on ‘Animal Magnetism’; and, as his somewhat cautious biographer, Dr. George Winter, observes, he ‘was reported to have cured diseased persons, even without the aid of medicines, and of his having the power of treating and curing diseased persons at a distance.’ He found many dupes, for the said authority remarks, ‘On looking over the lists of Students that had been, or then were under the Doctor’s tuition, it appeared that there was 1 Duke – 1 Duchess – 1 Marchioness – 2 Countesses – 1 Earl – 1 Lord – 3 Ladies – 1 Bishop – 5 Right Honourable Gentlemen and Ladies – 2 Baronets – 7 Members of Parliament – 1 Clergyman – 2 Physicians – 7 Surgeons – exclusive of 92 Gentlemen and Ladies of respectability, in the whole 127.

‘Naturally fond of study, and my thirst after knowledge being insatiable, I also was allured to do myself the honour of adding my name to the list; and to investigate this very extraordinary Science: and, according to the general terms, I paid 25 Guineas to the Doctor, and 5 Guineas for the use of the Room; I also signed a bond for £10,000, and took an affidavit that I would not discover the secrets of the Science during the Doctor’s natural life.’

So we see that this wonderful power had a market value of no mean consideration, and, indeed, an anonymous authority, who wrote on ‘Animal Magnetism,’ states that Dr. Mainauduc realised £100,000. So lucrative was its practice, that many pretenders sprung up, notable one Holloway who gave lectures at the rate of five guineas the course, besides Miss Prescott, Mrs. Pratt, Monsieur de Loutherbourg the painter, Mr. Parker, and Dr. Yeldal; but the chief of these quacks was Dr. Loutherbourg, who was assisted in his operations by his wife. A book about his wonderful cures was written by one of his believers, Mary Pratt, ‘A lover of the Lamb of God,’ in which he is described as ‘A Gentleman of superior abilities, well known in the scientific and polite Assemblies for his brilliancy of talents as a Philosopher, and Painter: this Gentleman is no other than Mr. De Loutherbourg, who with his Lady, Mrs. De Loutherbourg, have been made by the Almighty power of the Lord Jehovah, proper Recipients to receive divine Manuductions, which heavenly and divine Influx coming from the Radix God, his divine Majesty has most graciously condescended to bestow on them (his blessing) to diffuse healing to all who have faith in the Lord as mediator, be they Deaf, Dumb, Lame, Halt, or Blind.’

That thousands flocked to these charlatans is undoubted, for Dr. George Winter (above quoted) says, ‘It was credibly reported that 3,000 persons have attended at one time, to get admission at Mr. Loutherbourg’s, at Hammersmith; and that some persons sold their tickets for from One, to Three Guineas each.’ And this is corroborated by crazy Mary Pratt. ‘Report says three Thousand People have waited for Tickets at a time. For my own part, the Croud was so immense that I could with difficulty gain the Door on Healing Days, and I suppose, upon conviction, Report spoke Truth.’ De Loutherbourg charged nothing for his cures, and Mary Pratt is extremely scandalized at those who, having received a ticket gratis, sold them from two to five guineas.

Many cases are given in her book of the cures effected by this benevolent couple; how the blind were made to see, the deaf to hear, the lame to walk, or the dumb to speak – nay, could even cast out devils – as the following testimonial will show.

‘The second case I shall mention is that of a woman possessed with Evil Spirits, her name Pennier, lives at No. 33 Ogle Street, Mary-le-bone, near Portland-Chapel; her husband lives with the French Ambassador: her case was too terrific to describe; her eyes and mouth distorted, she was like a Lunatic in every sense of the word; she used to say that it was not her voice that spoke, but the devil in her. In short, her case was most truly distressing, not only to her family, but the neighbourhood; she used to invite people in with apparent civility, then bite them, and scratch like a cat; nay, she would beg a pin of women, and then scratch them with it, &c., &c., &c.’

‘Mrs. De Loutherbourg, a lady of most exquisite sensibility and tenderness, administered to this Mrs. Pennier; she daily amended, and is now in her right mind, praising God, who has through his servant performed such an amazing cure, to the astonishment of hundreds who saw her and heard her.’

Mrs. De Loutherbourg’s system of cure was extremely simple, as this example will show: ‘Mrs. Hook, Stable Yard, St. James’s, has two daughters, born Deaf and Dumb. She waited on the Lady above mentioned, who looked on them with an eye of benignity, and healed them. (I heard both of them speak.)’

Her husband’s plan was rather more clumsy. He imposed hands. ‘A News-Carrier at Chelsea cured of an Abscess in his Side. Mr. De Loutherbourg held his hand on the Abscess half a minute, and it broke immediately.’

Perhaps these cures were not permanent, for ‘Mr. De Loutherbourg told me he had cured by the blessing of God, two Thousand since Christmas. But, as our Lord said, of the ten healed, one only returned to thank him; so many hundreds have acted, that have never returned to Mr. De Loutherbourg.’

One of the most impudent of these quacks was named Benjamin Douglas Perkins, whose father claimed to be the inventor of the metallic tractors, which were rods made either of a combination of copper, zinc, and gold, or of iron, silver, and platinum, and he explains, in the specification to his patent, that ‘the point of the instrument thus formed, I apply to those parts of the body which are affected with diseases, and draw them off on the skin, to a distance from the complaint, and usually towards the extremities.’

He charged the moderate sum of five guineas a set for these precious instruments, and made a good thing out of them. He was a member of the Society of Friends, and, as a proof that his charlatanism was believed in, this benevolent society subscribed largely, and built for him the Perkinean Institution, an hospital where the poor could be treated on his system, free of cost.

He was an adept in the art of puffing, and his ‘Testimonials’ are quite equal to those of modern times. I will only cite two. ‘My little infant child was scalded with hot tea on the forehead, about three and a half inches in length, and three-fourths of an inch in breadth, which raised a vesicle before I had time to apply anything to it. The Tractors were solely used, and the whole redness disappeared. The Blister broke, &c.’

‘A lady fell from her horse, and dislocated her ancle, which remained several hours before it was reduced, by which it became very much swelled, inflamed, and painful. Two or three applications of the Tractor relieved the pain, and in a day or two she walked the house, and had no further complaint.’

Then also was Dominicetti, who, in 1765, established a house in Cheyne Walk, Chelsea, for medicated baths, but he hardly belongs to the magnetisers. Then there was Katterfelto, but he, too, hovers on the borderland of quackism – vide the following one of hundreds of advertisements.[102 - General Advertiser, March 26, 1782.]

‘By particular Desire of many of the First Nobility. This Present Evening and To-Morrow, At late Cox’s Museum, Spring Gardens,

A Son of the late Colonel Katterfelto of the Death’s Head Hussars, belonging to the King of Prussia, is to exhibit the same variety of Performances as he did exhibit on Wednesday the 13th of March, before many Foreign Ministers, with great applause.

Mr. Katterfelto Has had the honour in his travels to exhibit before the Empress of Russia, the Queen of Hungary, the Kings of Prussia, Sweden, Denmark, and Poland.

Mr. Katterfelto’s Lectures are Philosophical, Mathematical, Optical, Magnetical, Electrical, Physical, Chymical, Pneumatic, Hydraulic, Hydrostatic, Styangraphic, Palenchic, and Caprimantic Art.

Mr. Katterfelto Will deliver a different Lecture every night in the week, and show various uncommon experiments, and his apparatus are very numerous, and elegantly finished: all are on the newest construction, many of which are not to be equalled in Europe.

Mr. Katterfelto Will, after his Philosophical Lecture, discover various arts by which many persons lose their fortunes by Dice, Cards, Billiards, and E.O. Tables, &c.’

