f
NATIONAL LIBRARY OF MEDICINE




         Bethesda, Maryland 
 
 
CURIOSITIES
OF
MEDICAL  EXPERIENCE.




           -GAtcOjU) teuLtC  9/i Jr.' ■>




<f                Mt-> fri$ & f&# A



-----BY J. G. MILLINGEN, M.D.
              SURGEON TO THE FORCES :
  MEMBER OF THE MEDICAL SOCIETY OF THE AITCIENT FACULTY OF PARIS ;
          OF THE MEDICAL SOCIETY OF BORDEAUX ;
      AND AUTHOR OF THE "MEDICAL OFFICER'S MANUAL," ETC.
Homo sum: humani nf^fywt9A£li^nJWi puto.

    _^< ■  .^         Terence.
IN THE
        UNIVERSITY of CINCINNATI

                  1908




          PHILADELPHIA:

HASWELL, BARRINGTON, AND HASWELL,

        293 MARKET street.


             1838. 
4* 4 v. > £    f^+
 W
A? £ ^ 
•
          PREFACE,

BY THE AMERICAN EDITOR.
   In introducing " the Curiosities of Medical Experience"
 to our professional brethren, we cannot, of course, be ex-
 pected either to avouch for the accuracy of statement and ~
 inference of the author, or to attempt to prune redundan-
 cies and  supply omissions of some of  the many topics of
 which he treats.   Various  and discursive in his  themes,
 he exhibits us, here a melange of fable and fact,  without
 always noting the line of separation, there credulity alter-
 nating with scepticism.  To one conversant with the sub-
ject under discussion, the  author  sometimes stops short,
 rather provokingly,  at  the  point  where his conclusions
 might be  supposed  to  become more  numerous,  and  to
 assume more the character of contemporary history.   But
though the  testimony  be  inadequate, or the reasoning
deficient in closeness of induction, much is suggested to
the inquisitive mind for farther thought, and, it  may be,
not unprofitable application.  The  " Curiosities,"  even in
the parts which most partake of gossiping, will we believe
be found  amusing to the medical  not less  than to the
general reader; and from the former still more than  from 
 4                     PREFACE.
 the latter, even though a learned one, should we  expect
 an acquaintance with many  of  their details, if not for
 necessary application at least to season and embellish con-
 versation with the sick and the hypochondriacal.

   With Dr. Millingen's leaning  towards Animal Magnet-
 ism and Homoepathy we have small  sympathy; nor can
 we be supposed for a moment to coincide with him in his
 ill-disguised  distrust of  Temperance  Societies, and the
 efforts made  through their agency.  On some  occasions,
 without his  meaning it, he has  thrown himself open  to
 censure, not  so much for the promulgation of  obnoxious
 ethics, as for his implied sanction of them.  Still, notwith-
 standing these defects, the " Curiosities of Medical Expe-
aji.v",
 rience" will, we  are persuaded, be a popular work, both
 by the  amusement and many instructive hints which it
<&irnishes.  It comes in just now very seasonably, after the
 graver  matter, during the hot months of summer; and for
 the opportunity afforded of its perusal, we may expect to
 receive the thanks of our medical readers. 
CONTENTS.
 Obesity       .....
 Dwarfs    .....
 Gigantic Races        ....
 Unlawful Curggs   ....
 Voice and Speech      ....
 Ecstatic Exaltation
 Varieties of Mankind   ....
 On the Inhumation of the Dead in Cities  .
 Buried Alive    »
 Spontaneous Combustion  .
 Brassica Eruca, or the Rocket Plant
 Cagliostro  .....
 Lunar Influence on Human Life and Diseases .
 Spectacles .....
 Leeches       .....
. Somnambulism    •
 Medical Powers of Music
 The Food of Mankind, its Use and Abuse .
 Influence of Imagination
 Phrenology       ....
 Perfumes      .....
 Love Philters and Potions .
 Ventriloquism  .....
 Chaucer's Description of a Physician
 Daemonomania .....
 The Plague       ....
 Abstinence     .....
 Poison of the  Upas, or Ipo
 Homophagous and Polyphagous
 Causes of Insanity ....
 Leprosy       .....
 The Aspic  .....
 Selden's Comparison between a Divine, a Statesman, and
 The Lettuce       ....
 Medical Fees    .....
 Enthusiasm       ....
 Early Rising   .....
 Medicinal effects of Water .
 Proverbs  and Sayings regarding Health and Disease
 The Night-Mare    ....
 Incubation of Diseases  ....
 Quackery and Charlatanism
 On the Use of Tea     ....
 Inate Appetites    ....
 Mandragore    .....
 Barber-Surgeons and the Progress of Chirurgical Art
 On Dreams     .       ...      .
 On Flagellation   .....
a Physician 
6            CURIOSITIES OF MEDICAL EXPERIENCE.
On Life and the Blood  .
Of the Homoeopathic Doctrines
Doctrine of Signatures
Coffee
Aqua Tophania
Plica Polonica and Human Hair
Animal Magnetism
Poisonous Fishes  .
Memory and the Mental Faculties
Affections of the Sight
Hellebore
Sympathies and Antipathies
The Archeus of Van Helmont .
Monsters   .  '
Longevity
Cretinism  .
Temperaments .
Solar  Influence
Sweating Fever
Small-Pox .
Generative Animalcules
Circulation of the Blood
Drunkenness
Decapitation
Mummies
Hydrophobia
Page
215
228
251
255
258
259
264
274
280
290
295
297
306
309
317
328
331
336
339
344
349
353
355
359
361
366 
INTRODUCTION.
  The great success and correspondent utility of D'Israeli's " Curi-
osities of Literature," have induced me to add to the ample harvest
of that ingenious writer a few gleanings from another field.   They
may not afford the same amusing variety to the general reader, but
they may tend to draw some attention  to  many important points
that affect the chequered lot of mankind.   The  progress that every
science has  rapidly made during  the last half century has been as-
tounding, and seems to  have kept pace with those struggles of the
intellectual  faculties to burst from the  shackles of prejudice and
error that had  ignobly bound  them for so  many ages.  Groping
in darkness, man sought the light,  but unfortunately the sudden
refulgence at times dazzled instead of guiding his steps in the pur-
suit of truth, and led him into  errors as perilous  as those that had
surrounded him in his former mental obscurity.  His gigantic powers
were aroused, but too  frequently misapplied, they shook the social
edifice to  its very foundation.   The daring hand  of innovation de-
stroyed without contemplating what better fabric could be raised on
the ruin i and while the nobler faculties with which Providence had
gifted us were exerted  for the  public weal, the baser parts of our
passions  sought liberty in licentiousness.   Ambition degenerated
into ferocity, scepticism led  to impiety, and even apparent virtue
sought to  propagate the doctrines of good, by assuming the " goodly
outside" of vice.  Religion was overthrown because priestcraft had
deceived, and high rank was held up to  detestation because princes
and nobles had been corrupt ; and to  use Shakspeare's  words,
                             Thus we debase
            The nature of our seats, and make the rabble
            Call our cares, fears; which will in time break ope
            The lock o' the senate, and bring in the crows
            To peck the eagles.
  In  ten short years this mighty revolution in the intellect of man
took  place,—in  a  country too  that may be considered the cradle
of the future weal and  wo, perhaps of the universe ;—in ten short
years we beheld Montesquieu, Raynal, Rousseau, Voltaire, Condilac,
Helvetius, beaming like rising  meteors in the dark firmament, and
shedding  a fearful gleam on the past, the present, and  the future !*

  *  During these ten years the following works appeared:—Montesquieu—Esprit
des  Lois, 1748.
-----------Defense de l'Espritdes Lois, 1750.
Rousseau—Discours sur 1'Influence des Sciences et des Lettres, 1750*
.---———Discours sur l'Inegalite des Conditions, 1754. 
8            CURIOSITIES OF MEDICAL EXPERIENCE.
No longer trusting in blind confidence to the scholastic rules of
those dignitaries of science whose conclusions were considered suffi-
cient to command our faith, man became sceptical  and positive;
doubt and disbelief were carried into every investigation ; the reign
of prestiges  was over ;  the  former  monopolists of power and of
science, the two great levers of society, (the more effective since their
fulcra  rested on timidity and ignorance,) were thrown from their
antiquated stand, and found themselves brought face to face in ex-
planatory contact with  tbeir once all believing  and obedient pupils,
but now become a neoterick generation ;—the crown and the sceptre,
the cap and  the gown, were baubles  in their eyes.   When  the
faculty of reasoning was not  able  to  prevail, the shafts of ridicule
were drawn from the quiver of philosophic wit, and  inflicted rank-
ling wounds where they could not destroy.  Ancient systems were
exploded with  ancient prejudices, theories  were overthrown with
dynasties, and  doctrines  with  governments ;—one  might have
imagined that the formidable power of steam had been communicated
to the mind, illustrating the words of Milton,
             The mind is its own place, and in itself
             Can make a heaven of hell, and hell of heaven.
   Science nowaimed at generalisation—the physiologist, the chemist,
became legislators, stepping from the  academic chair to the  senato-
rial seat, and from  teaching how to benefit  mankind, they hurried
to destroy, forgetful, in their  ambitious dream, of the noble enco-
mium of Cicero, "Homines ad  deos  nulld se proprius accedunt,
quam salutem hominibus dando."
   Philosophy and  the  study of medicine were now  inseparable  ;
this noble science was not to be  attained  in books only, but in the
study of mankind.   Rousseau  thus spoke of physicians when writing
to Bernardin de Saint Pierre :—" // n'y a pas d'&at qui exigeplus
aVitude que le leur ; par tous  les pays, ce sont des hommes les
plus viritablement savans et utiles."   Voltaire was of a similar
opinion when he thus  expressed  himself:  " 77 n'est  rien de plus
estimable au monde, qiCun mSdecin qui, ay ant dans sajeunesse
itudiS la nature, connu les ressorts  du  corps humain, les maux
qui le  tourmentent, les remedes qui peuvent le  soulager, exerce
son &tat en s*en defiant, et  soigne igalement les pauvres  et  les
riches."
   How came it then that these  great observers did not partake of
the prejudices of Montaigne, Moliere, and other  writers, who  in-
variably stigmatised the practice of  physic ? simply because it was
no longer a dogmatic profession exercised with scholastic pedantry,
but a science founded on the study of nature, and the  immutable
laws of sound philosophy.  Although  a  classic education forms an

Voltaire—Essai sur les Mceurs et l'Espritdes Nations, 1757.
Condillac—Essai sur l'Origine des Connaissances Humaines, 1746.
         Traite des Sensations, 1754.
Helvetius—De l'Esprit, 1758. 
INTRODUCTION.
9
indispensable part of a physician's education, yet it is in more im-
portant pursuits that his experience should be obtained :  the know-
ledge of ancient languages is principally useful  in  discovering the
errors of the olden writers, and detecting the bare-faced plagiarisms
of the moderns.
   Much valuable time, however, may be lost in the pursuit of ancient
lore :  and Montaigne has justly observed, " There are books which
should only be read, but others that  must be learnt."  This discri-
mination is of the utmost importance ; for it may be said of the book-
worm's library, " Multitudo librorum ssepe est nubes testium ig-
norantise possessoris."  Aristippus very  properly replied  to  a
man who boasted of his reading, "It is not those who eat the most
that are hale and healthy, but those who can best digest."  Hence
the distinction that arose between the philosophical physician and
the dogmatiser.  The  one was  guided by the observation of facts
the other by glossarial records.   Men  of erudition  are seldom men
of genius.  The exploring mind  is ever anxious to take flight from
the prison-house of scholastic restraints.   Scepticism, moreover, is
frequently the result  of deep study, which leads the neophite into
such a labyrinth of conflicting opinions, that decision and conviction
are not easily attained.,  Laugier, a most learned German physician,
had no faith in his profession : being reproached  with his incredulity
he replied, " Credo, Domine, adjuva incredulitatem rneam."
   The preceding observations lead to an  important, and at the same
time a painful reflection.  Will this  rapid intellectual progress tend
ultimately to meliorate  the  condition of mankind ?  Nations have
been compared to Man : having once reached the acme of prosperity
and strength, their vigour like his  gradually declines.  History offers
nothing more than  a chronicle of such facts.  Whatever may be the
causes of this  degeneracy, is a matter foreign to  my present subject,
although I may be permitted to observe  by the way, that it  may
have arisen from the great disparity  and inequality  in the condition
of society that tends to lull  the  wealthy into apathetic indifference
and blind security in their power, while it urges the poor and the
bold to rapine and destructive deeds.  This perilous state can only
cease to exist when  general education is improved : if  this most
important source of real prosperity is attended to, we perhaps need
not seek in particular events  gloomy anticipations of the  future.
   Whatever may be the destinies of nations in  the wreck  of em-
pires and the destruction of men,  the philosopher, calmly seated
on  ruins that often "speak  that sometime  they were  a worthy
building,"  reflects with pride   that  science  has  withstood  the
withering hand of time.  It is true, that in every study errors
have  been  heaped  upon  errors ; but truth will  often result from
falsehood, and doubt, that brings on  investigation, leads to com-
parative  certainty.   Locke  has justly observed, that "the  faculty
of reasoning  seldom or never deceives those who  trust  to  it : its
consequences, from what it builds on, are evident and certain ;  but
that which  it oftenest, if not  only misleads us in, is, that  the prin- 
10          CURIOSITIES OF MEDICAL EXPERIENCE.
ciples from which we conclude, the grounds upon which we bottom
our reasoning, are but a part—something is  left out which should
go into the reckoning to make it just and exact."  This something
is the constant pursuit of the philosopher.  The name of a country
may be obliterated from a map,  the deeds of heroes  be effaced from
the annals of the world ;  the pursuit of  truth can only cease when
man is no  more ;—its light may be veiled  by ignorance, craft, or
cupidity,—but it cannot be extinguished.  The cities that gave birth
to the illustrious philosophers of old have  long ceased to exist, yet
the immortal works of those sages that have escaped the ravages of
time are still as fresh and as luxuriant as  when their glorious oratory
enchanted and captivated their disciples' ears.
   No science has been cultivated with more  difficulty than that of
Medicine.   The following papers will  show how  fearfully it has
had to contend in turn with  the power of priestcraft, that sought to
monopolise its practice, as a privilege from  the gods,  and  with the
furious  opposition of contemporary  members of  the  profession,  .
whose cupidity and  vanity  were alarmed by  the  introduction of
novel doctrines, which they  were too old,  too busy, or too obstinate
to learn.  The extracts from Medical Literature that  I have  given
will show that most  of  our modern notions were known to the
earliest  writers, and were only  improved in succeeding ages, as in
like manner our present doctrines will in all probability be advanced
by future generations.  The destruction of kingdoms and of chroni-
cles, the inroads of Barbarism,—the more  destructive inroads of
ignorance and bigotry, have  not been  able to produce a void in the
world of science ;  the catenation  of philosophic inquiry has  never
been broken in its connexions.   Oppression but riveted the chain
more firmly, as if to resist the united power of man and time.   Ad-
versity, which

                Like the toad, ugly and venomous,
                Wears yet a precious jewel in its head,—

 has always been considered the  best school of practical wisdom :
 and it is thus that  amidst the portentous events which have shaken
 every institution, and which perhaps still menace further dissolution,
 the fane of science  has  oftentimes been  more vividly  illumined
 by the surrounding conflagration.
   The  evils that desolate society too frequently arise from the hasty
 acts of intemperate men, who deem it necessary to meet the tumul-
 tuous demands of the multitude with decided and  energetic, but, at
 the same time, perilous measures :  the  progress of science, on  the
 contrary, is gradual, and of  course more likely to be eventually per-
 manent.   While political speculations are daily becoming more un-
 certain in their operations,  the triumph of intellectual superiority
 over prejudice is  everywhere apparent;—unjust disabilities  are
 being abolished, and the  gates of learning  thrown open to every
 candidate, whatever may be his religious  or his political tenets.
    In our country, more than  in  any other, industry  and persever- 
INTRODUCTION.
11
 ance have ever had a fairer chance of attaining social pre-eminence,
 despite the shackles imposed upon the  candidate for fame by insti-
 tutions framed in the darker ages.   What then may we not expect,
 when we behold the bright era that opens before us,—when those
 institutions will be considered the obsolete and musty remnants of
 expiring bigotry and intolerance !  May we not indulge in the most
 sanguine hope, that our former glories are only the historic earnest
 of still more glorious days ?   If the spirit of the immortal Locke
 could  hover  o'er  our earth,  he  would feel, with some  degree
 of pride, that  his  admonitions have not been unheeded, and  that
 "those who  live  mewed up within their  own contracted terri-
 tories, and will not look abroad beyond the  boundaries that chance,
 conceit, or laziness have  set  to their  inquiries, but live  separate
 from the notions, discourses, and attainments of the rest of mankind,"
 have at last felt the necessity of yielding to the voice of reason, or
 rather of their own welfare.
  In the following sheets I merely rank myself  as a compiler.  I
 have only sketched—sometimes perhaps with too fanciful a pencil,
 subjects of great importance, which, by being thus popularised, may
 induce abler hands to embody them in a more permanent form.  The
 variety of matter has obliged me to be  discursive, and to have re-
 course to some repetitions that were necessary to illustrate subjects
 not easily abridged.  Whenever I have held up errors and evil  pas-
 sions to exposure, I have not, in one single instance, I trust, been
 influenced by an hostility towards men or parties—ranks or creeds.
 If I have unwillingly and unwittingly given offence, I shall most
 sincerely lament  it. My materials  have been  gleaned  from  the
 works of many contemporaries, whose well-known  and justly-ap-
preciated names will in general appear : but I should  be wanting
in candour, did I not avow that I have  derived much  valuable in-
formation from Le Dictionnaire des Sciences Medicates, an elabo-
rate compilation, containing more " Curiosities  of  Medical Ex-
 perience" than any existing work.
48 Eaton Square,
   January, 1837. 
 
CURIOSITIES
or
MEDICAL   EXPERIENCE.
                         0 B E SITY.

  Various are the opinions concerning the cause of excessive cor-
pulence.  By some it is attributed  to too great an activity in the
digestive functions, producing a rapid assimilation of our food ;  by
others, to the predominance of the liver:  while indolence and apa-
thic sloth, such as is commonly observed in the wealthy monastic
orders, are considered as occasioning a laxity of fibre  favourable
to this embonpoint.  Boileau has thus described one of these fat lazy
prelates, who
                          Muni d'un dejeuner,
             Dormant d'un leger somme, attendait le diner.
             La jeunesse en sa fleur brille sur son visage;
             Son menton sur son sein descend a triple etage;
             Et son corps ramasse, dans sa courte grosseur
             Fait gemir les coussins sous sa molle epaisseur.

  It is  certain that exercise, anxiety of  mind, want  of sleep, and
spare food, are circumstances opposed to fatness.   This fact is illus-
trated by Shakspeare, when Caesar says to Antony,
             Let me have men about me that are fat,—
             Sleek-headed men, and such as sleep o' nights;
             Yon Cassius has a lean and hungry look,
             He thinks too much : such men are dangerous.

  Antony and Dolabella were both men of some corpulence.
  Fat is a fluid similar to vegetable oils, inodorous, and lighter than
water;  besides the elements common  to  water, to oils, and wax, it
contains carbon, hydrogen, and sebacic acid, which is pretty similar
to the acetic.  Human fat, like  that of all  other animals, has been
frequently employed for various purposes.   A story is  told  of an
Irish  tallow-chandler, who, during the invasion  of Cromwell's army,
made candles  with the fat of  Englishmen, which were remarkable
  July, 1S3S.—L         3 
14          CURIOSITIES OF MEDICAL EXPERIENCE.
for their good quality ; but when the times became more tranquil,
his goods  were of an inferior kind, and when-one of his customers
complained of his candles falling off, he apologised by saying, " I am
sorry to inform you that the times are so bad that I have been short
of Englishmen for a long time."
   Obesity may be considered a serious evil, and has exposed  cor-
pulent persons to many disagremens.   The ancients held fat people
in sovereign contempt.  Some of the Gentoos enter their dwellings
by a hole in the roof; and  any fat person who cannot get through
it, they consider as an excommunicated offender who has  not  been
able to rid himself of his sins.  An Eastern prince had an officer to
regulate the size of his subjects, and who dieted the unwieldy ones
to reduce them to a proper  volume.   There are, however, cases on
record, where uhwieldiness led to consideration : the corpulent an-
tiquarian Grose was requested by his butcher to tell all his friends
that he bought his meat from  him ; and the paviours of Cambridge
used to say, " God bless you, sir !"  to a  huge professor when he
walked over their work. Fatness has often been the butt of jocu-
larity.   Dr.  Stafford, who was enormously fat, was  honoured with
this epitaph :
           Take heed, O good traveller, and do not tread hard,
           For here lies Dr. Stafford, in all this church-yard.
And the following lines were inscribed on the tomb of a corpulent
chandler:
                 Here lies in earth an honest fellow,
                 Who died by  fat and lived by tallow.
   Dr. Beddoes was so uncomfortably stout that a lady of Clifton used
to call him " the walking feather-bed."  At the court of Louis XV.
there were two  lusty noblemen, related to each other :  the king,
having rallied one of them on  his corpulency, added, " I suppose
you take little or no exercise."  " Your majesty will pardon me,"
replied the bulky duke, " for  I generally walk  two or three times
round my cousin every  morning."
   Various ludicrous anecdotes are  related of fat people ;  amongst
others, a scene between Mrs.  Clive and Mrs. Pritchard, two corpu-
lent actresses, must have been amusing.  They were playino- in the
parts of Lady Easy and Edging, in the Careless Husband, when the
former desires Edging to pick up  a  letter she had dropped ; and
Mrs. Clive, who might as well have  attempted to raise  a  hundred
pound weight, exclaimed,  " Not  I indeed, take it up yourself if
you like it."  This answer threw the audience into roars of laughter,
when Mrs. Pritchard replied,  " Well, if you won't take up the letter,
I must find some one who will;"  and so saying she  beckoned to a
servant in the wing, who came forward and terminated the dispute!
   In some  countries, especially in the East, moderate obesity  is
considered a beauty, and Tunisene young ladies are regularly fat-
tened for  marriage ; a  different practice from that of the  Roman
matrons, who starved their daughters, to make them as lean as pos-
sible on such occasions.  Thus Terence, 
OBESITY.
15
  Nostra virgines—si bono habitu sunt, matrespugiles esse aiunt et cibum de-
ducunt.

  Erasmus states that the Gordii carried their admiration for corpu-
lence to such an extent, that they raised the fattest amongst them to
the throne.   It is well known that the preposterous size of some of
the Hottentots is deemed a perfection, and one of their Venuses was
not long since exhibited in London.
  There is no doubt that food materially influences this condition
of mankind, although we  frequently see  enormous  eaters  who  are
miserably lean, and fat persons whose diet is most scanty.  During
the late war, a ravenous French  prisoner was known  to  eat four
pounds of raw cow-udder, ten pounds of raw beef, and two pounds of
candles, per diem, diluting his  meals with five quarts of porter ; yet
this carnivorous brute was a perfect skeleton.
  For the cure  of  corpulency, diminution of food  of  a nutritious
nature has been  generally recommended ;  added to this, little  sleep
and much exercise  are advised.   Acids to reduce  fatness are fre-
quently administered,buthavedoneconsiderablemischief. Amongst
other wonderful accounts of their  efficacy in such cases, it is related
of a Spanish general who was of an enormous  size, that he drank
vinegar until his bulk was so reduced that he  could fold his skin
round his body.
  For a similar  purpose soap  has been frequently recommended,
particularly  by Dr.  Flemyng.  He began this experiment with one
of his patients who weighed twenty stone and eleven pounds (jockey
weight) :  in July 1754, he took every night a quarter of an ounce
of common Castile soap.   In August 1756 his  bulk was reduced two
stone, and in 1760 he was brought down to a proper condition.
  Darwin is of opinion that salt and salted meat are still  more effica-
cious  than soap.  All these experiments,  however,  are in general
not only useless but pernicious, and frequently prove  fatal.  Mr.
Wadd, from whose  curious work  on  corpulence much is extracted
in this article, properly observes that, ' certain and permanent relief
is only to  be sought in rigid abstemiousness, and  a  strict and con-
stant  attention to  diet  and exercise.'   Dr. Cheyne, who  weighed
thirty-two stone, reduced himself one-third, and enjoyed good health
till the age of seventy-two.  Numerous  instances of  the  kind are
mentioned, where journals of gradual reduction  were kept : the
following is  an abstract of one of them, in the  case of a person  who,
on the 17th  June 1820, weighed.twenty-three stone  two pounds.
June 17 . . .	. 23 stone 2
July 27 . . .	. 21 „ 10
September 10 .	. 20 „ 7
October 10 . .	. 19 „ 3
November 10 .	. 18 „ 11
December 10	. 18 „ 4
December 25	. 18 „ 1
In another case, attended, by Dr. Gregory of Edinburgh, the patient
weighed twenty-three stone, and by a regular system of diet was 
16
CURIOSITIES OF MEDICAL EXPERIENCE.
brought down to fifteen stone.   In this instance brown bread, with
a certain quantity of bran in it, was employed ; and it is well known
that the alimentary  secretions are materially altered by the quality
of bread.  The article of drink also requires much attention.  Cor-
pulent persons generally indulge to  excess, and in this  case every
endeavour  to  reduce  them will be  vain.   We frequently see our
jockeys reducing themselves to  the extent of a stone and  a half  in
the week.  A lower scale of diet is by no means as injurious  as it
is generally supposed ; the English prisoners made by Tippoo Saib,
though kept upon a scanty pittance of bread and water, found them-
selves in better health than  before, and some of them were cured
during their captivity of liver complaints of long and severe duration.
   One of the most corpulent persons known was  Mr. Lambert, of
Leicestershire, who weighed fifty-two  stone eleven pounds (four-
teen pounds to the stone).
   At  Hainton, there died in 1816, Samuel Sugars, aged fifty-two ;
and his body, with a single coffin, weighed fifty stone.
   In 1754 died Mr. Jacob Powell, of Stebbing in  Essex : his body
was above five yards in  circumference, and weighed  five hundred
and sixty pounds ; requiring sixteen  men to bear him  to his grave.
   In 1775  Mr. Spooner, of  Skillington near Tamworth, weighed,
a short time  before his  death,  forty stone  and nine  pounds, and
measured four feet three inches  across the shoulders.
   Keysler  mentions a young  man  in  Lincoln who  ate eighteen
pounds of beef daily, and died in 1724, in the twenty-eighth year of
his age, weighing five hundred  and thirty pounds.
   A baker,  in  Pye Corner, weighed thirty-four stone, and  would
frequently eat a small shoulder of mutton,  baked  in  his oven, and
weighing five pounds ; he, however, persisted for one year to live
upon  water gruel  and  brown bread,  by which he lost two hundred
pounds of his bulk.
   Mr. Collet, master of the Eversham Academy, weighed upwards
of twenty-six stone  ; when twelve years old he was nearly as large
as at  the time of  his death.   At two years  of his age he required
two nurses to lift  him  in and out of bed, one of whom  in a fit of
anger  he felled to the floor with a blow of his hand.
   At Trenaw in  Cornwall,  there was a man, known by the  name
of Grant Chillcot, who weighed four  hundred and  sixty pounds ;
one of his stockings could contain six gallons of wheat.
   Our poet Butler must have met with some such enormous crea-
tures in the type of his Saxon Duke, who, in Hudibras
               -------did grow so fat,
               That mice (as histories relate)
               Ate grots and  labyrinths to dwell in
               His postique parts, without his feeling.
   If obesity has been the subject of ungenerous jokes, leanness has
not passed unnoticed.  An anecdote is related of a reverend doctor
of a very ghostly appearance, who was one day accosted by a fellow
with  the following salutation : " Well,  doctor,  I hope  you  have 
OBESITY.
17
taken care of your soul ?" « Why, my friend ?" said the divine.
"Because," replied the impertinent interlocutor, "your body is
not worth caring for."
   A poor diminutive Frenchman being ordered by his Sangrado to
drink a quart of ptisan a day, replied, with a heavy sigh, " Alas  !
doctor, that I cannot do, since I only hold a pint."
   When the Duke de Choiseuil, a remarkably meagre man, came to
London to negotiate a peace, Charles Townshend being asked whe-
ther the French government had  sent the preliminaries of a treaty,
answered, " He did not know, but they had sent the outline of an
ambassador."
   That change of spare diet to a more nutritious food may bring on
some corpulence, is mentioned in an anecdote of Colly Cibber, who
relates that a poor half-starved actor, who used to play the Apothe-
cary, in  Romeo  and  Juliet, to the life  and with  great applause,
received an augmentation of salary in consequence of his popularity.
Unfortunately, increase of wealth led  him to increase his fare, until
he gradually assumed a plumpness which unfitted him for the worn-
out pharmacopolist; and not being able to perform in any other line,
the poor man was discharged.  However, poverty once more brought
him down to his  original condition, when he re-appeared  upon the
boards as triumphantly  as ever.
   If embonpoint  is generally a sign of good-humour and a cheerful
disposition,  leanness frequently betokens a sour, crabbed, and ill-
natured character.  Solomon has  said, " A  merry heart doeth good
like medicine ; but a broken spirit drieth the bones."   This obser-
vation, however,  cannot be considered a rule in forming a judgment
of various tempers.  This is by no  means an easy attempt in our
intercourse with the world, when  physiognomy is not always a sure
guide in the selection of our companions.  Dr.  Franklin tells a sin-
gular story on this subject:
   " An old philosophical gentleman had grown, from  experience,
very  cautious in avoiding ill-natured people.   To endeavour to
ascertain their disposition he made use of his legs, one of which was
remarkably  handsome,  the  other by some accident crooked and
deformed.   If a stranger at the first interview regarded his ugly leg,
more than his handsome one, he doubted him ; but if he spoke of it,
and took no notice of his handsome leg, that was sufficient to deter-
mine  the philosopher to have  no further  acquaintance with him.
Everybody  has not this two-legged  instrument;  but every one,
with a little attention, may observe signs of this carping, fault-finding
disposition, and. take the same resolution of avoiding the  acquaint-
ance of those infected by it.  I therefore advise those querulous,
discontented, unhappy people, if they  wish  to be respected and be-
loved by others, and happy in themselves, to leave off looking at
the ugly leg."
  Various expedients, in addition to  a better diet, have been re-
sorted to, to restore lean persons to a better case ; but  amongst the
most singular that we have on record is that of flagellation.   Galea
  July,  1838.— M             4 
18          CURIOSITIES OF MEDICAL EXPERIENCE.
says, that horse-dealers  having been observed to fatten horses for
sale by  flogging them, an analogous method might be useful with
spare persons who wish  to  become stouter.   He also'mentions
slave-dealers who employed similar means.  Suetonius informs us
that Musa, the favourite physician of Augustus, used  to  fustigate
him, not only to cure him of a sciatica, but to keep him plump.
Meibomius pretends that nurses whip little children to fatten them,
that they may  appear healthy and  chubby to  their mothers.   No
doubt but flagellation determines a  greater influx of blood to  the
surface, and may thus tend to increase  the circulation, and give
tone to parts which would otherwise be languid.  With this inten-
tion, urticatio, or whipping with nettles, has been frequently used
in medical practice with great advantage.   Xenophon thawed  his
frozen soldiers by flagellation.  In amorous despondency and grief,
CoeVius Aurelianus recommended this process,and Elidoeus Paduanus
preconises it to bring out tardy eruptions.   The most singular effect
of this castigation is recorded by Meibomius, in his work De fla-
grorum usu, &c. dedicated to a councillor of the Bishop of Lubeck,
with the following epigraph,—
             Delicias pariunt Veneri crudelia flagra.
               Dum nocet, ilia juvat; dum juvat, ecce nocet.
   Menghus Faventinus  had long before extolled this practice, men-
tioned also by Coelius Rhodiginus, and various ancient writers,  and
more recently recognised as effectual by Rousseau in his Confessions.
   A remarkable case of leanness is mentioned  by Lorry in a priest,
who became so thin and dry in all his articulations, that  at last he
was unable to go through the celebration of mass, as his joints and
spine would crack in so loud and strange a manner at every genu-
flexion, that the faithful were terrified, and the faithless laughed.
One of these miserable laths once  undertook  a long  journey to
consult a learned physician on his sad condition, and having begged
to know, in a most piteous tone the  cause of his desiccation,  was
favoured with the following luminous answer: "Sir, there is a pre-
disposition in your constitution to make you lean, and a disposition
in your constitution  to  keep you  so."   Another meagre  patient
being told that the  celebrated Hunter had fattened a dog by remov-
ing his spleen,  exclaimed  with  a deep sigh, " 0, sir !  I  wish  Mr.
Hunter had mine."
                         DWARFS.

  We can scarcely believe that the ancients gave any credence  to
the fabulous accounts of dwarfish nations, or could be persuaded  of
the existence of those  pigmies spoken  of by Aristotle and  other
writers, who in all probability described as such a species of diminu-
tive monkeys. 
DWARFS.
19
  Athenaeus mentions a race of dwarfs who were in perpetual war
with cranes, who harnessed partridges to their chariots, and were
obliged to cut down corn with felling axes, like forest trees.   Pliny
asserts that their  constant enemy  the  crane drove them out of
Thracia, but that they still were to be met with in Ethiopia, near
the source of the Nile and above the rise of the Ganges, where they
were  named  Spithania, their stature  not exceeding three palms.
Strabo, however, judiciously observed that these stories arose from
the circumstance of the small size of every animal in intemperate
regions.  Various  modern travellers have recorded the most absurd
stories of diminutive men, as well as of gigantic nations; but to most
of them we may apply the  words of Congreve—
            Fernandez Mendez Pinto was but a type of thee,
            Thou liar of the first magnitude.
   It is nevertheless true that man  exhibits differences of stature in
various climes.   The  Laplanders and Samoides in Europe, the Os-
tiacks and Tungooses in Asia, the Greenlanders and Esquimaux in
America—all the  natives  indeed  of high northern latitudes  are
remarkably short,  measuring little  more  than four feet; and  Niels
Sara, the Laplander mentioned by Von  Buch  in  his Travels, and
who measured five feet eight inches, may  be considered as a gigantic
exception.   It  had been reported  by travellers,  that a nation of
white dwarfs called Quimos, or Kimos,  existing in  the interior of
Madagascar ; but Flacourt has positively denied the fact,  although
Commerson, the Naturalist of Bougainville,.and De Modave, con-
firm the former statement.
   It is by no means evident  that  climate or any external agency
invariably produces this effect; for  in the very regions inhabited
by the stunted Hottentot, the shortest race in  Africa, since the Bos-
jernan tribe scarcely ever exceed four feet, we find the strong and
tall Kaffer.  Amongst these  it is  also to be remarked, that there
exists a singular difference between  the sexes.   Langsdorff thus
expresses himself on the subject: " The Kaffer women were mostly
of low stature, very strong-limbed, and particularly muscular in the
leg : the men, on the contrary, were the finest figures I ever beheld;
they were tall, robust, and muscular.  A young man of about twenty,
of six feet ten inches high, was one of the finest figures that perhaps
was ever created.  He was a perfect Hercules, and a cast from  his
body would not have  disgraced the pedestal of the  deity in the Far-
nese  Palace."   He further adds, " There is perhaps no nation on
earth, taken collectively, that  can  produce so fine a race of men as
the Kaffers :  they are  tall,  stout,  muscular, well-made, elegant
figures.  They are exempt, indeed, from many of those causes that
in more civilised societies  contribute to  impede the growth of  the
body.  Their diet is  simple, their exercise  of a  salutary nature ;
their body is neither  cramped nor  encumbered by clothing;  the
air they breathe is pure ; their rest is not disturbed by violent love,
nor their minds ruffled by jealousy;  they are free from those licen-
tious appetites which proceed frequently more from  a depraved 
20          CURIOSITIES OF MEDICAL EXPERIENCE.
 imagination than a real natural want.  Their frame is neither shaken
 nor  enervated  by the use of intoxicating liquor; they eat when
 hungry, and sleep when nature demands it.  With such  a kind of
 life,  languor and melancholy have nothing to do.   The countenance
 of a Kaffer is  always cheerful, and the whole of his demeanour
 bespeaks content  and peace of mind."
  Are  diminutive races more  productive than  those  of stronger
 formation ?  The brute creation has been taken  as an example in
 support of this opinion ; large animals producing one or two young
 ones, while  the smaller species are singularly prolific.   The lioness
 seldom  brings forth more than two or four whelps, the cat will have
 a litter of eight or ten kittens; the pullulation of insects is incredible.
 But is not this circumstance an illustration of the wisdom of Provi-
 dence ?   If  the larger species were as abundant as the lesser races,
 where could they find sustenance in regions where the produce is,
 under the influence of the seasons, occasionally abundant or scarce ?
In the ocean this is not the case ; the myriads of its creatures suffice
to support each  other, and  we therefore meet in the deep the largest
of animals in numerous shoals, while the small fry are generated in
 marvellous abundance.
  That the facility of obtaining food and the nature of the nutritious
 substances that animals may find, influence their stature, is evident.
 In sandy and arid  plains, poor in pasture,  we find horses  and cattle
of a stunted  breed : the herds of Flanders widely differ from those
of Wales and of the Ukraine, and the Scotch and Welsh cattle can-
 not be compared to those of Ho».stein.  At the same time, it must
be observed, that  in  regard to dwarfs, although  it frequently does
occur that they  are labouring  under a hereditary lowness of stature,
 this is not invariably the  case.  In  these  instances  dwarfs may be
considered as morbid phenomena.   Thus Bebe, the dwarf of Stanis-
 laus of Poland, who was thirty-three French inches high, was weak,
of delicate health, became  deformed as  he  grew up, and died at the
age of twenty-three : his parents were of the usual stature : whereas
 the Polish nobleman Borwlaski was well-made, active, intelligent:
he measured twenty-eight inches ;  and  he had a brother  of thirty-
four  inches, and a sister of twenty-one.   Stoberin, of  Niirenberg,
 was nearly three  feet high at twenty,  well-proportioned, and  pos-
 sessing a cultivated mind :  his  parents, brothers, and  sisters, were
 all dwarfs.  Such natural dwarfs have been known to evince brilliant
 qualities.  Uladislas, king of Poland, surnamed Cubitalis from his
 only measuring a  cubit in height, was renowned for  his warlike
 exploits; and we find a dwarf of the name of Kasan, a khan of Tar-
 tary, boldly leading their enterprising bands.  These individuals
 sprung  from dwarfish parents ; whereas  the  dwarfs we generally
 meet with are deformities  of nature; their  head is voluminous, their
 intellectual faculties  obtuse, they are mostly childish in their  ideas
 and pursuits, and  are rarely able to propagate  their race.   Held in
 contempt by the  people, they naturally become peevish and irrita-
 ble ; and the diminutive names given to them  to match their appa- 
GIGANTIC RACES.
21'
rent natural imperfection  tend constantly to increase their irrita-
bility.   Thus the Latins called them Homunciones, the Italians
Piccoluomini, the  Flemings  Mennekin,—whence, no doubt, our
term Mannikin given to little men, and Minikin applied to small
pins.   A very curious case of a dwarf born from parents of the usual
stature was exhibited in Paris  in 1819 : her name was Anne Souv-
ray ; she was born in the Vosges, and was only thirty-three inches
in height.  She was at that period seventy-three years of  age; was
gay, animated, good-humoured,  and  danced  with tolerable grace
with her sister Barbe, seventy-five years of age, and taller than her
by two inches.   In 1761, King Stanislaus wanted to  marry her to
bis Bebe ; the bridegroom, however, did not live to contract so de-
sirable a match ; but,  faithful to her lover, she  ever afterwards
called herself Madame Be"be".
                     GIGANTIC  RACES.

   While we dismiss as fabulous all  ancient and modern accounts
 of dwarfish races, we must also treat with the same scepticism the
 relations  of gigantic nations.  Although  individuals of incredible
 stature have been occasionally seen, the word giant must be con-
 sidered not only comparative as regarding primary races, but in
 many instances allegorical.   Thus the Hebrew words, Nophel and
 Giboor {Nephilim and Gibborim in  the plural), did  not signify
 giants, as commonly translated, but cruel and violent men.   Ath-
 letic power and uncommon energies were naturally associated with
 the idea of supernatural stature, though intellectual accomplishments
 were not  always  included in the association : on the contrary, we
 find the ancient axiom Homo longus rare sapiens frequently ad-
 duced.
   In  temperate climates the height of the human race averages from
 four feet and a half to six feet, but occasional instances have been
 met with of men reaching eight and nine  feet—nay, some authors go
 so far as ten and eighteen ; but the latter assertions seem to refer to
 fossil bones attributed to  man, but which evidently belonged to
 other animals.  Buffon mentions gigantic human bones discovered
 at Lucerne, but which upon examination Blumenbach pronounced
 to be the  remains of an elephant.  Halicot, in his work called Gi-
gantosteologia, describes bones found in a sepulchre in Dauphiny
 over which was a stone inscribed Teutobocchus Rex :  this ske-
leton  was twenty-five feet and a half high, and ten feet broad  at the
shoulder.   Riolan, the celebrated  anatomist, disputes the fact;  and
in his book entitled Gigantomachia positively affirms that they
also belonged to an elephant.   It is worthy of remark, that in this
controversy each  party considered his opinion and decision of suf- 
22
CURIOSITIES OF MEDICAL EXPERIENCE.
ficient weight to need no illustration, and therefore neither of them
thought it necessary to confirm his dixit by drawings  and enSra"
vings of the  questionable remains.   Such is the  vanity ot  the
learned !  An infallible philosopher informs us that Adam s stature
was one  hundred and  twenty-three feet nine  inches ; Eves, one
hundred  and eighteen feet nine inches and three quarters ; Noah s,
twenty  feet short  of Adam's ;  Abraham's, twenty-eight  ieet ;
Moses', thirteen ; and Hercules', ten.
  That the first races of man were of larger dimensions than ttiose
of our contemporaries, has ever  been a general opinion.  Thus
Virgil in his Georgics :
           Grandiaque effossis mirabitur ossa sepulchris.
Lucretius ascribes the same superiority to animals :
           Jamque adeo fracta est aetas, effoetaque tellus
           Vix animalia parva creat, quse cuncta creavit
           Saecla, deditque ferarum ingentia corpora partu.
And again the Mantuan poet:
                      Sic Omnia fatis
           In pejus ruere, ac retro sublapsa referri.
  Not only have our forefathers been considered more gigantic  in
stature, but  of more vigorous power.   Hence Juvenal says,
            Nam genus hoc, vivo jam decrescebat Homero.
            Terra malos homines nunc educat, atque pusillos.
  It  is   however obvious, that former races, although they might
have excelled the present  generation  in vigour from the nature of
their education and pursuits, could not^  claim  any preeminence  in
stature.   The remains of  human  bones, found in tombs and  Egyp-
tian mummies, demonstrate this fact most clearly ; and the armour,
helmets, and breastplates of the ancients confirm it.   Their swords
were as light, nay much   lighter  in many instances, than those of
the present  day ; and those enormous  ones of the  times of chivalry
were only  wielded  to  inflict "one overwhelming blow with  both
hands, and could scarcely be recovered for protection.
  Ancient writers corroborate this opinion.  Homer, when speaking
of a fine man, gives him four cubits in height and one in breadth.
Vitruvius fixes the usual standard of man at six Roman  feet: the
giant Gabbarus, mentioned  by Pliny, did not  exceed  nine  feet.
Aristotle's admeasurement of beds was six feet ; and  certainly the
door-ways of ancient edifices by  no means indicated taller inmates
than our present generation.  It  is  therefore pretty clear that the
supposed fossil  remains of gigantic human  bones belonged to the
Megatherium, the Palseotherium, and other individuals, which
certainly prove that in  remote ages there existed animals of much
larger dimensions than  any now in being, though we have no reason
to suppose that  this variety extended to  our species.*
   The origin of the fabled giants has led to marvellous disquisitions.
  * The Homo diluvii testis, the skeleton of which was described by Seheuchzer
was considered by Cuvier to have belonged to a species of Salamander. 
GIGANTIC RACES.
23
Many fathers of the church, amongst whom we may quote St. Cy-
prian, St. Ambrosius, St.  Chrysostom, St.  Cyrillius, Lactantius,
Tertullian, and several others, gravely maintain that giants were
the favoured offsprings of holy maidens  and angels.   This may
seem an impious conclusion, since  the  gigantic monsters of sacred
history were anything but angelic  ; for the Canaaneans,  the Moab-
ites, and  the sons of Anak, descended  from giants, (compared with
whom the Israelites seemed as grasshoppers,)  were most ferocious,
and their land devoured its inhabitants ; (though  Neuman gives a
different signification to the scriptural  passage, which according to
his paraphrase merely meant " that the number of inhabitants was
so great,  that they eat up all the land ;") Og, king of Bashan, whose
country was delivered into the hands of Israel, had an iron bedstead
nine cubits in length  and four cubits in breadth ; and Goliath, the
reproach of Israel, was six cubits and  a span  (which according to
Cumberland makes eleven feet English) in stature.  It is therefore
difficult to imagine why so many saints  considered giants as an
angelic progeny.
   To the present day, however, we find various races distinguished
by their  elevated  stature.  Humboldt says, that  the Guayaquilists
measure six feet and a half, and the Payaguas  are equally tall, while
the Caribbees of Cumana are distinguished by their almost gigantic
size from all  the other nations  he had  met  with in the New World.
Hearne saw in  the cold regions north of Canada individuals of six
feet four  inches.  The Patagonians, or Tehuels, were stated by Pi-
gafitta and the Spanish early navigators as measuring seven feet four
inches ; and  although it appears that  this  account is  exaggerated,
more recent travellers, amongst whom we  may name Bougainville,
Commodore  Byron, Captain Wallis,  Carteret, and Falkner, affirm
that their height ranges from six to seven feet.
   From  the best authenticated observations, it  appears that the
tallest persons on respectable record did not, according  to  Haller,
exceed nine feet.   A  young man from Huntingdonshire was  exhi-
bited in London,  and  measured about eight feet at the age of seven-
teen : he was, as usual, born of the ordinary size, but began to grow
most rapidly ; his sister was of great height, and all his family were
remarkably tall.
   Dwarfs generally die from  premature old  age, and giants  from
exhaustion.   A curious instance of marvellous growth is recorded
in a tract called " Prodigium Willinghamense" or an account
of a surprising boy who was born  at Willingham, near Cambridge,
and upon whom  the  following epitaph was written :—"Stop, tra-
veller, and wondering, know, here buried lie the remains of  Tho-
mas, son of Thomas  and Margaret Hall ;  who, not one  year old,
had the signs of manhood ; at three, was almost four feet high, en-
dued with uncommon strength, a  just proportion of  parts, and  a
stupendous voice ; before six,  he died as  it were at an  advanced
age."  Mr. Dawker,  a surgeon of  St.  Ives, Huntingdon, who  pub-
lished this account, viewed him after  death, and  the corpse  exhi-
bited all the appearance of decrepit old age.  This is a confirmation 
24          CURIOSITIES OF MEDICAL EXPERIENCE.
of the case of the boy of Salamis, mentioned by Pliny as being four
feet high, and having reached  puberty at  the  age  of  three ; and
may also  confirm the account of the man seen by Craterus, the
brother of Antigonus, who in seven  years was  an  infant, a youth,
an adult, a father, an old man, and a corpse.
  The experiment of Dr. Berkeley, bishop of Cloyne,  to ascertain
the influence of food in promoting extraordinary growth, is curious.
He selected for this purpose an orphan child of the name of Mac-
grath ; and by dint of feeding, at the age of sixteen he had grown
to the height of seven feet;  but his  organisation ha'd been so
exhausted  by this forced process, that  he died  in a state of moral
and physical decay at the age of twenty.
  In the development of organised bodies, the effects of light con-
tribute materially.  Dr.  Edwards, an English physician  in  Paris,
and one of our most distinguished physiologists, has shown that by
excluding tadpoles from the light, they will grow to  double and
triple their ordinary size, but are not metamorphosed into  frogs.*
He thinks that  the Proteus Jlnguinus  is  the first stage of an
animal prevented from  growing  to  perfection by  inhabiting the
subterraneous waters of  Carniola.
  The influence of food  on the changes of animals is further shown
in the aphidivorous flies, that are larvae for eight or ten  days, pupae
for about a fortnight, and perfect  insects in  about the  same time,
in the whole living about six weeks ; whereas a pupa deprived of
food underwent no change, and  lived for twelve months.  Rapid
development of the organism invariably brings  on  premature  dis-
solution.  A case is recorded of a girl who  cut four teeth at the
end of the first fortnight:  walked about and  had hair  reaching to
the middle of her back after the seventh month ; exhibited signs
of puberty at the ninth month, but perished in a state of exhaustion
in her twelfth  year.  Dr. Comarmond, of Lyons, relates the case
of a female infant who was perfectly developed  at  the  age of
twenty-seven months, but  she sank under  rachitis when she  had
attained her twelfth year.
  Precocious mental attainments  are frequently as destructive of
life as a rapid growth.   The wonderful Baratier, at the  age of four,
spoke and read Latin,  French, and German ;  was an  excellent
Greek scholar at six ; and when  ten years of  age, translated the
Scriptures  from  the Hebrew ; at nineteen  he died of  exhaustion.
The vulgar saying, "The child is too clever to live," is founded
upon observation.   These early specimens of superior intellect are
sometimes followed  by  a  state of imbecility.   Antiochus tells us
that Hermogenes, who  was a  celebrated rhetorician  at fourteen
years, was ignorant in the extreme at twenty-four ; and of him it
was said,
                 In pueritia senex, in senectute puer.

  * See his work, " On the Influence of Physical Agents on Life, translated
from the French, by Drs. Hodgkin and Fisher," published in the May (1838)
Number of the " Select Medical Library."—Ed. 
GIGANTIC RACES.
25
Tall men generally produce children of high stature.   The  cele-
brated grenadier guards of Frederick William, in the words of Dr.
Johnson, "propagatedprocerity ;" and the inhabitants of Potsdam
are remarkable for their height.   Haller states that his  own family
were distinguished  by their tallness, without excepting one single
grandchild, although they were very numerous.
   In the  hereditary transmission of physical and moral qualities,
many curious observations have been made.  Women of high  men-
tal attainments have  been  known to  produce children of genius,
more frequently than men of a superior'intellect; although Haller
relates the singular  case of two noble females who married wealthy
idiots on account of their fortunes, and from whom this  melancholy
defect had extended for a century into several families, so that  some
of all their descendants still continued idiots in the fourth and fifth
generation.  Horace  had observed  this tendency to produce off-
springs resembling  their parents,
                Fortes creantur fortibus et bonis :
                Est in juvencis, est in equis patrum
                Virtus : nee imbellem feroces
                Progenerant aquilae columbam.
This remark, however, is more applicable to physical transmissions,
and certain  peculiarities characterise whole families.   Pliny  men-
tioned examples of  six-fingered families, who bore the  name Sedi-
gita.  C. Horatius had two daughters  with a similar  deformity.
Mr. Carlisle knew a family in which supernumerary toes and fingers
were observed for  four generations:  they were introduced  by a
female who had six fingers on each hand, and as many toes on each
foot.  From her marriage with a man naturally formed, were pro-
duced ten children,  with  a  supernumerary member on  each limb ;
and an eleventh, in  which the peculiarity existed in both feet and
one hand, the other hand being naturally formed.  The latter mar-
rying a man of ordinary formation, they had four children, of which
three had  one or two  limbs  natural, and the rest with the super-
numerary parts; while the fourth had six fingers on each hand,and
as many toes on each foot.   The latter married a woman naturally
formed, and had issue by her eight children ; four with the usual
structure, and the  same number with the additional  fingers and
toes: two of them were twins, of which one was naturally formed,
and the other  six-fingered and six-toed.—The well-known  porcu-
pine family, that were exhibited in London and elsewhere, is a
remarkable example  of hereditary  transmission of organic  pecu-
liarities.  They were all covered with dark-coloured horny excres-
cences,  which  they  shed annually in the  autumn or winter.  Their
names were Lambert.  Two brothers, John and Richard, grandsons
of the  original  porcupine  men, were shown in Germany.—One of
these unsightly individuals, who was shown some  time ago in Bond-
street, stated that he was descended from the fourth generation of a
savage found in the woods of America; and he further asserted that
the females of the family were exempted  from this  lucrative but 
26
CURIOSITIES OF MEDICAL EXPERIENCE.
uncomfortable peculiarity: all the males had them, and shed them
regularly until the thirty-sixth  year, when these species of quills
grew to a considerable length.  We have examples of bristly hair
being shed in a whole family every autumn.
  Amongst animals, gigantic  races no  longer inhabit the  regions
which  bore them in  ancient  times.  An  extensive whale-fishery
was once carried  on at Biariz,  in the  Gulf of Gascony; and  the
hippopotamus is no longer to be seen on the banks of the Nile.
  Gigantic bones having been  occasionally discovered with  the
remains of men and horses and fragments of armour, it has been
imagined that in  ancient times armies were attended by  terrific
giants; but it is more than  probable that these large fragments of
departed warriors most probably belonged  to their war-elephants,
which with their horses were  not unfrequently immolated on their
master's tomb.
  Skeletons of giants were considered by the ancients as curious as
in the present day;  and those of Secondilla and  Pusio were care-
fully preserved in the gardens of Sallust.
  Some naturalists have maintained that giants had more numerous
vertebrae than ordinary men  ; but this  has not been confirmed by
observation, nor has it  been found that the spinal bones of dwarfs
are  in smaller number.
  Schreber, who  has  collected the description  of the principal
modern giants, found few above seven feet and a half; although he
mentions a Swedish peasant of eight feet Swedish measure, and one
of the guards of the Duke of Brunswick eight feet six inches Dutch.
Not so Hakewell, who informs  us, from the testimony of Nannez,
that the Emperor of China had archers and porters fifteen feet high.
Howbeit, 01. Magnus's account surpasses his ; for he tells us of a
"puella—in  capite vulnerata, mortua  induta chlamyde pur-
purea,  longitudinis cubitorum  50,  latitudinis inter humeros
quatuor!"
                  UNLAWFUL  CURES.

  One can scarcely  credit that  at  any period  there could have
existed men of science and  genius  who believed that  there were
supernatural means of curing disease, did we not even to the present
day find imbeciles who verily dread the malpractices of the devil
and his vicarious agents.  Ancient writers divided their cures into
lawful and unlawful.  The former were obtained from divine aid ;
the latter, from sorcerers, witches, magicians, wizzards, and cunning
men, who  treated  all maladies by spells, cabalistic words, charms,
characters, images, amulets, ligatures, philtres, incantations, &c. ; by
which means, according to Cardan,  Artesius, Picatrix, and sundry
wise men, the aforesaid sorcerers and  witches could prevent  fire 
UNLAWFUL CURES.
27
 from burning, find out thieves and  stolen goods, show absent faces
 in a glass, make serpents lie still, stanch blood, salve gout, biting of
 mad  dogs, toothache,  et omnia  mundi mala.  " Many doubt,"
 says Nicholas Taurellus, " whether the devil can cure such diseases
 he  hath  not made, and some flatly deny it; however, common
 experience confirms, to our  astonishment, that magicians can work
 such feats, and that the devil, without  impediment, can penetrate
 through all the parts of our body, and cure such maladies by means
 to us unknown."  Some of these means were rather singular;  for
 St. Austin  mentions  as one  of  these  processes, " Agentes cum
patientibus confungunt, colligere semina rerum,  eaque materise
 applicare;" and learned divines, moreover, inform  us,  that to
 resist exorcisms these  witches and magicians had  St. Catherine's
 wheel imprinted on the roof of their mouths, or on some other part.
 Taurellus asserts, that  to doubt it is to run into a sceptical extreme
 of incredulity.   Godelman affirms that Satan is an excellent physi-
 cian; Langius maintains that  Jupiter Menecrates was a magician ;
 and Marcellus Donatus pays the same compliment to Solomon, who,
 he says, " cured all the diseases of the mind by spells, charms, and
 drove away devils, and that Eleazar did the same before Vespasian."
   This fact being clearly ascertained, the next question was whether
 it was lawful in a desperate case to crave the help of the evil one on
 the principle

           Flectere si nequeunt Superos, Acheronta movebunt.

 Paracelsus rather impiously argues that we might, as it matters not,
 he says, " whether it be God or the devil, angels or  unclean spirits,
 [immundi spiritus,) that cure him, so that he be eased.  If a man
fall in a ditch, what matter is it whether a friend or  an enemy help
him out ?   If I be troubled with such a malady, what care I whether
the devil  himself, or any of  his ministers, by God's permission,
redeem  me ?"—and he  therefore concludes, that diseases brought
on  by malefices can only be  cured by incantations.  However,
this doctrine was denounced as abominable by Remigius, Bodinus,
Godelmannus, Erastus, and various divines  and schoolmen; and
Delrio plainly declares,"moriprsestat quhm superstitiose sanari."
Therefore pontifical writers and  sages recommend  adjuration and
exorcism  by " fire, suffumigations, lights,  cutting the air with
swords  (gladiorum ictus), sacred herbs, odours,'*&c, though some
hungry devils can only be cast out by fasting.
  Witches and impostors, says Lord Bacon, have  always  held a
competition with physicians.   Galen complains of this superstition,
and observes that patients placed more confidence in the oracles of
Esculapius and their own idle dreams than in the prescriptions of
doctors.  The introduction of  precious stones into medical practice
owed its  origin to  a superstitious  belief that, from their beauty,
splendour, and high value, they  were the natural  receptacles for
good spirits.  Mystery, in  the dark ages, and, alas! even now,
increases the confidence in remedial means; reveal their true nature, 
28
CURIOSITIES OF MEDICAL EXPERIENCE.
the charm is dissolved: " Minus credunt quse ad suam salutem
pertinent si  intelligunt," said Pliny.   One  cannot but wonder
when we behold men preeminent in deep  learning and  acute ob-
servation becoming converts to  such superstitious  practices.  Lord
Bacon believed in spells and amulets; and Sir Theodore Mayence,
who was physician to three English sovereigns,  and  supposed to
have been Shakspeare's Dr. Caius, believed  in supernatural agency,
and frequently prescribed the most disgusting and absurd medicines,
such as the heart of a mule ripped  up alive, a portion of  the lungs
of a man who had died a violent death, or the hand of a  thief who
had been gibbeted on some particular day.  Nauseous  medicines
have ever been deemed the most efficacious, on the reasoning that
as everything medicinal  is nauseous, everything  that is nauseous
must be medicinal.   The ancients firmly believed  that blood can be
staunched by charms, the bleeding of Ulysses was stopped by this
means;  and Cato the Censor has given us an incantation for setting
dislocated bones.   To this  day charms are supposed to  arrest the
flow of blood:
          " Tom Pots  was but a serving-man,
             But yet he was a doctor good,
           He bound his kerchief on the wound,
             And with some kind words he staunch'd the blood."

Sir Walter Scott says, in the " Lay of the Last Minstrel,"—
             " She drew the splinter from the wound,
              And with a charm she staunch'd the blood."
   The strength of imagination in effecting wonderful cures has been
observed in all ages; and Avicenna declares, " that he prefers con-
fidence  before art, precepts, and all  remedies whatsoever."   Our
learned Burton says, " that this strong imagination or  conceit  is
Astrum Hominis, and the rudder of this  our ship, which reason
should steer, but, overborne by phantasie,  cannot manage, and so
suffers itself and the whole vessel of ours  to be overruled and often
overturned."
   Nothing could be  more absurd than the  notions regarding some
of these supposed cures : a ring made of  the hinge of a coffin had
the power of relieving cramps ; which were also mitigated by hav-
ing a rusty old sword hung up by the bedside.  Nails driven in an
oak-tree prevented the toothache.  A halter  that had  served in
hanging a criminal was an infallible remedy for a headache, when
tied round the head; this affection was equally cured by the  moss
growing on a  human skull, dried and pulverized, and  taken asa
cephalic snuff.  A dead man's hand could dispel tumours of the
glands by stroking the parts nine times, but the hand of a man who
had been cut down from  the gallows was the most efficacious.  To
cure warts, one had nothing to do but to steal a piece of beef from
the butcher, with which the warts were to be rubbed ; then interring
it in any filth, and as it rotted, the warts would wither and fall.
   The chips of a gallows on which several persons had been hanged 
UNLAWFUL CURES.
29
when worn in a bag round the neck, would cure the ague.  A stone
with a hole in it, suspended at the head of the bed, would effectually
stop the night-mare ; hence it was called a hag-stone, as it prevents
the troublesome witches from  sitting upon the sleeper's  stomach.
The same amulet tied to the key of a stable-door, deterred witches
from riding horses over the country.
  Rickety children  were cured by being drawn  through  a cleft
tree, which was afterwards bound up, and as the split wood  united,
the child acquired  strength.  Creeping through a  perforated stone
to cure various disorders was a Druidical rite, still  practised in the
East.   In the parish  of Marden there is a stone with a hole in it,
fourteen inches in  diameter, through which children are drawn for
the rickets; and, in the North, infants are.made to pass through a
hole cut in a groaning cheese  the day of their christening.
  Second sight, which,  as  an hereditary faculty, was deemed a
malady, was cured in the Isle  of Man,  according to Mr. Aubrey's
account, by baptizing a child upon  the first sight of its head.   This
ceremony exempts the succeeding generation from the troublesome
gift.
  It is a melancholy reflection that, at various periods, impostors
have impiously called in Scriptural aid  to promote their sordid or
ambitious views.   Chiromancers have quoted the Gospel in support
of their  doctrines  and adduce the following lines of Job,—" He
sealeth up the hand of  every man, that all men  may know his
works:" while, in the like manner, the Holy Inquisition of Spain
and Portugal justified their atrocities on the score of the parable of
the marriage  of the king's son, in the 22d of St. Matthew.
  Unlawful cures, as they were called, being thus anathematized,
lawful ones were resorted to, and  the patient was  first ordered to
pray with due devotion before he took  his physic ; or, as Burton
observes, not one without the other, but both together ; for, as he
adds, to pray alone, and reject  ordinary  means, is to do like him in
JEsop, that, when his cart  was stalled, lay flat on his back, and
cried out " Help, Hercules!"   However, Hyperius maintains that
no physicians can  hope for success unless " with a true faith  they
call upon God and teach their patients to do the like."  Comineus,
when he  addressed the  Christian  princes after the overthrow of
Charles of Burgundy,  bade them " first pray with all submission
and penitency, confess their sins, and then take physic."
  Another question  of importance that led to much controversy
was, whether it were lawful  to seek  the aid of  the  saints; the
learned Burton's remarks on this controverted  point are so curious
that they are worth  relating.  " They  (the papists) have  a  proper
saint for  almost every peculiar infirmity: for poisons, gout, agues,
Petronella ; St. Romanus, for such as are possessed ;  St. Vitus, for
madmen, &c. ;  and as, of old, Pliny reckons up gods for all diseases.
All affections of the mind were heretofore accounted gods : Love
and Sorrow, Virtue, Honour, Liberty, Contumely, Impudency, had
their temples; Tempests, Seasons, Crepitus Ventris, Dea Vacuna,
  July,  1838.—N              5 
30           CURIOSITD3S OF MEDICAL EXPERIENCE.

Dea Cloacina.   Varro reckons up thirty thousand gods; Lucian
makes  Podagra,  the gout, a goddess, and assigns her Fiest!-™
ministers.  'Tis the same devil still, called heretofore Apollo, mars,
Venus, &c. ; the  same Jupiter, and those  bad  angels, are now wor-
shipped and adored by the name of St. Sebastian, St. Barbara, etc. ,
and our  Lady succeeds Venus in many offices ;  and trod oiten
winks  at these  impostures, because  they  forsake his word,  and
betake  themselves to the  devil, as they do, that  seek  alter holy
water crosses " &c.
  Amidst this violent denunciation against popery and devilment
evil spirits and saints, it is somewhat singular to find  a spirit ot
anomalous perversity which justifies suicide to rid ourselves ot  dis-
ease  and  suffering; and these very  sanctimonious censors quote
ancient and modern authorities to sanction a practice which every
Christian  must condemn.   Let us pursue the disquisition of our
learned bookworm Burton :—" Another doubt is made by philoso-
phers, whether it be lawful for a man  in such  extremity of pain and
grief to make away himself, and  how those men  that do so are to
be censured.  The Platonists approve of it, that it is lawful in such
cases upon a necessity.  Plotinus (L. de Beatitud.) and Socrates
himself defend it {in Plato's Phazdon) :  If any man labour of
an incurable disease, he  may dispatch himself, if it  be to his
good.  Epictetus and Seneca say, Quamcunque veram esse viam
ad libertatem;—any way is allowable that leads to  liberty.   Let
us give God thanks no man is compelled to live  against his will.
Quid ad hominem  claustra, career, custodia ?  liberum ostium
habet.   Death is always ready at hand : Vides ilium precipitem
locum, illud flumen?  There is liberty at hand.  Effugia servi-
tutis et doloris sunt, as that Laconian lad cast himself headlong,
Non serviam, aiebat  puer; to be freed  of misery.   Wherefore
hath our mother earth brought out poisons (saith Pliny) in so great
a quantity, but that men in distress might make away themselves?
which kings of old had ever in readiness, ad incerta fortunse vene-
num sub custode promptum.  Many  worthy men and women,
quorum memoria celebratur in ecclesid, sayeth Leminctius, killed
themselves to save their  chastity and  honour, when  Rome  was
taken.   Jerome  vindicates the same, and Ambrose  commendeth
Pelagia for so doing.   Eusebius admired a Roman matron for the
 same fact, to save herself from the lust of  Maxentius the tyrant.
 Adelhelmus, the Abbot of Malmesbury,  calls them beatas virgines
 quae sic, fyc.  Sir Thomas More, in  his Utopia,  commends volun-
 tary death if one be sibi aut aliis molestus ;  especially if to live
 be a torment to him, let him free himself with his own hand from
 this tedious life, or from a prison, or suffer himself to be freed by
 others."  However, be it said in justice to our worthy Burton, he
 condemns this  practice as " a false and pagan  position, founded  in
 prophane stoical paradoxes and wicked examples}''  and although
 he denounces most fulminating anathemas on papists, he concludes
 by saying, " we ought not to be rash and rigorous in our censures, 
UNLAWFUL CURES.
31
as some are ;  Charity will judge and hope best;  God be merciful
unto us all!"
  But  why should we marvel at the credulity and superstition  of
our forefathers, when we daily observe equal absurdities?  Fanati-
cism and bigotry will ever strive to speculate on human weakness,
and endeavour to surround with impenetrable mists every rebel  to
their power who  gropes  for the shrine of reason  and of truth.
Johanna Southcote had her votaries, and Prince Hohenlohe is still
considered  by many a pious person as a vicarious  instrument  of
divine  mercy.  No miraculous recovery recorded in the dark ages
can surpass the tenebral  absurdity of the following relation of one
of his cures.
  Miss O'Connor was a nun in a convent near Chelmsford, and  in
December 1820, being about thirty years old, was suddenly attacked
by  a violent pain in the right hand, which extended with  much
swelling and inflammation up the arm.  The whole limb became
red, swollen, extremely  painful, and entirely useless.  Every re-
medy, both topical and directed to the system, was tried in vain for
a year and a half.  There was no suppuration, nor any formation of
pus; but the malady continued obdurate, and yielded to no applica-
tion.   The resources of the  flesh having  manifestly failed, Mrs.
Gerard, the worthy superior,  very properly betook herself to those
of  the  spirit.  She  made a  request through  a friend to Prince
Hohenlohe to assist the patient in this her extreme case; when the
following precious document, which it would be impious to trans-
late into heretical English, was received:—

     " Pour la Religieuse Novice d'JIngleterre.
  "Le trois du mois de Mai, a huit heures, je dirai, conformement
a votre demande, pour votre guerison, mes  prieres.  Joignez-y a la
meme  heure, apres  avoir confesse et communie, les votres, avec
cette ferveur angelique et cette confiance  pleniere que nous devons
a notre Redempteur J. C. : excitez au fond  de votre cceur les vertus
divines d'un vrai repentir, d'un  amour Chretien, d'une croyance
sans bornes d'etre exauce, et d'une resolution inebranlable de mener
une vie exemplaire, afin de vous maintenir en 6tat de grace.  Agreez
l'assurance de ma consideration.
                          " Prince Alexandre Hohenlohe.
  " Bamberg, Mars 16,1822."

  It is to be regretted that this letter, which was no doubt a circular
to his proselytes, with necessary blanks to be filled up pro  re natd,
as the  doctors have it, was not drawn out in better French.   How-
beit, on the appointed day', asserts Dr.  Baddely (the  lady's unsuc-
cessful medical attendant), Miss O'Connor went through the religious
process prescribed by her princely  physician.  Mass being said,
Miss 0., not finding the  immediate relief she  expected from her
faith, or faithfully expected, exclaimed somewhat impatiently, not
having the  fear of  Job  before her eyes, " Thy  will be done, 0 
 32           CURIOSITIES OF MEDICAL EXPERIENCE.

 Lord, since thou hast not thought me worthy of this cure;' when
 behold !  immediately after  she felt  an  extraordinary  sensation
 throughout the whole arm to the end of the fingers.  The pains
 instantly left her, the swelling gradually subsided, and Dr. B., who
 no doubt was the pet physician of the nuns, declares that the hand
 shortly resumed its natural size and shape.
  Now, Miss O'Connor was most likely a young lady from Ireland,
 where  this miraculous cure was re-echoed in every chapel.  The
protestants were naturally offended by a report which seemed to
impugn the sanctity of the reformed religion, and  they thought it
incumbent on them, for the welfare of church and state, to get up a
miracle of their own which  would  cast Prince H.,  Nun 0.,  and
Dr. B.  in the shade.  The following statement was  therefore pub-
lished and certified upon oath by sundry most respectable and most
worthy Orangemen.
  " I pledge you the word and honour of an Orangeman that the
following  facts, sworn to by all  present, occurred yesterday even-
ing.  A party of gentlemen dined with me, and after dinner a vase,
containing some orange lilies, was placed  upon the  table by my
directions.  We drank several toasts ; but on the ' glorious  and
immortal memory ' being given, an unblown lily, which  the party
had  remarked, expanded  its  leaves and bloomed before us in all
its splendour !"  How appropriate are the lines of  Otway when
applied to the  propagators of such absurdities, who  dare  to  call
upon our faith to give credence to their impostures.
                       " You want to lead
           My reason blindfold like a hamper'd lion
           Check'd of its noble vigour; then, when baited
           Down to obedient tameness, make it crouch
           And show strange tricks, which you call signs of faith:
           So silly  souls are gull'd,  and you get money."

  Not  only did these victims of superstition firmly believe that
evil  spirits had the power of inflicting disease,  and afterwards salve
the mischief, but  they were  also  invested with the  privilege of
killing and subsequently restoring to life.  The story related of the
truly learned Agrippa, who  was  falsely represented as  a necro-
mancer, is curious.
  Agrippa had occasion one time to be absent  for a few days from
his  residence in Louvain.  During his absence he  entrusted his
wife with the key  of his  museum, but with an earnest injunction
that  no one on any account should be allowed to enter it; Agrippa
happened at that time to have a boarder in his house, a young fellow
of insatiable curiosity, who constantly importuned  his hostess, till
at length he obtained from her the forbidden key.  The first thing
that  attracted his attention was a book of spells and  incantations.
 He spread the volume before  him, and, thinking no harm, began to
 read aloud.  He had  not  long continued this occupation,  when a
 knock was heard at the door of the chamber.  The  youth took no
 notice, but continued reading.  Presently there followed  a  second 
UNLAWFUL CURES.
33
 and a  louder knock, which  somewhat alarmed the reader.  The
 space of a minute having elapsed, and no answer being made, the
 door opened and a  demon  entered.  " For  what purpose am I
 called ?" said the unwelcome visitor in a stern voice : " What is it
 you  demand to have  done?"   The  youth was seized with the
 greatest alarm  and struck speechless.  The demon then rushed
 upon him, seized him by the throat, and, strangled  him, indignant
 no doubt in having been interrupted in some more interesting pur-
 suit to  no purpose.
   At the expected time Agrippa came home, and to his great sur-
 prise found a number of devils capering about, and playing strange
 antics on the roof of his house.  By his art he caused them to desist
 from their gambols, of which he demanded the cause.  The chief
 of them then related to him what he  had done, how he had  been
 disturbed and insulted,  and how he had thought proper to  revenge
 himself.  Agrippa became much alarmed at  the probable conse-
 quences of this unfortunate adventure,  and he  ordered the demon,
 without loss of  time, to reanimate  his victim, and walk about the
 streets  with  him, that the public might behold him alive.  The in-
 fernal spirit reluctantly obeyed,  and went  forth with the student in
 the market-place and promenades.  This excursion  over, however,
 he maliciously allowed his companion to fall down, when life once
 more flitted  from his body.  For a time  it was thought that the
 student had been killed by a  sudden attack of illness, but presently
 the marks of strangulation  became evident, and the truth came out
 Agrippa was thus suddenly obliged to quit the town,Jand seek refuge
 in a distant state.
   It was further related  of this supposed wizard, that he was always
 accompanied by a familiar spirit in the shape of a black dog ; and
 that when  he lay on  his death-bed he was earnestly exhorted  to
 repent of his sins.  Struck with remorse, he took hold of the dog,
 and removed from his neck a collar studded with cabalistic nails,
 exclaiming, " Begone, wretched  animal, that has been the cause of
 my perdition !" and, lo !  the  dog immediately ran away,  and,
 plunging into the river  Soane, disappeared.  It is to be regretted
 that historians do not  relate whether the water hissed or not when
 the canine devil  took his last  leap.
   It merits notice, that the mystic and medicinal celebrity of various
 substances have to this hour survived the traditions of their super-
 stitious  origin ;  coral, for instance,  which  was considered  as  pos-
 sessed of the power of keeping off evil  spirits, and rendering effete
 the malefices of  the evil eye, was constantly worn as an amulet;
 and Paracelsus informs us that it  should be worn round the necks
 of infants, as an admirable preservative against fits, sorcery, charms,
 and poisons.  We  still  find necklaces of this substance suspended
 by fond mothers and  nurses  round  the necks of  infants.  In the
West  Indies these chaplets  are worn by the negroes as a magic pro-
tection against Obiism, and they  even  affirm that the colour of the
                               5* 
34
CURIOSITIES OF MEDICAL EXPERD3NCE.
coral is affected by the state of health of the wearer, and becomes
paler when he is ill.
  The credulous belief in the mysterious powers of certain reme-
dies, went so far in former days, that when  they were applied to
the weapon that had  inflicted an injury, their indirect sympathetic
action was considered as effectual as if they had been used to heal
the wound.   The sympathetic powder of Sir Kenelm Digby, which
was nothing else but pulverized green vitriol, was eulogized in a
discourse pronounced by its  inventor,  at Montpellier, in 1658.
Our James I. purchased this wonderful discovery from Sir Kenelm,
who pretended that he had obtained it from  a  Carmelite friar, who
had learned it in America and Persia.  This superstitious practice
is alluded to by Walter Scott, in the  " Lay of  the last Minstrel:"
           " But she has ta'en the broken lance,
             And wash'd it from the clotted gore,
             And salved the splinter o'er and o'er."
  Dryden has also illustrated this absurdity  in his " Enchanted
Island," where Ariel says,
           " Anoint the sword which pierced him, with this
             Weapon-salve, and wrap it close from air
             Till I have time to visit it again."

  Sir  Kenelm's  sympathetic  powder  was applied in  the same
manner; the weapon being covered with  ointment and dressed
three times a day.  But it was not mentioned that at the same time
the wound was to  be brought together, and bound up with clean
linen  bandages  for seven  days.   This  wonderful  cure  was then
simply the process of what surgeons call healing by first  intention,
which  means uniting the lips of  the wound without suppuration.
Dr. Paris apprehends that this secret was suggested to the worthy
knight by the cures operated by the rust of the spear of  Telephus,
which, according to  Homer, healed the  injuries it had occasioned ;
and this rust was most probably verdigris.
  To this day the Irish peasantry, and  even many of the superior
classes, firmly believe in the malevolent and  destructive effect of
the evil  eye, when  cast upon man  or  beast.   Hence the  absurd
custom that prevails, especially in the western  provinces, of  adding
" God  bless it," to any expression of admiration ; and if perchance
a Sassenagh traveller exclaimed " What a sweet child !" or " What
a fine cow !"  without the  adjunctive benediction,  he would  be
suspected of malefice, and the priest forthwith summoned to save
the devoted victim  of sorcery.   In Scotland dairy maids drive
cattle with a switch of the moutain ash, or roan-tree, considered as
held sacred since the  days of Druidism ; and in some districts the
sheep and lambs are  made to  pass through a  hoop of its wood on
the first day of May.
   Regarding unlawful cures, have we not seen vaccination, when
first introduced, condemned from the very pulpit as  an impious
interference  in  a disease which seemed  to  have been assigned to 
VOICE AND SPEECH.
35
mankind by the Creator as an  inevitable doom ?   Did not  these
desperate bigots  even pronounce that we were not warranted  to
seek in the brute  creation a human remedy or preservative ? What
is still more worthy of remark, is the coincidence of a similar idea
in India, where the greatest obstacle vaccination encountered arose
from a belief that the natural small-pox was  a dispensation of a
malicious deity, called Mah-ry-Umma, or rather that the disease
was an incarnation of the goddess herself into the person who was
affected by it: the fear of irritating  her, and of exposing themselves
to her resentment, necessarily rendered the  natives averse to vac-
cination, until it was  impressed  upon their  easy belief, that Mah-
ry-Umma had altered her mind, and chosen this new and milder
mode of manifesting her visits to her votaries.
  Could there ever have existed a more superstitious belief than
that  which vested in the regal touch a healing power?  Yet from
Edward the Confessor to the accession of the House of Hanover, it
was  generally thought in these realms that our kings could cure
scrofula with their anointed fingers  !
  Dr. Paris's  truly  philosophic remarks on  this subject in  his
valuable work, entitled Pharmacologia, are worthy of quotation:—
" Credulity, although it  is nearly allied  to superstition, yet differs
from it widely.   Credulity is an unbounded belief in what is possi-
ble,  although  destitute  of proof, and perhaps  of probability;  but
superstition is a  belief in what is wholly repugnant to the laws of
the physical and  moral world.  Credulity is a far greater source of
error than  superstition ; for the latter must be always  more limited
in its influence, and can exist only to any considerable extent in the
most ignorant portions of society; whereas the former diffuses itself
through the minds of all classes, by which the  rank and dignity of
science are degraded, its valuable labours confounded with the vain
pretensions of  empiricism, and  ignorance is enabled to claim for
itself the prescriptive right of delivering oracles, amidst all the
triumph of truth and the  progress of philosophy.  Credulity has
been justly defined belief without reason, while scepticism,  its
opposite, is reason without  belief, and the natural and invariable
consequence of credulity; for it may be observed, that men who
believe without reason are succeeded by  others whom no reasoning
can convince.
                 VOICE  AND  SPEECH.

  Blumenbach has given us a most  ingenious definition of this
wonderful  function.  The voice,  properly speaking, is  a  sound
formed by means of expiration in the larynx, which is a most beau-
tifully constructed organ, fixed upon the top of the windpipe, like a
capital upon a column.  It is composed of various cartilages, united 
36
CURIOSITIES OF MEDICAL EXPERIENCE.
in the form of a little box, and supplied with numerous muscles,
that,  moving  altogether or separately, produce the  variations of
sound.
   The part of the larynx most concerned in producing the voice is
the glottis, or narrow opening of the windpipe, having the epiglot-
tis suspended over it like a valve.  The air expired from the lungs
strikes upon the glottis, and thus becomes sonorous.  The change
that the glottis undergoes in the modulation of the voice has been
matter of much controversy.   Aristotle and Galen compared  the
glottis to a wind-instrument; Ferrein assimilated  it to  a chorded
one.  However, this latter hypothesis was objected to, on the prin-
ciple that a chord, to vibrate, should not only be in a state of tension
but dryness; characters which  this organ does not possess, being
constantly lubrified with  mucus, and in a state of  greater or  lesser
relaxation.   Fulgentius considers the human voice to  be composed
of ten parts:  the four first are the front teeth, so useful for  the
appulse of the tongue in forming sounds, without which a whistle
would be  produced instead of a voice; the fifth and sixth  are  the
lips, which he  compares to cymbals striking against each other;  the
seventh the tongue, which serves as a plectrum to articulate sounds;
the eighth is the palate, the concavity of  which forms the belly of
the instrument; the ninth the throat, which performs  the part of a
flute; and the  tenth the lungs, which supply the place of bellows.
   That every  degree of action in the glottis  is due to the muscles
of the larynx  is proved by the experiment of tying or dividing the
recurrent nerves, when the voice is destroyed or weakened.
   Speech  is a  peculiar modification of the  voice adjusted  to  the
formation of the sounds  of letters,  by the expiration  of the air
through the nostrils and mouth, and  in  a great  measure by  the
assistance of the tongue applied  and struck against the neighbouring
parts, the palate and front teeth in particular, and by the diversified
action of the lips.  This is Payne Knight's doctrine, in his analyti-
cal essay on the Greek alphabet, and an illustration of the notions
of Fulgentius.
   Singing is compounded of speech and  a musical modulation of
the voice, a prerogative peculiar to man even  in  his most  savage
state; for, despite the assertions of the visionary Rousseau, who
maintained that it is not natural to our species, we find that even in
the uncivilized regions of Ethiopia, Greenland, and Kamtschatka,
singing is a solace and a comfort.
   The  mechanism  of speech and articulation is so intricate, that
even the division of letters and their distribution are attended with
difficulties.  The following is the division of Amman in his work,
Surdus Loquens, published at Amsterdam  in 1629,  and enlarged
under the title of Dissert, de Loquela, 1700, and is perhaps  the
most natural and intelligible.
   He divides  into, I. Vowels ;  II. Semi-vowels ;  III. Consonants.
   I. The vowels are simple, a, e, i, y, o, u ;  and mixed, a, 6, u: 
VOICE AND SPEECH.
37
 these are formed by the voice only.  The semi-vowels and  conso-
 nants are articulated by the mechanism of speech.
   II. The semi-vowels are nasal, m, n, ng, (n before g, which is
 nearly related to it,) that  is, the labio-nasal  m, the dente-nasal n,
 and the gutture-nasal ng;  or oral  (lingual), r, I, that is, r with  a
 vibration of the tongue, or / with the tongue less moved.
   III. The consonants he distinguishes  into sibilant (pronounced
 in succession), h, g, ch, s, sh,f, v,ph, that is h, formed in the throat,
 as it were a mere aspiration ; g and ch, true consonants; s, sh, pro-
 duced between  the teeth;  and^ v,ph—formed by the  application
 of the lower lip to the upper front teeth—and explosive, (which are
 as it were suddenly exploded by an expiration for a time suppressed
 or interrupted,)  viz. k, q, formed in the throat; d, t, about the teeth;
p, b, near the  lips;  and double (compound), x,  z*
   It  has been thought that the tongue was  indispensable for the
 purposes of speech, yet there are instances on record in which this
 has not been  found  an  invariable rule.  Dr.  Conyers Middleton
 mentions two  cases of distinct articulation with at  least little or no
 tongue.  In his exposure of the pious  deceptions of weak and
 wicked Christians during the  first  centuries of the  Christian era, he
 notices a pretty tale of an  Arian  prince cutting out the tongues of
 some of the orthodox party, and these being as able  to talk as before;
 nay, one of them, who had been  dumb from his birth, gained the
 faculty of speech by losing his tongue!   We find  various accounts
 of persons who  spoke  more  or less fluently without this  organ.
 Jussieu has inserted in the Mimoires de VAcad&mie des Sciences,
 1718, the case of a Portuguese girl, who instead  of a tongue had
merely a little protuberance  of about four lines in diameter in the
 middle of her mouth, and endowed with the  power  of contraction
and dilatation;  she spoke  distinctly, but  experienced  difficulty in
pronouncing c,f, g, I, n, r, s, t, x  and z, when  she was obliged to
bend  her neck forward to upraise as it were the  larynx.  In this
case deglutition  could not be well  performed, and  she was obliged
to use her finger to propel the masticated food downwards.
   Dr. Eliotson observes, that it is  by no means improbable that the
progress of modern art may present  us at some future period  with
 mechanical substitutes for orators  and preachers;  for putting aside
 the magic  heads of Albertus Magnus and Roger  Bacon, Kratzen-
stein  actually constructed  an instrument to produce  the vowels.
De Kempelin  has published a full account of his celebrated speaking
machine, which perfectly imitated the human voice.  The French
celebrated  mechanician, the Abbe Mical, also  made two heads of
brass  which pronounced very distinctly entire phrases; these heads
were colossal, and their voices powerful and sonorous.   The French
government refusing, it is said, in 1782, to purchase these automata,
the unfortunate and too sensitive inventor, in a paroxysm of despair,
destroyed these  master-pieces of scientific ingenuity.

  * For the further illustration of this curious  subject, Dr.  Eliotson's valuable
notes on Blumenbach may be consulted to advantage, 
38
CURIOSITIES OF MEDICAL EXPERIENCE.
   It has been  observed that  in  various  races the pronunciation
seemed to depend upon some peculiar and characteristic conforma-
tion ; and Adelung informs us that in the Hottentots the bony palate
is smaller, shorter, and less arched than in the other races, and that
the tongue, especially in the Bosjesman tribe, is rounder, thicker,
and shorter.  Hence their pronunciation is singular, and has been
compared to the clucking of the Turkey, or the harsh  and broken
noises produced by some other birds.  They combine their aspirated
gutturals with hard consonants without any intervening vowels, in
a manner that Europeans cannot imitate.
   No doubt the differences of language are as numerous as the other
distinctions which characterise the several races of men.   The vari-
ous degrees of natural capacity and of intellectual progress;  the
prevalence of particular faculties; the nature of surrounding circum-
stances ;  the ease or difficulty with which our different wants and
desires are gratified, will  produce not only peculiar characters in
the nature and construction of language, but in its copiousness and
development.
   One of the most curious points in the subject of language, is the
continued existence in a large portion of Asia, very anciently civil-
ized, and considerably advanced, at least in the useful arts, of simple
monosyllabic languages, which are not  in the slightest degree con-
nected with the  peculiar organization of the Mongolian variety, to
which these people belong, and whose  language  is distinctly poly-
syllabic.
   The attempts that have been made to trace the origin of languages
to the varieties of our species, or to the influence of climate, have
hitherto  been fruitless, and the  doctrines broached on the obscure
subject refuted by observation.  Mr. Jefferson  states that there are
twenty radical languages in America for one in  Asia;  more than
twenty  languages, he  adds, are still  spoken  in  the  kingdom of
Mexico,  most of which are at least as different from  one another as
the Greek and the German, the French and the Polish.  The variety
of idioms spoken  by the  people of the new continent, and which
without the least exaggeration  may  be stated at some hundreds,
offer a very striking phenomenon, particularly when  we compare
it to the few languages  spoken  in Asia  and in Europe.  Vater
also  informs us, that in Mexico, where the  causes  producing
insulation of the several tribes  have been for  a  long time in a
course of diminution, Clavigero recognized  thirty-five  different
languages.  Some of these words are rather of difficult  pronuncia-
tion, and Humboldt tells us that Notlazomahuiztespixcatatzin is
the term of respect with which they addressed their priests.  Dur-
ing the French  revolution, a learned Jacobin  discovered that  the
early Peruvians adored a divinity who patronized the Sans-culottes
of their  day, and who was named Camaltze-quos, i. e., without
breeches.  Such barbarous words do not constitute that engaging
tongue that Shakspeare calls " speaking holiday," but rather con-
firms Byron's ideas of the Russians' difficult expression, which no
man has leisure to pronounce except on highdays and holidays. 
VOICE AND SPEECH.
39
   Although brutes pronounce no articulate sounds, there is no doubt
 but they  have  a language perfectly  intelligible  to one another.
 Their  manner of expressing their  different emotions  is in  some
 instances perfectly distinct; and birds have most decidedly  a pecu-
 liar language.   The  following may be  said to  be the words of a
 nightingale's strain observed by Bechstein, an ingenious ornitholo-
 gist, and committed to paper several times while  he listened with
 deep attention to that sweet bird's " complaining notes," that " tune
 our distresses and record our woes."

              Tiouou, tiouou, tiouou tiouou
              Shpe tiou, tokoua
              Tio, tio, tio, tio.
              Kououtio, kououtio, kououtio, kououtio,
              Tskouo, tskouo, tskouo,
          Tsii, tsii, tsii, tsii, tsii, tsii, tsii, tsii tsii tsii,
              Kouoror tiou.  Tskoua pipitskousisi
     Tso, tso, tso, tso, tso, tso, tso, tso, tso, tso, tso, tso, tsirrhading!
              Tsisi si tosi si, si, si, si, si, si, si.
              Tsorre tsorre tsorre tsorrehi
          Tsatn,  tsatn, tsatn tsatn tsatn tsatn tsatn tsi,
          Dlo, dlo, dlo dla, dlo dlo dlo dlo dlo
              Kouioo trrrrrrrrtzt
              Lu, lu lu, ly ly ly li li li li
              Kouio didl li loulyli
              Ha guour, guour, koui kouio!
          Kouio,  kououi kououi kououi koui, koui, koui, koui.
              Ghi ghi ghi
              Gholl, gholl, gholl gholl ghia hududoi
              Koui koui koui ha dia dia dillhi!
     Hets, hets, hets, hets, hets, hets, hets, hets, hets, hets
          Hets, hets hets hets hets
          Tourrho hostehoi
     Kouia, kouia, kouia, kouia, kouia kouia kouia kouiati!

   A story is related of an irascible Irish piper of the name of Mol-
 roy, who declared a  war implacable against the feline  race, as  he
 swore they invariably pronounced his  name in their nocturnal con-
 certs.   Gall and various observers of animals have  fully ascertained
 that the attention of dogs  is awakened  by our conversation.   He
 brought one of these  intelligent creatures with him from Vienna to
 Paris, which perfectly understood French and German, of which
 he satisfied himself by repeating before it whole sentences in  both
 languages.   A recent anecdote has been related of  an old ship-dog,
 that leaped overboard and swam to the shore on hearing the captain
 exclaim, " Poor  old Neptune !  I fear we shall have to drown  him !"
 and such was the horror which that threat inspired, that he never
 afterwards would approach the captain or  any of  the ship's com-
 pany, to whom he had previously been fondly attached.  It must,
 however, be observed that  in the brute creation, as in ours  (some-
 times more brutal species), peculiar attributes, that do not belong to
 the race, distinguish individuals gifted  with what in man we might
call a superior intellect, but which in these animals shows a supe- 
40           CURIOSITIES OF MEDICAL EXPERIENCE.

riority of what we term instinct.   Spurzheim relates an instance of
a cow belonging to Mr. Dupont de Nemours, which, amongst the
whole kindred herd, was the only one that could open the gate lead-
ing to their pastures;  and her anxious comrades, when arriving at
the wished-for spot, invariably lowed for  their  conductor.   It is
also related of a hound, who, unable to obtain a  seat near the fire
without  the  risk of  quarrelling with the  dozing occupants that
crowded the hearth, was wont to run out into the court-yard bark-
ing an  alarum that brought away his  rivals in  comfort, when he
quietly re-entered  the parlour, and selected an eligible stretching-
place.  This  animal displayed  as  much ingenuity as the traveller
who, according to  the well-known story, ordered oysters for his
horse for the  purpose  of clearing the fireside.
               ECSTATIC EXALTATION.

  This rapturous excitement is  not unfrequently the province of
the physician.  Fortunately perhaps for the patient, it is an incura-
ble malady, illustrating the lines  of" Dryden,
              " There is a pleasure, sure, in being mad,
                Which none but madmen know."

If we  admit  this state of ecstasy  to be a  mental aberration, it is
surely  of an enviable nature, since it elevates the soul  to a beatitude
which  is rarely the lot of man.
  No definition of this  state can equal that given  by St. Theresa
of her  own feelings.   By prayer she had attained what she  calls a
" celestial quietude,—a  state of union, rapture, and ecstacy."  " I
experienced," she continues, " a sort  of sleep of all the faculties of
the soul—intellect, memory, and volition; during which, though
they were but  slumbering, they had no conception of  their mode
of operation.   It was  a voluptuous sensation, such as one might ex-
perience when expiring in raptures in the bosom of our God.   The
soul is unconscious of its actions ;  she (the soul) knows not if she
speaks or if she remains silent, if she  laughs or if she cries.   It is
in short, a blessed extravagance,  a  celestial madness, in which she
attains in the knowledge of true wisdom an inconceivable consola-
tion.   She is  on the point of merging into a state of languor, breath-
less, exhausted, the slightest motion, even of the hands, is unutter-
ably difficult.   The eyes are closed by a spontaneous movement;
or, if they remain open, the power of vision has fled.  In vain they
endeavour to read : they can distinguish letters, but are unable to
class them into words.   Speak to a person in this absorbed condi-
tion, no answer will be  obtained ;  although endeavouring to speak
utterance is impossible.   Deprived of all external faculties, those of 
ECSTATIC EXALTATION.
41
the soul are increased, to enjoy glorious  raptures when conversing
with the Deity and surrounding angels."   These conversations the
blessed St. Theresa relates ; and she further states, that after having
remained about an hour in this joyous trance, she recovered  her
usual senses, and found her eyes streaming in tears, as though they
were weeping for the loss she had experienced in being restored to
earthly relations.
  Now, with all due deference to St. Theresa, this state was neither
more nor less than a hysteric  condition.   Zimmerman relates two
cases somewhat of a similar kind.   Madame M. experienced effusions
of divine love of a peculiar nature.  She first fell into a state of ecstasy
motionless, and insensible, during which, she affirms, she felt this
love penetrating her whole being, while a new life seemed to thrill
through every fibre.  Suddenly she started up, and seizing  one of
her companions, exclaimed, " Come, haste with me to follow  and
call Love, for I cannot sufficiently call upon his name !"—A French
young lady was the second instance of this affection.  She also fre-
quently lost the power of speech and all external  senses, animated
with a love divine, spending whole nights in ecstatic bliss, and rap-
turously embraced by her mystic lover.   It is difficult, perhaps, to
separate this amorous feeling from physical temperament; and the
following remarks of Virey on the subject of St. Theresa are most
judicious:—"She possessed  an  ardent  and sensitive disposition,
transported, no doubt, by terrestrial affection, which she strove to
exchange for a more exalted ardour for the Deity ;  for devotion and
love are  more or less of a similar character.   Theresa was not fired
by  that adoration which is exclusively due to the infinite and invisi-
ble Intelligence which rules the universe ; but she fancied a sensible,
an  anthropomorphous divinity ; so much so, that she not unfre-
quently reproached herself with bitterness that  these raptures were
not sufficiently unconnected with corporeal pleasures and voluptuous
feelings."
  St. Theresa was not the only beatified enthusiast who suspected
that the evil spirit occasionally interfered in those ecstatic visions.
St. Thomas Aquinas divides ecstasies  into three classes ;—the first
arising from divine power, and  enjoyed by the prophets, St. Paul,
and various other saints.   The second was the work  of the devil,
who bound down  all external senses, suspended their action, and
reduced  the body to the condition of a corpse : such were the rap-
tures  in which magicians and sorcerers were frequently entranced,
during which, according to Tertullian and other writers, the soul
quitted the body to  wander  about the world,  inquire  into all  its
occurrences, and then returned with the intelligence it had obtained
to its former abode.   The third rapturous category of St. Thomas
he simply attributes to physical causes, constituting mental alienation.
  May not all these ecstatic raptures be considered as belonging to
this third class ?  It has been  observed that women, hysteric ones in
particular, were the most subject to this supposed inspired affection ;
and amongst men  it has also  been remarked, that  the  enraptured
  July, 1838.—0              6 
42
CURIOSITIES OF MEDICAL EXPERIENCE.
individual was in general nervous, debilitated, and bald ;  and it is
well known  that  the fall  of  the  hair  is frequently the  result  of
moral and physical weakness,  brought on  by long studies, contem-
plation, grief, and  illness, all of which may occasion  mental aberra-
tion ; for what other denomination can be given to the ecstatic state
of the Monks of Mount Athos, who pretended or fancied  that they
experienced celestial joys when gazing on their umbilics in converse
with  the  Deity ?   Hence  were they called  Omphalopsychians,
whose notions in the matter are thus described by Allatius :—" Ele-
vate thy spirit above earthly concerns, press thy beard  upon thy
breast, turn thine eyes and  all  thy thoughts upon the middle of thine
abdomen, hold thy breath, seek in thy bowels the abode of thy heart
—then wilt thou find it unalloyed with dense and tenebral  mists ;
persevere in  this contemplation for days and  nights, and  thou shalt
know uninterrupted joys when thy spirit shall have  found out thy
heart and has illumined itself."*
   Bernier relates an act of supposed devotion amongst  the Fakirs
nearly as absurd, when, to  seek  the blessings of a new light, they
rivet  their eyes  in silent contemplation upon  the  ceiling ; then
gradually looking  down, they  fix both eyes gazing, or rather squint-
ing, at the tip of their nose, until  the aforesaid  light beameth on
them.
   St. Augustin mentions a priest who could at will fall into one of
these ecstasies, during which his external senses were so totally sup-
pressed that he did not experience the pangs of the torture.  Cardanus
affirms that he was possessed of the same faculty.  " Quoties volo"
he says, " extra sensum quasi in  exstasim transeo—sentio ditm
earn ineo, ac (ut  verius dicam) facio,juxta cor quondam sepa-
rationem, quasi anima abscederel, totique corpori res  hsec com-
municatur,  quasi ostiolum  quoddam aperiretur.  Et initium
hujus est a capite, mnximt cerebello,  diffunditurque per totam
dorsi spinam, vi magnd continetur ; hocque solum sentio, quod
sum extra meipsum ; magndque quddam vipaululum me  con-
tineo."
   There is no doubt that melancholy or intense cogitation may bring
on this morbid condition.   Zimmerman relates that  the mathemati-
cian Viote was sometimes  so wrapped up  in calculation, that he was
known to remain  three days and nights without sleep or food :  and
Mendelsohn  the philosopher, who  was called the Plato of  Germany,

   * The dream of Ertucules seems to have been connected with similar phanta-
 sies.  " I dreamed, venerable sir," said  he to Edebales, « that the brightness of
 the moon did proceed from your bosom, and thence afterwards did pass into mine;
 when it was thither come, there sprung up a tree from my umbilic,  which over-
 shadowed at once many nations,  mountains,  and valleys.   From the root of
 this tree there  issued wateTS sufficient to irrigate vines and gardens ;  and  then
 both my dream and  my sleep forsook me."  Edebales after some pause thus
 answered: "There will be born unto you, my good friend, a son whose  name
 shall be Osman ; he  shall wage many wars, and shall acquire victory and glory *
 and my daughter must be married to your son  Osman, and she is the brightness
 which you saw come from my  bosom into yours, and from both sprung up the
 tree."—Lips. Marsil.                                          l 
VARIETIES OF MANKIND.
43
fell into a swoon the moment philosophy was talked of;  and he was
therefore ordered by his doctor not to think.   Being asked one day
what  he contrived to do when not  allowed thought, he replied,
" Why, I go to the window and count the tiles on  the  roof of the
opposite house."
  The celebrated physician  Boerhaave was once engaged in so pro-
found a meditation that  he did not  close his eyes for six weeks.
Any  fixity of idea may be considered  as a monomania.  Pascal,
being thrown down  on  a bridge, fancied ever  after that  he was
standing on the brink of a terrific precipice, which  appeared to him
an abyss ever ready to engulph him.   So immutable was this dread,
that when his friends  conversed with him they were obliged to con-
ceal this ideal peril with a chair, on which  they seated  themselves,
to tranquilize  his perturbed mind.   This is an instance of a painful
fixity of thought, the result of which is melancholic mania ; whereas
ecstatic exaltation is the enjoyment of a delicious sensation unknown
in our  habitual earthly enjoyments, and  beautifully expressed  by
Shakspeare, when Pericles thus addresses Helicanus,—
               O Helicanus! strike me, honoured sir;
               Give me a gash,—put me to present pain,
               Lest this great sea of joy, rushing upon me,
               O'erbear the shores of my mortality,
              And drown me with their sweetness.
               VARIETIES OF MANKIND.

  The most approved classification of mankind is that of Blumen-
bach.  He divides them into five varieties :  1. The Caucasian ;
2. Mongolian ;  3. Ethiopian ; 4. American ; and 5. Malay :  and the
following are the characteristics of each.

                      I. THE CAUCASIAN.
  The skin  white ; the cheeks rosy—almost a peculiarity of this
variety ; the hair of a nut-brown running on the one hand to yellow,
on the other into black, soft, long, and undulating ; the head sym-
metrical, rather globular ; the  forehead moderately expanded ; the
cheek-bones narrow, not  prominent ;  the alveolar edge round, the
front teeth of each jaw placed  perpendicularly.  The face oval and
pretty straight  ; its features moderately distinct; the  nose narrow
and slightly aquiline, the bridge of  it  rather prominent: the mouth
small ; the lips, especially the lower, gently turned  out; the chin
full and round.    This  variety comprehends all Europeans, except
the Laplander and the rest of the Finnish race ; the Western  Asiatics
as far as the Obi, the Caspian and  the Ganges ; and the people of the
North of Africa. 
44
CURIOSITIES OF MEDICAL EXPERIENCE.
                      II.  THE  MONGOLIAN.

   Skin of an olive colour ; the hair black, stiff, straight, and sparing.
The head almost square, the cheek-bones prominent outwards ; the
superciliary arches scarcely perceptible; the osseous nostrils narrow;
the alveolar edge arched obtusely forward ; the chin somewhat pro-
jecting.  The face broad and flattened, and its parts consequently
less distinct; the space between the eyebrows very broad as well
as flat, the cheeks not only projecting outward, but nearly globular ;
the aperture of the eye-lids narrow and linear ; the nose small and
flat.
   This comprehends the  remaining Asiatics, except the Malays of
the extremity of the Transgangetic Peninsula, the  Finnish races of
the North of Europe, Laplanders, &c, and  the Esquimaux diffused
over the  most northern parts of America, from Behring's Strait to
the farthest habitable point of Greenland.

                      III. THE ETHIOPIAN.

   Skin black ; the hair black and crisp.   Head narrow, compressed
laterally  ; forehead arched, the cheek-bones projecting ; the osseous
nostrils large, the jaws  lengthened  forward ; the alveolar edge nar-
row, elongated, more  elliptical ; the  upper front teeth  obliquely
prominent, the  lower jaw large and strong ; the  skull thick and
heavy ; the face narrow, and  projecting at its lower part ; the eyes
prominent ; the nose thick and confused with the projecting cheeks ;
the lips,  especially the  upper, thick ; the chin somewhat receding ;
the legs in many instances bowed.
   This comprehends the  inhabitants of  Africa, with the exception
of the Caucasian variety which  inhabits the northern parts.

                      IV. THE AMERICAN.

   Skin of a copper colour ;  hair black, stiff, straight and sparing.
Forehead short; cheek-bones broad, but  more  arched and rounded
than in the Mongolian  variety ; the orbits generally deep ; the fore-
head  and vertex frequently deformed by art ; cranium usually light.
The face broad, with prominent cheeks, not flattened, but with every
part distinctly marked  if viewed in profile ; the eyes deep ; the nose
rather flat, but still prominent.
   This comprehends all the Americans excepting the  Esquimaux.

                        V.  THE MALAY.

   Skin tawny ; hair black, soft, curled, thick, and abundant ; head
rather narrow ; forehead  slightly arched ; cheek-bones not promi-
nent, upper I jaw rather projecting.   Face  prominent  at  its  lower
part ; the features viewed in profile more distinct; the nose full
broad, bottled at its point; mouth large. 
                   VARIETIES OF MANKIND.                 45

  This  comprehends the inhabitants of the Pacific Ocean, of  the
Marian, Philippine, Molucca, and Sunda isles, and of the Peninsula
of Malacca.
  The Caucasian variety derives its name from Mount Caucasus,
where we meet with a beautiful race—the Georgians ; and because,
so far as the imperfect light of history and tradition can guide us,
the original  abode of the species  appears to have been  in that
quarter.   In  this class  are  included all the  ancient and  modern
Europeans ;  the Assyrians,  Medes, Chaldeans,  Sarmatians, Scy-
thians, and  Parthians ;  the  Philistines,  Phoenicians,  Jews ;  the
Turks, Persians, Arabians, and  Hindoos of  high caste.  Blumen-
bach is inclined  to believe that the primitive  human race belonged
to this variety.  In support of this opinion  it may be stated, that
the part of Asia  which seems  to have been the cradle of the race
has always been, and still is, inhabited by tribes of this formation ;
and the inhabitants of Europe in great part may be traced back for
their origin to the West of Asia.
   Are all these various tribes brethren descended from one stock?
or must we trace them to more than one ?  The physiologists who
have ventured to express the latter opinion have  been stigmatized
by intolerance and blind bigotry as  atheists and unbelievers ;  yet
this question belongs to  the domain of the naturalist, and the phi-
losopher has an  unqualified right to moot it  without incurring the
heinous charge of infidelity.   To form an opinion on this  difficult
subject, it will be necessary, as Lawrence justly observes, to ascer-
tain carefully all the differences that exist between the various races
of men ;  to compare them  with the diversities observed  among
animals; to apply to them all  the light which human and compara-
tive physiology  can supply, and  to draw our inferences  concerning
their nature and  causes from all  the direct information and all  the
analogies which  these  considerations may unfold.  " It is quite
clear,"  continues  the  same ingenious writer, "that  the  Mosaic
account makes all the  inhabitants of the  world  descended from
Adam and Eve.   The entire,  or even the partial  inspiration of the
various writings  comprehended in the Old Testament, has been and
is doubted by many  persons, including learned divines and distin-
guished Oriental  and Biblical scholars.  The account of the creation,
and  subsequent events, has  the   allegorical figurative character
common to Eastern  compositions, and it is distinguished  amongst
the cosmogonies by a simple grandeur and natural sublimity, as the
rest of these writings are by appropriate beauties in their respective
parts.  The representation of  all the  animals being brought before
Adam in the first instance, and  subsequently of their all being
collected in the ark, if we are  to understand them as applied to the
living  inhabitants of the whole  world,  is zoologically impossible.
How could the polar bear have  traversed the torrid zone ?   If we
are to believe that the original creation  comprehended  only a male
and female of each species, or that one  pair only was saved from
an universal deluge, the difficulties are increased  : the carnivorous
                               6* 
46
CURIOSITIES OF MEDICAL EXPERIENCE.
am
 mmals must have perished with  hunger, or destroyed most of the
other species."  On this  obscure subject Adelung  has  expressed
himself with much ingenuity : " Asia has been at all times regarded
as the country where  the human  race had its  beginning, and from
which its increase was spread over the rest of the globe.  TJacinS
the people up to tribes, and the tribes to families, we are  conducted
at last, if not by history, at least  by the tradition of  all old people,
to a single  pair, from which  tribes and nations have been succes-
sively  produced.  What was the first family, and the first .people
descended from  it ?—where was  it settled ?—and how  was it ex-
tended  so as  to fill the four large divisions of the globe ?  It is a
question of fact, and must be answered by History.  But History
is silent :  her first  books have been  destroyed by time ; and the
few lines preserved by Moses  are rather calculated  to excite than
to satisfy our curiosity.
   " We must fancy to ourselves  this first tribe endowed with all
human faculties, but not possessing all knowledge and experience,
the subsequent acquisition of which  is left to  the  natural operation
of time and  circumstances.  As Nature  would  not unnecessarily
expose her first-born and inexperienced son to conflicts and dangers,
the place of his early abode would be so selected  that all his wants
could be easily satisfied, and everything  essential to his existence
be readily procured.  He would  be placed, in short, in a garden or
paradise.   Such a  country is found in central Asia, between  the
30th and 50th degrees of north latitude, and the 90th and 110th of
east longitude (from Ferro) ;  a spot which, in respect to its height,
can only be compared to the lofty plains of Quito in South America.
Here, too, all the animals are found wild, which man has tamed for
his use, and carried with him over the whole  earth."
   This ingenious historical investigation  points out the east as the
 earliest and original seat of our species, the source of our domesti-
 cated animals and  of our principal vegetable.food ; but it by  no
 means decides whether  the globe was peopled by one or several
 original stocks.
    Tjhe startling nature of  this  question on  the  first view of the
 subject must  induce  us to consider the circumstance of these five
 distinct varieties arising from one stock as miraculous  ; but when
 we compare them with the corresponding difference in animals, we
 can easily come to the conclusion that the various  races of human
 beings are only  to  be regarded as varieties of a single  species,
  without supposing the intervention of any supernatural  agency.
    The sceptic Voltaire, who evinced  more wit than learning in his
  endeavours  to  invalidate  Scriptural  tradition by ridicule, thus  ex-
  presses himself; " II n'est permis qu'a un aveugle de douter que les
  blancs, les negres, les albinos, les Hottentots, les Lapons, les Chinois,
  les Americains, soient  des races entierement differentes ;" but had
  this philosopher been  better versed in zoology and  physiolgy he
  would not have made so groundless an assertion.  " Analogical 'and
  direct facts," says Dr.  Elliotson, " lead to the conclusion that none 
                   VARIETIES OF MANKIND.                 47

of the differences among  mankind are so great  as  to require the
belief of  their originality."  A contrary opinion, however, should
not be stigmatised by bigotry, for Locke has justly observed that
only matters above human reason  are the proper subjects of revela-
tion ; and Bacon has also maintained that religious and philosophical
inquiries should be kept separate,  and not pompously united.   Dr.
Bostock, than  whom no man could be less sceptical, plainly admits
we do not find that the writer of the book of Genesis lays claim to
any supernatural source of information with respect to natural phe-
nomena,  while the whole tenor of his work seems  to show that on
such topics he adopted the  opinions which were  current among his
contemporaries.
   The causes of the difference of  our species have been the subject
of  as great a  discrepance in  opinion.  All the Greek and  Roman
historians have attributed  it to the  influence of climate ; and amongst
the moderns,  Montaigne, Montesquieu, Buffon, and Zimmerman,
have considered the modification of the individual and the degener-
ation of  the offspring as the result of this external agency.  Lord
Kaimes, Hume, and many other  philosophers, have  entertained  a
contrary opinion.   No doubt, the influence of  climate may materi-
ally affect colour, stature, hair, features, and even the moral and in-
tellectual character : but  it must be  considered  as inadequate to act
upon conformation.  The prevalence of light colours in the animals
of polar regions is well known : the arctic fox, the white bear, the
snow-bunting, are striking instances of  this peculiarity ; but these
circumstances are purely superficial.   The skulls of these individuals
are similar to those of the  Europeans ; nay, it is well known that light
races are found  among dark nations, and many  protected parts of
the body are  blacker  than  those which are exposed.  Buchanan
tells us, that the Jews  in Cochin  are divided into white and black
classes, though born under the same parallel ;  the white Jews hav-
ing been known there for upwards  of one thousand seven hundred
years.   Dr. Shaw and Bruce describe a race  of fair people,  near
Mount Aurasius  in Africa, with  red hair and blue eyes, and  who
are, according to tradition, descended from the Vandals.   We find
the red Peruvian, the brown Malay, and the white Abyssinian in the
very zones peopled by jet-black races.   This influence of  tempera-
ture upon colour frequently varies according to the seasons.  Pallas
observed that even in domestie animals, such as the horse and cow,
the coat is of  a lighter colour  in winter.   The Siberian roe, red in
summer, is white in the winter ; the fur of the sable and the martin
is much deeper in the warm months ; and the squirrel and mustela
nivalis, which become white in Siberia  and Russia, do not change
their hue in Germany.  The winter coat, it has been observed by
naturalists, is  found far advanced  in the preparatory autumn.  This
bounteous provision of nature seems to  have been extended to the
vegetable kingdom, and  it  has been observed that the pellicle of
onions is much thicker on the approach of a severe winter than on
that of a more temperate season.   But if further proof were necessary 
43           CURIOSITIES OF MEDICAL EXPERIENCE.

to impugn this doctrine respecting climate, we may adduce the fact
of a woman having born twins of different complexions, a white and
a black.  With all due respect to the much lamented Bishop  Heber
we must receive with some degree of hesitation his  assertion that
the Persian, Greek, Tartar, and Arabian inhabitants of India, assume,
in a few generations, without any intercourse with  the Hindoos, a
deep blue tint, little lighter than that of a negro ; and that the Por-
tuguese, during three hundred years' residence in that climate, have
assumed the blackness of a Kaffer.  The same learned prelate is of
opinion that our European complexion was not primitive, but rather
that of the Indian ; an intermediate tint is perhaps the most agreea-
ble to the eye and instinct of the majority  of the human race.  Dr.
Heber, perhaps, had not seen, in various Roman catholic  treasures,
portraits of the Virgin Mary, painted, according to tradition, by St.
Luke, and in which she is represented as a negress.
  That solar heat produces blackness of the integuments is an ancient
opinion, and is illustrated by Pliny,  who tells us, "iEthiopes vicini
sideris vapore  torreri, adustisque  similes gigni, barba et capillo
vibrato, non  est dubium."  Buffon asserts  that " climate may  be
regarded as  the  chief cause of the different  colours of man  ;" and
Smith is of opinion " that from the  pole to the  equator we observe
a gradation in the complexion nearly in proportion to the latitude
of the country."
  Blumenbach, under the same impression, endeavours to account
for this black tinge  by a chemical  illustration somewhat curious.
He states that the proximate cause of  the dark colour is  an   abun-
dance of carbon secreted  by the skin with  hydrogen, precipitated
and fixed by  the contact of the atmospheric oxygen.   Our Creoles,
and the British inhabitants of India, may esteem themselves parti-
cularly fortunate in not being subject to this  chemical operation !
  On the other hand, it is well known that a black state of the skin
has been produced in white races under peculiar circumstances ; and
Le Cat and Camper mention cases of  women who turned dark during
their pregnancy.   It would be idle  to dwell further  on the hypo-
thetic  illustrations  regarding this supposed operation  of climate,
which the observation of every unprejudiced traveller can impugn.
  Migration to other countries has also been adduced as one  of the
causes of variety in mankind ; but the permanency of the charac-
teristic distinctions of any race militates against this supposition.
The physical character of the Celts, who peopled the west of Europe
at an early period, is still observable in  the  Spaniard, most  of the
French, the native Welsh, the Manks, and the Scotch Highlander ;
whereas the  German race, who occupied  the  more northern and
eastern settlements, are still distinguished by their transparent skin
rosy complexion, flaxen hair, and blue eyes ;  and in Ireland, the race
of the Danes and the Milesians can to this day be recognised in their
respective characters.  Shaw and Bruce traced the  descendants of
the Vandals who passed from Spain  into Africa in the fifth century ;
and, after a  lapse of thirteen centuries, Bruce says that they are 
VARIETIES OF MANKIND.
49
"fair like the English, their hair red, and, their  eyes  blue."   Ne-
groes have been introduced into  the New World for upwards of
three centuries, where, despite of a new clime and different habits,
they still retain the character of their race ; and the Jews who have
not intermarried out of their nation, have preserved their features
for nineteen centuries.
  Not only do  we observe the peculiarities of physical conformation
resisting the destructive or degenerating hand  of time, but certain
imperfections in their faculties have been equally permanent in cer-
tain tribes.  It  is a  curious fact that the Mamelukes, who  have
resided in Egypt for upwards of five hundred  and fifty years, have
never  perpetuated their subsisting issue.  Volney observed, that
there does not exist one single family of them in the second genera-
tion ; all their children perishing in the first or second descent.   The
same observation applies  to  the Turks, who  can only secure the
continuance of  their families by marrying native women, an union
which the Mamelukes disdained.  This singularity, remarked by
Volney, has been since confirmed by late travellers.
   It will be found that the progress of domestication, the natural
result  of civilized improvement, tends more materially to operate a
wonderful change  in the animal conformation, than any other sup-
posed  agency.   The head of the domestic pig differs as much from
that of the wild one as the Negro from the Caucasian.   At Padua,
it has been observed that fowls  have a cranium perforated by nume-
rous holes, and hollowed  out like a shell.   In some countries, nay
districts, cattle  and sheep  have  or have not horns ; and in other in-
stances sheep have so many of them as to have acquired the epithet
oipolycerateous.  Wild animals continuing to inhabit the place that
bore them, undergo little or no  change, and their fossil remains and
skeletons are similar to the present species ; but nothing can form
a stronger contrast to this specific uniformity than the numerous
varieties to be found in those races that have been crossed in breed
and domesticated  by man.   We  could scarcely imagine  that our
sheep owe their origin to  the mouflon or argali,  (ovis  ammon,) an
animal large in size,  fleet, and  fierce.  The  sheep of  Senegal and
India are those that have  undergone  the least degradation ; while
those  of Barbary, Egypt, Arabia, and Persia, have  experienced
greater degeneration.  We daily see dogs degenerate  before our
eyes, and it has not yet been satisfactorily ascertained whether they
arise from one or several species.  Cuvier, in his diligent researches,
has concluded that our oxen do not originate in the urus or bison of
the ancients, formerly found in various parts  of Europe, and still
met with in the forests of Lithuania, and  on the Carpathian and
Caucasian chains ; but he  is of opinion, from the examination of
fossil remains, that like the camel  and the dromedary, the species
has been destroyed by civilization : the causes of these changes do
not  appear  to  operate by altering the parents,  but  by disposing
them to produce offsprings more or less dissimilar in  colour, form,
and disposition. 
50
CURIOSITIES OF MEDICAL EXPERIENCE.
  Dr. Prichard observes, that  the  negro slaves  of the  third  and
fourth generation differ materially from the natives of Africa.
  In opposition to this doctrine, which  admits  this wonderful de-
generation under the plastic influence of domestication, it has  been
shown that, as far as we know, the  lapse of ages  has  not  produced
any change in the generality of animals.  The zoological descriptions
given by Aristotle twenty-two centuries ago apply distinctly to the
same species of the present day, and every work of art  in which
these animals are represented corroborates the fact.  Geoffroy de St.
Hilaire brought numerous mummies of animals from the sepulchres
of Egypt, and found  no  more  difference between their  skeletons
and the osseous conformation of the present races, than in  the relics
of the human mummy and the bones of our contemporaries.
  The following luminous conclusion of Lawrence illustrates the
application of the foregoing fact : " If new characters are  produced
in the domestic animals  because they have been  taken from  their
primitive condition, and exposed to the operation of many, to them
unnatural causes,—if the  pig  is remarkable  among these for the
number and degrees of his varieties, because it  has been  the  most
exposed to causes of degeneration,—we shall be at no loss to account
for the diversities  in man, who is, in the true, though not in the
ordinary sense of the word, more of a domesticated animal than any
other.  We know the wild state of most of them, but we are igno-
rant of  the  natural wild  condition to which man was  destined.
Probably there is no such state ; because Nature having limited him
in no respect,—having fitted him for every kind of life,every climate,
and every variety of food,—has given him the whole earth for his
abode, and both the organized kingdoms for his nourishment.   Yet
in the wide range through which  the  scale of human cultivation
extends,  we may observe a contrast between the  two extremities,
analogous to that which is seen in the wild and tamed races of  ani-
mals.   The savage may be compared to the former, which range the
earth, uncontrolled by man ; civilized people to the domesticated
breeds of the  same species, whose diversities of form and  colour are
endless."
  It is therefore obvious that the various causes which operate upon
animals  in producing these alterations from  the primitive  race,
although the manner in which they act is unknown, are sufficiently
evident  to  convince us,  by analogy, that they may account for
similar  phenomena in the  human race, without  the  gratuitous
assumption of different original  species, tending to invalidate the
Mosaic account of the creation.   Despite the witticisms of Voltaire
and other philosophers on this subject, sound  philosophy teaches
us to assign the same causes to the same effects without calling in
the adventitious aid of other possible influences ;  and no difficulties
prevent us from recognizing the unity of the human species, which
are not applicable to all other animals. 
INHUMATION OF THE DEAD IN CITIES.
51
      ON THE INHUMATION OF THE DEAD IN  CITIES.

   From time immemorial, medical men  have strongly pointed  out
to municipal authorities the dangers that  arise from  burying  the
dead within the precincts of cities or populous towns.  Impressed
with the same  conviction, ancient legislators only allowed  to  the
most  illustrious citizens a  sepulchre in the temples of the gods.
Euclides was interred in the temple of Diana Euclis, as a reward
for his pious journey to Delphi in search of the sacred fire ;  the
Magnesians erected a  monument  to Themistocles in their forum;
Euphron received the same honour in Corinth  ; and Medea buried
her two sons, Mermerus and Pheres, under the protection of Juno
Acrasa's altars, to guard their ashes from  their persecutors.  Ly-
curgus was perhaps the only Grecian  legislator who  recommended
inhumation  in temples and in cities, to accustom youth to the daily
spectacle of death.
   The primitive  Grecians, it appears, buried  their dead in or about
their  dwellings ;  and  we find a law amongst the Thebans ordaining
that every person who built a house should  provide a repository
for the dead upon his premises.   In latter days, both Grecians and
Romans erected their tombs outside of their cities, and chiefly by
the road-side.
   Both religious  and civil  motives might have dictated the pro-
priety of this regulation.  The traveller, setting out upon a journey,
and passing by the sepulchres of his sires,  could in the presence of
their manes invoke their protection ; and on his return to his penates,
safe from danger, he could put up thanks to the gods for his preser-
vation.   As a prudential measure, the interment of the dead beyond
the walls of their  towns prevented  the fatal  consequences that might
have arisen from extensive putrefaction and infection, and moreover
the burning of bodies would have  exposed  the adjoining buildings
to the danger of frequent fires.  It is also possible that policy dictated
these  sanatory enactments.   The ancients  held the remains of  the
departed as a sacred trust, in the defence of which they were ever
prepared to fall;  and it is not improbable that their warriors would
have  rushed forth to  meet the  invader,  before  he would have
defiled,  by his approach to their cities, the  ashes of their ancestors.
So scrupulously  religious were the Athenians in performing the
funeral rites of the dead, that they put  to  death ten of their com-
manders, after the battle of Arginusae, for not having committed to
the earth the dead bodies that floated on the waters.
   There is  no doubt  but that their dead were  buried in  such a
manner as  not to prove injurious  to the  survivors ;  and Seneca
plainly  says, "Non defunctorum  causa, sed vivorum, inventa  est
sepultura."   The ancients both burned  and buried their dead, but
inhumation appears to  have been the most early and the most  ap-
proved rite.  "Let the dead be buried," says a  law of Cecrops.
Solon justifies the claims of  the Athenians to  the island of Salamis, 
52          CURIOSITIES OF MEDICAL EXPERIENCE.

from  the  circumstance  of the dead bodies interred on  its shores
having been inhumed according to the Athenian custom, with their
feet turned to the west, whereas  the Megarensians turned theirs to
the east.
  In  various instances  the  burial  or the  burning appear to have
been  adopted upon philosophical doctrines.   Democritus, with  a
view  to facilitate resurrection, recommended  interment, and Pliny
thus ridicules the intention :  " Similis et de asservandis corporibus
hominum, et reviviscendis promissa a  Democrito vanitas, qui non
revivixit ipse."   Heraclitus, who considered fire as the  first prin-
ciple, advocated the funereal pile ; while Thales, who deemed water
the chief element, urged the propriety of committing the departed
to the damp bosom of the earth.
  The early Christians inhumed the bodies  of their martyrs in their
temples.   This honour was afterwards  conferred on the remains 4of
distinguished citizens, illustrious prelates, and princes.   The in-
fectious diseases which  at various periods  arose from this custom,
induced Theodosius, in  his celebrated code, strictly to  prohibit it;
and he even ordered that the remains of the dead thus inhumed should
be removed out of Rome.  The vanity of man, and the cupidity of
the priesthood,  soon overruled  these  wise regulations.  Every
family possessing sufficient  means, claimed a vault within  the
churches, and thereby the revenues of the clergy were materially in-
creased.   At all  times, even the dead appeared to have shared  with
the living the obligation of supporting the ministers of the altar.   By
a law of Hippias, the priestesses of  Minerva received a chcenix* of
wheat, and one of barley, with an obolus, for every individual who
departed  this life.   The libitinarii of the Romans  fulfilled the
duties of our undertakers, or rather  of the directors of funeral pomp
of the French ; yet they were attached to the temple of the goddess
Libitina, whose  priests  received a fee in silver for every one who
died, under the  name of Libitinse ratio.    Suetonius informs us,
that in Nero's time the  mortality was so great  during  one autumn,
that  thirty thousand of these silver pieces were deposited in the
fatal  treasury.  To increase  the emoluments of this sacerdotal body,
these libitinarii sold at high prices everything that was requisite
for the funeral ceremonies, received a toll at the city gate through
which the bodies were carried out,  as well  as at the entrance of the
amphitheatre through which the dead  gladiators  were borne away.
Phaedrus  alludes to this speculation in one of his fables  when
speaking  of a miser,

              " Qui circumcidis omnem impensam funeris,
                Libitina ne quid de tuo faciat lucrum."

