He had practised his profession with a good local reputation for many
years, when he fell upon a course of experiments, as it is related,
which led to his great discovery. He conceived the idea that metallic
substances might have the effect of removing diseases, if applied in
a certain manner; a notion probably suggested by the then recent
experiments of Galvani, in which muscular contractions were found to be
produced by the contact of two metals with the living fibre. It was in
1796 that his discovery was promulgated in the shape of the Metallic
Tractors, two pieces of metal, one apparently iron and the other brass,
about three inches long, blunt at one end and pointed at the other.
These instruments were applied for the cure of different complaints,
such as rheumatism, local pains, inflammations, and even tumors, by
drawing them over the affected part very lightly for about twenty
minutes. Dr. Perkins took out a patent for his discovery, and travelled
about the country to diffuse the new practice. He soon found numerous
advocates of his discovery, many of them of high standing and influence.
In the year 1798 the tractors had crossed the Atlantic, and were
publicly employed in the Royal Hospital at Copenhagen. About the same
time the son of the inventor, Mr. Benjamin Douglass Perkins, carried
them to London, where they soon attracted attention. The Danish
physicians published an account of their cases, containing numerous
instances of alleged success, in a respectable octavo volume. In the
year 1804 an establishment, honored with the name of the Perkinean
Institution, was founded in London. The transactions of this institution
were published in pamphlets, the Perkinean Society had public dinners
at the Crown and Anchor, and a poet celebrated their medical triumph in
strains like these:
“See, pointed metals, blest with power t' appease
The ruthless rage of merciless disease,
O'er the frail part a subtle fluid pour,
Drenched with invisible Galvanic shower,
Till the arthritic staff and crutch forego,
And leap exulting like the bounding roe!”
While all these things were going on, Mr. Benjamin Douglass Perkins was
calmly pocketing money, so that after some half a dozen years he left
the country with more than ten thousand pounds, which had been paid him
by the believers in Great Britain. But in spite of all this success, and
the number of those interested and committed in its behalf, Perkinism
soon began to decline, and in 1811 the Tractors are spoken of by an
intelligent writer as being almost forgotten. Such was the origin and
duration of this doctrine and practice, into the history of which we
will now look a little more narrowly.
Let us see, then, by whose agency this delusion was established and kept
up; whether it was principally by those who were accustomed to medical
pursuits, or those whose habits and modes of reasoning were different;
whether it was with the approbation of those learned bodies usually
supposed to take an interest in scientific discoveries, or only of
individuals whose claims to distinction were founded upon their position
in society, or political station, or literary eminence; whether the
judicious or excitable classes entered most deeply into it; whether, in
short, the scientific men of that time were deceived, or only intruded
upon, and shouted down for the moment by persons who had no particular
call to invade their precincts.
Not much, perhaps, was to be expected of the Medical Profession in the
way of encouragement. One Dr. Fuller, who wrote in England, himself
a Perkinist, thus expressed his opinion: “It must be an extraordinary
exertion of virtue and humanity for a medical man, whose livelihood
depends either on the sale of drugs, or on receiving a guinea for
writing a prescription, which must relate to those drugs, to say to
his patient, 'You had better purchase a set of Tractors to keep in your
family; they will cure you without the expense of my attendance, or the
danger of the common medical practice.' For very obvious reasons medical
men must never be expected to recommend the use of Perkinism. The
Tractors must trust for their patronage to the enlightened and
philanthropic out of the profession, or to medical men retired from
practice, and who know of no other interest than the luxury of relieving
the distressed. And I do not despair of seeing the day when but very few
of this description as well as private families will be without them.”
