But the inaccuracy betrayed in the directions given with the powder, is sufficient to put us on our guard. The best general and plain direction, we are told, is to repeat half a paper, or ten grains and a half of the powder once in six hours[92], but in South America they seldom give less than twenty, which the Inventor thinks right[93], yet when it fell under the direction of the navy-surgeons, the general rule which was avowedly intended, and is still continued, for the common people, was found to be fraught with danger, and the Inventor admits that it has been necessary to reduce the dose so low as two or three grains[94], thereby acknowledging the best plain general direction, to be a very improper one for the common people, since no good reason can be assigned, why ten or twenty-one grains should be given by those who have no medical skill, though it is judged necessary to warn others, who may be supposed capable of conducting its operation, and detecting and counteracting its pernicious effects, of the necessity of reducing it, in some cases, to two or three grains. The only solution of this parodox, is, there is one faith for the learned, and another for the unlearned.
But not to insist on the contradictions abounding in this dissertation, one more only shall be mentioned. No addition, it has been said, can be made to this medicine, by which its virtues will not be diminished, and that assertion has again been retracted; but as one affirmation is as good as another, that there may be no doubt which is to be credited, the Inventor being extremely cautious of leading any one into error in an affair of so much importance as is that of life, thinks it imprudent to neglect repeated bleeding, purges, clysters, and all other assistances which the art of medicine can afford[95], and is obliged to own, that, as he esteemed life too sacred to be hazarded for the sake of an experiment, he had never neglected to call in all other medical aids to his assistance when he thought the case required them, and believed they would of service[96]. But though he is extremely cautious, and though life is too sacred to be hazarded, yet the experiment of using the powder without any addition or aid, is still to be tried throughout the whole British dominions, and in other parts of the world, where our commerce has conveyed it[97], excepting by the Inventor and the Navy Surgeons, who being persons versed in practice will readily distinguish when the rules laid down are punctually to be followed and when not[98].
The real motives assigned for these contradictions and this mysterious conduct, waving whatever artifices might be employed by way of palliation or disguise, are represented without reserve, and with that sincerity which will stand the strictest scrutiny. The Inventor was very cautious of divulging a medicine of such vast importance, because if it failed of success, it would subject him to infinite reproach. He was so ignorant as to expect assistance and applause from every one concerned in any branch of physic, not considering that a miliary or nervous fever of twenty days continuance, was attended with greater emoluments than one that terminated in two or three. But he had soon an opportunity of discovering his error, for some became his avowed enemies, without the least pretence to any provocation; whilst others, with the countenance of friendship, pointed a dagger to his breast[99], and therefore, after a contest between simplicity and caution, ignorance and shrewdness, the unsuspecting Inventor thought it time prudently to consult his own interest, and the advancement of his private fortune, by securing to himself the exclusive privilege, and putting it out of the power of others to disguise, misrepresent, deny, or forge facts[100].
Thus, from the parade, ostentation, and mysterious secrecy, with which this medicine has been published, from its resemblance to the Berlin specific febrifuge, from its being prepared from an arsenical mineral, and easily converted into a noxious substance; from the difficulty of ascertaining the dose, and conducting its operation, and from the necessity of calling in other medical aids to its assistance; from the incompetency of the generality of the witnesses in its favour; from the unfair conclusions drawn from their testimony; from the dangerous symptoms and fatal consequences, which have followed its administration; from the inaccuracy and inconsistency of its Inventor; and from the increase of the bills of mortality during its general use, it appears, not only, that no proof of its salutary efficacy has been produced, but that many circumstances and facts, which have been perverted to that purpose, concur to demonstrate its general and indiscriminate application to be highly dangerous to mankind, to whom, to borrow the language of the Inventor, it is not material, whether they lose their lives by ignorance, mistake, or design.
FOOTNOTES
[1] Prelati enim, et fratres, me jejuniis macerantes tuto custodiebant, nec aliquem ad me venire voluerant, veriti ne scripta mea, aliis quam summo pontifici et sibi ipsis pervenirent. Epistola Rogeri Bacon ad Clement. IV.
[2] Triumphal Chariot of Antimony.
[3] Id. p. 3, and p. 118.
[4] Paracelsus.