It is  supposed that this avaricious  divinity owed her name to the
displeasure which it must have occasioned to  all who heard it__
qudd nemini libeat;  but  it is  also possible  that  it was derived
* The chcenix contained a pint. 
             INHUMATION  OF THE DEAD IN CITIES.   '#'     53

 from her bearing poor mortals away, whenever she fancied it, and
 ad libitum.
   In more  modern times, Theodolphus, Bishop of Orleans, com-
 plained  to  Charlemagne that  lucre  and vanity  had converted
 churches into charnel-houses, disgraceful to the clergy and perilous
 to the community.   It was upon this representation that this prince,
 in  his  capitularies,  prohibited  burials in churches under heavy
 penalties.   But the laws of the wisest could not prevent priesthood
 from considering this source of emolument, although endangering
 public salubrity, an indisputable property that could not be meddled
 with without endangering the church.
   In France, Maret  in  1773, and Vicq d'Azyr in 1778, pointed
 out the danger  of this practice in such glaring colours, that govern-
 ment by an  edict only allowed  church interment to certain digni-
 taries ;  but in 1804, by a wise law that should be enforced in every
 civilized country, inhumation  in  cities  was entirely  abolished:
 amongst the numerous well-authenticated evil  results of burying
 in  churches that led to  this wise  prohibition, the following were
 the most striking and circumstantial.
   In 1773, in Saulieu, Burgundy, an epidemic disease arising from
 the inhumation of a corpse in the  church of St. Saturnin  created
 considerable alarm.   The body of a  corpulent person had been
 interred on the 3d of March, and  a woman was buried near it on
 the 20th of April following : both had died of a  reigning fever.
 During the  last burial a  foetid effluvia  arose from the vault, which
 pervaded the whole church; and, out of one  hundred and seventy
 persons who were present, one hundred  and forty-nine were attacked
 with the prevailing malady, although its progress had been arrested
 amongst the other inhabitants of the town.
   In 1774,  a similar  accident occurred in a village near Nantes,
 where several coffins were removed in a vault, to  make room for
 the lord of the manor :  fifteen of the by-standers died from the
 emanation.
   In  1744, one-third of the  inhabitants of Lectouse perished from
 a fever  of a malignant character that manifested itself after  some
 works that  required  the removal  of a burial-ground.   Two  des-
 tructive epidemics swept away large proportions of the population
 of Riom and Ambert, two towns in Auvergne.
   Taking this  matter under consideration in a moral, or  even a
 religious light, it may be questioned whether any advantage can
 accrue from the continuance of the pernicious custom, which during
 the prevalence of epidemic diseases endangers  the life of every
 person  who resides  near a church.  Does it add  to  the  respect
 which the  remains of the dead are entitled to  ?  Certainly not:
 the constant tolling  of  "the sullen  bell"—the daily  cortege of
death that passes before us—the graves  that we hourly contemplate,
perusing monumental records which more frequently excite unsea-
sonable laughter than  serious reflection—everything, in short, tends
to make death of little or no moment, except to those who  have
  July, 1838.—P               7 
54           CURIOSITIES OF MEDICAL EXPERIENCE.

heard the mutes gossiping at their  door.  So accustomed, indeed,
are we from our childhood  to  sepulchral scenes, that, were it not
for the parish-officers, our  church-yards would become the play-
ground of every truant urchin ; and how often do we behold  human
bones become sportive baubles in the wanton pranks of the  idlers,
who group around the grave-digger's preparations !   So callous are
we to all feelings of religious awe when surrounded with the dead,
that our cemeteries are  not unfrequently made the  rendezvous of
licentiousness and the assembly-ground of crime, where thieves cast
lots upon a tomb for the  division of their spoil.
   With what different feelings does the traveller wander over the
cemetery of Pere la Chaise !   I am well aware that many of the
gewgaw attributes  that there decorate the grave, have been  called
the "frippery " " the foppery" of grief;  but does there  exist a
generous, a noble sentiment, that may not be perverted by interested
motives and  hypocrisy into contemptible professions ? how often is
the sublime rendered ridiculous by bad taste  and hyperbolic  affecta-
tion !  When we behold the fond lover pressing to his lips a lock
of hair, or the portrait of all that he  holds dear, the  cold calculating
egotist may call this the frippery of love ;  but the stoic who thinks
thus, has never known  the "sweet pangs" of requited  affection,
when, in bitter  absence,  the  recollection of bliss gone by embodies
in our imagination  the form  we once  pressed  to  our respondent
heart.  The creation of  our busy fancy stands before us, gazing on
us with that tender  look that in happier days greeted the  hour of
meeting ; or trembles in our tears as when we last parted—to meet
perhaps, no  more !   With  what fervour  of religious love  do we
behold the  simple  girl kneeling with  uplift eye and hand on  the
green sod that covers all that endeared  her  to existence, till, over-
whelmed with burning, choking regrets—as  idle as they are uncon-
trolable—she sinks prostrate on the cold  earth  that  now shrouds
that bosom which once nestled her young hopes and fears !   There
have I seen the pale, the haggard youth,—to all  appearances a stu-
dent,—seated  mournfully by the side  of a tomb, absorbed  in deep
thought, heedless of the idlers who  passed by him, looking at him
perhaps with contempt !—heedless of the swift flight of time, which
shrouded him imperceptibly in  darkness,  until  he was warned by
the guardian of the  dead that it  was time to  depart—and to depart
alone !  No inscription recorded the " one loved name :" he would
not expose it to the unfeeling gaze of  the heartless tourist  : all he
would willingly have  traced upon her tomb, would have been " Here
lies my own!"
   The mouldering earth,the fleshless skeleton over which he mourns,
cannot obliterate the  remembrance  of  what she was :  though  her
eyes perhaps no longer exist, still their former languid, liquid look
of bliss, beams freshly in his recollection.  The  lips which once
pronounced the long wished-for avowal  of mutual love  are still
moist and open to memory's embrace—still seem to lisp the delicious
 tu !   Our language is rich, without comparison richer far than the
French ; but we have nothing so endearing, so bewitching, as their 
INHUMATION OF THE DEAD IN CITIES.
55
tu-toiement: our thee's and  thou's are frigid, chilly, when com-
pared to the first toi that escapes inadvertently from beloved lips!
A French writer has beautifully expressed this exquisite moment:
" Le premier tu est  tout-puissant; c'est  le fiat lux de l'ame ; il est
sublime, il debrouille le chaos!"
   Sublime are the  words, "Blessed are the  dead who die in the
Lord!"   Would it be irreligious to say,." Happy are the dead who
die beloved ?"   Their fond and ardent heart had never been chilled
by the withering hand of infidelity and  ingratitude.  They died in
an ecstatic dream of perfect bliss on earth, and  never were awakened
to the world's mocking realities !—they died when they felt and be-
lieved in  their heart of hearts that they were dearly beloved—could
not be loved more dearly; with that conviction, death, in a  worldly
acceptation, can never be  untimely.   Probably, they died still suf-
ficiently animated by a  latent, lingering spark of life, to press the
hand that was so often linked in mutual pressure in  happy days—
to feel  the burning tear of anguish drop on the pale cheek—to hear
the sad, the  awful last word, a Dieu !—an expression that habit has
rendered trivial, but which bears with it, in the tenderest solicitude,
 the most hallowed  meaning ;  since in 'pronouncing it, we  leave all
 that  we cherish under the protection and the  safeguard of our god.
    Affection  deprives death of all horrors.   We shrink not from the
 remains  of  what we cherished.  Despite its impiety, there  was
 something refined in that conviction of  the ancients, who imagined
 that  in bestowing their farewell kiss they inhaled the souls of those
 they loved.   How  sweet are those  lines of Macrobius, originally
 attributed to Plato!
                     " Dum semihulco suavio
                      Meum pullum suavior,
                      Dulcemque florem spiritus
                      Duco ex aperto tramite,
                      Animo tunc asgra et  saucia
                      Cucurrit ad labia mihi!"
 Our  Shakspeare has quaintly, yet beautifully, described this parting
 embrace :
                       " And lips, O you
              The doors of breath, seal with a righteous  kiss
              A dateless bargain to engrossing death."
 Nor was it  only on the dying that the ancients bestowed this mark
 of fondness: Tibullus and Propertius tell us, that,  as their bodies
 were laid on the funeral pile, they clasped them  in  a fond and last
 embrace.
    In regard to the painted crosses, the chaplets, the garlands  of
 flowers,  which mark the hallowed resting-place of the departed, it
 may be said that they are but romantic and poetical expressions of,
 grief.  If it were only real grief that  expressed  itself by outward
 testimonials,  how  soon would mourning be banished as an idle
 expense  !—the "inky cloak," and customary " suits  of solemn black
 __the trappings and the suit  of woes,"  be laid aside !    What a
 different feeling  does the splendid catafalcum, covered with black 
56
CURIOSITIES OF MEDICAL EXPERIENCE.
velvet, studded  with silver tears, and illumined by  thousands of
glaring tapers, excite, when compared with the simple and  verdant
graves which point out the spot " where souls do couch in flowers,
blessed by affection's tears instead of lustral waters.  At all  periods,
amongst  every nation, flowers and certain trees seem to have been
consecrated to the dead.  The Romans planted the wild vine and
the box around their tombs.  Thus Martial to Alcimenes :
            "Accipe, non Phario nutantia pondera saxo,
               Quae cineri vanus dat ruitura labor,
             Sed fragiles buxos, et opacas palmitis umbras,
               Queeque virent lacrymis humida prata meis."
The wealthy assigned a beauteous garden to their departed favour-
ites, as in the instance of  Augustus and Maecenas.   Not only did
they suspend garlands over their tombs, but scattered flowers around
them.  Again in Virgil,
               " Purpureosque jacit flores, ac talia fatur."
  The same custom prevailed amongst the Grecians, who considered
all purple and white flowers acceptable to the dead.   The Thessalians
strewed  Achilles' grave with the  immortal amaranth and  lilies.
Electra complains that the tomb of Agamemnon received no myrtle
boughs ;  in short, instances of this practice  are every where to be
found.  In addition to flowers and perfumes, ribands and hair were
also deposited on their sepulchres.  Electra adorns Agamemnon's
tomb with her locks, and Canace laments that she had not been able
to perform the same rite on her beloved  Macareus.   Poets tell us
that precious ointments and wines were poured upon  their monu-
ments ; and we find, in Euripides, Helen bidding Hermione to take
locks of her hair, honey mixed with milk, and wine, to the sepulchre
of heraunt.  Amongst the Chinese, to thepresent day,the cypressand
the fir shade their cemeteries : the former tree, and attribute of
Pluto, was ever considered funereal, hence called feralis ;  and the
feralia were festivals in honour of the dead, observed by the Romans.
Varro pretends that the cypress was called funereal from funus, as
it emitted an antiseptic aroma.  Pliny and others pretend that il typi-
fied the dead, from its never shooting out fresh sprouts when the
trunk was hewn down.  At any rate, to this hour, it  is planted in
burying-grounds in every civilized country.
   Let us then hope, both for the living and  the dead,  that this cus-
tom, which obtains in France and other countries, will be  adopted
by us, instead of becoming the subject of ridicule.  It is far more
desirable to see families repairing to the tomb of the departed on the
anniversary of  their death, than to behold  them daily passing  by
their remains with cold indifference.
   It would scarcely be believed upon the continent of Europe, that
to this very hour bodies are buried in confined church-yards in the
most crowded  and dirty  parts of  the British metropolis, such as
Russel-court, Drury-Iane, and various other  similar holes  and cor-
ners ; the rudest nations were never  guilty of such  a glaring im-
propriety.   In the kingdom of Siam,  the remains of the opulent are 
BURIED ALIVE.
57
burnt with great ceremony, while the bodies of the poor are carried
out and exposed on mountains : in Ceylon, the remains of the indi-
gent are interred in the neighbouring woods ; the rich consumed on
gorgeous funeral piles.
  The Chinese inhume their dead at some distance from their cities
and towns ; it is only the bodies of the  rich and noble that are al-
lowed to remain on the premises of the family.  Navarette mentions
a curious custom prevalent in one of their provinces, Chan Si, where,
in the event of two betrothed persons  dying at the same period,
they are married while their coffins are still in their former dwelling,
and afterwards burnt together.  The Hottentots bury their dead in
the wild clefts of rocks and caverns ; the Peruvians  bear  theirs to
the neighbouring hills and  mountains.  The Greenlanders  wrap
their dead in furs and skins, and carry them to a considerable dis-
tance from their huts.   In  Kamschatka and  Siberia  bodies  are
covered with snow in caverns and caves ; and the African savages
perform the same funeral rites as the Irish :  their dead  are carried
to the  burying-ground, followed by crowds of relatives  and  other
people, who join the procession, bellowipg and howling most pite-
Ously, "Oh! why  did you die? did you want  anything  that was
ever denied you ?" and after the funeral the survivors invariably
get drunk on  palm-wine, or any  strong liquor they can procure ;
a custom similar to the circumpotatio of the Romans.
                    BURIED  ALIVE.

  Every nation, however uncivilised, holds the idea of being buried
alive in constant dread;  the horrors of such a situation cannot be
described.   Bodies have been  found where the miserable victims
of precipitation had actually devoured the flesh of their arms in the
agonies of  hunger and  despair.  Such was the  fate of John Scott
and the Emperor  Zeno.   It is  to  be feared that this melancholy
occurrence is more frequent than  is supposed, more  especially in
countries where inhumation is speedily resorted  to.  The ancients
were remarkably cautious in this respect, especially when we take
into consideration the climate of Greece  and Rome  during the
summer months.   A law  of Greeee on  this  subject directs that
" the corpse should be laid out at  the relations'  pleasure, but that
the following morning before daylight the funeral procession should
take place."   From  various quarters, however, it appears that the
bodies were kept, three, and  sometimes six  days.   Among  the
Romans several days were  also  allowed to  elapse before interment,
__sometimes seven days ;  during which, loud cries, in which the
deceased was called  by his  name, and the  noise of various instru-
                              >7* 
58
CURIOSITIES OF MEDICAL EXPERIENCE.
ments, resounded near  the body ; this was called the conclamaho,
alluded to by Terence :
                    Desine, jam conclamatum est.
  Lucan also alludes to this custom :
                     -------Sic funere primo
             Attonitae tacuere domus, quum corpora nondum
             Conclamata jacent, nee mater crine soluto
             Exigit ad saevos famularum brachia planctus.
  It would be desirable that  in cases where  interment is speedily
resorted to, a physician attended, in order to ascertain  that death
had actually taken place.  This is  seldom practised, from the com-
mon saying " that it  is  uncivil on the part of a doctor to visit a dead
patient."  Various  means are employed to  ascertain death:  the
looking-glass applied to the mouth of the corpse, to find out whether
breath had departed,  the coldness of the extremities, the falling of
the lower jaw, the rigidity of the limbs, and various  other appear-
ances, are universally  known ; but in the  villages of Italy  and
Portugal, pins and needles are frequently driven under the nails,
in what is vulgarly called the quick, to excite an excruciating pain
if life should not have fled.  The most certain evidence, when
bodies are long kept, is most decidedly the  commencement of de-
composition ; but, in other cases, the action of the voltaic pile on a
bared muscle is an infallible  test.   It is  much to be feared that on
the field of battle and in naval actions many individuals apparently
dead are buried or thrown overboard.   The history of Francois de
Civille, a French  captain, who was  missing at the siege  of Rouen,
is rather curious: at  the storm of the town he was supposed to have
been killed, and  thrown with other bodies in the ditch, where he
remained from eleven in the  morning to half-past six in the even-
ing; when his servant, observing some latent heat, carried the body
into the house.  For five days and  five nights his master  did  not
exhibit the  slightest sign  of life, although the  body gradually re-
covered its warmth.   At the  expiration of this time, the town  was
carried by assault, and  the  servants of an officer belonging to the
besiegers, having found the supposed corpse of Civille, threw it out
of window, with no other covering  than his shirt.   Fortunately
for the captain, he had fallen upon a  dunghill, where he remained
senseless for three days longer, when his body was taken up by his
relations for  sepulture, and ultimately brought to  life.   What was
still  more strange,  Civille,  like  Macduff, had been  " from   his
mother's  womb untimely ripp'd,"  having been brought into  the
world by a Caesarean operation, which his mother did not survive;
and after his last wonderful escape he used  to  sign his  name with
the  addition of  " three times born, three times buried, and three
times risen from the  dead by  the grace of God."
   The fate of the unfortunate Abbe  Prevost,  author of " Manon
Lescaut," and other esteemed novels, was lamentable beyond  ex-
pression.   In passing through the forest of Chantilly, he  was seized
with an  apoplectic  fit: the  body, cold and  motionless, was found 
SPONTANEOUS COMBUSTION.               59
the following morning, and  carried by some wood-cutters to the
village  surgeon, who  proceeded  to open it; it was during this
terrific operation that  the wretched  man was  roused  to a sense of
his miserable condition by the agonies he endured, to expire  soon
after in all the complicated horrors of his situation.
            SPONTANEOUS  COMBUSTION.

   The singular fact  of persons, more especially  individuals who
were in the habit of indulging in the use of spirituous liquors, having
taken fire and been consumed, is authenticated beyond the slightest
doubt.  Little confidence, it is true, can be  placed in the reports
on this subject which  occasionally  appear in the newspapers  of
different countries; but many celebrated practitioners have witnessed
and recorded the event,  and  physiologists  have endeavoured  to
account for its causes.  The celebrated Le Cat mentions a woman
of Rheims who was  found consumed at the distance of  two feet
from her chimney; the room  exhibited no appearance of fire, but
of the unfortunate sufferer nothing was found except her skull, the
bones of the lower extremities, and some vertebras.   A  servant-
girl was accused  of the murder, and condemned to death  ; but on
her appeal, and a subsequent investigation, her innocence was fully
ascertained.
   Joseph Battaglia, a  surgeon of Ponte Bosio, relates the following
case :—Don G. Maria Bertholi, a priest  of Mount Valerius, went
to  the fair of  Filetto, and  afterwards visited a relation in Fenilo,
where he  intended to pass the  night.  Before  retiring to  rest, he
was left reading his breviary ;  when, shortly afterwards, the family
were alarmed  by his loud cries and a strange noise in  his chamber.
On opening <the door, he was lying prostrate  on the floor, and sur-
rounded by flickering flames.  Battaglia was  immediately  sent for,
and on his arrival the unfortunate man was found in a most de-
plorable state.  The  integuments of the arms and the  back were
either consumed or detached in hanging  flaps.  The sufferer was
sufficiently sensible to give an account of himself.   He said that he
felt all of  a sudden as if his arm had received a violent  blow from
a club, and at the same time he saw scintillations of fire rising from
his shirt-sleeves, which  were consumed without having burnt the
wrists; a  handkerchief,  which he had  tied  round his shoulders,
between the shirt and the skin,  was intact.  His drawers were also
sound ; but, strange to say, his silk skull-cap was  burnt, while his
hair bore no  marks  of combustion.  The unfortunate man  only
survived the event four  days, when mortification of the burnt parts
was most extensive, and the body emitted intolerable putrid effluvia.
The circumstances which attended this case would seem to warrant 
60
CURIOSITIES OF MEDICAL EXPERIENCE.
the conclusion that the electric* fluid was the chief agent in the com-
bustion.
  Bianchini relates  the  death  of the Countess Cornelia Bandi, of
Cesena, who  was in the habit  of using frictions of camphorated
spirits.  She was found consumed close to her bed-side.  No traces
of fire could be observed  in the room—the very lights  had been
burnt down to their sockets ;  but the furniture, closets, and linen
were covered with a greyish soot, damp and clammy.
  It is possible that this accident may be attributed to the escape of
hydrogen  gas; the  presence of this  inflammable body in animals
is evident, and it is also  proved that it is liable to ignite.   Morton
saw flames  coming from the body of a  pig.   Bonami and Ruysh,
with a  lighted candle, set fire to the vapour arising from the stomach
of a woman whom  they were  opening. In  the  Memoirs of the
Academy of Science of Paris, of 1751, we find the case of a butcher
who, on opening the body of an ox  that had  died after a malady
which  had swollen him  considerably, was severely burnt  by an
explosion and a  flame which rose  to the height of about five feet.
Sturm, Bartholini, and Gaubius record fiery eructations  in which,
no doubt, phosphorated hydrogen  had been  formed in the stomach,
and inflamed upon coming into  contact with atmospheric air ; the
foetid odour which  invariably accompanies  these combustions ap-
pears to warrant  the conclusion.  It seems evident that this accident
only occurs under  certain conditions of the  body ; generally in
aged persons upwards of sixty years old ; more frequently in women
than in men, and  chiefly when of  indolent  habits, a debilitated
frame,  and  intemperate in their mode of living.  That the body
has been usually  consumed long before the head and the extremities
is evident, since these parts have been more commonly found than
the trunk.   It also has been  ascertained  by observation  that  this
strange accident  seldom occurs in  summer, but principally during
severe cold and frosty weather.   It appears that some experiments
have been recently made  in  the  United States, when  the  blood
flowing from the arm of  a man addicted to spirituous liquors ac-
tually took fire, being placed in contact with a  lighted taper !
         BRASSICA REUCA, OR THE ROCKETcPLANT.

  This plant, now in total disuse, was considered by the ancients as
a most powerful  aphrodisiac, and  consecrated to Venus.   Hence
Martial and Ovid—
                Et Venerem revocans eruca morantem.

                Nee minus erucas jubeo vitare salaces.
  But the most curious document regarding this obnoxious weed is 
CAGLIOSTRO.
61
found in Lobel, who  states  that it was carefully cultivated  in  the
gardens of monasteries and nunneries, to preserve their chastity.
  " Haec eruca, major Hispanica, vel quia in condimentis lautior,
vel ad yenerem vegetior erat, gentilis vulgo vocata fuit; quo voca-
bulo Hispanica et Itala gens designat quamlibet rem aptam reddere
hominem laetum et experrectum ad  munia  vulgo  pausibilia,  ut joca
ludicra et venerem ;  quae commoda ut ex ea perciperet monachorum
saginata caterva, in perquam  amoena Magalonae, insula maris Nar-
bonensis, hujus gentilis erucae semine a fratre quodam Hispano am-
bulone donato, quotannis hocce serebat, et in  mensis cuilibet,  vel
maximo  gulae  irritamento, vel  blandimento,  praeferebat ; nimirum
usu gnara quantum frequens esus conferret ad calorem venereum in
illis otio et frequenti crapula obrutum, ad vigorem animi excitandum,
et praesertim corpus obesum extenuandum,somnumque excutiendum,
quo illi veluti ursi gliresve tota hyeme saginati, ferme adipe suf-
focabantilr.  Verum  isto Hispanico  remedio adeo hilarescebant et
gentiles fibant, ut plerumque recinctis lumbis  castitate, coacti essent
vota et coenobii moenia transilire, et aliquid solatii venerei ab vicinis
plebans efnagitare.  Nobis haec  visa et risa.  Eruca ver6 inibi  su-
perstes set  copiosissima, monumentum futura monasticae castitatis et
rei  veritatis."—Adv. p. 98. '
                       CAGLIOSTRO.

   The first appellation  the Grecians gave  to those who exercised
 the art of healing was iatros.  Originally it merely signified a man
 possessed  of  the power of  relieving accidents, either by manual
 exertions, or the hidden virtues of some amulet  or charm.  Sextus
 tells us than in ancient times it applied to an extractor  of arrows,
 sagittarum extractor.   No doubt, this operation constituted the
 chief business of the surgeon in the infancy of the art;  and warriors
 and heroes themselves performed  it on the field of battle, as fully
 exemplified in Homer.
   The primitive title  of iatros  gradually descended to surgical
 practitioners.   We find that Nebrus and Heraclides were the  chief
 iaters of Cos, the birth-place of Hippocrates.  To this day the same
 name is given to medical men  in  Greece, where, until lately, they
 were in the habit of perambulating the streets, and seeking occupa-
 tion by crying out at certain  distances,  Callos iatros! (The  good
 doctor !)  Balsamo, a celebrated mountebank, being at  Cairo, where
 he died, one of his disciples repaired to Europe, and, anxious to bear
 a singular name, assumed this cry, and  called himself Calloiatro,
 ox, according to the corrupt pronunciation, Cagliostro: his history
 is well known, and he certainly excelled in impudence  and industry
all his predecessors.   These Greek iaters, when  going over to Italy
to practise, called themselves medici, which Cato wanted to change 
62          CURIOSITIES OF MEDICAL EXPERIENCE.
into mendici, for, said  he, "These  creatures, (Illi  Grsecidi,) quit
their native country, where they were starving, to seek their fortune
in Rome (ut fortunam sibi mendicent)."  Under  this austere
censor few of these emigrants dared to settle in the Roman territo-
ries, but after his demise they inundated the country to such an
extent, that it was said that Rome had more physicians than patients
who needed their attendance.  This influx of practitioners occasioned
constant competition, and each iater endeavoured to obtain fame and
emolument by underrating his opponents, and endeavouring  to  in-
troduce  novel doctrines, seeking a livelihood, as  Pliny observed,
inter mortes et mendacia.   It was on  these  adventurers that  the
following epigram was written :
              Fingunt se cuncti medicos,—idiota, sacerdos,
              Judaeus, monachus, histrio, rasor, anus.
   In earlier times, the quackery of these candidates for popularity
became the subject of bitter satire ; and  Martial thus speaks of  the
Iatre  Symmachus :
              Languebam, sed tu comitatus protinus ad me
              Venisti centum, Symmache, discipulis;
              Centum me tetigere manus, aquilone gelata?,
              Non Habui febrem, Symmache; nunc habeo.*
   This Symmachus, it appears, invariably moved abroad surrounded
by hundreds of his disciples, whose cold investigating hands pro-
duced upon their patients the effects to which Martial  alludes.
                      LUNAR INFLUENCE

              ON  HUMAN  LIFE  AND DISEASES.

  The ancients, who were  chiefly guided in their medical notions
by the simple operations of  nature, attached  great importance to
the influence of the moon.   As the stars directed their navigators, so
did the  planets  in some degree regulate their other calculations.
Finding that the state of the weather materially acted  on our organ-
ism, whether in health or in sickness, they attributed  this influence
to the appearance  of the  moon, which generally foretold the vicissi-
tudes in  the atmospheric constitution.  Thus  Hippocrates advises
his son Thessalus to  study numbers and geometry, as the knowledge
of astronomy was indispensable  to a physician, the phenomena of
diseases  being dependent  on the  rising or  setting of the  stars.
Aristotle informs his disciples that the bodies of animals are cold in

  * These lines afford a convincing proof of the minute attention the ancients paid
to the phenomena of nature.  Our poet had no doubt observed the frequent effect
of the application of cold to the surface of the body producing a reaction in the
circulation tending to overcome the noxious agent by a glow of heat, which in
many instances of predisposition may assume a febrile character. 
           LUNAR INFLUENCE ON HUMAN LIFE, ETC.         63

the decrease of the moon, that blood and humours are then put into
motion, and to these revolutions he ascribes various  derangements
of women.   To enter into these medical opinions would be foreign
to the  present purpose, but the notions of the ancients regarding
lunar influence in other matters are curious.
   Lucilius, the Roman satirist, says that oysters and echini fatten
during lunar augmentation ; which also according to Gellius enlarges
the eyes of cats : but that onions throw out their buds in the decrease
of the  moon, and wither in her increase, an  unnatural vegetation,
which  induced the people  of Pelusium to avoid their use.   Horace
also notices the superiority of shell-fish in the increase.
   Pliny not only recognises this influence on shell-fish, but observes,
that the streaks in the livers of rats answer to the days of the moon's
age ; and that ants never work at the  time  of any change:  he also
informs us that the fourth day of the moon determines the preva-
lent wind of the month, and confirms  the opinion of Aristotle that
earthquakes generally happen about the   new moon.  The  same
philosopher maintains that the moon corrupts all slain carcasses she
shines  upon ; occasions  drowsiness  and stupor when  one sleeps
under  her beams, which thaw ice and enlarge all things : he further
contends, that the moon is nourished by rivers, as the sun is fed by
the sea.  Galen asserts that all animals that are born when the moon
is falciform, or at  the half-quarters, are weak, feeble, and short-lived ;
whereas those that are dropped  in  the full moon  are healthy and
vigorous.
   In more modern times the same  wonderful phenomena have been
attributed to this planet.  The celebrated Ambroise Pare observed,
that people were  more subject to the  plague at  the full.   Lord
Bacon  partook of the notions of the ancients,  and he  tells us
that the moon draws forth  heat,  induces putrefaction, increases
moisture, and excites the motion of the spirits ; and, what was sin-
gular, this great man  invariably fell into a  syncope during a  lunar
eclipse.
   Van Helmont affirms, that a wound  inflicted by moonlight is most
difficult to heal ; and he further says, that if a frog be washed clean,
and tied to a stake under the rays of the moon in a cold winter night,
on the  following  morning the body will be found  dissolved into a
gelatinous substance  bearing the shape of the reptile, and that cold-
ness alone without  the lunar action will never  produce the  same
effect.   Ballonius,DiemerbroeckRamazzini, and numerous celebrated
physicians, bear ample testimony to its baneful influence in  pestilen-
tial diseases.   The change observed in the disease of the horse called
moon-blindness is universally known  and admitted.
   Many modern physicians have stated the  opinions of the ancients
as regards lunar influence  in diseases, but none  have pushed  their
inquiries with such  indefatigable zeal as the  late Dr. Mosely ; he
affirms that almost all  people in extreme age die at the new or at
the full moon, and  this he  endeavours  to  prove by the following
records : 
64
CURIOSITIES OF  MEDICAL EXPERIENCE.
Thomas Parr died at the age of 152, two days after the full moon.
Henry Jenkins died at the age of 169, the day of the new moon.
Elizabeth Steward, 124, the day of the new moon.
William Leland, 140, the day after the new moon.
John Effingham, 144, two days after full moon.
Elizabeth Hilton, 121, two days after the full moon.
John Constant, 113, two days after the new moon.
   The doctor then proceeds to show, by the deaths of various illus-
trious persons, that a similar rule holds  good  with the generality of
mankind :
Chaucer, 25th October 1400, the day of the first quarter.
Copernicus, 24th May 1543, day of the last quarter.
Luther, 18th February 1546, three  days after the full.
Henry VIII, 28th January 1547, the day of the  first quarter.
Calvin, 27th May 1564, two days after the full.
Cornaro, 26th April 1566, day of the first quarter,
Queen Elizabeth, 24th March 1603, day of the last quarter.
Shakspeare, 23d April 1616, day after the full.
Camden,  9th November 1623, day before the new moon.
Bacon, 9th April 1626, one day after last quarter.
Vandyke, 9th December 1641, two days after full moon.
Cardinal Richelieu, 4th December  1642, three days before full moon.
Dr. Harvey, 30th June 1657, a few hours before the new moon.
Oliver Cromwell, 3d September 1658, two days after full moon.
Milton, 15th November 1674, two days before the new moon.
Sydenham, 29th December 1689, two days before the full moon.
Locke, 28th November 1704, two days before the full moon.
Queen Anne, 1st August 1714, two days after the full  moon.
Louis XIV, 1st September 1715, a few hours before the full moon.
Marlborough, 16th June 1722, two  days before the full moon.
Newton, 20th March 1726, two days before the  new moon.
George I, 11th  June 1727, three days after new moon.
George II, 25th October 1760, one  day after full moon.
Sterne, 13th September 1768, two days after new moon.
Whitfield, 18th September 1770, a  few hours before the new moon.
Swedenburg, 19th March 1772, the day of the full moon.
Linnaeus, 10th January  1778, two days before the  full moon.
The Earl of Chatham, 11th  May 1778, the day  of the full moon.
Rousseau, 2d July 1778, the day after the first quarter.
Garrick, 20th January 1779, three days after the new moon.
Dr. Johnson, 14th December 1784,  two days after the new moon.
Dr. Franklin, 17th April 1790, three days after the new moon.
Sir Joshua Reynolds, 23d February 1792, the day after the new moon.
Lord Guilford,  5th August 1792, three days after the full moon.
Dr. Warren, 23d June 1797, a day  before the new moon.
Burke, 9th July 1797, at the instant of the full moon.
Macklin, 11th July 1797, two days after full moon.
Wilkes, 26th Decenber 1797, the day of the first quarter.
Washington, 15th December 1799, three days after full moon.
Sir W. Hamilton, 6th April 1803, a few hours before the full moon.

   The doctor winds up this  extract from the bills of  mortality by
the following appropriate remark,  " Here we see the moon, as she
shines on all  alike, so she makes no distinction of persons in her
influence:"
              "      ■ aequo pulsat pede pauperum  tabernas,
                Regumque turres."
                                                   Hon. Lib. i. Od. 4. 
SPECTACLES.
65
  Not only did the  ancients  consider the  animal creation as con-
stantly under planetary influence, but all vegetable productions and
medicinal substances were subject to its laws.   The Druids of Gaul
and Britain gathered the famed  misletoe with a golden knife  when
the moon was six days old.  The vervain, held in such high repute
by the Romans, was  gathered, after libations of honey and wine, at
the rising of the dog-star, and with  the left hand, and thus collected,
served for various sacerdotal and  medical  purposes: its branches
were employed to sweep the temples of Jupiter; it was used in ex-
orcisms for sprinkling lustral water ;  and moreover it cured fevers,
the bite of venomous reptiles, and  appeased discord  ; hence it was
borne by  those heralds  who were  sent to sue  for  peace, called
verbenarii; and when its benign powers were  shed over the festive
board, mirth and good temper were sure to prevail.   So generally
and so highly  appreciated was  this all-powerful  plant, that  Pliny
tells us,
       Nulla herba Romanae nobilitatis plus habet quam hierabotane.
However, it  is somewhat doubtful  whether  the vervain of  the
ancients  was  similar  to  the  plant that now bears that name.   It  ^
would appear that formerly the  appellation of verbenas or sagmina
was given to various plants employed in religious ceremonies ;  and
branches of pine-tree, of laurel,  and of myrtle  were sometimes thus
denominated.   Virgil says in his Eclogues,
              Verbenasque adole pingues, et mascula thura.
Now, the epithets of pingues and thura cannot apply to our vervain,
but to some resinous production.
   Medicine at that period  might have been called an astronomic
science ;  every medicinal substance was under a  specific influence,
and to this day the R which precedes prescriptions, and is admitted
to represent the first  letter of  recipe, was in fact the symbol of
Jupiter, under  whose special protection  medicines were exhibited.
Every part of  the body was then considered under the influence of
the zodiacal constellations, and Manilius  gives  us  the following
description of their powers :
             Namque Aries capiti, Taurus cervicibus haeret;
             Brachia sub Geminis  censentur, pectora Cancro;
             Te, scapulae, Nemaee, vocant, teque ilia, Virgo;
             Libra colit clunes, et  Scorpius inguine regnat;
             Et femur Arcitenens,  genua et Capricornus amavit;
             Cruraque defendit Juvenis, vestigia, Pisces.
                                            Jlstronomicon, lib.  1.
                      SPECTACLES.

  The origin of these  valuable instruments is uncertain: that the
ancients were acquainted with the laws of refraction is beyond all
doubt, since they made use of glass globes filled with water to pro-
  July, 1838.—$             8 
 66           CURIOSITIES OF MEDICAL EXPERIENCE.

 duce combustion; and in Seneca we find the following very curious
 passage—" Litterae, quamvis minutae et obscurae, per vitream pilam
 aqua plenam majoresclarioresquecernuntur ;" yet thirteen centuries
 elapsed ere spectacles were known.   It is supposed that they were
 first invented by Salvino or Salvinio Armati;  but he  kept his
 discovery secret, until Alessandro de Spina, a monk in Pisa, brought
 them  into use in  1313.  Salvino was considered their inventor,
 from the epitaph on his tomb in the cathedral church in Florence :
 "Qui giace Salvino d'Armato, degl' Armati di Firenze, inventor
 delli occhiali, &c.  1317."  Another circumstance seems  to add
weight to this presumption :  Luigi Sigoli, a contemporary  artist,
in a painting of the Circumcision, represents the high-priest Simeon
with a  pair of spectacles, which from his advanced age, it was sup-
posed he might have needed on the  occasion.
                        LEECHES.

  The origin  of their introduction in  the  practice of medicine is
uncertain.  They were well known to the ancients under the name
of hirudo ; thus Horace :
             " Non missura cutem nisi plena cruoris hirudo."
And Pliny states  that elephants were often cruelly tormented by
them when they swallowed any of these worms  in  their water :
" Cruciatum  in  potu maximum sentiunt hausta hirudine, quam
sanguisugam vulgo coepisse appellari adverto."
  The collection of leeches constitutes a lucrative trade on the Con-
tinent, but more particularly in France, where it is called a leech-
fishery.  The following is an interesting description of the miserable
people engaged in this occupation from the Gazette des Hbpitaux.
  " If ever you pass  through La Brenne, you will see a. man, pale
and straight-haired with a woollen cap on  his head, and his legs and
arms naked;  he walks along the borders of a marsh, among  the
spots left dry by the  surrounding  waters.  This man is a leech-
fisher.   To see him from a distance,—his wo-begone aspect, his
hollow eyes, his livid lips, his singular gestures,—you would  take
him for a maniac.  If you observe him  every now and then raising
his legs and examining them one after another, you might  suppose
him a fool ;  but he  is  an intelligent leech-fisher.   The  leeches
attach  themselves  to his  legs  and feet  as he moves  among their
haunts; he feels their bite, and gathers  them  as  they cluster about
the roots of the bulrushes and  aquatic weeds, or beneath the stones
covered with a green and slimy moss.  He may  thus collect ten or
twelve dozen in three or four hours.  In  summer, when the leeches
retire into  deep water, the  fishers  move  about upon rafts made of
twigs and rushes.  One of these traders was known to  collect, with 
SOMNAMBULISM.
67
     the aid of his children, seventeen thousand five hundred leeches in
     the course of a few months; these he had  deposited in  a reservoir,
     where, in one night, they were all frozen en masse."  But conge-
     lation does not kill them, and  they can easily be thawed into life,
     by melting the ice that surrounds them.  Leeches, it appears, can
     bear much rougher usage than one might imagine: they are packed
     up closely in wet bags, carried on pack-saddles, and it is well known
     that they will attach themselves with more avidity when rubbed in
     a dry napkin previous to their application.  Leech-gatherers are in
     general short-lived,  and  become early victims to agues, and  other
     diseases  brought on  by the damp and noxious air that constantly
     surrounds them ; the effects of which they seek  to  counteract by
     the use of strong liquors.
       Leeches kept  in a glass bottle may serve as a barometer, as they
     invariably ascend or descend in the water as  the weather changes
     from dry to wet, and they generally come to the surface prior to a
     thunder-storm.  They are  most  voracious, and are frequently ob-
     served to destroy one another by suction ; the strong ones attaching
     themselves  to the weaker.
        The quantity  of blood drawn  by leeches  has been a subject of
     much controversy ;  but it is pretty nearly ascertained that a healthy
!     leech, when fully gorged, has extracted  about half an ounce.*
        Many serious accidents have arisen from leeches being swallowed
     in  the water  of swamps and  marshes, too frequently drunk  with
     avidity by  the  thirsty and  exhausted  soldier.   Larrey mentions
     several cases of the kind during the French campaign in Egypt, and
     two fatal instances fell under my observation during the Peninsular
     war ; draughts of salt-water, vinegar, and various stimulating injec-
     tions could  not loosen their hold, and they were too deeply attached
     in the throat to  be  seized with  a forceps.  Zacutus Lusitanus had
     witnessed the same unfortunate results.   The  leech thus swallowed
     is generally the  hirudo Mpina.
       Norfolk supplies the greater part of the leeches brought to London,
     but they are also found in Kent, Suffolk, Essex,  and Wales.   The
     best are the green, with yellow stripes along the body.   The horse-
     leech, which is used in the  north of Europe,  but  also  common in
     England is  entirely brown, or only marked with a marginal yellow
     line.   A popular belief prevails, that the application of this variety
     is most dangerous, as they  are said to suck out all the blood in the
     body.
                    SOMNAMBULISM.

  This singular aberration»!from our natural  habits may be con-
sidered an intermediate state between  sleeping and  being  awake.

  * The common American leech will not extract half this quantity.—Edit. 
6S
CURIOSITIES OF MEDICAL EXPERIENCE.
This infraction of physiologic laws may therefore be looked upon as
a morbid condition.  Physicians have given it various denominations,
founded on  its phenomena, nocti-vagatio, nocti-surgium, noct-
ambulatio,  somnus vigilans, vigilia  somnans.   Somnambulism
was well known by the ancients ;  and Aristotle tells, us, " there are
individuals who rise in their sleep, and walk about seeing as clearly
as those that are awake."
  Diogenes Laertius states that Theon the philosopher was a sleep-
walker.  Galen slept whilst on a road, and pursued his journey until
he was awakened by tripping on a stone.  Felix Plater fell  asleep
while playing on the lute, and  was only startled from his  slumbers
by the fall of the instrument.  There is no doubt  but that  in som-
nambulists  the intellectual functions are not only active, but fre-
quently more developed than when  the individuals are  awake.
Persons in this state have been known  to write and correct verses,
and solve difficult problems, which they could not have done at other
times.   In their actions and locomotion they are more cautious, and
frequently  more dexterous, than  when awake.  They have been
known to saddle and bridle horses, after having dressed themselves ;
put on boots and spurs, and afterwards  ride considerable  distances
from home and back again.  A sleep-walker wandering abroad in
winter complained of being frozen, and asked for a glass of brandy,
but expressed violent  anger on being offered a glass of water.  The
celebrated sect of Tremblers,'\n the Cevennes mountains,used to rove
about in their sleep, and, although  badly acquainted with the French
language, expressed themselves clearly  and  put up prayers in that
tongue, instead of the  Latin Pater and  Credo which they had been
taught.   A singular phenomenon in some cases of this affection is that
of walking about without groping, whether the eyelids are closed or
open.   Somnambulism has been known to be hereditary :  Horstius
mentions  three brothers who were affected  with it  at  the same
period ; Willis knew a whole  family subject to it.  It is not  gene-
rally known that the subject of the  French dramatic piece called
" La Somnambule" was founded on fact.
   The faculty of conversing in a state of somnambulism is too well
authenticated  to be doubted, although  in many instances it was a
fraudulent  trick of animal  magnetism.  This singular power has
been  recorded by  several  of  the ancient writers, many  of whom
pretended that divine inspiration illumined the sleepers.  Cicero tells
us that when the Lacedaemonian  magistrates were embarrassed  in
their administration, they went to sleep in the temple of Pasiphae,
thus named from Pasiphainein, or  ' communicative to all.'   Strabo
mentions a cavern, sacred to Pluto and Juno, where the sick came
to consult sleeping priests.   Aristides is said to have delivered  his
 opinion while fast asleep in the temple  of Esculapius.  It would be
 endless to quote all the authorities on this  subject.  Modern mag-
 netisers, however, outstrip the ancients in the wonders thev relate
 in regard to somnambulent faculties developed  by magnetism.  In
 1829, Cloquet, a very distinguished Parisian  surgeon, assisted  by 
MEDICAL POWERS OF MUSIC.
69
Dr. Chapelain, removed the cancerous breast of a lady in her mag-
netic sleep, during which she continued her conversation, uncon-
scious of the operation, which lasted twelve minutes.
  The faculty of seeing  through the closed  eyelids was fully sub-
stantiated in the presence of a commission of investigation appoint-
ed by the Academy of  Medicine  of Paris, and  in the presence of
fifteen persons.   They found  a somnambulist, of  the name of Paul,
to all appearance fast asleep. On being requested to rise and approach
the window, he complied immediately.   His eyes  were then covered
in such a manner as not  to awaken  him, and a pack of cards having
been shuffled by several persons, he recognised them  without the
slightest hesitation.  Watches were then shown him, and he named
the hour and minute, though the hands  were repeatedly altered.  A
book was then presented to him,—it happened to be a collection of
operas,—and he read Cantor et Pollux instead of Castor et Pollux
Tragidie Lyrique : a volume of Horace was then submitted to him
but not knowing Latin, he returned it, saying," This is some church-
book."   The celebrated Dr. Broussais laid before  the same somnam-
bulist a letter he had  drawn from  his pocket; to his utter surprise
he read the first lines : the doctor then wrote a few words on a piece
of paper in very small characters, which the somnambulist also read
with the utmost facility ;  but what wasstill more singular, when letters
or books were  applied to his breast or between  the shoulders, he
also  perused them with  equal accuracy and ease.  In  one instance
the queen of clubs was  presented  to his  back ;  after  a moment's
hesitation he said, " This is a  club—the nine ;" he was informed
that  he was in error, when he recovered himself and said, " No, 'tis
the queen :" a ten of  spades was then applied, when he hastily ex-
claimed, " At anyrate this is not  a court-card ;  it  is—the  ten of
spades."
  The many astute tricks played  by animal magnetisers, and fre-
quently detected, naturally induced most persons to doubt the ve-
racity of these experiments ;  but  when  we find that they were
witnessed by seventy-eight medical men, most of them decidedly
hostile to  magnetism, and sixty-three intelligent  individuals not
belonging to the profession, and in  every respect disinterested, what
are we to say ?—perhaps, exclaim with Hamlet,
           There are more things in heaven and earth, Horatio,
           Than are dreamt of in your  philosophy !
          MEDICAL POWERS  OF  MUSIC.

  The powerful influence of music on our intellectual faculties, and
consequently on our  health, has long been  ascertained, either in
raising the energies of the mind, or producing despondency and 
70
CURIOSITIES OF MEDICAL EXPERIENCE.
melancholy associations of ideas.  Impressed with its sublime nature
the ancients gave it a divine origin.   Diodorus tells us that it was
a boon bestowed on mankind after the deluge, and owed its discovery
to the sound produced by the wind when whistling through the reeds
that grew on the banks of the Nile.  This science became the early
study of philosophers and  physicians.  Herophilus explained the
alterations of the pulse by the various modes and rhythms of music.
In the sacred writings we have many instances of  its  influence in
producing an aptitude for divine consolation.  The derangement of
Saul yielded to the harp of David, and the hand of the  Lord came
upon Elisha as the minstrel played.  In Egypt certain songs were
legally ordained in theeducationof youth,topromotevirtueand moral-
ity.  Polybius assures us that music was required to soften the man-
ners of the Arcadians, whose climate was heavy and impure ; while
the inhabitants of Cynaethe, who neglected this science, were the most
barbarous in Greece.  The  medical  power  of harmonious sounds
was also fully admitted.   We find  Pythagoras directing certain
mental disorders to be treated by music.  Thales, called from Crete
to Sparta, cured a disastrous  pestilence by its means.   Martinus
Capella affirms that fevers were thus  removed.  Xenocrates cured
maniacs by melodious sounds,  and  Asclepiades conquered deafness
with a trumpet.  In  modern times  it has been  related of a  deaf
lady that she could  only  hear while  a  drum  was beating, and  a
drummer was kept in the house for the purpose of enabling her to
converse.   Aulus Gellius tells us that a case of sciatica was  cured
by gentle modulations, and Theophrastus maintains that the  bites
of serpents and other venomous reptiles can  be relieved by similar
means.  Ancient physicians, who  attributed  many diseases to the
influence of evil spirits, fancied that harmonious sounds drove them
away, more especially when accompanied by incantations  ; and we
find in Luther, " that music is one of the most beautiful and glorious
gifts of God, to which Satan is  a bitter enemy."
  In more modern times we have several instances of the medical
powers of* music, and the effect produced by Farinelli  on Philip of
Spain is well known.  This monarch was in such a deplorable state
of despondency from ill  health, that he refused to  be shaved or to
appear in public.  On the arrival of  Farinelli, the Queen was re-
solved to try the power of music, and a concert was ordered in a
room adjoining the King's chamber : Farinelli  sang one of his best
airs, which so overcame  Philip thathe desired he might be brought
into his presence, when  he promised  to  grant  him any reasonable
request  he might  make.  The performer, in  the  most respectful
manner, then begged of the King to allow himself to be shaved and
attended by his domestics, to  which Philip consented.   Farinelli
continued to sing to him daily  until a  perfect cure  was effected.__
The story of Tartini  is rather curious : in  a  moment of musical
enthusiasm he  fell asleep, when the devil appeared to him playing
on  the  violin, bidding him with a horrible grin to play as well as
he  did;  struck with the  vision, the  musician awoke, ran to his 
MEDICAL POWERS OF MUSIC.
71
harpsichord,  and produced  the  splendid sonata which  he entitled
" the Devil's."
  Curious anecdotes are related of the effect of music upon animals.
Marville has given  the following amusing account of  his experi-
ments.  " While a man  was playing  on a trump-marine, I made
my observations on a cat, a  dog, a horse, an ass, a hind,  some cows,
small birds, and a cock and hens, who were in  a  yard under the
window : the cat was not the least affected ; the horse stopped short
from time to  time, raising his head  up now and then  as he was
feeding on the grass ;  the dog continued for above an hour seated
on his  hind-legs, looking steadfastly  at the player ;  the  ass did not
discover the least indication of his being touched, eating his thistles
peaceably ; the hind lifted up her large wide ears,, and seemed very
attentive ;  the  cows slept a little,  and, after  gazing  at us, went
forward ;   some little birds that were  in  an  aviary,  and others
on trees and  bushes, almost  tore  their little throats with  singing ;
but  the cock who minded  only his hens, and  the  hens  who
were solely  employed  in scraping  a  neighbouring dunghill,  did
not  show  in  any manner  that  the trump-marine  afforded  them
pleasure."  That dogs  have an ear  for music cannot be doubted :
Steibelt had one  which evidently knew one piece of music from
the other : and a modern composer, my friend Mr. Nathan, had a
pug-dog that frisked merrily about the room when a lively piece
was played, but when  a slow melody  was performed, particularly
Dussek's Opera 15, he would seat himself  down  by the piano, and
prick up his ears with intense attention until the player came to the
forty-eighth bar ;  as the  discord was  struck, he would yell most
piteously, and  with  drooping tail seek refuge from the unpleasant
sound under the chairs or tables.*
  Eastcot relates that a hare left  her  retreat to listen to  some chor-
isters who were singing on the banks  of the  Mersey, retiring
whenever they ceased singing, and reappearing as they recommenced
their strains.   Bossuet asserts, that an officer confined in the Bastille
drew forth mice and spiders to beguile his  solitude  with his  flute ;
and  a mountebank in Paris had taught rats  to dance on the rope in
perfect time.   Chateaubriand states  as a positive fact, that he  has
seen the rattle-snakes in Upper Canada appeased by a musician ; and
the concert given in Paris to two elephants in the Jardin des Plantes
leaves no  doubt in regard to  the effect of harmony on  the  brute
creation.   Every  instrument seemed to operate distinctly as  the
several modes of the pieces were slow or lively, until the  excitement
of these intelligent creatures had  been carried to such an  extent that
further experiments were deemed dangerous.
  The associations produced by national airs, and  illustrated by the
effect of the Bans des Vaches upon  the Swiss,  are too well known
to be related  ;  and  the  mal de pays, or nostalgia, is an affection
aggravated by  the fond airs of infancy and  youth during the  sad
hours of emigration, when the aching heart lingers  after home and
  *Much curicus matter will be found in  Mr. Nathan's  valuable work upon
music, entitled, " Musurgia vocalis." 
72
CURIOSITIES OF MEDICAL EXPERIENCE.
early ties of friendship and of love.  It is somewhat singular, but
this disease is frequent among  soldiers in countries where they are
forcibly made to march ; but is seldom, if ever, observed in the fair
sex, who most probably seek for admiration in every clime.
  The whims of musical composers have often been most singular ;
Gluck  composed in a garden, quaffing champaign ;  Sarti, in  a dark
room ;  Paesiello, in his bed ;  Sacchini, with a favourite cat perched
upon each shoulder.  The extraordinary fancies of Kutswara, com-
poser of the " Battle of Prague," are too well known, and led to his
melancholy, but unpitied end.
  Great as the repute of the most popular musical performers, whe-   »
ther vocal  or instrumental, in the present day  may be, and enormous
as the  remuneration may  seem, the ancients were more profuse in
their generosity to musicians and the factors of musical  instruments.
Plutarch, in his Life  of Isocrates, tells  us that he was the son of
Theodorus a flute-maker,  who had realised so large a fortune by his
business, that he was able to vie with the richest Athenian  citizens
in keeping up the chorus for his tribe at festivals and religious cere-
monies.  Ismenias, the celebrated musician of Thebes, gave three
talents, or 581/. 5s. for a flute.  The extravagance of this performer
was so  great, that Pliny informs us he was indignant at one of his
agents  for having purchased a valuable emerald for  him at Cyprus
at too  low a price, adding, that by his penurious conduct he  had
disgraced the gem.  The vanity of artists in those days appears to
have been  similar to  the  present  impudent pretensions  of many
public  favourites.   Plutarch relates of this same Ismenias, that being
sent for to play at  a sacrifice, and having performed for some time
without the appearance of any favourable omen  in the victim, his
employer snatched the instrument out of his hand, and began to play
himself most execrably.  However, the happy omen appeared, when
the delighted bungler exclaimed that the gods preferred his execution
and taste.   Ismenias cast upon him a smile of contempt, and replied,
" While I played, the gods  were so enchanted that they deferred the
omen to hear me the  longer ; but they were  glad to get rid of
you upon  any terms."  This was nearly as absurd  as  the boast of
Vestris the Parisian  dancer, who,  on  being  complimented  on his
powers of remaining long in the air, replied,  "that he  could figure
in the  air for half an hour, did he not fear to  create jealousy among
his comrades."
  Amoebaeus the harper, according to Athenaeus, used to receive an
Attic  talent of 193/. 15*. for each  performance.  The  beautiful
Lamia, the most celebrated female flute-player, had a temple de-
dicated to her under the name of Venus Lamia.   The  Tibicinse, or
female flute-players, who formed collegiate bodies, were  as celebrated
for their talent and  their  charms, as  for  their licentiousness and
extravagance.   Their performances were  forbidden by the  Theo-
dosian  code, but with little success ; since Procopius informs  us that,
in the  time of Justinian, the sister of the Empress Theodora, who
was a renowned amateur tibicina, appeared on the stage without any
other dress than a slight and transparent scarf. 
        THE FOOD OF MANKIND —ITS USE AND ABUSE.      73

  In the early ages of Christianity ? the power of music in adding to
religious solemnity was fully appreciated, and many of the fathers
and most  distinguished prelates cultivated the auxiliary  science.
St. Gregory expressly sent over Augustine the  monk, with  some
singers, who entered  the city of Canterbury singing a litany in the
Gregorian chant, which extended the number of the four tones of
St. Ambrose to eight.  A  school for church music was established
at Canterbury ; and it was also taught in the diocese of Durham and
Weremouth.   St. Dunstan was a celebrated musician, and  was ac-
cused of having invented  a  most wonderful magic harp ; it was,
perhaps, to prove  that the  accusation was false, that he took the
devil by the nose with a pair of tongs.  This ingenious saint is said
to be the inventor of organs,  one of which he bestowed on the abbey
of Malmesbury. It appears, however, that instruments resembling
the organ were known as early as 364, and were described in  a Greek
epigram attributed to Julian the  Apostate, in which  he says, "I
beheld reeds of a new species, the growth of each other, and a brazen
soil:  such as are not agitated by winds, but by a blast that rushes
from a leathern cavern beneath their roots ; while a robust  mortal,
running with swift fingers over the concordant keys, makes them,
as they smoothly dance, emit melodious sounds."                .
  The influence of music on the fair  sex  has long been acknow-
ledged, and this advantage has proved fatal to some artists who had
recourse to its fascinating powers:  Mark Smeaton was involved in
the misfortunes of  Anne Boleyn ;  Thomas Abel, who taught har-
mony to Catharine, met with a similar fate : and David Rizzio was
not more fortunate.  They were, perhaps, too much impressed  with
the ideas of Cloten :  " I am advis'd to give her musick o' mornings ;
they say it will penetrate."
  It is worthy of remark, that no woman was ever known  to excel
in musical composition, however brilliant her instrumental execution
might have been.   The same observation has been made in regard to
logical disquisitions.   To what are  we to attribute this exception  ?
—are we to consider these delightful tormentors as essentially un-
harmonious and illogical ?   We leave this important question to
phrenologists.
              THE  FOOD OF  MANKIND:

                     ITS use and abuse.

  Destined  by Providence to wander over the globe, and to Jive
in various climes, man is essentially an omnivorous animal.  Ac-
cording to the country he inhabits, its  productions and the nature
of his pursuits, his mode of living differs.  The inhabitant of  cold
and sterile  regions on the borders of the ocean becomes ichthy- 
74          CURIOSITIES OF MEDICAL EXPERIENCE.
ophagous; and fish—fresh, dried, smoked, or salted—is his principal
nourishment.  The bold huntsman lives upon the game he pursues;
while the nomadian shepherd, who tends  his herd  over boundless
steeps, supports himself on the milk of his flock.  In warm countries,
fruits and vegetables constitute the chief support of life; and there
the disciples of  Pythagoras can  luxuriate on the rich  produce of
a bountiful  soil, solely debarring themselves from beans, which,
like all flesh, they consider to have been  created by putrefaction.
What would these good people have done among the Scythians and
the Getae, who, according to Sidonius Apollinaris, mingled  blood
and milk for food—
              -------------Solitosque omentum
              Lac potare Getas, ac pocula tingere venis ;
or the stunted natives of the arctic regions, who feed upon whales
and seals, drink deep potations of train-oil, and consider the  warm
blood of the seal an exquisite beverage, dried herrings moistened
with blubber a dainty, and  the flesh of the seal half frozen in snow
during winter, or half corrupted in the  earth in summer, the most
delicious morsel.   The semi-barbarous Russians,  who during  the
late wars enjoyed the abundant bills of fare of France and  Italy,
accustom themselves  easily  to their disgusting  diet; and  their
troops, who live  amongst the Samoiedes, thrive uncommonly well
on raw flesh and  rein-deer  blood.  It is in temperate regions that
man displays his  omnivorous  propensities: there animal food  can
be abundantly procured ;  and every description of grain, roots, and
fruits, easily cultivated.   It is as we pass from these middle climes
towards the poles, that animal substances are more exclusively con-
sumed ; and towards the equator  that we  enjoy refreshing fruits,
and nourishing  roots and vegetables.  So scarce  is food in  some
desolate  tracts of the globe, that we find the wandering Indian
satisfying his cravings with earth  and  clay; and Humboldt informs
us that the  Ottomaques, on  the banks of the Mata and the Oronoco,
feed on a fat unctuous earth, in the choice of which  they display
great epicurean  skill, and  which they knead into balls of  four or
six inches in diameter, and  bake slowly over the fire.   When  about
to be used, these clods are soaked in water, and each individual
consumes about  a pound of them in the day;  the only addition
which they  occasionally make to  this  strange fare consists in  small
fish, lizards, and fern-roots.
  The art of cookery has improved, no doubt, with the progressive
advance and development  of our  other institutions;  and it  seems
to prove that the  employment of all kinds of food is  as natural to
man, as a stationary uniformity and  restriction  to  one species of
aliment is  to animals.  A  most  erroneous idea has  prevailed re-
garding the use of animal food, which has been considered  as  the
best calculated to render mankind robust and courageous.   This is
disproved by observation.  The miserable and timid inhabitants of
Northern Europe and Asia  are  remarkable for their  moral and
physical debility, although they  chiefly live on fish  or raw  flesh •
whereas the athletic Scotch and Irish are certainly not weaker than 
          THE FOOD OF MANKIND —ITS USE AND ABUSE.      75

 their English neighbours, though consuming but little meat.  The
 strength and agility of the  negroes is well  known, and the South
 Sea islanders can vie in bodily exercises with  our stoutest seamen.
 We have reason to  believe, that, at the most glorious  periods of
 Grecian and Roman power, their armies were principally subsisted
 upon bread, vegetables, and fruits.
   Man by his natural structure was created omnivorous, and there
 is no doubt but that a judicious mixed alimentation is the best cal-
 culated to insure health and vigour, and enable  the ambitious or the
 industrious wanderer to spend  his winters near the  poles, colonize
 beneath the equator, or inhabit regions where the hardiest of animals
 must starve and  die.  The teeth, the jaws, all  the digestive organs
 fit him for this mode of existence.  There is a curious passage in
 one of Dr. Franklin's letters in regard to wine;  he pleasantly ob-
 serves, that the only animals created to drink water are those who
 from their conformation are able to  lap  it from the surface of the
 earth, whereas all those who can carry their hands to their mouth
 were destined to enjoy the juice of the grape.
   The diversity of substances which we  find  in the  catalogue of
 articles of food is as great as the variety with which the art or the
 science  of cookery prepares them;  the notions of the ancients on
 this most important subject are worthy of remark.  Their  taste
 regarding meat was various.  Beef they considered  the most sub-
 stantial food ; hence it  constituted the chief nourishment of their
 athletas.   Camels' and dromedaries' flesh was much esteemed, their
 heels more especially.   Donkey-flesh was in high repute; Maecenas,
 according to Pliny, delighted in it;  and the wild ass, brought from
 Africa, was compared  to venison.  In more modern times we find
 Chancellor Dupret having asses fattened for his table.  The hog
 and the wild boar appear to  have been  held in great estimation ;
 and a hog was  called " animal  propter convivia  natum;"  but the
 classical  portion of the sow was  somewhat singular-—"vulva nil
 dulcius ampla\"  Their mode  of killing swine was as refined in
 barbarity as in  epicurism.  Plutarch  tells  us that the gravid sow
 was actually  trampled  to death, to form a delicious  mass fit for the
 gods.  At other times, pigs  were slaughtered with  red-hot  spits,
 that the blood might not be lost"; stuffing a pig  with assafcetida and
 various small animals,  was  a luxury called  "  porcus  Trojanus ;"
 alluding,  no doubt, to the  warriors who  were concealed in  the
 Trojan  horse.   Young bears, dogs,  and foxes, (the  latter  more
 esteemed when fed upon grapes,) were  also much admired by the
 Romans; who were also so fond of various birds, that some consular
 families assumed the names of those they most esteemed.   Catius
 tells us how to  drown  fowls  in Falernian wine, to render  them
 more  luscious  and tender.   Pheasants  were  brought over  from
 Colchis,  and deemed at one time such a rarity, that one of the
 Ptolemies bitterly lamented his having never tasted any.  Peacocks
were carefully reared in the island  of Samos, and sold  at such a
high price, that  Varro informs  us they fetched yearly upwards of 
76
CURIOSITIES OF MEDICAL EXPERIENCE.
2000/. of our money.  The guinea-fowl was considered  delicious ;
but,  wretched people! the Romans  knew not the turkey,  a  gift
which  we  moderns owe to the  Jesuits.   Who  could  vilify  the
disciples of Loyola after this information!  The ostrich was much
relished; Heliogabalus delighted  in  their brains, and Apicius es-
pecially commends them.   But, of all  birds, the flamingo was  not
only esteemed as a bonne-bouche, but most valuable  after dinner;
for, when the gluttonous sensualists  had eaten  too much, they in-
troduced one of its  long scarlet  feathers  down  their throats, to
disgorge their dinner.   The modern  gastronome is perhaps  not
aware that  it is to the ancients he owes his delicious  fattened duck
and  goose  livers,—the inestimable foies  gras of France.  Thus
Horace :
              Pinguibus et ficis pastnm jecur anseris albi.
The  swan was also fattened by  the Romans, who first deprived it
of sight; and cranes were by no means despised by people of taste.
   While the feathered creation  was doomed to form part of ancient
delights, the waters yielded their share of enjoyments, and several
fishes were immortalised.   The mursena  Helena was educated in
their ponds, and rendered so tame that he  came to be killed  at the
tinkling of his master's bell or the sound of his voice.
                Natat ad magistrum delicata muraena,
says  Martial.  Hirtius ceded six thousand  of these fish to Caesar as
a great favour, and Vitellius delighted  in their  roe.   The fame of
the lamprey, or the muslela of Ausonius  and Pliny, is  generally
known ; and  the sturgeon, the acipenser sturio, was brought to
table with  triumphant pomp:  but the turbot, one  of which  was
brought to  Domitian from Ancona, was considered  such a present
from the gods, that this emperor assembled the senate to admire it.
Soles were  also so delectable, that, punning on the word solea, they
were called the soles of the gods: the dorad, sparus auratus, was
consecrated to Venus; the labrus scarus was called the brain of
Jupiter, and Apuleius and Epicharmus  maintain  that its very
entrails would be relished in Olympus.
   The garum, ox celebrated fish-sauce  of  the Romans, was princi-
pally made out of  the scisena  umbra, and the  mackerel; the en-
trails and blood being macerated in brine until they became putrid.
             Expirantis adhuc scombri, de sanguine primo.
             Accipe fastosum munera cara garum:__
thus  says Martial:  and Galen affirms that this  disgusting prepara-
tion  was so precious, that a measure of  about three of  our pints
fetched  two thousand silver pieces.   So delightful was the effluvium
of the garum considered, that Martial  informs us it was carried about
in onyx smelling-bottles.   But our luxurious civic chiefs are not
aware that  the red  mullet—for such I believe was the mullus__was
held in  such a distinguished  category  among genteel fishes,  that
three of them, although of small size, were known to fetch upwards
of 200/.  They  were more appreciated  when  brought  alive, and
gradually allowed to die, immersed  in the delicious  garum ; when 
          THE FOOD OF MANKDXD — ITS USE AND ABUSE.      77

 the Romans feasted their eyes in the anticipated delight of eating
 them, by gazing on the dying creature as he  changed colour like
 an expiring dolphin.  Seneca reproaches them with this refinement
 of cruelty—" Oculis quoque gulosi sunt;" and  the most renowned
 of Apicius's culinary discoveries was the alec, a compound of their
 livers.
    Snails were also a great dainty.  Fulvius Herpinus was  immor-
 talised  for  the discovery of the art of fattening them on bran and
 other articles;  and Horace informs  us that  they were served up,
 broiled  upon silver gridirons, to give a relish  to wine.  Oysters
 were brought from our coasts to Rome, and frozen oysters were
 much extolled.  Grasshoppers, locusts, and  various insects, were
 equally acceptable  to  our first gastronomic legislators.  Acorns,
 similar  to  those  now eaten in Spain, formed part of a  Roman
 dessert;  the  best  were brought  from Naples  and Tarentum.   It
 does not appear  that  the  ancients had  a great variety  in their
 vegetable diet; condiments to stimulate the sluggish appetite seemed
 to be their  principal research : amongst these the asafoetida, which
 is to this day highly  relished in the East,  was an indispensable
 ingredient; this has been doubted by various naturalists, but it ap-
 pears certain, since Pliny informs us thatlt wasfrequently adulterated
 by sagapenum, which bears the strongest resemblance  to it.   This
 substance was called laser, and by many tasteless persons, such as
 Aristophanes and  Apuleius, considered offensive  and  disgusting ;
 hence the latter, " lasere infectas carnes, and "laseratum porcellum."
 According  to Theophrastus,  asafoetida was  collected and preserved,
 as it is at present, in skins ; and, despite its estimation as a culinary
 ingredient,  it was not unfrequently  named  stercus diaboli.   In
 addition to  this gum, they seasoned their  food  with various other
 strong articles, such as coriander and cummin seeds, sumac, saffron,
 cinnamon, thyme;  with divers peppers, salt, and sal-ammoniac.
   Instead of bread, which was  only introduced  in Rome 580, a.d.
 they used a heavy kind of unleavened paste, similar to  the present
polenta.  This nourishment occasioned frequent indigestion, hence
 the use of  warm water after meals, and the  necessity  of emetics.
 Warm water was  sold about the streets in their  thermopojia, and
 Seneca observed the paleness and debility that  arose from  its use
 and abuse :
                   Et potet calidam, qui mihi livet, aquam.
   While water was  thus freely drunk, wine  was not disregarded ;
 but the  various articles with  which it was adulterated, must have
rendered it  anything but a delectable potation according to our re-
ceived ideas.  Thus we  see the Greeks putting salt and sea-water
in theirs ; at other times dissolving mastic  and myrrha,  or infusing
wormwood, in their choicest Falernian.  Like modern tasters, how-
ever,]they knew the method of developing the  bouquet by warmth ;
and, to  appreciate the flavour,  they  frequently added  hot  water.
That wines  of a resinous taste were esteemed, appears from Martial:
                  Resinata bibis vina, Falerna fugis.
   July, 1838.— R               9 
78
CURIOSITIES OF MEDICAL EXPERIENCE.
But  we may conclude that, according to our modern taste, their
boasted wines did not equal ours either in flavour or in delicacy.
  The cooks of the ancient appear  to  have been much more con-
summate in their art than our  modern  practitioners.  Athenaeus
records various descriptions of their incomparable science.  A new
dish immortalised its inventor, and transmitted its name to posterity.
Apicius's cakes were called Apicians ; and Aristoxenes had attained
such perfections in  curing hams, that the  glorious  appellation  of
Aristoxenians was bestowed  upon  them.  Philosophers  and  poets
gloried in their culinary science ; the pleasures of the table were the
subject of their writings and their conversation.  Archestratus tells
us with delight, that, although various delicacies can only be enjoyed
in their proper season, yet we can talk about  them with watering
mouths all  the year  round.
  One of these illustrious ministers of luxury attained such a degree
of enviable perfection, that he could serve up  a  pig boiled on one
side and roasted on  the other, and moreover stuffed with all possible
delicacies, without the incision through which these dainties were
introduced  being perceived.   Supplicated to explain this  wonderful
secret, he swore solemnly by the manes of all the heroes who fell
at Marathon, or  conquered  at Salamis, that  he  would not reveal
this  sacred mystery for one year.   When the  happy day arrived
and he was no longer bound  by his vows, he condescended to inform
his anxious hearers, that the animal had been bled to death by a
wound under the shoulder, through  which the  entrails were ex-
tracted ;  and afterwards hanging up the victim by the legs, the
stuffing was crammed down  his throat.  One half of the pig was
then covered with,  a thick  paste, seasoned  with wine and oil, put
into  a brass oven, and gently and tenderly  roasted :  when the skin
was brown and crisp, our hero proceeded to boil the other moiety ;
the paste was then  removed, and  the boiled  and roasted  grunter
triumphantly served up.
   So refined was the taste of the ancient bons vivans, that Monta-
nus, according to Juvenal, would proclaim, at the first bite, whether
an'oyster was of  English produce or not.   Sandwich is believed to
have been  the favoured  spot whence Rome imported her oysters and
other shell-fish.   Shrimps and prawns must have been in great esti-
mation, since we find Apicius quitting his residence at Minturnae,
upon hearing that the shrimps of Africa were finer than those  he
could procure in Campania.   He  instantly set sail for  the happy
coast, despite a gale of wind : after encountering a desperate storm,
he reached the wished-for land of promise ;  but alas!—the fishermen
displayed the largest prawns  they  could collect, and, to his cruel
disappointment, they would  not vie, either in delicacy  or beauty,
with those of Minturnae.  He immediately ordered his pilot to steer
a homeward course, and left Africa's shore with  ineffable contempt.
   These ingenious  gluttons had  recourse to every experiment that
could add  to their enjoyment.  Philoxenus, and many others, used
to accustom themselves to swallow hot water, that they might be 
          THE FOOD OF MANKIND —ITS USE AND ABUSE.      79

 able to attack scalding dishes before less fireproof guests would dare
 to taste them.
    Sinon maintained that cookery was the basis of all artsand sciences :
 natural philosophy taught us the seasoning of dishes ; architecture
„ directed the construction of stoves and chimneys ; the fine arts, the
 beautiful symmetry  of each dish :  and the principles  of  war were
 applied to the drilling and marshalling of cooks, confectioners, and
 scullions, posting proper sentries  to watch the fires, and videttes to
 keep off idle intruders.   That man is  a " cooking animal" is con-
 sidered one of his proudest attributes, and a proper bill of fare may
 be considered as the ne plus ultra of human genius!
    While  climate points out the  most suitable  articles of food, it
 exercises a  singular influence over their qualities and properties,
 more especially in  vegetable substances.   We find plants  which
 are poisonous in some  countries, edible and wholesome  in others.
  Next to  climate, culture and soil modify plants  in a singular de-
  gree :  flowers  which yield a powerful perfume in some latitudes,
  are inodorous in  others ; and, according to climate, their aroma is
  pleasant or distressing.  A striking  proof of  this fact can be ad-
  duced  from the well-known effects of perfumes in Rome ; where
  the inhabitants, especially females, cannot  support the scent even
  of the rose, which has been known to  produce syncope, illustrating
  the poet's lines, to
                     Die of a rose in aromatic pain.
  This variety in  the  action of vegetable substances is more  particu-
  larly observable in such as are considered medicinal.   Opium, nar-
  cotics, and  various drugs, are more powerful in warm climates than
  in northern regions. The Italian physicians express astonishment
  at the comparatively large doses prescribed by our practitioners.
     Cultivation brings forth singular intermediate productions ;  and
  by its magic power we have seen the coriaceous and  bitter almond
  transformed into the luscious  peach, the  sloe  converted  into the
  delicious plum, and the common  crab transformed  into the golden
  pippin.  The  same facts are observed in vegetables: the  celery
  sprung from the nauseous  and bitter  apium graveolens, and the
  colewort is metamorphosed  into  the  cabbage and  the cauliflower.
  All cruciform plants degenerate within the tropics, but acquire in-
  creased energies in cold countries.
     Recent  experiments in  Germany  have demonstrated  that, in
  times of scarcity, the wood of several trees may be converted into
  a nutritious substance.   The fibres of the beech, birch, lime, poplar,
  fir, and various other trees, when dried, ground, and  sifted  into an
  impalpable powder, constitute a very palatable article of food.   If
  cold water be poured on this ligneous flour, inclosed in a linen bag,
  it becomes  milky,  and considerable pressure and kneading is re-
  quired to express the amylaceous or  starchy part of  it.   Professor
  Von Buch, in  his travels through Norway and Lapland, has fully
  described the Norwegian barke brod.  We find  the savages scat-
  tered  along  the  coast of the great austral continent mixing up a 
CURIOSITIES OF MEDICAL EXPERIENCE.
 paste of the bark of the gum-tree with the ants and the other insects,
 with their larvae, which they find  in it.  Ground dried fish  and
 fish-bones have from time immemorial been converted into  bread ;
 Arrianus tells us that Nearchus found several nations on the shores
 of the Red Sea living upon a bread of this description.
   Various philosophers, in idle disquisitions, have endeavoured by
 the most absurd hypotheses to determine what is the natural food
 of man, and to show that he is not created omnivorous.   The com-
 parison between our species and animals confutes these vain theories.
 The masticatory  and  digestive organisation  of man assigns  to him
 an intermediate rank between carnivorous and herbivorous creatures.
 The teeth may be said by their figure and construction to bear a
 relation with our  natural food.  The teeth  of flesh-eating animals
 rise in sharp prominences to seize and lacerate their prey, and those
 of the lower jaw shut within those of the  higher  one.  The her-
 bivorous animals  are not armed with these formidable weapons, but
 have broad flat surfaces with intermixed plates of enamel, that they
 should wear less  rapidly in the constant labour of grinding and
 triturating.  In the carnivorous the jaws can  only move backward
 and forward ;  in the herbivorous their motion is lateral, as observed
 in the cow when  chewing her cud.   Beasts of prey tear and swallow
 their food in  masses, while  in others it undergoes a careful com-
 minution  before  it is  transmitted to the stomach.   The teeth of
 man only resemble those of carnivorous animals by their enamel
 being confined to the external  surface, while in the freedom of  the
 motion of the  jaws from side to side they partake of the conforma-
 tion of  the herbivorous.  The teeth and jaws of man are in  all
 respects more  similar to those of monkeys than any other animals ;
 only in some of the simiae the canine  teeth are  much  longer and
 stronger, and denote a carnivorous propensity.
   It is to the abuse of this omnivorous faculty that Providence  has
 bestowed  upon mankind, that we owe many of the diseases under
which our species  labours. " Multos morbos, multa fercula fecerunt,"
sayeth Seneca  ; yet we are far more temperate in the present age
than the ancients  during the  period  of their high civilization and
prosperity.  Their excesses must have been  of the most disgusting
nature, since, to indulge more early in their gluttonous propensities,
they had  recourse to emetics both  before and after their  meals.
" Vomunt ut edant, edunt ut vomant, et epulas  quas toto orbe con-
quirunt nee concoquere dignantur," was the  reproach of the above-
 quoted philosopher.  Suetonius and Dion Cassiusgive Vitellius the
credit of having introduced this revolting custom into  fashion ; and
splendid vessels  for the purpose were introduced in their feasts.
Martial alludes to it in the following lines :
                  Nee ccenat priiis, aut recumbit, ante
                  Quam septem vomuit meri  deunces.
And Juvenal tells us that the bath was polluted by this incredible
act of bestiality,—
                 Et crudum pavonem in balnea portas. 
        THE FOOD OF MANKIND —ITS USE AND ABUSE.      81

  The sums expended  by the ancients on their table exceed all be-
lief.   Vitellius  expended for that purpose upwards of 3200/. daily,
and some of his repasts cost 40,000/.   At one of them, according to
Suetonius, 7000 birds and 2000 fish were served up.   iElius Verus
laid out 600,000 sestertii on one meal ; and some of the dishes of
Heliogabalus cost about 4000/. of our money.  The excesses of this
monster were such, that Herodianus affirms he wanted  to  ascertain
not only the flavour of human flesh, but of the most disgusting and
nameless substances.   The freaks related of this emperor are scarcely
credible ;  but his gastronomic profusion  may be easily conceived
when we find that his very mats were made with the down of hares
or the soft feathers found under the wings of partridges !  When
such ideas of enjoyment prevailed, can we wonder that Philoxenus
should have wished that he had the throat of a crane, that  he might
prolong the delights of eating !
   Our early ancestors were remarkable for their frugality, and it is
supposed  that luxurious, or, at least, full living was  introduced by
the Danes :  it has been even asserted that the verb gormandise was
derived from  Gormond, a Danish  king, who  was  persuaded by
Alfred to be baptized.  Erasmus  observed  that the English were
particularly fond  of good fare.   William the Conqueror, and Rufus,
were in the habit of giving most splendid entertainments ; and the
former monarch was such an irascible epicure, that  upon one occa-
sion, an underdone crane having been served up by the master of
the cury, he would have knocked him down but for  the timely in-
terference of his  dapifer, or purveyor  of the mouth.   This office
of dapifer, with  that  of lardrenius, magnus  coquus, coquorum
prepositus, and  coquus regius,  were high dignitaries  in  those
days.  Cardinal Otto, the pope's  legate, being at Oxford in 1238,
his brother was his magister coquorum ; and  the reasons assign-
ed for  his holding that  office were  his brother's suspicious fears
" ne procuraretur aliquid venenosum, quod valde timebat lega-
tus."  These officers  were not unfrequently clergymen, who were
elevated to the  bench for their valuable services.
   The heroic conduct of French cooks has been recorded in history,
and compared with the noble devotion of the ancients.   Vatel, maitre
d'hotel of Louis XIV, put an end to his wretched existence in con-
sequence of fish not having arrived in time for dinner.  On this sad
event being reported to his sovereign, he both praised  and blamed
his courage ; and, to use the words of Madame de Sevigne, he per-
rished  "a force  d'avoir de l'honneur a sa maniere ; on  loua fort et
l'on blama son  courage."  It is strange that Napoleon should have
used the very same expressions when .speaking of one  of his most
distinguished generals.  In more modern times we have  heard  of
persons who expected that clerical functions should be combined with
various lay duties, as  appears  by  the following  curious advertise-
ment in a late paper :
  " Wanted, for a family who have bad health, a sober, steady per-
                              9* 
82
CURIOSITIES OF MEDICAL EXPERIENCE.
son, in the capacity of doctor, surgeon, apothecary, and man-midwife.
He must occasionally act as butler, and dress hair and wigs.  He
will be required sometimes to read prayers, and to preach a sermon
every Sunday.   A good salary will be given."   This was certainly
an economical speculation for the use of soul and body.
  Cooksfiave sometimes been obliged to resort to pious frauds ;  and
it is related of our Richard Cceur de Lion, that being very ill during
the holy wars, he took a strange fancy for a bit  of pork, but, as no
pig could be procured, a plump Saracen child was roasted as a sub-
stitute ; and it was remarked'that Richard was ever after partial to
pork.
  There is little doubt  but that our forefathers were harder livers
than the present generation :  even within the memory  of man,
drinking to  excess is a vice seldom observed, excepting  in some
individuals belonging to the old school.  The hours of refection have
been singularly altered ; and while our fashionable circles  seldom
sit down to table before seven  o'clock  in the  evening, we find in
olden chronicles that even royalty was used to  dine at nine  in the
morning, more especially upon the Continent.   In the Heptaemeron
of the Queen of Navarre  we  find an  account of, the manner of
spending the day :
  " As soon as  the  morning rose, they  went to the chamber of
Madame Oysille, whom  they found  already at  her prayers ;  and
when they had heard during a good hour  her lecture, and then  the
mass, they went  to dine at ten o'clock, and afterwards each privately
retired to his room, but did not fail at noon to meet in the meadow.
Vespers  heard, they  went to supper ;  and after having  played a
thousand sports in the meadow they retired to bed."
  During the reign of Charles V. of France, the court dined at  ten,
supped at seven, and  retired to rest at nine.  Holinshed gives  the
following curious description of our early diet: " Our  tables  are
oftentimes more  plentifully garnished than those of other nations,
and this trade hath continued with us  since the very beginning ;
for, before the Romans found out and knew the way into our country,
our predecessors fed  largely upon flesh and milk, whereof there  was
great abundance  in this isle, because they  applied their chief studies
unto pasturage and feeding.
  " In Scotland, likewise, they  have given themselves  unto very
ample and large diet,  wherein as for some  respect nature doth make
them equal with us, so otherwise they far exceed us in over much
and distemperate gormandize, and so engross their bodies, that di-
vers of them do oft become unapt to any other purpose than to spend
their time in large tabling and belly cheer.   In old times these North
Britons did give themselves universally to great abstinence ; and in
time of war their soldiers would often feed but once, or twice at the
most, in two or three days, especially if they  held themselves in
secret, or could have no issue out of their bogs and morasses, through
the presence of an enemy ; and in this distress they used to eat a
certain kind of confection, whereof so much as a bean would qualify 
        THE FOOD OF MANKIND —ITS USE AND ABUSE.      83

their hunger above common expectation.  In those days, also, it was
taken for a great offence over all to eat either  goose, hare, or hen,
because of a certain superstitious opinion they had conceived of these
three creatures.   Amongst other things, baked  meats, dishes never
before this man's (James I.) days seen in Scotland, were generally so
provided for by virtue of this act, that it was not lawful for any to
eat of  the same under the degree of a gentleman, and those only but
on high and festival days.   In number of dishes and changes of meat,
the nobility of England (whose cooks are for the most part musical-
headed Frenchmen and strangers)  do most exceed ; sith there is no
day in manner that passeth over their heads, wherein they have not
only beef, mutton, veal, lamb, kid, pork, cony, capon, pig, or so many
of these as the season yieldeth, but also some portion of the red and
fallow deer, beside great variety offish and wild fowl, and  thereto
sundry other  delicates, wherein the sweet hand of the sea-faring
Portingale  is  not wanting ; so that  for a man to dine with one of
them, and  to taste of every dish that standeth  before him, is rather
to yield unto a conspiracy, with a  great deal of meat for the  speedy
suppression of natural health, than the use of  a necessary mean to
satisfy himself with a competent repast, to sustain his body  withal.
The chief part, likewise, of their daily provision is brought in before
them commonly in silver vessels, if they be of the  degree of  barons,
bishops, and upwards, and placed upon their tables ; whereof when
they have taken what it pleaseth them, the  rest is reserved, and after-
wards sent down to  their  serving-men  and waiters.
   " The gentlemen  and merchants keep  much about one rate, and
each of them contenteth himself with four, five, or six dishes, when
they have  but small resort; or peradventure with one or two, or
three at most, when they have no strangers.  And yet their servants
have their ordinary diet assigned, besides  such  as is left at their
masters' boards, and not appointed to be brought thither the second
time, which nevertheless  is often  seen, generally in venison, lamb,
or some especial dish whereon the merchantman himself liketh to
feed when it is cold.
   "At such times as the merchants do  make their ordinary or vo-
luntary feasts, it is a world to see what great provision is made of all
manner of delicate meats from every quarter of the country, wherein,
besides that they are often comparable herein to the nobility of the
land, they will seldom  regard any thing  that  the  butcher  usually
killeth, but reject the same as not worthy to come in place.  In such
cases, also, gileffes of all colours, mixed with a variety in  the repre-
sentation of sundry flowers, herbs, trees, forms  of beasts, fish, fowls,
and fruits  ; and thereunto marchpane wrought with no small  curi-
osity, tarts of divers hues and sundry  denominations ;  conserves of
old fruits,  foreign and home-bred  ; suckets, codiniacs, marmalades,
sugar-bread, ginger-bread, Florentines, wild-fowl, venison of all  sorts,
and sundry outlandish confections, altogether  seasoned with sugar,
(which Pliny calls mel ex arundinibus,  a device not common nor
greatly used in old times at the table, but only in medicine, although 
84
CURIOSITIES OF MEDICAL EXPERIENCE.
it grew in Arabia, India, and Sicilia,) do generally bear the sway,
besides infinite devices of our own not possible for me to remember.
Of the potatoe, and such venerous roots as are brought out of Spain,
Portingale, and the Indies, to  furnish  our  banquets, I  speak not*
wherein our Mures, of no less force, and to be had about Crosby
Ravenswath, do now begin to have place.
  " And as all estates do exceed in strangeness and number of costly
dishes, so these forget not to use the like excess in wine, insomuch
as there is no kind to be had  (neither anywhere more store of all
sorts than in England, although we have none growing with us ; but
yearly the proportion of twenty or thirty thousand tun and upwards,
notwithstanding the daily restraints on the same brought over to us,)
whereof at great meetings there is not some store to be had.   Neither
do I mean this of small wines, only,such as claret, white, red, French,
&c. which  amount to about fifty-six sorts, according to the number
of regions from whence they come ; but also of the thirty kinds of
Italian, Grecian, Spanish, Canarian, &c. whereof Vernage, Cate-pu-
ment, Baspis, Muscadell, Boinnie, Bastard Fire, Osey, Caprike,
claret, and malmsey, are not least of all accounted of, because of their
strength and value.  For as I have said of meat, so, the stronger the
wine  is, the more  it is desired, by means whereof in old times the
best was called Theologicum,  because it was had  from the clergy
and religious men, unto whose  houses many of the laity would often
send  for bottles filled with  the  same, being sure that  they would
neither drink nor  be served of the worst, or such as was any ways
mingled or brewed by the vintner ; nay, the merchant would have
thought that his soul should have gone straightways to the devil, if
he should have served them with any other than the best.  Further-
more, when they have had their course which nature yieldeth,  sun-
dry sorts of artificial stuff, as ypocras  and  worm-wood wine, must
in like manner succeed in turns, beside stale ale  and strong  beer,
which nevertheless bear the greatest brunt in drinking, and are of
so many sorts and ages as it pleaseth the brewer to make.
   " In feasting, the artisans do exceed after their manner, especially
at  bridals, purifications of women,  and  such like odd  meetings,
where it is incredible to tell  what meat is consumed and spent;
each  one bringing such a dish, or so many, as his wife and he do
consult  upon, but always with  this consideration, that the leefer
(the more liberal) friend  shall  have the best entertainment.  This
is also commonly seen at these banquets, that  the good man of the
house is not  charged with any thing, saving bread, drink, house-
room, and fire.
   "Heretofore there hath been much more time spent in eating and
drinking than commonly is  in these days ; for whereas of old we
had breakfasts in the forenoon, beverages or nuntions after dinner,
and thereto rere suppers, generally when it was time to go to rest
(a toy brought in by Hard-Canutus), now these odd repasts, thanked
be God ! are very well left, and each  one  in  manner (except here
and there some young hungry stomach that cannot fast till dinner- 
         THE FOOD OF  MANKIND —ITS USE AND ABUSE.      85

time) contenteth himself with dinner and supper only.   The Nor-
mans, disliking the gormandise  of Canutus,  ordained, after their
arrival, that no table should be covered above once in the day ;
which Huntingdon imputeth to their avarice : but, in the end, either
waxing weary of  their own frugality, or suffering the cockle of old
custom to overgrow the good corn of their new constitution, they
fell to such liberty, that  in  often feeding they surmounted  Canutus
surnamed the Hardy : for whereas he covered his table but three or
four times in the day, they spread their cloths five or six times, and
in such wise as I before rehearsed.  They brought in also the custom
of long and stately sitting at meat, which is not yet left, although
it be a great expense of time, and worthy reprehension ; for the
nobility  and gentlemen, and merchantmen, especially  at great
meetings, do sit commonly till two or  three of the clock at after-
noon, so  that with many it  is an hard matter to rise from the table
to  go  to evening prayer, and return from  thence to  come  time
enough to supper."
   The early prevalence of drinking in England seems to have been
derived  from our foreign intercourse.   In the reign of Elizabeth
and James I. we find various statutes against ebriety.   Tom Nash,
in his "Pierce Pennilesse" says, "Superfluity in drink is a sin that
ever since we have  mixed  ourselves with  the Low Countries is
counted  honourable ; but, before we knew  their  lingering wars,
was held in that highest degree of hatred that might be.   Then, if
we had seen  a  man  go wallowing in  the streets, or lain  sleeping
under the board, we  should  have spit at him, and warned all our
friends out of his  company."
   According to our laws intoxication is looked upon as an aggrava-
tion of any offence.   Sir Edward Coke calls a drunkard voluntarius
daemon.   The Romans thought differently : with them intoxication
was often deemed an extenuation of guilt, " Per  vinum  delapsis
capitalis  poena remittitur."   The Greeks, more severe, had  a law of
Pittacus that enacted the infliction of a double punishment  on those
who committed a  crime  when drunk.
   That hard drinking was introduced from  Flanders and Holland,
and other northern countries, seems  probable from the  derivation
of many  of the expressions used in carousing.  The phrase of being
" half-seas over,"  as applied to  a state of  drunkenness, originated
from op zee, which in Dutch means over sea ; and  Gifford informs
us that it was a  name  given to a  stupifying beer introduced in
England  from the Low  Countries, and  called op zee; thus Jonson
in his Alchemist:
                I do not like the dulness of your eye ;
                It hath  a heavy cast, 'tis up see Dutch.
   An inebriating  draught was also called an up see freeze, from the
strong Friesland beer.  The word  'carouse,' according to Gifford
and Blount, is derived  from  the name  of a large  glass, called by"
the Danes rouse, or  from the German  words gar, all, and ausz,
out: hence drink all out. 
86
CURIOSITIES OF MEDICAL EXPERIENCE.
  Nash, in the work above quoted, says, " Now he is nobody that
cannot drink super nagulum, carouse the hunters' hoopc, quaff
tupsee freze crosse, with healths, gloves, mumpes, frolickes, and a
thousand such domineering inventions."  The origin of these slang
terms is not quite evident.   Drinking super  nagulum, or on the
nail, was a northern custom  which consisted  in only leaving one
drop in the cup, which was poured upon the  thumb-nail, to prove
that justice had been done to  the potation or toast;  and that, to use
the language of modern drinkers, the  glass was cleared.   This
custom is alluded to by Bishop Hall in his "Mundus alter et idem,"
in which  the Duke of  Tenderbelly exclaims, "'Let never  this
goodly-formed  goblet of wine go jovially through  me :' and  then
he set  it to his mouth, stole it off every drop, save a little remainder,
which  he was by custom to  set  upon his  thumb's nail and lick it
off."   In Fletcher we find the phrase
                      I am thine ad unguem ,■
which  meant he was ready to drink with him to this extent.  The
term hoop alludes to the marks of hoops being traced upon drinking
pots to point out certain measures.  Jack Cade  says, " The three-
hooped pot shall have ten hoops, and I will make it felony  to drink
small beer !"  Hence probably the common  saying of " drinking
deep," or to the last hoop.  The peg tankard was another measured
vessel  used in the jollifications of our forefathers, and is still to be
found  in some  parts of  England, more  especially in Derbyshire.
Pegge, in  his " Anonymiana," thus describes them : " They have
in the  inside a row of eight pins, one above the other, from top to
bottom ;  the tankard holds two quarts, so that there  is a gill of ale
between each peg or pin.   The first person who drank was to empty
to the  first peg, the second was to drink to the next, and so on ; by
which means the pegs were  so many measures to the compotators,
making them all  drink alike or the same  quantity."  In Arch-
bishop Anselm's Canons, made in the council  at London in 1102,
priests are enjoined not to go to drinking bouts, nor to drink pegs :
" Ut presbyteri non eant ad potationes, nee ad pinnas bibant."
   Gloves,  also  called shoeing-horns, were relishes to encourage
dringing, like our modern devils, introduced for a  similar  purpose.
Bishop Hall says in his description of a carousal, " Then comes me
up a service of shoeing-horns of all sorts,—salt cakes, red-herrings,
anchovies, and gammon of bacon, and abundance of such pullers on."
Massinger thus describes these incentives :—
                                      1 usher
            Such an unexpected dainty bit for breakfast
           As never yet I  cooked ; 'tis not botargo,
           Fried frogs, potatoes marrow'd, cavear,
           Carps' tongues, the pith of an English chine of beef,
           Nor our Italian delicate oil'd mushrooms,
            And yet a drawer on too; and if you show not
           An appetite, and a strong one, I'll not say
            To eat it, but devour it, without grace too,
            (For it will not stay a preface,) I am shamed,
            And all my past provocatives will be jeer'd at. j 
        THE FOOD OF MANKIND —ITS USE AND ABUSE.      87

  The botargo was a relish made of mullets' roes, and highly sea-
soned, much in use among the Italians.
  Amongst many other curious frolics of hard drinkers,"we find the
use of what they called flap-dragons, or snap-dragon, which con-
sisted  in igniting  combustible substances, which were swallowed
while floating  on  the  glass of liquor.  Jonson  describes them " a
play in which  they catch  rasins out of burning brandy, and, extin-
guishing them by closing the mouth, eat them."  This prank is not
uncommon to the present day in boarding-schools in certain festive
entertainments of the young ladies.
  Drunkenness being considered a beastly propensity, its gradations
were fixed by animal comparisons.   In a curious treatise on drunk-
ards by George  Gascoigne, we find the  following illustrations of
these degrees : " The  first is ape-drunk, and he leaps  and sings and
hallos and danceth for the hearers ; the second is lion-drunk, and
he flings the pots about the house, calls the hostess w----, breaks
the glass windows with  his dagger, and is apt  to quarrel with any
man that speaks to him ; the third  is swine-drunk, heavy, lumpish,
and sleepy, and cries for a little more drink and  a few more clothes ;
the fourth is sheep-drunk, wise in his own conceit, when  he cannot
bring forth a right word ; the fifth is maudlin-drunk, when a fel-
low will weep for  kindness in the midst of his  drink,  and kiss you,
saying, 'By G—! Captain, I love  thee!   Go thy ways ;  thou dost
not think  so often of me as I do of you ;  I would I could not love
thee so well as I do!' and then he puts his finger in his eye and cries ;
the sixth is martin-drunk, when a man is drunk, and drinks him-
self sober ere he stir ; the seventh is goat-drunk, when in his drunk-
enness he hath no mind  but in lechery ;  the eighth is fox-drunk,
when he is crafty drunk, as many of the  Dutchmen be, which will
never bargain but when  they are  drunk.  All these species, and
more, I have seen practised in one  company at one sitting."
  Drunkenness has at various  periods been resorted to in religious
and political fervour.  During the usurpation of Cromwell, the Cav-
aliers were wont to drink their king's health in  bumpers of wine in
which some crumbs of bread had  been thrown, exclaiming, "God
send this  Crum-well down!" and Whitelocke, in his Memorials,
records the following barbarous Catilinian  orgies : " Five  drunkards
agree to drink the king's health in their blood, and that each of them
should cut out a piece of his buttock, and  fry it upon  the gridiron,
which was done  by four of them, of whom one did bleed so exceed-
ingly that they were fain to send for a chirurgeon, and so were dis-
covered.  The wife of one of them, hearing that her  husband was
amongst them, came to the room, and, taking up a pair of  tongs, laid
about her, and so saved the cutting of her husband's flesh."
  The laws enacted to prevent drunkenness at  various periods,
by  different governments, are  curious.  Domitian ordered ail
vine-plants in  the Roman territory  to be rooted out.  Charles
of France issued a similar edict.   In 1536, under Francis I, a
was passed sentencing drunkards  to imprisonment on  bread
 
88
CURIOSITIES OF MEDICAL EXPERIENCE.
    water for the first offence; a public whipping punished a second in-
    fringement ; and, on reiteration, banishment and the loss of ears.
    The ancients, equally aware of the danger that arose from intoxica-
    tion,  were also  anxious to prevent  it.  Draco inflicted  capital pun-
    ishments.  Lycurgus destroyed the vineyards.  The Athenians had
    officers, named  ophthalmos, to prevent excesses in liquor drinking.
    In Rome, patricians were not allowed the use of wine until they had
    attained  their thirty-fifth year.  Wine was only drunk pure  in the
    beginning of sober repasts in honour of Deus Sospes, and  afterwards
    mixed with water in honour of Jupiter Servator.  Notwithstand-
    ing these wise  examples in support of prudent precepts, it appears
    that drunkenness was a common vice amongst the Romans.   Tibe-
    rius was  surnamed  Biberus; and it was said of the parasite Bibulus,
    "dum vixit, aut bibit aut minxit."  Aurelianus had officers  of his
    household whose duty was to intoxicate foreign  embassadors ;  and
    Cato's partiality for the juice of the grape  has  been recorded by
    Horace,
                      Narratur et prisci Catonis
                      Siaepe mero caluisse virtus.
     In the middle ages, drinking was resorted to by the monks as  a
    religious libation ; and they also drank to the dead, a custom which
    was condemned as idolatrous.   These excesses were restrained by
    various regulations, and in  817 the quantity of wine  allowed each
    monk was fixed at five  pints.  Charlemagne, in his Capitularies,
    forbids the provocation of drinking healths and hob-nobbing (plSger
    et trinquer).   Temperance societies are not modern  institutions.
    In  1517, Sigismund  de Dietrichstein established one  under  the
   auspices  of  St.   Christopher; a similar  association was  formed in
    1600 by  Maurice Duke of Hesse, which, however, allowed a knight
   to drink  seven  bocaux,  or  glasses, at  each meal, but only twice in
   the day.   The  size of these bocaux is not  recorded, but no  doubt
   it was an endeavour to obtain a comparative condition of sobriety.
   Another  temperate  society, under the name of  the  Golden  Ring,
   was instituted by Frederic V. Count Palatine.
     Whether the  influence of temperate societies or their  advocates
   will tend to diminish the consumption of wine and spirituous liquors
   in the British  empire it  is difficult to say.   Hitherto every  act of
   interference, either from individuals or on the part of the legislature,
   has proved not  only abortive, but  has  increased the evil  it was in-
   tended to remedy.   The imposition of heavy duties only  threw the
   distillation of spirits into the hands of illicit speculators instead of
   respectable capitalists ; and, as M'Culloch justly remarks, "super-
   added the atrocities of the smuggler to the idleness and dissipation
 ' of the drunkard."  During the latter part of the reign of George I.
   and the earlier period of George II. gin-drinking was  so prevalent,
   that it was denounced from the pulpit  and the press.   At length
  J^nisters determined to  make  a vigorous effort to put a stop to  the
dMrrther use of  spirituous liquors  except as  a cordial or  medicine.
r To  accomplish  this end, a duty of twenty  shillings  was laid on 
THE FOOD OF MANKIND —ITS USE AND ABUSE.      89
spirits, exclusive of a heavy license-duty to retailers, while a fine
of 100/. was levied on all defaulters.   But instead of the anticipated
effects, this act produced results directly  opposite: the respectable
dealers withdrew from a trade proscribed by the legislature; and
the sale of spirits fell into the hands of the lowest and most profligate
characters.  The officers of the revenue were hunted down by the
populace, and did not  dare  to enforce the law;  and Tindal, in his
Continuation of Rapin, says, " within two  years of the passing of
this act, it had become so odious and contemptible, that  policy as
well as humanity forced the commissioners of excise to mitigate its
penalties."   During these two years twelve thousand persons were
convicted of offences  connected with the sale of spirits, while no
exertion could check the torrent of smuggling, and seven millions of
gallons  illicitly distilled were annually consumed  in  London and
its environs.   Our present consumption of British,  Colonial, and
Foreign  spirits  is immense, but not equal to what it was at the
period alluded to.  The following is the account of this consump-
tion in 1832 :—

      In England,  1,530,988  imperial gallons, Foreign.
                 3,377,507        "       Colonial.
                 7,259,287        "       British.
      In Scotland,     69,236      gallons,    Foreign.
                   112,026        "       Colonial.
                 5,407,097       "       British.
      In Ireland,      33,413       "       Foreign.
                    24,432       "       Colonial.
                 8,657,756        "       British.

In that year, 1832, the total amount  of spirits that paid duty in the
United  Kingdom  was  26,462,58 gallons,  yielding a revenue of
8,483,247/.   In the same  year the  appearance  and  dread of the
cholera produced a singular increase in the consumption of brandy.
In the preceding year, 1831, the entries for home  use in England
had amounted to 1,194,717 gallons :  but during this state of alarm
it increased to 1,508,924 ; in 1833, the danger having subsided, the
consumption declined to its former level, and did not  exceed
1,356,620 gallons.                                              x\
^ From  the  above observations  it  may be inferred, that no penal   \
enactments, no denunciations of canting senators or fanatic preachers,    \
will ever succeed in checking the evils which must arise from ex-    !
cesses in  the use of spirituous liquors.  Gluttony and  drunkenness    j
can only  be combated  by the salutary effects of good example held    I
out by the superior classes of society;  by a gradual  improvement
in  the moral education of the lower  grades, for  whom  salutary   /
amusements should be  procured when a cheerful repose from  their -
weekly labour will no  longer be considered a breach o'f the sabbath.
Diffusion  of knowledge and habits of industry will do more than
sanctimonious admonitions, and the  Penny Magazines may be con-
sidered  more hostile to gin-drinking than  the ranting of pseudo-
saints.
   July, 1838.-/9              10 
90
CURIOSITIES OF MEDICAL EXPERIENCE.
INFLUENCE  OF   IMAGINATION.
  Innumerable are the diseases  that arise from our busy fancy,
We are all subject to the tyrannic sway of imagination's empire.
Under this mighty influence man displays energies which lead him
boldly to dare danger and complicated sufferings, or he  is reduced
to the most degraded  state of miserable despondency.   These dis-
eases  are  the  more fearful, since they rarely yield  to physical aid,
and it  is  seldom that moral influence is sufficiently persuasive  to
combat their inveteracy.  It is idle to tell the  timid hypochondriac
that he is not ill ; the mere circumstance of his believing himself sick,
constitutes a serious disorder.   His constant apprehensions derange
his functions  until an organic  affection arises.  The patient  who
fancies that he labours under an affection of the heart, disturbs the  *
circulation, which is ever influenced by our moral emotions, till at
last this disturbance occasions the very malady which he dreaded.
These aberrations of the mind  arise from various causes,—mental
emotions, constitution, climate, diet, hereditary disposition, educa-
tion.  Tertullian called philosophy and medicine twin sisters ; both
may become powerful agents in controlling our imagination.   The
ancients  have variously endeavoured to  determine the seat of this
faculty.  Aristotle placed it in the heart, which, from the  sense of
its oppression  observed in acute  moral sufferings,  he considered the
origin of our nerves,or sensorium.  Avicenus and other philosophers
located imagination in  the anterior portion of the brain, which  he
called the prow ; memory in the posterior  part, which he denomi-
nated the poop,  and judgment  in the centre  of the organ, or what
mariners would  term  mid-ship.  The notions of Gall  and Spurz-
heim had long since been anticipated by philosophers and physicians,
both in regard to the divisions of the cerebral organ, and the exter-
nal appearance of the cranium, which denoted their preponderancy.
That temperature exercises a  powerful influence over  our mental
faculties, is evident.  In warm climates we find a  greater exaltation
of the mind, more enthusiasm and vivid  emotions, than  in nothern
latitudes.   The east is the land of fancy, illustrated by their wondrous
tales of fiction, and their vivid  and fantastic  imagery, displayed in
the chimeras and the  arabesques of their palaces and temples.   In
these regions all the passions are uncontrollable and wild.  Love is
characterised by furious, or dark jealousy, according to the rank and
power of the lover ; and ambition  is signalised by bloodthirsty and
promiscuous  barbarity.   No  opposition  can be  brooked : man is
either a ferocious tyrant, or an abject slave ; subjection  alone pre-
venting the oppressed from being  as sanguinary as the oppressor.
Government is despotism, and religion fatality and fanaticism.   In 
INFLUENCE OF IMAGINATION.
91
  nothern climes, on the contrary, everything is cold and calculating.
  The almighty passion of love may prevail  ; but its demonstrations
  are morose, concentrated, although  not less ferocious than under a
  southern sky.   In the one  country man seeks the  dark shelter of
  the forest, and the solitude of the mountain, to ponder  over his
  grievancies, or soliloquise on his sufferings  ; in the other he'cqurts
  the roseate bower and the orange grove, to lull  him into a soft repose
  which may calm  his feelings by temporary oblivion, to be roused
  again to action by the stimulus of opium, tobacco, and a  burning
  sun.  The ancients were  so fully convinced of this influence of the
  amorphous constitution, that Lucianus  tells us that the abderites, a
  people so remarkable for their stupidity and  sluggishness that JLbder-
  itica mens  was  proverbial, having witnessed the  performance of
  one of Euripides's plays under the fierce  solar rays, became fired
  with such enthusiasm, that they ran about the  streets  in a wild
  phrenzy, repeating aloud  his sublime verses,  until  the coolness of
  the evening restored them to reason and to their native torpor.   So
  predominant are these feelings, which owe their character to climate,
  that they regulate our ideas of a future  state, as well as our conduct
  on earth.  The paradise of  the Mohammedan is a blessed region of
  everlasting  pleasure  and  sensual  enjoyments ;  beauteous houris
  await the soul, which is  to  luxuriate in corporeal voluptuousness ;
  and the purple wine, forbidden to the living, is to flow in delectable
  streams, to  delight  the  dead, who may, in  the  seventh  paradise,
  inhabit a land where rivers  of wine, and milk, and honey, are ever
  flowing ; where evergreen trees bend under luxurious fruits, whose
  very pips are transformed  into lovely maidens  so sweet—to use
  their own metaphorical language—that the  ocean would lose  its
  bitterness if they but condescended to spit  in  its briny waters ; and
  all these enjoyments  are  secured to the true believer by hosts of
  guardian angels,  who  have  seventy thousand  mouths, and seventy
  thousand tongues, to  praise God seventy thousand times  each day
  in seventy thousand languages : and such is their horror of earthly
  heat, that in the other world one of the greatest rewards is the delight
  of being able  to sleep  under the cool  shade of a tree, each leaf of
  which is of such an expanse that a man might travel fifty thousand
  years under its benign protection.   How different is the paradise of
  Odin!  There, it is true, the soul of the departed dwells in magnifi-
„ cent  palaces ;  but what are his enjoyments  compared to those of the
  sensual Asiatic!   Instead of soft music, the din of war is constantly
  to resound in  his ear, while he luxuriates  in  drinking strong beer
  and hydromel, poured by the fair Valknas, the houris of the Vahalla
  paradise, in the skulls of his enemies.   Their  God is called the god
  of crows ; and two of these sable familiars, Hugin, who represents
  the mind, and Nunnin, or memory, are constantly perched  upon
  his shoulders, until  they take flight to seek  information  for  their
  master.                                           ....
     To this day it is said that the Tartars fancy, that, in their future
  abode of bliss, their reward will be a sort of Platonic affection, and 
92
CURIOSITIES OF MEDICAL EXPERIENCE.
a perpetual and undisturbed state of meditation ;  in short, a celestial
far niente.   So convinced were the ancients of this effect of peculiar
temperature, that the morose Heraclitus maintained that the  power
of the mind axose from a dry splendour ; thatall things were created by
solar heat;  and when ill himself, he sought health by endeavouring
to djspel watery accumulations by the heat of a dunghill.   Ptolemy
and Posidonius assert, that southern climes engender genius and wit,
and are better calculated for the study of things divine ; and Plato,
Hippocrates, and Galen, on the same principle, affirm that, stupidity
and forgetfulness are produced by cold  and humidity.  The  cele-
brated Descartes, in his younger days, states that he felt his enthu-
siasm moderated by the damps and cold of Holland ;  and that he
ever experienced more  facility in  pursuing his philosophic  studies
in winter than in summer.  Poets,  on the contrary, court the glowing
rays of an inspiring sun, and their Phoebus and their Apollo is the
conductor and the inspirer of the Muses :
                  Cynthius aurem vellit et admonuit.

   That the energies of our intellectual  faculties are under the influ-
ence of  our food, is a fact long since observed.   The stupidity of
 the athletae, who lived upon coarse bread (coliphium), and underdone
 meat, was proverbial ; even Hercules laboured under the imputation
 of a mind  somewhat  obtuse.  Our genius, our  energies, are all
 affected by  our mode of living.   The rule of Sanis omnia sana, of
Celsus, is applicable to  very few individuals ; and all our faculties
 may be rendered more  keen or less vivid by temperance or excesses.
 As  the nature of our ingesta influences the functions of our digestive
 organs, so do these organs in their turn influence our moral powers
 when our physical energies are elevated or depressed.   Our courage,
 our strength of mind, our religious and our moral train of thinking,
 are under the control of diet.  Fasting has ever been considered as
 predisposing to meditation and ascetic contemplation.   Tertullian
 tells us, that we should approach the altars fasting, or  having eaten
 nothing but dry substances.  All the  religious ceremonies of the
 Egyptians  were preceded by abstinence, and their sacrificators were
 allowed neither animal  food nor wine  ; similar privations were
 observed by all those who attended the mysteries of Juno and  Ceres.
 In  Holy Writ we  find  that it was after abstinence that Divine  in-
 spiration illumined the elect.  The angel appeared unto Daniel after
 he  had been three weeks without tasting  flesh, or wine, or " pleasant
 bread."  In the Acts,  x, we find that the vision appeared to  Peter,
 " when he  had become hungry, and would  have eaten."   Moses
 fasted forty days on Mount Sinai.   We find in Jonah, that even cattle
 were frequently subject to this mortification, when he  proclaimed
 in Nineveh that neither man nor  beast, herd nor flock, should taste
 any thing ;  " let them not feed nor drink water."  Congius Ripensis
 tells us, that the same restriction was imposed by the Lacedaemonians
 on their Helots and all domestic  animals.  Fasting was considered
 by the Early  Christians as an essential rite.    St.  Anthony  pre-
 scribed to his disciples one meal of dry bread, salt and water, in the 
f
                 INFLUENCE OF IMAGINATION.               93

day, without any food on Wednesdays and Fridays.  In  the  mon-
astery of Mocham, in Egypt, a monk of  the name of Jonas was
beatified for having lived until the age of eighty-five, working hard
in the garden, and without any  other food than raw herbs and grass
steeped  in vinegar ; this abstemious cenobite added to his claims to
canonization by always sleeping in his chair.  St. Hilarius only ate
fifteen figs and  six ounces of  barley-bread per diem.   St. Julian
Sabus retired to a cavern, where he only luxuriated once in the week
on millet-bread, with salt and water ;  and St. Macarius resolved to
outdo him by restraining his sustenance to a few cabbage-leaves every
Sunday.  Not only did these gastric  martyrs attribute  their holy
visions  to abstinence, but they considered it as the source of their
longevity.   Thus, St. Anthony lived to the age of one hundred and
five ; St. Paphinus to ninety on dry bread ;  and St. Paul the Hermit
thrived for  one hundred  and fifteen  years upon dates.  It is  not
derogatory to their supposed divine mission to say that all these men
were as enthusiastic as the fakirs of the East.   So acceptable to the
Deity was  starvation considered, that at various periods it was  en-
forced by penal laws.   Charlemagne denounces the punishment of
death on all those who transgressed in this respect; and, by an old
Polish edict, any sinner who ate on a  fast-day was sentenced to have
all his teeth drawn.  However, monkish ingenuity endeavoured to
elude these severe enactments,  by interpreting the letter instead of
the spirit; and we find, in the  regulations of a German monastery,
the following accommodation, " Liquidum non fr an git jejuni um"
by which, on days of penance,  the monks only took rich soups and
succulent broth.   In latter days, being permitted to eat fish in Lent,
they  saw no reason why fowl should not  be included, on the autho-
rity of Genesis, that the water brought forth every winged fowl after
his kind.  This relaxation in  culinary discipline called forth loud
indignation from  many  prelates.  St.  Ambrosius attributes the pro-
fligacy of the monks to these excesses  ; and Tertullian considers the
fall of the Israelites as the punishment of their neglect in this respect.
Our Shakspeare illustrates this  belief in the influence  of fasting as
preparatory to inspiration.
             Last night the very gods show'd me a vision—
             I fast and pray'd for  their intelligence.
   Not satisfied  with this mystification in food, we find some austere
monks  endeavouring to reduce carnal  appetites by other means,
such  as by blood-letting, monialem  minuere; and claustral flesh
was brought clown by phlebotomy and purging at regular periods.
To this day we find that well-behaved Turks, during the Ramasan,
make it a godly point never to swallow their saliva.
   This  digression on fasting was somewhat necessary, to show how
much our diet tends to  modify our being.  It is  well known that
troops will  display more  activity and courage when fasting than
after a meal ; and an ingenious physician of our day is perfectly
correct  when he attributes a daring spirit or a pusillanimous feeling
to the influence of our stomach.
                                10* 
94           CURIOSITIES OF MEDICAL EXPERIENCE.
  Intellectual  weakness, frequently  brought on by excesses, has
proved a rich source to empiricism ; hence the belief in mystic and
supernatural agencies, and the power of certain nostrums.  Coloured
fountain water and bread pills  have made the fortune of various
quacks, when  imaginary cures have relieved imaginary  diseases.
In our days, numerous have been the recoveries attributed to Hohen-
loe's  prayers.   Trusting to mystic  numbers, three, five, seven, or
nine pills have produced effects, when other numbers less fortunate
would have failed.  To this  hour mankind,  even in  enlightened
nations,  are fettered  by these absurd trammels.   Credulity, and
Superstition her twin sister, have in all ages been the source whence
priestcraft and quackery have derived their wealthA Next to these
rich mines we may rank fashion.   The adoption of any particular
medicine by princes and nobles will endow it with as great a power
as that which was  supposed to be vested in regal hands in the cure
of scrofula, hence called king's evil; and we have too many instances
of such cures  having been effected by a monarch's touch  to doubt
the fact.   The history of the potato is a strong illustration of the
influence of authority :  for more than two centuries the use of this
invaluable plant was vehemently opposed ; at  last, Louis XV.  wore
a bunch of its  flowers in the midst of his courtiers, and the consump-
tion of the root became universal  in  France.   The warm bath, so
highly valued by the Romans, once  fell into disrepute, because the
Emperor Augustus had been cured by a cold one, which for a time
was invariably resorted to.  Thus Horace exclaims.
          -----Caput ac stomachum supponere fontibus audent
           Clusinis, Gabiosque petuntj^t frigida rura.
Unfortunately, the meansjvhioh had relieved Augustus killed  his
nephew  Marcellus ; and th*e Laconicum and the Tepidarium were
again crowded with the- " fashion."
,  Persecution and'its prohibitions have also been most powerful in
working upon our imagination. Rareand forbidden fruits will always
be considered more desirable than those we can easily obtain.  The
 history of tobacco is a striking instance of this influence of difficulty
 upon the  mind of map.   Pope Urban VIII. prohibited its use in
 any shape, under  the penalty rt>f excommunication.  It -was  after-
wards forbidden in Russia, under the pain of  having the offender's
 nose cut off.% In some cantons of  Switzerland the prohibition was
 introduced in the decalogue, next  to  the commandment against
 adultery.  Amurath  IV. ordered  all  persons taken in flagranti
" delicto,  smoking tobacco, to  be impaled, on  the principle that its
 use checked the progress of  population.  The denunciation of  our
 James  I.  may  be considered  as  a  masterpiece  of the imaginary
 horrors  attributed to this obnoxious weed.  " It is " he says "a
 custome loathsome to the eye, hatefull to  the  nose, harmefull to the
 braine, dangereus to the lungs, and in the black stinking fume thereof
 neerest  resembling the horrible Stygian  smoake of the pit that is
 bottomlesse."  During the reign of this monarch such  a restriction
 might have been  necessary,  unless the consumption of tobacco en- 
INFLUENCE OF IMAGINATION.
95
riched the exchequer ; for it appears that some amateurs consumed
no less than £500 per annum  in  smoke.  Surely we  should reap
some flourishing revenue from fashion and credulity, when we find
our  government  awarding £5000 to a  certain Johanna Stephens
for her discovery of certain medicines for the cure of  calculi!
The same imaginary hope induced many a  credulous creature to
minister to the necessities of another Johanna, for certain expecta-
tions.  Alas!  how this indefinite sense exhibits the infinite folly of
poor humanity !
I  A  morbid imagination, although frequently the source  of much
Wsery, will prove in many cases the fountain-head of many noble
qualities ; its exaltation constitutes*genius, which is, in fact, a natural
disposition of individual  organization sometimes bordering upon
insanity.^ "Non est magnum ingenium sine mixturd dementise,"
says  Seneca ; and Montaigne observes, " De quoi se  faict la plus
subtile folie que de la plus subtile sagesse ? il  n'y a qu'un demi-tour
a passer de  l'une a l'autre."   Aristotle asserts that all the great
men of his time were melancholy and hypochondriac.  The ancient
and eastern nations entertained a singular  idea  regarding men of
 innate genius, and possessed of more than common attributes ; they
 fancied that they were the  first-born, and the  offsprings of illicit
love :  Zoroaster, Confucius, Mahomet,  Vishnou,  were  born  of
virgins ; and  Theseus, Hercules, Castor and  Pollux, and Romulus,
 were all illegitimate.
/ Of the miseries the hypochondriacs experience, the following ex-
tract of a letter to a physician will afford a specimen : "  My poor
body is a burning furnace, my nerves  red-hot coals, my  blood is
boiling oil ; all sleep has fled, and I am suffering martyrdom.  I am
in agony when I lie on my back ; I cannot  lie on either side; and
I endure excruciating torture when I seek relief by lying oil  my
stomach ; and, to  add  to  my misery, I can  neither sit, stand, nor
walk."  The fancies of hypochondriacs are frequently of  the most
extraordinary nature: one patient imagines that he is in such a state
of obesity as to prevent his passing through the door of his chamber
or his house ; another, impressed with the idea that he is made of
 glass will not sit down for fear of cracking ; a third seems convinced
that his head is empty ; and an intelligent American, holding a high
judicial seat in our West India colonies, could not divest himself of
 the occasional conviction of his being transformed into  a turtleV
   The most melancholy record of the miseries of hypochondriacism
is to be found  in the diary of Dr. Walderstein of Gottingen.   He
was  a man  much deformed  in  person, and his mind seemed as
 distorted as his body.   Although of deep learning and research, and
 convinced of the absurdity of his impressions, yet he was  unable to
resist their baneful  influence.  " My misfortune," says the doctor,
" is, that I never exist in this world, but rather in possible  combina-
 tions created by my imagination to my conscience.   They occupy a
large portion  of my time, and my reason has  not the power to banish
them.  My malady, in fact, is the faculty of extracting poison from 
96           CURIOSITIES OF MEDICAL EXPERIENCE.

every circumstance in life ;  so much so that I often felt the most
wretched being because I had not been able to sneeze three times
together.  One night when I was in bed I felt a sudden fear of fire,
and gradually became as much oppressed by imaginary heat as though
my room were in flames.  While in this situation, a fire-bell in the
neighbourhood sounded, and added to my intense suffering.   I do not
blush at what might be called  my superstition any more than I should
blush in acknowledging that  my senses inform me that the earth
does not move.  My error forms the body of my judgment, and I
thank God that he has given it a soul capable of correcting it. When
I have been  perfectly free from pain, as is not  unfrequently the case
when I am in bed, my sense  of ftiis happiness has brought tears of
gratitude in  my eyes.  I once dreamt," adds Walderstein, " that I
was condemned to be burnt  alive.   I was very calm, and reasoned
coolly  during the  execution of my sentence.   ' Now,' I said to my-
self,'lam  burning, but not yet burnt; and  by-and-by  I  shall  be
reduced to a cinder.'  This was all I thought, and I did nothing but
think.   When, upon waking, I reflected upon my dream, I was by
no  means pleased with  it, for I was afraid I should become all
thought and no feeling."   It is strange that this fear of  thought,
assuming a corporeal form in deep affliction, had occurred to our poet
Rowe, when he exclaims in the Fair Penitent, " Turn not to thought
my brain."   " What is very distressing," continues the  unfortu-
nate narrator, " is, that when I am ill I can  think nothing, feel no-
thing, without bringing it home to myself.   It seems to me that the
whole  world is a mere machine, expressly formed to make me feel
my sufferings in every possible manner."  What a fearful avowal
from a reflecting and intelligent man!   Does it not illustrate Rous-
seau's definition of/reason—the knowledge ofour folly ?
                     P HRENOLOGY.

  Although Gall and Spurzheim may fairly claim the merit of hav-
ing developed in this science the particular parts of the brain that
are the seat  of different faculties, yet we find  in various ancient
writers  similar  notions.  Burton  in  his Anatomy of Melancholy,
thus expresses himself on this subject: " Inner senses are  three in
number, so called because  they are in the brain-pan ;  as, common
sense, phantasie,  memory.  This common sense is the judge or
moderator of the rest, by whom we discern all differences of objects:
the fore part of the brain is his organ or seat.   Phantasie, or im-
agination, which some call aestimative, or cogitative, (confirmed, saith
Fernelius, by frequent meditation,) is an inner sense,  which doth
more fully examine the species perceived by common sense of things
present or absent, and keeps them longer, recalling them to mind 
PERFUMES.
97
again, or making new of his own :  his organ is the middle cell of
the brain.   Memory layes up all the species which the senses have
brought in, and  records them as a good register, that they may be
forthcoming when they are called for by phantasie and reason:
his organ is the  back part of the brain."  This corresponds with
the account of the faculties given by Aristotle, and repeated by the
writers of the middle ages.  Albertus Magnus, Bishop of Ratisbon,
designed a head divided into regions according to these opinions in
the thirteenth century; and a similar plan was published by Petrus
Montaguana in 1491.  Ludovico Dolce published another engraving
on the subject at Venice in 1562.  In the  British Museum is a chart
of the universe and the elements of all sciences, and in which a large
head of this description is delineated.  It was published at Rome in
1632.  In the Tesoretto of Brunetto Latini, the preceptor of Dante,
we find this doctrine taught in the following lines :
    Nel capo son tre celle,              Che scheme buono e male ;
    Ed io diro di quelle,                E lo terno e l'iguale
    Davanti e lo intelletto               Dirietro sta con gloria
    E la forza d'apprendere             La valente memoria,
    Quello que puote intendere;          Che ricorda e retiene
    In mezzo e la ragione               Quello ch'in essa viene.
    E  la discrezione,
                       PERFUMES.