Whether the motives assigned by this medical man to his professional
brethren existed or not, it is true that Dr. Perkins did not gain a
great deal at their hands. The Connecticut Medical Society expelled him
in 1797 for violating their law against the use of nostrums, or secret
remedies. The leading English physicians appear to have looked on with
singular apathy or contempt at the miracles which it was pretended were
enacting in the hands of the apostles of the new practice. In looking
over the reviews of the time, I have found little beyond brief
occasional notices of their pretensions; the columns of these journals
being occupied with subjects of more permanent interest. The state of
things in London is best learned, however, from the satirical poem
to which I have already alluded as having been written at the period
referred to. This was entitled, “Terrible Tractoration!! A Poetical
Petition against Galvanizing Trumpery and the Perkinistic Institution.
Most respectfully addressed to the Royal College of Physicians, by
Christopher Caustic, M. D., LL. D., A. S. S., Fellow of the Royal
College of Physicians, Aberdeen, and Honorary Member of no less than
nineteen very learned Societies.” Two editions of this work were
published in London in the years 1803 and 1804, and one or two have been
published in this country.
“Terrible Tractoration” is supposed, by those who never read it, to be
a satire upon the follies of Perkins and his followers. It is, on the
contrary, a most zealous defence of Perkinism, and a fierce attack upon
its opponents, most especially upon such of the medical profession
as treated the subject with neglect or ridicule. The Royal College of
Physicians was the more peculiar object of the attack, but with this
body, the editors of some of the leading periodicals, and several
physicians distinguished at that time, and even now remembered for
their services to science and humanity, were involved in unsparing
denunciations. The work is by no means of the simply humorous character
it might be supposed, but is overloaded with notes of the most seriously
polemical nature. Much of the history of the subject, indeed, is to be
looked for in this volume.
It appears from this work that the principal members of the medical
profession, so far from hailing Mr. Benjamin Douglass Perkins as another
Harvey or Jenner, looked very coldly upon him and his Tractors; and it
is now evident that, though they were much abused for so doing, they
knew very well what they had to deal with, and were altogether in the
right. The delusion at last attracted such an amount of attention as to
induce Dr. Haygarth and some others of respectable standing to institute
some experiments which I shall mention in their proper place, the result
of which might have seemed sufficient to show the emptiness of the whole
contrivance.
The Royal Society, that learned body which for ages has constituted
the best tribunal to which Britain can appeal in questions of science,
accepted Mr. Perkins's Tractors and the book written about them, passed
the customary vote of thanks, and never thought of troubling itself
further in the investigation of pretensions of such an aspect. It is
not to be denied that a considerable number of physicians did avow
themselves advocates of the new practice; but out of the whole catalogue
of those who were publicly proclaimed as such, no one has ever been
known, so far as I am aware, to the scientific world, except in
connection with the short-lived notoriety of Perkinism. Who were
the people, then, to whose activity, influence, or standing with
the community was owing all the temporary excitement produced by the
Metallic Tractors?
First, those persons who had been induced to purchase a pair of
Tractors. These little bits of brass and iron, the intrinsic value of
which might, perhaps, amount to ninepence, were sold at five guineas a
pair! A man who has paid twenty-five dollars for his whistle is apt to
blow it louder and longer than other people. So it appeared that when
the “Perkinean Society” applied to the possessors of Tractors in the
metropolis to concur in the establishment of a public institution for
the use of these instruments upon the poor, “it was found that only five
out of above a hundred objected to subscribe, on account of their want
of confidence in the efficacy of the practice; and these,” the committee
observes, “there is reason to believe, never gave them a fair trial,
probably never used them in more than one case, and that perhaps a
case in which the Tractors had never been recommended as serviceable.”
“Purchasers of the Tractors,” said one of their ardent advocates, “would
be among the last to approve of them if they had reason to suppose
themselves defrauded of five guineas.” He forgot poor Moses, with his
“gross of green spectacles, with silver rims and shagreen cases.” “Dear
mother,” cried the boy, “why won't you listen to reason? I had them a
dead bargain, or I should not have bought them. The silver rims alone
will sell for double the money.”
But it is an undeniable fact, that many persons of considerable
standing, and in some instances holding the most elevated positions in
society, openly patronized the new practice. In a translation of a work
entitled “Experiments with the Metallic Tractors,” originally published
in Danish, thence rendered successively into German and English, Mr.
