»«»ir}Tr*T'***'**v,,»'■•... j *'*'■ ****** i ^t}-3,C^C;i;!;-.;?;:'«;-f.;. .' PHARMACOLOGIA; OR Cfte #tetorp of iBefctcinal £>u&0tance£, WITH A VIEW TO ESTABLISH THE ART OF PRESCRIBING AND OF COMPOSING EXTEMPORANEOUS FORMULA UPON' FIXED AND SCIENTIFIC PRINCIPLES: ILLUSTRATED BY FORMULA, IN WHICH THE INTENTION OF EACH ELEMENT IS DESIGNATED BY KEY LETTERS. BY JOHN AYRTON PARIS, M.D. F.L.S. M.R.I. FELLOW OF THE ROYAL COLLEGE OF PHYSICIANS OF LONDON J HONORARY MEMBER OF THE BOARD OF AGRICULTURE ; FELLOW OF THE PHILO- SOPHICAL SOCIETY OF CAMBRIDGE; OF THE ROYAL MEDICAL SOCIETY OF EDINBURGH J AND LATE SENIOR PHYSICAN TO THE WESTMINSTER HOSPITAL, &C. &C. &.C. Quis Fharmacopoeo dabit leges, ignarus ipse agendorum ?—Vix profecto dici potest, quantum hasc ignorantia rei medicae inferat detrimentum. . ;x t». ' * GAUB: METHOD: CONCI-tfNs FOUMUli .*> ---------------------------------^-----------^ FROM THE LAST LONDON EDITION* i ! ......t .' . '- WITH " .'■ ,', ' \ {, J A GENERAL ENGLISH INDEX. NEW-YORK: I to R. LOCKWOOD,—154 BROADWAY Tatnes k John Harper, Printers IB?:. Q.\i Southern District of New-York, ss. BE IT REMEMBERED, That on the eighteenth day of January, in the forty-sixth year of the Independence of the United States of America, F. & R. Lockwood, of the said District, have deposited in this office the title of a book, the right whereof they claim as proprietors, in the words following to wit: " Pharmacologia ; or the History of Medicinal Substances, with a view to establish the Art of Prescribing and of Composing Extemporaneous Formulas upon Fixed and Scientific Princi- ples; illustrated hy Formula?, in which the Intention of each Element is designated by the Key Letters. By John Ayrton Paris, M.D. F.L.S. M.R.L Fellow of the Royal College of Phy- sicians of London; Honorary Member of the Board of Agriculture; Fellow of the Philosophi- cal Society of Cambridge: of the Royal Medical Society of Edinburgh ; and late Senior Phy- sician to the Westminster Hospital, he kc. kc- Quis Pharmacopceo dabit leges, ignarus ipse agendorum ?—Vix profecto dici potest, quantum haec ignorantia rei medica inferat detrimentum.---GAUB: METHOD : CONCINN : FORMUL. From the last London Edition, with a General English Index. In conformity to the Act of the Congress of the United States, entitled " An Act for the en- couragement of Learning, by securing the copies of Maps, Charts, and Books, to the authors and proprietors of such copies, during the time therein mentioned." And also to an Act, entitled " an Act supplementary to an Act, entitled An Act for the encouragement of Learning, by securing the copies of Maps, Charts, and Books, to the authors and proprietors of such copies, during the times therein mentioned, and extending the benefits thereof to the arts of designing, engraving, and etching historical and other prints." JAMES DILL, Clerk of the Southern District of New-York. TO WILLIAM GEORGE MATON, m.d. f.k.s. FELLOW OF THE ROYAL COLLEGE OF PHYSICIANS, VICE-PRESIDENT OF THE LINN.EAN SOCIETY, t^C. ^C. fyc. My dear Sir, There is not an individual in the whole circle of the profession, to whom I could with greater satisfaction, or with so much propriety, dedicate this work, as to yourself. Ardent and zealous in the advancement of our science, you must deeply deplore the prejudices that retard its progress;—eminently enlightened in Natural History, you can justly appreciate the importance of its applications to Medicine ; while your well known earnestness in upholding the dignity, and in encouraging the legitimate exer- cise of our profession, marks you as the most proper patron of a work, the aim of which is to extinguish the false lights of empiricism, and to substitute a steady beacon on the solid and per- manent basis of truth and science : at the same time, the extensive practice which your talents and urbanity so justly command in this metro- polis, must long since have taught you the full I\ DEDICATION". extent of that empiricism which it has been my endeavour to expose, and the practical mischief of that ignorance which it has been my object to enlighten. Nor let me omit to mention the claims of that friendship which has for many years subsisted between us ; be assured that I am gratefully sen- sible of those personal obligations which so fully justify this public avowal of them; confidently trusting that you will not measure the gratitude which your kindness has inspired, by the merits of the offering by which it is acknowledged, but rather by the truth and sincerity of the Dedication, by which I am enabled to express My respect for your talents ; esteem for your virtues; and wishes for your happiness ; JOHN AYRTON PARIS. Dover-Street, October, 1820. ADVERTISEMENT TO THE FOURTH LONDON EDITION. The Third Edition of this work having been disposed of in less than three months, I have been called upon to resume the labours of the press, after an interval of repose much shorter than could possibly have been anticipated ; still, however, no opportunity has been lost, nor have any pains been spared, to render the work more worthy of the liberal patronage which it has received. The substance of the Lectures delivered before the College of Physicians during the present year, has been embodied in the First Part of the Pharmacologia, by which the subject of Medicinal Combination has been materi- ally extended in its views, and, as I trust, at the same time, increased in practical utility by a farther developement and illustration of its principles; some alterations have on this account necessarily taken place with regard to the arrange- ment of the several subjects, in order to render their bearings and mutual relations more distinct and apparent. The Second Part of the Pharmacologia, comprehending the particular history of each medicinal substance has been enriched by the addition of some interesting discoveries that have taken place during; the interval. ADVERTISEMENT OF THE AMERICAN PUBLISHERS. When the American publishers were about putting to press the Work which they now submit to the public, it was suggested to them that, as the book was one which would be alike useful to the pupil and to the practitioner, it was important that the impression should be a cheap one; and therefore that it might be expedient to omit the Introductory part, which occupies nearly one hundred pages. The subject was submitted to competent judges, and it was determined that any abridgment of the English copy would do injustice to the author, and serious injury to the book. It was also thought, that it would be supplying a deficiency in the original copy to add to it a General English Index. For, although the author appears to have deemed an Index superfluous, from his having arranged the subjects of which he treats in alphabetical order, still the various synonims employed in Pharmaceuti- cal science, greatly perplex the student; and with no guide but the alphabetical arrangement of the Latin terms, lie would often be subjected to inconvenience. / PREFACE TO THE THIRD EDITION. The Public are already in possession of many pharmaceu- tical compendiums and epitomes of plausible pretensions, composed with the view of directing the practice of the junior, and of relieving the occasional embarrassments of the more experienced practitioner. Nothing is farther from my intention than to disparage their several merits, or to question their claims to professional utility; but in truth and justice it must be confessed that, as far as these works relate to the art of composing scientific prescriptions, their authors have not escaped the too common error of supposing that the reader is already grounded in the first principles of the science; or, to borrow the figurative illustration of a popular writer, that while they are in the ship of science, they forget the disciple cannot arrive without a boat. I am not acquainted with any book that is calculated to furnish such assistance, or which professes to teach the Grammar, and ground work of this im- portant branch of medical knowledge. Numerous are the works which present us with the detail, but no one with the philosophy of the subject. We have copious catalogues of formal recipes, and many of unexceptionable proprie- ty, but the compilers do not discuss the principles upon which they were constructed, nor do they explain the part which each ingredient is supposed to perform in the general scheme of the formula; they cannot therefore lead to any useful generalization, and the young practitioner, without a beacon that can direct his course in safety, is abandoned to the alternative of two great evils—a feeble and servile routine, on one hand, or a wild and lawless empiricism, on the other. The present volume is an attempt to supply this deficiency: and while 1 am anxious to ' catch the ideas which lead from ignorance to knowledge,' it is not without hope that I may also be able to suggest the means by which our already acquired knowledge may be more widely and usefully extended; and, by offering a collective and arranged view of the objects and resources of medicinal combination, to establish its practice upon the basis of science, and thereby to render its future career of improvement, progressive with that of the other branches of medicine : or, to follow up the figurative illustra- X PREFACE. tion already introduced, to furnish a boat, which may not only convey the disciple to.the ship, but which may also assist in pilot- ing the ship herself from her shallow and treacherous moorings. That the design however of the present work may not be mis- taken, it is essential to remark, that it is elementary only in reference to the art of prescribing, for it is presumed that the student is already acquainted with the common manipulations of pharmacy, and with the first principles of chemistry. When any allusions are made to the processes of the Pharmacopoeia, they are to be understood as being only supplementary, or as explanatory of their nature, in reference to the application or medicinal powers of the substance in question. The term Pharmacologia, as applied to the present work, may there- fore be considered as contradistinctive to that of Pharmaco- posia ; for while the latter denotes the processes for preparing, the former comprehends the scientific methods of administer- ing medicinal bodies, and explains the objects and theory of their operation. The articles of the Materia Medica have been arranged in alphabetical order, not only as being that best calculated for reference, but one which, in an elementary work at least, is less likely to mislead, than any arrangement founded on their medicinal powers ; for in consequence of the difficulty of discriminating in every case between the primary and secondary effects of a medicine, substances very dissimilar in their nature, have been enlisted into the same artificial group, and when several of such bodies have, from a reliance upon their unity of action, been associated together in a medi- cinal mixture, it has too often happened that, like the armed men of Cadmus, they have opposed and destroyed each other. The object and application of the open marginal letters, to which the name of Key Letters has been given, are fully ex- plained in the First Part of the work, and it is hoped, that the scheme possesses a more substantial claim to notice than that of mere novelty : it will be perceived that in the enumeration of the officinal formulas these letters are also occasionally in- troduced, to express the manner in which the particular sub- stance, under the head of which it stands, operates in the com- bination. If any apology be necessary for the introduction of the medicinal formulas, it may be offered in the words of Quin- tillian, who very justly observes, " In omnibus fere minus valent prwcepta quam exempla ; or in the language of Seneca, " Lon- gum est iter per prcecepta, breve et efjicax per exempla" Under the history of each article, I have endeavoured to concentrate all that is required to be known for its efficacious administra- tion, such as, 1. Its sensible qualities. 2. Its Chemical compo- PREFACE. XI sition, or the constituents in which its medicinal activity re- sides. 3. Its relative solubility in different menstrua, and thepro- portions in which it should be mixed, or combined with different bodies, in order to produce suspension, or saturation. 4. The Incompatible Substances, that is to say, those substances which are capable of destroying its properties, or of rendering its flavour or aspect, unpleasant or disgusting. 5. The most eligi- ble forms in which it can be exhibited. 6. Its specific doses. 7. Its Medicinal Uses, and Effects. 8. Its Preparations, Officinal as well as Extemporaneous. 