  At all periods perfumes seem to have been more or less adopted
as a luxury among the wealthy and  fashionable.   Tradition  states
that  they were frequently rendered instrumental to sinister pur-
poses,  as  the  vehicle of  poisonous  substances.   Historians  relate
that the Emperor Henry VI, and  a prince of Savoy, were destroyed
with perfumed gloves.   Jeanne  d'Albret,  Queen  of Navarre, and
mother of Henry IV., died from the poisonous effect of gloves
purchased from the noted  Rene, perfumer and confidential agent of
Catherine de  Medicis.  Lancelot, King of Naples, was destroyed
by a scented handkerchief prepared  by a  Florentine lady.   Pope
Clement VII.  sunk under the baneful  effluvia of a torch that was
carried before him ;  and Mathioli relates,  that nosegays  thus  im-
pregnated have been frequently known to prove fatal.  It is certain
that, without  the aid of  venous  substances,  various  flowers have
caused serious accidents.  Barton tells us that the magnolia glauca
occasioned a  paroxysm of fever, and increased the severity of  an
attack of gout.  Jacquin had seen the lobelia longiflora producing
a sense of suffocation;  and the  nerium oleander, in a close cham-
ber, has caused death.   The injurious effects of bulbous flowers in
giving rise to  violent head-aches, giddiness,  and  even fainting, are
generally known.   The horror roses inspire to the Roman ladies is 
98          CURIOSITIES OF MEDICAL EXPERIENCE.
scarcely credible;  and Cromer affirms that it was to the  odour of
that ornament of our gardens that the death of one of the daughters
of Nicholas I, Count of Salm, and of a Polish bishop, was attributed.
The sympathetic effect that this  flower can create is illustrated by
Capellini, who saw a lady fall into  a syncope on  perceiving a rose
in a  girl's  bosom, although it turned out to  be an artificial one.
The partiality or antipathy to certain odours is equally unaccounta-
ble, for the Italian ladies, who dread the rose, delight in the dis-
gusting aroma of rue, which they carry about as a salubrious plant,
that, according to  their notions, dispels the cattiva aria, although
it is not impossible that  they might fancy it  possessed  of those
salutary qualities to which Ovid had alluded:
               Utilius summas acuentes lumina rutas,
               Et quidquid veneri corpora nostra negat.
Rue, according to  Serenus Samonicus, was one of the ingredients of
the fabled antidote of Mithridates, which  he thus  describes:
             Antidotus vero multis Mithridatica fertur
             Consociata modis, sed  magnus Scrinia regis
             Ciim raperit victor, vilem deprendit in illis
             Synthesim, et vulgata satis medicamina risit.
             Bis denum Ruts folium, salis et breve granum,
             Juglandesque duas, totidem cum corpore ficus ;
             Haec  oriente die, parco conspersa Lyca30,
             Sumebat, metuens dederat quae pocula mater.
  The ancients were  so fond of  perfumes, that they scented their
persons and garments, their  vases, their domestic  vessels,  and their
military insignia.  They not only considered aromatic  emanations
as acceptable to the gods,  and therefore used them in their temples,
as they are at present by  the Roman Catholics, but as announcing
the presence of their divinities; and Virgil thus speaks of  Venus:
             -------Avertens rosei cervice  refulsit,
             Ambrosiaeque comas divinum vertice odorem
             Spiravere.
  Chaplets of roses were  invariably worn in festivals and ceremo-
nies; and  wines  were also aromatised  with various  odoriferous
substances.  The Franks and the  Gauls continued  the same custom;
and Gregory of Tours called these artificial-flavoured liquors, Vina
odoramentis immixta.   To this day, the manipulation of French
wines gives them  a factitious bouquet, with raspberries, orris root,
and divers drugs, to suit the British market.
  No external sense is so intimately connected with the  internal
senses as that of smell;  none so powerful  in exciting and removing
syncope, or more  capable of receiving delicate and delicious im*
pressions:  hence Rousseau has denominated this faculty " the sense
of imagination."  No sensations can be  remembered in  so lively
a manner as those  which are recalled by peculiar odours, which are
frequently known to  act in a most energetic measure upon our
physical and  moral propensities.  How  many  perfumes  excite  a
lively feeling of fond  regret when reminding us of the beloved one
who was wont to  select them, and  whom we long to meet again  ' 
PERFUMES.
99
It is not improbable that our partiality to the hair of those who are
dear to us, arises from  this circumstance.   Every  individual emits
a peculiar odour;  and, according to Plutarch,  Alexander was dis-
tinguished by the  sweet aroma that he shed.  Perhaps  the expres-
sion so frequently found in the lives of the saints, " who die in odour
of sanctity," may be referred to this peculiar gift granted to beatitude.
  It has been observed, that  animals  who  possess the most acute
smell, have the nasal organs the most extensively developed.  The
Ethiopians and the American  Indians are remarkable for the acute-
ness of this sense, accounting  for the wonderful power  of tracking
their enemies.  But although we may take  the peculiar organization
of their olfactory organs as being partly the cause of this'keen per-
ceptibility, we must in a great measure attribute this perfection to
their mode of living.   Hunting and war  are  their chief pursuits,
to which  they are trained  from their earliest infancy : therefore
this perfection may, to a certain extent, be  the result of habit ;  and
the sight  and hearing of these w.anderers are as singularly perfect
as their smelling.   Mr. Savage relates, that a New-Zealander heard
the report of a distant gun at  sea,  or perceived a strange sail, when
no other  man on board could  discern it.  Pallas, in speaking of the
Calmucks, says  that many of them can distinguish by smelling at
the hole of a fox whether the animal be there or not; and  on their
journeys  and military expeditions  they often  smell out a fire or a
camp, and thus seek quarters for the night or booty.   Olaiis Borrich
informs us, that the guides between Smyrna, Aleppo, and Babylon,
when traversing the desert, ascertain distances by the smell of the
sand.  That  odours float in the atmospheric  air is obvious ; the
distance  at which  they are  perceived is  incredible.  The spicy
breezes of Ceylon are distinguished long before the island  is seen  ;
and it is  a well-known  fact that  vessels  have been saved  by the
olfactory  acuteness of  dogs, who,  to  use the  common  expression,
were observed to sniff the land  that had not been  descried.  Asa
proof of the intimate connexion between smell and respiration, when
the breath is  held, odorous  substances are  not perceived, and  it is
only after expiration that  they are again recognised.  A proof of
this may  be  easily obtained by placing the open  neck of a small
phial containing an essential oil in the mouth during the acts of in-
spiration  and subsequent  expiration.  Willis  was  the first who
observed  that, on  placing  a sapid substance in the  mouth, and at
the same time closing the nostrils, the sensation of taste is suspended ;
and this observation has given rise  to the prevailing opinion  that
smelling  and tasting are intimately related.   Odour  which thus ac-
companies taste is termed flavour ; and the ingenious Dr. Prout has
admirably defined the  distinction  between  taste and flavour, and he
considers the latter an  intermediate sensation between taste  and
smell.
   The acuteness of the  sensation  of smelling  in  animals  is such,
that in many instances our observations have been deemed fabulous.
The distdnce at which a dog tracks his master is scarcely credible  ; 
100         CURIOSITIES OF MEDICAL EXPERIENCE.
and it is strange that the ancients attributed a similar perfection to
the goose.   iElian  affirms that the  philosopher Lycadeus had one
of these birds that found him out like a dog :
              Humanum longe preesentit odorem
              Romulidarum acris servator, candidus anser.
   Birds of prey will  scent the battle-field at  prodigious distances,
and  they are often seen  hovering  instinctively over the ground
where the conflict  is to  supply their festival.  Humboldt relates,
that in Peru, at Quito, and in the province of Popayan, when sports-
men wish to obtain that species of vulture called vultur gryphus,
they kill a cow or a horse, and in a short time these sagacious birds
crowd to glut  their ravenous  appetites.   Ancient  historians assert
that vultures have cleft the air one hundred and sixty-six leagues to
arrive in time to feast upon a  battle ; and Pliny boldly affirms that
even crows have so acute a  sense of approaching corruption, that
they can scent approaching death three days before dissolution, and
generally pay the moribond a visit a day before his time, not to be
disappointed.   This notion has become a vulgar prejudice, as much
so, indeed, as the howling of a dog, which  is considered  in  most
countries  as foreboding death.  In  various  animals an offensive
odour  is  a  protective gift.  The staphylinus olens, for instance,
sheds  an  effluvium which  effectually keeps  away the  birds  who
would otherwise pounce upon him.  But of all singular perfections
in the sense of smelling that were ever  recorded, may be cited the
monk of Prague and the blind man in the Quinze-vingt  Hospital of
Paris,  who possessed  the faculty  of ascertaining the presence of
virginity  whenever a female  had the luck of being introduced to
them !
   These  anomalous senses, for such  they may be  called, are as
wonderful as they are inexplicable, and appear to arise from a peculiar
sensibility of the organs of smell, which renders  them  capable of
being stimulated in  a peculiar manner, that no language can express
or define.  It is scent, no doubt, that gives the migratory power to
various animals:  "which enables  them," to use the words of the
much lamented Dr. Mason Good, " to steer from climate to climate,
and from  coast  to  coast ;  and which, if possessed by man, might
perhaps render superfluous the use of the magnet, and considerably
infringe upon the  science of logarithms ?  Whence comes it that
the field-fare and red-wing, that pass the  summer in Norway, or
the wild-duck and  merganser, that  in like manner summer in the
woods and lakes of Lapland, are able to track the  pathless void of
the atmosphere with the  utmost nicety,  and arrive on our  own
coasts uniformly in  the beginning of October ?"*

  *That animals are more frequently guided by the sense of  smellino- than by
sight, is evident in those plants that shed a cadaverous  effluvia, especially the
arum dracunculus and the stapelia variegata of the Cape, which attract various
insects that usually deposit their eggs in a stercoraceous or corrupt nidus.  Here
these insects have been deceived by vision, and  imagined in their illusion that
they had safely lodged their progeny in carrion. 
LOVE PHILTERS AND POTIONS.             101
  This sense is not limited to migratory animals, as instanced by
carrier-pigeons, which have been known not only to carry bags in
a straight line from  city to city, but traverse the sea with an un-
deviating flight.  Surely this faculty must be attributed to the sense
of smell ; it can scarcely be referred to sight or hearing ; although
the wonders of the creation are such, that we can no more account
for  these  peculiar attributes refused  to the lords of the creation,
than for the power of the lobster, which  not only can re-produce
his  claws when deprived of them  by accident, but cast them off to
extricate itself from the captor's grasp.   The Tipula pectiniformis,
or  the daddy long-legs.of our infant amusement and amazement,
possesses the  same  renovating faculties.   The  gluttonous  gad-fly
may be cut to pieces without any apparent interruption in his meal,
when fastened to one's hand :  the  polype does not seem to be at all
discomposed when we turn it  inside out ; and, when divided into
various sections, each  portion  is  endowed with  an  instinctive and
reformative power of multiplying  its species in countless numbers !
The diversity of our olfactory fancies is as unaccountable, and only
illustrates the words of Petronius,
      Non omnibus unum est quod placet; hie spinas, colligit ille rosas.
        LOVE  PHILTERS  AND  POTIONS.

  It will scarcely be credited, but to this very day the superstitious
belief in the power that certain medicinal substances possess of caus-
ing a sympathetic fondness, still obtains, even amongst classes of
the community whose education  one would imagine ought to have
rendered such an absurdity revolting.  In Italy, Spain, and Portugal,
the influence of love powders and aphrodisiac  drugs is  universally
confided in.
  The ancients thought that there existed, not only various charms
to kindle amorous feelings, but also to check all fond desires.  The
latter influence they  considered as malefiices, vulgarly called, in
more modern times, " point tying." -Plato, in his Republic, warns
husbands to be  on their guard lest their  domestic  piece might be
disturbed  by these diabolical  practices.   Lovers,  separated from
each other's embrace by these nefarious enchantments, were said to
be tied down,  Thus Virgil,
                        Die, Veneris vincula necto :
              Terna tibi haec primum triplici diversa colore
              Licia circumdo.
No power could release one from these  bonds :
             Quis neget et magicas nervos torpere per artes 1
  By the laws of the.twelve tables such enchantments were punished
with death  ; and Numantina, wife of Plautius Sylvanus, was accused,
   July, 1838.— T              11 
102         CURIOSITIES OF MEDICAL EXPERIENCE.
           Injecisse carminibus et veneficiis vecordiam marito.
When Faustina, the gay bride of Marc Antoninus was rapturously
enamoured with a histrionic favourite, she was only cured of her
folly by a potion in which some of the comedian's blood had been
introduced.   Petrarch  relates  of Charlemagne, that this monarch
was so fondly attached  to a fair lady, that after her death he carried
about her embalmed body in a superb coffin, until a. venerable and
learned bishop, who very wisely thought that a living beauty was prefer-
able to the remains of a departed one, rebuked his sovereign for his
irreligious and unnatural propensities,and revealed  to him the impor-
tant secret of his love arising from a charm that lay under the dead
woman's tongue.   Whereupon  the bishop went to the corpse, and
drew from it a ring, which the emperor had scarcely looked upon
when he abhorred the former object of his attachment, and felt such
an extraordinary fancy for the bishop that he could not dispense with
his presence for a single moment, until the good prelate was  so ob-
seded with royal favour that  he cast  the ring into a lake.   From
that  moment Charlemagne (his historian continues) " neglected all
public business, and went to live in the middle of a fen in the vicinity
of Aix, where he  built a temple, near which he was finally buried."
   St. Jerome, in  the Life of Hilarius, mentions  a young man who
so bephiltered a maiden that she fell desperately in love with him ;
and Sigismundus Schereczius, in his chapter  de  Hirco Nocturno,
affirms  that " unchaste women, by the help of these witches, the
devil's kitchen-maids, have their lovers brought to them during the
night, and carried back again, by a phantom flying in the air in the
likeness of a  goat."  " I have heard," he adds, " divers confess that
they have been so carried  on a  goat's back to  their sweethearts
many miles in  a  night."  These  wonderful  potions were made of
strange ingredients, for amongst them we  find a man's blood chem-
ically prepared, mandrake roots, dead men's clothes, candles, a cer-
tain  hair in a wolf's tail, a swallow's heart, dust  of a dove's heart,
tongues of vipers, brains of a jackass, pebbles found in an eagle's nest,
together with "palliola quibus infantes obvoluti nascuntur, funis
 strangulati hominis" &c.  &c. &c.  Cleghorn,  in  his History of
 Minorca, tells us that water in which a hedgehog has been  allowed
to run into corruption, was supposed to be possessed of similar  ex-
 citing powers ; and a pulverised bit of a caul, scrapings of nails, and
 chopped  hair, are to  this hour deemed equally effectual to  obtain
 these desirable ends.
   Notwithstanding all these absurdities, it is undoubtedly true  that
 certain articles of food have been considered as endowed with aphro-
 disiac properties ; fish of various kinds, the mollusca and testaceous
 animals more especially.  Juvenal attributes this quality to oysters,
 which, in this respect, with  cockles  and muscles, have become vul-
 garly proverbial :
             Grandia quae mediis jam noctibus ostrea mordet.
 Wallich informs  us that the ladies of his time had recourse on such
 occasions to the brains of the mustela piscis.  The sepia octopus 
LOVE PHILTERS AND POTIONS.
103
was also in great repute ; and Plautus, in his  Casina, brings on an
old  man  who has just been  purchasing some in the  market.
There is reason to believe that these ideas were not  altogether as
absurd as they may appear.  Fourcroy and Vauqu'elin have attri-
buted this influence to the presence of phosphorus, which is well
known to be highly exciting.   In the East, various vegetable pro-
ductions are considered in the  same light.  Their  hakims have
numerous receipts for the purpose ; amongst which we find several
electuaries,—such as the diacyminum, the diaxylaloes, the confec-
tions of Luffa Abunofa, and the chaschab abusidan of the Ara-
bians, of which wonderful effects are related.
   The laws of every country have  provided against the offence of
witchcraft, sorcery, conjuration, and enchantment.  We find a statute
of our first James, making it " felony, without benefit of the clergy,
under the penalty of death, the act of all persons invoking any evil
spirit, or consulting, covenanting  with, entertaining,  employing,
feeding or rewarding  any evil spirits ; or taking up dead bodies
from their graves, to be used in any witchcraft, sorcery, charm, or
enchantment ; or killing, or otherwise  hurting  any  person  by
such infernal  arts.   And  if any person  should attempt  by sorcery
to discover hidden treasures, or to restore  stolen goods, or to pro-
voke unlawful love, (lawful love did not come within these salutary
provisions,) he or she should suffer imprisonment and pillory for the
first offence, and  death for the  second."  Strange to say, that act
continued in force till very lately ; and  Blackstone observes, " that
many poor wretches were sacrificed thereby to the prejudice of
their neighbours, and  their own illusions  ; not a few having, by
some means or other, confessed the fact  at the gallows."
   Nothing could be more absurd, nay atrocious, than the means ju-
dicially resorted  to at that period to detect witchcraft.  Sir Robert
Filmer mentions two tests by fire : the  first by burning the house
of the pretended  witch ; the other, by burning any animal supposed
to have been bewitched by her.   In boththese cases the witch would
confess her malefices !
   Moreover, it was asserted that a witch, even while enduring  the
pangs of torture, could only shed three  tears, and those from  the
left eye ; this was considered a. sufficient proof of guilt by the judges
of the day !  Swimming a witch was another expedient; in this
ordeal the hag was stripped naked, and cross bound, the right thumb
to the left toe, and vice versa.  Thus prepared, she was thrown into
a pond or a river ; in which, if guilty, she could not sink, for having
by her compact with the  Devil  renounced the waters  of baptism,
the  waters in  return refused to receive her in their bosom.
   Our wise legislators maintained that  old women were generally
selected by the  evil ones for  their malicious purposes, and  they
usually appeared to them  in the form of a man wearing a black coat
or gown ;  and sometimes especially in the  north, with a bluish band
and turned-up linen cuffs :  hard  bargains were sometimes  driven
between the parties for the value of the harridan's soul.  This was
also the  case, according  to  Echard, in the  negociation  between 
104         CURIOSITIES OF MEDICAL EXPERIENCE.
Oliver Cromwell and  the Devil before  the  battle of Worcester.
There were black, white, and  grey witches: some of them fond
of junketing and merry-making, and  often would Satan play on a
pipe or a cittern to make them  dance ; and not unfrequently would
he become enamoured with their withered charms, when toads and
horrible serpents were the hated progeny of this unhallowed union.
Sinclair tells us, in his " Invisible World," of one Mr. Barton, who
was burnt with his wife for witchcraft, and who confessed before he
was tied to the stake, that he had  intrigued with  the  Devil in the
shape of a comely lady, who had  given  him 15/. for his trouble.
His wife confessed at the same  time, that the  Devil in the shape of
a poodle-dog used to dance before her, playing upon the pipes with
a candle under his tail.  The Devil, particularly in Scotland, would
ever and anon get up into a pulpit, and preach a sermon in a voice
hough and gustie.
  Burton gives us some curious traditions of these devilish amours,
and quotes Philostratus's account of one Menippus Lycius, a young
man twenty-five.years of  age, who, going between Cenchreas and
Corinth, met a phantom in the  shape of a fair gentlewoman, which,
taking him by the hand, carried him to her house in the suburbs of
Corinth  ; and told  him she was a  Phoenician by birth, and, if he
would tarry with her, he should hear  her sing and play, and drink
such wine as never was drunk,  and no man should molest him, but
she, being fair and lovely, would live and die with him.  The young
man tarried with her awhile to his great content, and at last married
her ;  to whose wedding,  amongst other guests, came Apollonius ;
who, by some probable conjecture, found her  out to be a serpent—
a lamia.   When she saw herself discovered, she wept, and  desired
Apollonius to be silent; but he would not be  moved, and thereupon
she, plate, house, and all that was in it, vanished in an instant.
  Florigerus also mentions the case of a young gentleman of Rome,
" who on  his wedding day went out  walking with his bride and
some friends after dinner ;.and towards evening went to a  tennis-
court, and while he played, he  took off his ring, and placed it upon
the finger of a brass Venus statua.   The game finished, he went
to fetch  his ring ; but Venus had bent her finger upon it, and he
could not get it off.   Whereupon, loth to make his companions tarry,
he there left it, intending to fetch it the  next day, went thence  to
supper, and so to bed ;  but in the night Venus had slipped between
him and his wife, and thus troubled him for several successive nights.
Not knowing how to help himself, he made hismoan to one Palumbus,
a learned magician; who gave him a letter, and bade him at such a time
of the night, in such a cross way, where old Saturn would pass by with
his associates, to deliver to him  the script  : the young man, of a bold
spirit, accordingly did it; and when the old fiend had read it,he called
Venus to him, who was riding  before him, and  commanded her to
deliver the ring, which forthwith she  did."
   Burton further quotes St. Augustine, Bodin, Paracelsus, and vari-
ous other learned men, who firmly maintain that the Devil  is par-
ticularly fond of a little flirtation with the ladies j and a Bavarian 
LOVE PHILTERS AND POTIONS.
105
widower, who was sadly grieving for his belowed wife, was visited
by Old Nick, who had assumed the form of the departed lady, and
promised to live with him and comfort him  on the condition  that
he would leave off swearing and blaspheming : he vowed it, married
her, and she brought him several children ; till one day,in an uxorious
quarrel, he began to swear like a Pandour, whereupon she vanished,
and never more was seen.
  The preservatives against witchcraft were as absurd  as the fear it
inspired :  some  hair,  parings of nails, or any part of a person be-
witched, were put into a stone bottle, with crooked nails, then corked
close, and hung up the chimney ; this expedient occasioned most
horrible  tortures to  the  witch,  until  the bottle was uncorked.
Witches, moreover, cannot pursue their victims beyond the middle
of a running stream, provided the fugitives had been baptized.
   By an act of George II. these offences .were considered as  misde-
meanors, and  punished with  a year's imprisonment, and standing
four times in the pillory.   There is no  doubt that notwithstanding
the absurdity of such  delusions and Impostures, legislators must en-
deavour to secure the ignorant  against these impositions, which are
frequently of a perilous nature, and have  been often known to oc-
casion serious accidents, and even  death.  Many of the substances
thus  administered are of  a most dangerous description, and these
enchantments are not unfrequently resorted to with sinister inten-
tions.   It is related of the Asiatic women, that, under the pretext of
giving these philters, they sometimes prepare a beverage from the
seeds of the Datura Metel, which produces a lethargic stupefaction
of a convenient  nature.  The mischief that has  frequently arisen
from  the exhibition of the Lytta vesicatoria has been observed and
recorded by every medical practitioner.  The Diablotini, a  kind of
incentive  sugar-plums of the Italians, have been known to occasion
the most serious  accidents; and the celebrated French actor Mole
lost his life in one of these experiments.  Yet penal enactments, in
such cases, must be resorted to with much circumspection ;  for pro-
hibition too frequently promotes the  evils which it is designed to
check.
   Montesquieu observes, that the ridiculous stories that are generally
told, and the many impositions that have been discovered in all ages,
are enough to demolish all faith in such a dubious crime, if the con-
trary evidence were  not  also extremely strong.  Unquestionably,
we have too many instances of criminal  acts of superstition in which
supernatural agency is  believed ; but does this philosophic writer
mean to say that we have  evidence of actual witchcraft and sorcery ?
It is with some degree of regret that we find our learned Blackstone
avow his belief in these matters, and  we borrow his own words  on
the subject: " To deny the possibility, nay, the actual existence of
witchcraft and sorcery, is at once  flatly to contradict the revealed
Word of  God in various passages both of the New and  Old Testa-
ment ; and the thing  itself is a truth to which every nation in the
world hath in its turn borne testimony, either by examples seemingly
well attested, or by prohibitory laws which at least suppose the pos- 
106         CURIOSITIES OF MEDICAL  EXPERIENCE.
sibility of a commerce with  evil spirits.   The  civil law punishes
with death not  only the  sorcerers themselves, but  also those who
consult them ; imitating in the former the express law of God, ' Thou
shalt  not  suffer a witch  to  live!'"   Without calling  into  doubt
the records of supernatural agency in Holy Writ, evident manifes-
tations of  the power and the will of  the Divinity at that period, it
may fairly be asked—Can we promulgate such opinions in the present
times, when miraculous events do not seem to be permitted by our
Creator in His inscrutable wisdom, without  incurring the risk of
plunging  the ignorant in all the dark horrors of the early ages ?
Montesquieu himself has justly remarked, ".that the most unexcep-
tionable conduct, the  purest  morals, and  the constant practice of
every duty in life, are not a sufficient security against the  suspicion
of crimes  like  these."   And yet, because, forsooth, there may be
made to appear examples seemingly attested, and that on the faith of
such an attestation the most absurd and cruel prohibitory laws have
been enacted by every nation in the world, on  the  supposition of
the possibility  of such a crime, however ignorant and brutalized by
superstition these  nations are  or may have  been, man is  not only
authorised by the Scriptures to  persecute some poor miserable fool
or vagrant imposter unto death, but he is sanctioned in  founding
this barbarous persecution on the laws of God!  The mind sickens
at such  doctrines.   It is  grievous to  find a man like  our Addison
sharing in such preposterous  notions ; notions which would induce
a doubtful by-stander  not to interfere with a mob of miscreants who
were  drowning some  unfortunate old woman " for a witch."
   " There are,"  says Addison, " some  opinions  in which a man
should stand neuter,  without engaging his assent to one side or the
other.  It is  with this temper of mind that I consider the subject of
witchcraft.  When I consider whether there are  such persons in the
world as those we call witches, my mind is  divided between the two
opposite opinions ;  or rather, to speak my thoughts freely, I believe
in general that  there is, and has been, such a thing as witchcraft, but,
at the ^same time, can  give no credit to any particular instance of it."
   Are we then still to believe that there may exist some  superna-
tural  hag, that  can
             -------Untie the winds, and let them fight
             Against the churches-------
             Control the moon, make ebbs and flows,
             And deal in her command without her power 1
or who, with the influence given to them by  our poet Rowe,
             By force of patent spells, of bloody characters,
             And conjurations horrible to hear,
             Call fiends and spectres from the yawning deep,
             And set the ministers of hell to work,
with  the liver of a blaspheming Jew, the nose of a Turk, the lips of
a Tartar,  the finger of a birth-strangled babe, and  ditch-delivered
by a drab, &c.  &c.  ?  If we are to believe in witches with Black-
stone and Addison,  we must give  credence to  all  these mystic
means  by which they  work their  way.  All  these  means have 
VENTRILOQUISM.
107
been seemingly attested, and led, from  the just horror they in-
spired, to those prohibitory laws enacted by every nation ; as if
the laws of man could be of any avail in resisting the admitted
supernatural powers with which these witches, sorcerers, magicians,
&c. must have been invested  by the  Deity to perform their terrific
operations !   If we deny this authority we are Manicheans.
                   VE NTRILOQUISM.

  This peculiar faculty  was well known to the anciehts.  Hip-
pocrates verily believed that there did exist individuals who could
draw a voice from  their belly.  He speaks of the wife of Poli-
marchus, who, being affected with a quinsy, spoke in this manner;
hence  this  power  was called  Engastrimysm.  Plato gives  the
history of Euricles, who  mentions three persons whom  St. Chry-
sostom and OZcumenius considered to be endowed with a heavenly
gift.   Caelius Rhodiginus describes an  old woman of  Rovigo who
used to deliver her oracles in the like  manner, and who was never
so eloquent  as when stripped to the skin, when  she would answer
most accurately all  the  questions  put to her by a  familiar who
attended upon her,  and was  called  Cincinnatulus.  Anthony Van-
dael, a physician  of Harlem, considered ventriloquism as a super-
natural power, enabling the  voice to proceed  " ex ventre inferiore
et partibus genitalibus:" and he describes a woman of seventy-three
years of age, called Barbara Jacobi, who used  to ventriloquise with
an imp of the name  of Joachim, who would weep most piteously,
or fall  into roars of laughter, and sometimes danced and sung with
remarkable grace and  elegance, according to the depressing or  the
exhilarating nature of Mrs. Jacobi's communications.  In the Sep-
tuagintthe Hebrew word  Ob is rendered by Engastrimythos ;  and
it was  supposed that the Pythoness who evoked Samuel had re-
course to this power.   Oleaster, Grand  Inquisitor of Portugal,  in a
work published at Lisbon in 1656, mentions a woman of the name
of Cecilia who was brought  before the court, and expressed herself
in a ventriloquial voice, which she said was that of one Peter John,
who had been dead for many years; but Peter John pleaded in vain
for his hostess, for,  despite his  abdominal eloquence, she was  sen-
tenced to be  transported.  Whether Peter John accompanied  her
in exile  is  not  stated.  In  1643,  Dickinson mentions a man at
Oxford, who was called the  King's Whisperer, and who expressed
himself most clearly without opening the mouth  or moving the lips,
This faculty has frequently  been employed in various speculations.
In  the sixteenth century, Borden  relates the story  of a valet of
Francis I. named Brabant, who persuaded the mother of a young
girl  he courted to grant her  consent  to their marriage as speedily 
108         CURIOSITIES OF MEDICAL EXPERIENCE.
 as possible, if  she wished  her  husband's soul to get out of the
 torments of purgatory : after marriage, however, he was disappointed
 in his pecuniary expectations, and he applied his powers of ventrilo-
 quism to terrify a rich banker  of Lyons, of the  name of Corner,
 to bestow a fortune upon his wife; for which purpose he assumed
 the voice of Corner's father, who supplicated him to give the money
 as the only means of sending his poor  consuming soul to paradise.
   One  of  the  most  celebrated  ventriloquists was a  grocer of St.
 Germains,  one  St. Gilles; but he applied the faculty  he  possessed
 to benevolent purposes.  Being  called to reclaim  a newly-married
 young man from a disgraceful connexion, which rendered his wife
 most unhappy, his  supernatural voice,  supposed to come  from
 heaven, succeeded; and  he was equally fortunate in bringing to a
 sense of propriety one of the most sordid misers of his time.
   St. Gilles was  not so felicitous in  a trick he played to some
 monks vainly attempting to prove the absurdity of their superstitious
 notions.  One of the community had  lately died, and, according to
 custom, the deceased was laid out in the church, and  his  brethren,
 grouped around him, were  pouring forth prayers  for  the repose of
 his soul, when St. Gilles, throwing his voice into the  coffin, re-
 turned them all the thanks of the departed friar for their supplica-
 tions in his behalf.  The astonished  monks  were  most edified at
 this  miraculous event, and their prior, who knew St.  Gilles to be a
 freethinker, endeavoured to  impress upon his mind the wonder that
 he himself had performed,  and  to  inveigh most  earnestly against
 the impiety and incredulity of modern philosophers, who entertained
 sceptic ideas  concerning  miracles.  After  a  long  exhortation, our
 ventriloquist burst into a fit of laughter, and avowed the deception
 he had practised:  to convince the brotherhood  of the veracity of
 his assertion, he gave  them various specimens of his skill,—but to
 no purpose; he was called an infidel, a scoffer, an  atheist, and, had
it been  in Spain, the stake would in all probability have  rewarded
his perilous frolic,  or his stiff-necked impiety in refusing to believe
 in his own  miracles.
  It is now pretty generally admitted that ventriloquism  simply
consists in  a slow and gradual expiration, preceded by a strong and
deep inspiration, by which a considerable  quantity of air is intro-
duced into  the lungs, which  is afterwards acted upon by the flexible
powers of  the  larynx and the  trachea : any person  therefore by
practice, can obtain  more or less expertness in this  exercise* in
which, although not apparently, the voice is  still  modified  by'the
mouth and  the  tongue.  Mr. Lespagnol, in a very able dissertation
on this subject, has demonstrated that ventriloquists have acquired
by practice the power of exercising the veil of the palate in such a
manner, that, by raising or depressing it, they dilate or contract the
inner nostrils.  If they are closely contracted, the sound  produced
 is weak, dull, and  seems to be more or less distant; if. on the con-
 trary, these cavities are widely dilated, the sound is  strengthened
 by these tortuous infractuosities, and the voice becomes loud, sono- 
CHAUCER'S DESCRIPTION OF A PHYSICIAN.        109
rous, and apparently close  to  us.   Thus any able mimic.who  can
with facility disguise his voice, with the aid of  this power of modi-
fying sounds, may in time become a ventriloquist.
    CHAUCER'S DESCRIPTION OF  A  PHYSICIAN.

                     THE  DOCTOR  OF PHYSIC.
               With us there was a doctour of phisike;
               In all this world, ne was there none him like
               To speake of phisike and of surgerie,
               For he was grounded in astronomie.
               He kept his patient a full great dell
               In houses;  by his  magike naturell  "
               Well couth he fortune the assendent
               Of his image for his pacient.
               He knew the cause of every malady,
               Whether it were of cold, heate, moist, or dry,
               And whereof engendered was each humour.
               He was a very parfk practisour;
               The cause I knew, and of his haime the roote,
               Anon he  gave to the rich man his boot.
               Full ready had he  his apoticaries
               To send him drugges and his lectuaries;
               For each of them made other for to winne,
               Ther friendship was not new to beginne.
               Well he knew the  old Esculapius,
               And Diascorides, and eke Ruffus,
               And Hippocrates, and Galen,
               Serapion, Rasis, and Avicen,
               Aberrois, Damascene, and Constantin,
               Bernard,  Galisden, and Gilbertin.
               Of his diet measurable was he,
               For it was of no  superfluitie;
               But of gre«t nourishing and digestible.
               Hs study was^but little on the Bible.
               In sanguine and in  percepolad withall
               Lined with taffata and with sendall;
               And yet he was but easy of dispence.
               He kept that he won in time of pestilence;
               For gold in phisike is a cordial,
               Therefore he loved gold speciall.

   It appears  from this  quaint  and  satirical picture, that,  in our
Chaucer's days, astrology formed part of  a  physician's study.   It
also plainly proves that a disgraceful collusion prevailed between
medical practitioners  and tKeir  apothecaries,  mutually  to  enrich
each other at  the expense of*  the patient's purse and constitution.
The poet, moreover, seems to  tax the  faculty with irreligion : that
unjust accusation was not  uncommon ; hence the old adage,  " Ubi
tres medici, duo athei."   To the disgrace  of many illiberal persons
of the present age,  we have known  our most able and praiseworthy
physiologists charged  with materialism.
   August, 1838.—.#            12 
110
CURIOSITIES OF MEDICAL EXPERIENCE.
                   DjEMONO MANIA.

  This disease is perhaps  the most distressing species of insanity ;
since, with the exception of  the miserable belief of being possessed
by the evil spirit, the patient is often in full possession of his other
faculties, and will  even endeavour  to reason with his attendants,
with some apparent plausibility, on the very aberration that con-
stitutes the malady.
  The word ' daemon' among  the ancients was  not considered as
specific of  an  evil spirit;  on the contrary, it signified  genius, in-
tellect, mind.   a*/,«cv;cv, from i*t^av,  meant wisdom, science.   The
first  notions of daemons  were  probably brought  from  Chaldea,
whence they spread amongst the Persians, Egyptians, and Greeks.
Gales maintains that the original institution of daemons was an imita-
tion of the Messiah.  The Phoenicians called them Baalim.  So
far do these early opinions prevail, that among the  Anabaptists we
find a sect called Daemoniac, who believe that devils shall be saved
at the end of the world.
  Plato gave  the name of daemons to the benevolent  spirits who
regulated the universe.  The Chaldeans and  Jews considered them
as the causes of all human maladies.  Saul was agitated by an evil
spirit, and  Job and Joram  suffered under a similar visitation.
  Daemonomania differs widely from  the  mental  disease  called
Theomania.  In the latter state of insanity,the patient  fancies that
he is placed in communication with the Deity or his angels ;  in the
former, he feels convinced  that he has become the prey of the
destroyer of mankind.
  Under the head of " Unlawful Cures," instances are related of
the firm  belief in the power  of evil spirits to cause various diseases.
Perhaps  the origin of daemonomania may  be traced  to fanatical
persecution ; never was the  malady so common  as during the de-
nunciations of Calvin, when torture was  frequently resorted to, to
make  the  victims  of bigotry renounce a supposed pact with the
devil.   D'Agessau was right  when, in advising  the parliament of
Paris to  repeal all  statutes  against sorcery, he  recommended that
daemoniacs should be handed  over to the physician, instead of the
priest or the executioner.
  The sufferings which daemoniacs say they endure must  be ex-
cruciating  ; so powerful is moral influence over our physical sensa-
tions.  They  will tell you that the devil is drawing them tight, and
suffocating them with  a cord ; that he is pinching  and lacerating
their  entrails, burning  and  tearing  their heart,  pouring hot oil or
molten lead in their veins, while  internal  flames  are consuming
them.  Their strength exhausted, their digestive functions impaired,
their  appearance soon becomes miserable  in the extreme, their
countenances  pale and haggard : the wretched  creatures endeavour
to conceal themselves  in their  scanty meals, or their  attempts to 
DAEMONOMANIA.
Ill
 enjoy a broken slumber ; they are  persuaded that  they no  longer
 possess a corporeal existence that requires refection  or repose,—the
 evil spirit has borne away their bodies, the devil requires no earthly
 support; they even deny their  sex :  they are  doomed to live for
 ever in constant  agony.  These  unfortunate creatures  are  mostly
 women.   One of them asserts, with horrid imprecations, that she
 has  been the devil's wife for a million of years, and had borne him
 a numerous family ; her body is nothing but a sack made of a  devil's
 skin, and filled with their offsprings in the shape of devouring snakes,
 toads, and venomous reptiles.  She exclaims that her husband con-
 stantly urges her to commit  murder,  theft, and every imaginable
 crime ; and sometimes with bitter  tears supplicates her keeper to
 put  on a strait waistcoat, to  prevent her from doing evil.  Another
 woman,  forty-eight years of age, assures us that she has two devils
 who have taken up their residence in both her hips, and have grown
 up to her ears :  one of them  is black and yellow,  the other" black,
 both in the shape of cats.   She fills her ears with snuff and grease
 to satisfy their diabolical cravings.   She eats with  voracity, but is
 a perfect skeleton in appearance ; the devils consume all, and leave
 her nothing.  They constantly bid  her to go  and  drown herself;
 but  she cannot obey them, since eternity is  her doom.  They are
 scarcely sensible of painful agents, and are unconscious of heat, cold,
 or the inclemency of the weather.  Their perspiration, frequently
 profuse, exhales a most unpleasant odour ; hence the vulgar fancy
 that they smell of the lower  regions.  This circumstance is the usual
 consequence of many  nervous affections, and arises, most probably,
 from the foulness of the breath, a natural result of impaired digestion,
 and  from a peculiar acrimony of the cutaneous secretions.
   It has been generally remarked that cases of daemonomania are
 more common amongst women  than  in men.   Their greater sus-
 ceptibility to  nervous  affections, their warmth of  imagination and
 strong passions, which  habit and education compel them to restrain,
 produce a state of concentration that  must  cause increased  excite-
 ment, and render them more liable to those terrific impressions that
 constitute the disease.  These terrors, from false  notions of the Deity,
 make them anticipate in this world the sufferings denounced in the
 next.  One woman has been known to become daemonomaniac  after
 an intense perusal of the Apocalypse, and  another  by the constant
 reading of the works of Thomas a Kempis.  Women, moreover, at
 certain critical periods  are subject to great mental depression, which
 they have  not the power to  relieve  by exciting pursuits, like men.
 Melancholy succeeds a dull  sameness.  Religion, viewed in  a false
 light, becomes her refuge ;  more especially at an advanced  period
 of life, when loss of youth and beauty is bitterly  felt,  as galled  vanity
 compares the present with the past.  Hysteric symptoms are  now
 developed : the passions, which  are too frequently  increased even
 to intensity, rather  than cooled, by years, prompt her to rebellious
thoughts that religion and virtuous feelings strive to restrain-;  and
these powerful agents,  acting upon  a predisposition morbidly im- 
112
CURIOSITIES OF MEDICAL EXPERIENCE.
pressionable from ignorance or the errors of education, accelerate
the invasion of this cruel malady.
   Pliny tells us that women are the best subjects for magical expe-
riments ;  Quintilian is of the same opinion : Saul consults a witch ;
Bodin, in  his calculations, estimates the proportion between wizards
and witches as one to fifty.   It is, perhaps, owing to these remarks
that many ungenerous writers have denied women a soul, as not
belonging to mankind.   There  exists a curious anonymous work,
published  at the close of the sixteenth century, to prove that women
are not men, or, in  other words, reasonable creatures, and entitled
" Dissertatio perjucunda  qua Anonymus probare nititur  Mu-
lieres homines non esse."  Our author upon this  principle endea-
vours to show that women cannot be saved.  One Simon Geddicus,
a Lutheran divine, wrote a  serious confutation of this libel upon the
fair sex, in 1595, and promises the ladies an expectation of salvation
on their good behaviour.  According to a popular tradition among
the Mahometans, women are excluded from paradise :  St. Augustin,
however, calls them the devout sex ; and in the prayer to the Virgin
of the Romish Church  we find " Intercede pro  devoto foemineo
sexu."  An hypothesis  still more absurd was broached by a Doctor
Almaricus, a theological Parisian writer of the twelfth century, who
advanced that, had it not been for the original sin, every individual
of our species would have come into existence a complete man ; and
that God would have created them by himself, as he created Adam.
Our worthy doctor  was  a disciple of Aristotle, who maintained that
woman was a defective animal, and her generation purely fortuitous
and foreign to  nature.  Howbeit, my fair readers will learn  with
satisfaction that the doctrines of  this aforesaid Almaricus were con-
demned by the church as heretical, and his bones were therefore dug
up, and cast into a common sewer, as an amende honorable to the
offended ladies.
   " A woman," says  one of  the primitive fathers of the  church,
" went to the play, and came back with the devil in her ; whereupon,
when the  unclean spirit was urged and threatened, in the office of
exorcising, for  having dared to attack one of the  faithful, ' I have
done nothing,' replied he, ' but what is very fair ; I found her on my
own grounds, and I took possession  of her.' "
   St.  Cyprian informs us, that when he was studying magic, he was
particularly intimate with the devil.  " I saw the devil himself," he
says ; " embraced  him ; I  conversed with him, and was  esteemed
one of those who held a principal rank about him."  Who can doubt
the assertion of a saint!  It appears, that in those wonderful days the
devil  usually wore a black gown, with a black  hat; and it was
observed that, whenever he was preaching, his glutei muscles were
as cold as  ice.
   At all times satire has endeavoured to make invidious distinctions
between the sexes: this is not  fair.  Women are generally  what
men have made them.  In a physical, and, consequently, to a certain
degree in a  moral point of view, their organization  is essentially 
DAEMONOMANIA.
113
different from ours;  therefore, a masculine woman is as intolerable
as an effeminate man.   The  education of females tends in a great
measure to increase that susceptibility to trifling excitements, which
in after-life urges them to the extremes of good or evil.  While the
toys and amusements of boys are of a manly nature, a girl is taught
to practise upon her darling doll all the arts which a few years after
she  will practise upon  herself.   Many  intelligent writers  have
doubted the expediency of giving woman any education  beyond the
sphere of her domestic  pursuits and  occupations ; Erasmus wrote
largely on this  subject to Budasus.   Vives treats of it in his Insti-
tutio foeminse Christianas; and a German authoress,  Madame
Schurman, has published a treatise  on the problem, " Num foeminse
Christians conveniat studium literarum ?"
   It is this nervous flexibility in women  that exposes them to that
constant succession of emotions which  are  expressed  by a  rapid
transition  from tears to smiles ; and, anomalous as it may appear,
they are more exposed to fond impressions in their grief than at any
other moment; they then feel more  helpless, and stand in greater
need of consolation.  The story of the Matron of Ephesus is not so
great a libel on the sex as one might imagine.  Their mind is prone
to romantic enthusiasm ; they delight in  the extraordinary, the ter-
rible, as Madame de Sevigne who  well knew her sex, expresses it,
they enjoy in chivalric tales les grands  coups d'epie.   Prudence
preventing  them  too frequently  from expressing  their  thoughts,
thinking becomes more intense; and Publius Syrus has  said," Mu-
lier quae sola cogitat, male,  cogitat:"  but  when  the  suppressed
volcano bursts forth, its eruptions are boundless ; it is  then that one
may exclaim, " Notumque fuerit quid fcemina possit."  No pas-
sion is more  overwhelming than when it has been  kept down by
dissimulation ;  opportunity is their curse : Montaigne has too truly
said,"  Oh lefurieux avantage que I'opportunitie!" and our Den-
ham has beautifully illustrated its fearful  circumstances :
         Opportunity, like a sudden gust,
         Hath swell'd my calmer thoughts into a tempest.
         Accursed opportunity !
         That works our thoughts into desires; desires
         To resolutions; those being ripe and  quickeu'd,
         Thou giv'st them birth, and bring'st them  forth to action.
It is a  perilous  ordeal  for  such to whom  the lines of Ovid might
apply,
               Quae, quia non liceat, non facit; ilia facit.

   To what prejudice against women are we to trace their sex having
been chosen to  represent the  Furies, stern and inexorable  ministers
of Divine wrath ;  the Harpies, who  defiled all  they  touched  ; the
perilous Syrens ;  unless it be to woman's fascinations  in youth, and
envious bitterness in old age—the  conventional type of  witchcraft ?
This unhappy selection of  woman for working  malefices has been
attributed to the facility which the devil  found in tempting Eve.—
A witch is supposed by the most learned  in  the black  art to be in 
114
CURIOSITIES OF  MEDICAL EXPERIENCE.
compact with Satan, whom  she is obliged to obey ;  whereas a sor-
cerer commands the devil himself by his knowledge of charms and
invocations, but more especially of  perfumes that  the evil spirits
delight in when properly suffumigated, or abhor when maliciously
given them to smell.   Thus the burning of a fish's liver  by Tobit
drove the devil into the remote parts of Egypt; and Lilly informs
us, that  one Evans having raised a  spirit at the  request of Lord
Bothwell and Sir Kenelm Digby, and forgotten his favourite fumi-
gation or incense, the angry elf whipped him up, and  carried him
from his house in the Minories to Battersea Causeway.
  Although fairies  are mostly considered juvenile, and many of their
kind acts are recorded, yet are they in general mischievous  imps ;
Mr. Lewis describes those he saw in the silver and lead mines of
Wales, as only being about  half a yard high.  As a punishment for
their vagaries, all their children are stunted and idiotic ; and this
accounts for their abominable custom of substituting their own " base
elfin breed" for healthy infants.  Hence are idiots commonly called
changelings.
  Daemoniacs are prone  to commit suicide, less from their loathing
an irksome life than through fear, not of future torments, but of the
renewal  or the continuance of their wordly sufferings.  Perhaps
they may entertain some doubts as to the punishment of another ex-
istence, while their actual  condition is intolerable;  we not  unfre-
quently see desperate men rushing to meet the very fate they dread.
  Daemonomania may be referred to a false view of divine justice,
—ignorance, and consequent weakness of intellect,—and a pusillani-
mous apprehension of perhaps a merited chastisement.   It is a dis-
ease which  seldom admits of a cure.  If the consolations of true
religion  are  proffered,  they  are either spurned  with  anger,  or
merely  produce an evanescent  melioration.  Zacutus relates the
case of a daemoniac who  was cured by  a person who appeared
to her in the form  of an angel, to  inform her that her sins had been
forgiven: it  is  possible  that stratagems of a similar nature might
prevail.   I attended a monomaniac lady in  Paris, who fancied her-
self in Jerusalem on the eve of its  destruction.  She furiously op-
posed all  endeavours to  move her from her residence ;  and it was
only by personating a Jewish rabbi, and offering to take her to New
Jerusalem as a place of refuge, that she consented to accompany me
in a carriage  to a maison de santS near the capital.  Here imagina-
tion subdued imagination.   I have had the pleasure to hear that ever
since I thus succeeded in breaking a link in the morbid  association
of her fancies, her state  of  mind rapidly improved, and  that she is
now restored to perfect  sanity.
   Daemonomania has been  known to be epidemic.  From 1552 to
1554 no less than  eighty-four persons became  possessed  in  Rome.
The endeavours of a French monk to exorcise them proved of no
avail ; and  as  most  of  the unfortunate victims  of credulity were
Jewesses who had consented to be baptized, the Jews were of course
 accused of sorcery.  About the same period a similar disease broke 
DAEMONOMANIA.
115
out in a convent near Kerndrop, in Germany, when all  the nuns
were possessed, and denounced their cook, who, having  confessed
that she was a witch, was duly burnt alive with her mother.
  Daemonomania has been considered  a hereditary visitation, and
whole families have therefore been deemed in pact with the evil
one.  Insanity is unfortunately  known to attach itself to certain
generations ;  but perhaps it has not been sufficiently observed, when
endeavouring  to account for  this  melancholy fact, that  the mind
becomes gradually influenced by the nature of the constant conver-
sation we daily and hourly are exposed to hear ; and it is not im-
possible but that this transmission of mental disease may be attri-
buted to morbid moral  and physical sympathies, which  might be
avoided by withdrawing the persons exposed to it from the  sphere
of their action.  Constant anxious thoughts and painful reflections
tend to produce an increased sensorial  power  in the brain, with  a
diminished sensibility to external impressions.  So greathas been this
effect upon the senses, that maniacs have been  seen to gaze upon the
meridian sun without any sensible effect on the organs  of  vision.
It is therefore possible that an individual who beholds with incessant
horror insanity in his family, or who constantly hears of their aber-
rations, may ultimately experience a similar peculiarity of the mind ;
hence wit as well as madness have been known to be the heir-looms
of a race.  Although the examples of vice, one might imagine, would
inspire a love for virtuous  actions, yet we  daily see profligacy the
characteristic of an entire family ; and  there are names which have
been  rendered by misconduct synonymous with depravity.  This
sad fact can only be attributed to natural temperament, whether it
be  sanguine or melancholic.  It  has been observed that our  consti-
tutions  exercise a control over diseases, that modifies them in  a
peculiar manner.  The  more acute the sensibility, the greater is the
predisposition to insanity.   Warm and ungovernable  passions will
drive one  female  into  all the  horrid  excesses of nymphomania,
while the timid hypochondriac and hysteric woman will gradually
sink into a morose or  a malevolent  despondency.  Burton attri-
butes daemonomania to other causes, and tells us that the devil is so
cunning that he is able  to deceive the  very elect;  and, to compel
them the more to stand  in awe of him, he sends and cures diseases,
disquiets their minds, torments  and terrifies  their souls, to make
them adore him ; and all his study, all his endeavour, is to divert them
from true religion to superstition ; and because he is damned himself,
and is in error, he would have all the world participate of his errors,
and be damned with him.
   Amongst the various  motives  that induced the evil one to pay his
sinister visits  to frail mortality, that of inflicting upon them  a salu-
tary, or a vexatious fustigation, is frequently recorded by the fathers
and other writers.  It was more especially upon the backs of saints
that this castigation took place.  St. Athanasius informs us that St.
Anthony was frequently flagellated by the devil.  St. Jerome states
St. Hilarius was often whipped in a similar manner ;  and he calls 
116
CURIOSITIES OF MEDICAL EXPERIENCE.
the devil " a wanton  gladiator,"  and thus describes his  mode of
punishment: " Insidet dorso ejus festivus gladiator ;  et latera  cal-
cibus, cervicem flagello verberans."   Grimlaicus, a learned divine,
confirms the fact in the following passage : " Nonnumquam autem
et aperta impugnatione grassantes, daemones humana corpora verbe-
rant, sicut B. Antonio fecerant."   St. Francis of Assisa  received
a dreadful flogging from the devil the very first night he came to
Rome, which caused him to quit that city forthwith.   Abbe Boileau's
remarks on this circumstance savour not a little of impiety and free-
thinking, for he says, " It is not  unlikely that, having met with a
colder  reception  than he judged his sanctity entitled  him  to, he
thought proper to decamp  immediately, and when  he returned to
his convent told the above story to his brother monks."  Howbeit,
Abbe Boileau is no authority, and it is to  be feared that, partaking
of the satirical disposition of his brother, he sacrificed piety to wit;
for it is well  known, beyond the power of sceptic doubts, that  the
aforesaid saint's assertion cannot  possibly be impugned by proper
believers.  His power over the  fiery elements was established ;
whereby he possessed the faculty  of curing erysipelas, honoured by
the appellation of St. Anthony's fire.  In  the like  manner St. Hu-
bert cured hydrophobia, and St. John the epilepsy.
   It is, however,  pleasing to know  that it was not always that the
beatified succumbed  to  these  Satanic pranks, and  many  instances
are recorded  of the devils being worsted in their sacrilegious amuse-
ment, as fully[appears in  the history of the blessed Cornelia Juliana,
in whose room one  day,  says her history, "the other nuns heard a
prodigious noise, which turned out to be  a strife she had  had with
the devil, whom,  after having laid hold of him, she fustigated most
unmercifully ; then, having him upon the ground, she trampled upon
him with her foot, and ridiculed him in  the  most bitter manner
(lacerabat sarcasmis)."   This occurrence is incontrovertible, being
affirmed by that learned and pious Jesuit, Bartholomew Fisen.
   This  partiality of devils for flagellation can  most probably be
attributed to their horribly jealous disposition ; for it is well known
that the saints took great delight in fustigating, not  only those who
offended them, but their most faithful votaries.  Flagellation was,
therefore the most grateful punishment that  could be  inflicted to
propitiate the beatified ;  and  we have several well-authenticated
facts which prove that the Virgin  was frequently appeased by  this
practice.  Under  the pontificate of Sextus IV, a heterodox  professor
of divinity, who had written against the tabernacle, was flogged pub-
licly by a pious monk, to  the great  edification of the by-standers,
more paticularly  the ladies.  The  description of this  operation
would  lose materially by  translation, 1  therefore  give it  in  the
original.  " Apprehendens ipsum revolvit super ejus genua ;  erat
enim valde fortis.  Elevatis itaque pannis, quia ille  minister contra
sanctum Dei  tabernaculum locutus fuerat, coepit cum palmis percu-
tere super quadrata tabernacula quae erant nuda,  non enim habe-
bat femoralia vel  antiphonam; et quia ipse infamare  voluerat
* 
Daemonomania.
117
beatam Virginem, allegando forsitan Aristotelem in libro priorum,
iste praedicator ilium confutavit legendoin libro ejus post eriorum:
de hoc autem omnes gui aderant gaudebant.   Tunc exclamavit quse-
dam devota  mulier, dicens,' Domine Praedicator, detis ei alios
quatuor palmatus pro me-'  et  alia postmodum dixit,'Detis ei
etiam quatuor ;'  sicque  multse  alias rogabant, ita quod, si illarum
petitionibus satisfacere voluisset, per totum  diem aliud facere non
potuisset."
  We need not  seek for similar instances of the mighty power of
proper fustigation in  foreign parts.  The Annals of Wales record a
singular instance of the kind, which happened in the year 1188, as
related by Sylvester Gerald, in such a circumstantial manner that the
most  obdurate incredulity alone could doubt the fact:—" On the
other side of the river Humber," he says," in the parish of Hoeden,
lived the rector of that  church with his concubine, this concubine,
one day, sat rather imprudently on the tomb of St. Osanna, sister to
King Osred, which was made of wood, and raised above the ground
in the shape of a seat:  when she attempted to rise from that place,
she stuck to the wood in such a manner that she could not be parted
from it, till, in the presence of the people who flocked to see her,
she had suffered her  clothes  to be  torn from her, and had received
a severe discipline on her naked body, and that too to a great effusion
of blood, and with many tears and devout supplications on her part;
which done, and after she had engaged to submit to further penitence,
she was divinely released."
  In this instance, as in many others, freedom from vulgar habili-
ments appears to have been considered as acceptable to Heaven  ; so
much so, indeed, that the state of greater or lesser nudity has been
commensurate with the degree of the offence.  The cynic philoso-
phers of Greece, among whom  Diogenes made himself most con-
spicuous, used to appear in public without a rag upon them.   The
Indian wise men, called Gymnosophists, or naked sages, indulged
in the same vagaries.  In more modern times, the Adamites appeared
in the simple condition of our first father.  In the 13th century, a
sect called Les Turlupens, (a denomination which  appears to have
been an opprobrious nickname), perambulated France, disencumbered
of vain accoutrements ; and, in 1535, some Anabaptists made an ex-
cursion to Amsterdam  in the condition in which they had quitted
their baths, for which breach of decorum  the impious burgomasters
had them bastinadoed.   We further read  of one Friar Juniperus, a
worthy Franciscan, who, according to history, " entered the town
of Viterboo, and, while he stood within the gate, he put his hose on
his head, and his gown being tied round his neck in the shape of a
load, he walked through the streets of the town, where he suffered
much abuse and maltreatment from the  wicked inhabitants  ; and,
still in the same situation, he went  to  the convent of the brothers,
who all exclaimed  against him, but he little  cared for them, so holy
was the good little brother, (tarn sanctusfuit iste fraticellus.)'*
  The pranks of Brother Juniper have been performed  at sundry 
US          CURIOSITIES OF MEDICAL EXPERIENCE.
periods by various holy men.   Are we not warranted in conceiving
thatthese individuals were daemonomaniacs? forsurely the devil alone
could have inspired them with such fancies,althoUgh Cardinal Damian
defends the practice in the  following terms, when speaking of  the
day of judgment: " Then shall the sun  lose  its lustre, the  moon
shall be involved  in darkness ; the stars shall fall from their  places,
and all the elements be confounded together : of what service then
will be to you those clothes and garments with which you are now
covered, and which you refuse to lay aside, to submit to the exercise
of penitence ?"
  It must be remarked, in extenuation  of these  exhibitions, that
they were accompanied  by flagellation; which sometimes  bore a
close analogy to those of the Saturnalia and  Lupercalia, and  the
discipline of the flagellants was not  always dissimilar  to that of the
Luperci.
  To resume: Daemonomania may be considered the result of a
morbid condition  of the mind, and the dread of supernatural agency.
The belief of an incarnation of the devil leads  to the natural appre-
hension of his having  taken possession of our bodies, when a credu-
lous creature fancies that  he has fallen into  his snares, and forsaken
the ways of the Omnipotent.  This sad delusion has been admirably
illustrated by Sir  Walter Scott in his curious and  learned Demon-
ology.   " It is, I  think," says he, " conclusive that mankind, from
a very early period,  have  their minds  prepared  for  such  events
(supernatural occurrences) by the consciousness of the existence of
a spiritual world.   But imagination is apt to intrude its explanations
and inferences  founded  on inadequate evidence.  Sometimes  our
violent and inordinate  passions, originating in sorrow for our friends,
remorse for  our crimes, our  eagerness of patriotism, or our deep
sense of devotion,—these, or other violent excitements of a moral
character, in  the  visions of the  night, or  the  rapt ecstacy of  the
day, persuade  us that  we witness with  our eyes and ears  an actual
instance  of  that  supernatural communication,  the possibility  of
which  cannot be denied.  At other times, the  corporeal  organs
impose upon the mind, while the eye and the ear, diseased, deranged,
or misled, convey false impressions to the patient.   Very often both
the mental delusion and  the  physical deception exist at  the same
time; and men's belief of the phenomena presented to them, how-
ever erroneously, by  the senses, is the  firmer  and more readily
granted, that the physical impressions corresponded with the  mental
excitement."
  From the foregoing observations we may venture  to conclude,
that an individual who gives  credence  to apparitions will also be-
lieve in the incarnation of the devil.  In both cases we infer that
spiritual beings can assume corporeal forms; and, although we may
not presume to question the possibility of such appearances when it
may please the Omnipotent so to will it, to believe in possession is
actually to admit  that the devil is a spiritual  being endowed with
specific atributes  and  powers, and acting either independently or 
THE PLAGUE.
119
with the  consent  of the Almighty.   This admission would  to  a
certain extent border on the heresy of the Manicheans, who  be-
lieved, with the heresiarch Cubricus, that there existed a good and
an evil principle  co-eternal and  independent of each other.  We
find in Holy Writ that indulgence was granted to Satan to visit the
earth.  But the period  when  miraculous power  ceased, or rather
was withdrawn from the  church,  is not determined.  The Pro-
testants bring it down beneath the  accession of Constantine, while
the Roman Catholic clergy still claim the power of  producing or
procuring supernatural manifestations when it suits their purpose;
but, as Scott justly observes, it is alike inconsistent with the com-
mon sense of either Protestant or Roman Catholic, that fiends should
be permitted to work marvels, which are no longer  exhibited on
the part of religion.
  Cullen's opinion on this disease is worthy of remark.  He says,
"I do  not allow that there is any true daemonomania, because few
people now-a-days believe that demons  have any power over our
bodies or  our minds;  and, in my  opinion, the species  recorded are
either a species of melancholy or mania,—diseases falsely referred
by the spectators to the power of demons,—feigned  diseases,—or
diseases partly real or partly feigned."
                      THE  PLAGUE.

   Pestilential diseases have ever been  considered as a punish-
 ment inflicted on mankind for their manifold offences.  The ancients
 deified the calamity, and viewed it in the light of an avenging god.
 In the CEdipus of Sophocles, the chorus implore Minerva  to pre-
 serve them from  that divinity, which, without sword or buckler,
 strews the Theban streets with corpses, and is more invincible than
 Mars himself.  Lucretius describes the plague of Athens as  a  holy
 fire,—
           Et simul, ulceribus quasi inustis, omne rubore
           Corpus, ut est, per membra sacer quum diditur ignis.
 The plague was known in an early era both to the Israelites  and to
 the Greeks, and its ancient and modern histories have descended to
 us depicted in  the most terrific colours, in  a regular stream of He-
 brew, Greek, Arabic, and Roman writers, in most instances offering
 little  variety from the descriptions of neotoric observers.
  The pestilences that visited the Israelites were, however, of a
 different character.   They were also considered as a Divine chastise-
 ment of the sins of that stiff-necked nation.  This visitation, accu-
 rately described  in  Holy  Writ, has  led to  the most  curious
 disquisitions.   Bryant  has endeavoured   by the most  recondite
researches to give us the reasons  why the  Creator thought proper 
120         CURIOSITIES OF MEDICAL EXPERIENCE.

thus to visit his disobedient people.   It has  truly been  observed
that the sublime is not far removed from the ridiculous ; and it may
be  said with  equal correctness, that enthusiasm in  religion too
frequently  borders upon impiety.   Bryant, in his  erudite  labour,
has unhappily fallen into this extreme, in assigning human motives
to the  decrees of the Deity.   This matter is  treated in so curious
a manner that it will not be irrelevant to notice his bold assertions.
  In the first  instance,  taking the language of the Exodus  in the
most literal sense, he tells us that the river was turned into  blood,
because it was a punishment particularly well adapted to that blinded
and infatuated people, as a warning to the Israelites of the false gods
that the Egyptians worshipped.  They had rendered divine homage
to the Nile; and Herodotus informs us that the Persians held their
rivers in the highest veneration ; while the same worship obtained
among the  Medes, the Parthians, and the Sarmatians.   The Greeks
adored the  Spercheius, to whose god Peleus vowed the hair of his
son; the laureated Peneus, the earth-born Achelous, and the  loving
Alpheus.   For,  although it may be said  that these  streams were
merely venerated as the symbols of their respective gods, it is possi-
ble that the Greeks might have fallen into the same errors as the
worshippers of saintly images in more modern and enlightened times.
Therefore,  says  our learned  author, there was a great propriety in
the judgment brought upon this  people by Moses.  They must have
felt the utmost astonishment and horror when they beheld the sacred
stream changed and polluted, and the divinity which they worshipped
so shamefully  foiled and debased.   Moreover, he tells us that, the
Egyptian priests were particularly nice and delicate in their outward
habits, making constant ablutions; and abhorred blood, or any stain
of gore.  In this plague the fish  that were in the river died, and the
river stunk.  Now the  priests and  holy men  not only never tasted
fish, but looked  upon them as deities.  A city was built in honour
of the god-fish, Oxyrunchus; the Phagrus* was worshipped at  Syene,
the Maeotis at Elephantis, and Antiphanes tells us that the Egyptians
equally reverenced the eel.
   The second plague were frogs, because, further saith our sapient
authority, they added to the stink of the land, as they " died out of
the houses, out of the villages, and out of the fields, and were gathered
together in heaps, and  the land stunk," Exodus, c. viii, v. 13, 14.
Bryant candidly confesses  that he is rather uncertain if this  reptile
was an object of reverence, or  of abhorrence to the Egyptians;
nevertheless, he draws the conclusion that,as the ancients worshipped
many deities of dread, and others that they despised,  (such as Pria-
pus, Fatua, Vacuna, Cloacina,) Mephitis, or foul  effluvia, was held
in religious awe,—and,  to use his own  expressions, since Mephitis
" signified  stink in the abstract," and had a temple at Cremona,—
the pestilential emanation from the dead frogs might have been con-
sidered entitled  to some reverence.   Plutarch tells us that the frog

  * According to ^Elian, the presence  of this fish indicated the approaching over-
flow of the Nile.                                             ° 
THE PLAGUE.
121
was an emblem of the sun  in Egypt, and that the brazen palm-tree
at Delphi had many of these animals engraved on its basis.   On the
Bembine table we find it sitting upon the  lotus, a circumstance ob-
served in various ancient gems; the water-lily being, perhaps, con-
genial to this aquatic tribe, which were denominated the attendants
of the deities of streams and fountains.  It is also  alleged that the
frog was deemed an emblem of Apollo and Osiris, from its habit of
inflation, which  was  looked upon as being  typical of inspiration.
That  frogs  were  considered as evil  symbols further appears in the
Apocalypse, where we find that "three unclean spirits like  frogs
come out of the mouth of the dragon, and out of the mouth of the
beast, and out of the mouth of the false prophet; they are the spirits
of devils working miracles."
   The third  plague was lice, because the Egyptian  priests affected
great external purity, wore linen under their woollen garments, and
shaved their heads, according to Herodotus, every third day, to pre-
vent  any louse, or any other  detestable  object, from finding a com-
fortable  shelter.   Some scholiasts have ventured to insinuate that
this insect was a species of gnat; but St. Jerome and  Origen very
properly observe that this would  have been a presumptuous antici-
pation of the plague of flies, which constituted the fourth visitation,
because flies were also held sacred  by the  Egyptians, and  were
worshipped under the  name of Achon, Acoron, and Zebub,  more
particularly in the city of Acaron or Accoron.  Baal was the god
of flies, and the fly was worshipped at Ekron, where it was  called
Baal-zebub,—hence Belzebub.
   The next plague was the murrain of beasts; because it was neces-
sary that the Israelites should not only see  that the  cattle of the
Egyptians  were all infected, while theirs were exempted from the
evil;  but that their very living symbol  of the bull Apis, in whom
the soul of Osiris had taken  up its dwelling, was affected  with
epizooty in common with other herds of horned deities, who  were
called DU Stercorei ;  though it appears that the ass and the camel
were  involved in the same calamity.
  Our commentator attempts to account for the sixth plague of boils
and blains with equal ingenuity.   He affirms that this cruel disorder
was sent among  the Egyptians to  show the Israelites that the medi-
cal  men, to whom they attributed  divine powers, could neither cure
nor alleviate the disease.  The science of medicine bequeathed by
Isis to her son  Orus  was of  no avail, and  the  learned records of
Tosorthrus yielded no information.  In vain did their leeches search
their  cryptae and  sacred cavern, or consult their mystic obelisks,
which, according to Manetho, were inscribed with the aphorisms of
medical experience;  their physicians only  increased the number of
the botches of the land.  The Scriptures state that  this pestilential
malady was produced by the ashes that Aaron and Moses scattered
up towards heaven to be wafted over the country.   Bryant also ac-
counts for this circumstance, and attributes this method of extending
the calamity to the barbarous practice of the Egyptians of burning
  August, 1838.—B           13 
122         CURIOSITIES OF MEDICAL EXPERIENCE.
human victims and scattering the ashes in the air, in a like manner,
to propitiate their gods.
  The fall of rain, hail, fire, and thunder, that constituted the seventh
plague, was  a  chastisement  inflicted  on the worshippers of these
supposed elements.  Their Isis presided over the waters, and Osiris
and  Hephaistus  governed fire.  Moreover  the  flax was smitten,
whereby the Egyptians  were deprived of  the means of making,
linen, the fineness of which was their boast and their pride.  The
barley was also destroyed, and they had no  materials  for brewing
their favourite potation, barley-wine ; a species of beer which con-
stituted their chief beverage when the waters of the Nile were
turbid and not potable.
  But, according to Jacob Bryant, this destruction was not deemed
sufficient, since the fecundity of Egypt would soon have replenished
their granaries, manufactures, and breweries; therefore locusts were
sent to devour everything that the  former  devastation had spared ;
and this plague was a punishment of their belief that Hercules and
Apollo had the power of controlling these ravenous insects, which
were called  Parnopes  and  Cornopes, whence Apollo was named
Parnopius, and  Hercules  Cornopion.   It  also  appears that the
grasshoppers, or  cicadse, were venerated, both as sacred and musical;
and the Athenians wore  golden  ones in their  hair, to denote the
antiquity of their race of earth-born breed.
  Now it is somewhat  singular, that while our  ingenious author
makes such learned inquiries to account for the motives that induced
God  thus to visit  the Egyptians, he does  not  venture to assign
motives for similar calamities which befel other nationsand countries;
although his researches on the subject are so curious and interesting,
that they deserve insertion.
  The following is the account given by Beauplam of the destruc-
tive inroad of these devourers in  the Ukraine;—" Next to the flies,
let us talk of the grasshoppers or locusts, which here are so  numer-
ous, that they put one  in mind  of the scourge of God  sent upon
Egypt when he  punished  Pharaoh.   The  creatures  do  not only
come in  legions, but in whole  clouds, five or six leagues  in length
and two  or three in breadth, eating up all  sorts of grain- and grass,
so that wheresoever they come,  in less  than two hours  they crop
all they can find, which  causes great scarcity of provisions.  It is
not easy to express their numbers, for all the air is full and darkened;
and I cannot better represent their flight to you, than by comparing
it to the flakes of snow driven by the wind in cloudy weather; and
when they alight to feed, the plains are all covered.   They make a
murmuring noise as they  eat, and in less than two hours they
devour all close  to the ground  ; then rising,  they suffer themselves
to be carried away by the wind.   When they fly, though the sun
shines never so bright, the air  is  no lighter than when most clouded.
In June  1646, having stayed in a new town  called Novogrod, I was
astonished to see so vast a multitude.   They  were  hatched here
last spring ; and being as yet scarcely able  to fly, the ground was 
THE PLAGUE.
E3
all covered, and the air so full of  them, that I could not eat in my
chamber without a  candle, all the houses  being full of them, even
the stables, barns, chambers,  garrets, cellars,  &c.   I have seen at
night, when they sit to rest themselves, that the  roads have  been
four inches thick of them, one upon another.  By  the wheels of the
carts and the feet of our horses bruising these creatures, there came
from  them such a  stink, as  not  only offended  the nose but the
brain.   I was not able to endure the stench, but was forced to wash
my nose with  vinegar, and to hold a handkerchief dipped in it to
my nostrils perpetually.   These vermin increase and multiply thus:
they generate in  October, and with their  tails make a hole in the
ground, and having laid three hundred eggs in it, and covered them
with their feet, die; for  they never live  above six  months  and a
half.  And though the rains should come, they would  not destroy
the eggs ;  nor does the frost, never so sharp, hurt them.  But they
continue to the  spring, which is  about mid-April ; when  the sun
warming the earth, they are hatched, and leap about, being six weeks
old before  they can fly ; when stronger, and able to fly, they go
wherever the wind carries them.   If it should ha*ppen that a north-
east wind prevails, it carries them all into the Black Sea ; but if the
wind blows from any other quarter, they go into some other country
to do mischief.   I have  been told by persons who  understand the
languages well,  that these words  are written in Chaldee  characters
upon their wings, Boze,  Guion, the scourge of God."
   Norden  mentions that there were supposed to be hieroglyphic
marks upon the heads of  these insects.   Such was  the pestilential
scourge of the Ukraine ; although I do not apprehend that its in-
habitants ever worshipped Parnopius  or Cornopion, or decorated
their filthy heads with golden  grasshoppers.   Other regions were
occasionally visited by  these insects.   Ludolphus, in speaking of
Ethiopia, says,  " But much more pernicious than  these (the numer-
ous serpents) are the locusts,  which do not frequent the desert and
sandy places, like  the  serpents,  but the  places best manured, and
orchards laden  with fruit. .They appear in prodigious multitudes,
like a cloud which obscures the sun ;  nor  plants, nor  trees, nor
shrubs appear untouched, and wherever  they feed,  what is left ap-
pears as it  were parched  with fire.  A  general  mortality ensues ;
and regions lie waste for years."
   Francis  Alvarez thus speaks of the same calamity in  the  country
of Prester John.  " In  this  country, and in  all  the  dominions of
Prete Jani, there is a very great and horrible plague : this  arises
from an innumerable number of locusts, which eat and consume all
the corn and the trees.   And the  number of these creatures is  so
great as to be incredible, and with their numbers they cover the
earth, and  fill the air in such  wise, that it is a hard matter to see the
sun.  And if the damage they do were general through all the pro-
vinces, the people would perish  with famine.  But one  year they
destroy one province, sometimes  two  or three of  the provinces ;
and wherever they go the country remaineth more ruined and des- 
124
CURIOSITIES OF MEDICAL EXPERIENCE.
 troyed than if it had been set on fire."   The  author  adds, that he
 exorcised them upon their invading a district in which he  resided,
 when they all made off; but in the mean time, he adds, " there
 arose a great storme and thunder towards the sea, which came right
 against them.  It lasted three hours, with an exceeding great shower
 and tempest.  It was a dreadful thing to behold the  dead locusts,
 (whom, by the way, he had exorcised,) which we measured to be
 above two fathoms high upon the banks of the rivers."
   Barbot, in describing Upper Guinea, tell  us that "famines are
 some years occasioned by the dreadful swarms of grasshoppers or
 locusts, which come from the  eastward, and spread all  over the
 country in such  prodigious multitudes, that  they darken  the air,
passing over our heads like a mighty cloud."
   Orosius states  that in the consulship of Marcus Plautius Hypsaeus
 and Marcus Fulvius Flaccus, a. r. 62S, Africa was desolated  by a
swarm of these  insects, which for a while were supported in the
air, but were ultimately cast into the sea.  " After this," he adds,
" the surf threw  up upon that long extended  coast, such  numerous
heaps of their dead and corrupted bodies,  that  there ensued from
their putrefaction a most unsupportable and poisonous stench.   This
soon brought on a pestilence, which affected every species of animals,
so that all birds, and sheep, and cattle, also the wild beasts of the
field, died, and their carcasses being soon rendered putrid  by the
foulness of the air, added greatly to the general corruption.   In
respect to men,  it  is impossible, without  horror, to  describe  the
shocking devastation.   In Numidia, where at the time Micipsa was
king, eighty thousand persons perished.  Upon that part of the sea-
cost which boarded upon  the regions of Carthage and Utica, the
number of those carried off by this pestilence is said to have  been
two hundred  thousand."
   Now when man in all his proud ignorance  dares to assume the
power of canvassing the acts of the Almighty, and to attribute to
his inscrutable will human motives, which  generally arise from
mortal frailty, he might as well endeavour to account for  similar
casualties which  visited other nations than the Egyptians, and  seek
for the causes of the scourges  of Carthage, Ethiopia, and  Tartary.
 It is grievous to  see the intellectual faculties of  man  perverted in
 such idle, one might venture to say, in such impious researches.  It
 is strange that the learned Bryant did not associate the death of the
 first-born with ideas of primogeniture !
   The ninth plague of darkness he attributes  to the prevalence of
 the worship of the sun, under the title of Osiris, Ammon, Orus, Isis,
 and  the  like ; because  the Egyptians,  the Ethiopians, Persians,
 Phoenicians, Syrians, Rhodians,and various other nations, considered
 themselves Heliadae, or descendants of the  sun.  "What  then
 can be more reasonable," continues our antiquary,  " than for a
 people who thus abused their faculties, who raised to themselves a
 god of Day, their Osiris, and instead  of that  intellectual  light, the
 wisdom of the Almighty,  substituted a created and inanimate  ele- 
THE PLAGUE.
125
 ment as a just object of worship,—what could be more  apposite
 than for people of this cast to be doomed to a judicial and temporary
 darkness ?"  Unfortunately, in the very next paragraph  we are
 told that the Egyptians showed an  equal reverence to  Night and
 darkness :  obscurity, therefore, was only replacing one false god by
 another.   They paid a religious regard to the mugall, a  kind of
 mole, on account of its supposed blindness ;  and night was con-
 ceived more sacred  than day, from its greater antiquity, since, ac-
 cording to  the Phoenician theology, the wind  Copias  and  his wife
 Baan were esteemed the same  as Night, and were the  authors of
 the first beings.   In  the poems  of Orpheus, Night is considered as
 the creative principle ; and  in the Orphic  hymns we find Night
 invoked  as " the parent of  gods and men, and  the  origin of all
 things."
   This attempt to show an analogy  between the crimes and sins of
 the Egyptians and the punishment they received, is too  curious to
 be over-looked.  The mania of seeking for the cause of eve^thing,
 reminds one of  a singular  character in Trinity  College, Dublin,
 formerly well  known, who  invariably gave a  reason for every di-
 rection that he thought  proper to issue ; and he was once heard to
 address a servant in  the following words : "Pat, put  a cover upon
 that mutton.  It is not for the purpose of keeping it hot, because it
 is cold, but it is because I do not wish the flies to get at it, because
 fly-blown  meat is both unpleasant to the tase and  injurious to the
 health."
   It appears probable that the plague  originated in Egypt.   From
 time immemorial to  the present day the lower  provinces have been
 subject  to  this cruel scourge.  Wars, intestine commotions,  and
 misrule have too frequently prevented the local  authorities from
 paying proper attention to measures of public salubrit)'.   Herodotus
 tells us, that when he was at Memphis, Egypt was just liberated
 from  a  long-protracted war, during which political  economy had
 been neglected, canals had been abandoned and choked up, and the
 frontiers of the  land  were infested with banditti, while the interior
 was desolated by pestilential disorders.  My much esteemed friend
 Baron Larrey, in his valuable work upon Egypt, has given a topo-
 graphical description of the  country;  and the influence that the
 seasons  exercise upon it, must be  evident.  He  informs  us, that
 after the spring equinox, and especially towards  the  beginning of
 June, the southerly winds are prevalent for about fifty days.   Their
 scorching influence is experienced for upwards of four hours, while
 they waft with  fatal  rapidity putrid emanations exhaled by animal
 and  vegetable  bodies decomposed in the lakes formed  by the re-
 ceding waters of the Nile.   From various observations it has been
 concluded that  the plague is  both an endemic and contagious disease
 in Lower  Egypt, but simply contagious in Upper Egypt,  Syria,
 the other  Turkish  provinces,  and Europe.   No  account of the
plague in Abyssinia, Sennaar, or the interior of Africa, is given by
any traveller.
                               13* 
126
CURIOSITIES OF MEDICAL EXPERIENCE.
  The most fatal European plagues were probably those that deso-
lated London in 1664, and Marseilles in 1720.  The  accounts of
these fearful visitations are  as  curious as they are appalling.   In
London it broke out in the  beginning of December, when two fo-
reigners (Frenchmen, it was reported) died of this disorder in Long-
Acre near Drury Lane.  The cold weather and frost that followed,
seemed to check its progress, until the month of  April, when it
appeared with intensity in the  parishes  of St. Andrew, Holborn;
and St. Clement Danes.  In  May, the parish of St. Giles buried a
great  number.   Wood Street,  Fenchurch  Street,  and Crooked
Lane, were soon visited, until terror was so general, that crowds of
inhabitants panic-struck, on foot, on horse, in  coaches,  wagons,
and carts, were thronging Broad-street and  Whitechapel, fleeing
from the calamity.   To such an extent was migration carried,  that
not a horse could be bought or hired.   Many fugitives, fearful of
stopping at inns, carried tents to lie in the fields, and people moved
in the  centre of the streets, in  dread of coming into contact with
others sallying  forth from their houses.  During this state of  uni-
versal panic, it may be easily imagined that hypocrisy and roguery
were busily employed  in increasing the evil, at the expense of the
credulous.  Pretended wizards  and cunning people affirmed that a
comet had appeared several months previous  to the increase of the
malady, as a similar meteor had  visited London before the great
fire; only  the fire comet was bright and sparkling,  and  the plague
comet  was dull, and  of  a languid colour.   Lilly's Almanac  and
Gadbury's Astrological Predictions were in general demand; while
pamphlets, entitled " Come out  of her, my  people, lest you he
partakers of her plagues," " Fair Warning," and  " Britain's Re-
membrancer," were eagerly  circulated, as they denounced the utter
ruin of the city.   One  of these prophets ran  about the streets with-
out the encumbrance of any garment, roaring out, " Yet forty days,
and London shall be destroyed;"  while another, equally  divested
of raiment, bellowed out,  "0 !  the great and the  dreadful God!"
Some asserted  that they  had  seen a  hand  with a  flaming sword
coming out of the  clouds, while others  beheld hearses and coffins
floating in the air.
  The following is a  quaint narrative of these absurdities:  "One
time before the plague was begun, I think it was in March, seeing
a crowd of people in  the street, I joined with them to satisfy my
curiosity, and I found them  all  staring  up in the air to see what  a
woman told them appeared plain to her, which was an angel clothed
in white, with a fiery  sword in his hand, waving it and brandishing
it over his head.   She described every part of the figure to the life,
showed them the motions and the form; and the poor people came
into it readily.  'Yes, I see it  all plainly,'  says one; ' there's the
sword as  plain as  can be.'  Another saw his very face, and cried
out,' What a glorious  creature  he was !'  One saw one'thing, and
one another.  I looked  as  earnestly as the rest, and said  I could
see nothing but a  cloud.  However, the woman turned  from  me;
called me a profane fellow and a scoffer; told me that it was a  time 
                        THE PLAGUE.                       127

 of God's anger, and dreadful judgments were approaching, and that
 despisers such as I  should wonder and perish.  Another encounter
 I had in the open day also, in going through a narrow passage from
 Petty-France into Bishopsgate churchyard.  In this narrow passage
 stands a man looking through between the palisadoes into the bury-
 ing-place, and he was pointing now to one place, then to another,
 and affirming that he saw a ghost walking upon such a grave-stone;
 he described the  shape, the  posture, and the movement of it so ex-
 actly, crying on a sudden, ' There it is—now it comes this way—
 now 'tis turned back!'  till at length he persuaded  the people into
 so firm a belief of  it, that they fancied they saw it; and thus he
 came every day, making a  strange hubbub, till Bishopsgate clock
 struck  eleven, and  then the ghost would  start and  disappear on a
 sudden."
   Such sanctimonious  tricks are historical.   Don Bernal Dias del
 Castello tells us, in  his  account  of the Mexican conquest, that St.
 Jago appeared in the van of the army, mounted on a white horse,
 and leading the troops on to victory.  He frankly owns that he did
 not see this blessed vision ;  nay, that a cavalier, by name Francisco
 de Morla, mounted on  a chesnut steed, was  fighting in the  very
 place were the patron  of Spain  was said to have  appeared ;  but,
 instead of drawing  the  natural conclusion, that the whole  business
 was got up as an  illusion, he devoutly exclaims, " Sinner that I was,
 what am I that I should have been permitted to behold the  blessed
 apostle !"
   These impostures remind  us of the story of the wag who, fixing
 his eyes upon the lion over Northumberland House, exclaimed," By
 heaven ! it wags—it wags !" and contrived by these means to col-
 lect an  immense mob in the  street, many of whom swore that they
 did absolutely see the lion wagging his tail.
   Crowds of pretended  fortune-tellers, and astrologers and cunning
 men, were soon in good business, and  their trade became so gener-
 ally practised, that  they had signs denoting their profession  over
 their doors,  with  inscriptions  announcing,  "Here  lives a  for-
 tune teller,"—" Here you may have your nativity cast;" and the
 head of Friar Bacon, Mother Shipton, or Merlin, were their usual
 signs : and if any unfortunate man of grave appearance, and wearing
 a black coat, went abroad, he was immediately assailed by the mob
 as a necromancer, and  supplicated to  reveal  futurity.   At such a
 period, it may  be easily imagined that quacks were not satisfied
 with mere gleanings ; and infallible pills, never-failing preserva-
 tives, sovereign  cordials, and incomparable drinks, against the
 plague, were announced in every possible manner ;  and universal
 remedies, the only true plague-water, and  the  royal antidote,
 became themes of universal discourse.   An eminent High Dutch
 physician, newly  come over  from Holland, where he resided during
 all the  time of the plague,—an Italian gentlewoman, having a choice
 secret to  prevent infection, and that did wonders in a plague that
 destroyed twenty thousand  people a-day,  were announced by bills
at every corner. 
128          CURIOSITIES OF  MEDICAL EXPERIENCE.

  One ingenious mountebank realised  a fortune by announcing
that he gave advice to  the poor for nothing :  crowds  flocked to
consult him ; but he took half-a-crown for his remedy, on the plea
that although his advice was given gratis, he was obliged to sell his
physic.   While  these speculations were  going  on, all plays, bear-
baiting, games, singing of ballads, and buckler-play, were prohibited;
all feasting, " particularly by the companies of this city," was pun-
ished ; watchmen guarded the  doors of the pestiferated, to prevent
their egress, and a red cross was  painted  on their  houses.  The
inhabitants, thus shut up to suffer the pangs of starvation in addition
to those of pestilence, made the best of their way out of their prison
by every possible stratagem and bribery.  While fervent prayers
and loud ejaculations for mercy where  heard  amongst distracted
families, the most offensiveblasphemy and ribaldry prevailed amongst
the gravediggers, dead-cart drivers, and their wanton companions.
If any one ventured to rebuke them, he  was  asked, with  a  volley
of oaths, " what business he had to be alive, when so many better
fellows were shovelled in their graves ?" to which was added  a salu-
tary recommendation to go home and  pray,  until  the dead-cart
called for him.   The watchman  got their share of ill-usage and
abuse.
  All the guards had been marched out of town, with the exception
of small detachments at Whitehall  and the Tower.  Robbery of
every description was  of course  in full vigour, and every vice
indulged in with impunity, while despair drove many to  madness
and suicide,—several individuals rushing naked out of their houses
and running to the river to drown  themselves if not stopped by the
watch.   People  fell dead while making purchases of provisions in
the market ; where, instead of receiving the meat from the butcher's
hands, each buyer unhooked his purchase, and paid for it by  throw-
ing the value in a vessel  filled with vinegar.   Mothers destroyed
their children, and nurses  smothered their  patients, while the bed-
clothes were stolen from the couch of the dead.
  Among the  curious Anecdotes of the time, the following is worth
insertion :   " A neighbour of  mine, having some money owing to
him from a shopkeeper in Whitecross-street, sent his apprentice, a
youth of eighteen years of age, to get the money ; he came to the
door, and finding il  shut, knocked pretty hard until he heard some-
body coming down   stairs.   At length the man  of the house came
to the door ;  he had on his  breeches or  drawers, a  yellow flannel
waistcoat, no stockings, and a pair  of slipt shoes, a white cap on his
head, and death  in his  face.   When  he  opened the  door, he said,
'What do you  disturb me thus for?'—' I come from such  a one,
my master,' replied  the boy, 'to ask  for the money you  owe him.'
—' Very well, my child,' returns the living ghost; ' call as you go
by at Cripplegate church, and  bid them ring the bell.'   So saying,
he went up stairs again, and  died the  same hour."
  The story of the piper is founded on fact.  This poor fellow hav-
ing made merry in a public-house  in  Coleman-street,  fell fast asleep 
THE PLAGUE.
129
 under a  stall near London Wall, Cripplegate ; the under-sexton of
 St. Stephen's, one John Hayward, was  going his round with his
 dead-cart, when he espied the  piper, and conceiving him  to be a
 dead man, tumbled him on his  heap of corpses, till, arrived  at the
 burying-pit at Mount Mill, as  they were about shooting the cart,
 the  musician awoke, and, to the utter terror of the sexton and his
 comrades, began to set up his pipes.
   The following  relation of  a  case of grief  is  rather remarkable.
 " A man was so much affected by the death of all his relations, and
 overcome with  the pressure upon  his spirits, that by degrees his
 head sunk into  his body so between his shoulders, that the crown of
 his head was very little seen  above the bone of his shoulders, and,
 by degrees losing both voice and sense, his face looking forward, lay
 against his collar-bone, and  could not be  kept up any otherwise
 unless held up  by the hands of other people ;  and the poor man
 never came to himself again,  but languished near a year in this con-
 dition, and died."  This was depression  with a  vengeance !
   Some of these unfortunate victims of the pestilential disease seem
 to have had poetical  inspirations, for one of two men who had fled
 to the country was found dead, with the following inscription cut
 out with his knife on a wooden gate near him :
                           OmlsE r Y
                  WE.BoTHShaLL.Dy E
                         WoE . WoE:
 and our historian, who fortunately escaped the calamity, terminates
 his work with the following lines :
                A dreadful plague in London was
                  In the year sixty-five,
                Which swept an hundred thousand souls
                  Away; yet I alive.
   Astrologers were of opinion that the plague of London arose from
 a conjunction of Saturn and  Jupiter in Sagittarius on the tenth of
 October, or from a conjunction of Saturn and  Mars in the same sign
 on the twelfth of November.*  Great as the mortality was during that
 affliction, the history of various other pestilences in foreign countries
 presents as melancholy a result.   In Moscow, the plague introduced
 by the Turkish army carried off 22,000 inhabitants in a single
 month, and sometimes 12,000 in twenty-four  hours.  In Morocco,
 the mortality amounted to 1000 daily ;  in Old and New Fez, to
 1500; in Terodant, to 800.   The total loss sustained in these cities
 and in the Mogadore was estimated at 124,500 souls.
   It has been doubted whether  the plague be contagious in every
instance of its appearance.  Various persons have inoculated them-
selves with its virus with impunity, though several were ultimately
victims of the bold experiments.  In Egypt  Dr. White inoculated
himself ten times, but died of the disease after the eleventh trial.t
  * Diemerbrook states that, in the plague of Nimeguen, all those who were
taken ill about new and full moon rarely escaped.
  f Dr. Desgenettes, physician to the French army, to inspire confidence among
the troops, inoculated himself twice without experiencing any other consequence 
130
CURIOSITIES OF MEDICAL EXPERIENCE.
The atmosphere of contagion appears to be limited, and strict atten-
tion to keep up a  line of separation generally proves effectual to
arrest or check  its progress.  Contact appears necessary to extend
the malady, and a direct absorption through  the skin forms  the
ordinary means of transmission.   When  the  cutaneous pores are
closed by oil, or  any other substance of the kind, an exemption
from the fatal scourge has been frequently observed.   Mr. Baldwin
states, that among upwards of a million of inhabitants carried off by
the plague in  Upper and Lower Egypt during  the space of four
years, not a single  oil-man, or  dealer in oil, had suffered.  Mr.
Jackson made the same observation in the  plague of  Tunis.   Dr.
Assalini, an intelligent medical officer of the French army in Egypt,
does not attribute this exemption to the stoppage of the pores, but
as the result  of profuse  perspiration  which the  inunction of oil
produces.  The  zeit jagghy, or olive-oil, is considered a specific
by most of the  Asiatics ; and my late friend  Mr. Tully observed
that all  the  attendants upon  pestiferated patients, who  carefully
smeared their persons and  their clothes with this substance, were
exempt from the infection.   The same observation was corroborated
by Sir Brooke Faulkener, during the plague of Malta.
   Various have been the remedial means proposed  in this terrific
malady, and preservatives against it have been recorded in the fol-
lowing  distich :
               Haec tria labificum tollunt adverbia pestem;
               Mox, longe, tarde,—cede, recede, redi.
The celebrated plague-water was composed of master-wort, angelica,
piony, and  butter-bur, viper-grass, Virginia snake-root, rue,  rose-
mary, balm,  carduus, water-germander, marygold, dragon-blood,
goats'-rue, and mint, infused in spirits of wine.
                      ABSTINENCE.

  Hippocrates asserted that most individuals who abstain from
food for seven days, die within that period ; or, if they survive this
time, and are even  then  prevailed upon to eat or drink, they still
perish.   Various instances of persons who have  lived much longer
without  sustenance, have  been observed.  In the records of the
Tower we find  the history of Cicely de Ridgeway, who  was con-
demned to death for  the murder of her husband  in the  reign of
Edward III, and who remained for forty days without food  or  drink.

than a slight inflammation of the inoculated parts.   Sonnini mentions a Russian
surgeon, who was a prisoner in Constantinople with a number of his countrymen,
who took it into his head to inoculate his unfortunate comrades, with a view of
protecting them  from  the contagion; but, unfortunately, two  hundred of them
died, and, fortunately for the survivors, the operator  himself died of his  own
treatment. 
ABSTINENCE.
131
This being ascribed to a miracle, she was of course pardoned.   From
the result of this  starvation, the story may be considered fabulous
for two reasons : the first,  the improbability of the alleged ab-
stinence ; and, secondly, the selection of forty days, a period clearly
fixed upon for miracle-making, being the exact number of days our
Saviour fasted.
  We have  a better authenticated  case  in the  one mentioned by
Dr. Eccles in the Edinburgh Medical Essays for 1720.  The starved
person was a beautiful young lady, about sixteen  years of age, who,
in consequence of the sudden death of her father, was thrown into
a state of tetanus  (lock-jaw) so violent as to render her incapable of
swallowing for two long and distinct periods,—the first  of thirty-
four, and the second of fifty-four days,—during  which she neither
experienced a sense of hunger nor of thirst, and when she recovered,
she was  scarcely  reduced in  size.   Sir  William Hamilton saw a
girl, sixteen years of age, who was extricated from the ruins of a
house at Oppido,  in which she had remained eleven days : an infant
in her arms, but a few  months old, had died on  the fourth day, as
the young are not so able to endure abstinence.  Dr. Willan attended
a young man who had abstained from  any sustenance  but a little
water flavoured with orange-juice for sixty days : death ensued a
fortnight after.   Fodere mentions some workmen who were extri-
cated alive  from  a cold damp cavern, in which  they had been im-
mured  under  a  ruin  for fourteen  days.  Cetois, a  physician of
Poitiers, relates a still more  singular case of total abstinence in a
girl, who, from the age of eleven to that of fourteen, took no nourish-
ment.
   Ann Moore, called the fasting  woman of Tutbury,  was  to a
certain extent an  imposter, for  although  there was no truth in her
assertion that she lived an  incredible time without food, yet it ap-
peared  evident that her chief, if not her only support, was tea.
That fluid is sufficient  to maintain  life appears  evident from two
papers  inserted  in the  Philosophical Transactions ; one of them
giving an account of four men who were compelled to subsist upon
water  for  twenty-four  days, and the other of a young man who
tasted nothing but the same fluid for eighteen years.  An  imposition
having been  suspected, he  was shut up  in close confinement for
twenty days as a trial, when he uniformly enjoyed good health.
   Another wonderful  instance of the same kind is that of Janet
M'Leod, published by Dr. M'Kenzie : she was  at the time thirty-
three years of age, unmarried, and from the age  of fifteen had had
various attacks of epilepsy, which had produced  so rigid  a lock-jaw
that her  mouth  could  rarely be forced open  by any contrivance ;
she had  lost very nearly the power of speech and deglutition, and
with this all desire to eat or drink.  Her lower limbs were retracted
towards her body : she was entirely confined to her bed, slept much,
and had periodical discharges of  blood from the lungs, which  were
chiefly thrown out by the nostrils.   During a few intervals of re-
laxation, she was prevailed upon with great difficulty to  put a few 
132
CURIOSITIES OF MEDICAL EXPERIENCE.
  crumbs of bread comminuted in the hand into her mouth, together
  with a little water sucked from her own hand, and, in one or two
  instances, a little gruel;  but, even in these attempts, almost the
  whole was rejected.   On two occasions also, after a total abstinence
  of many months, she made signs  of wishing  to drink some water,
  which was immediately procured for her.   On the first experiment
  the  whole seemed to  be  returned  from  her mouth, but she was
  greatly refreshed in having it rubbed upon her  throat.   On the
  second occasion  she drank off a pint at  once, but could not be
  prevailed upon  to drink  any more, although her father had  now
  fixed a wedge between her teeth.  With these exceptions,however,
  she seemed to have passed  upwards of four years without either li-
  quids or solids of any kind, or even an appearance of swallowing;
  she lay for the most part like a log of wood, with  a pulse scarcely
  perceptible from feebleness, but distinct and regular.   Her  counte-
  nance was  clear, and pretty fresh ;  her features  neither disfigured
  nor  sunk ; her bosom round  and prominent, and her limbs not
  emaciated.   Dr.  M'Kenzie watched her with occasional visits for
 eight or nine years, at the close of which period she seemed to be a
 little improved.
   A Dutch girl of the name of Eve Hergen is  reported  to have
 lived  from the year  1597 to 1611, with  no other support than
 the scent of flowers.  The magistrates of Meurs suspecting  im-
 position,  had  her closely  watched for thirteen  successive days,
 without being able  to detect any fraud.   Over  her picture were
 affixed some Latin verses, of which the following  translation was
 given in a book called "An Apologie or Declaration of the  Power
 and Providence of God, by  George Hakewell, 1635 :"
              This maid of Meurs thirty-six yeares spent,
              Fourteen of which she took no nourishment;
              Thus pale and wan, she sits  sad and alone,
              A garden's all she loves to looke upon.
 According to Pliny, the Astoni had no other food that thisBatavian
 maiden, being unfortunately born without mouths.  Sauvages men-
 tions  an academician of Toulouse who never thirsted, and passed his
 summers, notwithstanding the intense heat,  without drinking.  In
 most of the recorded cases of total, or nearly total  abstinence, water
 has been found  more or less  necessary, but not invariably.
  That some animals  can thrive upon water, and even  upon air, is
 demonstrated  by  naturalists.  Snails and  chameleons  have been
 known  to exist upon air for years.  Garman has found that this
 nutriment is sufficient for the support of spiders ; and Latreille has
 confirmed the experiment by fixing a spider to a piece of cork, and
 precluding it from any communication.  Every  entomologist  re-
 peatedly sees insects living in their cases, although pinned down for
an incredible length of time.  Mr. Baker  relates that  he  kept a
beetle shut up for three years without any food.  Mr. Bruce kept
two cerastes, or horned snakes, in a glass jar  for two years, without
any apparent food ; he did not observe that they slept in the winter
season, and they cast their skin as usual on the last day of April. 
ABSTINENCE.
133
  But a phenomenon still more wonderful is the faculty that animals
have been known to possess of living when deprived of atmospheri
support.   A hog, weighing about one  hundred and sixty pounds,
was  buried  in his sty under thirty feet of the chalk of Dover cliff
for one  hundred and  sixty days.   When dug out, it weighed  but
forty pounds, and  was extremely emaciated, but clean, and white.
The animal had nibbled the wood of the sty, and eaten  some loose
chalk.  Lizards, especially the newt, have been found embedded in
chalk«rock, apparently dead, but have re-assumed  living action on
exposure to the atmosphere.  On their  detection in this  state, the
mouth is usually closed with a glutinous substance, so  tenaciously,
that they often are suffocated in their efforts to extricate themselves
from  confinement.  Toads have been  repeatedly discovered  in  a
similar situation, embedded in  blocks of stone, or in the very heart
of trees.   Dr. Edwards, a learned physiologist in  Paris, has ascer-
tained that blocks  of  mortar  and heaps of sand possess  sufficient
porosity to admit enough  air to support the life  of reptiles ;  but
they all perish if immersed in  water or mercury, when  surrounded
by an exhausting receiver.   The duration of existence  of the am-
phibials of the Batrachian  family, when plunged in water, depends
in a great measure on its  temperature.  They die speedily if the
water be lower than 32° Fahrenheit, or higher than 108°; and  the
longest duration of life is under 32°.
   How can  we  account for these anomalies?  Various solid  sub-
stances are known to proceed from invisible elementary principles.
Do water and air contain  them?  Metallic stones of large volume
fall from  the  air:  how are they produced ?  whence  come they ?
How vain and feeble are our pursuits, when  the vanity of science
seeks to penetrate into the arcana  of nature; searching and  en-
deavouring to  account for  the  causes of causation!  What absurd
and impertinent  hypotheses have not been broached on scholastic
benches!  They  remind  us of an  anecdote related  of the  old
Parisian Academy, when one of its sapient members read  a volumi-
nous memoir to prove that tides were provided by the Creator for
the purpose of bringing vessels in and out of harbour; when one of
the Encyclopedian wits gravely observed, that he had  no doubt of
the fact, since he had discovered, after unceasing and laborious re-
search, that noses were made for the purpose of wearing spectacles !
  Although total abstinence from food  for any length  of  time, ex-
cepting with hibernating animals, is  a wondrous phenomenon, yet
it  is singular how  little aliment  is  necessary for the purpose of
sustaining life,  and even  health.   Many instances of  a  frugality
bordering upon starvation are known.  The most economical house-
keeper on record was Roger Crabb,  the Buckinghamshire hermit,
who allowed himself  three farthings a week.  Dr. Franklin lived
on bread and water for a fortnight, at the rate of ten pounds of bread
per week.  Dr. Govver of Chelmsford had a patient who  lived for
ten years on a pint of tea daily, now and then chewing  half a dozen
  August, 1838.—C           14 
134         CURIOSITIES OF MEDICAL EXPERIENCE.
raisins and almonds, but without swallowing them ;  once a  month,
by way of a treat, she ate a morsel of bread the size of a nutmeg.
   The late Duke of Portland, after a long illness, during which he
was  attended  by Dr.  Warren,  lived on  bread  and water  for  six
weeks at the expiration of which he was allowed one boiled smelt.
Numerous persons have been known to live to old age, in perfect
health, who never used animal food or  wine; such was Dr. Hecquet,
the  Sangrado of Lesage,  who published  a  curious  treatise  on
fasting in  Lent: Paris, 1709.  The following lines were written on
a man named Offley :
               Offley three dishes  had of daily roast;
              An egg, an apple, and the third a toast.
Most unquestionably, if this  Offley was not a man of hard labour,
or who took  much exercise, this diet, scanty  as it may  appear,
would have been  quite sufficient to support life ;  for  his fare was
sumptuous, compared  to the diet prescribed by St. Theresa to her
Carmelite nuns, and which consisted  of one egg, herb-soup, with
wormwood ashes and  aloes.   However, in regard to the wondrous
fasting of various hermits and holy  men, we  must  take their
histories cum grano salis.   They clearly belong  to two classes,—
enthusiasts or impostors: enthusiasm, which is little short of lunacy,
enables the monomaniac to endure starvation with ease; and as to
impostors, it is probable that, like Friar  Tuck, they had a bonne
bouche in a corner of their cells.
         POISON  OF  THE  UPAS,  OR  IPO.

   Such  are the names given by the natives of the Molucca Islands
and in the Indian Archipelago to a deadly poison which is used to
impregnate the heads of their arrows.   The  tree from which  it is
extracted is named Bohou  Upas, Boa  Upas, and Pohou  Antiar.
Various  accounts  of its deleterious nature  have  been given  by
ancient travellers.   Cleyer and Spielman described it upwards of a
century  back, and state  that no antidote to  its  dreadful  action is
known, though vomiting, produced  by the  most disgusting means,
was considered the only method of arresting its dire effects.  Spiel-
man asserts  that the land for  several  miles  round these  trees is
desolate and barren, as no  plant  can grow under their influence.
The poison, he states, flows in a milky form from the tree, and no
one can approach it at this period, as  one drop of the fatal juice
falling upon the face or  hands  produces instant stiffness of every
limb,  followed by rapid death; it is therefore obtained at the end of
long bamboo canes, armed with a pointed tube to  receive it when
plunged into the bark.  Rumphius confirms in a great measure the
above  statements, and  describes the tree, which he divides into 
POISON OF THE UPAS.
135
male and  female:  he adds, that they  only grow in the island of
Celebes, and  that  all around the dreaded spot is desert and con-
sumed.   A more recent Dutch traveller, Foersech or Fooerch, did
not let so fertile a  subject  escape, and has  cultivated most  industri-
ously this dreary desert in the following account.
   Sterility prevails for  upwards of ten miles round  this dreadful
tree on the  part  of the  island  of Java  where it  grows.   When
criminals are sentenced to death,  they are offered a free pardon if
they consent to seek a small boxful of this valuable yet terrific
poison.   They  are first sent to the dwelling of a priest who resides
at a safe distance from the spot; there they arrive, accompanied  by
their disconsolate  and wailing  families.   They remain  with  this
holy man for a few days, during which he affords them both spiritual
comfort and good advice;  the latter urging the precaution not to set
out until the  wind  blows  in such a direction as to waft from them
the floating emanations.   On their departure on this dreaded expe-
dition he gives them a small box of silver or tortoise-shell,  covers
their head and face with a leathern hood with glass eyes, and protects
their hands with a thick pair of  gloves of the same material.   He
then accompanies  them about two miles on their sad  journey, and
then he describes the hellish spot where this treasure is to be found
as minutely as  any one can describe what  he has not seen ; then,
giving the poor pilgrim his blessing, departs on his return.  This
worthy man  informed our traveller that, during thirty years which
he  had held that  enviable situation, he had sent off no less than
seven hundred criminals, of whom only twenty-two returned;  and
he confirmed the statement by exhibiting a list bearing their  names
and the offences for which  they had been tried.   Mynheer Foersech
further assures his  gentle readers, that he witnessed  several of these
expeditions, and entreated the culprits to  bring him some branches
of the tree;  but  two withered leaves were the only specimens he
could obtain  from  the solitary wretch who  had  the  good fortune to
escape, and who described the  tree  as growing on the borders of
a rivulet, being of  moderate height, and surrounded by a cluster of
young ones   The ground around them  was  of a brown  sandy
nature, and strewed with the remains of human victims.  He also
clearly ascertained that no living creature  can exist within fifteen
miles of the spot.  The streams that flow near it  yield no fish, and
the birds that fly over it fall  to the ground ; several  of the latter
were occasionally  brought to the  priest,—whether he ate them, or
not, the Dutchman does not inform us.   Amongst various offenders
doomed to death by this  poison he  relates the case of  thirteen la-
dies, who, for the  crime of infidelity, were inoculated  in the  bosom
with a lancet dipped in the upas; and in six minutes they had ceased
to live.   By recent  experiments  upon animals  this  part  of  his
narration may be credited; but, in regard to the other account, we
must apply to it the French saying,  " // vaut mieux y croire que
d'y alter voir."
  However, some  French  travellers thought otherwise ;  and Mr. 
136
CURIOSITIES OF MEDICAL EXPERIENCE.
Deschamps, physician and naturalist attached to the expedition of
Mr. D'Entrecasteaux, when in Java, ascertained that this wonderful
tree was not uncommon in the forests of the country, nor was the
approach to it in the slightest degree apprehended.   The juice pro-
cured by incisions  in the bark was called by the  natives upas or
oupas, and was of so active a nature that it caused immediate death
when thrown into  the circulation.  The  Malays  mixed  it with
various other ingredients, more especially galanga and garlic, when
they employed it.  The Javanese only impregnated their arrows
with it for the chase ; a proof that they did not consider it as affecting
the system of the slain animal.   Most  probably Foersech's  priest
was aware of this circumstance when he accepted from the privileged
malefactors the game killed by the tree they had sought.
   This tree, according to Deschamps, is named in the country, pohou
antiar ; it  frequently rises to the height of thirty or  forty feet.
When one of its branches is broken, or its bark incised, a milky
juice exudes, which becomes inspissated when  in  contact with the
atmosphere.   In  appearance this tree bears some resemblance to our
elm.  Mr. Deschamps confirms  the relation  of  Rumphius, who
stated that the Dutch, in their wars with the natives, were obliged
to wear thick buff  cuirasses to protect them against their poisoned
missiles, the wounds of which were inevitably fatal.
   The latest information relative to the upas has been afforded by
the ingenious Mr. Leschenault, who, during  his residence in Java,
procured  two  specimens of the poisonous  substance obtained  in
Java, and of that  brought from the islands of Borneo and Macassar.
In Borneo, the mountaineers of the interior, who are called Orang-
Daias, collect it, and keep its preparation a profound secret.  They
carry it carefully wrapped up in palm leaves.  Their hunting arrows
have heads spear-pointed, and impregnated with this substance; those
that are prepared for war bear a shark's tooth fixed  in a brass socket,
and merely attached to the shaft  by the gum resin of the ipo ; the
barbed point remaining rankling in the wound it has inflicted, the
 gum dissolves, and speedily brings on  death.  Mr. Leschenault
 tried these arrows  on dogs  and other animals, and they expired
 shortly after in horrible convulsions.
   The natives of Macassar also call this venomous production ipo.
 They have  two varieties of the tree,  as in Java ; the  one called
 upas antiar, and the  other, much more violent and prompt in its
 action, upas tieute.  In the preparation of the poison for use, much
 mystery is observed by  the  natives, and various ingredients are
 mixed up with it; but as they are known to  be harmless, such  as
 onion and garlic juice, pepper, ginger,  galanga, they are most pro-
 bably employed to deceive the curious  who might wish to ascertain
 the nature of this deadly  composition.
   Mr. Leschenault having brought  home a small quantity of this
 poison, it was tried by  Messrs. Delile and Magendie  in several
 experiments, when it  was found to act more or less violently, ac-
 cording to the age and size of the individual, or the quantity of the 
              HOMOPHAGOUS AND POLYPHAGOUS.          137

upas.  One grain and a half inoculated in a young dog killed  it in
four minutes, only producing one convulsive fit.  In a dog weighing
fourteen pounds, half a grain of upas occasioned death at the expira-
tion of one hour and fifty-seven minutes, during which the animal
experienced several violent convulsions.  A  few drops of diluted
upas, injected in the chest of a dog  weighing twenty pounds, occa-
sioned a lock-jaw, which  destroyed him in a  minute and a  half.
Eight drops injected in  the jugular vein of a  horse produced im-
mediate tetanus and speedy death.  For further  information re-
garding these cruel experiments we must refer to the experimenters'
publication.   It appears, however, that the power of this venomous
substance  is so intense that time does not weaken it;  for the  upas
employed in  these experiments had been  collected and  kept for
upwards of seven years, when its effects were as  prompt as when
tried in a recent state.   The natives of Java  consider sea-salt as
the best antidote, but Mr. Delile found  it quite inert: various ex-
periments induced him to think that in these cases death is produced
by  asphyxia ; and  he considers the meaas employed to restore
suspended animation in persons supposed to have been drowned,
as the  most likely to save the life of  individuals who  might  be
wounded with this substance.
1—♦—1
        HOMOPHAGOUS  AND  POLYPHAGOUS;

 Appellations given to certain individuals of a depraved appetite,
 that enables them to devour raw meat, and various other substances
 which most unquestionably would destroy any  person not  gifted
 or cursed with such an omnivorous digestion.
  Various are the ancient stories related of such voracious wretches.
 Ovid describes one Erisichthon, who, as a  punishment  for cutting
 down the groves of Ceres, (very possibly to obtain fuel to  cook his
 food,) was sentenced to  perpetual hunger, and terminated  his glut-
 tonous career by eating up his own limbs.  The Thasian Theagenes
 thought nothing of  an ox for his dinner; and the famed Crotonian
 athlete, Milo, knocked down  bullocks  with his fist for his daily
 meals, which usually  consisted of twenty mihae of meat  and the
 same ration of  bread.  " Vopiscus relates that a man was  brought
 before the Emperor Maximilian, who devoured  a  whole calf, and
 was proceeding to eat  up a sheep, had he not been prevented.  To
this day, in India, some voracious mountebanks devour alive sheep
as an exhibition.   Dr. Boehmen of Wittenberg witnessed  the per-
formance of one of these polyphagous individuals, who commenced
his  repast by eating  a raw sheep, a sucking-pig, and, by way of
dessert, swallowed  sixty pounds of prunes, stones and all.  On
another festive occasion, he ate two bushels of cherries, with several
                              14* 
CURIOSITIES OF MEDICAL EXPERIENCE.
earthren vases and  chips of a furnace.   This meal was followed
up by sundry pieces of glass and pebbles, a shepherd's bag pipe,
rats, various  birds with their feathers,  and an incredible number
of caterpillars.   To conclude his dinner, he swallowed a pewter
ink-stand, with  its pens, a pen-knife, and a  sand-box.   During this
deglutition he seemed  to relish his  food, but was generally under
the influence of potations of brandy.  His form was athletic, and he
could carry four heavy men on his shoulders for a league.  He lived
to the age of seventy-nine, but died in a most  emaciated state, and,
as might be imagined, toothless.
   Helwig knew an old man  who was in the habit of eating eighty
pounds of different  articles of food  daily.  Real  Colomb mentions
an omnivorous glutton, who, in the absence of any salutary aliment,
satisfied his cravings with any other substance, and was once known,
when hungry, to eat the contents of a sack of charcoal, and then to
swallow  the bag to facilitate their digestion.  One of the attendants
on the menagerie of the Botanical  Garden in  Paris, who bore the
euphonious name of Bijou,  used to  devour  all the offals of the
theatre of  Comparative Anatomy, and ate a dead in one day.  He
was active, and lived to the age of sixty.  A cannibal once desolated
the  Vivarais, by dragging human victims to his  den, where he de-
voured them.  On  the opening of the corpse of a convict in the
galleys of Brest, there were found in his stomach about  six hundred
pieces of wood, pewter, and iron.
   All these accounts  might appear  most  exaggerated,  perhaps
fabulous, had  not  many  physicians  in Paris  known the  cele-
brated Tarrare.  The history of this monster is as  curious as his
habits were  disgusting.   He commenced  his  career in life  in the
capacity of clown  to  an  itinerant quack, and used to attract the
 notice of the populace by his singular  powers of deglutition, swal-
lowing with the utmost ease corks, pebbles, and basketsful of apples.
 However, these  experiments were frequently followed by severe
 pain and accidents, which  once obliged him  to seek assistance in
 the Hotel  Dieu of Paris.   His  sufferings did  not deter him from
 similar experiments,;  and he once tried to  exhibit his wonderful
 faculties by swallowing the  watch, chain and seals, of  Mr. Giraud,
 then house-surgeon of the establishment.   In this  repast  he was
 foiled, having been told thathe would be ripped up to recover the pro-
 perty.  In the revolutionary war Tarrare joined the army, but was
 soon exhausted on  the spare diet to which the troops were obliged
 to submit.   In the hospital of Sultzen, although put upon four full
 rations,  he was obliged to wonder about the  establishment to feed
 upon any  substance he could find however revolting, to subdue his
 voracious hunger.   These singular powers  induced several physi-
 cians to ascertain how far these  omnivorous inclinations could carry
 him in his unnatural cravings.  In presence of Dr. Lorentz  he
 devoured a live cat, commencing by tearing  open its  stomach, and
 sucking the animal's blood with delight.  What was more singular
 after this horrible  feet, like other  carnivorous  brutes, he  rejected
 the fur and skin.   Snakes  were to him  a delicious meal, and he 
HOMOPHAGOUS AND POLYPHAGOUS.
139
swallowed them alive and whole, after grinding their heads between
his teeth.   One of the Surgeons, Mr. Courville, gave him a wooden
lancet-case  to swallow, in which had been folded a written paper.
This case was rejected  undigested, and the paper being found intact,
it became a question whether he might not be employed to convey
secret correspondence ;  but  having  been taken up at the Prussian
outposts as  a spy, being disguised  as a peasant without a knowledge
of the language, he received a  severe bastinado, which  effectually
cured him  of an  appetite for  secret service, and on his return he
had recourse to the safer means of obtaining food in kitchens, slaugh-
ter-houses,  and dunghills.   At last, a  child of fourteen months old
having disappeared under suspicious circumstances, he was driven
out of the hospital, and lost sight of for four years, when he applied-
for admission into the hospital of Versailles, in a state of complete
exhaustion, labouring under a  virulent diarrhoea, which terminated-
his hateful  existence in his twenty-sixth year.  He was of the mid- -
die size, pale, thin, and weak ; his countenance  was by no means
ferocious, but on the contrary, displayed  much  timidity ;  his fair
hair was remakably fine and soft;  his  mouth was very  large, and
one could scarcely say that he had any lips  ; all his teeth were sound,
but their enamel  was speckled ; his skin was always hot, in a state
of perspiration, and exhaling a constant offensive vapour.   When
fasting, the integuments of his abdomen were so flaccid that he could
nearly wrap them round him.   After his meals, the exhalation from
his surface was increased, his eyes and  cheeks became turgid with
blood, and, dropping into  a state of drowsiness, he used  to seek
some obscure corner where he  might quietly lie  down  and digest.
After his death, all  the abdominal  viscera were  found in a state of
ulceration.
   Instances are recorded where a similar  facility to  swallow fluids
had been observed.  At Strasburg was  exhibited the stomach of a
hussar who could drink sixty quarts of wine in an  hour.  Pliny
mentions a Milanese, named Novellus Torquatus, who in presence
of Tiberius, drank three congii of wine.   Seneca and Tacitus knew
a man of the name of Piso who could drink incessantly for two days
and two nights ; and Rhodiginus mentions a capacious monster called
the Funnel, down  whose  throat an  Amphora of liquor  could  be
poured without interruption.
   To what are we to attribute these  uncommon, nay, these unnatural
faculties ?  Neither physiological experiments during life, nor ana-
tomical investigation  after  death, have as yet enabled  us to form
an opinion.  Great as  has been the  progress of science, we are still
doubtful as to the nature of the digestive process.   All the hypotheses
on the subject are liable to insuperable objections.  Hippocrates and
Empedocles attributed digestion to the putrefaction of food.  Experi-
ments have clearly demonstrated the fallacy of this doctrine : rejected
food is never in a state of putridity  ; on the contrary, meat in a per-
fect state of putrescence has been restored to sweetness and freshness
on being received into the stomach.   Dead snakes have  been found
with  animal  substances, part of which had been swallowed, and the 
CURIOSITIES OF MEDICAL EXPERIENCE,
remainder hanging out of their mouths ; when the swallowed portion
was fresh, and the portion exposed to the atmosphere in a state of
corruption.  Galen, and after his school, Grew and Santarelli, ascribed
digestion to a concoction, during which  food was  maturated by the
stomach's heat, like fruit by the solar rays.   Pringle and Macbride
advocated the doctrine  of fermentation ; while'Borelli, Keil, and
Pitcairn resolved the question  by the  mechanism of trituration,
making a mill of the stomach, which ground down  food, according
to Pitcairn's  calculations, with a pressure equal to a weight of one
hundred  and seventeen thousand and eighty pounds.  Boerhaave
endeavoured to reconcile the opinions of the concoctors and grinders,
by combining the  supposed theory of concoction  and of tritura-
tion.   And lastly, Cheselden fancied that digestion was  operated
by a peculiar secretion in the stomach, called  gastric juice; and
Haller, Reaumer, Spallanzani, Blumenbach, and  most other  mod-
ern physiologists, concur with him in the  same  opinion, although
admitting that this  function  is most probably assisted  by various
accessory circumstances.  This juice was found, upon experiment,
to be  endowed,  not only with the antiseptic power of  preserving
the contents of the stomach from putrefaction, but  with the property
of being a most powerful solvent.   Pieces of the toughest meats and
bone have been inclosed in  perforated metallic  tubes, and thrust
down  the  stomach  of carnivorous  birds,  and  in the  space of
about twenty-four  hours the  meats were found to  be diminished,
or, in  other  words,  digested to  three fourths  of their  bulk,
while the bones  had totally disappeared.  Dr. Stevens had recourse
to a similar experiment on the human stomach, by means of a per-
forated ivory ball, and  with the same result.   The gastric juice of
the dog dissolves ivory ; and that of a hen has dissolved an onyx,
and diminished a golden coin.  Not long since upon examining the
stomach and intestines  of a  man who died in a public-house, he was
found to have been apolyphagus animal, since several clasp-knives
that he had swallowed  were discovered  with  their blades blunted
and their handles  consumed.  Since these experiments, however,
Dr. Montegre of Paris, who was gifted with the faculty of discharg-
ing the contents of his stomach at will, has fully proved that this
gastric juice, when not in  an acid state, is subject to putrefaction
when submitted to  external animal heat ; that this corruption did
not occur when an acid prevailed, and saliva intermixed with vine-
gar was equally  free  from  a similar  decomposition.   He moreover
asserts, that he had recourse to numerous experiments to digest food
artificially  in this supposed solvent,  but  without  obtaining results
similar to  those advanced by Spallanzani  ; and, finally, he found
little or no difference  between  the gastric juice  and saliva.   This
acid, which generally exists in the gastric juice, has been ascertained
by Dr. Prout to be the muriatic, both free and in  combination  with
alkalis : while Tiedemann,  and Gmelin maintain that, in its natural
state, no acid is to be met with ; but that, when food is commingled,
an acid which they consider the acetic acid is produced in consider-
able quantity. 
HOMOPHAGOUS AND POLYPHAGOUS.
141
  The ostrich, that may be considered  a connecting link between
birds and quadrupeds, is gifted with powerful digestive organs, and
is known to swallow stone, glass, and iron ;  but this faculty appears
to be a gift of all bounteous Providence, to enable the creature to
digest the various substances it meets with when traversing burning
deserts for  hundreds of miles, when  these hard bodies actually
perform the function of teeth in the animal's stomach, by aiding the
comminution of its indigestible food.  The structure of the ostrich
has a near resemblance to that of the camel, destined to perform the
same dreary journeys.  The wings are not designed for flight, and
in speed he equals the horse.  Adanson affirms that he had seen two
ostriches at the factory of Podore, that were broken in to  carry
single or double riders, and the strongest and youngest would  run
more swiftly with two negroes on  his back than the fleetest racer.
   Spallanzani endeavoured  to prove that the  pebbles and  gravel
swallowed by various birds were of no use in the process of diges-
tion ;  but Hunter, who had found  two hundred pebbles in the giz-
zard of a turkey, and one thousand in that of a  goose, demonstrated
their utility in the trituration of their food, since these birds were
found to be unable to digest, and consequently to thrive upon their
nourishment when deprived of this mechanical aid.   It  is curious
that the owl, which easily digests meat and bones, cannot be made to
digest bread or grain, and yet dies if confined to animal food.   The
eagle, and other birds of prey, can dissolve both.   A singular pro-
cess of digestion is observed in the stormy petrel, which lives  en-
tirely on oil and fat  substances whenever it can obtain them ;  but
when fed with other articles of food, Nature, true to her laws, con-
verts them into oil;  the bird still discharges pure oil at objects that
offend him, and feeds his  young  with the same substance.   The
petrel must, no doubt, be a bilious subject, for he delights in misery,
and his presence is a sure presage of foul weather to the experienced
seamen ; and when
                           The wrathful skies
                 Gallow the very wanderers of the dark,
                 And make them keep their caves,
he is seen riding triumphantly on the whirl-wind and skimming the
deepest chasms of the angry waves.  This bird is said to be named
' petrel' from Peter, since, like that saint, he is supposed to have the
power of walking on the waters.
   The singular appetites which have been noticed seem to have been
individual  peculiarities, uninfluenced by a  morbid  condition ; but
there are cases in which a depraved appetite is symptomatic of dis-
ease, where we see persons otherwise possessed of sound judgment
longing, not only for the most improper and indigestible food, but
for substances of the most extraordinary and even disgusting nature.
Thus  we  have seen patients, more especially young females  and
pregnant women, devouring dirt, cinders, spiders, leeches, hair,
tallow, and paper ; an ingenious writer affims that " more literature
in  the form of paper and printed books has been thus devoured, than
 by the first scholars in Christendom." 
142         CURIOSITIES OF MEDICAL EXPERIENCE.
  Dr. Darwin tells us that he saw a young lady about  ten years of
age that used to fill her stomach with earth out of a flower-pot, and
then vomited it up, with small  stones, bits  of wood, and wings of
various insects.  John Hunter  has described  an endemic  disease
among the Africans in Jamaica, in which they devoured dirt.   Mason
Good, when speaking of this affection, says, " that  the longing for
such materials, is, in this disease, a mere symptom, and rarely shows
itself till the frame is completely exhausted by atrophy, dropsy, and
hectic fever, brought on by a longing of a much more serious kind,
—a longing to return home, a pining for  the relations, the  scenes,
the kindnesses, the domestic joys, of which  the miserable sufferers
have been robbed by barbarians less humanized than themselves, and
which they have been forced or trepanned to resign for the less de-
sirable banquet of whips, and threats, and harness, and hunger."
  Roderic a Castro relates the case of a lady who could eat twenty
pounds of pepper, and another who lived  upon ice.   Tulpius men-
tions a woman who, during her pregnancy, longed for salt herrings,
and ate fourteen  hundred of them  at the  rate of five herrings per
diem.  Longius  affirms that a lady in Cologne, who was in that state
that ladies wish to be who love their lords, took such a fancy to taste
the flesh  of her husband that she actually assassinated him, and, after
indulging in as much fresh meat  as the weather permitted, salted
the remainder for further use.  This cannibal inclination seems not
to be uncommon.  The said Roderic a Castro knew a woman in the
same thriving condition, who felt an inexpressible desire for a bit of
the shoulder of a neighbouring baker, and her husband was perse-
cuted by her constant prayers and  lamentations to  prevail  on the
worthy man to allow her one bite for charity's  sake ;  but the first
bite was so heartily inflicted, that the crusty baker would not submit
to a second taste.
  In the Philosophical Transactions there is a case related of a wo-
man whose fancies were not quite so solid, and who used to  gratify
her aerial appetites  by putting  the nozle of a  bellows down her
throat, and blowing away until she was tired.   These  longings of
parturient women are most common ;  but it is rather curious, that,
among our negroes in the West Indies, the husbands pretend to long
for their  wives, and endeavour to gratify them by proxy.  Possibly
such might have  been the fancy of Cambes, the Lydian prince, who,
according to iElian, took it into his head  one night to eat  up his
beloved wife.
                CAUSES  OF  INSANITY.

