ARMY MEDICAL LIBRARY WASHINGTON Founded 1836 IF^fS,' £ Y&ntfes li^o^ro Section.. Number IO(o CJ | k Form 113c. W. D.. S. G. O. • ro 3—10643 (Revised June 13. 1936) PHARMACOLOGIA; -ftj&r COMPREHENDING ©lie Mvt of presrtrftiftfii UPON FIXED AND SCIENTIFIC PRINCIPLES: TOGETHER WITH THE / HISTORY OF MEDICINAL SUBSTANCES. V BY J. A. PA$IS, M.D. F.R.S. F.L.S. m. VJ.LLOW OF THE ROYAL COLLEGE OF PHYSICIANS OF LONDON ) HONORARY MEMBER OF THE BOARD OF AGRICULTURE ; FELLOW OF THE PHI- LOSOPHICAL SOCIETY OF CAMBRIDGE J AND OF THE ROYAL MEDICAL SOCIETY OF EDINBURGH J AND LATE SENIOR PHYSICIAN TO THE WEST- MINSTER HOSPITAL, &C. Quis I'harmacopoeo dabit leges, ignarus ipse agendorum ?—Vis proPecto dici potest, quail-' turn base ignorantia rei medicae inferat detrimentum. GAUB : METHOD : CONCINN : FORMUL. Second American, from the Fifth [enlarged] London Edition. WITH AD^fcriONS AND ILLUSTRATIONS OF THE MATERIA MEDICA OF THE UNITED STATES, " BY JLNSEL W. IVES, M.D. TELLOW OF THE COLLEGE OF PHYSICIANS AND SURGEONS OV fUkW* ■ • •» UNIVERSITY OF THE STATE OF NEW-YORK, &LC.^^" Vl^V ■ , ,. ?TitftC 21 IN TWO VOLUMES__VOL. I F. & R LOCKVVOOD,—154 BROADWAY J. & J. Hnrper, Printers, 1824. • QM I/-1 Southern District of Aew-i'vm, ss. BE IT REMEMBERED, that on the seventeenth Uay of October, in tbe tbrly-eightn year oi the Independence of the United States of America, F. & R. Lock wood, of the said district, have deposited in this office the title of a book, tbe right whereof they claim as proprietors) in the words following, to wit— " Pharmacologia ; comprehending the Art of Prescribi.tr upon fixed and scientific Princi- ples ; together with the History of Medicinal Substances, jiy J. A. Paris, M.D. F.R.S. FX.S. Fellow of tbe Royal College of Physicians of London; Honorary Member of the Board of Agriculture; Fellow of the Philosophical Society of Cambridge ; and of the Royal Medical Society of Edinburgh ; and late Senior Physician to the Westminster Hospital, Sic. Quis Pharmacopcen dabit leges, ignaras ipse agendorum ?—Vix profecto dici potest, quan- tum htec ignorantia rei medics inferat detrimentum.—Gaul: Method : Concnm : Formul. Second American, from tbe fifth [enlarged] London Edition. With Additions and Illustra- tions of the Materia Medica of the United States. By Ansel W. Ives. M.D. Fellow of tbe College of Physicians and Surgeons of tbe University of tbe State of New-York, kc.r- In conformity lb the Act of the Congress of the United States, entitled " An Act for the encou- ragement of learning, by securing the copies of maps, charts, and books to tbe authors and proprietors of such copies, during the times therein mentioned:" And also, to an Act, entitled "An Act supplementary to the Act, entitled an Act for the encouragement of learning, by se- curing the copies of maps, charts, and books to the authors and proprietors of such copies, du- ring the times therein mentioned, and extending the benefits thereof to the arts of designing, ens raving, and etching historical and other prints." JAMES DILL, Clerk of the Southern District of New-York. WILLIAM GEORGE MATON, M.D. F.R.S. FELLOW OF THE ROYAL COLLEGE OF PHYSICIANS, VICE-PRESIDENT OF THE LINNJEAN SOCIETY, &C. &C &C 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 ~>uch propriety, dedicate this work as to yourself. Araent and zealous in the advancen <>nt 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 exercise 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 permanent basis of truth and science : at the same time, the extensive practice which your talents and urbanity so justly command in this metropolis, must long since have taught you the full 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 1 am gratefully sensible of those personal obligations which so fully justify this public avowal of them ; confidently iv DEDICATION'. 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 ol 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. 1822. ADVERTISEMENT TO THE FIFTH EDITION. Nearly twelve months have elapsed since the Fourth Edi- tion was pronounced by my Publisher to be out of print. An anxious desire to render the work worthy of the very liberal patronage which it has received from the medical profession, is the only apology I have to offer for a delay which might be mistaken for apathy. The increased size of the work, has induced me to publish the present edition in two volumes; an arrangement which will be found perfectly consistent with the original design, and with the distinct objects of study and reference for which it was calculated. The increase of materials has been, in some measure, derived from the communications which I have re- ceived from English practitioners ; and from the recently ex- tended researches of the French and German Chemists; but principally from the farther developement of those views re- specting the primary and secondary operations of medicinal bodies, which were announced, but not explained, in the former editions. To the first volume an extensive index has been added, at the suggestion of Sir Gilbert Blane, who expressed an opinion that my Essay on Medicinal Combination might be enhanced in practical utility by affording to the Student a readier access to its precepts and illustrations; an improvement which I have just been informed, by a letter from New-York, has been anticipated by the American publishers, in an edition lately reprinted in that country. S\ ADVERTISEMENT. In the enumeration of the Officinal Formula 1 have, tor the sake of avoiding confusion, designated the modus operandi of the principal ingredients, by the old English letters, placed in brackets, after each preparation, and which correspond with the key letters displayed in the synoptical table in the nrst volume. „«•!■• The reader will perceive that the list of Patent Medicines, or Nostrums, has been considerably extended; and the author cannot cease to deplore a credulity which should uphold and cherish so disgraceful and mischievous a system of treachery and imposture. tap PREFACE TO THE SECOND AMERICAN EDITION. When the first American Edition of Dr. Paris's Pharmacologia was published, fe^ physicians in this country, were acquainted, either with the character of the work or the reputation of its Author. It was preceded by no recommendations to professional favour, nor was it subsequently honoured, even by the customary introduction of a critical review. It soon, however, obtained celebrity by its merits. Its popularity has been evinced by the salerof a large edition published the last year. Dr. Paris's happy illustration of the operation of medicines, as diversified by combination, appears to be peculiarly his own : and he has so far succeeded in reducing his principles to scientific accuracy, and in rendering them applicable to practice, as justly to merit the praise of forming a new era in the departments of Pharmacy and Prescription. In the Fifth London Edition, which is here reprinted, it will be perceived that the author has greatly enlarged the first part—the most original and interesting por tion of the work ; and thus, by supplying an important deficiency in his previous editions,- has rendered his book complete. In its present form, it is entitled to the double commendation, of being a work admirably suited to the wants of the profession, and the only one of its kind. The author has probably introduced, into the second volume, every article of the Materia Medica, which he thinks worthy of being retained in use ; but there are, unquestionably, many valu- able medicines of American production, which it is presumed are known but imperfectly, if at all to him, and a description of which, it is believed, will render the work more useful to the profession in this country. From this consideration, the American Editor has attempted to incorporate, in this edition, a brief notice of the »Jll I'REKACL. most valuable medicinal substances of the United a °' _ pursuance of this object, he has endeavoured to conf°fm'b^evity rally, to the plan, and to imitate, as far as practicable, ^ of the Author. This alone is a sufficient reason tor ^riiz-inal virtues, ana several articles which doubtless possess memciiw were appropriately introduced into the An*»ican ar ' but which have yet but an unsettled character. If a few ar *c ^' Which have heretofore received but little notice, appear to be treated with unmerited attention, it is because the editor has tested their virtues, can vouch for their merits, and "is therefore desi- rous of rendering them more conspicuous. On the other hand, he has investigated, with considerable labour and perseverance, the chemical and medicinal qualities of many vegetables of sup- posed value, and the results have shown them unworthy of further notice. In making this selection, the Editor has been unwilling to multi- ply new remedies, or to hazard the introduction of such as may be found of no value. And as he wished to form an opinion of their medicinal virtues, not less from his personal observation than from the testimony of others, he is more apprehensive that the number of substances admitted is too limited than too large. Error of deficiency on this subject, however, will be regarded as the lesser evil of the two, while the reader has access to the valuable and more comprehensive writings of the .Bartons, Bigelow, Coxe, Thatcher, Dyckman, Chapman, and Eberle. To avoid increasing the confusion which has resulted from a multiplicity of synonyms, and which has greatly retarded the pro- gress of our Materia Medica, the Editor has copied, from the Ameri- can Pharmacopoeia, the scientific and vulgar names of such of the articles as are noticed in that work. And as the writings of Bige- low and Barton, not only constitute the basis of this department of American Science, but really furnish the most«ccurate and exten- sive information relating to most of the vegetables of which they have treated, he has also followed the example of the Pharma- copoeia in referring to them, on every article which has been the ■object of their investigation. PREFACE. IX The Editor has thought it expedient to deviate from the plan oi the author, by briefly describing the specific character of most of the indigenous vegetables here noticed; presuming that few mem- bers of the profession are so familiar with them all, as to be able to identify them by their sensible properties. He has also dis- pensed with any remarks on adulterations and incompatible sub- stances : for most of the plants in question are found growing so abundantly, and may be so easily procured of the best qudity, that no inducement exists to fraudulent adulterations; and, with regard. to their incompatibility with other substances, it is only necessary to advert to the small number and uniform similarity of the proxi- mate principles of most vegetables that have been analyzed, to perceive that a very limited acquaintance with this branch of chemistry will enable the physician, in every instance, after know- ing the chemical composition of the