9. Its Adulterations. That such information is indispensable for the elegant and successful ex- hibition of a remedy, must be sufficiently apparent; the inju- rious, changes and modifications which substances undergo when they are improperly combined by the ignorant practitioner, are not as some have supposed imaginary, the mere deliramenta doctrince, or the whimsical suggestions of theoretical refine- ment, but they are really such as to render their powers una- vailing, or to impart a dangerous violence to their operation. " Unda dabit jlammas et dabit ignis aquas.'''1 In the history of the different medicinal preparations, the pharmacopoeia of the London College is the standard to which I have always referred, although it will be perceived that I have frequently availed myself of the resources with which the pharmacopoeias of Edinburgh and Dublin abound. To a knowledge of the numerous adulterations to which each article is so shamefully exposed, too much importance can be scarcely attached, and under this palpable source of medicinal fallacy and failure, may be very fairly included those secret and illegi- timate deviations from the acknowledged modes of preparation, as laid down in the pharmacopoeia, whether practised as expe- dients to obtain a lucrative notoriety, or from a conceit of their being improvements upon the ordinary processes ; for instance, we have lately heard of a wholesale chemist who professes to supply a syrup of roses of very superior beauty, and who for this purpose substitutes the petals of the red (rosa gallica) for those of the damask rose (rosa centifolia;) we need not be told, that a preparation of more exquisite colour may be thus afforded, but allow me to ask if this underhanded substitution be not a manifest act of injustice to the medical practitioner, who instead of a laxative syrup, receives one which is marked by the opposite character of astringency. These observations will not apply, of course, to those articles which are avowedly prepared by a new process ; for in that case the practitioner is enabled to make his election, and either to adopt or refuse them at his discretion. Thus since the article Extracta in this Xll PREFACE. work has been printed off, Mr. Barry has applied his ingenious patent apparatus for boiling in vacuo, to the purpose of making Extracts ; we might almost say a priori, that the results must be more active than those obtained in the ordinary way, but they must pass the ordeal of experience before they can be admitted into practice. As a brief notice of the most noto- rious Quack Medicines may be acceptable, the formulae for their preparation have been appended in notes^ each being placed at the foot of the particular article which constitutes its prominent ingredient; indeed it is essential that the practi- tioner should be acquainted with their composition, for although he would refuse to superintend the operation of a boasted panacea, it is but too probable that he may be called upon to counteract its baneful influence. From what has been thus stated, it will appear that the volume now presented to the public has been so enlarged in its bulk and extended in its views, that it rather merits the appellation of a new work, than that of a renewed edition of a former one. The Historical Introduction, comprehending the substance of two of the lectures, which were delivered in the last year, before the royal College of Physicians of London, from the recently established chair of Materia Medica, has been pre- fixed to the work, at the desire of several of the auditors ; and I confess my readiness to comply with this request, as it ena- bled me at once to obviate any misconception or unjust repre- sentation of those remarks which I felt it my bounden duty to offer to the College. It will be observed that the work itself,is divided into two separate and very distinct parts, the First comprehending the principles of the art of combination,—the Second, the medi- cinal history, and chemical habitudes of the bodies which are the subjects of such combination. These comprise every legitimate source of instruction, and to the young and industri- ous student, they are at once the Loom and the Raw Material. Let him therefore abandon those flimsy and ill adapted tex- tures, that are kept ready fabricated for the service of igno- rance and indolence, and by actuating the machinery himself, weave the materials with which he is here presented into the forms and objects, that may best fulfil his intentions, and meet the various exigencies of each particular occasion. J. A. P. Don r-Srreet, January, 1820. HISTORICAL INTRODUCTION. COMPREHENDING THE SUBSTANCE OF THE LECTURES DELIVERED BY THE AUTHOR BEFORE THE ROYAL COLLEGE OF PHYSICIANS, FROM THE CHAIR OF MATERIA MEDICA. It has been very justly observed that there is a certain maturity of the human mind acquired from generation to generation, in the mass, as there is in the different stages of life in the indi- vidual man .—What is history when thus philosophically studied, but the faithful record of this progress 9 pointing out for our instruction the various causes which have retarded or accelerated it in different ages and countries." Historical Introduction, p. 16. HISTORICAL INTRODUCTION. AN ANALYTICAL INQUIRY INTO THE MORE REMARKABLE CAUSES WHICH HAVE, IN DIFFERENT AGES, AND COUNTRIES, OPERATED IN PRODUCING THE REVOLUTIONS THAT CHARACTERIZE THE HISTORY OF MEDICINAL SUBSTANCES. [This and the succeeding Essay, on the subject of Medicinal Com- binations, comprehend the substance of Four Lectures, deliver- ed by the Author before the Royal College of Physicians, on the Philosophy of the Materia Medica, in June, 1819.] Before I proceed to discuss the particular views which I am prepared to submit to the College, on the important but obscure subject of medicinal combination, I propose to take a sweeping and rapid sketch of the different moral and physical causes which have operated in producing the extraordinary vicissitudes, which so eminently characterize the history of Materia Medica. Such an introduction is naturally suggested by the first glance at the extensive and motley assemblage of substances, with which our cabinets* are overwhelmed. It is impossible to cast our eyes over such multiplied groups, with- out being forcibly struck with the palpable absurdity of some— the disgusting and loathsome nature of others—the total want of activity in many—and the uncertain and precarious reputa- tion of all—or, without feeling an eager curiosity to inquire, from the combination of what causes it can have happened, * The College of Physicians may now be said to possess one of the most complete collections of Materia Medica in Europe. That, collected by Dr. Burges, and presented to the College after his death by Mr Brande,to whom it was bequeathed, has lately been collated with the cabinet of Dr Coombe, purchased for that purpose. Its arrangement has been directed by a feeling of convenience for reference, rather than by any theoretical views relative to the natural, chemical, and medicinal histories of its constitutent parts. Under proper regulations, it is accessible to the studious and respectable members of the profession. 16 HISTORICAL that substances, at one period in the highest esteem, and oi generally acknowledged utility, have fallen into total neglect and disrepute ;—why others, of humble pretensions, and little significance, have maintained their ground for so many cen- turies ; and on what account, materials, of no energy whatever, have received the indisputable sanction, and unqualified sup- port, of the best and wisest practitioners of the age. That such fluctuations in opinion and versatility in practice, should have produced, even in the most candid and learned observers, an unfavourable impression with regard to the general efficacy of medicines, can hardly excite our astonishment, much less our indignation ; nor can we be surprised to find, that another portion of mankind has at once arraigned Physic as a fallacious art, or derided it as a composition of error and fraud. They ask—and it must be confessed that they ask with reason—what pledge can be afforded them, that the boasted remedies of the present day will not, like their predecessors, fall into disrepute, and, in their turn, serve only as humiliating memorials of the credulity and infatuation of the physicians who commended, and prescribed them ? There is surely no question connected with our subject, which can be more interesting and important, no one which requires a more cool and dispassionate inquiry, and certainly not any which can be more appropriate for a lecture, introductory to the history of Materia Medica. I shall therefore proceed to examine with some attention the revo- lutions which have thus taken place in the opinions and belief of mankind, with regard to the efficacy and powers of different medicinal agents; such an inquiry, by referring them to causes capable of a philosophical investigation, is calculated to remove many of the unjust prejudices which have been excited, to quiet the doubts and alarms which have been so industriously propagated, and, at the same time, to obviate the recurrence of several sources of error and disappointment. This moral view of events, without any regard to chrono- logical minutiae, may be denominated the Philosophy of History, and should be carefully distinguished from that tech- nical and barren erudition, which consists in a mere knowledge of names and dates. It has been very justly observed, that there is a certain maturity of the human mind, acquired from generation to generation, in the mass, as there is in the different stages of life, in the individual man; what is history, when thus philosophically studied, but the faithful record of this progress ? pointing out for our instruction the various causes which have retarded or accelerated its progress in different ages and countries. IMRODUCTIO.N. 17 In tracing the history of the Materia Medica to its earliest periods, we shall find that its progress towards its present ad- vanced state, has been very slow and unequal, very unlike the steady, and successive improvement, which has attended other branches of natural knowledge; we shall perceive even that its advancement has been continually arrested and often entirely subverted by the caprices, prejudices, superstitions, and kna- very of mankind ; unlike too the other branches of science, it is incapable of successful generalization; in the progress of the history of remedies, when are we able to produce a disco- very or improvement, which has been the result of that happy combination of Observation, Analogy, and Experiment, which has so eminently rewarded the labours of modern science'! Thus, Observation led Newton to discover, that the refractive power of transparent substances was, in general, in the ratio of their density, but, that of substances of equal density, those which possessed the refractive power in a higher degree were inflammable. Analogy induced him to conclude that, on this account, water even must contain an inflammable principle, and Experiment enabled Cavendish and Lavoisier to demon- strate the surprising truth of Newton's induction, in their im- mortal discovery of the chemical composition of this fluid ; but it is clear that such principles of research, and combination of methods^can rarely be applied in the investigation of reme- dies, for every problem which involves the phenomena of life is unavoidably embarrassed by circumstances, so complicated in their nature, and fluctuating in their operation, as to set at defiance every attempt to appreciate their influence; thus an observation or experiment upon the effects of a medicine, is liable to a thousand fallacies, unless it be carefully repeated under the various circumstances of health and disease, in dif- ferent climates, and on different constitutions. We all know how very differently opium, or mercury, will act upon different individuals, or even upon the same individual, at different times, or under different circumstances; the effect of a stimulant upon the living body is not in the ratio of the intensity of its impulse, but in proportion to the degree of excitement, or vital susceptibility of the individual, to whom it is applied ; this is illustrated in a clear and familiar manner, by the very different sensations of heat which the same temperature will produce under different circumstances; in the road over the Andes, at about half way, between the foot and the summit, there is a cottage in which the ascending and descending travellers meet; the former, who have just quitted the sultry valleys at the base, are so relaxed, that the sudden diminution of temperature pro- 3 18 historical duces in them the feeling of intense cold, whilst the latter, who have left the frozen summits of the mountain, are over- come by the distressing sensation of extreme heat. But we need not climb the Andes for an illustration ; if we plunge one hand into a basin of hot, and the other into one of cold water, and then mix the contents of each vessel, and replace both hands in the mixture, we shall experience the sensation of heat and cold, from one and the same medium ; the hand, that had been previously in the hot, will feel cold, whilst that which had been immersed in the cold water, will experience a sensation of heat. Upon the same principle, ardent spirits will produce very opposite effects upon different constitutions and tempera- ments, and we are enabled to reconcile the conflicting testi- monies respecting the powers of opium in the cure of fever: aliments, also, which under ordinary circumstances would occasion but little effect, may in certain conditions of the sys- tem act as powerful stimulants; a fact which is well exemplified by the history of persons who have been enclosed in coal mines for several days without food, from the accidental falling in of the surrounding strata, when they have been as much intoxicated by a basin of broth, as a person in common circum- stances would have been by two or three bottles of wine.* Many instances will suggest themselves to the practitioner in further illustration of these views, and I shall have occasion to recur to the subject at a future time. To such causes we must attribute the barren labours of the ancient empirics, who saw without discerning, administered without discriminating, and concluded without reasoning; nor should we be surprised at the very imperfect state of the Ma- teria Medica, as far as it depends upon what is commonly called experience. John Ray attempted to enumerate the virtues of plants from experience, and the system serves only to comme- morate his failure : Vogel likewise professed to assign to sub- stances, those powers which had been learnt from accumulated experience; and he speaks of roasted toad as a specific for the pains of gout, and asserts that a person may secure himself for the whole year from angina, by eating a roasted swallow ! Such must ever be the case when medicines derive their origin from false experience, and their reputation from blind cre- lulity. * Mrs. Elizabeth Woodcock, who was buried in the snow, for the space of eight days, in the neighbourhood of Cambridge, and whom I frequently visited. died in consequence of the stimulants which she could not resist, and which in her peculiar state of excitement ske was unable to bear. INTRODUCTION. 19 Analogy has undoubtedly been a powerful instrument in the improvement, extension, and correction of the Materia Medica, but it has been chiefly confined to modern times ; for in the earlier ages, Chemistry had not so far unfolded the composition of bodies, as to furnish any just idea of their relations to each other, nor had the science of Botany taught us the value and importance of the natural affinities which exist in the vegetable kingdom. With respect to the fallacies to which such analogies are exposed, I shall hereafter speak at some length, and examine the pretensions of those ultra chemists of the present day, who have, upon every occasion, arraigned, at their self constituted tribunal, the propriety of our medicinal combinations, and the validity of our national pharmacopoeias. In addition to the obstacles already enumerated, the progress of our knowledge respecting the virtues of medicines, has met with others of a moral character, which have deprived us in a great degree of another obvious method of research, and rendered our dependance upon testimony uncertain, and often entirely fallacious. The human understanding, as Lord Bacon justly remarks, is not a mere faculty of apprehension, but is affected, more or less, by the will and the passions ; what man wishes to be true, that he too easily believes to be so, and I conceive that physic has, of all the sciences, the least preten- sions to proclaim itself independent of the empire of the passions. In our researches to discover and fix the period when reme- dies were first employed for the alleviation of bodily suffering, we are soon lost in conjecture, or involved in fable ; we are unable to reach the period in any country, when the inhabitants were destitute of medical resources, and we find among the most uncultivated tribes, that medicine is cherished as a bless- ing, and practised as an art, as by the inhabitants of New Holland and New Zealand, by those of Lapland and Green- land, of North America, and of the interior of Africa. The personal feelings of the sufferer, and the anxiety of those about him, must, in the rudest state of society, have incited a spirit of industry and research to procure alleviation, the modification of heat and cold, of moisture and dryness ; and the regulation and change of diet and habit, must have intuitively suggested themselves for the relief of pain, and when these resources failed, charms and amulets were the natural expedients of the barbarian ever more inclined to indulge the delusive hope of superstition, than to listen to the voice of sober reason. Traces of amulets may be discovered in very early history. The 20 historical learned Dr. Warburton is evidently wrong, when he assigns (he origin of these magical instruments to the age of the Ptolemies, which was not more than 300 years before Christ; this is at once refuted by the testimony of Galen, who tells us that the Egyptian king, Nechepsus, who lived 630 years before the Christian era, had written, that a green jasper cut into the form of a dragon surrounded with rays, if applied externally, would strengthen the stomach and organs of digestion. We have moreover the authority of the Scriptures in support of this opinion; for what were the ear-rings which Jacob buried under the oak of Sechem, as related in Genesis, but amulets .' Nor were such means confined to dark and barbarous ages ; Theophrastus pronounced Pericles to be insane, because he discovered that he wore an amulet about his neck ; and, in the declining era of the Roman empire, we find that this supersti- tious custom was so general, that the emperor Caracalla was induced to make a public edict ordaining that no man should wear any superstitious amulets about his person. In the progress of civilization, various fortuitous incidents,* and even errors in the choice and preparation of aliments, must have gradually unfolded the remedial powers of many natural substances ; these were recorded, and the authentic history of medicine may date its commencement from the period when such records began. The Chaldeans and Baby- lonians, we are told by Herodotus, carried their sick to the public roads and markets, that travellers might converse with them, and communicate any remedies, which had been success- fully used in similar cases : this custom continued during many ages in Assyria ; and Strabo states that it prevailed also among the ancient Lusitanians, or Portuguese : in this manner however the results of experience descended only by oral tradition ; it was in the temple of Esculapius in Greece, that medical information was first recorded ; diseases and cures were there registered on durable tablets of marble; the priests! * Let the tradition respecting the discovery of the virtues of the Bark serve as an illustration. We are told, that an Indian being ill of a fever, quenched his thirst at a pool of water, strongly impregnated with the bark, from some trees having accidentally fallen into it, and that, he was in consequence cured. + As these persons were ambitious to pass for the descendants of Esculapius, they assumed the name of The Asclepiades. The writings of Pausanius, Philostratus, and Plutarch, abound with the artifices of those early physicians. Aristophanes describes in a truly comic manner the craft and pious avarice of these godly men, and mentions the dexterity and promptitude with which they collected, and put into their bags, the offerings on the altar. The patients, during this period, reposed on the skins of sacrificed rams, in order that they might procure celestial visions. As soon as they were believed to be asleep, a priest, clothed in the dress of Esculapius, imitating his manners, and accom- INTRODUCTION'. 21 and priestesses, who were the guardians of the temple, prepared the remedies and directed their application, and thus com- menced the profession of physic. With respect to the actual nature of these remedies, it is useless to inquire ; the lapse of ages, loss of records, change of language, and ambiguity of description, have rendered every learned research unsatisfac- tory ; indeed we are in doubt with regard to many of the medicines which even Hippocrates employed. It is however clearly shown by the earliest records, that the ancients were in the possession of many powerful remedies ; thus Melampus of Argos, the most ancient Greek physician with whom we are acquainted, is said to have cured one of the Argonauts of sterility, by administering the rust of iron in wine for ten days ; and the same physician used hellebore, as a pur^e, on the daughters of king Praetus, who were afflicted with melancholy. Venesection was also a remedy of very early origin, for Poda- lirius, on his return from the Trojan war, cured the daughter of Damethus, who had fallen from a height, by bleeding her in both arms. Opium, or a preparation of the poppy, was certainly known in the earliest ages; it was probably opium that Helen mixed with wine, and gave to the guests of Menelaus, under the expressive name of nepenthe* to drive away their cares, and increase their hilarity ; and this conjecture receives much support from the fact, that the nepenthe of Homer was obtained from Thebest in Egypt. The sedative powers of the Lactucarium, or Lettuce,\ were known also in the earliest times ; among the fables of antiquity, we read that after the death of Adonis, Venus threw herself on a bed of lettuces, to lull her grief, and repress her desires. The sea onion or Squill, was administered in cases of dropsy by the Egyptians, under the mystic title of the Eye of Typhon. The practices of incision and scarification were employed in the camp of the Greeks before Troy, and the application of spirit to wounds was also understood, for we find the experien- ced Nestor applying a cataplasm, composed of cheese, onion, and meal, mixed up with the wine of Pramnos, to the wounds of Machaon.§ panied by the daughters of the god, that is, by young actresses thoroughly instructed in their parts, entered, and delivered a medical opinion. * Odyss.A. t Hence, the Tincture of Opium has been called Thebaic Tincture. t Allusions to this plant frequently occur in the medical writings of antiquity; we are told that Galen, in the decline of life, suffered much from morbid vigi- lance, until he had recourse to eating a lettuce every evening, which cured him. § Iliad A. 22 historical The revolutions and vicissitudes which remedies have un- dergone, in medical as well as popular opinion, from the igno- rance of some ages, the learning of others, the superstitions of the weak, and the designs of the crafty, afford an ample subject for philosophical reflection ; some of these revolutions I shall proceed to investigate, classing them under the prominent causes which have produced them, viz. Superstition—Credu- lity—Scepticism—False Theory—Devotion to Authority, and Established Routine—The assigning to Art that which was the effect of unassisted Nature—The assigning to peculiar sub- stances Properties, deduced from Experiments made on infe- rior animals—Ambiguity of Nomenclature—The progress of Botanical Science—The application, and misapplication of Chemical Philosophy—The Influence of Climate and Season on Diseases, as well as on the properties and operations of their Remedies—The ignorant Preparation, or fraudulent Adul- teration of Medicines—The unseasonable collection of those remedies which are of vegetable origin; and, The obscurity which has attended the operation of compound medicines. SUPERSTITION. A belief in the interposition of supernatural powers in the direction of earthly events, has prevailed in every age and country, in an inverse ratio with its state of civilization, or, in the exact proportion to its want of knowledge. " In the opi- nion of the ignorant multitude," says Lord Bacon, " witches and impostors have always held a competition with physicians." Galen also complains of this circumstance, and observes that his patients were more obedient to the oracle in the tem- ple of Esculapius, or to their own dreams, than they were to his prescriptions. The same popular imbecility is evidently allegorized in the mythology of the ancient poets, when they made both Esculapius and Circe the children of Apollo ; in truth, there is an unaccountable propensity in the human mind, unless subjected to a very long course of disci- pline, to indulge in the belief of what is improbable and super- natural ; and this is perhaps more conspicuous with respect to physic than to any other affair of common life, both because the nature of diseases and the art of curing them are more obscure, and because disease necessarily awakens fear, and fear and ignorance are the natural parents of superstition; every disease therefore, the origin and cause of which did not immediately strike the senses, has in all ages been attributed INTRODUCTION. 23 by the ignorant to the wrath of heaven, to the resentment of some invisible demon, or to some malignant aspect of the stars ;* and hence the introduction of a rabble of superstitious remedies, not a few of which were rather intended as expia- tions at the shrines of these offended spirits, than as natural agents possessing medicinal powers. The introduction of precious stones into the Materia Medica, arose from an Ara- bian superstition of this kind; indeed De Boot, who has written extensively upon the subject, does not pretend to account for the virtues of gems, upon any philosophical principle, but from their being the residence of spirits, and he adds that such sub- stances, from their beauty, splendour, and value, are well adapted as receptacles for good spirits ! Every substance whose origin is involved in mystery, has at different times been eagerly applied to the purposes of medi- cine : not long since, one of those showers which are now known to consist of the excrement of insects, fell in the north of Italy ; the inhabitants regarded it as Manna, or some super- natural panacea, and they swallowed it with such avidity, that it was only by extreme address, that a small quantity was obtained for a chemical examination. A propensity to attribute every ordinary and natural effect to some extraordinary and unnatural cause, is one of the striking peculiarities of medical superstition ; it seeks also explanations from the most prepos- terous agents, when obvious and.natural ones are in readiness to solve the problem. Soranus, for instance, who was cotem- porary with Galen, and wrote the life of Hippocrates,t tells us that honey proved an easy remedy for the aphthae of children, but instead of at once referring the fact to the medical qualities of the honey, he very gravely explains it, from its having been taken from bees that hived near the tomb of Hippocrates! And even those salutary virtues which many herbs possess, were, in these times of superstitious delusion, attributed rather to the "planet under whose ascendency they were collected, or pre- pared, than to any natural and intrinsic properties in the plants * The Plague of London was supposed to have arisen from such a cause, as we learn from the writers of that period. I shall quote a passage from a pamph- let by W. Kemp, M. A. dedicated to Charles the Second. " One cause of breeding the pestilence, is that corruption of the air, which is occasioned by the influence of the Stars, by the aspects, conjunctions, and oppositions of the Planets, by the eclipses of the Sun and Moon, and by the consequences of Comets. Astra reguiti homines, sed regit nstra Deus" Hippocrates advises his son Thessalus to study numbers and geometry, (Epist. ad Thtssalum.) because, says he, the rising and^setting of the Stars have a great effect upon Distempers. t It was this histonan who said, that Medicine was invented by Apollo, improved by Esculapius, and brought to perfection by the physician of Cos. 24 HISTORICAL themselves;* indeed such was the supposed importance of pla- netary influence, that it was usual to prefix to receipts a symbol of the planet under whose reign the ingredients were to be collected, and it is not perhaps generally known, that the character which we at this day place at the head of our prescrip- tions, and which is understood, and supposed to mean Recipe, is a relict of the astrological symbol of Jupiter, as may be seen in many of the older works on pharmacy, although it is at pre- sent so disguised by the addition of the down stroke, which converts it into the letter R., that were it not for its clovenfoot, we might be led to question the fact of its superstitious origin. A knowledge of this ancient and popular belief in sideral influence, will enable us to explain many superstitions in Physic ; the custom, for instance, of administering cathartic medicines at stated periods and seasons, originated in an im- pression of their being more active at particular stages of the * The Druids of Gaul and Britain, who were both priests and physicians gathered and cut the Mistletoe with a golden knife, only when the moon wassii days old, and being afterwards consecrated by certain forms, it was considered as an antidote to poisons, and a preventive of sterility. Plinii Lib xvi c 44 The Vervain, (Verbena officinalis,) after libations of honey, was to be'ea' thered at the rising of the dogstar, when neither sun nor moon shone, with the left hand only ; when thus prepared, it was said to vanquish fevers and other distempers, was an antidote to the bite of serpents, and a charm to conciliate friendship. Phn. Lib. xxv. c 9. I shall however hereafter show that the me- dicinal reputation of this herb derived its origin from a more ancient source than that of Druidism INTRODUCTION. 2d moon, or at certain conjunctions of the planets : a remnant of this superstition still exists to a considerable extent in Germany ; and the practice of bleeding at ' spring and fall,' so long ob- served in this country, owed its existence to a similar belief. It was inconsequence of the same superstition, that the metals were first distinguished by the names and signs of the planets ; and as the latter were supposed to hold dominion over time, so were astrologers led to believe that some, more than others, had an influence on certain days of the week ; and, moreover that they could impart to the corresponding metals considerable efficacy upon the particular days which were devoted to them ; from the same belief, some bodies were only prepared on certain days in the year ; the celebrated earth of Lemnos, was, as Galen describes, periodically dug with great ceremony, and it continued for many ages to be highly esteemed for its virtues ; even at this day, the pit in which the clay is found is annually opened, with solemn rites by the priests, on the sixth day of August, six hours after sun rising, when a quantity is taken out, washed, dried, and then sealed with the grand Signior's seal, and sent to Constantinople. Formerly it was death to open the pit, or to seal the earth, on any other day in the year. In the botanical history of the middle ages, as more especially developed in Macer's Herbal, there was not a plant of medicinal use, that was not placed under the dominion of some planet, and must neither be gathered nor applied, but with observances that savoured of the most absurd superstition, and which we find were preserved as late as the seventeenth century, by the astrological herbarists, Turner, Culpepper, and Lovel. It is not the least extraordinary feature in the history of medical superstition, that it should so frequently involve in its trammels, persons who on every other occasion would resent with indignation any attempt to talk them out of their reason, and still more so, to persuade them out of their senses ; and yet we have continual proofs of its extensive influence over powerful and cultivated minds : we need only recal to our recollection the number of persons of superior rank and intelli- gence, who were actually persuaded to submit to the magneti- sing operations of Miss Prescott, and some of them were even induced to believe that a beneficial influence had been produ- ced from the spells of this modern Circe. Lord Bacon, with all his philosophy, betrayed a disposition to believe in the virtues of charms and amulets; and Boyle seriously recommends the thigh bone of an executed criminal, as a powerful remedy in dysentery. Among the remedies of 4 26 HISTORICAL Sir Theodore Mayerne, known to commentators as the Doctor Caius of Shakspeare, who was physician to three English So- vereigns, and who, by his personal authority, put an end to the distinctions of chemical and galenical practitioners in England, we shall find the secundines of a woman in her first labour with a male child; the bowels of a mole, cut open alive; mummy made of the lungs of a man who had died a violent death; with a variety of remedies, equally absurd, and alike disgusting. It merits notice, that the medicinal celebrity of a substance has not unfrequently survived the tradition of its superstitious origin, in the same manner that many of our popular customs and rites have continued, through a series of years, to exact a respectful observance, although the circumstances which gave origin to them, have been obscured and lost in the gloom of unrecorded ages: the chorus of derry down is re-echoed by those who never heard of the Druids, or of the choral hymns with which their groves resounded, at the time of their gathering the missletoe, while many a medical practitioner continues to administer this sacred plant, {Viscus Quercinus) for the cure of his epileptic patients, without the least suspicion that it owes its reputation to the same mysterious source of superstition and imposture ; nor is this the only faint vestige of druidism which can be adduced. Mr. Lightfoot states, with much plausibility, that in the highlands of Scotland, evidence still exists in proof of the high esteem in which those ancient Magi held the Quicken Tree, or Mountain Ash, (Sorbus Aucu- paria) for it is more frequently than any other, found planted in the neighbourhood of druidical circles of stones, and it is a curious fact that it should be still believed that a small part of this tree, carried about a person, is a charm against all bodily evils,—the dairy-maid drives the cattle with a switch of the Roan tree, for so it is called in the highlands; and in one part of Scotland, the sheep and lambs are, on the first of May, ever made to pass through a hoop of Roan wood. It is also necessary to state that many of the practices which superstition has at different times suggested, have not been alike absurd; nay, some of them have even possessed, by accident, natural powers of considerable efficacy, whilst others, although ridiculous in themselves, have actually led to results and discoveries of great practical importance. The most re- markable instance of this kind upon record, is that of the Sympathetic powder of Sir Kenelm Digby,* Knight of Mont- * See " Sir Kenelm Digby's Discourse upon the Cure by Sympathy, pro- nounced at Montpellier, before an assembly of Nobles and learned men INTRODUCTION. 27 pellier. Whenever any wound had been inflicted, this powder was applied to the weapon that had inflicted it, which was, moreover, covered with ointment, and dressed two or three times a day.* The wound itself in the mean time was directed to be brought together, and carefully bound up with clean linen rags, but, above all, to be let alone for seven days ; at the end of which period the bandages were removed, when the wound was generally found perfectly united ; the triumph of the cure was decreed to the mysterious agency of the sym- pathetic powder which had been so assiduously applied to the weapon, whereas, it is hardly necessary to observe, that the promptness of the cure depended upon the total exclusion of air from the wound, and upon the sanative operations of nature not having received any disturbance from the officious inter- Translated into English, by R. White, Gentleman, and published in 1658." King James VI. obtained from Sir Kenelm the discovery of his secret, which he pretended had been taught him by a Carmelite Friar, who had learned it in America or Persia. The Sympathetic Powder was, as we learn from cotemporary physicians. ' calcined green vitriol.' * This superstitious practice is repeatedly alluded to by the poets : thus Sir Walter Scott, in the Lay of the Last Minstrel. " But she has ta'en the broken lance, " And washed it from the clotted gore, " And salved the splinter o'er and o'er. " William of Deloraine, in trance, " Whene'er she turned it round and round, " Twisted, as if she galled his wound, " Then to her maidens she did say, 11 That he should be whole man and sound." Canto iii. St. xxiii. Dryden has also introduced the same superstition in his Enchanted Island Actv. Scene ii. Ariel. Anoint the sword which pierced him with this Weapon salve, and wrap it close from air Till I have time to visit it again.— Again, in scene 4th, Miranda enters with Hippolito's sword, wrapt up. Hip. 0 my wounds pain me, (She unwraps the sword) Mir. / am come to ease you. Hip. Alas I feel the cold air come to me ; My wound shoots worse than ever. Mir. Does it still grieve you ? (She wipes and anoints the sword) Hip. Now, methinks, there's something laid just upon it: Mir. Do you find no ease? Hip. Yes, yes; upon the sudden all this pain Is leaving me—Sweet heaven, how lam eased! 2U HISTORICAL ference of art ; the result, beyond all doubt, furnished the first hint, which led surgeons to the improved practice of healing wounds by what is technically called the frst intention. The rust of the spear of Telephus, mentioned in Homer as a cure for the wounds which that weapon inflicted, was pro- bably Verdegris, and led to the discovery of its use as a surgi- cal application. The inoculation of the small-pox in India, Turkey, and Wales, observes Sir Gilbert Blane, was practised on a super- stitious principle, long before it was introduced as a rational practice into this country. The superstition consisted in buy- ing it—for the efficacy of the operation, in giving safety, was supposed to depend upon a piece of money being left by the person who took it for insertion. The members of the Na- tional Vaccine Establishment, during the period I had a seat at the board, received from Mr. Dubois a Missionary in India, a very interesting account of the services, derived from super- stitious influence, in propagating the practice of vaccination through that,uncivilized part of the globe. It appears from this document, that the greatest obstacle which vaccination encountered, was a belief that the natural small-pox was a dis- pensation of a mischievous deity among them, whom they called Mah:ry Umma, or rather, that this disease was an in- carnation of the dire Goddess herself, into the person who was infected with it; the fear of irritating her, and of exposing themselves to her resentment, necessarily rendered the natives of the East decidedly averse to vaccination, until a supersti- tious impression, equally powerful, with respect to the new practice, was happily effected; this was no other than a belief that the Goddess Mah-ry Umma had spontaneously chosen this new and milder mode of manifesting herself to her votaries, and that she might be worshipped with equal respect under this new shape. Hydromancy is another superstition, which has incidentally led to the discovery of the medicinal virtues of many mineral waters ; a belief in the divining nature of certain springs and fountains, is perhaps the most ancient and universal of all superstitions. The Castalian fountain, and many others among the Grecians, were supposed to be of a prophetic nature ; by dipping a fair mirror into a well, the Patraeans of Greece re- ceived, as they imagined, some notice of ensuing sickness or health; at this very day, the sick and lame are attracted to various hallowed springs ; and to this practice, which has been observed for so many ages and in such different countries, we are no doubt indebted for a knowledge of the sanative powers INTRODUCTION. 29 of many mineral waters. There can be no doubt, moreover, but that in many cases, by affording encouragement and confi- dence to a dejected patient, and serenity to his mind, whether by the aid of reason or the influence of superstition, much benefit may arise; for the salutary and curative efforts of na- ture, in such a state of mind, musl be much more likely to suc- ceed ; equally evident is it, that the most powerful effects may be induced by the administration of rcmeJlc?, wmcli, from their disgusting nature, are calculated to excite strong and pain- ful sensations of the mind. Celsus mentions, with confidence, several medicines of this kind for the cure of Epilepsy, as the warm blood of a recently slain Gladiator, or a certain por- tion of human, or horseflesh! and we find that remedies of this description were actually exhibited, and with success, by Boer- haave, in the cure of the Epileptics in the poor-house at Haerlem. The powerful influence of confidence, in the cure and prevention of disease, was well understood by the sages of antiquity ; the Romans, in times of pestilence, elected a dictator with great solemnity, for the sole purpose of driving a nail into the wall of the temple of Jupiter—the effect was gene- rally instantaneous—" Audacia pro muro estf and thus imagin- ing that they propitiated an offended God, they in truth only appeased their own fears. Nor are there wanting in modern times, striking examples of the progress of an epidemic disease having been suddenly arrested by some exhilarating impression made upon the mass of the population. Among the numerous instances which have been cited to show the power of faith over disease, or of the mind over the body, the cures performed by Royal Touch have been generally selected ; but it would appear, upon the authority of Wiseman, that the cures which were thus effected, were in reality produ- ced by a very different cause; for hestates that part of the duty of the Royal Physicians and Serjeant Surgeons, was to select such patients afflicted with scrophula as evinced a tendency towards recovery, and that they took especial care to choose those who approached the age of puberty ; in short, those only were produced whom nature had shown a disposition to cure ; and as the touch of the king, like the sympathetic powder of Digby, secured the patient from the mischievous importunities of art, so were the efforts of nature left free and uncontrolled, and the cure of the disease was not retarded, or opposed by the opera- tion of adverse remedies. The wonderful cures of Valentine Greatracks, performed in 1666, which were witnessed by cotemporary prelates, members of parliament, and fellows of the royal society, among whom was the celebrated Mr. Boyle. 