  Madness is attributed to moral and physical causes.  Physicians
do not agree as to the prevalence of either of these sources of human
misery.   Some of them, most unjustly accused of materialism, seem 
CAUSES OF INSANITY.
143
to lean to the opinion that, generally speaking, physical  causes can
be traced in post mortem examination ; while others, equally skilled
in accurate  anatomical  investigations, maintain that these organic
derangements are very seldom met with.
   Lawrence affirms that he had "examined after death the heads of
many insane persons, and had hardly seen a single brain which did
not exhibit obvious marks of disease ;"  and he further states, " that
he feels convinced from his own experience, that very few heads of
persons  dying deranged will  be examined after death without
showing diseased structure, or evident  signs of increased vascular
activity.  The celebrated Morgagni  gives similar results of his ex-
tensive  dissections.   Meckel and Jones are of the same opinion.
However, Pinel, whose anatomical  pursuits on the subject  were
most extensive, clearly declares that  he  never  met with any other
appearance  within  the cavity of the  skull than  are  observable
in opening the bodies  of persons  who  have  died of apoplexy,
epilepsy, nervous fevers, and convulsions.  Haslam whose expe-
rience in this matter was also very great, asserts that nothing deci-
sive can be  obtained in reference to insanity from any variations of
appearance  that have hitherto been detected  in the brain.  Greding
observed in two hundred and sixteen maniacal cases which he ex-
amined, the whole of whom died of disorders unconnected with their
mental ailments, that three of the heads were exceedingly large, two
exceedingly small ; some of the skull bones were extremely thick,
others peculiarly thin ;  in  some the frontal  bones were small and
contracted, in others the temporal bones compressed and narrow.
   In this confusion and  clashing of opinions, when unfortunately
each theorist views, or fancies that he views, functional  or organic
derangements sufficiently evident (in his eyes at  least)  to support
his doctrine, it  is no easy matter to  come to a fair conclusion.   It
can only be observed, that, as the wonderful sympathies of the brain
with other organs, especially the viscera of the abdomen,  are univer-
sally acknowledged, the morbid condition in which the brain is occa-
sionally found  may have arisen from a primary morbid condition of
some other organ.  Hence itis difficult to say whether insanity is most
generally a primary or a secondary affection.  Physical causes act
both upon the  brain and the abdominal system.   Concussion  and
compression of the brain will occasion nausea, vomiting, and hepatic
affections, and the presence of worms in the intestines will  excite
convulsions  and epilepsy.  In regard to moral causes, they may also
act directly  or indirectly upon the brain, or  the parts that sympa-
thise with it.   Sudden or violent emotions are  known to produce
an immediate effect upon our digestive functions, which may in turn
by their  sympathetic connexion act upon the brain  and  the mind,
although the connexion between brain and mind is not yet proved
in any conclusive manner.
  That mental  emotions, whether producing any alteration in the
physical  condition of the individual,  or not, occasion various degree,
of insanity, is  proved  by experience.   The French revolutions
during its execrable phases, offered a wide and fertile field of obser- 
CURIOSITIES OF MEDICAL EXPERIENCE.
vation on this subject; and the various events that marked those
fearful times  were  certainly well calculated to  affect  any brain
capable of becoming deranged.  The following results of these obser-
vations are  curious.  " Among the lunatics  confined  at  Bicetre,"
says Pinel, " during the third year of the Republic, I observed that
the exciting causes of their maladies, in a  great  majority of cases,
were extremely vivid affections of the mind, such as ungovernable
or  disappointed  ambition, religious fanaticism,  profound chagrin,
and unfortunate love.   Out of one hundred and  thirteen madmen
with whose history I took pains to make myself acquainted, thirty-
four were reduced to this state by domestic misfortunes, twenty-four
by obstacles to matrimonial  union, thirty by political events, and
twenty-five by religious fanaticism.   Those were chiefly  affected
who belonged to professions in which the imagination is unceasingly
or ardently engaged, and  not controlled in  its  excitement by the
exercise of the tamer functions of the understanding, which are more
susceptible of satiety and fatigue.  Hence the Bicetre registers were
chiefly filled from the professions of priest, artists, painters, sculptors,
poets, and musicians, while they contained no  instances of persons
whose line of life demands a predominant exercise of the  judging
 faculty,—not one naturalist, physician, chemist,  or geometrician."
    The following is a return of moral causes of insanity observed in
 the Salpetriere.   In the years 1811 and 1812 :
            Domestic affliction      .     .     .      105
            Disappointed  love       ...       46
            Political events  .           .      .       14
            Fanaticism      ....        8
            Fright      .....       38
            Jealousy        .           .      ,       18
            Anger      .....       16
            Misfortunes in circumstances   .      .       77
            Offended vanity  ....        i

                                              Total 323
    In Mr. Esquirol's private establishment during the same period :
            Domestic affliction      .      .      .      31
Disappointed love
Political events
Fanaticism
Fright
Jealousy
Misfortunes
Offended Vanity
Baffled ambition
Intense study
Misanthropy
25
31
 1
 8
14
14
16
12
13
 2
                                             Total 167
  It must be observed that the latter return, in which we find twenty-
eight persons maddened by disappointed ambition and offended pride,
is of a private establishment, whose inmates of course  belonged to
the better classes of the community. 
CAUSES OF INSANITY.
145
  By the return from Pennsylvania, out of fifty lunatics, thifty-four
cases arose from moral causes.  Of physical causes hereditary mad-
ness is  the most prevalent, as appears  clearly from the following
table extracted from the registers of the  Salpetriere.
Hereditary insanity	105	Insolation	12
Convulsion during gestation	11	Injuries of the head	14
Epilepsy	11	Fever	13
Female derangements	55	Syphilis	8
Diseases of child-birth .	52	Effects of mercury	14
Critical periods	27	Worms	24
Old age	60	Apoplexy	60
   External agents producing sudden  terror have been frequently
known to bring on insanity.  It is related of a child of three years
of age, who was so terrified on being brought into a madhouse, that
he was subject to horrible dreams and visions  until  his seventeenth
year, when he became a perfect lunatic.   Women frightened during
pregnancy have often become alienated ; and there are two cases re-
ported of young ladies who were found  insane the day after their
marriage.
   Children are generally exempted from this calamitous visitation ;
yet Frank relates the case of a child  at  St. Luke's who had been
deranged since he was two years old.   Age, to a  certain  extent,
seems to influence  insanity, and most individuals  are alienated
between their twentieth and fiftieth years.   Haslam states, that out
of one thousand six  hundred and sixty-four patients  admitted into
Bedlam, nine hundred and ten came within this period of life.  In
France it appears that most cases  of  insanity are noticed between
the ages  of twenty-five and thirty-five.  One fifteenth of these cases
among men, and one sixth among women, are observed before their
twentieth year ; and in the  wealthy classes of society one fourth
occur before the same  period.   The  following table from Bicetre
regarding age is not without interest.
Years.	Aged	15	20	30	40	50	60	Total.
1784	)5	5	33	31	24	11	6	110
1785	1)	4	29	49	25	14	3	124
1786	55	4	31	40	32	15	5	127
1787	>!	12	39	41	26	17	7	142
1788	55	9	43	53	21	18	7	151
1789	55	6	38	39	33	14	2	132
1790	51	6	28	34	19	9	7	103
1791	55	9	26	32	16	7	3	93
1792	55	6	26	33	18	12	3	98
1793	55	4	36	28	22	13	10	113
   Total   .  .   65     329     380    236     130     53     1193
  Thus it would appear that the astounding events which took place
in France, but  more especially in  Paris, from the year 1789, the
breaking  out  of the  revolution, 1793, the reign  of terror, had  no
effect upon  the intellects of the population ; unless it is supposed
that the entire nation being in a state of insanity, either madmen
were  not  noticed  as  any peculiarity, or  rushed  into mischief and
got themselves murdered.  This observation as to the influence of
  August,  1838.— D           15 
146
CURIOSITIES OF MEDICAL EXPERIENCE.
public events is confirmed by the following statement of admissions
in the Salp6triere during the comparatively tranquil years of 1811,
1812, 1813, and  1814, although many cases of insanity were said to
have arisen from the harsh laws of the conscription.
 Years.  Aged 20   25   30   35   40   50   60    70
   1811    „  34   37   38   27   48   38   24   12
   1812    „  52   34   33   18   38   57   26    19
   1813    „  43   29   33   41   32   57   31    13
   1814    „  42   35   38   31   26   53   34   22
Total
171   135   142  171  144  205  115
66
80	Total.
4	262
3	280
6	285
10	291
23	1118
  Therefore one might fairly conclude that the taking of the Bastille,
the execution of Louis XVI, the  bloody sway of the Jacobins, the
ambitious wars  of Napoleon, and the restoration of Louis XVIII,
did not in the slightest degree affect the brains of our  happy and
philosophical neighbours.
  It has been generally imagined that women are more subject to
mental alienation than men ; this, however, is by no means proved
by observation in various countries, as will appear by the following
calculation :
1756	Marseilles
1786	Paris .
1786—1794	Bedlam
1807	St. Lukes
1802	Paris .
---	Berlin . . . .
___	Vienna ....
---	Pennsylvania .
1807—1812	Various Madhouses in France
1802—1814	M. Esquirol's Establishment
Men.	Women.
50	49
500	509
4992	4882
110	153
1	to 2
1	to 2
117	94
2	to 1
488	700
191	144
                                          Total 6452      6536
  It has long been a current opinion that madness is a more common
disease in our country than anywhere else.   This may possibly arise
from the greater number of our eccentric countrymen that are widely
scattered over the globe ; and whenever an individual  is observed
whose manners and conduct are totally at variance with the habits
of any other member of the  community, he is generally considered
an Englishman.  Voltaire came to the sweeping conclusion that one
half of the nation was scrofulous, and the other moiety insane.
  It would appear that insanity is on  the increase  ; for in the report
of the commissioners for licensing lunatic establishments  we find
the following statement :  " Insanity appears to have been  consid-
erably on the increase  ; for  if we compare the sums of two distant
lustra, the  one beginning with  1775, and the  other  ending with
1809, the proportion of patients returned as having been received
into lunatic asylums during the latter period, is to that of the former
nearly as one hundred and twenty-nine to one hundred."  Dr. Bur-
rows has endeavoured  to impugn the correctness of this statement
by proving that suicide is more frequent in other countries ; now,
unless Dr. Burrows  can  prove that suicide is  an act  of insanity, 
CAUSES OF INSANITY.
147
which will by no means  be  admitted, his observation  can bear no
weight.   Since the peace it may be more difficult to arrive at any
conclusion  on this subject, founded  on the admission of lunatics
into public and private establishments ;  as, fortunately for the coun-
try, mad people constitute a large majority  of our absentees on the
continent of Europe and elsewhere ; and the inhabitants of Paris,
Boulogne, Italy, and of the banks of the Rhine have often fancied
that  their  climate  was considered  particularly favourable  for the
recovery of insane persons, who drag their listless nonentity to their
inviting shores.
  Scott,  who  accompanied Lord Macartney's  embassy to  China,
observed that very few  insane  persons were to be found there.
Humboldt  states that madness is rare amongst the natives of South
America.  Carr made the same remark in Russia.   In  Spain and
Italy, religious  melancholy, and that  most  vexatious  species  of
insanity  called erotomania, are more common.
  Various  professions have been supposed  to exercise much influ-
ence on the intellectual faculties.  The following observations at the
Salpetriere during one year may tend to illustrate this subject:
Field labourers    ...    43  Pedlars      .    .    .    .    16
Servants
Needlework women
Cooks
Shopkeepers .
  In M. Esquirol's establishment :
Farmers     ....      3   Engineers
Military men .
51  Shoemakers  ....     8
85  House-painters and varnishers      5
16  Housekeepers     .    .     .   192
21  Women of the town    .     .    33
Seamen
Merchants
Students
Clerks in public offices
33  Lawyers
 3  Chemists
50  Physicians
25  Artists
 2
11
 4
 4
                             21
  According to the  prevalence of the ideas  connected with their
former pursuits do we observe the hallucination of these unfortunate
persons to be of a different character.  What a school of  humility
is a lunatic asylum !   What a field of observation does it not present
to the philosopher who ranges among its  inmates !   We find  the
same aberrations that obtain  in society ; similar errors, similar pas-
sions,similar miserable self-tormentingchimeras,empty pride, worth-
less vanity, and overweening ambition.  There we
             See that noble and most sovereign reason
             Like sweet bells jangl'd, out of tune and harsh.
Each mad-house has its gods and priests, its sovereigns and its subjects,
terrific mimicry of worldly superstitions, pomp, pride, and degrada-
tion.   There tyranny rules with  iron sway, until  the  keeper's lash
makes tyrants know there does exist  a power still  greater than their
own.   In mad-houses egotism prevails as generally as in the world,
and nothing around the lunatic sheds any  influence unless relating
to his wretched self.   In  this struggle between the mind and body,
this constant action  and  re-action of the moral and  the corporeal
energies, when reason  has yielded to  the brute force of animal pas- 
148         CURIOSITIES OF MEDICAL EXPERIENCE.
sions, and the  body with all  its baseness has triumphed over the
soul, one cannot but think of Plutarch's fanciful idea, that should
the body sue the mind for damages before a  court of justice, it
would be found that the defendant had been a ruinous tenant to the
plaintiff.
  It is said  that  the  Egyptians placed a mummy at  their festive
board, to remind man of mortality.   Would not a frequent visit  to
a lunatic asylum afford a wholesome lesson to the reckless  despot,
the proud statesman, and the arbitary chieftain ?   There they might
converse with tyrants, politicians, and self-created heroes, in all the
naked turpitude of the evil passions, who in their franctic gestures,
would show them that which  they wish to be—that which the
world considers they  are—themselves !   Often  would the  maniac
express the  very thoughts that  ruffle  their  own pillows ;  and the
dreaded bell that announces the doctor's visit, and which with one
loud peal destroys his fond illusions, would be an illustration of that
knell which sooner or later must call them from the busy world they
think their own.   How beautifully has Filmer expressed the  mad-
man's fears  !
            See yon old miser laden with swelling bags
            Of ill-got gold, with how much awkward haste
            He  limps away to shelter!  See how he ducks,
            And dives, and dodges with the gods; and  all
            Only in hope to avoid, for some few days
            Perhaps, the just reward of his own sad extortions.
            The hot adulterer, now all chill and impotent
            With fear, leaps from the poluted bed,
            And crams himself into a cranny !
            There mighty men of blood, who make a trade
            Of murder, forget their wonted fierceness;
            Out-nois'd, they shrink aside, and shake for fear
            0' th' louder threat'nings of the angry gods.
                          LEPROSY.

  Bontius informs us that this disease was observed on the banks
of the Ganges, where it was known by the name of Cowrap.   Ka-
empfer noticed it in Ceylon and Japan.   In  Sumatra, whole gene-
rations are infected with both leprosy and elephantiasis ; and those
who are labouring under the latter disease, although it is not conta-
gious, are  driven  into the woods.  Christopher Columbus found
lepers in the island of Buona Vista in 1498, and frictions of turtle
blood were used to relieve them.
  In our days it is a disease of rare occurrence, at least in Europe ;
yet it was observed at Vetrolles and Martignes, in France, in 1808,
and at Pigua and Castel  Franco, in Italy, in  1807.   The elephan-
tiasis still prevails in our West India colonies, more  especially  that 
LEPROSY.
149
 species which is called " elephant leg," and which is not uncommon
 at Barbadoes, St. Christopher, and Nevis.  Parsons, in his Travels
 in Asia and Africa, informs us that a  similar  complaint reigns  on
 the coast of Malabar, where it is called the " Cochin leg."  The
 Hindoo  physicians treat it with pills of arsenic and  black pepper.
   A curious species of  leprosy appeared in Rome, under the reign
 of Tiberius, brought into the country from Asi.  The eruption first
 broke out upon  the chin, whence it was called Mentagra, and is
 thus alluded to by Martial :
                 Non ulcus acre, pustulaeve lucentes ;
                 Nee triste mentum, sordidive lichenes.
 From the chin it extended over the entire  body, and  on its disap-
 pearance left scars more unsightly, if possible, than the former dis-
 ease.   Its virulence and difficulty of cure induced  the Romans to
 send  to Egypt for attendance.   The same disease prevailed in the
 second century, and Soranus, a physician of Aquitania, was sent for
 to heal it.   Crispus, a friend of Galen, is said to have discovered the
 best method of cure.   Pliny has given an  accurate account of the
 mentagra in his Natural History,  lib.  xxvii. cap. 1.  According to
 the same writer, elephantiasis was brought  to  Rome  by Pompey's
 troops.  Plutarch fixes its apparition to the time when Asclepiades
 of Bithynia flourished as one  of his disciples.  Themison wrote a
 treatise on the disease, which  is mentioned by Caelius Aurelianus.
 but has  not been preserved from the ravages of  time.  Lucilius
 called the affection odiosa Vitiligo.   The Gemursa of Pliny ap-
 pears to  have been a similar complaint : and Triller thinks that it
 was the  Gumretha of the Talmud.
   Formerly, in England, the causes of lepers were committed to the
 ecclesiastical courts, as it was prohibited to prosecute a leper before
 a lay judge, as they were under the protection of the church, which
 separated them from  the rest  of the  people by a ritual.   At this
 period a law existed, called Leproso amovendo, for the removal of
 lepers who ventured to  mix  in society.   Thus leprosy may  be
 considered one of the most terrific maladies inflicted  on mankind.
 Holy Writ affords us abundant proofs of its fatal character.   It  is
 probable that this disease was first observed  under the scorching sun
 of Egypt, whence it spread its ravages to Greece  and Asia ;  and
 when the East was obliged to submit  to the  Roman legions, the
 conquerors carried the scourge of the vanquished to  their own coun-
 try.   From Italy the disorder extended to France ;  and in the reign
 of Philip I. we find some members of the church militant, called hos-
pitaliers, who spent their arduous life in attending  upon lepers and
 waging war against the infidels.
   The  Hebrew  tribes, on quitting  Esjypt, were subject to three
 kinds of leprosy ; all of them  were distinguished  by the name of
 Berat (mrO), or " bright spot."   One called Boak  (pHD), of a
 dull white; and  two named Tsorat (r)JH¥)> or "venom or ma-
 lignity :" the first variety of the latter being the Berat Lebena, or
 bright white berat; and the next the Berat  Cecha,  or the dark and
                               15* 
150
CURIOSITIES OF MEDICAL EXPERIENCE.
duskyberat; bothof which werehighly contagious,and rendered those
who laboured under their attack, unclean, and dangerous to society.
  Manetho, Justin, and several historians, pretend that the Hebrews
were expelled from Egypt in consequence of their being infected
with this formidable  disease ;  a reproach from which Josephus
attempted  to  exculpate  his  countrymen.   It appears, however,
that, during their captivity of one hundred and  thirty-four  years,
the  Israelites  laboured  under  this awful  visitation ;  and, three
thousand years after their migration, we find Prosper Alpinus de-
scribing the banks of the Nile as the principal seat of  the disease.
Lucretius gives the same account of it :
           Est Elephas morbus, qui, propter flumina Nili
           Gignitur jEgypto in  media, neque praeterea usquam.
Pliny  and Marcellus Empiricus refer  the calamity to  the same
source.   They state, however, that it was more general in the lower
classes, although it sometimes attacked their  sovereigns ; an event.
which  added to the horrors of the  infliction, since it appears that
royalty had the privilege  of  bathing in  human blood as one of the
most effectual  curative means.   Galen and Avicenna  attribute its
fatal prevalence in Alexandria  to the influence of the climate, and
the quality of their food.   The Persian writer thus expresses him-
self : " Et quando aggregatur caliditasaeris cum malitia cibi, et ejus
essentia ex genere piscium, et carne salita, et carne grossa, et carnibus
asinorum, et lentibus, procul  dubio est ut eve'niat lepra, sicut multi-
plicatur in Alexandria."
   The Boak,  or slighter berat, which is not considered  to be con-
tagious, still bears the same  denomination  amongst the Arabs, and
is the  KiTrfi. a.Kr^, or dull white leprosy of  the Greeks ;  the bright
white and dusky berats of the  Hebrews were distinguished on ac-
count  of their malignity  and  with  the  Tsorat (Dj7"iy), are still
called  among the Arabians  by the  Hebrew  generic term  with a
very slight alteration, for  the Berat Lebena  is their Beras Bejas,
and the Berat Cecha, the Beras Asved.
   While the  Arabians borrowed the Hebrew  terms, the  Greeks
took their denominations  from the same source, and from  Tsorat
they adopted  the  word  Psora.  The Tsorat is restrained by the
Hebrews to the contagious form of leprosy.  Amongst the Greeks,
Lepra was a generic  synonyme of Berat or Beras.
   This confusion in the adaptation of the names given to the varieties
of leprosy has occasioned  much perplexity  in  the study of the
disease.   Actuarius, in endeavouring to  rectify these  errors, has
produced a greater confusion.  According to him, they are different
forms  of a common genus.   However, the most  important  distinc-
tion was that  which defined  the contagious and the non-contagious
forms.   The leprosy described by Moses under the name of Boak or
 Bohak was the *w« of Hippocrates ; Seeth the p**5c ; Saphachath
 and Misphachath the mi^w;  and Baherelh the xmm; and, according
to Carthenser and other writers, this  leprosy was the Leuci of the
 Greeks. 
LEPROSY.
151
  The elephantiasis was long confounded  with leprosy ; but the
former is a tubercular affection of the skin, widely different  from
the scaly leprosy, and certainly not contagious.   Its singular name
was  derived  from the  condition of  the  surface of the  huge mis-
shapen limbs of those who were affected with the malady, and which
bore some resemblance to the leg of an elephant.   This morbid state
is not uncommon in the island of Barbadoes, and in England it has
been called " the Barbadoes leg."  The  original Arabic name for
this affection was Dal Fil, or " the elephant's disease," which is now
the common denomination ; although it is frequently abridged into
Fil alone, literally Elephas.   The elephantiasis is not even alluded
to by Moses in his descriptions of leprosy.  However, the elephant
leg of the  Arabians is  a  disease totally  different from the specific
elephantiasis, which is a disorder of the skin, the roughness of which
led to the name, and which the Arabians  called  Juzam or Jit dam.
   These errors of description amongst  medical writers  have of
course occasioned much confusion and perplexity in the productions
of travellers and historians, who have  generally  confounded all
these diseases with the Hebrew leprosy, or the leprosy which for so
long a period desolated the fairest portions  of Europe, where every
country  was crowded with  hospitals  established for the exclusive
relief of the malady.   The  number  of leper-houses, as they were
denominated, has been  singularly  exaggerated.   Paris  has  been
made lo  assert that there were nineteen thousand of these hospitals,
whereas  he  merely stated  that  the Knights  Hospitalers,  under
various  patron  saints,  but  more particularly  St.  Lazarus,  were
endowed with  nineteen  thousand  manors to  support  their ex-
tensive  establishments  ;  and  he thus clearly  expressed  himself,
'•' Habent Hospitalarii novemdecim millia maneriorum in Chris-
tianitate."  It appears that in   the reign of Louis VIII, France
had no less  than two  thousand of these hospitals.  Leprosy was
well known in the eighth century, and St. Ottomarand St. Nicholas
were considered the first founders of establishments for its treatment
in  France and in Germany.   The  Crusaders,  however, by their
connexions with the East, materially increased its inroads in Europe,
and the  disgusting malady appears  to have been  considered as a
proof of holiness.  Moehser, in  his  work " De  medicis equestri
dignitate ornatis" informs  us  that, the  Knights  of the order of
St. Lazarus were not  only entrusted with the  care of lepers, but
admitted them  into their noble order :  their  Grand  Master was
himself  a leper.  The  Crusaders, returning from their useless wars
eaten  up with the disease, received  the honourable  distinction of
being pauperes  Christi, morbi beati Lazari  languentes.   The
most distinguished individuals in the land attended upon them with
the utmost humility ;  and  Robert, King of France, used to wash
and kiss their filthy feet to keep  himself in odour of sanctity. All
these attentions,  however, did not always prevent the lepers from
complaining of their complicated sufferings; but they were exhorted
by holy  men (who of course had never experienced the miseries of 
152         CURIOSITIES OF MEDICAL EXPERIENCE.

the malady) to be of good comfort, as  their illness  was  a  blessed
favour conferred upon them as the elect of the land.   St. Louis
thought the Sire de Joinville an unbeliever ; for having once asked
him which he would prefer, being a mezieu or laide (a leper), or
having to reproach his conscience with any mortal sin, his favourite
replied to the singular question, that he  would  rather be guilty of
thirty deadly sins ; whereupon the sanctified monarch severly re-
buked  him by telling him  in  the quaint language of  the times,
" Nulle si laide mezeuerie n'est, comme de estre en  peche mortel."
  Notwithstanding the sanctity of their disease, lepers were by va-
rious  laws separated from the healthy portion of the community.
The ceremonies used on these occasions were curious; and  we find
the following description of them  in the History ofBretagne :  "A
priest in his sacerdotal robes went to the leper's dwelling, bearing a
crucifix.   He was then exhorted  to submit with resignation to the
affliction : he afterwards threw holy water upon  him, and  conducted
him to church.   There he was stripped of his ordinary vestments,
and clothed in a black garment; when  he knelt down to  hear mass,
and*was again sprinkled with holy water.  During these ceremonies,
the office for the dead was duly sung, and the leper was  finally led
to his destined future residence.  Here he again knelt, received  salu-
tary exhortations to be patient, and a shovelful of earth was thrown
on his feet.  His dwelling was most diminutive: his furniture  con-
sisted of a bed, a water-jug, a  chest, a  table, a chair, a lamp, and a
towel.  He farther received a cowl, a gown, a leathern girdle, a small
cag with a funnel, a knife, a  spoon, a wand, and a pair of etiquettes,
(a sort of castanets,) to announce his approach.  Before leaving  him,
the priest added another  blessing to these gifts, and departed,  after
commanding him under the severest penalties never to appear with-
out his distinctive apparel, and barefooted;  never to enter a church,
a mill, or a baker's  shop  ; to perform  all his ablutions  in streams
and running waters; never to touch  any article  he  wanted to  pur-
chase, except with his wand ;  never to enter drinking-houses, but
to buy his liquor at their doors, having  it poured into his barrel by
means of the funnel graciously given him for that purpose ; never to
answer any question unless he was to windward of his interlocutor ;
never to presume to take a walk  in a narrow lane ; never to touch
or go near children ; and only to eat, drink, and junket with his
brother lepers ; and invariably to announce his unwelcome approach
by rattling his castanets."
  The offsprings of these sequestered creatures were seldom baptized;
and when  this  rite was  performed, the  water  was  thrown away.
After this oration  his ghostly adviser took his  final leave, and the
patient's former dwelling was burnt to  the ground.   The sepulchre
of St. Mein,in  Britanny, was frequently visited by these poor  crea-
tures ; and on such occasions they were obliged to have  both  their
hands covered with woollen bags, as a distinguishing mark amongst
the other pilgrims.   Lepers were only allowed  to intermarry with
fellow-sufferers ; yet we find in one of the Decretals of St. Gregory, 
THE ASPIC.
153
that any woman who chose to run the.chances of contagion  could
please her fancy.   St. Gregory perhaps thought this the most effec-
tual method of preventing the dreaded intercourse, as most probably,
had it been prohibited, lepers would have been in great request, they
having always been remarked for their amorous propensities.  Mura-
tori informs us  that these unfortunates did not always submit quietly
to these severe  regulations, but several times joined the Jews in a
revolt against the authorities.
   This affliction has been  observed in various countries.  In Iceland
it is called Likraa ; in Norway, Badesyge, or Spedalskhed.   It is
to be apprehended that many of these cases of leprosy belong more
particularly to the elephantiasis: such is the red disease of Cayenne,
and the Boasi of Surinam.
   It is especially in the East, its probable original seat, that leprosy
is observed.  In  Damascus there are two hospitals for its treatment.
The waters of the Jordan  are still considered efficacious in its cure,
and the waters  of Abraham's well are looked upon as a specific.  In
Candia  the  disease was common, and  lepers were  noted for their
obscene profligacy.   From Crimea it has also  been carried to As-
tracan, whence it infected  the Cossacks of Jaick.  Pallas and Gmelin
have given an accurate account of its invasion.
                        THE  ASPIC.

   Various opinions are entertained respecting the  reptile that in-
 flicted the fatal sting on Cleopatra.  According to Pliny, it had hol-
 low fangs, which distilled the venom in the same manner as the tail
 of the scorpion.  iElian states it to have  been a snake that moves
 slowly, covered with scales of a reddish colour, his head crowned
 by callous protuberances, and  whose neck becomes swollen and in-
 flated when he  sheds his  poisonous secretion.  Other  naturalists
 affirm  that the scales are shining, and the eyes of a dazzling bright-
 ness ;  while some authorities maintain that the reptile's hue is of a
 dark brown, and that, like  the chameleon,  it can assume the colour
 of the  ground on which it drags its writhing form.   However, later
 observers have now clearly ascertained that the aspic of the ancients
 is the coluber haje, called by  the Arabs nascher, and described by
 Lacepede as the  Egyptian viper.  Lucan seems to have described
 this serpent in the following lines :
              Hie, quae prima caput movit de pulvere tabes
              Aspida somniferum tumida cervice levarit.
 According to Hasselquist, the aspic's head is raised in  a protuberance
 on both sides behind the eyes ; the scales which cover the back are
small, of a dirty white colour, and speckled with reddish spots.  The
lower surface of the reptile is striated with one hundred and eighteen 
CURIOSITIES OF MEDICAL EXPERIENCE.
small parallel zones, and forty-four smaller ones are under the tail.
The teeth resemble in their  structure  those of other vipers; and,
when the animal is irritated, its neck and throat are  swelled up to
the size of the body.  Authors vary in  regard to its length, Hassel-
quist, from whom  we have  borrowed  the  above description, says
that it is a  short reptile ; while Savary assures us that it sometimes
measures six feet.
   The ancients stated that the poison of the aspic did not occasion any
pain, but that the strength of the person it had stung gradually sunk
into a calm and languid state, followed  by a sound sleep, the fore-
runner of dissolution.   Modern travellers assure us, on the contrary,
that this venom is  most active ; and Hasselquist  has observed an
aspic in Cyprus, whose bite brought on a rapid mortification, which
in general proved fatal in a very few hours.
   In Egypt the viper is still made use of in medicinal preparations ;
and a great number of them are sent to Venice for the confection of
the celebrated Theriaca.  Under Nero, we are told, these reptiles
were imported into Rome for pharmaceutical purposes.
   In the above description, and endeavour  to  ascertain  the  nature
of the aspic of the  ancients, there must be some error.   The coluber
aspis of Linnaeus is not venomous, and we  may therefore conclude
that the aspic was  of the same species as our viper.   The venom of
this animal is of a  yellow tinge, and small in quantity, seldom ex-
ceeding two  grains in weight.   In hot weather it becomes more
active in its effects.  Time does not seem to deprive it of its fatal
properties; for instanceshave been known of persons having pricked
their fingers, with  the pointed fangs of a viper preserved in spirits,
when the most serious accidents have  followed.  The  dried teeth
lose this noxious power.  The venom of the viper may be swallowed
without any risk, provided there is not an ulcer in the mouth.  Fon-
tana has made upwards of six thousand experiments to prove the
activity of this substance.   A sparrow died under its  influence  in
five minutes, a pigeon in  eight  or ten ; a cat sometimes  did not
experience any inconvenience, a sheep seldom or never ; and the
horse appears to be proof against its action.
   Some naturalists have affirmed that the female viper, in cases  of
sudden alarm, possesses the faculty of securingthe safety of her young
by swallowing them and keeping them concealed in her stomach, as
the kangaroo secures her offspring in  her  pouch.  This assertion,
although fabulous, was(credited by Sir Thomas Brown, and since by
Dr. Shaw.   Stories equally absurd have  been circulated of this
reptile.   The Egyptians  considered the viper as a  typification of
a bad wife, since they believed that  during their union the female
was in the habit of biting off her partner's head.  They also looked
upon it as the emblem of undutiful  children,  from  the idle belief
that the viper came into the world by piercing an opening in  its
mother's  side. 
            SELDEN'S COMPARISON.—THE LETTUCE.        155


SELDEN'S COMPARISON BETWEEN A DIVINE, A STATESMAN,
                     AND A PHYSICIAN.

  If a physician sees you eat any thing that is not good for the body,
to keep you from it he cries out " It is poison !"  If the divine sees
you do anything that is hurtful to your soul, to keep you from it he
cries out " You are damned /"
  To preach long, loud, and damnation, is the way to be cried up.
We love a man Who damns us, and we run after him again to save
us.   If a man has a sore leg, and he should go to an honest and
judicious surgeon, and  he should  only  bid him keep it warm, or
anoint it with some well-known oil that would do  the cure, haply
he would not  much  regard him, because he knows the  medicine
before hand to be an  ordinary medicine.   But if he should go to  a
surgeon  that should  tell him, " Your leg will be  gangrene within
three days, and it must be cut off; and you will die, unless you do
something that I could tell you," what listening there would be to
this man !   " Oh ! for the Lord's sake, tell me what this is :—I
will give you any contents  for your pains."
  This  ingenious antiquary has also made some quaint comparisons
between doctors of the body and doctors of the  public interests.
"All might go on well," he says, '<in the commonwealth, if every
one in the parliament would lay down his own interest and aim at
the general good.   If  a man was  rich, and  the whole  college of
physicians were sent to him to administer to him severally ; haply,
so long  as they observed the rules of art, he  might recover.   But
if one of them had a  great deal of scammony by him, he  must put
off that; therefore will he prescribe scammony ; another had a great
deal of rhubarb, and he must put off that; therefore he prescribes
rhubarb : and they would certainly kill the man.   We destroy the
commonwealth, while we preserve our own private  interest  and
neglect  the public."
  Grotius called John Selden  "the honour of the English nation ;"
and Bacon had such an implicit faith in his judgment, that he desired
in his will that his advice should be taken respecting the publication
or suppression of his posthumous works.
                     THE  LETTUCE,

  Various species of this plant Were  known to the ancients.  Its
type is supposed to be the Lactucd quercina, or the Lactuca sca-
riola ; both of Asiatic origin.  Many powerful effects were formerly
attributed to its use.  It was considered as producing sleep, and re-
covery from intoxication ; it was in consequence of this belief that
this salad was served up after  meals.  Thus Martial tells us, 
156         CURIOSITIES OF MEDICAL EXPERIENCE.
              Claudere qua? ccenas Lactuca solebat avorum,
              Die mihi cur nostras inchoat ilia dapes.
  Columella thus describes its properties :
                Jamque salutari properet Lactuca sapore
                Tristia quae relevet longi fastidia mori.
  This belief in its narcotic qualities induced the ancients to esteem
it as an aphrodisiac  : the  Pythagoreans had  therefore  named  it
wevxtov; and Eubulus calls  it the food of  the  dead,  mortuorum
cibum.  Venus covered  the body of her beloved  Adonis with let-
tuce leaves to calm her amorous grief;  and vases, in which they
were planted, were  introduced in  the Adonian festivals.  Galen,
who had faith  in its powers, called it the herb of sages, and in his
sleepless nights sought its influence by eating it  at supper.  It was
also frequently put under the pillow of the rich to lull them to repose.
Its cooling qualities were so much dreaded  by  the roman gallants,
that  its use was abandoned ; but Augustus's physician,  Antonius
Musa, having  calmed by  its prescription  his master's uneasiness in
a hypochondriac attack, lettuce recovered its popularity : a statue
was erected to the doctor, and salad once  more became the fashion
although the prejudices against it  could  not be removed.   Lobel
informs us that an English  nobleman, who  had  long wished for an
heir, but in vain, was blessed with a numerous family by leaving
off this Malthusian vegetable.
                     MEDICAL  FEES.

  Such is the perversity of our nature, that the remuneration given
with the greatest reluctance is the reward of those who restore us,
or who conscientiously endeavour to restore us, to health.   The
daily fees, it is true, are not handed with regret, for the patient is
still suffering ;  but if they were to be allowed  to  accumulate to a
considerable amount, they would  be parted with, with a lingering
look.   The lawyer's charges for a ruinous litigation, the  architects
demands for an uncomfortable house, are freely disbursed, though
if exorbitant they may be taxed ; but the doctor's—a guinea a visit!
—is sheer extortion.  ' Send for the apothecary :  the  physician
merely gives me  advice ;  the  apothecary will  send me plenty of
physic : at any rate I  shall  have something for my money.'
  To what can this unjust, this illiberal feeling be attributed ?  Simply
to vanity and  pride.   Illness and death  level all  mankind.   The
haughty nobleman, who conceives himself contaminated by vulgar
touch, can scarcely bring himself to believe that he  is placed upon
the same footing as a shoe-black.  All prestiges  of grandeur and
worldly pomp vanish  round the bed of sickness ;  and the suffering
peer would kneel  before the humblest peasant for  relief.  Then it 
MEDICAL FEES.
157
is that money would be cheerfully lavished to mitigate his sufferings.
But how soon the  scene  is changed!  The patient is well, thrown
once more in the busy vortex of business or of pleasure.  He had
been slightly indisposed : his natural constitution is excellent: the
doctors mistook his case ; thought him very ill, forsooth ; but nature
cured him.
  Could  the ambitious  mother  admit for  one moment that  her
daughter had been seriously ill ?—a sick wife is an expensive  article!
If her medical attendant  unfortunately hinted  that the  young lady
had been in  danger, he is considered a busy old woman, exaggera-
ting the most trifling ailment to obtain increase of business ; in fact,
a dangerous  man in a  family where there are young persons—to be
provided for.  Nor can we marvel at this.  No one likes to  be con-
sidered morally or physically weak, excepting hypochondriacs, who
live upon groans, and  feel offended if you tell them that they do not
look miserable.  The soldier will describe the slightest wound he
received in battle as most severe and dangerous ; a feeling of pride
is associated with relation.  The bold hunter will boast of a fractured
limb ; the accident showed that he was  a daring horseman.   Nay,
the agonising gout is a fashionable disease, which seems to proclaim
good living, good fellowship, and luxury : it is, in short, a gentle-
manly disease.  But the slow ravages of hereditary ailments, trans-
mitted from generation  to generation with armorial  bearings, the
development of  which may be  averted  by proper care, or  hurried
on by fashionable imprudence! how difficult even to hint to a family
the presence of the scourge, when  through the transparent bloom
of youth and beauty, our experienced eye reads the fierce characters
of death in  the prime of years.   The aerial coronet floats in fond
visions before the  doting  mother's ambitious eyes.  A man would
be a barbarian, nay, a very brute, to deprive the darling girl of the
chances  of Almacks, the delights of the pestiferous ball-room, or
the galaxy of court or opera!
   To attend the great is deemed the first stepping-stone to fortune,
and patronage is considered as more than an equivalent of remunera-
tion.  Too frequently does the physician placed  in that desirable
situation  forget what Hippocrates said of the profession.   " The
physician stands before  his patient in  the light of a demigod, since
life and death are  in his hands."
   Curious anecdotes  are related  of this unbecoming subserviency.
A courtly doctor,  when attending, one of the princesses, was asked
by George III. if  he  did not think a little ice might benefit her.
" Your majesty is  right," was the reply ; " I shall order some forth-
with."   "But perhaps it might be toocold," added the kind monarch.
" Perhaps your majesty is right again ; therefore her royal highness
had better get it warmed."
   This absurd deference to rank and etiquette by a physician, who
at the moment is superior to all around  him, reminds one of an ac-
count given by Champfort of a fashionable doctor. " D'Alembert
was  spending the evening at Madame  Du Deffand's,  where were
   August,  1838.—.£           16 
 158         CURIOSITIES OF MEDICAL EXPERIENCE.

 also President  Henault and  M. Pont de Vesle.  On this flexible
 physician's entering the room, he bowed to the lady with the formal
 salutation,' Madame, je vousprisente mes tres humbles respects."
 Then, addressing M. Henault, 'J'ai bien I'honneur de vous saluer.'
 Turning round to M. De Vesle he obsequiously said,' Monsieur,
je suis votre tres humble  serviteur ;' and at last, condescending to
 speak to  D'Alembert, he  nodded to  him with a  ' Bonjour, Mon-
 sieur !' "  On such occasions a condescending smile from power is
 considered a fee.
   Reluctance in remunerating medical attendants was also manifested
 by the ancients ; and Seneca has treated the subject at  some length.
 The difficulty in obtaining remuneration has unfortunately rendered
 many physicians  somewhat sordid, and loth to  give any opinion
 unless paid for.   In this they are unquestionably right, as gratuitous
 advice is seldom heeded ;  and one of the most distinguished prac-
 titioners used to say, that  he  considered a fee so  necessary to give
 weight to an opinion, that, when he looked at his own tongue in  the
 glass, he slipped a guinea  from one pocket into another.
   To consider themselves in proper  hands,  patients must  incur
 expenses, and as much physic as possible be poured down.  Malouin,
 physician to  the Queen  of France, was so fond of drugging, that it
 is told of him, that once having a most patient patient, who diligently
 and punctually swallowed all the  stuff he ordered, he  was so  de-
 lighted in seeing all the phials and  pill-boxes cleaned out, that he
 shook him  cordially by  the hand,  exclaiming, " My dear sir, it
 really affords me pleasure to attend you, and you deserve to be ill."
 The London practitioners must surely meet with incessant delight!
   The most extraordinary  remuneration  was that  received  by
 Levett,  Dr.  Johnson's  friend  and  frequent  companion.  It was
 observed  of  him  that he  was the only man  who ever became in-
 toxicated from  motives of prudence.  His  patients,  knowing  his
 irregular habits, used frequently to substitute a glass of spirits for  a
 fee ;  and  Levett reflected that if he did  not accept the gin or brandy
 offered to him, he could have been no gainer  by their cure, as they
 most probably  had nothing  else to  give  him.   Dr. Johnson says
 " that this habit of taking a fee in whatever shape it was exhibited,
 could not be put  off by advice  or  admonition of any kind.   He
 would sallow what he did not like, nay, what he knew would injure
 him, rather  than  go home with an idea that his skill had been
 exerted  without  recompense ; and  had  his  patients," continues
 Johnson, "maliciously combined  to reward  him  with meat  and
 strong liquors  instead of  money, he  would either have  burst, like
 the dragon  in  the Apocrypha, through repletion, or been scorched
 up, like Portia, by swallowing fire."  But though this worthy was
 thus rapacious, he never  demanded  any thing  from the poor,  and
 was remarked for his charitable conduct towards them.
    Various professional persons have sometimes endeavoured to
 remunerate their medical attendants  by reciprocal services : thus an
 opera-dancer offered  to give lessons to a physician's daughters for
 their father's attendance  upon him ; and a dentist has been  known 
ENTHUSIASM.
159
to propose  to take care of the jaws of a whole family to liquidate
his wine bill.  One of the wealthiest merchants of Bordeaux wanted
to reduce the price of a drawing-master's lessons, on the score of
his taking his children's daubs with him to  sell  them on account.
This arrangement, however, did not suit the  indignant  artist, who
left the Croesus  in disgust.
   In one of the old French farces there is an  absurd scene between
Harlequin and  his physician.   The motley hero  had been  cured,
but refused  to remunerate  his  Esculapius, who brought an action
for his fees, when Harlequin  declares  to the judge  that he would
rather be sick again ;  and he therefore offers to return his health to
the doctor, provided he would give him back his ailments, that each
party might thus recover their own  property.  This incident was
perhaps founded on an ancient opinion of Hippocrates, who frequent-
ly mentioned salutary diseases.  In 1729, a Dr. Villars supported a
thesis  on  this subject,  entitled " Dantur-ne morbi salutares?"
and Theodore Van Ween  has also written a learned dissertation on
the same subject.
   A celebrated Dublin surgeon was once known to give a lesson of
economy to a wealthy and fashionable young  man remarkably fond
of his handsome face  and person.  He  was sent for, and found the
patient seated by a table, resting his eheek upon his hand, whilst
before him was displayed a  five-pound note.  After  some little
hesitation he removed his hand, and displayed a small mole on the
cheek.  " Do you observe  this mark, doctor  ?"  " Yes, sir, I do."
" I wish to have  it removed."  " Does it inconvenience  you ?"
*' Not  in the least."   " Then why wish for its extirpation ?"   " I
do not like  the  look of it."   " Sir," replied the surgeon, " I am
not in the  habit of being disturbed  for such trifles ;  moreover, I
think that that little excrescence had better remain untouched, since
it  gives you no  uneasiness ; and I make it a rule only to take from
my patients what is troublesome to them."  So saying, he took the
five-pound note, slipped it  into his pocket, and walked out of the
room,  leaving the patient in a  state of  perfect astonishment.  It is
related of a physician who  received  his daily fee from a rich old
miser, who had  it clenched in his fist when he arrived, and turned
his head away when he opened his hand for the doctor to take it,
that, on being informed his patient had died in the morning, not in the
least disconcerted  he  walked up to the dead man's chamber,  and
found  his clenched fist stretched out as usual :  presuming that it still
grasped the accustomed remuneration, with some difficulty he opened
the fingers, took out the guinea, and departed.
                      ENTHUSIASM.

   Enthusiasm, from its derivation, might in strictness be called a
fixity of idea in divinity ; but Locke has given a better definition 
160         CURIOSITIES OF MEDICAL EXPERIENCE.
 of this morbid state of our intellectual faculties in considering it as
 a heated state of the imagination "founded neither on reason nor
 divine revelation, but arising from the conceits of a warmed or
 overweening brain."   I shall not venture to take the  field of con-
 troversy to support this doctrine against that of some metaphysicians,
 who most probably would consider this mental aberration as an
 original and  natural judgment inspired by the Almighty, founded
 not on reason or reflection, but an instinctive impulse of the powers
 of the mind.
   The Hebrews named this  impulse Nabi, (plural Nebiim,)  " to
 approach  or  enter," on  the surmise that the spirit pervaded the
 prophets, who were called Roeh, or Seeing, hence Seers.
   Plato divided enthusiasm  into  four  orders.   I. The Poetical,
 inspired by  the  Muses.  II.  The Mystic,  under the influence of
 Bacchus.   III.  The Prophetic, a gift  of Apollo ; and IV.  The
 Enthusiasm of Love, a blessing  from Venus Urania.  This im-
 mortal philosopher was  not the visionary speculatist  which some
 writers have  represented him ; his logic did not consist of frivolous
 investigations,  but embraced the  more  useful subject of correct
 definition and division, as he sought to  reconcile practical doctrines
 of morality with the mysticism of theology by the study of Divine
 attributes.  Whatever some of  the Eclectic philosophers might
 have asserted, Plato considered that our ideas  were derived from
 external objects, and never  contemplated the extravagant, doctrine
 of embodying metaphysical abstractions, or personifying intellectual
 ideas.
  To this day, the attentive observer will find Plato's  classification
 of enthusiasm to be correct.  The ecstatic exaltation of religion and
 of love are not dissimilar ; only the latter can be  cured, the former
seldom or never admits of mitigation :  the fantastic visions of the
 lover may be dispelled by infidelity in the object  of his misplaced
affection;  the phantasies of fanaticism can only yield to  an improba-
 ble state of infidelity.  Shaftesbury has justly observed, " There is
a melancholy which accompanies all enthusiasm, be  it of love or re-
ligion ; nothing can put a stop to the growing mischief  of either, till
the melancholy be removed, and the mind be at liberty  to hear what
can be said against the ridiculousness of an extreme in either way."
  Our poet Rowe has beautifully pointed out the facility with which
a noble and martial soul can free itself from love's  ignoble trammels.

                              Rouse to the combat,
           And thou art sure to conquer; war shall restore thee :
           The sound of arms shall wake thy martial ardour,
           And cure this amorous sickness of thy soul,
           Begot by sloth, and nurs'd by too much ease.
           The idle God of Love supinely dreams
           Amidst inglorious shades and purling streams;
           In rosy fetters and fantastic chains
           He binds deluded maids and simple swains ;
           With soft enjoyments woos them to forget
           The hardy toils and labours of the great; 
ENTHUSIASM.                     161
            But if the warlike trumpet's loud alarms
            To virtuous acts excite, and manly arms,
            The coward Boy avows his abject fear,
            On silken wings sublime he cuts the air,
            Scar'd at the noble horse and thunder of the war.

   The only trumpet that can  arouse the religious enthusiast fron*
 his ascetic  meditations is the war-whoop that calls him to destroy
 all those who impugn his  doctrines in  a  battle-field, where each
 champion seeks pre-eminence in cruelty, and rancorous persecution.
   When we contemplate the  miseries  that  have arisen from fanati-
 cism, or fervid  enthusiasm, although it is but a sad consolation, yet
 it affords some  gratification in our charitable view of  mankind,  to
 think, nay, to know, that this fearful  state of  mind is a disease, a
 variety of madness, which  may in many instances be referred to a
 primary physical predisposition, and a  natural idiosyncrasy.  It is
 as much a malady as melancholy and hypochondriacism.   In pecu-
 liar  constitutions it grows imperceptibly.   Lord Shaftesbury has
 made the following  true observation, "  Men are wonderfully happy
 in afaculty of deceiving themselves whenever they set heartily about
 it.   A very small foundation of any passion will  serve us not only
 to act it well, but even to work  ourselves  in  it  beyond our own
 reach ; a man of tolerable good-nature, who happens to be a little
 piqued, may, by improving his resentment, become a very fury for
 revenge."
   Thus it is with enthusiasm, a malady which  in its dreadful pro-
 gress has been  known to become  contagious, one might even say
 epidemic.   Vain terrors have seized whole populations in  cities and
 in provinces ; when every  accident that happened to a neighbour
 was deemed a just punishment of his sins, and every calamity that
 befel  the fanatic was  considered the hostile acts of others.  Jealousy
 and dark revenge were the natural  results of such a state of mind,
 when the furious fire of bigotry was fanned  by ambition until mon-
 omania became daemonomania of the most hideous nature, and every
 maniac bore in  his  pale and emaciated visage the characteristic  of
 that temperament which predisposes to  the disease.  Seldom do we
 observe it in the sanguineous temperament, remarkable for mental
 tranquillity, yet determined courage when  roused to action.  The
 choleric and bilious, impetuous, violent, ambitious, ever ready to
 carry their  point by great virtues  or great crimes, may  no doubt
 rush  into a  destructive career ; but then they lead to the onset the
 atrabilious, men saturated with  black bile, and constituting the me-
 lancholy temperament.  Here we behold the countenance sallow
 and sad ; the visage pale and emaciated,  of an unearthly hue ; gloom,
 suspicion, hate, depicted in  every lineament; the mirror of a soul
 unfitted for any kind  sentiment  of affection, pity, or  forgiveness.
 Detesting mankind, and detested,  they seek  solitude, to  brood'upon
their wretchedness, or to derive from it the  means to make others
as miserable as  themselves.   Such do we  usually find the  enthusi-
astic monomaniac.   His ideas are concentrated into a burning focus.
                              16* 
162
CURIOSITIES OF MEDICAL EXPERIENCE.
which consumes him like an ardent mirror.   His life of relation is
nearly extinguished.   His external senses are rendered so obtuse and
callous that he becomes insensible to hunger and thirst, to heat and
cold however intense; and bodily  injuries, which would  occasion
excruciating agonies in others, he bears without any apparent feel-
ing.   It has been erroneously supposed that such individuals, being
hostile to mankind, are prone to do evil,—this is  not generally the
case ; they seem satisfied with their own sufferings, and  only seek
to inflict them upon others when roused from their concentration by
fanaticism.
   A late ingenious writer, in his work entitled  " The Natural His-
tory of Enthusiasm," has somewhat overdrawn the portrait of these
unfortunate but dangerous beings when labouring under the disease,
which he thus defines : " It will be found that the elementary idea
attached to the term in its manifold applications, is that of fictitious
fervour in  religion,  rendered turbulent, morose, or rancorous by
junction with some one or more of  the unsocial emotions ; or,  if a
definition as brief as possible were  demanded, we should say that
fanaticism is enthusiasm inflamed by hatred.  Fanaticism supposes
three elements of belief:  the supposition of malignity on the part
of the object of our worship ; a consequent detestation of mankind
at large, as the subjects of malignant power ; and then, a credulous
conceit of the favour of Heaven shown to the few, in contempt of the
rules of virtue."
   Shaftesbury had already said, that " nothing  besides ill-humour,
either natural or forced, can bring a man  to think seriously that the
world is governed by any devilish  or  malicious  power."   Such a
fearful conviction constitutes a clear case of daemonomania.  Patients
labouring under that  malady are ever prone to injure themselves and
others, promoted, as they constantly avow, by  an evil  spirit;  but
enthusiasts, who live in  solitary mortification until a paroxysm of
fanaticism draws them from their retreat, seldom  or never meditate
mischief to others, or indeed that hatred to mankind which  our au-
thor  considers  a feature of their condition.  Society may become
irksome, and may be shunned for ever, without a sentiment of hate.
The  gayest of  the gay may be  impelled by feelings  more  or  less
morbid to seek a voluntary endurance, to expiate real  or imaginary
offences, without experiencing a desire of a useless vindictive senti-
ment towards the former companions of their vices or follies.   Ex-
tremes of depravity and contrition do not unfrequently meet;  and
it has been remarked in Eastern countries, where asceticism arose,
that the gates of the most splendid  and luxurious cities open upon
desert wilds or mountainous solitudes, to which the penitent may flee
from his former scenes of ambition and enjoyment.
   Such enthusiasts, excepting when  enjoying the beatitude of ecstatic
exaltation, are more to be pitied than feared.   Persecution would
most probably drive them to a dangerous state of fanatic rage ;  and
the noble philosopher whom I have already quoted, very justly ob-
serves, "They are certainly ill  physicians  in the body politic who 
ENTHUSIASM.
163
 would needs be tampering with these mental eruptions, and, under
 the specious pretence of healing the itch of superstition, and saving
 souls from the contagion of  enthusiasm, should set all  nature in an
 uproar, and turn a few  innocent carbuncles into an inflammation  and
 a mortal gangrene."
   Enthusiasts are supposed  by their followers to be gifted with the
 faculty of prophecy ; and it is somewhat strange  that the ancients
 considered certain temperaments as best fitted for this inspiration.
 The atrabilious temperament took the lead ; and this melancholy
 state was  to be  increased  by abstinence, mortification, and  more
 especially  rigid  continence.   The  latter privation, indeed,  was
 deemed indispensable for prophets ; and the Jewish rabbins inform
 us that Moses abandoned his wife Zipporah the very moment that
 he was prophetically inspired.  A physical reason has been adduced
 to prove the necessity  of a chaste life, which I here must be allowed
 to pass over ; but upon the  same principle, emasculation was  con-
 sidered as  rendering man totally unfit for  prophetic revelation, or
 indeed any holy inspiration; and we find in the first of Deuteronomy
 that such subjects were not admissible to the service of the Temple.
   Jesaias, and some other Jewish writers, have affirmed that Daniel
 belonged to that class of beings ; but  it has been shown that  the
 name of Spado, which he bore, merely gave him  the high rank that
 eunuchs held at the Assyrian court.   Potiphar bore  the same title
 among the  Pharaohs.   Baruch Spinosa maintained  that tempera-
 ments should vary according to the nature  of the prophecy ; thus,
 a  gay  prophet would  predict victory and  happiness, a  gloomy
 one  misery and wars ; peace and concord, if he  is humane ; des-
 truction and merciless  events, if he were sanguinary : and, in  sup-
 port of his doctrine, he quotes the passage in Kings, where Elisha,
 when brought before Jehosophat, called for a minstrel  ere  he pre-
 dicted that victory should crown the arms of Judah.
   Various artificial means have been  resorted to  at  all periods to
 prepare the intellects for inspiration, by creating a heated imagina-
 tion.   Pliny informs us that, in his days, the root of the Halicaca-
 bum, supposed to be a species of hyoscyamus, was chewed by sooth-
 sayers.   Christopher D'Acosta relates that the Indians employ a
 kind  of hemp  called Bangue for the  same purpose ;  and in St.
 Domingo their supposed prophets masticate a plant called  Cohoba.
 The priestesses of Delphi were also in the habit of chewing laurel-
 leaves before they ascended  the tripod, which  it is  stated was ori-
 ginally formed of laurel-tree root with three branches.  Sophocles
 calls the Sibyls dapinepiagos, laurel-eaters ; and thus Tibullus,
               Vere cano, sic  usque sacras innoxia lauros
               Vescar, et aetemum sit mihi virginitas.
Auguries  were drawn from the burning  of the  laurel-leaf.  If it
crackled and sparkled during combustion, the inference was favour-
able ; thereverse, if it was consumed in silence.   Propertius alludes
to  this belief:
                 Et tacet extincto laurus adusta foco. 
164         CURIOSITIES  OF MEDICAL EXPERIENCE.
 Yet so far from possessing exhilarating qualities, laurel-leaves were
 supposed to diminish the excitement produced by wine ; and Mar-
 tial affirms that the Roman ladies made use of them to drink large
 potations with impunity :

                Fcetere multo Myrtale solet vino;
                Sed fallat ut nos, folia devorat lauri,
                Merumque, cauta fronde, non aqua miscet.

 From this circumstance may it not be inferred that the leaves given
 to the Pythia might have been those of the Lauro-cerasus, the effects
 of which are similar to  those of prussic acid, producing vertigo, diz-
 ziness, and various convulsive symptoms ?  This tree was first ob-
 served by Belon, who discovered it in his Eastern voyages in 1546 ;
 but it might-have been  well known to the ancients.  We may thus
 account for  the violent convulsions in  which the priestesses of
 Apollo were thrown on  these mystic occasions, and which were
 said to arise from the gas over which they were seated.  Although
 the tree from which the leaves were plucked grew  near the temple,
 and was the common, Laurus, nobilis, yet the leaves of the Lauro-
 cerasus might have easily been substituted on the occasion ; since,
 always green and shining, they are not very unlike each other, and the
 flowers of both trees are pedunculate;  and, no doubt, the priests well
 knew to what  extent they could  carry the dose to  serve their pur-
 poses ;  possibly the modern preparation of noyau might have been
 a Pythian  dram.
  The effects of enthusiasm in rendering its victims insensible to all
 external agents is truly surprising, and cannot be better  illustrated
 than by a relation  of the horrors which the famous Convulsionistsof
 Paris and other parts of France  underwent, not only voluntarily,
 but at their most earnest prayer and solicitation.
  This work of miracles, as it was called, was first  performed by a
 priest of the name of Paris, in 1724, and, strange to say, the aberra-
 tion continued  for upwards of twelve years.   Paris having departed
 this life in  the odour of sanctity, (at least according to the conviction
 of the Jansenists, who had  opposed with no little violence the fa-
 mous bull Unigenitus,) the Appellants, for such they thought pro-
 per to denominate their sect, appealed to the remains of their beatified
 companion to operate miracles in  support of their common  cause.
 The Appellants were absurdly persecuted, therefore miracles became
 manifestations easy to obtain.   Havingsucceeded in finding credulous
 dupes, the next step was to work their credulity into a useful state
 of enthusiasm.   They therefore summoned all the  sick, lame, and
 halt of their sectarians to repair to the tomb of St. Paris for radical
 relief.   Crowds were soon collected  round his blessed  sepulchre.
 It is now generally supposed that  animal  magnetism was resorted to
in these curative operations, or rather religious  ceremonies.   Had
not the means thus employed for  the purpose  been recorded and
authenticated by the most irrefragable authorities, the sceptic  might
long pause  before he would yield  them credence. 
ENTHUSIASM.
165
   The  patient (a female)  was stretched on  the  ground,  and the
stoutest men that could be found were directed to trample  with  all
their might and main upon her body ; kicking the  chest  and sto-
mach, and attempting to tread down the ribs with their heels.   So
violent  were these exertions, that it is related a  hunchbacked  girl
was thus kicked and trampled into a goodly shape.
   The next exercise was what they called the plank, and consisted
in laying a deal board upon the patient while  extended on the back,
and then getting as many athletic men as could stand upon it, to press
the body down ; and in this endeavour they seldom showed sufficient
energy  to satisfy  the supposed sufferer, who was  constantly calling
for more pressure.
   Next came the experiment of the pebble, a diminutive name they
were pleased  to  give to a paving-stone weighing two-and-twenty
pounds, which was discharged by the operator upon the  patient's
stomach and bosom,  from as great a height as he could well raise
the weighty body.   This terrific blow was frequently inflicted up-
wards of a hundred  times, and with  such violence that  the house,
and the furniture of the room, vibrated under the concussion, while
the astonished  by-standers were terrified by  the hollow sound  re-
echoed  by the enthusiast at every blow.
   Carre de Montgeron affirms that the pebble was  not found  suffi-
ciently  powerful, and the operator was obliged in one case to procure
an iron fire-dog  (chenet), weighing  about  thirty pounds, which
was discharged as violently as possible on the pit of the  patient's
stomach at least a hundred  times.   This instrument having for the
sake of curiosity  been hurled against a wall, brought part of it down
at the twenty-fifth blow.   The operator further states, that he  had
commenced, according to  the usual practice, by inflicting mode-
rate blows,  until he was  induced by  her  lamentable  entreaties
to redouble his vigour, but  all to no purpose ; his strength  was un-
availing, and he was  obliged to employ a more athletic surgeon, who
fell to work with such energy that he shook the whole house.  The
Convulsionist, who was of the gentle sex, would not allow sixty
blows she had received from her first doctor to be included in the
calculation of the dose, but  insisted upon having her whole  hundred
as prescribed.  It further appears, that at each stroke the delighted
enthusiast would  exclaim in ecstasy, "Oh, how nice  !"   "Oh,how
it does me good !"   " Oh, dear brother, hit away—again—again !"
For be  it known, these operators were  called by the affectionate
name of brothers, whose claims to fraternal  affection were in the
ratio of the  weight of their kindness towards the sisterhood.
   One of these young ladies,  who was not easily satisfied, wanted
to try her own skill, and jumped  with  impunity into  the fire, an
exploit which obtained her the glorious epithet of Sister Salamander.
The names that these  amiable devotees  gave to  each  other were
somewhat curious.   They  all strove  to imitate the whining and
wheedling of spoiled children, or  petted infants ; one  was called
L'Imbicille, another  L'Aboyeuse, a third  La Nisette,  and they 
CURIOSITIES OF MEDICAL EXPERIENCE.
used to beg and cry for barley-sugar and cakes ; barley-sugar signi-
fied a stick big enough to fell an ox, and cakes meant paving-stones.
The excesses of these maniacs were at last carried to so fearful an
extent, and their religious ceremonies were so debased by obscenities,
that the police was obliged to interfere, and forbid these  detestable
practices ; hence it was affirmed that the following somewhat impious
notice was suspended over the church-door:
                    De par le Roi, defense a Dieu,
                   De faire miracle en ce lieu.
These lunatics, for such they must be considered, were not impostors.
They had been worked to this degraded state by the plastic power
of superstition, and implicit reliance was placed in their assertions;
for, as Pascal said, "we must believe  people who are ready to have
their throats cut." Whether the Jansenist priests belonged to the
same class, I leave to the reader to decide.
   Cabanis, in his  interesting work. " Rapports du Physique et du
Moral de l'Homme," offers  the  following remarks  on  this  most
curious subject :  " Sensibility may be  considered in the  light  of a
fluid the quantity of which is determined, and which, when carried
to certain channels in greater proportions  than  to  others, must of
course be  diminished in the latter  ones.  This is  evident in all
violent affections,  but more especially in those ecstasies where the
brain and other sympathetic organs  are possessed  of the highest
degree of energetic action, while the faculty of feeling and of motion
—in short, the vital powers—seem to have fled from the other parts
of the system.   In this violent state  fanatics have  received  with
impunity severe wounds, which, if inflicted in a  healthy condition,
would  have proved fatal  or most  dangerous ; for the danger that
results from the violent action of external agents on our organs de-
pends on their sensibility, and we daily see poisons, which would
be deleterious to a healthy man, innocuous in  a state of illness. It
was by availing themselves of this physical disposition that impostors
of every description and of  every country operated most of  their
miracles ; and it was by these means  that the  Convulsionists of St.
Medard amazed  weak imaginations with the  blows  they received
from swords and hatchets, and which in their  ascetic language they
called consolations.  This was the magic wand with  which Mesmer
overcame habitual  sufferings,  by giving  a fresh direction  to the at-
tention, and establishing in constitutions possessed of great mobility
a sense of action to which they had  been unaccustomed.  It was
thus also that the  Illuminati of France and Germany succeeded
in destroying external sensations  amongst their adepts,  depriving
them in fact of their relative existence."
  In these phenomena we do not  witness  miracles or supernatural
agency.  Enthusiasts are simply maniacs.   Like maniacs, their vital
endowments are  deranged ;  they  lose the faculty  of feeling, of
reasoning, of comparing, of associating their  ideas ; their volition,
their memory have fled, and all  the  functions of organic life are
more or less disturbed.   Rousseau never proved  more clearly that 
ENTHUSIASM.
167
 his own intellectual faculties were occasionally impaired, than when
 he stated  " that the state of reflection is unnatural, and that the man
 who meditates is a depraved animal."
   Insanity may be divided into four species :
   1st, Monomania, or melancholy, in which the delirium  is con-
 fined to one or few objects.
   2d, Mania, where the delirium embraces a variety of impressions,
 and is accompanied with violence.
   3d, Dementia, or insanity  in the  full acceptation of the word,
 where the senses are totally bewildered, and the faculty  of thinking
 destroyed.
   4th, Imbecility, or  idiocy, where, from imperfect organisation,
 ratiocination cannot be correct.
   To  the  first of these  categories  enthusiasts generally belong.
 Delirium, or wandering, is to a certain extent applicable to all, being
 a want of correspondence between judgment and perception.   Locke
 and Condillac characterise madness as a  false judgment, or a dis-
 position to associate ideas  incorrectly,  and  to mistake them for
 truths.  Hence it is observed  by Locke, that "Madmen err, as men
 do that argue right from wrong principles."  Dr. Beatie  refers mad-
 ness to fase perception ; and Dr.  Mason  Good, justly remarks, that
 " the perceptions in madness seem, for anything we know to the con-
 trary-, to be frequently as correct as in health, the judgment or reason-
 ing being  alone diseased or defective."
   I hope that I may not be accused of materialism when I venture
 to affirm that all these  enthusiasts  labour under a physical disease ;
 but whether this  state  was originally brought  on by a morbid con-
 dition of the intellectual or the empassioned faculties of the mind,
 or, in other words, whether a  diseased state of the mind  brought on
 a diseased state of the body, I  shall not at present venture to decide,
 as the disquisition would be foreign to the nature of this work, and
 lead us into investigations  of little  interest  to the  generality  of
 readers.
   In the German Psychological Magazine we meet with a curious
 case of a patient who believed that he was supernaturally endowed
 with the power of working  miracles.  The man was a  gen-d'arme
 of the name of Gragert, of a  harmless  and  quiet  disposition, but
 rather of a superstitious turn of mind.  From  poverty, family mis-
 fortunes, and severe military discipline, a series of sleepless nights
 and a mental disquietude  were brought  on that, according to his
 own report, nothing could dissipate but  a perusal of pious  books.
 In reading the Bible he was struck with the book of Daniel, and was
 so much pleased with it, that it  became his favourite study ; from that
 moment the idea of miracles so strongly possessed  his imagination,
 that he began to believe that he could perform some himself.  He
 was persuaded  more especially that if he were to plant an apple-
tree with a view of its becoming a cherry-tree, such was his power
that it would bear cherries.  He was wont to answer every question
correctly,  except when the subject concerned miracles, in regard  to 
168         CURIOSITIES OF MEDICAL EXPERIENCE.

which he ever entertained  his old  notions ;  adding, however, that
he would relinquish this thought if he could be convinced that the
event of his trials did not correspond with his expectations.
  That  many enthusiasts, although incurable in their peculiar aber-
ration, have possessed some amiable qualities, is undeniable.  Such
rare  occurrences remind one of the  curious case of  madness re-
corded by Tiedemann of a  lunatic of the name of Moses, who was
insane on one side, and who observed his insanity with the other ;
his better half constantly rebuking his  worse  half for its absurdities.
This case was certainly typical of the married state.
  In vain have physicians endeavoured to break through this morbid
catenation of  incongruous ideas by diversions, or  what the French
call distractions, which in  general  answered to our literal transla-
tion  of  the word, and distracted  their patients.  Dramatic per-
formances were once allowed in  a  mad-house near Paris ; but the
violence of the maniacs, the moroseness of the melancholy, and the
stupidity of the idiots, rendered the exertions of the actors perilous
to some, and idle to  all.   M.  D'Esquirol once  took one  of his
patients to  a play, and  the  man  swore that  every performer who
came on was making love to his wife ; and a young lady, placed in
a similar situation, exclaimed that all the people were going to fight
about her.  Jealousy and vanity were, no doubt, the ruling passions
in both these cases.   Travel has been  recommended  both by the
ancients and the moderns.   Seneca on this subject quotes Socrates,
who replied to a melancholy wight who complained that his journeys
had afforded him no amusement, "lam not surprised at it, since
you  were travelling in your own company."
  Thecontagion of enthusiasm isamarvellousfact.  Pausanias relates
that  the malady of the daughters of Proetus, who ran about the coun-
try fancying that they were  transformed into cows, was  common
amongst the women of Argos.  Plutarch states that a disease reigned
in Miletium,  in which  most of the young girls hung  themselves  ;
recent observations have confirmed this singular circumstance.  Dr.
Deslages, of St. Maurice, relates that a woman having hanged her-
self in a neighbouring village, most of her companions felt an invin-
cible desire to follow her example.  Primerose and Bonet tells us
that  at one period it was found difficult to  prevent the young girls
in Lyons from casting themselves into the river.  Simon Goulard has
recorded the prevalent madness among the nuns of the states of Sax-
ony  and Brandenburg, and which soon extended its influence to Hol-
land, duringwhich these religious ladies "predicted,capered,climbed
up walls, spoke  various languages, bleated like sheep, and amused
themselves by biting each  other."  History  has recorded the hor-
rible judicial murder  of Urbain Grandier,  at Laudun, who  was
sacrificed  for bedeviling a nunnery.   The  recent gift of tongues
amongst the Irvinians is still in full vigour, and the Southcotians
are still on the  look-out in London, as the Sebastianists are in
Lisbon.
   Addison has remarked that an enthusiast  in religion  is like an 
EARLY RISING, ETC.
169
obstinate clown, and a superstitious man like an  insipid courtier.
On this subject he quotes the following old heathen saying recorded
by Aulus Gellius, Religentem esse oportet, religiosum nefas ; for
as the author tells us, Nigidius observed upon this passage, that the
Latin words which terminate  in osus generally imply vicious char-
acters, or the having any quality to excess.   That we should enthu-
siastically admire all that is holy, sublime, or endowed with uncom-  ;
mon superiority in religion, in  poetry, in  the fine arts, is not only
justifiable but praiseworthy.   Genius cannot exist without a certain^
degree of fervour ; its inspiration is a gift divine, naturally associated. ~
with a religious feeling.  The man thus inspired must bend in hum- —
ble admiration before  the  wondrous  harmony that surrounds him.  -
The poet, the painter, the  musician, can only seek excellence by
studying primitive perfection.  Nothing that it is not natural can
be truly sublime  or beautiful.   A rigid  observation of nature can
alone lead to  superiority, and we  can  only be taught to create by
endeavouring to imitate the beauties of the creation.  How distant
are these generous  feelings  from the low grovelling prejudices of
bigotry.  We admire perfection even in our enemies ; and Erasmus
was not a truant to his faith when, transported with Socrates' dying  —~
speech, he exclaimed, " 0 Socrates!  I can  scarce forbear  kneeling  —
down to thee, and praying,
               Sancte Socrates, ora pro nobis."
                     EARLY  RISING.

  The celebrated  physician  Bezerchemere used every morning to
awaken Nosherivann, and descant on the benefits of early rising.
As he was once going to court, agreeable to custom, before day-light,
a thief robbed him of his turban.   The emperor inquired the reason
of his being bareheaded, and  on hearing his loss, taunted him by
saying, " Didst thou  not  ever tell me that  the benefits  of rising
early were unappreciable ? see what thou hast got for being up so
soon."  "The thief," replied Bezerchemere,  "was certainly up
before  me, and therefore reaped the benefit of my doctrine."
         MEDICINAL  EFFECTS  OF  WATER.

  Amongst the various means resorted to by quackery to speculate
upon the credulity of mankind, simple river or spring water, col-
oured and flavoured  with inert substances, has  not  been  the least
  August, 1838.—E           17 
170
CURIOSITIES OF MEDICAL EXPERIENCE.
productive ;  and many a time the Thames and  Seine have  been
fertile sources of supposed invaluable medicines.  Sangrado's doc-
trines on aqueous potations have long prevailed in  the profession ;
and it has been stoutly maintained that a water diet can cure the
gout and various other diseases.  That relief, if not cures, have been
obtained by this practice, there cannot be the least  doubt.  Are
we to attribute these favourable results to the effects of the imagina-
tion, the beneficial efforts of nature, or the salutary, abstinence which
this  prescription imposed ?  Possibly they all combined to assist
the physician's efforts, or rather aid his effete treatment.   Cold
water and warm water have in turn been praised to the very skies
by their eulogists, and become the subject of ridicule  and persecu-
tion on  the part of more spirited practitioners.
  In surgery, water has ever been considered of great utility ; it,
no doubt, was instinctively used by man to clean and heal his wounds.
Patroclus, having extracted the dart from his friend Eurypylus,
washes  the wound ; and the prophet Elisha prescribes to Naaman
the waters of Jordan.   Rivers  had various qualities, and were sup-
posed to prove as different in their  action on  the  economy as the
mineral springs, which, from  immemorial, have  been resorted  to.
These effects may in  fact  not be altogether doubtful ;  for, although
these salutary streams may not possess sufficient active ingredients
to be recognised by chemical  tests, yet we  know that substances
which appear perfectly inert may prove highly active and effectual
when combined and  diluted  naturally or artificially.  Moreover,
in the effects of watering-places on  the invalid or valetudinarian,
we must not forget the powerful influence of change of air and habit,
the invigorating stimulus  of hope, and the diversion from  former
occupations.   To these auxiliaries many a  remedy has  owed its
high reputation ; and  probably when Wesley attributed his recovery
to brimstone  and supplication,  he  in a  great measure might  have
considered rest from incessant  labour the chief agent in his relief.
The exhilarating effects  of the picturesque site of  many of these
salutary places of resort is universally acknowledged.   Montaigne.
Voltaire, Alfieri, acknowledged their influence on the imagination,
Petrarch's inspiration flowed with the waters of Vaucluse, some of
Sevigne's most delightful  letters were written at Vichy, and Genlis
and  Stae'l  were particularly happy  in their  epistolary elegance at
Spa and Baden.  Many ancient coins and inscriptions bear  witness
to these salutary properties.
   We owe to accident many valuable discoveries in medicine.   It is
said that several Indians, having used the waters of a lake in which
a cinchona-tree was growing, experienced the benefit which led to
the use  of the Peruvian bark ; and the thermal properties of the baths
of Carlsbad were first made known by the howling of one of Charles
the Fourth's  hounds, that  had fallen in them in a hunt.  It has been
also observed, in various countries, that particular waters produced
various morbid affections ; and to this cause  have been attributed
goitres, cretinism, calculi,  an other distressing diseases.  The ancients 
THE MEDICINAL EFFECTS OF WATER.          171
dreaded the impurity of their rivers.  The Romans boiled their
water  in  extensive  thermopolia, where not only  potations were
drunk hot, but occasionally refrigerated with ice and snow, and, when
thus prepared, called decocta.  Juvenal and Martial refer this cus-
tom to  the Greeks.  Herodotus informs us that the Persian monarchs
were accompanied on their expeditions by chariots laden with silver
vases filled with the water of the Choaspes that had been boiled, and
which was solely destined for the king's use : Athenaeus  tells us that
it was  light and sweet.
  This real or supposed efficacy was scarcely discovered  before it
became the domain of priests ; and common rain or river water be-
came valuable and sanctified when blessed  by them :  hence the  in-
troduction of lustral water.   The fluid extracted from the gown of
Mahomet is the  sacred property of the  Sultan.  The moment the
fast of  the Ramazan is proclaimed, this holy vestment is drawn from
a gold chest, and, after having been kissed with due devotion, plunged
in a vase  of happy water, which, when wrung from the garment, is
carefully preserved in precious bottles,thatare sent  by the monarch
as valuable presents, or sold at exorbitant prices as cures for any and
every  disease.   Thus were the good effects of ablution, especially in
wounds, attributed to some secret charm or quality conferred upon
it   by clerical  benediction or the legitimacy of princes.   When a
quack of  the  name of  Doublet cured the wounded at  the siege of
Metz in 1553, the water he used was considered to  have been of a
mystic nature ; and Brantome describes his treatment in the follow-
ing words : "Durant le susdit et tant  memorable siege, etait en la
place un chirurgien nomme  Doublet, lequel faisait d'estranges cures
avec du simple linge blanc, et belle eau claire venant de la fontaine
ou  du  puit';  mais il s'aidait  de sortileges et paroles  charmees, et un
chascun allait a luy."  This Doublet, no  doubt, was acquainted with
an  ingenious treatise on gun-shot wounds, written by Blondi in 1542,
in  which  he strongly recommended the  use of cold water ;  but, as
his recommendation  was not founded on  any miraculous quality, he
was forgotten, while Doublet was considered a supernatural being.
Previous  to this simple and sagacious method of healing wounds,
various curious applications were in high repute ;  more especially
the oil of kittens, which the celebrated Pare discovered, to his great
delight, was prepared by boiling live cats, coat and all, in olive  oil,
and was until then a valuable secret preparation, called oleum cat-
ellorum, and its use, with that of other nostrums, was known under
the name of secret dressing*
   This simple mode of dressing wounds, especially those that were
inflicted by fire-arms, was a great desideratum ;  for, up to this era in
  * Oil is, however, a useful  application to wounds in warm climates.  During
the retreat  of our troops after the battle of Talavera, I found the wounds of many
of our men, that had not been dressed for three or four days, pullulating with
maggots.   This was not the case with the Spanish soldiers, who, to prevent this
annoyance  (which was more terrific than dangerous), had poured olive oil upon
their dressings.  I invariably resorted to the same practice when I subsequently
had to remove the wounded in hot weather. 
172
CURIOSITIES OF MEDICAL EXPERIENCE.
 surgery, these injuries were healed by the application of scalding oil
 or red-hot instruments, under the impression that they were of a
 poisonous nature.   Pare was one of the first army-surgeons who ex-
 ploded this barbarous practice.  Having, according to his own ac-
 count, expended all  his  boiling oil, he employed a mixture of yolk
 of egg, oil, and turpentine, not without the apprehension of finding
 his patients labouring under  all the effects of poison the following
 day; when, to his great surprise, he found them much more relieved
 than those to whom the actual cautery had been applied.   In more
 recent times, armies have  been  unjustly accused of  making use of
 poisonous balls ; and this  absurd  charge was brought  against  the-
 French after the battle of Fontenoy, when the hospital  fever broke
 out among the  wounded  crowded  in  the neighbouring  villages.
 Chewing bullets was also considered a means of imparting to them a
 venomous quality.   Lead and iron, the metals of which these pro-
jectiles were usually cast, were also deemed of a poisonous nature.  A
 sort of aristocratic feeling seemed to obtain in those days ;  and it is
 related that two Spanish gentlerqen had procured gold balls to fire at
 Francis I. at the battle of Pavia, that so noble and generous a prince
 should not fall by the vile metal  reserved for vulgar people; and, in
 the adverse ranks, La Chatarguene, a noble of the French court, had
 prepared  bullets of  the  same costly material  for the  reception of
 Charles  V.  It was under the impression of this poisonous nature of
 wounds,  that  individuals of  both sexes, called  suckers, followed
 armies, and endeavoured to extract the venom by suction; and the
 records of chivalry  give us instances of lovely damsels who conde-
 scended  to perform this operation with their lovely mouths upon
 their damoiseaux; and Sibille submitted the wounds of her husband,
 Duke Robert, to a  similar treatment: indeed, these suckers were
 chiefly females.  May not this practice  be the origin  of the term
 leech, applied  in ancient times to  medical men ?  Leech-craft was
 the art of healing.   Thus Spenser :
                      And then the learned leech
              His cunning hand 'gan to his wounds to lay,
              And all things else the which his art did teach.
   To this day, the custom  of sucking wounds prevails  among sol-
 diers; and there is every reason to hope, from the experiments of
 the late Sir David Barry, that the exhaustion produced by cupping-
 glasses will be found of  essential  service in all  venomous wounds.
 This practice of suction, no doubt, was known in Greece ;  Machaon
 performed it at the  siege of Troy.   The mothers and wives of  the
 ancient Germans had recourse  to  the same process.  In India  the
 suction of wounds  constitutes a profession.  It was  by this means
 that the Psyli cured the bite of serpents ; and it is related  of Cato,
 that his abhorrence of the Greek surgeons was such, that he directed
 Psylli to follow the  Roman armies.
   Water affords a beautiful illustration of that indestructibility with
 which the Creator invested matter for the preservation of the world
 he formed from elementary masses, and appears to have existed un- 
THE MEDICINAL EFFECTS OF WATER.
173
changeable from the commencement of the universe.  Its constitu-
ent parts are not broken into by any atmospheric revolution ; they
-antinue the same, whether in the solid ice, the fluid state of a liquid,
or the gaseous form of a vapour.  Its  powers  are  undiminished,
whether  in the wave or the steam ; the most effective agent in the
hands of man to promote that welfare and happiness which his own
errors deprive him of, frequently bringing on  those calamities that
his perversity attributes  to  the will of the Omnipotent.   Water is
the same in the atmosphere as on the earth, and  falls in the very same
nature as it ascends ; electricity has no other influence upon it than
that of hastening its precipitation.  Chemical agents,  however pow-
erful, can only decompose its elementary principles  upon the most
limited scale.  The heterogeneous substances with which water may
occasionally be alloyed must be considered as purely accidental.
   The homogeneous characters of this fluid admit of no alteration,
and, like atmospheric air, are still obtained as pure most probably as
when they first emerged from chaotic  matter.  The same principles
are found in the clouds, the fogs, the dews, the rain, the  hail, and
the snow.   For the preservation of the  world it was indispensable
that water should  be endowed with the property of  ever  retaining
its fluid form,  and in this  respect become subject to  a law different
from that of other bodies, which change from fluid to  solid.  This is
a deviation from a general  decree of Nature.  Were it not for this
wise provision of the  Creator, the world would  shortly have been
converted into a frozen chaos.  All bodies contract their dimensions,
and acquire a  greater specific gravity by cooling ; but water is ex-
cepted from this law, and becomes of less specific gravity, whether
it be heated, or  cooled below 42° 5'.  But for  this exemption, it
would have become specifically heavier by the loss of its caloric, and
the waters that float on the surface of rivers would have sunk as it
froze, until the beds of rivers would  have been filled up with im-
mense masses of ice.  From the observations of Perron, there is
reason to believe that the mountainous accumulations of ice that have
hitherto  arrested  the  progress of polar  navigators  have  been^ de-
tached from the depths of the ocean to float upon its surface. This
circumstance would account for the difference  of temperature of the
sea according to its depth.   The experiments of Perron, made with
an instrument of his own invention, which he  called the thermobar-
ometer, gave the following results :
   1st, The temperature of the sea upon its surface, and at a distance
from shore, is at the meridian lower than that of the atmosphere in
the shade ; much  more elevated at midnight, but in a state of equili-
brium morning and evening.
   2d, The temperature rises as we approach continents, or extensive
islands.
   3rd, At a distance from land, the temperature of the  deep parts
of the'sea is lower than that of the surface, and  the  cold  increases
with the depth.   It is this circumstance which  led  this ingenious
                                17* 
174         CURIOSITIES OF MEDICAL EXPERIENCE.
philosopher to conclude that even under the equator the bottom of
the sea is eternally frozen.
  Humboldt is of a contrary opinion, and maintains that the tem-
perature is from two to three degrees lower in shallow water ; and
he  therefore is of opinion that  the  thermometer  might prove of
material use to navigators.   He attributes this diminution of tem-
perature to the admixture of the lower bodies of water with  that of
the surface. Who is to decide between these two ingenious experi-
mentalists ? " Experientia fallax, judicium difficile."   The curious
reader may consult  in  this investigation the tables of Forster in
Cook's second  voyage, those of Lord Mulgrave when Captain Phipps,
and various other navigators.
  The salutary medicinal  effects of sea-bathing are generally  ac-
knowledged, although  too frequently  recommended in cases which
do not warrant the practice ; in such circumstances they often prove
highly prejudicial.  The ancients held sea-water baths in such  es-
timation, that Lampridius and Suetonius informs us  that Nero had
it conveyed to his palace.  As sea-bathing is not always within  the
reach of those who may require it, artificial sea-water has been con-
sidered a desirable substitute ;  and the following mode of preparing
it, not being generally known,  may  prove of some  utility.   To
fifty pounds of water add ten ounces of muriate of soda, ten drachms
of muriate of magnesia, two ounces of muriate of lime, six drachms
of sulphate of soda, and the same quantity of  sulphate of magnesia.
This is Swediaur's receipt.   Bouillon  Lagrange, and Vogel,  recom-
mend the  suppression of the muriate  of lime and sulphate of soda,
to be replaced with carbonate of lime and magnesia ; but this altera-
tion does  not  appear  necessary, or founded on sufficient  chemical
grounds for adoption.
  Sea-water taken internally has been considered beneficial in  several
maladies ;  and, although not potable in civilised countries,it is freely
drunk by  various savage tribes.   Cook informs us  that it is used
with  impunity in Easter Island ; and Schouten observed  several
fishermen in the South Sea drinking it, and giving it to their chil-
dren, when their stock of fresh water was expended.   Amongst the
various and capricious  experiments of Peter the Great, and edict is
recorded ordering his sailors to give salt water to their male children,
with  a view of accustoming them to a beverage which  might pre-
clude the  necessity of laying in large stocks of fresh water on board
his ships !   The result was obvious :  this  nursery of seamen per-
ished in the experiment.  Russel, Lind, Buchan, and  various other
medical writers, have recommended the internal use of sea-water in
scrofulous and cutaneous affections ; but its use  in the present day is
pretty nearly  exploded. 
PROVERBS AND SAYINGS.                175
    PROVERBS  AND SAYINGS REGARDING HEALTH  AND
                           DISEASE.

 An ague in the spring is physic for a king.
 Agues come on horseback, but go away on foot.
 A bit in the morning is  better than nothing all day.
 You eat and eat, but you do  not drink to fill you.
 An apple, an egg, and a nut, you may eat after a slut.
 Poma, ova, atque nuces, si det tibi sordida, gustes.
 Old young and old long.
 They who would be  young  when they are old, must be old  when
     they  are young.
 When the fern is as high as a spoon,
 You may  sleep an hour  at noon.
 When the fern is as high as a ladle,
 You may  sleep as long as you are able.
 When fern begins to look red,
 Then milk is good with brown bread.
 At forty a man is either a fool or a physician.
 After dinner sit awhile,  after supper walk a mile.
 After dinner sleep awhile, after supper go to  bed.
 A good surgeon must have an eagle's eye, a lion's heart, and a
    lady's hand.
 Good kale is half a meal.
 If you would live for ever, you must  wash milk from your liver.
 Vin sur lait, c'est souhait; lait sur vin, c'est venin.
 Butter is gold in the morning, silver at noon, and lead at night.
 He that would live for aye, must eat sage in May.
 Cur moriatur homo, cui salvia crescit in horto ?
 After cheese comes  nothing.
 An egg and to bed.
 You must drink as much after an egg as after an ox.
 He that goes to bed  thirsty rises healthy.
 Qui couche avec la  soif, se leve avec la santi.
 One hour's sleep before midnight is worth two hours' after.
 Who goes to bed supperless,  all night tumbles and tosses.
 Often and  little eating makes a man fat.
 Fish must swim thrice.
 Poisson, gorret, et cochon vit en I'eau, mart en vin.
 Drink  wine and have  the gout, drink no wine and have it too.
 Young men's knocks, Old men feel.
 Quaepeccamus Juvenes, ea luimus Senes.
 Go to bed with the lamb, and rise with the lark.
 Early to bed, and early to rise,
Makes a man healthy, wealthy, and wise.
Wash your hands often, your feet seldom, and your head never.
Eat at pleasure, drink by measure.
Pain  tant qu'il dure, vin a mfoure. 
176         CURIOSITIES OF MEDICAL EXPERIENCE.
 Cheese is a peevish elf,
 It digests all but itself.
 Caseus est nequam,
 NQuia digerit omnia se qudm.
 The best physicians are Dr. Diet, Dr. Quiet, and Dr. Merry man.
 Si tibideficiant medici, medici tibi fiant
 Haec tria ; mens Iseta, requies, moderata diseta.
 Drink in the morning staring,
 Then all the day be sparing.
 Eat a bit before you drink.
 Feed sparingly and dupe the physician.
 Better be meals many than one too many.
 You should never touch your eye but with your elbow.
 Non patitur ludum fama, fides oculus.
 The head and feet keep warm,  the rest will take no harm.
 Tenez chaud le pied et la tete, au demeurant vivez en bete.
 Qui ne bolt vin aprls salade,  est en danger d'etre malade.
 Cover your head by day as much as you will, by night as  much as
     you can.
 Fish spoils water, but flesh mends it.
 Apples, pears, and nuts spoil the voice.
 Quartan agues kill old men and cure young.
 Old fish, old oil, and an old friend.
 Pesce oglio ed amico vecchio.
 Raw pullet, veal, and  fish, make the churchyard fat.
 Of wine the middle, of oil the top, of honey the bottom.
 Vino di mezzo, oglio di sopra, e miele di sotto.
 The air of a window is the stroke of a cross-bow.
 Aria di finestra, colpo di balestra.
 Piscia chiaro, ed incaca al medico.
 When the wind is in the east, it's neither good for man nor beast.
 A hot May makes a fat churchyard.
 That city is in a bad case, whose physicians have the gout.—Hebrew
     Proverb.
 When the sun rises, the disease will abate.*
 If you take away the salt, throw the meat  to the dogs.
 Splen ridere facit, cogit amare jecur.f
 Lever a cinq, diner a neuf,
 Souper a cinq, coucher a  neuf,
 Font vivre dans nonante neuf.
 Surge quintd, prande nond, coena quintd, dormi nond, nee est
    morti vita prona.
 Hunger's the best sauce.
 Optimum condimentum fames.
 Plures occidit gula quam gladius.
  * A Hebrew proverb originating from a tradition  that Abraham wore a precious
stone round his neck, which preserved him from disease, and which cured sick-
ness when looked upon.  When Abraham died, God placed this stone in the sun.
  T 1 he ancients considered the spleen the seat of mirth, and the liver the or*an
of love; hence their old proverb. 
THE NIGHT-MARE.                   177
 Qui a bu, boira.   Ever drunk, ever dry.
 Vinumpotens, vinum nocens.
 The child is too clever to live long.
 Prsecocibus mors ingeniis est invida semper.
 Le chant du cocq, le coucher du corbeau,
 Preservent l'homme du tombeau.
 Bitter to the mouth, sweet to the heart.
 Paulo deterior, sed suavior potus est cibus ; meliori quidem, sed
     ingrato, praeferendus est.
Apres la soupe, un coup d' excellent vin
 Tire un ecu de la poche du medecin.
                   THE  NIGHT-MARE.

   The night-mare or Ephialtes, incubus, from ephallonia, "to lie
 upon," may be  considered  a  sympathetic  affection of the brain
 during our sleep, generally arising from a derangement in the diges-
 tive functions.   We therefore observe it  after a heavy supper, or
 the use of any article of food of difficult  digestion.  It is to these
 circumstances more than to the " unusual loss of volition," which
 some physiologists consider as its  cause,  that we  are to attribute
 this unpleasant  perturbation of our repose,  which impresses the
 sleeper with the idea of some living being pressing upon the chest,
 inspiring  terror, impeding  respiration, and subduing all voluntary
 action that might endeavour to remove the unwelcome visitor.
   It has been observed that persons  of a melancholy and contempla-
 tive disposition are more subject to it than the  gay and  the viva-
 cious.   Sedentary employment and  anxiety of mind often bring it
 on ; and it has been noticed in the nostalgia, or regret of home, in
 soldiers and sailors.  The sense of  apprehension remains after the
 sufferer is awakened, and the fluttering of the heart and quick pulse
 are observed for some time after, while  drops of cold perspiration
 frequently trickle  down his brow.  When the  night-mare  is the
 result of too much repletion, it is possible that its symptoms denote
 a pressure of the loaded stomach on  the solar plexus.
   It is said that the night-mare  derives its name from  Mara, an
 evil  spirit of the Scandinavians, which,  according to the  Runic
 theology,  seized  men  in  their sleep,  and deprived  them of the
 powers of volition.   Our old Anglo-Saxon  name for the disease was
 Elf-Sidenne,ox elf-squatting; hence the popular term " hag-ridden."
   There is a variety of the malady which  makes its attack by day,
 and when waking : it has  been  called the day-mare, or ephialte
vigilantium.  This affection, although uncommon, has been noticed,
by Forestus, Rhodius, Sauvages, and Good.   Forestus has known
it  to return periodically like an intermittent fever. 
178         CURIOSITIES OF MEDICAL EXPERIENCE.
  It is not always that the patient experiences unpleasant sensations
in these nocturnal attacks, which were not unfrequently of a curious
nature.  The ancients thought that these intruders were sometimes
sportive Fauns ;  hence  Pliny calls the affection ludibria Fauni.
At a subsequent period superstition replaced the Fauns by Incubi,
or evil spirits, who visited the earth to  destroy virtuous women ;
and it was once gravely discussed by the Sorbonne, whether  the
offspring of such an union should be considered human,  or the fair
lady's reputation injured by the  involuntary act of giving a young
incubus to the world.  The absurd stories of the pranks of Succubi
and Incubi are well known.
  Ephialtes has been known to be epidemic, and has attacked num-
bers at a  time.  Caelius Aurelianus informs us that Silimachus, a
disciple of Hippocrates, observe'd the phenomena  in Rome, when
the disease generally proved fatal.  It  is more than probable that
in these cases the night-mare was  merely symptomatic of other com-
plaints.  A French  physician, Dr. Laurent, however, has related
a very curious instance of a species of night-mare attacking an entire
regiment; he thus relates the singular occurrence :
  " The first battalion of the regiment Latour d'Auvergne, of which
I was the  surgeon, was  garrisoned  at Palmi, in Calabria, when we
received a sudden order at midnight to march with all  possible
speed  to  Tropea ; a flotilla of the enemy having appeared off the
coast.  It was in the month of June ; we had a march of forty miles
of the  country, and only arrived  at our destination at seven o'clock
the following evening, having scarcely halted during those thirty-
one hours, and suffered considerably from the heat of the sun.  On
our arrival the men found their  rations  cooked and their quarters
prepared ; but, having arrived the last, our regiment had the worst
accommodation, and eight-hundred men were pent up in a building
scarcely capacious enough  for half the number.   The soldiers were
in consequence much crowded,  and  slept upon the straw without
any bedding, and  most uncomfortably.  The building was an aban-
doned  monastery  ; and the inhabitants warned  us that we should
not be able  to occupy  it  quietly, as it was haunted every night.
We  laughed  at their superstitious fears, but  were much amazed
when,  towards midnight,  we heard  loud cries, and  the  soldiers
rushed tumultuously, and  in evident terror, out of their  rooms.
Interrogated  as to the causes of this alarm, they all affirmed that
the devil was in the abbey ;  that they had seen him enter in the
shape of a large black dog, that  had jumped upon their breasts and
disappeared.   To  convince  them of the absurdity of  their  fears
was of no avail ;  not a single man could  be  persuaded to return to
his quarters, and they wandered about the  town until  day-break.
The following  morning I  questioned the  most steady non-commis-
sioned officers and the oldest- soldiers ;  and though under ordinary
circumstances they were  strangers to  fear, and never gave  credit
to any tales of supernatural agency, they assured me that the dog
had weighed them down and nearly suffocated them.   We remained 
THE NIGHT-MARE.
179
that day in Tropea, and had no other quarters to occupy but the same
monastery, and the  soldiers would only take up their residence on
the condition that we should  remain with them : the men  retired
to sleep—we watched ; all was quiet until about one in the morning ;
when they awoke in the same  terror, and fled the building in dismay.
We had looked out most attentively, but could not perceive the cause
of this commotion.   The following day we returned to Palmi ; and,
although we marched over a great part of Italy, and were frequently
equally crowded and uncomfortable, a similar scene never recurred."
  Dr. Laurent very judiciously attributes this singular attack to the-
pernicious local influence  of some deleterious gas, and the very
crowded state the men slept in.  It is also probable that they did not
take off their accoutrements, and lay down with their belts on : might
they not also have eaten  some unwholesome fruit upon  the line of
march, for it was in the month of June, when various berries grow
in abundance along  the road-side ?
  Hippocrates's theory of the night-mare was, that, during our sleep,
our volition  being suspended, the soul,  still awake, watches over all
the functions of the body.  It is rather odd that the animal that most
persons pretend to  have  thus annoyed them is a long-haired black
dog.   Forestus assures us that it was a similar visitor that tormented
him in his youth.   This  circumstance can only be attributed to vul-
gar superstition and tradition.  Dubosquet has preceded his Treatise
on Ephialtes with the engraving of a large  monkey who had per-
plexed a young lady he attended ; the monkey most probably came
on horseback, as his steed is also delineated looking over the sleep-
ing victim.
  Various medicines have been recommended to prevent these  at-
tacks ; amongst others, saffron and peony : and several learned com-
mentators have endeavoured  to prove and disprove that they were
only specific in the form of an amulet.  Zacutus Lusitanus recom-
mends aloes, and his advice  is  perhaps as good a one as could be
given.  The ancients attributed  many powerful effects to  saffron,
and, amongst other properties, it was considered an effective narcotic,
and was said to occasion  violent  headaches.  Curious anecdotes  are
related of its effects.   Amatus Lusitanus having exhibited this med-
icine to accelerate a tardy accouchement, the woman  was delivered
of two yellow daughters ; and  Hertodt, in his work called Crocology,
relates that  having tried it on a bitch, all her pups were of a similar
colour. The ancients called saffron the king of plants, the vegetable
panacea, and the soul of the lungs.  In modern times we do not re-
cognise any peculiar property in this production; and in Spain and
Italy it is  used as a condiment with perfect impunity.   Peony was
also deemed a valuable remedy, when gathered as  the decreasing
moon was passing under  Aries : the slit root being then tied round
the neck of  an epileptic person, he was forthwith cured.   How dif-
ficult it is to steer  the vessel of our understanding  between those
shoals so admirably pointed out  by Dugald  Stewart: "Unlimited
scepticism is as much the child of imbecility as implicit  credulity." 
 180          CURIOSITIES OF MEDICAL EXPERIENCE.

   Medical writers  have divided the  night-mare, according to its
 phenomena, into complete, incomplete,  mental, and bodily.   The
 complete night-mare, in which the suspension of the functions had
 been so powerful, has  been known to prove fatal.  In the incom-
 plete, we fancy ourselves placed in a peculiar situation, opposed by
 some unexpected obstacle, and all our efforts seem of no avail to ex-
 tricate ourselves from  our difficulties.  There is an  incubus, called
 indirect, in which the dreamer is not the individual  arrested in his
 movements ; but he is impeded in his progress by the stoppage of
 his horse, his carriage,  his ship, which no power  can propel.   In the
 mental or intellectual  night-mare, the flow of our ideas is embar-
 rassed, all the associations of our very  thoughts  appear to be singu-
 larly unconnected ; we think in an  unintelligible  language ; We
 write, and  cannot  decipher our manuscript: all is a mental  chaos,
 and no thread can lead us out of the perplexing labyrinth.  In the
 corporeal ephialtes we  imagine that some of our organs are displaced,
 or deranged in their functions.  One man fancies that a malevolent
 spectre is drawing out  his intestines or his teeth  : a patient of Galen
 felt the cold sensation of a marble statue having been put into bed
 with him.  These  sensations, however, are nothing  else than the
 actual ones we experience at the time.  Thus Conrard Gesner fan-
 cied that a serpent had stung him in the left side of  the  breast; an
 anthrax soon appeared  upon the very spot,  and terminated his exis-
 tence.   Arnauld de Villeneuve imagined that his foot had been bit-
 ten, and a pimple which broke out on the spot soon degenerated  into
 a fatal cancerous affection.  Corporeal night-mare may therefore be
simply considered as a symptom of disease, and not as a mysterious
 fore-warning.
  The cold  stage of fever that often invades us in our sleep is the
natural forerunner of the malady.  This was the case with Dr.  Co-
rona, the physician of Pius VI, who upon two occasions was attacked
with typhus fever, ushered in by a distressing  dream or  incubus.
These physical phenomena only strengthen the opinion, that in our
sleep we are equally alive to mental impressions and  bodily suffer-
ings ; and that, correctly speaking, there is no suspension of our in-
tellectual faculties of perception, nor is there any interruption in the
susceptibilities of our relative existence.  The various doctrines re-
garding dreams illustrate this  position.
             INCUBATION OF  DISEASES.

  The term ' incubation' in its rigid sense applies to the act of hatch-
ing eggs> either  naturally or  artificially.   It has however  been
adopted by physicians to denote that state of  predisposition to dis-
ease, in which the germ of the malady lurks, latent and unperceived 
INCUBATION OF DISEASES.
181
by the inexperienced observer.  Too frequently the individual who
is thus menaced is totally unaware of his condition.  So far from
being depressed in spirits, his  hopes are more sanguine, and  his fu-
ture projects are more industriously formed  than usual.   At other
times, on the contrary, he labours under a load of despondency which
he cannot explain, and his gloom  seems to anticipate his destinies.
This presentiment has oftentimes been singularly prophetic.  Moreau
de St. Remy relates the case of one of his most intimate friends, who
visited him, saying, " I come to die near you."   He was apparently
in perfect health, but the prediction too soon proved  true.
  It is no doubt probable, that in  these cases the influence of the
mind labouring  under these fatal  impressions brings  about, by its;
all-powerful sympathetic power on our functions, the expected  yet
dreaded event.
  Incubation  is  observed in  many contagious  affections ;  and in
hydrophobia its duration is amazing, the dreadful malady developing
itself years after the original accident.   In mental diseases, abber-
rations of the  intellectual faculties are noticed long before the patient
can be pronounced insane; oddities, as they are called, are frequently
the precursors of mania.
  The ancient Greeks and Egyptians used the term,' incubation' in
another sense.  With them it  expressed the religious  ceremony of
sleeping in  the temples of the gods, to be inspired with the means
of relieving their sufferings.   Nothing  can express this superstitious
rite more forcibly than the following letter from Aspasia to Pericles,
recorded by one of the scholiasts of iElian.
  " Aspasia to Pericles, greeting.   Podalirius ! Podalirius, to whom
Love taught the art of healing, and who in return didst consecrate
thine art to  Love, I return thee my thanks.  Athens will once more
see  me beauteous !   I  shall  have  lost  none of my attractions, and
Pericles shall find in his Aspasia all that he once held dear !   Poda-
lirius, I return thee my .thanks ;  and thou, Pericles, be grateful to
my benefactor.  I did  not wish to write to thee until I was  certain
that I had been cured.   I shall relate to thee my voyage.   I punc-
tually followed the instructions of Nocrates, that wise and enlight-
ened physician.   I first repaired to Memphis, where  I visited, but
without  success, the temple of Isis.   I there beheld the goddess,
and her son Orus, seated  on a  throne, supported by two lions.  The
Sebestus* grew  round  her  shrine !   Incense was burnt in the
morning, myrrh during the day; and cyplis at eve.  I was  assured
that young  Alexander  had come to this temple not  long  before to
indulge in a holy contemplation, and learn by inspiration the means
of curing his friend Ptolemy : his supplications were heeded.  I
also slept in the temple, but found no relief.  This misfortune, alas  !
was attributed to riiy  incredulity.  I  took my departure, and  re-
paired to Patras.   There I saw in her  temple the divine Hygeia  ;
not as she  was represented  by Aristophanes, when  she relieved

          * Cordia Sebestena; according to  some the C. Myxa L.
  August, 1838.—G            18 
182
CURIOSITIES OF MEDICAL EXPERIENCE.
Plutus, sweet and graceful, clothed in an aerial robe  and a short
tunic, and holding in her hand a cup of Musa, whence a serpent
was seen to spring, but she appeared to me in the form of a  myste-
rious pentagon.  Ifirst paid a devout visit to the fountain ; and while I
deposited my offerings  at  the feet  of the  goddess, a mirror was
floating on the surface of the waters  upon which  I  gazed by order
of the priests, but I was  not cured ! Thence I went to sleep at Per-
gania and at Hercyna.   But  the gods seemed  to slumber when
Aspasia slept ?  On a sudden  the  name of Podalirius  struck mine
ear !  I was informed that his temple was at Lacera.   I instantly
sought it^ and, on  my arrival, bathed in the Althonous.   After the
bath, I was anointed  with the perfumed balsams that our friend So-
sinius had given me in the temple of Mercury the day I left Athens.
I then put up my prayers to deserve the favour I implored from the
god.  At night-fall I sought repose on the skin of a ram close to the
statuary pillar.  I soon found myself in that  state when we  are  no
longer wide awake, but  when sleep has not yet lulled our senses to
repose.   Methought that  a celestial light  was  shed  around me.
JEsculapius appeared to me with his two daughters ; and, from the
clouds that surrounded him, he promised me my pristine health.   I
soon after fell into a profound sleep ; but towards the break of day I
beheld Cypris—Cypris  who was always the friend of Podalirius :
she came herself!  I  recognized her, although she had  assumed the
form of a gentle dove.  Yes, Cypriuscame to cure me.  Podalirius!
Esculapius ! Cypris ! each day shall you be thanked by Aspasia and
by Pericles.
  " I must now relate to thee the vision of a Daunian who slept near
me.   She suffered from an affection  of her breast, and this she
dreamed :—She beheld  the young god Harpocrates lying on leaves
of lotos,  and  covered with bandages from the head to the feet.  He
appeared weak and emaciated ; he cried like an infant, supplicating
the poor woman to nurse him.   Soon after, she dreamt that a lamb
came to seek his sustenance from her bosom.  The dream was fulfilled,
—it clearly indicated the use of a certain plant ;  but, until it could
be  obtained, the Daunian was advised to eat nothing but  stewed
raisins.   Learn that here various names are given to various inspi-
rations.   The last dream I have related is called allegorical.   When
a dream prescribes a  certain remedy, it is named  theorematic.
Here are many dreams  : wise Pericles, thou art perhaps smiling at
them ; but what is not visionary is my perfect recovery, and my love
for thee.  Farewell  !"
   Although this letter of Aspasia is an evident fiction, yet it gives
an excellent, though a romantic description of the incubation of the
ancients.  Aspasia was  supposed to be labouring under one of the
most vexatious disorders that can affect a pretty  vvoman,^an erup-
tion in the face ; hence the gods sent her a mirror, that her devotion
might be increased by  her unsightly appearance.   It is  not impro*
bable that in those days, as in the present era, women of a certain
■or rather an uncertain  age, were more fervid in their  endeavours 
QUACKERY AND CHARLATANISM.            183
to render themselves acceptable to Heaven when they ceased to be
admired and sought for upon earth.
         QUACKERY  AND  CHARLATANISM.

  The Origin  of the word " quack" is  not ascertained.   Johnson
derives it from the verb " to quack, or gabble like a goose."  Butler
uses this verb as descriptive  of the encomiums empirics heap upon
their nostrums.  Thus in Hudibras :
                 Believe mechanic Virtuosi
                 Can raise them mountains in Potosi,    t
                 Seek out for plants with signatures
                 To quack of universal cures.
The word charlatin is equally enveloped in  obscurity.   Furetiere
and Calepin say that it arises from the Italin word Ceretano, from
Caeretum, a town near Spoleto, whence first  sallied forth a band of
impostors, marching under the banners of Hippocrates, and roving
from town to town, selling drugs and giving medical advice.  Men-
age has it  that charlatan springs from  Circulatanus, from  Cir-
culator.   Other  etymologists trace it to the Italian  Ciarlare, to
chatter.
  The Romans  called their quacks Agyrtas, or Seplasirii, from
Seplasium, the generic name of aromatic substances.   Seplasium
was the place where they vended their drugs.  Thus Martial:
             Quodque ab Adumaeis vectum seplasia vendunt.
             Et quidquid confert medicis lagaea cataplus.
  Some of the stratagems resorted  to by needy empirics to get into
practice are very ingenious,  and  many a regular physician has  been
obliged to have recourse to similar artifices to procure employment.
It is related of a Parisian physician, that, on hisfirst arrival in the cap-
ital, he-was in the habit of sending his servant in a carriage about day-
break to rap at the doors of the principal mansions to inquire for his
master, as he was sent for to repair instantly to such and such a prince,
who was dying.  The drowsy porter naturally  replied, with much ill-
humour, "that he knew nothing of his master."—"What! did  he
not pass the night in this house?"  replied  the footman  apparently
astonished.   " No," gruffly  answered the Swiss ;  "there's nobody
ill here."—" Then I must have  mistaken  the house.   Is not this
the hotel of the Duke of ----?»_« No.   Go to the devil ?" ex-
claimed the porter, closing the ponderous gates.   From  this house
his valet then proceeded from street to street, alarming  the whole
neighbourhood with his loud rap.   Of course nothing else was spo-
ken of in  the porter's lodge, the grocer's shop, and the servant's hall
for nine days.
  Another quack, upon his arrival in a town, announced himself
by sending the  bellman  round, offering fifty guineas reward for a
poodle belonging to Doctor----, Physician to his Majesty and the 
184          CURIOSITIES OF MEDICAL EXPERIENCE.
 Royal Family, Professor of Medicine, and Surgeon General, who
 had put up at such and such an inn.  Of course the  physician  of a
 king, who could give fifty guineas for a lost dog, could not but be
 a man of pre-eminence in his profession.
   Many years ago, the jaw-breaking words Telrachymagogon and
 Fellina  Guffino Cardimo Cardimac  Frames, were chalked all
 over  London, as two miracle-working  doctors.  Men  with   such
 names must have some superior qualification, and numbers flocked
 to consult them.  Another quack put up  as an advertisement, that
 he had just arrived in town after having made the  wonderful dis-
 covery of the green  and red dragon in the female fern-seed.  This
 was sure to attract notice.   An advertisement was handed about of
 a learned physician,  "who  had studied thirty years  by candle-light
 for the good  of his  countrymen.  He was moreover the seventh
 son of a seventh son, and  was possessed of  a wonderful cure for
 hernia, as both his father and his grandfather had been ruptured."
 This reminds one of the oculist in Mouse Alley, mentioned in the
 Spectator, who  undertook to  cure  cataracts, in consequence of his
 having lost an eye in the Imperial service.   Dr. Case made a fortune
 by having the lines,  Within this place, lives Doctor Case, written
 in large characters upon his door.
  The accidental circumstances which  frequently  bring medical
 men into extensive practice, or that notoriety which may lead to it,
 is truly curious.   It  is well known that a most  eminent English
 physician owed all his success  to his having  been in  a state of in-
 toxication.   Disappointed on his first arrival in London, he sought
 comfort in a neighbouring tavern, where the servant of his lodging
 went  to  fetch him   one evening, after a.heavy potation, to see a
 certain countess.   The high-sounding title of this unexpected patient
 tended not  a little  to increase  the  excitement under  which he
 laboured.   He followed a livery footman  as  steadily  as he could,
 and was ushered  in  silence into a noble mansion, where her  lady-
ship's woman anxiously waited  to conduct him most discreetly to
her mistress's room ; her agitation  most probably preventing her
 from  perceiving  the doctor's  state.  He  was  introduced into a
 splendid bed-chamber, and staggered towards the bed  in which the
 lady lay.  He went  through  the  routine practice of pulse-feeling,
 &c. and proceeded to the table to write a prescription, which in all
 probability would have been- mechanically correct.   But here his
 powers failed him.  In vain he strove to trace the salutary characters,
 until,  wearied in  his attempts, he cast down the pen,  and exclaim-
 ing "Drunk, by G—!" he made  his best way out of the house.
 Two days after he was not a little  surprised  by receiving a letter
 from the lady, enclosing a check for £100, and promising him the
 patronage of her family and friends, if he would  observe the strictest
 secrecy on the state  he found her  in.   The  fact simply was, that
 the countess  had been indulging in brandy and  laudanum, which
 her abigail had procured for her, and was herself in  the very condi-
 tion which the doctor had frankly applied  to himself.
  Chance, more  than science or ability, has frequently brought pro- 
               QUACKERY AND CHARLATANISM.            185

fessional men to the summit of their business.   There is an Eastern
story of a certain prince who had  received from a fairy the faculty
of not only assuming whatever appearance he  thought proper, but
of discerning the wandering spirits of the.departed.  He had long
laboured under a painful  chronic disease, that none of the  court
physicians, ordinary  or  extraordinary, could, relieve ; and  he re-
solved to wander about the streets of his capital until he could find
some one, regular or  irregular, who could alleviate his sufferings.
For this purpose he donned the garb and appearance of a dervish.
As he was  passing through one of the principal streets, he was sur-
prised to see  it so  thronged with  ghosts, that, had they been still
inhabitants of their former  earthly tenements, they must have ob-
structed the thoroughfare.   But what was his  amazement and dis-
may when  he saw  that they were all grouped with anxious looks
round this  door of  his royal father's physician, haunting, no doubt,
the man to whom they attributed  their untimely doom.   Shocked
with the sight, he hurried to another part of the city, where resided
another physician of  the court, holding the second rank in fashion-
able estimation.  Alas !  his  gateway  was  also surrounded with
reproachful departed  patients.   Thunderstruck at such a discovery,
and  returning  thanks to the  Prophet  that  he  was still  in being,
despite the practice of these great men, he  resolved to  submit all
the other  renowned  practitioners  to a similar visit, and he was
grieved to  find that the scale of ghosts  kept pace  with the scale of
their medical rank.    Heartbroken, and  despairing of a cure, he was
slowly sauntering back  to the palace,  when, in an  obscure street,
and on the doo* of an humble dwelling, he read a  doctor's name.
One single  poor solitary  ghost, leaning  his despondent cheek upon
his fleshless hand, was seated on  the  doctor's steps. "Alas !" ex-
claimed the prince, " it is then too true that humble-merit withers
in the  shade, while  ostentatious ignorance inhabits golden mansions.
This poor neglected doctor, who has but one unlucky case to lament,
is then the only man in whom I can place confidence."  He rapped ;
the door was opened  by the doctor himself, a venerable  old man,
not rich enough perhaps  to keep a domestic to answer his unfrequent
calls.   His white locks' and flowipg beard added to  the confidence
which his situation  had inspired.   The  elated  youth then related at
full length  all his complicated  ailments, and the still more compli-
cated treatment  to  which  he  had .in vain been submitted.   The
6apient physician was not illiberal enough to  say  that the prince's
attendants had all been in  error, since  all mankind may err ; but
his sarcastic smile,  the curl of his lips, and the dubious shake of his
hoary head, most eloquently told the  anxious  patient that he con-
sidered his former physicians as an ignorant, murderous set of up-
starts, only fit  to depopulate  a  community.   With  a triumphant
look he promised a cure, and gave his overjoyed  client a  much-
valued prescription, which he carefully  confided to his bosom ; after
which he expressed his gratitude by pouring upon the doctor's table
a purse of golden sequins, which made the old man's blinking eyes 
186         CURIOSITIES OF MEDICAL EXPERIENCE
shine as bright as the coin he beheld in wonderous delight.  His joy
gave suppleness to his rigid spine, and, after bowing the prince out
in the most obsequious manner, he ventured* to ask him one humble
question :   "By what good luck, by what kind planet, had he been
recommended  to seek his  advice ?"  The prince naturally asked
for the reason of so  strange a question, to which the worthy doctor
replied, with eyes brimful with tears of gratitude, " Oh, sir, because
I considered myself the most unfortunate man in Bagdad  until this
happy moment; for I have been settled in this noble  and wealthy
city  for these last fifteen years, and have  only been able to obtain
one single patient."—" Ah  !" cried the prince in despair, " then it
must be that  poor, solitary, unhappy-looking ghost  that is  now
sitting on your steps."
   It has been  observed that religious sects have materially con-
tributed to  the elevation of  physicians  in  society, and political
associations  have been  equally beneficial.  The celebrated Mead
was  the son  of a  non-conforming  minister,  who, knowing  the
influence he possessed  over  his  numerous  congregation, brought
him  up as a physician, in the full confidence of obtaining the splendid
result that rewarded the speculation.   His example was followed
by several dissenting preachers ; amongst whom  we may name
Oldfield, Clarke, Nesbitt, Lobb, Munckly, whose- sons all  rose to
extensive and  most  lucrative practice.   At that period St.  Thomas's
and  Guy's Hospitals were under the government of Dissenters and
Whigs ; and so soon as any one  became a physician to the establish-
ment, his fortune was  made.   The  same advantages attended St.
Bartholomew's and  Bethlehem, both of royal foundation, and under
the influence of Tory government.
   Dr. Meyer Schomberg, who  was a poor Cologne Jew, came to
London without any profession, when, not knowing what to do to
obtain a living, to use his own words, he said, " I am a physician;"
and  having  thus conferred a degree  upon himself, he  sedulously
cultivated  the  acquaintance of  all his fellow  Jews about  Duke's
Place, got introduced to some of their leading and wealthy mercantile
 brethren, and a few years after Dr. Schomberg  was in the annual
receipt of four thousand pounds.  It is rather strange, but the Jew
 was succeeded in his lucrative practice by  a Quaker.   This was the
 celebrated Dr. Fothergill.  Brought up an apothecary, he took out
 a Scotch degree, and, attaching himself to Schomberg, calculated on
 following his example ; and, on his patron's decease, he slipped into
 the  practice of both Jew and Gentile.
   Amongst many singular instances of good fortune may be  men-
 tioned a surgeon of the name of Broughton, to whom our East India
 Company may consider themselves as most indebted, since he was
 the  person  who first  pointed out the advantages  that might result
 from trading in Bengal.  Broughton happened to travel from Surat
 to Agra in the year 1636, when he had the good fortune to cure one
 of the daughters of  the Emperor Shah-Jehan.   To reward him this
 prince  allowed him a free trade throughout his dominions.  Brough- 
ON THE USE OF TEA.                  187
ton immediately repaired to Bengal to purchase goods, which he
sent round by sea to Surat.  Scarcely had he returned, when he was
requested to attend the favourite of a powerful nabob, and  he fortu-
nately restored  her to health, when, in  addition to a  pension his
commercial privileges were still more widely extended ; the prince
promising him  at the same time a favourable reception for British
traders.   Broughton lost no time in communicating this intelligence
to the Governor of Surat; and it was by his advice that the  company
sent out two large ships to Bengal  in 1640.
  There are some amusing anecdotes related  regarding a vocation
for the medical profession. Andrew Rudiger, a physician of Leipsic,
when at college, made an anagram of his name, and, in the words
Andreas Rudiger he found " Arare Bus Dei Dignus," or, " wor-
thy to cultivate  the field of God."  He immediately fancied that his
vocation was the church, and commenced  his  theological studies.
Showing but little disposition for the clerical, calling, the learned
Thomasius recommended him to return to his original  pursuits.
Rudiger confessed that he had more inclination for the profession of
medicine than the church ; but that he had considered the anagram of
his name as a divine injunction.  "There you are in error," replied
Thomasius ; " that very anagram calls you to the art of healing, for
Bus Dei clearly meaneth the churchyard."
                 ON  THE USE  OF  TEA.

