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OBSERVATIONS
ON
ANTIMONY,
Read before the MEDICAL SOCIETY of LONDON,
And published at their Request,
BY
JOHN MILLAR, M. D.
LONDON:
Printed for J. JOHNSON, No. 72, St. Paul’s Church-yard,
and D. WILSON and G. NICOL in the Strand,
MDCCLXXIV.
TO THE MEMBERS OF THE MEDICAL SOCIETY OF _LONDON_.
GENTLEMEN,
The following observations having been honoured with your approbation,
are now published at your request, and presented to you as a testimony of
the author’s respectful regard.
Candour requires him to acknowledge that some gentlemen of the Society
were averse to the publication, judging that the free censure of popular
opinions would rather provoke resentment than produce reformation. Not
deterred from his purpose, he has availed himself of their friendly
cautions to obviate some objections which may be made to the design.
The account of the earlier chymists may, on a superficial view, appear
superfluous; but it was thought necessary to illustrate the Medical
History of Antimony, and to shew how little credit is due to those
writers whose exaggerated praises of that medicine have contributed so
much to mislead and abuse mankind.
It may be objected that the author has not himself assayed the antimonial
ores, nor repeated the chymical processes. But by drawing the chymical
and mineralogical materials from other sources, all imputation of
prejudice or partiality, on his part, is prevented, since he appeals
to the testimony of the patrons of antimony themselves, for the
authenticity of the facts by which some of their opinions are subverted.
I am,
GENTLEMEN,
Your most obedient, and most humble servant,
JOHN MILLAR.
Pall Mall, April 2, 1774.
THE CONTENTS.
INTRODUCTION Page 1
SECTION I.
_Some Account of the earlier Chymists, and of their opinions
concerning Antimony_ 4
SECTION II.
_Of the Natural History of Antimony_ 13
SECTION III.
_Of the Chymical Properties and Analysis of Antimony_ 27
SECTION IV.
_Of the Antimonial Preparations and their Medical Effects_ 48
SECTION V.
_Of the Secret Antimonial Medicines, and particularly of
the Fever-Powder_ 71
OBSERVATIONS ON ANTIMONY.
INTRODUCTION.
Read 1st and 15th Febry. 1774.
Remedies have often acquired reputation without sufficient evidence of
their innocence and efficacy. Some have been introduced by an injudicious
application of the theory of the schools, others by rash and precipitate
conclusions drawn from partial experiment, and many by a refined species
of imposition on the credulity of mankind, veiled under the specious
pretence of strict morality, extensive benevolence, and disinterested
love of science.
It is not surprising that a steady exertion of these arts should prevail,
when we consider that physicians, whose duty it is intelligently to
examine these boasted remedies, and if frivolous or dangerous, to expose
and resist the patrons of them, have too often contributed to establish
the deceit. Some are borne along by the torrent of vulgar prejudice;
while others stand aloof beholding, with indignant pride, the triumph of
imposture; and many judging a compliance with popular prejudices their
surest and safest course, unite in supporting error and imposition, and
in confirming the most pernicious practices.
Thus is the publick confidence betrayed, the art of physick brought into
contempt, bold and extravagant assertions gain ground, and dangerous
remedies are established.
The common interest calls us to expose these intrigues, since men do
not knowingly sacrifice life and health, but are unwarily misled by
misrepresentation. Let us therefore unite in promoting a safe and
effectual practice, and in repelling the common enemies of science and of
mankind.
Among the delusions of the present age, one of the most dangerous is
the universal belief of the perfect innocence and superlative efficacy
of antimony. The extensive use of this mineral demands our particular
attention, since it not only obtains among regular physicians, but has
been generally adopted in domestic practice. But if its reputation shall
appear to have been raised by falsehood or misrepresentation, it becomes
us to resist that tyrannical fashion by which it hath been established.
SECTION I.
_Some Account of the ancient Chymists, and of their opinions concerning
Antimony._
Antimony was originally used by the Chymists, who, as they pretended
to preternatural illumination, affected to conceal from the vulgar and
profane, the sacred mysteries of the adepts, who arrogantly stiled
themselves the favourites of Heaven. An exact chronological account
is not to be expected in an art which took its rise among illiterate
Miners, and in the most superstitious country in the world. How long it
was cultivated by the lower set of people, with whom it originated, is
uncertain; but Trismegistus, having, as is believed, first treated it
in a scientifical manner, has been honoured by his successors as the
Inventor and founder of the art. He is stiled a philosopher, a priest
and a King, is said to have been instructed in all manner of learning, to
have been the Inventor of medicine among the Egyptians, and to have lived
about fifteen hundred years before the christian æra, or according to
some about the time of Moses.