article, readily to determine what combinations with it are incompatible. The additions, in the second volume, by the American Editor, are, for the sake of convenience, introduced into the body of the work; they are preceded and closed with rules,—enclosed in brackets, and signed by the letter I. In the index, the names of the articles he has added or treated of are printed in italics. A. W. IVES. Park Place, November, 1823. Vol. I. 2 PREFACE TO THE THIRD EDITION. The Public are already in possession of many pharmaceutical compendiums and epitomes of plausible pretensions, composed with the view of directing the practice of the junior, and of re- lieving the occasional embarrassments of the more experienced practitioner. Nothing'is farther from my intention than to dis- parage their several merits, or to question their claims to profes- sional utility ; but in truth and justice it must be confessed that, as far as these works relate to the art of composing scientific prescrip- tions, their authors have not escaped the too common error of sup- posing that the reader is already grounded in the first principles of the science ; or, to borrow the figurative illustration of a popu- lar writer, that while they are in the ship of science, they forget the disciple cannot arrive without a boat. I am not acquainted witJi any book that is calculated to furnish such assistance, or which professes to teach the Grammar, and groundwork 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 propriety, 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 thatxan direct his course in safety, is abandoned to the alternative or 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 I am anxious to ' catch the ideas which lead from ignorance to know- ledge,' 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 combina- tion, to establish its practice upon the basis of science, and there- by to render its future career of improvement progressive with that of the other branches of medicine ;# or, to follow up the figurative illustration already introduced, to furnish a boat, which may not only convey the disciple to the ship, but which may also assist in piloting the ship herself from her shallozt' and treacherous moor* xu PREFACE. ings. That the design however of the present work may not be mistaken, 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 explana- tory 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 therefore be considered as eontradistinctive to that of Pharmacopeia ; for while the latter de- notes the processes for preparing, the former comprehends the scientific methods of administering 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 ar- rangement founded on their medicinal powers ; for in consequence of the difficulty of discriminating in every case between the pri- mary and secondary effects of a medicine, substances very dis- similar in their nature have been enlisted into the same artificial group, and when several such bodies have, from a reliance upon their unity of action, been associated together in a medicinal mix- ture, 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 antique marginal letters, to which the name of Key Letters has been given, are fully explained 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 formulae these letters are also occasionally introduced, to express the manner in which the particular substance, under the head of which it stands, operates in the combination. If any apology be necessary for the introduction of the medicinal formulas, it may be offered in the words of Quintillian, who very justly observes, " Ingmnibusfere minus valent pracepta quam exempla ;" or in the language of Sene- ca ; "Longum est iter per prcecepta, breve tt efficax per exempla." Under the history of each article, I have endeavoured to concen- trate all that is required to be known for its efficacious administra- tion, such as, 1. fts sensible qualities. 2. Its chemical composition, or the constituents in which its medicinal activity resides. 3. Its relative solubility in different menstrua, and the proportions 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 eligible forms in which it can be exhibited. 6. Its specific doses. 7. fts Medicinal TTses, and Effects. 8. Its k*REFACh. Sill Preparations, Officinal as well as Extemporaneous. 9. Its Adulte- rations, That such information is indispensable for the elegant and successful exhibition of a remedy, must be sufficiently appa- rent ; the injurious changes and modifications which substances undergo when they are improperly combined by the ignorant prac- titioner, are not, as some have supposed, imaginary, the mere deliramenta doctrine, or the whimsical suggestions of theoretical refinement, but they are really such as to render their powers unavailing, or to impart a dangerous violence to their operation. " Unda dabit flammas et dabit ignis aquas." In the history of the different medicinal preparations, the phar- macopoeia 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 nume- rous 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 illegitimate deviations from the acknowledged modes of preparation, as laid down in the pharma- copoeia, whether practised as expedients to obtain a lucrative noto- riety, or from a conceit of their being improvements upon the ordinary processes ; for instance, we have lately heard of a whole- sale chemist who professes to supply a syrup of roses of very supe- rior beauty, and who for this purpose substitutes the petals of the red (rosa gallica) for those of the damask rose (rosa centifoha ;) we need not be told, that a preparation of a 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 prac- titioner, who instead of a laxative syrup, receives one which is marked by the opposite character of astringency. These observa- tions will not apply, of course, to those articles which are avowedly prepared by a new process ; for in that case the practitioner is ena- bled to make his election, and either to adopt or refuse them at his discretion. Thus, since the article Extracta in this 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, apriori, that the results mustbemore 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 brie* notice of the most notorious Quack Medicines may be acceptable, the formulae for their preparation have been appended in notes, each beingplaced at the foot of the particular article which consti- tutes its prominent ingredient; indeed it is essential that he 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 baleful influence. 5UV PREFACE. 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 the lectures delivered before the Royal College of Physicians of London, from the recently established chair of Materia Medica, has been prefixed to the work, at the desire of several of the auditors ; and I confess my readiness to comply with this request, as it enabled ine at once to obviate any misconception or unjust representation 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 princi- ples of the art of combination,—the Second, the medicinal his- tory, 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 industrious student, they are at once the Loom and the Raw Material. Let him therefore abandon those flimsy and ill adapted textures, that are kept ready fabricated for the service of ignorance 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 Dover-street,, January, 1822. v.V HISTORICAL INTRODUCTION COMPREHENDING THE SUBSTANCE ©F SEVERAL LECTURES DELIVERED BY THE AUTHOR BEFORE THE 3&ogal (EoUerje of ^ftgsictans, FROM THE CHAIR OF MATERIA MEDICA, In the Years 1819, 20, and 2.1. 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, out a faithful record of this progress ? pointing out for our instruction the various causes which have retarded or accelerated it in different ages and countries." Historical Introduction,p. IB, V &*l ?*■ .■ HISTORICAL INTRODUCTION AN ANALYTICAL INQUIRV INTO THE MORE REMARKABLE CAUSES WHICH HAVE, IN DIFFERENT AGES AND COUNTRIES, OPERATED r\T PRODUCING THE REVOLrxiOWS TH \T ( !! \R \CTERI7.E THE HISTORY OF MEDICINAL SUB vr.WCEs. Before I proceed to discuss the particular views which 1 am prepared to submit to the College, on the important but ob- scure 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, that substances, at one period in the highest esteem, and of ge- nerally acknowledged utility, have fallen into total neglect and disrepute ;—why others, of humble pretensions, and little sig- nificance, have maintained their ground for so many centuries; and on what account, materials, of no energy whatever, have received the indisputable sanction, and unqualified support, of the best and wisest practitioners of the age. That such fluc- * 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. Burgess, 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. Combe, purchased for that purpose. Its arrangement has been directed by a feeling of convenience for reference, rather than by any theoretical views re- lative to the natural, chemical, and medicinal histories of its constituent part-. Under proper regulations, it is accessible to the studious and respectable members of the profession. Vol. I. : I b ilLsTOKlCAL tuations in opinion and versatility in practice, should have pi in- duced, even in the most candid and learned observers, an un- favourable impression with regard to the general efficacy oi medicines, can hardly excite our astonishment, much less our indignation ; nor can we be surprised to find, that another por- tion of mankind has at once arraigned Physic as a fallacious art, or derided it as a composition of error and fraud. 1 ncy ask—and it must be confessed that they ask with reason—what pledge can be afforded them, that the boasted remedies ol the present day will not, like their predecessors, fall into dis- repute, and in their turn, serve only as humiliating memorials of the credulity and infatuation of the physicians who com- mended 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 re- volutions which have thus taken place in the opinions and be- lief of mankind, with regard to the efficacy and powers of dif- ferent 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 chronolo- gical minutiae, may be denominated the Philosophy of Histo- ry, and should be carefully distinguished from that technical and barren erudition, which consists in a mere knowledge of names and dates, and which is perused by the medical student with as much apathy, and as little profit, as monks count their bead- roll. It has been very justly observed, that there is a certain maturity of the human mind, acquired from generation to ge- neration, in the mass, as there is in the different stages of life, in the individual man ; what is history, when thus philosophi- cally studied, but the faithful record of this progress ? pointing out for our instruction the various causes which have retarded or accelerated it in different ages and countries. k 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 - A late foreign writer, impressed with this sentiment, has given the follow- ing Raftering definition of our profession. " Physic is the art of amusing the valient, while Aatnre cures his disease:" INTRODUCTION. 19 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 en- tirely subverted, by the caprices, prejudices, superstitions, and knavery 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 that fluid. The history of Astronomy will furnish another illustration equally beautiful and instructive,—Professor Kant observed an unequal space in the distance that separates Saturn and Jupiter; by Analogy he conjectured that another Planet would be found to occupy the interval ; a supposition which was happily con- firmed by a telescopic experiment, in the discovery of Uranus, by Herschel. But it is clear that such principles of research, and combination of methods, can rarely be applied in the in- vestigation of remedies, for every problem which involves the phenomena of life is unavoidably embarrassecTby circumstances. so complicated in their nature, and fluctuating in their opera- tion, as to set at defiance every attempt to appreciate their in- fluence; 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 different climates, and on different consti- tutions. We all know how very differently opium, or mer- cury, will act upon different individuals, or even upon the same individual, at different times, or under different circum- stances; 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 indivi- dual to whom it is applied: this is illustrated in a clear and familiar manner, by the xery different sensations of heat which the same temperature will produce under different circumstances: in the road over the Andes, at about half w?o iu HISTORICAL between the loot and the summit, there l^ a cottage m the ascending and descending travellers meet; the tormer, wno have just quitted the sultry valleys at the base, are so reiaxea, that the sudden diminution of temperature produces in inem the feeling of intense cold, whilst the latter, who have lett the frozen summits of the mountain, are overcome by the aistress- ing 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, lrom one and the same medium ; the hand, that had been previously m 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 temperaments, and we are enabled to reconcile the conflicting testimonies 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 system, act as powerful stimu- lants : 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 circumstances, would have been by two or three bottles of wine.* Many instances will suggest themselves to the practitioner in farther illustration of these views, and I shall have occasion to recur to the subject at a future period. 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, complicated as this subject is by its numberless re- lations with Physiology, Pathology, and Chemistry. John Ray attempted to enumerate the virtues of plants from experience, and the system serves only to commemorate his failure: Vogel likewise professed to assign to substances, those powers which Elizabeth Woodcock who was buried in the Snow, for the space of eight days, in the ne.gbourbood of Cambridge, and whom I frequently visited, .bed in consequence of the stimulants which she could not resist and which in her peculiar state of excitement she was unable to bear in t»,„ r . 1 of the Memoirs of ^^ is recorded, who after remaining for eight days without food, was killed bv '>ems plated in » warm bed. anil fed wuh chicken-broth. «""»-u "* INTRODUCTION. •21 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 credulity. 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 ex- posed, 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 ren- dered our dependence 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 1 conceive that physic has, of all the sciences, the least preten- sions toproclaimitselfindependent 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 Hol- land and New Zealand, by those of Lapland and Greenland, 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 historical themselves for the relief of pain, and when these resources failed, charms, amulets, and incantations,* were the natural ex- pedients of the barbarian ever more inclined to indulge the de- lusive hope of superstition, than to listen to the voice of sober reason. Traces of amulets may be discovered in very early history. The learned Dr. Warburton is evidently wrong, when he assigns the 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 Shechem, as re- lated in Genesis, but amulets ? and we are informed by Jose- phus, in his Antiquities of the Jews,t that Solomon discovered a plant efficacious in the cure of Epilepsy, and that he employ- ed the aid of a charm or spell for the purpose of assisting its virtues ; the root of the herb was concealed in a ring, which was applied to the nostrils of the Demoniac, and Josephus re- marks that he himself saw a Jewish Priest practise the art of Solomon with complete success in the presence of Vespasian, his sons, and the tribunes of the Roman army, j Nor were such means confined to dark and barbarous ages ; Theophras- tus 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 superstitious cus- tom was so general, that the Emperor Caracalla was induced to make a public edict ordaining that no man should wear anv superstitious amulets about his person. In the progress of civilization, various fortuitous incidents,! . Ancient charms were frequently chanted, or sung, to which greater effi- cacy was ascribed ; and a belief in the curative powers of music has even ex- tended to later times. In the last century, Orazio Bonivoli composed a mass for the cessation of the plague at Rome. It was performed in St Peter's church, of which he was Matstro di Chaprlla, and the singers, amounting to more than two hundred were arranged in different circles of the dome- the sixth choir occupying the summit of the cupola. t Lib. viii. c. 2. 5. t From this Art of Solomon, exhibited through the medium of « -;,,,, „,. seal, we have the eastern stories which celebrate the Seat «**,?* g' I record the potency of its sway over the various order* of Dem^r^f Genii, who are supposed to be the invisible tormentors or benefactor of the II Let the tradition respecting the discovery of the virtues of the Bark sen r introduction. 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 Babylonians, we are told by Herodotus, carried their sick to the public roads and markets, that travellers might converse with them, and commu- nicate any remedies, which had been successfully used in simi- lar 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 re- sults 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* and priestesses, who were the guardians of the temple, prepared the remedies and directed their application, and thus commenced 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 render- ed every-learned research unsatisfactory; indeed we are in doubt with regard to many of the medicines which even Hip- pocrates 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 administer- ing the rust of iron in wine for ten days; and the same physi- cian used hellebore as a purge, on the daughters of king Praetus, who were afflicted with melancholy. Venesection was also a remedy of very early origin, for Podalirius, on his return from the Trojan war, cured the daughter of Damethus, who had fall- en from a height, by bleeding her in both arms. Opium, or a preparation of the poppy, was certainly known in the earliest as an illustration. We are told, that an Indian being ill of a fever, quench- ed 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 ambitions to pass for the descendants of Escula- pius, they assumed the name of The Asclepiades. The writings of Pausa- nius, Philostratus, and Plutarch, abound with the artifices of those early phj - sicians. 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 accompanied by the daughters of tbe god, that is, by young actresses, thoroughly instructed in their parts, entered, and delivered a medical opinion. 2 A historical ages ; it was probably opium that Helen mixed with wine, and gave to the guests of Menelaus, under the expressive name ot 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 the Egyptian Thebes ;t and if we may credit the opinion of Dr. Darwin, the Cumsean Sibyl never sat on the portending tripod without first swallowing a few drops of the juice of the Cherry-laurel. " At Phcebi nondum patiens, immanisin antro Bacihatur Vates, inagnum sipectore possit Excussisse deum : tanto magis ille fatigat ( Osrabidum.feracordadomans, fingitque prcmendo...... /En*ID. lib. vi. ,$. There ,:• reason to believe that the Pagan priesthood were under the influence of some powerful narcotic during the dis- play of their oracular powers, but the effects produced would seem to resemble rather those of Opium, or perhaps of Stra-;, monium, than of the Prussic acid. Monardes tells us that the priests of the American Indians, whenever they were consulted by the chief gentlemen, or caciques as they are called, took certain leaves of the Tobacco, and cast them into the fire, and then received the smoke, which they thus produced, in their mouths, in consequence of which they fell down upon the ground; and that after having remained for some time in a stupor, they recovered, and delivered the answers which they pretended to have received, during their supposed intercourse with the world of spirits. The sedative powers of the Lactuca Saliva, or Lettuce,f 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 ap- plication of spirit to wounds was also understood, for we find the experienced Nestor applying a cataplasm, composed of cheese, onion, and meal, mixed up with the wine of Pramnos. to the wounds of Machaon.|| * 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 anti- quity ; we are told that Galen, in the decline of life, suffered much from morbid vigilance, until he had recourse to eating a lettuce every evening, which cured him. || Iliad A. INTRODUCTION. V, The revolutions and vicissitudes which remedies have under- gone, in medical as well as popular opinion, from the ignorance of some ages, the learning of others, the superstitions of the weak, and the designs of the crafty, afford ample subject for philosophical reflection ; some of these revolutions I shall pro- ceed to investigate, classing them under the prominent causes which have produced them, viz. Superstition—Credulity— Scepticism—False Theory—Devotion to Authority, and Esta- blished Routine—The assigning to Art that which was the effect. of unassisted Nature—The assigning to peculiar substances Properties, deduced from Experiments made on inferior Ani- mals—Ambiguity of Nomenclature—The progress of Botani- cal 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 Adulteration 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 andimpostors 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 temple of Esculapius, or to their own dreams, than they were to his pre- scriptions. The same popular imbecility is evidently allego- rized 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 discipline, to indulge in the belief of what is improbable and supernatural; and this is per- haps 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 by the ignorant to the wrath of hea- ven, to the resentment of some invisible demon, or to some Vol. I. 4 w historical malignant aspect of the stars ;* and hence the introduction of a rabble of superstitious remedies, not a few of which were rather intended as expiations at the shrines of these ottended spirits, than as natural agents possessing medicinal powers. The introduction of precious stones into the materia medica, arose from an Arabian 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 philoso- phical principle, but from their being the residence of spirits, and he adds that such substances, from their beauty, splendour, and value, are well adapted as receptacles for good spirits !t Every substance whose origin is involved in mystery,| has at different times been eagerly applied to the purposes of Me- dicine : 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 ob- tained 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 medi- cal superstition ; it seeks also explanations from the most preposterous agents, when obvious and natural ones are in rea- diness to solve the problem. Soranus, for instance, who was cotemporary with Galen, and wrote the life of Hippocrates !|| ,; 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 pamphlet by W. Kemp, M. A dedicated to Charles the Second. " One cause of breeding the pestilence is that corruption of the air, which is occa- sioned by the influence of the Stars, by the aspects, conjunctions, and oppo- sitions of the Planets, by the eclipses of the Sun and Moon, and by the con- sequences of Comets. Astra regunt homines, sed regit astra Deus." Hippo- crates advises his son Thessalus to study numbers and geometry, (Epist. ad Thessalum.) because, says he, the rising and setting of the Stars have a great effect upon Distempers. t The precious Stones were, at first, only used as Amulets, or external charms, but like many other articles of the Materia Mediea, they passed, by a mistake in the mode of their application, from the outside to the inside of the body, and they were accordingly powdered and administered as specifics. An analogous case of the perverted administration of a popular remedy is af- forded in the history of the Tench ; which Sennertus describes as a remedy eapable of curing the Jaundice, which he allows is ejected «« by secret attrac- tion and the power of Amulets." In the course of time, it became a reputed lood in the eure of that disease, and Tench broth was prescribed UDon all such occasions. r t Mystery is the very soul of Empiricism ; withdraw the veil, and the con- fidence of die patientinstantlylanguUhes; thus Pliny, «Mmu, credunt qua *d suam salutem pertinent,si mtelligunt." H || It was this historian who said, that Medicine was invented by Apollo, inv vwed by Esculapius, and brought to perfection by the physicianoYCos INTRODUCTION. 27 tells us that honey proved an easy remedy for the aphthae of children, but instead of at once referring the fact to the medi- cal qualities of the honey, he very gravely explains it, from its having been taken from bees that hived near the tomb of Hip- pocrates ! And even those salutary virtues which many herbs possess, were, in these times of superstitious delusion, attribu- ted rather to the planet under whose ascendency they were collected, or prepared, than to any natural and intrinsic proper- ties in the plants themselves ;* indeed, such was the supposed importance of planetary influence, that it was usual to prefix to receipts a symbol of the planet under whose reign the ingre- dients 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 prescriptions, and which is understood, and suppo- sed to mean Recipe, is a relict of the astrological symbol of Jupiter, as may be seen in many of the older works on phar- macy, although it is at present so disguised by the addition of the down stroke, which converts it into the letter ft, that were it not for its cloven foot, we might be led to question the fact of jits superstitious origin. * The Druids of Gaul and Britain, who were both priests and physicians, gathered and cut the Missletoe with a golden knife, only when the Moon was six days old, and being afterward consecrated by certain form9, it was con- sidered as an antidote to poisons, and a preventive of sterility. Plinii. tib. xvi c 44 The; (Vervain, Verbena Officinalis,) after libations of honey, was to be gathered at the rising of the dog-star, 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 tbe bite of serpents, and a charm to con- £8 t\ 1-TOfcirAL A knowledge of this ancient and popular belief in sideral influence, will enable us to explain many superstitions in ttiy- *ie ; the custom, for instance, of administering cathartic medi- cines at stated periods and seasons, originated in an impression ©f their being more active at particular stages of the moon, or at certain conjunctions of the planets : a remnant of this super- stition still exists to a considerable extent in Germany ; and the practice of bleeding at' spring and fall,' so long observed m this country, owed its existence to a similar belief. It was in consequence 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 consider- able 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 sunrising, 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 ciliate friendship. Plin. Lib. xxv. c. §. I shall however hereafter show that the medicinal reputation of this herb derived its origin from a more ancient source even than that of Druidism. * In later times these heathen symbols were dropped, and others were adopted to propitiate the favour and assistance of heaven ; for this purpose the Alchemists stamped the figure of the cross upon the vessel in which they were to obtain their long sought for prize; a superstitious practice.frora which the term crucible derives it<3 origin-. 4 ' ^ INTRODUCTION 29 yet we have continual proofs of its extensive influence over powerful and cultivated minds ; in ancient times we may ad- duce the wise Cicero, and the no less philosophic Aurelius, while in modern days we need only recall to our recollection the number of persons of superior rank and intelligence, who were actually persuaded to submit to the magnetising opera- tions of Miss Prescott, and some of them were even induced to believe that a beneficial influence had been produced 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 Sir Theodore Mayerne, known to commentators as the Doc- tor Caius of Shakspeare, who was physician to three English Sovereigns, 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 hav not unfrequently survived the tradition of its superstitious orig/n, in the same manner that many of our popular customs andV;tes 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. Does not the fond parent still suspend the coral toy around the neck of her infant, without being in the least aware of the superstitious belieft from which the custom * Mr. Boyle was pre-eminently credulous with respect to specifics, and con- tributed very greatly to the encouragement and diffusion of empiricism, by publishing many prescriptions as affording infallible remedies, which were communicated to him by a variety of persons, who either from ignorance or design vouched for their efficacy. f The Soothsayers attributed many mystic properties to the Coral, and it was believed to be capable of giving protection against the influence of 'Evil Eyts'; it was even supposed that Coral would drive away Devils, and Evil Spirits ; hence arose the custom of wearing amulets composed of it, around the neck, and of making crowns of it. Pliny and Dioscorides are very loud in their praises of the medicinal properties of this substance, and Para- celsus says that it should be worn around the necks of infants as an admirable preservative against fits, sorcery, charms, and even against poison. It is a curious circumstance, that the same superstitious belief should exist among the Negroes of the West Indies, who affirm that the colour of Coral is always affected by the state of health of the wearer, it becoming paler in disease. In Sicily it is alsOjCommonly worn as an amulet. ;jo HISTORICAL originated ? while the chorus of derry down is re-echoed by those who never heard of the Druids, much less of the choral hymns with which their groves resounded, at the time of their gathering the misletoe ; and how many a medical practitioner continues to administer this sacred plant, (Viscus Quercmus) 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 heid 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 ac- cident, 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 Sym- pathetic powder of Sir Kenelm Digby,* Knight of Montpellier. Whenever any wound had been inflicted, this powder was ap- plied to the weapon that had inflicted it, which was, moreover, covered with ointment, and dressed two or three times a day.t * See " Sir Kenelm Digby's Discourse upon the cure by Sympathy, pro- nounced at Montpellier, before an assembly of Nobles and learned men. Translated into English, by R. White, Gentleman, and published in 1658." King James 1st. obtained from Sir Kenelm the discovery of his secret, which he pretended had been taught him by a Carmelite Friar, who bad learned it in America or Persia. The Sympathetic Powder was, as we learn from cotemporary physicians. *calcined green vitriol.' tThis superstitious practice is repeatedly alluded to by the poets • thus Sfr 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, INTRODUCTION. 31 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 sympathetic pow- der 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 interference 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 theirs* intention. The rust of the spear of Telephus, mentioned in Homer as a cure for the wounds which that weapon inflicted, was proba- bly Verdegris, and led to the discovery of its use as a surgical application. Soon after the introduction of Gunpowder, cold water was very generally employed throughout Italy, as a dressing to gun- shot wounds; not however from any theory connected with the influence of diminished temperature, or of moisture, but from a belief in a supernatural agency imparted to it by cer- tain mysterious and magical ceremonies, which were duly per- formed immediately previous to its application : the continu- ance of the practice, however, threw some light upon the sur- " Then to her maidens she did say, " That he should be whole man and sound." Canto iii. St. xxiii. Dryden has also introduced the same superstition in his Enchanted Island Act. v. 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. O my wounds pain me, (She unwraps the sword) Mir. 1 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, bow I am eased ' gical treatment of these wounds, and led to a more rational management of them. 1* historical 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 IN a- .,., tional Vaccine Establishment, during the period I had a seat;*. at the board, received from Mr. Dubois, a Missionary in lndia* a very interesting account of the services derived from super-T» 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 en- countered, 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 incar- nation of the dire goddess herself, into the person who was in- fected with it; the fear of irritating her, and of exposing them- selves to her resentment, necessarily rendered the natives of the East decidedly averse to vaccination, until a superstitious 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 su- perstitions. 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 of many mineral waters. There can be no doubt, moreover, but that, in many cases, by affording encouragement and confidence 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 nature, in such a state of mind, must be much more likely to succeed; equally evident is it, that the most powerful effect? ■IXTKUlJli'CTiO.W ;;'.', may be. induced by the administration of remedies which, from their disgusting nature, are calculated to excite strong and painful sensations of the mind.* Celsus mentions, with confi- dence, several medicines of this kind for the cure of Epilepsy, as the warm blood of a recently slain Gladiator, or a certain portion of human, or horseflesh ! and we find that remedies of this description were actually exhibited, and with success, by Kaw Boerhaave, in the cure of 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 dicta- tor with great solemnity, for the sole purpose of driving a nail into the wall of the temple of Jupiter—the effect was generally instantaneous—" Audacia pro muro est,''1 and thus imagining 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 dis- ease having been suddenly arrested by some exhilarating im- pression made upon the mass of the population. Amongthe 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 he states that part of the duty of the Royal Physicians and Sergeant Surgeons, was to select such patients afflicted with scrofula as evinced a tendency to- wards 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 * At the same time it must be acknowledged that many of these revolting applications have actually produced benefit by a physical operation ; we need only mention the nauseous remedies recommended by many writers on Mid- wifery to expedite delivery, which induced the desired effect by producing nausea* or vomiting. Hartman says (Opera, Fol. p. 72) that he has often witnessed among the poor, that difficult labour has been accelerated by a draught of the husband's urine ! and, he adds, that horse dung infused in wine is efficacious in expelling tbe Placenta. Sarah StoHe, a midwife who pub- lished some cases in 1737, mentions several instances of women in labour, to whom was given the juice of leeks, mixed with their husbands' urine, in order to strengthen tbe pains. Nauseous remedies have always enjoyed tbe confi- dence of the vulgar; this prejudice would seem to be the result of a species of false reasoning, by no means uncommon, that "as every thing medicinal is nauseous, so must every thing that is nauseous be consequently medicinal." t Edward the Confessor was the first English King who touched for the Evil, and the foolish superstition has been wisely laid aside, ever since th^ accession of the boose of Hanover. Vol. I. 5 'M- HISTORICAL as the touch ol 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 operation of adverse remedies. The wonderful cures of Valen- tine Greatracks, performed in 1666, which were witnessed by eotemporary prelates, members of parliament, and fellows of the royal society, among whom was the celebrated Mr. Boyle, 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, Ori- basius 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 deception, 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 rib- band, 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 Gato the censor has favoured us with an incantation for the * This superstitious notion is not confined to the ancients, but is even che- rished at this day, in some of the more remote districts of the kingdom ; and we find frequent allusions to it in the popular poetryof 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 staunched the blood." Sir Walter Sfiott in his •< Lay of the last Minstrel"— # JWRQDTJt n»X\ $$ reduction of a dislocated limb. In certain instances, however, we are certainly bound to admit that the pagan priesthood, with their characteristic cunning, were careful to perform their superstitious incantations, in such cases only as were likely to receive the sanative assistance of Nature, so that they might attribute the fortunate results of her efforts to the potent influ- ence of their own arts. The extraordinary success which is related to have attended various superstitious ceremonials, will thus find a plausible explanation: the miraculous gift attributed by Herodotus to the Priestesses of Helen, is one among many others of this kind that might be adduced ; the Grecian histo- rian relates, that when the heads of ugly infants were adjusted on the altar of this temple, the individuals So treated acquired comeliness and even beauty as they advanced in growth.: but is not such a change the ordinary and unassisted result of natu- ral developement? Those large and prominent outlines which impart an unpleasing physiognomy to the infant, when propor- tioned and matured by growth, assume features of intelligence in the adult face. I 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 con- ceal important truths ; which, had they not been thus embalm- ed by superstition, could never have been perpetuated for the use and advantage of posterity. I shall illustrate this assertion by one or two examples. 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 situation, 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 " 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; in Reginald Scot's Discoverie of Witchcraft, p. 273. We learn also from Sennertus, that the older Surgeons had recourse to prayers and magic for the extraction of foreign bodies from wounds; a very interesting summary of their superstitions, and peculiar notions concerning wounds, will be found in this author, under the head, " De Kebus aliems e v^ilnere eximendis." Lib. v. Pars. iv. Practice Medicine. MISTOKK A). their introduction was suggested by principles of wise and use- ful policy. In the same manner, Bathing, which at one period of the world, was essentially necessary to prevent the dittu- sion of Leprosy, and other infectious diseases, was wisely con- verted into an act of religion, and the priests persuaded the people that they could only obtain absolution by washing away their sins by frequent ablutions ; since the use oi linen shirts has become general, and every one has provided for the clean- liness of his own person, the frequent bath ceases to be so essential, and therefore no evil has arisen from the change of religious belief respecting its connexion with the welfare and purity of the soul. These instances are sufficient to show the justness of my position ; if time and space would allow, many ethers of a striking and interesting character might be adduced. 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 probabi- lity ; 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 afar 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 con- founded with the vain pretensions of empiricism, and ignorance 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 profession. In Chili, says Zimmerman, the physiciens 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, (heir 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. But this mental imbecility is not characteristic of any age or rXTRODUCTIOXi country. England has, indeed, by a late continental writer,* been accused of possessing a larger share of credulity than its neighbours, and it has been emphatically called uThe Pa- radise of Quacks," but with as little truth as candour. If we refer to the Works of jEtius, written more than 1300 years ago, we shall discover the existence of a similar infirmity with regard 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 coilynumof Danaus was sold at Constantinople for 120 numismata, 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 Berkeley, the metallic tractors of Perkins, the animal magnetism of Miss Prescott, and may I not add, with equal justice, to the nitro-muriatic acid bath of Dr. Scott ? The des- cription of Thessalus, the Roman empiric in the reign of Nero, as drawn 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 selfishness! of keeping medicines secret, prevailed 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 unprinci- pled Quack Doctors and advertising " Medical boards" of our own times : and I challenge the apologist of ancient purity, to produce a more glaring instance of empirical effrontery and * See a Tour through England, by Dr. Nemnich of Hamburgh. tNostrum, (ourown.) Ibis word, as its original meaning implies,is very significant of this characteristic attribute of quackery. See the note under the article " Liquor Opii Sedativus." t Aristides was the dupe and victim of the Asclepiades for ten successive years; be was alternately purged, vomited, and blistered; made to walk barefooted, under a burning sun in summer, and in winter he was doomed to seek for tbe return of health, by bathing bis 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 per- suaded to fancy that he conversed in his dreams, and frequently beheld in nocturnal visions. Upon one occasion, the god, fatigued with the importuni- ties of bis votary, ordered him to lose 120lbs. of blood; tbe unhappy man not having so much in his body, wisely took the liberty of interpreting tbe oracle in his own way, and parted with no more than he could conveniently ^are. 33 HISTORICAL success, in the annals of the 19th century, than that of the sacred impostor described in the Alexander of Lucian, wno established himself in the deserted temple of Esculapius, ana entrapped in his snares some of the most eminent oi the Roman senators. SCEPTICISM. redulity has been justly defined, Belief without Reason. ticism is its opposite, Reason without Belief, and is the Crc SceptL- 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 ascribing 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 inflated 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 antisyphihtic powers of Nitric Acidhave been aggrandized, had very nearly exploded a valuable auxiliary from modern practice. It is well known with what avidity the public em- braced the expectations given by Stderck of Vienna in 1760, with respect to the efficacy of Hemlock; every body, says