This paper explores the literary dimension of a remarkable text: Sir Kenelm Digby's speech on the "pulvis sympatheticus" (1658). It deals with a healing practice that was controversially discussed and further developed in academic writings from the middle of the 16th century but particularly from the beginning of the 17th century onwards: the so-called weapon salve. The cure involved treating the weapon that had caused a stab wound and thus to cure the (also absent) patient of his injury. The article examines the issue not in terms of the efficacy of such cures, but from the perspective of the wound. From this perspective, the practices centered on the weapon salve provide a basis for engaging with, and thereby treating, the psychological trauma and imaginary association of the weapon with the physical wound. This distinctly literary dimension of Digby's "poudre de sympathie" has hitherto hardly been examined in this respect. Indeed, according to the thesis of this paper, Digby describes a cure that highlights in particular the suffering of patients ostracized both legally and socially and analogizes them to the injuries of men defeated in a duel. This aspect of the 'discours', together with its elaborate rhetorical construction, its narrative fictionalisation strategies, and the resulting high connectivity to contemporary literary materials (such as Shakespeare's and Corneille's theatre), essentially explains the success of the writing.