30 HISTORICAL would probably upon investigation admit of a similar explana- tion ; it deserves, however, to be noticed, that in all records of extraordinary cures performed by mysterious agents, there is a great desire to conceal the remedies and other curative means, which were simultaneously administered with them ; thus Oribasius commends in high terms, a necklace of Pceony root, for the cure of Epilepsy ; but we learn that he always took care to accompany its use with copious evacuations, although he assigns to them no share of credit in the cure. In later times, we have a good specimen of this species of decep- tion, presented to us in a work on Scrofula by Mr. Morley, written, as we are informed, for the sole purpose of restoring the much injured character and use of the Vervain; in which the author directs the root of this plant to be tied with a. yard of white satin ribband, around the neck, where it is to remain until the patient is cured ; but mark,—during this interval he calls to his aid the most active medicines in the Materia Medica! The advantages which I have stated to have occasionally arisen from superstitious influence, must be understood as being generally accidental; indeed, in the history of superstitious practices, we do not find that their application was exclusively commended in cases likely to be influenced by the powers of faith or of the imagination, but, on the contrary, that they were as frequently directed -in affections that were entirely placed beyond the control of the mind. Homer tells us, for instance, that the bleeding of Ulysses was stopped by a charm ;* and Cato, the censor, has favoured us with an incantation, for the reduction of a dislocated limb. 1 shall conclude these observations by remarking, that in the history of religious ceremonials we sometimes discover, that they were intended to preserve useful customs or to conceal important truths, which, had they not been thus embalmed by superstition, could never have been perpetuated for the use * This superstitious notion is not confined to the ancients, but is even cherished at this day, in some of the more remote districts of the kingdom ; and we find frequent allusions to it in the popular poetry 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 he staunch'd the blood." Sir Walter Scott, in his " Lay of the last Minstrel."— " She drew the splinter from the wound, And with a charm she staunch'd the blood." The reader will also find the enumeration of several charms for this purpose rn Reginald Scot's Discoverie of Witchcraft, p. 273. INTRODUCTION. .n and advantage of posterity. I shall illustrate this assertion by one example,—whenever the ancients proposed to build a town or to pitch a camp, a sacrifice was offered to the gods, and the Soothsayer declared, from the appearance of the entrails, whether they were propitious or not to the design. What was this but a physiological inquiry into the salubrity of the situa- tion, and the purity of the waters that supplied it? for we well know that in unwholesome districts especially when swampy, the cattle will uniformly present an appearance of disease in the viscera, which an experienced eye can readily detect; and when we reflect upon the age, and climate, in which these ceremonies were performed, we cannot but believe that their instruction was suggested by principles of wise and useful policy. CREDULITY ; Although it is nearly allied to Superstition, yet it differs very widely from it. Credulity is an unbounded belief in what is possible, although destitute of proof and perhaps of proba- bility ; but Superstition is a belief in what is wholly repugnant to the laws of the physical and moral world ; thus, if we be- lieve that an inert plant possesses any remedial power, we are credulous, but if we were to fancy that, by carrying it about with us, we should become invulnerable, we should in that case be superstitious. Credulity is a far greater source of error than Superstition ; for the latter must be always more limited in its influence, and can exist only, to any considerable extent, in the most ignorant portion of society; whereas the former diffuses itself through the minds of all classes, by which the rank and dignity of science are degraded, its valuable labours confounded with the vain pretensions of empiricism, and igno- rance is enabled to claim for itself the prescriptive right of delivering oracles, amidst all the triumphs of truth, and the progress of philosophy. This is very lamentable; and yet, if it were even possible to remove the film that thus obscures the public discernment, I question whether the adoption of such a plan would not be outvoted by the majority of our own pro- fession. In Chili, says Zimmerman, the physicians blow around the beds of their patients to drive away diseases, and as the people in that country believe that physic consists wholly in this wind, their doctors would take it very ill of any person who should attempt to make the method of cure more difficult —they think they know enough, when they know how to blow. 32 HISTORICAL But this mental imbecility is not characteristic of any age or country. England has, indeed, by a late continental wri- ter,* been accused of possessing a larger share of credulity than its neighbours, and it has been emphatically called " The Pardise of Quacks," but with as little truth as candour. If we refer to the works of iEtius, written more than 1300 years ago, we shall discover the existence of a similar infirmity with re- gard to physic ; this author has collected a multitude of receipts, particularly those that had been celebrated, or used as Nostrums, many of which he mentions with no other view than to expose their folly, and to inform us at what an extravagant price they were purchased ; we accordingly learn from him that the collyrium of Danaus was sold at Constantinople for 120 numis- mata, and the cholical antidote of Nicostratus for two talents; in short, we shall find an unbounded credulity with respect to the powers of inert medicines, from the elixir and alkahest of Paracelsus and Van-Helmont, to the tar water of bishop Berk- ley, the metallic tractors of Perkins, the animal magnetism of Miss Prescott, and may I not add, with equal justice, to the nitromuriatic acid bath of Dr. Scott ? The description of Thessalus, the Roman empiric in the reign of Nero, as drawr by Galen, applies with equal fidelity and force to the medical Charlatan of the present day ; and, if we examine the writings of Scribonius Largus, we shall obtain ample evidence that the same ungenerous selfishnes&t of keeping medicines secret, pre- vailed in ancient no less than in modern times ; while we have only to read the sacred orations of Aristides to be satisfied, that the flagrant conduct of the Asclepiades, from which he so severely suffered,! was the very prototype of the cruel and remorseless frauds, so wickedly practised by the unprincipled Quack Doctors and advertising " Medical Boards" of our own times : and I challenge the apologist of ancient purity to pro- duce a more glaring instance of empirical effrontery and suc- * See a Tour through England by Dr. Nemnich of Hamburgh. t Nostrum, (our own.) This word, as its original meaning implies, is venr significant of this characteristic attribute of quackery. i Aristides was the dupe and victim of the Asclepiades for ten successive years ; he was alternately purged, vomited, and blistered ; made to walk bare- footed, under a burning sun in summer, and in winter he was doomed to seek for the return of health, by bathing his feeble and emaciated body in the river All this severity, he was made to believe, was exercised towards him by the express directions of Esculapius himself, with whom he was persuaded to lancythat he conversed in his dreams, and frequently beheld in nocturnal visions. Upon one occasion, the God fatigued with the importunities of his votary,ordered him to lose 1201bs.of blood; the unhappy man not having so much m his body, wisely took the liberty of interpreting the oracle in his own way. and parted with no more than he could conveniently spare • INTRODUCTION. .3.3 cess, in the annals of the 19th century, than that of the sacred impostor described in the Alexander of Lucian, who establish- ed himself in the deserted temple of Esculapius, and entrapped in his snares some of the most eminent of the Roman senators. SCEPTICISM. Credulity has been justly defined, Belief without Reason. Scepticism is its opposite, Reason without Belief, and is the natural and invariable consequence of credulity; for it may be generally observed, that men who believe without reason, are succeeded by others whom no reasoning can convince; a fact which has occasioned many extraordinary and violent revolu- tions in the Materia Medica, and a knowledge of it will enable us to explain the otherwise unaccountable rise and fall of many useless, as well as important articles. It will also suggest to the reflecting practitioner, a caution of great moment, to avoid the dangerous fault imputed by Galen to Dioscorides, of as- cribing too many and too great virtues to one and the same medicine. By bestowing unworthy and extravagant praise upon a remedy, we in reality do but detract from its reputation, and run the risk of banishing it from practice; for when the sober practitioner discovers by experience that a medicine falls so far short of the efficacy ascribed to it, he abandons its use in disgust, and is even unwilling to concede, to it that degree of merit, to which in truth and justice it may be entitled ; the in- flated eulogiums bestowed upon the operation of digitalis in pulmonary diseases, excited, for some time, a very unfair im- pression against its use ; and the injudicious manner in which the antisiphylitic powers of Nitric Acid have been aggrandized, had very nearly exploded a valuable auxiliary from modern practice. It is well known with what avidity the public embra- ced the expectations given by Stberck of Vienna in 1760, with respect to the efficacy of Hemlock; every body, says Dr. Fother- gill, made the extract, and every body prescribed it, but finding that it would not perform the wonders ascribed to it, and that a multitude of discordant diseases refused to yield, as it was asserted they would, to its narcotic powers, practitioners fell into the opposite extreme of absurdity, and declaring that it could do nothing at all, dismissed it at once as inert and useless. May we not then predict the fate of the Cubebs, which has been lately restored to notice, with such extravagant praise, and unqualified approbation ? There are, moreover, those who cherish a spirit of scepti- 5 .-* 34 HISTORICAL cism, from an idea that it denotes the exercise of a superior intellect; it must be admitted, that at that period in the history of Europe, when reason first began to throw off the yoke of authority, it required superiority of understanding, as well as intrepidity of conduct, to resist the powers of that superstition which had so long held it in captivity; but in the present age, observes Mr. Dugald Stewart, " unlimited scepticism is as much the child of imbecility as implicit credulity." " He who at the end of the eighteenth century," says Rousseau, "has brought himself to abandon all his early principles, without discrimina- tion, would probably have been a bigot in the days of the league." FALSE THEORIES, AND ABSURD CONCEITS. He who is governed by preconceived opinions, may be com- pared to a spectator who views the surrounding objects through coloured glasses, each assuming a tinge similar to that of the glass employed; thus have crowds of inert and insignificant drugs been indebted to an ephemeral popularity, from the pre- valence of a false theory ; the celebrated hypothesis of Galen, respecting the virtues and operation of medicines, may serve as an example ; it is a web of philosophical fiction, which was never surpassed in absurdity. He conceives that the properties of all medicines are derived from what he calls their elemen- tary or cardinal qualities, Heat, Cold, Moisture, and Dry- ness. Each of which qualities is again subdivided into four degrees, and a plant or medicine, according to his notion i = cold, or hot, in the first, second, third, or fourth gradation ; if the disease be hot, or cold, in any of these four stages, a medi- cine possessed of a contrary quality, and in the same propor- tionate degree of elementary heat or cold, must be prescribed. Saltness, bitterness, and acridness depend, in his idea, upon the relative degrees of heat and dryness in different bodies. It will be easily seen how a belief in such an hypothesis must have multiplied the list of inert articles in the Materia Medica. and have corrupted the practice of physic. The variety of seeds derived its origin from this source, and until lately, me- dical writers, in the true jargon