Benjamin Perkins, who edited the English edition, has given a copious
enumeration of the distinguished individuals, both in America and
Europe, whose patronage he enjoyed. He goes so far as to signify that
ROYALTY itself was to be included among the number. When the Perkinean
Institution was founded, no less a person than Lord Rivers was elected
President, and eleven other individuals of distinction, among them
Governor Franklin, son of Dr. Franklin, figured as Vice-Presidents. Lord
Henniker, a member of the Royal Society, who is spoken of as a man
of judgment and talents, condescended to patronize the astonishing
discovery, and at different times bought three pairs of Tractors. When
the Tractors were introduced into Europe, a large number of testimonials
accompanied them from various distinguished characters in America, the
list of whom is given in the translation of the Danish work referred to
as follows:
“Those who have individually stated cases, or who have presented their
names to the public as men who approved of this remedy, and acknowledged
themselves instrumental in circulating the Tractors, are fifty-six in
number; thirty-four of whom are physicians and surgeons, and many of
them of the first eminence, thirteen clergymen, most of whom are doctors
of divinity, and connected with the literary institutions of America;
among the remainder are two members of Congress, one professor of
natural philosophy in a college, etc., etc.” It seemed to be taken
rather hardly by Mr. Perkins that the translators of the work which he
edited, in citing the names of the advocates of the Metallic Practice,
frequently omitted the honorary titles which should have been annexed.
The testimonials were obtained by the Danish writer, from a pamphlet
published in America, in which these titles were given in full. Thus
one of these testimonials is from “John Tyler, Esq., a magistrate in the
county of New London, and late Brigadier-General of the militia in
that State.” The “omission of the General's title” is the subject of
complaint, as if this title were sufficient evidence of the commanding
powers of one of the patrons of tractoration. A similar complaint is
made when “Calvin Goddard, Esq., of Plainfield, Attorney at Law, and
a member of the Legislature of the State of Connecticut,” is mentioned
without his titular honors, and even on account of the omission of the
proper official titles belonging to “Nathan Pierce, Esq., Governor and
Manager of the Almshouse of Newburyport.” These instances show the great
importance to be attached to civil and military dignities, in qualifying
their holders to judge of scientific subjects, a truth which has not
been overlooked by the legitimate successors of the Perkinists. In Great
Britain, the Tractors were not less honored than in America, by the
learned and the illustrious. The “Perkinistic Committee” made this
statement in their report: “Mr. Perkins has annually laid before the
public a large collection of new cases communicated to him for that
purpose by disinterested and intelligent characters, from almost every
quarter of Great Britain. In regard to the competency of these vouchers,
it will be sufficient simply to state that, amongst others whose names
have been attached to their communications, are eight professors, in
four different universities, twenty-one regular Physicians, nineteen
Surgeons, thirty Clergymen, twelve of whom are Doctors of Divinity, and
numerous other characters of equal respectability.”
It cannot but excite our notice and surprise that the number of
clergymen both in America and Great Britain who thrust forward their
evidence on this medical topic was singularly large in proportion
to that of the members of the medical profession. Whole pages are
contributed by such worthies as the Rev. Dr. Trotter of Hans Place,
the Rear. Waring Willett, Chaplain to the Earl of Dunmore, the Rev.
Dr. Clarke, Chaplain to the Prince of Wales. The style of these
theologico-medical communications may be seen in the following from a
divine who was also professor in one of the colleges of New England.