Chymistry, among the Egyptians, was joined to the magic art, it passed,
thus corrupted, from them to the Arabians, where it was rendered still
more unintelligible; and, in the course of the pilgrimages, and warlike
expeditions to the holy land, it was imported into Europe, during the
dark ages of ignorance, where it was still further vitiated by those
impostors who scrupled not to corrupt the christian doctrines, and to
pervert a religion, instituted to promote the happiness of mankind,
to the purpose of oppressing them, by erecting, under the pretence of
obedience to its precepts, a temporal and spiritual dominion over all
whom they could intimidate or deceive.
In these rude times, when the nations of Europe were overwhelmed with
ignorance and slavery, it was not to be expected that Chymistry could
be much reformed. The little learning of that age was confined to the
ecclesiastical orders, who avowedly reprobated all knowledge which was
not derived from divine illumination.
Hence we find the chymical writers of that period boasting of their
weakness, yielding up all confidence in their faculties, glorying in what
they termed poverty of spirit, which was a state of absolute quietism,
and betaking themselves to the invocation of supernatural assistance, on
which they depended for that information which had been wisely placed
within the reach of their natural capacity. An implicit submission to
these monkish tenets was, however, strictly enforced, and all who
presumed to depart from them, called forth the severest censures of the
catholic church.
But, even in those times of ignorance an ecclesiastic arose worthy of a
better age and happier fate. Roger Bacon, undaunted by the terrors of
the church, boldly attempted to stem the torrent of superstition, and
recal the world to truth and sound philosophy. Such of his writings as
yet remain, are composed in a rational, manly stile, void of hypocrisy
and dissimulation. He leads us to examine the works of nature and of art,
chastly distinguishing those from the sacred truths of revelation, and
clearly demonstrating their united operations to be far more wonderful
than the pretended miracles of those who boasted of supernatural
assistance, whom he justly censures as amusing the ignorant with the
fumes of drunkenness, or the ravings of a distempered brain.
The age in which he lived was too much depressed to be roused by his
vigorous efforts; and his laudable attempts to emancipate the christian
world from that slavish ignorance in which it was held, were, for very
obvious reasons, severely censured by the Roman church: he was arraigned,
condemned, and cast into prison, where he was exhausted by a tedious
confinement and severe penance[1], and soon after fell a victim to the
vengeance of his enemies.
The papal tyranny having thus prevailed against the strenuous efforts
of this rational and intelligent philosopher, it was easy, under the
pretence of exalted devotion, to suppress more feeble attempts toward
improvement and reformation.
But those high pretensions to extraordinary sanctity have been so often
used as a cloak, by men of an intriguing spirit, that they are now justly
deemed suspicious; and we need only look into the lives and writings
of the ecclesiastical chymists to be convinced that they were assumed
by them, to cover their ignorance, ambition, and dissolute manners. An
overweening conceit of their own opinions, and an arrogant contempt for
those of others, is, notwithstanding all their pretensions to humility
and self-denial, the genuine characteristic of those hypocritical
writers. Thus we find them extolling themselves to the disparagement of
all mankind. _Ye doctors of physick and surgery_, says Basil Valentine,
_come to me, a religious person, and servant of God, I will shew you what
ye have never seen, I will make manifest to you the way of health and
salvation, which you have not yet known_.[2]
In delivering their chymical processes, an invocation of God is the
first precept, and they, then, proceed in the name of the Lord. But
not content with having magnified themselves beyond their equals, they
address their disciples in the stile and manner of the founder of the
christian religion: _I warn you_, says the same ecclesiastical chymist,
_my disciple and apostle, if you would imitate me, you must take up your
cross, and suffer as I have suffered, and learn to bear persecution as I
also have done_[3]: and having thus made themselves equal with God, they
proceeded to disclaim all dependance on the supreme Being, declaring,
in their pride, that, if God would not assist them, they would rather
consult the Devil than the works of former writers[4].
But if the chymists were more intitled to our confidence; the extravagant
praises which they bestow on antimony, would justly render their evidence
suspected. Not content with attributing to it an infallible efficacy
in the cure of diseases, they assert its influence over the temper and
disposition of the mind, and seriously affirm that it disposes to probity
and chastity. Notwithstanding these miraculous effects they scruple not
to own that, in its original state, it is of a poisonous nature; but they
pretend that they can easily convert the most noxious substances into
salutary medicines, and the mildest nourishment into deadly poison; and
thus is antimony rendered an infallible cure for all diseases, and honey
destructive to the human race[5].
The writings of modern physicians are indeed free from those gross
absurdities; yet the high character given, even by them, to antimonial
medicines, so greatly exceeds all bounds of probability, that we shall
be justified in witholding our assent, till it is supported by proofs
bearing some proportion to the boldness of their assertions.
By the study of mathematics a habit of accuracy and precision is
acquired, and it may be suspected that chymistry leads to credulity;
or else, some of the modern chymists, after the example of their
predecessors, have craftily obtained wealth and fame, by the most
criminal practices. Upon the whole, the evidence, as well ancient
as modern, concerning the superlative efficacy of antimony is to be
suspected, and it is necessary impartially to enquire into its natural
history, chymical analysis, and medical effects.