Orfila (1787-1853), one of the most eminent men of the French school of medicine, founded modern toxicology, the science of poisons. His fame chiefly rests on his Treatise of General Toxicology (1814), which is a vast mine of experimental research on the symptoms of every kind of poisoning.
Sir William Hyde Woolaston, M.D. (1766-1828), was a distinguished philosopher and chemist. One of his great discoveries was the malleability of platinum, which is said to have produced him no less than thirty thousand pounds. He was even more famous as a student of ophthalmology than as a chemist.
Michael Faraday (1791-1867) was the great chemist, whose glory in chemical science was overshadowed by his electrical discoveries.
Justus von Liebig (1803-1873) influenced the history of chemistry by his successful efforts to spread the knowledge of the science by improving the methods of investigation, and above all by the application of chemistry to physiology, agriculture, and the arts.
Electricians.
The history of electricity has an important bearing on that of medicine. It will be necessary at least to indicate the chief points in its progress. Gilbert published a treatise on the magnet in 1600. He speaks of magnetic phenomena, and the extravagant stories circulated about the attraction of magnets and amber by persons who gave no reason from experiment. He distinguished magnetic from electric forces,[1027] and it is to him that we owe the term “electric” itself.[1028]
Boyle repeated the experiments of Gilbert, but seems to have made no discoveries. Otto Guericke, of Magdeburg, next discovered that there is electric force of repulsion as well as of attraction. Hawksbee, in his Physico-Mechanical Experiments, 1709, observed the effects of attraction and repulsion on threads hanging loosely. Dufay, in 1733, 1734, and 1737, observed that electric bodies attract all those that are not so, and repel them as soon as they are become electric by the vicinity or contact of the electric body. In 1729, Grey discovered the properties of conductors.
Franklin distinguished between positive and negative electricity in 1747, and demonstrated the identity of the electric spark and lightning in 1752. Galvani in 1791 laid the foundation of the Galvanic Battery. Volta discovered the “Voltaic pile” in 1800. Henceforward year by year the science progressed by leaps and bounds. The use of the magnet in medicine was known to Aetius, who lived A.D. 500. He says: “We are assured that those who are troubled with the gout in their hands or their feet, or with convulsions, find relief when they hold a magnet in their hand.” Beckmann says[1029] this is the oldest account of this virtue of the magnet. The more ancient writers refer only to its internal uses. Lessing ascribes the external use of the magnet as a cure for toothache and other disorders to Paracelsus. Marcellus in the fifteenth century assures us that the magnet cures toothache, as also does Leonard Camillus in the sixteenth century. Wecker about the same period says it cures headache. Porta (1591) confirms this, and Kircher (1643) states that it was worn about the neck to prevent convulsions and nervous disorders. Magnetic toothpicks and ear-pickers were extolled as cures for disorders of the teeth, ears, and eyes about the end of the seventeenth century.[1030]
Anthropology.
Joh. F. Blumenbach (1752-1840), professor in Göttingen, was the founder of Anthropology. He collected a great museum of skulls, and was famous as a comparative anatomist. He wrote on physiology, anatomy, and natural history.