[150]. Pharmacologia, Edit. v. vol. I. p. 324.
[151]. See Medical Facts and Observations, Vol. v.
[152]. See M. Pouqueville’s “Voyage de Morée,” also Mr. Thornton’s Travels; and Notes to Lord Byron’s Childe Harold’s Pilgrimage.
[153]. M. R. S. T. iv. Part iii, p. 278.
[154]. For the purpose of propitiating the favour of heaven, the alchymist stamped the figure of the cross upon the vessel, in which he expected to obtain the long sought prize that was to convert the baser metals into gold, whence the term Crucible derived its origin. And when the experiments of chemistry began to be considered as the true tests of philosophical truth, the expression of “Experimentum crucis” was adopted to signify the highest degree of proof of which a subject is susceptible.
[155]. Sydenham considered the occurrence of cholera, as a disease in England, to be confined to the month of August, at which time, says he, it appears as certainly as swallows in the early spring, or cuckows at the approach of summer; but he himself observed it to appear sometimes towards the end of summer, when the season was unusually warm; and that the violence of the disease was in proportion to the degree of heat. Note. Mrs. Downing died in November, and Miss Burns, whose case is so frequently alluded to in this work, in March.
[156]. Youths and adults are more generally affected than children and old persons.
[157]. Sydenham describing the violent symptoms of cholera concludes by observing, “and such like symptoms as frighten the by-standers, and kill the patient in 24 hours.” Syd. Sect. iv, c. 2. It must be remembered that Sydenham is here describing an extreme case. The unfortunate Mrs. Downing (see Appendix, p. 277) died in fourteen hours!
[158]. See the case of Mr. Robert Turner, poisoned by Eliz. Fenning, as related by Mr. Marshall.
[159]. See Baillie’s Morbid Anatomy.