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+The Project Gutenberg eBook, Curiosities of Medical Experience, by J. G.
+(John Gideon) Millingen
+
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
+almost no restrictions whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or
+re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
+with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
+
+
+
+
+
+Title: Curiosities of Medical Experience
+
+
+Author: J. G. (John Gideon) Millingen
+
+
+
+Release Date: March 7, 2012  [eBook #39074]
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ISO-646-US (US-ASCII)
+
+
+***START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK CURIOSITIES OF MEDICAL
+EXPERIENCE***
+
+
+E-text prepared by the Online Distributed Proofreading Team
+(http://www.pgdp.net) from page images generously made available by
+Internet Archive (http://www.archive.org)
+
+
+
+Note: Images of the original pages are available through
+      Internet Archive. See
+      http://www.archive.org/details/curiositiesofmed00milliala
+
+
+Transcriber's note:
+
+      Text enclosed by underscores is in italics (_italics_).
+
+      The original text includes Greek characters. For this text
+      version these letters have been replaced with transliterations.
+
+      Hebrew passages are indicated by [Hebrew].
+
+      Unmatched quotation marks have been left as they were in the
+      original text.
+
+
+
+
+
+CURIOSITIES OF
+MEDICAL EXPERIENCE.
+
+by
+
+J. G. MILLINGEN, M.D., M.A.
+
+SURGEON TO THE FORCES; RESIDENT PHYSICIAN
+OF THE COUNTY OF MIDDLESEX PAUPER LUNATIC ASYLUM AT HANWELL;
+MEMBER OF THE MEDICAL SOCIETY OF THE ANCIENT FACULTY OF PARIS;
+OF THE MEDICAL SOCIETY OF BORDEAUX; AND AUTHOR OF
+"THE ARMY MEDICAL OFFICER'S MANUAL," &c.
+
+SECOND EDITION.
+
+REVISED AND CONSIDERABLY AUGMENTED.
+
+IN ONE VOLUME.
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+London:
+Richard Bentley, New Burlington Street,
+Publisher in Ordinary to Her Majesty.
+1839.
+
+Whiting, Beaufort House, Strand.
+
+
+
+
+  TO SIR JAMES M'GRIGOR, BART.
+  M.D., F.R.S., K.T.S., &c. &c.
+  DIRECTOR GENERAL OF THE ARMY MEDICAL DEPARTMENT,
+  TO WHOSE ZEAL AND EXAMPLE THE MEDICAL OFFICERS OF HER MAJESTY'S
+  FORCES ARE SO MUCH INDEBTED FOR THAT DISTINGUISHED
+  CHARACTER AND CONSIDERATION THEY COLLECTIVELY
+  AND INDIVIDUALLY HOLD IN THE ESTIMATION
+  OF THE EUROPEAN ARMIES,
+  THIS WORK IS INSCRIBED,
+  AS A TESTIMONIAL OF PUBLIC RESPECT AND
+  SINCERE PRIVATE ESTEEM,
+  BY THE AUTHOR.
+
+
+
+
+PREFACE TO THE SECOND EDITION.
+
+
+The rapid sale of the first edition of this work has induced the publisher
+to reprint it with considerable additions in a less expensive, and more
+concise form--and the author embraces this opportunity, gratefully to
+acknowledge the liberality with which it has been received, and the
+indulgence shown to its many imperfections. At the same time he cannot but
+regret, that in some quarters it has been surmised that he yielded
+credence to the many strange relations which he has recorded from various
+medical works, but which he merely narrated, to show the fallacy even of
+experience, and the many dangers that may arise from the most ingenious
+theories and doctrines, in the very ratio of their apparent plausibility.
+
+Although these sketches were not intended for the profession, yet they may
+prove of some utility to the pupil who commences the arduous study of
+medicine. They may convince him, that great names, however justly
+respected and renowned, do not constitute a sufficient basis, on which to
+rest a satisfactory and conclusive judgment; and, as Locke has justly
+observed, that "_reverence or prejudice must not be suffered to give
+beauty or deformity to any of their opinions_." He will find that of which
+further experience will subsequently convince him, that medical
+investigation is too often founded upon analogy and hypothesis--but let
+not this painful and disheartening impression arrest his progress, or
+deter him from seeking to assist his judgment by collecting "the scattered
+parts of truth," for in speaking of hypothesis, Dr. Crichton has thus
+expressed himself: "There is a period in knowledge, when it must be
+indulged in if we mean to make any progress; it is that period when the
+facts are too numerous to be recollected without general principles, and
+yet, where the facts are too few to constitute a valid theory. If the
+exterior form of an edifice is often the principal motive with men for
+examining its internal structure; so it is in science, that the splendour
+of an hypothesis, and the desire of proving its solidity, are more
+frequent motives for research than a mere love of knowledge."
+
+Notwithstanding our boasted progress in scientific pursuits, and our
+supposed approach to perfection, there never perhaps was a period, since
+the fanciful days of Paracelsus, Agrippa, and Van Helmont, when more
+deceitful and fascinating reveries were indulged in than at the present
+_enlightened_ moment, nor more ingenuity and disingenuousness displayed in
+seeking to give substance to a vision or overthrowing its baseless fabric.
+It is painful to be obliged to admonish the would be legislators of our
+belief, in the words of the sceptical Bolingbroke:
+
+"Folly and knavery have prevailed most where they should be tolerated the
+least, and presumption has been excused most where diffidence and candour
+are on many accounts the most necessary.
+
+  "Quale per incertam lunam sub luce maligna
+  Est iter in Silvis."
+
+  _Hanwell Lunatic Asylum,
+  Dec. 1838._
+
+
+
+
+INTRODUCTION.
+
+
+The great success and correspondent utility of D'Israeli's "Curiosities of
+Literature," have induced me to add to the ample harvest of that ingenious
+writer a few gleanings from another field. They may not afford the same
+amusing variety to the general reader, but they may tend to draw some
+attention to many important points that affect the chequered lot of
+mankind. The progress that every science has rapidly made during the last
+half-century has been astounding, and seems to have kept pace with those
+struggles of the intellectual faculties to burst from the shackles of
+prejudice and error that had ignobly bound them for so many ages. Groping
+in darkness, man sought the light, but unfortunately the sudden refulgence
+at times dazzled instead of guiding his steps in the pursuit of truth, and
+led him into errors as perilous as those that had surrounded him in his
+former mental obscurity. His gigantic powers were aroused, but, too
+frequently misapplied, they shook the social edifice to its very
+foundation. The daring hand of innovation destroyed without contemplating
+what better fabric could be raised on the ruin: and while the nobler
+faculties with which Providence had gifted us were exerted for the public
+weal, the baser parts of our passions sought liberty in licentiousness.
+Ambition degenerated into ferocity, scepticism led to impiety, and even
+apparent virtue sought to propagate the doctrines of good, by assuming the
+"goodly outside" of vice. Religion was overthrown because priestcraft had
+deceived, and high rank was held up to detestation because princes and
+nobles had been corrupt; and to use Shakespeare's words,
+
+                      Thus we debase
+  The nature of our seats, and make the rabble
+  Call our cares, fears; which will in time break ope
+  The lock o' the senate, and bring in the crows
+  To peck the eagles.
+
+In ten short years this mighty revolution in the intellect of man took
+place,--in a country too that may be considered the cradle of the future
+weal and woe, perhaps of the universe;--in ten short years we beheld
+Montesquieu, Raynal, Rousseau, Voltaire, Condillac, Helvetius, beaming
+like rising meteors in the dark firmament, and shedding a fearful gleam on
+the past, the present, and the future; boldly tracking a path once trodden
+with groping steps by Bacon, Descartes, Hobbes, and Gassendi![1] No longer
+trusting in blind confidence to the scholastic rules of those dignitaries
+of science whose conclusions were considered sufficient to command our
+faith, man became sceptical and positive; doubt and disbelief were carried
+into every investigation; the reign of _prestiges_ was over; the former
+monopolists of power and of science, the two great levers of society (the
+more effective since their fulcra rested on timidity and ignorance), were
+thrown from their antiquated stand, and found themselves brought face to
+face in explanatory contact with their once all-believing and obedient
+pupils, but now become a neoteric generation;--the crown and the sceptre,
+the cap and the gown, were baubles in their eyes. When the faculty of
+reasoning was not able to prevail, the shafts of ridicule were drawn from
+the quiver of philosophic wit, and inflicted rankling wounds where they
+could not destroy. Ancient systems were exploded with ancient prejudices,
+theories were overthrown with dynasties, and doctrines with
+governments;--one might have imagined that the formidable power of steam
+had been communicated to the mind, illustrating the words of Milton,
+
+  The mind is its own place, and in itself
+  Can make a heaven of hell, and hell of heaven.
+
+Science, now aimed at generalization-the physiologist, the chemist, became
+legislators, stepping from the academic chair to the senatorial seat, and
+from teaching how to benefit mankind they hurried to destroy, forgetful,
+in their ambitious dream, of the noble encomium of Cicero, "_Homines ad
+deos nulla se proprius accedunt, quam salutem hominibus dando_."
+
+Philosophy and the study of medicine were now inseparable; this generous
+science was not to be attained in books only, but in the study of mankind.
+Rousseau thus spoke of physicians when writing to Bernardin de Saint
+Pierre:--"_Il n'y a pas d'etat qui exige plus d'etude que le leur; par
+tous les pays, ce sont des hommes les plus veritablement savans et
+utiles_." Voltaire was of a similar opinion when he thus expressed
+himself:--"_Il n'est rien de plus estimable au monde, qu'un medecin qui,
+ayant dans sa jeunesse etudie la nature, connu les ressorts du corps
+humain, les maux qui le tourmentent, les remedes qui peuvent le soulager,
+exerce son etat en s'en defiant, et soigne egalement les pauvres et les
+riches_."
+
+How came it then that these great observers did not partake of the
+prejudices of Montaigne, Moliere, and other writers, who invariably
+stigmatized the practice of physic? simply because it was no longer a
+dogmatic profession exercised with scholastic pedantry, but a science
+founded on the study of nature, and the immutable laws of sound
+philosophy. Although a classic education forms an indispensable part of a
+physician's education, yet it is in more important pursuits that his
+experience should be obtained: the knowledge of ancient languages is
+principally useful in discovering the errors of the olden writers, and in
+detecting the barefaced plagiarisms of the moderns.
+
+Much valuable time, however, may be lost in the pursuit of ancient lore;
+and Montaigne has justly observed, "There are books which should only be
+read, but others that must be learnt." This discrimination is of the
+utmost importance; for it may be said of the bookworm's library,
+"_Multitudo librorum saepe est nubes testium ignorantiae possessoris_."
+Aristippus very properly replied to a man who boasted of his reading, "It
+is not those who eat the most that are hale and healthy, but those who can
+best digest." Hence the distinction that arose between the philosophical
+physician and the dogmatizer. The one was guided by the observation of
+facts, the other by glossarial records. Men of erudition are seldom men of
+genius. The exploring mind is ever anxious to take flight from the
+prison-house of scholastic restraints. Scepticism, moreover, is frequently
+the result of deep study, which leads the neophyte into such a labyrinth
+of conflicting opinions, that decision and conviction are not easily
+attained. Laugier, a most learned German physician, had no faith in his
+profession: being reproached with his incredulity, he replied, "_Credo,
+Domine, adjuva incredulitatem meam_."
+
+The preceding observations lead to an important, and at the same time a
+painful reflection. Will this rapid intellectual progress tend ultimately
+to meliorate the condition of mankind? Nations have been compared to Man:
+having once reached the acme of prosperity and strength, their vigour like
+his gradually declines. History offers nothing more than a chronicle of
+such facts. Whatever may be the causes of this degeneracy, is a matter
+foreign to my present subject; although I may be permitted to observe by
+the way, that it may have arisen from the great disparity and inequality
+in the condition of society that tends to lull the wealthy into apathetic
+indifference and blind security in their power, while it urges the poor
+and the bold to rapine and destructive deeds. This perilous state can only
+cease to exist when general education is improved: if this most important
+source of real prosperity is attended to, we perhaps need not seek in
+particular events, gloomy anticipations of the future.
+
+Whatever may be the destinies of nations in the wreck of empires and the
+destruction of men, the philosopher calmly seated on ruins that often
+"speak that sometime they were a worthy building," reflects with pride
+that science has withstood the withering hand of time. It is true, that in
+every study errors have been heaped upon errors; but truth will often
+result from falsehood, and doubt that brings on investigation, leads to
+comparative certainty. Locke has justly observed, that the faculty of
+reasoning seldom or never deceives those who trust to it: its
+consequences, from what it builds on, are evident and certain; but that
+which it oftenest, if not only, misleads us in, is, that the principles
+from which we conclude, the grounds upon which we bottom our reasoning,
+are but a part--_something_ is left out which should go into the reckoning
+to make it just and exact. This _something_ is the constant pursuit of the
+philosopher. The name of a country may be obliterated from a map, the
+deeds of heroes be effaced from the annals of the world; the pursuit of
+truth can only cease when man is no more;--its light may be veiled by
+ignorance, craft, or cupidity,--but it cannot be extinguished. The cities
+that gave birth to the illustrious philosophers of old have long ceased to
+exist, yet the immortal works of those sages that have escaped the
+ravages of time, are still as fresh and luxuriant as when their glorious
+oratory enchanted and captivated their disciples' ears.
+
+No science has been cultivated with more difficulty than that of Medicine.
+The following papers will show how fearfully it has had to contend in turn
+with the power of priestcraft, that sought to monopolize its practice, as
+a privilege from the gods, and with the furious opposition of contemporary
+members of the profession, whose cupidity and vanity were alarmed by the
+introduction of novel doctrines, which they were too old, too busy, or too
+obstinate to learn. The extracts from Medical Literature that I have given
+will show that most of our modern notions were known to the earliest
+writers, and were only improved in succeeding ages, as in like manner our
+present doctrines will in all probability be advanced by future
+generations. The destruction of kingdoms and of chronicles, the inroads of
+barbarism,--the more destructive inroads of ignorance and bigotry, have
+not been able to produce a void in the world of science; the catenation of
+philosophic inquiry has never been broken in its connexions. Oppression
+only riveted the chain more firmly, as if to resist the united power of
+man and time. Adversity, which
+
+  Like the toad, ugly and venomous,
+  Wears yet a precious jewel in its head,
+
+has always been considered the best school of practical wisdom: and it is
+thus that, amidst the portentous events which have shaken every
+institution, and which perhaps still menace further dissolution, the fane
+of science has oftentimes been more vividly illumined by the surrounding
+conflagration.
+
+The evils that desolate society too frequently arise from the hasty acts
+of intemperate men, who deem it necessary to meet the tumultuous demands
+of the multitude with decided and energetic, but, at the same time,
+perilous measures: the progress of science, on the contrary, is gradual,
+and of course more likely to be eventually permanent. While political
+speculations are daily becoming more uncertain in their operations, the
+triumph of intellectual superiority over prejudice is every where
+apparent;--unjust disabilities are being abolished, and the gates of
+learning thrown open to every candidate, whatever may be his religious or
+his political tenets.
+
+In our country, more than in any other, industry and perseverance have
+ever had a fairer chance of attaining social pre-eminence, despite the
+shackles imposed upon the candidate for fame by institutions framed in the
+darker ages. What then may we not expect, when we behold the bright era
+that opens before us,--when exclusive institutions will be considered the
+obsolete remnants of expiring bigotry and intolerance! May we not indulge
+in the most sanguine hope, that our former glories are only the historic
+earnest of still more glorious days? If the spirit of the immortal Locke
+could hover over our earth, he would feel, with some degree of pride, that
+his admonitions have not been unheeded; and that "those who live mewed up
+within their own contracted territories, and will not look abroad beyond
+the boundaries that _chance_, _conceit_, or _laziness_ have set to their
+inquiries, but live separate from the notions, discourses, and attainments
+of the rest of mankind," have at last felt the necessity of yielding to
+the voice of reason, or rather of their own welfare.
+
+In the following work I merely rank myself as a compiler. I have only
+sketched--sometimes perhaps with too fanciful a pencil, subjects of great
+importance, which, by being thus rendered popular, may induce abler pens
+to imbody them in a more permanent form. The variety of matter introduced
+has obliged me to be discursive, and to have recourse to some repetitions
+that were necessary to illustrate subjects not easily abridged. Whenever I
+have held up errors and evil passions to exposure, I have not, in one
+single instance, I trust, been influenced by any hostility towards men or
+parties--ranks or creeds. If I have unwillingly and unwittingly given
+offence, I shall most sincerely lament it. My materials have been gleaned
+from the works of many contemporaries, whose well-known and
+justly-appreciated names will in general appear: but I should be wanting
+in candour, did I not avow that I have derived much valuable information
+from _Le Dictionnaire des Sciences Medicales_, an elaborate compilation,
+containing more "CURIOSITIES OF MEDICAL EXPERIENCE" than any existing
+work.
+
+  _48, Eaton Square,
+  January, 1837._
+
+
+
+
+CONTENTS.
+
+
+                                                            Page
+
+  Obesity                                                      1
+
+  Dwarfs                                                       9
+
+  Gigantic Races                                              12
+
+  Unlawful Cures                                              19
+
+  Voice and Speech                                            32
+
+  Ecstatic Exaltation                                         37
+
+  Varieties of Mankind                                        44
+
+  On the Inhumation of the Dead in Cities                     54
+
+  Buried Alive                                                63
+
+  Spontaneous Combustion                                      66
+
+  Brassica Eruca                                              70
+
+  Cagliostro                                                  71
+
+  Lunar Influence on Human Life and Diseases                  73
+
+  Spectacles                                                  76
+
+  Leeches                                                     77
+
+  Somnambulism                                                79
+
+  Medical Powers of Music                                     88
+
+  The Food of Mankind                                         96
+
+  Influence of Imagination                                   125
+
+  Ancient Ideas of Phrenology                                135
+
+  Perfumes                                                   136
+
+  Love Philters and Potions                                  141
+
+  Ventriloquism                                              148
+
+  Chaucer's Description of a Physician                       151
+
+  Daemonomania                                                152
+
+  The Plague                                                 164
+
+  Abstinence                                                 185
+
+  Poison of the Upas, or Ipo                                 190
+
+  Homophagous and polyphagous                                196
+
+  Causes of Insanity                                         202
+
+  Leprosy                                                    221
+
+  The Aspic                                                  227
+
+  Selden's Comparison between a Divine, a Statesman, and
+    a Physician                                              229
+
+  The Lettuce                                                230
+
+  Medical Fees                                               231
+
+  Enthusiasm                                                 237
+
+  Medical effects of Water                                   252
+
+  Proverbs and Sayings regarding Health and Disease          259
+
+  The Night-mare                                             262
+
+  Incubation of Diseases                                     266
+
+  Quackery and Charlatanism                                  269
+
+  On the use of Tea                                          277
+
+  Mandragore                                                 281
+
+  Barber-Surgeons, and the Progress of Chirurgical Art       285
+
+  On Dreams                                                  295
+
+  On Flagellation                                            312
+
+  On Life and the Blood                                      317
+
+  Of the Homoeopathic Doctrines                              337
+
+  Doctrine of Signatures                                     365
+
+  Coffee                                                     370
+
+  Aqua Tophania                                              374
+
+  Plica Polonica & Human Hair                                377
+
+  Animal Magnetism                                           384
+
+  Poisonous Fishes                                           397
+
+  Memory & the Mental Faculties                              404
+
+  Affections of the Sight                                    420
+
+  Hellebore                                                  426
+
+  Sympathies and Antipathies                                 428
+
+  The Archeus of Van Helmont                                 439
+
+  Monsters                                                   443
+
+  Longevity                                                  453
+
+  Cretinism                                                  472
+
+  Temperaments                                               476
+
+  Solar Influence                                            482
+
+  Sweating Fever                                             485
+
+  Smallpox                                                   491
+
+  Drunkenness                                                507
+
+  Decapitation                                               516
+
+  Mummies                                                    518
+
+  Hydrophobia                                                527
+
+  Rise and Progress of Medicine                              534
+
+  Medicine of the Chinese                                    552
+
+  Experiments on Living Animals                              559
+
+
+
+
+CURIOSITIES OF MEDICAL EXPERIENCE.
+
+
+
+
+OBESITY.
+
+
+Various are the opinions concerning the cause of excessive corpulence. By
+some it is attributed to too great an activity in the digestive functions,
+producing a rapid assimilation of our food; by others, to the predominance
+of the liver: while indolence and apathy, such as is commonly observed in
+the wealthy monastic orders, are considered as occasioning a laxity of
+fibre favourable to this _embonpoint_. Boileau has thus described one of
+these fat lazy prelates, who
+
+            Muni d'un dejeuner,
+  Dormant d'un leger somme, attendait le diner.
+  La jeunesse en sa fleur brille sur son visage;
+  Son menton sur son sein descend a triple etage;
+  Et son corps ramasse, dans sa courte grosseur,
+  Fait gemir les coussins sous sa molle epaisseur.
+
+It is certain that exercise, anxiety of mind, want of sleep, and spare
+food, are circumstances opposed to fatness. This fact is illustrated by
+Shakspeare, when Caesar says to Antony,
+
+  Let me have men about me that are fat,--
+  Sleek-headed men, and such as sleep o' nights;
+  Yon Cassius has a lean and hungry look,
+  He thinks too much: such men are dangerous.
+
+Antony and Dolabella were both men of some corpulence. The Roman ladies
+dreaded above all things too voluminous a development of the bosom: to
+prevent it they were in the habit of applying to their breasts the raw
+flesh of a fish called Angel. Hippocrates has maintained that obesity was
+an obstacle to conception. This assertion which was partaken by other
+medical writers, may, in some measure account for the dread of
+corpulence. Strange indeed have been the fancies on this subject amongst
+various nations.
+
+Fat is a fluid similar to vegetable oils, inodorous, and lighter than
+water; besides the elements common to water, to oils, and wax, it contains
+carbon, hydrogen, and sebacic acid, which is pretty similar to the acetic.
+Human fat, like that of other animals, has been frequently employed for
+various purposes. A story is told of an Irish tallowchandler, who, during
+the invasion of Cromwell's army, made candles with the fat of Englishmen,
+which were remarkable for their good quality; but when the times became
+more tranquil, his goods were of an inferior kind, and when one of his
+customers complained of his candles falling off, he apologised by saying,
+"I am sorry to inform you that the times are so bad that I have been short
+of Englishmen for a long time."
+
+Obesity may be considered a serious evil, and has exposed corpulent
+persons to many _desagremens_. The ancients held fat people in sovereign
+contempt. Some of the Gentoos enter their dwellings by a hole in the roof;
+and any fat person who cannot get through it, they consider as an
+excommunicated offender who has not been able to rid himself of his sins.
+An Eastern prince had an officer to regulate the size of his subjects, and
+who dieted the unwieldy ones to reduce them to a proper volume. In China
+this calamity is considered a blessing, a man's intellectual qualities are
+esteemed in the ratio of corporeal bulk.
+
+There are cases on record among ourselves where unwieldiness led to
+estimation. The corpulent antiquarian Grose was requested by his butcher
+to tell all his friends that he bought his meat from him; and the paviers
+of Cambridge used to say, "God bless you, sir!" to a huge professor when
+he walked over their work. Fatness has often been the butt of jocularity.
+Dr. Stafford, who was enormously fat, was honoured with this epitaph:
+
+  Take heed, O good traveller, and do not tread hard,
+  For here lies Dr. Stafford, _in all this church-yard_.
+
+And the following lines were inscribed on the tomb of a corpulent
+chandler:
+
+  Here lies in earth an honest fellow,
+  Who died by fat and lived by tallow.