Dr. Fothergill, 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 use- less. Can we not then predict the fate of the Cubebs, which has been lately restored to notice, with such extravagant praise, and unqualified approbation ? May the sanguine advo- cates for the virtues of the Colchicum derive a useful lesson of INTRODUCTIONS. dSf practical caution from these precepts, it would be a matter of deep regret that a remedy which, under skilful management, certainly possesses considerable virtue, should again fall into obscurity and neglect from the disgust excited by the extrava- gant zeal of its supporters. There are, moreover, those who cherish a spirit of scepti- cism, from an idea that it denotes the exercise of a superior in- tellect ; 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, ww unlimited scepticism is as muck the child of imbecility as implicit credulity.'''' " He who at the end of the eighteenth century," says Rousseau, "has brought him- self to abandon all his early principles, without discrimination, 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 proper- ties of all medicines are derived from what he calls their ele- mentary or cardinal qualities, Heat, Cold, Moisture, and Dryness. Each of which qualities is again subdivided into four degrees, and a plant or medicine, according to his notion, is 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 souife, and until lately, medical writers, in the true jargon of Galen, spoke of the four greater and lesser hot and cold seeds; and in the London Dispensatory .10 HISTORICAL of 1721, we find the powders of hot and cold precious stones, and those of the hot and cold compound powders ot pearl. Several of the ancient combinations of opium with various aromatics are also indebted to Galen for their origin, and to the blind influence of his authority for their existence and lasting reputation. Galen asserted that opium was cold m thejourth degree, and must therefore require some corresponding hot medicine to moderate its frigidity.* The Methodic Sect, which was founded by the Roman physician Themison,t 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 k continues at this day to exert a secret influence on medical practice, and to preserve from neglect some unimportant medicines. The general be- lief in the relaxing effect of the warm, and the equally strength- ening influence of the cold bath, may be traced to conclu- sions deduced from the operation of hot and cold water upon parchment and other inert bodies.J The Stahlians, under the impression of their ideal system, introduced Archceal remedies, and many of a superstitious and inert kind; whilst, as they on all occasions 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 descriptions. The Mechanical Theory, which recognised " lentor and morbid viscidity of the blood," as the principal cause of all dis- eases, introduced attenuant and diluent medicines, or sub- * This theory is still cherished in the preservation of the formula for Pilula. Optata, in the Edinburgh Pharmacopoeia. t The practice of this Physician does not appear to have been very success^ ful, if we may credit Juvenal.— 4| J ",Quot Themison aegrosantumno occiderit uno » J See « An Experimental Inquiry into the effects of Tonics, and othe<- Medicines, on the cohesion of ton Animal fibre.' By Dr. Crawford IXTRODI'CTION. •11 stances endued with some mechanical force; thus Fourcrov explained the operation of mercury by its specific gravity,* and the advocates of this doctrine favoured the general introduc- tion of the preparations of iron, especially in scirrhus 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 par- ticles, which, being seven times specifically heavier than any vegetable, acts in proportion with a stronger impulse, and there- fore 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 deranged condition in the chemical composition of the fluid or solid parts, so they conceived all remedies must act by pro- ducing chemical changes in the body. We find Tournefort busily engaged in testing every vegetable juice, in order to dis- cover in it some 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 che- mical 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; # an extravagance into which Van Helmont, himself, would hardly have been betrayed:—butthus it is in Philosophy, as in Politics, that the partisans of a popu- lar leader are always more sanguine, and less judicious, than their master; they are not only ready to delude the world, but most anxious to deceive themselves, and while they warmly defend their favourite system . from the attacks of those that * Van Swieten, in his Commmentaries on the Venereal Disease, lias an aphorism founded on the same hypothesis, "Render the blood and lymph more fluid, and you will have destroyed the virus." Sect. 1477. In the first volume of the Transactions of the Royal College of Phy- sicians, there is a paper to the same effect, entitled, ''On the Operation of Mercury, in different diseases and constitution", bv Tvhvard Barrv. M.D. F.R.S." Read at the College. July 13., 1767 Vol. I. r, HISTORICAL may assail it, they willingly close their own eyes and conceal from themselves the different points that are untenable; or, to borrow the figurative language of a French writer, tney aie like the pious children of Noah, who went backwards, that they might not see the nakedness winch they approached lor the purpose of covering. . . 1 , • ., Unlike the mechanical physicians, the chemists explain the beneficial operation of iron by supposing that it increases the proportion of red globules in the blood, on the erroneous hy- pothesis that iron constitutes the principal element ol 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 ex- perience. And yet iron, whose medicinal virtues have been so generally allowed, has not escaped those vicissitudes in reputa- tion 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 stipulated with the Romans that they should not use iron, ex- cept 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 magnett after it to pre- vent 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, "becauseit bredobstruc- tionsinthe viscera," othersagain, '• because it onlybound upthe spirits, and stopped the paroxysms for a time, and favoured the translation of the peccant matter into the more noble parts." '* The animal nature of the colouring matter of the blood was first pointed out by Dr. Wells, but Fourcjoy 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 consider- ed as a peculiar animal principle ; the subsequent experiments of M. Vau- ([uelin have confirmed Mr. Brande's results. + The Magnet, or Loadstone, in powder, entered also as an ingredient in several plasters to draw bullets, and heads of arrows, out of the body, as in the " Emplasirum Divinum Mcolai," the " Emplastrum Nigrum" of Augsburg, the" Opodeldock" and " Attractivum," of Paracelsus, with several other pre- parations, to be found in the Disppnsatorv of Wecker, and in the practice of Sennertus lXTRODLCTlOX. 43 Thus we learn from Morton,* that Oliver Cromwell fell a \ ictim to an intermittent fever, because the Physicians were too timid to make a trial of the bark. It was sold first by the Jesuits for its weight in silver ;t and Condamine relates that in 1690, about thirty years afterward, 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, de- claring, 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 generalized diseases, and brought all within the compass of two grand classes, those of increased and diminished excite- ment, 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 re- putation 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 virlue,indicates by an obvious and well-marked ex- ternal character, the disease for 7ohich 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; * Pyretolocia, p. 17, A. D. 1692. fSturmius in bis " Febrifugi Peruviani Vindicia," published in 1658, ob- serves that he saw twenty doses of the powder sold at Brussels for sixty florins, in order to be sent to Paris, and that he would willingly have been a purchaser of some doses, even at that price ; but the Apothecary was unable to supply him ; an anecdote which not only shows the reputation of the bark, but the honesty of the vender. t 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 fTuis conceit did not escape the notice of the metaphysical poets of the seventh century; Cowley frequently availed him?elfof itto embellish his verse. 44. historical the supposed virtues of the Lapis Mites, or hagle stone, des- cribed by Dioscorides, ^tius, and Pliny, who assert, that il tied to the arm, it will prevent abortion, and if fixed to the tmgn, 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. " Mtites lapis agitatus, sonitum edit, velut ex altera lapide prazg- nans." 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 bene- ficial 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 consistencies, observable in inanimate creatures, is certainly designed for some wise purpose. It must be,'m order to manifest these peculiar qualities and excel- lencies, which couldnot be so effectually done in any otherway, 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 brilliantyellow colour, which indicates that ithas 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 dis- orders 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 indica- tion 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 Hcliotropium of the ancients, from the occasional small specks or points of a blood red colour exhi- bited on its green surface, is even at this day employed in many parts of England and Scotland, to stop a bleeding from the * This mineral derives its name from the ancient belief that it was found in tbe nests of the eagle. It is * variety of iron ore, which is commonly roe' wi'ii in the argillaceoiii mines of thi< country. IVIRODUCTIOX. 45 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 of the blood, and the roots of rhubarb, and the flowers of saf- fron, that of the bile.* I apprehend that John of Gaddesden, in the fourteenth cen- tury, celebrated by Chaucer, must have been directed by some remote analogy of this kind, when he ordered the son of Ed- ward the First, who was dangerously ill with the small-pox, to be wrapped in scarlet cloth, as well as all those who attended 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 prevalent at one period, that All poisonous substances possess a powerful and mutual elective attraction for each other; and that consequent- ly, 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 pow- ers 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 suspended 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 prosecu- tion 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 * For a further account of this conceit, see Crollius, in a work appended to his " Basilica Chemica," entitled, " De Signaturis internis rerum, seu de vera et viva Anatomia majoris et minoris mundi " Iti lIlSTORlCA^ talismanic aid of a few great names ; when once established upon such a basis, ingenuity, argument, and even expeiiment, may open their inenT-cluai batteries. The laconic sentiment of the Roman Satirist is ever opposed to our remonstrance— u Marcus dixit /—ita est." ' " Hid Mr.rcus say 'twas fact ? then fact it is, No proof so valid as a word oi his." A physician cannot err, in the opinion of the public, if he im- plicitly obeys the dogmas of authority ; in the most barbarous ages of ancient Egypt, he was punished or rewarded according to the extent of his success, but to escape the former, it was only necessary to show that an orthodox plan of cure had been 1 followed, such as was prescribed in the acknowledged writings of Hermes. It is an instinct in our nature to follow the track pointed out hy 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, 1 than to reason and judge for ourselves. " The mass of man- kind," as Dr. Paley observes, " act more from habit than re- flection." 