Gun ointment
Gun ointment (also called sympathetic powder ) is an ancient magical remedy for wounds caused by weapons. Within the framework of the macro- / microcosmic conception of a world, the elements of which are connected and regulated by analogies and sympathies ( doctrine of signatures ), the belief that wounds caused by metals could be healed with metallic substances was formed in the Baroque era . The gun ointment should heal all wounds caused by sharp weapons, as long as they did not injure the heart, brain or arteries. Occasionally one also finds the idea that the treatment of the weapon (sword, dagger or the like) or its metal is sufficient to influence the wounds it inflicts.
A recipe comes from the Archidoxis magica (mid-16th century) attributed to Paracelsus :
“Take an ounce each from the lichen that grows on the head of a hanged thief, from a real mummy and from warm human blood; plus two ounces of human tallow and two drachms each of linseed oil, turpentine and Armenian healing earth. Mix everything well in a mortar and keep the ointment in an elongated, narrow urn. "
history
At the beginning of the 17th century, the concept was spread by Rudolf Goclenius the Younger and Johan Baptista van Helmont . It can be found in many medical treatises, especially those for the layman like Carl von Gogler's Hauß- und Feld-Apotheck . Sir Kenelm Digby made them popular in England. Its powder consisted essentially of blue vitriol ( copper sulfate ).
In the pamphlet Curious Inquiries of 1687, the weapon ointment was proposed to solve the longitude problem , the determination of longitude at sea. A dog should be wounded with a knife and then the weapon ointment should be applied to the knife in the home port every day at exactly noon. The dog on board the ship should howl in pain at this moment and show the ship's captain the time in the home port.
Even Oswald Croll reported in 1609 in his "Basilica Chymica" on the application of powder of sympathy for open wounds. This therapy had many opponents who suspected an effect of demons behind it. So a dispute developed between Rudolf Goclenius, Jean Roberti (1569–1644) and Johan Baptista van Helmont . With the Enlightenment, this typically magical medicine lost its meaning.
Literary reception
A description of the method for solving the longitude problem can be found in Dava Sobel's longitude . The story is one of the inspirations for Umberto Eco's The Island of the previous day . A related speculation about the interaction of blue vitriol and animal magnetism - albeit in relation to an alleged telepathic connection of snails - can be found in the Pasilalin sympathetic compass .
Individual evidence
- ↑ http://digitale.bibliothek.uni-halle.de/vd17/content/titleinfo/5176744
- ↑ http://reader.digitale-sammlungen.de/de/fs1/object/display/bsb11218887_00230.html
- ^ Wolf-Dieter Müller-Jahncke , Christoph Friedrich , Ulrich Meyer: Medicinal history . 2nd, revised and expanded edition. Wissenschaftliche Verlagsgesellschaft mbH Stuttgart, Stuttgart 2005, ISBN 3-8047-2113-3 , p. 51 .