We are told that Naaman was cured by dipping seven times in the river
Jordan. Certain formalities were also performed at the pool of Bethesda.
Dr. Chamberlayne's anodyne necklaces, were, for a length of time,
objects of the most anxious maternal solicitude, until their occult
virtues became lost by the reverence for them being destroyed; and those
which succeeded them have long since run their race or nearly so.
The grey limewort was at one time supposed to have been a specific in
hydrophobia--that it not only cured those labouring under this disorder,
but by carrying it about the person, it was reputed to possess the
extraordinary power of preventing mad dogs from biting them. Calvert
paid devotions to St. Hubert for the recovery of his son, who was cured
by this means. The son also performed the necessary rites at the shrine,
and was cured not only of the hydrophobia "but of the worser phrensy
with which his father had instilled him." Cramp-rings were also used;
and eelskins to this day are tied round the legs as a preventive of this
spasmodic affection; and by laying sticks across the floor, on going to
bed, cramp has also been prevented.
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