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 Eu- rope—Africa—and part of Asia ? What, but authority, could have inspiredja general belief, that the sooty washings of rosin* would act as a universal remedy ? What, but a blind devo- tion to authority, or an insuperable attachment to established custom and routine, could have so long preserved from oblivion '*'*> the absurd medicines which abound in our earlier dispensato- ries 1 for example, the Decoctum ad Ictericos," of the Edin- burgh College, which never had any other foundation than the doctrine of signatures in favour of the Curcuma and Chelido- * nium Mujus ;t and it is only within a few years, that the The- * This practice of Bishop Berkeley has been ridiculed with great point and effect, in apamphlet 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 unre- ality 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." Tar water was also at one period considered to possess very con- siderable efficacy in Syphilis. t The Euphrasia Officinalis, or Eye-bright, which is indebted for its celebri- ty to the doctrine of Signatures, as before stated, is actually employed at this time in cases of dimness of sight. See a Paper upon the efficacy of this plant by Dr. Jackson, in the London Medical and Physical Journal. Vol. 23. p 104. l\TR0J)UCTIO-\. 47 riacaAndromachi. in its ancient absurd form, has been dismissed from the British Pharmacopoeia. The Codex-Medicamenta- rius of Paris, recently edited, still cherishes this many-headed* monster of pharmacy, in all its pristine deformity, under the appropriate title of " Elecluarium Opiatum Polv././h.rmanim." It is, however, evidently indebted for this unexpected rescue from oblivion, to a cause very remote from that which may be at first imagined ; not from any 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 estabhshed by authority and sanctioned by time. For the same reason, and in violation of their better judgment, the editors have re- tained the absurd formula of Diest for the preparation of an extract of opium-; which, after directing various successive operations, concludes by ordering the decoction to be boiled incessantly for six months, supplying the waste of water at in- tervals ! Many of the compound formulae in this new Codex, it is. frankly allowed, possess an unnecessary and unmeaning, *This preparation consists of 72 ingredients, which are arranged under 13 heads—viz. Ac ma, of which there are 5 species. Amara, of which there are 8. Stvptica vulgo Astringlntia, 5 in number. Aromatica Exotica, 14. Aromatica Indigena, 10. Aromatica ex Ubibf.lliferis, 7. Resinosa ft Balsama, 8. Grave-Olf.ntia, 6. Virosa, *' si-u qua? Narcosin inducunt," under which head there is but one species, viz. Opium. Terrea Insipida et Isektia ; this comprises only the Lemnian Earih. Gummosa, Amylacf.a, Sic. 4species. Dui.cia, liquorice and honey. Visum, Spanisji. Upon no principle of combination can this heterogeneous farrago be vindi- cated. It has, however, enjoyed the confidence of physicians for many ages, and is therefore entitled to some notice. It was supposed to have been invent- ed 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 t" M" Husson> a «n«tary officer in tbe service of France^ about fiTty years ago it L™OThpr »»" 'X' Sannt-I,at*lt aC(Tred thc tiMe of *nima articulorvm, ieriTnd tLxZ r . n* A1««lon.m-the Pulvis Arthriticus Tur- nen, and Ine Vienna Gout Decoction. § Alexander's Prescription consisted of Hermodactvlls Ginger Penner INTRODUCTION. 60 a person of the name of Lisle, a receipt for the preparation of which is to be found at length in Colbornc'ls Complete English Dispensatory for the year 175G. The various secret preparations of Opium, which have been extolled as the invention of modern times, may be recognised in the works of ancient authors ; for instance, Wedelius in his 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 Tar- tar :* 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 " Ex- tract out of Rain water," preparations which owe their mild- ness 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 describes an apparatus for its preparation exactly similar to thatwhioh has been extolled as the invention of Woolf; he also notices the pro- duction of Pyro acetic Acid, under the title of " Vinegar of Wood," so that the fact of the identity of this acid and Vine- gar, so lately announced by Vauquelin as a New Discovery, was evidently known to Glauber nearly two centuries ago. Nor has fashion confined her baneful interference to the se- lection of remedies ; she has ventured even to decide upon the nature of Diseases, and to change and modify their appellations according to the whim and caprice by which she .is governed. The Princess, afterward Queen,Anne, was subject to Hypo- chondriacal attacks, which her Physicians pronounced to be Spleen, Vapours, or Hyp, and recommended Rawleigh's Con- fection, and Pearl Cordial for its cure ; this circumstance was sufficient to render both the Disease and Remedy fashionable, and no other complaint was ever heard of in the precincts of the court but that of the Vapours: some years afterward, in consequence of Dr. Whytt's publication on " Nervous diseases," a lady of Fashion was ptonounced to be Nervous—the term be- came general, and the disease fashionable; and Spleen, Vapours > and Hyp were consigned to oblivion : the reign of Nervous Diseases, however, did not long continue, for a popular work appeared on Biliary Concretions, and all the world became bilious. We have not patience to pursue the history of these follies ; a transient glance at the ephemeral productions of the •"Magisterium Opii fit solvencfo Opium i'n aceto, et praecipitando cum ♦ale tertari.---------'* J'l HISTORICAL last twenty years would furnish a sad display of the versatility of medical opinions, and the instability of the practice which has been founded upon them : and they will no doubt furnish the future historian with strong and forcible illustrations. 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 dis- ease to the last medicine that had been employed ; the advo- cates of amulets and charms,* have even been thus enabled to appeal to the testimony of what they call experience, in justification 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 me- dicines and practitioners alike acquired unmerited praise or un- just 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 afterward this patient died, and on being opened, a large stone was found in a pouch, formed by a part of the bladder, and which communicated with it. When the yellow fever raged in Ame- rica, the practitioners trusted exclusively to the copious use of mercury; at first, this plan was deemed so universally efficacious, that in the enthusiasm of the moment, it was triumphantly pro- claimed that death never took place after the mercury had •This species of delusion, from mistaking the Post hoc, for the Propter hoc. always reminds me of the story of the Florentine Quack, who gave the coun- tryman six pills which were to enable him to discover his lost A«s —the pills beginning to operate on his road home, obliged him to retire into a wood, where be found his ass. The clown soon spread a report of the wonderful suc- cess of the empiric, who in consequence, no doubt, reaped an ample reward irom the proprietors of strayed cattle. tThe grant of £5000 to Joanna Stephens, Tor her discovery of certain TS'™ for0theTcl,re of ihe ?,one> 's n<*ified *« the London Gazette of June. AD. 173P. See Liquor Calcv«. INTRODUCTION DO evinced its effect upon the system; all this was very true, but it furnished no proof of the efficacy of that metal, since the dis- ease, in its aggravated form, was so rapid in its career, that it swept away its victims long before thetystem could be brought under mercurial influence, while in its milder shape it passed off equally well without any assistance from art. Let us then, be- fore we decree the honours of a cure to a favourite medicine, carefully and candidly ascertain the exact circumstances under which it was exhibited, or we shall rapidly accumulate 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 great measure arisen from salubrity of situation, hiliarity of mind, exercise of body, and regularity of habits, which have in- cidentally accompanied its potation. Thus, the celebrated John Wesley, while he commemorates the triumph of Sulphur and Supplication over his bodily infirmity, forgets to appreciate the resuscitating influence of four months repose from his apostolic labours ; and such is the disposition of the human mind to place confidence 'in the operation of mysterious agents, that we find him more disposed to attribute his cure to a brown paper plaster of egg and brimstone, than to Dr. Fothergill's salutary prescription of country air, rest, asses' milk, and horse exercise.* The ancient physicians duly appreciated the influence of such agents ; their temples, like our watering places, were the resort of those whom medicine could not cure, and we are expressly told by Plutarch that these temples, especially that of Escula- pius, were erected on eleva'ted spots, with the most congenial aspects ; a circumstance which, when aided by the invigorating effects of hope, by the diversions which the patient 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 recpmmendation of a watering 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 chalybeate purgative, might su- persede those of Cheltenham and Scarborough, and that an in- valid 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 pa- tient of those most powerful auxiliaries to which I have alluded, Wesley's Journal, vol. xxix. 290—293. JO" HISTORICAL and above all, lose the advantages of the " Medtcina Mentis. On the other hand, the recommendation of change ol air and habits will rarely inspire confidence, unless it be associated with some medicinal treatment; a truth which it is more easy and sa- tisfactory to elucidate and enforce by examples than by precept —let the following story by Voltaire serve as an illustration.