"He finds out what stuff they're made of."--SHAKSPEARE.
"By setting brother against brother,
To claw and curry one another."--BUTLER.
FIG PASTE AND FIG LEAVES.--SOME OF THOSE OLD FELLOWS.--THEY SLIGHTLY
DISAGREE.--HOW TO KEEP CLEAN.--BAXTER VS. THE DOCTOR.--A CURE FOR
"RHEUMATIZ."--OLD ENGLISH DOSES.--CURE FOR BLUES.--FOR
HYSTERIA.--HEROIC DOSES.--DROWNING A FEVER.--AN EXACT
SCIENCE.--SULPHUR AND MOLASSES.--A USE FOR POOR IRISH.--MINERAL
SPRINGS.--COLD DRINKS VS. WARM.--THE OLD LADY AND THE AIR PUMP.--SAVED
BY HER BUSTLE.--COUNTRY PRESCRIPTIONS AND A FUNNY MISTAKE.--ARE YOU
DRUNK OR SOBER?
Mythology informs us that Heraclitus, the melancholy philosopher of
Ephesus, fixed his residence in a manure heap, by the advice of his
physicians, in hopes of thereby being cured of the dropsy. The remedy
proved worse than the disease, and the philosopher died. From that time
till the present, medical prescriptions have rather partaken of the
extravagant and the ridiculous, than of the rational and beneficial.
In biblical times the real remedies consisted of a few simples, and were
almost totally confined to external uses. Fig paste was a favorite remedy
for swellings, boils, and ulcers, and an ointment made of olives and some
spices was used for wounds, etc. Mrs. Eve, it is said, took to fig leaves.
The myrrh and hyssop were used chiefly among the Jews for purification.
The former was obtained from Egypt and Arabia East. The original name was,
in Arabic, _marra_, meaning bitter.
The history of medicine is referable to about 1184 before Christ, from
which time to Hippocrates, 460 B. C., it could not lay claim to the name
of science. It was confined almost entirely to the priestcraft, and
partook largely of the fabulous notions of that superstitious age, and was
connected with their gods and heroes. Then, necessarily with such a
belief, the remedies lay in ceremonies and incantations, as before
mentioned in chapter first, and the priests had it all their own way.
Chiron, according to Grecian bibliographers, was about the first who
practised medicine to any extent, and who, with Apollo, claimed to have
received his knowledge direct from Jupiter. Æsculapius was a son of
Apollo. Æsculapius had two sons, who became celebrated physicians, and one
daughter, Hygeia, the goddess of health. For a long time the practice of
medicine was confined to the descendants of Æsculapius, who was worshipped
in the temples of Epidaurus, the ruins of one of which is said to still be
seen.
Hippocrates claimed to be a descendant of Æsculapius (460 B. C.). The
remedies used by his predecessors were a few vegetable medicines,
accelerated by a good many mystical rites. It would seem that medicinal
springs were patronized at this early date, as temples of health were
established near such wells, in Greece. Theophrastus, of Lesbos, was a
fuller's son, and wrote a book on plants. He was a pupil to Plato and
Aristotle.
Podalirius was going to cure every disease by bleeding, Herodicus by
gymnastics, and Archagathus by burning and gouging out the diseased parts.
Then arose Chrysippus, who reversed the blood-letting theory, and would
allay the venous excitement by simple medications (not having discovered
the difference between veins and arteries, and when they did, it was
supposed the latter contained only air; hence the name); Asclepiades, who
"kicked Hippocrates' nature out of doors," and the thermo-therapeutists,
who turned out the latter.
After the followers of Archagathus, or Archegenus, were driven out of
Rome, the hot baths were established, which were the earliest mentioned.
There was a very celebrated cold water bath established somewhat earlier,
for which Mr. Noah, who owned the right, got up a very large tub, for the
exclusive use of himself, family, and household pets. The bath--like
nearly all cold water baths _extensively used since_--was a complete
success, killing off all who ventured into the water.
During the reign of the Roman emperor Caracalla (211-217) thermal baths
were extensively established at Rome, and Gibbon informs us that they were
open for the reception of both senators and people; that they would
accommodate three thousand persons at once. The enclosure exceeded a mile
in circumference. At one end there was a magnificent temple, dedicated to
the god Apollo, and at the reverse another, sacred to Æsculapius, the
tutelary divinities of the Thermæ. The Grecians also established cold,
warm, and hot baths; and in Turkey the bathing was a religious rite until
a very recent period. More recently, it is a source of diversion.
"Cleanliness is akin to godliness," and recreation is a religious duty;
therefore the warm bath, whether followed as a superstitious rite or as a
source of amusement, is nevertheless commendable as a sanitary measure.
Dr. Dio Lewis, of Boston, has a grand warm (Turkish) bathing
establishment. There are several hot, champooing, and cooling rooms for
ladies or gentlemen, and a grand plunge bath, containing sixteen thousand
gallons of water, warmed by a steam apparatus. If the Bostonians are dirty
hereafter, they must not blame the doctor. No man knows how dirty he is
till he tries one of these baths.
"Crosby's History of the English Baptists preserves the opinion of Sir
John Floyer, physician, that immersion was of great sanitary value, and
that its discontinuance, about the year 1600, had been attended with ill
effects on the physical condition of the population. 'Immersion would
prevent many hereditary diseases if it were still practised,' he said. An
old man, eighty years of age, whose father lived at the time while
immersion was the practice, said that parents would ask the priest to dip
well into the water that part of the child which was diseased, to prevent
its descending to posterity.
"Baxter vehemently and exaggeratedly denounced it as a breach of the sixth
commandment. It produced catarrh, etc., and, in a word, was good for
nothing but to despatch men out of the world."
"If murder be sin, then dipping ordinarily in cold water over head is a
sin."
So much for Dr. Floyer vs. Baxter. Surely the latter ought to have been
"dipped."
A western paper of respectability is responsible for the statement, that
an old lady followed up a bishop as he travelled through his diocese, in
that vicinity, and was confirmed several times before detected.
"Why did you do such a remarkable deed?" asked the bishop. "Did you feel
that your sins were so great as to require a frequent repetition of the
ordinance?"
"O, no," replied the old lady, complacently; "but I heerd say it was good
for the rheumatiz."
The bishop didn't confirm her any more. She was really going to baptism as
the voters go to the polls and vote in New York--"early and often."