  Such is the growing consumption of this now indispensable article
in England, that in 1789 there was imported 14,53.4,601 lbs., and in
1833 the quantity was increased to 31,829,620 lbs.; the latter im-
portation yielding a revenue of 3,444,101/.  In  other countries we
find the consumption much  less.  Russia in 1832 imported 6,461,-
064 lbs. ;  Holland consumes about 2,800,000 lbs., and France only
230,000 lbs.
  It is supposed that tea was first introduced in Europe by the Dutch,
about the middle of the seventeenth century ; and Lords Arlington
and Ossory are said to be  the first persons who made it known in
England.   In  1641, Tulpius, a Dutch physician, mentions it  in his
works.   In 1667, Fouquet, a French physician,  recommended it to
the French faculty ; and in 1678, we find  an elaborate treatise writ-
ten on it by Cornelius Boutkoe, physician to the Elector of Branden-
burg.   About  the same time, several travellers and  missionaries,
amongst whom we find Koempfer, Kalm,Osbeck, Duhalde, and Le-
comte, give various  accounts of the plant and its divers qualities.
  The Chinese name of this plant is theh, a Fokien word.   In the
Mandarin it is tcha, and the Japanese call it tsjaa.  Loureiro, in his
Flora Cochin-China, describes three species  of tea.   It is a poly- 
CURIOSITIES OF MEDICAL EXPERIENCE.
androus plant of  the  natural order Columniferse, growing to the
height of from three to six feet, and bearing a great resemblance to
our myrtle.   The blossom is white, with yellow style and anthers,
not .unlike that of  the dog-rose ; the leaves are the only valuable part
of the plant.  The camellias, particularly the camellia sesanqua,
of the same natural family, are the only plants liable to be confounded
with it.  The leaves of the latter camellia are indeed frequently used
as a substitute for those of the tea-plant in several districts of China.
This shrub is a hardy evergreen, growing in the open air from the
equator to the forty-fifth degree of northern latitude ; but the climate
that appears the most congenial to it seems to be between the twenty-
fifth and thirty-third degree.  Almost  every province  and district
in China produces tea for local consumption: but what is cultivated
for trade is chiefly in Fokien, Canton, Kiahg-nan, Kiang-si, and Che-
Kiang ; Fokien being celebrated for its  black tea, and Kiang-nan for
the green.   The plant is also cultivated in Japan, Tonquin, and Co-
chin-China, and  in some  parts of  the  mountainous tracts of Ava,
where, in addition to its use in infusion, it .is converted into a pickle
preserved in oil.   When tea was first introduced as a luxury on Jiigh
days and  holidays in the wild" districts  of Ireland, the  people used
to throw away the water it had been boiled in, and eat the  leaves
with  salt-butter or bacon like greens.  The Dutch are now  endea-
vouring to propagate this valuable plant in Java, and for that purpose
employ cultivators, who have emigrated from Fokien.   The Brazil-
ians are making similar attempts, and  some tolerable tea has been
reared near Rio Janeiro.
   The black teas usually imported from Canton are the bohea, con-
gou, souchong, and pekoe, according to our orthography : the French
missionaries spelt them  as follows,—boui, camphou or campoui,
saotchaon, and pekao or  peko.   Our green teas are the twankay,
hyson-skin,  and  hyson,  imperial, and gun-powder; the first  of
which French travellers write tonkuy, hayswin-skine, and hay-
swin.   The French import a tea called  tihulan, but it is artificially
flavoured with a leaf called Ian hoa, or the olea fragrans of Linnaeus.
   The tea plant  grows to perfection in two  or  three  years: the
leaves are carefully picked by the family of the growers, and  imme-
diately carried to  market, where they are purchased for drying  in
sheds.  The tea merchants from Canton repair to the several districts
where it is produced, and, after  purchasing  the leaves thus  simply
desiccated, submit them to various manipulations;  after which they
are packed in branded cases and parcels called chops,'from a Chinese
word meaning a seal.  Some of the leaf-buds of the finest black tea
plants are picked early in  the spring, before they expand : these con-
stitute pekoe, sometimes called "white-blossomed  tea," from their
being intermixed with the blossoms of the olea fragrans.  The
younger the leaf, the more high-flavoured  and valuable is the tea.
 Green teas are grown and gathered in the same manner: but amongst
 these the gunpowder stands in  the  grade of  the pekoe among the
 black, being prepared with the unopened buds of the spring crops, The 
ON THE USE OF TEA.                  189
alleged preparation of green teas upon copper plates, to give them a
verdant colour, is an idle story.   They are dried in iron vases over
a gentle fire ; and the operator conducts this delicate work with his
naked hand, and the  utmost care not to break the fragile leaves.
This part of the manipulation is considered the most difficult, as the
leaves are rolled into their usual shape between the palms of the
hands until they are cold, to prevent them from unrolling.   Teas are
adulterated by various odoriferous plants, more especially the vitex
pinnata, the chloranthus inconspicuous, and the illicium anisa-
tum.  In our markets the chief adulteration is operated by the mix-
ture of sloe and ash leaves, and colouring with  terra Japonica and
other drugs.
   That tea is a substance injurious to health is beyond a doubt.  No-
thing but long  habit  from early life renders it less baneful than it
otherwise would be : persons who take its infusion for  the first time
invariably experience uncomfortable sensations.   It is well known
that individuals who are not in the practice of taking tea in the even-
ing, never transgress this habit with impunity ;  and it is quite clear
that a preparation which deprives them of  sleep, and  renders them
restless during  a whole night,  cannot be salubrious by day ; and al-
though the following opinion of Dr. Trotter regarding the use of this
leaf is somewhat exaggerated, it is founded on  experience ; and I
have known several persons afflicted with a variety of serious affec-
tions who never could  obtain relief until  they had ceased to con-
sume it.
   " Tea  is a beverage well suited to the taste of  an  indolent and
voluptuous  age.  To the glutton it affords a grateful  diluent after
a voracious dinner ; and, from being drunk warm, it gives a sooth-
ing stimulus to  the stomach of the drunkard : but, however agreeable
may be its immediate flavour, the ultimate effects are debility and
nervous diseases.   There may be conditions of health, indeed, where
tea can do no harm, such as in  the strong and athletic ; but it is par-
ticularly  hurtful to the female  constitution, to all persons who pos-
sess the hereditary predisposition to dyspepsia, and all diseases with
which it  is associated, to gout,  and to those who are naturally weak-
nerved.  Fine  tea, where the  narcotic quality seems  to be concen-
trated, when taken in a strong infusion, by persons not accustomed
to it, excites nausea and  vomiting, tremors, cold  sweats, vertigo,
dimness  of sight, and confusion of thought.  I have known a num-
ber of men and women  subject  to nervous complaints, who could
not use tea  in  any form  without feeling  a sudden increase of all
their unpleasant symptoms ; particularly acidity of the stomach, ver-
tigo and  dimness of the eyes.  As the use of this article of diet ex-
tends among the lower orders  of the community and  the labouring
poor, it must do the more harm.   A man or a  woman who has to
go through much toil and hardship has need of  substantial nourish-
ment ; but that is not to be obtained from an infusion  of tea.  And
if the humble returns of their industry are expanded in  this leaf,
what remains for the purchase of better food adapted to labour ?  In 
190         CURIOSITIES OF MEDICAL EXPERIENCE.

this case tea becomes hurtful, not only from its narcotic quality, but
because that quality acts with double force in a body weakened from
other causes.  This certainly is one great reason for the increased
and increasing proportion of nervous, bilious, spasmodic, and stomach
complaints, &c. appearing among the lower ranks of life,"
  It is well known  that tea is  frequently resorted to  by literary
men to  keep them awake during their lucubrations.  Dr. Cullen
said he never could take it without feeling gouty symptoms ;  and we
frequently see aged females, who are in the habit of  taking strong
green tea, subject to  paralytic affections.   Many experienced phy-
sicians,  such as Grimm,  Crugerus,  Wytt, Murray, Letsom, con-
demn the abuse  of  the plant as highly dangerous.*   That it is a
most powerful astringent we well know ; and the hands of the Chi-
nese who are employed in its preparation are shrivelled, and, to all
appearance, burned with  caustic.  Chemists have extracted  from it
an astringent liquor containing tannin and gallic acid.  This liquor,
injected in the veins or under the integuments of frogs, produces
palsy of the posterior extremities, and, applied  to the sciatic nerve
for half an hour, has  occasioned death.
  There is no doubt that tea acts differently on various individuals.
In some it is highly stimulant and exhilarating ;  in others its effects
are oppression, lowness of spirits ; and  I have known  a person who
could never indulge in  this beverage without experiencing a disposi-
tion to commit suicide, and nothing could  arouse him  from this
state of morbid excitement but the pleasure of destroying something,
books, papers, or anything within his reach.  Under no other circum-
stances  than this  influence of  tea  were  these  fearful  aberrations
observed.  It has been remarked that all tea-drinking  nations are
essentially of a leucophlegmatic temperament, predisposed to scro-
fulous and nervous diseases. . The Chinese, even the degraded Tar-
tar races amongst them, are weak and  infirm, their women subject
to various diseases arising from  debility.  Although their confined
mode of living, and want of the means  of enjoying pure air and ex-
ercise, materially tend to render  them liable to these affections ; still
their immoderate use of strong  green tea, taken, it is true, in very
small quantities at the time, but  repeatedly, greatly adds  to this
predisposition.
  From  long  experience I am  convinced that, although tea may
in general be considered a refreshing and harmless beverage, yet in
some  peculiar  cases  it  is  decidedly  injurious ; and  many diseases
that have baffled all  medical exertions, have  yielded  to the same
curative means so soon as the action of tea had been suspended.
* Patin called it Pimpartinente nouveauti du siecle. 
MANDRAGORE.                     191
                 INNATE  APPETITES.

  Sir George M'Kenzie in his Phrenological Essays,mentions the
following curious fact, witnessed by Sir James Hall.   He had been
engaged in making some experiments on hatching eggs by artificial
heat, and on one occasion observed in one of his  boxes a chicken
in the act of breaking from his confinement.   It happened that, just
as the creature was getting out of his shell, a spider began  to run
along the box, when the chicken darted  forward, seized, and swal-
lowed it.
                     MANDRAGORE.

  Self-styled wandering Turks  and Armenians are frequently
met with in crowded cities vending rhubarb, tooth-powder, and
various drugs and nostrums, exciting the curiosity of the idlers that
group around them by exhibiting a root bearing a strong resemblance
to the human form.  This is the  far-famed mandragore, of which
such wonderful accounts have  been  related  by both  ancients and
moderns.
  This plant is the Atropa Mandragora of Linnaeus, and grows
wild in the mountainous and shaded  parts of  Italy, Spain, and the
Levant, where it is also cultivated in gardens.   The root bears such
a likeness, at least in fancy's eyes, to our species, that  it was called
Semi-homo.  Hence says Columella,
             Quarnvis semihominis vesano gramine foeta
             Mandragora pariat flores mcestamque cicutam.
The word vesano clearly refers to the  supposed power it possessed
of exciting delirium.  It was also named Circsea, from its having
been one of the mystic ingredients  employed in Circe's spells ;
although the wonderful mandragore was ineffectual against the more
powerful herb  the  Moly, which Ulysses received from Mercury.
This human resemblance of the root, which is moreover of a blackish
hue and hairy, inspired the vulgar with the idea that it was nothing
less than a familiar demon.  It was gathered with curious rites: three
times a magic circle was drawn round  it with a naked sword ; and
the person  who was daring enough to pluck it from  the earth was
subject to manifold dangers and diseases, unless under  some special
protection ; therefore it was not unusual to get it  eradicated by a
dog, fastened to  it  by a cord, and  who  was whipped off until the
precious  root  was  pulled out.   According to Josephus, the plant
called Buaras, which was gifted  with  the faculty of keeping off
evil spirits, was obtained by a similar canine  operation.  Often, it
was asserted, did the  mandragore  utter  piteous cries and  groans,
when thus severed from mother earth.   Albertus the Great affirms 
192         CURIOSITIES OF MEDICAL EXPERIENCE.
that the root has  a  more  powerful  action when growing under a
gibbet, and is brought to greater perfection by the nourishing secre-
tions that drop from the criminal's dangling corpse.
  Amongst its many wonderful properties it was said to double, the
amount of  money that was locked up with it in a box.  It was also
all-powerful in detecting hidden  treasures.   Most  probably the
mandragore had bad qualities to underrate its good ones.  Amongst
these we must certainly class the blackest ingratitude, since it never
seemed to benefit the eloquent advocates of its virtues, who in gen-
eral were as poor as their boasted plant was rich in attraction.
  It was also supposed to possess the delightful faculty of increasing
population  and exciting love; and  the Emperor Julian  writes to
Calixines that he  is  drinking the juice of mandragore to render him
amorous.   Hence was it called  Love-apple; and Venus bore the
name of Mandragontis.   It has been asserted by various scholiasts
that the mandrake  which Reuben found in the fields and carried to
his mother Leah  was the  mandragore ; but the Duda'im which he
gathered was not, according to all accounts, an unpleasant fruit, but
is supposed to have  been a species of orchis, still used in the East in
love-philters and  prolific potions. The word Duda'im seems to ex-
press a tuberculated  plant; and in Solomon's Songs he thus describes
it: "The mandrakes give a  smell, and at  our gates are  all  manner of
pleasant fruits, new and old, which  I have laid up for thee, 0 my
beloved."  Now it is utterly impossible, whatever may have been
the revolution in  taste since  the days of Solomon, that the nauseous
and offensive mandragore could  have been considered as a propiti-
ating present to a lady.
   The etymology of the word Duda'im  would seem to describe it.
It is derived  from the word DH"i, (Dadim) breasts, or OHV7>
(Dodim) friends, neighbours, twins  ; which indicates that this plant
is formed of  two similar  parts.   It is thought tbat Duda'im might
be the highly-scented melon which  is cultivated in the East, especi-
ally in Persia, and  known, by the name of Destenbuje, or the Cu-.
cumis Duda'im of Linnaeus, and which is also found in Italy, where
its powerful aroma  is imparted to garments and chambers.  It must
have been  an odoriferous production, since in the Talmud we find
it denominated Siglin, which  has been considered the jessamine or
the lily.  The orchis is remarkable  for its double bulbous roots and
its agreeable  perfume; we may therefore justify the  idea that  the
Duda'im of the Jews was a  species  of this plant.
   Frontinus informs us that Hannibal em.plo)red mandragore in one
of his  warlike stratagems, when he  feigned a retreat, and left in the
possession of the barbarians a quantity of wine in  which this plant
had been infused.  Intoxicated  by  the potent beverage, they were
unable to  withstand his second attack, and were easily  put to the
sword.  Was it the mandragore that saved  the Scotch in a similar
ruse de guerre with the Danish invaders of Sweno?   It is supposed
to have been the Belladonna, or deadly night-shade, the effects of
which are not dissimilar to those of the plant in question. 
MANDRAGORE.
193
  In the north of Europe this substance is still used for medicinal pur-
poses ; and Boerhaave, Hoffberg, and Swediaur have strongly recom-
mended it in glandular swellings, arthritic pains, and various diseases
where a profuse perspiration may  be desirable.
  Machiavel  has made the fabulous powers of  the mandragore the
subject of a comedy, and Lafontaine has employed it as an agent in
one of his tales.
  Another root that excited  superstitious phantasies and reverential
awe, from its  supposed resemblance to the human form, was the
Gin-seng, a Chinese  production, which, according to the author of
the Kao-li-tchi-tsan, or Eulogium of the Kingdom of Corea, " imi-
tates the configuration of man and the efficacy of spiritual comfort,
possessing hands and feet like a human being, and the mental virtues
that no one can easily comprehend."   According to Jartoux, Gin-
seng signifies " the representation of man."   It appears, however, that
the learned father was in error.   Jin, it is  true, signifies man ; but
Chen does not mean representation, but a ternary body.   Hence
Gin-seng signifies the ternary of man, making three with man
and heaven!—no doubt some superstitious tradition, since this root
bears various names in other countries, that  plainly denote the vene-
ration  in whijdi it was held.  In  Japan it is  called Nindsin, and
Orkhoda in the Tatar-Mandchou language, both of which mean "the
queen of plants."  Father Lafitau informs us that the name of Ga-
rent-oguen of the Iroquois, which it also  bears, means the thighs
of man.  The Gin-seng is a native  of Tartary, Corea, and also
thrives in Canada, Virginia, and Pennsylvania in shaded and damp
situations, as it soon perishes under the  solar rays.  The Chinese at-
tach considerable value to it.  Thunberg informs us that it sometimes
fetches forty pounds a pound ;  and Osbeck states that in his time it
was worth twenty-four times its weight  in silver.   This enormous
price frequently induced  foreign  smugglers to bring it  into the
Chinese territory ; but the severest laws were enacted to punish this
fraudulent traffic.   The Tartars alone possess the privilege of culti-
vating and collecting it; and the districts that produce this precious
plant are surrounded with palisades, and strictly guarded.   In 1707,
the Emperor of China, to increase his revenue, sent a body of ten
thousand troops to collect the gin-seng.   According to  the Chinese
physicians, this root possesses  the faculty of renovating exhausted
constitutions, giving fresh vigour, raising the  drooping moral and
physical faculties, and restoring to health and  embonpoint the vic-
tim of debauchery.  It is also  said that a bit of the  root chewed  by
a man  running a race will prevent his competitor from getting the
start of him.   It is somewhat singular that  the same property is at-
tributed to garlic ; and the Hungarian jockeys frequently tie a clove
of it to their racers' bits, when the horses that  run against them fall
back the  moment they breathe the  offensive  odour.   It  has been
proved that no horse will eat in a  manger if the mouth of any other
steed in the stable has been  rubbed with the juice of this plant.   I
had occasion to ascertain this fact.   A horse of mine was in the same
  August, 1838.—i/            19 
194
CURIOSITIES OF MEDICAL EXPERIENCE.
stall with one belonging to a brother officer ;  mine fell away and re-
fused his food, while  his companion throve uncommonly well.  I
at last discovered that a German groom, who had charge of the pros-
perous animal, had  recourse to this vile stratagem.  It is also sup-
posed that men who eat garlic  knock up upon a march  the soldiers
who have not made use of it.   Hence, in the old regulations of the
French armies, there existed an order to  prohibit  the use of garlic
when troops were on a march.
                  BARBER  SURGEONS,

    AND  THE  PROGRESS  OF  CHIRURGICAL  ART.

  No consideration should render man more thankful to his Creator,
and justly proud of the progress of human intellect, than the perfec-
tion to which  the art of surgery has been carried.   In its present
improved condition we are struck with horror at thejjerusal  of the
ancient practice, and marvel  that its barbarity did  not sooner induce
its professors to diminish the sum of misery it inflicted on their vic-
tims.   Ignorance, and its offspring Superstition, seemed to sanctify
this darkness.  Improvement  was  considered  an impious  super-
erogation ; and to deny its powers (such as they were), heresy against
the holy men, who alone were permitted to exercise the art of heal-
ing, and  who were naturally hostile to any inquiry or investigation
that could shed even a feeble ray of light on the obtuse intellects of
their flock.
  This supposed divine attribute of the priesthood can be traced to
remote ages: ^Esculapius was son of Apollo, and princes and  heroes
did not consider the  art of surgery beneath their  dignity.   Homer
has illustrated the skill of Podalirius and Chiron ; and  Idomeneus
bids Nestor to mount his chariot with Machaon, who alone was more
precious than a thousand warriors; while we find Podalirius, wrecked
and forlorn on the Carian coast, leading to the altar the daughter of
the monarch  whom he  cured, and whose  subjects raised a temple to
his memory, and paid him divine honours.
  Tradition informs us, that  in the  infancy of the art all its  branches
were  exercised  indiscriminately by the  medical  practitioners.  It
was not then supposed  that the human body was subject to distinct
affections, external and internal ; yet, as its study advanced, the an-
cients were led into an  opposite extreme,  and  we find that in  Egypt
each disease became  the province of a special attendant, regulated in
his treatment by the sacred records handed down by their hierarchy.
  By one of these singular anomalies in public opinion, this supposed
divine science was soon considered an ignoble  profession.  In Rome
it was chiefly practised by  slaves, freed-men or foreigners.  From 
BARBER SURGEONS.
195
the overthrow of the Roman empire till the revival of literature and
the arts in Europe, medicine  and  surgery sought a refuge amongst
the Arabians, who studied both branches  in common ; for, though
exiled to Afric's coast  in  point of scientific cultivation,  it was ne-
cessarily cultivated in  other  countries, and  in the greater part of
Europe became the exclusive right of ecclesiastics.  In time, how-
ever, it was gradually wrested from their hands by daily necessities;
and every one, even amongst the lowest classes, professed himself a
surgeon, and  the cure of the  hurt and  the  lame  was entrusted to
menials and women.
   As the church could  no longer* monopolise  the  art of healing, it
became expedient  to stigmatise it, although  that very faculty had
but lately been their boast;  but it had fallen within the  powers of
vulgar and profane comprehension, and  therefore was  useless to
maintain sacredotal pre-eminence.    In 1163, the Council  of Tours,
held  by Pope Alexander III,  maintained that the devil,  to seduce
priesthood from the duties of  the  altar, involved them in mundane
occupations, which, under the  plea of humanity,  exposed them to
constant and  perilous temptations.  The edict not only prohibited
the study  both of medicine and law amongst all that had taken reli-
gious  vows, but actually excommunicated every  ecclesiastic  who
might infringe the decree.  It appears, however, that the temptations
of the evil one were still  attractive, as Pope Honorius III, in 1215,
was obliged to fulminate a fresh anathema on transgressors, with an
additional  canon, ordaining that, as the church  abhorred all cruel or
sanguinary practices, not only  no priest should be allowed the prac-
tice of surgery, but should refuse their benediction to all those who
professed it.-*

  * The priesthood's stigmatising the medical profession so soon as its practice
ceased to  be their exclusive privilege, displayed the same spirit of intolerance
and thirst for omnipotent sway that characterised their  anathemas on the drama
when they no longer were the authors, actors, and managers of their own  sacri-
legious plays, which they called mysteries and moralities.  Previous to theatri-
cals having become the pursuit, of laymen, the monkish exhibitions had been
deemed so holy, that one of the popes granted a pardon of one thousand days to
every person who went to the plays performed in the Whitsun week, beginning
with a piece called " The Creation," and ending the season with the performance
of "The General Judgment."  In these burlettas the performers belonged  to va-
rious corporations, and acted under the direction of the clergy.  " The Creation"
was performed by the Drapers,—" The Deluge" by the Dyers,—"Abraham, Mel-
chizedek, and Lot," by our friends the Barbers,—" The Purification" by the Black-
smiths,—" The Last Supper" by the Bakers,—" The Resurrection" by the Skin-
ners,—and " The Ascension" by the  Tailors.
  The following curious anecdotes are recorded in the  description of a mystery
performed at Veximel, near Metz, by the order of  Conrad  Bayer, bishop of the
diocese.  This play was called  The Passion, and the  part of  the Saviour was
played by an old gentleman of the name of Nicolas Neufchatel, of Touraine, cu-
rate of St. Victor, of Metz; and it appears that by some mismanagement he would
have died upon the cross, had he not been timely assisted, for all the other actors
had made their exit and left him solus.  Another priest, by name Jean de Nicey,
curate of Metrange, played Judas, and he was also nigh  meeting with an untimely
end;  for his neck had slipped and  tightened the noose by which he was sus- 
196         CURIOSITIES OF MEDICAL EXPERIENCE.
  The practice then fell into the hands of laymen, although priests,
still  regretting the advantages that it formerly had yielded them,
were consulted in their convents or houses ; and when patients could
not visit them without exposing them to clerical censure, they as-
serted  their ability to cure diseases by the mere  inspection of the
patient's dejections ; and so much faith was reposed  in  this filthy
practice, that Henry II. decreed that upon the complaints of the heirs
of persons who died through the fault of their physicians, the latter
should suffer capital punishment, as having been the  cause of their
patient's death, unless they had  carefully  and  scientifically tasted
the morbid samples brought to their investigation by the deceased's
relatives or domestics: and having duly ascertained the exact savour
thereof, the priest proceeded to prescribe for the malady.
  Unable to quit their cloisters, in surgical  cases, which could not
be so easily cured at a distance, sooner than lose the emoluments of
the profession, they sent their servants, or rather the barbers of the
community, who shaved, and bled, and  drew  teeth in their neigh-
bourhood ever since the clergy could no longer perform these opera-
tions, on the plea of the maxim  " Ecclesia abhorret il sanguine;"
bleeding and tooth-drawing  being, I  believe, the  only cases where
this  maxim was noticed.  From this  circumstance arose the barber
craft or barber surgeons.
  These practitioners, from their various avocations, were necessa-
rily  dexterous ;  for, in addition  to the skill required  for good shav-
ing,  tonsurating the crowns of clerical heads was a delicate opera-
tion; and it was about this period that Pope Alexander III. revised
the canon issued by the synod of Carthage  respecting the tonsure of
the clergy.   Surgery thus degraded, the separation between its prac-
tice  and that of medicine became unavoidable, and the two branches
were formally made distinct by bulls of Boniface VI. and Clement V.
  St. Louis, who had witnessed the services  of surgeons in the field
of battle during the crusades, had formed a college or confririe of
surgeons, in honour of  St. Cosme and St. Damian, in  1268 ;  and
wounds and sores were dressed gratis in the churches dedicated to
those saints on  the first Monday of every month.  To this body,
of course, the barber surgeons, or fraters of the priests, who  had
not received any regular education, did not  belong.   Hence arose
Jhe distinction, which even to the present day obtains in various
parts of the Continent, where surgeons are divided into two classes,
those who  had  gone through a regular  course  of studies, and those
who without any academical education were originally employed as
the servants of the  priests and barbers.  So  late as the year 1809,
one  of  my assistants in the Portuguese army felt much hurt at my
declining his offer to shave me ;  and  in 1801,  some  British assist-

pended to the tree, and, had he not been cut down, he would have performed, the
part most effectually.
  A  play was acted in one of the principal  cities in England by these clerical
performers, representing the terrestrial Paradise, when Adam and Eve made their
entrance entirely naked. 
BARBER SURGEONS.
197
ant-surgeons, who had entered the Swedish navy, were ordered to
shave the ship's company, and were dismissed the service in con-
sequence of their refusal.
   But to return to our barbers.—These ambitious shavers gradually
attempted to glean in the footsteps of the regular chirurgeons, and
even to enroach upon their domain, by performing more  important
operations than phlebotomy and tooth-drawing; therefore were the
audacious intruders very properly brought up  ex officio by the at-
torney-general of France, and forbidden to transgress the boundaries
of their art, until they had  been duly examined by master chirur-
geons ; although these said masters were not  better  qualified than
many of the barbers.  Such was their ignorance indeed, that Pitard,
an able practitioner, who had successively been the surgeon  of St.
Louis, Philip the Brave, and Philip the  Fair,  obtained a  privilege
to examine and grant licences to such of these masters who were
fit to practise, without which licence all practitioners were liable to
be punished by the provost of Paris ; and in 1372 barbers were only
allowed to  dress boils, bruises and open wounds.
   Although this account chiefly refers to France and its capital, yet
the same distinction and division between surgeons  and barbers
prevailed in almost every other  country ;  and  privileges  were
maintained  with  as much  virulence  and absurdity as the present
controversial bickerings between  physicians  and surgeons, to the
manifest advantage  of the most fearful class of practitioners, com-
monly called "general," the Worshipful  Company of Apothecaries,
and all  persons directly or indirectly interested in funeral  specula-
tions and expectations.
   In 1355 these master surgeons constituted a faculty, which pock-
eted one half of  the penalties imposed  upon  the unlucky wights
who had not the honour of  belonging to their body.  They also
enjoyed various immunities and exemptions ;  amongst others, that
of not keeping guard and watch  in the city of Paris.   To  increase
their  emoluments, they granted as many honorary distinctions as
they could  in  decency devise,  and   introduced the  categories  of
bachelors, licentiates, masters,  graduates,  and non-graduates of sur-
gery.    And now do we find the medical  faculty complaining of the
enroachments of the master surgeons on their internal domain  of
poor mortality with  as much bitterness as the  masters complained
of the impertinent invasion on the part of the confounded barbers of
their external dominion.  To court the powerful protection of the
university against these interlopers, the surgeons consented  to be
considered  as the scholars of the medical faculty, chiefly governed
by clerical  physicians.
  In 1452 a fresh source of dissension arose amongst  clerical  phy-
sicians, lay  physicians, master  surgeons, and barbers.   Cardinal
Etoutville abolished the law which  bound  the physicians of the
university to celibacy, when, to  use  the  historian's words, "many
of the clerical physicians, thinking there was  more comfort  to be
                               19* 
CURIOSITIES OF MEDICAL  EXPERIENCE.
found in a wife without a benefice than could be expected in a bene-
fice without a wife, abandoned the priesthood, and were then per-
mitted to visit their patients at their own houses."  Thus thrown
into the uncontrolled practice of medicine, these physicians became
jealous of the influence of the surgeons, to whom they had been so
much indebted ; and they had recourse to every art and manoeuvre
that priestcraft could devise to oppress and degrade them.  To aid
this purpose, they had recourse to the barbers, whom they instructed
in private,  to  enable  them  to oppose the master-surgeons more
effectually.   The surgeons, indignant at this protection, had recourse
to the medical faculty, supplicating them to have the barbers shorn
of their  rising dignity.  Thus for mere motives of lucre, and the
evident  detriment  of  society, did  these intriguing  practitioners
struggle  for power and consequent fees  ; and,  according to the va-
cillation  of their interests, the barbers became  alternately the allies
of the physicians or the mercenary skirmishers of the surgeons.
   Strange to say, from this oppression  of surgery, for nearly three
centuries it was considered  a degrading art.   Excluded from the
university, not only were surgeons deprived of all academic honours
and privileges but subjected to those taxes and public burthens from
which the members of the university, being of the clerical  order,
were exempted.  This persecution not only strove to  injure them
in a worldly point  of view;  but the priests carried their vindictive
feelings  to such a malignant height that when Charles IX. was about
to confer the rights of apostolical benediction  upon the surgeons of
the long robe, the medical faculty interposed on the plea of their not
being qualified to receive this benediction, as they did  not belong
to any of the four faculties of the university ;  and as the chancellor,
or any other man had not the power of conferring a blessing without
the pope's permission  and special mandate, both surgeons and bar-
bers ought to be irrevocably damned.  The apostolical benediction in
those days was moreover considered of great value, since it exempted
all candidates from examination in  anatomy,  medicine, surgery, or
any other qualification, when they applied for a degree.  In a great
measure our two  great  universities  confer academic  dignities on
the same principle, since the profession cannot be studied  in their
schools.
   Amongst the many glaring absurdities which retarded the progress
of medical  studies, one cannot but notice the  presumptuous claims
of the physicians to the exclusive privilege of teaching surgery to
their pupils, while anatomy  was solely professed by  surgeons, and
not considered in the instruction of a physician.  All  these absur-
dities can be easily traced  to that spirit of dominion, exclusion, and
monopoly, which invariably characterised clerical bodies.  To such
a pitch was this destructive practice carried, that surgeons were only
 allowed to perform operations in the presence of one or more  phy-
 sicians : nor were they permitted  to  publish any work on  their
 profession until it had been licensed by a faculty who were  utterly 
BARBER SURGEONS.
199
ignorant of the matter which it treated.   The celebrated Ambrose
Pare- could only obtain as  a special favour from  his  sovereign, the
permission to give to the world one of its most valuable sources of
information.
  So  late as  1726, we find the medical faculty of Paris making a
formal representation to Cardinal de Noailles and the curates of that
capital to prevent surgeons from granting certificates of health or of
disease, and this application was grounded on the  pious motive of
enforcing a more rigid observance of Lent !   They further insisted
that this indispensable mortification was eluded  in consequence of
the facility of obtaining certificates that permitted persons stated to
be indisposed to eat animal food, eggs, and butter, whence infidelity
was making a most alarming progress, and threatening the very ex-
istence of church and  state, and the overthrow of every  ancient and
glorious institution.  The faculty were formally thanked for  their
pious zeal in  the true interests of religion, and the spiritual welfare
of their patients ; and orders were affixed upon  the  door of every
church, anathematising all certificates that emanated from the unholy
hands of surgeons  and barbers.
   These unfortunate barbers, although they humbly submitted to the
sway of both physicions and surgeons when it suited their purpose,
were in turn persecuted by both their allies and alternate protectors;
so much so, that the  clerical practitioners  at one time prohibited
their bleeding, and conferred this privilege upon  the bagnio-keepers.
From the well-known nature of  these establishments, various may
be the reasons that led  to this patronage, which was clearly an at-
tempt to qualify bagnio-keepers to extend their convenient trade.
  At last, in the year 1505, barbers were  dignified with the name of
surgeons.  Their  instructions  were delivered in  their vernacular
tongue, until the university again interfered, and  ordered that lec-
tures  should  be delivered in Latin ;  once more closing alma-mater
against illiterate shavers, who were, however, obliged  to  give a smat-
tering of classical education to their sons destined to wield alternately
the razor  and the  lancet.  In  1655, surgeons and barber surgeons
were  incorporated  in one college ; a union which was further con-
firmed, in 1660, by royal ordonnance, under some limitations, where-
by the barbers should not assume the title of licentiates, bachelors,
or professors, nor be allowed to wear the  honourable  gown and bon-
net that distinguished the  higher grades of learning.   Red caps were
in former times given by each barber  to his teacher on his being
qualified, and gloves to all his fellow-students.
  Thus do we find  that the high state of perfection that  the surgical
art has  attained is solely  due to the efforts  of industry to free itself
from  the ignoble trammels of  bigotry and  prejudice.   Intellectual
progress has invariably been  opposed  in  every country by those
powerful and interested individuals who derived  their wealth and
influence from the ignorance of society.   Corporate bodies monopo-
lizing the exercise of any profession will invariably  retard instruc-
tion and shackle the energies of the student.   It is, no doubt, indis- 
CURIOSITIES OF MEDICAL EXPERIENCE.
pensable that the practice of medicine in all its branches should only
be allowed  to  such persons as are duly qualified;  but whenever
pecuniary advantages are derived from the grant of the permission,
abuses as dishonourable as they are injurious to society will infallibly
prevail.  In Britain the period of study required in medical candi-
dates is  by no means sufficient.  Five or six years is the very lowest
period  that should be insisted on ;  and, when duly instructed, de-
grees and licenses should be conferred without fee or reward, on all
applicants, by a board of examiners  unprejudiced and disinterested.
This mode of granting licences would  add to the respectability of
the profession, while it would ensure proper attendance to the public.
Physicians and surgeons would then become (what to a certain ex-
tent the latter are at  present, though illegally as far as the  laws of
the college go), general practitioners, and society would no  longer
be infested by the swarms of practising apothecaries, who, from the
very nature of their education, can  only be  skilled in making up
medicines, or who  must  have  obtained  experience in the  lessons
taught by repeated  failures in their early practice, unless perchance
they have stepped  beyond  the usual confined instruction of their
class.   The consequences that arise from this fatal  system  are  but
too obvious.  These men live by selling drugs, which they unmerci-
fully supply, to the material injury of the patient's constitution.  If,
after ringing all the changes of their materia medica without causing
the church-bell to toll, they find themselves puzzled and bewildered,
a physician or  a surgeon of some eminence is called in, and too fre-
quently these  practitioners are bound by tacit  agreement not to
diminish the revenue that the shop produces.   If it were necessary
to prove the evils that result from the monopolizing  powers vested
in corporate institutions, the proof might be sought and found in the
virulence and jealousy which they evince in resisting reform, from
whatever quarter it may be dreaded; and it may be said that too
many of the practising apothecaries of the present day stand in the
same relative  situation in the  medical  profession as the  barbers of
olden times.
   The  faculty  of exercising every branch of the profession, however
qualified, is of  olden date, and  we find  on the subject the following
lines in the writings of Alcuin in the time of Charlemagne:
               Accurrunt medici mox Hippocratica tecta:
               Hie venas findit, herbas hie miscet in olla;
               Ille coquit pultes, alter sed pocula perfert.
                       ON DREAMS.

  Disquisitions the most learned have long displayed philosophical
ingenuity in endeavouring to account for  the nature of these phe- 
ON DREAMS.
201
nomena.   The  strangeness of these visionary perturbations of our
rest—their supposed influence on our destinies—their frequent veri-
fication  by subsequent events—have ever shed a mystic prestige
around them; and superstition, ignorance, and  craft  have in turns
characterised them as the warnings of the Divine will, or the machin-
ations of an evil spirit.
  Marcobius divided  them into various categories.  The first, the
mere  dream, somnium, he considers a figurative  and mysterious
representation that requires to be  interpreted.   Dion Cassius  gives
an example of this in the case of Nero, who dreamt that he saw the
chair of Jupiter  pass into the palace of Vespasian, which was consid-
ered as emblematical of his translation to the empire.
  The second distinction he terms a vision, visio, or a foreboding
of future events.  The third he deemed oracular, oraculum, and
this was the case when a priest, or a relative, a deity, a hero, or some
venerable  person, denounced what was to happen,  or warned us
against it.   As  an example of this inspiration, for such it was con-
sidered, an anecdote of Vespasian is related.   Having heard that a
man in Achaia had dreamt that a person unknown to him had assured
him that he should date his prosperity from the moment Nero should
lose a tooth,—a tooth just drawn from that emperor being shown to
him the following day, he foresaw his destinies: soon after  Nero
died, Galba did  not long survive him, and  the  discord that reigned
between Otho  and Vitellius ultimately  placed  the diadem on his
brow.  These inspirations were considered by Cicero, and various
philosophers, as particularly appertaining to the shrine of the gods;
those who sought that heavenly admonition were therefore recom-
mended to lie down in temples.   The Lacedaemonians sought slum-
ber in the temple of Pasithea ; Brizo,  the  goddess of sleep and
dreams, was worshipped at Delos, and her votaries  slept  before her
altars with their heads  bound with  laurel  and  other fatidical sym-
bols ;  hence divination by dreams was called Brizomantia.  Sup-
plications  were  offered up to Mercury for propitious visions, and a
caduceus was placed for that purpose at the feet of beds ;  hence was
it called «fiu«r.
  The fourth division was insomny, insomnium,  which was char-
acterised by a disturbed repose, caused  either by mental or  bodily
oppression, or solicitude.   The fifth class of dreams was the phant-
asm or visus, which takes place between sleeping and waking, in a
dozing and broken slumber, when the person thinks himself awake,
and yet beholds fantastic and chimerical figures floating around  his
couch.  Under this class is placed the ephialtes, or night-mare.
Macrobius represents the phantasm and  the insomnium as little de-
serving of attention, being of no use in divination and prediction.
  When these notions prevailed, interpretation of dreams became a
profitable  trade ; and it is a lamentable truth, that to the present day,
it is considered a  speculation upon credulity.   We find in Plutarch's
Life of Aristides  that there were tables drawn out for this purpose ;
and he speaks  of one Lysimachus, a grandson of Aristides, who 
202         CURIOSITIES OF MEDICAL EXPERIENCE.
gained a handsome livelihood by this profession, taking up his sta-
tion  near  the temple of Bacchus.   Rules of interpretation were
formed by Artemidorous, who lived in the reign of Antoninus Pius,
and he drew his conclusions from  circumstances  considered either
propitious or sinister.  Thus to dream of a large nose, signified
subtlety ; of rosemary or sage, trouble and weakness ; of a midwife,
disclosure of secrets ; of a leopard, a deceitful person.  These inter-
pretations became so multiplied that at last it was decreed that no
dreams which related to the public weal should be regarded, unless
they had visited the brains  of some  magistrates or  more than one
individual.  But what limits can any enactment assign to the influ-
ence of credulity and superstition!   Cicero informs us that the Con-
sul Lucius Julius repaired to the temple of Juno  Sospita, in obedi-
ence to a decree of the senate regarding a dream of Caecilia, daughter
of Balearicus.  In more modern  times we have often  seen dreams
resorted to, to assist the speculations of policy and  priestcraft; some
of them as absurd in their nature as revolting in their interpretation.
Monkish records relate that St. Bernard's mother dreamed that she had
a little white dog barking about her, which was interpreted to her by
a religious person as meaning " that she should be the mother of an
excellent dog indeed, who should  be the  hope of  God's house, and
would incessantly bark against  its adversaries, for he  should be a
famous preacher, and cure  many by  his medicinal  tongue."  Our
Archbishop  Laurence, to whom we owe the church of our Lady at
Canterbury, was about to emigrate to France  under the discourage-
ment of persecution, until warned  in  a dream, and  severely scourged
by St. Peter for his weakness.   It was on the  relation not only of
this dream, but on actually exhibiting the marks  of the stripes he
had received, that Eadbald  was baptized,  and  became a protector of
the church.   It was in a dream of this description that St. Andrew
instructed Peter Pontanus how to  find out the spear that had pierced
our Saviour's side, and which was hidden somewhere near Antioch.
Antioch was at that, time besieged by the Persians, and half famished,
but this weapon being carried by a bishop, enabled the besieged to be-
leaguer Caiban, the Persian general.
   The Peripatetics represented  dreams as arising  from a presaging
faculty of the mind ; other sects imagined that they were suggestions
of demons.   Democritus and Lucretius looked upon them as spec-
tres and simulacra of coporeal things, emitted from them, floating
in the air, and assailing the soul.   A modern writer, Andrew Bax-
ter, entertained a notion somewhat similar, and imagined that dreams
were  prompted  by separate immaterial beings, or spirits, who had
access to the sleeper's brain with  the faculty of inspiring him with
various ideas.  Burton  divides  dreams  into  natural, divine, and
demoniacal;  and he defines sleep, after Scaliger, as the rest or bind-
ing of the outward senses, and of the common sense, for the preserva-
tion of body and soul."
   Gradually released from the trammels of superstition, modern phi-
losophers have sought for more plausible  explanations of the nature 
ON DREAMS.
203
 and causes of dreams, but perhaps without having attained a greater
 degree of certainty in this difficult question than our bewildered an-
 cestors.   Wolfius is of opinion that every dream originates in some
 sensation, yet the independent energies of the mind are sufficiently
 displayed  in the preservation of the continued phantasms  of  the
 imagination.   He  maintains  that none of these phantasms can pre-
 vail unless they arise  from this previous sensation.   De Formey is
 of the same opinion, and conceives that dreams are supernatural when
 not produced by these  sensations.   But of what nature are these
 sensations ?  Are they corporeal impressions received prior to sleep
 and the continuances of reflection, or are they the children of an idle
 brain ?   Although  it is not easy to trace an affinity between the
 subjects of our dreams and  our  previous train of thought, yet it is
 more than probable that dreams  are excited by impressions experi-
 enced in our waking moments, and retransmitted to the sensorium,
 however difficult it may be to link the connections of our ideas, and
 trace their imperceptible catenation.  Moreover, there does not exist
 a necessary and regular association in the state of mind that succeeds
 any particular impressions.  These impressions only predispose the
 mind to certain ideas,  which act upon it with more or less irregularity,
 according to the condition the  predisposing causes  have left it in.
 It has been observed that we seldom dream of the  objects of  our
 love or antipathies.   Such dreams may not be the natural results of
 such sentiments.  We may fondly love a woman, and in  our dreams
 transfer this  soft sensation of fondness  to another individual, to  a
 dog that fondles us, or  any other  pleasing object.  We  may have
 experienced  fear—in a storm at sea ;  yet we may not dream  of
 being tossed  about in  a boat, but of being mounted upon a runaway
 horse who hurries us  to destruction, or of flying from a falling aval-
 anche.  Our mind had been predisposed by fear to receive any terrific
 impression, and  most probably these alarming  phantasms will be of a
 chimerical and  an extravagant nature.  A man who has been bitten
 by a dog may fancy himself in the coils of a boa constrictor.  When
 dreaming, the mind is in an abstracted state ;  but still is its recipro-
 cal influence  over the body manifest, although  it  is powerless on
 volition.  Vigilance in sleep is still awake ; but her assistance is of
 no  avail until the connexion between mind and body is aroused by
 any alarm from external agents.  It is well  known  that a hungry
 man will  dream of an  ample repast.  A patient with a blister on
 his head has  fancied himself scalped by Indians in all their fantastic
 ornaments.   Somnambulism  clearly proves that  the mind retains
 its energies in  sleep.   Locke has justly observed that dreams  are
 made up of the waking man's ideas, although oddly put together.
 Hartley is of opinion that dreams are nothing but the reveries  of
 sleeping men, and  are  deducible from  the impressions and ideas
 lately received, the state of the  body, and association.   I have  en-
 deavoured to explain on the ground of the general effects of predis-
 position the anomalies which so often are displayed in these associa-
tions.  Of the surprising powers of the  mind in somnambulism we 
204         CURIOSITIES OF MEDICAL EXPERIENCE.

have many instances too well authenticated to be doubted.   Henricus
ab Heeres was in the habit of composing in his sleep, reading aloud
his productions, expressing his satisfaction, and calling to his chamber
fellow to join in the  commendation.  Caelius Rhodiginus, when
busied in  his interpretation of Pliny, could  only find the proper
signification of  the word ectrapali in his slumbers.  There is not
the least doubt but that the mind is capableof receivingimpressions of
knowledge, but more particularly inspirations of  genius, when the
body is lulled in a state  of apparent repose.  Dreams  have been
ingeniously compared to a drama defective in  the laws of unity, and
unconnected  by constant  anachronisms.   Yet certain incoherences
are not frequent:  Darwin has justly remarked that a woman will
seldom dream that she is a  soldier, and  a  soldier's visions will
seldom expose him to the apprehensions of child-birth.   Buffon has
truly observed,  " We represent to ourselves persons whom we have
never seen, and such as have been dead for many years ; we behold
them alive and  such as they were, but we associate them with actual
things, or with  persons  of other times.   It  is the same with our
ideas of locality; we see things not where they were, but elsewhere,
where they never could have been."
   Dugald Steward has  endeavoured to account for these phenomena
by the doctrine that in sleep the operations  of the mind are sus-
pended, and that therefore the cause of dreams is the loss of power
of the will over the mind, which in the waking condition is subject
to its control.   Now, if this  be the case, dreams must  consist of
mental operations independent of the will.  However, it is not the
suspension of the will and of the powers of volition that alone con-
stitutes sleep ;  it is the suspension of the powers of the understand-
ing,—attention, comparison, memory, and judgment.  It is in con-
sequence of this suspension of all our active intellectual faculties that
we never can will during our dreams ; in that  state there appears
to be a resistance of the powers of volition,  with which the mind
struggles in  vain, and which is expressed both by moans, and the
character of the sleeper's every feature, which portrays  a state of
anguish and impatience.   In all dreams  that  are  not of a morbid
nature, every action is passive, involuntary.   This state is widely
different from delirium, in which the brain is in a morbid  state of
excitement ;  and the body is more susceptible than usual of external
agency, while the mind is perplexed by hallucinations of an errone-
ous nature.
   Dr. Abercrombie  considers insanity and dreaming as  having  a
remarkable  affinity when considered as  mental  phenomena ; the
impressions in the one case being more or less permanent, and tran-
sient in the other. Somnambulismheconsiders,an intermediate state.
Dreams,according to his theory, are divided into four classes; the first,
when recent events and recent mentalemotionsaremixed up with each
other, and with old events, by some feeling  common to both; the
second class relates to trains of images brought up by association with
bodily sensations ; the third, the result of forgotten associations; and 
ON DREAMS.
205
the fourth class of dreams contains those in which a strong propen-
sity of character, or a strong mental emotion, is embodied in a dream,
and by some natural coincidence is fulfilled.  The following inter-
esting cases that fell under Dr. A.'s immediate notice, illustrate his
views and the above classification.
  Regarding the first  class, Dr. A. relates  the following : " A wo-
man who was  a  patient in  the clinical ward  of the  infirmary of
Edinburgh, under the care of Dr. Duncan, talked a great deal in her
sleep, and made numerous  and very distinct allusion  to the cases
of other sick persons.   These allusions did not apply to any patients
who were in the ward at  the time ; but, after some  observation,
they were found to  refer correctly to the cases of individuals  who
were there when  this woman was a patient in the ward two years
before."
   The following is an instance of phantasms being produced by our
associations with bodily sensations, and tends to show how alive our
faculties continue  during sleep to the slightest impressions :
   The subject of this observation was an officer in the expedition to
Louisburg in 1758, who had this peculiarity in so remarkable  a
degree, that his companions  in  the transport were in  the constant
habit of amusing  themselves at his expense.   They could produce
in him any kind  of dream  by whispering  in  his ear, especially if
this was done by  a friend with whose voice he had become familiar.
One time they conducted him through the whole  progress  of  a
quarrel, which ended in a duel ; and when the parties were supposed
to have met, a pistol was put into his hand, which he fired, and was
awakened by  the report.  On another occasion they found  him
asleep on the top  of a locker in the cabin, when they made  him
believe he had fallen overboard, and exhorted him to save himself by
swimming.  They then told him that a shark was pursuing him, and
entreated him to dive for his life.  He instantly did so, and with so
much force as to throw himself from the locker upon the cabin floor,
by which he was much bruised, and awakened of course.  After the
landing of the army at Louisburg, his friends found him one day
asleep in his tent, and evidently much annoyed by the cannonading.
They then made him believe that he was engaged, when  he expressed
great fear, and showed an evident disposition to run away.  Against
this they remonstrated, but at the same time increased  his fears by
imitating the groans of the wounded and the  dying ; and when he
asked, as he often  did, who was hit, they named his particular friends.
At last they told  him that the man next himself in his company had
fallen, when he instantly sprung from his bed, rushed out of the
tent, and was roused from his danger and his dream by falling over
the tent-ropes.  A remarkable thing in this case was, that after these
experiments he had no distinct recollection of his dreams, but  only
a confused feeling of oppression or fatigue, and used to tell his friends
that he  was sure they  had been playing some trick upon him.  It
has been observed that we seldom feel courageous or daring in our
   August, 1838.—/             20 
CURIOSITIES OF MEDICAL EXPERIENCE.
dreams, and generally avoid danger when menaced by a foe, or ex-
posed to any probable peril.
  The third class of dreams relates to the revival of forgotten as-
sociations.   The person in question was at the time connected with
one of the principal banks in Glasgow, and  was at his place at the
tellers' table, where money is paid, when a person entered demanding
payment of a sum of six pounds.  There were several people waiting,
who were in turn entitled to  be attended to  before him ; but he
was  remarkably impatient and  rather noisy, and being besides  a
remarkable stammerer, he became so annoying, that another gentle-
man requested him to pay the money and get rid of him.  He did
so accordingly, but with an expression of impatience at being obliged
to attend to him before his turn, and thought no more of the  trans-
action.  At the end  of the year, which was eight or nine months
after, the books of the bank could not be made to balance, the de-
ficiency being exactly six pounds.  Several days and  nights had
been spent in endeavouring to discover the  error, but without suc-
cess, when  my friend returned home  much fatigued, and went to
bed.  He dreamt of being at his place  in the  bank,  and the  whole
transaction of the stammerer,  as now detailed, passed before him in
all its particulars.  He awoke under  the full impression that the
dream  would lead him to the  discovery of what he was so anxiously
in search of, and on examination  he soon discovered  that he had
neglected to enter the sum which he had thus paid.
  The following singular dreams are  examples of the  fourth  class.
A clergyman had come to Edinburgh from a short distance  in the
country, and was sleeping at an inn, when he dreamt of seeing a fire,
and one of his children in the midst of it.  He awoke with the im-
pression, and instantly left  town  on  his return  home.  When he
arrived in sight of his house, he found it on fire, and  got there in
time to assist in saving one of his children, who in  the alarm and
confusion had been left in a situation of danger.
  A gentleman in Edinburgh was affected with  aneurism of the
popliteal  artery, for which  he was under the care of  two eminent
surgeons, and the day was fixed  for the operation.  About two days
before  the appointed  time, the wife of the patient dreamt that a fa-
vourable change had  taken place in the disease, in  consequence of
which  the operation would not be required.   On examining the tu-
mour in the morning, the gentleman was astonished to  find that the
pulsation  had entirely ceased, and, in short, this turned out to be a
spontaneous cure,—a very rare occurrence in surgical practice.
  The following dream is still  more remarkable.   A lady dreamt
that an aged female relative had been murdered by a black servant,
and the dream occurred more than once.  She was then so impressed
by it, that she went to the house of  the lady, and prevailed upon a
gentleman to watch in an adjoining room during the following night.
About three o'clock  in the morning, the gentleman,  hearing foot-
steps on the stairs, left his place of concealment, and met the servant
carrying up a quantity of coals.   Being questioned  as to where he 
ON DREAMS.
207
 was going, he replied, in a hurried and confused manner, that he
 was going to mend his mistress's fire, which at three o'clock in the
 morning, in the middle of summer, was evidently impossible ; and,
 on farther investigation, a strong knife was found concealed beneath
 the coals.
  Dreams to whatever causes they may be attributed, vary according
 to the nature of our sleep : if it is sound and natural, they will sel-
 dom prevail; if, on the contrary, it be broken and uneasy, by a spon-
 taneous association dreams will become fanciful, and  might indeed
 be called visions, so fantastic and chimerical are all the objects that
 present themselves in  motley groups to the disturbed mind.   This
 derangement in the sensorium  may be referred to various physical
 causes,—the  sensations of heat or of cold, obstruction in the course
 of the circulation of the blood, as when lying upon the back, a diffi-
 cult digestion.   In a sound sleep our dreams are seldom remembered
 except in a vague manner  ; whereas, in a broken sleep, as Formey
 has observed, the impression of the dream remains upon the mind,
 and  constitutes what  this philosopher called  " the  lucidity of
 dreams."   It  not  unfrequently  happens to us that we have had a
 similar  dream several times, or at least we labour under this impres-
 sion ; nay, many persons fancy that particular  events of their life at
 the moment  of their occurrence had clearly taken place at a former
 period either in reality or in a dream.   Morning " winged dreams"
 are more easily remembered  in  their circumstantial  vagaries than
 those of the preceding night, for at that  period (the  morning) our
 sleep  is not sound, and dreams become  more  lucid.  These revas-
 series, as the French call  them, are admirably described by Dryden:
             A dream o'ertook me at my waking hour
             This morn, and dreams they say are then divine,
             When all the balmy vapours are exhal'd,
             And some o'erpow'ring god continues sleep.
 That  we are more or less  impressionable  in our sleep is rendered
 evident by the facility with which even a sound sleeper is disturbed
 by the slightest noise : the sparkling of a fire,  or the crackling pro-
 duced by the wick of our night-lamp when coming into contact with
 the water in  the glass, the sting of an  insect, the slightest admission
 of a higher or lower temperature, will occasion  a broken sleep and
 its dreams.   It has been remarked that the sense of seeing is more
 frequently  acted upon in dreams than that of hearing, and very sel-
 dom do we find our smell and taste  under their  influence.   It is
 possible that this peculiarity may arise from  the greater variety of
 impressions with which the sight is daily struck, and which memory
 communicates by association or re-transmission.   Next  to feeling,
 vision is the  first sense brought into relation with external objects.
 When we hear noises,  explosions, tumultuous  cries, it is more than
 probable that our dreams partake of a delirious and morbid nature,
 or of  sensorial or intellectual  hallucinations,  in which the mind is
 actually diseased, and our perceptions become erroneous: then we
speak loudly to others and to  ourselves.   When these hallucinations
prevail after sleep, the  invasion of mania may  be apprehended. 
CURIOSITIES OF MEDICAL EXPERIENCE.
  Cabanis, in  his curious investigations on  the  mind, has endea-
voured to fix the order in which the different parts of our organisa-
tion go to sleep.   First the legs and arms, then the muscles that sup-
port the head and  back :  the first sense that slumbers, according to
his  notions, is that of sight; then follow in regular succession the
senses of taste, smell, hearing, and feeling.   The viscera fall asleep
one after the other, but with different degrees of soundness.   If this
doctrine be correct, we may easily conceive the wild and strange in-
consistencies of our dreams, during which the waking and the sleep-
ing organs are acting and reacting upon each other.
  Corporeal  sensations and different organic actions frequently at-
tend our  dreams ; but these may be attributed to our mode of living,
or the indulgence in certain unruly desires and conversations. That
man and  animals dream of the pursuits of the preceding day there
can be no doubt: hence the line,
                Et canis in somnis leporis vestigia latrat.

  The effects of a  heavy meal, more especially a  supper, in dis-
turbing our rest, was well known and recorded by ancient physicians;
and Crato tells us " that the fittest time  to  repair to rest is two or
three  hours after supper, when the meat is then settled in the bottom
of the stomach ; and 'tis good to lie on the  right side  first, because
at that side the liver doth rest  under the stomach, not molesting
any way, but heating him as  a  fire doth a  kettle that is put to it.
After the first sleep 'tis not amiss to lie upon the left side, that the
meat  may the better descend ;  and sometimes  again  on the belly,
but never on the back."
  Our ancestors had recourse  to various devices to procure sound
sleep  :  Borde recommends a good draught of strong  drink before
going to  bed ; Burton, a nutmeg and ale, with a good  potation of
muscadine with a.toast; while JGtius recommends a sup of vinegar,
which, according to Piso, "attenuat melancholiam et ad concili-
andum somnum juvat."  Oppression from repletion will occasion
fearful dreams  and the  night-mare ;  and  bodily sufferings, when
exhaustion has brought on sleep, will also be attended with  alarming
and painful visions.
  Levinus Lemnius recommended to sleep with  the mouth shut, to
promote  a  regular digestion by  the exclusion of  too much external
air.   The night-mare is admirably described in Dryden's translation
of Virgil :
            'And as, when heavy sleep has closed the  sight,
             The sickly fancy labours in the night,
             We seem to run, and, destitute of force,
             Our sinking limbs forsake us in the course:
             In vain we heave for breath; in vain we cry ;   ~)
             The nerves unbraced their usual strength deny,  >
             And on the tongue the falt'ring accents die.  "  )
  In  the Runic theology it was regarded as  a spectre of the night,
which seized  men  in their sleep, and suddenly deprived them of
speech and motion.   It was vulgarly called  witch-riding,  and con- 
ON DREAMS.
209
 sidered as arising from the weight of fuliginous spirits incumbent
 on the breast.  Somnus ut sit levis, sit  tibi ccena  brevis, is the
 ancient axiom of our distich
                   That your sleep may be light,
                   Let your supper be slight.
   Notwithstanding this rule of health, it  is nevertheless true that
 many persons sleep more soundly after a hearty supper ; and, most
 unquestionably, dreams are more frequent towards morning  than
 towards the beginning of the night.  In my opinion, I should ap-
 prehend that the sound sleep of supper-eaters is to be attributed to
 the narcotic nature of their potations more than the meal, although
 the siesta of' southern countries would militate in favour of a con-
 trary opinion.
   When philosophers speak of  dreams being mental operations in-
 dependent of the will, they speak vaguely, for the operations of the
 mind when we are awake are too frequently uncontrolled by volition.
 Did we possess this power over our rebellious thoughts, who would
 constantly ponder on  a painful subject?   Our thoughts cannot be
 suspended at will, and their influence has been beautifully described
 by Shakspeare :
               My brain I'll prove the female to my soul,
               My soul the father ; and these two beget
               A generation of still breeding thoughts.
   Volition has no more power over thought when we are awake
 than  sleeping ;  and,  despite all metaphysical and psychological
 speculations, it cannot be demonstrated that the mind does not retain
 its full energies  during sleep, only  they cease to be regulated by
 judgment, and  are  not, to  use  Locke's words, under the rule and
 conduct of the understanding ; and even on this opinion it has been
 fairly observed that much of incongruity which is supposed to prove
 suspension of reason,  and much of the  wild  discordancy of repre-
 sentation which appears to  prevail during our sleep, may arise from
 the defect of memory when we are awake, that does not retain the
 impression of images  which have passed  across  the mind  in light
 and rapid  succession, and which, therefore, exhibit but a partial and
 imperfect  sketch of the picture that engaged  the attention in sleep.
 The well-known fact that the impressions of our dreams are often-
times more vivid and  correct when some time has elapsed  than on
our awakening, tends to  confirm this hypothesis ;  and these re-
collections are the more vivid when  they  bear any analogy  to
 circumstances that come to pass.
   Sir Thomas Brown was of opinion that  sleep was the waking of
 the soul ;  the ligation of sense, but the liberty of reason ; and that
our waking  conceptions do not  match the fancies of our sleep.   He
thus expresses himself in his Religio  Medici:  " At my nativity
my ascendent was the watery sign of Scorpius ;  I was born in the
planetary  hour of Saturn, and I think I have a piece of that leaden
planet in me.   I am no  way facetious, nor disposed for the mirth
and galliardise of company ; yet in one  dream I can  compose a
                              20* 
210
CURIOSITIES OF MEDICAL EXPERIENCE.
whole  comedy, behold the action, apprehend the jests, and laugh
myself awake at the conceits thereof.   Were my memory as faithful
as my reason is then fruitful, I would never study but in my dreams,
and this time also would I choose for my devotions;  but our grosser
memories have then so little hold of  our abstracted  understandings
that they forget the story, and can only relate to our awaked souls
a confused and broken tale of that, that hath passed."
   Dreams have been considered  as prescriptive in various diseases.
Diodorus  Siculus  relates that a certain  Scythian dreamed  that
iEsculapius had drawn the humours of his  body to one place, or
head, to have it lanced.   When Galen had  an  inflammation of the
diaphragm, we are  told that he was  directed in a dream  to  open a
vein between the thumb and the fourth finger,—an operation which
restored him to health.  Marcus Antoninus asserted that he learned
in his dreams various remedies for spitting of blood.   It is related
of Sir Christopher Wren, that, when at Paris in 1671, being dis-
ordered with "a pain  in  his  reins," he sent  for a  physician, who
prescribed blood-letting ; but he  deferred  submitting to it, and
dreamed that very night that he was in a place  where palm-trees
grew, and that a woman  in a romantic  habit  offered dates to him.
The next day he sent for dates, which cured him.   Now, although
this cure, brought about by a dream, was considered wonderful, its
circumstances offer nothing supernatural.  It is more than probable
that Sir  Christopher had frequently read, in foreign  works on
medicine, that dates were recommended as an efficacious remedy in
nephritic  complaints ; and moreover  met in his daily perambulations
female quacks, who exhibit themselves to this day in the French
metropolis, fantastically  attired, and vending  their far-famed nos-
trums.  That  he  should have  remembered  dates, and that  the
phantasm of the she-mountebank might  at the same time have struck
his fancy, were two associations by no means improbable.'
   It is very likely that all the strange stories of  prophetic  dreams
might be traced to a  similar connexion of ideas.  I  have before
observed  that dreams do  not always  assume their complexion from
recent occurrences, and our bodily sufferings  during sleep bring to
our recollection every circumstance that  regards the  malady.  A
patient who had  a bottle of hot water  placed at his feet dreamed
that he was walking in great agony in the burning lava  of Vesuvius.
 Similar associations exist when awake :  the man whose arm has
been amputated  constantly refers  the pain he experiences to the
lost hand, or to that part of the limb which received  the injury ; and
the very same nervous illusion prevails  during his slumbers.
   In various diseases the nature and the period of  the invasion of
 dreams afford a valuable  ground of observation to the physician both
 in his diagnosis and prognosis of the  case.   In incipient hydro-
 thorax, for instance, dreams occur the very moment the patient falls
 asleep, and he fancies himself suffocated  by some  impending and
 destructive weight.   Diseases  of the  heart  are accompanied by
 alarming dreams, from which the  patient starts up  in  great terror.
 In children the perturbation of their sleep frequently indicates the 
ON FLAGELLATION.
211
seat of their sufferings ; and the valuable researches on the nervous
system by Charles Bell have enabled the medical attendent to read
in the features of  a sleeping infant, whether the malady be in the
head, the cavity of the chest, or the abdomen.
  If proof were wanting that dreams arise from our waking thoughts,
it might be found in the circumstance of those sleepers who divulge
their secrets, and  verify the lines of Shakspeare :
              There are a kind of men so loose of soul,
              That in their sleep will mutter their affairs.
Reason, therefore, prompts us  to  reject the idea of dreams being
preternatural  suggestions.   In  general,  we may consider them  as a
morbid excitement of the brain, arising either from moral or phy-
sical causes, and depending essentially on the condition of our mind
and body.  Our most lively hopes are  ever linked with fears  that
prey upon us even when  most secure ;  and these  apprehensions,
recurring in  our dreams, prove too often prophetic of the very
events we dreaded.   The prejudices of early education shed around
these forewarnings circumstantial incidents ; and fear is the greatest
ally of superstition.
                  ON  FLAGELLATION.

  Amongst the various moral and physical remedies introduced by
priesthood and physicians for the benefit of society, flagellation once
held a most distinguished rank.   As a remedy, it was supposed to
reanimate the torpid circulation of the capillary  or  cutaneous ves-
sels, to increase  muscular  energy, promote absorption, and favour
the necessary secretions of our nature.  No doubt, in many instances,
its action as a revulsive maybe beneficial; and urtication,or the sting-
ing with nettles, has not unfrequently been prescribed with advan-
tage.  As a religious discipline, for such has this system of morti-
fication been  called, it has been considered  as most acceptable to
Heaven ; so much so, indeed, that the fustigation  was commensurate
with the sinner's offence.  Under the head of Demonomania I have
endeavoured to show that whipping was equally agreeable to the evil
spirit, who delighted in flogging the elect.
  It appears that at this period a belief prevailed that heavenly
mercy restored  the grace that  had been forfeited,  commuting for
temporal  punishment  that  which else  would have been eternal.
The monks of Fonte Avellana, for instance, had  decreed that thirty
psalms said or sung, with an accompaniment of one  hundred stripes
to each psalm, would be considered  as a set-off for one year of pur-
gatory ;  and, by this calculation, the whole psalter, which  would
have demanded fifteen thousand stripes, would have  procured  a
relief of five years from the fiery ordeal.  It was no doubt under
this impression that St. Dominic  the Cuirassier,  so named from his
wearing day and night an iron cuirass next his skin, and which he 
212
CURIOSITIES OF MEDICAL EXPERIENCE.
never took off, having adopted this same covering when, upon en-
tering  into priest's orders, his  parents presented the bishop who
ordained him with a rich furred garment, an offence which the holy
man wished to atone for by donning an iron vestment.
  This said madman belonged to the congregation of Fonte  Avel-
lana, the monks of which never touched either wine or oil, and,
during five days of the week, lived  upon bread and water ;  more-
over, every day after service they flogged each other.  Dominic, in
extenuation of his family's offence in having presented his diocesan
with a luxurious gown, lashed himself at the  rate of ten psalters,
and thirty -thousand lashes per diem ; by which he calculated that
he was redeeming three thousand six hundred and fifty years of
purgatorial torments per annum: but, in addition to this wholesome
allowance, he humbly petitioned his superior  to  allow him, during
Lent, a supplementary punishment of one hundred years, when his
day's work, was two psalters and  a  half, and thirty-four  thousand
five hundred lashes.  This  punishment did not seem sufficient in
his eyes to propitiate the Creator : and St. Pietro Damiano informs
us that during the Lenten days he actually recited the psalter two
hundred times, with a crescendo accompaniment of sixty millions
of stripes.  It was on this occasion  that Yepes shrewdly observed
that he marvelled  less at  a man's  head being able to  retain so
many verses than his  arm being able to  carry on such a  flagel-
lation ; or, to  use  his  own  words, how his flesh, unless made of
iron, could  resist such  a castigation :  but this blessed man must
have been  endowed with powers that were increased by exertion,
since we find that his ambition gave him such energy, that once
beginning his operations in the evening, and  singing and flogging
and flogging and singing, con amore, through the day and night, at
the expiration of twenty-four hours he had gone through the psalms
twelve times, begun them a thirteenth time,  and proceeded as far
as Beati quorum, the thirty-second  psalm ;  having inflicted upon
himself one hundred and eighty-three thousand one hundred stripes,
thereby reducing  purgatorial stock to the amont of sixty-one years,
twelve days, and thirty three minutes, to a fraction.
   It would be perfectly idle and absurd for any free-thinker to doubt
this fact, recorded by an eye-witness,—Pietro Damiano, a saint, and
moreover a cardinal ;  and Calmet himself maintains that no man
should dare to doubt a saint's assertion, more especially when speak-
ing of another beatified person.  Notwithstanding this assertion, a
stiff-necked arithmetician calculated that, if during these twenty-four
hours the saint had  given himself two blows every second, the num-
ber of lashes would only have amounted to one hundred and seventy-
two thousand eight hundred, being ten thousand three hundred short
of his bargain with Heaven !  However, this difficulty was overcome
by Father Castaniza, who makes up the amount by maintaining that
he made use of cats with ten tails, and therefore had actually' a bal-
ance in his favour in his winding-sheet*
  * As this worthy never took off his cuirass, it may be shrewdly suspected that
his lashes were such as our old friend Sancho Panca inflicted on the tree. 
ON FLAGELLATION.
213
    Ubi stimulus ibi affluxus has been a physiologic axiom since
  the days of Hippocrates; and flagellation thus employed is only a
  modification of blistering, or exciting the skin by any other irritating
  method.  The moral influence  of flagellation  in  the treatment of
  different  diseases has  been appreciated  by the  ancients: it was
  strongly recommended  by the disciples of  Asclepiades, by Caelius
  Aurelianus, and since by Rhasis and Valescus, in  the treatment of
  mania.  No doubt, the  terror which  this castigation  inspires may
  tend  materially to facilitate the management of  the insane.  To
  the present day this  opinion  has prevailed to a revolting degree,
  and it is  no easy  matter for the humane physician to convince a
  keeper of the  cruelty or inutility of this practice ; yet seldom or
  never does this harsh management become necessary.  I had charge
  of a military lunatic asylum for a considerable  time, and, with one
  exception, never found  myself warranted in causing corporal pun-
  ishment to be inflicted, notwithstanding the association of ideas of
  discipline which such a chastisement must  have produced  amongst
  men, then exposed to the capricious infliction of the lash.   The case
  I allude to was one of a Serjeant N—, who had twice attempted my
  life, and who fully remembered every circumstance in the remissions
«  of his malady ; so much so, indeed, that doubts were entertained in
  the minds of the casual  visitor as to the real condition of his mental
  faculties.   To return from this digression :  the authoritative power
  of man over the brute creation is daily witnessed, even with unruly
  and ferocious animals ;  and there, no doubt, are cases where bodily
  punishment becomes indispensable, when the  body will feel what
  the judgment cannot comprehend.  Boerhaave relates the case of a
  hypochondriac who swore that his legs were made  of straw ; but an
  officious servant-maid,  who was sweeping  the room, struck him
  across the shins with her broomstick, and soon brought him to a sense
  of his erroneous impression.
    Flagellation draws the circulation from the centre of our system
  to its  periphery.   It has been  known in a fit of ague to dispel  the
  cold stage.  Galen had observed that horse-dealers were in the habit
  of bringing their  horses into high condition by a moderate fustiga-
  tion; and therefore recommended this practice to give embonpoint
  to the lean.  AntoniusMusa treated a sciatica of Octavius Augustus
  by this process.  Elidaeus Paduanus  recommends flagellation or ur-
  tication when the eruption of  exanthematic  diseases is slow in  its
  development.   Thomas Campanella  records the case of a gentleman
  whose bowels could not be relieved without his having been previ-
  ously whipped.
    Irritation of the skin  has been often observed to  be productive of
  similar effects.  The erotic irregularities of  lepers  is well authenti-
  cated ;  and various other  cutaneous diseases, which procure  the
  agreeable relief that scratching affords, have brought on the most
  pleasurable sensations.  There  exists a curious letter of Abelard to
  his Eloisa, in which he says, "Verbera quandoque dabat amor, non
  furor  ; gratia, non ira; quae omnium unguentorum suavitatem trans-
  cenderent." 
214          CURIOSITIES OF MEDICAL EXPERIENCE.
   This effect of flagellation may be easily referred to the powerful
 sympathy that exists  between the nerves of the lower part of the
 spinal marrow and other organs.  Artificial excitement appears in
 some degree natural : it is observed in various animals, especially in
 the feline tribe.   Even  snails plunge  into each  other a bony and
 prickly spur that arises from their throats, and which, like the sting
 of the wasp, frequently breaks off and is left in the wound.
   In the  monastic orders of both sexes, flagellation became a refined
 art.   Flagellation  was of two species, the upper and  the lower ; the
 upper inflicted upon the shoulders, the lower chiefly resorted to
 when females were to be fustigated.  This mode was adopted, accord-
 ing to their assertions, from the accidents that might have happened
 in the upper flagellation, where the twisting lash might have injured
 the sensitive bosom.   In addition to  this device, nudity was also
 insisted upon.  In the article Demonomania I have recorded various
 abominations of the kind.  Nor was it only amongst religious orders
 and  their followers that this custom obtained.   It was practised by
 ladies of high rank  amongst  their commensals and attendants.
 Brantome gives  us a curious and quaint account of this amusing
 castigation.  Mademoiselle de  Limeuil, one  of the queen's  maids '
 of honour, was flagellated for having written a pasquinade, in com- ,
 pany with all the young ladies who had been privy to the composi-
 tion.  And on another occasion he tells us :  " Jai oui' parler  d'une
 grande dame de par le monde, voire  grandissime, mariee et veuve,
 qui faisait depouiller  ses dames et filles, je dis les plus belles, et se
 delectait fort a les voir, et puis  elle les  battait du plat de la  main,
 avec de grandes clacquades et blamuses assez rudes ; et les filles qui
 avaient delinqu6 en quelque chose, avec de bonnes  verges, et  elle
 les clacquait ainsi selon le sujet qu'elles lui en  donnaient, pour les
 faire ou rire ou pleurer."
   The minions of Henri III. of  France,  and other princes, were
 decked in white robes, then stripped and whipped in procession for
 the gratification of their royal masters.   Not unfrequently the ladies
 themselves were the executioners in cases where any man had  offen-
 ded them ; and the adventure of Clopinel the poet is  worth relating.
 This unfortunate wight had written the following lines on the  fair
 sex :
                    Toutes etes, serez, ou futes,
                    De fait ou de volonte, putes;
                    Et qui bien vous chercherait
                    Toutes putes vous trouverait.

  This libellous effusion  naturally excited  the  indignation of the
ladies at court, who decided that Clopinel  should be flagellated by
the plaintiffs without mercy ; and it is difficult to say to what extent
they might have carried their  vengeance but for a timely witticism
of the culprit, who piteously addressing the angry yet beauteous
group around him  with uplift arm  and  rod, humbly entreated that
the first blow might be struck by the honourable  damsel who felt
herself the most aggrieved.  It is needless to add that not a lash was
inflicted. 
ON LIFE AND THE BLOOD.                215
  Medical men were frequently consulted as to the adoption of the
upper or lower discipline, as flagellation on the shoulders was said to
injure the eye-sight.   It was  from the fear of this accident that the
lower discipline was generally adopted  amongst nuns and female
penitents, as appears by the  following rule : " Quippe cum ea de
causa capucini, multaeque moniales, virorum  medicOrum ac piorum
hominum consilio, ascecism flagellandi sursum humeros reliquerint,
ut sibi nates lumbosque strient asperatis virgis, hac nodosis funiculis
conscribillent."
  In a medicinal point of view, urtication, or stinging with nettles,
is a practice not sufficiently appreciated.   In many instances, espe-
cially in cases of paralysis, it is more efficacious than blistering or
stimulating frictions.  Its effects, although perhaps less permanent,
are more general and diffused over the limb.  This process has been
found effectual in restoring heat to the lower extremities ;  and a case
of obstinate lethargy was cured by Corvisart by repeated  urtication
of the whole body.   During the action of the stimulus, the patient,
who was a  young  man, would  open his  eyes  and laugh, but  sink
again into  profound sleep.   However, in three weeks his perfect
cure was obtained.
              ON  LIFE  AND  THE BLOOD.

   The life of all flesh is the blood thereof.   On this doc-
trine, expressed  in the Mosaic books, many of the  olden writers
founded their hypothesis that blood was the principle  of life.   It is,
however, more than probable that this opinion was derived  from a
more ancient ritual than the Levitical  code, since we  find a  similar
belief among  the  Parsees, Hindoos, and other Oriental nations of
very remote antiquity, and who no doubt owed the practice of ab-
staining from blood to the early patriarchs.
   The Greeks and the Romans, if we take  the expressions of their
poets as being conclusive, entertained similar notions  regarding the
vital fluid ; and the "purple death" of Homer and " the purple life"
of Virgil, are phrases evidently applicable to this theory, which
Critias, Empedocles,and their sects maintained.   This opinion, how-
ever, does not appear to have dictated  the expressions made use of
by Moses.   When he says " the life of all flesh is the blood thereof,"
it merely signifies  that when the  blood is abstracted death ensues ;
a circumstance that must have been daily and hourly observed.  It
is probable that this injunction was promulgated  to check the bar-
barous custom of devouring raw meat, which seems to have prevailed
long before the Jewish legislator.  We read in Genesis, ix. 4, " Flesh
with the life thereof, which is the blood thereof, shall  you not eat."
From this circumstance we may infer  that, like the Abyssinians of
Bruce's time, the Jews were in the habit of tearing and cutting flesh 
CURIOSITIES OF MEDICAL EXPERIENCE.
from live animals.  Saul's army was guilty of a similar practice.  It
therefore behoved their legislators to oppose a custom that increased
the natural ferocity  and cruelty of the nation they ruled.
  This theory of the ancients has been frequently revived in modern
times, and  has not a little contributed  to  increase the mystery that
veils the nature of our existence.  Harvey, who discovered the cir-
culation of the blood, was a convert to this doctrine; Hoffman also
adopted it; and  Huxham not only  fully believed  in it, but sought
the immediate part of the blood that constituted life, and fancied that
he had discovered it in its red particles.   It was John Hunter, how-
ever, who first established the system  on anything like a rational
basis, although his arguments on the subject have led to much doubt
and illiberal controversy.   " The difficulty," says he, " of conceiv-
ing that blood is  endowed with life while circulating, arises merely
from its  being a  fluid, and the mind's not being accustomed to the
idea of a living  fluid.   I shall endeavour," he continues, "to show
that organisation  and life do not in the least depend upon each other;
that organisation may arise out of living parts and produce action;
but that life can never arise out of  or  produce organisation."   The
errors of this doctrine are  obvious, and  have led many ingenious
physiologists  into a maze of idle wandering.  The fact is, that life
is the instrument of organisation, or, in other words, organisation is
the result of life.   The embryo could not be developed, did not the
fluid that animates it possess a principle of vitality which it commu-
nicates to a body previously organised.  In this confusion the word
"life" has  sometimes been applied  to the  power, and at others to the
result.   Without organisation  life  cannot be transmitted; and the
moment the principle of life ceases, a disorganisation more or less
rapid ensues.
   The Greeks had distinct appellations for this cause and result; the
former they termed psuche, the latter zoe.   The essential nature of
life is, and most probably will ever remain, an impenetrable mystery.
Living matter is endowed with a property which we call life; but
to find  out to what we may venture to attribute  this property is a
vain and hypothetical attempt.  Equally  vain and absurd have been
the endeavours to ascertain whether life  began at the creation to be
subsequently transmitted from parent to offspring, or owed its origin
to a spontaneous generation from  matter.   Many ancient philoso-
phers  considered matter as eternal :  such was the doctrine of the
Pythagoreans; amongst whom we  must particularly notice Lucanus
Ocellus, whose  system, developed  in a work  written  in  the Attic
dialect, was adopted by Aristotle,  Plato, and Philo-Judaeus.   This
work was  first translated into Latin by Nogarola.   These doctrines
led to the  unanswerable question, What was this matter—this invisa
materia—from  which everything visible has proceeded ?  Has it
 existed from all eternity, or has it been called into being by the Cre-
 ator?   Has it uniformly exhibited its present harmonious arrange-
 ment, or was it once a waste and shapeless chaos ?   Was this matter
 endowed with intelligence as a whole, or in its separate fractions? 
ON LIFE AND THE BLOOD.
217
  The eternity of matter was maintained by these philosophers, from
the belief that no thing could be created out of nothing, and that
no thing could ever return to nonentity.   Such was the  doctrine
of the Epicureans, of Democritus, and Aristotle.  The poets were of
the same belief;  and Lucretius expresses himself as follows :
                       Ubi viderimus nihil posse creari
             De nihilo, tunc, quod sequimur, jam rectius inde
             Perspiciemus.

Persius  maintains the same idea:
                                 Gigni
             De nihilo nil, in nihilum nil posse reverti.
  This  dogma was no  doubt transmitted to the Greeks  from the
East; and  to the present day it is a doctrine of the Brahminical
creed, clearly expressed in the following terms in their YajurVeid :
" The ignorant assert that the universe in the beginning did not exist
in its author, and that it was created out of  nothing.  0 ye, whose
hearts are pure !  how could something arise out of nothing?"  The
fathers of the church embraced a similar belief; and Justin Martyr
says that " the word of God formed the world out of unfashioned
matter.  This Moses  distinctly asserts,  Plato and his adherents
maintain, and ourselves have been taught to believe."
   Such  was the doctrine of the schools that professed the eternal
nature of matter.   Other philosophers supported as warmly a differ-
ent opinion.   Thales of Miletus, Zeno of  Citium, Xenocrates, and
Dicearchus the Messenian, insisted that the human race had a first
origin, at a period when mankind did not exist.  According to this
hypothesis, the universe is an emanation or extension of the essence
of the Creator.  Zeno and the Stoicans attribute this creation to the
universal  elements of fire and water.  Anaximander the  Milesian
asserted that the primitive animals were formed of earth and water
mixed together, heated and animated by the solar rays ; these aquatic
creatures became amphibious, and were gradually transformed into
the human races.   Strange to say, this extraordinary idea has found
proselytes even in our days, and is advocated by Professor De La-
mark in his Zoologic Philosophy.  This fancy pervades the  poetry
of the  ancients.   Homer makes Tethys, the wife  of Ocean, the
daughter of Uranus and Terra, the first parents ; and Hesiod, in his
Cosmogony, raises Venus and Proteus from the foam of the sea.
  The vital and  intellectual  fire of the ancients that animated all
living beings was admitted by most of their physicians, especially
by Hippocrates, Galen, and Aretaeus.   Aristotle describes an uni-
versal creative agent in all the elements, the source of life upon earth,
and  of  the  celestial movements in the firmament.  Descartes, in
modern times, maintained that a vital flame existed  in the heart of
every animal.   This fire, and the genial warmth that it diffused, was
considered the soul of the universe ; and  on this  subject  Gassendi
expresses himself as follows: "Si quis velit  talem  calorem  etiam
animam dicere, nihil est similiter quod vetet."
   August, 1838.—A'          21 
218         CURIOSITIES OF MEDICAL EXPERIENCE.
   It was natural for man, even in an uncivilised state, to attribute to
solar heat the same influence on animals as was manifest in its action
upon  plants.  When life had fled, the inanimate corpse was cold,
and caloric was therefore considered the principle of vitality.   It
was from this conviction that we find that the sun and fire were ob*
jects of adoration  both in ancient times and amongst savages to the
present day.  Fire is idolised by the Tartars, and various  African
tribes.  The Yakouts, a Siberian horde, believe  that the deity of
good and  evil  has taken his abode in this supposed  element.   The
Columbian  Indians were fire-worshippers ; and Pallas informs  us
that the Chinese on the confines of Siberia held it in such religious
respect, that they never attempted  to extinguish it even when their
dwellings were burning.
   The doctrine of  man  and the universe having been  created  an
emanation of the  Creator, renders the Creator material, or matter
itself; matter being considered intelligent, and susceptible of this
organisation.  This was the belief of the Brahmins, and was no doubt
transmitted to the Academic and Eleatic schools of Greece by Py-
thagoras.   We find  in  the Yagur Veid, already alluded to, the fol-
lowing passages, that clearly demonstrate this belief: "The whole
universe is the Creator, proceeds from the Creator, and  returns to
him.   The ignorant assert that the universe in the beginning did not
exist in its author, and that it was  created out of nothing.  0 ye,
whose hearts are pure  ! how could something arise out of nothing ?
This first being alone, and without likeness, was the All in the begin-
ning.  He could multiply himself underdifferent forms.  He created
fire from  his  essence, which is light."   And  farther :  " Thou art
Brahma! thou art Vishnu ! thou art Kodra! thou art the moon!
thou art substance! thou art Djam ! thou art the earth ! thou art the
world!"
   These  Brahminical doctrines were, beyond  doubt, partaken  by
the Greeks.   In a poem ascribed to the fabled  Orpheus we find the
following lines, translated by Mason Good with as much correctness
as elegance:

            Jove first exists, whose thunders roll above,
            Jove last, Jove midmost; all proceeds from Jove.
            Female is Jove—immortal Jove is male;
            Jove the broad earth—the heavens' irradiate pale.
            Jove is the boundless spirit, Jove the fire,
            That warms the world with feeling and desire;
            The sea is Jove, the sun, the lunar ball;
            Jove king supreme, the sovereign source of all.
            All power is his; to him all glory give,
            For his vast form embraces all that live.

   It may be easily imagined that a subject so  recondite and obscure
must have led philosophers into the wildest speculations.   By some,
life was considered  as the result of a general  consent  or harmony
between  the different organs of which the vital  frame is  formed ;
while, as we have seen, many have attributed its phenomena to the 
ON LIFE  AND THE BLOOD.
219
 blood.  That blood, to a certain  extent, is endowed with vitality is
 beyond a doubt;  Hunter has.endeavoured to prove the fact by va-
 rious experiments.   It is capable of being acted  upon and contract-
 ing like the solid  fibres ;  this we  daily witness when blood is coagu-
 lated and  comes into contact with the atmosphere.  It preserves an
 equality of  temperature in whatever medium an  animal may move.
 He also has shown that this fluid can form solid vessels of every
 description ; and  its life is also proved by the death inflicted when
 any excessive stimulus destroys the muscular fibre.   Thus in a body
 struck with lightning, the muscles remain flaccid  and  uncontracted,
 while the blood preserves its fluidity,  and is left uncoagulated.
   All this specious reasoning shows that blood is a living fluid, but
 does  not in  the slightest degree demonstrate to what principle  this
 vitality is to be attributed.   It merely proves that every part of a
 living animal, whether solid or fluid,  is endowed with a certain de-
 gree of life ; but leaves us in impenetrable darkness as to the nature
 of life.  The  one  cannot  be killed without  the other ;  and, as Ma-
 son Good justly observes, " that  which  is at one time alive, and at
 another dead, cannot be life itself."   It is clear that life cannot exist
 without  blood, but at  the same time  it is equally evident that the
 blood is merely a secretion  of the living  system, and  dependent
 upon the action of the solids, which influence its  quantities and pro-
 perties.*

  * The diseases to which the blood is subject was another ground upon which
 the vitality of this fluid was founded.  The  most remarkable kind of diseased
 blood  is that which occurs in cholera, where it is dark, nearly black, even in the
 arteries.  The cause of this phenomenon is by no means decided.  Dr. Thomson
 attributes it to a diseased  condition of the blood, which  unfits it for being duly
 arterialised.   Dr. O'Shaughnessy denies ihe assertion, and proved that choleric
 blood  can be  rendered florid  by the absorption of oxygen.  Dr. Stevens, in his
 treatise on the blood, attributes  this dark appearance to  the contagion of the
 malady, which throws the fluids into a morbid state, the  effect of which is  the
 diminution of the saline matter the healthy blood contains.  He observed that in
cholera hospitals the  blood of all the persons residing in them was also dark.   It
 is, however, more  than probable  that this morbid condition of the blood arises
 from the deranged state of the circulation, and may  be attributed to a disease of
 the solids, which must invariably affect the fluids that they propel with more or
 less energy, flowing in a rapid current, or in a sluggish stream.
  I have fully illustrated this want of oxygen in choleric blood in a work I pub-
lished in BorJeaux, in 1831, entitled Observations sur la nature et le traitement du
Cholera Morbus d'Europe et d'Asie,- and, from several experiments subsequently
made on choleric patients, I feel  convinced that the inspiration of oxygen gas
will be ultimately found the most energetic and effective  practice in combating
this fearful disease.
  By the experiments lately made by Dr. Donne of Paris, it has been found that
the  globules of blood, when submitted to microscopic examination, varied in
magnitude according to the description of animals from which it was drawn.  In
certain diseases  globules of pus have also been detected in the  sanguiferous
stream.  They were larger than those of the blood, and, instead of being defined
by a marginal line, were  fringed on their circumference, and their centre was
striated with interwoven lines.
  The same physiologist discovered animalcules in  the pus of certain ulcers not
dissimilar in appearance  to the vibrio  lineola of Miiller.  Other  animalcules
which  he has named the tricomonas vaginalis, were  also found in great number 
220
CURIOSITIES OF MEDICAL EXPERIENCE.
   It is from this notion of the vitality of the blood that the absurd
idea of transfusing it was  first conceived."  Transfusion consisted in
the injection of the arterial blood of young and healthy animals into
the veins of the aged and the debilitated.  It was about forty years
after the discovery of the circulation by our Harvey that this singu-
lar project was tried upon animals, and afterwards upon  man.    Al-
ready in Germany medicated liquids had been introduced into the
system by this  method, principally by Wahrendorf.  Dr. Christo-
pher Wren, an English physician, was the first who proposed  the
injection of blood, and Dr. Lower put  it  into practice.   The result
of his experiments seemed to warrant their adoption.   An animal
was drained of a considerable proportion of blood, and lay faint and
expiring ;  but the blood of another animal being thrown into  the
languid system, active circulation was  restored, and  the  patient  ran
about with as much facility as before  the experiment.   When  too
great a quantity of blood was injected,  the creature became drowsy,
and  shortly after died of plethora.
  These experiments were reported by the transfusers  with many
absurd details.   In one case, a  simpleton had become  witty by a
supply of lamb's blood ; in another, an  old mangy cur was cured by
the vital fluid of  a young spaniel;  a blind old dog, transfused by a
Mr. Gayant,  bounded  and frisked about  like a young pup.   Dr.
Blundel  seriously conceived that this operation might be practised
with great advantage in  cases of  haemorrhage, more especially  in
women.
  When transfusion was first proposed in France,  it met  with
furious  opponents ; and  Lamartiniere  declared that  it was a  bar-
barous operation proceeding from Satan's work-shop.  The contro-
versy between  the transfusers and their adversaries was at length
carried on with such virulence, that in  1668 the practice was forbid-
den by a decree of the  Chatelet,  unless  the  operation  had  been
sanctioned by the faculty  of Paris.   In Italy it continued to be in
vogue.  Riva and Manfredi frequently performed it; and a  phy-
sician of the name of Simboldus submitted himself to the experi-
ment.  According to the accounts given by the patients who  had
been thus  injected, they first  experienced an increased heat with
violent pulsation, profuse  perspiration  with pains in the  loins  and
stomach, and a sense of suffocation.   Violent vomiting frequently
arose, and the patient gradually sank into a torpid and heavy sleep.
Whatever may be the  theoretical  ingenuity in favour of this prac-
tice, it is not probable that it will ever be adopted.
  While young blood was thus supposed to give fresh vigour to the
aged, the heat communicated by young persons  to debilitated bed-
fellows was also  resorted to.   This practice seems to  have  been
founded on observation.   It is an acknowledged fact that an uncom-

when the mucous membranes of the organ, whence the later part of their denomi-
nation was derived, was in a state of inflammation.  These animalculi could not
be detected in healthy mucus.  The knowledge of this influence of inflammation
may lead to many important practical results* 
ON LIFE AND THE BLOOD.
221
<*non depression of vital power takes place in the young when  such
 experiments are tried.  This abstraction of vital power is frequently
 observed in young females married to very old men.  In illustration
 of this fact, Dr. Copeland relates  the following case :  " I was a few
 years since  consulted about a pale, sickly, and thin boy of about
 five or six years of age.  He appeared to have no  specific ailment;
 but there was a slow and  remarkable decline of flesh and strength,
 and of the energy of all the functions,—what his mother very aptly
 termed ' a gradual blight.'   After  inquiry into  the history of the
 case, it came out that he had been a very robust and plethoric child
 up to his third year, when his  grandmother, a very aged person,
 took him to  sleep with her ; that he soon afterwards lost his good
 looks, and that he  had continued to decline progressively ever since,
 notwithstanding medical treatment.  I directed  him to  sleep apart
 from his aged parent, and prescribed gentle tonics, change of air, &c.
 and  the recovery was very rapid."
   This selfish indulgence of the aged in endeavouring to deprive
 their young bedfellows of heat and strength has been often remarked;
 and  young women thus circumstanced have shrewdly suspected the
 cause of  their debilitated condition.  It is extremely probable that
 in these  cases electricity is conducted from one body  to another.
 This hypothesis is in some degree confirmed by  the experiments
 made upon Casper Hauser by Von Feuerbach.  This Casper Hauser
 had been  kept from infancy until he was eighteen years  of age  in a
 perfectly  dark cage, without leaving it, and  where  he never saw a
 living creature or  heard the voice of man.  He was restricted from
 using his  limbs, his voice, his hands, or senses ; and his food  con-
 sisted of bread and water only, which he found placed by him when
 wakening from his sleep.   When exposed in Nuremberg in 1828,
 he was consequently at eighteen years as if just come into the  world,
and as incapable of walking, discerning  objects, or conveying his
 impressions, as a newly born infant.  These  faculties, however, he
soon  acquired ; and  he was placed  under an  able  instructor,  who
has recorded his singular history.  Darkness had been to him  twi-
light.  The light  of day was  at first insupportable, inflamed his
eyes, and brought on spasms. Substances, the odour of which could
not be perceived by others, produced severe effects upon him.   The
smell of a glass of wine, even at a  distance, occasioned headache ;.
of fresh meat, sickness; and of flowers, a painful sensation.  Passing
by a  churchyard  with Dr. Daumer, the smell of  dead  bodies,
although altogether imperceptible to Dr. D., affected him so power-
fully as to occasion shudderings,  followed by feverish heat,  termi-
nating in  a violent perspiration.  He  retained  a  great aversion,
owing to their disagreeable taste and smell, to all kinds of food ex-
cepting bread and  water.
  When the north pole of a small magnet was held towards him,
he described a drawing sensation proceeding outwards from  the
epigastrium, and as  if a current of air went  from him.   The
south  pole affected  him  less, and  he said  it blew upon him.  Pro-
                              21* 
222         CURIOSITIES OF MEDICAL EXPERIENCE.

fessor Daumer and Hermann made several experiments of the kind?
and calculated to  deceive him, and, even  although  the  magnet was
held at  a  considerable distance from him, his feelings always told
him very correctly.   These experiments always occasioned perspi-
ration and a feeling of indisposition.  He could detect metals placed
under oil-cloths, paper, &c. by the sensation they occasioned.   He
described these sensations as a drawing, accompanied  with a chill,
which  ascended, according to the metal, more or  less  up the arm,
and were  attended with other distinctive feelings,  the veins  of the
hand exposed to the metal becoming visibly swollen.
  The variety and multitude of objects which at once came rushing
upon his attention when he thus suddenly came into existence, the
unaccustomed  impressions  of light,  free  air, and  sense, and  his
anxiety to comprehend  them, were too much for his  weak frame
and  acute senses:  he  became  dejected  and enfeebled,  and  his
nervous system morbidly elevated.  He was subject to spasms and
tremors, so that partial exclusion from external excitements became
for a time requisite.   After he had learned regularly  to eat meat,
his mental activity was  diminished ; his eyes lost their brilliancy
and expression ; the intense application  and activity  of his mind
gave way to absence or indifference, and the quickness of apprehen-
sion became  diminished.  It may be questioned whether this change
proceeded from the change of diet, or the painful excess of excite-
ment that preceded it.
  Among the various doctrines regarding the creation of animals,
that of Panspermia was most ingenious and attractive.   According
to this theory, maintained by Anaxagoras and Heraclitus, all  bodies
contained the  germ  or  the  organic molecules necessary for their
generation.  Hippocrates was favourable  to this  idea, as plainly
appears in his  book  de Disetd;  and  in modern  times Perrault,
Gesik, Wollaston, Sturm, and other physiologists, have endeavoured
to revive the doctrine, of which the organic molecules of Buffon and
the living molecules  of  Ray were  merely modifications.   The  ex-
pression in Genesis which sanctions the belief that the earth spon-
taneously  germinated its productions, cannot be  referred  to  the
animal kingdom.  Were this the case, similar  animals would be
found in every quarter of the globe.   Spontaneous generation was
also attributed to putrefaction ; and Virgil describes the manner in
which  Aristaeus drew forth a swarm of bees from the corrupted
entrails of a  heifer.   Pliny admits the spontaneous creation of rats,
mice, frogs,  and other small  tribes of animals.   These  errors, how-
ever, were soon dispelled by the light thrown on the subject by the
microscopic  experiments of Valisneri, Swammerdam, Reaumur, and
many other  naturalists, who discovered sexual organs  in  all these
supposed self-created individuals.
  This  doctrine  was the foundation  of  the  classification  of  the
generative principle  into equivocal and  univocal generations,—
the former the effect  of  putrefaction, but which in  reality was uni-
vocal, since  it was soon  ascertained that this production arose from 
ON LIFE AND THE BLOOD.               223
the incubation of numerous  eggs deposited  by various insects and
animalculi in these corrupted bodies.   The following experiment
afforded a convincing proof of the fact.  A piece of  meat was
placed in an  open vessel, and another in a vase hermetically closed;
so  soon as  these animal  substances  entered  into  decomposition,
myriads of insects pullulated in the exposed meat, whereas that
which was protected from  external agency remained free from this
invasion.
  It is  a recognised fact that it is only through organized beings
that organization  can be  transmitted ;  for how  can corrupt  sub-
stances, dead  and deprived  of  vitality, give life to any organized
matter ?  Generation  is life ? putrescence is death.  By a law of
nature, generation may be  said ultimately to  destroy the generative
powers ; a striking illustration of mortality, since life is transmitted
at the expense of our very existence, and many individuals in the
catenation of organized beings perish  the very  moment that  they
have tended to perpetuate their race.   Death  advances with rapid
strides  in  the very ratio  of  the energies of life ;  and   the surest
method to attain longevity is to be sparing in the exercise of our
exhausting faculties.
                   Et quasi vitai lampada tradunt.
  Latent or insensible life, such as that of the  seeds of plants, or
the animal enveloped in its egg, may last for a number of years, so
long as they  are able to germinate; here vitality is not worn out by
relative  life.   Various species of the snail,  the  wheel-polybe, the
tile-eel, and  divers animalcules, have been  kept apparently dead,
and in the form of  dried preparations, withered  and hardened, for
months, and even  years, but have afterwards been  restored to life
by  the agency of warmth, moisture, and other  stimulus.  Snails
have been thus re-animated after a lapse of fifteen years ;  and Bauer
revived the Vibrio tritici, after an apparent death of five years and
eight months, by merely soaking it in water.  Some theologasters
have endeavoured to explain the resurrection of  the dead by these
natural phenomena; forgetting that in these instances no corruption
or actual disorganisation had taken  place.  Stahl  expresses himself
in the following words when  defining life:  "Life is  formally no-
thing more than the preservation of  the body in mixture, corrupti-
ble  indeed, but without the occurrence of corruption ;" and in Jun-
ker we find, " What we call life is opposite to putridity."
  The next theory attributed the principle of life to  a subtle gas or
aura.   This doctrine  constituted one of the principles of the Epi-
curean philosophy, and was illustrated by Lucretius in his poem on
the Nature of Things:
         Nam penihis prorsum latet haec natura, subestque;
          Nee magis hao infra quidquam est in corpore nostro;
           Atque anima est animae pioporro totius ipsa.
  According to these notions, there existed a volatile principle that
bore no specific name, but  was diffused through every part of living
bodies, more  subtle than  heat, air, or vapour.   In later  times this 
CURIOSITIES OF MEDICAL EXPERIENCE.
same gaseous agent received various  appellations.   Van  Helmont
designated it as the aura vitalis, while other philosophers called it
the aura seminalis and the aura sanguinis.   The archeus faber
of Van Helmont, the astrum internum of Crollius, the principium en-
ergoumenonof Michael Alhext\,thesubstantiaenergeticanaturseof
Glisson,mayall he referred to this unseen but powerful agency.  Hip-
pocrates called  it  pu«s, or nature, which he elsewhere denominates
aofwr*.   It  was also the  Swa/ah  ^rum  of Galen.    This  soul,  or
breath,  or spirit, directed and preserved the whole  economy ; and
Chrysippus asserts that it acted like salt upon pork.
  Modern chemistry has  sought this principle in specific agents.
Caloric, or  the matter of  heat;  oxygen, or the vital part of atmo-
spheric air, first discovered by Priestley, and explained by Lavoisier;
and finally, the fluid collected by the Voltaic trough, were then con-
sidered as the  principle of  life.  The experiments of  Professor
Galvani of  Bologna, in which he  produced the phenomena of life
many hours after  death, induced  many physiologists to maintain
that the identity that existed in galvanic electricity and the nervous
influence, proved  that this aura was the creative agent in our
economy.
  While  naturalists were  thus groping in nature's  dark labyrinth,
endeavouring to account for the wonders of the natura naturans,
that divinity of the Stoics that Lucan thus describes,
                    Superos quid  quaerimus ultra 1
            Jupiter est quodcumque vides, Jovis omnia plena,—
other wise men fancied that they had actually  discovered the  seat
of life, which,  according  to  their fanciful  speculations,  they  had
lodged  in certain organs.   The nervous system, the  spinal marrow,
the brain, the heart, were  all and each of them considered  in turn
as the head-quarters of  vitality ; while  the  workshop of alimenta-
tion,  our  much-abused  stomach,  did  not pass  unnoticed and un-
honoured.  The heart of a turtle, and of some reptiles, has been seen
contracting and dilating hours after its extraction from the body ; the
stomach has been  excited into an  action bearing  some analogy to
vomiting, when separated  from  the trunk ; but  all these curious
phenomena, explained and accounted for (in some measure, at least)
by physiology, do  not tend to prove  that  any one organ, or any
chain of organs, is possessed of separate vitality independent of the
general principle of life.   The brain, which has been regarded as
the chief  seat of this principle, is  not always essential to life ; for
although man perishes, or at least  his vital  functions cease to act,
when he is decapitated,* yet various birds and  reptiles  continue to
live for hours and  days after the  head  has  been severed from the

  * During the horrors of the French Revolution, various experiments were made
by Sue and other physiologists to ascertain if the bodies of the guillotined victims
possessed sensibility.  No conclusion, however, could  be  elicited  from these
inquiries, which gave rise to many absurd tales, such as the  face of Charlotte
Cordays  having blushed when the executioner slapped it, as he held it out to the
enraptured Parisians. 
ON LIFE AND THE BLOOD.
225
 body, while we actually behold  a  regeneration of the head in the
 earth-worm.  Moreover, we  have upon  record  many  cases of
 acephalous children, or born without any head ; and anencephalous
 ones, who lived (for a short time  it is  true) without any brains.
 Fontana removed the entire brain of a turtle, yet it lived six months,
 and walked about as before.
   Sandiford had divided acephalous animals into  three classes : the
 first, in which the head was wanting ; the second, where other organs
 were also missing ;  and the third, where  the foetus presented an
 unformed  mass.   In the acephalous twin  described by Beclard, no
 liver, spleen, stomach, or oesophagus could be discovered, and the
 intestinal tube commenced  at the superior extremity of the body.
 The infant had ten ribs on each side, and  regular nerves arose from
 the spinal marrow.   Although headless animals  may not be gifted
 with intellectual faculties  evident to  our senses, yet they clearly
 live and feel.   The zoophytes and polypes, without brains or heads,
 possess irritability and sensibility;  they  can seek their food, seize
 it, reject what is not edible, are  susceptible of the  powers of light
 and heat, can  contract their fibres when touched or injured, and, in
 short, manifest various innate or instinctive powers.   Gall has main-
 tained that the passions  resided in the  brain, and, therefore, that
 brainless animals did not experience their influence.  This is a bold
 assertion.  Can he prove that worms, insects, zoophytes, that possess
 only what is called a ganglionic system, are strangers to instinctive
 fears and  partialities ?   I   apprehend  that it  will  be found that
 passions belong to instinct much more than to our volition.
   It is nevertheless true that  animals may be killed by wounding
 the  spinal marrow, by the process commonly called  "pitting."
 This practice  may be traced to  high antiquity ;  and Livy informs
 us that when the Carthagenian troops were routed, Asdruhal ordered
 their unmanageable elephants to be  destroyed by driving the point
 of a knife between the junction of the head and spine.
   From these observations it will appear quite clear that life has no
 necessary connexion  with  sensation, although the  latter cannot be
 experienced without the  former.  Vegetables are  endowed with
 vitality ; but we have no  reason to suppose  that they feel.  It is
 also more than probable that, as the degree of intelligence decreases,
 the intensity of the corporeal feelings are also diminished.   Did not
 this scale of sensibility exist, insects could not live under  the sup-
 posed agonies  that the entomologist daily  inflicts.   The supposition
 does not rest  upon  indefinite  reasoning, for in  our own  race we
 observe that those parts that are gifted with a reproductive power
 are possessed of the smallest degrees of sensation ;  and the cuticle,
 the hair, the beard, and the  nails will even grow  after death.   This
fact may calm the squeamish apprehensions of those very humane
 persons who look upon experimental physiologists as very monsters
of barbarity.   Vaillant took out the intestines of a locust, and stuffed
it with cotton, then  fixed it down in his  box with a pin, yet, five
months after, the insect moved its feet and antennas.   Spallanzani
has shown that the snail can renew its head. 
226
CURIOSITIES OF MEDICAL EXPERIENCE.
  All this confusion in theories and wandering of the imagination
has arisen from  our confounding the vital principle, of which we
know nothing, with the phenomena of sensation, which patient and
calm investigation may account for.  That there does exist a principle
of life that animates, vivifies, and preserves, until its powers cease,
all living bodies, no one can deny ; although to find out its nature
is a vain pursuit, as  idle as our  endeavours to penetrate  into the
causes of causation.  As Richerand observes,  " its essence is not
designed to preserve the aggregation of our constituent  molecules,
but to collect other molecules, which, by assimilating themselves to
the organ  that it vivifies, may replace those which daily losses carry
off, and which are  employed  in repairing and augmenting them ;
the word vital principle is  therefore not  designed to express  a
distinct being, but denotes  the  totality of powers alone which
animate living bodies, and distinguish  them from  inert matter, the
totality of properties and laws which govern the animal economy."
  Of all the doctrines upon this  abstruse  subject, (of which I have
noticed the principal ones,) that of the pre-existence of an  organic
germ appears the most plausible, or  at any rate  the easiest to con-
ceive.   It was  from  this conviction that the ancients  held as an
axiomatic principle Omnia  ex ovo.   It is  upon this  theory  that
Buffon rested his  organic  molecules, and Ray  his vital globules.
The primitive lineaments of organisation may be traced in the  egg,
even before it  is  fecundated.  The embryo that we find in its in-
volucra is  soft, flexible, ready to  receive  the  plastic impression of
the vivifying secretion,—the fecundating agency  that imparts ex-
istence and all its wondrous attributes, to  the pre-existing ova, the
ova subventanea.   It does not appear that the  first  organ of the
embryo that  exhibits the living  principle is the heart, hence de-
nominated in the foetus the puncturn sa liens ; the principle of life
has probably organised every molecule of the  animal long before
this supposed fountain of vitality  has been seen to flow.  It is more
likely that the nervous system has  received  the  first  impressions
imparted by the fecundating  secretion, that  the ancients supposed
to have been a direct emanation from the brain, and bearing in its
vivifying molecules the life of every part of the being it was about
to organise ; thus Valescus: " Sperma hominibus descendit ex omni
corporis humore,  qui fit ex subtiliori natura.   Habet autem  hoc
sperma nervos et venas proprias attrahentes  se  a toto  corpore ad
testiculos—a membris disconditur  principalibus—a corde, epate,
cerebro mittuntur spiritus, ex quibus resultat spiritus informativus,
et non aliter  nisi cum spermate—ergo ab iis principaliter sperma
disconditur."
  Such were the doctrines on this curious subject until the days of
Fabricius  d'Acquapendente and Harvey.   Buffon, however, exerted
all his eloquence to revive  the  theory.  The  following are the no-
tions of this elegant writer, who  unfortunately only studied natural
history in books and cabinets.  He  maintains  that  there exist two
sorts of matter,—the one living,  the other dead :  the first enjoying 
ON LIFE AND THE BLOOD.
227
 a permanent vitality ; the second universally spread, passing  from
 vegetables to animals through the channels of nutrition, and return-
 ing from animals to vegetables through the medium of putrefaction,
 —thus in a constant state of circulation to animate  living  beings.
 This vital  matter exists in determined quantities in nature, and is
 composed  of  an infinity of organic  molecules, primitive, living,
 active, incorruptible, and  in  relation, both as regards action and
 numbers, with the molecules of light, and enjoying an immutable
 existence,  since the usual causes of destruction can only affect their
 adherence.  It  is  these  molecules  which, being cast in  regular
 moulds, constitute all the organised bodies that  surround us.   Ac-
 cording to this doctrine, development and growth are only a change
 of form operated by the addition of organic molecules  ; nutrition,
 the preservation of this  form  by the accession of fresh molecules
 that replace those that are destroyed ; generation, the combination
 of these particles ; and  death, their  separation  from cohesion and
 association.
   This ingenious system is not dissimilar to that of Maupertuis,
 who thought that the mysteries of  generation could be explained
 by the usual laws of elective attraction.  Various were the physical,
 metaphysical, and moral batteries raised against this visionary fabric.
 One single fact  was sufficient  to overthrow it.  We constantly see
 parents deficient  in  a limb, or  misshapen, producing perfect off-
 spring ; if each part of the economy was to transmit to its progeniture
 molecules  similar to itself, the child would naturally be visited with
 the imperfection of the parent.
•   Notwithstanding these fallacies, we cannot but admit that chemical
 and  molecular attraction constitute the principle that harmonises all
 organised bodies.   Generation is simply a function of organisation
 and  life.   Organised bodies alone can generate.  The living only
 can impart life.   Animals and plants  transmit to their descendants
 their several properties ; and the inheritance of organisation departs
 with the vital spark.   Life is the property of no one ;  it is a trans-
 mitted heir-loom that  never  perishes ;  it resembles  a torch that
 communicates an eternal  flame while  consuming itself.   Organised
 beings have justly been  considered the fuel of  the  universal vital
 fire, and we all  are the daily bread of that monstrous animal called
 the world.  All are engulphed in that vortex which  Beccher has
 called the "circulus seternimotus."  Metempsychosis was simply
 an illustration of this fact recognised in  all ages in  the East, and
 taught in European schools by Pythagoras.  Nothing perishes; and
 even combustion produces fresh  combinations.
   Poetical philosophy has considered  Love as the source and arbiter
 of life, and the  Venus Generatrix the  fount of  our existence^
 Lucretius recognises this power in the following lines :
            Per te quoniam genus omne animantum
            Concipitur, visitque exortum lumina solis.
Then again,
            Omnibus incutiens blandum per pectora amoremj
            Efficis ut cupide generatim saecla propagent. 
228        CURIOSITIES OF MEDICAL EXPERIENCE.

   Virey, a delightful French physiologist, seems to partake of this
mythological opinion in the following passage: " L'amourestl'arbitre
du monde organique ; c'est lui quidebrouillele chaos de la matiere,
et qui l'impregne de vie.  II ouvre et ferme a son gre les portes de
l'existence a tous les etres que sa voix appelle du  neant, et qu'il y
replonge.   L'attraction dans les matieres brutes est une sorte d'amour
ou d'amitie analogue a celle qui reproduit des etres organises.  Ainsi
la faculty generative est un phenomene general dans l'univers ; elle
est representee par les attractions planetaires  et chimiques dans les
substances brutes, et par l'amour ou la vie  dans les corps organises."
   According to  our  amatory neighbours, the word  ame, or  soul,
comes from amor and amare, and amare is derived from animare;
hence animation and animal  may  be  syllogistically referred to
love.
   I know not  how far this etymological disquisition  may illustrate
the history of  their enfans trouves, or our foundling hospitals, the
inmates of which are generally uncommonly ill favoured by Beauty.
The offspring of the aforesaid  Venus  Generatrix must  have  been
especially ungrateful; and if it is true that Julius Caesar was her son,
he certainly exerted his best endeavours to  depopulate his mother's
territories.
            OF  THE HOMCEOPATHIC  DOCTRINES.