+
+Dr. Beddoes was so uncomfortably stout that a lady of Clifton used to
+call him "the walking feather-bed." At the court of Louis XV. there were
+two lusty noblemen, related to each other: the king, having rallied one of
+them on his corpulency, added, "I suppose you take little or no exercise?"
+"Your majesty will pardon me," replied the bulky duke, "for I generally
+walk two or three times round my cousin every morning."
+
+Various ludicrous anecdotes are related of fat people. A scene between
+Mrs. Clive and Mrs. Pritchard, two corpulent actresses, must have been
+very amusing. They were playing in the parts of Lady Easy and Edging, in
+the Careless Husband, when the former desires Edging to pick up a letter
+she had dropped; and Mrs. Clive, who might as well have attempted to raise
+a hundred pound weight, exclaimed, "Not I indeed, take it up yourself if
+you like it." This answer threw the audience into roars of laughter, when
+Mrs. Pritchard replied, "Well, if you won't take up the letter, I must
+find some one who will;" and so saying, she beckoned to a servant in the
+wing, who came forward and terminated the dispute.
+
+In some countries, especially in the East, moderate obesity is considered
+a beauty, and Tunisene young ladies are regularly fattened for marriage; a
+different practice from that of the Roman matrons, who starved their
+daughters, to make them as lean as possible on such occasions. Thus
+Terence,
+
+    Nostrae virgines--si bono habitu sunt, matres pugiles esse aiunt, et
+    cibum deducunt.
+
+Erasmus states that the Gordii carried their admiration for corpulence to
+such an extent, that they raised the fattest amongst them to the throne.
+It is well known that the preposterous size of some of the Hottentots is
+deemed a perfection, and one of their Venuses was not long since exhibited
+in London.
+
+There is no doubt that food materially influences this condition of
+mankind, although we frequently see enormous eaters who are miserably
+lean, and fat persons whose diet is most scanty. During the late war, a
+ravenous French prisoner was known to eat four pounds of raw cow-udder,
+ten pounds of raw beef, and two pounds of candles, per diem, diluting his
+meals with five quarts of porter; yet this carnivorous brute was a perfect
+skeleton.
+
+Amongst the many predisposing causes of obesity we may rank emasculation.
+An epicurean fishmonger of the name of Samuel Tull performed this
+operation on fishes, to render them more delicate. His curious experiments
+were submitted to the Royal Society. The same practice has been
+subsequently illustrated by Professor Dumeril. Father Charleroix informs
+us that Caraib cannibals had recourse to this process to fatten their
+prisoners before they were devoured.
+
+Anatomical pursuits are also known to occasion _embonpoint_. This has been
+frequently observed amongst medical pupils. Professor Mascagni attributed
+his corpulence to his constant attendance on dissections; he also excused
+his amorous propensities on similar grounds.
+
+For the cure of corpulency, diminution of food of a nutritious nature has
+been generally recommended; added to this, little sleep and much exercise
+are advised. Acids to reduce fatness are frequently administered, but have
+done considerable mischief. Amongst other wonderful accounts of their
+efficacy in such cases, it is related of a Spanish general who was of an
+enormous size, that he drank vinegar until his bulk was so reduced that he
+could fold his skin round his body.
+
+For a similar purpose soap has been frequently recommended, particularly
+by Dr. Flemyng. He began this experiment with one of his patients who
+weighed twenty stone and eleven pounds (jockey weight): in July 1754, he
+took every night a quarter of an ounce of common Castile soap. In August
+1756 his bulk was reduced two stone, and in 1760 he was brought down to a
+proper condition.
+
+Darwin is of opinion that salt and salted meat are still more efficacious
+than soap. All these experiments, however, are in general not only useless
+but pernicious, and frequently prove fatal. Mr. Wadd, from whose curious
+work on corpulence much is extracted in this article, properly observes
+that, "certain and permanent relief is only to be sought in rigid
+abstemiousness, and a strict and constant attention to diet and exercise."
+Dr. Cheyne, who weighed thirty-two stone, reduced himself one-third, and
+enjoyed good health till the age of seventy-two. Numerous instances of the
+kind are mentioned, where journals of gradual reduction were kept: the
+following is an abstract of one of them, in the case of a person who, on
+the 17th June 1820, weighed twenty-three stone two pounds:--
+
+  June 17           23 stone 2 pounds.
+  July 27           21   "  10   "
+  September 10      20   "   7   "
+  October 10        19   "   3   "
+  November 10       18   "  11   "
+  December 10       18   "   4   "
+  December 25       18   "   1   "
+
+In another case, attended by Dr. Gregory of Edinburgh, the patient weighed
+twenty-three stone, and by a regular system of diet was brought down to
+fifteen stone. In this instance brown bread, with a certain quantity of
+bran in it, was employed; and it is well known that the alimentary
+secretions are materially altered by the quality of bread. The article of
+drink also requires much attention. Corpulent persons generally indulge to
+excess, and in this case, every endeavour to reduce them will be vain. We
+frequently see our jockeys reducing themselves to the extent of a stone
+and a half in the week. A lower scale of diet is by no means as injurious
+as it is generally supposed; the English prisoners made by Tippoo Saib,
+though kept upon a scanty pittance of bread and water, found themselves in
+better health than before, and some of them were cured during their
+captivity of liver complaints of long and severe duration.
+
+One of the most corpulent persons known was Mr. Lambert, of
+Leicestershire, who weighed fifty-two stone eleven pounds (14 lbs. to the
+stone).
+
+At Hainton, there died in 1816, Samuel Sugars, aged fifty-two; and his
+body, with a single coffin weighed fifty stone.
+
+In 1754 died Mr. Jacob Powell, of Stebbing in Essex: his body was above
+five yards in circumference, and weighed five hundred and sixty pounds;
+requiring sixteen men to bear him to his grave.
+
+In 1775 Mr. Spooner, of Skillington near Tamworth, weighed, a short time
+before his death, forty stone and nine pounds, and measured four feet
+three inches across the shoulders.
+
+Keysler mentions a young man in Lincoln who ate eighteen pounds of beef
+daily, and died in 1724, in the twenty-eighth of his age, weighing five
+hundred and thirty pounds.
+
+A baker, in Pye Corner, weighed thirty-four stone, and would frequently
+eat a small shoulder of mutton, baked in his oven, and weighing five
+pounds; he, however, persisted for one year to live upon water-gruel and
+brown bread, by which he lost two hundred pounds of his bulk.
+
+Mr. Collet, master of the Evesham Academy, weighed upwards of twenty-six
+stone; when twelve years old, he was nearly as large as at the time of his
+death. At two years of age he required two nurses to lift him in and out
+of bed, one of whom in a fit of anger he felled to the floor with a blow
+of his hand.
+
+At Trenaw in Cornwall, there was a man, known by the name of Grant
+Chillcot, who weighed four hundred and sixty pounds; one of his stockings
+could contain six gallons of wheat.
+
+Our poet Butler must have met with some such enormous creatures in the
+type of his Saxon Duke, who, in Hudibras,
+
+  ------did grow so fat,
+  That mice (as histories relate)
+  Ate grots and labyrinths to dwell in
+  His postique parts, without his feeling.
+
+If obesity has been the subject of ungenerous jokes, leanness has not
+passed unnoticed. An anecdote is related of a reverend doctor of a very
+ghostly appearance, who was one day accosted by a fellow with the
+following salutation: "Well, doctor, I hope you have taken care of your
+_soul_?" "Why, my friend?" said the divine. "Because," replied the
+impertinent interlocutor, "your _body_ is not worth caring for."
+
+A poor diminutive Frenchman being ordered by his Sangrado to drink a quart
+of ptisan a day, replied, with a heavy sigh, "Alas! doctor, that I cannot
+do, since I only hold a pint."
+
+When the Duke de Choiseuil, a remarkably meager man, came to London to
+negotiate a peace, Charles Townshend being asked whether the French
+government had sent the preliminaries of a treaty, answered, "He did not
+know, but they had sent the _outline of an ambassador_."
+
+That change of spare diet to a more nutritious food may bring on some
+corpulence, is evidenced in an anecdote of Colly Cibber, who relates that
+a poor half-starved actor, who used to play the Apothecary in Romeo and
+Juliet, to the life, and with great applause, received an augmentation of
+salary in consequence of his popularity. Unfortunately, increase of
+wealth led him to increase his fare, until he gradually assumed a
+plumpness which unfitted him for the worn-out pharmacopolist; and not
+being able to perform in any other line, the poor man was discharged.
+However, poverty once more brought him down to his original condition,
+when he reappeared upon the boards as triumphantly as ever.
+
+If _embonpoint_ is generally a sign of good-humour and a cheerful
+disposition, leanness frequently betokens a sour, crabbed, and ill-natured
+character. Solomon has said, "A merry heart doeth good like medicine; but
+a broken spirit drieth the bones." This observation, however, cannot be
+considered a rule in forming a judgment of various tempers. This is by no
+means an easy attempt in our intercourse with the world, when physiognomy
+is not always a sure guide in the selection of our companions. Dr.
+Franklin tells a singular story on this subject:
+
+"An old philosophical gentleman had grown, from experience, very cautious
+in avoiding ill-natured people. To endeavour to ascertain their
+disposition he made use of his legs, one of which was remarkably handsome,
+the other, by some accident, crooked and deformed. If a stranger at the
+first interview regarded his ugly leg more than his handsome one, he
+doubted him; but if he spoke of it, and took no notice of his handsome
+leg, that was sufficient to determine the philosopher to have no further
+acquaintance with him. Every body has not this two-legged instrument; but
+every one, with a little attention, may observe signs of this carping,
+fault-finding disposition, and take the same resolution of avoiding the
+acquaintance of those infected by it. I therefore advise those querulous,
+discontented, unhappy people, if they wish to be respected and beloved by
+others, and happy in themselves, _to leave off looking at the ugly leg_."
+
+Various expedients, in addition to a better diet, have been resorted to,
+to restore lean persons to a better case; but amongst the most singular
+that we have on record is that of flagellation. Galen says, that
+horse-dealers having been observed to fatten horses for sale by flogging
+them, an analogous method might be useful with spare persons who wish to
+become stouter. He also mentions slave-dealers who employed similar means.
+Suetonius informs us that Musa, the favourite physician of Augustus, used
+to fustigate him, not only to cure him of a sciatica, but to keep him
+plump. Meibomius pretends that nurses whip little children to fatten them,
+that they may appear healthy and chubby to their mothers. No doubt but
+flagellation determines a greater influx of blood to the surface, and may
+thus tend to increase the circulation, and give tone to parts which would
+otherwise be languid. With this intention, _urticatio_, or whipping with
+nettles, has been frequently used in medical practice with great
+advantage. Xenophon thawed his frozen soldiers by flagellation. In amorous
+despondency and grief, Coelius Aurelianus recommended this process, and
+Elidoeus Paduanus advises it to bring out tardy eruptions. The most
+singular effect of this castigation is recorded by Meibomius, in his work
+_De flagrorum usu_, &c., dedicated to a councillor of the Bishop of
+Lubeck, with the following epigraph:
+
+  Delicias pariunt Veneri crudelia flagra.
+    Dum nocet, illa juvat; dum juvat, ecce nocet.
+
+Menghus Faventinus had long before extolled this practice, mentioned also
+by Coelius Rhodiginus, and various ancient writers, and more recently
+recognised as effectual by Rousseau, in his Confessions.
+
+A remarkable case of leanness is mentioned by Lorry in a priest, who
+became so thin and dry in all his articulations, that at last he was
+unable to go through the celebration of mass, as his joints and spine
+would crack in so loud and strange a manner at every genuflexion, that the
+faithful were terrified, and the faithless laughed. One of these miserable
+laths once undertook a long journey to consult a learned physician on his
+sad condition, and having begged to know, in a most piteous tone, the
+cause of his desiccation, was favoured with the following luminous answer:
+"Sir, there is a predisposition in your constitution to make you lean, and
+a disposition in your constitution to keep you so." Another meager patient
+being told that the celebrated Hunter had fattened a dog by removing his
+spleen, exclaimed, with a deep sigh, "O, sir! I wish Mr. Hunter had
+mine."
+
+
+
+
+DWARFS.
+
+
+We can scarcely believe that the ancients gave any credence to the
+fabulous accounts of dwarfish nations, or could be persuaded of the
+existence of those pigmies spoken of by Aristotle and other writers, who,
+in all probability, described as such a species of diminutive monkeys.
+
+Athenaeus mentions a race of dwarfs who were in perpetual war with cranes,
+who harnessed partridges to their chariots, and were obliged to cut down
+corn with felling-axes, like forest trees. Pliny asserts that their
+constant enemy, the crane, drove them out of Thracia, but that they still
+were to be met with in Ethiopia, near the source of the Nile, and above
+the rise of the Ganges, where they were named _Spithania_, their stature
+not exceeding three palms. Nicephorus Calixtus, in his Ecclesiastical
+History, mentions an Egyptian who was not longer than a partridge, and
+who, at the age of twenty-five, displayed considerable mental endowment.
+Strabo, however, judiciously observed that these stories arose from the
+circumstance of the small size of every animal in intemperate regions.
+Various modern travellers have recorded the most absurd stories of
+diminutive men, as well as of gigantic nations; but to most of them we may
+apply the words of Congreve--
+
+  Fernandez Mendez Pinto was but a type of thee,
+  Thou liar of the first magnitude.
+
+It is nevertheless true, that man exhibits differences of stature in
+various climes. The Laplanders and Samoides in Europe, the Ostiacks and
+Tungooses in Asia, the Greenlanders and Esquimaux in America--all the
+natives indeed of high northern latitudes are remarkably short, measuring
+little more than four feet; and Niels Sara, the Laplander mentioned by Von
+Buch in his Travels, and who measured five feet eight inches, may be
+considered as a gigantic exception. It had been reported by travellers,
+that a nation of white dwarfs, called _Quimos_ or _Kimos_, existed in the
+interior of Madagascar; but Flacourt has positively denied the fact,
+although Commerson, the naturalist of Bougainville, and De Modave, confirm
+the former statement. It has also been remarked by various travellers,
+that dwarfs are not uncommon amongst robust and manly races, instanced in
+Poland and Lithuania. Sigismund de Herbestein made the same observation in
+Samogitia, the population of which was of a high stature.
+
+It is by no means evident that climate or any external agency invariably
+produces this effect; for, in the very regions inhabited by the stunted
+Hottentot, the shortest race in Africa, since the Bosjernan tribe scarcely
+ever exceed four feet, we find the strong and tall Kaffer. Amongst these
+it is also to be remarked, that there exists a singular difference between
+the sexes. Langsdorf thus expresses himself on the subject: "The Kaffer
+women were mostly of low stature, very strong-limbed, and particularly
+muscular in the leg: the men, on the contrary, were the finest figures I
+ever beheld; they were tall, robust, and muscular. A young man of about
+twenty, of six feet ten inches high, was one of the finest figures that
+perhaps was ever created. He was a perfect Hercules; and a cast from his
+body would not have disgraced the pedestal of the deity in the Farnese
+Palace." He further adds, "There is, perhaps, no nation on earth, taken
+collectively, that can produce so fine a race of men as the Kaffers: they
+are tall, stout, muscular, well-made, elegant figures. They are exempt,
+indeed, from many of those causes that in more civilized societies
+contribute to impede the growth of the body. Their diet is simple, their
+exercise of a salutary nature; their body is neither cramped nor
+encumbered by clothing; the air they breathe is pure; their rest is not
+disturbed by violent love, nor their minds ruffled by jealousy; they are
+free from those licentious appetites which proceed frequently more from a
+depraved imagination than a real natural want. Their frame is neither
+shaken nor enervated by the use of intoxicating liquor; they eat when
+hungry, and sleep when nature demands it. With such a kind of life,
+languor and melancholy have nothing to do. The countenance of a Kaffer is
+always cheerful, and the whole of his demeanour bespeaks content and peace
+of mind."
+
+Are diminutive races more productive than those of stronger formation? The
+brute creation has been taken as an example in support of this opinion;
+large animals producing one or two young ones, while the smaller species
+are singularly prolific. The lioness seldom brings forth more than two or
+four whelps, the cat will have a litter of eight or ten kittens; the
+pullulation of insects is incredible. But is not this circumstance an
+illustration of the wisdom of Providence? If the larger species were as
+abundant as the lesser races, where could they find sustenance in regions
+where the produce is, under the influence of the seasons, occasionally
+abundant or scarce? In the ocean, this is not the case; the myriads of its
+creatures suffice to support each other, and we therefore meet in the
+deep, the largest of animals in numerous shoals, while the small fry are
+generated in marvellous abundance.
+
+That the facility of obtaining food and the nature of the nutritious
+substances that animals may find, influence their stature, is evident. In
+sandy and arid plains poor in pasture, we find horses and cattle of a
+stunted breed: the herds of Flanders widely differ from those of Wales and
+of the Ukraine, and the Scotch and Welsh cattle cannot be compared to
+those of Holstein. At the same time, it must be observed, that in regard
+to dwarfs, although it frequently does occur that they are labouring under
+a hereditary lowness of stature, this is not invariably the case. In these
+instances dwarfs may be considered as morbid phenomena. Thus Bebe, the
+dwarf of Stanislaus of Poland, who was thirty-three French inches high,
+was weak, of delicate health, became deformed as he grew up, and died at
+the age of twenty-three; his parents were of the usual stature: whereas
+the Polish nobleman Borwlaski was well-made, active, intelligent: he
+measured twenty-eight inches; he had a brother of thirty-four inches, and
+a sister of twenty-one. Stoeberin, of Nuerenberg, was nearly three feet high
+at twenty, well-proportioned, and possessing a cultivated mind: his
+parents, brothers, and sisters, were all dwarfs. Such natural dwarfs have
+been known to evince brilliant qualities. Uladislas, king of Poland,
+surnamed _Cubitalis_ from his only measuring a cubit in height, was
+renowned for his warlike exploits; and we find a dwarf of the name of
+Kasan, a khan of Tartary, boldly leading their enterprising bands. These
+individuals sprung from dwarfish parents; whereas the dwarfs we generally
+meet with are deformities of nature; their head is voluminous, their
+intellectual faculties obtuse, they are mostly childish in their ideas and
+pursuits, and are rarely able to propagate their race.
+
+Held in contempt by the people, dwarfs naturally become peevish and
+irritable; and the diminutive names given to them to match their apparent
+natural imperfection tend constantly to increase their irritability. Thus
+the Latins called them _Homunciones_, the Italians _Piccoluomini_, the
+Flemings _Mennekin_,--whence, no doubt, our term _Mannikin_ given to
+little men, and _Minikin_ applied to small pins. A very curious case of a
+dwarf born from parents of the usual stature was exhibited in Paris in
+1819: her name was Anne Souvray; she was born in the Vosges, and was only
+thirty-three inches in height. She was at that period seventy-three years
+of age; was gay, animated, good-humoured, and danced with tolerable grace
+with her sister Barbe, seventy-five years of age, and taller than her by
+two inches. In 1762, King Stanislaus wanted to marry her to his Bebe; the
+bridegroom, however, did not live to contract so desirable a match; but,
+faithful to her lover, she ever afterwards called herself _Madame Bebe_.
+
+Jeffrey Hudson, the dwarf of King Charles, must also have been of a very
+diminutive stature, since we find that he was served up in a pie to the
+royal table, and jumped out when the crust was raised. It appears that
+introducing live pies in those days were not an uncommon frolic; hence
+there may be some truth in the old song of
+
+  Four-and-twenty black-birds bak'd in a pye,
+  When the pye was open'd the birds began to sing,
+  Was not that a dainty dish to lay before a king?
+
+
+
+
+GIGANTIC RACES.
+
+
+While we dismiss as fabulous all ancient and modern accounts of dwarfish
+races, we must also treat with the same scepticism the relations of
+gigantic nations. Although individuals of incredible stature have been
+occasionally seen, the word giant must be considered not only comparative
+as regarding primary races, but in many instances allegorical. Thus the
+Hebrew word, _Nophel_ and _Giboor_ (_Nephilim_ and _Gibborim_ in the
+plural), did not signify giants, as commonly translated, but cruel and
+violent men. Athletic power and uncommon energies were naturally
+associated with the idea of supernatural stature, though intellectual
+accomplishments were not always included in the association: on the
+contrary, we find the ancient axiom _Homo longus rare sapiens_ frequently
+adduced.
+
+In temperate climates the height of the human race averages from four feet
+and a half to six feet, but occasional instances have been met with of men
+reaching eight and nine feet--nay, some authors go so far as ten and
+eighteen; but the latter assertions seem to refer to fossil bones
+attributed to man, but which evidently belonged to other animals. Buffon
+mentions gigantic human bones discovered at Lucerne, but which upon
+examination Blumenbach pronounced to be the remains of an elephant.
+Halicot, in his work called _Gigantosteologia_, describes bones found in a
+sepulchre in Dauphiny over which was a stone inscribed TEUTOBOCCHUS REX:
+this skeleton was twenty-five feet and a half high, and ten feet broad at
+the shoulder. Riolan, the celebrated anatomist, disputes the fact; and in
+his book entitled _Gigantomachia_ positively affirms that they also
+belonged to an elephant. It is worthy of remark, that in this controversy
+each party considered his opinion and decision of sufficient weight to
+need no illustration, and therefore neither of them thought it necessary
+to confirm his _dixit_ by drawings and engravings of the questionable
+remains. Such is the vanity of the learned! An infallible philosopher
+informs us that Adam's stature was one hundred and twenty-three feet nine
+inches; Eve's, one hundred and eighteen feet nine inches and three
+quarters; Noah's, twenty feet short of Adam's; Abraham's, twenty-eight
+feet; Moses', thirteen; and Hercules', ten.
+
+That the first races of man were of larger dimensions than those of our
+contemporaries, has ever been a general opinion. Thus Virgil in his
+Georgics:
+
+  Grandiaque effossis mirabitur ossa sepulchris.
+
+Lucretius ascribes the same superiority to animals.
+
+  Jamque adeo fracta est aetas, effoetaque tellus
+  Vix animalia parva creat, quae cuncta creavit
+  Saecla, deditque ferarum ingentia corpora partu.
+
+And again the Mantuan poet,
+
+                Sic Omnia fatis
+  In pejus ruere, ac retro sublapsa referri.
+
+Not only have our forefathers been considered more gigantic in stature,
+but of more vigorous power. Hence Juvenal says,
+
+  Nam genus hoc, vivo jam decrescebat Homero.
+  Terra malos homines nunc educat, atque pusillos.
+
+It is however obvious, that former races, although they might have
+excelled the present generation in vigour from the nature of their
+education and pursuits, could not claim any pre-eminence in stature. The
+remains of human bones, found in tombs and Egyptian mummies, demonstrate
+this fact most clearly; and the armour, helmets, and breastplates of the
+ancients confirm it. Their swords were as light, nay, much lighter in many
+instances, than those of the present day; and those enormous ones of the
+times of chivalry were only wielded to inflict one overwhelming blow with
+both hands, and could scarcely be recovered for protection.
+
+Ancient writers corroborate this opinion. Homer, when speaking of a fine
+man, gives him four cubits in height and one in breadth. Vitruvius fixes
+the usual standard of man at six Roman feet: the giant Gabbarus mentioned
+by Pliny did not exceed nine feet. Aristotle's admeasurement of beds was
+six feet; and certainly the doorways of ancient edifices by no means
+indicated taller inmates than our present generation. It is therefore
+pretty clear that the supposed fossil remains of gigantic human bones
+belonged to the _Megatherium_, the _Palaeotherium_, and other individuals,
+which certainly prove that in remote ages there existed animals of much
+larger dimensions than any now in being, though we have no reason to
+suppose that this variety extended to our species.[2]
+
+The origin of the fabled giants has led to marvellous disquisitions. Many
+fathers of the church, amongst whom we may quote St. Cyprian, St.
+Ambrosius, St. Chrosostom, St. Cyrillius, Tactantius, Tertullian, and
+several others, gravely maintain that giants were the favoured offsprings
+of holy maidens and angels. This may seem an impious conclusion, since the
+gigantic monsters of sacred history were any thing but angelic; for the
+Canaaneans, the Moabites, and the sons of Anak, descended from giants,
+(compared with whom the Israelites seemed as grasshoppers,) were most
+ferocious, and their land devoured its inhabitants; (though Neuman gives a
+different signification to the scriptural passage, which according to his
+paraphrase merely meant "that the number of inhabitants was so great, that
+they eat up all the land;") Og, king of Bashan, whose country was
+delivered into the hands of Israel, had an iron bedstead nine cubits in
+length and four cubits in breadth; and Goliath, the reproach of Israel,
+was six cubits and a span (which according to Cumberland makes eleven feet
+English) in stature. It is therefore difficult to imagine why so many
+saints considered giants as an angelic progeny.
+
+To the present day, however, we find various races distinguished by their
+elevated stature. Humboldt says, that the Guayaquilists measure six feet
+and a half, and the Payaguas are equally tall, while the Caribbees of
+Cumana are distinguished by their almost gigantic size from all the other
+nations he had met with in the New World. Hearne saw in the cold regions
+north of Canada individuals of six feet four inches. The Patagonians, or
+Tehuels, were stated by Pigafitta and the Spanish early navigators as
+measuring seven feet four inches; and although it appears that this
+account is exaggerated, more recent travellers, amongst whom we may name
+Bougainville, Commodore Byron, Captain Wallis, Carteret, and Falkner,
+affirm that their height ranges from six to seven feet.
+
+From the best authenticated observations, it appears that the tallest
+persons on respectable record, did not, according to Haller, exceed nine
+feet. A young man from Huntingdonshire was exhibited in London, and
+measured about eight feet at the age of seventeen; he was, as usual, born
+of the ordinary size, but began to grow most rapidly; his sister was of
+great height, and all his family were remarkably tall.
+
+Dwarfs generally die from premature old age, and giants from exhaustion. A
+curious instance of marvellous growth is recorded in a tract called
+"_Prodigium Willinghamense_," or an account of a surprising boy who was
+born at Willingham, near Cambridge, and upon whom the following epitaph
+was written:--"Stop, traveller, and wondering, know, here buried lie the
+remains of Thomas, son of Thomas and Margaret Hall; who, not one year old,
+had the signs of manhood; at three, was almost four feet high, endued
+with uncommon strength, a just proportion of parts, and a stupendous
+voice; before six, he died as it were at an advanced age." Mr. Dawker, a
+surgeon of St. Ives, Huntingdon, who published this account, viewed him
+after death, and the corpse exhibited all the appearances of decrepit old
+age. This is a confirmation of the case of the boy of Salamis, mentioned
+by Pliny as being four feet high, and having reached puberty at the age of
+three; and may also confirm the account of the man seen by Craterus, the
+brother of Antigonus, who in seven years was an infant, a youth, an adult,
+a father, an old man, and a corpse.
+
+The experiment of Dr. Berkeley, bishop of Cloyne, to ascertain the
+influence of food in promoting extraordinary growth, is curious. He
+selected for this purpose an orphan child of the name of Macgrath; and, by
+dint of feeding, at the age of sixteen he had grown to the height of seven
+feet; but his organization had been so exhausted by this forced process,
+that he died in a state of moral and physical decay at the age of twenty.
+
+In the development of organized bodies, the effects of light contribute
+materially. Dr. Edwards, an English physician in Paris, and one of our
+most distinguished physiologists, has shown that by excluding tadpoles
+from the light, they will grow to double and triple their ordinary size,
+but are not metamorphosed into frogs. He thinks that the _Proteus
+Anguinis_ is the first stage of an animal prevented from growing to
+perfection by inhabiting the subterraneous waters of Carniola.
+
+The influence of food on the changes of animals is further shown in the
+aphidivorous flies, that are larvae for eight or ten days, pupae for about a
+fortnight, and perfect insects in about the same time, in the whole living
+about six weeks; whereas a pupa deprived of food underwent no change, and
+lived for twelve months. Rapid development of the organism invariably
+brings on premature dissolution. A case is recorded of a girl who cut four
+teeth at the end of the first fortnight; walked about, and had hair
+reaching to the middle of her back after the seventh month; exhibited
+signs of puberty at the ninth month, but perished in a state of exhaustion
+in her twelfth year. Dr. Comarmond, of Lyons, relates the case of a female
+infant, who was perfectly developed at the age of twenty-seven months,
+but she sank under rachitis when she had attained her twelfth year.
+
+Precocious mental attainments are frequently as destructive of life as a
+rapid growth. The wonderful Baratier, at the age of four, spoke and read
+Latin, French, and German; was an excellent Greek scholar at six; and when
+ten years of age, translated the Scriptures from the Hebrew; at nineteen
+he died of exhaustion. The vulgar saying, "The child is too clever to
+live," is founded upon observation. These early specimens of superior
+intellect are sometimes followed by a state of imbecility. Antiochus tells
+us that Hermogenes, who was a celebrated rhetorician at fourteen years,
+was ignorant in the extreme at twenty-four; and of him it was said,
+
+  In pueritia senex, in senectute puer.
+
+Tall men generally produce children of high stature. The celebrated
+grenadier guards of Frederick William, in the words of Dr. Johnson,
+"_propagated procerity_;" and the inhabitants of Potsdam are remarkable
+for their height. Haller states that his own family were distinguished by
+their tallness, without excepting one single grandchild, although they
+were very numerous.
+
+In the hereditary transmission of physical and moral qualities, many
+curious observations have been made. Women of high mental attainments have
+been known to produce children of genius, more frequently than men of a
+superior intellect; although Haller relates the singular case of two noble
+females who married wealthy idiots on account of their fortunes, and from
+whom this melancholy defect had extended for a century into several
+families, so that some of all their descendants still continued idiots in
+the fourth and fifth generation. Horace had observed this tendency to
+produce offsprings resembling their parents,
+
+  Fortes creantur fortibus et bonis:
+  Est in juvencis, est in equis patrum
+  Virtus: nec imbellem feroces
+  Progenerant aquilae columbam.
+
+This remark, however, is more applicable to physical transmissions, and
+certain peculiarities characterize whole families. Pliny mentioned
+examples of six-fingered families, who bore the name _Sedigita_. C.
+Horatius had two daughters with a similar deformity. Mr. Carlisle knew a
+family in which supernumerary toes and fingers were observed for four
+generations: they were introduced by a female who had six fingers on each
+hand, and as many toes on each foot. From her marriage with a man
+naturally formed, were produced ten children, with a supernumerary member
+on each limb; and an eleventh, in which the peculiarity existed in both
+feet and one hand, the other hand being naturally formed. The latter
+marrying a man of ordinary formation, they had four children, of which
+three had one or two limbs natural, and the rest with the supernumerary
+parts; while the fourth had six fingers on each hand, and as many toes on
+each foot. The latter married a woman naturally formed, and had issue by
+her eight children; four with the usual structure, and the same number
+with the additional fingers and toes: two of them were twins, of which one
+was naturally formed, and the other six-fingered and six-toed.--The
+well-known porcupine family, that were exhibited in London and elsewhere,
+is a remarkable example of hereditary transmission of organic
+peculiarities. They were all covered with dark-coloured horny
+excrescences, which they shed annually in the autumn or winter. Their
+names were Lambert. Two brothers, John and Richard, grandsons of the
+original porcupine men, were shown in Germany.--One of these unsightly
+individuals, who was exhibited some time ago in Bond-street, stated that
+he was descended from the fourth generation of a savage found in the woods
+of America; and he further asserted that the females of the family were
+exempted from this lucrative but uncomfortable peculiarity: all the males
+had them, and shed them regularly until the thirty-sixth year, when these
+species of quills grew to a considerable length. We have examples of
+bristly hair being shed in a whole family every autumn.
+
+Amongst animals, gigantic races no longer inhabit the regions which bore
+them in ancient times. An extensive whale-fishery was once carried on at
+Biariz, in the Gulf of Gascony; and the hippopotamus is no longer to be
+seen on the banks of the Nile.
+
+Gigantic bones having been occasionally discovered with the remains of men
+and horses and fragments of armour, it has been imagined that in ancient
+times armies were attended by terrific giants; but it is more than
+probable that these large fragments of departed warriors belonged to
+their war-elephants, which with their horses were not unfrequently
+immolated on their master's tomb.
+
+Skeletons of giants were considered by the ancients as curious as in the
+present day; and those of Secondilla and Pusio were carefully preserved in
+the gardens of Sallust.
+
+Some naturalists have maintained that giants had more numerous vertebrae
+than ordinary men; but this has not been confirmed by observation, nor has
+it been found that the spinal bones of dwarfs are in smaller number.
+
+Schreber, who has collected the description of the principal modern
+giants, found few above seven feet and a half; although he mentions a
+Swedish peasant of eight feet Swedish measure, and one of the guards of
+the Duke of Brunswick eight feet six inches Dutch. Not so Hakewell, who
+informs us, from the testimony of Nannez, that the Emperor of China had
+archers and porters fifteen feet high. Howbeit, Ol. Magnus's account
+surpasses his; for he tells us of a "_puella--in capite vulnerata, mortua
+induta chlamyde purpurea, longitudinis cubitorum 50, latitudinis inter
+humeros quatuor_!"
+
+
+
+
+UNLAWFUL CURES.
+
+
+One can scarcely credit that at any period there could have existed men of
+science and genius who believed that there were supernatural means of
+curing disease, did we not even to the present day find imbeciles who
+verily dread the malpractices of the devil and his vicarious agents.
+Ancient writers divided their cures into _lawful_ and _unlawful_. The
+former were obtained from divine aid; the latter from sorcerers, witches,
+magicians, wizards, and cunning men, who treated all maladies by spells,
+cabalistic words, charms, characters, images, amulets, ligatures,
+philters, incantations, &c.; by which means, according to Cardan,
+Artesius, Picatrix, and sundry wise men, the aforesaid sorcerers and
+witches could prevent fire from burning, find out thieves and stolen
+goods, show absent faces in a glass, make serpents lie still, stanch
+blood, _salve_ gout, biting of mad dogs, toothache, _et omnia mundi
+mala_. "Many doubt," says Nicholas Taurellus, "whether the devil can cure
+such diseases he hath not made, and some flatly deny it; however, common
+experience confirms, to our astonishment, that magicians can work such
+feats, and that the devil, without impediment, can penetrate through all
+the parts of our body, and cure such maladies by means to us unknown."
+Some of these means were rather singular; for St. Austin mentions as one
+of these processes, "_Agentes cum patientibus conjungunt, colligere semina
+rerum eaque materiae applicare_;" and learned divines, moreover inform us,
+that to resist exorcisms these witches and magicians had St. Catherine's
+wheel imprinted on the roof of their mouths, or on some other part.
+Taurellus asserts, that to doubt it is to run into a sceptical extreme of
+incredulity. Godelman affirms that Satan is an excellent physician;
+Langius maintains that Jupiter Menecrates was a magician; and Marcellus
+Donatus pays the same compliment to Solomon, who, he says, "cured all the
+diseases of the mind by spells, charms, and drove away devils, and that
+Eleazar did the same before Vespasian." Galen, in his book "_de
+Medicamentis facile purandis_," observes after a preparation, "_haec enim
+suffita, daemonus abigunt_."
+
+This fact being clearly ascertained, the next question was whether it was
+lawful in a desperate case to crave the help of the evil one on the
+principle
+
+  Flectere si nequeunt Superos, Acheronta movebunt.
+
+Paracelsus rather impiously argues that we might, as it matters not, he
+says, "whether it be God or the devil, angels or unclean spirits,
+(_immundi spiritus_,) that cure him, so that he be eased. If a man fall in
+a ditch, what matter is it whether a friend or an enemy help him out? If I
+be troubled with such a malady, what care I whether the devil himself, or
+any of his ministers, by God's permission, redeem me?"--and he therefore
+concludes, that diseases brought on by _malefices_ can only be cured by
+_incantations_. However, this doctrine was denounced as abominable by
+Remigius, Bodinus, Godelmannus, Erastus, and various divines and
+schoolmen; and Delrio plainly declares, "_mori praestat quam superstitiose
+canari_." Therefore pontificial writers and sages recommend adjuration and
+exorcism by "fire, suffumigations, lights, cutting the air with swords
+(_gladiorum ictus_), sacred herbs, odours," &c., though some hungry devils
+can only be cast out by fasting.
+
+Witches and impostors, says Lord Bacon, have always held a competition
+with physicians. Galen complains of this superstition, and observes that
+patients placed more confidence in the oracles of Esculapius and their own
+idle dreams than in the prescriptions of doctors. The introduction of
+precious stones into medical practice owed its origin to a superstitious
+belief that, from their beauty, splendour, and high value, they were the
+natural receptacles for _good_ spirits. Mystery, in the dark ages, and,
+alas! even now, increases the confidence in remedial means; reveal their
+true nature, the charm is dissolved: "_Minus credunt quae ad suam salutem
+pertinent si intelligunt_," said Pliny. One cannot but wonder when we
+behold men pre-eminent in deep learning and acute observation becoming
+converts to such superstitious practices. Lord Bacon believed in spells
+and amulets; and Sir Theodore Mayence, who was physician to three English
+sovereigns, and supposed to have been Shakspeare's Dr. Caius, believed in
+supernatural agency, and frequently prescribed the most disgusting and
+absurd medicines, such as the heart of a mule ripped up alive, a portion
+of the lungs of a man who had died a violent death, or the hand of a thief
+who had been gibbeted on some particular day. Nauseous medicines have ever
+been deemed the most efficacious, on the reasoning that as every thing
+medicinal is nauseous, every thing that is nauseous must be medicinal. The
+ancients firmly believed that blood can be stanched by charms; the
+bleeding of Ulysses was stopped by this means; and Cato the Censor has
+given us an incantation for setting dislocated bones. To this day charms
+are supposed to arrest the flow of blood:
+
+  Tom Pots was but a serving-man,
+    But yet he was a doctor good,
+  He bound his kerchief on the wound,
+    And with some kind words he stanch'd the blood.
+
+Sir Walter Scott says, in the "Lay of the Last Minstrel,"--
+
+  She drew the splinter from the wound,
+  And with a charm she stanch'd the blood.
+
+The strength of imagination in effecting wonderful cures has been observed
+in all ages; and Avicenna declares, "that he prefers confidence before
+art, precepts, and all remedies whatsoever." Our learned Burton says,
+"that this strong imagination or conceit is _Astrum Hominis_, and the
+rudder of this our ship, which reason should steer, but overborne by
+phantasie, cannot manage, and so suffers itself and the whole vessel of
+ours to be overruled and often overturned."
+
+Nothing could be more absurd than the notions regarding some of these
+supposed cures: a ring made of the hinge of a coffin had the power of
+relieving cramps; which were also mitigated by having a rusty old sword
+hung up by the bedside. Nails driven in an oak-tree prevented the
+toothache. A halter that had served in hanging a criminal was an
+infallible remedy for a headache, when tied round the head; this affection
+was equally cured by the moss growing on a human skull, dried and
+pulverized, and taken as a cephalic snuff. A dead man's hand could dispel
+tumours of the glands by stroking the parts nine times, but the hand of a
+man who had been cut down from the gallows was the most efficacious. To
+cure warts, one had nothing to do but to steal a piece of beef from the
+butcher, with which the warts were to be rubbed; then inter it in any
+filth, and as it rotted, the warts would wither and fall.
+
+The chips of a gallows on which several persons had been hanged, when worn
+in a bag round the neck, would cure the ague. A stone with a hole in it,
+suspended at the head of the bed, would effectually stop the nightmare;
+hence it was called a _hag-stone_, as it prevents the troublesome witches
+from sitting upon the sleeper's stomach. The same amulet tied to the key
+of a stable-door, deterred witches from riding horses over the country.
+
+Rickety children were cured by being drawn through a cleft tree, which was
+afterwards bound up, and as the split wood united, the child acquired
+strength. Creeping through a perforated stone to cure various disorders
+was a Druidical rite, still practised in the East. In the parish of Marden
+there is a stone with a hole in it, fourteen inches in diameter, through
+which children are drawn for the rickets; and, in the North, infants are
+made to pass through a hole cut in a _groaning_ cheese the day of their
+christening.
+
+Second sight, which, as an hereditary faculty, was deemed a malady, was
+cured in the Isle of Man, according to Mr. Aubrey's account, by baptizing
+a child upon the first sight of its head. This ceremony exempts the
+succeeding generation from the troublesome gift.
+
+It is a melancholy reflection that, at various periods, impostors have
+impiously called in Scriptural aid to promote their sordid or ambitious
+views. Chiromancers have quoted the Bible in support of their doctrines
+and adduced the following lines of Job,--"He sealeth up the hand of every
+man, that all men may know his works:" while, in the like manner, the Holy
+Inquisition of Spain and Portugal justified their atrocities on the score
+of the parable of the marriage of the king's son, in the 22nd of St.
+Matthew.
+
+Unlawful cures, as they were called, being thus anathematized, lawful
+remedies were resorted to, and the patient was first ordered to pray with
+due devotion before he took his physic; or, as Burton observes, not one
+without the other, but both together; for, as he adds, to pray alone, and
+reject ordinary means, is to do like him in Aesop, that, when his cart was
+stalled, lay flat on his back, and cried out "Help, Hercules!" However,
+Hyperius maintains that no physicians can hope for success unless "with a
+true faith they call upon God and teach their patients to do the like."
+Comineus, when he addressed the Christian princes after the overthrow of
+Charles of Burgundy, bade them "first pray with all submission and
+penitency, confess their sins, and then take physic."
+
+Another question of importance that led to much controversy was, whether
+it were lawful to seek the aid of the saints; the learned Burton's remarks
+on this controverted point are so curious that they are worth relating.
+"They (the papists) have a proper saint for almost every peculiar
+infirmity: for poisons, gout, agues, Petronella; St. Romanus, for such as
+are possessed; St. Vitus for madmen, &c.; and as, of old, Pliny reckons up
+gods for all diseases. All affections of the mind were heretofore
+accounted gods: Love and Sorrow, Virtue, Honour, Liberty, Contumely,
+Impudency, had their temples; Tempests, Seasons, _Crepitus Ventris_, _Dea
+Vacuna_, _Dea Cloacina_. Varro reckons up thirty thousand gods; Lucian
+makes Podagra, the gout, a goddess, and assigns her priests and ministers.
+'Tis the same devil still, called heretofore, Apollo, Mars, Venus, &c.;
+the same Jupiter, and those bad angels, are now worshipped and adored by
+the name of St. Sebastian, St. Barbara, &c.; and our Lady succeeds Venus
+in many offices; and God often winks at these impostures, because they
+forsake his word, and betake themselves to the devil, as they do, that
+seek after holy water, crosses," &c.
+
+Amidst this violent denunciation against popery and devilment, evil
+spirits and saints, it is somewhat singular to find a spirit of anomalous
+perversity which justifies suicide to rid ourselves of disease and
+suffering; and these very sanctimonious censors quote ancient and modern
+authorities to sanction a practice which every Christian must condemn. Let
+us pursue the disquisition of our learned bookworm Burton:--"Another doubt
+is made by philosophers, whether it be lawful for a man in such extremity
+of pain and grief to make away himself, and how those men that do so are
+to be censured. The Platonists approve of it, that it is lawful in such
+cases upon a necessity. Plotinus (_L. de Beatitud._) and Socrates himself
+defend it (_in Plato's Phaedon_): _If any man labour of an incurable
+disease, he may despatch himself, if it be to his good_. Epictetus and
+Seneca say, _Quamcunque veram esse viam ad libertatem_;--any way is
+allowable that leads to liberty. _Let us give God thanks no man is
+compelled to live against his will. Quid ad hominem claustra, carcer,
+custodia? liberum ostium habet._ Death is always ready at hand: _Vides
+illum precipitem locum, illud flumen?_ There is liberty at hand. _Effugia
+cervitutis et doloris sunt_, as that Laconian lad cast himself headlong,
+_Non serviam, aiebat puer_; to be freed of misery. Wherefore hath our
+mother earth brought out poisons (saith Pliny) in so great a quantity, but
+that men in distress might make away themselves? which kings of old had
+ever in readiness, _ad incerta fortunae venenum sub custode promptum_. Many
+worthy men and women, _quorum memoria celebratur in ecclesia_, sayeth
+Leminctius, killed themselves to save their chastity and honour, when Rome
+was taken. Jerome vindicates the same, and Ambrose commendeth Pelagia for
+so doing. Eusebius admired a Roman matron for the same fact, to save
+herself from the lust of Maxentius the tyrant. Adelhelmus, the Abbot of
+Malmesbury, calls them, _beatas virgines quae sic, &c._ Sir Thomas More, in
+his Utopia, commends voluntary death if one be _sibi aut aliis molestus;
+especially if to live be a torment to him_, let him free himself with his
+own hand from this tedious life, or from a prison, or suffer himself to be
+freed by others." However, be it said in justice to our worthy Burton, he
+condemns this practice as "a false and pagan position, founded in prophane
+stoical paradoxes and wicked examples;" and although he denounces most
+fulminating anathemas on papists, he concludes by saying, "we ought not to
+be rash and rigorous in our censures, as some are; Charity will judge and
+hope best; God be merciful unto us all!"
+
+But why should we marvel at the credulity and superstition of our
+forefathers, when we daily observe equal absurdities? Fanaticism and
+bigotry will ever strive to speculate on human weakness, and endeavour to
+surround with impenetrable mists every rebel to their power who gropes for
+the shrine of reason and of truth. Johanna Southcote had her votaries, and
+Prince Hohenlohe is still considered by many a pious person, as a
+vicarious instrument of divine mercy. No miraculous recovery recorded in
+the dark ages can surpass the tenebral absurdity of the following relation
+of one of his cures:
+
+Miss O'Connor was a nun in a convent near Chelmsford, and in December
+1820, being about thirty years old, was suddenly attacked by a violent
+pain in the right hand, which extended with much swelling and inflammation
+up the arm. The whole limb became red, swollen, extremely painful, and
+entirely useless. Every remedy, both topical and directed to the system,
+was tried in vain for a year and a half. There was no suppuration, nor any
+formation of pus; but the malady continued obdurate, and yielded to no
+application. The resources of the flesh having manifestly failed, Mrs.
+Gerard, the worthy superior, very properly betook herself to those of the
+spirit. She made a request through a friend to Prince Hohenlohe to assist
+the patient in this her extreme case; when the following precious
+document, which it would be impious to translate into heretical English,
+was received:
+
+    "_Pour la Religeuse Novice d'Angleterre._
+
+    "Le trois du mois de Mai, a huit heures, je dirai, conformement a
+    votre demande, pour votre guerison, mes prieres. Joignez-y a la meme
+    heure, apres avoir confesse et communie, les votres, avec cette
+    ferveur angelique et cette confiance pleniere que nous devons a notre
+    Redempteur J. C.: excitez au fond de votre coeur les vertus divines
+    d'un vrai repentir, d'un amour Chretien, d'une croyance sans bornes
+    d'etre exauce, et d'une resolution inebranlable de mener une vie
+    exemplaire, afin de vous maintenir en etat de grace. Agreez
+    l'assurance de ma consideration.
+
+        "PRINCE ALEXANDRE HOHENLOHE.
+
+    "Bamberg, Mars 16, 1822."
+
+It is to be regretted that this letter, which was no doubt a circular to
+his proselytes, with necessary blanks to be filled up _pro re nata_, as
+the doctors have it, was not drawn out in better French. Howbeit, on the
+appointed day, asserts Dr. Baddely (the lady's unsuccessful medical
+attendant), Miss O'Connor went through the religious process prescribed by
+her princely physician. Mass being said, Miss O. not finding the immediate
+relief she expected from her faith, or faithfully expected, exclaimed
+somewhat impatiently, not having the fear of Job before her eyes, "Thy
+will be done, O Lord, since thou hast not thought me worthy of this cure;"
+when behold! _immediately_ after she felt an extraordinary sensation
+throughout the whole arm to the end of the fingers. The pain _instantly_
+left her, the swelling gradually subsided, and Dr. B., who no doubt was
+the pet physician of the nuns, declares that the hand shortly resumed its
+natural size and shape.
+
+Now, Miss O'Connor was most likely a young lady from Ireland, where this
+miraculous cure was re-echoed in every chapel. The protestants were
+naturally offended by a report which seemed to impugn the sanctity of the
+reformed religion, and they thought it incumbent on them, for the welfare
+of church and state, to get up a miracle of their own which would cast
+Prince H., Nun O., and Dr. B. in the shade. The following statement was
+therefore published and certified upon oath by sundry most respectable and
+most worthy Orangemen:
+
+"I pledge you the word and honour of an Orangeman that the following
+facts, sworn to by all present, occurred yesterday evening. A party of
+gentlemen dined with me, and after dinner a vase, containing some orange
+lilies, was placed upon the table by my directions. We drank several
+toasts; but on the glorious and immortal memory being given, an _unblown
+lily_, which the party had remarked, _expanded its leaves and bloomed
+before us_ in all its splendour!" How appropriate are the lines of Otway
+when applied to the propagators of such absurdities, who dare to call upon
+our faith to give credence to their impostures.
+
+                  You want to lead
+  My reason blindfold like a hamper'd lion
+  Check'd of its noble vigour; then, when baited
+  Down to obedient tameness, make it crouch
+  And show strange tricks, which you call signs of faith:
+  So silly souls are gull'd, and you get money.
+
+A curious anecdote is related of Lord Chief Justice Holt. When a young
+man, he happened, with some of his merry companions, to run up a score at
+a country inn, which they were not able to pay. In this dilemma they
+appealed to Holt, to get them out of the scrape. Our young lawyer had
+observed that the inn-keeper's daughter looked very ill, and, passing
+himself for a medical student, asked her father what ailed her, when he
+was informed that she suffered from an ague. Holt immediately gathered
+various plants, mixed them up with great ceremony, and after rolling them
+up in parchment, scrawled upon the ball some cabalistic characters. The
+amulet, thus prepared, he suspended round the neck of the young woman,
+and, strange to say, the ague did not return. After this cure the doctor
+offered to pay the bill, to which the grateful landlord would not consent,
+allowing Holt and his party to leave the house.
+
+Many years after, when on the bench, a woman was brought before him,
+accused of witchcraft--the very last person tried upon such a charge. Her
+only defence was, that she possessed a ball invariably efficacious in the
+cure of agues. The charm was produced, handed to the judge, who recognised
+the identical ball which he had prepared in his youthful frolics.
+
+Not only did these victims of superstition firmly believe that evil
+spirits had the power of inflicting disease, and afterwards salve the
+mischief, but they were also invested with the privilege of killing and
+subsequently restoring to life. The story related of the truly learned
+Agrippa, who was falsely represented as a necromancer, is curious.
+
+Agrippa had occasion one time to be absent for a few days from his
+residence in Louvain. During his absence he intrusted his wife with the
+key of his museum, but with an earnest injunction that no one on any
+account should be allowed to enter it; Agrippa happened at that time to
+have a boarder in his house, a young fellow of insatiable curiosity, who
+constantly importuned his hostess, till at length he obtained from her the
+forbidden key. The first thing that attracted his attention was a book of
+spells and incantations. He spread the volume before him, and, thinking no
+harm, began to read aloud. He had not long continued this occupation, when
+a knock was heard at the door of the chamber. The youth took no notice,
+but continued reading. Presently there followed a second and a louder
+knock, which somewhat alarmed the reader. The space of a minute having
+elapsed, and no answer been made, the door opened and a demon entered.
+"For what purpose am I called?" said the unwelcome visitor in a stern
+voice: "What is it you demand to have done?" The youth was seized with the
+greatest alarm and struck speechless. The demon then rushed upon him,
+seized him by the throat, and strangled him, indignant no doubt in having
+been interrupted in some more interesting pursuit to no purpose.
+
+At the expected time Agrippa came home, and to his great surprise found a
+number of devils capering about, and playing strange antics on the roof of
+his house. By his art he caused them to desist from their gambols, of
+which he demanded the cause. The chief of them then related to him what he
+had done, how he had been disturbed and insulted, and how he had thought
+proper to revenge himself. Agrippa became much alarmed at the probable
+consequences of this unfortunate adventure, and he ordered the demon,
+without loss of time, to reanimate his victim, and walk about the streets
+with him, that the public might behold him alive. The infernal spirit
+reluctantly obeyed, and went forth with the student in the marketplace and
+promenades. This excursion over, however, he maliciously allowed his
+companion to fall down, when life once more flitted from his body. For a
+time it was thought that the student had been killed by a sudden attack of
+illness; but, presently, the marks of strangulation became evident, and
+the truth came out. Agrippa was thus suddenly obliged to quit the town,
+and seek refuge in a distant state.
+
+It was further related of this supposed wizard, that he was always
+accompanied by a familiar spirit in the shape of a black dog; and that
+when he lay on his deathbed he was earnestly exhorted to repent of his
+sins. Struck with remorse, he took hold of the dog, and removed from his
+neck a collar studded with cabalistic nails, exclaiming, "Begone, wretched
+animal, that has been the cause of my perdition!" and lo! the dog
+immediately ran away, and, plunging into the river Soane, disappeared. It
+is to be regretted that historians do not relate whether the water hissed
+or not when the canine devil took his last leap.
+
+It merits notice, that the mystic and medicinal celebrity of various
+substances have to this hour survived the traditions of their
+superstitious origin; coral, for instance, which was considered as
+possessed of the power of keeping off evil spirits, and rendering effete
+the malefices of the evil eye, was constantly worn as an amulet; and
+Paracelsus informs us that it should be worn round the necks of infants,
+as an admirable preservative against fits, sorcery, charms, and poisons.
+We still find necklaces of this substance suspended by fond mothers and
+nurses round the necks of infants. In the West Indies these chaplets are
+worn by the negroes as a magic protection against Obiism, and they even
+affirm that the colour of the coral is affected by the state of health of
+the wearer, and becomes paler when he is ill.
+
+The irrational belief in the mysterious powers of certain remedies went so
+far in former days, that when they were applied to the weapon that had
+inflicted an injury, their indirect sympathetic action was considered as
+effectual as if they had been used to heal the wound. The sympathetic
+powder of Sir Kenelm Digby, which was nothing else but pulverized green
+vitriol, was eulogized in a discourse pronounced by its inventor, at
+Montpellier, in 1658. Our James I. purchased this wonderful discovery from
+Sir Kenelm, who pretended that he had obtained it from a Carmelite friar,
+who had learned it in America and Persia. This superstitious practice is
+alluded to by Walter Scott, in the "Lay of the Last Minstrel:"
+
+  But she has ta'en the broken lance,
+  And wash'd it from the clotted gore,
+  And salved the splinter o'er and o'er.
+
+Dryden has also illustrated this absurdity in his "Enchanted Island,"
+where Ariel says,
+
+  Anoint the sword which pierced him, with this
+  Weapon-salve, and wrap it close from air
+  Till I have time to visit it again.
+
+Sir Kenelm's sympathetic powder was applied in the same manner; the weapon
+being covered with ointment and dressed three times a day. But it was not
+mentioned that at the same time the wound was to be brought together, and
+bound up with clean linen bandages for seven days. This wonderful cure was
+then simply the process of what surgeons call healing by first intention,
+which means uniting the lips of the wound without suppuration. Dr. Paris
+apprehends that this secret was suggested to the worthy knight by the
+cures operated by the rust of the spear of Telephus, which, according to
+Homer, healed the injuries it had occasioned; and this rust was most
+probably verdigris.
+
+To this day the Irish peasantry, and even many of the superior classes,
+firmly believe in the malevolent and destructive effect of the evil eye,
+when cast upon man or beast. Hence the absurd custom that prevails,
+especially in the western provinces, of adding "God bless it," to any
+expression of admiration; and if perchance a Sassenagh traveller exclaimed
+"What a sweet child!" or, "What a fine cow!" without the adjunctive
+benediction, he would be suspected of malefice, and the priest forthwith
+summoned to save the devoted victim of sorcery. In Scotland dairy-maids
+drive cattle with a switch of the mountain ash, or roan-tree, considered
+as held sacred since the days of Druidism; and in some districts the sheep
+and lambs are made to pass through a hoop of its wood on the first day of
+May.
+
+The toad was also considered to be possessed of marvellous qualities for
+the cure of various maladies, more especially the stone that was supposed
+to be occasionally found in the reptile's head, and which was called
+_Crapaudina_. Lupton, in his seventh book of "Notable Things," thus
+instructs us how to obtain it. "You shall knowe whether the tode stone be
+the ryght and perfect stone or not. Holde the stone before a tode, so that
+he may see it; and if it be a ryght and true stone, the tode will leape
+towarde it and make as though he would snatch it, he envies so much that
+man should have this stone." This famous toadstone is simply one of the
+fossil teeth of various fishes, and is chiefly formed of phosphate of
+lime. Its high polish and convexity has often induced lapidaries to have
+it set in rings and other jewels, to which marvellous powers were
+attached.
+
+Pulverized toads were not only employed in medicine with supposed
+advantage, but were also considered a slow but certain poison. Solander
+relates, that a Roman woman, desirous of poisoning her husband gave him
+this substance; but instead of attaining her criminal desire, it cured him
+of a dropsy that had long perplexed him. Boccaccio relates the story of
+Pasquino and Simona, two young lovers, who, wandering in a garden,
+plucked some sage-leaves, with which Pasquino rubbed his teeth and gums.
+In a few minutes he fell ill and expired. Simona accused of being his
+assassin, was brought before a magistrate, who ordered an immediate
+investigation of the matter, when, on proceeding to the garden, Simona,
+after relating the particulars of the case, took some leaves from the same
+plant and used them in a similar manner. In a few minutes the lovers were
+reunited in death; when it was discovered that a large toad was under the
+root of the plant to which it had communicated its deadly venom.
+
+Regarding unlawful cures, have we not seen vaccination, when first
+introduced, condemned from the very pulpit as an impious interference in a
+disease which seemed to have been assigned to mankind by the Creator as an
+inevitable doom? Did not these desperate bigots even pronounce that we
+were not warranted to seek in the brute creation a human remedy or
+preservative? What is still more worthy of remark, is the coincidence of a
+similar idea in India, where the greatest obstacle vaccination encountered
+arose from a belief that the natural smallpox was a dispensation of a
+malicious deity, called _Mah-ry-Umma_, or rather that the disease was an
+incarnation of the goddess herself into the person who was affected by it:
+the fear of irritating her, and of exposing themselves to her resentment,
+necessarily rendered the natives averse to vaccination, until it was
+impressed upon their easy belief, that _Mah-ry-Umma_ had altered her mind,
+and chosen this new and milder mode of manifesting her visits to her
+votaries.
+
+Could there ever have existed a more superstitious belief than that which
+vested in the regal touch a healing power? Yet from Edward the Confessor
+to the accession of the House of Hanover, it was generally thought in
+these realms that our kings could cure scrofula with their anointed
+fingers!
+
+Dr. Paris's truly philosophic remarks on this subject, in his valuable
+work, entitled Pharmacologia, are worthy of quotation:--"Credulity,
+although it is nearly allied to superstition, yet differs from it widely.
+Credulity is an unbounded belief in what is possible, although destitute
+of proof, and perhaps of probability; but superstition is a belief in what
+is wholly repugnant to the laws of the physical and moral world. Credulity
+is a far greater source of error than superstition; for the latter must be
+always more limited in its influence, and can exist only, to any
+considerable extent, in the most ignorant portions of society; whereas
+the former diffuses itself through the minds of all classes, by which the
+rank and dignity of science are degraded, its valuable labours confounded
+with the vain pretensions of empiricism, and ignorance is enabled to claim
+for itself the prescriptive right of delivering oracles, amidst all the
+triumph of truth and the progress of philosophy. Credulity has been justly
+defined _belief without reason_, while scepticism, its opposite, is
+_reason without belief_, and the natural and invariable consequence of
+credulity; for it may be observed that men who believe without reason are
+succeeded by others whom no reasoning can convince."
+
+
+
+
+VOICE AND SPEECH.
+
+
+Blumenbach has given us a most ingenious definition of this wonderful
+function. The voice, properly speaking, is a sound formed by means of
+expiration in the _larynx_, which is a most beautifully constructed organ,
+fixed upon the top of the windpipe, like a capital upon a column. It is
+composed of various cartilages, united in the form of a little box, and
+supplied with numerous muscles, that, moving altogether or separately,
+produce the variations of sound.
+
+The part of the _larynx_ most concerned in producing the voice is the
+_glottis_, or narrow opening of the windpipe, having the _epiglottis_
+suspended over it like a valve. The air expired from the lungs strikes
+upon the glottis, and thus becomes sonorous. The change that the glottis
+undergoes in the modulation of the voice has been matter of much
+controversy. Aristotle and Galen compared the glottis to a wind
+instrument; Ferrein assimilated it to a chorded one. This latter
+hypothesis was objected to, on the principle that a chord, to vibrate,
+should not only be in a state of tension, but dryness; characters which
+this organ does not possess, being constantly lubrified with mucus, and in
+a state of greater or lesser relaxation. Fulgentius considers the human
+voice to be composed of ten parts: the four first are the front teeth, so
+useful for the appulse of the tongue in forming sounds, without which a
+whistle would be produced instead of a voice; the fifth and sixth are the
+lips, which he compares to cymbals striking against each other; the
+seventh the tongue, which serves as a plectrum to articulate sounds; the
+eighth is the palate, the concavity of which forms the belly of the
+instrument; the ninth the throat, which performs the part of a flute; and
+the tenth the lungs, which supply the place of bellows.
+
+That every degree of action in the _glottis_ is due to the muscles of the
+_larynx_ is proved by the experiment of tying or dividing the recurrent
+nerves, when the voice is destroyed or weakened.
+
+Speech is a peculiar modification of the voice adjusted to the formation
+of the sounds of letters, by the expiration of the air through the
+nostrils and mouth, and in a great measure by the assistance of the tongue
+applied and struck against the neighbouring parts, the palate and front
+teeth in particular, and by the diversified action of the lips. This is
+Payne Knight's doctrine, in his analytical essay on the Greek alphabet,
+and an illustration of the notions of Fulgentius.
+
+Singing is compounded of speech and a musical modulation of the voice, a
+prerogative peculiar to man even in his most savage state; for, despite
+the assertions of the visionary Rousseau, who maintained that it is not
+natural to our species, we find that even in the uncivilized regions of
+Ethiopia, Greenland, and Kamtschatka, singing is a solace and a comfort.
+
+The mechanism of speech and articulation is so intricate, that even the
+division of letters and their distribution are attended with difficulties.
+The following is the division of Amman in his work _Surdus Loquens_,
+published at Amsterdam in 1629, and enlarged under the title of _Dissert.
+de Loquela_, 1700, and is, perhaps, the most natural and intelligible.
+
+He divides into, I. Vowels; II. Semi-vowels; III. Consonants.
+
+I. The vowels are _simple_, _a_, _e_, _i_, _o_, _u_; and _mixed_ _ae_, _oe_,
+_ue_: these are formed by the _voice_ only. The semi-vowels and consonants
+are articulated by the mechanism of _speech_.
+
+II. The semi-vowels are _nasal_, _m_, _n_, _ng_ (_n_ before _g_, which is
+nearly related to it), that is, the labio-nasal _m_, the dente-nasal _n_,
+and the gutture-nasal _ng_; or _oral_ (lingual), _r_, _l_, that is, _r_
+with a vibration of the tongue, or _l_ with the tongue less moved.
+
+III. The consonants he distinguishes into _sibilant_ (pronounced in
+succession), _h_, _g_, _ch_, _s_, _sh_, _f_, _v_, _ph_, that is _h_,
+formed in the throat, as it were a mere aspiration; _g_ and _ch_, true
+consonants; _s_, _sh_, produced between the teeth; and _f_, _v_,
+_ph_--formed by the application of the lower lip to the upper front
+teeth--and _explosive_ (which are as it were suddenly exploded by an
+expiration for a time suppressed, or interrupted), namely _k_, _q_, formed
+in the throat; _d_, _t_, about the teeth; _p_, _b_, near the lips; and
+_double_ (compound), _x_, _z_.[3]
+
+It has been thought that the tongue was indispensable for the purposes of
+speech, yet there are instances on record in which this has not been found
+an invariable rule. Dr. Conyers Middleton mentions two cases of distinct
+articulation with at least little or no tongue. In his exposure of the
+_pious_ deceptions of weak and wicked Christians during the first
+centuries of the Christian era, he notices a pretty tale of an Arian
+prince cutting out the tongues of some of the orthodox party, and these
+being as able to talk as before; nay, one of them, who had been dumb from
+his birth, gained the faculty of speech by losing his tongue! We find
+various accounts of persons who spoke more or less fluently without this
+organ. Jussieu has inserted in the _Memoires de l'Academie des Sciences_,
+1718, the case of a Portuguese girl, who instead of a tongue had merely a
+little protuberance of about four lines in diameter in the middle of her
+mouth, and endowed with the power of contraction and dilatation; she spoke
+distinctly, but experienced difficulty in pronouncing _c_, _f_, _g_, _l_,
+_n_, _r_, _s_, _t_, _x_, and _z_, when she was obliged to bend her neck
+forward to upraise as it were the larynx. In this case, deglutition could
+not be well performed, and she was obliged to use her finger to propel the
+masticated food downwards.
+
+Dr. Eliotson observes, that it is by no means improbable that the progress
+of modern art may present us at some future period with mechanical
+substitutes for orators and preachers; for, putting aside the magic heads
+of Albertus Magnus and Roger Bacon, Kratzenstein actually constructed an
+instrument to produce the vowels. De Kempelin has published a full account
+of his celebrated speaking machine, which perfectly imitated the human
+voice. The French celebrated mechanician, the Abbe Mical, also made two
+heads of brass, which pronounced very distinctly entire phrases; these
+heads were colossal, and their voices powerful and sonorous. The French
+government refusing, it is said, in 1782, to purchase these automata, the
+unfortunate and too sensitive inventor, in a paroxysm of despair,
+destroyed these masterpieces of scientific ingenuity.
+
+It has been observed, that in various races the pronunciation seemed to
+depend upon some peculiar and characteristic conformation; and Adelung
+informs us that in the Hottentots, the bony palate is smaller, shorter,
+and less arched than in the other races, and that the tongue, especially
+in the Bosjesman tribe, is rounder, thicker, and shorter. Hence their
+pronunciation is singular, and has been compared to the clucking of the
+Turkey, or the harsh and broken noises produced by some other birds. They
+combine their aspirated gutturals with hard consonants, without any
+intervening vowels, in a manner that Europeans cannot imitate.
+
+No doubt the differences of language are as numerous as the other
+distinctions which characterize the several races of men. The various
+degrees of natural capacity and of intellectual progress; the prevalence
+of particular faculties; the nature of surrounding circumstances; the ease
+or difficulty with which our different wants and desires are gratified,
+will produce not only peculiar characters in the nature and construction
+of language, but in its copiousness and development.
+
+One of the most curious points in the subject of language, is the
+continued existence in a large portion of Asia, very anciently civilized,
+and considerably advanced, at least in the useful arts, of simple
+monosyllabic languages, which are not in the slightest degree connected
+with the peculiar organization of the Mongolian variety, to which these
+people belong, and whose language is distinctly polysyllabic.
+
+The attempts that have been made to trace the origin of languages to the
+varieties of our species, or to the influence of climate, have hitherto
+been fruitless, and the doctrines broached on the obscure subject refuted
+by observation. Mr. Jefferson states that there are twenty radical
+languages in America for one in Asia; more than twenty languages, he adds,
+are still spoken in the kingdom of Mexico, most of which are at least as
+different from one another as the Greek and the German, the French and the
+Polish. The variety of idioms spoken by the people of the new continent,
+and which without the least exaggeration may be stated at some hundreds,
+offers a very striking phenomenon, particularly when we compare it to the
+few languages spoken in Asia and in Europe. Vater also informs us, that in
+Mexico, where the causes producing insulation of the several tribes
+have been for a long time in a course of diminution, Clavigero
+recognised thirty-five different languages. Some of these words are
+rather of difficult pronunciation, and Humboldt tells us that
+_Notlazomahuiztespixcatatzin_ is the term of respect with which they
+addressed their priests. During the French revolution, a learned Jacobin
+discovered that the early Peruvians adored a divinity who patronized the
+_Sans-culottes_, of their day, and who was named _Cawaltze-quos_, i. e.
+without breeches. Such barbarous words do not constitute that engaging
+tongue that Shakspeare calls "_speaking holiday_," but rather confirms
+Byron's ideas of the Russians' difficult expressions, which no man has
+leisure to pronounce except on high-days and holidays.
+
+Although brutes pronounce no articulate sounds, there is, no doubt but
+they have a language perfectly intelligible to one another. Their manner
+of expressing their different emotions is in some instances perfectly
+distinct; and birds have most decidedly a peculiar language. The following
+may be said to be the words of a nightingale's strain observed by
+Bechstein, an ingenious ornithologist, and committed to paper several
+times while he listened with deep attention to that sweet bird's
+"complaining notes," that "tune our distresses and record our woes."
+
+                Tiouou, tiouou, tiouou tiouou
+                Shpe, tiou, tokoua
+                Tio, tio, tio, tio.
+                Kououtio, kououtio kououtio,
+                Tskouo, tskouo, tskouo,
+            Tsii, tsii, tsii, tsii, tsii, tsii, tsii, tsii tsii tsii,
+                Kouoror tiou. Tskoua pipitskousisi
+  Tso, tso, tso, tso, tso, tso, tso tso, tso, tso, tso, tso, tsirrhading!
+                Tsisi si tosi si, si, si, si, si, si, si.
+                Tsorre tsorre tsorre tsorrehi
+            Tsatn, tsatn, tsatn tsatn tsatn tsatn tsatn tsi,
+            Dlo, dlo, dlo dla, dlo dlo dlo dlo dlo
+                Kouioo trrrrrrrrtzt
+                Lu, lu, lu, ly ly ly li li li li
+                Kouio didl li loulyli
+                Ha guour, guour, koui kouio!
+            Kouio, kououi kououi kououi koui, koui, koui, koui,
+                Ghi ghi ghi
+                Gholl, gholl, gholl gooll ghia hududoi
+                Koui koui koui ha hia dia dillhi!
+  Hets, hets, hets, hets, hets, hets, hets hets, hets, hets
+                Hets, hets, hets, hets, hets
+                Tourrho hostehoi
+  Kouia, kooia, kouia, kouia, kouia kouia kouia kouiati!
+
+A story is related of an irascible Irish piper of the name of _Molroy_,
+who declared a war implacable against the feline race, as he swore that
+they invariably pronounced his name in their nocturnal concerts. Gall and
+various observers of animals have fully ascertained that the attention of
+dogs is awakened by our conversation. He brought one of these intelligent
+creatures with him from Vienna to Paris, which perfectly understood French
+and German, of which he satisfied himself by repeating before it whole
+sentences in both languages. A recent anecdote has been related of an old
+ship-dog, that leaped overboard and swam to the shore on hearing the
+captain exclaim, "Poor old Neptune! I fear we shall have to drown him!"
+and such was the horror which that threat inspired, that he never
+afterwards would approach the captain or any of the ship's company, to
+whom he had previously been fondly attached. It must, however, be observed
+that in the brute creation, as in ours (sometimes more brutal species),
+peculiar attributes, that do not belong to the race, distinguish
+individuals gifted with what in man we might call a superior intellect,
+but which in these animals shows a superiority of what we term instinct.
+Spurzheim relates an instance of a cow belonging to Mr. Dupont de Nemours,
+which, amongst the whole kindred herd, was the only one that could open
+the gate leading to their pastures; and her anxious comrades, when
+arriving at the wished-for spot, invariably lowed for their conductor. It
+is also related of a hound, who, unable to obtain a seat near the fire
+without the risk of quarrelling with the dozing occupants that crowded the
+hearth, was wont to run out into the court-yard barking an alarum that
+brought away his rivals in comfort, when he quietly reentered the parlour,
+and selected an eligible stretching-place. This animal displayed as much
+ingenuity as the traveller who, according to the well-known story, ordered
+oysters for his horse for the purpose of clearing the fireside.
+
+
+
+
+ECSTATIC EXALTATION.
+
+
+This rapturous excitement is not unfrequently the province of the
+physician. Fortunately perhaps for the patient, it is an incurable malady,
+illustrating the lines of Dryden,
+
+  There is a pleasure, sure, in being mad,
+  Which none but madmen know.
+
+If we admit this state of ecstasy to be a mental aberration, it is surely
+of an enviable nature, since it elevates the soul to a beatitude which is
+rarely the lot of man.
+
+No definition of this state can equal that given by St. Theresa of her own
+feelings. By prayer she had attained what she calls a "celestial
+quietude,--a state of union, rapture, and ecstasy." "I experienced," she
+continues, "a sort of sleep of all the faculties of the soul--intellect,
+memory, and volition; during which, though they were but slumbering, they
+had no conception of their mode of operation. It was a voluptuous
+sensation, such as one might experience when expiring in raptures in the
+bosom of our God. The soul is unconscious of its actions; she (the soul)
+knows not if she speaks or if she remains silent, if she laughs or if she
+cries. It is, in short, a blessed extravagance, a celestial madness, in
+which she attains in the knowledge of true wisdom, an inconceivable
+consolation. She is on the point of merging into a state of languor;
+breathless, exhausted, the slightest motion, even of the hands, is
+unutterably difficult. The eyes are closed by a spontaneous movement; or,
+if they remain open, the power of vision has fled. In vain they endeavour
+to read: they can distinguish letters, but are unable to class them into
+words. Speak to a person in this absorbed condition, no answer will be
+obtained; although endeavouring to speak, utterance is impossible.
+Deprived of all external faculties, those of the soul are increased, to
+enjoy glorious raptures when conversing with the Deity and surrounding
+angels." These conversations the blessed St. Theresa relates; and she
+further states, that after having remained about an hour in this joyous
+trance, she recovered her usual senses, and found her eyes streaming in
+tears, as though they were weeping for the loss she had experienced in
+being restored to earthly relations.
+
+Now, with all due deference to St. Theresa, this state was most probably a
+hysteric condition. Zimmerman relates two cases somewhat of a similar
+kind. Madame M. experienced effusions of divine love of a peculiar
+nature. She first fell into a state of ecstasy, motionless and insensible,
+during which, she affirms, she felt this love penetrating her whole being,
+while a new life seemed to thrill through every fibre. Suddenly she
+started up, and seizing one of her companions, exclaimed, "Come, haste
+with me to follow and call Love, for I cannot sufficiently call upon his
+name!"--A French young lady was the second instance of this affection. She
+also frequently lost the power of speech and all external senses, animated
+with a love divine, spending whole nights in ecstatic bliss, and
+rapturously embraced by her mystic lover. It is difficult, perhaps, to
+separate this amorous feeling from physical temperament; and the following
+remarks of Virey on the subject of St. Theresa are most judicious:--"She
+possessed an ardent and sensitive disposition, transported, no doubt, by
+terrestrial affection, which she strove to exchange for a more exalted
+ardour for the Deity; for devotion and love are more or less of a similar
+character. Theresa was not fired by that adoration which is exclusively
+due to the infinite and invisible Intelligence which rules the universe;
+but she fancied a sensible, an anthropomorphous divinity; so much so, that
+she not unfrequently reproached herself with bitterness that these
+raptures were not sufficiently unconnected with corporeal pleasures and
+voluptuous feelings."
+
+St. Theresa was not the only beatified enthusiast who suspected that the
+evil spirit occasionally interfered in those ecstatic visions. St. Thomas
+Aquinas divides ecstasies into three classes;--the first arising from
+divine power, and enjoyed by the prophets, St. Paul, and various other
+saints. The second was the work of the devil, who bound down all external
+senses, suspended their action, and reduced the body to the condition of a
+corpse: such were the raptures in which magicians and sorcerers were
+frequently entranced, during which, according to Tertullian and other
+writers, the soul quitted the body to wander about the world, inquire into
+all its occurrences, and then returned with the intelligence it had
+obtained to its former abode. The third rapturous category of St. Thomas
+he simply attributes to physical causes, constituting mental alienation.
+
+May not all these ecstatic raptures be considered as belonging to this
+third class? It has been observed that women, hysteric ones in particular,
+were the most subject to this supposed inspired affection; and amongst men
+it has also been remarked, that the enraptured individual was in general
+nervous, debilitated, and bald; and it is well known that the fall of the
+hair is frequently the result of moral and physical weakness, brought on
+by long studies, contemplation, grief, and illness, all of which may
+occasion mental aberration; for what other denomination can be given to
+the ecstatic state of the Monks of Mount Athos, who pretended or fancied
+that they experienced celestial joys when gazing on their umbilical
+region, in converse with the Deity? Hence were they called
+_Omphalopsychians_, whose notions in the matter are thus described by
+Allatius: "Elevate thy spirit above earthly concerns, press thy beard upon
+thy breast, turn thine eyes and all thy thoughts upon the middle of thine
+abdomen, hold thy breath, seek in thy bowels the abode of thy heart--then
+wilt thou find it unalloyed with dense and tenebral mists; persevere in
+this contemplation for days and nights, and thou shalt know uninterrupted
+joys, when thy spirit shall have found out thy heart and has illumined
+itself."[4]
+
+Bernier relates an act of supposed devotion amongst the Fakirs nearly as
+absurd, when, to seek the blessings of a new light, they rivet their eyes
+in silent contemplation upon the ceiling; then gradually looking down,
+they fix both eyes gazing, or rather squinting, at the tip of their nose,
+until the aforesaid light beameth on them.
+
+St. Augustin mentions a priest who could at will fall into one of these
+ecstasies, during which his external senses were so totally suppressed
+that he did not experience the pangs of the torture. Cardanus affirms that
+he was possessed of the same faculty. "_Quoties volo_," he says, "_extra
+sensum quasi in exstasim transeo--sentio dum eam ineo, ac (ut verius
+dicam) facio, juxta cor quandam separationem, quasi anima abscederet,
+totique corpori res haec communicatur, quasi ostiolum quoddam aperiretur.
+Et initium hujus est a capite, maxime cerebello, diffunditurque per totam
+dorsi spinam, vi magna continetur; hocque solum sentio, quad sum extra
+meipsum magnaque quadam vi paululum me contineo._"
+
+This state of mind is usually succeeded by contemplation, which has justly
+been considered one of the attributes of Genius. This contemplation,
+however, may be applied to positive relation, or to the workings of
+fiction. In the latter case it becomes to a certain degree mental, and
+beyond the control or the influence of our reason, although we cannot
+regulate the rationality of our mental pursuits by any given or
+acknowledged standard. The pseudo-philosopher, who searches for the
+_elixir vitae_ or the power of transmuting metals, and the judicial
+astrologer, are in the eyes of society madmen: yet, do they reason on
+certain rational principles, and in many respects may be considered wise;
+one might figuratively say, that here the mind must have taken flight
+beyond its natural limits, if we can limit thought. In the wild wanderings
+of Theosophy man has fancied that by abstracting himself from the world,
+he might place himself in relation with the Divinity, and has so forcibly
+indulged the flattering illusion, that he actually believes that he is in
+converse with his Creator or his angels. Unquestionably this is a state of
+mania, yet is it founded upon a systematic train of ideas, that, strictly
+speaking, does not partake of mental aberration, but rather of enthusiasm.
+Although an indulgence in this may terminate in mania, still there is
+something delightful in these fond aberrations. A new world--a new
+condition is evoked--we are freed from the trammels of society and its
+prejudices--and perhaps encompassed by misery we burst from its shackles
+into another orb of our own creation, when the eyes closed in a vision of
+bliss--a meridian sunbeam, through the darkness of night. If the slumber
+of the visionary ushered in death, his destiny might be enviable--he had
+already quitted the world, seeking the presence of his God--his soul had
+already soared from its earthly tenement.
+
+There is no doubt that such contemplation may lead us to a better
+knowledge of the Supreme Being, whose image and attributes have been
+distorted by ignorance and superstition. It has been truly said, that
+until the light of Christianity shone upon mankind, God was unknown. He
+had been represented as wrathful and revengeful--implacable in his
+anger--insatiable in his thirst for blood--when he was revealed to us
+upon the earth, gentle, forgiving, loving, humble, and charitable. The
+type of all excellence--and delivering doctrines so pure, so convincing,
+as to entitle him to the name of _Saviour_, even were his godhead
+doubted--for who could question the salvation of those who followed his
+laws. Until ambition swayed the church and polluted the altar with blood
+and rapine--how happy, how blessed were these followers--even in the midst
+of persecution and in agonies--pardoning their barbarous murderers and
+praying for their conversion.
+
+Unfortunately according to the temperament of individuals their ecstasy
+has frequently led to an enthusiasm which knew no bounds, and induced the
+illuminated visionary to consider all men who did not coincide in his
+opinions the enemies of Divinity--hence arose fanaticism and
+persecution--yet did these murderous madmen conceive that they were
+wielding their hateful sword in the cause of an offended God; and,
+although we read of their excesses and cruelty with horror, they were not
+bad men, and many of them imagined that they were fulfilling a heavenly
+mission. I have known many worthy and amiable ecclesiastics in Spain and
+in Portugal who advocated the inquisition as a useful institution,
+although they readily admitted that it had too frequently been rendered
+instrumental to ambition and political intrigues.
+
+This state of mental exaltation is not unfrequently within the province of
+a physician's care. The treatment like that of all moral affections is a
+task of great difficulty. Perhaps the best curative means to be adopted is
+occupation of the body in active pursuits. St. Augustine was so convinced
+of this necessity of occupation to prevent ecstatic habits, that the monks
+of the Thebaid cultivated their ground with such industry, that they
+freighted several vessels with their produce. Priest has observed in his
+extensive practice in insanity that he never met with an insane
+naturalist. Travelling is also to be enjoined. Marriage has also been
+advised, although it is to be feared that the little charms men of this
+description may have to suit a woman's fancy, might lead to contemplation
+of a nature widely different from beatitude. The Jewish Rabbi tell us,
+that as soon as Moses became contemplative and prophetic, his wife
+Marjarin left him. It is certain that enthusiasm produces a concentration
+of mind prejudicial to all other functions.[5]
+
+There is no doubt that melancholy or intense cogitation may bring on this
+morbid condition. Zimmerman relates that the mathematician Viote was
+sometimes so wrapped up in calculation, that he was known to remain three
+days and three nights without sleep or food: and Mendelsohn the
+philosopher, who was called the Plato of Germany, fell into a swoon the
+moment philosophy was talked of; and he was therefore ordered by his
+doctor not to think. Being asked one day what he contrived to do when not
+allowed thought, he replied, "Why, I go to the window and count the tiles
+on the roof of the opposite house."
+
+This morbid condition of our intellectual faculties has been admirably
+described by Johnson, in his Rasselas. "To indulge the power of fiction,
+and send imagination out upon the wing, is often the sport of those who
+delight too much in silent speculation. He who has nothing external that
+can divert him, must find pleasure in his own thoughts, and must conceive
+himself what he is not; for who is pleased with what he is? He then
+expatiates in boundless futurity, and culls from all imaginary conditions
+that which for the present moment he would most desire; amuses his desires
+with impossible enjoyments, and confers upon his pride unattainable
+dominion. The mind dances from scene to scene, unites all pleasures, in
+all combinations, and riots in delights which nature and fortune, with all
+their bounty cannot bestow. In time, some particular train of ideas fixes
+the attention: all other intellectual gratifications are rejected; the
+mind, in weariness or leisure, returns constantly to the favourite
+conception, and feasts on the luscious falsehood whenever she is offended
+with the bitterness of truth. By degrees the reign of fancy is confirmed;
+she grows first imperious, and in time despotic. Then fictions begin to
+operate as realities, false opinions fasten upon the mind, and life passes
+in dreams of raptures or of anguish."
+
+The celebrated physician Boerhaave was once engaged in so profound a
+meditation that he did not close his eyes for six weeks. Any fixity of
+idea may be considered as a monomania. Pascal, being thrown down on a
+bridge, fancied ever after that he was standing on the brink of a terrific
+precipice, which appeared to him an abyss ever ready to ingulf him. So
+immutable was this dread, that when his friends conversed with him they
+were obliged to conceal this ideal peril with a chair, on which they
+seated themselves, to tranquillize his perturbed mind. This is an
+instance of a painful fixity of thought, the result of which is
+melancholic mania; whereas ecstatic exultation is the enjoyment of a
+delicious sensation unknown in our habitual earthly enjoyments, and
+beautifully expressed by Shakspeare, when Pericles thus addresses
+Helicamus--
+
+  O Helicanus! strike me, honoured sir;
+  Give me a gash,--put me to present pain,
+  Lest this great sea of joy, rushing upon me,
+  O'erbear the shores of my mortality,
+  And drown me with their sweetness.
+
+Archimides was heedless of the slaughter around him. Father Castel, the
+inventor of the ocular harpsichord, spent an entire night in one position,
+ruminating on a thought that struck him as he was retiring to rest. And it
+is related of an arduous student, that he was reflecting so deeply on some
+interesting and puzzling subject, that he did not perceive that his feet
+were burnt by the fire near which he was seated.
+
+
+
+
+VARIETIES OF MANKIND.
+
+
+The most approved classification of mankind is that of Blumenbach. He
+divides them into five varieties: 1. The Caucasian; 2. Mongolian; 3.
+Ethiopian; 4. American; and 5. Malay: and the following are the
+characteristics of each.
+
+
+I. THE CAUCASIAN.
+
+The skin white; the cheeks rosy--almost a peculiarity of this variety; the
+hair of a nut-brown, running on the one hand to yellow, on the other into
+black, soft, long, and undulating; the head symmetrical, rather globular;
+the forehead moderately expanded; the cheek-bones narrow, not prominent;
+the alveolar edge round, the front teeth of each jaw placed
+perpendicularly. The face oval and pretty straight; its features
+moderately distinct; the nose narrow and slightly aquiline, the bridge of
+it rather prominent; the mouth small; the lips, especially the lower,
+gently turned out; the chin full and round. This variety comprehends all
+Europeans, except the Laplander and the rest of the Finnish race; the
+Western Asiatics as far as the Obi, the Caspian, and the Ganges; and the
+people of the North of Africa.
+
+
+II. THE MONGOLIAN.
+
+Skin of an olive colour; the hair black, stiff, straight, and sparing. The
+head almost square, the cheek-bones prominent outwards; the superciliary
+arches scarcely perceptible; the osseous nostrils narrow; the alveolar
+edge arched obtusely forward; the chin somewhat projecting. The face broad
+and flattened, and its parts consequently less distinct; the space between
+the eyebrows very broad as well as flat, the cheeks not only projecting
+outward, but nearly globular; the aperture of the eyelids narrow and
+linear; the nose small and flat.
+
+This comprehends the remaining Asiatics, except the Malays of the
+extremity of the Transgangetic Peninsula, the Finnish races of the North
+of Europe, Laplanders, &c., and the Esquimaux, diffused over the most
+northern parts of America, from Behring's Strait to the farthest habitable
+point of Greenland.
+
+
+III. THE ETHIOPIAN.
+
+Skin black; the hair black and crisp. Head narrow, compressed laterally;
+forehead arched; the cheek-bones projecting; the osseous nostrils large,
+the jaws lengthened forward; the alveolar edge narrow, elongated, more
+elliptical; the upper front teeth obliquely prominent, the lower jaw large
+and strong; the skull thick and heavy; the face narrow, and projecting at
+its lower part; the eyes prominent; the nose thick and confused with the
+projecting cheeks; the lips, especially the upper, thick; the chin
+somewhat receding; the legs in many instances bowed.
+
+This comprehends the inhabitants of Africa, with the exception of the
+Caucasian variety which inhabits the northern parts.
+
+
+IV. THE AMERICAN.
+
+Skin of a copper colour; hair black, stiff, straight, and sparing.
+Forehead short; cheek-bones broad, but more arched and rounded than in the
+Mongolian variety; the orbits generally deep; the forehead and vertex
+frequently deformed by art; cranium usually light. The face broad, with
+prominent cheeks, not flattened, but with every part distinctly marked if
+viewed in profile; the eyes deep; the nose rather flat, but still
+prominent.
+
+This comprehends all the American, excepting the Esquimaux.
+
+
+V. THE MALAY.
+
+Skin tawny; hair black, soft, curled, thick, and abundant; head rather
+narrow; forehead slightly arched; cheek-bones not prominent, upper jaw
+rather projecting. Face prominent at its lower part; the features viewed
+in profile more distinct; the nose full, broad, bottled at its point;
+mouth large.
+
+This comprehends the inhabitants of the Pacific Ocean, of the Marian,
+Philippine, Molucca, and Sunda isles, and of the Peninsula of Malacca.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+The Caucasian variety derives its name from _Mount Caucasus_, where we
+meet with a beautiful race--the Georgians; and because, so far as the
+imperfect light of history and tradition can guide us, the original abode
+of the species appears to have been in that quarter. In this class are
+included all the ancient and modern Europeans; the Assyrians, Medes,
+Chaldeans, Sarmatians, Scythians, and Parthians; the Philistines,
+Phoenicians, Jews; the Turks, Persians, Arabians, and Hindoos of high
+caste. Blumenbach is inclined to believe that the primitive human race
+belonged to this variety. In support of this opinion it may be stated,
+that the part of Asia which seems to have been the cradle of the race has
+always been, and still is, inhabited by tribes of this formation; and the
+inhabitants of Europe in great part may be traced back for their origin to
+the West of Asia.
+
+Are all these various tribes, brethren descended from one stock? or must
+we trace them to more than one? The physiologists who have ventured to
+express the latter opinion have been stigmatized by intolerance and blind
+bigotry as atheists and unbelievers; yet this question belongs to the
+domain of the naturalist, and the philosopher has an unqualified right to
+moot it without incurring the heinous charge of infidelity. To form an
+opinion on this difficult subject, it will be necessary, as Lawrence
+justly observes, to ascertain carefully all the differences that exist
+between the various races of men; to compare them with the diversities
+observed among animals; to apply to them all the light which human and
+comparative physiology can supply, and to draw our inferences concerning
+their nature and causes from all the direct information and all the
+analogies which these considerations may unfold. "It is quite clear,"
+continues the same ingenious writer, "that the Mosaic account makes all
+the inhabitants of the world descended from _Adam_ and _Eve_. The entire,
+or even the partial inspiration of the various writings comprehended in
+the Old Testament, has been and is doubted by many persons, including
+learned divines and distinguished Oriental and Biblical scholars. The
+account of the creation, and subsequent events, has the allegorical
+figurative character common to Eastern compositions, and it is
+distinguished amongst the cosmogonies by a simple grandeur and natural
+sublimity, as the rest of these writings are by appropriate beauties in
+their respective parts. The representation of all the animals being
+brought before Adam in the first instance, and subsequently of their all
+being collected in the ark, if we are to understand them as applied to the
+living inhabitants of the whole world, is zoologically impossible. How
+could the polar bear have traversed the torrid zone? If we are to believe
+that the original creation comprehended only a male and female of each
+species, or that one pair only was saved from an universal deluge, the
+difficulties are increased; the carnivorous animals must have perished
+with hunger, or destroyed most of the other species." On this obscure
+subject Adelung has expressed himself with much ingenuity: "Asia has been
+at all times regarded as the country where the human race had its
+beginning, and from which its increase was spread over the rest of the
+globe. Tracing the people up to tribes, and the tribes to families, we are
+conducted at last, if not by history, at least by the tradition of all old
+people, to a single pair, from which tribes and nations have been
+successively produced. What was the first family, and the first people
+descended from it?--where was it settled?--and how was it extended so as
+to fill the four large divisions of the globe? It is a question of fact,
+and must be answered by History. But History is silent: her first books
+have been destroyed by time; and the few lines preserved by _Moses_ are
+rather calculated to excite than to satisfy our curiosity.
+
+"We must fancy to ourselves this first tribe endowed with all human
+faculties, but not possessing all knowledge and experience, the subsequent
+acquisition of which is left to the natural operation of time and
+circumstances. As Nature would not unnecessarily expose her first-born and
+inexperienced son to conflicts and dangers, the place of his early abode
+would be so selected that all his wants could be easily satisfied, and
+every thing essential to his existence be readily procured. He would be
+placed, in short, in a garden of paradise. Such a country is found in
+central Asia, between the 30th and 50th degrees of north latitude, and the
+90th and 110th of east longitude (from Ferro); a spot which in respect to
+its height, can only be compared to the lofty plains of Quito in South
+America. Here, too, all the animals are found wild, which man has tamed
+for his use, and carried with him over the whole earth."
+
+This ingenious historical investigation points out the east as the
+earliest and original seat of our species, the source of our domesticated
+animals and our principal vegetable food; but it by no means decides
+whether the globe was peopled by one or several original stocks.
+
+The startling nature of this question on the first view of the subject
+must induce us to consider the circumstance of these five distinct
+varieties arising from one stock as miraculous; but when we compare them
+with the corresponding difference in animals, we can easily come to the
+conclusion that the various races of human beings are only to be regarded
+as varieties of a single species, without supposing the intervention of
+any supernatural agency.
+
+The sceptic Voltaire, who evinced more wit than learning in his endeavours
+to invalidate Scriptural tradition by ridicule, thus expresses himself:
+"Il n'est permis qu'a un aveugle de douter que les blancs, les negres, les
+albinos, les Hottentots, les Lapons, les Chinois, les Americains, soient
+des races entierement differentes;" but had this philosopher been better
+versed in zoology and physiology, he would not have made so groundless an
+assertion. "Analogical and direct facts," says Dr. Elliotson, "lead to the
+conclusion that none of the differences among mankind are so great as to
+require the belief of their originality." A contrary opinion, however,
+should not be stigmatized by bigotry, for Locke has justly observed that
+only matters above human reason are the proper subjects of revelation; and
+Bacon has also maintained that religious and philosophical inquiries
+should be kept separate, and not pompously united. Dr. Bostock, than whom
+no man could be less sceptical, plainly admits that we do not find that
+the writer of the book of Genesis lays claim to any supernatural source of
+information with respect to natural phenomena, while the whole tenour of
+his work seems to show that on such topics he adopted the opinions which
+were current among his contemporaries.
+
+The causes of the difference of our species have been the subject of as
+great a discrepance in opinion. Most of the Greek and Roman Historians
+have attributed it to the influence of climate; and amongst the moderns,
+Montaigne, Montesquieu, Buffon, and Zimmerman, have considered the
+modification of the individual and the degeneration of the offspring as
+the result of this external agency. Lord Kaimes, Hume, and many other
+philosophers, have entertained a contrary opinion. No doubt, the influence
+of climate may materially affect colour, stature, hair, features, and even
+the moral and intellectual character; but it must be considered as
+inadequate to act upon conformation. The prevalence of light colours in
+the animals of polar regions is well known: the arctic fox, the white
+bear, the snow-bunting, are striking instances of this peculiarity; but
+these circumstances are purely superficial. The skulls of these
+individuals are similar to those of the Europeans; nay, it is well known
+that light races are found among dark nations, and many protected parts of
+the body are blacker than those which are exposed. Buchanan tells us, that
+the Jews in Cochin are divided into white and black classes, though born
+under the same parallel; the white Jews having been known there for
+upwards of one thousand seven hundred years. Dr. Shaw and Bruce describe a
+race of fair people, near Mount Aurasius in Africa, with red hair and blue
+eyes, and who are, according to tradition, descended from the Vandals. We
+find the red Peruvian, the brown Malay, and the white Abyssinian in the
+very zones peopled by jet black races. This influence of temperature upon
+colour frequently varies according to the seasons. Pallas observed that
+even in domestic animals, such as the horse and cow, the coat is of a
+lighter colour in winter. The Siberian roe, red in summer, is white in the
+winter; the fur of the sable and the martin is much deeper in the warm
+months; and the squirrel and mustela nivalis, which become white in
+Siberia and Russia, do not change their hue in Germany. The winter coat,
+it has been observed by naturalists, is found far advanced in the
+preparatory autumn. This bounteous provision of nature seems to have been
+extended to the vegetable kingdom and it has been observed that the
+pellicle of onions is much thicker on the approach of a severe winter than
+on that of a more temperate season. But if further proof were necessary to
+impugn this doctrine respecting climate, we may adduce the fact of a woman
+having borne twins of different complexions, a white and a black. With all
+due respect to the much-lamented Bishop Heber, we must receive with some
+degree of hesitation his assertion that the Persian, Greek, Tartar, and
+Arabian inhabitants of India, assume, in a few generations, without any
+intercourse with the Hindoos, a deep blue tint, little lighter than that
+of a negro; and that the Portuguese, during three hundred years' residence
+in that climate, have assumed the blackness of a Kaffer. The same learned
+prelate is of opinion that our European complexion was not primitive, but
+rather that of an Indian; an intermediate tint is perhaps the most
+agreeable to the eye and instinct of the majority of the human race. Dr.
+Heber, perhaps, had not seen, in various Roman catholic treasures,
+portraits of the Virgin Mary, painted, according to tradition, by St.
+Luke, and in which she is represented as a negress.
+
+That solar heat produces blackness of the integuments is an ancient
+opinion, and is illustrated by Pliny, who tells us, "Aethiopes vicini
+sideris vapore torreri, adustisque similes gigni, barba et capillo
+vibrato, non est dubium." Buffon asserts that "climate may be regarded as
+the chief cause of the different colours of man;" and Smith is of opinion
+"that from the pole to the equator we observe a gradation in the
+complexion nearly in proportion to the latitude of the country."
+
+Blumenbach, under the same impression, endeavours to account for this
+black tinge by a chemical illustration somewhat curious. He states that
+the proximate cause of the dark colour is an abundance of carbon secreted
+by the skin with hydrogen, precipitated and fixed by the contact of the
+atmospheric oxygen. Our creoles, and the British inhabitants of India, may
+esteem themselves particularly fortunate in not being subject to this
+chemical operation!
+
+On the other hand, it is well known that a black state of the skin has
+been produced in white races under peculiar circumstances; and Le Cat and
+Camper mention cases of women who turned dark during their pregnancy. It
+would be idle to dwell further on the hypothetic illustrations regarding
+this supposed operation of climate, which the observation of every
+unprejudiced traveller can impugn. Yet the following remarks on the
+subject by an American divine, the Rev. J. S. Smith are worthy of notice:
+
+"In tracing the globe from the pole to the equator we observe a gradation
+in the complexion nearly in proportion to the latitude of the country,
+immediately below the arctic circle a high and sanguine colour prevails.
+From this you descend to the mixture of red and white. Afterwards comes
+the brown, the blue, the tawny, and at length the black as you proceed to
+the line. The same distance from the sun, however, does not in any degree
+indicate the same temperature of climate. Some secondary causes must be
+taken into consideration, in connecting and limiting its influence. The
+elevation of the land, its vicinity to the sea, the nature of the soil,
+the state of cultivation, the course of the winds, and many other
+circumstances enter into this view. Elevated and mountainous countries are
+cool in proportion to their altitude above the level of the sea,
+increasing to the ocean, just in opposite effects, in northern and
+southern latitudes; for the ocean being of a more equal temperature than
+the land, in one case corrects the cold, and in the other moderates the
+heat. Ranges of mountains, such as the Apennines in Italy, and Taurus,
+Caucasen, and Iman, in Asia, by interrupting the course of cold winds,
+render the quite dry country below them warmer, and the countries above
+them colder, than is equivalent to the proportionate difference of
+latitude. The frigid zone, in Asia, is much wider than it is in Europe;
+and that continent hardly knows a temperate zone."
+
+Climate also receives some difference from the nature of the soil, and
+some from the degree of cultivation; sand is susceptible of greater heat
+than clay, and an uncultivated region shaded with forests and covered with
+undrained marshes, is more frigid in northern and more temperate in
+southern latitudes, than a country laid open to the direct and constant
+action of the sun. History informs us that when Germany and Scythia were
+bound in forests, the Romans often transported their armies across the
+frozen Danube; but since the civilization of those barbarous regions, the
+Danube rarely freezes.
+
+Migration to other countries has also been adduced as one of the causes of
+variety in mankind; but the permanency of the characteristic distinctions
+of any race militates against this supposition. The physical character of
+the Celts, who peopled the west of Europe at an early period, is still
+observable in the Spaniard, most of the French, the native Welsh, the
+Manks, and the Scotch Highlander; whereas the German race, who occupied
+the more northern and eastern settlements, are still distinguished by
+their transparent skin, rosy complexion, flaxen hair, and blue eyes; and
+in Ireland, the race of the Danes and the Milesians can to this day be
+recognised in their respective characters. Shaw and Bruce traced the
+descendants of the Vandals who passed from Spain into Africa in the fifth
+century; and, after a lapse of thirteen centuries, Bruce says that they
+are "fair like the English, their hair red, and their eyes blue." Negroes
+have been introduced into the New World for upwards of three centuries,
+where, despite of a new clime and different habits, they still retain the
+character of their race; and the Jews who have not intermarried out of
+their nation, have preserved their features for nineteen centuries.
+
+Not only do we observe the peculiarities of physical conformation
+resisting the destructive or degenerating hand of time, but certain
+imperfections in their faculties have been equally permanent in certain
+tribes. It is a curious fact that the Mamelukes, who have resided in Egypt
+for upwards of five hundred and fifty years, have never perpetuated their
+subsisting issue. Volney observed, that there does not exist one single
+family of them in the second generation; all their children perishing in
+the first or second descent. The same observation applies to the Turks,
+who can only secure the continuance of their families by marrying native
+women, an union which the Mamelukes disdained. This singularity, remarked
+by Volney, has been since confirmed by late travellers.
+
+It will be found that the progress of domestication, the natural result of
+civilized improvement, tends more materially to operate a wonderful change
+in the animal conformation, than any other supposed agency. The head of
+the domestic pig differs as much from that of the wild one as the Negro's
+from the Caucasian's. At Padua, it has been observed that fowls have a
+cranium perforated by numerous holes, and hollowed out like a shell. In
+some countries, nay districts, cattle and sheep have or have not horns;
+and in other instances sheep have so many of them as to have acquired the
+epithet of _polycerateous_. Wild animals continuing to inhabit the place
+that bore them, undergo little or no change, and their fossil remains and
+skeletons are similar to the present species; but nothing can form a
+stronger contrast to this specific uniformity than the numerous varieties
+to be found in those races that have been crossed in breed and
+domesticated by man. We could scarcely imagine that our sheep owe their
+origin to the mouflon or argali, (_ovis ammon_,) an animal large in size,
+fleet, and fierce. The sheep of Senegal and India are those that have
+undergone the least degradation; while those of Barbary, Egypt, Arabia,
+and Persia, have experienced greater degeneration. We daily see dogs
+degenerate before our eyes, and it has not yet been satisfactorily
+ascertained whether they arise from one or several species. Cuvier, in his
+diligent researches, has concluded that our oxen do not originate in the
+urus or bison of the ancients formerly found in various parts of Europe,
+and still met with in the forests of Lithuania, and on the Carpathian and
+Caucasian chains; but he is of opinion, from the examination of fossil
+remains, that, like the camel and the dromedary, the species has been
+destroyed by civilization: the causes of these changes do not appear to
+operate by altering the parents but disposing them to produce offsprings
+more or less dissimilar in colour, form, and disposition.
+
+Dr. Prichard observes, that the negro slaves of the third and fourth
+generation differ materially from the natives of Africa.
+
+In opposition to this doctrine, which admits this wonderful degeneration
+under the plastic influence of domestication, it has been shown that, as
+far as we know, the lapse of ages has not produced any change in the
+generality of animals. The zoological descriptions given by Aristotle
+twenty-two centuries ago apply distinctly to the same species of the
+present day, and every work of art in which these animals are represented
+corroborates the fact. Geoffroy de St. Hilaire brought numerous mummies of
+animals from the sepulchres of Egypt, and found no more difference between
+their skeletons and the osseous conformation of the present races, than in
+the relics of the human mummy and the bones of our contemporaries.
+
+The following luminous conclusion of Lawrence illustrates the observation
+of the foregoing fact: "If new characters are produced in the domestic
+animals because they have been taken from their primitive condition, and
+exposed to the operation of many, to them, unnatural causes,--if the pig
+is remarkable among these for the number and degrees of his varieties,
+because it has been the most exposed to causes of degeneration,--we shall
+be at no loss to account for the diversities in man, who is, in the true,
+though not in the ordinary sense of the word, more of a domesticated
+animal than any other. We know the wild state of most of them, but we are
+ignorant of the natural wild condition to which man was destined. Probably
+there is no such state; because Nature having limited him in no
+respect,--having fitted him for every kind of life, every climate, and
+every variety of food,--has given him the whole earth for his abode, and
+both the organized kingdoms for his nourishment. Yet, in the wide range
+through which the scale of human cultivation extends, we may observe a
+contrast between the two extremities, analogous to that which is seen in
+the wild and tamed races of animals. The savage may be compared to the
+former, which range the earth uncontrolled by man; civilized people to the
+domesticated breeds of the same species, whose diversities of form and
+colour are endless."
+
+It is therefore obvious that the various causes which operate upon animals
+in producing these alterations from the primitive race, although the
+manner in which they act is unknown, are sufficiently evident to convince
+us, by analogy, that they may account for similar phenomena in the human
+race, without the gratuitous assumption of different original species,
+tending to invalidate the Mosaic account of the creation. Despite the
+witticisms of Voltaire and other philosophers on this subject, sound
+philosophy teaches us to assign the same causes to the same effects
+without calling in the adventitious aid of other possible influences; and
+no difficulties prevent us from recognising the unity of the human
+species, which are not applicable to all other animals.
+
+
+
+
+ON THE INHUMATION OF THE DEAD IN CITIES.
+
+
+From time immemorial, medical men have strongly pointed out to municipal
+authorities the dangers that arise from burying the dead within the
+precincts of cities or populous towns. Impressed with the same conviction,
+ancient legislators only allowed to the most illustrious citizens a
+sepulchre in the temple of the gods. Euclides was interred in the temple
+of Diana Euclis, as a reward for his pious journey to Delphi in search of
+the sacred fire; the Magnesians erected a monument to Themistocles in
+their forum; Euphron received the same honour in Corinth; and Medea buried
+her two sons, Mermerus and Pheres, under the protection of Juno Acraea's
+altars, to guard their ashes from their persecutors. Lycurgus was perhaps
+the only Grecian legislator who recommended inhumation in temples and in
+cities, to accustom youth to the daily spectacle of death.
+
+The primitive Grecians, it appears, buried their dead in or about their
+dwellings; and we find a law amongst the Thebans, ordaining that every
+person who built a house should provide a repository for the dead upon his
+premises. In latter days, both Grecians and Romans erected their tombs
+outside of their cities, and chiefly by the road-side. It appears also,
+that, among the Romans, the bodies of the lower orders were promiscuously
+cast into wells, called _fruticuli_. Horace seems to allude to this
+practice. _Hoc miserae plebi stabat commune sepulchrum._ The funerals of
+the wealthy patricians appear to have been most sumptuous and costly, the
+pall formed of valuable materials and decorated with splendid ornaments.
+Thus Statius:
+
+_Ditantur flammae: non unquam opulentioan ille ante cinis: crepitant gemmae:
+atque immane litescit argentum, et pietis exsudat vestibus aurum._ The
+laws of the twelve tables prohibited the practice of this waste of gold.
+
+Both religious and civil motives might have dictated the propriety of this
+regulation. The traveller, setting out upon a journey, and passing by the
+sepulchres of his sires, could in the presence of their manes invoke their
+protection; and on his return to his penates, safe from danger, he could
+put up thanks to the gods for his preservation. As a prudential measure,
+the interment of the dead beyond the walls of their towns prevented the
+fatal consequences that might have arisen from extensive putrefaction and
+infection, and moreover the burning of bodies would have exposed the
+adjoining buildings to the danger of frequent fires. It is also possible
+that policy dictated these sanatory enactments. The ancients held the
+remains of the departed as a sacred trust, in the defence of which they
+were ever prepared to fall; and it is not improbable that their warriors
+would have rushed forth to meet the invader, before he would have defiled,
+by his approach to their cities, the ashes of their ancestors. So
+scrupulously religious were the Athenians in performing the funeral rites
+of the dead, that they put to death ten of their commanders, after the
+battle of Arginusae, for not having committed to the earth the dead bodies
+that floated on the waters. Such was the dread of being deprived of
+sepulchral rites, that it is related of several citizens of Cappadocia,
+that during the pestilence that devastated their town in the reign of
+Gallus and Valerian, they actually shut themselves up to perish in their
+tombs.
+
+There is no doubt but that their dead were buried in such a manner as not
+to prove injurious to the survivors; and Seneca plainly says, "Non
+defunctorum causa, sed vivorum, inventa est sepultura." The ancients both
+burned and buried their dead, but inhumation appears to have been the
+most early and the most approved rite. "Let the dead be buried," says a
+law of Cecrops. Solon justifies the claims of the Athenians to the island
+of Salamis, from the circumstance of the dead bodies interred on its
+shores having been inhumed according to the Athenian custom, with their
+feet turned to the west, whereas the Megarensians turned theirs to the
+east.
+
+In various instances the burial or the burning appear to have been adopted
+upon philosophical doctrines. Democritus, with a view to facilitate
+resurrection, recommended interment, and Pliny thus ridicules the
+intention: "Similis et de asservandis corporibus hominum, et reviviscendis
+promissa a Democrito vanitas, qui non revivixit ipse." Heraclitus, who
+considered fire as the first principle, advocated the funeral pile; while
+Thales, who deemed water the chief element, urged the propriety of
+committing the departed to the damp bosom of the earth. Although burning
+the dead was customary, there were curious exceptions to the rule. Infants
+who died before cutting their teeth, persons struck dead with lightning,
+were buried. The place of interment of infants was called the
+_suggrundarium_.
+
+The early Christians inhumed the bodies of their martyrs in their temples.
+This honour was afterwards conferred on the remains of distinguished
+citizens, illustrious prelates, and princes. The infectious diseases which
+at various periods arose from this custom, induced Theodosius, in his
+celebrated code, strictly to prohibit it; and he even ordered that the
+remains of the dead thus inhumed should be removed out of Rome. The vanity
+of man, and the cupidity of the priesthood, soon overruled these wise
+regulations. Every family possessing sufficient means, claimed a vault
+within the churches, and thereby the revenues of the clergy were
+materially increased. At all times, even the dead appeared to have shared
+with the living the obligation of supporting the ministers of the altar.
+By a law of Hippias, the priestesses of Minerva received a choenix[6] of
+wheat, and one of barley, with an obolus, for every individual who
+departed this life. The _libitinarii_ of the Romans fulfilled the duties
+of our undertakers, or rather of the directors of funeral pomp of the
+French; yet they were attached to the temple of the goddess Libitina,
+whose priests received a fee in silver for every one who died, under the
+name of _Libitinae ratio_. Suetonius informs us, that in Nero's time the
+mortality was so great during one autumn, that thirty thousand of these
+silver pieces were deposited in the fatal treasury. To increase the
+emoluments of this sacerdotal body, these _libitinarii_ sold at high
+prices every thing that was requisite for the funeral ceremonies, received
+a toll at the city gate through which the bodies were carried out, as well
+as at the entrance of the amphitheatre through which the dead gladiators
+were borne away. Phaedrus alludes to this speculation in one of his fables,
+when speaking of a miser,
+
+  Qui circumcidis omnem impensam funeris,
+  Libitina ne quid de tuo faciat lucrum.
+
+It is supposed that this avaricious divinity owed her name to the
+displeasure which it must have occasioned to all who heard it,--_quod
+nemini libeat_; but it is also possible that it was derived from her
+bearing poor mortals away, whenever she fancied it, and _ad libitum_.
+
+In more modern times, Theodolphus, Bishop of Orleans, complained to
+Charlemagne that lucre and vanity had converted churches into
+charnel-houses, disgraceful to the clergy and perilous to the community.
+It was upon this representation that this prince, in his capitularies,
+prohibited burials in churches under heavy penalties. But the laws of the
+wisest could not prevent priesthood from considering this source of
+emolument, although endangering public salubrity, an indisputable property
+that could not be meddled with without endangering the church.
+
+In England the custom of burying the dead in churches was first sanctioned
+by Cuthbert, Archbishop of Canterbury, in 758, it having been previously
+forbidden by Augustine, who had decreed that no corpse either of prince or
+prelate should be buried within the walls of a city.
+
+In France, Maret in 1773, and Vicq d'Azyr in 1778, pointed out the danger
+of this practice in such glaring colours, that government by an edict,
+only allowed church interment to certain dignitaries; but in 1804, by a
+wise law that should be enforced in every civilized country, inhumation in
+cities was entirely abolished. Amongst the numerous well authenticated
+evil results of burying in churches that led to this wise prohibition, the
+following were the most striking and circumstantial:
+
+In 1773, in Saulieu, Burgundy, an epidemic disease arising from the
+inhumation of a corpse in the church of St. Saturnin created considerable
+alarm. The body of a corpulent person had been interred on the 3d of
+March, and a woman was buried near it on the 20th of April following: both
+had died of a reigning fever. During the last burial a fetid effluvia
+arose from the vault, which pervaded the whole church; and, out of one
+hundred and seventy persons who were present, one hundred and forty-nine
+were attacked with the prevailing malady, although its progress had been
+arrested amongst the other inhabitants of the town.
+
+In 1774, a similar accident occurred in a village near Nantes, where
+several coffins were removed in a vault, to make room for the lord of the
+manor: fifteen of the bystanders died from the emanation.
+
+In 1744, one-third of the inhabitants of Lectouse perished from a fever of
+a malignant character that manifested itself after some works that
+required the removal of a burial-ground. Two destructive epidemics swept
+away large proportions of the population of Riom and Ambert, two towns in
+Auvergne.
+
+Taking this matter under consideration in a moral, or even a religious
+light, it may be questioned whether any advantage can accrue from the
+continuance of this pernicious custom, which during the prevalence of
+epidemic diseases endangers the life of every person who resides near a
+church. Does it add to the respect which the remains of the dead are
+entitled to? Certainly not: the constant tolling of "the sullen bell"--the
+daily cortege of death that passes before us--the graves that we hourly
+contemplate, perusing monumental records which more frequently excite
+unseasonable laughter than serious reflection--every thing, in short,
+tends to make death of little or no moment, except to those who have heard
+the mutes gossiping at their door. So accustomed, indeed, are we from our
+childhood to sepulchral scenes, that, were it not for the parish-officers,
+our churchyards would become the playground of every truant urchin; and
+how often do we behold human bones become sportive baubles in the wanton
+pranks of the idlers, who group around the gravedigger's preparations! So
+callous are we to all feelings of religious awe when surrounded with the
+dead, that our cemeteries are not unfrequently made the rendezvous of
+licentiousness and the assembly-ground of crime, where thieves cast lots
+upon a tomb for the division of their spoil.
+
+With what different feelings does the traveller wander over the cemetery
+of _Pere la Chaise_? I am well aware that many of the gewgaw attributes
+that there decorate the grave, have been called the "_frippery_," "_the
+foppery_" of grief; but does there exist a generous, a noble sentiment,
+that may not be perverted by interested motives and hypocrisy into
+contemptible professions? How often is the sublime rendered ridiculous by
+bad taste and hyperbolic affectation! When we behold the fond lover
+pressing to his lips a lock of hair, or the portrait of all that he holds
+dear, the cold calculating egotist may call this the _frippery of love_;
+but the stoic who thinks thus, has never known the "sweet pangs" of
+requited affection, when, in bitter absence, the recollection of bliss
+gone by, imbodies in our imagination the form we once pressed to our
+respondent heart. The creation of our busy fancy stands before us, gazing
+on us with that tender look that in happier days greeted the hour of
+meeting; or trembles in our tears as when we last parted--to meet,
+perhaps, no more! With what fervour of religious love do we not behold the
+simple girl kneeling with uplift eye and hand on the green sod that covers
+all that endeared her to existence, till, overwhelmed with burning,
+choking regrets--as idle as they are uncontrollable--she sinks prostrate
+on the cold earth that now shrouds that bosom which once nestled her young
+hopes and fears! There have I seen the pale, the haggard youth,--to all
+appearances a student,--seated mournfully by the side of a tomb, absorbed
+in deep thought, heedless of the idlers who passed by him, looking at him
+perhaps with contempt!--heedless of the swift flight of time, which
+shrouded him imperceptibly in darkness, until he was warned by the
+guardian of the dead that it was time to depart--and to depart _alone_! No
+inscription recorded the "one loved name;" he would not expose it to the
+unfeeling gaze of the heartless tourist: all he would willingly have
+traced upon her tomb, would have been "Here lies _my own_!"
+
+The mouldering earth, the fleshless skeleton over which he mourns, cannot
+obliterate the remembrance of what she was: though her eyes, perhaps, no
+longer exist, still their former languid, liquid look of bliss, beams
+freshly in his recollection. The lips which once pronounced the long
+wished-for avowal of mutual love are still moist and open to memory's
+embrace--still seem to lisp the delicious _tu_! Our language is rich,
+without comparison richer far than the French; but we have nothing so
+endearing, so bewitching, as their _tu-toiement_: our _thee's_ and
+_thou's_ are frigid, chilly, when compared to the _first toi_ that escapes
+inadvertently from beloved lips! A French writer has beautifully expressed
+this exquisite moment: "Le _premier tu_ est tout-puissant; c'est le _fiat
+lux_ de l'ame; il est sublime, il debrouille le chaos!"
+
+Sublime are the words, "Blessed are the dead who die in the Lord!" Would
+it be irreligious to say, "Happy are the dead who die beloved?" Their fond
+and ardent heart had never been chilled by the withering hand of
+infidelity and ingratitude. They died in an ecstatic dream of perfect
+bliss on earth, and never were awakened to the world's mocking
+realities!--they died when they felt and believed in their heart of hearts
+that they were dearly beloved--could not be loved more dearly: with that
+conviction, death, in a worldly acceptation, can never be untimely.
+Probably, they died still sufficiently animated by a latent, lingering
+spark of life, to press the hand that was so often linked in mutual
+pressure in happy days--to feel the burning tear of anguish drop on the
+pale cheek--to hear the sad, the awful, last word, _a Dieu!_--an
+expression that habit has rendered trivial, but which bears with it, in
+the tenderest solicitude, the most hallowed meaning; since, in pronouncing
+it, we leave all that we cherish under the protection and the safeguard of
+OUR GOD.
+
+Affection deprives death of all horrors. We shrink not from the remains of
+what we cherished. Despite its impiety, there was something refined in
+that conviction of the ancients, who imagined that in bestowing their
+farewell kiss they inhaled the souls of those they loved. How sweet are
+those lines of Macrobius, originally attributed to Plato!
+
+  Dum semihulco suavio
+  Meum pullum suavior,
+  Dulcemque florem spiritus
+  Duco ex aperto tramite,
+  Animo tunc aegra et saucia
+  Cucurrit ad labia mihi!
+
+Our Shakspeare has quaintly, yet beautifully, described this parting
+embrace:
+
+            And lips, O you
+  The doors of breath, seal with a righteous kiss
+  A dateless bargain to engrossing death.
+
+Nor was it only on the dying that the ancients bestowed this mark of
+fondness: Tibullus and Propertius tell us, that, as their bodies were laid
+on the funeral pile, they clasped them in a fond and last embrace.
+
+In regard to the painted crosses, the chaplets, the garlands of flowers,
+which mark the hallowed resting-place of the departed, it may be said that
+they are but romantic and poetical expressions of grief. If it were only
+real grief that expressed itself by outward testimonials, how soon would
+mourning be banished as an idle expense!--the "inky cloak," and customary
+"suits of solemn black--the trappings and the suit of woes," be laid
+aside! What a different feeling does the splendid catafalcum, covered with
+black velvet, studded with silver tears, and illumined by thousands of
+glaring tapers, excite, when compared with the simple and verdant graves
+which point out the spot "where souls do couch in flowers," blessed by
+affection's tears instead of lustral waters. At all periods, amongst every
+nation, flowers and certain trees seem to have been consecrated to the
+dead. The Romans planted the wild vine and the box around their tombs.
+Thus Martial to Alcimenes:
+
+  Accipe, non Phario nutantia pondera saxo,
+    Quae cineri vanus dat ruitura labor,
+  Sed fragiles buxos, et opacas palmitis umbras,
+    Quaeque virent lacrymis humida prata meis.
+
+The wealthy assigned a beauteous garden to their departed favourites, as
+in the instance of Augustus and Maecenas. Not only did they suspend
+garlands over their tombs, but scattered flowers around them. Again in
+Virgil,
+
+  Purpureosque jacit flores, ac talia fatur.
+
+The same custom prevailed amongst the Grecians, who considered all purple
+and white flowers acceptable to the dead. The Thessalian's strewed
+Achilles' grave with the immortal amaranth and lilies. Electra complains
+that the tomb of Agamemnon received no myrtle boughs; in short, instances
+of this practice are every where to be found. In addition to flowers and
+perfumes, ribands and hair were also deposited on their sepulchres.
+Electra adorns Agamemnon's tomb with her locks, and Canace laments that
+she had not been able to perform the same rite on her beloved Macareus.
+Poets tell us that precious ointments and wines were poured upon their
+monuments; and we find, in Euripides, Helen bidding Hermione to take locks
+of her hair, honey mixed with milk, and wine, to the sepulchre of her
+aunt.
+
+Amongst the Chinese, to the present day, the cypress and the fir, shade
+their cemeteries: the former tree, an attribute of Pluto was ever
+considered funereal, hence called _feralis_; and the _feralia_ were
+festivals in honour of the dead, observed by the Romans. Varro pretends
+that the cypress was called funereal from _funus_, as it emitted an
+antiseptic aroma. Pliny and others pretend that it typified the dead,
+from its never shooting out fresh sprouts when the trunk was hewn down. At
+any rate, to this hour, it is planted in burying-grounds in every
+civilized country.
+
+The yew-tree has also been considered an emblem of mourning from the
+earliest times. The custom of planting it singly appears also to be very
+ancient. Statius, in his Thebaid, calls it the _solitary yew_. In England,
+the trees planted in churchyards were protected by legal enactments, as
+appears by a statute of 35 Edward I. From the scarcity of bow staves, they
+had been frequently despoiled by our numerous archers; and, to meet this
+service, by an enactment of Edward IV. every foreign trader was obliged to
+bring in four bow staves for every ton of imported merchandise; Elizabeth,
+from the scarcity of this important article, put the statute in full
+force.
+
+Let us then hope, both for the living and the dead, that this custom,
+which obtains in France and other countries, will be adopted by us,
+instead of becoming the subject of ridicule. It is far more desirable to
+see families repairing to the tomb of the departed on the anniversary of
+their death, than to behold them daily passing by their remains with cold
+indifference.
+
+It would scarcely be believed upon the continent of Europe, that to this
+very hour bodies are buried in confined churchyards in the most crowded
+and dirty parts of the British metropolis, such as Russel-court,
+Drury-lane, and various other similar holes and corners; the rudest
+nations were never guilty of such a glaring impropriety. In the kingdom of
+Siam, the remains of the opulent are burnt with great ceremony, while the
+bodies of the poor are carried out and exposed on mountains: in Ceylon,
+the remains of the indigent are interred in the neighbouring woods; the
+rich consumed on gorgeous funeral piles.
+
+The Chinese inhume their dead at some distance from their cities and
+towns; it is only the bodies of the rich and noble that are allowed to
+remain on the premises of the family. Navarette mentions a curious custom
+prevalent in one of their provinces, Chan Si, where, in the event of two
+betrothed persons dying at the same period, they are married while their
+coffins are still in their former dwelling, and afterwards burnt together.
+By the accounts of various travellers, the wealthy Chinese are burnt with
+great pomp, and their monuments are most curious and expensive. Their
+mausoleums are actually halls or grottos, decorated with splendour: and
+they inter with the deceased many articles to which he might have been
+attached during life, and that may add to his comforts after death. A
+custom that was more prevalent before the invasion of the Tartars--a comb,
+a pair of scissars to pare his nails; four little purses, containing the
+nail-parings of the defunct, were placed in the coffin, and, amongst the
+wealthy, gold coin and jewels were inserted in the mouth. The Hottentots
+bury their dead in the wild clefts of rocks and caverns; the Peruvians
+bear theirs to the neighbouring hills and mountains. The Greenlanders wrap
+their dead in furs and skins, and carry them to a considerable distance
+from their huts. In Kamtschatka and Siberia bodies are covered with snow
+in caverns and caves; and the African savages perform the same funeral
+rites as the Irish: their dead are carried to the burying-ground, followed
+by crowds of relatives and other people, who join the procession,
+bellowing and howling most piteously, "Oh! why did you die? did you want
+any thing that was ever denied you?" and after the funeral the survivors
+invariably get drunk on palm-wine, or any strong liquor they can procure;
+a custom similar to the _circumpotatio_ of the Romans.
+
+
+
+
+BURIED ALIVE.
+
+
+Every nation, however uncivilized, holds the idea of being buried alive in
+constant dread; the horrors of such a situation cannot be described.
+Bodies have been found where the miserable victims of precipitation had
+actually devoured the flesh of their arms in the agonies of hunger and
+despair. Such was the fate of John Scott and the Emperor Zeno. It is to be
+feared that this melancholy occurrence is more frequent than is supposed,
+more especially in countries where inhumation is speedily resorted to. The
+ancients were remarkably cautious in this respect, especially when we take
+into consideration the climate of Greece and Rome during the summer
+months. A law of Greece on this subject directs that "the corpse should be
+laid out at the relations' pleasure, but that the following morning before
+daylight the funeral procession should take place." From various
+authorities, however, it appears that the bodies were kept three, and
+sometimes six days. Servius was of opinion that the time for burning
+bodies was the eighth day, and the time for burying the tenth; it appears,
+however, that this was a privilege granted to the wealthy, as the poor
+were consumed the day after their death, a custom alluded to in an epigram
+of Callimachus. Among the Romans several days were also allowed to elapse
+before interment--sometimes seven days; during which, loud cries, in which
+the deceased was called by his name, and the noise of various instruments
+resounded near the body; this was called the _conclamatio_, alluded to by
+Terence:
+
+  Desine, jam conclamatum est.
+
+Lucan also alludes to this custom:
+
+        ----------Sic funere primo
+  Attonitae tacuere domus, quam corpora nondum
+  Conclamata jacent, noc mater crine soluto
+  Exigit ad saevos famularum brachia planctus.
+
+The ancients held hasty inhumation in great dread, and grounded their
+apprehension on various current traditions. Thus Plato remarks the case of
+a warrior who was left for ten days on the field of battle amongst the
+dead, and who came to life when he was being borne to the sepulchre.
+Asclepiades restored life to a man who was also consigned to the funeral
+pile, and Pliny relates the case of Lucius Aviola and Lucius Lamia, who
+showed signs of life upon the pile, but were too much injured to be saved.
+
+Amongst the many absurd fancies regarding the dead, was the superstitious
+belief of their being able to masticate in their coffin any substance
+buried with them. Women more especially were believed to be gifted with
+this _post mortem_ faculty of moving their jaw-bones very loudly. _Claro
+sonitu_, says the learned Michael Ranfft, in his curious and elaborate
+work, _de masticatione mortuorum_. In this apprehension, that the deceased
+in their hunger might devour their own limbs, articles of food were
+interred with them.
+
+According to the law of the Jews, who appear to have been in constant
+dread of pestilential disease, the inhumation of the dead were most hasty.
+Yet in this instance many Rabbi maintain that the Talmud has been
+erroneously interpreted, for although it decreed that a night should not
+be allowed to pass before inhumation, it clearly meant that actual death
+must have been ascertained.
+
+While such fears are entertained of suspended animation being taken for
+dissolution, it is strange that in some savage tribes the aged are allowed
+to perish without any care being taken to prolong their lives. Such is the
+custom of some of the Esquimaux, where old and decrepit creatures are
+abandoned in their huts and left to their fate. An ancient tradition
+stated that the inhabitants of the Isle of Syria never died of any
+distemper, but dropped into their graves at a certain old age.
+
+It would be desirable that in cases where interment is speedily resorted
+to, a physician should attend, in order to ascertain that death had
+actually taken place. This is seldom practised, from the common saying
+"that it is uncivil on the part of a doctor to visit a dead patient."
+Various means are employed to ascertain death: the looking-glass applied
+to the mouth of the corpse, to find out whether breath had departed; the
+coldness of the extremities, the falling of the lower jaw, the rigidity of
+the limbs, and various other appearances, are universally known; but in
+the villages of Italy and Portugal, pins and needles are frequently driven
+under the nails, in what is vulgarly called _the quick_, to excite an
+excruciating pain if life should not have fled. The most certain evidence,
+when bodies are long kept, is most decidedly the commencement of
+decomposition; but, in other cases, the action of the voltaic pile on a
+bared muscle is an infallible test.
+
+It is much to be feared that on the field of battle and naval actions many
+individuals apparently dead are buried or thrown overboard. The history of
+Francois de Civille, a French captain, who was missing at the siege of
+Rouen, is rather curious: at the storming of the town he was supposed to
+have been killed, and was thrown, with other bodies, in the ditch, where
+he remained from eleven in the morning to half-past six in the evening;
+when his servant, observing some latent heat, carried the body into the
+house. For five days and five nights his master did not exhibit the
+slightest sign of life, although the body gradually recovered its warmth.
+At the expiration of this time, the town was carried by assault, and the
+servants of an officer belonging to the besiegers, having found the
+supposed corpse of Civille, threw it out of window, with no other covering
+than his shirt. Fortunately for the captain, he had fallen upon a
+dunghill, where he remained senseless for three days longer, when his body
+was taken up by his relations for sepulture, and ultimately brought to
+life. What was still more strange, Civille, like Macduff, had been "from
+his mother's womb untimely ripp'd," having been brought into the world by
+a Caesarean operation, which his mother did not survive; and after his last
+wonderful escape he used to sign his name with the addition of "three
+times born, three times buried, and three times risen from the dead by the
+grace of God."
+
+The fate of the unfortunate Abbe Prevost, author of "Manon Lescaut," and
+other esteemed novels, was lamentable beyond expression. In passing
+through the forest of Chantilly, he was seized with an apoplectic fit: the
+body, cold and motionless, was found the following morning, and carried by
+some woodcutters to the village surgeon, who proceeded to open it; it was
+during this terrific operation that the wretched man was roused to a sense
+of his miserable condition by the agonies he endured, to expire soon after
+in all the complicated horrors of his situation. Various cases are
+recorded where persons remained in a state of apparent death for a
+considerable time. Cullen mentions an hysterical woman who was deprived of
+movement and sensibility for six days. Licelus knew a nun of Bresia, who,
+after an hysteric attack, continued in an inanimate state for ten days and
+nights.
+
+
+
+
+SPONTANEOUS COMBUSTION.
+
+
+The singular fact of persons, more especially individuals who were in the
+habit of indulging in the use of spirituous liquors, having taken fire and
+been consumed, is authenticated beyond the slightest doubt. Little
+confidence, it is true, can be placed in the reports on this subject which
+occasionally appear in the newspapers of different countries; but many
+celebrated practitioners have witnessed and recorded the event, and
+physiologists have endeavoured to account for its causes. The celebrated
+Le Cat mentions a woman of Rheims, of the name of Millet, who was found
+consumed at the distance of two feet from her chimney; the room exhibited
+no appearance of fire, but of the unfortunate sufferer nothing was found
+except her skull, the bones of the lower extremities, and some vertebrae. A
+servant-girl was accused of the murder, and condemned to death; but on
+her appeal, and a subsequent investigation, her innocence was fully
+ascertained.
+
+Joseph Battaglia, a surgeon of Ponte Bosio, relates the following
+case:--Don G. Maria Bertholi, a priest of Mount Valerius, went to the fair
+of Filetto, and afterwards visited a relation in Fenilo, where he intended
+to pass the night. Before retiring to rest, he was left reading his
+breviary; when, shortly afterwards, the family were alarmed by his loud
+cries and a strange noise in his chamber. On opening the door, he was
+lying prostrate on the floor, and surrounded by flickering flames.
+Battaglia was immediately sent for, and on his arrival the unfortunate man
+was found in a most deplorable state. The integuments of the arms and the
+back were either consumed or detached in hanging flaps. The sufferer was
+sufficiently sensible to give an account of himself. He said that he felt
+all of a sudden as if his arm had received a violent blow from a club, and
+at the same time he saw scintillations of fire rising from his
+shirt-sleeves, which were consumed without having burned the wrists; a
+handkerchief, which he had tied round his shoulders, between the shirt and
+the skin, was intact. His drawers were also sound; but, strange to say,
+his silk skull-cap was burnt, while his hair bore no marks of combustion.
+The unfortunate man only survived the event four days, when mortification
+of the burnt parts was most extensive, and the body emitted intolerable
+putrid effluvia. The circumstances which attended this case would seem to
+warrant the conclusion that the electric fluid was the chief agent in the
+combustion.
+
+Bianchini relates the death of the Countess of Cornelia Bandi, of Cesena,
+who was in the habit of using frictions of camphorated spirits. She was
+found consumed close to her bedside. No traces of fire could be observed
+in the room--the very lights had been burnt down to their sockets; but the
+furniture, closets, and linen were covered with a grayish soot, damp and
+clammy.
+
+The Annual Register mentions two facts of a similar nature which occurred
+in England, one at Southampton, the other at Coventry. In the transactions
+of the Royal Society of London, an extraordinary instance of combustion is
+also recorded. The fact is thus related. Grace Pitt, the wife of a
+fishmonger of Ipswich, aged about sixty, had contracted a habit, which she
+continued for several years, of coming down every night from her bedroom,
+half dressed, to smoke a pipe. On the night of the 9th of April, 1744,
+she got up from her bed as usual; her daughter who slept with her, did not
+perceive she was absent till next morning when she awoke; soon after which
+she put on her clothes, and going down into the kitchen, found her mother
+stretched out on her right side, with her head near the grate; the body
+extended on the hearth, with the legs on the floor, which were of deal,
+having the appearance of a log of wood consumed by a fire without any
+apparent flames. On beholding this spectacle, the girl run in great haste
+and poured over her mother's body some water contained in two large
+vessels, in order to extinguish the fire, while the fetid odour and smoke
+that exhaled from the body almost suffocated some of the neighbours who
+had hastened to the girl's assistance.
+
+The trunk was in some measure incinerated, and resembled a heap of wood
+covered with white ashes. The head, the arms, the legs, and the thighs,
+had also participated in the burning. This woman, it is said, had drank a
+large quantity of spirituous liquor, in consequence of being overjoyed at
+hearing of the return of one of her daughters from Gibraltar. There was no
+fire in the grate, and the candle had burnt down to the socket of the
+candlestick, which was close to her. Besides, there were found close to
+the consumed body, the clothes of a child and a paper screen, which had
+sustained no injury from the fire. The dress of the woman consisted of a
+cotton gown.
+
+It is possible that this accident may be attributed to the escape of
+hydrogen gas; the presence of this inflammable body in animals is evident,
+and it is also proved that it is liable to ignite. Morton saw flames
+coming from the body of a pig. Bonami and Ruysh, with a lighted candle,
+set fire to the vapour arising from the stomach of a woman whom they were
+opening. In the Memoirs of the Academy of Science of Paris, of 1751, we
+find the case of a butcher, who, on opening the body of an ox that had
+died after a malady which had swollen him considerably, was severely burnt
+by an explosion and a flame which rose to the height of about five feet.
+Sturm, Bartholini, and Gaubius record fiery eructations in which, no
+doubt, phosphurated hydrogen had been generated in the stomach, from some
+combination of alcohol and animal substances, and inflamed upon coming
+into contact with atmospheric air; the fetid odour which invariably
+accompanies these combustions appears to warrant the conclusion. Fodere
+remarks that hydrogen gas is developed in certain cases of disease even
+in the living body, and he agrees with Mere in attributing spontaneous
+combustion to the united action of hydrogen and electricity. The case of a
+Bohemian peasant is narrated, who lost his life in consequence of ignited
+inflammable air issuing from his mouth which could not be extinguished. It
+seems evident that this accident only occurs under certain conditions of
+the body; generally in aged persons upwards of sixty years old; more
+frequently in women than in men, and chiefly when of indolent habits, a
+debilitated frame, and intemperate in their mode of living. That the body
+has been usually consumed long before the head and the extremities is
+evident, since these parts have been more commonly found than the trunk.
+It also has been ascertained by observation that this strange accident
+seldom occurs in summer, but principally during severe cold and frosty
+weather. It appears that some experiments have been recently made in the
+United States, when the blood flowing from the arm of a man addicted to
+spirituous liquors actually took fire, being placed in contact with a
+lighted taper!
+
+Medical observers differ in opinion on this singular yet
+well-authenticated phenomenon. Lair, Vicy d'Argou, and Dupuytren maintain
+that to produce it, the contact of fire is necessary. Le Cat and Kopp, on
+the contrary, affirm that this combustion may be spontaneous without the
+intervention of any external agent, and resulting from some peculiar
+predisposition. According to Le Cat animals contain inflammable substances
+which ignite of themselves. De Castro relates the cases of several
+individuals from whom friction could draw sparks. Daniel Horstius mentions
+a gouty patient, from whose limbs, on being rubbed, vivid sparks arose.
+These physicians consider that these electric sparks are sufficient to
+ignite the spirituous liquor which may have saturated any organic tissue
+of the body, the combustion being afterwards fed by animal oil.
+
+This theory is, however, subject to many objections. It is difficult to
+imagine that any substance introduced into the organ of digestion should
+retain its former principles of inflammability. Although Cuvier and
+Dumeril relate, that in opening the body of a man who died from excess of
+drinking, the effluvia of the liquor arose from every cavity.
+
+On this subject, fraught with much interest, nothing positive has been
+ascertained, despite the late progress of chemical investigation. This
+combustion indeed differs widely from all other burning; sometimes a
+flickering and bluish flame arises; at other times a smothered heat or
+fire, without visible flames, is the consuming agent. Water increases the
+combustion instead of allaying it. It is moreover a well-known fact, that
+a considerable quantity of fuel is required to consume a dead body,
+whereas in this combustion, incineration is most rapid. The human body,
+indeed, is not easily consumed; a case is related of a baker-boy, named
+Renaud, who was sentenced to be burnt at Caen; two large cart-loads of
+fagots were required to consume the body, and at the end of more than ten
+hours, some remains were still visible.
+
+The extreme incombustibility of the body was singularly exemplified in the
+case of Mrs. King, whose murderer was engaged for several weeks in
+endeavouring to burn her remains without effecting his purpose.
+
+It has also been affirmed by various medical observers, that the human
+body will occasionally secrete an inflammable matter emitted by
+perspiration. Thus, it is stated, that the perspiration of the wife of a
+physician of the Archbishop of Toledo was of such a combustible nature,
+that a ribbon which she had worn, being exposed to the air, took fire.
+Borelli relates the case of a peasant, whose linen would ignite in a
+similar manner, whether it was laid up in a chest or hung up to dry.
+Amongst the many curious stories of the kind, we quote De Castro, who
+affirms that he knew a physician, from whose back-bone fire issued so
+vividly as to dazzle the eyes of the beholders. Krautius informs us, that
+certain people of the territory of Nivers (?) were burning with an
+invisible fire, and that some of them lopped off a foot or a hand to cut
+off the conflagration!
+
+
+
+
+BRASSICA ERUCA, OR THE ROCKET PLANT.
+
+
+This plant, now in total disuse, was considered by the ancients as a most
+powerful aphrodisiac, and consecrated to Venus. Hence Martial and Ovid--
+
+  Et Venerem revocans eruca morantem.
+    *       *       *       *       *
+  Nec minus erucas jubeo vitare salaces.
+
+But the most curious document regarding this obnoxious weed is found in
+Lobel, who states that it was carefully cultivated in the gardens of
+monasteries and nunneries, to preserve their chastity.
+
+"Haec eruca, major Hispanica, vel quia in condimentis lautior, vel ad
+venerem vegetior erat, gentilis vulgo vocata fuit; quo vocabulo Hispanica
+et Itala gens designat quamlibet rem aptam reddere hominem laetum et
+experrectum ad munia vulgo pausibilia, ut joca ludicra et venerem; quae
+commoda ut ex ea perciperet monachorum saginata caterva, in perquam
+amoena Magalonae, insula maris Narbonensis, hujus gentilis erucae semine a
+fratre quodam Hispano ambulone donato, quotannis hocce serebat, et in
+mensis cuilibet, vel maximo gulae irritamento, vel blandimento, praeferebat;
+nimirum usu gnara quantum frequens esus conferret ad calorem venereum in
+illis otio et frequenti crapula obrutum, ad vigorem animi excitandum, et
+praesertim corpus obesum extenuandum, somnumque excutiendum, quo illi
+veluti ursi gliresve tota hyeme saginati, ferme adipe suffocabantur. Verum
+isto Hispanico remedio adeo hilarescebant et gentiles fiebant, ut
+plerumque recinctis lumbis castitate, coacti essent vota et coenobii
+moenia transilire, et aliquid solatii venerei ab vicinis plebanis
+efflagitare. Nobis haec visa et risa. Eruca vero inibi superstes est
+copiosissima, monumentum futura monasticae castitatis et rei
+veritatis."--_Adv. p. 68._
+
+
+
+
+CAGLIOSTRO.
