Thus we have given a detail of this memorable case; wherein we see, that six drachms of one of the most poisonous vegetables that the world produces actually cured a woman, whom the most able physicians had given up as incurable; and who must otherwise have finished her miserable days in the most deplorable sufferings.
It must not be omitted, that notwithstanding the daily use this woman made of the Bella-donna, she was not accustomed to it in the manner as people are who take opium. Dr. Lambergen always prepared the infusion himself, and never had occasion to make it stronger than at the first, as the patient always found the like effects from the same dose.
So singular and happy an event, as attended Dr. Lambergen's administration of this plant, certainly merits the attention of the medical profession; and surely, one may add, entitles the medicine to future trials. And as the authenticity of the case will not be disputed, it is therefore greatly to be wished, that those gentlemen, who belong to the public hospitals, and others that have frequent opportunities of attending patients labouring under this deplorable disease, would give it a further trial. A cancer, even in its latent, but much more in an ulcerated state, is allowedly one of the most terrible and formidable disorders to which human nature is liable; and hath long been ranged, very justly, among the opprobria medicorum, instances of a radical cure being rarely met with: indeed, one of the first physicians[27] of our age tells us, that it is not known to have been cured at all, but by a total extirpation of the part; and all, who are conversant in physic and surgery, know very well, that that operation is frequently no security against its return.
I have here endeavoured, in as concise a manner as might be, to exhibit the history of this extraordinary plant. The being able barely to know and distinguish one plant from another, however praise-worthy in itself, ought not to be the only view of our botanical researches: we should do more, and endeavour to investigate, in the most attentive manner, the properties of vegetable productions, in order to accomodate them to the various exigencies of human life.
Several classes of vegetables, from their merely herbaceous taste, and, as far as we can conjecture, from their other sensible qualities, seem to be formed by the great Author of nature principally for the nourishment of animals: but those plants, which are endued with principles so highly active, as, when taken in small quantities, to be able to put an end to animal life; such deserve to be more minutely inquired into, as under certain circumstances these principles, properly directed, may conduce to great and good ends. We should endeavour, therefore, diligently to inform ourselves, in what quantities, and under what circumstances, the poison ends, and where the medicine begins. In this respect we have certainly a notable instance in the history before us in Professor Lambergen; whose industry, more especially as it was attended with success, merits our greatest acknowlegements; inasmuch as he has informed us, with no small degree of accuracy and precision, that the plant under consideration, which is well known to be of a highly deleterious nature, and that even in a small quantity, may be so managed, as to be productive of good effects, not to be found possibly by any other means.
Some of the most efficacious medicines are such, as, being posssessed of highly active principles, do greatly disturb the animal œconomy in their operation: nevertheless, however rough the modus operandi of any medicine be, if its efficacy by repeated trials be approved and confirmed, this is so far from proving a discouragement to its use, that we ought to regard the discovery of such a one as a valuable acquisition to the province of physic, especially if it is applicable in desperate and obstinate cases. The Bella-donna, on the contrary, supposing future trials should prove it as happily successful as Professor Lambergen has experienced it, is a medicine of a different kind; inasmuch as its operation is mild, when compared with that, which attends the exhibition of many others: we should therefore have double reason to rejoice at the discovery.
XIII. An Account of some of the Antiquities discovered at Herculaneum, &c. In a Letter to Thomas Birch, D.D. Secret. R.S. By John Nixon, A.M. F.R.S.
Reverend Sir,
Read Feb. 24, 1757.