Eighteenth Century Waifs

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 Planetarium Influxu,’ 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

‘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 ‘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 ‘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 LadyD 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.

‘Il Convito Amoroso,Or a Serio – comico – philosophicalLectureon theCauses, Nature, and Effects of Love and Beauty,At the Different Periods of Human Life, in Persons, andPersonages, Male, Female, and Demi-Charactêre;And in Praise of the Genial and Prolific Influences of theCelestial Bed!As Delivered by Hebe Vestina,The Rosy Goddess of Youth and of Health!from theElectrical Throne! in the Great Apollo-Chamber,At the Temple of Hymen, in London,

Before a glowing and brilliant Audience of near Three Hundred Ladies and Gentlemen, who were commanded by Venus, Cupid, and Hymen! to assist, in joyous Assembly, at the Grand Feast of very Fat Things, which was held at their Temple, on Monday Evening, the 25th of November, 1782; but which was interrupted by the rude and unexpected Arrival of his Worship Midas Neutersex, Esqre. … just as the Dessert was about to be served up.

Published at the earnest Desire of many of the Company, and to gratify the impatient and very intense longings of Thousands of Adepts, Hibernian and British; – of the Cognoscenti; – et de les Amateur ardens des delices exquise de Venus!

To which is subjoined, a description of the Stupendous Nature and Effects of the CelebratedCelestial Bed!’

The ‘Vestina, or Goddess of Health,’ was no mean person. She began life as a domestic servant, and was named Emma Lyons. She was a good-looking, florid, buxom wench, and, after having played her part as priestess at the ‘Temple of Health and Hymen,’ became the wife of the dilletante Sir William Hamilton, English Minister at Naples, and was afterwards notorious for her connection with Lord Nelson.

Graham wrote in 1790, ‘A short Treatise on the All cleansing – all healing – and all invigorating Qualities of the Simple Earth, when long and repeatedly applied to the naked Human Body and Lungs, for the safe, speedy, and radical Cure of all Diseases, internal as well as external, which are, in their Nature or Stage, susceptible of being cured; – for the preservation of the Health, Vigour, Bloom, and Beauty of Body and of Mind; for rejuvenating the aged and decaying Human Body; – and for prolonging Life to the very longest possible Period, &c.’

For the benefit of those who would try the doctor’s earth-cure, I extract the following: ‘I generally, or always, prefer the sides or tops of hills or mountains, as the air and the earth are the more pure and salubrious; but the air and earth of ordinary pasture or corn-fields, especially those that are called upland, and even good clean garden-ground, or the higher commons, especially fallow corn-fields, are all salutary and good.

‘As to the colour and nature of the earth or soil, I prefer a good brown or reddish blooming mould, and light, sandy, crumbly, mellow and marrowy earth; or that which feels when I am in it, and crumbling with my hands and fingers, like bits of marrow among fine Flour; and that which has a strong, sweet, earthly smell – ’

So that my readers now know exactly what to do.

He had a fairly comprehensive idea of modern hygiene, as will be seen from the following extract from ‘General Instructions to the persons who consult Dr. Graham as a Physician’:

‘It will be unreasonable for Dr. Graham’s Patients to expect a complete and a lasting cure, or even great alleviation of their peculiar maladies, unless they keep the body and limbs most perfectly clean with very frequent washings, – breathe fresh, open air day and night, – be simple in the quality and moderate in the quantity of their food and drink, – and totally give up using the deadly poisons and weakeners of both body and soul, and the cankerworm of estates called foreign Tea and Coffee, Red Port Wine, Spirituous Liquors, Tobacco and Snuff, gaming and late hours, and all sinful, unnatural, and excessive indulgence of the animal appetites, and of the diabolical and degrading mental passions. On practising the above rules – on a widely open window day and night – and on washing with cold water, and going to bed every night by eight or nine, and rising by four or five, depends the very perfection of bodily and mental health, strength and happiness.’

He wrote many pamphlets, some of them on religious matters, and the fools who patronised him paid him large fees; yet his expenses were very heavy, and his manner of living luxurious, so that we experience but little wonder when we find the ‘Temple of Health’ sold up, and that Graham himself died poor – either in, or near, Glasgow.

Early in the century there were (in surgery) two noted quacks, namely, Dr. (afterwards Sir William) Read, and Roger, or, as he called himself, Doctor, Grant – both oculists. Read originally was a tailor, and Grant had been a tinker and Anabaptist preacher. The list of cures of both are marvellous – Grant even advertising in the Daily Courant, of July 20, 1709, that he had cured, in five minutes, a young man that had been born blind. But at that time, when people believed in their sovereign being able to cure scrofula by touching the patient with a gold coin, a little faith went a long way.

But quackery was not confined to the masculine gender – the ladies competed with them in the field. Notably Mrs. Map, the bone-setter of Epsom, of whom Mr. Pulteney writes so amusingly to Swift on December 21, 1736: ‘I must tell you a ridiculous incident; perhaps you have not heard it. One Mrs. Mapp, a famous she bone-setter and mountebank, coming to town with a coach and six horses, on the Kentish road, was met by a rabble of people, who, seeing her very oddly and tawdrily dressed, took her for a foreigner, and concluded she must be a certain great person’s mistress. Upon this they followed the coach, bawling out, “No Hanover w – ! No Hanover w – !” The lady within the coach was much offended, let down the glass, and screamed louder than any of them, “She was no Hanover w – ! she was an English one!” Upon which they cried out, “God bless your ladyship!” quitted the pursuit, and wished her a good journey.’

This woman sprang into notoriety all at once. The first authentic account of her is on page 457 of the London Magazine for 1836, under the date of August 2: ‘The Town has been surprized lately with the fame of a young woman at Epsom, who, tho’ not very regular, it is said, in her Conduct, has wrought such Cures that seem miraculous in the Bone-setting way. The Concourse of People to Epsom on this occasion is incredible, and ’tis reckon’d she gets near 20 Guineas a Day, she executing what she does in a very quick Manner: She has strength enough to put in any Man’s Shoulder without any assistance; and this her strength makes the following Story the more credible. A Man came to her, sent, as ’tis supposed, by some Surgeons, on purpose to try her Skill, with his Hand bound up, and pretended his Wrist was put out, which upon Examination she found to be false; but, to be even with him for his Imposition, she gave it a Wrench, and really put it out, and bad him go to the Fools who sent him, and get it set again, or, if he would come to her that day month, she would do it herself.

‘This remarkable person is Daughter to one Wallin, a Bone-setter of Hindon, Wilts. Upon some family Quarrel, she left her Father, and Wander’d up and down the Country in a very miserable Manner, calling herself Crazy Salley. Since she became thus famous, she married one Mr. Hill Mapp, late servant to a Mercer on Ludgate Hill, who, ’tis said, soon left her, and carried off £100 of her Money.’