  It  is a matter  worthy of remark, that, while the doctrines of
homoeopathy have fixed the attention and become the study of many
learned and  experienced medical  men  in  various parts of Europe,
England is  the only country where it has only been  noticed to
draw  forth  the  most opprobrious invectives.  It is certainly true
that no one but  an  ardent  proselyte of the visionary Hahnemann
could for one moment become the advocate of all his absurd ideas ;
yet, while we  reject his  errors,  great and important truths beam
from the chaotic clouds that shroud his wanderings ; and, however
wild his theories may be, incontrovertible  facts have been elicited
from his apparently inefficacious practice.
  Before I enter into an examination of the practical views of the
homoeopathists, I shall give a brief sketch of their  doctrines and
their founder.
  Samuel Hahnemann was born in Mei'ssen in Saxony, on the  10th
of April 1755.   His father was an humble porcelain manufacturer.
The first rudiments of education that young  Hahnemann received
were gratuitous ; and his  master, pleased  with the progress of his
ambitious but needy scholar, strongly urged his repairing to Leipzig,
where, at the age of twenty,  he arrived, with exactly the same
number of crowns in his  pocket  as he  numbered  years.  At this
university he zealously pursued his favourite  studies of the natural 
ON THE HOMOEOPATHIC DOCTRINES.
229
 sciences, supporting  himself by translating French works,  giving
 lessons ; and finally he graduated  in  the university of Eslangen
 in 1779.
   It was during  his arduous  studies that Hahnemann  was struck
 with the conflicting systems, and the deplorable controversies which
 for centuries  divided in turn  the  medical schools of Europe, and
 were triumphant or overthrown by scholastic  revolutions ; each
 doctrine being doomed to obscurity and oblivion in the  ratio of its
 ephemeral splendour.  The result of his reflections and experiments
 was the system of homoeopathy.  Its novelty, its apparent absurdity,
 soon exposed him not only to opposition, but violent persecution.
 As is usual in all  cases of oppression, whether justly  or unjustly
 resorted to, proselytes as furious and as fanatical as his persecutors
 joined  their  chief.   Despite  the sanitary  regulations of Saxony,
 which prohibited physicians from dispensing their medicines, Hahne-
 mann prepared and  supplied his homoeopathic remedies ; and, ex-
 pelled from Leipzig, sought a refuge at Kcethen, where, exasperated
 by the  harsh treatment he  had experienced,  he  fulminated his
 anathema on all past and present systems of medicine with no small
 degree of furious resentment, pronouncing his doctrine  as stamped
 with the seal of infallibility, and denouncing all others as the aber-
 rations of ignorance and error, or the speculations of imposture and
 fraud.
   As might  have been  expected, few of his opponents  thought  it
 worth their while to study  his  system calmly and dispassionately ;
 nor, indeed,  was  such  an  application necessary,  for his doctrines
 needed no deep  investigation  on the part of his foes,  so fraught
 were they with apparent errors and  false deductions, not only from
 his own  pretended experience, but the experience of ages.  Find-
 ing that  he could not enjoy a despotic sway over  the  schools, he
 was resolved  at any rate to seek the palm of martyrdom, and had
 recourse to  such violence  in  words and actions, that many of his
 enemies  maintained that he was a more fitting subject for a lunatic
 asylum than the soi-disant  founder of a rational doctrine ;  for he
 and his fanatical disciples set all ratiocination at nought, considering
 his dixit as a  fiat of condemnation passed on all who dared to doubt
 his infallibility, although  at different periods their oracle was obliged
 to retract many erroneous assertions and contradict fallacious state-
 ments.
   In  the short view of his doctrines  which I  am  about to give,
 these  fallacies will become evident, and shall be duly pointed out.
   Hahnemann had observed in his studies and hospital practice that
 the prevalent systems of medicine  were  founded on  the rational
 principle of combating effects by striking at morbid  causes :  some-
 times physicians  endeavoured  to attain this desirable end by pro-
 ducing in the system an artificial action differing from the nature of
 the malady, and founded their  practice  on the scholastic axiom of
contraria contrariis curantur ; at other times they raised or de-
pressed the vital energies according  to  the prevalence  of excite-
  August, 1838.—L            22 
 230         CURIOSITIES OF MEDICAL EXPERIENCE.

 ment or debility, or modified the character of the disease by revul-
 sion and derivation, a practice which received the name of  antago-
 nistic, or alhpathic, — a term  used by Hahnemann in contradis-
 tinction to homoeopathy, and derived from a.\\os, different, and ?r*floc,
 affection.
   In his therapeutic pursuits Hahnemann had been forcibly struck
 with the long acknowledged  fact that medicinal substances supposed
 to possess  a certain specific property in  the treatment of diseases,
 were known in the healthy subject to produce phenomena bearing
 a close analogy to the  symptoms of  these identical diseases.   Thus
 mercurial preparations occasioned symptoms of syphilis, sulphur
 produced cutaneous irritation, and in some instances, the exhibition
 of cinchona had been known to bring on  febrile  intermissions.  In
 various works he found theseobservations established.  For instance,
 amongst many others, he  found in  the  publications of Beddoes,
 Scott, Blair, and various writer's, that nitric acid, which was  known
 to produce ptyalism, relieved salivation and ulceration in the  mouth.
 Arsenic, which, according  to Henreich,  Knape, and Heinze, occa-
 sioned cancerous anomalies in healthy subjects, was stated by Fallo-
 pius, Bernharde,  Roenow, and many other  surgeons, to be effica-
 cious in relieving, if not curing, similar disorders ;  preparations of
 copper  were asserted  by Tondi, Ramsay, Lazermi,  and numerous
 practitioners,  to  have produced  epileptic  attacks ;  and  Batty,
 Beaumes, Cullen, Duncan,  and  several experienced medical prac-
 titioners,  recommended  similar remedies in  epilepsy.   In short,
 the illustrations of the power inherent in certain substances  to pro-
 duce accidents analogous to the symptoms of the  various diseases in
 the treatment of which they had proved efficacious, induced Hahne-
 mann to consider whether a treatment founded on similia similibus
 curanter might not be found more  effectual  than the former prac-
 tice based upon the contraria contrariis.  He was of opinion that
 no  medicine was possessed  of any curative property, but  solely
 acted by its morbific power of producing a disordered condition in
 the system ; and on this and other principles, which we shall shortly
 notice, he asserts that nature does not possess any curative  power,
totally denying the vis medicatrix of the shcools.  He further main-
tained,  that there  does not  exist  any specific  malady ;  but  that
 which we consider to be a  disease is nothing but a  complexity of
 symptoms, and that a cure can only be effected when  these complex
 symptoms are made to disappear.
  Impressed with these ideas, he and his disciples  diligently pro-
ceeded  to  try various medicinal substances  upon themselves and
others when in health, and, carefully recording the symptoms which
these medicines produced, they drew up a statement of their various
powers, that they might be afterwards resorted to,  to relieve the
same symptoms in  a morbid state.  Grounding this practice  on the
principle (in many  instances correct) that two similar diseases can-
not co-exist, they conceived that if, to counteract a natural malady,
one can produce by any medication an artificial derangement of the 
OF THE HOMOEOPATHIC DOCTRINES.           231
 same nature, the  artificial one  will overcome  the  natural disease,
 and a radical cure  be obtained.  To explain more distinctly this
 idea, I shall quote the author's words.
   " The curative power of medicines is thus founded on the proper-
 ty they possess to give rise  to symptoms similar to those of the dis-
 ease, but of a more intense  power.  Hence no disease can be over-
 come or cured in a  certain  radical, rapid, and lasting manner, but
 through the means of  a medicine  capable  of provoking a group of
 symptoms similar to those of the disease, and at the same time pos-
 sessed of a superior energetic power."*  And further,
   " If two dissimilar maladies happen  to be  co-existing, possessed
 of an unequal force, or if the oldest disease is  more energetic than
 the recent one, the latter will  be expelled by the former.   Thus, an
 individual labouring under a severe chronic disease will not be sub-
 ject to the invasion of an autumnal dysentery, or  any other slight
 epidemic.   Larrey affirms  that the  districts  of Egypt  in  which
 scurvy  was prevalent were exempt from  the  plague.  Jenner  as-
 serts that rachitis prevents  the effect of vaccination ; and  Hilde-
 brand assures us  that phthysical patients never experience epidemic
 fevers unless of the most severe character."!
   " If a recent affection, dissimilar to a more ancient one  be more
 powerful  than the latter, then  will the progress of the latter  be sus-
 pended until the  malady is either cured or has been expended in its
 career,  and then the old one will reappear."!  •
  " But the result is totally different when two similar diseases meet
 in the organism ; that is to say, when a  pre-existing affection  is
 complicated with one of the  same nature, but possessed of more
 energy."§
  " Two maladies resembling each other in their manifestation and
 their effects, that  is to say, in the symptoms which they determine,
 mutually destroy  each other, the strongest conquering the weakest."||
  He further contends that  the essential nature of  every  disease  is
 unknown ; that their existence is revealed by alterations and changes
 in the system perceptible to our senses, and constituting what are
 called symptoms, and  it is the series of these symptoms  which
 characterise the  disease in  its  course and its development.  Ac-
 cording to his notions, the physician  has  only to follow and study
 the succession and the grouping of these  symptoms ; in  short, the
 phases and the phenomena of diseases.  Attack  and destroy these
 symptoms, and you will have destroyed the malady.
  All classification of diseases, and their various  denominations, he
 therefore deemed absurd, as, according to his doctrines, no one dis-
 resembles another ;  so various were  their modifications,  that, with
 few exceptions, it was idle to give them  a  particular name, since

  * Organon, xxn.                             f Op. cit. xxxi.
  % Ibid, xxxiii.                               § Ibid, xxxviii.
  || Organon, xl. This will be found to be  the case in all diseases that are dis-
similar ;  the stronger suspends the weaker, except in case of complication, which
is a rare occurrence in acute diseases, but they never cure each other reciprocally. 
232
CURIOSITIES  OF MEDICAL EXPERIENCE.
 disease was simply a derangement in our organisation manifested by
 peculiar symptoms.
   We are also, according to Hahnemann, ignorant of the essential
 properties of medicines, and  can only observe  and record their
 effects by experimental observation.   Like diseases,  they also pro-
 duce a derangement in our organism, manifested by peculiar symp-
 toms, their sole action consisting in developing specific diseases.
   In conformity with these notions, to cure disease we have only
 to produce a similar affection ;  the primitive  one would then give
 way to the secondary affection  artificially produced, and in time the
 artificial one would cease to exist when the means that  produced it
 were no longer  brought into action.
   Homoeopathic medicines, he maintained, have the  property of
 acting in a direct manner upon the affected part of the system ; and
 this is proved when the disease, and the medicine given to relieve
 it, produce similar morbid manifestations :  and he further contended
 that our vital organism was less susceptible of  the action of natural
 affections than of those which are artificially produced.
   On this  basis did the homoeopathic doctrinarians ground their
 practice ;  but a still  more singular theory was broached  by their
 leader: he maintained that medicinal substances,to prove efficacious,
 should be administered in an attenuated and diluted state, carried to
 such an extent as to become infinite in their division, and not even
 ponderable in their substance ;  he further  asserts  that  this infinite
 division, far from diminishing their medicinal power and properties,
 imparts greater energy and certainty of action  when these particles
 encounter in  our organisation an affinity of disposition, or  a  homo-
 geny in  action ; that is to say, that these  atomic attenuations  act
 with greater  power in those affections which  manifest symptoms
 similar to those  which these very medicines are known  to produce
 when experimentally tried upon a healthy subject.
   Upon this  principle the homoeopathist condemns all combinations
 of medicines  as likely to neutralise  each other's properties  by their
 various affinities :  therefore, generally speaking, no fresh medicine
 should be given until the effects of the former  one  have subsided  ;
 and to guide  this practice, while they endeavoured to ascertain  the
 symptoms produced by medicines, they also sought to ascribe certain
limits to the duration of their action : thus, the influence of aconite
lasts forty-eight  hours, and that of crude antimony fifteen days.
  Dreading all substances that  could tend  to weaken or neutralize
the effect of medicine, the  homoeopathists  made it their particular
study to discover the peculiar action of all  alimentary substances on
the organism, and characterised as antidotes all such articles of food
as they considered opposed to this supposed action :  thus, wine and
vegetable acids were deemed antidotes to aconite ; coffee, to An-
 gustura bark  ; vinegar, to asarum, &c.
  I have already stated that the homoeopathists conceive that the in-
 finite dilution of their atoms of medicinal substances increase  their
 energy ;  and this fact they so strenuously maintain, that they assert 
OF THE HOMOEOPATHIC DOCTRINES.
233
 that accidents  of a serious nature may arise when this  division-is
 carried too far ;  and these accidents are then to be met with  the
 medicinal antidotes they pretend to have discovered :  thus, camphor
 is an antidote to cocculus ; opium, to the crocus sativus ; camomile
 and camphor, to ignatia amara ; and so on.
   The minuteness with which the specific actions of various medi-
 cinal substances  on certain  organs is  detailed is  scarcely credible,
 and the following extract from the homoeopathic materia medica will
 give a slight idea of their industrious  labours.   Taking as  an  ex-
 ample phosphorus, which they affirm produces—            ,
   Vertigo,  determination  of blood to  the head,  head-ache  in  the
 morning, fall of the hair, difficulty in opening the eye-lids, burning
 sensation and  ulceration of  the internal canthus of the eye when
 exposed to  the open air, lachrymation and adhesion of the palpebrae ;
 inflammation  of the eyes, with the sensation of particles of sand
 having been  introduced ;  sparks and spangles floating  before  the
 eyes, a dark tinge in objects that are looked on, diurnal cecity, the
 appearance of a grey veil  drawn  before the  eyes, pulsation in the
 ears, epistaxis, mucous discharge from the nostrils, foulness of breath,
 tumefaction of the throat, whiteness of the tongue, ulceration of the
 mouth, expectoration of glairy mucus, dryness of  the  mouth by
 night and by day, spasmodic eructation,  nausea, sense  of hunger
 after eating, anxiety after meals ;—in short, twenty-four  octavo
 pages are devoted  to the  innumerable effects of this substance on
 the  organism.
   Of magnesia artificialis  three  hundred and  twelve  symptoms
 are noted ; six hundred and fifty of therhus radicans; nine hundred
 and  forty of pulsatilla;  five hundred of ignatia amara; four
 hundred and sixty of arsenic: in short, volumes upon volumes are
 crowded with these observations, not only recording physical effects
 but  singular results  on our  moral faculties, such as serenity or
 moroseness, gaiety or sadness, a disposition to commit suicide or a
 fond partiality to life, courage or cowardice, a weak intellect or a
 vigorous conception.  For instance, common sea-salt occasions iras-
 cibility, lowness  of spirits, taciturnity, melancholy, palpitation of
 heart, disposition to shed  tears, pusillanimity, and despair ; while
 potash gives rise to  ill-temper without apparent cause at noon and
 in the  evening, with violent paroxysms of rage  in the morning,
 impetuous desires,  furious passion  with gnashing of teeth if all
 around does not yield to the patient's desires ; while the vision of
 a bird hovering about the window produces  loud shrieks of  alarm,
 exaltation of the intellects,  and a horror of the future.  So innume-
 rable, indeed,  are all these  singular  effects  attributed  to various
 medicines thus experimented, that no  memory, however retentive,
 could possibly bear  them in  recollection.   The following are  the
directions laid down for conducting this curious inquiry.
  The person  upon whom medicines  are tried  must be free from
disease, but  weak substances should he given to subjects of a delicate
and sensitive constitution : the medicine is to he tried  in its mos4
                              22* 
234
CURIOSITIES OF MEDICAL EXPERIENCE.
pure and simple state, possessing all its energies, taking special care
that it is not combined with any heterogeneous substances during the
day it is exhibited, and the time while its action is supposed to last.
The  diet must be moderate ; all spices and high-seasoned food to be
avoided, as well  as green vegetables, roots, salads, &c. which are
known to possess medicinal properties.  The dose of the medicine
to be similar to that which  is usually  prescribed  by practitioners.
If at the  expiration of about  two hours no  effect is observed, a
stronger dose is to be given.   Should the first dose operate power-
fully at  the  commencement,  but gradually lose its influence, the
second will be  given  the following  morning ;  and a  still stronger
one, four  times the  strength  of the first,  be administered on the
third day.
   The result of these experiments being recorded,  homoeopathic
agents are selected to oppose morbid symptoms, and when  the
choice of remedies  has  been appropriate, an  aggravation  of the
symptoms is observed.  This  aggravation  is usually considered as
an increase of  the disorder, whereas it is solely  the effect of the
homoeopathic remedy.  " For  these phenomena," say the homoeopa-
thists, " were frequently observed by physicians, who little thought
at the  time, that they were the result of  the  medicines  they had
given."   Thus, when  the pustules of itch became more  rife after
the exhibition of sulphur, it was thought  that the increase of the
eruption was merely the affection coming out more freely ; whereas,
the aggravation was occasioned by sulphur.  Leroy informs us that
the heart's-ease, viola tricolor, increased an eruption in the face.
Lyrons says  that elm-bark  aggravated cutaneous  affections, which
were cured by  this remedy; but neither of them were aware of the
nature of this homoeopathic  development.   For further information
on this head, the Organon of Hahnemann must be  consulted.
   Such were his doctrines for a period of about twenty years,—
doctrines which he emphatically pronounced infallible, and founded
on the immutable laws of homoeopathy.   In 1S28,  however, con-
vinced by numerous  failures  in the treatment of chronic diseases,
that other causes than  those which  he acknowledged,—such as the
improper preparation  of the  medicine, or dietetic neglect on the
part of the patient,—contributed to these  disappointments, he an-
nounced that he had discovered the hidden source of the obstacles
he encountered ; and that, after many years  of  experiments and
meditation, he  had come  to the conclusion that almost all chronic
diseases originated from constitutional miasmatic  affections or pre-
dispositions, which  he divided  into sycosis, syphilis, and psora,
or, in plain English, the itch.   To this latter affection he attributes
innumerable disorders.  In diseases of a syphilitic character he had
found his mode of treatment  infallible, and he therefore concluded
that all obstinate and rebellious affections  were the result of some
other constitutional  predisposing circumstances.  He tells us that
he laboured in profound secrecy to discover this great, this sublime
desideratum : his very pupils knew it not; the world was to remain 
OF THE HOMOEOPATHIC DOCTRINES.          235
in ignorance of his pursuits until he could proclaim the most inesti-
mable  gift that Divinity bestowed upon  mankind.   This immortal
discovery was neither more nor less than the itch, to which malady,
according to his views, since the days of Moses, seven-eighths of the
physical and  moral  miseries to which flesh is heir were to be re-
ferred.  Whether rendered  evident by  eruptions, or latent from
our cradle, it was a curse transmitted to us, by the  modification and
degeneration of leprosy, through myriads of constitutions, and which
only disappears from the surface to fester in malignity until  it bursts
forthagain in the multifarious forms of innumerable diseases, amongst
which  we find scrofula,  rachitis, phthisis, hysteria, hypochondriasis,
dropsy, hydrocephalus, haemorrhage, fistula, diseases of the head and
liver, ruptures, cataracts, tic-douloureux, deafness, erysipelas,cancers,
aneurisms, rheumatisms,gout, apoplexy, epilepsy,palsy, convulsions,
stone, St.  Vitus's dance, nervous affections of every description, loss
of sight, of smell, of taste, stupidity and imbecility."*  In support
of this doctrine  Hahnemann adduces ninety-five cases recorded
by medical writers,  in  which the  disappearance  of the itch was
followed by various  acute and chronic  maladies.
   The  next  miasmatic generator is sycosis, or the disposition  to
warty excrescences : but this source of disease Hahnemann does not
consider so prolific as syphilis or  his favourite psora.
   Such are the principal features of the homoeopathic  system.   I
have already  stated  that its followers consider the most minute
particles of medicine more powerful than larger doses ;  they there-
fore have  recourse to infinite trituration or dilution  in three vehicles
which  they consider free from ahy medicinal  property,—distilled
water,  spirits of  wine, and  sugar of milk ; by these means they
procure a decillionth or a quintillionth  fraction of  a grain.   One
drop of thin solution is considered sufficient to saturate  three hun-
dred globules of sugar of milk ; and three or four of these globules
are deemed a powerful medicine.   To  give a better idea of Hahne-
mann's notions on this subject, I shall  quote his own words :
   " By shaking a drop of medicinal liquid  with one  hundred drops
of alcohol once, that is to say, by taking the phial in the hand which
contains the whole, and  imparting to it a rapid motion  by a single
stroke  of  the arm descending, I shall then  obtain an exact mixture
of them ;  but two or three, or ten such movements, would develope
the medicinal  virtues still further, making  them more  potent, and
their action on the nerves much more penetrating.   In the extenua-
tion of powders, when it is requisite to mix one grain of a medicinal
substance in one hundred grains  of sugar of milk, it ought  to  be
rubbed  down  with  force  during  one  hour only,  in order that the
power  of  the  medicine  may not  be carried to too  great an extent ;
medicinal substances acquiring at  each division or dilution a new
degree of power, as the  rubbing or shaking they undergo developes
that inherent virtue in  medicines which  was unknown until my
* On Chronic Diseases.  Translation of Begel, p. 107. 
236
CURIOSITIES OF MEDICAL EXPERIENCE.
time, and which is so energetic that latterly I  have been forced by
experience to reduce the number of shakes to two."
  As  a further illustration of this  theory, he affirms that gold is
without any  action in our organism in its  natural state; but that
when  one grain of this metal is  triturated according  to  the above
process until each grain of the last triturated preparation contains a
quadrillionth  part of the original grain of the mineral, it will be so
powerful that  it will be sufficient to  place this single grain in a
phial, to be inspired  for a  moment, to produce  the most amazing
results, and none more so than the faculty of restoring to a melan-
choly individual disposed to suicide, his pristine  partiality to life.
  Unfortunately for Hahnemann, many of these assertions are un-
supported by facts or sound reasoning, and appear mere wanderings
of an ardent imagination ; and thus soaring in regions of fancy, he
himself has struck many fatal blows in his own doctrines.  For
instance, what are the arguments  he  adduces to prove that in two
similar diseases the strongest will overcome  the weakest ?
  " Why," he  exclaims,  " does the  splendid  Jupiter disappear
during the twilight of morn to the eyes of tbe contemplator ?   It is
because a similar power, but possessed of greater energies, the break-
ing day, acts  upon our organs."
  This is a defective analogy.   Hahnemann tells us that a stronger
power banishes a weaker one in  a permanent  manner, whereas the
bright planet he here alludes to  will return with the  night.   Then
again  :
  " With what do we endeavour to relieve the  olfactory  nerves
when  offended by disagreeable  odours ?   By  snuff,  which affects
the nostrils in a similar but a more powerful manner."  This is not
correct: when the action of snuff has ceased, the disagreeable effluvia
become again offensive.   In some  instances his poetical vagaries
are preposterous.  " By what means," he adds,  " do we endeavour
to protect the ears of the compassionate from the lamentations of
the poor wretched soldier  condemned to be scourged ?  Is it not
by the shrill  notes of the  fife united to the loud beat of the  drum ?
How  do we endeavour to  drown the roar of  distant artillery that
causes terror  in the heart of the soldier ?  By the roll of the double
drum ;—nor  would this feeling of compassion, this sense of terror,
have been checked by admonition or  by splendid rewards.  In the
same  manner our grief, our  regret, subside, upon receiving the in-
telligence, true or false, that a more lively sorrow has affected another
person."   It would be idle to  dwell upon the  absurdity of such
visions and erroneous statements.
  To support his doctrines, Hahnemann should have proved, 1st,
that medicinal powers do produce an artificial  malady similar to the
natural affection ; 2d, that the organism only remains  under the in-
fluence of the medicinal disease ; 3d, that this medicinal disease is
of a short duration ; and 4th, that all these  effects can only be pro-
duced by a medicine selected according to the similarity of symp-
toms.   Our theorist has utterly failed in his endeavours to establish 
OF THE HOMOEOPATHIC DOCTRINES.
237
 these facts ;  therefore have his doctrines been  impugned by many
 of his most  zealous disciples, amongst whom  may be mentioned
 Griesselich, Rau,Schroen.  The aggravation which he asserts takes
 place after the exhibition of a homoeopathic  medicine is not only
 unsupported  by  proof, but  positively  denied  by many  of their
 practitioners ; and Bartman plainly affirms that, after a homoeopathic
 dose, the  patient frequently  experiences a state of calm, a disposi-
 tion  to slumber, and often falls into  a  profound sleep more or less
 prolonged, in waking from which he finds himself much relieved,
 if not perfectly cured.   Thus several physicians who have adopted
 his practical views reject many of the doctrines on which they are
 founded ;  and a homoeopathist has justly compared his  works to a
 wild virgin forest, in which  we meet  with a number of valuable
 trees and  plants in the midst of arid brushwood  and parasitic weeds
 that  would check the growth of the most useful  production.
  Yet, notwithstanding the  many  gratuitous assertions, and con-
 sequent erroneous inductions, we meet  with  in the Organon, it is
 probable that this system is destined to operate a gradual but material
 revolution in the practice of medicine.  As to theories, we must
 agree with  Voltaire when  he said, " En  fait  de systeme, il faut
 toujours se reserver le droit de rire le lendemain  de  ses idees de la
 veille."
  Hippocrates laid down in his Aphorisms the incontrovertible fact
 "Duobus  doloribus simul obortis, non tandem eadem  in parte, vehe-
 mentior alterum  obscurat.   A.  46."  To  a  certain  degree, it was
 upon this  assertion, which  the experience  of ages has  confirmed,
 that  Hahnemann founded the principal and  most important point of
 his doctrine ; but, going much farther than  the father of medicine,
 he affirms that similar diseases effectually remove each other.   For
 centuries practitioners have been acting homoeopathically ;  the ex-
 hibition of specifics, in fact, is nothing  else.   As we have already
 shown, specifics are  known to produce symptoms similar to the dis-
 eases they cure.  Hitherto the number of such  medicines has been
 confined to a  very few agents ; and perhaps,  with  the exception of
 mercury, sulphur, and bark, with their several preparations, scarcely
 any article in the materia  medica could have claimed this peculiar
 property.   To extend these limits, which confined in  so exiguous
 a compass our therapeutic agents, has been the laborious and singu-
 lar study of Hahnemann and his disciples.   Haller had first given
 the example,  and they arduously applied themselves to discover by
 experiments on the  healthy  subject, both upon their own persons
 and others, what were the peculiar effects or symptoms produced by
various medicinal substances.  These observations are so numerous
and confused, that, on reading them, we feel plunged  in a chaotic
labyrinth  of  symptoms,  without any clue to  extricate  ourselves
 from its perplexing  mazes.   Still, from  this  multifarious catalogue
 much important  information  can be collected  ; and it cannot be
denied that the homoeopathist has not only thrown a new light on
the action of many medicines which we daily prescribe, but brought 
CURIOSITIES OF MEDICAL EXPERIENCE.
into practical consideration  the necessity of attending to dietetic
discipline, by an investigation of the several properties of our usual
ingesta.
  It is obvious that any enthusiast who would blindly embrace the
foregoing doctrines  without serious  and deep  investigation, and
boldly apply the wild theory to practice, would at once throw open
the flood-gates of  absurdity, and endeavour to destroy if possible,
with one fell swoop, the result of ages of mature study and experi-
ence.   Hahnemann, to* fertilise the fields of science, had recourse
to inundation instead of wise and cautious irrigation ;  and the fury
with  which he and his rash disciples maintained  their opinions
materially  tended  to retard  their  progress.  Truth  needeth  not
violence ;  its own lustre will beam through surrounding  darkness,
without being dragged into light.
  The objections  to Hahnemann's doctrines are glaring.  The art
of healing,  from the dawn of science until the present day, has been
more  or less founded on the faculties of reasoning.  We are taught,
in the first  instance,  to observe carefully the phenomena of disease
and,  by referring  effects  to  probable causes, endeavour, however
difficult the task, to  trace their catenation.  Many of these causes
are perhaps sealed  for ever in  the inscrutable book of our destinies ;
yet if we cannot obtain a knowledge of the origin of these disorders,
still when we  take into mature consideration the complication of all
accidental  circumstances, and from  visible effects  seek invisible
relations, guided  by our  experience in  anatomy, physiology, and
the revelations of pathology, we  may find this pursuit less difficult
than it may be imagined.  But the homoeopathist despises, and rejects
as idle, all  those*collateral means of diving into nature's arcana.
He bids us to dwe*l| only upon evident symptoms, or in other words,
look to the effects  alone, and cast away all thoughts of discovering
their  causes.   Than  this argument nothing can be more illogical;
for certainly we can  scarcely hope to remove effects without striking
as far as in our power lies, at their causation.   To  deny the exis-
tence of any specific affection because we cannot account for  its
origin, is ahsurd.   As well might we reject the use  of medicines
known  to^possess  specific  properties, from our utter ignorance of
their  modus operandi.  The exclusive consideration of symptoms
would lead us into  lamentable error,  since the  same symptoms are
observable  in various diseases.  Similar  pains, for instance, may be
the symptoms of rheumatism, nephritic  affections, calculus ; head-
aches may  arise  from  inflammation, from various and well known
sympathies with distant organs :  yet, without seeking to ascertain
these relations, the mechanical and emperical homoeopathist will
prescribe such medicines as  are known to occasion pains  in the
loins, or headaches ;  only bearing in mind perceptible derangements,
heedless of the phenomena of organizaton, the state  of  the secre-
tions  and excretions, the  history, the rise and progress of the dis-
order, or the idiosyncrasy of the patient.   The liver  is  diseased ;
the discovery is of no importance.   We have only to attend to the 
              OF THE  HOMOEOPATHIC DOCTRINES.          239

 pain extending up the clavical and shoulder, or the uneasiness ex-
 perienced in the  right hypochondrium :  the pulse, the respiration,
 the condition of the excretions, the  temperature  of the  skin, the
 appearance of the tongue, are all regarded as minor considerations.
 It is not hepatitis that we are  called  upon to cure ; it is to relieve
 a pain in the shoulder and in the hypochondrium, or a difficulty of
 lying on the left  side.
   No one will pretend to deny that our  safest, perhaps  our  sole,
 guide in the study of disease is the group of symptoms, that become
 more and more perceptible during the course of our investigations.
 It was principally on the study of symptoms that the most learned
 practitioners of every age and country grounded their diagnosis and
 their prognosis ;  but they never  viewed them either singly, or in
 their  complexity, as  unconnected with  the  particular diseases to
 which they were not only essentially united, but from which  they
 originated, and of the existence of which they were to be considered
 the diagnostic signs.   Therefore did the ancients classify them as
 principal and accessory, univocal and equivocal, characteristic  or
 common, as they afforded more or less information in our pathologic
 deduction ; and in that light they were weighed with greater or less
 application, as our judgment could only be formed by the attentive
 consideration of  the phenomena of the organism  in  health and in
 disease.
   But while the homoeopathist's attention is chiefly directed to "the
 discovery of means that can enable him to produce  symptoms  ana-
 logous to those of the disorder, he seems to disregard  the laws of
 sympathy, by which our organism appears to be ruled ;  a  myste-
 rious agency which can only be ascertained by observation and ex-
 periment, when, to use the words of a distinguished writer,* " by the
 former we  may be said to listen to nature, by the latter to interro-
 gate her."   Health depends upon the due co-operation of  all these
 associations ; and one organ in the wonderful machinery cannot be
 deranged in its functions without influencing others, however distant
 and unconnected they may appear.  In this co-ordination, these vital
 relations have been very properly divided into  mechanical, func-
 tional, and sympathetic.  Their study constitutes the ground-work
 of all rational induction.   It is not by individual or complex symp-
 toms that we can  decide where the want  of equilibrium  is to be
 traced.   Various  have been the  theories on this  most important
 subject, and great have been the erroneous ideas  dogmatically laid
 down.   The illustrious  Bichat himself erred when he maintained
 that  sympathies  were  aberrations, morbid developments of our
 vital properties.   Sympathies, on the  contrary, may be considered
 as  constant phenomena, essential and inseparable from our organism,
 whether in health or in sickness ; and are, if I may be pardoned
the expression, co-ordinated to co-operate with each  other in their
mechanical, their  functional, and their sympathetic associations.
* Sir Gilbert Blane's Medical Logic* 
CURIOSITIES OF MEDICAL  EXPERIENCE.
  An incarcerated  hernia  causes  hiccup, nausea, vomiting.   Will
the homoeopathist tell us that we must seek in his  catalogue  of in-
numerable effects some substance which is known to produce similar
symptoms ?  Surely the rupture must first call our attention.   This
example is adduced as  referring to nearly every case in which it
might be  rashly attempted  to  separate  causes from  effects.   The
mammary glands are variously affected in uterine diseases ;  their
impressions are reciprocal, yet the uterine  affection  must be the
chief object of our solicitude.  A peculiar pruritus is a symptom of
calculus.  Are  we then to administer a homoeopathic  dose of can-
nabis, or any other medicine which may give rise to a similar sen-
sation ?    It may  be objected  to  this observation that these are
purely surgical cases, in which we  need not be guided by symp-
toms to  discover causes; but it has  too frequently happened that
nausea and vomiting have been attended to, while the hernia was
overlooked, until fatal  accidents were manifest.   Moreover, a
diseased liver, a diseased spleen or  kidney,  would  be just as per-
ceptible as hernia or calculus, if these parts could  be brought into
view or contact.
  It may be said that an erroneous notion of Hahnemann's doctrines
on this subject  has been taken ; it is therefore necessary to quote his
own words :
  " It may be easily conceived  that the existence of a malady pre-
supposes some alteration in  the interior  of the human organism ;
but our  understanding can only lead us to suspect this alteration  in
a vague  and deceitful manner, from the  appearance of the morbid
symptoms, the  sole guide we can depend on except in surgical cases.
The essence of the internal and invisible  change is undiscoverable,
nor have we any means of guarding against deceptive illusions."*
  "The invisible substance that has undergone a morbid alteration
in the interior of the human body, and the perceptible changes which
are  externally developed,—in other words, symptoms form by their
union what is called disease ; but the  symptoms are the only points
of the malady which are accessible to the physician, the sole indica-
tion whence he can  derive any intuitive notion, and  the  principal
objects he ought to become acquainted with to effect a cure.   From
this  incontestable  truth  there  is nothing discoverable in disease
beyond  the totality of its symptoms  to guide us in the selection of
our curative means."!
  It is not to be supposed that an experienced  physician, although
a homoeopathist, will rest satisfied with this study of symptomatic
medicine,  without endeavouring to attach  these effects to some cause,
however  occult it may appear ;  but such a doctrine becomes
pernicious, since  it bids us  close  the  only book of truth that
can reveal our errors, -^post  mortem  investigations.  Surely, if
a group of certain symptoms  attend a  disease, which when  ter-
minating  fatally, shows  disorganisation in certain viscera, we are
* Organon, V4
f Organon VI. 
OF THE HOMOEOPATHIC DOCTRINES.          241
not only justifiable  in giving to that disorganisation a specific name
in our scientific classification and categories, but in considering the
symptoms of no other importance than as corroborative of those facts
that morbid anatomy daily brings to light.
   It is generally admitted  that most nosologies are imperfect, and
may occasionally lead the  young practitioner into  error.  This is
easily accounted for when we consider the Protean forms that the
same  disease assumes  in different  individuals ; yet, without this
classification, the science of medicine could not be studied.   A cer-
tain arrangement is necessary to simplify all our pursuits  in natural
science, and to seek a variety we  must  know the order and the
genus.
   Had Hahnemann given a better system of nosology than those
we possess, and with  his truly  praiseworthy zeal and  industry
enumerated the various symptoms of disease as minutely and as ac-
curately as he has recorded the effects of medicinal substances, his
labours might have proved a most valuable addition to  our store of
knowledge.
   Let us now direct our attention to the absurdities that these
opinions have led  to.   Solely attentive  to effects, and heedless of
the disorganisation of various important parts of the human economy
which morbid anatomy detects, Hahnemann endeavours to discover
the occult  causes—the original source—the germ—of  the malady,
which most likely are beyond the reach  of our researches ;  and he
boldly affirms that all chronic diseases spring  from syphilis, a dis-
position to warts, and the itch.  Now experience has  proved that
such an assumption is unfounded.   The most healthy subjects, those
who attain  the finest old  age, are more liable  to this disgusting af-
fection than the wealthy  and  cleanly part of the community.  The
Irish and Scotch peasantry from their infancy, and through life, are
most liable to psora ; and certainly our soldiers and sailors, amongst
whom the disease is common, are not more subject to chronic diseases
than any other classes of society, of course not taking into considera-
tion the effects of unhealthy climates.
   Syphilis, it will  be readily granted, has a considerable share in
producing anomalous sequelae, more especially when in combination
with mercury.   Warts, except of a syphilitic character, were never
known to germinate diseases ; indeed, they affect  the most healthy
and robust  individuals.    Yet to these three miasmatic  causes does
Hahnemann attribute nearly  ever disease that was ever  known to
afflict mankind ; while he passes over in silence the predisposition
to scrofula, gout, rheumatism, to which we can unfortunately trace
with too much certainty  the source of much human  misery.
  That the itch is a disease of great antiquity is a matter of  doubt.
It has been maintained that it is the same eruptive disorder  described
by Celsus under the appellation of scabies ; yet this writer does not
allude to its contagious  nature, and moreover says, that in some
cases it disappears completely, whereas in others  it  is  renewed at
certain periods of the year.  Celsus, moreover, includes other forms
  August, 1838.-3/           23 
242
CURIOSITIES OF MEDICAL EXPERIENCE.
of pustular eruptions among the different species  of scabies,  not
sufficiently distinguishing them from each other.  The character of
his scabies is more analogous to the lichen agrius of Willan.
   Nor did the ancients consider their psora as our itch.   It appears
to have been the scaly tetter, which they sometimes  denominated
psoriasis,  at others  lepra, a synonymous affection ; but neither
pustular nor vesicular.  Leprosy, indeed, is a malady totally distinct
from the itch in all  its characters.  Hahnemann  asserts that  the
species of leprosy  that afflicted  the Jews, and  described by their
legislator in  the thirteenth Leviticus, was the  itch ;  but any  one
who will peruse this  description will perceive that it does not bear
the slightest resemblance to that disorder.   It appears, on the con-
trary, that it was that kind of leprosy called leuci  by the ancients.
Nor was leprosy constantly attended with itching, one of the chief
characteristics of the malady, that derives its very name from that
sensation.  Hippocrates mentions a leprosy that usually occasioned
a prurience before rain.  There are no diseases in the classification
of which more  obscurity exists than  in cutaneous  affections ;  and
Hahnemann's ideas would tend to  increase this confusion, since he
tells us that he  considers the framboesia of America, the sibbens
of Norway, the pellagra  of Lombardy, the plica of Poland, the
pseudo-syphilis of the English, and the asthenia  Virginiensis of
Virginia, complications of his three miasmatic principles ;  and he
further  informs us, no doubt on the  faith of some idle tradition,
that psora lost its external deformity on the return of the Crusaders,
who brought from the Holy Land the  use of linen  shirts, a cleanly
and salutary precaution that eradicated the disease at a period when
France had no less than two thousand hospitals  for  the reception of
itch patients,—a plain proof that he  confounds leprosy with itch,
since the hospitals he alludes to were distinctly considered leper-
houses.
   It is certainly true that there does exist in our system a constant
predisposition to eruptive affections of some kind or other.   We are
born heirs to certain exanthematic affections, such as the  measles
and small-pox ; and  it would be  as difficult to find a  being morally
immaculate as an individual free from  speck or blemish.  Many of
these eruptions are considered of a critical and salutary nature ; and
 the ancients fancied that Nature  relieved herself by throwing upon
 the surface some " peccant humours."  Hence their dread of the
 retrocession of any of these "breakings out;" and there is no doubt
 but that accidents frequently followed their sudden disappearance,
 in the same  manner  as drying up  an  issue or a blister  established
 for  some time, and become habitual, may occasion internal mischief;
 but to maintain that all chronic diseases  arise  from  three eruptive
 principles is a most  gratuitous and untenable assertion.
   Enthusiastically anxious to support  his doctrines, Hahnemann is
 frequently led into  erroneous assertions.  Thus he tells us  that life
 will suddenly cease  if a little water or the mildest liquid is  injected
 in  a  vein ;  whereas experience has  proved,  in the treatment of 
              OF THE HOMOEOPATHIC DOCTRINES.          243

cholera, that the most stimulating solutions maybe thus introduced,
not only with impunity, but with salutary results.
   It is needless to enter more deeply into the ungracious business
of pointing out errors, many of which were evident to Hahnemann
himself; since, not only  in  the  several editions of  his Organon,
but in various paragraphs in the  same  volume, he  contradicts him-
self.
   A much more gratifying and important task is now undertaken,
—to prove by the evidence of facts, supported by practical reason-
ing, that the  art of healing is more indebted  to the  homoeopathic
doctrines than to any system  that has  hitherto been delivered in our
schools.
   That the all-bountiful Creator, in  permitting, for  purposes  un-
known to us, that mankind should be visited by so  many scourges,
has also scattered around us means to  counteract these evils, cannot
be a matter  of  doubt.   Instinct leads animals  to  find  out these
salutary  agents, and various specifics have been discovered by man.
The rudest savage is in possession of  curative  substances unknown
to the civilized,  and performs cures where learning  and experience
have proved  of no avail.
   To extend the limits of specifics must be considered a most de-
sirable step towards adding to our means of relieving disease ;  and
in this pursuit it is impossible to bestow  too much  praise on the
homoeopathic observer.  Enthusiasm—predilection  to a favourite
but persecuted system—may induce an ardent proselyte not only
to deceive others, but unwittingly to  deceive himself.  It is there-
fore not  only possible, but probable, that in the experimental in-
vestigations of the effects of medicine, Fancy, in her multifarious
colours, may have depicted, with apparent fidelity, a state of body
and mind that only existed in  an exalted  imagination ;  but when
we behold various individuals, distant  from each other, and totally
unconnected, observing similar results from the exhibition of various
medicinal substances, we have  no right to call their assertions into
doubt.   These assertions, moreover, are not laid down dogmatically,
but are earnestly recommended to  be submitted to the test of ex-
periment.  For  instance, the  homoeopathist  has  found out that
certain substances, by diminishing the energy of the  heart  and
arteries, subdue  inflammatory action  as  effectually  as venesection.
This is a fact daily witnessed, and of which  any practitioner can
convince himself.   It is not asserted that in cases of  sudden deter-
mination of blood, which  require immediate revulsion and abstrac-
tion of the vital fluid, homoeopathic remedies will be found possessed
of sufficient  activity to afford  prompt relief; but experience has
fully proved  that in cases  which  can admit, of a few hours' delay,
these medicines  supersede the necessity of  debilitating the  patient
by a copious  loss of blood.
   Dr. Paris,  in his admirable work on Materia  Medica, has justly
observed, " that  observation or experiment  upon the effects of me-
dicine is liable to a thousand fallacies, unless it be carefully repeated 
244         CURIOSITIES OF MEDICAL EXPERIENCE.
under the various circumstances of health and disease, in different
climates, and on different constitutions."   This has been the main
object of the homoeopathist; and a further quotation from the above
distinguished writer will illustrate the importance of their labours.
" It is impossible to cast our eyes over such multiplied groups (of
medical substances) without 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
reputation of all, without feeling an eager curiosity to inquire, from
the combination of what  causes it  can  have happened that substan-
ces at one period in the highest esteem, and of general acknowledged
utility,  have fallen  into total  neglect  and disrepute.    That such
fluctuation in opinion and versatility in practice should have pro-
duced even  in the most candid  and learned observer, an unfavoura-
ble impression with  regard to the general  efficacy of medicines, can
hardly excite our astonishment, much less our indignation ; nor can
we be surprised to find that another portion of mankind has at once
arraigned physic as a fallacious art, or derided it as a  composition
of error and fraud.   A late foreign writer, impressed with this sen-
timent, has  given the following flattering definition  of our pro-
fession :  Physic is the art of amusing the patient while Nature
cures his disease."
   With such a lamentable view of the practice of medicine, can we
be too thankful to those  observers who strenuously endeavour  to
rescue it from the dark trammels with which prejudice and inter-
ested motives  have bound  it ?   In no  country more than in Great
Britain is such an  investigation  desirable.   We have  become pro-
verbial from our incessant abuse of a farrago of medicinal substan-
ces; and what is  usually termed  an  elegant prescription signifies
an amalgam  of various drugs and preparations, which most probably
by their affinities neutralise the expected effects of each other ; for,
however  great and  flattering  may have  been the  discoveries  of
modern chemistry,  many  of these  affinities  are  unknown to us.
And surely when our  labours cannot  detect  any difference  in the
component parts of the purest Alpine atmosphere and  the deleteri-
ous air of a loathsome dungeon, we cannot expect to form a correct
idea of pharmaceutic combinations.
   The mere hopes of being able to  relieve society from the curse
of constant drugging should lead  us to hail with  gratitude  the ho-
moeopathist's investigations.  That many  physicians, but especially
apothecaries, who live by overwhelming their patients  with  useless
and too frequently pernicious medicines, will warmly, nay furiously,
inveigh against any innovation  of the kind, must  be  expected as
the natural  result  of interested apprehension ;  and any man who
aims at simplicity in practice will be denounced as guilty of medical
heresy.   Have we  not seen inoculation and  vaccination branded
with the most opprobrious epithets, merely because their introduction
tended to diminish professional lucre?
   In these remarks upon medicinal combinations it is not meant to 
OF THE HOMOEOPATHIC DOCTRINES.
245
 infer, that, because they are chemically incompatible, they are  in-
 effectual,-—experience has  proved the contrary ; but no  one will
 contend that, if we can attain the same beneficial  results from a
 single ingredient, administered in small quantities and at distant
 periods, as from  the exhibition of repeated and nauseous  doses of
 pills, powders, draughts, potions, &c. which hang over the  bed of
 sickness, nay of  slight derangements, like the sword of Damocles,
 we  have not effected a most salutary reform in the practice of
 physic.  It is related of  one of these ingenious  and industrious
 practitioners, that, having  seen a  prescription, that  only contained
 half a dozen medicines, he exclaimed, " What ! nothing more ?" to
 which the prescriber replied, " If you  choose, sir, we'll step over
 to the apothecary, and see  what else he has in his shop."
   Specifics  may be divided into two classes, the one producing a
 peculiar effect upon particular organs, the other producing general
 results.  Thus the action of cantharides and digitalis on the urinary
 system, of emetics  on the stomach, of certain purgatives on  the
 small intestines, and of others  on the large ones, are generally
 known ; whereas the action of mercury and opium is still  a matter
 of controversy.   A study of these effects constitutes the chief object
 of the homoeopathist ; and having determined their peculiar action,
 their medicinal agents are given singly, and, as we have already
 observed, in the  most minute doses.
   It is this  division into infinite fractions that has drawn upon  the
 homoeopathic practice the denunciation  of the allopathic physicians,
 as it is considered utterly impossible that such imponderable par-
 ticles can  produce  any beneficial or  prejudicial effect;  and  the
 Academy of  Medicine of  Paris, when officially condemning  the
 doctrine, asserts, in support of this argument, that great danger
 arises from it " in frequent and serious cases of disease, where  the
 physician may do as much injury, and cause no less  mischief, by
 ineffectual means as by those which are prejudicial."
  This is perhaps one of the most important points of the  homoeo-
 pathic doctrine.   If these fractional doses are inert, and yet the dis-
 ease is cured, then must the successful treatment be  solely  ascribed
 to the dietetic regimen and the efforts  of nature.  However, expe-
 rience has afforded abundant proofs that these infinite atoms do pro-
 duce positive and evident effects.   What appears to our feeble organs
 an atomic fraction may produce phenomena on the organism which
 we cannot comprehend, but should not  therefore be denied.  Let
 one grain of iodine be dissolved in one  thousand five hundred and
 sixty grains of water, the solution will be limpid : let two  grains of
starch be dissolved in two ounces of water and added to the first solu-
 tion, and the liquor will forthwith assume a blue tint.  In  this  ex-
periment the grain of iodine has been divided into Tj^o«   Dissolve
the  four-hundredth part of water, and the hydric-sulphite will bring
it into evidence.  Let a five-thousandth part  of arseniate of am-
monia be dissolved in five hundred thousand parts of water, and  the
addition of the smallest proportion of nitrate of  silver will  obtain a
                              23* 
246
CURIOSITIES OF MEDICAL EXPERIENCE.
yellow  precipitate.   Numerous experiments of  a  similar nature
may be daily resorted to, to prove that the most  minute particles
of two substances possessed  of chemical affinities may be brought
into action, although diluted ad  infinitum.  But the  power that
the smallest particle possesses  in producing  natural  phenomena
cannot be more evidently proved than by Spallanzani's experiments
in fecundation.   This physiologist having wrapped up a  male frog
in oiled silk, fecundation could not take place ;  but having collected
on the point of a camel-hair pencil a particle of the fecundising fluid,
he  succeeded in  vivifying  thousands of eggs.  Surprised at this
result, he dissolved three grains of the secretion in a pound of water,
and one globule of the solution was endowed with the same faculty.
In this case the globule  of  water only contained ■sjJTGTYJot^ Part
of one grain.  This curious experiment has been tried with a similar
result by Prevost and Dumas.   How imponderable and impalpable
must be the  effluvium which enables the dog to track his master for
miles !  the particle of otter of roses that perfumes a whole chest of
clothes ! and what must the power of the  aroma  be which is pre-
served for thousands of years in some Egyptian mummies !  Would
the vulgar believe in the wonders of the solar  and gaseous micro-
scopes unless  they were  exposed to view ? where we behold in
amazement myriads of individuals in one drop of fluid, each of them
as perfect in organisation as could have been the  mighty mammoth
of old or the sagacious elephant of our days, endowed with distinct
habits, destructive and reproductive propensities and faculties.
  It has been advanced  by  the opponents of homoeopathy that the
insignificant dose of three or four medicinal globules cannot possess
any power, since  one might swallow a thousand  of  them with im-
punity.   To this it is answered,  that it is  only  under certain
morbid conditions that these medicines  act by their homoeopathic
affinities.  Moreover, it is well known that small doses of medicinal
substances will frequently produce more powerful effects than larger
quantities.   Tartar-emetic, sugar of  lead, calomel, afford  daily  in-
stances of this fact;  and it is also admitted that many substances act
differently upon the healthy or the sick.   An  individual in  health
can take any food without  apprehension ;  but when  his functions
are deranged, the slightest imprudence in regimen  may  lead to
serious consequences.  There are primordial and  inscrutable pecu-
liarities in our constitution  that cannot be  accounted for  ; and the
medicine which relieves one patient will aggravate the sufferings of
others.  The exhalations of the American rhus are deadly to some
persons, but innocuous  to others ; and  many poisons which  cause
instantaneous death to some animals  may be given with safety to
others.  Whence has arisen the controversy regarding damp sheets,
which many maintain are not dangerous, simply from the fact that
a healthy person with a vigorous circulation may sleep in  them with
impunity, when a feeble and languid subject will be exposed to some
dangerous determination of blood ?
   An  illustrious  writer already  quoted  thus expresses himself on 
OF THE HOMOEOPATHIC DOCTRINES.          247
this matter :* "The virtues of medicines cannot be fairly nor bene-
ficially ascertained by trying their effects on sound subjects, because
the peculiar morbid condition which they are calculated to remove
does not  exist."   It may be said that  this observation militates
against the  homoeopathic experiments, and to a certain  extent it
evidently does; but it cannot be inferred that because a medicinal sub-
stance  will occasionally act differently in health and in disease, that it
may not frequently operate in a similar manner when the morbid con-
dition does prevail, since it is generally admitted that medicines act in
a relative manner according to the state of the system.  Hence clas-
sifications of medicines are too frequently erroneous and  imperfect.
The doses of medicines  determine their effects.  Linnaeus says,
"Medicines differ from poisons, not in  their nature, but in their
dose ;" and  Pliny tells us aphoristically, " Ubi virus, ibi virtus."
According to their doses,  medicines will produce a general or a local
effect; and Dr. Paris, whom  I feel much gratification in quoting,
lays down as a rule that " substances perfectly inert  and  useless in
one dose may prove in another  active and valuable."   It will  be
foreign to the nature of this sketch to enter more fully into this most
important subject;  but  the cases which shall be adduced will  be
deemed sufficient to convince the most incredulous, of the power
of homoeopathic doses.
   Tho^e who  have denied this property have  boldly  attributed
homoeopathic cures to dietetic means.   Admitting this statement by
way of argument, surely, if any observer, by ascertaining the peculiar
action  of our  ingesta, can  so regulate the regimen  as to produce
salutary effects without the aid of medicine, mankind would be most
essentially benefited.  How many persons do we not daily meet with,
who have never taken any medicine  since  their childhood, when
maternal care strove to destroy their digestive organs with apothe-
cary's  stuff, and who regulate their functions by mere attention to
their mode  of living.   I know one  gentleman, a physician, who
relieves constipation by green  chilies ; another, with cold milk ; a
third, with warm milk: in some habits spinach and sorrel will act as a
powerful and safe aperient; in others, cheese, or a hard egg, will ope-
rate in  a contrary way.  Fermented and spirituous liquors all possess
specific properties.  Some gouty persons cannot drink  Claret with-
out bringing on a paroxysm, and others dread a glass of Champagne
or Burgundy.   Nay, different wines have been known to bring on
arthritic attacks in particular parts ; and  I have known Champagne
to produce gout in the wrist, and Burgundy in the knee,  in subjects
who under other circumstances  never experienced the disorder in
those articulations.  Our peculiar aversion, nay, our dread, of various
alimentary substances are well  known.   The  odour of cheese, of
strawberries, have  occasioned  fainting  and convulsions ;  and  in
certain constitutions several articles of diet bring on indigestions.
In short, the study of our  ingesta is one of the greatest importance;
and here again the homoeopathist is entitled to our best thanks.
  This investigation will  moreover prompt physicians to be more
                          * Sir G. Blane. 
248
CURIOSITIES OF MEDICAL EXPERIENCE.
attentive  in  inquiring into the various effects of alimentary and
medicinal substances on their patients.  Instead of hastily drawing
out routine  prescriptions  for such and such  a disorder, they will
accurately ascertain the physical and moral condition of the subject,
taking into  due consideration previous habits, predispositions, and
pursuits in  life.  Indeed, it would be  desirable that  practitioners
followed the example of army medical men,  who  keep  an  exact
register of every individual they attend, and in which is diligently
recorded  every circumstance connected with  the disease and its
treatment.
   Moral influence has also been called into aid in  opposition to this
practice, and cures have been attributed to the mere power of fancy
and credulity.   We have  certainly known superstition and mental
imbecility to be productive both of good and evil,—to have created
maladies,  and cured  others ;  but homoeopathy  has  succeeded when
the patient was unaware of the treatment to  which  he  was sub-
mitted. But, conceding the point, and admitting that inert substances,
such as starch,  (and this experiment was resorted to in Paris,) may
have  obtained  singular beneficial  result,—the results of a weak
imagination, this circumstance  alone would be illustrative of the
power of moral agency ;  and  who would not gladly wish  for a
mental relief in lieu of a nauseating and injurious course of medicine.
   Others  will  exclaim, although  the homoeopathist  disavows the
vis medicatrix naturae, that  he  solely  succeeds by leaving the
malady to the salutary efforts of the constitution.   Here  again we
must admit, that were we  to leave many diseases to run their course,
we might  be more successful in obtaining a cure  than by rash and
detrimental  interference, founded on the principle  that a physician
"must order something."
   But the facts I  am about recording,—facts  which  induced me,
from having been one of the warmest opponents of this system, to
investigate carefully and dispassionately its practical points,—will
effectually contradict all these assertions regarding  the inefficacy of
the homoeopathic doses, the influence of diet, or the agency of the
mind ; for in the following cases in no  one instance could such in-
fluences be  brought  into  action.   They were  (with  scarcely any
exception) experiments  made without the patient's knowledge, and
where no time was  allowed  for  any  particular  regimen.  They
may,  moreover, be conscientiously relied upon,  since they  were
made  with a view to prove the  fallacy of the homoeopathic practice.
Their  result, as may  be perceived by the foregoing observations,
by no means rendered me a convert to the absurdities of the doctrine,
but fully convinced me  by the  most incontestable facts that the in-
troduction of fractional doses will soon banish the farrago of nostrums
that are now exhibited to  the manifest prejudice both of the health
and the purse of the sufferer.
   Case I.—A  servant-maid received a blow of a stone  upon the
head.   Severe  headache, with  dizziness and dimness  of sight, fol-
lowed.  Various means were resorted to ; but general blood-letting 
OF THE HOMOEOPATHIC DOCTRINES.
249
 could  alone  relieve the distressing symptoms, local bleeding not
 having been  found of  any avail.   The  relief, however, was not of
 long duration, and  the distressing accidents recurred periodically,
 when abstraction of blood became indispensable.   Reduced by these
 frequent evacuations, I was resolved to try the  boasted " bleeding
 globules" of the  homoeopathist, when,  to my great  surprise, I
 obtained the  same mitigation of symptoms which the loss of from
 twelve  to sixteen  ounces  of blood had  previously accomplished.
 Since the first experiment no venesection became necessary, and the
 returns of the violent headache were invariably relieved by the same
 means.
   Case II.—An elderly woman was subject to excruciating head-
 ache, with an evident determination of blood to the brain.  Numer-
 ous leeches were constantly applied. The usual remedies indicated
 in similar affections were resorted to, but only afforded temporary
 relief.   A homoeopathic  dose of aconite was  given, and the relief
 that followed was beyond all possible expectation.
   Case III.—My  much-esteemed friend Dr. Grateloup of Bordeaux
 was subject to frequent  sore-throats, which were only relieved by
 local blood-letting,  cataplasms, &c. but generally  lasted several days,
 during which deglutition became most difficult.   I persuaded him
 to try a dose of the belladonna,  neither of us having the slightest
 confidence in its expected effects.   He took the globules at twelve
 o'clock, and at  five p.m.  the tumefaction of the tonsils, with their
 redness and sensibility, had subsided to such an  extent that  he was
 able to partake of some food at dinner.   The following morning all
 the symptoms, excepting a slight swelling, had subsided.
   Since this period Dr. G. has repeatedly tried the same preparation
 in similar cases, and with equal success.   In my own practice, I can
 record seven  cases of cynanche tonsillaris which  were thus relieved
 in the course of  a few hours.
   Case IV.—H—, a  young woman on  the  establishment of the
 Countess of—, was suffering under hemiplegia, and it was resolved
 by Dr. Brulatour and myself to try the effects of the nux vomica.
 At this period the  wonders of the homoeopathic practice had been
 extolled to the skies by its advocates, and  we were resolved  to give
 one of their supposed powerful preparations a fair trial.  The girl
 was told that the powder she was about to take  was simply a dose
 of calomel ; and on calling upon her the following morntng  we did
 not expect that the  slightest effect could have been obtained  by this
 atomic dose, when,  to our utter surprise, the patient told us that she
 had passed a  miserable night, and described to us most minutely all
 the symptoms that usually follow the exhibition of a large dose of
 strychnine.   It is but fair to mention that the homoeopathic treatment
 did not cure the  disease;  but the manifest operation of this fractional
 dose, that  could  not possibly be denied, is a fact of considerable im-
 portance.
  Case V.—Mrs."----of Brompton,  Bow,  had laboured under
hectic fever for several months, and was  so reduced by night per- 
CURIOSITIES OF MEDICAL EXPERIENCE.
spirations, that she was on the very brink of the grave.  Called into
consultation, I frankly told her husband  that every possible means
known in the profession  had been most judiciously employed, and
that I saw no prospect of obtaining relief.  At the same time I men-
tioned to him  that  the  homoeopathic practitioners pretended that
they had found the  means of relieving these distressing symptoms,
which he might submit to an experimental trial if he thought pro-
per.  He immediately expressed his wish that it should be adopted.
I gave her  a homoeopathic dose of phosphoric  acid and stannum ;
and, to  the surprise of  all  around her,  the  night sweats did not
break out at their usual hour,—three o'clock in the morning.  What
renders  this case still more  interesting  is the fact of these perspi-
rations recurring so soon as the action of the medicine ceased ; a cir-
cumstance so evidently ascertained, that the patient knew the  very
day when another dose became necessary.
  Case VI.—A daughter of the same lady was  subject to deafness,
which I attributed to a fulness of blood.  This cause  I  clearly
ascertained by the relief afforded by the application of a few leeches
behind the ear.  I  was   therefore  induced, on a recurrence of the
complaint,  to endeavour to  diminish vascular action  by a dose of
aconite.  The effects were evident in the course of four hours, when
the deafness and the other symptoms of local congestion had entirely
disappeared.

  I could record many instances of similar results, but they would of
course be foreign to the  nature of this work.   I trust that the few
cases I have related will  afford  a convincing proof of the injustice,
if not the unjustifiable obstinacy, of those practitioners who, refusing
to submit the homoeopathic practice to a fair trial, condemn it with-
out investigation.   That this practice will be adopted by quacks
and needy adventurers,  there  is no doubt, but homoeopathy is a
science  on  which numerous voluminous works have been written
by  enlightened practitioners, whose situation in  life placed them
far  above the necessities  of speculation.   Their publications are not
sealed volumes, and any practitioner can also obtain the preparations
they recommend.   It is possible, nay, more than  probable, that
physicians  cannot find time  to  commence a new course of studies,
for  such this investigation must prove.  If this is the case, let them
frankly  avtiw their utter ignorance of the doctrine, and not denounce
with merciless tyranny a practice of which they do not possess the
slightest knowledge.
  Despite  this  absolute  persecution that  Hahnemannism  (as this
doctrine is ironically denominated) is  at  present  enduring,  every
reflecting and unprejudiced person must feel convinced that, although
its wild and untenable theories may not overthrow the established sys-
tems, (if any one system  can be called established,)  yet its study and
application bid fair  to operate an important revolution in medicine.
The introduction of infinite small doses, when compared at least with
the quantities formerly prescribed, is gradually creeping in.  The his- 
DOCTRINE OF SIGNATURES.
251
tory of medicine affords abundant proofs  of the acrimony, nay, the
fury, with which every new doctrine has been impugned and insulted.
The same annals will also show that this spirit of intolerance  has
always been in the ratio of the truths  that these doctrines tended
to bring into light.   From the preceding observations, no one  can
accuse me of having become a blind convert to homoeopathy ; but I
can only hope that its present vituperators will follow my example,
and examine the matter calmly and dispassionately ere they proceed
to pass a judgment that  their vanity may lead them  to consider a
final sentence.
             DOCTRINE  OF  SIGNATURES.

  One of the most absurd  medical doctrines that ever prevailed in
the dark aeras of science was  the firm belief that all medicinal sub-
stances displayed certain external  characters that pointed out their
specific virtues.   This absurd  theory may be traced  to  the Magi
and  Chaldaeans, who  pretended  that every  sublunary  body was
under  a planetary influence.  To find the means of concentrating
or fixing this stellary  emanation became  a  cabalistic study, called
by Paracelsus the  " ars signata ;" and talismans of various kinds
were introduced by the  professors of sideral science.   The word
talisman appears to have  been derived  from the Chaldaean and
Arabic tilseman  and  tilsem, which  mean characteristic figures or
images.
  Paracelsus, Porta, Crollius,  and many other philosophers and
physicians cherished this division, which  had been transmitted  to
them through the  dense  mists of superstition from more ancient
authorities ;  amongst others  may be  recorded Dioscorides, iElius,
and Pliny.
  The lapis  aetites, or eagle-stone, which  was supposed to be found
in the nests of this bird, but  which in fact, is nothing more than a
variety of iron-ore, was said to prevent abortion if tied to the arm,
and to accelerate parturition  if affixed to  the  thigh.  This  conceit
arose from the noise that seemed  to  arise from the centre of the
stone when it was shaken :  " iEtites lapis agitatus, sonitum edit,
velut ex  altero  lapide  praegnans."  From this  absurd hypothesis
sprung the doctrine ; and the very names of plants were supposed
to indicate their specific qualities.  For  instance,  the  euphrasia,
or eye-bright, exhibiting a  dark spot in its corolla resembling the
pupil of the  eye,  was  considered efficacious  in  affections  of that
organ.   The  blood-stone, the heliotropium, from its being marked
with red specks, was employed to stop haemorrhage ;  and is to this
day resorted  to in  some countries, even  in England, to stop a bleed-
ing of the nose.*   Nettle-tea was prescribed for  the eruption called
  * The celebrated Boyle used to apply to his wrists for  the  same purpose, the
moss that grew  from a human skull. 
252
CURIOSITIES OF MEDICAL EXPERIENCE.
nettle-rash.  The semecarpus anacardium, bearing the form of a
heart, was recommended in the diseases of thisviscus.  The cassu-
vium occidentale, resembling the formation of a kidney, was pre-
scribed in renal complaints ; and the pulmonary lichen of the oak,
the sticta pulmonaria, from its cellular structure, was esteemed
a valuable substance in morbid affections of  the lungs.  Deductions
still more absurd, if possible were  recorded ; thus saxifrage, and
other plants that grow in  rocky places, embodied as it were in cal-
careous  beds, were advised to dissolve the  stone ; and the echium,
bearing some faint resemblance to a  viper, was deemed infallible
in the sting inflicted by this reptile.  The divers colours of substances
supposed  to  be  medicinal  were  also another signature.  Red
flowers were given for derangement in the sanguiferous system, and
yellowT ones for those of the  bile.  In Crollius's work entitled "Be
Signaturis Plantarum," many curious observations may be found,
and  Sennert, Keuch, Dieterich,  and other writers,  displayed great
industry  in the division of these signatures, which, by the ancients
were considered as sometimes denoting no particular quality, and
were then called un/xoi ^ag**™^/, or n^AvriKu, when their virtues were
evident.
  Amongst the various influences and indications that were attributed
to colours, black  was especially considered as the  mark of melan-
choly.  Baptista  Porta affirms, that  if a " black  spot be over the
spleen, or in the nails, it  signifies much  care, grief, contention, and
melancholy."   Cardan assures us that a little before his son's death
he had a black spot, which appeared in one  of his nails, and dilated
itself as he approached his end.
  While  Nature was thus  supposed to mark the virtues of her
productions on the external configuration, man assumed the same
authoritative power  and  marked medicines with certain signs or
seals.  For this purpose, the ancient physicians carried signets or
rings, frequently worn upon the thumb, and on which were engraved
their own  names, sometimes written  backwards, or the  denomina-
tions of the nostrums they vended.   On one of these seals we find
the  word  aromaticu, from aromaticum;  on another,  melinu,
abbreviation of melinum,—a collyrium  prepared with the alum  of
the island of Melos.   A seal of this kind is described  by Tochon
d'Annecy, bearing the words psoricum crocodem, an  inscription
that has puzzled medical antiquaries.   The  word psoricum was ap-
plied to an eruptive affection of the eye ; and Actuarius  mentions a
collyrium psoricum of iElius ; while Marcellus Empiricus records
the virtues of the psoricum stratioticum,  which restored sight  in
twenty days to a patient who had been blind for twelve  years; but,
when it was applied, it was ineffectual unless the words  " Te nunc
resunco, bregan,gresso,"wexe religiously pronounced.   Crocodem
was also  supposed  to apply to  crocus or saffron, or to  crocodes, a
remedy for sore eyes, mentioned by Galen ;  while some learned men
refer the word to the dejections of the crocodile, that were said to pos-
sess various virtues.  The earth  of Lemnos was sealed with the figure 
DOCTRINE OF SIGNATURES.
253
of Diana, and to this day the bolar argils brought from Greece bear
various seals and characters;  hence the bolus Armenise, and bolus
ruber, are called terra sigillata.
  The influence of colours is supposed to have been so great, that
in our own annals we  find  John de Gaddesden, mentioned by
Chaucer, ordering the son of Edward  I, when labouring under the
small-pox, to be wrapped up in scarlet; and, to the  present  day,
flannel dyed nine times blue is supposed to  be  most  efficacious in
glandular swellings.  Tourtelle, a French army physician, has made
the following  singular observation on  this  subject :  " I observed
that those soldiers of the Republic who were affected with diseases
connected with transpiration were more severely indisposed, and
not unfrequently exhibited symptoms of putrescency, when their
wet clothes had left a blue tinge on the skin, than when they had
been  merely wetted by the rain."  The explanation of this  sup-
posed phenomenon is simply that those men who had been coloured
by their uniforms, had, no doubt, been long wearing them saturated
by incessant rains, whereas the others had merely been exposed to
occasional  showers.   From  this observation I  do not  pretend to
affirm that any deleterious substances in a dye  might not occasion
dangerous absorption ; but the accidents that may result from  such
a circumstance could  be  easily explained without having recourse
to any peculiar influence of colour.  The colour of cloth, especially
in army clothing, may also  materially tend  to influence cutaneous
transpiration, as some colours are more powerful conductors of heat
than others; and  it is not impossible that the French soldiers, not
belonging to French levies, and who had always been clad in white,
might have experienced  some difference   of  temperature  when
marching under intense heat in dark blue and green uniforms.
   Some of the terms used by the signature doctrinarians may puzzle
the most learned.  The  Greeks called  them m/um™*; and, in ad-
dition to the all-powerful abracadabra,—an infallible cure of ague
when suspended round the neck,—we  find the magic terms of sator,
asebo, tenet, obera, rotas, abrac,  khiriori, gibel, engraved  upon
amulets.  For the bite of a mad dog, pax, max, and adimax  were
irresistible; and for a fractured arm or a luxation, araries, danda-
ries, denatas, and matas would have set at defiance the  most ex-
perienced  chirurgeons.   I must refer the  curious reader on  this
important subject to the work De figuris Persarum Talismanicis
of Guffarel, to the CEdipus of Kircher, the book of Crollius De sig-
naturis internis rerum, and the  Isagoge physico-magico-medica
of Elzer.
   The church vehemently denounced  these abominations, and we
find in the council of Laodicea an injunction forbidding the priest-
hood the study and practice of enchantment, mathematics, astrology,
or the binding of soul by amulets.   These incantations were dreaded
in every age : thus Lucan,
               Mens, hausti nulla sanie polluta veneni,
               Incantata perit.
   August, 1S38.— N          24 
254          CURIOSITIES OF MEDICAL EXPERIENCE.

  Philosophers have justly observed that most of the diseases treated
and supposed to have been cured by these mystic means, were of a
nervous description, and therefore depending in  a  great measure
upon  moral influence.   Here Faith  and Hope assisted  the physi-
cians,—two great auxiliaries in every worldly turmoil and trouble.
Therefore  do we find most of these  cures referred  to epilepsy,
paralysis, melancholy, hypochondriasis, hysteria, as well as to many
periodical affections, the return of which is frequently arrested by
mental impressions.   A  fright has checked  the  paroxysm  of an
intermittent fever ; and  many natural  functions  are  impeded  or
brought on by a similar agency.  The sight of a  dentist has been
often  known to  calm  an excruciating toothache;  and  there is no
complaint that  has  been  cured by more singular  means than this
troublesome affection.   In 1794 a tract was published in Florence
by Dr. Ranieri Gerbi, a  professor of mathematics in Pisa, entitled
Storia naturale di un  nuovo inset to, which  he called curculio
anti-odontalgicus, and which, being squeezed between the fingers,
imparted to them, for the period of one year, the wonderful power
of relieving toothache  with  the mere touch ; and the author asserts
that by this simple process he cured four hundred and one cases out
of six hundred and twenty-nine.   This may be considered a branch
of magnetism, and has been  treated  by Schelhammer  in his book
De Odontalgia tactu sedandd.
  This wonderful insect belonged  to the coleoptera, and was simply
the curculio and  the coccinella septem-punctata, well known to
entomologists, and which, according  to Cipriani Zuccagni, and
more  particularly Carradori, possessed these  singular properties,
which, however, subsequent experiments have fully disproved.
  While we find some charms having sufficient  power over our
weak  imagination to cure  diseases, there were others considered
sufficiently energetic to occasion death.  Sometimes a wax figure
was made, supposed to  represent the devoted  victim, and which
was pierced with a pointed instrument, each  stab being accompanied
by a magic imprecation :

             Devovet absentes, simulacraque cerea fingit.

These means the ancients  called carmina, incanlationes, devo-
tiones sortiarise.   It is somewhat strange that this same ceremony
of the waxen image to destroy the object of our  hate was also re-
sorted to to obtain love.   The figure  was on these occasions called
by the name of the person,  and  afterwards placed  near the fire,
when, as  the heat gradually melted it, the obdurate heart of the
lover  was  simultaneously softened.  At other times  two  images
were thus exposed to heat, the one of clay, the other of wax ; and,
while the  one melted, the other became more  hardened :__a vin-
dictive feeling, to render our own  heart insensible, while we molli-
fied that of an ingrate ; or perhaps with a view to render that heart
inflexible  to others, while it  propitiated the addresses of the sup-
plicant.   Thus Virgil : 
COFFEE.                       255
         Limus ut hie durescit, et haec ut cera liquescit,
         Uno eodemque igni; sic nostro Daphnis amore.
         Sparge molam, et fragiles incende bitumine lauros.
         Daphnis me malus urit, ego hanc in Daphnide laurum.
  The wishes of the  ancients for those  they loved were sometimes
curious, and they often  turned round a mystic wheel, praying that
the object of  their affections might fall  down at their door and roll
himself in the dirt.
  The ancients, who daily witnessed this influence of the imagina-
tion in causing and  in curing disease,  have left us many valuable
injunctions on the subject; and Plato thus expresses himself: "The
office of the physician  extends  equally to the purification of mind
and body ; to neglect the one is  to expose the other to  evident
peril.   It  is  not  only  the  body that by its  sound constitution
strengthens the  soul,  but the well-regulated soul by its authoritative
power  maintains the  body in pefect health."
                          COFFEE.

   It is doubtful to whom we owe the introduction of this article of
 luxury into our climes.   The plant is a native of that part of Arabia
 called Yemen, but we find no mention made of it until the sixteenth
 century ;  and it  is believed  that  Leonhart Rauwolf, a German
 physician, was the first writer who spoke of it, in a work published
 in 1573.  The plant was also described by Prosper Alpinus, in his
 treatise on Egyptian plants, published in  1591 and 1592.   Pietro
 della Valle wrote from Constantinople  in 1615 that he  would teach
 Europe the  manner  in  which  the Turks  made their cahuS.  This
 spelling was  no  doubt incorrect ;  for, in a pamphlet printed at
 Oxford in 1659, in Arabic and English, it is written kauhi or coffee.
 Purchas, who was a contemporary of Della Valle, called it coffa ; and
 Burton thus speaks of its use :   " The Turks have a  drink called
 coffa, so named of a  berry as black as soot and as bitter, which they
 sip still of, and sup as warm as  they  can suffer.   They  spend  much
 time in their  coffa-houses, which are somewhat  like our alehouses
 and taverns, and there they sit chatting and drinking to drive away
 the time and to be merry together, because  they find by experience
 that kinde of drink so used helpeth digestion and procureth alacrity."
  The first coffee-house opened in London was in 1652.   A Turkey
 merchant, of the name of Edwards,  having brought with him from
 the Levant  some coffee  and a Greek  servant, he  allowed him to
 prepare and sell this  beverage ; when he established a  house in St.
 Michael's Alley, Cornhill, on the spot  where the  Virginia Coffee-
 house now stands.  Garraway's was the first coffee-house  opened after
 the fire in  1666.  It appears, however, that coffee was used  in
France in 1640 ;  and a sale of it was opened at Marseilles in 1671. 
256          CURIOSITIES OF MEDICAL EXPERIENCE.
  The introduction of this  berry was furiously  opposed ; and  it
appears that in its native land it was treated with no less severity,
since, in  an Arabian MS. in the King of France's library, coffee-
houses were suppressed in the East.  In 1663 appeared a pamphlet
against it, entitled " A Cup of Coffee, or Coffee in its colours."  In
1672 the  following lines were to be  found in another publication,
"A Broadside against Coffee, or the Marriage of the Turk :"
              Confusion huddles all into one scene,
              Like Noah's ark, the clean and the unclean.
              For now, alas !  the drench has credit got,
              And he's no gentleman who drinks it not.
  Then came " The Woman's  petition  against Coffee,"  which ap-
peared in  1674, in which  we  find the following complaint: "It
made men as unfruitful as the deserts whence  that unhappy  berry
is said to be brought, so much so, that the  offspring of our mighty
ancestors would dwindle into a succession of apes and pigmies ; and
on a domestic message a husband would stop  by the way to  drink
a couple of cups of coffee."  It was then sold in convenient penny-
worths ;—hence coffee-houses,  where wits, quidnuncs, and  idlers
resorted, were called " penny universities."
  While  it had adversaries, coffee was not left without eloquent
advocates.   Sir Henry Blount, in his  Organon Salutis, 1659, thus
speaks of  it : " This coffa-drink has caused a great sobriety among
all  nations.  Formerly apprentices, clerks, &c.  used to  take their
morning-draughts in ale, beer, or wine, which often made them unfit
for business.   Now they play the good-fellows in this  wakeful and
civil  drink.  The worthy gentleman, Sir  James Muddiford, who
introduced the practice hereof in London, deserves much respect of
the whole nation."
  It appears, however, that the jealousy with which the use of coffee
was viewed even by the government arose more from the nature of
the conversations that  took  place in coffee-houses during moments
of public excitement, than from the apprehension of any injury that
its consumption might have caused  to  the public  health.  In the
reign of Charles II. coffee-houses were shut up by  a proclamation,
issued in  1675, as the retailing of coffee "nourished sedition, spread
lies, scandalised great men, and might therefore  be  considered a
common nuisance."   As a nuisance, its abolition  was considered
as not being an infringement of the constitution  !  Notwithstanding
this Machiavelic torturing  of  the  letter  to serve the  spirit, the
arbitrary act occasioned loud and violent discontent; and permission
was given to re-open coffee-houses, on condition that the  landlords
should  not  allow  any scandalous  papers containing scandalous
reports against the government or great men to be read on their
 premises  !
   The use, or rather the abuse, of coffee is  said to produce feverish
heat, anxiety, palpitations,  trembling, weakness  of sight, and pre-
disposition to apoplexy.  Its effects in checking somnolence have
been long known.   However, the  action of this  berry  differs ac- 
COFFEE.
257
cording to its being roasted or raw.  An infusion of torrefied coffee
assists digestion, and frequently removes headaches resulting from
derangement in the  digestive functions.  It also neutralises  the
effect of narcotics, especially opium, and this power is increased by
the addition of lemon juice.   A  similar mixture  has been known
to cure obstinate  agues.   Musgrave and Percival recommended its
use in asthma : indeed, most persons who labour under this distress-
ing malady seem  to derive relief from its use.
   Taking into  consideration  all that has been  advanced in regard
to the conveniences that may attend the use of coffee and tea, they
must be considered as overruled by the moral results that have arisen
from the introduction of these beverages ;  and a late writer has ob-
served, that it has "led to the most wonderful change that ever took
place in the diet of civilised nations,—a change highly  important
both in a moral and physical point of view.   These beverages have
the  admirable  advantage of affording stimulus  without  producing
intoxication."  Raynal observes, that the use of tea has contributed
more to the sobriety of the Chinese than the  severest laws, the most
eloquent discourses, or the best treatises on morality.
   The quality and effects of coffee differ according to  the manner
in which it  is roasted.   Bermer  states  that  when  he was at Cairo
there were only two persons  in that great city who knew how to
prepare it to perfection.   If it be underdone, its virtues will not be
imparted, and its  infusion will load and oppress the stomach ; if it
be overdone, its properties will be  destroyed, and  it will  heat the
body, and act as an astringent.
   The best coffee is the Mocha, or that  which  is commonly  called
Turkey coffee.  It should be chosen of  a greenish, light, olive hue;
the berries of a middling size, clean and plump.
   The bad effects of coffee may in all likelihood be attributed both
to its powerful  and stimulating aroma  and to its pungent acidity.
According to Cadet, this acid is the gallic: while Grindel considers
it the  kinic, and Pfaff terms it the caffeic acid.   When strongly
heated, it  yields a pyro-caffeic acid, from  which may be obtained
a most pungent vinegar, that has recently been thrown into trade,
but I believe with little or no success.
  The principle of coffee is the caffein, discovered by Robiquet in
1821 ; and it is to this active principle that its beneficial  or baneful
effects can be attributed.   Recent experiments tend to show that it
is possessed  of  powerful  febrifuge virtues.    To obtain  this result,
raw coffee has been used.  It gives to  water a greenish hue,  and
thus saturated it has been called the citrine coffee.   Grindel  has
used this preparation in the treatment of intermittent fevers  in the
Russian hospital of Dorpat; he also administered the raw coffee in
powder.   In eighty cases of  this fever scarcely  any resisted  the
power of  this  medicine, given either in decoction, powder, or ex-
tract ;  but he seems to consider the latter  form the most effectual.
From this physician's observations, coffee  may become  a valuable 
258         CURIOSITIES  OF MEDICAL EXPERIENCE.
addition to our materia medica ; and the homoeopathic practitioners
maintain that they have employed it with great success  in various
maladies.
                 AQUA  TOPH ANIA.

  It was for a long time supposed that there actually did  exist in
Italy a secret poison, the effects of which were slow, and even  un-
heeded, until a  lingering  malady had  consumed the  sufferer.  No
suspicions were excited ;  or, had they  led  to any post  mortem
examination, no trace of the terrific preparation's effects could have
been detected.
  It was towards the year 1659, during the pontificate of Alexander
VII, that the existence of this baneful preparation was suspected.
Many young women had been  left widows ; and  many  younger
husbands, who  might have  ceased  to  please their wives, had died
away.   A certain society of young ladies had been observed to meet
under the auspices of an  elderly matron of rather  a questionable
character, who  had been known in her horoscopic predictions to
announce deaths that had but too truly taken place about the period
she prophesied.  One of the society, it appears, peached against
her companions, who were all apprehended and put to the  torture ;
and the lady patroness, whose name was Spara, was executed with
four of her pupils.   This Spara was a Sicilian, who had obtained the
fatal secret from Tofania at Naples.   Hence the  composition  was
named  aqua   Tofania, aqua  della  Toffana, and acquetta di
Napoli.   These deadly drops had been charitably distributed  by
Tofania to various uncomfortable ladies who wished  to  get  rid of
their lords, and were contained in small phials bearing the inscription
of " Manna  de San Nicolas  de  Bari."   This hag had  lived to
an old age, but was at length  dragged from  a monastery in  which
she had sought a  sanctuary, tortured, and  duly  strangled, after a
confession of her crimes.
   Garelli, physician  to Charles VI, thus wrote to  Hoffmann on  the
subject: " Your elegant dissertation on the popular errors respecting
poisons brought to my recollection a certain slow  poison which that
infamous poisoner, still alive in prison at Naples,  employed  to  the
destruction of upwards ofoix hundred persons.  It was nothing else
than crystallized arsenic dissolved in a large quantity of water by
decoction with  the addition, but for what purpose I know not, of the
herb cymbalaria {antirrhinum).   This was  communicated to me
by his Imperial Majesty himself, and confirmed by the confession of
the criminal in the judicial procedure."
   Abbe Gagliani, however, gives a  different account of the secret
Neapolitan drug.  " At Naples," he says, " the mixture of  opium
and cantharides is  known to be a slow poison ; the surest of all, and 
PLICA POLONICA AND HUMAN HAIR.           259
the most infallible, as one cannot mistrust it.   At first it is given in
small doses, that its effects may  be insensible.  In Italy it is called
aqua di Tufinia: no one can avoid its attacks, since the liquid  is
as limpid as water, and cannot be suspected.   Most of the ladies of
Naples have some of it lying carelessly on their toilet-tables with
smelling-bottles ; but they always can  know the fatal phial when
they need  its  contents."  A curious observer has  remarked  on
these two  preparations, that the mixture of Garelli was perhaps
intended for husbands, while that of Gagliani was for the use of
lovers.
 • This remark appears judicious, since the potion described by the
Abbe was evidently intended as an amorous  philter.  Under that
head I have related many curious circumstances.  There is no doubt
but that these preparations often contained deadly drugs, the perilous
qualities of which were most probably unknown to  those who made
them up  without any sinister  motives.   Plutarch and  Cornelius
Nepos inform us that Lucullus the Roman general  lost his  reason,
and subsequently his life, from having taken  one of these mixtures ;
and Caius Caligula was driven into a fit of insanity by a philter given
to him by his wife Caesonia, as described  by  Lucretius ;
             Tamen hoc tolerabile, si non
             Etfurere incipias, ut avunculus ille Neronis
             Cui totam tremuli frontem Caesonia pulli
             Infudit.
  Virgil also alludes to the powerful and baneful nature of the plants
employed in magical incantations :
               Has herbas, atque haec Ponto mihi lecta venena
               Ipse dedit Mceris ; nascuntur plurima Ponto.
               His ego saepe lupum fieri,  et se condere silvis
               Mcerin, saepe animas imis  excire sepulcris,
               Atque satas alio vidi traducere  messes.
  Eastern nations fancy that a fascinating power is the gift of virtue.
In the Hitapedesa of  Vishnusannan we find the  following apho-
rism : "Asa charmer draweth  a  serpent from his hole, so  a good
wife, taking her husband from a  place of torture, enjoyeth happiness
with him."   Possibly some receipt of this description may be found
in the archives of Doctors' Commons.
             PLICA POLONICA AND HUMAN HAIR.

  Hair  may be considered a  vegetation from the surface of the
body.  In a state of health hairs are insensible ; and it is more than
probable that  they possess  no  nerves, and that the circulation is
carried on in the same manner as in plants.  In the bulb or root of
the hair,  however,  the  vessels  that promote this circulation are
numerous, and there we  may trace the diseases that affect this beau- 
CURIOSITIES OF MEDICAL EXPERIENCE.
  teous ornament of mankind, more  especially in the Caucasian race.
  Long hair  of  course, requires  more nutriment than scanty locks,
  and some physicians have  been of opinion  that their great length
  debilitates.   Dr. Parr affirms  that he  has observed symptoms of
  plethoric congestion to arise after long hair had been suddenly cut
  off.   Vauquelin  has made curious experiments on this substance.
  A solution  of  black hair has deposited a  black matter  containing
  bitumen, sulphur and  iron ; and alcohol extracted from  the  same
  coloured hair a whitish and a greyish-green oil.   Red hair yielded
  whitish matter  and  blood-red oil.  White  hair  contained phos-
  phate  of magnesia, affording  a proof of the disposition towards
  the  formation of calcareous matter in old  age.   When hair  be-
  comes suddenly  white under the shock of a  severe moral impres-
  sion, Vauquelin is of opinion that this phenomena is to be attributed
  to the extrication of some acid, as the oxymuriatic acid  is found to
  whiten black  hair.  Parr thinks that this accident may be owing
  to an absorption  of the oil of the hair by its sulphur, as in the oper-
  ation of whitening woollen cloths.
    The plica is a curious and disgusting malady, that has been con-
  sidered  a disease of  the  hair, which,  according  to  vulgar report,
  secreted and shed  blood.   This affection  is common and endemic
  in Poland ; hence the  term Polonica that has been given to it.
  The invasion of  this pestilence has been  traced  to  the irruption
  of the Moguls, from  1241  to  1247, chiefly under  the command of
  Cayuk, grandson of Yenghiz.  The most absurd  tales  were then
  related of the manner in  which this  dreaded  infection  was propa-
  gated.   Spondanus  affirms that it arose  from the waters having
  been poisoned by venomous plants.  Pistoriusand Pauli relate that
  these waters were corrupted by the great  number of human hearts
• that the Moguls  cast in rivers and in wells.  This supposition arose
  from the unheard-of acts of barbarity perpetrated  by the ferocious
  invaders on the wretched population of Prussia, Poland, Hungary,
  and Transylvania.  Their refined cruelty has been  depicted by
  Gebhardi, in his History of Hungary, in the most glowing language.
    Other historians assert  that the plica originated in the East ; such
  is the opinion  of Stabel, Spreugel,  and other writers.  Rodrigo de
  Fonseca relates that the indians, after drinking certain waters, were
  attacked with  a disease in which the hair became agglomerated and
  matted in the most disgusting manner.  Erndtel attributes the ma-
  lady in Poland to the gluttonous consumption of horse-flesh.  How-
  beit, Poland has ever  been  considered the country most exposed to
  this visitation.
    This disease affords a convincing proof of the vascularity of the
  hair, since  it  tumefies, augments in  capacity so as to allow an evi-
  dent circulation of blood, as the hairs will often bleed when divided
  with the scissors.  Dr. Kerckhoffs regards the malady as the mere
  result of the custom among the filthy Poles of letting the hair grow
  to an immense length, of  never combing or cleaning it, and always
  keeping the head covered with a woollen  or leathern  cap.  Hence
  he observes that the rich  are  generally exempt from the  affection, 
PLICA POLONICA AND HUMAN HAIR.           261
 which particularly prevails amongst the Jews.   With this view of
 the  disorder, he  thinks  that  cleanliness  and the excision  of  the
 matted hair are sufficient to effect a cure.
   It is, however, more than probable that other causes occasion this
 horrible disease ; and there is but little  doubt that the system is
 affected by a particular virus.   In many instances affections of  the
 head complicate it;  although it is likely that they may result from
 the constant irritation of the scalp, that  sympathises so powerfully
 with the membranes of the brain.
   The different  names given to the plica indicate more or less  the
 ideas that prevail regarding its nature.   The poles call it gwozdiec
 or gwodziec, which signifies a nail that splits the wood into which
 it is driven.  In the district of the Roxolans it is termed koltun,
 a stakg.   In Germany superstitious fancies have also given it vari-
 ous curious denominations.  It is called alzopf and schraitelzopf,
 as being the result of the malefices of vampires and incubi.   By
 some it is asserted that the Moravians, natural enemies of the Poles,
 not having been able to conquer  them by their arms, had recourse
 to magical art to inflict  this scourge ; hence they term it mahren-
flechten,  mahrenwichtung.   To this  day it is  called  hexenzopf
 and  bichteln, or unbaptised, alluding, no doubt, to the  Jews, who
 were accused of having introduced  the disorder in the deadly hate,
 they bore the  Christians ; hence was it also known by the name of
 Judenzopf {Coma Judseorum).
   Amongst the whimsical ideas to  which the plica has  given rise,
 the most extraordinary effort of the imagination was that of Hercules
 Saxoniae.   He maintained that the fabulous description of the heads
 of the Gorgons and  the  Furies were derived  from this affection :
 " Caput  Gorgoneum,  caput  Furiarum,  vera humana  capita
fuisse, et fictitiispoetarum occasionem praebuisse."
   There are instances an record of infants  being born with  this
 loathsome  malady.  Davidson attributes  this circumstance  to  the
 mental impressions of the  mother : Si  it a matris ac nutricis  su-
perstitioni placere libuerit."  The length of the matted hair in
 plica is frequently considerable:  Bachstrom relates the case of a
 Prussian woman whose hair extended beyond the sides of her bed,
 and she was in the habit of turning it  over to  make a quilt of it ;
 Caligerus saw a man in  Copenhagen whose clotted locks were  six
 feet three  inches in length; and Rzaczyinski gives an account of a
 woman whose hair measured six ells.  In the museum  of  Dr.
 Meckel, at Halle, is  to be seen a specimen of the disease eight feet
 long.  The beard and the hair of other parts of the body are equally
 liable  to these attacks ; while  the affection  has been observed in
 horses, dogs, and other animals.  A curious case  is related on this
 subject by Dr. Schlegel :  A drunken  coachman was carried away
by a pair  of spirited young horses, who precipitated themselves,
with the fragments of the broken carriage, into  the Moskwa.  One
of the animals was drowned ;  but the other contrived to extricate
itself, and  swam ashore.  It continued sick for a considerable time,
and,  on its convalescence, the plica broke out in its entire coat. 
CURIOSITIES OF MEDICAL EXPERIENCE.
   The assertion  that the  hairs become endowed with sensibility
 in this disorder is unfounded.  The pain is experienced in the root
 or bulb; thus a painful sensation is occasionally felt when a lock of
 hair has been turned back  under the night-cap.   There  is little
 doubt that the plica is to be attributed to  a  specific virus, which
 pervades the whole system  unless successfully treated.  The most
 serious accidents have arisen from its having been  neglected ; and
 Starnigelio gives the following  horrible account  of  its ravages.
 "Magno omnium malo magnoque cruciatu divagatur, infringit ossa,
 laxat  artus, vertebras eorum  infestat.  Membra conglobat et re-
 torquet; gibbos efficit, pediculos fundit, caputque  aliis atque aliis
 succedentibus ita opplet,  nequaquam purgari  possit.  Si cirri ra-
 duntur, humor ille et virus in  corpus relabitur, et affectos, ut supra
 scriptum  est, torquet ;  caput,  manus, pedes,  omnes artus, omnes
 juncturas,  omnes corporis partes exagitat."
   Amongst the various specifies recommended for the cure of plica,
 is  the lycopodium, hence  called herb a  plicaria; the vinca,  or
 perventia.  The Jct^ouSt; and »*/*«/ S*?vx of  the  Greeks was also  ex-
 tolled, possibly from  its  supposed powers  in cases of incantation,
 whence Apuleius calls it  "victoria, quod vinceretpervinceretque
 injuriam  temporis."   This  is  the  plant for which Rousseau felt
 such a predilection, that in after life he never beheld it without ex-
 periencing a delightful recollection of the  pleasures of his boyhood.
 Its flowers are considered the  symbol of virginity, and in Flanders
 are still called Maegden-palm.   In Etruria maidens were crowned
 with  a wreath of it on their funerals.
   The decay and fall of the hair is an accident of frequent occurrence.
 This  unpleasant  drawback  on vanity has  been termed alopecia,
 from  the  Greek  word *wwrof,  vulpes, a fox;  this  animal  and the
 wolf being said to lose their hair and become bald  sooner than any
 other quadruped.  The Arabian writers  were impressed with the
 same belief, and  named  the infection daustaleb, literally the wolf
, disease,   Baldness is more  frequent in males  than  in females ; and
 it has been observed that emasculated subjects are  exempt from its
 visitation.
   Amongst the  singular  anomalies that characterise our ideas, the
 respect in which  hair  (naturally unclean unless most carefully
 attended to) was held at various'periods, is as singular as the fond
 devotion with which it is treasured when  having  belonged to the
 objects of  our affections.  In  ancient Rome neglected hair was the
 badge of  bondage, and  slaves were distinguished  by the capilluni
 passum, fluxum, et intonsum.   Free men, on the contrary, took
 great care of  it; and the term cassaries is said to be  derived from
 the frequency of its cutting, while coma alluded to the great atten-
 tion paid  to its ornamental appearance.  The  Gauls wore long hair,
 and their country was thence called Gallia Comala.  The German
 chiefs, deprived of their rank  and power, were shorn of their locks
 as a mark of degradation and  loss of strength.  Shaving the heads
 of criminals  is to this day considered ignominious.
    In ancient mythology hair  was the symbol of life.  All  dead 
PLICA POLONICA AND HUMAN HAIR.          263
 persons were  supposed to  be under the jurisdiction of the infernal
 deities, and no man could resign his life  until some of his hair was
 cut.  Euripides introduces Death  going to cut off some of the hair
 of Alcestis when doomed to  die instead of her husband Admetus ;
 and Virgil describes  Dido unable to  resign  her  life from  her hair
 not having been cut off by Proserpine, until  Iris was sent by Juno
 to perform the kind office :
                      " Hunc ego Diti
             Sacrum jussa fero, teque isto corpore solvo."
             Sic ait, et dextra crinem secat; omnis et una
             Dilapsus calor, atque in ventos vita recessit.
   Locks of hair were  suspended over the door of the deceased to
 show that the family were in mourning.   On  these occasions the
 hair was torn, cut off, or shaved.   It  was then sometimes  strewed
 over the dead body, or cast on the funeral pile.  On the demise of
 great men, whole cities and communities were shorn, while animals
 shared a similar fate.   Admetus, on the  death of Alcestis, ordered
 this operation  to be  performed on his  chariot horses :  and when
 Masistius was  slain by the Athenians, the Persians shaved  them-
 selves, their horses, and their mules ;  Alexander, not satisfied with
 this testimony of grief, ordered the very battlements of a city to be
 knocked down, that  the  town  might look  bald and  shorn of its
 beauty.
  While in some cases bald heads were  expressive of affliction, in
 others long hair  denoted  grief; Joseph allowed  his hair to grow
 during his  captivity ; and Mephibosheth did  the  same when  David
 was banished  from  Jerusalem.  Juvenal  informs us that mariners,
 on  their escape from shipwreck, shaved their heads; and Lycophron
 describes long and neglected  hair as a sign of general lamentation.
  To be shaved by barbers was a proof of cheerfulness ;  but to cut
 off one's own hair denoted mourning.   Hence Artemidorus informs
 us that for  a man to dream of shaving  himself was a presage of some
 calamity.   However, this  ceremony  may in  its signification be
 attributed to the customs of various nations.   Where the hair was
 generally  worn short, its  length  indicated  grief, and vice  versa.
 The filth of long and neglected hair might also have been considered
 a proper and respectful mark of tribulation, for the ancients fancied
 that rolling themselves in the dirt  was a  convincing proof of  affec-
 tion ; and we  see OZneus besmearing  himself with nastiness on the
 death of his son Meleager :
            Pulvere canitiem genitor, vultusque seniles
             Fcedat humi fusos, spatiosumque increpat aevum. ■
 Shaving was also a nuptial ceremony,  when virgins presented their
 hair to Venus, Juno, Minerva, Diana, and other propitious divinities.
At  Troczene virgins  were obliged to sacrifice their hair to Hip-
polytus, the son of  Theseus,  who  died  for  his  chastity.    The
Megarensian maidens presented  them  to Sphinoe, daughter of
Alcathous,  who died a virgin.  Statius records this ceremony when
speaking of Minerva's temple : 
264
CURIOSITIES OF MEDICAL EXPERIENCE.
                        Hie more parentum
              Insides, thalamis ubi casta adolescerat aetas,
              Virgineas libare comas ; primosque solebant
              Excusare toros.

  To what strange and absurd origins can we retrace many of our
customs ! and what anomalies pervade our capricious fancies !   We
devour with kisses a pomatumed ringlet cut from the head of the
fair one we love, while we would willingly kick our cook  out of
doors if perchance one of her stray hairs was discovered in a dish !
                ANIMAM MAGNETISM,

   Are we to give credit to the various observations that record the
 wonderful effects of animal magnetism ; or should we reject them as
 the  impostures of knaves, or the result of the credulity of fools?
 It is now near half a century since this method of relieving diseases
 has  been introduced by modern  practitioners.  Thousands of dis-
 interested and candid witnesses  have corroborated their assertions,
 and testified to their veracity.  How, then, are we authorised to treat
 this  doctrine as visionary or fraudulent ?   The most learned bodies
 have not thought it  derogatory to their  dignity to investigate the
 matter ; and, despite  of opposition,  ridicule,  and  contempt, the
 practice obtains to the present day.  It has, no doubt, been materially
 impeded in its progress by the invectives of occasional scepticism  ;
 but the slurs of  the  sceptic may be compared to those accidental
 opaque bodies commonly called spots on the sun, which frequently
 flit before its disk, and, intercepting the solar rays, occasion a hibernal
 chill in the  midst of the  summer's  heat.  They are but transient
 obstacles to the transmission of light, and  the bright orb beams with
 increased refulgence when these dark  stigmas  disappear.  Such
 will  ever be  the case- with  science, and those  discoveries which
 accelerate its inevitable empire on the  human understanding.  Per-
 secution may be considered as the harbinger of  truth, or, at any
 rate, of that investigation which directs  us to it.  Pythagoras was
 banished from Athens ;  Anaxagoras  was immured in a dungeon ;
 Democritus was considered a  maniac, and Socrates condemned to
 death.   An advanced and honourable old  age did not protect Galileo
 against his barbarous persecutors.   Varblius was decreed an infamous
 and execrable man for his anatomical discoveries, and our immortal
 Harvey was looked upon as a dangerous madman.   Inoculation and
 vaccination were deemed  impious attempts to  interfere  with the
 decrees of  Providence, and potatoes and tobacco looked upon as
 inferrfal importations.
  Magnetism may be defined a reciprocal influence which is sup-
posed to exist between individuals, arising from a state of relative 
ANIMAL MAGNETISM.
265
 harmony, and brought into action by the will, the imagination, or
 physical sensibility.  This influence is  said to exist in a peculiar
 fluid, transmissible from  one body  to another under  certain con-
 ditions of each  individual, without  which the expected effects are
 not manifest.  Under these  conditions, the effects of animal mag-
 netism are obtained by manual application, by gestures, words, and
 even looks ; more frequently, as may be  easily conceived, with
 nervous, weak, and impressionable individuals.   By these  means
 magnetisers  affirm that they can effect cures when all  other remedial
 endeavours have been of no avail, either  when the patient is awake
 or in a state  of artificial somnambulism.
   The history of this doctrine is curious.  The  ancients fully ad-
 mitted the power of sympathy in  the cure of diseases; but generally
 attributed its action to the  interference  of Divinity, or the operation
 of sorcery and enchantment.  A remarkable affinity can be traced
 between modern magnetism and  its supposed phenomena, and the
 relations of the Pythian and Sibylline oracles, the wonders of the
 caverns of Trophonius and Esculapius, and  the miraculous dreams
 and visions in the temples of the gods.  Amongst  the  Hebrews,
 the Egyptians, the Greeks, and Romans, we constantly discover
 traces of this supposed power of manual apposition, friction, breath-
 ing, and the  use of the charms of music and mystic amulets.  The
 Egyptian priesthood were considered as possessing a divine attribute
 in healing diseases.   Prosper Alpinus, in his treatise on the medicine
 of  the Egyptians, informs  us that mysterious frictions were  one of
 their secret  remedies.  The patients were oftentimes wrapped  in
 the skins of animals, and carried into the sanctuary of their temples
 to be assisted by  visions, that appeared  either to  them or to their
 physicians, who  pretended that  Isis was the immortal  source  of
 these celestial inspirations.   The same divine assistance was  firmly
 believed by the Hebrews.   It was intimated to Miriam  and  Aaron
 that the Lord would make  himself known to them in a vision, and
 speak to them in a dream ; and we find in Deuteronomy that the signs
 and the wonders of prophets and dreamers of dreams were to be con-
 sidered asthe abominations  of idolaters, who were to be put to death
 without pity.   This anathema on false prophets was not unfrequently
 rigorously carried into execution, and we read in Kings the destruc-
 tion of all the worshippers of Baal.   Ahab marched upon Ramoth-
 Gilead by the advice of his prophets.
  The sympathetic power  of corporeal  apposition was  illustrated
 when Elisha, to  revive the widow's  child, stretched  himself three
 times upon him and prayed to the  Lord.  When Elisha restored
 the child of  the Shunamite to life, he  lay upon it, put  his mouth
upon his mouth, his eyes upon  his  eyes, and his  hands  upon his
hands, and he stretched himself upon the child, and the child opened
its eyes.   Miracles were generally wrought  by manual  application
or elevation.  Naaman expected  that Elisha  would  have stricken
his hand over the place to  cure  his  leprosy ;  and we  find in the
Scriptures that our Saviour healed the sick upon whom he laid his
  August, 1838.—O           25 
266         CURIOSITIES OF MEDICAL EXPERIENCE.

hands.  Amongst  the  Greeks we again  see the same ceremonies
performed  on all  wonderful  recoveries.  Plutarch tells us  that
Pyrrhus cured persons with diseased  spleens  by passing  his hand
over the seat of the malady.   JElianus informs  us that the Psylli
performed their cures by stretching themselves  upon the patients,
and making them swallow water with which they  had  rinsed their
mouths ; and  he  also  mentions that those who approached these
mysterious agents were seized with a sudden  stupor, and  deprived
of their intellects until they had left them.  Apollonius brought a
young girl to life  by touching her, and leaning over her as though
he were whispering some magic words  in her ear ; and  Origenes
affirms that there were sages who dispensed health  with their mere
breath.  Vespasian restored sight to the blind by rubbing their eyes
and cheeks with his saliva, and cured a paralytic by merely touch-
ing him :  the same emperor kept himself in  perfect health by fre-
quently rubbing  his  throat  and  his body.   From a  passage of
Plautus, it appears that this manual application was resorted to in
his days to procure sleep.  Mercury is made  to say, " Quid si ego
ilium tractem, tangam ut dormiat ;" to which  Sosia replies, " Ser-
vaveris, nam continuas has tres noctes pervigilavi."
  Pliny maintains that there  exist persons whose bodies are en-
dowed with medicinal properties ;  but he admits, at the same time,
that imagination  may produce these salutary emanations.   Celsus
informs us  that  Asclepiades  by  friction could calm  a phrensy;
and farther states  that when these frictions were carried to too great
an extent, they brought on a lethargic state.   Caelius Aurelianus re-
commends manual frictions for  the cure of pleurisy, lethargy, and
various other maladies, describing  the manner in which they are to
be conducted : for instance, in epilepsy, the head and forehead  are
to be chafed, then the  hand is to be carried gently over  the neck
and bosom ; at other times, the  extremities of the hands and feet
are to be grasped, that "  we may cure  by the very act of holding
the limb."
  That remedies were indicated  in a  state   of somnambulism is
affirmed by Tertullian, who thus speaks of  one of  the followers of
Prisca and Maximilla, two women who foretold future events when
they fell into an ecstatic swoon : " She conversed  with angels, dis-
covered the most hidden mysteries, prophesied, read the secrets of
the heart, and pointed out remedies when she was  consulted by the
sick."  He thus describes ecstasy  in his  treatise  De Anima : " It
is not sleep, for during sleep all reposes; whereas in ecstasy the body
reposes, while the soul  is  actively employed.   It is therefore  a
mixed state of sleep  and ecstasy  which constitutes the prophetic
faculty, and it is then that we have revealed  unto  us, not only all
that appertaineth to honour, to riches, but the means of curino-  our
diseases."   St. Stephen relates the case of a youth  who was in such
a lethargic state, that he was insensible  to all painful  agents, and
could not be awakened ;  but, when he recovered his senses, he de-
clared that two persons, the one aged, the  other young, had appeared
to him and recommended sea-bathing.   He complied with the in- 
ANIMAL MAGNETISM.
267
struction, and was cured.  But the miracles of paganism were soon
discredited, when the relics  and tombs  of saints were resorted  to
instead of the temples of the false  gods ; and  priests  assumed the
power once held by their Chaldean and Egyptian predecessors, and
the Druids of Gaul.  The beatified were not only physicians during
their life, but medicinal after death.  St. Gregory of Tours tells  us
that St. Cosmus  and St.  Damian  were not  only  able physicians
during their blessed existence, but assisted all those who consulted
them  in their tombs, not unfrequently appearing to them in visions,
and prescribing the proper remedies.  A saint's breathing upon a veil,
and then placing it on the head of a demoniac, infallibly cast out the
evil one ;  and St. Bernard never failed in his exorcisms, by making
the possessed swallow some water in which he had dipped his hands.
St. Martin stopped the most fearful hemorrhage by merely touching
the patient with his garment.  The shrines of St. Litordus, St. An-
thony, and various other saints, lulled to sleep, and inspired with
miraculous visions those who sought their aid.
   However, as the progress of intellect dispelled the  dark clouds
that shrouded the middle ages in superstitious and credulous preju-
dices, philosophy endeavoured  to  investigate the  nature of this
mysterious agency, which priests had for so many centuries usurped
as their special gift and property.   Sceptic as to supernatural powers
in the common  occurrences of life, philosophers attributed  these
phenomena to some peculiar principle with which organised bodies
were  endowed, and hence arose the dawn of the doctrine of animal
magnetism.   So early as 1462, Pomponatius of Mantua maintained
in his work on incantation,  that all the pretended  arts of sorcery
and witchcraft were  the  mere  results of natural  operations ;  he
farther gave it as his opinion, that it was not improbable but that
external  means, called into  action by the  soul, might relieve our
sufferings  ; that there, moreover, did exist individuals endowed with
salutary properties, and it might therefore easily be conceived that
marvellous effects should be produced by the imagination, and  by
confidence, more  especially  when they are reciprocal  between  the
patient and  the  person who assists  his recovery ;  physicians and
men of sense being well convinced that if the bones of any animal
were  substituted for those of a saint, the result would be the same.
It need not be added  that our author was  violently persecuted  for
this heretical doctrine.  Two years after, Agrippa, in  Cologne,  as-
serted that the soul inflamed by a fervent imagination could dispense
health and disease, not only in the individual himself, but in other
bodies.   In  1493, Paracelsus expressed himself in the following
language : " All doubt destroys work, and  leaves it  imperfect in the
wise designs of nature.  It is from faith that imagination draws  its
strength.  It is by faith that it becomes complete and realised.   He
who believeth in  nature will obtain from nature to the extent of  his
faith.   Let the object of this faith be real or imaginary, you never-
theless reap  similar results, and hence the cause of superstition."
   Cardanus, Bacon, Van Helmont pursued this study ; and the lattei 
CURIOSITIES OF MEDICAL EXPERIENCE.
 physician, having cured several cases by magnetism, was considered
 a sorcerer, and seized by the Inquisition.  Magnetism, he observed,
 " is a universal  agent, and only novel in its appellation, and para-
 doxical to those who ridicule everything they do not comprehend,
 or attribute to Satan what they cannot understand.  The name of
 magnetism is given to that occult influence which bodies possess on
 each other at various distances, either by attraction or by impulsion.
 The means or the  vehicle of this influence is an ethereal spirit,
 pure, vital, {magnate  magnum,) which penetrates all  matter, and
 agitates the mass of  the universe.   This spirit  is  the moderator of
 the  world, and  establishes  a correspondence  between  its several
 parts and the powers with which it is endowed.  We can attach to
 a body the virtues that we possess, communicate to it  certain pro-
 perties, and use it as  the intermediate  means  to operate salutary
 effects.  I have hitherto  withheld  the  revelation  of this  great
 mystery.  There exists in  man a certain energy, which can act be-
 yond his own person according to his will or his imagination, and
 impart virtues and  exercise a durable  influence even in distant
 objects.   Will is the first of powers."  Van Helmont  fully admitted
 the wonderful faculties that  somnambulism seemed to develop, and
 informs us that it was  chiefly during his sleep that he was inspired
 with his doctrines.   One might  have imagined that these  philo-
 sophic researches would  have put an effectual stop to the progress
 of superstition, or rather of persecution;  yet their  promulgation
 could not save Urbain Grandier, and many supposed sorcerers, from
 a barbarous death.
  It was in the  beginning  of the eighteenth century that various
 experiments  were made  with the loadstone in researches regarding
 electricity.   In 1754, Lenoble had constructed  magnets that could
 be used with fecility in the treatment of various diseases.   In 1774,
 Father Hell,  a Jesuit, and professor of astronomy at Vienna, having
 cured himself of a  severe  rheumatism by magnetism, related the
 result of his  experiments to Mesmer.  The physician was immedi-
 ately struck with the observations that illustrated his own theories
 respecting planetary influence.  He forthwith proceeded to procure
 magnets  of every form and description for the gratuitous treatment
 of all those that  consulted him; and, while he  widely diffused his
 doctrines, he  sent his magnets in every direction to aid the experi-
 mental pursuits of others, and thus expressed  himself  on the subject
 in a memoir published in 1779 : " I had maintained that the heavenly
 spheres possessed a direct power on all the constituent principles of
 animated bodies, particularly on the nervous system, by the agency
of an all-penetrating fluid.  I determined this action by  the inten-
 sion and the  remission of the properties of  matter and  organised
 bodies, such as gravity, cohesion, elasticity, irritability, electricity.
 I supported this doctrine  by  various  examples of periodical revolu-
 tions ;  and I named that property  of the animal matter, which
 renders it susceptible to  the action of celestial and earthly bodies,
 animal magnetism.   A farther consideration of the subject led me 
ANIMAL MAGNETISM.                  269
 to the conviction that there does exist  in nature an universal prin-
 ciple, which, independent of ourselves, performs all that we vaguely
 attribute to nature or to art."
   Mesmer, as might have been  foreseen, became the object of per-
 secution and of ridicule, and withdrew to Switzerland  and Suabia.
 It was there that he met with a certain Gassner of Braz, who, having
 fancied that an exorcism had relieved him from a long  and painful
 malady, took it into his head to exorcise  others.  He considered
 the greater part of  the disorders to which flesh  is heir as the work
 of the Devil, and he counteracted his baneful influence in the name
 of our Saviour.  He divided these diabolical visitations into pos-
 sessions, obsessions,  and circumsessions;  the latter being trifling
 invasions.   For  the purpose  of ascertaining whether his patients
 laboured under natural or infernal ailments, he conjured Satan to
 declare the truth.   If, after three solemn interpellations, and signs of
 the cross, the Devil did not answer, the disorder was considered as
 coming within the province of  medicine;  but if, on the contrary,
 the patient fell into convulsions, Gassner drew forth his stole and
 crucifix, and in the  name of the Redeemer commenced rubbing
 and  pinching, sometimes  in  the most  indecorous  manner, when
 females were submitted to his manipulations.   When his attempts
 failed, he accused the patient of  want  of faith or of the commission
 of some deadly sin, which baffled his endeavours.   His fame became
 so universal  that the Bishop of Ratisbon sent for him, and  he ex-
 ercised his art under his auspices ; at one period the town was so
 crowded with his patients, that ten thousand of them were obliged
 to encamp  without  the walls.  It appears that this adventurer had
 the power  of acting upon the pulse, and could increase or retard it,
 render it regular or intermittent, and was even reported to paralyse
 limbs and produce tears or laughter at will.  It is scarcely credible,
 yet the celebrated  De Haen, one of the most distinguished and
 learned practitioners  in Germany, not only believed in  the power
 of this Gassner,  but  actually  attributed it  to  a paction  with the
 Devil.
  Mesmer was not  so credulous, and explained the miraculous cures
 of Gassner  by the doctrines of the animal magnetism which he ad-
 vocated.  From Suabia he returned to Vienna, whence  he was ex-
 pelled as a  quack ;  and in 1778  arrived in Paris, a capital that had
 patronised  Cagliostro and St.  Germain, and was  ever  ready to be
 deceived by ingenious empiricism.  In 1779 he  published a paper
 on the subject, in which he maintained twenty-seven propositions to
 establish his supposed influence between the celestial  bodies, the
 earth, and animated  matter, produced  by a fluid  universal, subtile,
 susceptible of receiving, transmitting, and communicating its im-
pressions, on mechanical principles until then unknown, and pro-
ducing alternate effects of flux and reflux.  This powerful  agent, he
 said acted chiefly on the nervous system.  The human body, more-
 over,  according to his notions,  possessed properties analogous to the
loadstone, and presenting  an opposed polarity, subject  to various
                              25* 
270
CURIOSITIES OF MEDICAL EXPERIENCE.
modifications,  which  either strengthened or weakened it.   The
action of animal magnetism, according to him, was not confined to
animal matter, but could  be equally communicated to inanimate
bodies at various distances.  Mirrors could reflect and  increase its
power like the rays of light, and sound could propagate and increase
it.  This magnetic property, he farther stated, could be accumulated,
concentrated, and transported at pleasure, although there did  exist
animated bodies possessed of properties so opposite as to render this
powerful agent inefficient   He found that  the  loadstone was sus-
ceptible of animal magnetism, and of its opposite  virtues, without
any  apparent  influence  on  its power over  iron  and the  needle;
whence he concluded  that there existed  a wide  difference  between
animal and mineral magnetism.
  Mesmer soon found a warm advocate  of  his  doctrines in  a Dr.
D'Eslon, and animal magnetism became in fashionable vogue.  Not
only were men and animals subjected to their experiments, but this
wondrous influence was communicated to trees and plants, and the
celebrated elm-tree of Beaugency was magnetised  by the  Marquis
de Puysegur and his brother; while the enthusiastic D'Eslon abso-
lutely went knocking from door to door to procure patients.   Bre-
teuil, who was then one of the ministers, offered Mesmer  a yearly
pension of  thirty thousand francs, with a  sum  of three  hundred
thousand francs in cash, with the decoration of St. Michael, if he
would  consent to reveal the mysteries of his science to the medical
faculty.  This tempting offer our magnetiser indignantly  rejected,
and  a secret society was instituted under the name  of the Lodge
and  Order of  Harmony.   The charms and the power of youth and
music were not neglected as auxiliaries to propagate the fashionable
doctrine.   Young men of elegant manners  and athletic form were
initiated in  the  practice of magnetising, and the  salons  of Paris
consecrated to this worship (for such it  might have  been  termed)
were crowded with the most fascinating women that the  gay me-
tropolis of Franch could produce.  Most of these females, empas-
sioned by nervous excitability, as loose  in their  morals as to out-
ward appearance they were fervent in  their devotions, abandoned
themselves  without reserve to the delightful sensations that magne-
tism and its surrounding machinery were said to afford.   In  their
ecstasies, their hysteric attacks, their spasms, Mesmer, the  high-
priest, fancifully dressed,  but in the height of  fashion,  with his
youthful acolytes, endeavoured to soothe and calm the  agitation  of
their enchanting patients by all the means  that  Mesmerism  could
devise.
   It soon became pretty evident that these phenomena were solely
to be attributed to the influence  of imagination ; and  Doppet, one
of the most ardent disciples of the new creed, frankly avowed that
" those who were initiated in the  secrets  of Mesmer entertained
more doubts on the subject than those who were in thorough igno-
rance."   Notwithstanding this  evidence brought forward against
 Mesmer's fascinating practice, he was   warmly eulogised  even by 
ANIMAL MAGNETISM.
271
 high churchmen ; and Hervier, a doctor of Sorbonne, did not hesi-
 tate to assert that the Golden Age was on the return ; that man would
 be endowed with fresh vigour, live for the space of five generations,
 and only succumb to the exhaustion of age ; that all the animal
 kingdom would enjoy a similar blessing ; while  magnetised trees
 would yield more abundant and delicious fruits.   This belief of the
 good ecclesiastic arose, according to his  own  assertion, from his
 having been cured of some cruel disorder by magnetism, while all
 his intimate acquaintances insisted that he had never ceased to enjoy
 perfect health.
   Such were the circumstances that attended the introduction of
 animal magnetism, which to this day is defended and maintained by
 ardent proselytes.   Sound philosophy can only attribute its wonder-
 ful phenomena, many of which cannot be  denied, to the influence
 of the imagination, and the all-powerful deceptive agency of faith.
 It is an incontrovertible fact that  the nervous  system may be so
 worked upon, thrown by various secret  and physicial means into
 such a morbid condition, that results bordering upon the miraculous
 in the eyes of the credulous may be easily obtained.  Every cir-
 cumstance that appears to differ from the usual course of nature is
 deemed miraculous by the ignorant;  and the Greek proverb flai^***
 /t«*gi»f, plainly maintains  that miracles are only for the simple.  In
 fact, who are the persons who  in our times cry  out "miracle," but
 weak and timid men, worn out by excesses or age, labouring under
 the influence of terror ; silly old women, who have not the power
 of reasoning ; or nervous  and enthusiastic  females, who  seek for
 some saving clauses in a pact between vice  and  virtue, depravity
 and religion.
   All the wonders of the creation are miraculous,  if we are to con-
 sider as such those phenomena that are, and most probably will ever
 remain, beyond  our humble and  miserable  comprehension.  The
 manifestations of the Creator's will are daily exhibited in stupendous
 forms that strike the ignorant with awe,  while they lead the man of
 science  to bow in grateful veneration to  that Almighty power that
 has harmonised  the creation for our well-being, if we would only
 obey the sublime dictates of his laws, without attempting to scrutinise
 their spirit by quibbling with their letter.
   There can be but little doubt that the wonders of magnetism may
 be referred  to the imagination ; yet  some of the  phenomena must
 excite our surprise, and may occasion  some degree of hesitation in
 invariably attributing its results to fancy.  The  Academy of Medi-
 cine of Paris having appointed a commission  of  twelve members to
 examine and report upon it, their inferences were as follows :
   1. The effects of magnetism were not  evident in healthy persons,
 and in some invalids.
  2. They were scarcely apparent in others.
  3.  They often appeared to be the result of ennui, monotony, and
the influence of imagination.
  4. Lastly, they are developed independently of these causes,
very probably by the effect of magnetism alone. 
272
CURIOSITIES OF MEDICAL EXPERIENCE.
  The points of this report that I have printed in italics prove most
clearly that the members of the commission, all  of whom were
decidedly adverse  to  the doctrine, were convinced, at  least to  a
certain extent, by  the experiments they  had witnessed, of some
singular powers residing in this mysterious science.   Such must
have been the case, since we find three members seceding from their
associates, Laennec, Double, and Magendie, all  well known as dis-
tinguished  physiologists, somewhat inclined  to pure  materialism,
and what may be turmed matter-of-fact men, who would hesitate
in yielding their belief to any assertion that  the scalpel could not
demonstrate.   Notwithstanding the  protest of these gentlemen, the
following were the conclusions of the commission :
  1. Contact  of the  thumbs  and  magnetic  movements are  the
means of relative influence employed to transmit magnetic action.
  2. Magnetism acts on persons of different age and sex.
  3. Many effects appear  to depend on  magnetism alone, and are
not reproduced without it.
  4. These effects are various.   Sometimes magnetism  agitates, at
other times it calms.  It  generally causes  acceleration of the pulse
and respiration, slight convulsive movements, somnolency, and in a
few cases somnambulism.
  5. The existence of peculiar characters of somnambulism has not
yet been proved.
  6. It may, however, be inferred that this state of somnambulism
prevails when we notice the development of  new faculties, such as
clairvoyance and intuitive  foresight, or when it produces changes
in the physiological condition of the  individual, such as insensibility,
sudden increase of strength, since these effects cannot be attributed
to any other cause.                          ■*.
  7. When the effects of magnetism have been produced, there is
no occasion on subsequent trials to have recourse to passes*  The
look of the magnetiser and his will have the same influence.
  8. Various changes are effected in the perceptions  and faculties
of those persons in whom somnambulism has  been  induced.
  9. Somnambulists  have  distinguished with closed  eyes  objects
placed before them. They have then read words, recognised colours,
named cards, &c.
  10.  In two  somnambulists we witnessed the faculty of foreseeing
acts of the organism to take place at periods more or less distant.
One announced the day, the hour, and  the minute of  the invasion
and recurrence of an epileptic fit; the  other  foresaw the period of
his  recovery.   Their  anticipations were realised.
  11.  We have only seen one somnambulist who had described the
symptoms of the diseases in  three individuals  presented to her.
  12.  In order to establish justly the relations of magnetism with
therapeutics, one must have observed  the effects  on  a number of
individuals, and have made experiments on sick persons.   Not

            * The term that designated magnetic manipulation. 
ANIMAL MAGNETISM.
273
 having done this, the commissioners  can only say, they have seen
 too few cases to enable them to form  a decisive opinion.
    13. Considered as an agent of physiological phenomena, or of
 therapeutics, magnetism should find a place in the range of medical
 science, and be either practised, or its  employment superintended,
 by a physician.
    14. From the  want of sufficient opportunities, the commission
 could not verify the existence of any other faculties in somnam-
 bulists ; but its reports contain facts  sufficiently important to con-
 clude that the  Academy ought  to encourage researches in  animal
 magnetism, as a curious fact of psychology and natural history.
    This report  was impugned  by Mr. Dubois, in  what he calls his
 rational conclusions, which of course maintain that those of the com-
 mission were irrational.  However, in this paper he merely affirms
 his own incredulity, withoutsupporting it upon any grounds of experi-
 ment or observation; and therefore his manifest must be considered
 an individual  attempt to refute the assertions of a body of  scientific
 men, who, after  diligently and maturely weighing the arguments
 in favour of  a  doctrine that they  were previously  disposed  to
 condemn as unworthy of research, came to the conclusions that we
 have seen.
    While the  French Academy did not consider it beneath their
 dignity  to  investigate  this doctrine, in other  parts of Europe it
 attracted the attention both of the reigning monarchs and  the most
 distinguished physicians.  In  Prussia, Hufeland, who had been one
 of the warmest opponents of  magnetism, became a convert; and a
 clinical hospital was established in  Berlin, by order of the govern-
 ment, to observe  and  record  its  phenomena.  At Frankfort and
 Groningen, Drs.  Passavant and  Bosker published works on the
 subject;  the latter having translated the critical history of Deleuze.
 At Petersburgh,  Dr. Stoffreghen, first physician of the Emperor,
 pronounced himself with several colleagues in its favour ; and most
 of these distinguished men seemed to  partake of the opinion of the
 justly celebrated  Orfila, who  certainly  may be  considered as an
 authority, and who thus expressed himself on the subject:
   " If there exists trickery  and quackery in animal magnetism, its
 adversaries are  too hasty in refusing to  admit all that  has been as-
 serted in regard  to its  effects.  The  testimony  of  enlightened
 physicians should be considered as proofs.   If the magnetic phe-
 nomena appear extraordinary, the phenomena of electricity appeared
 equally marvellous in its origin.  Was Franklin to be considered a
 quack when he announced that with a pointed metal he could com-
 mand thunder ?  Whether magnetism acts in good  or  in evil, it is
 clearly a  therapeutic agent, and it behoves both the  honour and the
 duty of the Academy to examine it."
   Such is the present state of this curious science.   To what credit
 it may be entitled, and  how far it may become  a  useful medical
 agent, experience alone can decide.  At the same time, it would be
unjust to  assert, in our present ignorance, that all the  learned and
independent men  who support  it are either fools or knaves. 
274          CURIOSITIES OF MEDICAL EXPERIENCE.
                  POISONOUS  FISHES.

  The deleterious qualities of certain fishes  have long  been the
subject of medical  conjectures.   What is  somewhat singular, and
most difficult to account for, is the circumstance of the same fish
being wholesome in some  waters, and deadly in  others, although
under the same  latitude, and when, to all  appearance at least, no
local cause can be discovered to which we  might reasonably attribute
this fatal property, so powerful and  prompt in its action that  rapid
death"will ensue whenever  a small  portion of the  fish has been
eaten.  Such, for instance, is generally the case with the yellow-bill
sprat, the clypea thrissa.
  Some naturalists attribute this poison to copper banks, on or near
which the fish may feed.  The absurdity of this opinion  has been
fully demonstrated ; in the first instance, no  such copper banks have
been discovered in the West Indies, and these fish abound on the
coasts of islands of coral formation.   Moreover, it is not likely that
this mineral should saturate the animal ;  and,  even if it could pro-
duce this effect, the entire body would in  all probability be affected,
whereas the poison  seems  to lie in particular parts, chiefly in the
intestines, the liver, the fat, &c.   This is evident from the practice
of fishermen, who can eat poisonous fish with impunity if they have
taken the precaution to  draw them carefully, and salt them.  In
addition  to  these observations, the symptoms of the disease thus
produced, by no  means resemble  those  of mineral poisons.  Dr.
Chisholm, who pretends that copper banks do exist in the Windward
Islands, is of this opinion.   Admitting the facts, it may be asked,
have the waters of  these seas been  impregnated by the copper ? if
they are not, how can  its  influence extend to its inhabitants  ? and
why are particular fish only affected ?  Moreover  although it is
well known that certain substances are deleterious to some animals
and  harmless to others, yet one might  fancy that, if the coppery
principle of an animal's flesh could poison, it is  not irrational to
think that the same deadly substance would also destroy the animal.
The presence of this mineral has never been detected by any  chem-
ical test; and,  if the poison consisted in  copper, how  could salting
the fish destroy it ?  In opposition to these objections, it has been
maintained that fish may be rendered poisonous by feeding on the
marine plants that grow upon these deadly banks.  Now, unless it
could be proved that copper is not injurious to  fish, these same
lythophyta and zoophyta would no doubt poison them.
  However, it is more than probable that it is to a certain injurious
food  that these dangerous  qualities are to be referred.  Various
plants that grow in these regions  are of a poisonous nature to man,
although, as I have just observed, they may not be so destructive
to fish.   The circumstance of the alimentary tube being more poiso-
nous than any other part seems  to warrant the conclusion ; and I 
POISONOUS FISHES.
275
 have observed in the  West Indies, that the crabs that feed upon
 banks where  the  manchineel is to be found, frequently occasion
 serious, and sometimes  fatal accidents.   On  the  coast of Malabar,
 crabs are poisonous in the month of October, when the blue tithy-
 male abounds.
   Whatever may be the causes of this deadly principle,  the effects
 are most rapid.  When a large quantity has been taken, the patient
 soon dies in strong convulsions ; but frequently, when the quantity
 and  the nature of the poison  have  not  been sufficient to occasion
 death, the body becomes emaciated, the cuticle peels off, particularly
 on the palms of the hands and the soles of  the feet, the hair drops,
 acute pains  shoot  through  every joint, and the sufferer  not unfre-
 quently sinks  under  a lingering disease.   In these  cases change of
 climate has been found  the most effectual remedy, and a return to
 Europe becomes indispensable.
   The usual symptoms  that denote the presence of the poison, are
 languor,  heaviness, drowsiness, great restlessness, flushing  of  the
 face, nausea, griping, a burning sensation, at first experienced in the
 face and eyes, and then extending over the  whole body ;  the pulse,
 at first hard and frequent, soon sinks, and becomes slow and  feeble.
 In some cases the  salivary glands become  tumefied with a profuse
 salivation ;  and the body, and its perspiration, are as yellow as in
 the  jaundice.   These  peculiar  symptoms  have frequently been
 known to arise after eating the rock-fish.
   The remedies that are usually resorted  to are stimulants.   Capsi-
 cum has been considered a powerful antidote ; and the use of ardent
 spirits or  cordials  has also  been  strongly urged.   It has been  ob-
 served, that persons  who had  drunk freely, or who had taken a
 dram after eating fish that had disordered others, were comparatively
 speaking, exempt from the severity of the disease.   A decoction of
 the root of the sour-sop, and an infusion of  the flowers of the white
 cedar and the sensitive plant have also been advised by several
 West Indian practitioners.
   The practice of  putting a silver spoon in the water in which fish
 is boiled, to ascertain  its salubrity,  is a popular test that cannot be
 depended on.  Fishermen have observed that fish that have no scales
 are more apt to prove injurious ;  and those of uncommon size are
 looked upon as the most dangerous.
   To ascertain whether the nature of the  fishes' food  could thus
 render them poisonous, Mr.  Moreau de Jonnes had  recourse  to
 many curious experiments.   He took portions of polypes found in
 the waters reputed dangerous, more particularly the liriozoa Cari-
 baea, the milleporapolymorpha, the gorgoniapinnata, the actinia
 anemone, &c.  and, having enveloped them in paste, he  fed fishes
 with them ; but in no one instance was  any prejudicial  result ob-
 served.   He tried in  the same  manner  the physalis pelagica of
 Lamark, which contains an acrid and caustic fluid ;  but the  fish
invariably refused it, nor would they touch  fragments of the machi-
neel  apple. 
CURIOSITIES OF MEDICAL EXPERIENCE.
   Oysters have been known to produce various accidents; and, when
 they were of a green colour, it has been supposed that this peculiarity
 was also due to copper  banks.   This is an absurdity ;  the green
 tinge is as  natural to some varieties as  to the  esox  belone, whose
 bones are invariably of the same hue as verdigrise.   Muscles fre-
 quently occasion feverish symptoms, attended with a red, and some-
 times a copper-coloured, efflorescence over the whole  body.  These
 accidents appear to arise from  some peculiar circumstances.   In Bou-
 logne 1 attended  the  family of Sir  James  Grant;  when all the
 children who had eaten muscles were labouring under this  affection,
 while not another instance of it was observed in the place.  In the
 Bahama Islands  I  witnessed  a fatal case in  a  young girl who had
 eaten crabs; she  was  the only sufferer, although  every individual
 in the family had shared in the  meal.   The idea of the testaceous
 mollusca avoiding copper-bottomed vessels, while they are found
 in abundance on those  that are not sheathed, is absurd; this circum-
 stance can be easily explained by the greater  facility these  creatures
 find in  adhering to  wood.  There is every reason to believe, that
 the  supposed poisonous  oysters  found  adhering  to  the  coppered
 bottom of  a ship  in the  Virgin Isles, and the occasional accidents
 amongst the  men  that ate them, were  only so in the observer's
 imagination, and that part of the ship's company were affected by
 some other  causes.   Another  report, equally absurd, was that of the
 fish having  gradually quitted  the  Thames and  Medway since cop-
 pering ships' bottoms has been  introduced !  The following may
 be considered the fish that should be avoided :
    The Spanish mackerel,          Scomber cceruleo-argenteus.
    The yellow-billed sprat,         Clupea thrissa.
    The baracuta,                 Esox baracuta.
    Grey snapper,                 Cor acinus fuscus.
    The porgie,                   Sparus chrysops.
    The king-fish,                 Scomber maximus.
    The hyne,                    Coracinus minor.
    Bottle-nosed cavallo,           Scomber.
    Old wife,                    Batistes monoceros.
    Conger-eel,.                  Mursena major.
    Sword-fish,                   Xiphias g/adius.
    Smooth bottle-fish,             Ostracion globellum.
    Rook-fish,                    JPerca marina.
  I have known accidents arise from the  use of the dolphin on the
 high  seas ;  and, while I was in the West  Indies, a melancholy
instance of  the kind occurred, when the captain, mate, and three
seamen  of a trading vessel died from the poison ;  a passenger, his
wife,  and  a boy were  the  only survivors, and were fortunately
picked up in the unmanageable vessel.
  The above catalogue of poisonous fishes is extracted from Dr.
Dancer's " Jamaica Practice  of Physic," and  its  correctness fell
under my  own observation  in the West Indies.  The  different
systems and classifications of ichthyologists  have  produced much
confusion, and may lead to fatal errors; I think it therefore advisable
to submit  to travellers, who  may have  to visit these unhealthy 
POISONOUS FISHES.
277
regions, the names of the toxicophorous fishes according  to  the
French nomenclature.
    Le poisson arme,               Diodon orbicularis.
    La lune,                      Tetraodon mola.—Linn.
    Le tetraodon ocelle,             T. ocellatus.
    Le t. scelerat,                 T. sceleratus.
    La vieille,                    Batistes velula.
    T   ...  • .„                < B. monoceros.—Linn.
    La petite vieille,              J Mutus mom,cm)S._CimER.
    Le coffre triarfgulaire,           Ostracion trigonus.—Bloch.
    La grand e orphie.               Esox Brasiliensis.—Linn.
    La petite orphie,               E. marginatus.—Lacepede.
    Le congre,                    Mursena conger.—Linn.
    Le perroquet,                  Spams psittacus.—Lacepede.
    Le capitaine,                  S. erythrinus.—Bloch.
    La becune,                    Sphyrsena becuna.
    Le thon,                      Scomber thynnus.—Linn.
    La carangue.                  Caranx carangus.

   A work,  in which  a synonymous  catalogue of all the fishes sup-
posed to be poisonous might be found, would  be  highly desirable,
as they mostly bear different popular and scientific names, thus pro-
ducing a dangerous confusion even amongst naturalists ; how much
more dangerous amongst seafaring  people and voyagers !
   I cannot conclude this article without  noticing the singular pro-
perties of those  electric fishes denominated  the  torpedo-ray  and
the gymnote.  They had  been long known to naturalists, and the
ancients attributed their destructive faculties to a magic power that
Oppian has  recorded  in his Alieuticon, where he describes a fisher-
man palsied through the hook, the line, and the rod.  This influence
being voluntary on the part of the animal, seemed  to  warrant the
belief in its  mischievous nature, since sometimes it allows itself to
be touched with  impunity, while at  others it burrows  itself under
the sand of  the beach, when  the tide has receded, and maliciously
benumbs the astonished passenger who walks over it.   Common in
the Mediterranean Sea, this  singular fish has  been described both
by the Greek  and Roman  writers  ; amongst others, Aristotle  and
Athenaeus :  and Socrates, in his Dialogues, compares a powerful ob-
jection to the  influence of the torpedo.
   This voluntary faculty has been observed by Lacepede and Cloquet
in the Mediterranean, and at La  Rochelle.  In torpedos  kept in
water for  experimental  purposes, Reaumur  found that he  handled
them without  experiencing any shock for some time, until they at
last appeared to become  impatient: he then experienced a stunning
sensation along the arm, not  easily described, but  resembling that
which is felt when  a limb has been struck with a sudden  blow;
One of the experiments of this naturalist proved the extensive power
of this faculty.  He placed a torpedo and a duck  in a vessel con-
taining sea-water, covered with  linen  to prevent the duck from
escaping, without impeding the bird's respiration.  At the expira-
tion of a few minutes  the animal was  found  dead, killed by the
electric shocks of its  enemy.
   August, 1838.—P            26 
o-8         CURIOSITIES OF MEDICAL EXPERIENCE.

  Redi was the first who demonstrated  this faculty.   Having  laid
hold of a torpedo  recently caught, he had scarcely touched it, when
he felt a creeping sensation  shooting up to the shoulder, followed
by  an  unpleasant  tremor, with a  lancinating pain in the elbow.
These sensations he experienced as often as he touched the animal;
but this faculty gradually decreased in  strength  as the  animal be-
came exhausted and  dying.  These experiments he related  in a
work entitled  " Esperienze intorno it diverse cose naturali."
Florence, 1671.
  In 1774, Walsh made some very interesting experiments at the
Isle of Re* and La  Rochelle,  and  clearly demonstrated this  electric
faculty in a paper On the electric property of  the  torpedo.  In
one of them  he found that  this fish could produce from forty to
fifty shocks in the space of  ninety minutes.   The electrified indi-
viduals were  isolated; and at each shock the animal gave, it appeared
to labour under a sense of contraction, when  his eyes sunk deep in
their sockets.
  The trichiurus electricus of Linnaeus, the rhinobatus electricus
of Schneider, and the  gymnonotus electricus of Surinam, are the
species  of this singular fish  with which experiments have chiefly
been made.   The gymnonotus is a kind of eel, five or six feet in
length, and its electric properties are so powerful that it can throw
down men and horses.  This animal is rendered more terrific from
the velocity of its powers of natation, thus being able to discharge
its thunder far and near.  When touched with one hand, the shock
is slight; but when grasped  with both, it is so violent that, accord-
ing to the accounts of Collins Flag, the electric  fluid  can paralyse
the arms of the imprudent experimentalist for several  years.  This
electric action is  analogous to that which  is obtained by means of
the fulminating plate, which is made of glass, with metallic plates.
Twenty-seven persons holding each  other by the hands, and form-
ing a chain, the extremities  of which corresponded with points of
the fish's body, experienced a smart shock.   These shocks are pro-
duced in quick succession, but become gradually weaker as  the fluid
appears to be exhausted.  Humboldt informs us, that, to catch this
fish, wild horses  are driven into  the  water, and after having ex-
pended the fury and the vigour of the  gymnonotus, fishermen step
in and catch  them either in nets  or with harpoons.   Here we find
that the irritable or sensorial power is  exhausted through the me-
dium of electricity.  These phenomena  may be attributed  to an
electric or Voltaic aura; and the organ of the animal that secretes
the fluid resembles in its wonderful structure the  Voltaic apparatus.
Both the gymnote and the torpedo obey the laws of electricity, and
their action is limited to the same conducting and  non-conducting
mediums.  The electric sparks proceeding from  the gymnote have
been plainly  seen in a dark chamber by Walsh, Pringle, Williamson,
and others.  The fish has four electric organs, two large and two
small ones, extending on each side of the body from the abdomen
to the end of the tail.  These organs are of such a size that  they 
POISONOUS FISHES.
279
constitute one third of the fish's bulk.  Each of them is composed
of a series  of aponeurotic membranes, longitudinal, parallel, hori-
zontal, and  at about one line's distance from each other.   Hunter
counted thirty-four of these fasciculi in one of the largest.  Other
membranes or plates traverse these vertically, and nearly at a right
angle; thus forming a plexus or  net-work of numerous rhomboidal
cells.   Hunter found no less than two hundred and forty of these
vertical plates in the space of eleven inches.   This apparatus, analo-
gous to the Voltaic pile, is brought into action by a system of nerves
rising from the spinal marrow, each  vertebra giving out  a branch:
other branches, rising from a large nerve, running from the basis of
the cranium to  the extremity of the tail.   All these ramifications
are spread  and developed  in the  cells of  the electric  organs, to
transmit its powerful fluid, and strike with stupor  or with  death
every  animal that comes within its reach.  Lacepede has justly
compared this wonderful mechanism to a battery formed of a multi-
tude of folio-electric pieces.
  The electric organ of the malapterus electricus is  of a different
formation.   This fish, found  in the Nile, and in other  rivers of
Africa, is called by the Arabs raash, or  thunder.   In this animal
the electric fluid  extends all  round the body, immediately  under
the integuments, and consists of a tissue of  cellular fibres so dense,
that it might be compared to a layer of bacon ; but, when carefully
examined, it  consists  of a  series of  fibres forming  a complex net-
work.   These cells, like those in the gymnote, are  lubricated with
a mucous secretion.  The nervous system of this intricate machinery
is formed by the two  long branches  of the  pneumo-gastric nerves,
which in fishes usually run under each lateral line.  Here, however,
they approach each other on  leaving the cranium, traversing  the
first vertebra.
  Linnaeus had classed the torpedo in the  genus ray, and  hence
called  it raia torpedo.  Later naturalists have  restored to it its
ancient name, as given by Pliny, and termed it torpedo, of  which
four species are described  : the T. narke, or with five  spots ;  the
T. unimaculata,  marked, as the name  indicates,  with  one spot;
the T. marmorata, and the  T. Galvanni.
  The  ancients placed  much faith  in  the medicinal  properties
of  these fishes.   Hippocrates  recommends its roasted flesh  in
dropsies that follow  liver  affections.  Dioscorides  prescribed  its
application in cases of obstinate headaches and rheumatisms.   Galen
and other  physicians recommend   the  application  of the  living
animal ; and Scribonius Largus  states that  the freedman  Anteroes
was cured of the gout by this practice.  To this day, in Abyssinia,
fever patients are tied down on a table, and  a torpedo is  applied to
various parts of the body.  This operation, it is affirmed,  causes
great pain, but is an infallible remedy. 
280
CURIOSITIES OF MEDICAL EXPERIENCE.
           MEMORY AND THE MENTAL FACULTIES.

   This noble  faculty, the proudest  attribute  of  mankind, justly
 called the mother of the Muses, is subject to be impaired by vari-
 ous physical and moral causes, while a similar agency can sometimes
 restore  it  to its  pristine energies, or  develop its powers  when
 sluggish and defective.  Memory may be considered as the history
 of the past chronicled in our minds, to be consulted and called upon
 whenever  circumstances  or  the strange  complication of human
 interests demand its powerful aid.  Its  powers and nature widely
 differ, and  these varieties depend upon education, natural capacities,
 mode of living, and pursuits.   Thus memory has been divided into
 that faculty that applies to facts, and to that more superficial quality
 that embraces a recollection of things, to  which must be added the
 memory of localities:  "Lucullus habuit divinam quamdam memo-
 riam rerum, verborum majorem Hortensius," said  Cicero.
   It is on this  division that Aristotle founded his belief that  the
 brute creation  had not the faculty of reminiscence, although he
 allowed them  to  possess memory.  According  to  his doctrine,
 reminiscence is the power of  recollecting an object by means of a
 syllogistic  chain  of thought ;  an intellectual link with  which
 animals do not  seem to be gifted.   Their memory  appears solely to
 consist of the impressions received by the return of" circumstances
 of a similar kind.  Thus, a horse that has started on a certain part
 of a road will be apt to evince the same  apprehension when passing
 the same spot.  This is an instinctive fear, but  not the result of
 calculation or the  combination of former  ideas.   Reminiscence is
 the revival of memory  by reflection; in short,  the  recovery or
 recollections of lost impressions.
   The remembrance of things or facts can alone bring forth a sound
judgment.  It implies a regular co-ordination of ideas, a catenation
 of reflections, in which  circumstances are  linked  with each other.
 The chain broken, no conclusion can be drawn.  Newton was wont
 to lose the  thread of an important conversation when his mind was
 in search of an idea.   This is the reason  why the  society of the
 learned is seldom entertaining to  the  generality of society.   They
 are considered  absent, while their brain is busily employed in pur-
 suits perhaps of great  magnitude, and must therefore  be anything
 but agreeable to those who generally think through the medium of
 other persons' brains.
   The brain is  considered to  be  the seat of memory.  When it is
 injured, remembrance is impaired ; and on the other hand, an acci-
 dent has been known to improve the recollective faculties.  A man
 remarkable for  his bad memory fell from a considerable height upon
 his head ; ever after he  could recollect the most trifling circumstance.
 The effects of different maladies will also produce various results on
 this faculty.  In some instances  names of persons and things are 
            MEMORY AND THE MENTAL FACULTIES.        281

 completely forgotten  or misapplied ;  at  other times, words  be-
 ginning with a vowel cannot be found.  Sudden fright and  cold
 have produced the same effects.   An elderly man  fell off his horse
 in crossing a ford  in a winter's night; ever after he could not bring
 to his recollection the names of  his  wife and children, although he
 did not cease to recognise and love them as fondly as before the ac-
 cident.  Cold has been at all times considered injurious to memory;
 hence Paulus jEginus called Oblivion the child of Cold.
   Philosophers have endeavoured to fix the seat of memory in vari-
 ous portions of the brain.  The ancients fancied that it was lodged
 in the posterior part of the cranium  ; having observed that, when
 persons  endeavoured to recollect anything, they usually scratched
 the back part of the head.   The  Arabian physicians  entertained a
 similar belief.   Gratarola maintained that a  great protuberance of
 the occiput indicated a good memory.   Gall  places it above the or-
 bitary cavity of the eye, and even  behind it.   It has  long been
 thought that persons with protuberant eyes had quick recollections.
 The  physical condition of the brain has also  been considered as
 materially affecting  memory.  What physiologists  have called a
 moist brain was looked upon as unfavourable to its development; and
 it was therefore to the soft and pulpy condition of the cerebral  or-
 gans  in young children that the  difficulty of impressing anything
 upon their minds arose ; the same stupidity being observed  in cases
 where water was supposed to  be  lodged in the brain.   While this
 humid state was considered as injurious to memory, dryness of the
 organ was also esteemed an obstacle of a similar nature ;  and in old
 age it is by this state of siccity that failure in memory was attempted
 to be explained.  This  failure of memory as  age advances may,
 however, be explained in a much more  rational manner.  Old  men
 will bear in lively recollection the events that attended their child-
 hood, their youth, and manhood ; it  is only recent occurrences that
 shed a transient impression on their minds.   The cause of this may
 be considered to arise from the extreme impressionability that pre-
 vails  in  early life, when every organ  is  prompt in  responding to
 each call upon its powers ;  when  the charms  of novelty tinge with
 a brighter, yet a more lasting lustre,  all  our pleasurable sensations ;
 when grief had not yet wrung the young heart till  its fibres became
 callous to future pangs, when  perfidy and ingratitude have shown
 us that all is vanity, and  calm  philosophy has tutored our passions
 in Adversity's  school.   Reason now sits upon the judgment-seat,
 and all that we can wonder at, is, that  at any time we coald have
 wondered  at anything.  Why, then  are  we to seek for a material
 theory of the mind, when our daily  experience shows us that it is
under the influence of so many moral agents ?
  Amongst the  many curious  doctrines that have been started, to
 account for the operations of memory, some philosophers have com-
 pared it to the art of engraving :  pretending  that on those subjects
 where it requires much time and trouble to work  an impression it
                              26* 
282
CURIOSITIES OF MEDICAL EXPERIENCE.
was more durable, while it was only traced  in a superficial manner
on those brains that were ever ready and soft to receive this plastic
influence.  These several faculties they therefore compared to bronze
or marble, to butter and to wax.  Descartes, following up the phan-
tasy, compared recollection to etching,  and said  that  the  animal
spirits, being passed over the lines previously traced, brought them
more powerfully to the mind ; thus comparing the brain  to the varn-
ished copper-plate over  which the engraver passes his aquafortis.
Malebrancheendeavoured to establish anotherdoctrine,that compared
our cerebral organ to an  instrument formed of  a series  of fibres, so
arranged, that when any recent emotion agitated one of these chords
the others would immediately be thrown into  vibration,  renewing
a past chain of ideas.   As these chords  became less flexible in old
age, of course these vibrations were more difficult to obtain.  Recol-
lection was also considered an attribute of each molecule of the brain;
and Bonnet endeavoured to count how many hundred ideas each
molecule was capable of  holding during a long life.
  The controversies of  learned  psychologists on the relation of
memory and judgment, indeed on the analogies that exist between
our several mental faculties, have been as various as they are likely
to prove interminable.    Without offending these illustrious  contro-
versialists, we may endeavour to enumerate  these faculties, which,
despite the ingenuity of theorists, appear in a practical point of view
to exercise a wonderful influence upon each other.  The  first may
be considered the faculty  ofperception, assisted by that of attention,
to which we are indebted for our ideas.  These are preserved  and
called into action from the  rich stores  of  the  mind by  memory,
justly called by Cicero the guardian of the other faculties.  Imagi-
nation is the faculty of the mind that represents the images  of re-
membered objects as if  they were  actually present.  Abstraction
forms general deductions from  the foregoing faculties ; while^W^-
ment compares and examines the analogies and relations of the
ideas of sense and of abstract notions.  Finally, reason draws infer-
ences from the comparisons of judgment.
  It is from  the combination and the workings of these wonderful
powers that appetency, desires, aversions, and volition arise.  Ap-
petency occasions desires, and these, when  disappointed or satiated,
inevitably usher in aversion and antipathies ; although, as we shall
see in another article, our antipathies are frequently instinctive, and
not arising from any combination of the faculties I have enumerated.
  Dr. Gall has considered these mental faculties  as fundamental;
and in this view he was  certainly correct, since they may be con-
sidered the source whence all other distinct capacities arise.   These
distinct capacities are probably formed by particular  habits of study
and the nature of our pursuits, independently of those specific  ca-
pacities which appear to  be innate, and, according  to the system of
the phrenologists, organic.   Every man  possesses these fundamental
faculties in a greater or a less degree, according to  the obtuseness or
the energies of his mind ; but it is absurd to conceive  that  specific 
MEMORY AND THE MENTAL FACULTIES.        283
 capacities can be  brought into action without  the agency of the
 fundamental ones.  Let us take the instinct to destroy life, the sen-
 timent of property, metaphysical sagacity, poetic talent,—in short,
 any one of Gall's various faculties ; can we for one instant conceive
 that they are not under the  influence of perception, memory, im-
 agination and  abstraction, although they may  not  be properly
 ruled by judgment and by reason?  Instincts are equally under a
 similar  influence, and are, according to circumstances, regulated  by
judgment in the various modes of life of animals.  Phrenologists deny
 that instinct is a general faculty, and assert that it is an inherent dis-
 position to activity possessed by every faculty, and that there are as
 many instincts as fundamental faculties.  This  is  a  postulation  by
 no means clear.  Instinct is an inherent disposition possessed by every
 animal, but not by every faculty.  It is a disposition dependent upon
 the combination of all the mental faculties, according to the degree in
 which the animal may possess them: the reminiscences of animals
 prove it.  We have instanced the horse, who, endowed with the me-
 mory of locality, starts when passing by the same spot where he had
 started  before.  But here the memory of facts, memoria realis, and
 probably of words, memoria verb alls, are superadded to thememoria
 localis.  The horse recollects the tree, the carrion, the object  that
 startled him, whatever it might have been ; but to  this reminiscence
 are associated the  chiding, the punishment he received from his
 rider.   If this horse had  possessed the faculties  of abstraction,
judgment, and reason, he would not have  started, to  avoid a  rei-
 teration of punishment; but  he started  under the impression of
perception, attention, and memory.   Wherever there does not
 exist a combination  of the faculties, the intellectual ones may be con-
 sidered  imperfect.  We certainly may have a greater perception and
 memory of one subject than of others.  Thus, a man with a musical
 organisation will recollect any tune he may have  heard, though it
 may not have attracted the attention of one who " hath no music
 in his soul."   We daily perceive different talents  in children edu-
 cated together.  This  is, no  doubt, a strong corroboration of the
 doctrine of organic  dispositions, which in reaiity no philosophic ob-
 server can deny ; but to maintain that these several dispositions are
 not regulated by what have been called the fundamental faculties, is
 I  apprehend, a position that cannot well  be maintained ;  and we
 may be warranted in the conclusion that  a  particular faculty may be
 the result of the combined action of several faculties, if not of all  ;
for, whether a man be a poet or a painter, a miser  or a spend-thrift,
an affectionate father or an assassin, every one of the mental faculties
that I have enumerated will to a certain extent be brought into action,
however morbid that action may be.
   All these disquisitions of philosophers, however attractive they
 may be, when decked out with fancy's fascination, are the mere
wanderings of physical speculation, that never can be proved or
refuted  until we attain a knowledge of the  nature and quality of the
perceptions which material objects produce in the mind through the 
284
CURIOSITIES OF MEDICAL EXPERIENCE.
 medium of the external senses.  But, while some of these specula-
 tions are idle and harmless, others may be fraught with danger, and
 occasion much misery in society.  Let us for one moment conceive
 the possibility of our resolves and actions being dictated  by a sup-
 posed phrenological knowledge, — a knowledge earnestly recom-
 mended  to  statesmen, and indeed to mankind in  general ;—what
 would be the result ?  A  diplomatic bungler would be sent on au
 embassy, because a  minister, or a sovereign, with a phrenologic map
 before him, may fancy that he displays the faculty of circumspection,
 or the sense of  things ; and a chancellor  of the exchequer be found
 in some needy adventurer who possessed the organ  of relation of
 numbers !
  I by no means presume to invalidate the statements of Dr. Gall.
 The profession  is highly indebted to him for his accurate description
 of the brain ; and physiology must ever  consider him as one of the
 brightest ornaments of science : but I do maintain, that to recom-
 mend his conclusions as a guide to society would be the most  rash
 of visionary speculations ; and, to my personal knowledge, no  man
 was ever more mistaken in his estimate of the persons whom he met
 in society than the learned doctor himself.  Of this I had frequent
 opportunities of convincing myself, when I met him in Paris in the
 circle of a Russian family which he daily visited.  If I could admit,
 with  a late ingenious  writer, " that phrenology teaches the  true
 nature of man, and that its importance in  medicine, education, juris-
 prudence, and everything relating to society and conduct, must be
 at once apparent," I should certainly agree with him in recommend-
 ing its study to parents, judges, and juries ; but,  for  the present, I
 am apt to believe that, although it may prove a most interesting and
 valuable pursuit to,the physiologist, it is by no means calculated to
 be the vade mecum of any liberal man.
  The memory of various persons is amazing, and has been remarked
 in ancient  times with  much  surprise.  Cyrus knew the name of
every soldier in his  army.   Mithridates, who had troops of twenty-
 two nations serving under his banners, became a proficient in the
 language of each country.   Cyneas, sent on a mission to Rome by
Pyrrhus, made  himself acquainted in two  days with the names
 of all  the senators and the principal citizens.   Appius Claudius and
the Emperor Hadrian, according to Seneca, could recite two thousand
words in the order they had heard them, and afterwards repeat them
from the end to the  beginning.   Portius Latro could deliver all the
speeches he had hastily written without any study.
  Esdras is stated by historians to have restored the sacred Hebrew
volumes by memory when  they had been destroyed by the Chal-
deans ; and, according to  Eusebius, it is to his sole recollection that
we  are indebted for  that part of Holy Writ.  St.  Anthony, the
Egyptian  hermit, although he could not read,  knew the whole
Scripture by heart; and  St.  Jerome  mentions one Neopolien, an
illiterate soldier, who, anxious to enter into monastic orders, learned
to recite the works of all the fathers, and  obtained the name of the 
MEMORY AND THE MENTAL FACULTIES.
285
 Living Dictionary of  Christianity ;  while St. Antoninus, the Flo-
 rentine, at the age of sixteen, could  report all  the  papal bulls, the
 decrees of councils, and the canons of the church, without missing a
 word.  The Pope  Clement V. owed his prodigious  memory to a
 fall on his head.  This accident at first had impaired this faculty ;
 but by dint of application  he endeavoured to recover  its  powers,
 and he succeeded so completely, that Petrarch informs us he never
 forgot anything that he had read.  John Pic de la Mirandola, justly
 consider a prodigy, could maintain  a  thesis  on  any  subject, — de
 omni re scibili,—when a mere child ; and when verses were read
 to him, he could repeat them  backward.  Joseph Scaliger  learned
 his Homer in  twenty-one days, and  all the Latin  poets  in four
 months.   Haller mentions a German  scholar, of the name of Muller,
 who  could speak twenty languages  correctly.   Our  own  literary
 annals record many instances  of this wonderful faculty.
   To fortify this function when naturally weak, or to restore it to
 its pristine energies when enfeebled  by any peculiar circumstances,
 has been long considered an essential study that has occupied both
 the philosopher and the physician.   Reduced to an  art,  this pursuit
 has received the name of Mnemonia ; and at various periods pro-
 fessors of  it, more or less  distinguished by their success, have ap-
 peared in the several capitals of Europe.
   It has been justly observed, that remembrance is to  the past what
 our sensations are to the present, and our busy conjectures to futurity.
 Memory gives a lesson to mankind, by stripping past events of their
prestige;  thus enabling us to view what passes around us with a
 more calm and  philosophic resignation, while at the same time it
 tends to protect us, in the career lying before us, against the many
 contingencies that  are likely to impede our path.  Although it
 might appear desirable that we  could bury in oblivion the  painful
 scenes of  our past life, yet  the wisdom of the Creator has deemed
 this faculty as necessary to  our happiness as our utter ignorance of
 our future destinies.   For  let us mistake not by a hasty glance on
 this most important  subject; the remembrance of past sufferings is
 not always painful; far from it.  There is that which is  holy in our
 past sorrows, that tends to produce a  calm, nay a  pleasurable sensa-
 tion of gratitude; and St. Theresa beautifully expressed this hallowed
 feeling when she exclaimed, " Where are those blissful  days when
 I felt  so unhappy ?"  Et olim meminisse juvabit.
   Memory depends in a great measure on the vivacity with which
these past scenes are retraced—I may  say re-transmitted to the mind,
in ideal  forms "as palpable" as those that may be present.   There-
fore reminiscence may be said to result from a connexion between
ideas and images recalled into being  by a regular succession of  ex-
pressive signs that the brute creation  do not possess.   Those charac-
teristic  signs and images  that are  generally  circumstantial  are
co-ordained and classified in the mind, and tend materially in weak
memories to produce  an artificial mode of recollecting the past.
This faculty is therefore matured by  habit.  A literary man, whose 
286         CURIOSITIES OF MEDICAL EXPERIENCE.
library is properly classed, will find the book he wants in the dark.
The classification of his books is ever present to his mind.   These
circumstantial signs are always remembered by a sort of association
in  our  ideas.  Thus  Descartes, who  fondly loved  a  girl  who
squinted, was always affected with  strabismus when speaking of
her.  When we first see a person  in  any particular costume, the
individual  is clad in  the same apparel whenever  brought  to  our
minds, even after a lapse of many years, when fashion has banished
even from general recollection the costume that memory thus retraces
individually.  From these observations it has been concluded that
the most probable method of improving memory would be to regulate
these associations by a proper classification.   One link  of this ideal
chain will  naturally lead to another.   Many military men, to re-
collect any number, will  associate it with that of a  regiment, so far
at least as the number of regiments extend  ; and the recollection of
this particular regiment will not only bring to his mind the  number
of the house he seeks, but  various other circumstances connected
both with the regiment and the number.   For  instance, I wish to
recollect No. 87 in  a  certain street.  I  had, when the number was
mentioned to me, attached it to the 87th regiment ; and instantly I
not only recollect  that the 87th regiment  are the Irish Fusileers,
but that  they took  an eagle at  Barossa, where they distinguished
themselves, and that the  figure of that eagle  is borne  upon all the
appointments of the corps.   At the same moment, with the rapidity
of lightning's flash, I recollect all the circumstances of  the battle of
Barossa ; the different conversations I may have had at various times
with the officers of the 87th ; the town, the camp, the bivouac where
I last had met them.  Thus are innumerable  circumstances  instan-
taneously converging in  a mental focus while simply seeking for
the lodgings of an individual.   This may be  called the memory of
locality,  since  it is locality that revives  its  vivacity.  The  poet
Simonides is said to have been the founder of the mnemonic art. Cice-
ro informs us, that, supping out one night with a noble Thessalian, he
was called out by two of  his acquaintance, and while in conversation
with  them the roof of the house fell in, and  crushed to  death all
the guests  he  had left at table.  When the bodies  were  sought
for, they were so disfigured by the accident that they  could not be
recognised even by their nearest friends ; but Simonides identified
them all, by merely  recollecting  the seats  they had  held at the
banquet.
  Cicero and Quintilian  adopted his system, connecting the ideas
of a discourse with certain figures.  The different parts of the hilt
of a sword, for instance,  might regulate the details of a battle ; the
different parts of a tree associate the relations of a journey.  Other
mnemonic teachers recommended the division of ideas to correspond
with the distributions of  a house ; while some of them refreshed the
memory by associations connected  with the fingers and other parts
of the hand.   Cicero  expresses himself plainly on this subject:
" Qui multa voluerit meminisse, multa sibi loca comparet:  oportet 
            MEMORY AND THE MENTAL FACULTD3S.         287

multos comparare locos, ut  in multis locis multas  imagines col-
locemus."
  Learning poetry by heart in infancy and youth is perhaps one of
the best  methods of  improving memory, since it lays the  early
foundation of a classification of words and ideas.  Virgil has justly
said. " Numeros memini, si verba tenerem."   To abridge, resume,
and analyse what we have read or heard, is another practice highly
beneficial; for, the more clearly we comprehend a subject, the deeper
will it remain engraved in our memory.  Reading what we wish
to recollect before going to bed will materially assist the memory.
We sleep over the impressions we have received, and dreams alone
can weaken them.  From this very  reason we  can write with more
facility upon subjects that require  much mental  exertion in  the
morning, fasting, when  the mind has not been disturbed by the
events of the day, and  when  the- functions of digestion have  not
drawn upon our faculties, too frequently with the lavishness of a
spendthrift.   It is somewhat singular, but, despite the interruption
of dreams, our  ideas maturate during our  sleep.   Quintilian  ex-
presses himself as follows on this subject: " Mirum dictu est quan-
tum nox interposita  adferat  firmitatis, sive quiescit labor ille cujus
sibi ipsa fatigatio obstabat, sive maturaturac coquatur,  seu firmissima
ejus  pars est  recordatio.  Quae  statim referri non  poterant, con-
texuntur postero  die, confirmatque  memoriam  idem  illud  tempus
quod esse in causa solet oblivionis."
  Memory is subject to be variously disturbed in certain maladies.
There is an  affection called amnesia, in which it utterly fails, and
another termed dysmnesia, when it is defective.   Failure of memory
is generally more manifest on some subjects than on others.  Salmuth
relates the case of a man who had  forgotten  to pronounce words,
although he could write  them.  Another person could only recollect
the first syllables.  An old man had forgotten all the  past events of
his life, unless recalled to his recollection by some occurrence ;  yet
every night  he regularly recollected  some one particular circum-
stance of his early days.  A curious anecdote is recorded of an elderly
gentleman who had fallen  into the  meshes of  an artful courtesan,
and who frequently took his own wife for this insidious acquaintance,
frequently saying to her, " Madam, I  feel that  I am doing wrong
by devoting to you so  much  of my time, for, when a man has a
wife and children, such  conduct  is unpardonable ;"  and, after this
polite observation, he took up his hat,  and would have walked off,
had not his wife, wise enough not to manifest displeasure, contrived
to undeceive him.
  Dietrich  mentions a patient  who  remembered facts,  but had
totally forgotten  words  ; while another could write, although he
had lost the  faculty of reading.  Old men are frequently met with
who confound substantives, and will call their  snuff-box a cane, or
their watch a hat.  In other cases letters are transposed, and a musi-
cian has called his flute  a tufle.  Some curious anagrams have been
made  by these irregularities.   John  Hunter was suddenly attacked 
288         CURIOSITIES OF MEDICAL EXPERIENCE.

with a loss of memory, which is thus related by Sir Everard Home :
" He was at the time on a  visit at the house  of a friend.  He did
not know in what part of the house  he was, nor even the name of
the street when told it, nor  where his own house was.  He had not
a conception of anything existing  beyond  the room he was in, and
yet was perfectly conscious of the loss of  memory.  He  was sensi-
ble of impressions of all kinds from the senses, and therefore looked
out of the window, although rather dark, to see if he could be made
sensible of the situation of the house.  The loss of memory grad-
ually went off, and in  less than  half an hour  his memory was per-
fectly recovered."   Such momentary accidents 1 have frequently
observed in gouty patients ; and for a second  or two I have myself
experienced the sensation, for the moment, of a most alarming nature.
Hunter was subject to arthritic attacks.
   Corvinus Messala lost his  memory for two years, and in his old
age could not remember his own  name.   This is an occurrence by
no means uncommon ; and I knew a  person in  perfect health who
could only recollect his name by writing  it.  We frequently see
individuals who, although they are generally correct orthographers,
cannot sometimes spell a simple  conjunction.  An anecdote is re-
lated in the Psychological Magazine  of a  German statesman, who
having called at a gentleman's house, the servants of which  not
knowing him, was asked for his name, which he had, however, so
totally forgotten, that  he was under the necessity of turning round
to a friend, and saying with great  earnestness,"Pray tell me who I
am, for I cannot recollect."
   Cases are recorded of the forgetfulness  of a language  constantly
spoken, while one  nearly forgotten from want of  practice was re-
covered.   A patient in St. Thomas's Hospital, who had been admit-
ted with a brain-fever, on his recovery spoke an unknown language
to his attendants.   A  welsh milkman happened to be in the ward,
and recognised his native  dialect; although the patient  had  left
Wales  in early youth, had resided thirty years in England, and had
nearly  forgotten his  native tongue.  Boerhaave relates a curious
case of a  Spanish  poet, author of several excellent tragedies, who
had so completely lost his memory in consequence of an acute fever,
that he not only had  forgotten the languages  he had formerly cul-
tivated, but even  the  alphabet, and was obliged to begin again to
learn to read.   His own former  productions were shown to him,
but he could not recognise  them.   Afterwards, however, he  began
once more to compose verses, which bore  so striking a resemblance
to his former writings, that  he at length  became  convinced  of his
being the author of them.
   Loss of memory has been observed as a frequent occurrence after
the prevalence of pestilential diseases.   Thucydides relates, that
after the plague of Athens several of the inhabitants forgot their own
names  and  those of their parents and friends.   After the disastrous
retreatof the French army in Russia,and thedisease which sweptaway
so many of their troops at Wilna,  many of the survivors had no  re- 
MEMORY AND THE MENTAL FACULTIES.         289
 collection of country or of home.  Injuries of the head appear to
 occasion different results.   This circumstance was observed by the
 ancients.  Valerius Maximus relates the case of an Athenian, who,
 being struck on the head with a stone, forgot all literary attainments
 although he preserved  the recollection of other matters.  A man
 wounded with  a  sword in the eye completely forgot Greek and
 Latin, in which he had  formerly been a proficient.  A young man,
 having fallen off his horse and  contused his head, lost his  memory
 to such an extent, that he would repeat a question a hundred times
 over,  although the very  first interrogation had been answered.   He
 had not the slightest recollection  of his accident.   Epileptic and
 paralytic attacks frequently usher in this melancholy result, which
 has also been often observed after child-birth.
   A singular instance of forgetfulness is related of a lady who had
 been united to a man  she loved, after much opposition on the part
 of her family, and who  lost her memory after the birth of a child.
 She could not be made to recollect any circumstance that had occured
 since  her marriage ; nor could she  recognise her husband  or her
 infant, both of whom she maintained  were utter strangers to her.
 At first  she repulsed them with apparent horror, but was at last, by
 the  entreaties of  her family,  induced to  believe  that she was a
 wife and a mother ; and although she yielded to their solicitations,
 yet for years she could not persuade herself that their assertions were
 correct,  as she actually was convinced " against her will."   In this
 instance disease not only destroyed memory, but affection.
   The case of Dr.  Broussonnet was remarkable.   An accident he
 had  met with  in  the  Pyrenees brought on an apoplectic  attack.
 When he recovered, he could neither write nor pronounce correctly
 any  substantives or personal names either in  French or Latin, while
 adjectives and epithets crowded in his mind.  Thus, when speaking
 of a person, he would describe his appearance, his qualities,  and,
 without pronouncing the word "coat," would name its colour.   In
 his botanical pursuits  he could point out the form  and colour of
 plants, but had not the power  of naming them.  A Parisian mer-
 chant,  after severe losses, experienced such a failure in recollection,
 that  he was constantly guilty of the most absurd anachronisms;—
 would  talk of the  battles of Louis the Fourteenth with Alexander
 the Great, and describe Charles the Twelfth ascending triumphantly
 Mount Valerian; and one night, after  witnessing the performance
 of Talma, could not be persuaded that he had not applauded Lekain.
   Sudden fright has also  obliterated  this faculty.  Artemidorus lost
 his memory from  the terror inspired by treading  on a  crocodile.
 Bleeding has produced the same effects; while, on the other hand,
 blood-letting has restored an  absent man  to perfect recollection.
 Various venenous substances have also been said to produce amnesia.
History  records several  instances of  the kind.   The soldiers of
Anthony, on their return  from the Parthian war, were attacked
with loss of memory after eating some poisonous plants on their
march.  Bamba, king  of the Goths, was suddenly deprived of all
   August, 1S3S.—Q            21 
CURIOSITIES OF MEDICAL EXPERIENCE.
recollection after  taking  a draught presented to  him by Eringius.
Plater and Baldinger  attributed  a  similar accident to  the  use  of
hemlock and arsenic.  Narcotics, no doubt, may  produce similar
effects, but they will be of a transient nature; I do not know that
this injurious power has been detected in any other productions, as
the cases related by writers are not supported by sufficient authority
to be entitled to unqualified belief.
   The cause of these affections will most probably ever be unknown.
Equally futile have proved all the endeavours to ascertain in what
part of the brain memory  is  seated, since we have found some
physiologists lodging  this wonderful faculty in  the posterior, and
others in the anterior portion of the cranium.   I apprehend that
we might torture the brute creation, from the elephant down to the
lowest  reptile, for  centuries  without being able to ascertain this
point;  and even could  we  attain this  information,  cui  bono?
Would it protect this  privileged quarter of the cerebral organ from
the action of external  agency, or restore it to its healthy functions
when diseased?  The mode in which our  mental faculties  are de-
veloped is an impenetrable  mystery ;  and, instead  of vainly en-
deavouring  to raise the  mystic  veil to gratify our curiosity,  or
rather our vanity, let  us endeavour to apply these functions to the
use for which they were intended by the allwise Creator, and exert
them for  the purpose  of increasing the prosperity, or at any rate in
endeavouring to diminish the 'sum of  sufferings  of his  creatures,
whether they be our fellow-men  or the divers  races  that are sub-
mitted to our capricious power.
           AFFECTIONS  OF  THE  SIGHT.

  The different terms applied to the various  morbid affections of
vision have been frequently misconceived, and consequently have
occasioned much confusion in their application.   Those  vitiated
conditions which are usually noticed may be classed as follows :
                       I. Night sight.
                       II. Day sight.
                      III. Long sight.
                      IV. Short sight.
                       V. Skew sight.
                      VI. False sight.
   Night  sight,  specifically called Lucifuga, was also termed
Nyctalopia, from nux, night, and ojo*,eye; it was also known as the
Noctem amans.  This affection was thus named in consequence of
the person labouring under it being only able to see at night, or in
a deep shade; hence the first name : while nyctalopia has been used
by most modern writers in the opposite sense of night-sight-ache, 
AFFECTIONS OF THE SIGHT.
291
agreeably, according to Mason Good's observations, to the technical
or impliedmeaning of opia, in which case it always imports a diseased
vision;  whence nyctalopia has been made to import day sight, in-
stead of night sight.
  This disease appears to be dependent upon a peculiar irritability
of the retina, produced by two different causes,—a sudden exposure
to a stronger light than the  eye has  been accustomed to bear, or a
deficiency of the black pigment which lines the  choroid  tunic.  If
the iris be weak and torpid, it is enlarged ; if strong and contracted,
diminished.   Thus, those who from  peculiar circumstances reside
in dark caverns and subterraneous abodes, or who  have long been
confined in obscure dungeons, labour under the first of these causes;
instances of which were  observed in two of the captives liberated
from the Bastille  in 1789.
   Ramazzini informs us that  this affection  is commonly observed
among the Italian peasants, amongst whom he was not able to trace
any  other peculiarity than an  enlargement of the pupil.   This
state of the vision, however,  has been attributed to the peculiar
brightness of the  Italian sky, its clear atmosphere, and the relaxing
warmth of the temperature.   The Italian peasants are therefore con-
stantly exposed  to  all those causes  that tend to debilitate the iris,
while they irritate the retina.   We  thus find these causes acting
with renewed power at the  season when the disease usually makes
its attack,—the vernal equinox, when an increased flood of solar rays
breaks on' them.   Such is the dimness that this brightness produces,
that the peasantry frequently lose their way in the fields in the glare
of day; but on the approach of night  they can see distinctly.  Hence
are they obliged to remain for some weeks  in the shade to  recover
their sight.
   A deficiency  of the  black pigment of the eye is  occasionally
found in  persons of a very fair complexion and light hair.  This
affection is therefore common  in the Albinoes.   This circumstance
arises from  the whiteness of the eyelashes  and  hair, whereby the
retina is deprived of the natural shade that  softens the light in its
descent.   This debilitated race  generally inhabit warm and damp
regions ; they are seldom long-lived,  and  frequently  low-spirited
and morose.  The iris is of a pink colour,  and  this circumstance,
added to the  constant winking that the weakness of the organ oc-
casions, gives them a distressing appearance.  In horses, this want
of the dark pigment constitutes what is called the wall eye.
  Acuteness in night vision is natural to most, if not to all, animals
that prowl in the  dark.   In the feline genus we observe that the iris
can be contracted much closer than in mankind,  when exposed to a
vivid glare ; but they also expand to a much  greater degree when
obscurity sets in.  Owls, bats, and many insects, possess a similar
faculty.
  Day sight, the nyctalopia of some authors, is said to be endemic
in some countries,—Poland, the West  Indies, Brazils, and various
intertropical  regions.  This affection arises from causes totally dif- 
292
CURIOSITIES OF MEDICAL EXPERIENCE.
 ferent from the former one.  Here the eye is habitually exposed to
 too great a flood of light, whence the retina becomes torpid.  It has
 been said to be endemic in some districts of France, particularly in
 the neighbourhood of Roche Guyon, on the banks of the Seine; but
 here the soil is of  a dazzling white: and as it makes its attacks in
 the spring, and continues for three months, it is  supposed to arise
 from the keenness of the reflected light, after the dreary winter
 months.
   This disease has also been commonly observed in Russia, especially
 in the summer, when the  eye is exposed, with scarcely any inter-
 mission, to the constant action of light, as the sun dips but little be-
 low the horizon, and there  is scarcely  any interval of darkness.
 Hens are subject to this affection, and  cannot  see to pick  up their
 food  in the dusk of the evening.   The complaint is, from this cir-
 cumstance, called hen blindness.
   Dr. Heberden has communicated the following curious case of this
 species of affection : " A man about forty years old had in the spring
 a tertian fever, for  which he took too small a quantity of  bark, so
 that the returns of it were weakened without being removed. Three
 days  after his  last fit, being  then employed on board a ship in the
 river, he observed at sun-setting that all objects began to look blue,
 which blueness gradually thickened into a cloud ;  and not long after
 he became so blind as hardly to perceive the light of a candle.  The
 next morning about sun-rising his sight was restored as perfectly as
 ever.  When the next night came on, he lost his sight again in the
 same manner, and this continued for twelve days and  nights.   He
 then came ashore, where the disorder of his eyes gradually abated,
 and  in  three days was entirely gone.   A month after he  went on
 board another ship, and after three days' stay in it the night blind-
 ness returned as  before, and lasted all the time of his remaining in
 the ship, which was nine  nights.   He then left  the ship, and his
 blindness did not return while he was upon land.  Some little time
 afterwards he went into another ship, in which he continued for ten
 days, during which time the blindness returned only two nights,
 and  never  afterwards."   It appears, however, that this  individual
 had previously laboured under  an affection produced by the use of
lead, which  had left him in a state of much nervous debility.   Not-
 withstanding this circumstance,  this case clearly proves that the
 affection is liable to be increased and brought on by  local influence.
  Long sight.   In this species of vision the iris is habitually dilated,
and not easily stimulated into contraction.  Several varieties of this
affection have been observed.    Dr. Wells, in  the Philosophical
Transactions, relates the case of a young person who, from a perma-
 nent dilatation of the pupil, saw near objects with much difficulty
 and  confusion,  but remote  bodies with  singular accuracy.  The
power of moving the upper lid was completely lost.   This dilatation
of the pupil, which may be artificially produced by the application
 of belladonna, can be remedied  by the use of convex glasses.
  Short sight.   In this case the iris is contracted, and the cornea, 
                   AFFECTIONS OF THE SIGHT.              293

 which in long sight is too much flattened, is too con vex or polarised;
 therefore  spectacles  of an opposite character, and with concave
 glasses, become necessary.  Mice are said to be short-sighted; hence
 the affection has been termed myopia or myopiasis, literally "mouse-
 sight."
   Skew sight or sight askew, is a condition of our vision only ac-
 curate when the object is placed obliquely, in consequence of some
 partial obfuscation of the cornea, frequently from slight scars,
 scarcely, if at all, observable.   In this lateral vision the axis of the
 eye affected  usually coincides with  that of the sound eye.   In
 squinting, on the contrary, the two axes do not coincide.
   In false sight,  imaginary objects float before the sight; or, at
 other times, objects  assume imaginary forms and qualities.   The
 latter species has been divided in cases where the objects that are  sup-
 posed to be seen, have  no real existence, and in cases where actual
 objects have assumed qualities that do not  appertain to them.   The
 first are termed ocular phantasms  or  spectres ; the  latter,  ocular
 transmutations or illusions.  These spectres  sometimes form dark
 spots, called by physicians muscae  volitantes.  In another species,
 a net-work seems to be spread before the eyes ; hence called visus
 reticularis.  In a third form  sparks scintillate, and  this appearance
 is experienced when  the  eye  has been struck.   The eye  is  also
 troubled with an  imaginary sense of  dazzling,  constituting  the
 myrmaryge of the Greek writers; at  other  times, an  iridescent
 appearance, exhibiting  the colours of the  rainbow, is experienced,
 although sometimes this  impression is confined to a single colour.
 Dr.  Heberden relates the case of a lady of advanced age, lodging on
 the eastern coast of Kent, in a house that looked immediately upon
 the sea, and exposed to the glare of the morning sun.   The curtains
 of her room were white, a circumstance which added to the intensity
 of the light.   When she had been there about ten days, she observed
 one  evening, at the time of sunset, that first the fringes of the clouds
 appeared red, and  soon after the same colour was diffused over all
 the objects around her, especially if they were white. This lasted
 the whole  night, but  in the morning  her sight was again perfect.
 This alternation of  morbid and sound sight prevailed the whole time
 the  lady resided on the coast, which was three weeks; and for
 nearly as long after she left it, at which time it ceased suddenly of
 its own accord.
   There exists another variety of false sight, that Plenk  has  deno-
 minated met amorphopsia, and in which objects appear changed in
 their natural qualities, producing  error of form, error of motion,
 error of number, and error of  colour.  I had  a patient in Lisbon
 who fancied that all the horses he saw carried horns or extensive
 antlers.  A young lady whom  I attended beheld every one of a
 gigantic height.  Dr. Priestley has given a curious case of error of
 colour in five  brothers and two sisters, all adults.   One of the bro-
 thers could form no idea whatever of colours, though he judged very
accurately of  the form  and other  qualities of objects ;  hence he 
294
CURIOSITIES OF MEDICAL EXPERIENCE.
thought stockings were sufficiently distinguished by the  name of
stockings, and could not conceive the necessity of calling them white
or black.  He could perceive cherries  on a tree ; but only distin-
guished them, even when red-ripe, from the surrounding leaves by
their size and shape.  One of the brothers appeared to have a faint
sense of a few colours, but still  a very imperfect notion ; and, upon
the whole, they did not seem  to possess any other distinguishing
power than that of light and shade, into which they resolved all the
colours presented to them,—so  that  dove or  straw colour  were
regarded as white ; and green, crimson, and purple, as black or dark.
On looking at a rainbow, one of them could distinguish that it con-
sisted of stripes, but nothing more.   Dr.  Nicholl relates the case of
a boy who confounded green with red ;  and called light  red and
pink, blue.   His maternal grandfather and one uncle had the  same
imperfection. The latter was in  the navy, and having a blue coat
and waistcoat, purchased a pair  of red breeches to match.  The same
physician knew a  gentleman who could not distinguish green from
red ;  a cucumber and a boiled lobster did not offer the least difference
in  colour.  His brother and his niece  laboured under a similar
affection.
   Some philosophers are of opinion, that in the power of conceiving
colours there is a striking difference in individuals, and are inclined
to think that in many instances the supposed defects of sight ought
to be ascribed to a defect in the power of conception, arising proba-
bly from some early habit  of inattention.  This theory is  scarcely
tenable.  The utmost inattention and indifference  regarding sur-
rounding objects could never lead to a delusive view of any colour ;
moreover, it is more than probable  that,  in  the  case of a  child in
whom such a defective vision was observed, his  attention would be
incessantly called  on by those around him, to correct, if possible, so
strange a delusion.   Moreover, this defect of  vision, as we have
seen, appears in some instances to be hereditary ; and to prevail in
families.
   Phrenologists of course are  of opinion that the judgment  of co-
lours resides in a particular organ, remarkably full and prominent in
painters distinguished by the  perfection of their colouring.  Ac-
cording to Gall, a local deficiency of brain is observable where the
power of distinguishing colours is deficient.
   The sense of vision exhibits  more variety in the different classes
of animals than any of the others.   In  man, and the greater number
of quadrupeds, this organ is guarded by an upper and a lower lid,
both of which in  man are fringed with lashes.   This is not the case
in most quadrupeds.  In  the  elephant,  opossum, seal, cats,  other
mammalia, birds, and all fishes, we find a third eye-lid, or nictitating
membrane, as it is called, arising from  the internal angle of the eye,
capable of covering and protecting the eye from danger, either
wholly or in part.   In the dog this membrane is narrow ; in oxen
and horses it extends half over the eyeball.  It  is by means of this
veil that eagles are capable of fixing their eyes on the noon-day sun. 
                         HELLEBORE.                      295

The largest eyes in proportion to the size of the animal are found in
birds,—nearly the smallest in whales ;  but the most diminutive are
those of the shrew and mole,-the latter's not exceeding the size of a
pin's head.
  The situation  of the organs of vision differs materially.   In man
and monkeys they are placed directly under the forehead ; in some
fishes, such as the turbot and flounder tribes, both eyes  are placed
in the same side of the head.   In the snail they are situated on  the
horns ; and in the spider, distributed  over various  points of the
body, and in different arrangements.
  Eyes, however, are not indispensable to become sensible of the
presence of light.  Several zoophytes, that do not possess the organs
of vision, are perfectly alive to its  influence.  A distinct  organ is
not always indispensable for a distinct sense.  It is probable that in
those animals that appear to  be endowed with particular senses,
without displaying particular  organs  relating to them, the senses
are diffused, like that of touch, over the whole surface.  This  sub-
ject has been  admirably commented on by Cuvier.
                      HELLEBORE.

  From time immemorial this  substance has been considered an
efficacious  remedy in mania.   The  Greeks pretended  that the
daughters of Proetus, smitten with insanity by Bacchus, were re-
stored to reason by the shepherd Melampus, who  gave them some
milk drawn from goats  that had  eaten  hellebore.  It is supposed
that the use of purgatives arose from this fabulous tradition, whence
this plant was called melampodium.
  The ancients described  two varieties, the  white and the black.
The first, according to Theophrastus, was found on apart of Mount
OZta called Pyra, on which the body of Hercules was burnt.   It is
not certain whether they confounded  our hellebore with our vera-
trum.  Pinel supposes that the veratrum album was their hellebore,
as it is not  probable that the veratrum  nigrum should  have been
thus confounded.   Tournefort, in his travels in the Levant, fancied
that he had discovered the root of the ancients in one that the Turks
called zopteme, which answered  in its character to the description
recorded in older writers.
  Howbeit, it  was considered a powerful purgative and emetic,
especially indicated in the  treatment of  mental affections.   Celsus
forbade its  exhibition in summer, and  during the  winter, or when-
ever febrile symptoms were prevalent.   This precaution, however,
applied to all purgative medicines ; and to this day, in several parts
of the Continent, similar injunctions are usual; and even in France
practitioners of the old school  prepare a patient several days before 
CURIOSITIES OF MEDICAL EXPERIENCE.
any opening medicine was given,—a learned  precaution, that has
but too frequently rendered every medicine useless.
   The exhibition of this drug was a matter of  so much importance
amongst the ancients, that it was specifically termed helleborism;
and it was considered of so powerful a  nature in mania, that the
treatment of the malady was called navigare Anticyras, since  it
was near the town of Anticyras that the plant was generally gathered.
If this process of helleborism proved  efficacious, it is more than
probable that its beneficial results proceeded from the violent evacua-
tions  that preceded it.  The following was the mode adopted with
the helleborised:  The patient was first well fed  for several days
until  the decline of the moon, when a powerful  emetic was given
to him ;  five days after, a similar  dose was prescribed, and then
good  living ordered  for a month: at the expiration of this invigo-
rating respite, emetics began again to work him every three days.
After the last attack on his digestive head-quarters, he was bathed,
fed again, and hellebore  was given after he had been submitted to
several hours' friction with olive  oil.  The emetics were invariably
administered on a full stomach, which was cleared either by medi-
cine or the excitement  of the beard  of a quill poked down the
unfortunate patient's throat.  At  other times, (by way, no doubt, of
variety,) rejection was excited by  making the patient eat a  pound
or more  of horse-radish; after which he was walked about for some
time; and then, after a short repose  the fingers  or the quill were
brought  into action.   After this operation he was lulled to sleep by
a regular shampooing.   It appears that, despite all these practices,
the stomachs of the  ancients  were sometimes so  pertinaciously re-
tentive, that more powerful  means to relieve them were adopted;
and when the longest feather that  could be plucked from a goose
proved unavailing, gloves dipped in the oil of cypress were put on,
and the  fingers thus inuncted replaced the feathers.  When  this
failed, the obstinate sufferer was made to swallow a quart or two of
honey and  hot water, in which rue had  been infused: and when
this proved ineffectual, he was slung in a hammock to produce the
sensation of sea-sickness.  In  some cases it appears that, despite
this practice, the patient thought proper to faint.  On such occasions
little  wedges of wood were driven between his obstinate and rebel-
lious  teeth clenched against medicine, so as  to allow the introduction
of the goose-quill, while cephalic snuff of the precious hellebore
and  euphorbia was  blown  up his nostrils to produce sneezing.
The last trial to relieve him was  tossing the ill-fated wight  in a
blanket.   After this experiment the patient was left to nature or to
his friends, if he would  not recover.   These friends immediately
proceeded to give him punches in the stomach, roll him about the
floor, and endeavour to restore him to his senses by driving him out
of them by every possible  noises that could  frighten him, if his
frightful condition  was  at all susceptible of anything left in the
arsenal of medicinal ingenuity.*
  * That serious accidents might have resulted from the use of hellebore is most
likely, since various plants resembling it have been mistaken for it; chiefly the 
SYMPATHIES AND ANTIPATHIES.            297
  Small doses of hellebore seem to have been taken not only with
impunity, but were supposed to assist  the mental faculties.   Ac-
cording to Valerius Maximus and Aulus Gellius, orators were in
the practice of using this stimulus before their disputations.  Such,
it is said, was the habit of Carneades, whose  doctrines might well
have been applied to this very day to many theories*, since he denied
that anything in the world could be perceived or understood.
  Hellebore is to this day an ingredient in many of the fashionable
pills vended by successful quacks.  This introduction, at any rate,
shows that their compounders have candourenough to think (although
they may not acknowledge it) that the  intellectual faculties of the
purchasers of their nostrums do stand in need of some medicinal aid.
               SYMPATHIES AND ANTIPATHIES.

   The constant  effects  produced by causes which do not appear
 connected with them, are phenomena both of organic and inorganic
 nature which have long fixed the attention of philosophers, and have
 not yet  been satisfactorily explained.   This operation between
 distant bodies cannot be traced  to any medium of  communication.
 It arises from an attractive and  a repulsive power that cannot be
 defined.   Almost every substance evinces inclinations or antipathies;
 is attracted with more  or less strength by one  body, indifferent
 towards  a second,  and  constantly avoiding a third ; nay, bodies
 appear to act where they are not present, and where no communi-
 cation can exist.  We are as ignorant of the nature of these pheno-
 mena as of those of  gravitation, magnetism, and electricity.   Still,
 although this medium of communication is not evident, it must be
 admitted by inference that there must exist a  connecting channel,
 although its nature be unknown.         *•
   The ancients called sympathy consensus, and the moderns have
 also defined it a consent of parts ; nor is this definition incorrect,
 since  sympathy arises from the relative ties that mysteriously unite
 our several organs,  however distant and unconnected  they may
 appear ;  thus  establishing a beauteous harmony  between  all the
 functions of the animal  economy.   Sympathies must therefore con-
 stitute the  chief study of the physiologist :  on this alone  can the
 physician ground his investigation of the various disorders to which
 flesh is heir.   Symptoms arise from sympathies :  without a know-
 ledge  of the one we can never attain a clear insight in the other.
  Sympathies are of a physical or a moral nature.   The first consist,
 as I have already stated, of  a consent between the  different parts of
 the organism ;  the latter of certain impressions, unaccountable, un-
 adonis vernalis, trollius Europxus, actaea spicata, astrantia major, veratrum album,
and the aconitum neomontanum, the last of which is a most virulent poison. 
298
CURIOSITIES OF MEDICAL EXPERIENCE.
conquerable, that harmonise in a multiplicity of phenomena various
individuals, or that induce  them, without their being able to assign
any reason  or motive to warrant  the  repugnance, to  avoid each
other, and not unfrequently to entertain a feeling  of disgust or
horror.   A secret voice has spoken,—organism instinctively obeys.
Moral sympathies have been defined as  faculties that enable us to
partake  of the ideas, the affection, or the dislikes of others; although
this sentiment is by no means reciprocal, and we often dislike those
who fondly love us.   So far sympathy is instinctive; yet, like many
instincts, it is more or less under  the control of our reason.   We
often acquire an artificial partiality to substances that we naturally
disliked.   Our senses may be considered  the instruments of our
sympathies ; yet our  senses  are regulated  by education and habit.
Oil, olives, tobacco, and various other substances, are naturally, one
might  say instinctively, unpleasant to  most individuals ; yet by
custom  they are not  only relished, but  ardently wished for when
they cannot be obtained.  It is the same with our relative partiality
or aversion towards individuals ; and indifference  is often turned
into  affection, while the  most ardent love is not far remote from
hate, when vanity more especially removes its boundaries.
   If we admit that our  sympathies are  lodged  in certain specific
organs,  we must  consider that we  are  the slaves  of organism ;
whereas it is pretty positive  that  to  a  certain extent we are the
slaves of habit.   Even the most ardent  and prevailing passions, the
indulgence in which  has become an absolute necessity, cease to be
brought into action when they have  long remained dormant.  To
associate our moral sympathies with physical consents of parts is to
level man with  the  brute  creation ; although we hourly see the
most decided instinctive dislikes in animals overcome by education.
A mouse may be brought up with a cat, and a hawk with a sparrow;
although a chicken has been known to  dart at a fly the moment its
head was out of the egg.
   Nor can  we view  in  the  same  light  the  affinities of inorganic
bodies.   They are subject to chemical laws ; each is endowed with
specific qualities that  seldom or never vary, and some other body
must be interposed to check their atttraction ; and that body, in the
relation of inorganic  matter, may  be compared to  the influence of
the  mind  in  intellectual beings.   In  animals, the  very laws of
nature are not unfrequently unheeded ; and in these instances natural
instincts appear less powerful than the  mechanical discrimination
that  we witness in vegetable  life, where germs, and molecules, and
fibrils not  only select each other, according to nature's  harmonic
institutions, but actually attract each other from distant situations.
This attractive  power  is  beautifully illustrated  in the mysterious
vegetation of  the vallisneria spiralis,  an aquatic plant, in  which
the male and female are  distinct individuals.  The organisation of
the male qualifies it to adapt itself  to the surface of the water, from
the bottom of which the plant shoots forth, and to float in the middle
of the deep and  rapid tide.  The  female, on the contrary, is only 
SYMPATHIES AND ANTIPATHIES.
299
found in  shallow  waters, or on shores where the tide exerts but
little  influence.  Thus  differently formed and situated, how  does
their union take place ?  It is a wonderful mystery.   As soon as
the male  flower  is perfect, the spinal  stem dries  away, and the
flower thus separated sails away towards the shore in pursuit of the
female, for the most part driven by a current of wind or the stream ;
yet as soon as it arrives near its destination it obeys a new influence,
and is attracted towards the object of its pursuit, despite the powers
of that wind and tide which until then directed it.   No hypothesis,
however ingenious, can explain this phenomenon.
   Notwithstanding the doctrines of various writers, I am of opinion
that our passions are clearly instinctive, but fortunately more or less
under the control of our mental faculties in well-regulated individuals,
who do  not yield to these instinctive  feelings  an unbridled course;
and I doubt much if there does exist  a  single  passion, however in-
ordinate it may appear, that cannot be mastered.  Both good and
evil qualities are frequently artificial, and arise from peculiar moral
and physical conditions.  Self-preservation is an instinctive feeling;
yet man will wantonly risk his existence  from false views regard-
ing his social position.   Courage has  been considered as  differing
in its quality, (if I may use the term,)  and arises sometimes from
a natural animal or brute propensity, at  others from calculation and
reflection  ; and the latter most  unquestionably may temper the for-
mer.  Duclos' distinction between what  is called  the  courageous
heart and  the courageous mind  is  by  no means as objectionable as
some of  his opponents maintain.  If courage  is an instinctive
faculty, residing in a certain organ, how comes it that this organism
varies at  different periods ?   How comes  it, moreover, that this
variety  depends  upon  circumstances ?   I have  seen a desperate
duellist disgrace himself by a cowardly flight in the field of battle.
I have known an arrant poltroon defend himself desperately against
robbers ;  and a man, considered of undoubted courage, surrender
his arms to a single footpad.  In our  instincts, our  sympathies, we
are to a certain extent the children of  circumstances ;  and it would
be as absurd to maintain that we cannot control our moral sympathies,
asfto excuse the commission of murder or of theft.
   Our physical sympathies are  of a nature totally different.   Here
they are brought into  action according to certain laws of the organ-
isation, as uncontrollable as chemical  affinities ; and I doubt much
whether  our unaccountable antipathies may not be  considered as
appertaining to this  category ; they seem to  depend upon certain
laws of  attraction and repulsion.  The channel of this communica-
tion, as  I have already observed, will  perhaps remain for ever in
utter  obscurity.  To this  day we  know  not   in  what  manner
certain articles of food  and medicinal substances  find a path  to
the kidneys with  such a  rapidity  as to  render it improbable
that it was through the  medium of the  circulation.   The nature of
other physiological phenomena is equally unexplained.  Through
what channel of  communication  does the cat-hater know that one
of these animals  is in the room, although  unseen  by him !  Yet 
300         CURIOSITIES OF MEDICAL EXPERIENCE.
 these antipathies might be conquered.   A man was wont to fall into
 fits at the sight of a spider ; a waxen one was made, which equally
 terrified him.   When he had recovered his faculties, his error was
 pointed out, the wax figure was put into his hand without inspiring
 dread, and shortly the living insect no longer disturbed him.
    Certain antipathies appear  to  depend upon a peculiarity of the
 senses.   The horror inspired by the odour of certain flowers may
 be referred to this cause.  Amatus Lusitanus relates the case of a
 monk who  fainted when he beheld a  rose, and never  quitted his
 cell when that flower was blooming,  Scaliger mentions one of his
 relations  who experienced a similar horror when seeing a lily.  In
 these instances  it is  not the  agreeableness or the offensive  nature
 of the aroma that inspires the repugnance ; and Montaigne remarked
 on this subject, that there were men who  dreaded  an apple more
 than a musket-ball.  Zimmerman tells us of a lady who could not
 endure the feeling of silk and satin, and shudded when touching
 the velvety skin of a peach.   Boyle records the case of a man who
 felt a natural  abhorrence to honey.  Without his knowledge, some
 honey was introduced in a plaster applied to his foot, and the acci-
 dents that resulted compelled his attendants  to withdraw it.  A
 young man was known  to  faint  whenever  he heard  the servant
 sweeping. Hippocrates  mentions one Nicanor who swooned when-
 ever he heard a flute :  our Shakspeare has alluded to the effects of
 the bagpipe.   Julia, daughter of Frederick, king of Naples, could not
 taste meat without serious accidents.  Boyle fainted when he heard
 the splashing of water ;  Scaliger turned pale  at the sight of water-
 cressess ;  Erasmus experienced febrile  symptoms  when smelling
 fish ; the Duke d'Epernon swooned on beholding a leveret, although
 a hare did not produce the same  effect.   Tycobrahie fainted at the
 sight of a  fox, Henry the third of France at that of a cat, and Marshal
 d'Albert at a pig.  The horror that whole families entertain of cheese
 is generally known.  Many individuals cannot digest, or even retain
 certain  substances, such as rice, wine, various fruits and vegetables.
   There are also antipathies that  border  upon  mental  aberration.
 Such was  the case  with  a clergyman who fainted whenever a cer-
 tain verse in  Jeremiah was  read.   I lately dined in company with
 a gentleman who was  seized  with symptoms of syncope whenever
 a surgical  operation or an accident was spoken of.   St. John Long's
 name happened  to be  mentioned, and he  was  carried out  of the
 room.  I  have also known a person who  experienced  an alarming
 vertigo and dizziness whenever a great  height or a dizzy precipice
 was described.   A similar accident has been occasioned by Edgar's
 description of Dover  Cliff in  King Lear.   All these sympathies
 may be looked upon as morbid affections, or rather peculiar idiosyn-
 crasies, beyond the control of our reason or our volition, although
 it is not impossible that they might be gradually checked by  habit.
 Our dislikes to individuals are  often as unaccountable, when we are
obliged to confess with the poet Martial:
             Non amo te,  Sabidi, nee possum dicere quare;
             Hoc tantum possum dicere, Non amo te. 
                SYMPATHIES AND ANTIPATHIES.            3^

 It is the same with our  affections.   The  ancients, amongst  other
 Empedocles, fancied that  attraction  and repulsion constituted the
 principal action of life, and harmonised  the universe.  Hesiod dis-
 pels Chaos through the agency of Love.   Aversions were attributed
 to the influence of an evil eye.   To avoid its direful effects, strange
 practices were  adopted, according to Tibullus ;  and to  check the
 malefices of wicked crones, it was  customary to spit  three times  in
 an infant's bosom,
                Despuit in molles et sibLquisque sinus;
 while  the well-known  amulet, representing the god Fascinus, was
 suspended round the child's  neck.   Maidens were veiled to guard
 them against this  noxious power, and secrecy and retirement were
 deemed the most effectual means of security,
             Latendum est dum vivimus, ut feliciter vivamus.
   In a preceding  article I have given  a sketch of  the  custom  of
 administering love-philters.          •
   The singular sympathies  that forewarn  a future union between
 the sexes have in  some instances been  most surprising.   The fol-
 lowing example, that came within my knowledge, is perhaps one  of
 the most singular : Mr.----, a brother officer of mine, was a man
 of taciturn and retired  habits, seldom frequented public places  of
 amusement, and, when there, felt anything but gratification.  One
 evening after dinner he was, however, prevailed upon  to go to a ball.
 We  had  not been long in the room when, to my utter surprise, he
 expressed great admiration of a young lady who was dancing, and,
 what still more amazed  us all, he engaged her  to  dance.   Such an
 act of  apparent levity on his part struck us as a singularity which
 might  have been attributed to an unusual indulgence at table, had
 not the contrary been the  case, for he was  remarkably abstemious.
 The dance was scarcely  over  when he came to me, and told me with
 a look  of deep despondency, that his  lovely partner was  a married
 woman.  The tone of sadness in which he addressed  me was  truly
 ludicrous.   A few  minutes  after,  he  left! the ball-room.   The
 strangeness of his  conduct led  me to fear  that his mind was not
 altogether in a sound state ; but I was confirmed in my apprehension
 when he  told me the following morning  that he was  convinced he
 should be married  to the object  of his admiration, whose husband
 was a young and healthy clergyman in the neighbourhood.  Here
 matters rested, and we both went abroad.  We did not meet  until
 three years after, when,  to my utter surprise, I found that his pre-
 diction had been verified.  The lady's husband had died from a fall
 from his  horse, and the parties were married.  But what rendered
 this circumstance still more strange is, that a similar presentiment
 was  experienced by the young lady, who, on  returning  from the
 ball,  mentioned to her sister with much emotion, that she had danced
with a  stranger, to whom she  felt convinced  that she was destined
to  be married.  This conviction embittered  every moment of her
life, as, despite her most  strenuous endeavours, she could not dismiss
  Sept. 1838.—./?             28 
02         CURIOSITIES OF MEDICAL EXPERIENCE.

the stranger from her constant thoughts, reluctantly yielding to the
jbope of seeing him again.
   The sympathetic power of fascination is another unaccountable
phenomenon.   It is well known that in regions infested with veno-
mous snakes, there are persons endowed  both  by nature and by
art with the power of disarming the reptile of his poisonous capaci-
ties.  The ancient Cyrenaica was overun with poisonous serpents,
and the Psylli were a  tribe gifted with this faculty.   When  Cato
pursued Juba over the  Cyrenaic desert, he took some of these Psylli
with him to cure the poisoned wounds that these reptiles might have
inflicted on his soldiers.   Bruce informs us that  all the blacks in
the kingdom of Sennaar are perfectly armed by nature  against the
bite of either scorpion or viper.  They take the cerastes, or horned
serpent (one of the most  venomous of all  the viper tribe) in  their
hands at all times, put them in their bosoms, and throw them to one
another, as children do  apples  or  balls ; during which sport the
serpents are  seldom irritated  to bite,  and, when they  do bite, no
mischief  ensues from  the wound.  It is said  that this power is
derived from the practice of chewing certain plants in their infancy.
This is most probably the fact; these substances may impregnate
the body with some quality obnoxious to  the reptile.   The  same
traveller has  given  an account of several of these roots.  In South
America a similar practice prevails, and a  curious  memoir on the
subject was drawn  out by Don  Pedro  d'Orbies y Vargas, detailing
various experiments.   He informs us that the plant thus employed
is the  vejuco de guaco, hence  denominated from its having  been
observed that the bird  of  that name, also called  the serpent-hawk,
usually sucked  the juice of this plant before his attacks upon poison-
ous serpents.  Prepared by drinking a small  portion of this juice,
inoculating themselves with it by rubbing it upon punctures in the
skin, Don Pedro himself,  and all his domestics, were accustomed to
venture into the fields, and fearlessly seize the most venomous of these
serpents.  Acrell,in the Amoznitates Academicse, informsus that the
senega possesses a similar power.  The tantalus or ibis of Egypt, that
derives its chief food from venomous animals, depends in a like man-
ner on the protection of antidotes. This power of fascinating serpents
is so great, that they remain totally torpid and inactive  under its in-
fluence, and are not even able to offer any resistance when  skinned
from tail to head like an eel, and eaten alive.   According to Bruce,
they sicken the moment they are laid  hold of, and are as exhausted
by this invincible power  as though they had been struck by light-
ning, or an electric battery,—shutting  their eyes the moment  they
are seized, and never attempting to  turn their  mouth  towards the
person that holds them.
   Dr.  Mead and Benjamin Smith Barton of Philadelphia endeavour
to explain this power by the influence  of terror.   This supposition,
however, is not correct, since the serpent will injure one man and
not another, if the  latter is  gifted with this faculty and the former
one is  not.   Major Gordon of South Carolina attributes the fascin* 
SYMPATHIES AND ANTIPATHIES.            303
ting power of reptiles to a vapour which they exhale and shed around
them ; and he mentions a negro who, from a peculiar acuteness of
smell, could discover a rattlesnake  at two hundred feet distance.
That certain odours are overpowering there is not the least doubt;
and trout and other fresh-water fishes are charmed and caught with-
out resistance when the hand is smeared with asafoetida, marjoram,
and other aromas.   The fishes, delighted  no doubt with this odour,
or intoxicated  by its power,  will actually flock towards  the fingers,
and allow themselves to be laid hold of.
  Thieves and housebreakers have been known to possess the power
of quieting watch-dogs, and keeping them silent during their depre-
dations.  Lindecrantz informs us  that the Laplanders can instantly
disarm the most furious dog, and oblige it to fly from  them with
every expression of terror.   The strange faculty of taming the most
unmanageable horses, possessed  by an Irishman, hence'called the
 Whisperer, is well known.  Several horse-breakers have appeared
at various periods possessing  the same  art, and they would make
the wildest horse follow them  as  tamely as a dog, and  lie down at
their bidding.   It has been affirmed that these whisperers introduce
a globule of quicksilver, or some  other substance, into the animal's
ears.  It is, however, more probable that these charmers  derive their
power of fascination  from  some natural or artificial  emanation.
The most singular power of fascination is perhaps that exhibited by
the jugglers of Egypt, who, by merely pressing the serpent called
haje on the neck, stiffen the reptile to such a degree, that they can
wave  it like a  wand.
  To  explain this sympathetic influence that living  beings exercise
on each other, as I have already observed, has long  been the study
of philosophers.  Their chief theories may be divided into those of
the advocates  of pneumatism or spiritualism, who  maintained
that the nerves transmitted a subtile fluid susceptible  of external
transmission.   Such were the disciples of Plato ; and amongst the
moderns, the Arabian writers, Paracelsus, Vin Helmont, Willis, Dig-
by, Wirdig,and even Boerhaave.  The mechanitians formed another
class, refusing to admit the doctrine  of influences, and submitting all
sympathetic phenomena to the laws of  mechanism  and chemistry.
Amongst these we find the  Cartesians, Boyle, Hoffmann, and Hal-
ler.  Their  doctrine  had already  been established amongst the
ancients by Asclepiades.   The third system  was that of the organ-
icians, who attributed these effects to our organisation, governed
by a principle of free agency.   In this school  are recorded the
names of  Hippocrates, Galen, Stahl, Bordeu, and many illustrious
writers  of  various ages.  An investigation of  these discrepancies
would be foreign to these  sketches.   I can only observe, that none
of them are tenable,  and have only tended to display scholastic
learning and  ingenuity, without any practical beneficial  results.
Indeed, the only advantages that  might possibly accrue from these
pursuits would be the shedding of some faint light upon our systems
of early education, by finding  out  the  most judicious  method of
counteracting innate dispositions and peculiar idiosyncrasies.
* 
 304         CURIOSITIES OF MEDICAL EXPERIENCE.

   The life of man is a relative and external existence.  He lives in
 communion with all around him, and before his ultimate dissolution
 he Is doomed to die with every object of his affections that perishes
 before him.  To these objects he  has  been united by the secret
 powers of  sympathy.  The organism of both appears to have been
 subject to mutual laws ; and grief and joy,  our pains and pleasures,
 are transmitted with the rapidity and power  of the magnetic fluid.
 Nor time nor distance can affect these sympathies, which have been
 known to remain latent in our breasts till called into action by acci-
 dental circumstances.  Thus, a man has never known how fondly
 he loved until he  was deprived of the object of his sympathies,
 although until that moment  this affection had been  unknown even
 to himself.  This circumstance clearly proves that these sympathies
 are not under the influence of our imagination.   Sympathies might
 be denominated a moral contagion in mankind : in the brute crea-
 tion they merely produce  a physical impulse.  Reid  attributed to
 the nervous system an atmosphere of sensibility, influencing all that
 came within  its range.  Ernest Platner maintained that our soul
 could diffuse itself in mutual transmission ; and in another paper I
 have shown that life may be prolonged  by  sacrificing  the health of
 others, when the genial warmth of youth is surreptitiously commu-
 nicated to decrepitude.  What is then this  invisible vital fluid, this
 electric principle, that the touch, the breath,  the warmth, the very
 aroma of those we are fond of, communicates, when  trembling, flut-
 tering, breathless, we approach them ?  that enables us, even when
 surrounded  with  darkness, to recognise by  the feel  the hand of
 her we love ?  Nay, whence arises the feeling of respect and vene-
 ration that we experience in the presence of  the great and the pre-
 eminently good ?   It may be said  this  arises from  our education ;
 we have  been taught to consider these  individuals as belonging to
 a superior class of mortals.   To a certain extent this may be true ;
yet there does exist an jmpressive contagion  when  we are brought
into the presence, or pl|fced under the guidance, of such truly privi-
leged persons.   Their* courage, their  eloquence,  their energies,
their fanaticism, thrill  every fibre, like the  vibration of the chord
under the skillful harpist's hand.  Actuated  by this mystic  influ-
ence the  coward has boldly rushed into  the battle, the  timid dared
imminent perils, and  the humane been driven to deeds of blood.
 Fanatic contagion has produced both martyrs and heroes.  Example
 stimulates and emulates, despite our reasoning faculties.  Regis ad
 exemplar totus componitur orbis.   Imitation  is the principle of
 action, the  nursery  of  good and great  deeds.  We either feel de-
 graded by the ascendency of others, when we fancy, however vainly,
that we may attain  their level; or devote  ourselves to their cause
and their service, when we tacitly recognise their mastery.  It is
 more particularly in our devotion and in our love,—two sentiments
 more analogous than  is generally believed,—that this mutuality
of sympathies prevails ; and when Galigai was asked by his judges
 by what means he had obtained his influence over Mary of Medicis, 
SYMPATHIES AND ANTIPATHIES.
305
 his reply was similar to that of the Moor when describing his course
 of love,—the witchcraft he  had used to win his Desdemona, when
 with a greedy ear devouring his discourse.
   There  is  no  doubt  that  education, circumstances, our  state of
 health, predispose us more or less to the action of these sympathetic
 powers, for  then our  feelings are actually more  or less  morbid.
 Affliction, for instance, predisposes to tender sentiments.   There
 is perhaps much psychological matter of fact in the old story of the
 Ephesian widow ;  and our immortal Shakspeare felt the truth not
 only  of the contagion  of grief, but of its consoling  power  when
 reciprocally felt, although no doubt the reciprocity has often been
 assumed to woo and win.
                Grief best is pleased with grief's society.
                True sorrow then is feelingly surprised,
                When with like feeling it is sympathised,
   Fortunately for our frail  race, sympathies are liable to be worn
 out by their own  exhausting powers.  Attrition polishes, but in-
 durates at the same  time : thus does  social intercourse harden our
 gentle predispositions.   The mathematical world dispels the illusions
 of  our fervent  youth,  as chilling  truth changes fancy's flattering
 dreams.  Experience is to man what rust is to iron ; it corrodes,
 but at the same  time protects the metal  from the magnet's mighty
 power.
   Although the nature  of sympathies most probably will never be
 ascertained, their study is  essential both  to the moralist  and the
 physician, and both may be  materially aided in  their vocations by
 the temperament of the pupil or the patient; for, as I shall endeavour
 to show in a  subsequent sketch, our temperaments generally  indicate
 individual characteristics.    It is in vain# that some philosophers
 may deny the power of innate  faculties and dispositions.   The very
 expression 'human nature' implies their existence.  To encourage
 their growth, or to  check their development, becomes the  duty of
 those who are entrusted with the education of youth, when yield-
 ing to or counteracting propensities becomes  as necessary as  the
 care the horticulturist devotes to his trees.  By the inclination that
 trees have taken, we can generally learn the prevalent winds of  a
 district.  The plastic hand of our early teachers may, in most in-
 stances, obtain a similar result; though in the  vegetable  kingdom,
 as well as in  the animal kingdom, there  will be constantly found
stubborn trunks  that will resist all  influence.  Were we to admit
 that our material organism  cannot be counteracted, we  should in-
 evitably fall into many  lamentable errors, and  many a crime would
 be extenuated on the plea of  fatalism.   It is to be feared  that some
 of our ingenious theorists have  too frequently tortured organism on
a Procrustean couch, to  suit their favourite phantasies.  We might
reply  to the visions of these enthusiasts in  the words of Iago,« Our
 bodies are  our gardens, to  the whioh our wills are gardeners,—
either to have it  sterile  with idleness, or manured with  industry.
The power and corrigible authority of this lies in our  wills.   If thej 
306         CURIOSITIES OF MEDICAL EXPERIENCE.

balance of our lives had not one scale of reason to poise another of
sensuality, the blood and baseness of our natures would conduct us
to the most preposterous conclusions."
             THE ARCHEUS  OF VAN HELMONT.

  One of the most ingenious fictions of those speculators who have
endeavoured to explain the mysteries of our wonderful organisation,
was perhaps the Archeus of Van Helmont, a term derived from ag;^,
origin, principle, authority, power.  According to the doctrines
of this physician, this archeus was an internal agent that commanded
and regulated all  the vital  functions.   I  cannot better  describe it
than by borrowing the language of the founder of the doctrine.
  " The archeus and  matter are the natural  causes of all.  The
molecules of matter, essentially inert, receive from this  principle
their movements, their order, their distribution, their conformation:
the archeus is  the internal agent  that  penetrates them, the nucleus
of their inspiration ; it is the mould in which they are elaborated,
brought into form by this plastic  influence meeting in this material
substance the requisite  docility  to realise its  ideas of perfection.
Thus the archeus^ is  an active  and an  intelligent power, possessing
the faculty of amalgamating and identifying itself with matter;
penetrating its inmost recesses, it modifies and changes each particle
of matter, producing that, incomprehensible series of oscillations of
spontaneousness  and equilibrium, that catenation  and marvellous
automatism, that  constitute the  consciousness of our existence, and
whence springs the only.'hotion we can form of its causation.  It is
the archeus that presidefto'ver our sense of smelling, of tasting, and
consequently the select»n of our food ;  it is he that dissolves it in
our digestive organs, liquefies it, and prepares it for due assimilation;
it is he that imparts  a conservative action to the blood, and converts
this vital fluid into  bone and muscle.   Should  any particle of our
aliments have escaped from this transforming power, these substances
become foreign bodies, irritating by their presence this sovereign
power, calling forth  his energies and  his activity, and  exciting his
indignation  and  wrath by their  repeated  provocations.  His just
fury stimulates and  accelerates the vital functions ;  but, instead of
wreaking its vengeance  on external matter, it  overwhelms all in-
ternal obstacles, whether  diffused in the system or concentrated on
any given point.   It is this  tumultuous confusion that constitutes
maladies, which  arise from  two  evident causes,—an alteration in
matter and a reaction of the archeus.
  " Of these  two morbid elements,  the  first is susceptible of a
thousand varieties both in nature  and extent, and therefore produces
as many  modifications in the  corrective  power.  Then does  the 
THE ARCHEUS OF VAN HELMONT.
307
archeus, threatened on different points in different manners, regulate
his plans and operations both of defence and of attack, selecting his
weapons according to the nature of his antagonists.   In this mutual
struggle  our archeus wisely checks the impetuosity of  his onset,
husbands his forces, and merely detaches them from  the main body
according to the circumstances of the conflict;  thus ever keeping a
powerful  reserve.  It is  this wisdom of conduct that ultimately
restores tranquillity, and compels  the  rebellious  molecules to sub-
mit to the laws of organisation.  For what constitutes the cure of a
disease, whether obtained by nature or by art ?  Nothing  more
than the dignified  repose of the  mighty archeus, when the fire of
his wrath has consumed  his foes.   Diseases, therefore, are simply
the execution of vast and  complex projects that inspire the archeus,
and which he carries into  execution as the statuary embodies on the
marble the conceptions of his genius.  When the morbid idea is in
conformity  with his plans, a favourable result will ensue ; if, on the
contrary, the archeus labours under a misconception, if he is thrown
by erroneous impressions  into disordinate steps, then  may this
power, excited without a just motive, or a determinate and proper
object, turn  its arms against itself, and destroy the ties that united
it to matter.  It is then that art, whose  aim is to  meet the foe with
its own weapons, must have recourse, to medicine for  the purpose
o'f rousing the torpor of the archeus, r%-animate  his energies if he
droops, overthrow him  if  he becomes unruly, and finally compel
him to  yield, by a salutary terror ; forcibly bringing him back to
that judicious equilibrium  in action, when all the  functions con-
tribute  in harmony  and  concert  to the  general welfare of  the
system."
   Such were the truly poetical ideas of Van Helmont, who might
have written an epic on the  government, revolutions, and battles, in
the archean  state, similar to the Holy War of our ingenious Bunyan;
for, like the cobbler poet, our theorist divided and subdivided his
legions  and  their  officers.  The  archeus  is  merely the  sovereign
commander, whose head-quarters and throne were in the stomach;
all the other  viscera have  distinct commandants, receiving their
orders from  their chief, who employed the nerves as his  aides-de-
camp.  Nor was  it an  easy matter  to keep all these captains in  a
proper state of discipline.   Their irregularities  occasioned constant
tumults; for although the court of the archeus, like all other courts,
was most depraved and capricious in its practices, and intriguing in
all its machinations, the archeus had great trouble in  keeping his
subordinates in a proper state, and the most rebellious of his generals
was the one who commanded the uterine district.  There it was in
vain that  the  articles of war were constantly read,—that solitary
confinement and prison-diet were resorted to.  Its constant mutinies
not only demanded the utmost vigilance, but it was no easy matter
to prevent its dangerous principles from  contaminating the other
branches of  the service; and treasonable correspondences were not
unfrequently discovered with the staff of the brain.  This rebellious 
308
CURIOSITIES OF MEDICAL EXPERIENCE.
province, indeed, excited incessant apprehension, constantly agitated
the entire commonwealth, and, on  the plea of national welfare and
liberty, it hoisted at times a standard of defiance, and precipitated
the country in all the miseries of civil war; the more to be dreaded,
as it  always put forth  the  most specious pleas, destroying with
words of peace.
   This whimsical doctrine is not unlike the Platonic theories, and
resembles the naturism or mp/*ov of Hippocrates, and the  autocracy
of the soul, of Stahl.  Van Helmont not only established  hisarchei
in  animals, but in plants, and even  in our food.  The archeus of
man he sometimes  called ens seminale, ens spirituale,  impetum
faciens, aura vitalis.   Well aware that the most powerful despot
cannot reign without rival powers, Van Helmont admitted certain
imperia in imperio: for instance, there was a troublesome minister
in his own cabinet, whom the archeus frequently could not control,
—one pylorus rector,  or  master of the ceremonies; then he had to
apprehend the  power of a secret faculty possessed  by the stomach
and spleen, which  he called  a duumvirate,—jus duumvirat'.
The sensitive and immortal soul was another check on his sway;
while the spirit of life residing in the blood was not easily managed.
All these vexations occasioned frequent  attacks of illness in the
monarch, and Vank Helmont has described these several affections;
for, although he possessed Ihe, power of conceiving and  executing
plans  of  disease, like  many physicians, he did  not know how to
cure  himself.            '      ,   •
   When we consider that systems similar to this absurd doctrine,
if not more extravagant, have ruled the medical schools for centuries
with a despotic sway, can we  marvel  that  medicine should have
incurred the invectives of scepticism, or the scurrility of wits?  In
 the very ratio  of their absurdity have these flitting systems been
maintained with scholastic fury ;  their proselytes would have vied
in excesses with monastic persecutors,  had they been able to assume
 a religious mask.   It is painful to observe that unbelief and impious
 ridicule in theologic matters may be referred to the same causes as
 medical scepticism,—the  vain and presumptuous endeavour of man
 to explain that which  the Creator  has most  probably willed to re-
 main inexplicable.   Instead of wisely referring all that is mysterious
 to the Almighty Power that knows no limit, man has sought to ex-
 plain and 'comment  upon  human principles,  nay  upon  human
 motives ;  and when they could  no longer attribute evil to God,
 they  crossed the pons asinorum to call in the  Devil.   In like
 manner, when they proudly fancied that they had regulated all the
 functions of the animal economy in that harmonious  manner that
 they were modest  enough to  call admirable and wondrous, they
 endeavoured to account for a derangement of this equilibrious con-
 dition, either by the introduction of some evil spirit, or the unman-
 ageable rebellion  of some organ, some  principle,  some  agency ;
 and for this purpose they gave individuality and specific vitality to
 these agents, each of the dramatis personae have  a particular part 
MONSTERS.
309
to perform in bringing on a tragic catastrophe or a happy  denoue-
ment of the drama of life.
  Let not the learned doctors of modern schools exclaim, that these
were the errors of former days and of dark ages.  They themselves
are grovelling and groping in the  dark whenever  they  pretend to
fly from the trammels  of empiricism, and, like  our forefathers,
account for  what is  unaccountable.  But, above all, let them  be
meek and modest (if they can) in  passing judgment upon others,
and inscribe upon the doors of their splendid  libraries  the saying
of the olden sage, " All that we know is our own ignorance."
                        MONSTERS.

   Philosophers have puzzled their  brains to no purpose in en-
 deavouring to account for the unnatural formation of animals.  The
 ancients, amongst whom we  may name Democritus  and Epicurus,
 attributing all organisation to an  atomic aggregation, fancied  that
 matter  was endowed with an elective faculty and certain volition
 in attaining this organism; and  considered monstruosities as mere
 experiments on the part of these atoms to produce some other species
 or races.   This chimera was  of a par with the archeus and his
 satellites of the preceding article.   There is no doubt, however,
 that in  the myriads of organised  creatures various  circumstances
 may tend to affect most  materially the regularity of these  devel-
 opments, in the same manner as the properties and peculiar qualities
 of their organs may  depend in a great  measure upon similar influ-
 ences.  Conservation and reproduction are in the ratio of this per-
 fection  and imperfection.  It is true, generally speaking, that the
 healthy and the  best organised are  less liable to engender  an ill-
 conformed offspring;  yet parents  of  this description  have been
 known  to  produce  monsters.  The fortes creantur fortibus of
 Horace  has become a proverbial  expression ; and  some fanciful
 wanderers  in  the  mazes of imagination framed rules for their
 megalanthropogenesy, or the  art of creating illustrious men  and
 distinguished women by  uniting the learned and  the witty.
   Generation  is  a wondrous mystery.  Many casual  circumstances
 may check the mechanism of its action, (if I may be  allowed the
 expression,) and affect its results.  Any sudden physical or moral
impression acting  violently might  produce this  result; although,
despite the theories and experiments of  philosophers, it has not been
proved that conception depends in the slightest degree upon the
passions, being an act of nature totally independent of the control
of mental emotions or bodily sufferings.  This fact is clearly proved
 in cases  of brutal violence.
  The ideas entertained by several naturalists, that organised beings 
310         CURIOSITIES OF MEDICAL EXPERIENCE.
were cast in a certain mould, were not altogether visionary, or un-
founded on observation.  The great resemblance between children,
and  the  hereditary  mal-conformation  and defectuosities in whole
families,  would seem to a certain degree to warrant this conclusion;
but it is more probable that imagination may have some influence
in this irregularity, although at the, time we may be unconscious of
the relative  action of moral  agency on physical functions.  The
supporters of the existence  of this plastic mould in which organised
matter is cast, would then maintain that the mind having once in-
fluenced  the conformation of the matrix, it would ever after preserve
this deviation from nature's general laws.
   It is evident that different species of animals and vegetables  have
disappeared on the face of the earth, some  within  the  memory of
man.   We neither know how these  species  have ceased  to exist,
nor  whether  all that  possibly can be created  has  hitherto  been
brought  into  being ; neither  can we form any idea regarding the
perpetuity of the races that surround  us.  Perpetuity and eternity
are conventional terms : races were  supposed  to  be  perpetuated
by the successive  evolutions of germs, as I  have observed in a for-
mer article.   To a certain extent this doctrine is correct, and is
rendered  evident  in the  evolutions  of plants arising  from  their
seed.  Preternatural conditions are  merely irregularities in this
germination.   The  doctrine, that at each  creation a true  gen-
eration and gradual formation  of a new conception from the form-
less genital matter takes place, does not appear to me reconcileable
with  sound  physiology, nor supported  by  observation ; for,  were
this the case, it is  more than probable that preternatural formations
would be more frequent.  It was upon this doctrine that the learned
Blumenbach founded his nisus formativus, an expression  that  he
thus explains : " The word nisus I have adopted chiefly to express
an energy truly vital, and therefore to distinguish  it as clearly as
possible from powers merely mechanical, by which some physiolo-
gists formerly endeavour to explain generation.   The  point  upon
which the whole of  this doctrine respecting  the nisus formativus
turns, and which is alone  sufficient to distinguish  it from  the vis
plastica of the ancients, or the vis essentialis of Wolff,  and  similar
hypotheses,  is the  union and intimate co-exertion of two distinct
principles in the evolution of the nature of organised bodies,—
of the physico-mechanical  with the purely teleological ;—
principles which  have hitherto been1  adopted,  but separately,  by
physiologists in framing theories of generation."
   The ingenuity of this hypothesis must be admitted,  but it  does
not militate against the pre-existence of germs.   Germs are visible
in the ovum  before fecundation : in these germs the very primordia
of future organisation  can be distinguished.  It is by no means
necessary to  allow these germs an exciting power, or  a formative
power, as has been objected :  they are more less profuse, and under
the influence, as I have already said, of accidental  circumstances.
It has been maintained that monsters are more  common in domes-
ticated animals than in wild ones.   This is  by no  means evident, 
MONSTERS.
311
since we have little opportunity of ascertaining the fact in forests
and in wildernesses ;  but, admitting  the fact, it only tends to cor-
roborate my opinion regarding the influence of accidental causes in
physical development, since domestication must expose animals to
many emotions unknown in their natural condition.   It has been
said that monsters are especially observed among sows.   There per-
haps is no animal under the subjection of  man, excepting, perhaps,
the unfortunate donkey, more exposed to  physical  injuries  during
gestation ;  and as the Portuguese maintain that a  cajodo (a  stick)
springs from the earth whenever an ass is  born, so our  bumpkins
and malicious  urchins fancy that every one owes a kick to a gravid
sow.   Howbeit, I  doubt much whether the  swinish multitude  are
more subject to bear monstruosities than other animals ; and pre-
ternatural  conformations are, I  believe, as frequent in lambs, and
calves, and chickens ;  and double-headed and double-legged speci-
mens of these  animals are more frequently exhibited than monstrous
pigs.
   Monstruosities are of two kinds, and exhibit either an excess of
parts or a defect.  Thus, some children are  born with  more  limbs
than usual, whilst others  are deprived of their natural  proportions.
It is not unlikely that in  the former case twins were being develop-
ed ;  whereas,  in the other, the proper nourishment  of the parts that
are either wanting or stunted in their growth had somehow or other
been impeded in its assimilation.  This opinion seems to be war-
ranted by the  facts observed in the artificial incubation  of eggs, the
different parts  of the chick being more or less perfect where the heat
had been more or less steadily applied  ; the produce of those eggs
that had enjoyed more warmth being invariably the  stronger.  The
same remark applies to plants.   Eggs and seeds are in most respects
ruled by similar laws in the phenomena of their germination :  the
arms  and  legs  grow  from  the animal foetus, as  the  branches
originate from the trunk  of the tree.   These ramifications  are
frequently  as  symmetrical  as human  limbs.   When there  are
preternatural  excesses  in formation, it is probable that twins were
intended :  thus  we see  foetuses with  double heads, or with two
bodies.   The  same irregularity  is observed in double and triple
cherries, and other fruits.   It is probable that this union took place
when these bodies  were in a soft state, and the vessels inosculated in
their intricate  ramifications with  greater facility, until farther  deve-
lopment had consolidated the junction.
   If a proof were wanting that monstruosities do not arise in  the
original organisation of the embryo,  but from subsequent accidents
during gestation, it might be sought in those preternatural appear-
ances that arise from frights or longings, and constitute whatare called
naevi materni.  Thus  are infants born bearing the  marks of some
fruit the mother had desired, or some animal that had terrified her.
This phenomenon plainly shows  that there  does exist a wonderful
sympathy between external objects and the uterine system ; yet this
sympathy is not as surprising as that which is subsequently observed
between  tliQse marks and  the fruits  they represent.   It is  a well 
312         CURIOSITIES OF MEDICAL EXPERIENCE.
 authenticated fact that they will assume a  tinge of maturity when
 the fruit is ripening, and become gradually more pale as  it is going
 out of season.  The same observation has been made in regard to
 animal marks ; for instance, these marks  have displayed a deeper
 colour when the  mouse or  the  rat that had occasioned them was
 mentioned.  I knew a lady who, during her pregnancy, was struck
 with the unpleasant view of leeches applied to a relative's foot.  Her
 child was born with the mark of a leech  coiled up  in  the act of
 suction on the identical spot.  Mr. Bennett has published a remark-
 able  instance of this uterine sympathy.   A woman gave birth to a
 child with a  large  cluster  of globular tumours growing from the
 tongue, and preventing the closure of the mouth, in  colour, shape,
 and  size  exactly resembling our common  grapes ;  and with a red
 excrescence from the chest, as exactly resembling in figure  and ap-
 pearance  a turkey's wattles.  On being questioned before the child
 was shown her, she answered that, while  pregnant, she had  seen
 some grapes, longed intensely for them, and constantly thought of
 them ;  and that she was also once attacked and much alarmed by a
 turkey-cock.
   Various writers have positively denied these facts.  Gerard  tells
 us that  he  had known three pregnant women whose minds had  been
 constantly occupied  with the unpleasant recollections of a  cripple,
 of a  dancing-dog fantastically  dressed, and a  basket of beautiful
 peaches ;  yet their offspring bore no marks of these objects.  This is
 no argument.  No rational person could imagine for a single moment
 that every impression thus received is to be transmitted.  Buffon, who
 also doubts this influence, thus expresses himself: "We must not ex-
 pect that we shall be able to convince women that the marks their
 children may bear have no analogy with ungratified  longings.  I
 have  frequently asked them, before the birth of their  infants, what
 had been their wishes, and  consequently what would be the marks
 that they might expect ?   By this question I frequently gave unin-
 tentional offence."
   Now, with all due respect to this celebrated  naturalist,  this argu-
 ment is by no means conclusive.  We perfectly  well  know  that
 pregnant women are frequently alarmed  without such consequences,
 and the most fantastic phantasies may cross their idle brains without
 any such result.   It has been observed on  this subject, " that when
 a circumstance may proceed from many causes, we do not universally
 reject any one  because  it  is frequently alleged without reason."
 We have too many well-authenticated cases before  us  to doubt this
 strange effect of maternal  impressions, so clearly observed and re-
 corded in  Holy Writ in the following passage of Genesis :  "And
 Jacob took him rods of green poplar, and of the hazel and chestnut
 tree, and pilled white strakes in them, and  made the white appear
 which was in the  rods.  And he set the  rods which he  had pilled
before the flocks in  the gutters  in the watering-troughs, when the
flocks came to drink, that they should conceive when they came to
drink.  And the flocks conceived before the rods, and brought forth
cattle  ringstraked, speckled, and  spotted." 
MONSTERS.
313
  The sympathy that evidently  exists between  bodies  separated
from each other, but previously connected, has given rise to many
absurd stories.  It is told of Taliocotius, that having made a nose
for a patient, cut  out of a pig, the poor man's  snout fell off the
moment the hog was slaughtered.   A similar belief prevails among
horticulturists, who assert that the  graft perishes when the parent
tree decays.   A  very singular phenomenon is  observed in some
countries, where  the wine  in wood  enters  into a  state of slight
effervescence, and even efflorescence, when the vines begin to throw
out their blossoms.
  It therefore appears to me more than probable that  monstruosities
are by no means original malconformations, but arise, during gesta-
tion, from physical or moral influences that affect the mother, how-
ever unconscious she may be of their action.  The above observations
may support this hypothesis in a moral point of view; and we have
frequent instances of violence occasioning preternatural develop-
ments.  Mr. Giron Buzareingues mentions that a violent blow was
given  to  a  gravid bitch, who produced eight pups, all of which,
excepting one, had the hind-legs wanting, malconformed, or weak.
  A  farther disquisition would  lead  me beyond the  limits of a
sketch.  I shall therefore relate some curious cases of monstruosities,
that would seem to set at nought our ideas regarding the indispensa-
bility of certain organs to the functions of life.
  Various instances are recorded of the union of two or more foetuses.
We have  lately seen the Siamese twins, and such a preternatural
formation is by no means uncommon.   In the Journal de Verdun,
1709,  a case is related  of two  twin femalft children who  were
united at the loins, with only one intestinal canal.   They were seven
years  old, could  walk about, embrace  each  other  in  the  fondest
manner,  and  both were proficient in  several  languages.  Buffon
gives the history of  two Hungarian girls, who  were also joined
together in the lumbar region.  Helena, who  was  the  first-born,
became tall  and straight;  Judith, her  sister, was of a  diminutive
size, and slightly  arched.  At six  years  of  age  she was attacked
with hemiplegia, and never recovered perfect health.  Helena was
sprightly and intelligent.   With the exception of  the small-pox and
measles, under which they laboured at the same time, their ailments
were always distinct.  They lived until  the age of  twenty-two,
when Judith was attacked with a  fever, that  shortly terminated her
existence.   The horror expressed by Helena  in beholding her d^ead
companion, with whom she had been  identified in sisterly  love for
so many years, cannot be described ;  but her agonies were  o^ short
duration, for in three  minutes she also had ceased to live.  On their
post mortem examination each was found  to have possessed distinct
viscera.   The aorta and vena cava were united above the origin of
the iliac arteries ;  so that no operation could  have been performed
without destroying them both.
  Duverney relates  the  case of twins united at  the lower part of
the abdomen.  They only lived six days ; the strongest of  the two
  Sept.  1838.—-B             29 
314         CURIOSITIES OF MEDICAL EXPERIENCE.
died first, and was followed by his companion three hours after.
Haller records upwards  of thirty cases of a  similar nature ; and
various skeletons of this description are to be seen in our museums.
Munster saw two girls  united by the forehead.   They1 had then
attained  their tenth year, when  one of  them  died.  It therefore
became indispensable to separate them, but the unfortunate creature
did not survive the operation.   Daubenton describes two children
united at the back of the  head.
  Such miserable junctions naturally suggested the idea of effecting
a separation by surgical means ; but I believe this operation was
only  once  performed  with a successful result.  Two  little girls
were  united  from the xiphoid  cartilage to  the  umbilicus.  The
uniting substance was an  inch in thickness, six lines in breadth, and
five inches  in circumference.  In the centre of the junction was the
umbilical ring common to both.   The umbilical vessels were separa-
ted and  tied ; the ligature fell at the expiration of nine days ; and
then  Zwingler,  the operator, proceeded to  divide the remaining
bonds.
  Various monsters have been seen with four arms and three legs,
or four legs and  two  or  three arms.  The history of the double-
headed infant of Oxford is curious.   This creature had two heads
diametrically opposite, four arms, one body, and two lower extre-
mities.  These heads  were doubly baptised ;  one by the name of
Martha, and the other Mary.  The features were different; Mary's
was  smiling, Martha's dejected.  The latter died  two days after
her birth, and Mary expired a quarter of an hour after.
  A curious monster of a similar description  is recorded to have
lived  at the court of Jame IV. of Scotland.   It  had been  taught
several languages, and music.  One head was intelligent, the other
remarkably stupid.  This creature lived twenty-eight years, when
one of the  individuals died.  The other  survived  several days, but
gradually drooped as the  body of his late companion was decom-
posing.  In olden writers we have  many curious cases.  How far
they may be entitled to credit I cannot  say ; although we have no
reason to deny the fact, when we  daily witness the most singular
malconformations.  Liceti relates the case of a child with two legs,
but  seven  heads  and seven arms.   Bartholinus  mentions one
with  three heads, each of which uttered  the most horrible  cries,
and then expired.
  While these unfortunates were visited with several heads, instances
have been known of heads that had attained a most enormous volume.
In Tunis, there was a Moor of thirty years of age, whose head was
so large,  that crowds followed him in the streets ; and his  mouth
was of such a capacity, that he could devour a large melon as easily
as an apple.  This man was an idiot.  At Lucca, Benvenpti saw a
lad, otherwise well-proportioned, whose head  at  the age of seven
began to increase so  rapidly, that when he  was  twenty-seven it
measured thirty-seven inches eight lines  in circumference, and  his
face was  fifteen inches long. 
MONSTERS.
315
  Singular monstruosities have been seen, where heads and bodies
seemed  actually to be growing from  or  hanging to individuals.
Winslow knew an Italian child, of eight years of age, who carried
a little head under the third left rib, and peeping out as if the body
of the one had  been concealed in that of the  other.  Both  heads
had been christened ; the one James, the other Matthew.  When
the ear of little Matthew  was  pinched, his  host James forthwith
began to roar.   The Bengal child, whose case is related by Valentin
and Home, is equally singular.   Here one head was placed  above
the other, the superior one nearly as well conformed as the lower.
both adhered intimately.   The upper face assumed somewhat of an
oblique  direction.   Each head  had its distinct  brain :  sometimes
one head was fast asleep while his neighbour was wide awake, and
one head  would cry most piteously if you  pulled the hair of the
other; but, what  was still more singular, when the one was fed, its
companion expressed its  gratification, and  water flowed from its
mouth.   This monster  lived four  years, and  probably would have
lived much longer, but for the bite of a venomous reptile.
   In a former paper I  alluded  to  encephalous and aneiicephalous
cases, where there were either no heads or heads  without  brains.
Of the  first variety Beclard relates the following : A woman at
Angers was delivered of twins, one of  which not only was without
a head,  but  only  showed  the inferior  part of the body ; without
arms, a small stump-like excrescence growing  from  the  upper part
of the chest; the  feet were turned inwards, and without toes.   The
creature was of  the male sex.   The  body presented  one  cavity
without any diaphragm ;  nor could  any trace  of  liver,  spleen,
oesophagus, or stomach be detected : the intestinal tube commenced
at the upper part  of the body, but was impervious; the pancreas and
kidneys were as usual ; the umbilical vein arose from the cava, and
the umbilical arteries from the hypogastrics.   There  were ten ribs
on each side, and the spinal marrow threw out its regular nerves.
   Brunei has recorded the case of a  male infant born without brains.
The frontal  bone  was  thrown  back, and flattened on the sphenoid
in such a  manner  that the eyes  appeared  above his head.   The
parietal and the squamous portion  of  the temporal were wanting,
although the organ of hearing was well conformed.   Not a vestige
of brain could be discovered ; yet the carotid and vertebral  arteries
crossed the basis  of the cranium.   The spinal  marrow arose from
the  fourth cervical vertebra.  The organs  of sight were  perfect.
Saviard describes an infant in which all the bones of the cranium
were wanting, and, instead of a brain, the  skin merely cohered a
cyst, containing  a  red pulpy substance resembling brain, whente
arose several nerves.
   It is, no doubt, to these malconformations  that we are to attribute
the various stories of children with heads of monkeys, goats, pigs,
&c. or of that child whose face represented the devil, and who was
described as " Cacodaemonis picturae quam humanae figurae similius,"
&c.   The idle tales of Cyclopes are also to  be sought in such accU 
316         CURIOSITIES OF MEDICAL EXPERIENCE.
dental preternatural appearances, and several instances are recorded
of children born with a  single eye in  the  forehead.  It would  be
useless to dwell longer on this painful subject.   Those who wish
for more information  may gratify their curiosity by consulting the
works of Haller, Soemmering, and other writers, who have treated
this matter exprofesso.
  In conclusion, it appears  to  me that monstruosities  are purely
accidental, subject to  no laws of nature, but deviations from them.
We leave to theologasters the question of their being visitations of
divine wrath.   The only theories  that can admit of  discussion are
the following : 1st, The imagination of the mother ; 2d, Accidental
causes;  and 3d, An  original monstrous germ.  Maternal marks,
arising  from longings  and  terror, as I have  already observed,
seemed to warrant the first conclusion ; yet it is not tenable.  What
has imagination to do with the  vegetable kingdom, which also pre-
sents  monstrous  conformations ?   Are we  to attribute the  same
power of imagination to the  brute creation ? and although we may
fully admit the sympathy that  exists  between the  uterine system
and external objects, yet we cannot refer headless and double and
triple embryos  to this influence.  The last hypothesis is also fraught
with objections.  We have every reason to believe that all  germs
or seeds are perfect in themselves.  Were  there monstrous germs
there  would ensue monstrous races.  That germs may be accident-
ally vitiated and impaired, there can be no doubt; but such an ad-
ventitious occurrence  does not  constitute an original  monstruosity.
Duverney and  Winslovv maintained that, in the  case of a double
monster, the  monstruosity arose in the primitive germ.   Lemery
and other physiologists, on the contrary, insisted that double foetuses
arise,  as  I have already stated,  from a junction or  fusion  between
two separate bodies, or, in short, the union  of twins or triple con-
ceptions, &c.   Anatomical investigations confirmed this  opinion,
since  in double-headed foetuses two distinct sets of organs are gen-
erally found.
  This subject has occupied the  most ingenious philosophers  for
centuries ; and  the result of their experiments and debates seems to
warrant the probability of these melancholy deviations from nature,
foolishly denominated lusi naturae, being purely accidental.  The
experiments of Jacobi seem  to confirm  this opinion, since he was
able to produce preternatural fecundation in the eggs of fishes.
  This investigation may appear idle ; yet, in  a physiological point
of view, it is fraught with interest as  regarding the generation of
animals and  plants.   Its study affords a lively illustration of those
laws of  attraction and  repulsion  that regulate the  universe, and
which seem to admit that every particle of matter should be endowed
with a specific  vitality, a specific individuality.  This attraction is
daily  seen in the fecundation of the spawn of a fish.  Myriads of
these  eggs are  accumulated  in  ponds and rivers  ; yet in this mass
the fecundating principle  solely selects and  impregnates those that
naturally claim its vivifying powers.   Wonderful  harmony, that 
LONGEVITY.
317
man alone endeavours to destroy !—harmony so perfect, that Aris-
toxenus and Alcmaeon maintained  that it was an emanation of the
diapason of celestial music between the planets, our globe, and  our
five senses, forming a  diatonic series of seven tones ;  while Hippo-
crates justly denominated  these organic laws the confluxus unus,
CONSPIRATIO UNICA, CONSENTIENTIA OMNIA.
                       LONGEVITY.

  The  greater the complexity of a piece of machinery, and the
more labour it is called upon to perform, the more rapid will be its
wear and tear.  This applies to human life as well as to mechanism
The derangement  of its  component parts—its springs and wheels
will also be in the ratio  of their complication.   Thus  do we find
that the brute creation are less subject to those affections that abridge
their days than mankind.  Their life is natural, except when under
the sway of domestication : ours is artificial;  and high civilisation
tends to render it still more  unnatural than it would most probably
have been in a simple and patriarchal existence.  Endowed with
more acuteness of sensibility than animals, we are rendered more
susceptible of the extremes of pleasure and of pain ; and our volup-
tuous enjoyments are perhaps  more prejudicial than our sufferings.
Had not the Creator wisely granted us the faculty of reasoning, we
should have been the most wretched of all organised beings.
  The tenure of  life depends  upon the  sum  of  vitality originally
deposited, and the extent of  our drafts upon  this capital, which we
too frequently [exhaust  by  untimely expenses.  Experience  has
proved that, under  ordinary  circumstances, man can  live  six or
seven times longer than the years required to attain puberty.  This
epoch  is placed at our fourteenth  year.  This  calculation  would
therefore  yield from 84 to  98 years  of age.  Our  own impru-
dences, and the disorders resulting from them, are more hostile in
abridging this period than nature, all-wise and all bountiful.  In-
deed, when we reflect on all  the excesses to  which we expose our
frail and complicated being, as if we were resolved to try by every
possible experiment how far it possesses the power of  resisting de-
structive agents, we can only marvel in beholding so many instances
of longevity.   In this wasteful existence how many valuable hours
do we not lose ? how many real enjoyments have we  not deprived
ourselves  of?  When  compared to the  immensity of time, life is
but an idle span.   Let  us deduct even from  old age the years of
infancy, the years of caducity, and the years of sleep,—alas ! what
remaineth of our  manly and our  energetic days?   Maupertuis cal-
culated that in an ordinary life man could scarcely enjoy more than
three years of happiness, mixed up with sixty or  eighty years of 
318          CURIOSITIES OF MEDICAL EXPERIENCE.
misery or insipidity ;  and yet how miserable are we at the thought
of quitting this short-leased tenement, though every wretchedness
renders our abode'a constant scene of  uneasiness.  It has been cal-
culated that out of about nine  hundred  millions of human beings ■
that are scattered  over the  globe, it is more than probable that we
could not find nine thousand individuals  blessed  with  happiness,
even taking happiness in its most limited  sense—content.  Were
it not for the  terrors of futurity, it is more than possible that our ex-
istence would lose much of its value.   Socrates termed philosophy
" the preparation  for death ;" the same may be said  of our existence.
   Happily for man, life is a dream, all is illusion ; sufferings alone
are positive;  Pandora's box is  its best illustration.   Could we have
slept away our existence in  constant visions, we should  have lived
as long as in a waking state.   When we contemplate the flocks of
human beings scattered like cattle on  the face of the universe, with
scarcely  more intellect than beasts of the  same field, we  might ask
for what they were created? doomed to all the horrors of sickness
or of war, victims of  their own follies or the ambitious  projects of
others !   As far as regards this life, it is worse  than idle to  seek  a
solution  of the problem.  In these inquiries we too often seek to
guess that which we  can never  know, or to know that which we
can never guess!   We all complain and murmur like the woodman
in the fable, yet are loath to accept the relief we loudly call for.
   The longevity  of the first races, and the patriarchs, are records
foreign to the investigations of  natural  history ; we must seek for
more recent  examples.  Haller  had collected the  records of many
centenaries, amounting to sixt)^-two who  had reached from  100 to
 129; twenty-nine from 120 to 130;  and fifteen from 130 to 140.
 Few instances are authenticated beyond  this period: yet we find
 one Eccleston, who lived 143  years;  John Effingham, who attained
his 144th ; a Norwegian, who counted a century and a half; and our
 Thomas Parr would  most probably have  passed his 152d year but
 for an excess.  Henry Jenkins lived to 169 ; and we have on record
 the case of a Negress, aged 175.  The Hungarian family of John
 Rovin were  remarkable for their longevity: the father lived to 172,
 the wife to 164; they had been married 142 years, and their youngest
  child was 115 , and such was the influence of habit and filial affection,
 that this child was treated with all the severity of paternal rigidity,
  and did not  dare to act without his papa's and mama's permission.
   By the calculations of Sussmilch, out of one thousand individuals,
  only one attained 97; and not  more than one lived to the age  of
  100, out of one  hundred  and  fourteen thousand.  In the census  of
  Italy taken  under Vespasian, there were  found fifty-four of 100,
  fifty-seven of a 110,  two of 125, four of 130, and three of 140.   In
  China, under Kien Long, in 1784, there were only four individuals
  who had attained  their 100th  year.  According to Larrey, there
  were at Cairo thirty-five persons who had exceeded their century.
  In Russia, in 1814, out of  eight hundred and  ninety-one thousand
  six hundred and fifty deaths, were three thousand five hundred and 
LONGEVITY.
319
thirty-one from 100 to 132.   In a register of deaths in Paris, taken
in 1817, there were found in  twenty-one thousand three hundred
and ninety-two, nine from 95 to 100, and the general  proportion of
centenaries in that city is one to three thousand.
  What are the circumstances most favourable to longevity?  This
question is not easily answered ; for we find in instances of advanced
age that some individuals have led  a  most regular and  abstemious
life, while others have indulged in various excesses.   These obser-
vations, however, are by no means calculated  to form a conclusive
opinion, as the constitutional vigour and peculiar idiosyncrasies of
individuals  differ widely.  It is probable that  a  regular mode of
living is most likely to  prolong our  years, whatever may  be that
regularity  in  a  comparative point of view.  A sober man,  who
commits occasional  excesses, is  more likely to suffer  than another
man who gets drunk every night, provided that these  excesses do
not differ  in regard  to  the  quantity and  quality of  stimulus.   In,
these melancholy instances the excitement is  constant,  and  the in-
direct debility which  it may produce  has  scarcely time to break
down the system ere it is again wound  up to its usual pitch, to use
the vulgar expression, "by a hair of the same hound."   The prin-
cipal  attribute of life that  renovates for awhile its  moraj  and its
physical exhaustion  is excitability, and a constant excitement is
therefore  indispensable, to serve as fuel to  the  consuming  fire.
This  was to a certain degree the basis on  which Brown founded
his doctrine.  He traced a scale of life  like that of a  thermometer,
—health in the centre, death at each extremity : one scale ascending
from  health was graduated  according  to stimulating agency,  the
other to debilitating  causes; and  therefore the system was to be
stimulated  or lowered according  to  this gradation.  It would be
foreign to  this  work to point out the absurdity of this  theory,
although we must admit its ingenuity, and to a certain extent its
correctness."  The chief  practical objection to  it was the diversity
of constitutions and idiosyncrasies, and  the different action of stimu-
lating or depressing agents in health  and in disease;  the effects of
alimentary and medicinal substances being totally different in these
several conditions.
   According to habit, a certain sum of stimulus is requisite to keep
up the  necessary excitement;  and  this  sum cannot be immediately
and suddenly withdrawn in weak  subjects without  some risk; in
health, perhaps,  the experiment may be safely made at all times,
and under any circumstances, although  it might be wiser to operate
the change  by degrees;  and it must moreover be recollected,  that
an habitual drunkard is in a morbid condition, and must be treated
accordingly.
   Six causes chiefly exert their influence upon life:
   1.  Climate  and soil.  .
   2.  Difference of races.
   3.  Complexion and stature.
   4.  Period of  development during gestation, and of  subsequent
growth. 
 320         CURIOSITIES OF MEDICAL EXPERIENCE.

   5. Mode of living.
   6. Moral emotions, occupations.
   Climates that are moderately cold are more favourable to long
 life.  This observation applies to the vegetable kingdom; and trees
 that have scarcely attained their full  growth in northern regions are
 drooping in the south.  There also we find beasts and birds  resist-
 ing the inclemency of the weather  by the thickness  of their coats
 and plumage, or a layer of greese; while many animals burrow in
 the earth to seek a state of torpor and insensibility, until restored
 to active life by a more genial  temperature.   Dryness  of  soil is
 another source  of health and life; and the hardy mountaineer's ex-
 istence is seldom abridged by the diseases that visit the inhabitants
 of damp and swampy regions.  Sterile plains are more salubrious
 than regions covered  with  a rank and exuberant vegetation, or
 highly-cultivated grounds, from many obvious reasons.  The humid
 earth is not turned up, and decayed vegetable substances are not
 acted upon in a deleterious manner  by the solar heat.  When we
 consider the various causes of disease that must abound in crowded
 and corrupt cities, we might imagine that mortality would be much
 greater than  in the country; yet observation has not proved this
 difference to be as material as one might  expect, at least as regards
 disease, the sad effects of  poverty and starvation not being taken
 into account.   Various reasons may be  assigned  for this apparent
 anomaly.   In cities a more regular state  of excitement prevails,
 and man's constant occupations scarcely give  him time to attend to
slight ailments,  that, under other circumstances, might be aggravated.
Moreover, intermittent  fevers and visceral  affections  are  more
frequent in the  country; and cottagers are exposed to more constant
 damp and  severer revolutions in  the atmospheric constitution than
citizens.   The  mortality amongst men is greater in cities than in
women; the latter do not  enjoy so long a life  in  the country.
 March and April  have  been found  the most fatal months.   They
are periods of atmospheric transition from cold to a higher tempera-
ture, and must therefore prove  trying  to the weak and the aged.
The end of autumn is also deemed a sickly period;  and the equi-
noxes have ever  been considered critical, the solstices  much less
injurious.  In  Great Britain and  the  north-westerly regions  of
Europe, norrherly and easterly winds are more prevalent in March,
April, and May, owing, it is supposed to the currents established
to replace the warmer air, as it rises from the surface of the Atlantic
and more southerly countries.  These winds  are generally dry and
cold, followed  by fogs, and give rise to  catarrhs, bronchial and
pulmonary affections.   It is  calculated that in our climes pulmonary
affections carry off one-fifth  of the population, or 191 in 1000.
  In regard to  the variety of races, it has been observed that those
people who sooner attain pubescence are the shortest-lived.   Pre-
cocious excitement must bring  on  premature old age.  Negroes
seldom attain an advanced period  of  life ; and the progress of years
 is more rapidly descried in their features  and their  form than in 
LONGEVITY.                      321
Europeans  who  have migrated  to  their  clime.  The negroes of
Congo, Mozambique, and Zanguebar, seldom  reach  their fiftieth
year.  In  northern latitudes longevity is more frequent: this is
observed in Sweden, Russia, Poland, Norway.  Some writers have
looked  upon  the established  religion of a country as influencing
the duration of life; and Toaldo asserted that Christians are shorter-
lived than Jews.  To this observation it may be  remarked, that
Jews are in general a very sober, industrious, and  active race, cir-
cumstances that must materially tend to prolong their days.  More-
over, by their legislation they are very careful in choice of the meat
they consume.  In  Catholic countries fasting may be taken  into
calculation, not from the effects of abstemiousness, which would be
more favourable to health than  injurious, but the sudden return to
feasting  and gormandizing,  by way of revenge, when the fast is
over.  Shrove Tuesday and Easter  Sunday are noted  in red letters
in the gastronomic almanac ;  and the suppers that  follow the mid-
night masses of Christmas generally require the apothecary's aid on
the following morning.*
   In regard to conformation, very tall and spare subjects are seldom
long-lived  ; and  the same observation applies  to the stunted and
diminutive.  A well-set body, with a broad and deep  chest, a neck
not over-long, with well-formed and firm muscles, generally hold
forth a fair prospect of old age.
   Children born  before  the regular period of gestation, those who
have been  weaned too early, or given to nurses whose  milk was not
of a proper quality, are  seldom strong.  Too rapid a growth will
also  shorten the space of existence.
   Our avocations and pursuits materially affect  health and the con-
sequent duration  of life ; and the nature of the excitement man is
submitted to produces a remarkable effect.  It has been calculated
in France that one  hundred and fifty-two academicians, whose ag-
gregate years were ten thousand five hundred and eleven, averaged
sixty-nine  years  and two months.   The following calculation of
Madden will further illustrate this curious subject.

                 AGES  OF  GREAT  MEN.
NATURAL PHILOSOPHERS.
Bacon  .
Buffon
Copernicus
Cuvier
Davy
Kepler
Laplace
Leibnitz   .
Newton
Whiston  .
78	Euler .
. 81	Franklin .
70	Galileo .
. 64	Halley .
51	Herschel
. 60	Lalande
77	Lewenhoeck .
. 70	Linnaeus .
84	Tycho Brahe .
. 95	Wollaston .
76
85
78
86
84
75
91
72
55
62
  *The advocates of fasting have calculated that in one hundred and fifty-two
hermits who had lived eleven thousand five hundred and eighty-nine years, the
average age was seventy-three years and three months. 
CURIOSITIES OF MEDICAL EXPERIENCE.
POETS.
Ariosto  .
Byron
Collins  .
Cowper
Dryden  .
Gray
Milton  .
Pope
Spencer
Thomson
Bacon  .
Berkeley .
Condillac
Diderot
Fitche   .
Helvetius .
Hume  .
Kaimes
Malebranche
Stewart
Al fieri  .
Goethe
Marlow .
Racine
Shakspeare
Congreve .
Crebillon
Farquear .
B.Jonson
Moliere
Bentham
Butler
Erskine
Gifford
Hale   .
Littleton  .
Montesquieu
Romilly  .
Tenterden
Vatel
Cervantes
Scott
Smollett
Defoe
Richardson
Johnson  .
59	Burns .
. 37	Camoens .
56	Cowley .
. 69	Dante
70	Goldsmith
. 57	Metastasio
66	Petrarch
. 56	Shenstone .
46	Tasso .
. 48	Young
IL PHILOSOPHERS.	
65	Bayle .
. 79	Condorcet .
65	Descartes
. 71	Ferguson .
52	Hartley .
. 57	Hobbes
65	Kant
. 86	Locke
77	Reid
. 75	St. Lambert
DRAMATISTS.	
55	Corneille
. 82	Massinger
32	Otway .
. 60	Schiller .
52	Voltaire
. 59	Colman
89	Cumberland
. 30	Geldoni
63	De Vega
. 53	Murphey .
LAW	AND JURISPR1
85	Blackstone
. 83	Coke
73	Filangieri
. 48	Grotius
68	Holt .
. 75	Mansfield .
66	Redesdale
. 61	Rolle
78	Thurlow
. 53	Wilmot .
OUS AND NOVEL W	
70	Le Sage
. 62	Fielding .
51	Rabelais
. 70	Ratcliffe .
72	Sterne .
. 75	Addison .
 
LONGEVITY.
323
Warton
Tickell    .
Bathurst
Hawkesworth
78    Steele  .
54    Montaigne
84    Thornton
59    Hazlitt
59
60
44
58
AUTHORS ON REVEALED RELIGION.
Baxter .
J. Butler  .
Calvin .
Doddridge .
J. Knox
Luther
Melancthon
Porteus
Sherlock
Whitefield
76
60
56
54
67
63
64
77
67
56
Bellarmine
Bossuet
Chillingworth
G. Fox  .
Lowth  .
Massillon .
Paley   .
Priestley .
Wesley .
Wycliffe .
84
77
43
67
77
79
63
71
88
61
AUTHORS ON NATURAL RELIGION.
Annet
Cardan
Sir W. Drummond
N. Freret  .
Lord Herbert
St. Pierre  .
Tindal  .
Vannini
55
75
68
61
68
67
75
34
Bolingbroke
Chubb
Dupuis  .
Gibbon
Spinosa .
Shaftesbury
Toland  .
Volney
79
65
67
58
45
42
53
66
MEDICAL  AUTHORS.
J. Brown
Cullen
Fordyce
Gall .
Harvey  .
J. Hoffman
W. Hunter
M. Good  .
Pinel   .
Tissot
54
78
67
71
81
83
66
64
84
70
Corvisart
Darwin
Fothergill
J. Gregory
Heberden
Hunter
Jenner  .
Paracelsus
Sydenham
T.Willis .
66
72
69
48
92
65
75
43
66
54
PHILOLOGISTS.
Bentley  .
Casaubon .
Hartzheim
Heyne
Parr
Pighius
Raphelengius
J. J. Scaliger
H. Stephens
Vossius
Baudinelle
Canova
Flaxman
81
55
70
84
80
84
59
69
71
73
ARTISTS.
Burton .
Cheke
J. Harman
Lipsius
Pauw
Porson
Salmatius
Sigonius   .
Sylburgius
Wolfius
72    Bernini  .
65    DonatelloV
71    Gghiberti
64
44
77
60
61
50
66
60
51
64
82
83
64 
324

Giotto
San Sovino
A. Carracci
David  .
Raphael
Salvator Rosa
P. Veronese
Arne
Beethoven
Bull   .
Corelli
Greby  .
Haydn
Kerser .
Mozart
Piccini .
Scarlatti  '
CURIOSITIES  OF MEDICAL EXPERIENCE
. 60	M. Angelo
91	Verocchico
. 49	Claude
76	Guido .
. 37	Reynolds .
58	Titian .
. 56	West
MUSICAL	COMPOSERS.
68	Bach .
. 57	Burney
41	Cimarosa
. 60	Gluck
72	Handel .
. 77	Kalkbrenner
62	Martini .
. 36	Paesiello .
71	Porpore .
. 78	Weber
RESULT.	
96
56
82
67
69
96
82
66
88
41
75
75
51
78
75
78
40
  The result, then, that we derive from these tables is, that natural philosophers
have the longest lease  of existence, the united ages of  the twenty enumerated
being one thousand  five  hundred  and four years, which gives an average of
seventy-five for each.
  The results of the other classes, witiyespectto their united ages, and the average
each, are—
Moral philosophers  .
Sculptors and painters   .
Authors on law and jurisprudence
Medical authors   ....
Authors on revealedjreligion
Philologists  .."...
Musical composers
Novelists and Miscellaneous authors
Dramatists     ....
Authors on natural religion
Poets.....
united ages
	Average
1417	70
1412	70
1394	69
1368	68
1350	67
1323	66
1284	64
1257	62*
1249	62
1245	62
1144	57
  In this resume we find that poets are the shortest-lived ; next to
them, authors on  natural religion, dramatists, and  novelists.  May
not this circumstance be attributed to the fervor of their imagination
and to their unequal mode of living ?   A species of madness is the
attribute of genius.  Many authors on natural religion may come
under the denomination of monomaniacs.   The jealous irritability
of poets and dramatists,—and next to them in the scale of life we
find musicians,—may also contribute to wear them out, and bring on
various chronic diseases,by digestive derangements; more especially
as their habits of living are seldom regular, fits of sobriety alternating
with  bouts of  merry-making.   Moral philosophers,  painters, and
sculptors, whose average  life  appears  the longest, follow  more
sedentary pursuits ;  and, although artists in general  cannot boast of
much discretion in  their mode of living, the nature of their pro- 
LONGEVITY.
325
fession requires much steadiness.   It [is moreover to be observed
that, in  the preceding calculation, historical painters have chiefly
been  noticed.  Would  the same  calculation  apply to  the lighter
branches of the  art ?  It has been observed that actors generally
attain old age, notwithstanding the fatiguing and harassing nature
of their profession.  This may be  attributed to the constant excite-
ment of  a similar  nature to  which  they are subject, as well as to
their continued exposure to the sudden transitions from heat to cold,
which renders them  less susceptible of the variations of temperature
that effect those who can avoid these vicissitudes.   Any person who
would expose himself to  the constant checked perspirations to which
dancers are liable, would infallibly pay dear for the experiment;
and those who have  had  occasion  to  witness the fatigues of their
exercises, marvel at  their not being constantly attacked with pul-
monary inflammation, and the many maladies that result from similar
exposures.  On the very same principle, troops when engaged upon
active service do not suffer from the  inclemencies of the weather,
although saturated with wet by day, and sleeping under torrents of
rain by night.   So  long as they are marching with an object in
view, this excitement supports them, even  against hunger ; but the
moment this excitement ceases, let them halt, in tranquil canton-
ments, or commence a  retreat under unfavourable  circumstances,
that moment the invasion of disease is observed.   The chief source
of  health and long  life  is an equilibrious  state of the circulation.
This  condition  a  moderate  mental  excitement tends to maintain.
Depression, on the  contrary, will produce a languid flow of the vital
stream, congestion, and chronic diseases.
  On the same principle, good temper and  hilarity are also neces-
sary to prolong life.   Violent passions must tend to occasion dan-
gerous determinations, while the inward  gnawings of offended vanity
and pride corrode  every viscus, and lay the seeds  of future mental
and bodily sufferings.  Apathy and insensibility are, unfortunately,
the best sources of peace of mind, and, as Fontenelle observed, a good
stomach and a bad heart are essential to happiness.   Perhaps the best
maxim to prolong  our days, and render them as tolerable as possible,
is the " Bene viveri  et lastari."
  I have just observed that conformation materially affects  our  ex-
istence ; and this circumstance may in a great measure  be referred
to temper, and the wear  and tear that it occasions in  ill-conditioned
individuals.  Little people seldom attain the longevity of stronger
individuals ;  and it is also a well known fact that diminutive persons
are generally spiteful and malicious.   As Providence has bestowed
destructive venoms on reptiles, so  has it gifted these  insignificant
members of society  with obnoxious qualities, to  make  amends for
their want of physical power  in the strategies of attack and defence.
The same observation holds good with the deformed ; but here we
have a moral cause for this sourness  of  disposition.  They too fre-
quently are objects  of ridicule, contempt,  or pity, sentiments  the
most humiliating to mankind.   In  childhood they are  not'able to
  Sept., 1838.—C             30 
326         CURIOSITIES OF MEDICAL EXPERIENCE.
partake of the boisterous and active sports of their  companions;
the)r have not the power to resent an injury, and the more powerless
we are, the greater is our thirst of revenge.  Hence does tyranny
degrade,  and renders its victims, cruel and  vindictive.   The  de-
formed, moreover, find it  necessary to improve their intellectual
faculties, which in aftertimes fill their  quivers with keen shafts of
retaliation.  In this study they also have more  leisure, and they
apply to their books while their comrades are at  play.   This very
study adds to their  sense  of inferiority ;  they can never hope to
share the warrior's laurels, or, what is perhaps still more painful,
the myrtle of successful love.   Their only chance of success in either
of these careers is by kindling wars by their intrigues, or winning
a woman's heart by intellectual superiority,—two very improbable
events.  Thus they gradually envy men who are  looked upon by
the world as their  superiors, and  hate women for the  preference
they show to those privileged individuals.  In general we find these
ill-shaped beings bitterly  sarcastic whenever woman's name is
mentioned.   Pope,  perhaps from these very reasons, was inexhaus-
tible in his abuse of the sex ; and Boileau abhorred them, since he
had been emasculated by a turkey-cock.
   The intellectual superiority of hunchbacks has also been attributed
to their  physical condition ; and it is  generally  believed that  the
circulation of blood  in the brain  is more  rapid  than  in well-con*
formed subjects, and this increased action  is supposed to  contribute
materially to the vivacity  of the imagination, and the quickness of
apprehension.  Another circumstance is said to increase their men-
tal powers,  and  that is, their continence, considered both  by the
ancients  and the moderns as a source of intellectual energies.  Min-
erva and the Muses were  virgins ; and in this and  other fabulous
traditions, we find the ancients illustrating in their mythologic alle-
gories many physical facts and observations.   Our Bacon had made
the same remark ;  and Newton, and  many other great  men, con-
sidered the  passion  of love beneath the dignity  of science.  Con-
tinence  and abstinence were deemed  by Horace as  indispensable
privations in the cultivation of genius.  In the deformed both are
to a certain  degree  natural, or at least cannot be lost sight of without
endangering life.  The digestive powers of the deformed are gene-
rally weak  ; and this debility  has ever  been  looked  upon as a
concomitant of  superior intellects.   Thus in  Celsus, " Imbecilli
stomacho pene  omnes cupidi  litterarum sunt;" while  on the
contrary, "  Obesus venter  non par it subtilem intellectum."
   The common expression of a child being too clever to  live, is un-
fortunately  founded on observation.  Scrofulous and sickly children
are in general remarkable  for the quickness of their intellects ;  and
Rousseau maintained that a man who could meditate was  a depraved
animal.   It is a fact that the perfection of one faculty can seldom be
attained  but at the expense of others.   The more our faculties are
generally called  into action, the less perfect will they be individually ;
—" Pluribus intentus minor est ad singula."  Thus, the singing
of birds  is improved by depriving them of sight. 
LONGEVITY.
327
  The influence of the mind upon  our health is as evident as the
influence of our health in the duration of existence.   This corollary
explains the shortness of life of the  diminutive and the deformed
unconnected with such physical defects of organisation as might
impede the due exercise of their organs.
  The fable of Prometheus is a strong illustration of the pernicious
effects of intemperance ; and by Darwin, and other  physiologists,
has been considered as comparing the celestial fire thathe purloined
to the artificial inspirations of excitement that ultimately preys upon
the liver and the other viscera  like a voracious vulture.  A much
deeper philosophy is concealed in this theogenic allegory.   Prome-
theus was the son  of Japetus ; brother to  Atlas, Menoetius,  and
Epimetheus, who all surpassed mankind in fraud and in guilt.   Pro-
metheus himself scoffed the gods, and violated their shrine.   Heaven
and earth had  formed his father, who had united his destinies with
Clymene, one  of the Oceanides.   Thus Prometheus  and  Epime-
theus arose from the very cradle of the universe; and their very names,
Promandanein and Epimandanein, signify foresight and improvi-
dence,—praediscere et postea discere,—the prevalent characteristics
of all mortals  who either tend to promote or retard the progress of
human reason  and human happiness.  Prometheus strove impiously
to possess himself of Divine knowledge, and created man with a
base amalgam  of earth  and the bones  of animals, vivified by the
celestial fire he had obtained.  Jupiter, indignant  at  his audacity,
commanded vulcan  to  create  a beauteous tempter in the form of
woman, on  whom every attractive gift might  be  conferred ;  and
Pandora was sent upon earth with the fatal present of the father of
the Gods,—the box that contained all the evils  and distempers that
were destined for mankind.   The foresight of  Prometheus resisted
her charms ; his improvident  brother opened  the  dreaded casket.
Have we not here an illustration of the vanity of science, that aims
even at Divine attributes, and whose  votaries, like  Prometheus,
would endeavour, if possible, to deprive wisdom of  her power, and
break down the boundaries of human intellects ?   His punishment
describes in energetic language the endless and consuming sudies of
the  learned, whose  very viscera are  corroded  in lucubrations too
often  fruitless, and  not unfrequently injurious to  themselves and
others.  Hercules alone could relieve him from his  torments :—and
does not Hercules in this  allegory typify the power of reason, that
enables us to release the mind from the trammels both of ignorance
and vanity, separated from each other by a  gossamer partition !
Prometheus, who could resist the most powerful of temptations,—
beauty and  talent combined,—dared  Olympus to seek for that wis-
dom which would have doomed him to everlasting sufferings, had
not strength of mind and the powers of reflection destroyed his
merciless  tormentor.   Can  we  be  surprised that  the  ancients
consecrated games to this  beautiful allegory ?—games that are still
carried on  in  our days;  but, alas !  where every  vain competitor
pretends that he has reached the goal with an unextinguished torch ! 
328
CURIOSITIES OF MEDICAL EXPERIENCE.
                       CRETINISM.

