AN ANALYTICAL INQUIRY INTO THE MORE REMARKABLE CAUSES WHICH HAVE, IN
DIFFERENT AGES AND COUNTRIES, OPERATED IN PRODUCING THE
REVOLUTIONS THAT CHARACTERISE THE HISTORY OF MEDICINAL SUBSTANCES.
“_Historia quoquo modo scripta delectat._”
Before I proceed to discuss the particular views which I am prepared to
submit to the College, on the important but obscure subject of medicinal
combination, I propose to take a sweeping and rapid sketch of the
different moral and physical causes which have operated in producing the
extraordinary vicissitudes, so eminently characteristic of the history
of Materia Medica. Such an introduction is naturally suggested by the
first glance at the extensive and motly assemblage of substances with
which our cabinets[1] are overwhelmed. It is impossible to cast our eyes
over such multiplied groups, without being forcibly struck with the
palpable absurdity of some—the total want of activity in many—and the
uncertain and precarious reputation of all—or, without feeling an eager
curiosity to enquire, from the combination of what causes it can have
happened, that substances, at one period in the highest esteem, and of
generally acknowledged utility, have fallen into total neglect and
disrepute;—why others, of humble pretensions and little significance,
have maintained their ground for so many centuries; and on what account,
materials of no energy whatever, have received the indisputable sanction
and unqualified support of the best and wisest practitioners of the age.
That such fluctuations in opinion and versatility in practice should
have produced, even in the most candid and learned observers, an
unfavourable impression with regard to the general efficacy of
medicines, can hardly excite our astonishment, much less our
indignation; nor can we be surprised to find, that another portion of
mankind has at once arraigned Physic as a fallacious art, or derided it
as a composition of error and fraud.[2] They ask—and it must be
confessed that they ask with reason—what pledge can be afforded them,
that the boasted remedies of the present day will not, like their
predecessors, fall into disrepute, and in their turn serve only as
humiliating memorials of the credulity and infatuation of the physicians
who commended and prescribed them? There is surely no question connected
with our subject which can be more interesting and important, no one
which requires a more cool and dispassionate inquiry, and certainly not
any which can be more appropriate for a lecture, introductory to the
history of Materia Medica. I shall therefore proceed to examine with
some attention the revolutions which have thus taken place in the
opinions and belief of mankind, with regard to the efficacy and powers
of different medicinal agents; such an inquiry, by referring them to
causes capable of a philosophical investigation, is calculated to remove
many of the unjust prejudices which have been excited, to quiet the
doubts and alarms which have been so industriously propagated, and, at
the same time, to obviate the recurrence of several sources of error and
disappointment.
This moral view of events, without any regard to chronological minutiæ,
may be denominated the PHILOSOPHY OF HISTORY, and should be carefully
distinguished from that technical and barren erudition, which consists
in a mere knowledge of _names_ and _dates_, and which is perused by the
medical student with as much apathy, and as little profit, as the monk
counts his bead-roll. It has been very justly observed, that there is a
certain maturity of the human mind, acquired from generation to
generation, in the _mass_, as there is in the different stages of life,
in the _individual_ man; what is history, when thus philosophically
studied, but the faithful record of this progress? pointing out for our
instruction the various causes which have retarded or accelerated it in
different ages and countries.
In tracing the history of the Materia Medica to its earliest periods, we
shall find that its progress towards its present advanced state, has
been very slow and unequal, very unlike the steady and successive
improvement which has attended other branches of natural knowledge; we
shall perceive even that its advancement has been continually arrested,
and often entirely subverted, by the caprices, prejudices,
superstitions, and knavery of mankind; unlike too the other branches of
science, it is incapable of successful generalization; in the progress
of the history of remedies, when are we able to produce a discovery or
improvement, which has been the result of that happy combination of
Observation, Analogy, and Experiment,[3] which has so eminently rewarded
the labours of modern science? Thus, OBSERVATION led Newton to discover
that the refractive power of transparent substances was, in general, in
the ratio of their density, but that, of substances of equal density,
those which possessed the refractive power in a higher degree were
inflammable.[4] ANALOGY induced him to conclude that, on this account,
water must contain an inflammable principle, and EXPERIMENT enabled
Cavendish and Lavoisier to demonstrate the surprising truth of Newton’s
induction, in their immortal discovery of the chemical composition of
that fluid.
