Footnote 105:
It has been already stated, that we are indebted to an Indian for the
discovery of Bark, and it now appears we derived our knowledge of
Mercury to the wildest of the alchemists. May it not then be said that
we are indebted to a _savage_, and a _madman_, for two of our most
powerful remedies?
Footnote 106:
Erasmus, the friend, the correspondent, and the patient of our own
Linacre! Had not modern times, says Sir George Baker, furnished
similar instances, it would have been a matter of astonishment to us
to have heard that Erasmus should have deserted an accomplished
physician whom he so greatly extols in his Epistles, in order to
consult so wild and illiterate an enthusiast as Paracelsus.
Footnote 107:
Paracelsus maintained that the human body is composed of salt,
sulphur, and mercury, and that in these “_three first substances_,” as
he calls them, health and disease consist: that the mercury, in
proportion to its volatility, produces tremors, mortifications in the
ligaments, madness, phrensy, and delirium, and that fevers, phlegmons,
and the jaundice, are the offspring of the _sulphureous_ principle,
while he supposed that the cholic, stone, gravel, gout, and sciatica
derive their origin from salt.
Footnote 108:
Amongst the writers engaged in this contest, no one was more animated
with party spirit than GUY PATIN, who was profuse in his personalities
against those who defended the use of Antimony; he drew up a long
register of the unsuccessful cases in which this medicine had been
employed, which he published under the title of “ANTIMONIAL
MARTYROLOGY.”
Footnote 109:
In the year 1644 Schroeder published a _Chemico_-medical Pharmacopœia,
which delineates with accuracy the pharmacy of these times, and
enumerates almost all the chemical medicines that were known towards
the close of this period.
Footnote 110:
The Dispensatories of London and Edinburgh, the former by Mr. A. T.
Thomson, and the latter by Dr. Duncan, are works which reflect credit
on the age and country in which they were written.
Footnote 111:
The first Pharmacopœia was published at Nuremburg, under the sanction
of its Senate, in the year 1542; for this important act we are
indebted to Valerius Cordus, a young student, who during a transient
visit at that place, accidentally produced a collection of medical
receipts which he had selected from the works of the most esteemed
writers, and with which the physicians of Nuremburg were so highly
pleased that they urged him to print it for the benefit of the
apothecaries, and obtained the sanction of the Senate to the
undertaking; so casual was the circumstance to which we owe the
institution of Pharmacopœias. The London College were among the last
to frame a standard Code of Medicines; most cities in Europe having
anticipated us in the performance of this task; our first Pharmacopœia
was not published until the reign of James the first, A. D. 1618,
exactly a century after the College had received their Charter from
Henry. Successive editions appeared in the following years, viz. in
1650; 1677; 1721; 1746; 1787; 1809.
Footnote 112:
What would be the surprise and gratification of the Pharmaceutist who
lived a hundred years ago, if he could now visit Apothecaries Hall?
the application of steam for the various purposes of pharmacy, and for
actuating machinery, for levigation, trituration, and other mechanical
purposes, is no less useful, in ensuring uniform results, than it is
in abridging labour and economising time. The greatest credit is due
to the gentlemen under whose guidance this national laboratory is
conducted, and more especially to their worthy and public spirited
Treasurer, William Simons, Esq. whose zeal and liberality suggested
and promoted the fitting up of the Steam Laboratory, as well as the
ingenious machine for triturating mercury with lard, or conserve.
Footnote 113:
Since the publication of the last edition of this work, Mr. Archdeacon
Wollaston has paid the debt of nature; his name will be cherished in
grateful remembrance by those who had the good fortune to have been
his pupils; as one of that number I will venture to say, that there
never existed a lecturer on Experimental philosophy, who was more
eminently gifted with those qualifications, upon which the success of
a public teacher must depend. He possessed a peculiar method of
demonstration, a singular vivacity in the manner of conducting the
experiments, and of keeping awake the attention of his auditors during
their progress; while those details of manipulation which would have
proved, in other hands, a source of tedium, he converted into subjects
of the most lively interest.
Footnote 114:
The Chemical Laboratory at Cambridge has produced some valuable
discoveries. _Ex pede Herculem_, let me remind the chemist of the
formation of Nitrous Acid, by passing a current of ammoniacal gas
through the heated Oxyd of Manganese, for which we are indebted to Dr.
Milner. I mention it merely as a whimsical circumstance, that the
greatest degree of cold ever produced, was effected at Oxford, and the
highest temperature, lately, at Cambridge. The researches of Dr. Clark
are highly interesting and important, a succinct account of which has
been published in a small work, entitled, “The Gas Blowpipe, or the
Art of Fusion, by burning the Gaseous constituents of Water.”
Footnote 115:
These views have prevailed upon the Committee of the College, and they
have accordingly restored the Soap to the formula, in the present
edition of the Pharmacopœia; so that the above objection no longer
exists.
Footnote 116:
The only chemical phenomenon which in any manner resembles this,
appears to be that of the rapid acetification of milk, and other
fluids, by the agency of a thunder storm.
Footnote 117:
This practice was introduced into France by Seguin, into Italy by
Couticini, and into Germany by Bischoff.
Footnote 118:
A very ingenious Dissertation has been lately published by M. Virey,
on the ‘Degeneration of Plants in foreign soils,’ which he says may
depend upon 1, _Climate and Station_; 2, _Nutriment_; 3, _Culture_; 4,
_Factitious Mutilation_; 5, _Hybrid Generation_.
