TOUCH

In Medicine. The belief in the po ibility of curing various maladies bj[ the touch has produced a variety of singular superstitions. Plutarch attributes singular virtues to the touch of King Pyrrhus of Epirus. According to Suet on i us, Adrian and Vespas i an had the power of curing various diseases in the same manner. In what period the opinion respecting the virtue of the touch of the kings of France and England in curing epilepsy, scrophulas, &:c. had its origin, it is difficult to ascertain. Andre Dulaurent, chief physician of Henry IV. of France, published a treatise on the subject. The ceremony of touching, by the kings of France, was practised at the four great feasts of the year; sometimes as many as 1500 were touched at a time. By an odd etiquette, the Spaniards had the first rank, then other foreigners, and the French last of all. The formula used at each imposition of the royal hand was, " Le roi te touche, et Dieuteguerit." Polydore Virgil attributes this virtue to Edward IV., and all our kings down to the end of the Stuart dynasty touched for the king's evil. Much efficacy has been attributed in different diseases, particularly tumours. Sec, to the touch of the hand of a dead body; especially, according to Pliny and various modern authorities, of one who had died violently. We do not know whether the superstition is yet extinct under the influence of which scrophulous persons used to have themselves touched by the hands of criminals after execution. Boyle endeavours to explain away part of the miracle by attributing some virtue to the coldne of the application. Touch. One of the five senses, resident in the nervous papillae of the skin; it is also the sensibility diff"used over the whole body. It is much more exquisite in some parts than others. Touch. In Naval language, the sails are said to touch when the wind comes edgeways upon them. [s. 1259]