Spells for checking the flow of blood are plentiful in the early literature of Germany, and are still employed to some extent. In Dr. G. Lammert's "Volksmedizin in Bayern" (Würzburg, 1869), many hemostatic formulas are given, which are popular among the peasantry in various portions of the empire. They are usually adjurations or commands addressed to the blood, considered as a personality. Thus a spell in vogue in the mountainous region of Odenwald in Hesse, is as follows: "Blood, stand still, as Christ stood still in the river Jordan." In "Folk-Lore," March, 1908, reference is made to a styptic spell in use at the present time in northern Devonshire, among wise women who are skilled in the art of controlling hemorrhage by psychic methods. The spell consists in repeating the verse, Ezekiel, XVI, 6. In the locality above mentioned it is customary to seek the aid of one of these professional "stenters," instead of a surgeon or veterinarian, and the people have implicit faith in this mode of treatment. The presence of the wise woman is not essential. She merely pronounces the spell wherever she may happen to be, with the assurance that it will be found effectual, on the return of the messenger to the patient. The prevalence of similar beliefs is shown in the following verse from a popular poem of the seventeenth century: Tom Pots was but a serving-man; But yet he was a Doctor good; He bound his kerchief on the wound, And with some kind words stanch'd the blood. FOOTNOTES: [106:1] _Archæologia_, vol. xxx, p. 401; 1844. [107:1] J. F. Payne, M.D., _English Medicine in the Anglo-Saxon Times_. [107:2] Lady Wilde, _Ancient Cures, Charms, and Usages of Ireland_. [108:1] This is the earliest mention of a medical charm in classic literature, and hence originated the phrase "Homeric Cure," as applied to healing by magical verses. [108:2] Canto III, section xxiii. [109:1] James Mooney, _The Medical Mythology of Ireland_. CHAPTER X HEALING-SPELLS IN ANCIENT TIMES Neither doth fansy only cause, but also as easily cure diseases; as I may justly refer all magical cures thereunto, performed, as is thought, by saints, images, relicts, holy waters, shrines, avemarys, crucifixes, benedictions, charms, characters, sigils of the planets, inverted words, etc. And therefore all such cures are rather to be ascribed to the force of the imagination, than to any virtue in themselves. RAMESEY, _Elminthologia_: 1668. His night-spell is his guard, and charms his physicians. BISHOP HALL, _Characters of Vertues and Vices_.