“I have used the Tractors with success in several other cases in my
own family, and although, like Naaman the Syrian, I cannot tell why
the waters of Jordan should be better than Abana and Pharpar, rivers
of Damascus; yet since experience has proved them so, no reasoning
can change the opinion. Indeed, the causes of all common facts are, we
think, perfectly well known to us; and it is very probable, fifty or
a hundred years hence, we shall as well know why the Metallic Tractors
should in a few minutes remove violent pains, as we now know why
cantharides and opium will produce opposite effects, namely, we shall
know very little about either excepting facts.” Fifty or a hundred years
hence! if he could have looked forward forty years, he would have
seen the descendants of the “Perkinistic” philosophers swallowing
infinitesimal globules, and knowing and caring as much about the
Tractors as the people at Saratoga Springs do about the waters of Abana
and Pharpar.
I trust it will not be thought in any degree disrespectful to a
profession which we all honor, that I have mentioned the great zeal
of many clergymen in the cause of Perkinism. I hope, too, that I may
without offence suggest the causes which have often led them out of
their own province into one to which their education has no special
reference. The members of that profession ought to be, and commonly are,
persons of benevolent character. Their duties carry them into the midst
of families, and particularly at times when the members of them are
suffering from bodily illness. It is natural enough that a strong desire
should be excited to alleviate sufferings which may have defied
the efforts of professional skill; as natural that any remedy which
recommends itself to the belief or the fancy of the spiritual physician
should be applied with the hope of benefit; and perfectly certain that
the weakness of human nature, from which no profession is exempt,
will lead him to take the most flattering view of its effects upon the
patient; his own sagacity and judgment being staked upon the success of
the trial. The inventor of the Tractors was aware of these truths. He
therefore sent the Tractors gratuitously to many clergymen, accompanied
with a formal certificate that the holder had become entitled to their
possession by the payment of five guineas. This was practised in our
own neighborhood, and I remember finding one of these certificates,
so presented, which proved that amongst the risks of infancy I had to
encounter Perkins's Tractors. Two clergymen of Boston and the vicinity,
both well known to local fame, gave in their testimony to the value
of the instruments thus presented to them; an unusually moderate
proportion, when it is remembered that to the common motives of which
I have spoken was added the seduction of a gift for which the profane
public was expected to pay so largely.
It was remarkable, also, that Perkinism, which had so little success
with the medical and scientific part of the community, found great favor
in the eyes of its more lovely and less obstinate portion. “The lady of
Major Oxholin,”--I quote from Mr. Perkins's volume,--“having been lately
in America, had seen and heard much of the great effects of Perkinism.
Influenced by a most benevolent disposition, she brought these Tractors
and the pamphlet with her to Europe, with a laudable desire of extending
their utility to her suffering countrymen.” Such was the channel by
which the Tractors were conveyed to Denmark, where they soon became the
ruling passion. The workmen, says a French writer, could not manufacture
them fast enough. Women carried them about their persons, and delighted
in bringing them into general use. To what extent the Tractors were
favored with the patronage of English and American ladies, it is of
course not easy to say, except on general principles, as their names
were not brought before the public. But one of Dr. Haygarth's stories
may lead us to conjecture that there was a class of female practitioners
who went about doing good with the Tractors in England as well as in
Denmark. A certain lady had the misfortune to have a spot as big as a
silver penny at the corner of her eye, caused by a bruise, or some such
injury. Another lady, who was a friend of hers, and a strong believer in
Perkinism, was very anxious to try the effects of tractoration upon
this unfortunate blemish. The patient consented; the lady “produced the
instruments, and, after drawing them four or five times over the spot,
declared that it changed to a paler color, and on repeating the use of
them a few minutes longer, that it had almost vanished, and was scarcely
visible, and departed in high triumph at her success.” The lady who
underwent the operation assured the narrator “that she looked in the
glass immediately after, and that not the least visible alteration had
taken place.”