He was a charlatan pur et simple, and to his other attractions he added a performing black cat,[103 - General Advertiser, May 1, 1783.] ‘but Colonel Katterfelto is very sorry that many persons will have it that he and his famous Black Cat were Devils but such suspicion only arises through his various wonderful and uncommon performances: he only professes to be a moral and divine Philosopher, and he says, that all persons on earth live in darkness, if they are able, but won’t see that most enterprizing, extraordinary, astonishing, wonderful, and uncommon exhibition on the Solar Microscope. He will this day, and every day this week, show, from eight in the morning till five in the afternoon, his various new Occult Secrets, which have surprized the King and the whole Royal Family: and his evening lecture begins this, and every night, precisely at eight o’clock; but no person will be admitted after eight; and after his lecture he will exhibit many new deceptions. His Black Cat will also make her appearance this evening at No. 24, Piccadilly. His exhibition of the Solar Microscope has caused him lately very grand houses; also his wonderful Black Cat at night; many thousands could not receive admission lately for want of room, and Katterfelto expects to clear at least above £30,000, in a year’s time, through his Solar Microscope and surprizing Black Cat.’

He also invented a sort of lucifer-match.[104 - General Advertiser, February 13, 1784.] ‘Dr. Katterfelto will also, for 2/6d. sell such a quantity of his new invented Alarum, which is better than £20 worth of Phosphorus matches, and is better in a house or ship than £20,000, as many lives may be saved by it, and is more useful to the Nation than 30,000 Air Balloons. It will light 900 candles, pistols or cannons, and never misses. He also sells the very best Solid, Liquid, and Powder Phosphorus, Phosphorus Matches, Diamond Beetles, &c.’ Katterfelto died at Bedale, in Yorkshire, 25th of November, 1799.

There also lived Dr. Graham, who was not heard of before 1780, and he was an arch quack. About that year he took a mansion in the Royal Terrace, Adelphi, which he fitted up sumptuously. It was inscribed ‘Templum Æsculapio Sacrum,’ and was called both the ‘Temple of Health,’ and the ‘Hymeneal Temple.’ Here, in air heavy with incense, he lectured on electricity and magnetism. He was a past master in the art of puffing, and published several books in glorification of himself. In one, called ‘Medical Transactions at the Temple of Health in London, in the course of the years 1781 & 1782,’ he gives a wonderful list of cures worked by his ‘Electrical Æther, Nervous Æthereal Balsam, Imperial Pills, Liquid Amber, British Pills,’ and his ‘Bracing, or Restorative Balsam,’ which, in order to bring within the reach of ordinary people, he kindly consented to sell at half-price, namely, ‘that the bottles marked, and formerly sold at one guinea, may now be had at only half-a-guinea; the half-guinea bottles at five shillings and threepence; the five shilling at half-a-crown, and the two-and-sixpenny vials at only one shilling and threepence.’

In this book, too, are some choice specimens of poetry, all laudatory of Dr. Graham, one of which is worth repeating, as a specimen —

‘An Acrostic, by a Lady

D eign, to accept the tribute which I owe,
O ne grateful, joyful tear, permit to flow;
C an I be silent when good health is given?
T hat first – that best – that richest gift of heaven!
O Muse! descend, in most exalted lays,
R eplete with softest notes, attune his praise.

G en’rous by nature, matchless in thy skill!
R ich in the God-like art – to ease – to heal;
A ll bless thy gifts! the sick – the lame – the blind,
H ail thee with rapture for the cure they find!
A rm’d by the Deity with power divine,
M ortals revere His attributes in thine.’

In this temple of ‘Health and Hymen’ he had a wonderful ‘Celestial Bed,’ which he pretended cost sixty thousand pounds. He guaranteed that the sleepers therein, although hitherto childless, should become prolific; but it was somewhat costly, for the fee for its use for a single night was one hundred pounds. Still, he had some magneto-electric beds, which, probably, were as efficacious, at a lower rate, only fifty pounds nightly. The title-page of a pamphlet on his establishment is noteworthy.