  This singular disorder was first discovered and noticed by Plater,
about the middle of the seventeenth century, among the poor inhab-
itants of Carinthia and  the  Valais, where,  as in the valleys of the
Lower Alps and  the Pyrenees, it  is also found to be an endemic
affection.  According to Sir George Staunton, it is also observed in
Chinese Tartary.  It has been  erroneously confounded by some
writers with bronchocele and  rachitis, from both of which  it is to-
tally distinct.
  Cretinism presents various  modifications in  kind, and every in-
termediate grade between that extreme degree of physical and men-
tal debasement which is characterised by  the utmost deformity, and
entire absence of  mental manifestation, the organic and vegetative
functions only being performed.  There are certain circumstances
that distinguish cretins from idiots ; and their infirmities appear to
depend upon  endemic  or  local causes, regarding  which much
diversity of opinion has prevailed  both  amongst medical men and
travellers.
  The cretins were also called Cagots  and Capots.  In Navarre
these unfortunates go by the name of Gaffos and Ganets ; and in
various valleys of the Pyrenees they are called Gizits or Gezitains.
Near La Rochelle some of  them are also found, and  there they are
known by the appellation of  Coliberts; and  in Britanny  Cacons
and Cagneux.  The derivation of these names shows the contempt
and disgust that they excited,—Cagot, according to Scaliger, being
derived from Canis Gottus, or Dog of a Goth ; Colibert is traced
to quasi libertus, or slave.  The Spaniards call them Gavachos, a
term of reproach, which they also applied to the French during the
Peninsular struggle.
  The body of these poor creatures is stunted,  their  height not ex-
ceeding four feet.   There is a  total want of due proportion between
it and the other parts, the height of the head with reference to the
body being from  one-fourth to one-fifth, instead of one-eighth, the
natural proportion; the neck is  strong, and bent downwards; the
upper limbs reach below the knees, and  the arm is shorter than the
fore-arm; the chest narrow, the abdomen  hemispherical, and  of  a
length not exceeding the height of the  head;  the thighs, with the
haunches, of greater width than the shoulders,  and shorter  than
the legs, the calves of  which are wanting; the feet and toes dis-
torted. In the  head, the  masticating organs, the lower jaw, and
the nose, preponderate  considerably over the  organs of sense and
intelligence ; the  skull is  depressed, and forms a lengthened and
angular ellipses;  the receding  forehead presents internally large
frontal sinuses, to which the brain has yielded part of its place; the
top of the head  is flattened, instead of being vaulted; the occiput
projects but slightly, and  runs  almost even with the nape of the 
CRETINISM.
329
neck, as in ruminating animals.  The face is neither oval nor round,
but spread out in width; the eyes are far apart, slightly diverging,
small, and deep-seated in their orbits; the pupil contracted, and not
very sensitive to light; the eyelids, except when morbidly swollen,
are flaccid and  pendent.   Their look  is an unmeaning  stare, and
turns with indifference from everything that is not  eatable.  The
elongated form of the  lower jaw, the thick and  padded  lips,
give them a greater  resemblance to ruminating creatures than to
man.   The  tongue is rather cylindrical  than flat, and the saliva is
constantly running from' the angles of their mouth.   Enlargement
of the thyroid glands  generally prevails, sometimes to an enormous
extent.   Indeed, this  appearance is commonly considered as a dis-
tinguishing sign of cretinism.   The other glands of  the throat are
also obstructed.   Many of these  poor wretches are both deaf and
dumb; yet do they appear unconscious of their  miserable existence.
Stretched out or gathered up under the solar rays, their head droop-
ing in idiotic apathy,  they are only roused from their torpor when
food is presented to them.
   This endemic malady is supposed to arise from the use of snow-
water, or of water impregnated with calcareous  earth.   Both  of
these opinions  are  without foundation.  All  the inhabitants  of
districts near the glacier  drink snow and ice waters without being
subject to the  disorder; and  the common waters of Switzerland,
strongly impregnated with calcareous substances are most saluhrious.
At Berne the waters are  extremely pure, yet Haller observed that
swellings of the  throat  are  not uncommon.   De   Saussure  has
assigned  another  cause,  and refers the disorder  to  the physical
features of the  mountainous districts in  which it prevails.  The
valleys, he  tells us,  are  surrounded with  very  high mountains,
sheltered from currents of fresh air, and exposed to the direct, and,
what is worse, the reflected rays of the sun.  They are marshy,
and hence the atmosphere is humid, close, and  oppressive.   When
to these chorographical causes, he farther says, we add the domestic
ones, which are also well known to prevail among the poor of these
regions,—such  as innutricious  food, indolence, and  uncleanliness,
with a predisposition to the disease from  an hereditary taint of many
generations,—we  can sufficiently account  for  the prevalence  of
cretinism  in such places, and for the most humiliating characters it
is ever found to assume.
   This specious reasoning, however, is overthrown by observation,
In the first instance, this character of the country croes not affect its
other inhabitants; and secondly,the goitre is found in warm latitudes,
and Mungo  Park observed it amongst the Africans of Bambara, on
the banks of the  Niger.   Marsden  has also seen it at Sumatra..
Moreover, this affection is scarcely ever seen in the mountains, but
principally prevails in the valleys.
   It is more than probable that  these ill-favoured  creatures belong
to a particular race;  for we must take  care  not to confound goitre
with cretinism, since goitre is common where cretinism is prevalent.
                              30* 
330          CURIOSITIES OF MEDICAL EXPERIENCE.
It has been remarked that the offspring of the natives of the Valais
who intermarry with persons from the Italian side of  the Alps, are
more subject to goitres than those born of native parents ; and that
females who have  husbands from  the  higher  Alps, seldom have
children affected with this infirmity.   It is pretty clear that in these
observations goitre and cretinism are confounded.
  That these miserable  cagots belong to a particular race of men,
most probably accidentally degraded in their  transmission from our
primitive stock, appears most likely.  We have sought the  deriva-
tion of the several terms of contempt and disgust attached to them
in different countries, to which migration may have led their parents.
Some writers have  traced their  descent to the  Goths and Vandals,
thus chastised  for   their  devastations.   Gebelin, Belleforet,  and
Ramont consider them as descendants of  the  Visigoths;  while
Marca, Bishop  of Couserans, denounces them at once as  Jews  and
Saracens; and other clerical writers have maintained that they are
the miserable relics of the heretic Albigenses who had escaped the
holy massacres of 1215 ; although their did exist  cagots in the year
1000, in the Abbey of St. Luc, as they are described in a for of
Navarre, bearing date 1074, and issued by Ramirez.
  These helpless beings have also been  considered as the offspring
of Bohemians and   gipsies.  Bishop, or  rather Senator  Gregoire,
maintained that they sprung from the hordes of nothern  barbarians
who overran the south of Europe in the third and fourth centuries.
Whatever might have  been the origin of these  poor creatures, they
seem to share that ignominious destiny that has marked  various
races in different countries.  The Agotos of Navarre, the  Mara-
gotos of Leon, the Batuecos of Castile, the Wendes  of Silesia, are
all  held in as much contempt as  the  Parias  and  the Vaddahs of
India.  Even in Otaheite a degraded caste was found, from which
victims were selected to appease Divine wrath, or propitiate their
gods.
   The traditional contempt in which certain races are held, a  con-
tempt that seems to have affected  their physical appearance, may
perhaps be traced to the degradation of slavery, that  seems to de-
prive  man of all his proud attributes, both in a moral and physical
point  of view.   The  effects of tyranny, and the distinctions that
oppression  has created in  the several castes  and ranks of mankind,
 and everywhere evident.  What a difference exists  in Scotland be-
tween  the chieftains and the humbler individuals of their clans !—
between the naires of India and  their vassals !  In France, said
Buffon, you may distinguish by their aspect, not  only the  nobility
from the peasantry, but the superior order of nobility from the in-
ferior, these from the citizens, and citizens from  the peasants.' " The
field-slaves in America," observes the enlightened Dr. Smith, " are
badly clothed, fed, and lodged, live in small  huts in  the plantations,
 remote from the example and society of their superiors.   Living by
 themselves, they retain many of the customs  and the  manners of
 their ancestors.  The domestic servants, on the other hand, who are 
TEMPERAMENTS.
331
kept near the persons or employed in the families of their masters,
are treated with great lenity, their  service is  light, they are well
fed and clothed.  The field-slaves, in consequence of their condition,
are slow in changing the  aspect  and figure of Africa ; while the
domestic servants had  advanced far  before them  in  acquiring the
agreeable and regular features, and the expressive countenance, of
civilised society.   The former are frequently ill-shaped ; they pre-
serve in a great degree the African  lips, and  nose, and hair ; their
genius is dull, and  their countenances sleepy and stupid.  The latter
are straight and well proportioned ;  their hair extends to  three  or
four, sometimes even to six or eight inches; the size of their mouth
is handsome, their features regular, their capacity good, and their looks
animated."  Dr. Prichard has also stated that similar changes become
visible in the third and fourth generations in the West India islands ;
and I have seen several negresses in  those colonies perfectly beau-
tiful.  In the Bahama islands I knew a female slave of the name of
Leah, belonging to my late friend Mr. Commissary Brookes, as black
as jet, and descended in the third generation from African parents,
whose features would  have vied in symmetry with the fairest spe-
cimen of the Caucasian race.
   Let us not, therefore, seek in snow-water or calcareous impregna-
tions for the causes of deformity and degradation in any unfortunate
castes of mankind.   Their misery may more probably be traced to
the iron rod of despotism, or the  oppression of bigotry,—influences
that mark out races as abject slaves, or objects of Divine wrath, that
ought to be scorned  by the wealthy  and the powerful, and spurned
and  persecuted by the faithful and the elect ; although, when it has
served its purposes, priestcraft has held up the cagot, and the leper,
and  the idiot, as objects of veneration.  When the tourist, in his
Alpine  and Pyrenean excursions, meets a wretched cagot, let him
pause and contemplate the offspring  of slavery, and reflect on what
man is, and on what man might be,—nay, on what man will be.
                    TEMPERAMENTS.

  The  different prevalent propensities in various individuals, the
development of which appeared to be under the influence of a cer-
tain  and constitutional organisation,  have received the  name  of
temperaments ; or, rather, this term applies  to this peculiar organi-
sation of the constitution or idiosyncrasy.  The Greek physiologists
were the first to classify these peculiarities, ox temperament a,-—the
naturae of Hippocrates, the mixturae of Galen.  They considered
organised bodies as an  assemblage of elements endowed with dif-
ferent properties, but combined  in  such manner that their union
should constitute a whole, in which none of them should predominate 
332         CURIOSITIES OF MEDICAL EXPERIENCE.
in a healthy condition ; but on the contrary, they were to modify
and temper each other, their simultaneous action being directed and
controlled by the spirit of life, spiritus.   It was the due combination
of  these elements that  constituted  a perfect temperament ;  their
aberrancy produced disease of body or of mind.
   The ancients divided these elements  into cold and  hot, dry and
moist;  from the combination of these principles they classified the
fluids of the body.  The  blood was  hot and moist, the bile hot and
dry, the phlegm cold and damp, and the melancholy cold  and dry.
This division led to a further classification ; and temperaments, ac-
cording to the predominance of these elements, were  divided  into
the sanguineous, the bilious, the phlegmatic, and the melancholic.
   These supposed radical fluids, influencing the whole animal frame,
were  dependent upon certain organs for their specific  production.
The blood was furnished by the heart, the phlegm  by the head, the yel-
low bile by  the gall-duct, and the  black bile or attrabile,—the  prin-
ciple of melancholy,—by the spleen.   Notwithstanding the  many
revolutions in the doctrines of physiology that have  shaken the
schools  since the days of Hippocrates, this classification of his has
prevailed  to a certain degree to the present day, and has laid the
foundation  of all  the systems  of temperaments, constitutions, and
natural  characters, that have at various  periods  been advanced by
philosophers ; the only novel introduction in this ancient classifica-
tion being the nervous  temperament, which, after all, is only  a
modification of the four other categories.
   To illustrate the operations of these temperaments, it became ne-
cessary  to adopt terms expressive  of their combination, and temper
and humour were adopted.  Both are Latin terms ; the first, in its
original sense, imports  mingling, modifying,  tempering the  four
radical fluids, and producing that equilibrious condition of the frame
termed  constitution.   Humour was  derived from  the Greek
chumos; and its radical  sense imported  moisure, or fluid of any
kind.  Hence humid and humidity.   This  doctrine of fluidity  is
still applied to many functions that we cannot otherwise describe,
and we  talk, although in a figurative  manner, of the  nervous  fluid,
the vital fluid ; and a good humour, a bad humour, a vein of humour,
or a humorous vein, are illustrations of peculiar  tempers and tempe-
raments,—for temperaments are still distinguished by the same terms
applied  to them by the ancients, and we describe one man as choleric,
or bilious, for choler  means bile; another as being  melancholic;
a third of a sanguine disposition ;  and a fourth of a phlegmatic
habit.  The sanguine, that imports a predominance of the blood,
indicated a warm and ardent  exuberance of spirits ; whereas the
phlegmatic, denoting a  thin and cold watery fluid  referred  to a
frigid and spiritless indolence.
   We thus see that modern physiology has scarcely advanced this
branch  of science, for  the nervous temperament may be  con-
sidered  as merely a modification of  the other ones ; and it is more
than probable that the old classification will  long  prevail, notwith- 
TEMPERAMENTS.
333
standing the ingenuity of modern hypotheses.  Husson divided the
temperaments into those that referred to the vascular system, to the
nervous  system,  and  to the muscular  system,  with subdivisions
applied to  regions  and to organs ;  all  these temperaments being
either natural and primitive, or acquired.  Dr. Thomas of Paris, has
founded  his arrangement according  to the predominance of the
head, chest, or abdomen,—or the mental, circulatory, or digestive
organs,—and  according to the relative  bulk and predominance of
these three regions  will be the  relative energy of the mental, mus-
cular, or abdominal functions.  Notwithstanding the ingenuity of
these systems, the old arrangement, as I have already observed, is
likely  to prevail ;  and as Blumenbach observes, that although this
division  was founded on an imaginary depravation of the elements
of the blood, if made to stand alone it would prove both natural and
intelligible.
   This division  I shall therefore endeavour to illustrate.  In the
sanguineous temperament the heart and arteries possess a predom-
inant energy ; the pulse is strong, frequent, and regular ;  the veins
blue,'full,and large; the complexion florid, the countenance animated,
the stature erect, the muscular forms marked and firm ; the hair of
a "yellow,  auburn,  or chestnut colour ;  the nervous impressions
acute, the perception quick, the memory retentive, the imagination
lively  and  luxuriant, the disposition  passionate  but not vindictive,
and passion is easily appeased ;  amorous, and fond of conviviality
and good cheer.
   In this temperament we find athletic  strength  and fortitude of
mind in resisting the power of external  agency, with mental tran-
quillity in the midst of danger ; a calmness arising from a conscious-
ness of power, and  from less acuteness of external impressions and
mental perceptions.  Such a  man, when roused  to action, will en-
deavour to surmount  every physical  difficulty ;  but  he will rarely
attain pre-eminence in sciences  and the fine arts, which require ex-
quisite sensibility and mobility,—qualities seldom  met  with in
such forms as those described by the  poets in Hercules and Ajax.
   In the choleric or bilious temperament the  liver and biliary or-
gans are as redundant in their power as the sanguineous vessels, and
for the most part, at the expense of the excernent or cellulous and
lymphatic system.   The pulse  is strong and hard,  but more fre-
quent than in the sanguineous ;  the veins superficial and projecting,
the sensibility extremely acute  and easily excited, with a  capacity
of pondering  for a long time on the same object.  The skin is sal-
low, with a tendency to a yellow tinge ; the hair black  or  dark
brown ;  the body moderately  fleshy, the  muscles firm  and well
marked,  the figure expressive ;  the temper of the mind abrupt, im-
petuous, and violent,—bold in the conception of a project, inflexible
in its pursuit, persevering  and  dauntless  in its  execution.  These
are the temperaments that have urged men both to noble and to ex-
ecrable deeds.   Such were Alexander, Brutus, Mahomet, Cromwell,
Charles the Twelfth, Robespierre, Napoleon.  All these celebrated 
334         CURIOSITIES OF MEDICAL EXPERIENCE.

characters evinced from their earliest youth the ambitious nature of
their dispositions ; and though circumstances might have checked
the development of their predominant passions, it was also to ad-
ventitious circumstances that they owed their  elevation, and the
opportunities of displaying their  good  or evil qualities.   Most of
these men were irascible, vindictive, and cruel, arid equally suscep-
tible of ardent love and mortal hate.   In these temperaments we
find a mixed exuberance of blood  and bile in a constant struggle for
predominance.
   The  melancholy or atrabilious temperament is of a different
character.  Here the biliary organs are brought into a constant and
a morbid action, while the sanguineous system is weak and irregular.
In these gloomy subjects the skin  assumes a sallow, unearthly tinge,
the pulse is hard and contracted, the digestive functions torpid and
irregular, the imagination is  gloomy and full of suspicion, and a
dark gloom   is  shed on all  around the  morbid sufferer, for such he
may be called,  since the  condition under which he labours may be
considered one  of disease.   These subjects  are prone to various
monomanias; uncertain, fickle, and oftentimes  capriciously cruel.
Tiberius and Louis the Eleventh are  quoted as examples of this
temperament.  Many melancholic individuals have displayed great
genius, and at the  same time great depth of thought.  Richerand
considers Tasso, Pascal, Zimmermann, and  Rousseau as illustrating
this unhappy disposition.
   The  fourth temperament is the phlegmatic, lymphatic pitui-
tous, or watery, for all these terms used by different physiologists
are synonymous.  Here the proportion of fluids is too considerable
for that of the solids; hence the body attains a considerable, unwhole-
some bulk. The muscles aresoft and flaccid,the skin fair and transpa-
rent, the hair flaxen or sandy, the pulse weak and slow, all the vital
actions are languid, the memory  little  tenacious, and the attention
wavering ; an  insurmountable  indolence prevails ; and  averse  to
mental  and  corporeal exercise, the far niente is their greatest en-
joyment, and a night cap is preferable to a diadem.  These subjects
are generally good, easy persons ; susceptible of kindly feelings, but
of a transient nature.  Their mind is generally depraved  by  effemi-
nacy, and their love  is purely animal.    They are not courageous;
yet they show great tranquillity of mind in moments of danger, and
would rather quietly sink  than struggle with the waves.  If their
dwelling was on  fire,  they would calmly walk out of it, but not
exert themselves to  put down the conflagration ;  and when hered-
itary power places them at the helm of a state, a wreck of the ves-
sel may be speedily expected, unless the sceptre  is wrested  from
their feeble hands  by the choleric or the atrabilious enthusiast.
   The fifth, or nervous temperament, as I have already stated, may
be considered of a complex nature, as it influences the sanguineous
as well as the choleric, the melancholy, and the phlegmatic.  In this
constitution the sentient system predominates,and thereexists a great
susceptibility to all external impressions. This temperament is gen- 
TEMPERAMENTS.
335
erally acquired, and  proceeds from  a sedentary life, too great an
enjoyment of sensual pleasures, and fanciful ideas brought on by
romantic readings and romantic thoughts indulged in hours of idle-
ness.  The determination of  such  individuals is prompt, but unde-
termined ; their affections, warm for a while, are selfish and fickle ;
their  sensations are vivid,  but leave  no impressions.  Women,
especially when educated in  boarding schools, essentially belong
to this class, and are  subject to hysterical and convulsive affections
that render them a plague to  others and a  nuisance to themselves.
In  man  the  muscles are small, flabby, and wasted.  The nervous
may possess much vivacity of conception, but no depth of judgment;
and, in  general, their  productions are as  morbid as their mind.
This  condition frequently attends the melancholy  temperament,
"that wings the soul and points her to the skies."
   Nervous excitability seldom prevails in the sanguineous constitu-
tion, where muscular masses are pronounced in athletic forms. Hence
the sanguineous are not easily brought into action ; but, when once
roused, their  energies  are irresistible.  This power is beautifully
described by  Virgil  in  the  conflict  between Entellus and Dares ;
still are these exertions governed by nervous influence, and the result
of the excitability and  contractibility of the muscular fibre, termed
by Chaussier its myotility.
   Mason Good has very justly observed that these temperaments,
or generic constitutions, are perpetually running into each other, and
consequently that  not  one of them, perhaps, is to be found  in a
state of full perfection in any individual; he further aids this remark
by the following illustration :  " Strictly  speaking, Mr.  Pitt  and
Mr. Fox belonged equally, in the main, to the second temperament;
there  was the same ardour, genius  and comprehensive judgment in
both, with a  considerable tendency to the sanguineous, and hence
with more irritability, but more self-confidence, audacity, and  san-
guine expectation >, the latter, while possessing the same general or
bilious temperament, was at  the same  time more strongly inclined
to the lymphatic, and hence his increased corporeal bulk, and with
less bold and ardent  expectation he possessed one of the sweetest
and most benevolent dispositions to be  met with in the history of
the world. The first was formed  to  be revered, the second to be
beloved ; both to be admired  and immortalised."
   I apprehend that a profound study of human temperaments and
propensities may afford a more  desirable guide in  the education of
youth, and the selection of men in the different concerns of life, than
that of eitherphysiognomy or phrenology ; although the temperament
must materially affect the general character of the countenance.  Yet,
from the  apparent prevalence of any temperament we are not to
form a rash and hasty judgment in regard  to the future capacities
or propensities of youth.  As one  temperament runs into another,
and assumes a complex form,  so can education regulate the one  that
naturally  predominates, and  modify it  by  a  fusion with another.
Thus, the restlessness of the bilious and choleric may be attuned to 
336          CURIOSITIES OF MEDICAL EXPERIENCE.

a phlegmatic state by the power  of  reason, and the brute courage
and audacity of the sanguineous checked by inspiring sentiments of
true  valour.   That  every temperament,  excepting  perhaps  the
phlegmatic, is  capable  of displaying a  bravery,  has  been  well
described by Joanna Baillie in the following lines :
            The brave man is not he  who feels no fear,
            For that were stupid and irrational;
            But he whose noble soul  its fear subdues,
            And bravely dares the danger nature shrinks from.
            As for your youth, whom blood and blows delight,
            Away with them !—there is not in their crew
            One valiant spirit.
                 SOLAR  INFLUENCE.

  While both ancient and modern physiologists were of opinion
that the various phenomena of organised bodies were influenced by
lunar phases, the  power  of the  solar rays  was not  less active in
regulating our functions both in  health and  in disease.  The name
of Phcebus signified the torch of life, and Apollo was the father of
medicine and the fine arts.   The sun was considered as a deity in
most countries, the Supreme Being,—the Father of Light, Diespiter,
—Jupiter Jehova, the creator of all living matter,—the residence of the
Most High—In soleposuit tabernaculum suum, said the Psalmist;
—and in Egypt three hundred and sixty-five priests were ordained
to watch its  heavenly movements during  the  year ;  while  many
philosophers  attributed the propagation of  the  human race to the
union of man  with the orb of  day.  The  disciples  of  Plato  and
Pythagoras considered it as possessing a soul ; and Origenus, in his
Periarchon, maintained that it displayed both virtues and vices,—an
heretical doctrine very properly condemned by the second Synod
of Constantinople ; and, although St. Augustin was of that opinion,
it was warmly combated by St. Basil, St. Ambrose, and many other
beatified divines.  Anaxagoras,  on  the  contrary, considered  this
luminary to be a  burning  stone ;  Plato  called  it a  compact fire ;
Aristotle maintained that it was  formed  of one-fifth of the elements
that constitute the planets ; Epicurus, a mass of lava, or ignited pu-
mice stone ; Xenophon asserted  that it was fed  by exhalations, and
Zeno by watery vapours ; Empedocles  considered it  a translucent
body ; Philolaus, a concave mirror, concentrating the rays of light
from every part of the universe  to reflect it upon nature.  Kepler
was of a similar opinion, and farther insisted that the  sun was com-
posed of a limpid fluid upon which a luminous  aether was reflected,
whence its centre was blue, while the limbs were yellow.   A
modern philosopher, Woodward, attempts to show that the sun  and
fixed  stars are masses of electric fluid, requiring no  alimentation, 
SOLAR INFLUENCE.
337
 yielding no smoke, and the light  that emanates  from them offers
 the bluish brilliancy of the electric spark.  It has been justly ob-
 served, that if, like  Eudoxus, we endeavoured  to approach  this
 luminary, the better to study and describe its nature, we should still
 remain in impenetrable darkness,—in which I must leave the matter,
 to confine  myself to those  influences which  experience seems to
 show that the sun actually exercises on the animal economy.
   The genial and  invigorating glow  that moderate solar heat pro-
 duces  has  ever been  considered  as  tending to  prolong our  life.
 Hippocrates observed, that old men are double their age in winter,
 and  younger in  summer.   To enjoy this reviving  influence, the
 ancients had terraces  on their  house-tops called solaria, in which,
 to use their own  expression, they took a  solar  air-bath.  Pliny the
 younger, in speaking of his  uncle, tells us, Post cibum, sestate, si
 quid otii,jacebat in sole.   The ancients fancied that when  the sun
 rose diseases declined, and Levato sole levatur morbus became a
 medical axiom.  Aristotle records the case of an innkeeper of Taren-
 tum, who, although able to attend to his business by day, became in-
 sane so soon as the sun had set.  The moderns relate many similar
 instances of  derangement brought on by the  absence of solar  in-
 fluence.  Bouillon mentions a woman who lost her senses at sunset,
 but who recovered  them with  break of  day.  Other  cases are re-
 corded of a different nature,  when maladies were aggravated by this
 influnce.  Sauvages tells us of a woman  who   became maniacal
 whenever the sun was at its  zenith ; an influence  that could not be
 prevented  even by various  stratagems, such  as  keeping her in a
 dark room, and deceiving her in  regard to the hour.   Humboldt
 knew a Spanish lady in Madrid who lost her voice the moment the
 sun dipped in the horizon, but  the paralysis of the nerves of the
 tongue ceased the following morning.  A removal to Naples cured
 this  singular affection.  Parham relates the cases of several indi-
 viduals who were deprived of vision  when the sun  had set.  In a
 former paper I  have alluded  to the  effects of a vivid flood of light
 upon  the  Italian  peasantry, as observed  by Ramazzini.   Daily
 practice shows  us that the paroxysms of fever and various maladies
 are under a similar influence ; and the evening gun in our garrisons
 is often the signal of severe  exacerbation in certain febrile cases,
 while the reveillie developes severe aggravation in others.   Syden-
 ham  and Floyer had observed that the  gout and asthma were  usually
 ushered in after our first sleep ;  and I  have noticed that, during the
prevalence of the cholera, the invasion of this fatal disorder generally
occurred towards  daybreak.  The ancients divided their elementary
predominance according to the  diurnal cycle:  thus, morning regu-
lated the blood, noon the bile, evening the atrabile, and night the
cold phlegmatic influence.  Nor was this arrangement unnatural: we
more or less observe it in a state of health, when man awakes refreshed
and active at morn ; towards noon his train  of thoughts becomes more
serious and busy ; in the evening his mind is more gloomy and sus-
ceptible of unpleasant impressions;  until night either sheds its pop-
  Sept. 1838.— D             31 
338         CURIOSITIES OF MEDICAL EXPERIENCE.
pies o'er his  couch, or agitates his frame with  its fearful dreams.
The repose of night is ever more refreshing than that of day, however
we may have  changed the natural  applications of our hours, and
find, as Seneca said of Roman civilisation, that antipodes habemus
in urbe.   The influence of  night and day is  equally observable in
animals.   Towards evening  myriads of insects, who had  shunned
the solar heat, hum around us; while night calls forth its choristers;
and as they cease to sing, other creatures proclaim the dawn.  Some
animals,  such  as the  simia beelzebud, and the simia seniculus,
salute both the setting and the rising sun with fearful howls ; and it
may be considered as a  law of  nature, that  we cannot turn night
into day with impunity.
   Dr. Balfour's  opinion  on the influence of the heavenly  bodies is
of  great weight:  he conceives that the influence of the  sun and
moon when in a state of conjunction, which he names solar-lunar
influence, produces paroxysms or exacerbations in continued fever,
in all cases at least where paroxysms  are observable.   As this in-
fluence declines  in consequence of the gradual separation of these
luminaries from each other, and  their getting into a state  of oppo-
sition, a way is left open for  a  critical and  beneficial change;  in
in other words, that paroxysms and exacerbations in fever may be
expected to take place at spring-tides, and crises at neap-tides.
   It  has been observed in intermitting fevers, that paroxysms  of
the quotidian recur in  the morning, the tertian  at noon, and the
quartan  in the afternoon; in no instance do they take place at night.
   There can be no doubt that lunation, more especially in tropical
climes, influences  diseases; but the effects of insolation are every-
where  observable.   One of the most serious accidents  resulting
from this exposure is  the ictus solis, the coup de  soleil of the
French, and the nycta-ic of the Greeks, from the star Sirius, to whose
influence they attributed the scorching heat of the dog-days.   This
attack is in general sudden, and the patient falls down as if struck
with a blow on the head.  Troops on  a march, and labourers in the
field, frequently are the victims of this solar power, which  usually
 kills them on the spot.   It has been  known to  destroy great  num-
 bers.  In  Pekin,  from  the 14th of July to the 25th, in the year
 1743, it is related that  eleven thousand persons were struck  dead.
 On a hot day's march in Portugal,  I lost six men in a brigade under
 my charge.   They first reeled as if under  the influence of liquor,
 and then fell dead with a slight  convulsive struggle.  One of them,
 the batman  of  the paymaster of the  3d foot, or Buffs, was struck
 dead while speaking to me.  A great number of greyhounds perished
 on the same  march;  but no other species of dog seemed to suffer,
 although we had many pointers  and spaniels with  us.   Horses,
 mules,  and  cattle  were also exempt from  the attack ;  though it
 proved  fatal to some weak donkeys who were following the troops.
 The shakos worn by our army are well calculated to preserve the
 soldier  from these accidents, to which armies are constantly exposed
 during  summer operations. 
SWEATING FEVER.
339
                   SWEATING FEVER.

  This disastrous pestilence, which proved, if possible, more fatal
and terrific than the cholera, made its first appearance in London in
1480 or 1483, first showing itself in the army of Henry VII. on his
landing at Milford Haven.   In London it only broke out a year or
two after, and visited that capital  occasionally for upwards of forty
years.   It then spread to Holland, Germany, Belgium,  Flanders,
France, Denmark, and Norway, where it continued its ravages from
1525 to 1530;  it then returned to England, and was  observed for
the last time in 1551.  Dr. Caius  calls it a pestilential fever of one
day ; and it  prevailed,  he says, with a  mighty  slaughter, and the
description of it was as tremendous as that of the plague of Athens.
Dr. Willis states that its malignity was so extreme, that as soon as
it entered a  city it made a  daily attack on  five  or  six  hundred
persons, of whom scarcely one  in  a hundred recovered.  This ma-
lignant fever ran  its course  in a  single paroxysm ;  and the cold fit
and hot fit were equally fatal.   If  the patient was fortunate enough
to reach the sweating stage, he was in general saved.  It commenced
its attack with a pain in the muscles of the neck,  shoulders, legs, or
arms,  through  which a warm  aura seemed to creep; after these
symptoms a profuse perspiration broke forth.  The internal organs
grew gradually hot and  burning, the  pungent heat extending to the
extremities;  with an intolerable thirst,  sickness soon  followed by
jactitation, coma, and delirium. At Shrewsbury it raged for seven
months, and carried off upwards of one thousand  patients.   The  in-
vasion  of this terrific disorder was generally preceded by a thick
noisome fog,  especially in Shropshire.   A dark  cloud usually took
the lead, and the distemper followed its course.  It  is somewhat
singular, but  most fatal  contagions have been ushered in, both in
ancient and modern times, by noxious fogs or mists, with clouds of
various insects, either bending  their  course  in innumerable bodies,
covering vegetation, or  falling in  dead heaps upon the ground.
   The disease was generally supposed to arise  from  inclement
harvests and injured grain ; particularly wheat infested with the
mildew or smut, or rye  attacked  with the  spur.   It was  observed
by Dr. Willan, that  the  contemporary inhabitants of  Scotland and
Wales, who fed on  barley and oats, were not affected.
   One of the most  singular features of this malady was its only
attacking the English.  Foreigners, and even  the Scotch and Irish,
in England, seemed to  be exempted from  this  scourge, which at-
tacked the monarch himself, and  two Dukes of  Suffolk, who sunk
under  its virulence.  In Westminster the  number of daily deaths
averaged one hundred and twenty.  It may  be easily imagined that
this special liability  of Englishmen to contract the disease was at-
tributed to Divine wrath for their manifold offences;  and we find
the following lines  in Phemtophius : 
340          CURIOSITIES OF MEDICAL EXPERIENCE.
                       " Crelestia numina nobis
           Nil sunt quam nugae, fabula, verba, jocus :
           Inde fames nobis, pestes, Mars; denique fontem
           Hinc etiam inclemens tScwgntK habet,
           Saevum, horrendum, atrox genus immedicabile morbi,
           Nostra? perfidiae debitum."
   Dr. Armstrong has also recorded this peculiar visitation  in  the
following :
           Some, sad at home, and, in the desert, some,
           Abjur'd the fatal commerce of mankind.
           In vain : where'er they fled, the Fates pursued.
           Others, with hopes more specious, cross'd the main.
           To seek protection in far distant skies;
           But none they found.  It seemed the general air
           From pole to pole, from Atlas to the East,
           Was then at enmity with English  blood ;
           For, but the race of England, all were safe
           In foreign climes ; nor did this Fury  taste
           The foreign blood which England  then contained.

   That the atmosphere was  saturated by this  disease was obvious
from  the circumstance of vast numbers of  birds falling dead, when,
upon  examination, pestilential swellings  were found under their
wings.   Schiller attributed the disease to  sideral influence.   Eng-
land,  however, was not the only country  where the wrath of Heaven
was considered as having fulminated this scourge ; and at Marburg
it had such an  effect, that it actually put  an end to the violent dis-
putes between  Luther and Zuingle  concerning the  Eucharist, and
which were on the eve of kindling a religious war.
  A disease somewhat similar manifested itself in Picardy in 1773,
having first appeared  at Hardivilliers, five leagues from  Beauvais;
but, instead of terminating in a single day, it  ran on to the  third,
fifth,  and seventh : a fever of the same description was also observed
in Gascony.
  But of all the maladies that affect cutaneous  transpiration,  diape-
desis, or sweating of blood, is the  most  singular ;  so much  so, in-
deed, that  its  existence has  been  doubted, although several well
authenticated cases are on record, both in  the ancient and modern
annals of medicine.   It is mentioned by Theophrastus and Aristotle,
while Lucan thus describes it:
                               Sic omnia  membra
           Emisere simul rutilum pro sanguine  virus.
           Sanguis erant lacrymae : quaecumque foramina novit
           Humor, ab his largus manat cruor: ora redundant,
           Et  patulse  nares; sudor rubet; omnia plenis
           Membra fluunt venis : totum est pro  vulnere corpus.
  The base Charles IX. of France sunk under  this  disorder, thus
described by Mezeray : " La nature fit d'etranges efforts pendant les
deux  dernieres semaines de la vie  de ce  Roi.   II s'agitait et  se  re-
muait sans cesse  ; le  sang lui rejaillait par  les  pores et par tous  les
conduits de  son  corps.  Apres avoir longtems souffert, il  tomba
dans  une extreme faiblesse  et rendit l'ame."   The  same historian 
SWEATING FEVER.
341
 relates the case of a governor  of a toWn  taken  by storm, who was
 condemned to die, but was seized with a profuse sweating of blood
 the moment he beheld the  scaffold.   Lombard mentions a  general
 who was affected in a similar manner on losing a battle.  The same
 writer tells us of a nun who was so terrified when falling  into the
 hands  of a ruthless banditti,  that blood oozed  from every  pore.
 Henry ab Heer records the case of a man who not  only laboured
 under diapedesis, but small worms accompanied the bloody secretion.
   In the Memoirs of the Society of Arts of  Haarlem, we  read of
 the case of a sailor, who, falling down during a storm was raised
 from the deck streaming with blood.  At first it was supposed that
 he had been wounded, but, on  close examination, the blood was
 found to flow from the surface of the  body.   Fabricius de  Hilden
 mentions a case that came under the observation of his friend Spor-
 linus, a physician of Bale ; the patient was a child of twelve years
 of age, who never drank anything but water : having gone out into
 the fields to bring home his father's flocks, he stopped  upon the road,
 and contrary to habit, drank freely of white wine.   He shortly after
 was seized with fever.  His gums first began to bleed, and soon after
 a hemorrhage broke out from  every  part of  the  integuments, and
 from the nose.   On the eighth day of the malady he was in a state of
 extreme debility, and the body was covered with  livid and purple
 spots, while every part from  whence the blood  had exuded was
 stopped with clots.  A case is also related of a widow of forty-
 five years of age, who had lost  her  only son.  She one day fan-
 cied that she beheld his apparition beseeching her to relieve him
 from  purgatory  by  her  prayers, and by  fasting every  Friday.
 The following Friday, in the month of August, a perspiration
 tinged  with blood broke out.   For  five successive Fridays the
 same  phenomenon appeared, when  a confirmed diapedesis  appear-
 ed.  The  blood escaped  from the upper  part of the  body, the
 back of the head, the  temples, the eyes, nose, the breast, and the
 tips of the fingers.   The  disorder  disappeared  spontaneously on
 Friday the Sth of March of the following year.  This affection was
 evidently occasioned  by  superstitious fears ;  and this appears the
 more probable from the periodicity of the attacks.  The first inva-
 sion of the disease might have been  purely accidental;  but the
 regularity of its subsequent appearance on the stated day of  the vi-
 sion may be attributed to the influence of apprehension.  Bartholinus
 mentions cases  of bloody sweat taking place during vehement terror
 and the agonies of torture.
  The case of Catherine Merlin, of Chamberg, is well authenticated,
 and worthy of being recorded.   She was a woman of forty-six years
 of age, strong and hale.  She received a kick from a bullock in the
 epigastric region, that was followed  by  vomiting of blood : this
 discharge having been suddenly stopped by her  medical attendants,
 the blood made its way through the pores of various parts of her
 body, every limb being affected in turn.  The sanguineous discharge
was invariably preceded by a  prickly and itching sensation ; fre-
                             31* 
342         CURIOSITIES OF MEDICAL EXPERIENCE.
quently this exudation proceeded from the scalp.   The  discharge
usually occurred twice in the twenty-four hours ; and, on pressing
the skin, the flow of blood could be accelerated and increased.
  Dr. Fournier relates the  case  of a  magistrate who was attacked
with diapedesis after any excitement,  whether of a pleasurable or a
painful nature.
  A singular idiosyncrasy was transmitted to her male children by
an American female named  Smith, occasioning a severe hemorrhage
wherever the skin was slightly pricked or scratched.  This loss of
blood would sometimes continue for several  days.   Several of her
sons sunk under the affection, which was found at last to yield to
the sulphate of soda.  What is most singular, all  her  daughters
were exempted from this fearful predisposition.
  It is probable that this strange disorder arises from a violent com-
motion of the nervous system, turning the streams of blood out of
their natural course, and forcing the red particles into the cutaneous
excretories.  A mere relaxation of the fibres could not produce so
powerful a revulsion.  It may also arise in cases of extreme debility
in connexion with a thinner condition of the  blood.
  Curious cases are recorded of a sandy sweat, in which the per-
spiration becomes crystallized on the  surface  of the  skin.  Bartho-
linus, Schunig, and Mollenbroek have related several cases of the
kind.  It is probable, as  Mason Good observes, that this morbid
secretion may arise from an excess of uric acid, translated from the
kidneys to the skin ;  this sand is generally of the same  red colour
as that of the renal secretions deposited  in a lateritious sediment.
  Scented perspiration is another singular peculiarity.  This odour,
frequently unpleasant, has also been known to shed a pleasing aroma,
compared to the perfume of violets, roses, and musk.  This quality
is common  in various animals ;  in the Simia jacchus, hedgehogs,
hares, serpents,  and  crocodiles.   The   Viverra zibetha  and  V.
civetta yield this odour abundantly ;  and it has  been observed in a
faint degree in our domestic cat.   Many insects exhale an agreeable
odour ;  especially the Cerambix moschatus, the  Apis fragrans,
the  Tipula moschifera.   The Cerambix suaveolens emits a deli-
cious smell of roses, and the Petiolated sphex a highly fragrant bal-
samic ether.  In the Memoirs  of  the Queen of Navarre, we  read
that Catherine de Medicis  was a perfect nosegay ; and Cujacius and
Lord Herbet of Cherbury were equally distinguished by  the suavity
of their transpiration.
   The general perspiration of every  man seems to be of a peculiar
nature.  Savages can distinguish their friends and foes by the scent.
The boy born deaf and dumb, whose history is related  by Dugald
Stewart, distinguished persons  by their odour ; and the dealers in
hair can ascertain by the smell the nation to which the hair belongs.
   The quantity  of perspiration secreted  by a well known  adult
 weighing about one hundred and  forty-six pounds, is at  the rate of
 twenty-eight ounces in the twenty four hours, sixteen ounces during
 the period usually allotted  to waking, and  twelve ounces during 
SWEATING FEVER.
343
sleep.*  It is not so much increased by moderate elevation of tem-
perature as might be imagined ; it appears increased after meals and
during sleep.  While the skin thus secretes so considerable a quan-
tity of watery fluid, its powers of absorption are wonderful, and are
frequently  resorted  to  for  medicinal purposes.  This absorption
evidently tends to assist in repairing the strength.  A boy at New-
castle, who had  been  greatly reduced  for a  race, gained  thirty
ounces in weight in the course of an hour, during which time he had
only taken a glass of wine.  Dr. Home, after going to bed much fatigued
and supperless, gained two ounces before the morning.   Keill says
that one night he gained eighteen ounces in his sleep.   Immersion
in water and damp air materially increases this power.  Frogs, toads,
even lizards, increase in weight although  only  partially dipped in
water ;  and remarkably so if previously deprived of part of their
moisture by exposure to air.  The power of absorbing medicinal
substances  when immersed in their solution has been demonstrated
by Dr. Massy, an American physician, who found that  if the body
was  immersed in a decoction of madder,t this substance immediately
tinged the renal secretion.  Dr. Rousseau made a similar experiment
with rhubarb.  It is now clearly demonstrated  that friction is not
necessary to produce absorption.
   The  keenness of the  deaf and dumb boy in ascertaining the efflu-
vium of various individuals, to which 1 have  alluded, induces me
to give a short sketch  of this curious  individual.   His name was
James Mitchell  ; and having no  other source  by which  he  could
discover or keep up a connexion with surrounding objects than those
of smell, taste, and touch, he depended chiefly upon the first, like  a
domestic dog, in distinguishing persons  and things.  By this sense
he identified his friends and relations ;  and conceived  a  sudden
attachment or dislike to strangers.   It was difficult however to ascer-
tain at what distance he could thus exercise this faculty ; but from
Mr. Wardrop's  observations, it appears that he possessed  it at  a
considerable distance.   This was particularly striking when a person
entered the room, as he seemed to  be aware of this before he could
derive  any information from  any sense  than that of smell.   When
a stranger approached him, he eagerly began to touch some part of
the  body,  commonly taking hold of his arm, which he held  near his
nose ; and after two or three strong inspirations through the nostrils,
he appeared to form a decided opinion concerning him.  If it were
favourable, he showed  a disposition to become more  intimate, ex-
amined more minutely his dress, and  expressed in his  countenance
more or less satisfaction ; but if it happened to be unfavourable, he
suddenly went off to a distance, with expressions of carelessness or
disgust.

   * The matter of insensible perspiration is calculated at being daily equal in
 weight to one half of the food.
   | Madder, when given to animals, tinges the surfaco of their bones with a red
hue. 
344         CURIOSITIES OF MEDICAL EXPERIENCE.
                        SMALL-POX.

  The first description we  have of this  dreadful  disease is to be
found in the writings of Almansor of Rhazes, published about the
end of the ninth or the beginning of the tenth century.  He how-
ever  quotes  an Alexandrian  physician of the name  of Aaron,
who  had treated  the  same subject so early as  the  year 622.
There is no  substantial ground to  warrant  a  belief that it was
known to the Greeks or Romans.  The opinion of Hahn, who con-
sidered it to have been their anthrax is absurd.   Had this pestilence
prevailed amongst the ancients, and left the  traces of its ravages,
—which have  marked  most fearfully  so many individuals,—it  is
probable that these  impressions would  have been attached to their
names, as they  were in the habit of designating many of their illus-
trious personages by their physical  peculiarities, either natural or
accidental.   Hence we find Ovidius Naso, Tullius Cicero, Horatius
Codes, Scipio Nasica, Curius Dentatus.
  The term variolas, which this disease bears, was first applied to
a malady presenting  the same symptoms, by Marius bishop of Aven-
ches, and appears to  be derived from varius, spotted.  Howbeit, to
whatever region we  may be indebted  for this  scourge, it appears
that it existed in Asia, and  especially in China, long  before its in-
troduction into  Europe.  About  the middle of the sixth century, it
was supposed to have been carried from India to Arabia by trading
vessels, where no doubt the Arabian and Saracenic armies introduced
it into the Levant, Spain, and  Sicily.  In 640, under the Caliphate
of Omar, the Saracens spread  the contagion over Syria, Chaldsea,
Mesopotamia, Egypt, and Persia.  Its appearance in Europe may
be referred to the eighth century.   In  the ninth century, as I have
stated, we  find it described by the Arabian physicians.  In the
tenth  century we find it described by other Arabian writers, chiefly
Avicenna and Hali Abbas.  In  962, Count  Baudouin of  Flanders
died from its  attack.  It appears certain that it prevailed in Gaul
long before ;  we find in the works  of Marius, already mentioned,
the following passage : " Hoc anno (570) morbus validus, cum pro-
fluvio ventris et variolis, Italiam Galliamque valde afflixit."   About
the same period we find Dagobert and Clodobert, sons of Chilperic,
falling victims to the disorder ;  and Austregilda, wife of  Gontran
King  of Burgundy, died of  it  in 580, at the  age of thirty-two, so
enraged with her physicians, Nicholas  and Donet, that she insisted
that they should accompany her to the  other world to reward them
for causing her  untimely end.   Her affectionate  and disconsolate
husband  Gontran of course had both  their throats cut upon her
tomb.
  In the eleventh and twelfth centuries we find the small-pox in all
the southern parts of Europe.  The north was for a long time tol-
erably exempted from the scourge, until the Holy War introduced 
SMALL-POX.
345
  it into those regions ; and it appears to have been the only trophy
  that the English and Germans brought home to commemorate their
  exploits in the Crusades.
    In the thirteenth  century the Muscovites, Laplanders, and Nor-
  wegians were free from the disorder, the progress of which seemed
  to have been delayed from the cold ; although at the same  time,
  according to the relation of Gordon, it was most destructive all over
  France.  Most physicians  at this period partook of the opinion of
  the  Arabians  who considered  the disease as being  in the blood,
  thrown by it into a state of ebullition, particularly in childhood and
  youth.  According to the Arabian Auaron, or Ahron, it sometimes
  affected the same individual twice.   This doctrine of the boiling up
  and  bubbling forth of the  blood  to throw out its peccant qualities,
  tended not a little  to increase the mortality and exasperate  the dis-
  ease ; as the physicians, to encourage  this concoction, were in the
  habit of wrapping up their patients in  warm  clothing, and  keeping
  their apartments as hot as possible ;—a fatal practice  that subsequent
 experience has rejected as destructive.
    In 1517 the Spaniards carried it to St. Domingo, nearly  depopu-
 lating the country.   South America soon received this additional
 visitation, said to have been carried amongst them by a negro.  So
t terrific were the ravages of this pestilence, that the Americans con-
 sidered its invasion as one of the data in their melancholy chronicles.
 The brother of the noble Montezuma was one of its earliest victims:
 worthy attendant  on the Spanish banners,  it accompanied  their
 detested bands in all their conquests.
   The northern districts of America were free from the contagion,
 when the English  carried it  with their  commercial productions
 amongst the natives of Boston in 1649, and subsequently to Virginia
 and Carolina, and the remaining provinces.  The Spaniards infected
 Nootka Sound, and the Russians desolated Kamtschatka about the
 same period.
   Inoculation  appears  nearly as ancient as the disease, if  we can
 credit the missionaries, who were sent into China by the Church of
 Rome, and who, from their address and  insinuation, gained access to
 their historical records : they have transmitted detailed accounts of
 the history of the  Chinese,  and  of their knowledge in  various
 branches of science.  There is a memoir written on the small-pox
 by the  missionaries at  Pekin, the  substance of which is extracted
 from Chinese medical books, and especially from a work published
 by the Imperial  College of Medicine,  for the  instruction of the
 physicians of the empire.  This  book is entitled  Teou-t chin-fa, or
 a treatise  from the heart to the  small-pox;  which  states that the
 disease was unknown in the very early ages, and  did not appear
 until the dynasty of Tcheou, which  was about 1122  years before
 Christ.   The  Chinese name for the malady is a singular one,  Tai-
 tou, or venom from the mother's breast: and a description is given
 of the fever, the eruption of the pustules, their increase, flattening,
 and crusting.   In the same Chinese  book  there  is also an account 
346         CURIOSITIES OF MEDICAL EXPERIENCE.
of a species of inoculation discovered seven centuries previously;
but, according to a tradition, it had  been revealed in the dynasty
of Long, that is, about  590 years before  Christ.   Father d'Entre-
colles, the Jesuit, mixes in his correspondence from China, some in-
formation respecting the small-pox,  which  confirms the  material
part of  the above information; for he  notices having read some
Chinese  work which  mentions the small-pox as a disease of the
earliest  ages.  He also describes  a method of communicating the
disease, which was called sowing the  small-pox ; this was generally
performed by planting some of the crusts upon the nose,—an opera-
tion which was approved of by some, but disapproved by others.
   Although the tradition of the small-pox being a disease originally
transmitted to man by camels may be fanciful, yet the existence of
the vaccine in cows might give some probability to its having been
the case.  Moore  thus expresses  himself on  the  subject: " This
notion probably took its rise from the circumstance that land com-
merce from Egypt to India was only practicable by means of this
animal.   But such kind of traffic  was tedious and difficult, and it is
conjectured that no person known to  have the small-pox would ever
have been suffered to join himself to  a caravan."  Now this obser-
vation  would rather confirm the fact than invalidate it; since, if
no individual affected with the malady could have carried the  con-
tagion, the disease might have been spread by their camels.
   In regard to the antiquity of the practice of inoculation amongst
the Chinese,  I cannot do better than  give Mr. Moore's own words
on so very interesting a subject.   " No account is handed down of
the origin of this custom; but the reverence in which agriculture is
held by the Chinese  may have  suggested the name (sowing of the
small-pox), and the usual manner of  performing the  operation: for
they took a few full  dried  small-pox crusts, as if they were seeds,
and planted them in the nose: a bit of musk was added in order to
correct  the virulence  of the poison, and  the whole was  wrapped
up in  a bit  of  cotton to prevent it dropping  from the nostrils.
The crusts employed were always taken  from a healthy person who
had had  the small-pox favourably ; and with the vain hope of miti-
gating their acrimony, they  were  sometimes  kept in  close jars
for years, and at other times fumigated with salutary  plants.   Some
physicians beat these crusts into powder, and advised their patients
to take a pinch of this snuff; and  when they could not prevail upon
them, th'ey mixed it with water into a paste, and applied it in that
form.   In Hindostan, if tradition may be relied upon, inoculation
has been practised from remote  antiquity.  The  practice was in the
hands of a particular  tribe of Brahmins, who were delegated from
various religious colleges, and who travelled through the provinces
for this purpose. The natives were strictly enjoined to abstain during
a preparatory month from milk and butter: and, when the Arabians
and Portuguese appeared in that country, they were prohibited from
taking animal food also.   These were commonly inoculated on the
arm; but the girls, not liking to  have  their arms  disfigured, chose 
SMALL-POX.
347
that it should be done low on the shoulder:  but whatever part was
fixed upon was well rubbed with a piece of cloth, which afterwards
became a perquisite of the Brahmin.   He then  made  a few slight
scratches on the skin with a sharp instrument, and took a  bit of
cotton, which  had been soaked  the  preceding year  in  variolous
matter, moistened  it with a drop or two of  the holy waters  of the
Ganges, and bound it upon  the punctures.   During the whole of
this ceremony the  Brahmin always preserved a solemn countenance,
and recited the prayers appointed in  the Attharna  Veda, to pro-
pitiate the goddess  who superintended the small-pox.   The Brahmin
then gave his  instructions, which were regularly observed.   In six
hours the bandage  was to be taken off, and the pledget allowed to
drop spontaneously.  Early next morning, cold  water was to be
poured upon the patient's head and  shoulders, and  this was to be
repeated  until  the fever came on.  The ablution was then  to be
omitted; but, as soon as the  eruption appeared, it was  to  be re-
sumed and  persevered in every morning and evening till the crusts
should fall off.  Confinement to the house was absolutely forbidden ;
the inoculated were  to  be freely  exposed to every air that  blew;
but when the fever was upon them, they were sometimes permitted
to lie on a mat at  the door.   Their regimen was  to  consist  of the
most refrigerating productions of the  climate ; as plantains,  water-
melons, thin gruel made of rice or poppy-seeds, cold water, and
rice.
   While sowing the  disease was  thus prevalent  in some countries,
selling and buying it was adopted in others, when children bartered
fruit in exchange  for the infection.   It does not appear that the
faculty took any notice  of inoculation until the  year 1703, when
Dr. Emanuel Timoni Alpeck wrote an account of his observations
in Constantinople, in a letter to Woodward : a Venitian physician,
of the name of Pylamus, about the same time noticed the success of
the practice in Turkey.   Lady Mary Wortley  Montagu pursued
the inquiry  in  her voyage to that country, and, on  her  return to
England in  1722,  had the operation tried with successful results on
her daughter.^TStill, although two of the princesses  of  the royal
family had also been  inoculated with equal benefit, inoculation was
furiously opposed  by the profession ;  and so  successful was this op-
position, that it succeeded in bringing  it into disuse both in England
and throughout  Europe.  In  this virulent controversy, a singular
circumstance was  observed : while regular  practitioners stated the
practice  to be  unsuccessful, whenever it was adopted by quacks,
monks, and old women, the  result was  invariably favourable; and
the report that reached  Europe of a Carmelite friar  having inocu-
lated thousands of Indians, an old woman being equally fortunate in
Greece, while at the same time a planter in St. Christopher's inocu-
lated three hundred persons without the loss of a single patient, the
practice was again  resumed, chiefly in our sea-ports, and  gradually
extended over the  country.   Mead materially assisted  its progress
by stating that the Circassian ladies chiefly owed their beauty  to this 
  348         CURIOSITIES OF MEDICAL EXPERIENCE.

  salutary preservative.  In the  year 1763, Daniel  Sutton, son of a
  surgeon in Suffolk, recommended the practice, modified, however,
  in the treatment of the malady, and  brought inoculation into general
  repute.
    It appears, however, that inoculation was by no means a novel
  introduction even in England, as it  had been long practised in Pem-
  brokeshire and several  parts of Wales.   On  the  Continent it had
  been tried at Cleves.  Bartholinus  mentions it as adopted in Den-
  mark ; and traces of  its adoption were evident in  Auvergne and
  Perigord.
    Various modes of performing this operation were adopted.  The
  Arabians  inserted the virus with a  pointed instrument between the
«.4humb and  the index ; the Georgians on the fore-arm ; and the
  Armenians on the thigh.   The traveller Motraye  mentions a Cir-
  cassian old  woman  who  used to  inoculate with three pins tied
  together.   It appears that this practice was generally prevalent in
  Turkey in 1673.   Trinoni and Pilarini observed  that the natural
  small-pox was  generally fatal  in  Constantinople, while the disease
  produced  artificially was most benign.  Bruce relates that from time
  immemorial inoculation was practised in Nubia by old Negresses
  or Arabs.
    Strange to say, it was only in 1727 that inoculation became general
  in France ; and its adoption was materially forwarded by Voltaire,
  who also took special care to acquaint the  fair sex that it was to this
  practice that the Circassian and Georgian odalisks owed their beauty.
    The terrific mortality that attended this disease  was much in-
  creased by the injudicious treatmentto which patients were submitted.
  Instead of adopting the natural plan resorted to  by eastern nations,
  and allowing the patients a free current of air, with a refrigerant
  diet, cordials and a hot regimen were enforced,  under which the
  disorder soon assumed a destructive malignity.   Cold affusion, which
  has also  been extolled  by  modern physicians  as  a recent  im-
  provement in medical practice, we  have  seen, was also employed
  centuries ago.   Sutton, who  is generally, but erroneously, considered
  as being the introducer of inoculation, did nothing more, as I have
  already observed, than modify the treatment of the disorder.  Thus
  do we daily see  impudence and quackery receiving rewards for
  supposed  discoveries, and the  keepers of the public purse on such
  occasions  seem much less  careful of it than of their own.  In our
  days, for instance, chain-cables  have been  decreed  a  discovery,
  and their  inventor entitled  to  a  national  recompense, whereas we
  read the following passage  in Caesar's .Commentaries, when speak-
  ing of the shipping of the  Gauls,—" Anchorae, pro  funibus, ferreis
  catenis revinctae :" any schoolboy could have given this information
  to our sapient legislators. 
GENERATIVE ANIMALCULES.
349
                  GENERATIVE ANIMALCULES.

    Microscopic experiments  daily demonstrate the  existence of
  myriads of animalcules in every substance.   They have recently
  been discovered in the progress of certain crystallizations ; and some
  philosophers maintain that most inorganic bodies are formed of the
  remains of organic substances.  The existence of animalcules in the
  generative secretion  was first noticed by Lewis Hamme, a young
  German student, and shown by him to Leeuwenhoeck, who published
  an account of  them.   Hartzoeken wrote upon the  subject the  fol-
  lowing  year, and asserted  that he had seen these animalcules three
  years before they had been observed by Hamme.  This curious
  subject soon attracted the  notice, not  only of physiologists, but of
  priests,  artists, and  even  courtiers,  for we  find our Charles  II.
  making curious inquiries  on this investigation.  Although  many
  opticians could not discover  those creatures, the eyes of courtiers
  were  more keen than theirs, and, to gratify their royal master's
  depravity, described these  most minutely.  Their  length was
  ftnnnnr of  an inch, their bulk such as to admit the existence  of
  216,000 in a sphere whose diameter was the  breadth of a hair, and
  their rate  of travelling nine inches in the hour.   They saw  them
 in the seminal  secretion of every animal  ; and, what was still more
 remarkable, they were of a similar size whatever might have been
 that of the animal : they saw them in the sprat and in the whale ;
 they could distinguish the male  from the female ; and they  all
 moved  along in gregarious harmony like  a  flock of sheep : nay,
 more ;  Dalenpatius actually saw one of them, more impatient than
 his companions, burst from his ignoble  shackles, and  actually  as-
 sume the  human form.   At other times they were  discovered
 swimming in shoals to given points, turning back, separating, meeting
 again, and  frisking about like golden fish  in a pond.  Kauw, Boer-
 haave, Maupertius, Lieuland, Ledermuller, Monro, Nicholas, Haller,
 and indeed  most of the philosophers of Europe, were convinced of
 their existence.
   Buffon, however, and other naturalists, contended that these were
 not animalcules, but organic particles ; and Linnaeus imagined them
 to be inert molecules,  thrown into  agitation by the warmth of the
 fluid.  Finally,  to determine  the  question, Spallanzani began  an
 assiduous course of observations and experiments.  He found these
 animalcules in the human species to be of an oval form, with a tail
 tapering  to a point. This appendage, by moving from side to  side,
 propelled them  forward.  They were in constant motion  in every
 direction.  In about twenty-three minutes their movements became
 languid, and in two or three hours they generally died.  The dura-
tion of their life, however, seemed  to depend, in a great measure,
on the temperature of  the medium : at 2° (Reaumur) they died in
three quarters of an hour ; while at 7° they lived two hours, and at
  Sept.  1838.—.£              32 
350         CURIOSITIES OF MEDICAL EXPERIENCE.
12£° three hours and three quarters.   If the cold was not too intense,
they recovered upon the temperature being raised ;  when only 3°
or 4°, they recovered  after a lethargy of  fourteen hours ; and ac-
cording to the less intensity of the cold, they might be made to pass
from the torpid to  the  active state more frequently.  They were
destroyed by river, ice,  snow, and rain water ; by sulphur, tobacco,
camphor, and electricity ; even the air was  injurious  to them : in
close vessels their life  was prolonged to some days, and their move-
ments were not constant and hurried.  They were of  various sizes,
and  perfectly  distinct from  all species of animalcules  found  in
vegetable infusions, &c.   In short, Spallanzani completely confirmed
the principal  observations of  Leeuwenhoeck, and satisfactorily ex-
plained  the sources  of the inaccuracies of other inquirers.  Prevost
and Dumas have recently confirmed the observations of the  Italian
physiologist.
  This  doctrine of life  being  perpetuated  by the transmission of
animated particles, or  animalcules, is by no means of modern date.
We  find this  theory advanced  by Hippocrates,  and  Aristotle, and
Plato.   Democritus described worms that assumed, in the progress
of their development,  the human form; and Lactantius thus refuted
his ideas: " Erravit  ergo Democritus,  qui vermiculorum  modo
putavit homines effusos esse de terra, nullo auctore, nullaque ratione."
Hippocrates plainly says, that the seminal secretion was  full of
animalcules, whose  several parts were developed, and  grew afresh;
that nothing did exist  that had not pre-existed ;  and  that what we
term birth was nothing  more than that transition of these hitherto
imperceptible animalcules from  darkness to light.
  Gesner has endeavoured to prove that the wordpsuche, so frequent-
ly found in the writings of Hippocrates, and translated anima, was
synonymous with insectum, animalculum, papilio.  Plato, when
expressing himself  on this curious subject, compares the  matrix to
a fertile field, in which animalcules are gradually developed,  at first
of such a small size that they are imperceptible, but, by taking the
food prepared  for them, grow in strength  until they are brought to
light in a state  of perfect  generation ;  and St. Augustine thus fol-
lows : " Hunc perfectionis modum  sic habent  omnes ut cum illo
concipiantur atque nascuntur ; sed habent in ratione, non in mole,
sicut ipsa jam membra omnia sunt  latenter in semine ; cum  etiam
natis nonnulla  desint, sicut dentes, ac si  quid ejusmodi."   In the
works of Seneca we also find the same notions :  " In semine omnis
futuri hominis ratio comprehensa est, et legem barbae et canorum
nondum natus infans habet ; totius  enim  corporis,  et  sequentis
aetatis, in parvo occultoque lineamenta sunt."
  It may be said that  these opinions were similar to  those  of the
Ovarians, who, as we have observed already, believed that  every-
thing arose from the  egg.  Such were Aristotle, Empedocles, and
other philosophers : " For the egg is the conception," said the first
of these great men, "and after the  same  manner the  animal  is
created  ;"  but there  was a manifest difference  in their systems 
GENERATIVE ANIMALCULES.
351
Harvey, Haller, De Graef, were amongst the  most warm advocates
of this doctrine, which indeed prevails to the present day, as it would
be difficult to find  organised  beings that did not spring from an
original germ.
  It thus appears that, notwithstanding the absurd doctrines of gen-
eration being founded upon the existence of these animalcules, they
clearly do exist.  Modern  microscopic experiments daily confirm
the fact; not only in the generative secretion, but in the other fluids
of the body ; creatures of an inch to an inch and a quarter in length
have been found to inhabit the mesenteric arteries of asses and horses.
Mr. Hodgson found them in seven asses out of nine.   They have
also been found in the blood of female frogs, salamanders, and tad-
poles.   What wonders are perhaps in store for the microscopic ob-
server and the physiologist!   All living matter seems to be animated
by  particles, by atoms, equally possessed of life.  Does the vitality
of these constituent  molecules hold any influence over our existence?
Is their life necessary to the preservation of  ours ?   Is any agency
destructive to them injurious  or  destructive to us ?   In a former
paper I have recorded recent observations, where animalcules of a
peculiar description were found in the  purulent secretion attending
various affections.  A morbid condition  seems thus to  produce  a
new series of animated  beings, or  this new series  of living  atoms
perhaps have produced a morbid state.  Many eruptive maladies are
either caused by the presence of insects, or insects  are subsequently
developed in their pustules.   Wichmann, and many other physicians,
have maintained  that the itch was produced by an insect  of the
genus acarus, or tick.
  Latreille has given a  minute description of this creature in his
Genera crustaceorum  et insectorum, and calls this offensive spe-
cies the sarcoptes scabiei,   Linnaeus classed it among the aptera,
and termed it the acarus scabiei.  This insect is nearly round, with
eight legs ; the four fore-legs terminated with a small head, the hind
ones with a silky filament.  The Arabian Avenzoar had long since
observed them, and it was from his writing that Mouffet was induced
to pursue the inquiry.   Redi,  an Italian physician was the first pro-
pagator of this  doctrine in modern times, and published, in 1685, a
paper of Cestoni of Leghorn, who  had frequently observed mendi-
cants and galley-slaves extracting these insects from the pustules of
itch with the point of a pin, in the same manner as chigoes are ex-
tracted  from their cyst in the West Indies.
  It was this communication of Cestoni that led  to  a further and
more minute investigation.  Curiosity was everywhere excited, and
the most learned  and intelligent naturalists and physicians, amongst
whom we  find the illustrious  names  of  Borelli,  Etmuller, Mead,
Pringle, Pallas, Bonani, Linnaeus, Morgagni, strove with incessant
diligence to ascertain this important fact, which certainly was likely
to shed a new light on our pathological speculations.  The existence
of the acarus was established.
  The most conclusive  experiments on  the  subject were those of 
352
CURIOSITIES OF MEDICAL EXPERIENCE.
Gales in 1812.  The following is the account of them : " I placed
under a  microscope a watch-glass with a drop  of distilled water,
after having carefully ascertained that it did not contain any visible
animalcules.   I then extracted from an itch pustule a small portion
of the virus, which I diluted in the water with the point of a lancet.
I watched  most attentively for upwards of ten minutes, without
having been able to notice any animation.  Two similar experiments
were  equally ineffectual.  Disappointed in my expectations, I was
about giving up the task, when an  idea struck me of submitting the
liquid of the first experiment to another trial.  I had  left it in the
Watch-glass, exposed to solar heat.   I then was not a little surprised
when I discovered a perfect insect struggling with its legs to extri-
cate itself from the viscid fluid that confined it.   Having succeeded
in reaching a more limpid part of the liquor,  its form was so distinct
that Mr. Patrix, who was with  me, was enabled to take an exact
drawing of its configuration."
  This curious result naturally induced Gales to pursue his inqui-
ries, and he discovered that this insect chiefly occupies the pustules
that are filled with a thin serum, and avoids those that contain a thicker
secretion.  Hence the watery  pimples in  itch are  invariably those
that produce the most intolerable prurience.
  The next important question  was  to  decide whether this insect
was the cause of the disgusting disorder.  For this purpose Gales
placed several of them on the  back of his hand.  He then covered
the part with a small watch-glass, kept in  place with a bandage.
Three hours after he awoke, experiencing a sensation of itching on
the part.  The following morning  three itch  pustules  were evident,
and convinced him  that he had succeeded  in  inoculating himself
with the loathsome complaint.   This fact he communicated to  Oli-
vier, Dumeril, Latreille, and Richerand.  Experiments in the hos-
pital  were immediately directed to  be made,  and all  produced a
similar result: affording a convincing proof that these insects could
produce the affection, which they had merely been  thought to have
complicated.
   Many writers, who, like Mason Good, had decided  that " when-
ever these  insects appear, they are not a cause but a consequence of
the disease," opposed and contradicted the statement  of Gales, and
the numerous practitioners who had  procured  and witnessed  facts,
which are  never stubborn  things  to speculative  minds.  These
writers maintained that whenever any organ  was weakened, or in a
morbid  condition, it was apt to become a nidus for  some insects or
worms to burrow in.  Hence  the numerous varieties  of invermina-
tion in debility of the digestive  organs.  But it is  needless to ob-
serve that their objections cannot stand against  the embodied evi-
dence brought forward in proof of their  error.  Bosc, Huzard,
Latreille, Dumeril, and many  other  naturalists, subsequently found
these acari in  the eruptive diseases of many animals.
   I repeat it, this subject is replete with interest; and microscopic
experiments may some time or other throw a material light on the 
CIRCULATION OF THE BLOOD.
353
practice of medicine.   Those substances that are known to destroy
the insect that produces the itch, cures the malady.  May not this
analogy lead to singular results ?
           CIRCULATION  OF THE  BLOOD.

  The circulation of the blood was first taught  by the unfortunate
Servetus, in 1553, who was burnt to death as a heretic ; and a cen-
tury afterwards, demonstrated by  our  Harvey, who  is  justly con-
sidered as having discovered the wonderful mechanism of the motion
of the vital fluid.
  There is no doubt, however, that the ancients had formed, if not
a correct, at least  an ingenious, idea  of it.   Hippocrates tells us
"that all  the veins communicate with each  other, and flow from
one vessel into others ;  and that all the veins that  are spread over
the body carry a flux and movement originating in a single vessel.
He avows that he is ignorant of the principle whence it arises, or of
its termination, it appearing to be a circle without beginning or end.
He further states, that the heart is the source of the arteries, through
which blood is carried over the body, communicating life and heat;
and he adds, that they are so  many rivulets that irrigate  the system,
and carry vitality into every  part: the heart and veins are in con-
stant motion ; and he compares the circulation of blood to the course
of rivers, that return to their source by extraordinary deviations.  He
therefore directs blood-letting to restore a free current of the blood
and  other  spirits  in apoplexies, and  other diseases of a  similar
nature, which  he  attributed  to obstruction  in the  vessels  inter-
cepting the flow of their  contents.  He also observes, that when
bile  enters the blood, it  deranges its consistence, and  disturbs
its ordinary course towards  another point: and  he compares the
circulation  to balls of thread, the threads of  which return to each
other in a circuitous manner, terminating at the point whence their
motion arose.
  Plato thought that the heart was the source of the veins, and of the
blood, that was rapidly  borne to every part of the  body.   Aristotle
tells us that the heart is the principle and source of the veins and
of the  blood.   He considered  that  there were two  veins pro*
ceeding from  this organ, one from the  left side, the other from the
right ; the first he termed  aorta : and he further maintained  that
the arteries communicated with the veins,  with which they were
intimately  connected.
  Julius Pollux taught, in  his  Onomasticon, that the  arteries are
the channels through which the spirits  circulate as the veins propel
the blood ; and he describes  the heart  as having two cavities, one
communicating with the arteries, and the  other with the  veins.
                               32* 
CURIOSITIES OF MEDICAL EXPERIENCE.
Apuleius tells his disciples that the heart propels the blood through
the lungs, to be afterwards distributed over the system.
  In the writings of Nemesius, bishop of Emissa, we read that the
movement observed in the  pulse originates  in  the heart, chiefly
from the artery of the left ventricle of the viscus.  This artery is
dilated, and then contracted, by a constant and  powerful harmonious
action.  When dilated the vessel draws towards it the most subtile
portions of the neighbouring blood, and the vapour or exhalation of
this fluid,  that feeds the animal spirits ; but, when it contracts, it
exhales, through various channels of  the body, all the vapours that
it contains.
  Michael Servetus, in his work De Christianismi,restitutione,also
in the 7th  book, De Trinitate Divind, for which he was sentenced to
the stake a very short time  after its publication, gives us the following
description of this important function.   The blood, which is a vital
spirit, is diffused all over the body by anastomoses, or inosculation
of two vessels through their extremities.  The air in the lungs con-
tributes to the elaboration  of the blood, which  it draws for that pur-
pose from the right ventricle  of  the heart through the pulmonary
artery.  This blood is prepared in the lungs by a movement of the
air that agitates it, subtilises it, and, finally, mingles it with that vital
spirit which is afterwards  re-transmitted to the heart by the move-
ment of the diastole, as a  vital fluid proper to  maintain life. This
communication and preparation of the  blood, he further states, is
rendered  evident by the  union of the arteries  and veins  in this
organ ; and he concludes by affirming  that the heart, having thus
received the blood prepared by the lungs, transmits it through the
artery of the left ventricle, or the  aorta, to every part of the body.
  Great care was of course taken to destroy this abominable hereti-
cal publication, which was  burnt by the common hangman in Geneva,
Frankfort, and several provinces of France.   The work thence be-
came so scarce, that it is said  only three or  four copies  of it are in
existence.   One of them  was in  the library of the Landgrave of
Hesse-Cassel.
  John Leonicenus relates that the celebrated  Paul Sarpi, otherwise
named Fra Paolo, had  also discovered this circulation, and  demon-
strated the valves of the veins, which open to afford a free passage
to the blood, and  close to  prevent its return.  This  discovery, it is
pretended, was made known  to Fabricius ab Aquapendente, pror
fessor of medicine in Padua in the sixteenth century, and successor
of Fallopius, and who communicated  the fact  to  Harvey, then a
student in that university.
  Some time before  Harvey's discovery, Cesalpinus had  described
with great precision the pulmonary circulation ; and, on  finding that
veins swelled  under a ligature, he attributed this enlargement to the
warmth of the blood.   This warmth, he says, proceeds from a spirit
arising in  the  blood.   The left ventricle is filled  with blood of a
spirituous nature ; and one can trace  the movement of the blood
towards the superior parts, and its return {retrocessus) to the inter- 
DRUNKENNESS.
355
nal ones,—that is to say, a return by which it comes back from the
extremities to the  heart, when  awake  or sleeping, from every part
of the body  ; for if you tie the vessels, or if they are obstructed, the
current of the blood is stopped, and then their smaller ramifications
tumefy towards their origin.   The following are his words : " Sic
non obscurus est  ejus-modi motus in quacumque  corporis parte, si
vinculum adhibeatur, aut  alia ratione occludantur venae : cum enim
tollitur permeatio, intumescunt rivuli qua parte fluere solent." From
these expressions it is clear that Cesalpinus suspected the great cir-
culation, and had a fair idea of its nature ; yet there is no doubt but
that it  was to our  Harvey that the first demonstration of this won-
drous function was reserved.
                     DRUNKENNESS.

   At all periods this degrading vice appears to have been more or
less prevalent.   We find it frequently mentioned in the early history
of the Jews.   Tacitus informs us that it was common amongst the
ancient Germans ; and in Greece and Rome it was not only common,
but frequently extolled  as beneficial—as medicinal :
                Si nocturna tibi noceat potatio vini,
                Hora matutina rebibas, et erit medicina.

   Socrates considered  indulgence in wine  pardonable.  Thus, C.
Gallus :
           Hoc quoque virtutem quondam certamine, magnum
           Socratem palmam promeruisse ferunt.
   According to Horace, Cato the Censor had often recourse to its
exhilarating virtues :
                     Narratur et prisci Catonis
                     Saepe mero incaluisse virtus.
   Seneca informs us that even the Roman ladies frequently indulged
in these potations.   The drunkenness of the ancients bore all the
disgusting  character of the  present day, and was thus admirably
described by Lucretius :
                       Cum vini penetravit—
             Consequitnr gravitas membrorum, praepediuntur
             Crura vacillanti, tardescit lingua, madet mens,
             Nant oculi; clamor, singultus, jurgia gliscunt.
   However, from the language of the ancients, we cannot come to
the conclusion that Socrates, and other great men  who were accused
of inebriety, were  habitual drunkards, or even that, under  the in-
fluence  ef their potations, they were occasionally deprived of their
reason.   On the contrary, there is  every reason to believe that the
ancients both ate and drank a great deal during their repasts ;  and 
356         CURIOSITIES OF MEDICAL EXPERIENCE.
thus mingling their wine and their food, like most of the Continental
nations, they were less  subject to the  inconveniences that  arose
from their indulgence in liquor.  Indeed, the term sobriety applies
to a proper regulation of our ingesta, according to our constitution
and our state of health.  Abstinence on some occasions may prove
as prejudicial as intemperance ; and there are peculiar idiosyncrasies
where a certain quantity of  stimulus is absolutely requisite to keep
up the animal spirits, and at the same time assist assimilations which
beeome languid under mental depression.  No doubt, this necessity
has arisen from habit,—most probably a very bad habit; still, when
it does exist, physicians  should be  cautious in suddenly forbidding
habitual indulgences : we must also consider  on such occasions the
pursuits of different individuals.  The laborious classes, who require
more frequent refection, from the constant  exhaustion to which
their avocations expose them,  can bear with  impunity a moderate
use of strong liquors.  Such a practice would  destroy the sedentary
and the  studious.  Temperance  is essentially requisite to perfect
not only our intellectual faculties, but many of our physical functions.
The senses both of man and of the brute creation are rendered  much
more keen by abstinence.  The scent of the dog, the vision of the
hawk, are less acute after feeding; and this is one of the chief causes
of the  greater perspicuity in our ideas when fasting in the morning.
The ancients  had an axiom founded upon  observation, " If you
wish to become robust,eat and labour ;  if you wish to become wise,
fast and meditate."  The Greeks called sobriety, a-auppoiwa; or, ac-
cording to Aristotle, as though they said, it assisted our intellectuals.
Plato tells us that Socrates termed this quality, the health of the mind.
Xenophon maintained that it prevented  men from spitting or blow-
ing their noses, as we  were not  in need of superfluities when we
decreased the consumption of what was necessary.  The ancients
looked upon sobriety as  a bent bow, that required occasional re-
laxation.
   It is said, but  I know not on  what authority, that  Hippocrates
recommended an indulgence in potations once a month.  Celsus re-
commends persons in perfect health not to be too rigorous in their
diet; sometimes  to fast, and at others to live more freely.  In more
modern  times this  suppose precept of  Hippocrates has  been ad-
vocated, and we find two theses on the  subject entitled "Non ergo
singulis mensibus  reptitia ebrietas salubris,"  and." Non ergo
unquam ebrietas salubris," by Hammet and Langlois.  Zacchias,
in his  medical questions, asks if a physician can recommend such a
departure from the laws of temperance  without committing  a  sin.
This query  has been also debated by divines.  Frederic Hoffmann
maintained that poets required this indulgence, and attributes in a
great measure the falling off of genius amongst the modern Greeks
to the destruction of their vineyards  by the Turks.  In ancient
iconography we oftentimes find  Bacchus placed near Minerva.
The allusions of heathen mythology to drunkenness, its effects, and
the means  of tempering its influence, are  curious.   Silenus, the 
DRUNKENNESS.
357
 preceptor of Bacchus, although represented  as  always intoxicated,
 was a philosopher, who accompanied his pupil in his Indian expedi-
 tion, and  aided  him  by the soundness of  his j'udgment.   Virgil
 makes him deliver the principles of the epicurean doctrines  on the
 formation of the world, and the nature of things.  JElian gives us
 his conversation with Midas regarding the unknown world of Plato
 and other philosophers.   He  was also considered an able warrior
 and a wit.   -(Elian derives his name from Sillainein.   The nymphs
 who follow his train were considered as typical of the water necessary
 to dilute his potations, and the influence of love in checking  intem-
 perance.
   Montaigne  informs us that  the  celebrated Sylvius recommended
 an occasional debauch  ; and  the late  Dr.  Gregory was of opinion
 that an  occasional excess is, upon  the whole, less injurious to the
 constitution than the practice of daily taking  a moderate quantity of
 any fermented liquor or  spirit.  Experience,  however,  does not
 uphold  the doctor's opinion ; and, as I  have observed in a preceding
 article,  occasional excesses are far more injurious than habitual in-
 dulgences, under  which,  in  the most unfavourable climates,  men
 attain advanced years.  An  occasional excess actually brings on a
 state of sickness, which, in persons habitually sober, may not only
 last for several days, incapacitating them from  any pursuit, but be
 frequently followed  by serious accidents.  Of course I am not
 alluding to a constant state of intoxication, which will often bring
 on delirium, tremor, apoplexy, and other destructive accidents.
   The appearances after death in drunkards  exhibit  great derange-
 ment in organic structure.   The brain  is generally firmer than usual.
 Serum is not unfrequently found effused in its  cavities ; and, what
 is singular, this watery fluid is often impregnated with the odour of
 the  deceased's potations, such as rum, gin,  or  brandy.  Schrader
 relates several instances of the kind.  iEther has also been detected
 after the medicine had been  freely exhibited.  Dr.  Ogston  states
 that above  four ounces of fluid  were found  in  the ventricles of a
 drunkard's brain, that had all the physical qualities of alcohol.  He
 thinks that this effusion takes place previously to the coma  of in-
 toxication,  as he found it in considerable quantities in two cases of
 drowning in the stage of violent excitement from spirituous liquors.
 The mucous  coats of  the  stomach of drunkards, instead of being
 " worn out," according to the vulgar expression, are  thickened, and
 sometimes  softened ;  but in mot cases they are found hardened.
 This condition is not likely to accelerate death  ; on  the  contrary,
 the stomach is less susceptible of the action of stimulating articles
 of diet, or excess in eating or drinking, than when in a healthy state
 of excitability.  When drunkenness proves fatal, it appears that a
 portion of the spirituous part of the liquor is actually absorbed and
 carried into the circulation and the brain.  Dr. Copeland  has given
the following very luminous  and correct view of the  pathology of
drunkenness.  " During the general nervous and vascular excitement
consequent on the stimulus, increased determination  to  the head 
358         CURIOSITIES OF MEDICAL EXPERIENCE.

takes place,  attended by  excited vascular action,  which  soon
terminates in congestion as  the excitement becomes exhausted, and
gives rise to  drowsiness, sopor, and coma.   With this state of the
disorder effusion of serum takes place in the  ventricles and between
the membranes, heightening the sopor and coma.   When the con-
gestion or effusion amounts so high as to impede the functions of
the organs at the  basis of the encephalon and of  the respiratory
nerves,  respiration becomes unfrequent  and laborious, and conse-
quently the changes produced by it on  the blood insufficiently per-
formed.  In proportion as the blood is less perfectly changed in the
lungs, the circulation through them is retarded, and the phenomena
of asphyxy,—congestion of the lungs,rightside of the head,brain,and
liver; the circulation of unarterialised blood ;  the imperfect evolution
of  animal heat, and sedative  effects  upon  the brain and nervous
system generally,—follow in a more or less marked degree, accord-
ing to the quantity of the intoxicating fluid that has been  taken, and
either gradually disappear after some  time, or increase until  life is
extinguished.   These  phenomena are heightened  by cold, which
depresses the vital action in the extremities  and surface to which it
is applied, and  increases the congestion in the above  organs.   The
fatal consequences of intoxication are often averted by the occurrence
of vomiting, the stomach thereby being relieved/rom a great part of
the poison."
   In the accidents that follow intoxication, bleeding has  frequently
been resorted to.  Nothing can be more hazardous than this prac-
tice, justly condemmed by Darwin, Trotter and most physicians,
who have had frequent opportunities of witnessing the  distressing
train of  symptoms that inebriety brings on.   Coffee  and green tea
will be found the  most efficacious antidotes, when  no sickness pre-
vails.   Nausea is counteracted by effervescent and aromatic draughts,
such as soda water, (so highly appreciated by Byron, when accom-
panied by a sermon, after a night's conviviality,)  spruce-beer, Seid-
litz powders, &c.  The ancients had  recourse to various means to
counteract the  effects of wine, and amongst others we  find olives
and olive oil, wormwood,  saffron.   The Greeks  used a solution of
salt, a common  remedy among sea-faring men to the present day; and
the Romans surrounded their heads with wreaths  of various refresh-
ing plants.  When Aristotle tells us that Dionysius of Syracuse re-
mained  in a state  of intoxication for eighty days, we must suppose
that he got drunk every morning.
   That  the ancients were  in the habit of diluting  their  wine with
water, there cannot be a doubt.  The Lacedaemonians accused those
who drank it pure of acting like  Scythians,—an expression intro-
duced ever since Cleomenes the Spartan had learned to drink freely
amongst them.  The Thracians were also accused of this practice,
which clearly  proves that it was not general.  Philochorus reports
that Amphictyon king of Athens learned to mix wine and  water from
Bacchus himself, on which account he dedicated an altar  to the god.
 According to Athenaeus, this dilution was of various strength ; some- 
DECAPITATION.
359
times in the proportion of one to two, at  others from one  to five.
The Lacedaemonians used to boil their wine till the fifth part was
consumed, under the impression that they thus deprived  it of its
spirituous qualities.  Sometimes this boiled wine was laid by for four
years.
  To add to the intoxicating power of wine various means were
resorted to, and  a mixture of myrrha was supposed to produce this
effect.  Such was the murrhina of the Romans, mentioned in St.
Mark's gospel, and which was  given to malefactors before  their
execution
  Nothwithstanding the sobriety of the ancients, my fair  readers
may perhaps be glad to know that the ladies were allowed to  indulge
in an occasional  stoup ; and the Greek matrons and virgins were by
no means  restricted in a moderate use of the  grape's delicious juice,
as illustrated by  Homer in  Nausica and her companions.   In the
ancient entertainments the  first libation was  offered up to Vesta, as
being, according to Cicero, rerum custos intimarum, or keeper of
things most concealed ; or, according to Aristocritus, for the services
rendered by this goddess to Jupiter in his war against the Giants.
However, without any erudite comments, it  is very probable that
the poor vestals  were sometimes delighted when they could take a
drop of wine to  beguile their solitude.
                     DECAPITATION.

   As 1 have  observed in a preceding article, much  doubt exists
whether decapitation puts an end to our sufferings, as it has not, and
most probably will  never be ascertained, whether the body or the
head are first deprived  of sensation or  vitality.  Galvanic experi-
ments had been resorted to, but were warmly opposed by Professor
Ferry on the plea of humanity, as he maintained that unless we were
certain that  sensation had ceased, we had no  right to  submit the
unfortunate culprits who had been decapitated to this trial.   Guillo-
tin (whose name was  given to the terrific machine so closely con-
nected in our recollection with the horrors of the French Revolution
which he introduced from the East and Germany) maintained that
the moment  the head  was  severed from the  body all sensations
ceased.  Cabanis and Petit were of a similar opinion.   Sue, Aldini,
Mojon, Weicard, Liveling, Castel, and other physiologists, founded
their belief in a contrary doctrine, upon  numerous experiments on
various animals.  Sue grounded hisargumentsupontwo chief points:
first, the sudden effect produced by decapitation upon the two most
powerful regulators of the functions of life, the brain and the heart;
and secondly on the consideration  that the section of the neck was
often  uneven  and jagged, splinters of  bones irritating the  bruised
nerves, vessels, and spinal marrow. 
360          CURIOSITIES OF MEDICAL EXPERIENCE.
   According to this view of the matter, existence was not immedi-
 ately destroyed by decollation.  Castel thought that this principle
 was extinguished in the head sooner than the body.   Sue and Julia
 de Fontenelle were of  a different opinion.   Dubois of  Amiens en-
 deavoured to prove the non-existence of pain after decapitation, by
 showing that convulsive movements, epileptic and hysteric attacks,
 were not accompanied  by any  painful sensations.  In decapitation,
 he thinks that the suddenness and violence of the blow must produce
 insensibility, for we cannot imagine that  the section of the spinal
 marrow thus violently performed  can occasion pain ; and if any
 sensations were experienced in that awful moment, it is more than
 probable that the violent perturbation  would render them obtuse.
 As to any feelings of the separated  head, he does not think that any
 muscular convulsions observed in it can indicate the existence of
 pain.
   To these arguments of  the Amiens physiologist Julia de Fonte-
 nelle replied that it  was never maintained that convulsive movements
 were expressive of pain, although it was not impossible that epilep-
 tic and  hysterical patients may have experienced painful sensations
 during  their attacks that  might be  forgotten upon their recovery,
 as somnambulists bear  no recollection of what passed during their
 disturbed slumbers.   The convulsive affections alluded to by Dubois
 were frequently expressive both of pleasure and of pain, or marked
 with a character of stupor or of indifference, whereas the convulsive
 movement observed in the  features of the  decapitated invariably
 expressed anguish ; in support  of his firm belief in the existence of
 the power of sensation after execution, he refers  to the observations
 of Soemmering, Mojou, and Sue, who had remarked that when the
 head was turned towards the solar rays, the eyes instantly closed, a
 phenomenon that   could  not take  place  if the e)^es  were dead.
 Dr. Montault justly observes that it is to  be regretted that, to decided
 this controversy, recourse cannot be had to the experiment, recorded
 by Bacon,  of an inquisitive person  who  hanged himself for the
 purpose of ascertaining if strangulation was a  painful operation.
 One of his friends very fortunately cut him down ere  it was too late,
 when the curious experimentalist was quite satisfied that  hanging
 was by  no  means painful or unpleasant,  and that the  moment stran-
 gulation took place, he had been struck with a flickering light, that
 was instantly followed by utter darkness.
  Various  cases are recorded of  individuals thus cut down, when
hanged  by accident, or executed.  In  most instances they stated
that they had experienced a pleasurable sensation as strangulation
took place.   I have already alluded to the curious fate of the well-
known composer of the " Battle of Prague." 
MUMMIES.
361
                        MUMMIES.

  Many are the opinions relating to the custom of embalming men
and various animals in ancient Egypt.  By some it has been con-
sidered a superstitious practice, by others the result of affection.  To
keep the remains of those we loved upon  earth free from the de-
structive power of death, and preserving in some degree those forms
that once flitted before us and around us in all the enjoyments of
life, is a natural, one might almost  say  an instinctive, sentiment;—
preserving those fond remains upon earth, exempted from the painful
sight of beholding them committed to the earth—earth to earth—for
ever !   How different must  have been the feelings of the relatives
of the departed when, leaving his body reposing in his tomb, still
preserving the form of its mortal coil—still in the world—where all
we loved might be visited and spoken to in  the language of affection
and regret—how  different  must have been these feelings when
compared  to those that compress the respiration and check our ut-
terance, after seeing that body separated from  us, and  leaving a
chasm around us deeper still than the grave.  We  are, however, to
seek in this practice  other motives.   The wisdom of the  theocratic
government of ancient Egypt was most admirable, and  not founded
upon  mortal affections and dislikes.   The  sovereign  priesthood
had to attend to concerns of greater magnitude.   The first  inhabi-
tants of Egypt, migrating most probably from the upper regions of
Ethiopia, had to  colonize an  unhealthy  region, to struggle  with
swamps and marshes, and destroy myriads  of animals, whose de-
composition added to the dangers they had  to encounter when  set-
tling in such an unhealthy land.  Pestilence, no  doubt, as in  after
times, frequently desolated the infant kingdom.   Their priests, in
whose temples were recorded in mystic legends  all the science of
the age, must have applied their experience and their judgment to
meet the evil, and surmount it, were it  possible.  The ideas of cor-
ruption are closely connected with  those of putrescency ; and pu-
trescency has ever been considered the chief source  and focus of
pestilential maladies.  To avoid  corruption  and  putrescence, then,
became  one of the  most important Hygienic studies ; and,  like
Moses, who had  received his early education in  Egypt, its priest-
hood  enforced salutary laws as the injunction of  the Creator ; nor
was the task as difficult as it might have proved in a more extensive
and more diversified region.  The  population resided in  a land of
no very great extent ; their climate did not vary according to pro-
minent topographical circumstances ; and the produce  of the soil,
as regarded alimentary substances, admitted of little variety.  Thus
it became easy to establish salutary institutions to regulate the mode
of living of the obedient people, who looked upon the commands of
their sainted legislators as dictates from the eternal throne.
  Amongst other prophylactic means  to resist epidemic diseases,
    Sept. 1838.—F           33 
362
CURIOSITIES OF MEDICAL EXPERIENCE.
the embalming of the dead must naturally have occurred to the sacred
college as one of the most effectual means of checking or preventing
contagion.  Not only was man submitted to this process, but every
animal, domestic or obnoxious, was equally preserved.  It may be
said, if destruction was rendered a prudent step, why were not these
bodies consumed by fire ?  The reason appears to me obvious.  It
was necessary to check the  consumption of animal food ;  therefore
were various  animals considered sacred, and not allowed  to  be im-
molated for the use of the multitude ;  other animals were considered
noxious, and as such their use was forbidden.   Religion thus stamped
them with the irrevocable dye of holiness or corruption.   Mystic
characters were traced upon their remains.  The holiness of these
animals sometimes varied  in different  districts, and the ibis was
venerated where the serpent was  disregarded.   When we contem-
plate the thousands of crocodiles in the  caverns  of Samoun, the
myriads of the ibis in the desert of Hermopolis, Antinoe, Memphis,
—when We behold even  the eggs that were destined  to perpetuate
their race thus  preserved,—had not  these animals been  thus  res-
pected, they would have  become  the food of the inhabitants, and,
both from their  abundance  and their unwholesome qualities, have
added to the  frequent scourges that desolated the land.
  The priesthood of Egypt sought not their power  in terror, but
in affection and gratitude.  They  strove to convince the people that
they were their true friends and real  benefactors ; their sole study
was  their welfare, their greatest pride the  nation's prosperity.
Gratitude appeared to be the sentiment they most sought to incul-
cate.  The serpent was  held in  veneration, because  it destroyed
noxious vermin ; the ibis was respected from the same motive ; the
crocodile for  the protection it afforded their navigable waters ;  yet,
by one of those strange anomalies that we find in most mythological
reveries, animals were held  sacred,  although they constantly  des-
troyed other sacred creatures ; and  while  the crocodile was wor-
shipped, the ichneumons  that  destroyed its eggs were also entitled
to respect.   Here again we find that  this anomaly was unavoidable :
those myriads of animals, from the nature of the  climate and the
soil, would have increased to  such numbers as to overrun  the land.
What was to be done ?  Had  they been considered edible, most
unquestionably they would  have been devoured as food ; it therefore
became necessary to destroy and embalm  them :  this destruction
was no doubt inculcated  as  a religious duty ; otherwise, how should
we find, even to the present day, such  myriads of these  creatures,
preserved through the lapse of ages, with their very eggs,—another
proof that even their incubation was  checked.   Placed between the
desolate desert and the sea, numerous must have been the races of
animals who sought refuge  in this wondrous region ;  and, as Lagas-
quie observes, in the Necropolis of Alexandria  and Memphis, at
Arsinoe, Charaounah, Achmin, Beni-Hacan, Samoun, Hermopolis,
Thebes,  and in innumerable hypogean  monuments, we find the
remains  of thousands—nay of millions—of ibises, crocodiles, cats, 
MUMMIES.
363
rats, dogs, jackals, wolves, monkeys, serpents, nay, fishes of various
kinds.
  The Egyptian priests were wise.   The  moment the practice of
embalming the bodies of men and animals ceased, pestilence appear-
ed ;  and Dr. Pariset thus expresses himselfon this most interesting
subject: " At the  period when Christianity was introduced into
Egypt, the new religion  had to encounter  many obstacles in over-
coming the obstinate prejudices of the ancient creed.  During the
four first centuries of its propagation, the ancient customs were per-
severed in ; at last the cross triumphed and was enthroned, and the
practice of embalming was abolished.  In 356, St. Anthony, upon
his death-bed, anathematised it as sacrilegious : his last injunction,
according to  St. Athanasius, his  historian, had such an effect, that
an injudicious zeal prevailed in Rome, in Constantinople, and other
large cities, and led to the practice of inhuming bodies in churches
and cemetries, notwithstanding the prohibition of the magistracy."
While the dead were interred in towns, or their vicinity, in  dwell-
ing-houses and gardens, the remains of animals were scattered abroad
to become part of the soil, and thus this most dangerous innovation
hurried on the development of the most dangerous of diseases.   In
542, under Justinian, Egypt was avoided as the focus of pestilence.
It would be difficult to point out the  exact period when the custom
of embalming ceased ;  but it had ceased to be practised at the time
when  pestilence  burst  forth over the land  in  all its irresistible
horrors.   The  coincidence was too  remarkable not to have been
noticed.
  It is certainly true that the plague had visited Egypt at former
periods, recorded in holy writ, when we  know not to what extent
the preparation of mummies might have been carried, although we
find that Jacob was embalmed ; but when we consider the topography
of Egypt, presenting  a vast plain exposed to a yearly inundation,
its soil preserved for centuries from the admixture of animal sub-
stances, but of a sudden changed into a mass of corrupted bodies of
men and animals, acted upon  by heat and moisture,—when the in-
humation of man was neglected, and the offals of animals accumulated
in pestilential  heaps,—we  may  easily  imagine what a luxuriant
field was submitted to  the scythe of death.
  The Egyptians had no doubt, introduced the practice of embalm-
ing the dead from  Ethiopia, a country abounding in various gums,
which served them to preserve the remains of their relatives.  The
transparency of these  substances had  induced some  travellers to
assert that  the bodies were imbedded in glass, like insects found in
amber.  De Pau, and many other writers, have exposed the absur-
dity of such a report, since it is more than  probable that glass was
scarely, if  at all, known  amongst them.   The Persians enveloped
their dead  in wax ; and the Scythians sewed them up  in skins.
  While the foresight and wisdom of the Egyptian sacerdocy was
thus distinguished by Hygienic institutions, their interests were not
neglected ; and the art of embalming, which they monopolised with 
364         CURIOSITIES OF MEDICAL EXPERIENCE.
every other branch of learning, tended not a little to add to their
emoluments.  Every dead body was their property.  Herodotus tells
us, that if the corpse of an Egyptian, or a stranger, was found in the
Nile, or cast upon its banks, the  priests alone  had the power to
touch it, and  afford it a sepulture.  This interesting, although not
very veracious author, gives the following  account of the  process.
There are in Egypt a particular class of people whose sole business
consists in embalming bodies.  When a corpse is shown them, they
exhibit models of mummies depicted upon wood.  These models are
of three kinds, and vary in prices.   The bargain being concluded, the
embalmers commence their labours.  The brains are  first extracted
through the nose  with a  crooked  iron  instrument ;  an incision is
then made in the side of the body with a sharpened Ethiopian stone,
through which the viscera are drawn.  Theseare cleansed out, washed
in palm wine, and then strewed with pulverised aromatic substances.
The abdomen is stuffed with powdered myrrha, cinnamon, and other
perfumes,but without incense.  After these manipulations,thebody is
sewn up, and salted with natrum for seventy days. This period elapsed,
the corpse is again washed, and swaddled  up with rollers of linen
covered with gum, which the Egyptians commonly use instead of
glue.  The relations, after this operation, carry home the body, and
place it  in a wooden case resembling the human form ; afterwards
locking it up in  chambers  destined for the purpose,  and placing it
upright  against  the wall.  This  is  the most  expensive process.
The next  is more economical.  Syringes are filled with an unctuous
fluid, extracted from the cedar ; this liquor is  thrown  into the body
through an incision performed in the side, and is of such a  nature
that it gradually corrodes and destroys the viscera  : after the body
has been duly salted, nothing then remains but the bones and skin,
which this substance does not affect.
   Diodorus  Siculus gives an  account somewhat similar, but adds
some curious particulars.   The  first class of funerals cost a silver
talent ;  the second twenty minae ;  and the third  scarcely anything.
The embalmers divide their labours into various offices.  The first,
or the scrivener,  points  out the part of the body  on  the  left side
where the incision is to be made.  Thenextoperator istheincisor,who
uses for  the purpose a sharp Ethiopian pebble.  The viscera are then
drawn out, with the exception of  the  heart and kidneys ; and the
body is then washed with palm wine and aromatics.  The corpse is
afterwards inuncted with the gum of cedar, and strewed with myr-
rha, cinnamon, and various spices.   It is ultimately returned to the
family of  the deceased, in such preservation that the eyebrows and
eyelids are uninjured, and the countenance preserves the character
that distinguished it during life.
   Porphyrius informs us that the embalmers, after having extracted
the intestines, exposed them to the sun, putting up a prayer  to that
luminary, and declaring that if the deceased had ever been guiltv of
any act of gluttony, the intestines alone were guilty, and they were
therefore cast into the Nile.  Plutarch alludes to a similar ceremony. 
MUMMIES.
363
 The incisor appears to have been  considered a degraded being, for
 Diodorous tells us, that, after the operation, he was pursued by the
 relations of the defunct, and pelted with stones, as having polluted
 the remains of the dead.
   These accounts of the ancients have been warmly impugned by
 modern  antiquaries, who maintained  that the various substances
 stated to have been made  use of in the process of embalming, did
 not possess the qualities attributed to them,—especially the  liquor
 called  cedria, drawn from the  cedar-tree.  Rouyer, a  member of
 the Egyptian commission of sciences  and arts, corroborates in a
 great measure the accounts of ancient  historians ;  and, in a very
 interesting paper on  the subject,  we find that the bones of  the nose
 are destroyed in some mummies, but left intact in others,—a cir-
 cumstance that would lead us to think that on such occasions the
 brain was left in the cranium.   The opening  in  the  side did not
 appear to have been  sewn up, but the lips of the incision merely
 brought into apposition.   He divides mummies into those in  which
 tanno-balsamic substances had been introduced, and those  that had
 merely been salted.   The first  species were  found stuffed  either
 with aromatic resinous substances,  or asphaltum and pure bitumen.
 These resinous substances emitted no  odour, but, when east  into
 the fire, a thick smoke arise, and a strong aroma became  evident.
 The mummies thus preserved were light, dry, and fragile; preserved
 their  teeth, their hair, and eyebrows.  Some  of  them had been
 gilded all over ;  in others, the gold had only been applied  to the
 face, the hands and feet, and other  parts.   This practice of gilding
 was so general, that it does not warrant the belief that it was only
 the remains of the illustrious and wealthy that were thus ornamented.
 These mummies, so  long  as they were kept in a dry place, were
 unaltered ; but were soon decomposed, and emitted an  unpleasant
 effluvium, when exposed to atmospheric moisture.   The mummies
 thus prepared were of an olive colour, while  those preserved with
 bituminous  substances were of a reddish  tinge ;  the  integuments
 hard and shining, as  if varnished.   The features  were not altered,
 and the cavities were filled with a black, hard, and inodorous resinous
 substance.  The ingredients thus  employed  were similar  to the
 bitumen of Judaea ; most of them were gilded.
   Other mummies were found without any lateral incision,  when,
 most probably, the intestines were drawn  out through  the rectum,
 These cavities were filled  with the  substance termed by historians
 Pisasphaltas.  In the mummies merely cured with salt, when this
 ingredient is abundant, the features are obliterated, the surface of
 the body having  been smeared  with  bitumen.  These mummies,
 which of course are the remains  of the poorer classes, are the most
 common.   They are heavy, hard, and black, and shed an unpleasant
 odour.   They boast of no gilding ;  only the palms of the hands, the
 soles of the feet, and the  nails, had  frequently been decorated with
a red tinge; most probably by the application of the henne.   These 
366         CURIOSITIES OF MEDICAL EXPERIENCE.
were the mummies which were sold by the Arbs  in former times
for medicinal purposes.
  For a further description of the mode of enveloping the bodies, I
must refer to the valuable  labours of Mr. Pettigrew.  The process
of embalming appears to have  consisted simply in extracting the
viscera, or destroying them by some corrosive injection; dissolving
the mucous and fatty matter by the long application of natrum; and,
finally, in desiccating the corpse by exposure to air or stoving.
  Mummies have been also found in  the Canary islands, where
they were named by the Guanchi xaxos.   They were light, dry, of
a yellow  colour, shedding  a  slight aroma, and carefully enclosed in
goat-skins.   The  operation was also performed  with a sharpened
Ethiopian stone, called tabona.  Humboldt found numerous mum-
mies in Mexico, where desiccated  bodies  have not unfrequently
been seen in the open air.
  Certain soils appear  to  possess  a preservative quality, without
any apparent preparation having  been made use of.   In  the cata-
combs  of Bordeaux and Toulouse, these dried  bodies may be seen,
the hair and eyebrows still intact; but they are dark and shrivelled,
and it does  not appear that  the contents of the cavities had  been
extracted  or  heeded,—the  process of  desiccation being general.
The  miraculous conservation of bodies  recorded by Calmet in his
History of Vampires was  nothing more than instances of a similar
preservation.
  Various experiments have proved that the progress of chemistry
has been so  great, that  we might  equal the Egyptians  in the  pre-
paration of mummies, if ever such an absurd practice  were intro-
duced.
                    HYDROPHOBIA.

  This term has been erroneously applied  to  the  disease arising
from the bite of a rabid animal, since many instances are recorded
of mad dogs not only drinking freely of water and other fluids, but
actually swimming  across rivers ;  while,  on the other  hand, the
horror of water  has attended  maladies totally unconnected  with
rabid injuries :  Sauvages plainly expresses himself on  this subject.
" Apud  Gallo-provinciales,  experientia,  canes luposque  rabidos
bibisse, munducasse, flumen  transnasse, ut olim Maralogis et bis
Forolivii  observatum,  adeoque nee cibum  nee potum  aversari."
Dr. James relates the case of a  mad dog that drank both milk and
water,  and swam through a pond.  Similar cases are  related  of
mankind.
  This disease was  known to the ancients, and the  Greek term for
rabies was lyssa, referred to several times  by Homer, when Hector
is compared to  a mad  dog  by  Teucer and  Ulysses.   It was also 
HYDROPHOBIA.
367
 known by the name of cynolisson,phobodipson, and hygrophobia.
 According to Plutarch, the disease was first observed in the time of
 Asclepiades.   Ccelius Aurelianus is the most correct of the ancient
 writers on the  subject.   This disease, although  it may appear in
 every climate, is far less common in hot regions than in those of a
 moderate temperature.  In the West Indies  it is unknown ; nor has
 it been observed in South  America.  In Egypt and Syria it has
 never been observed.  Mr. Barrow informs  us that at the Cape of
 Good Hope, and amongst the  Caffres, their  dogs  are exempt from
 the malady, although constantly fed upon  putrid meat.
  Water-dread has been observed in various  rheumatic and inflam-
 matory affections, and frequently arises in a  spontaneous manner ;
 while many cases  are  recorded  of  the alarming  symptoms being
 witnessed when no rabid bite has been inflicted.   Violent passions,
 both in men and animals, seem to impart a peculiar acrimony to the
 saliva.   Meekren,  Wolff,  Zacutus  Lusitanus,  mention  fatal  cases
 after the bite of a man in a passionate fit.   Le Cat gives a case of
 death produced by the bite of an  enraged  duck.   Thiermayer gives
 us two fatal cases of  the bite of a hen  and a  goose, and Camararius
 has an instance of epilepsy produced by the bite of a horse.
  Of the cause of this disease we are utterly ignorant: thirst, with-
 out the  means of quenching  it,—the use of putrid food,—sultry
 weather, have been  considered  as producing the fearful disorder ;
 but no one instance is  recorded  that can justify the opinion.  The
 streets of Lisbon are crowded with dogs, feeding upon  disgusting
 offal, under a  burning sky, yet  rabies is scarcely ever observed
 among them.   It is more  probable  that  certain mental  emotions,
 such as anger and fear, have a peculiar influence on the animal.   AU
 the aggregate symptoms of the disease show that the nervous system
 is disturbed ;  and the singular  effect of  confidence in the treatment
 of persons bitten by a rabid  animal, confirms the fact.  This is
 further proved by many cases of  hydrophobia unconnected  with
 rabid bites.  Marcel Donat relates  the case of a woman who  com-
 plained of pains in the  neck and  right arm, with constant trembling.
 In three days the pain ceased, but the tremor continued ; a sense of
 suffocation followed, which was attended with a horror of water and
 every liquid, although the throat was burning.  In five days she
 died in excruciating agonies, but preserving her senses  until the
 last.   Koehler saw a young soldier, who, having fallen asleep against
 a stove, was suddenly awakened  with  a sensation of intense thirst,
 which  he  quenched  with  a draught of  cold  water.   Hydro-
phobia immediately ensued, and  the next day  terminated  his ex-
istence.   Selig  relates the case of a man at  Neukirchen, who was
 attacked with all the alarming symptoms of this malady after having
laboured in the fields on  a very hot  day, and bathed in the river.
The following day he  was affected  with  violent  rheumatic pains,
which shortly ushered in  an  intolerance  of  fluids, and  inability of
swallowing.  In the  course of  twenty-four  hours he expired.  It
appeared upon inquiry that a year before he had purchased from the 
368         CURIOSITIES OF MEDICAL EXPERIENCE.
hangman of the  town some dog's grease, to rub himself to relieve
some troublesome affection; and it was stated that the dog had been
killed by a gamekeeper, who suspected him of being mad.
  Cases of plague* have been  attended  with water-dread.  Lalius
Diversus saw a women labouring under the epidemic, who was
thrown  into  agonies when  she even saw other  persons  drinking.
Sarcotius, in his  history of the  epidemic diseases  of Naples, informs
us that the  fever was invariably attended with hydrophobic symp-
toms.  The fever that prevailed at Breslau  in  1719, presented the
same peculiarity.
  Various venomous substances have also been known to give rise
to this disease.   Professor Brera,  of Pavia, witnessed it after the use
of stramonium.   Rancid oils  have caused similar accidents.  In
regard to the causes that produced madness in dogs, various experi-
ments  have been  made, particularly in  the Veterinary School of
Alfort: one  dog was fed with salted meat, and totally restrained
from drinking ;  another was allowed  nothing but water ; and the
third was not allowed food or drink of any kind.  The first died on
the forty-first day ; the second on the  thirty-third ; and the  third
on the twenty-fifth ; not one  of  them  evincing any symptoms of
rabies.
  It appears that a peculiar predisposition renders some individuals
more subject to the accidents that follow the bite of rabid animals
than others.  Mr.  Hunter gives an instance in which, out of twenty
persons who were bitten by the  same  dog, only one  received the
disease.  It appears, however,  that this virus is less  volatile than
most others, and is capable  of  remaining in a dormant  state for a
very long period ; and if we are to give credence  to many reports
on the subject, it may linger in the system for several years.  At
other times, its destructive nature has proved immediately injurious.
  Heisler has given a case where a man was  affected  by merely
putting into his mouth the cord by which the mad dog  had been
confined.   Palmarius relates the case of a peasant, who, in the last
stage of the disease, communicated  it  to his children  by kissing
them.   It has, however been clearly demonstrated, that inoculation
of rabia saliva does not propagate the distemper.   Experiments were
made both by Magendie and Breschet  in 1813.   In 1798, when  a
pupil in the Hotel Dieu of Paris,  1 witnessed several experiments of
the kind, and with similar results. At the same period, I had oc-
casion to observe the effect of imagination in these cases.  Several
persons had been bitten by a rabid dog in the Faubourg St. Antoine,
and three of them had died in our wards : a report, however, was
prevalent, that we kept a mixture that would effectually prevent
these accidents ; no less than six applicants were served with a
draught of coloured water, and in no one instance  did any accident
ensue.
   The period of the development of the accidents after  the bite in
animals is various.   Acording  to Meynall, the disease appears
amongst dogs from ten days to eight  months  after the injury.   In 
HYDROPHOBIA.                    369
the hounds of Earl Fitzwilliam, who were bitten in June 1791, the
intervals varied from six weeks to six months.   Dr. James made a
similar observation in Mr. Floyer's pack.
  No malady has been submitted to more curious and fearful modes
of treatment than hydrophobia ; and in many cases, such has been
the dread  of the disease, that patients  have  been smothered or
drowned.   Dioscorides  seared the wound with  irons heated to
whiteness ; other practitioners first excised the wounded part, and
then applied fire or caustic.   While fire was resorted to  by some
practitioners, water was recommended by others, and submersion in
a river or  a pond has frequently been  urged as an effectual remedy.
In the time of Celsus, the miserable  sufferer was  thrown without
any warning into a fish-pond, alternately plunging  his head under
water and raising it ; when  the poor wretch could swim, he was
forcibly kept immersed until filled with  water.   After this experi-
ment, which Celsus terms the unicum remedium, for fear that the
patient  might be attacked with convulsions, he was taken out of
the pond, and soused in warm oil.  Van Helmont recommended that
the poor devil should be kept under water while the psalm Miserere
was sung, and most probably the terrified choristers were  not  ex-
peditious in their performance.  Morin relates  the case of a young
woman, twenty years old, who was  plunged  in a tub of water,
with a bushel of salt dissolved in it, and dipped repeatedly, until she
became insensible; however, much to the surprise of the by-standers,
who thought her dead, she recovered, and couldj«pt only look upon
water, but was able to drink it.  Bleeding nearly^tb death, mercury,
cantharides, and various medicines, have been also  called into aid ;
but none have appeared to prove effectual in curing this dreadful
disorder.  One of the most singular  modes of treatment was  the
introduction of rabid  blood into the system of the patient,—in fact,
a homoeopathic plan of Dr. Rithmeister  of Powlowsk, in Finland,
who has recorded several cases to prove  that the blood of a rabid
animal, when drunk, is a  specific against canine hydrophobia.   The
doctor communicates a letter from Dr. Stockmann, a Russian phy-
sician, stating this practice  to be both  common  and effectual in
White Russia.
  With a  view of producing a fresh poisonous action that might neu-
tralise the former one, it  has also been proposed that a venomous
serpent should be made to inflict a wound under the bite of the mad
dog.  I do not believe that this experiment has ever been tried ;
and, as Good observes, the claim of ingenuity is, most probably, the
only one it will ever have  to receive.   This fatal disease is enveloped
in so much darkness, both as regards  its  causes and its treatment,
that it may well be considered one of  the opprobriums of the  pro-
fession.  The experiments of my late friend Sir David Barry are,
however,  of  great importance ; and in  many cases of poisonous
wounds, the application  of cupping-glasses has been  followed by
evident favourable results. 
370         CURIOSITIES OF MEDICAL EXPERIENCE.

  To ascertain the existence of rabies in animals, more especially in
dogs, is a matter of great importance, as being frequently the source
of moral depression or of sanguine hope, that may tend to  increase
or diminish the severity of the accidents ; one may apprehend mad-
ness in a dog when we see the animal dull, and seeking solitude and
darkness, his sleep disturbed, and when awakened refusing food or
drink.  Its head droops, the tail hangs between the legs.   The ani-
mal soon quits the abode of his  master, the mouth secreting a viscid
foam, the tongue pendulous and dry, the eyes bright and sparkling.
His gait soon becomes uncertain ; now precipitate, then slow and un-
decided.  Impatient, and parched with a burning thirst, he cannot
rest;  and the sight of any fluid occasions an instinctive shudder.  The
rabid symptoms now become more violent; the animal will attack and
bite other dogs, although much superior in strength.   It is asserted
that dogs  avoid  him with terror.   On these occasions the fury of
the animal is not to be controlled ;  all ties of attachment are dis-
solved ; and  his master  is but too frequently the first victim of his
indiscriminale rage.  Hence the absurd  popular notion  that mad
dogs inflict their first bite on those  to whom  they are attached,—a
circumstance that simply can be attributed to the natural endeavours
of a  master to check the violence of a domestic creature whom he
generally  can control:  mad dogs  seldom bark, but express their
angry uneasiness with a  growl, which gradually becomes weaker,
until the animal staggers, droops, and dies.  Yet, as there may exist
many maladies amcmgst animals in which these symptoms are  ob-
served,—to destroy them, as is  usually the case,  is a most absurd
practice, since the individuals whom they may have bitten will sink
into a fatal  despondency ;  whereas, by  allowing them to live, if
they recover, it is evident that  the patient will  be easily persuaded
that the dog  was not in  a rabid state.
  The  following cases  recorded by Dr. Perceval, are curious in-
stances of the dormant state of this fearful virus, the effects of  which
are accidentally developed.
  A  wine-porter was labouring under a low fever : after a time
appeared some symptoms of hydrophobia, and much inquiry elicited
the recollection of his having been slightly bitten by a dog six weeks
before.  In the interval he was  convicted of some fraudulent prac-
tice in the cellar  of his master, to whom he owed great obligation,
and  was dismissed with disgrace. Anxiety on this event seemed to
produce the fever, which terminated in lyssa.
  Lately  an  officer was bitten by a dog, whose madness being re-
cognised, the bitten part was excised immediately :  after an  undis-
turbed interval of two months, he was advised to go to England to
dissipate the recollection of the accident   There he exercised him-
self violently in hewing wood, felt pain in the hand which had been
bitten, embarked for Ireland, had symptoms of hydrophobia on
board the packet, and died  soon after his arrival.  From  the vary-
ing  period of attack, we might infer that  the influence of occa- 
HYDROPHOBIA.
371
sional  causes  is  very considerable.  In the  last patient, hydro-
phobia supervened exactly five  weeks from the time of the bite ;
he  lost one  hundred and  twenty ounces  of blood  in twelve
hours, which sunk him much ;  violent perspiration, and at length
delirium,  attended  the water-dread ;  during the last twenty-four
hours he swallowed, and recovered his senses ; and died slightly
convulsed, whilst cutting an  egg.   These cases seem to point out
agitation of  mind and feverish  excitation  as powerful occasional
causes.
  Herman Strahl has recently related the following case of rabies
in which the dog that had bitten  the patient was not mad.  In the
month of January 1833,  an inn-keeper was taken ill.  The doctor
found him dressed and stretched upon  his  bed.  He did not com-
plain of any particular ailment, but loathed all food.  He at last
admitted that  he experienced some difficulty in swallowing ; and
his  mother  having offered him a cup  of tea, he refused it with a
sense of horror, and his countenance immediately assumed a charac-
ter  of ferocity that terrified the by-standers.  An apple having been
given to  him, he ate it with repugnance.  It was now  discovered
that, five weeks before, he had been bitten by a dog he was  training,
and the wound was slow  in healing.  The dog was sought, and did
not show the slightest sign of disease,—barking, playing, and drink-
ing freely.  In the evening the patient's case was aggravated ; and
it was with the  utmost difficulty that he was  made to swallow a
spoonful  of ptisan.   The next  day he  was seized with a violent
attack of  rabies  : seeing  one  of his sisters drinking he fell into a
furious rage, dashed  a looking-glass to  pieces, and entreated  his
relatives  to withdraw, as  he otherwise  would inevitably bite them.
This outrageous paroxysm lasted half an hour ; at its expiration he
fell into a tranquil sleep.   But at night  he was seized with another
attack ; and he began to howl and imitate the barking of a  dog, and
commenced breakingevery thing in the room of a shining appearance.
His sisters fled in dismay ; but he  seized his mother, a woman of
sixty-five years of age, cast  her on the  ground, and  bit her in the
cheek.  After this desperate act, he seemed to be struck with a con-
viction of what he had done, and became more tranquil ; but half an
hour after, on entering his chamber, he  was  found  dead,  his head
under the bed-clothes.  His mother did not experience any accidents
from the injury.
  It is singular  that,  in  this  miserable condition, the patients will
frequently show  singular partialities ;  and, although repulsing any
fluid offered to them by some individuals, will  take it from others,
and attempt, however vainly, to drink.   In the Hotel Dieu of Paris,
a young girl, affected with hydrophobia, would only take a cup of
ptisan from me ; but with looks of inexpressible anxiety returned it
to me, after  having  struggled to  moisten  her burning lips.   At
Boulogne, a postilion, bitten by a mad dog, was violent with everyone
but one of my nephews : from him he also accepted drink, although 
372         CURIOSITIES OF MEDICAL EXPERIENCE.
unable to swallow it;  before dying, in excruciating agonies, he re-
peatedly asked for him, and begged that he might be sent for.   He
would  not  allow, even in  his last  moments, any other  person  to
come near him ;—another striking instance of that unknown power
of sympathy to which  I have frequently alluded in the preceding
pages.
THE  END. 
"s-ji'-'v ;-^"   ■»**'■
.-V**l

2 v- 'Vi-A,