The history of Astronomy furnishes another illustration equally
beautiful and instructive,—The Astronomer _observed_ certain
oscillations in the motions of Saturn and Jupiter; by _Analogy_ he
conjectured that this phenomenon was produced by the influence of a
planet still more remote: a supposition which was happily confirmed by a
telescopic _experiment_, in the discovery of Uranus, by Herschel.
But it is clear that such principles of research, and combination of
methods, can rarely be applied in the investigation of remedies, for
every problem which involves the phenomena of life is unavoidably
embarrassed by circumstances, so complicated in their nature, and
fluctuating in their operation, as to set at defiance every attempt to
appreciate their influence; thus an observation or experiment upon the
effects of a medicine is liable to a thousand fallacies, unless it be
carefully repeated under the various circumstances of health and
disease, in different climates, and on different constitutions. We all
know how very differently opium, or mercury, will act upon different
individuals, or even upon the same individual, at different times, or
under different circumstances; the effect of a stimulant upon the living
body is not in the ratio of the intensity of its impulse, but in
proportion to the degree of excitement, or vital susceptibility of the
individual, to whom it is applied. This is illustrated in a clear and
familiar manner, by the very different sensations of heat which the same
temperature will produce under different circumstances. In the road over
the Andes, at about half way between the foot and the summit, there is a
cottage in which the ascending and descending travellers meet; the
former, who have just quitted the sultry vallies at the base, are so
relaxed, that the sudden diminution of temperature produces in them the
feeling of intense cold, whilst the latter, who have left the frozen
summits of the mountain, are overcome by the distressing sensation of
extreme heat.
But we need not climb the Andes for an illustration; if we plunge one
hand into a basin of hot, and the other into one of cold water, and then
mix the contents of each vessel, and replace both hands in the mixture,
we shall experience the sensation of heat and cold, from one and the
same medium; the hand, that had been previously in the hot, will feel
cold, whilst that which had been immersed in the cold water, will
experience a sensation of heat. Upon the same principle, ardent spirits
will produce very opposite effects upon different constitutions and
temperaments, and we are thus enabled to reconcile the conflicting
testimonies respecting the powers of opium in the cure of fever:
aliments, also, which under ordinary circumstances would occasion but
little effect, may in certain conditions of the system, act as powerful
stimulants; a fact which is well exemplified by the history of persons
who have been enclosed in coal mines for several days without food, from
the accidental falling in of the surrounding strata, when they have been
as much intoxicated by a basin of broth, as a person, in common
circumstances, would have been by two or more bottles of wine.[5] Many
instances will suggest themselves to the practitioner in farther
illustration of these views, and I shall have occasion to recur to the
subject at a future period.
To such causes we must attribute the barren labours of the ancient
empirics, who saw without discerning, administered without
discriminating, and concluded without reasoning; nor should we be
surprised at the very imperfect state of the materia medica, as far as
it depends upon what is commonly called experience, complicated as this
subject is by its numberless relations with Physiology, Pathology, and
Chemistry. John Ray attempted to enumerate the virtues of plants from
_experience_, and the system serves only to commemorate his failure.
Vogel likewise professed to assign to substances, those powers which had
been learnt from accumulated experience; and he speaks of _roasted
toad_[6] as a specific for the pains of gout, and asserts that a person
may secure himself for the whole year from angina by eating a roasted
swallow! Such must ever be the case, when medicines derive their origin
from false experience, and their reputation from blind credulity.
ANALOGY has undoubtedly been a powerful instrument in the improvement,
extension, and correction of the materia medica, but it has been chiefly
confined to modern times; for in the earlier ages, Chemistry had not so
far unfolded the composition of bodies, as to furnish any just idea of
their relations to each other, nor had the science of Botany taught us
the value and importance of the natural affinities which exist in the
vegetable kingdom.