-- " Ogul, a voluptuary who could ba managed but with difficulty by his physician, on finding himself extremely ill from indo- lence 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, ap- proaching Ogul, exclaimed, ' Behold that which thou desirest;' k 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 brefath, 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, 1 There is no such thing in nature as a Basilisk ! .but thou hast taken exercise and been temperate, and hast therefore recovered thy health ." AMBIGUITY OF NOMENCLATURE. It has been already stated that we are to a great degree igno- rant 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 & * Soon after the invention of the art of Printing, the works of Dioscorides, rheophrastes, and Pliny, were published in Various forms, and Commentators swarmed like locusts. The eagerness with which this branch of knowledge mMmCi.- i,Vated5-Hy be.c°nceiYed' wl>en 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 ZtL?WrdJf E«nperors,_K.ngs-Electors of the Roman Empire,-Arch- dukes.-Cardmal?,—Bishops.—Dukes., and Prince*, 'which,' savs he, 'gives lMKOI>U"CTIO.\. J< chaos of nomenclature, that it must have been impossible for the herbarist and physician to have communicated their mutual lights ; every one was occupied with disputes upon words and names, and every useful inquiry was suspended, from an ina- bility to decide what plant each author intended ; thus, for in- stance, the Herba Britannica of Dioscorides and Pliny, so cele- brated for the cure of the soldiers of Julius Caesar on the Rhine, of a disease call ' ScelotyrbeS and supposed to resemble our sea scurvy, remains quite unknown, notwithstanding the labours of our most intelligent commentators.* It seems also very doubtful whether the plant which we denominate Hemlock was the poison usually administered at the Athenian executions,! and which deprived Socrates and Phocion of life. Pliny informs us that the word Cicuta, among the ancients, was not indicative of any particular species of plant, but of vegetable poisons in general; this is a circumstance to which I am parti- cularly anxious to fix your attention ; it is by no means uncom- mon to find a word which is used to express general characters, subsequently become the name of a specific substance in which such characters are predominant; and we shall find that some important anomalies in nomenclature may be thus explained. The tenh ' Afo-«<*«v,' from which the word Arsenic is derived, was an ancient epithet, applied to those natural substances which possessed strong and acrimonious properties, and as the poisonous quality of arsenic was found to be remarkably power- ful, the term was especially applied to Orpiment, the' form in which this metal more usually occurred. So the term Ver- bena (quasi Herbena) originally denoted all those herbs that were held sacred on account of their being employed in the rites of sacrifice, as we learn from the poets ;| but as one herb 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 enlighten-' "Turner, the father of English Botany, was of opinion, that it was the Polygonum Bistorta; Munting, a Dutch physician, that it was the Hydra- lapalhum Magnum, or Rumez Aquaticus, or Great Water-Dock, an opinion which received the sanction of Ray. Others have supposed it to have been Polygonum Persicaria, and some have considered it as the Primula Auricula. This one example is adduced to show the mortifying uncertainty that in- volves the history of ancient plants. t Meade thinks that the Athenian poison was a combination of active Substances,—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. 1 "Verbenasque adolepingues, et Mascula Thura." Vif. F.cloz. r"< Vol. I. R i^S HISTORICAL was usually adopted upon these occasions, the word ^baut came to denote that particular herb only, and it is transmmea 10 us to this day under the same title, viz. Verbena, or Vervain, and indeed until lately it enjoyed the medical reputation wnicfii its sacred origin conferred upon it, for it was worn suspended around the neck as an amulet. Vitriol, in the original applica- tion 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 spe- e'tes: in the >ame manner, Bark, which is a general term, is ap- plied 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, (e«-oS Succus) while it now only denotes one species, viz. that of the Poppy. So again, Elaterium was used by Hip- pocrates, to signify various internal applications, especially pur- gatives, of a violent and drastic nature (from the word ' EA«w«,' agito, moveo, stimulo,) but by succeeding authors it was exclu- sively 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 spontaneous subsidence from a liquid, (fromfecx, the grounds or settlement of any liquor ;) afterward 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 gelatinous solu- tion ; this indefinite meaning of the wordfecula has created nu- merous mistakes in pharmaceutic chemistry ; Elaterium, for in- stance, is said to be fecula, and in the original sense of the word it is properly so called, inasmuch as it is procured from a vege- table juice by spontaneous subsidence, but in the limited and modern aceeptation of the term, it conveys 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 involve the meaning of the word Ex- "" Ex Ara Lac suxne Verbenas tibi."' Terent. Andria. " ara castis v in eta Verbenis."----Hor. Od.xi. Lib.iv. It is a furious fnct that in Tuscany the word Vervena is applied to de- Bote any kind of slips, shoots, suckers, or bundles of plants, at this very day. * AMLvuM.the Stareh of wheat, originally denoted a powder that was ob- tained without the application^a mill, from a, not, and pum, a mill; thus Dioscorides,"A.M^oit ivoewttrow Ssa-To yetph (xvh* xxl*UCTI0X. jhl tract, 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 distinguished from every other elementary body— See Extracta. On the otherhand, we find that many words which were originally only used to denote particular substances, have, at length, become subservient to the expression of General Characters ; thus the term Alkali, in its original sense, signified that particular residuum which was alone obtained by lixiviating the ashes of the plant named Kali, but the word is now so gene- ralized that it denotes any body possessed of a certain number of properties. Another source of botanical ambiguity and error is the cir- cumstance of certain plants having acquired the names of others very different in their nature, but which are supposed to possess a similarity in external character ; thus our Potato,* (Solanum Tuberosum) when it was first imported into England by tbe colonists in the reign of Queen Elizabeth, gained its appellation from its supposed resemblance to an esculent vegetable at that time in common use, under the name of the Sweet Potato (Convolvulus Battatas,) and which, like Eringo Root, had the reputation of being able to restore decayed vigour, thus FalstafF— " Let the sky rain Potatoes, hail kissing Comfits, and snow Eringoes.'' Merry Wives of Windsor, Act 5, Scene 5. A similar instance is presented to us in the culinary vegetable well known under the name of the Jerusalem Artichoke, which derived its appellation in consequence of its flavour having been considered like that of the common artichoke ; it is hardly necessary to observe that it has no botanic relation whatever to such a plant, it being an Heliotrope (Heliotropium Tuberosum,) the epithet Jerusalem is a curious corruption of the Italian term Gira-Sole, that is, turn sun, in English, or He- lio-trope in Greek. This instance of Verbal corruption is not solitary in medical botany ; Castor Oil will suggest itself as another example ; this oil, from its supposed efficacy in curing and assuaging the unnatural heatofthe body, and in soothing the passions, was called by the French Agnus Castus, whence the * Gerard, in his Herbal, (1597) denominates it, by way of distinction, Pota- to of Virginia, and he recommends it to be eaten as a delicate dish, not as common food ; indeed some time elapsed after its introduction before it be- came general, and it was cultivated as an article of dif* in Ireland fo'. several years before it was common in England. lit) HISTORICAL inhabitants of Si. Kiffs in the West Indies, who were iormerly blended with the French in that island, called it Castor oil. In some cases again, a plant has received a name compounded of two ancient ones; it appears from Pliny that the Assarnm was not uncommonly confounded with the Bacchans ; an English name was accordingly bestowed upon it, which is a curious com- promise of the question, for it is a compound of both, viz. Assarabacca. The advanced state of Botanical Science will now prevent the recurrence of those doubts and difficulties which have for- merly embarrassed the history of vegetable remedies, by fur- nishing a strictly philosophical language, independent of all theory, and founded upon natural structure, and therefore ne- cessarily beyond the control of opinion; while the advancement of chemical knowledge, by enabling us better to distinguish and identify the different substances we employ, will also materially assist in preventing the confusion which has formerly oppressed us. At tbe same, time, I am unwilling to join in the commen- dations which have been so liberally bestowed upon our chemi- cal nomenclature ; nay, I am disposed to consider it as a matter of regret that the names of our medicinal compounds should have any relation to their chemical composition, for in the pre- sent unsettled state of this science, such a language must necessarily convey theory instead of truth, and opinions rather than facts ; in short, it places us at the mercy and disposal of every new hypothesis, which may lay our boasted fabric in ruins, and in its place raise another superstructure, equally frail in its materials, and ephemeral in its duration : thus Corrosive Sublimate was a muriate of Mercury, or an oxy-muriate, until Sir H. Davy established his new theory of chlorine, and then it became a bi-chloride ; at some future period, Chlorine will be found to be a compound, and then it must have another name; for the same reason the termCALOMEL* is surely to be preferred to submuriate, or Chloride. Tartarized Antimony, again, has been called by our nomenclatural reformers the Tartrate of Antimony and Potass : but is it a triple compound ? Gay Lus- * Calomel.—There is some doubt respecting the original meanin* of this word, literally it signifies, fair, black, xaxo?, juthctf. Sir Theodore Mayerne is said to have given the namejo it, in consequence of his having had a favour- ite black servant who prepared it; but is it not more probable that its name was derived from tbe change of colour which it undergoes from black to white, during its preparation ? Another explanation has been also given, viz. quod vtgro humori sit bonvm—a good (**xej) remedy for black (utKttt) bile. This Theory derives much support from the black appearance of the stools,