of Galen, spoke of the four greater and lesser hot and cold seeds ; and in the London Dis- pensatory of 1721, we find the powders of hot and cold precious stones, and those of the hot and cold compound powders ol pearl. The Mfthodic Sect, which was founded by the Roman introduction. ib physician Themison,* a disciple of Asclepiades, as they con- ceived all diseases to depend upon overbracing or relaxation, so did they class all medicines under the head of .relaxing and bracing remedies ; and although this theory has been long since banished from the schools, yet it continues at this day to exert a secret influence on medical practice, and to preserve from neglect some unimportant medicines. The Stahlians, under the impression of their ideal system, introduced Archozal remedies, and many of a superstitious and inert kind, whilst, as they on all occcasions trusted to the con- stant attention and wisdom of nature, so have they zealously opposed the use of some of the most efficacious instruments of art, as the Peruvian bark ; and few physicians were so reserved in the use of general remedies, as bleeding, vomiting, and the like ; their practice was therefore imbecile, and it has been aptly enough denominated, " a meditation upon death." They were however vigilant in observation and acute in discernment, and we are indebted to them for some faithful and minute de- scriptions. The Mechanical Theory, which recognized " lentor and morbid viscidity of the blood" as the principal cause of all dis- eases, introduced attenuant and diluent medicines, or substances endued with some mechanical force ; thus Fourcroy explained the operation of mercury by its specific gravity, and the advo- cates of this doctrine favoured the general introduction of the preparations of iron, especially in schirrus of the spleen or liver, upon the same hypothetical principle ; for, say they, whatever is most forcible in removing the obstruction, must be the most proper instrument of cure ; such is Steel, which, besides the attenuating power with which it is furnished, has still a greater force in this case from the gravity of its particles, which, being seven times specifically heavier than any vegetable, acts in pro- portion with a stronger impulse, and therefore is a more powerful deobstruent. This may be taken as a specimen of the style in which these mechanical physicians reasoned and practised. The Chemists, as they acknowledged no source of disease, but the presence of some hostile acid or alkali, or some deran- ged condition in the chemical composition of the fluid, or solid parts, so they conceived all remedies must act by producing chemical changes in the body ; we find Tournefort busily en- * The practice of this physician does not appear to have been very success- ful, if we may credit Juvenal.— '; Quot Themison a?gros autumno occiderit uno" Mj historical gaged in testing every vegetable juice, in order to discover in it 80me traces of an acid or alkaline ingredient, which might confer upon it medicinal activity. The fatal errors into which such an hypothesis was liable to betray the practitioner, receive an awful illustration in the history of the memorable fever that raged at Leyden in the year 1699, and which con- signed two thirds of the population of that city to an untimely grave ; an event which in a great measure depended upon the Professor Sylvius de la Boe, who having just embraced the chemical doctrines of Van Helmont, assigned the origin of the distemper to a prevailing acid, and declared that its cure could alone be effected by the copious administration of absorbent and testaceous medicines. Unlike the mechanical physicians, they explain the beneficial operation of iron by supposing that it increases the proportion of red globules in the blood, on the erroneous* hypothesis that iron constitutes the principal element of these bodies. Thus has iron, from its acknowledged powers, been enlisted into the service of every prevailing hypothesis ; and it is not a little singular, as a late writer has justly observed, that theories however different, and even adverse, do nevertheless often coincide in matters of practice, as well with each other as with long established empirical usages, each bending as it were, and conforming, in order to do homage to truth and experience. And yet iron, whose medicinal virtues have been so generally allowed, has not escaped those vicissitudes in reputation which almost every valuable remedy has been doomed to suffer ; at one period the ancients imagined that wounds inflicted by iron instruments were never disposed to heal, for which reason Porsenna, after the expulsion of the Tarquins, actually stipula- ted with the Romans that they should not use iron, except in agriculture ; and Avicenna was so alarmed at the idea of its internal use as a remedy, when given in substance, that he seriously advised the exhibition of a magnet after it to prevent any direful consequences. The fame even of Peruvian bark has been occasionally obscured by the clouds of false theory ; some condemned its use altogether, " because it did not evacuate the morbific matter," others, " because it bred ob- structions in the viscera," others again, " because it only bound * The animal nature of the colouring matter of the blood was first pointed out by Dr. AVells, but Fourcroy and Vauquelin considered it to be owing to subphosphate of iron. Mr. Brande, in 1812, demonstrated the fallacy of this opinion, and proved, by satisfactory experiments, its title to be considered as a peculiar animal principle ; the subsequent experiments of M. Vauquelin havr • finfirmed Mr. Brande's results. introduction ,j7 up the spirits, and stopped the paroxysms for a time, and favoured the translation of the peccant matter into the more noble parts." It was sold first by the Jesuits for its weight in silver ; and Condamine relates that in 1690, about thirty years afterwards, several thousand pounds of it lay at Piura and Payta for want of a purchaser. Nor has Sugar escaped the venom of fanciful hypothesis. Dr. Willis raised a popular outcry against its domestic use, declaring, that " it contained within its particles, a secret acid, —a dangerous sharpness,—which caused scurvies, consumptions, and other dreadful diseases."* Although I profess to offer merely a few illustrations of those doctrines, whose perverted applications have influenced the history of the Materia Medica, I cannot pass over in silence that of John Brown, " the child of genius and misfortune." As he generallized diseases, and brought all within the compass of two grand classes, those of increased and diminished excitement, so did he abridge our remedies, maintaining, that every agent which could operate on the human body was a Stimulant, having an identity of action, and differing only in the degree of its force ; so that according to his views, the lancet and the brandy bottle were but the opposite extremes of one and the same class : the mischievous tendency of such a doctrine is too obvious to require a comment. But the most absurd and preposterous hypothesis that has disgraced the annals of medicine, and bestowed medicinal reputation upon substances of no intrinsic worth, is that of the Doctrine of Signatures, as it has been called, which is no less than a belief that every natural substance which possesses any medicinal virtue, indicates by an obvious and well-marked external character, the disease for which it is a remedy, or the object for which it should be employed !] This extraordinary monster of the fancy has been principally adopted and cherished, by Paracelsus, Baptista Porta, and Crollius, although traces of its existence may be certainly discovered in more ancient authors ; the supposed virtues of the Lapis AZtites, or Eagle stone,% * This produced a pamphlet from Dr. Slare, entitled " A Vindication of Sugars against the Charge of Dr. Willis and others : dedicated to the Ladies." 1715. t This conceit did not escape the notice of the metaphysical poets of the seventeenth century ; Cowley frequently availed himself of it to embellish his verse. t This mineral derives its name from the ancient belief that it was found in the nests of the eagle. It is a variety of iron ore, which is commonly met with in the argillaceous iron mines of this country 3U HISTORICAL described by Dioscorides, jEtius, and Pliny, who assert, that it tied to the arm it will prevent abortion, and if fixed to the thigh forward delivery, were, as we learn from ancient authority, solely suggested by the manner in which the nodule contained within the stone moves and rattles, whenever it is shaken. " JEtites lapis agitatus, sonitum edit, velut ex altero lapide prozgnans." The conceit however did not assume the importance of a theory until the end of the fourteenth century, at which period we find several authors engaged in the support of its truth, and it will not be unamusing to offer a specimen of their sophistry ; they affirm, that since man is the lord of the creation, all other creatures are designed for his use, and therefore, that their beneficial qualities and excellencies must be expressed by such characters as can be seen and understood by every one ; and as man discovers his reason by speech, and brutes their sensations by various sounds, motions, and gestures, so the vast variety and diversity of figures, colours, and consis- tencies, observable in inanimate creatures, is certainly design- ed for some wise purpose. It must be, in order to manifest these peculiar qualities and excellencies, which could not be so effectually done in any other way, not even by speech, since no language is universal. Thus, the lungs of a fox must be a specific for asthma, because that animal is remarkable for its strong powers of respiration. Turmeric has a brilliant yellow colour, which indicates that it has the power of curing the jaundice; for the same reason, Poppies must relieve diseases of the head ; Agaricus those of the bladder ; Cassia fistula the affections of the intestines, and Aristolochia the disorders of the uterus : the polished surface and stony hardness which so eminently characterize the seeds of the Lithospermum Officinale (Common Gromwell) were deemed a certain indication of their efficacy in calculous, and gravelly disorders ; for a similar reason the roots of the Saxifraga Granulata (White Saxifrage) gained reputation, in the cure of the same disease ; and the Euphrasia (Eye-bright) acquired fame, as an application in complaints of the eye, because it exhibits a black spot in its corolla resembling the pupil. The blood-stone, the Heliotropium of the ancients, from the occasional small specks or points of a blood red colour exhibit- ed on its green surface, is even at this day employed in many parts of England and Scotland, to stop a bleeding from the nose ; and nettle tea continues a popular remedy for the cure of Urticaria. It is also asserted that some substances bear the Signatures of the humours, as the petals of the red rose that introduction. 39 of the blood, and the roots of rhubarb, and the flowers of saffron, that of the bile.* I apprehend that John of Gaddesden, in the fourteenth century, celebrated by Chaucer, must have been directed by some remote analogy of this kind, when he ordered the son of Edward the First, who was dangerously ill with the small-pox, to be wrapped in scarlet cloth, as well as all those who attend- ed upon him, or came into his presence, and even the bed and room in which he was laid were covered with the same sub- stance, and so completely did it answer, say the credulous his- torians of that day, that the Prince was cured without having so much as a single mark left upon him. In enumerating the conceits of Physic, as relating to the Materia Medica, we must not pass over the idea so preva- lent at one period, that All poisonous substances possessed a pow- erful and mutual elective attraction for each other, and that, conse- quently, if a substance of this kind were suspended around the neck, it would, by intercepting and absorbing every noxious particle, preserve the body from the virulence of contagious matter. Angelus Sala, accordingly, gives us a formula for what he terms his Magnes Arsenicalis, which he asserts will not only defend the body from the influence of poison, but will, from its powers of attraction, draw out the venom from an infected person. In the celebrated plague of London, we are informed that amulets of arsenic were upon this principle sus- pended over the region of the heart, as a preservative against infection. DEVOTION TO AUTHORITY, AND ESTABLISHED ROUTINE. This has always been the means of opposing the progress of reason—the advancement of natural truths—and the prose- cution of new discoveries ; whilst, with effects no less baneful, has it perpetuated many of the stupendous errors, which have been already enumerated, as well as others no less weighty, and which are reserved for future discussion. To give general currency to an hypothetical opinion, or medicinal reputation to an inert substance, requires only the talismanic aid of a few great names ; when once established upon such a basis, ingenuity, argument, and even experiment, may open their ineffectual batteries. It is an instinct in our * For a farther account of this conceit, see Crollius, in a work appended to his " Basilica Chvmica," entitled, " De Signaluris internis rerum, seu de rem cl viva Anatomia majoris et minoris mundi," 40 historical nature, to follow the track pointed out by a few leaders ; we are gregarious animals, in a moral as well as physical sense, and we are addicted to routine, because it is always easier to follow the opinions of others than to reason and judge for our- selves. " The mass of mankind," as Dr. Paley observes, " act more from habit than reflection." What, but such a temper could have upheld the preposterous system of Galen for more than thirteen centuries ? and have enabled it to give universal