It would be a very interesting question, what was the intellectual
character of those persons most conspicuous in behalf of the Perkinistic
delusion? Such an inquiry might bring to light some principles which
we could hereafter apply to the study of other popular errors. But the
obscurity into which nearly all these enthusiasts have subsided renders
the question easier to ask than to answer. I believe it would have
been found that most of these persons were of ardent temperament and
of considerable imagination, and that their history would show
that Perkinism was not the first nor the last hobby-horse they rode
furiously. Many of them may very probably have been persons of more than
common talent, of active and ingenious minds, of versatile powers and
various acquirements. Such, for instance, was the estimable man to whom
I have repeatedly referred as a warm defender of tractoration, and
a bitter assailant of its enemies. The story tells itself in the
biographical preface to his poem. He went to London with the view
of introducing a hydraulic machine, which he and his Vermont friends
regarded as a very important invention. He found, however, that the
machine was already in common use in that metropolis. A brother Yankee,
then in London, had started the project of a mill, which was to be
carried by the water of the Thames. He was sanguine enough to purchase
one fifth of this concern, which also proved a failure. At about the
same period he wrote the work which proved the great excitement of his
mind upon the subject of the transient folly then before the public.
Originally a lawyer, he was in succession a mechanician, a poet, and an
editor, meeting with far less success in each of these departments
than usually attends men of less varied gifts, but of more tranquil and
phlegmatic composition. But who is ignorant that there is a class of
minds characterized by qualities like those I have mentioned; minds with
many bright and even beautiful traits; but aimless and fickle as the
butterfly; that settle upon every gayly-colored illusion as it opens
into flower, and flutter away to another when the first has dropped its
leaves, and stands naked in the icy air of truth!
Let us now look at the general tenor of the arguments addressed by
believers to sceptics and opponents. Foremost of all, emblazoned at the
head of every column, loudest shouted by every triumphant disputant,
held up as paramount to all other considerations, stretched like an
impenetrable shield to protect the weakest advocate of the great cause
against the weapons of the adversary, was that omnipotent monosyllable
which has been the patrimony of cheats and the currency of dupes from
time immemorial,--Facts! Facts! Facts! First came the published cases
of the American clergymen, brigadier-generals, almshouse governors,
representatives, attorneys, and esquires. Then came the published
cases of the surgeons of Copenhagen. Then followed reports of about
one hundred and fifty cases published in England, “demonstrating the
efficacy of the metallic practice in a variety of complaints both upon
the human body and on horses, etc.” But the progress of facts in Great
Britain did not stop here. Let those who rely upon the numbers of their
testimonials, as being alone sufficient to prove the soundness and
stability of a medical novelty, digest the following from the report
of the Perkinistic Committee. “The cases published [in Great Britain]
amounted, in March last, the date of Mr. Perkins's last publication,
to about five thousand. Supposing that not more than one cure in three
hundred which the Tractors have performed has been published, and the
proportion is probably much greater, it will be seen that the number, to
March last, will have exceeded one million five hundred thousand!”
Next in order after the appeal to what were called facts, came a series
of arguments, which have been so long bruised and battered round in the
cause of every doctrine or pretension, new, monstrous, or deliriously
impossible, that each of them is as odiously familiar to the scientific
scholar as the faces of so many old acquaintances, among the less
reputable classes, to the officers of police.
No doubt many of my hearers will recognize, in the following passages,
arguments they may have heard brought forward with triumphant confidence
in behalf of some doctrine not yet extinct. No doubt some may have
honestly thought they proved something; may have used them with the
purpose of convincing their friends, or of silencing the opponents
of their favorite doctrine, whatever that might be. But any train
of arguments which was contrived for Perkinism, which was just as
applicable to it as to any other new doctrine in the same branch of
science, and which was fully employed against its adversaries forty
years since, might, in common charity, be suffered to slumber in the
grave of Perkinism. Whether or not the following sentences, taken
literally from the work of Mr. Perkins, were the originals of some of
the idle propositions we hear bandied about from time to time, let those
who listen judge.
The following is the test assumed for the new practice: “If diseases are
really removed, as those persons who have practised extensively with
the Tractors declare, it should seem there would be but little doubt
of their being generally adopted; but if the numerous reports of their
efficacy which have been published are forgeries, or are unfounded,
the practice ought to be crushed.” To this I merely add, it has been
crushed.