Chemical-Philosophical Treatise on Natural and Supernatural Things

To confirm my proposition further, I assert that many things exist in Medicine that manifest and perform their operation in a supernatural manner in a purely magnetic way, through a certain spiritual attractive virtue, which is enticed by the benefit of the air, because this is the medium between medicine and the ailment, just as the Magnet perpetually turns itself to the southern star, even if this be many thousands of miles distant from it. Nevertheless, such great spiritual operation and inclination intervene here that, by means of this bond, namely the air, such distances concur. But because an attractive virtue of this kind is commonly known, it has passed into mere habit and serves only its purpose, nor is any further occult quality observed from which an operation of this kind draws its origin. In the same way, wounds and ailments can be healed, even if a man oppressed by such and the Physician are separated by a long interval, not by expiations, charms, and other illicit means contrary to GOD and nature, but by those in which the magnetic attractive virtue lies hidden. As if a certain wounded man, migrating from here, leaves the weapons with which he was injured, or anything of the blood spilled from the wound, to the Physician, from whom legitimate means of healing are afterward duly administered, as is customary with the binding of wounds, he will undoubtedly and firmly recover. These are not charms, but such a healing is accomplished solely by the attractive virtue of the medicine, which is conveyed to the wound through the medium of the air, to purify the wound and complete its spiritual operation. These words will perhaps seem difficult to many and alien to the powers of nature, and many will...