Footnote 119:
Women during the period of gestation frequently experience such an
increased irritability as to be affected even in England by various
odours, which at other times would produce no extraordinary
impression.
Footnote 120:
This plant was first described by Gmelin in his _Flora Siberica_, iv.
121. It has obtained a place in the Edinburgh Pharmacopœia. Besides
the effects stated by Dr. Halliday, it is said by different authors to
excite a peculiar creeping sensation in the pained part.
Footnote 121:
Journal Complementaire du Dict. des Sciences Medicales, tom. II.
Footnote 122:
Dr. Murett in his “Short view of Frauds and Abuses,” (A. D. 1669)
charges the Apothecary with “falsifying Medicines;” “They shewed the
Censors,” says he, “_Myrtles leaves_ for _Senna_; a _Binder_ for a
Purger; _Mushrooms_ rubbed over with chalk for _Agaric_; _Hemlock_ for
_Pæony_; _Sheep’s lungs_ for _Fox’s lungs_; and the bone of an _Ox’s
heart_, for that of a _Stag’s heart_.”
Footnote 123:
The editors of the _American Medical Recorder_ (vol. 1, p. 471), in
descanting upon the efficacy of Prussic Acid, very gravely remark,
that they are acquainted with a lady, subject to hysteric affections,
who _always_ derives relief from a dose of CHERRY BRANDY, in which
_Peach kernels_ have been digested; the stimulus of the brandy then
goes for nothing with these blockheads! Zimmerman not unaptly compares
a man who is intoxicated with a favourite opinion, to a passionate
lover, who sees and hears nothing but his mistress.
Footnote 124:
BEZOAR, (from _Pa-zahar_, Persian, a destroyer of poison.) A morbid
concretion formed in the bodies of land animals. Several of them were
formerly highly celebrated for their medicinal virtues; they were
considered as powerful _Alexipharmics_, in so much so, that other
medicines, possessed of alexipharmic powers, were called _Bezoardics:_
so efficacious were these substances formerly considered that they
were bought for ten times their weight of gold. Avenzoar, an Arabian
physician, who practised at Seville in Spain about the year One
Thousand, first recommended it in medicine. A composition of Bezoar
with absorbent powers, has been extensively used under the name of
_Gascoigne_ powder, and _Gascoigne’s Ball_; but the real bezoar was
rarely used on this occasion; Gypsum, or pipe-clay tinged with
ox-gall, proved a less expensive ingredient.
Footnote 125:
ORIBASIUS, a native of Sardes, lived in the fourth century; he was the
friend and favourite of the Emperor Julian, under whom he had great
authority, and acquired considerable wealth. It would be well for the
profession of Physic, and for the public, if crowned heads generally
evinced as much discrimination in the appointment and patronage of
physicians.
Footnote 126:
Three-fourths at least of the QUACK MEDICINES of the present day are
remedies of this description, and are compounded according to such
receipts.
Footnote 127:
Medical Logic. Edit. 2nd, p. 92.
Footnote 128:
The term _sympathy_ has often been objected to, as being too
figurative; it is certainly a metaphor taken from an affection of the
mind, but, as Sir Gilbert Blane very justly remarks, the import of
words ought either to be assumed conventionally according to a
definition, or to be adhered to in the sense affixed to it by
established usage; “by _animal sympathy_,” says he, “is not meant the
intelligible principle of Stahl’s hypothesis, but that mutual
influence of distant parts, so subtle and rapid as in some instances
to be compared to thought or lightning; while in other instances it is
an action more tardy and habitual.” _Medical Logic_, _Edit._ 2nd, p.
123. In the present work, I wish the reader to understand the term
_sympathy_, wherever it may occur, in conformity with the above
definition.
Footnote 129:
_Colchicum_, _Squill_, and many other vegetable diuretics, are of this
nature.
Footnote 130:
The Indian Fig, (_Cactus Opuntia_,) when eaten, renders the urine of a
bloody colour.
Rhubarb has likewise an effect upon the colour of this secretion.
Footnote 131:
This is probably the reason of many bodies producing but little effect
upon the inferior animals. The vegetable eaters are certainly less
affected by vegetable poisons than those animals who exclusively live
upon animal substances: it is thus, that a rabbit can take a very
large dose of opium without any ill effects, while half the same
quantity would poison a dog. It is a curious fact, that a sound horse
can take a very considerable portion of opium with impunity, but if he
be weakened by previous disease, by strong purgatives, or by excessive
bleeding, he is speedily destroyed by a much less dose; (_See Bracy
Clarke’s Reformed Pharmacopœia for Horses._) In this latter case, does
it not appear that the fatal result depends upon the fact of the
digestive organs having been disabled, by debility, from effecting
that decomposition by which under ordinary circumstances, the drug is
disarmed of its potency? What important lights might not be obtained
by the institution of a series of well devised experiments upon the
comparative effects of medicinal bodies upon man and other animals?
The Physiologist has thus availed himself of the resources of the
comparative anatomist, and I feel persuaded, that results equally
beneficial to science would follow a similar inquiry in relation to
the operation of medicines.
In the course of the present work, I hope to shew the truth of this
position by some appropriate illustrations.
Footnote 132:
That the Vena Portarum constitutes one of the avenues through which
certain extraneous bodies enter the circulating current, there cannot
exist a doubt; but a series of well-devised experiments are greatly
wanted for the elucidation of the subject. The Professors of
Veterinary Medicine might on this occasion render us an important
service by some comparative researches.
Footnote 133: