[49]. This mineral derives its name from the ancient belief that it was found in the nest of the eagle. It is a variety of iron ore.
[50]. ‘Chrysost. Magneni Exercit. de Tabaco.’
[51]. For a further account of this conceit, see Crollius, in a work appended to his “Basilica Chymica,” entitled, ‘De Signaturis internis rerum, seu de vera et viva Anatomia majoris et minoris mundi.’
[52]. In various black-letter works on Dæmonology we are assured that three scruples of the ashes of the witch, when she has been well and carefully burnt at a stake, is a sure Catholicon against all the evil effects of Witchcraft! The popular author of Waverley alludes to this superstition in his Abbot.
[53]. Massaria, a learned Professor of Pavia in the sixteenth century, absolutely declares that he would rather err with Galen than be in the right with any other physician!
[54]. This practice of Bishop Berkeley has been ridiculed with great point and effect, in a pamphlet entitled ‘A cure for the Epidemical Madness of drinking Tar Water,’ by Mr. Reeve; in which, addressing the Bishop, he says, “thus, in your younger days, my Lord, you made the surprising discovery of the unreality of matter, and now in your riper age, you have undertaken to prove the reality of a universal remedy; an attempt to talk men out of their reason, did of right, belong to that author who had first tried to persuade them out of their senses.” Tar water was also at one period considered to possess very considerable efficacy in Syphylis.
[55]. The Euphrasia Officinalis, or Eye-bright, which is indebted for its celebrity to the doctrine of Signatures, as before stated, is actually employed at this time in cases of dimness of sight. See a Paper upon the efficacy of this plant by Dr. Jackson, in the London Medical and Physical Journal, vol. 23, p. 104.
[56]. Its rejection was proposed by the late Dr. Heberden, and upon the College dividing on the question, there were found to be thirteen votes for retaining, and fourteen for rejecting it.
[57]. This preparation consists of 72 ingredients, which are arranged under 13 heads—viz. Acria, of which there are 5 species. Amara, of which there are 8. Styptica vulgo Astringentia, 5 in number. Aromatica Exotica, 14. Aromatica Indigena, 10. Aromatica ex Umbelliferis, 7. Resinosa et Balsama, 8. Grave-Olentia, 6. Virosa, seu quæ Narcosin inducunt, under which head there is but one species, viz. Opium. Terrea Insipida et Inertia; this comprises only the Lemnian Earth. Gummosa, Amylacea, &c. 4 species. Dulcia, liquorice and honey. Vinum, Spanish.
Upon no principle of combination can this heterogeneous farrago be vindicated. It has, however, enjoyed the confidence of physicians for many ages, and is therefore entitled to some notice. It was supposed to have been invented by Mithridates, the famous king of Pontus, the receipt for which was said to have been found among his papers after his defeat by Pompey, at which time it was published in Rome under the title of ‘Antidotum Mithridatum;’ but the probability is, says Dr. Heberden, that Mithridates was as much a stranger to his own antidote as several eminent physicians have since been to the medicines that are daily advertised under their names. It was asserted, that whoever took a proper quantity in the morning, was insured from poison during the whole of that day, (Galen de Antidot. Lib. 1.) and it was further stated, that Mithridates himself was so fortified against all baneful drugs, that none would produce any effect when he attempted to destroy himself. (Celsus, lib. 5. c. 23.) In the course of ages it has undergone numerous alterations. According to Celsus, who first described it, it contained only 35 simples; Andromachus, Physician to Nero, added vipers, and increased the number of ingredients to 75; and when thus reformed, he called it γαλήνη—but in Trajan’s time it obtained the name of Theriaca, either from the vipers in it, or from its supposed effect in curing the bites of venomous animals. Damocrates gave a receipt for it in Greek Iambics, which has been preserved by Galen. It appears then that its composition has hardly remained the same for a hundred years; it is, says Dr. Heberden, a farrago, that has no better title to the name of Mithridates than, as it so well resembles, the numerous undisciplined forces of a barbarous king, made up of a dissonant crowd collected from different countries, mighty in appearance, but in reality, an ineffective multitude, that only hinder each other. ANTIOPIAKA, by W. Heberden, M. D. 1745.