laws in medicine to Europe—Africa—and part of Asia ? What, but authority, could have inspired a general be- lief, that the sooty washings of rosin* would act as an universal remedy ? What, but a blind devotion to authority, or an insuperable attachment to established custom and routine, could have so long preserved from oblivion the absurd medi- cines which abound in our earlier dispensatories ? for example, the Decoctum ad Ictericos," of the Edinburgh College, which never had any other foundation than the doctrine of signatures, in favour of the Curcuma and Chelidonium Majus ;] and it is only within a (ew years, that the Theriaca Andromachi, in its ancient absurd form, has been dismissed from the British Phar- macopoeias. The Codex-Medicamentarius of Paris recently edited, still cherishes this many-headedj monster of pharmacy, * This practice of Bishop Berkley has been ridiculed with great point and effect, in a pamphlet entitled, "A Cure for the Epidemical Madness of drinking Tar Water," by Mr. Reeve ; in which, addressing the Bishop, he says, " thus, in your younger days, my Lord, you made the surprising discovery of the un- reality of matter, and now in your riper age, you have undertaken to prove the reality of a universal remedy; an attempt to talk men out of their reason, did of right, belong to that author who had first tried to persuade them out of their senses." t The Euphrasia Officinalis, or Eye-bright, which is indebted for its celebrity to the doctrine of Signatures, as before stated, is actually employed at this time in cases of dimness of sight. t This preparation contains 72 ingredients, which are arranged under 13 heads —viz. Acri a, of which there are 5 species. Amaka, of which there are 8. Sttp- tica vulgo Astringentia, 5 in number. Aromatica Exotica, 14. Aromati- ca Indigena, 10. Aromatica ex Umbelliferis, 7. Resinosa et Balsama, 8. Grave-Oi.entia, 6. Virosa, seu qua Narcosin inducunl, there is under this head but one species, which is Opium. Terrea Insipida et Inertia; this comprises only the Lemnian Earth. Gummosa, Amylacea. &ic. 4 species. Dulcia, liquorice and honey. Vinum, Spanish. Upon no principle of combination can this heterogeneous farrago be vindica- ted. It has, however, enjoyed the confidence of physicians for many ages, and is therefore entitled to some notice. It was supposed to have been in- vented by Mithridates, the famous king of Pontus, the receipt for which was said to have been found among his papers, after his defeat by Pompey, at which time it was published in Rome, under his title of "Antidotum Mithridati- iim," but the probability is, says Dr. Heberden,that Mithridates was as much a stranger to his own antidote as several eminent physicians have since been to the medicines that are daily advertised under their names. It was asserted, that whoever took a proper quantity in the morning, was insured from poison durins; the whole of that day, (Galen de Antidot. Lib. I) and it was farther sta- introduction. 41 in all its pristine deformity, under the appropriate title of " Electuarium Opiatum Polupharmacum." It is, however, evidently indebted for this unexpected res- cue from oblivion, to a cause very remote from that which may be at first imagined ; not from afiy belief in its powers or reliance upon its efficacy, but from a disinclination to oppose the torrent of popular prejudice, and to reject what has been established by authority and sanctioned by time; for the same reason, and in violation of their better judgment, the editors have retained the absurd formula of Diest for the preparation of an extract of opium, which, after directing various success- ive operations, concludes by ordering the decoction to be boiled incessantly for six months, supplying the waste of water at intervals! Many of the compound formulae in this new Codex it is frankly allowed, possess an unnecessary and unmeaning, if not an injurious complexity, and yet, such force has habit, and so paramount are the verba magistri, that the editors rest satisfied in distinguishing the more important ingredients by printing them in Italics, leaving the rest to be supplied at the whim and caprice of the dispenser, and thus are the grand objects and use of a national Pharmacopoeia defeated, which should above all things ensure uniformity in the strength and composition of its officinal preparations. The same devotion to authority, which induces us to retain an accustomed remedy with pertinacity, will always oppose the introduction of a novel practice with asperity, unless indeed it be supported by authority of still greater weight and consideration. The history of various articles of diet and me- dicine will prove in a striking manner, how greatly their repu- tation and fate have depended upon authority. It was not until many years after Ipecacuan had been imported into Europe, that Helvetius, under the patronage of Louis XIV. succeeded ted, that Mitaridates himself was so fortified against all baneful drugs, that none would produce any effect when he attempted to destroy himself. (Cel- sus lib. 5. c. 23.) In the course of ages it has undergone numerous alterations. According to Celsus, who first described it, it contained only 35 simples ; An- dromachus, physician to Nero, added vipers and increased the number of in- gredients to 75; and when thus reformed, he called it /**.«»»—but in Trajan's time it obtained the name of Theriaca, either from the vipers in it, or from its supposed effects in curing the bites of venomous animals. Damocrates gave a receipt for it in Greek Iambics, which has been preserved by Galen. It ap pears then that its composition has hardly remained the same for a hundred years ; it is, says Dr. Heberden, a farrago, that has no better title to the name of Mithridates than as it so well resembles the numerous undisciplined forces of a barbarous king, made up of a dissonant crowd collected from different countries, mighty in appearance, but in reality, an ineffective multitude, that only hinder each other. ANTI0HPIAKA, by W. Heberden, M. D. 174«. 6 42 HISTORICAL in introducing it into practice : and to the eulogy of Katharine, queen of Charles II. we are indebted for the general introduc- tion of Tea into England. That most extraordinary plant, Tobacco, notwithstanding its powers of fascination, has suffered romantic vicissitudes in its fame and character; it has been successively opposed, and commended by physicians—condemned, and eulogised by priests and kings—and proscribed, and protected by govern- ments ; whilst at length this once insignificant production of a little island or an obscure district, has succeeded in diffusing itself through every climate, and in subjecting the inhabitants of every country to its dominion ; the Arab cultivates it in the burning desert—the Laplander and Esquimaux risk their lives to procure a refreshment so delicious in their wintry solitude —the Seaman, grant him but this luxury, and he will endure with cheerfulness every other privation, and defy the fury of the raging elements; and in the higher walk of civilized society, at the shrine of fashion, in the palace, and in the cot- tage, the fascinating influence of this singular plant commands an equal tribute of devotion and attachment. The history of the Potato is perhaps not less extraordinary, and is strikingly illustrative of the omnipotent influence of authority : the in- troduction of this valuable plant received, for more than two centuries, an unexampled opposition from vulgar prejudice, which all the philosophy of the age was unable to dissipate, until Louis the XVth wore a bunch of the flowers of the pota- to in the midst of his court, on a day of festivity; the people then for the first time obsequiously acknowledged its utility, and began to express their astonishment at the apathy which had so long prevailed with regard to its general cultivation ; that which authority thus established, time and experience have fully ratified, and scientific research has extended the nu- merous resources which this plant is so wonderfully calculated to furnish ; thus, its stalk, considered as a textile plant, produ- ces in Austria a cottony flax—in Sweden, sugar is extracted from its root—by combustion, its different parts yield a very considerable quantity of potass,—its apples, when ripe, ferment and yield vinegar by exposure or spirit by distillation—its tubercles made into a pulp, are a substitute for soap in bleach- ing,—cooked by steam, the potatoe is the most wholesome and nutritious, and at the same time, the most economical of all vegetable aliments,—by different manipulations it furnishes two kinds of flour, a gruel, and a parenchyma, which in times of scarcity may be made into bread, or applied to increase the bulk of bread made from grain,—to the invalid it furnishes INTRODUCTION. 43 both aliment and medicine : its starch is not in the least inferior to the Indian arrow root, and our worthy President has lately shown that an extract may be prepared from its leaves and flowers, which possesses valuable properties as an anodyne remedy. The history of the warm bath presents us with a curious in- stance of the vicissitudes to which the reputation of ourvalu-* able resources are so universally exposed; that which for so many ages was esteemed the greatest luxury in health, and the most efficacious remedy in disease, fell into total disrepute in the reign of Augustus, for no other reason than because Antonius Musa had cured the Emperor of a dangerous malady by the use of the cold bath. The most frigid water that could be procured, was in consequence recommended on every occa- sion, thus Horace in his epistle to Vala, exclaims— " — Caput ac stomachum supponere fontibus audent Clusinis, gabiosque petunt, et frigida rura." Epist. xv. Lib. 1. This practice, however, was doomed but to an ephemeral popularity, for although it had restored the Emperor to health, it shortly afterwards killed his nephew and son in law, Marcel- lus ; an event which at once deprived the remedy of its credit, and the physician of his popularity. Thus there exists a fashion in medicine as in the other affairs of life, regulated by the caprice and supported by the authority of a few leading practitioners, which has been frequently the occasion of dismissing from practice valuable medicines, and of substituting others less certain in their effects and more questionable in their nature. As years and fashions revolve, so have these neglected remedies, each in its turn, risen again into favour and notice, whilst old receipts, like old almanacs, are abandoned until the period may arrive, that will once more adapt them to the spirit and fashion of the times ; thus it happens that most of our New Discoveries in the Materia Medica have turned out to be no more than the revival and adaptation of ancient practices. In the last cen- tury, the root of the Asphidium Filix, the Male Fern, was retailed as a secret nostrum by Madame Nouffleur, a French empiric, for the cure of tape worm ; the secret was purchased for a considerable sum of money by Louis XV. and the phy- sicians then discovered that the same remedy had been admi- nistered in that complaint by Galen.* * Madame Nouffleur's Receipt is as follows.—"f,Tbree drachms of the root of *he Male Fern, reduced to a fine powder, and mixed with water— 44 HISTORICAL I The history of popular medicines for the cure of gout, will also furnish us with ample matter for the illustration of this subject. The celebrated Duke of Portland's Powder was no other than the Diacentaureon of Caelius Aurelianus, or the An- lidotos ex duobus Centaurece generibus of jEtius,* the receipt for which a friend of his Grace brought from Switzerland ; into which country it had been probably introduced by the early medical writers, who had transcribed it from the Greek volumes soon after their arrival into the western parts of Europe. The active ingredient of a no less celebrated remedy for the same disease, the Eau Medicinale,] has been discovered to be the Colchicum Auiumnale or Meadow Saffron; upon investigating the properties of this medicine, it was observed that similar effects in the cure of the gout were ascribed to a certain plant, called Hermodactyllus\ by Oribasius and iEtius, but more parti- cularly by Alexander of Tralles, a physician of Asia Minor. in the fourth century ; an inquiry was accordingly instituted after this unknown plant, and upon procuring a specimen of it from Constantinople, it was actually found to be a species of Colchicum. The use of Prussic acid in the cure of Phthisis, which has been lately proposed by Dr. Majendie, and introduced into the Codex Medicameniarius of Paris, is little else than the revival of the Dutch practice in this complaint; for Linnaeus informs us, in the fourth volume of his Amanitates Academicce," that distilled Laurel water was frequently used in Holland for the cure of pulmonary consumption. The celebrated fever powder of Dr. James was evidently not his original composition, but an Italian nostrum invented by a person of the name of Lisle, a receipt for the preparation of which is to be found at length in Colborne^s Complete English Dispensatory for the year 1756. The various secret preparations of Opium, which have been extolled as the inventions of modern times, may be recognized in the works of ancient authors; for instance, Wedelius in his this constitutes one dose. Two hours after taking the powder, a bolus of Calomel, Scammony, and Gamboge, is to be administered. * Duke of Portland's Powder for the Gout.—Equal quantities of the roots of Gentian, and Birthwort (Aristolochia rotunda) the tops and leaves of Germander (chemadrys) Ground Pine (chamapitys) and lesser Centaury, (Chi- ronea Cenlaurium) powdered, and mixed together.