A brief account of Mr Valentine Greatrakes, and divers of the strange cures by him lately performed. Written by himself in a letter addressed to the Honourable Robert Boyle Esq., 1666.

The earliest scientific account, by a practitioner, and corroborated by witnesses, of healing by the “laying-on of hands”. Greatrakes became known as “the Irish stroker” because of his method of healing by stroking the affected part. He recognized the limited types of conditions which stroking could treat, and was a sincere and well-meaning practitioner. He wrote the above work to defend himself against charges that he was a charlatan. See Peter Elmer, The miraculous conformist: Valentine Greatrakes, the body politic, and the politics of healing in Restoration Britain (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2013). Full text of Greatrakes's book is available from quod.lib.umich.edu at this link.