Pomponatius’s method is a magickal-mechanical two-step. The first step is magickal—bodily liquids are imbued with magnetic energy. After that, mechanics take over, and the energy travels to the patient by means of an evaporation-like emanation.

When those, who are endowed with this faculty [of internal magnetic control], operate by employing the force of the imagination and the will; this force affects their blood and their spirits, which produce the intended effects, by means of an evaporation thrown outwards.

The model, evaporation, is mechanical:

1. Will and imagination, unextended and ghostly, sit at the core of the body, if position be possible where extension is not.
2. These then “affect” the blood and animal spirits, which are liquids.
3. These liquids, coursing as they do near the surface of the skin, emanate to the patient by means of evaporation.

Pomponazzi’s model is obviously based on disease transmission. Prior to the germ theory, transmission was explained by the miasma theory. Diseases were spread by “bad air” and originally caused by dirty water, air, and environs. Miasma was understood as a cloud of poisonous vapor composed of particles of decomposed matter (miasmata). Infection spread not from person to person, but from locale to person, and could be identified by its foul smell.