Footnote 154:
For the purpose of propitiating the favour of heaven, the alchymist
stamped the figure of the cross upon the vessel, in which he expected
to obtain the long sought prize that was to convert the baser metals
into gold, whence the term _Crucible_ derived its origin. And when the
experiments of chemistry began to be considered as the true tests of
philosophical truth, the expression of “_Experimentum crucis_” was
adopted to signify the highest degree of proof of which a subject is
susceptible.
Footnote 155:
_Sydenham_ considered the occurrence of cholera, as a disease in
England, to be confined to the month of August, at which time, says
he, it appears as certainly as swallows in the early spring, or
cuckows at the approach of summer; but he himself observed it to
appear sometimes towards the end of summer, when the season was
unusually warm; and that the violence of the disease was in proportion
to the degree of heat. _Note. Mrs. Downing_ died in November, and
_Miss Burns_, whose case is so frequently alluded to in this work, in
March.
Footnote 156:
Youths and adults are more generally affected than children and old
persons.
Footnote 157:
_Sydenham_ describing the violent symptoms of cholera concludes by
observing, “and such like symptoms as frighten the by-standers, and
kill the patient in 24 hours.” Syd. Sect. iv, c. 2. It must be
remembered that _Sydenham_ is here describing an extreme case. The
unfortunate _Mrs. Downing_ (see Appendix, p. 277) died in fourteen
hours!
Footnote 158:
See the case of _Mr. Robert Turner_, poisoned by _Eliz. Fenning_, as
related by _Mr. Marshall_.
Footnote 159:
See _Baillie’s_ Morbid Anatomy.
Footnote 160:
Opera Omnia Ch. iv, p. 34.
Footnote 161:
De Causis et Signis. Lib. 1, c. 7.
Footnote 162:
De Abdit. rerum Causis. Lib. ii, c. 15.
Footnote 163:
De Sedibus, &c. Epist. 59, n. 16.
Footnote 164:
Anthropolog: Forens. p. 523.
Footnote 165:
De Signis Veneni dati Diagnosticis, n. 8.
Footnote 166: