We learn also from Sennertus, that the older Surgeons had recourse to prayers and magic for the extraction of foreign bodies from wounds; a very interesting summary of their superstitions, and peculiar notions concerning wounds, will be found in this author, under the head, “De Rebus alienis e vulnere eximendis.” Lib. v. Pars, iv. Practicæ Medicinæ.
[32]. The reader will find this subject treated more fully in the Introduction to our work on “Medical Jurisprudence.”
[33]. See a Tour through England, by Dr. Nemnich of Hamburgh.
[34]. Nostrum, (our own.) This word, as its original meaning implies, is very significant of this characteristic attribute of quackery. See the note under the article ‘Liquor Opii Sedativus.’
[35]. Aristides was the dupe and victim of the Asclepiades for ten successive years; he was alternately purged, vomited, and blistered; made to walk bare-footed, under a burning sun in summer, and in winter he was doomed to seek for the return of health, by bathing his feeble and emaciated body in the river. All this severity, he was made to believe, was exercised towards him by the express directions of Esculapius himself, with whom he was persuaded to fancy that he conversed in his dreams, and frequently beheld in nocturnal visions. Upon one occasion, the god, fatigued with the importunities of his votary, ordered him to lose 120 lbs. of blood; the unhappy man not having so much in his body, wisely took the liberty of interpreting the oracle in his own way, and parted with no more than he could conveniently spare.
[36]. As we are here investigating the follies of Physic, it will not be foreign to the subject to state, that the above observation may with as much truth and force be applied to medical writings as to medical substances. Nothing is more fatal to the permanent success and character of an author, than the extravagant and unmerited encomiums of time-serving reviewers. It would be invidious to illustrate this truth by examples, or we might adduce some striking instances where the inappropriate wreath has strangled the object which it was intended to adorn. It is a matter of deep regret that the Magnates of our profession do not combine in supporting a respectable medical Review.—‘Manus Apolline dignum.’
[37]. This theory is still cherished in the preservation of the formula for Pilulæ Opiatæ, in the Edinburgh Pharmacopœia.
[38]. The practice of this physician does not appear to have been very successful, if we may credit Juvenal.—
“Quot Themison ægros autumno occiderit uno.”
[39]. See ‘An Experimental Enquiry into the effects of Tonics, and other Medicines, on the cohesion of the Animal fibre.’ By Dr. Crawford.