—As this is a combination of bitters, it will, without doubt, be serviceable in certain cases of Gout. t This medicine was brought into vogue by M. Husson, a military officer in the service of France, about fifty years ago. t So popular was this plant that it acquired the title of " Anima arliculorum. It formed the basis of the Dia arliculorum—the Pulvis Arlhrilieus Turneri, and The Vienna Gout Decoction. INTRODUCTION. 45 Opiologia describes an acetic solution ; and the Magisterium of Ludovicus, as noticed by Etmuller, was a preparation made by dissolving Opium in vinegar, and precipitating with Salt of Tartar :* Van Helmont recommends a preparation, similar to the black drop, under the title of Laudanum Cydoniatum: then again we have Langelott's Laudanum, and Le Mort's " Extract out of Rain Water," preparations which owe their mildness to the abstraction of the resinous element of opium. The works of Glauber contain accounts of many discoveries that have been claimed by the chemists of our own day ; he recommends the use of muriatic acid in sea scurvy, and des- cribes an apparatus for its preparation exactly similar to that which has been extolled as the invention of Woolf; he also notices the production of Pyro-acetic Acid. THE ASSIGNING TO ART THAT WHICH WAS THE EFFECT OF UNASSISTED NATURE, OR THE CONSEQUENCE OF INCIDENTAL CHANGES OF HABIT, DIET, &c. Our inability upon all occasions to appreciate the efforts of nature in the cure of disease, must always render our notions, with respect to the powers of art, liable to numerous errors and multiplied deceptions. Nothing is more natural, and at the same time more erroneous, than to attribute the cure of a disease to the last medicine that had been employed; the ad- vocates of amulets and charms have even been thus enabled to appeal to the testimony of what they call experience, in justi- fication of their superstitions ; and cases which in truth and justice ought to be considered most lucky escapes, have been triumphantly pronounced as skilful cures ; and thus have medi- cines and practitioners alike acquired unmerited praise or unjust censure. Upon Mrs. Stephens offering her remedy for the stone to Parliament,! a committee of professional men was nominated to ascertain its efficacy; a patient with stone was selected, and he took the remedy ; his sufferings were soon relieved, and upon examining the bladder in the usual way, no stone could be felt, it was therefore agreed that the patient had been cured, and that the stone had been dissolved; sometime afterwards this patient died, and on being opened, a * Magisterium Opii fit solvendo Opii in aceto, et praecipitando cum sale tartari. t The Grant of £5000 to Joanna Stephens, for her discovery of certain medicines for the cure of the Stone is notified in the London Gazette of June, A D. 1739. See Liquor Calcis. 46 HISTORICAL large stone was found in a pouch, formed by a part of the blad- der, and which communicated with it. When the yellow fever raged in America, the practitioners trusted exclusively to the copious use of mercury ; at first, this plan was deemed so uni- versally efficacious, that in the enthusiasm of the moment, it was triumphantly proclaimed that death never took place after the mercury had evinced its effects upon the system : this was very true, but it furnished no proof of the efficacy of that me- tal, since the disease, in its aggravated form, was so rapid in its career, that it swept away its victims long before the system could be brought under mercurial influence, while, in its milder shape, it passed off equally well without any assistance from art. Let us then, before we decree the honours of a cure to a favourite medicine, carefully and candidly ascertain the exact circumstan- ces under which it was exhibited, or we shall rapidly accumu- late examples of the fallacies to which our art is exposed : what has been more common than to attribute to the efficacy of a mineral water, those fortunate changes of constitution that have entirely or in a great measure arisen from salubrity of situation, hilarity of mind, exercise of body, and regularity of habits, which have incidentally accompanied its potation. The ancient physicians duly appreciated the influence of such agents ; their temples, like our watering places, were the re- sort of those whom medicine could not cure, and we are expressly told by Plutarch that these temples, especially that of Esculapius, were erected on elevated spots, with the most congenial aspects ; a circumstance which when aided by the invigorating effects of hope, by the diversions which the pa- tient experienced in his journey, and perhaps by the, exercise to which he had been unaccustomed, certainly performed many cures. It follows then that in the recommendation of a water- ing place, something more than the composition of the mineral spring is to direct our choice,—the chemist will tell us, that the springs of Hampstead and Islington rival those of Tunbridge and Malvern, that the waters of Bagnigge Wells, as a chaly- beate purgative, might supersede those of Cheltenham and Scarborough, and that an invalid would frequent the spring in the vicinity of the Dog and Duck, in St. George's Fields, with as much advantage, as the celebrated Spa at Leamington; but the physician is well aware that by the adoption of such advice, he would deprive his patient of those most powerful auxiliaries to which I have alluded, and above all, lose the ad- vantages of the " Medicina Mentis." On the other hand, the recommendation of change of air and habits will never inspire confidence, unless it be associated with some medicinal treat- INTRODUCTION 47 tuent; a truth which is more easy and satisfactory to elucidate and enforce by examples than by precept—let the following story by Voltaire serve as an illustration.—" Ogul, a voluptuary who could be managed but with difficulty by his physician, on finding himself extremely ill from indolence and intemperance, requested advice:—' Eat a Basilisk, stewed in rose water,' replied the physician. In vain did the slaves search for a Basilisk, until they met with Zadig, who, approaching Ogul, exclaimed, 'Behold that which thou desirest;' 'but, my Lord,' continued he, it is not to be eaten ; all its virtues must enter through thy pores, I have therefore enclosed it in a little ball, blown up, and covered with a fine skin ; thou must strike this ball with all thy might, and I must strike it back again, for a considerable time, and by observing this regimen, and taking no other drink than rose water for a few days, thou wilt see, and acknowledge the effect of my art.' The first day Ogul was out of breath, and thought he should have died from fatigue ; the second he was less fatigued, and slept better; in eight days he recovered all his strength; Zadig then said to him, ' There is no such thing in nature as a Basilisk! but thouhast taken exer- cise and been temperate, and hast therefore recovered thy health ." AMBIGUITY OF NOMENCLATURE. It has been already stated that we are to a great degree ignorant of the Simples used by the ancient Physicians; we are often quite unable to determine what the plants are of which Dioscorides treats. It does not appear that out of the 700 plants of which his Materia Medica consists, that more than 400 are correctly ascertained; and yet no labour has been spared to clear the subject of its difficulties ; Cullen even laments that so much pains should have been bestowed upon so barren an occasion.* The early history of botany presents us with such a chaos of nomenclature, that it must have been * Soon after the invention of the art of Printing, the works of Dioscorides, Theophrastus, and Pliny, were published in various forms, and Commentators swarmed like locusts. The eagerness with which this branch of knowledge was cultivated may be conceived, when it is stated that the Commentary of Matthiolus on Dioscorides, which was first printed in 1554, passed through seventeen editions, and that 32,000 copies had been sold before the year 1561; and he tells us in this work, that he received in its execution the assistance and reward of Emperors,—Kings,—Electors of the Roman Empire,—Archdukes, —Cardinals,—Bishops, Dukes, and Princes, ' which,' says he,' gives greater credit to our labours than any thing that could be said.' In very many cases, however, says Dr. Pultney,' this learned Commentator mistook the road to truth, and did but perplex the science he so industriously laboured to en- lighten.' 43 HISTORICAL impossible for the herbarist and physician to have commu- nicated their mutual lights; every one was occupied with disputes upon words and names, and every useful inquiry was suspended, from an inability to decide what plant each author intended ; thus, for instance, the Hcrba Britannica of Dios- corides and Pliny, so celebrated for the cure of the soldiers of Julius Cesar on the Rhine of a disease called ' Scelotyrbe,^ and supposed to resemble our sea scurvy, remains quite un- known, notwithstanding the labours of our most intelligent commentators.* It seems also very doubtful whether the plant which we denominate Hemlock was the poison usually ad- ministered at the Athenian executions,t and which deprived Socrates and Phocion of life. Pliny informs us that the word Cicula, among the ancients, was not indicative of any parti- cular species of plant, but of vegetable poisons in general; this is a circumstance to which I am particularly anxious to fix your attention ; it is by no means uncommon to find a word which is used to express general characters, subsequently be- come the name of a specific substance in which such charac- ters are predominant; and we shall find that some important anomalies in nomenclature may be thus explained. The term ' Aeewsev,' from which the word Arsenic is derived, was an an- cient epithet, applied to those natural substances which pos- sessed strong and acrimonious properties, and as the poisonous quality of arsenic was found to be remarkably powerful, the term was especially applied to Orpiment, the form in which this metal more usually occurred. So the term Verbena (quasi Herbena) originally denoted all those herbs that were held sacred on account of their being employed in the rites of sac- rifice, as we learn from the poets ;\ but as one herb was usually adopted upon these occasions, the word Verbena came to de- * Turner, the Father of English Botany, was of opinion, that it was the Polygonum Bistorla ; Munting, a Dutch physician, that it was the Hydrotapathum Magnum, or Rumex Aquaticus or Great Water-Dock, an opinion which received the sanction of Ray. Others have supposed it to have been Polygonum Persica- ria, and some have considered it as the Primula Auricula. This one example is adduced to show the mortifying uncertainty that involves the history of ancient plants. t Meade thinks that the Athenian poison was a combination of active substan- ces,—perhaps that described by Theophrastus as the invention of Thrasyas, which, it was said, would cause death without pain, and into which, Cicuta and Poppy entered as ingredients. X lt Verbenasque adole pingues, et Musculo Thura." Virg. Eclog. viii. " Ex Ara hoc sume Verbenas tibi." Terent. Andria. " ara castis vincta Verbenis."----Hor. Od. xi. Lib. iv. It is a curious fact that in Tuscany the word Vervena is applied to denote any kind of slips, shoots, suckers, or bundles of plants, at this very day. INTRODUCTION. 49 note that particular herb only, and it is transmitted to us to this day under the same title, viz. Verbena, or Vervain, and indeed until lately it enjoyed the medical reputation which its sacred origin conferred upon it, for it was worn suspended around the neck as an amulet. Vitriol, in the original application of the word, denoted any crystalline body with a certain degree of transparency {Vitrum;) it is hardly necessary to observe that the term is now appropriated to a particular species : in the same manner, Bark, which is a general term, is applied to express one genus, and by way of eminence, it has the article, The, prefixed, as The Bark: the same observation will apply to the word Opium, which in its primitive sense signifies any juice (•ttos Succus) while it now only denotes one species, viz. that of the Poppy. So again, Elaterium was used by Hippocrates, to signify various internal applications, especially purgatives, of a violent and drastic nature (from the word ' EXuvrsrf agito, moveo, stimulo,) but by succeeding authors it was exclusively applied to denote the active matter which subsides from the juice of the wild cucumber. The word Fecula, again, originally meant to imply any substance which was derived by sponta- neous subsidence from a liquid, (from/oca?, the grounds or set- tlement of any liquor;) afterwards it was applied to Starch, which is deposited in this manner by agitating the flour of wheat in water; and lastly, it has been applied to a peculiar vegetable principle, which like starch* is insoluble in cold, but completely soluble in boiling water, with which it forms a ge- latinous solution ; this indefinite meaning of the word fecula has created numerous mistakes in pharmaceutic chemistry; Elaterium, for instance, is said to be a fecula, and in the ori- ginal sense of the word it is properly so called, inasmuch as it is procured from a vegetable juice by spontaneous subsidence, but in the limited and modern acceptation of the term, it con- veys an erroneous idea ; for instead of the active principle of the juice residing in fecula, it is a peculiar proximate principle, sui generis, to which I have ventured to bestow the name of Elatin. For the same reason, much doubt and obscurity in- volve the meaning of the word Extract, because it is applied generally to any substance obtained by the evaporation of a vegetable solution, and specifically to a peculiar proximate principle, possessed of certain characters, by which it is dis- tinguished from every other elementary body. See Extracta. •Amlvum, the Starch of wheat, originally denoted a powder that was ob- tained without the application of a mill, from <*, not, and pvtof, a mill ; thus Dioscorides " A/uvxw wvo/u