With respect to the fallacies to which such analogies are exposed, I
shall hereafter speak at some length, and examine the pretensions of
those _ultra_ chemists of the present day who have upon every occasion
arraigned, at their self-constituted tribunal, the propriety of our
medicinal combinations, and the validity of our national pharmacopœias.
In addition to the obstacles already enumerated, the progress of our
knowledge respecting the virtues of medicines has met with others of a
moral character, which have deprived us in a great degree of another
obvious method of research, and rendered our dependance upon testimony
uncertain, and often entirely fallacious. The human understanding, as
Lord Bacon justly remarks, is not a mere faculty of apprehension, but is
affected, more or less, by the will and the passions; what man wishes to
be true, that he too easily believes to be so, and I conceive that
physic has, of all the sciences, the least pretensions to proclaim
itself independent of the empire of the passions.
In our researches to discover and fix the period when remedies were
first applied for the alleviation of bodily suffering, we are soon lost
in conjecture, or involved in fable; we are unable to reach the period
in any country, when the inhabitants were destitute of medical
resources, and we find among the most uncultivated tribes, that medicine
is cherished as a blessing and practised as an art, as by the
inhabitants of New Holland and New Zealand, by those of Lapland and
Greenland, of North America, and of the interior of Africa. The personal
feelings of the sufferer, and the anxiety of those about him, must, in
the rudest state of society, have incited a spirit of industry and
research to procure alleviation, the modification of heat and cold, of
moisture and dryness, and the regulation and change of diet and habit,
must have intuitively suggested themselves for the relief of pain;[7]
and when these resources failed, charms, amulets, and incantations,[8]
were the natural expedients of the barbarian, ever more inclined to
indulge the delusive hope of superstition, than to listen to the voice
of sober reason. Traces of amulets may be discovered in very early
history. The learned Dr. Warburton is evidently mistaken, when he
assigns the origin of these magical instruments to the age of the
Ptolemies, which was not more than 300 years before Christ; this is at
once refuted by the testimony of Galen, who tells us that the Egyptian
king, Nechepsus, who lived 630 years before the Christian era, had
written, that a green jasper cut into the form of a dragon surrounded
with rays, if applied externally, would strengthen the stomach and
organs of digestion.[9] We have moreover the authority of the Scriptures
in support of this opinion; for what were the ear-rings which Jacob
buried under the oak of Sechem, as related in Genesis, but amulets? and
we are informed by Josephus, in his Antiquities of the Jews,[10] that
Solomon discovered a plant efficacious in the cure of Epilepsy, and that
he employed the aid of a charm or spell for the purpose of assisting its
virtues; the root of the herb was concealed in a ring, which was applied
to the nostrils of the Demoniac, and Josephus remarks that he himself
saw a Jewish Priest practise the art of Solomon with complete success in
the presence of Vespasian, his sons, and the tribunes of the Roman
army.[11] Nor were such means confined to dark and barbarous ages;
Theophrastus pronounced Pericles to be insane, because he discovered
that he wore an amulet about his neck; and, in the declining æra of the
Roman empire, we find that this superstitious custom was so general,
that the Emperor Caracalla was induced to make a public edict ordaining
that no man should wear any superstitious amulets about his person.
In the progress of civilization, various fortuitous incidents,[12] and
even errors in the choice and preparation of aliments, must have
gradually unfolded the remedial powers of many natural substances; these
were recorded, and the authentic history of medicine may date its
commencement from the period when such records began.
The Chaldeans and Babylonians, we are told by Herodotus, carried their
sick to the public roads and markets, that travellers might converse
with them, and communicate any remedies which had been successfully used
in similar cases; this custom continued during many ages in Assyria; and
Strabo states that it prevailed also amongst the ancient Lusitanians, or
Portuguese: in this manner, however, the results of experience descended
only by oral tradition; it was in the temple of Esculapius in Greece
that medical information was first recorded; diseases and cures were
there registered on durable tablets of marble; the priests[13] and
priestesses, who were the guardians of the temple, prepared the remedies
and directed their application, and thus commenced the profession of
Physic. With respect to the actual nature of these remedies, it is
useless to inquire; the lapse of ages, loss of records, change of
language, and ambiguity of description, have rendered every learned
research unsatisfactory; indeed we are in doubt with regard to many of
the medicines which even Hippocrates employed. It is however clearly
shewn by the earliest records, that the ancients were in the possession
of many powerful remedies; thus Melampus of Argos, the most ancient
Greek physician with whom we are acquainted, is said to have cured one
of the Argonauts of sterility, by administering the rust of iron in wine
for ten days; and the same physician used hellebore as a purge, on the
daughters of king Prætus, who were afflicted with melancholy.
Venesection was also a remedy of very early origin; for Podalirius, on
his return from the Trojan war, cured the daughter of Damethus, who had
fallen from a height, by bleeding her in both arms. Opium, or a
preparation of the poppy, was certainly known in the earliest ages; it
was probably opium that Helen mixed with wine, and gave to the guests of
Menelaus, under the expressive name of _nepenthe_,[14] to drive away
their cares, and increase their hilarity; and this conjecture receives
much support from the fact, that the _nepenthe_ of Homer was obtained
from the Egyptian Thebes;[15] and if we may credit the opinion of Dr.
Darwin, the Cumæan Sibyll never sat on the portending tripod without
first swallowing a few drops of the juice of the _Cherry-laurel_.[16]
“At Phœbi nondum patiens, immanis in antro
Bacchatur Vates, magnum si pectore possit
Excussisse deum: tanto magis ille fatigat
Os rabidum, fera corda domans, fingitque premendo.”
ÆNEID, l. vi. 78.
There is reason to believe that the Pagan priesthood were under the
influence of some powerful narcotic during the display of their oracular
powers, but the effects produced would seem to resemble rather those of
Opium, or perhaps of Stramonium, than of the Prussic acid. Monardes
tells us that the priests of the American Indians, whenever they were
consulted by the chief gentlemen, or _casiques_ as they are called, took
certain leaves of the Tobacco, and cast them into the fire, and then
received the smoke, which they thus produced, in their mouths, in
consequence of which they fell down upon the ground; and that after
having remained for some time in a stupor, they recovered, and delivered
the answers which they pretended to have received, during their supposed
intercourse with the world of spirits.
The sedative powers of the _Lactuca Sativa_, or Lettuce,[17] were known
also in the earliest times; among the fables of antiquity, we read that
after the death of Adonis, Venus threw herself on a bed of lettuces, to
lull her grief, and repress her desires. The sea onion or _Squill_, was
administered in cases of dropsy by the Egyptians, under the mystic title
of the _Eye of Typhon_. The practices of incision and scarification were
employed in the camp of the Greeks before Troy, and the application of
spirit to wounds was also understood, for we find the experienced Nestor
applying a cataplasm, composed of cheese, onion, and meal, mixed up with
the wine of Pramnos, to the wounds of Machaon.[18]
The revolutions and vicissitudes which remedies have undergone, in
medical as well as popular opinion, from the ignorance of some ages,
the learning of others, the superstitions of the weak, and the designs
of the crafty, afford ample subject for philosophical reflection; some
of these revolutions I shall proceed to investigate, classing them
under the prominent causes which have produced them, viz.
Superstition—Credulity—Scepticism—False Theory—Devotion to Authority,
and Established Routine—The assigning to Art that which was the effect
of unassisted Nature—The assigning to peculiar substances Properties,
deduced from Experiments made on inferior Animals—Ambiguity of
Nomenclature—The progress of Botanical Science—The application, and
misapplication of Chemical Philosophy—The Influence of Climate and
Season on Diseases, as well as on the properties, and operations of
their Remedies—The ignorant Preparation, or fraudulent Adulteration of
Medicines—The unseasonable collection of those remedies which are of
vegetable origin,—and, the obscurity which has attended the operation
of compound medicines.