+
+
+The first appellation the Grecians gave to those who exercised the art of
+healing was _iatros_. Originally it merely signified a man possessed of
+the power of relieving accidents, either by manual exertions, or the
+hidden virtues of some amulet or charm. Sextus tells us that in ancient
+times it applied to an extractor of arrows, _sagittarum extractor_. No
+doubt, this operation constituted the chief business of the surgeon in the
+infancy of the art; and warriors and heroes themselves performed it on the
+field of battle, as fully exemplified in Homer.
+
+The primitive title of _iatros_ gradually descended to surgical
+practitioners. We find that Nebrus and Heraclides were the chief _iaters_
+of Cos, the birthplace of Hippocrates. To this day the same name is given
+to medical men in Greece, where, until lately, they were in the habit of
+perambulating the streets, and seeking occupation by crying out at certain
+distances, _Callos iatros!_ (The good doctor!) Balsamo, a celebrated
+mountebank, being at Cairo, where he died, one of his disciples repaired
+to Europe, and, anxious to bear a singular name, assumed this cry, and
+called himself _Calloiatro_, or, according to the corrupt pronunciation,
+_Cagliostro_: his history is well known, and he certainly excelled in
+impudence and industry all his predecessors. These Greek _iaters_, when
+going over to Italy to practise, called themselves _medici_, which Cato
+wanted to change into _mendici_, for, said he, "These creatures, (_Illi
+Graeculi_,) quit their native country, where they were starving, to seek
+their fortune in Rome (_ut fortunam sibi mendicent_)." Under this austere
+censor few of these emigrants dared to settle in the Roman territories,
+but after his demise they inundated the country to such an extent, that it
+was said that Rome had more physicians than patients who needed their
+attendance. This influx of practitioners occasioned constant competition,
+and each _iater_ endeavoured to obtain fame and emolument by underrating
+his opponents, and endeavouring to introduce novel doctrines, seeking a
+livelihood, as Pliny observed, _inter mortes et mendacia_. It was on these
+adventurers that the following epigram was written:
+
+  Fingunt se cuncti medicos,--idiota, sacerdos,
+  Judaeus, monachus, histrio, rasor, anus.
+
+The quackery of these candidates for popularity became the subject of
+bitter satire; and Martial thus speaks of the _Iatre_ Symmachus:
+
+  Languebam, sed tu comitatus protinus ad me
+  Venisti centum, Symmache, discipulis;
+  Centum me tetigere manus, aquilone gelatae,
+  Non habui febrem, Symmache; nunc habeo.[7]
+
+This Symmachus, it appears, invariably moved abroad surrounded by hundreds
+of his disciples, whose cold investigating hands produced upon their
+patients the effects to which Martial alludes.
+
+
+
+
+LUNAR INFLUENCE ON HUMAN LIFE AND DISEASES.
+
+
+The ancients, who were chiefly guided in their medical notions by the
+simple operations of nature, attached great importance to the influence of
+the moon. As the stars directed their navigators, so did the planets in
+some degree regulate their other calculations. Finding that the state of
+the weather materially acted on our organism whether in health or in
+sickness, they attributed this influence to the appearance of the moon,
+which generally foretold the vicissitudes in the atmospheric constitution.
+Thus Hippocrates advises his son Thessalus to study numbers and geometry,
+as the knowledge of astronomy was indispensable to a physician, the
+phenomena of diseases being dependent on the rising or the setting of the
+stars. Aristotle informs his disciples that the bodies of animals are cold
+in the decrease of the moon, that blood and humours are then put into
+motion, and to these revolutions he ascribes various derangements of
+women. To enter into these medical opinions would be foreign to the
+present purpose, but the notions of the ancients regarding lunar influence
+in other matters are curious.
+
+Lucilius, the Roman satirist, says that oysters and echini fatten during
+lunar augmentation; which also, according to Gellius, enlarges the eyes of
+cats: but that onions throw out their buds in the decrease of the moon,
+and wither in her increase, an unnatural vegetation, which induced the
+people of Pelusium to avoid their use. Horace also notices the superiority
+of shell-fish in the increase.
+
+Pliny not only recognises this influence on shell-fish, but observes, that
+the streaks on the livers of rats answer to the days of the moon's age;
+and that ants never work at the time of any change: he also informs us
+that the fourth day of the moon determines the prevalent wind of the
+month, and confirms the opinion of Aristotle that earthquakes generally
+happen about the new moon. The same philosopher maintains that the moon
+corrupts all slain carcasses she shines upon; occasions drowsiness and
+stupor when one sleeps under her beams, which thaw ice and enlarge all
+things; he further contends, that the moon is nourished by rivers, as the
+sun is fed by the sea. Galen asserts that all animals that are born when
+the moon is falciform, or at the half-quarter, are weak, feeble, and
+shortlived; whereas those that are dropped in the full moon are healthy
+and vigorous.
+
+In more modern times the same wonderful phenomena have been attributed to
+this planet. The celebrated Ambroise Pare observed, that people were more
+subject to the plague at the full. Lord Bacon partook of the notions of
+the ancients, and he tells us that the moon draws forth heat, induces
+putrefaction, increases moisture, and excites the motion of the spirits;
+and, what was singular, this great man invariably fell into a syncope
+during a lunar eclipse.
+
+Van Helmont affirms, that a wound inflicted by moonlight is most difficult
+to heal; and he further says, that if a frog be washed clean, and tied to
+a stake under the rays of the moon in a cold winter night, on the
+following morning the body will be found dissolved into a gelatinous
+substance bearing the shape of the reptile, and that coldness alone
+without the lunar action will never produce the same effect. Ballonius,
+Diemerbroeck, Ramazzini, and numerous celebrated physicians, bear ample
+testimony to its baneful influence in pestilential diseases. The change
+observed in the disease of the horse called moon-blindness is universally
+known and admitted.
+
+Many modern physicians have stated the opinions of the ancients as regards
+lunar influence in diseases, but none have pushed their inquiries with
+such indefatigable zeal as the late Dr. Mosely; he affirms that almost
+all people in extreme age die at the new or at the full moon, and this he
+endeavours to prove by the following records:
+
+  Thomas Parr died at the age of 152, two days after the full moon.
+  Henry Jenkins died at the age of 169, the day of the new moon.
+  Elizabeth Steward, 124, the day of the new moon.
+  William Leland, 140, the day after the new moon.
+  John Effingham, 144, two days after full moon.
+  Elizabeth Hilton, 121, two days after the full moon.
+  John Constant, 113, two days after the new moon.
+
+The doctor then proceeds to show, by the deaths of various illustrious
+persons, that a similar rule holds good with the generality of mankind:
+
+  Chaucer, 25th October 1400, the day of the first quarter.
+  Copernicus, 24th May 1543, day of the last quarter.
+  Luther, 18th February 1546, three days after the full.
+  Henry VIII, 28th January 1547, the day of the first quarter.
+  Calvin, 27th May 1564, two days after the full.
+  Cornaro, 26th April 1566, day of the first quarter.
+  Queen Elizabeth, 24th March 1603, day of the last quarter.
+  Shakspeare, 23rd April 1616, day after the full.
+  Camden, 9th November 1623, day before the new moon.
+  Bacon, 9th April 1626, one day after last quarter.
+  Vandyke, 9th April 1641, two days after full moon.
+  Cardinal Richelieu, 4th December 1642, three days before full moon.
+  Doctor Harvey, 30th June 1657, a few hours before the new moon.
+  Oliver Cromwell, 3rd September 1658, two days after full moon.
+  Milton, 15th November 1674, two days before the new moon.
+  Sydenham, 29th December 1689, two days before the full moon.
+  Locke, 28th November 1704, two days before the full moon.
+  Queen Anne, 1st August 1714, two days after the full moon.
+  Louis XIV, 1st September 1715, a few hours before the full moon.
+  Marlborough, 16th June 1722, two days before the full moon.
+  Newton, 20th March 1726, two days before the new moon.
+  George I, 11th June 1727, three days after new moon.
+  George II, 25th October 1760, one day after full moon.
+  Sterne, 13th September 1768, two days after new moon.
+  Whitfield, 18th September 1770, a few hours before the new moon.
+  Swedenburg, 19th March 1772, the day of the full moon.
+  Linnaeus, 10th January 1778, two days before the full moon.
+  The Earl of Chatham, 11th May 1778, the day of the full moon.
+  Rousseau, 2nd July 1778, the day after the first quarter.
+  Garrick, 20th January 1779, three days after the new moon.
+  Dr. Johnson, 14th December 1784, two days after the new moon.
+  Dr. Franklin, 17th April 1790, three days after the new moon.
+  Sir Joshua Reynolds, 23rd February 1792, the day after the new moon.
+  Lord Guildford, 5th August 1722, three days after the full moon.
+  Dr. Warren, 23rd June 1797, a day before the new moon.
+  Burke, 9th July 1797, at the instant of the full moon.
+  Macklin, 11th July 1797, two days after full moon.
+  Wilkes, 26th December 1797, the day of the first quarter.
+  Washington, 15th December 1799, three days after full moon.
+  Sir W. Hamilton, 6th April 1803, a few hours before the full moon.
+
+The doctor winds up this extract from the bills of mortality by the
+following appropriate remark: "Here we see the moon, as she shines on all
+alike, so she makes no distinction of persons in her influence:
+
+  "------aequo pulsat pede pauperum tabernas,
+  Regumque turres."
+                                HOR. Lib. i. Od. 4.
+
+Not only did the ancients consider the animal creation as constantly under
+planetary influence, but all vegetable productions and medicinal
+substances were subject to its laws. The Druids of Gaul and Britain
+gathered the famed misletoe with a golden knife when the moon was six days
+old. The vervain, held in such high repute by the Romans, was gathered,
+after libations of honey and wine, at the rising of the dog-star, and with
+the left hand, and thus collected served, for various sacerdotal and
+medical purposes: its branches were employed to sweep the temples of
+Jupiter; it was used in exorcisms for sprinkling lustral water; and
+moreover it cured fevers, the bite of venomous reptiles, and appeased
+discord; hence it was borne by those heralds who were sent to sue for
+peace, and called _verbenarii_; and when its benign powers were shed over
+the festive board, mirth and good temper were sure to prevail. So
+generally and so highly appreciated was this all-powerful plant, that
+Pliny tells us,
+
+  Nulla herba Romanae nobilitatis plus habet quam hierabotane.
+
+However, it is somewhat doubtful whether the vervain of the ancients was
+similar to the plant which now bears that name. It would appear that
+formerly the appellation of _verbenae_ or _sagmina_ was given to various
+plants employed in religious ceremonies: and branches of pine-tree, of
+laurel, and of myrtle were sometimes thus denominated. Virgil says in his
+Eclogues,
+
+  Verbenasque adole pingues, et mascula thura.
+
+Now the epithets of _pingues_ and _thura_ cannot apply to our vervain, but
+to some resinous production.
+
+Medicine at that period might have been called an astronomic science;
+every medicinal substance was under a specific influence, and to this day
+the R which precedes prescriptions, and is admitted to represent the first
+letter of _recipe_, was in fact the symbol of Jupiter, under whose
+special protection medicines were exhibited. Every part of the body was
+then considered under the influence of the zodiacal constellations, and
+Manilius gives us the following description of their powers:
+
+  Namque Aries capiti, Taurus cervicibus haeret;
+  Brachia sub Geminis censentur, pectora Cancro;
+  Te, scapulae, Nemaee, vocant, teque ilia, Virgo;
+  Libra colit clunes, et Scorpius inguine regnat;
+  Et femur Arcitenens, genua et Capricornus amavit;
+  Cruraque defendit Juvenis, vestigia, Pisces.
+                                _Astronomicon_, lib. 1.
+
+
+
+
+SPECTACLES.
+
+
+The origin of these valuable instruments is uncertain: that the ancients
+were acquainted with the laws of refraction is beyond all doubt, since
+they made use of glass globes filled with water to produce combustion; and
+in Seneca we find the following very curious passage--"Litterae, quamvis
+minutiae et obscurae, per vitream pilam aqua plenam majores clarioresque
+cernuntur;" yet thirteen centuries elapsed ere spectacles were known. It
+is supposed that they were first invented by _Salvino_ or _Salvinio
+Armati_; but he kept his discovery secret, until Alessandro de Spina, a
+monk in Pisa, brought them into use in 1313. Salvino was considered their
+inventor, from the epitaph on his tomb in the cathedral church in
+Florence: "Qui giace Salvino d'Armato, degl' Armati di Firenze, inventor
+delli occhiali, &c., 1317." Another circumstance seems to add weight to
+this presumption: _Luigi Sigoli_, a contemporary artist, in a painting of
+the Circumcision, represents the high-priest Simeon with a pair of
+spectacles, which, from his advanced age, it was supposed he might have
+needed on the occasion.
+
+
+
+
+LEECHES.
+
+
+The origin of their introduction in the practice of medicine is uncertain.
+They were well known to the ancients under the name of _hirudo_. Thus
+Horace:
+
+  Non missura cutem nisi plena cruoris hirudo.
+
+The Greeks called them [Greek: Boella], and Pliny states that elephants
+were often cruelly tormented by them when they swallowed any of these
+worms in their water: "Cruciatum in potu maximum sentiunt hausta hirudine,
+quam sanguisugam vulgo coepisse appellari adverto."
+
+Leeches are oviparous, and their ova are discharged in one involucre near
+the surface and margin of pools, and are hatched by the heat of the sun.
+They do not cast their skin, as is generally supposed, but merely throw
+off a tough slimy membrane, which appears to be produced by disease, and
+from which they get disencumbered by straining themselves through grass
+and rushes. During winter they remain in a torpid state. They are most
+tenacious of life; some say they can live for several days in the
+exhausted receiver of the air-pump, and in other media destructive of
+other animals. This phenomenon is attributed to the slow oxygenation of
+the blood in the respiratory vesicles.
+
+In regard to their food we are ignorant, although Dr. Johnson says that
+they live by sucking the blood of fish and reptiles.
+
+The collection of leeches constitutes a lucrative trade on the Continent,
+but more particularly in France, where it is called a leech-fishery, and
+where, in Paris alone, three millions are annually consumed. The following
+is an interesting description of the miserable people engaged in this
+occupation from the _Gazette des Hopitaux_.
+
+"If ever you pass through La Brenne, you will see a man, pale and
+straight-haired, with a woollen cap on his head, and his legs and arms
+naked; he walks along the borders of a marsh, among the spots left dry by
+the surrounding waters. This man is a leech-fisher. To see him from a
+distance,--his wobegone aspect, his hollow eyes, his livid lips, his
+singular gestures, you would take him for a maniac. If you observe him
+every now and then raising his legs and examining them one after another,
+you might suppose him a fool; but he is an intelligent leech-fisher. The
+leeches attach themselves to his legs and feet as he moves among their
+haunts; he feels their bite, and gathers them as they cluster about the
+roots of the bulrushes and aquatic weeds, or beneath the stones covered
+with a green and slimy moss. He may thus collect ten or twelve dozen in
+three or four hours. In summer, when the leeches retire into deep water,
+the fishers move about upon rafts made of twigs and rushes. One of these
+traders was known to collect, with the aid of his children, seventeen
+thousand five hundred leeches in the course of a few months; these he had
+deposited in a reservoir, where, in night, they were all frozen _en
+masse_." But congelation does not kill them, and they can easily be thawed
+into life, by melting the ice that surrounds them. Leeches, it appears,
+can bear much rougher usage than one might imagine: they are packed up
+closely in wet bags, carried on pack-saddles, and it is well known that
+they will attach themselves with more avidity when rubbed in a dry napkin
+previous to their application. Leech-gatherers are in general short-lived,
+and become early victims to agues, and other diseases brought on by the
+damp and noxious air that constantly surrounds them; the effects of which
+they seek to counteract by the use of strong liquors.
+
+Leeches kept in a glass bottle may serve as a barometer, as they
+invariably ascend or descend in the water as the weather changes from dry
+to wet, and they generally rise to the surface prior to a thunder-storm.
+They are most voracious, and are frequently observed to destroy one
+another by suction; the strong ones attaching themselves to the weaker.
+
+The quantity of blood drawn by leeches has been a subject of much
+controversy; but it is pretty nearly ascertained that a healthy leech,
+when fully gorged, has extracted about half an ounce. When they will not
+readily fix, Dr. Johnson recommends that they be put into a cup of porter.
+The cause of a leech falling off when full is not clearly ascertained, but
+it is supposed to arise from a state of asphyxia brought on by the
+compression of the breathing vesicles, and the distension of the
+alimentary tube.
+
+Many serious accidents have arisen from leeches being swallowed in the
+water of swamps and marshes, too frequently drunk with avidity by the
+thirsty and exhausted soldier. Larrey mentions several cases of the kind
+during the French campaign in Egypt, and two fatal instances fell under my
+observation during the Peninsular war; draughts of salt water, vinegar,
+and various stimulating injections could not loosen their hold, and they
+were too deeply attached in the throat to be seized with a forceps.
+Zacutus Lusitanus had witnessed the same unfortunate results. The leech
+thus swallowed is generally the _hirudo Alpina_.
+
+Norfolk supplies the greater part of the leeches brought to London, but
+they are also found in Kent, Suffolk, Essex, and Wales. The leeches
+imported from France differ from ours, in having the belly of one uniform
+colour. The best are the green, with yellow stripes along the body. The
+horse-leech, which is used in the north of Europe, but also common in
+England, is entirely brown, or only marked with a marginal yellow line. A
+popular belief prevails, that the application of this variety is most
+dangerous, as they are said to suck out all the blood in the body.
+
+
+
+
+SOMNAMBULISM.
+
+
+This singular aberration from our natural habits may be considered an
+intermediate state between sleeping and being awake. This infraction of
+physiologic laws may therefore be looked upon as a morbid condition.
+Physicians have given it various denominations, founded on its phenomena,
+_nocti-vagatio_, _nocti-surgium_, _noct-ambulatio_, _somnus vigilans_,
+_vigilia somnans_. Somnambulism was well known by the ancients; and
+Aristotle tells us, "there are individuals who rise in their sleep, and
+walk about seeing as clearly as those that are awake."
+
+Diogenes Laertius states that Theon the philosopher, was a sleep-walker.
+Galen slept whilst on a road, and pursued his journey until he was
+awakened by tripping on a stone. Felix Plater fell asleep while playing on
+the lute, and was only startled from his slumbers by the fall of the
+instrument. There is no doubt but that in somnambulists the intellectual
+functions are not only active, but frequently more developed than when the
+individual is awake. Persons in this state have been known to write and
+correct verses, and solve difficult problems, which they could not have
+done at other times. In their actions and locomotion they are more
+cautious, and frequently more dexterous, than when awake. They have been
+known to saddle and bridle horses, after having dressed themselves; put on
+boots and spurs, and afterwards ride considerable distances from home and
+back again. A sleep-walker wandering abroad in winter complained of being
+frozen, and asked for a glass of brandy, but expressed violent anger on
+being offered a glass of water. The celebrated sect of _Tremblers_, in the
+Cevennes mountains, used to rove about in their sleep, and, although badly
+acquainted with the French language, expressed themselves clearly and put
+up prayers in that tongue, instead of the Latin _Pater_ and _Credo_ which
+they had been taught. A singular phenomenon in some cases of this
+affection is that of walking about without groping, whether the eyelids
+are closed or open. Somnambulism has been known to be hereditary: Horstius
+mentions three brothers who were affected with it at the same period;
+Willis knew a whole family subject to it. It is not generally known that
+the subject of the French dramatic piece called "La Somnambule" was
+founded on fact.
+
+Singular faculties have been developed in the mental condition. Thus a
+case is related of a woman in the Edinburgh infirmary, who during her
+paroxysm not only mimicked the manner of the attendant physicians, but
+repeated correctly some of their prescriptions in Latin.
+
+Dr. Dyce, of Aberdeen, describes the case of a girl, in which this
+affection began with fits of somnolency, which came upon her suddenly
+during the day, and from which she could at first be roused by shaking or
+by being taken into the open air. During these attacks she was in the
+habit of talking of things that seemed to pass before her like a dream,
+and was not at the time sensible of any thing that was said to her. On one
+occasion she repeated the entire of the baptismal service of the Church of
+England, and concluded with an extemporary prayer. In her subsequent
+paroxysms she began to understand what was said to her, and to answer with
+a considerable degree of consistency, though these replies were in a
+certain measure influenced by her hallucination. She also became capable
+of following her usual employment during the paroxysm. At one time she
+would lay out the table for breakfast, and repeatedly dress herself and
+the children, her eyes remaining shut the whole time. The remarkable
+circumstance was now discovered, that, during the paroxysm, she had a
+distinct recollection of what had taken place in former attacks, though
+she had not the slightest recollection of it during the intervals. She was
+taken to church during the paroxysm, and attended the service with
+apparent devotion, and at one time was so affected by the sermon that she
+actually shed tears; yet in the interval she had no recollection whatever
+of the circumstance, but in the following paroxysm she gave a most
+distinct account of it, and actually repeated the passage of the sermon
+that had so much affected her. This sort of somnambulism, relating
+distinctly to two periods, has been called, perhaps erroneously, a _state
+of double consciousness_.
+
+This girl described the paroxysm as coming on with a dimness of sight and
+a noise in the head. During the attack, her eyelids were generally half
+shut, and frequently resembled those of a person labouring under
+amaurosis, the pupil dilated and insensible. Her looks were dull and
+vacant, and she often mistook the person who was speaking to her. The
+paroxysms usually lasted an hour, but she often could be roused from them.
+She then yawned and stretched herself like a person awakening from sleep,
+and instantly recognised those about her. At one time Dr. Dyce affirms,
+she read distinctly a portion of a book presented to her, and she would
+frequently sing pieces of music more correctly and with better taste than
+when awake.
+
+In illustration of the phenomena of the preceding case, Dr. Abercrombie
+gives the following very curious history: "A girl, aged seven years, an
+orphan of the lowest rank, residing in the house of a farmer, by whom she
+was employed in tending cattle, was accustomed to sleep in an apartment
+separated by a very thin partition from one which was frequently occupied
+by an itinerant fiddler. This person was a musician of very considerable
+skill, and often spent a part of the night in performing pieces of a
+refined description; but his performance was not taken notice of by the
+child, except as a disagreeable noise. After a residence of six months in
+this family she fell into bad health, and was removed to the house of a
+benevolent lady, where, on her recovery after a protracted illness, she
+was employed as a servant. Some years after she came to reside with this
+lady, the most beautiful music was often heard in the house during the
+night, which excited no small interest and wonder in the family; and many
+a waking hour was spent in endeavours to discover the invisible minstrel.
+At length the sound was traced to the sleeping-room of the girl, who was
+found fast asleep, but uttering from her lips a sound exactly resembling
+the sweetest tones of a small violin. On further observation it was found,
+that after being about two hours in bed, she became restless and began to
+mutter to herself; she then uttered sounds precisely resembling the tuning
+of a violin, and at length, after some prelude, dashed off into an
+elaborate piece of music, which she performed in a clear and accurate
+manner, and with a sound exactly resembling the most delicate modulation
+of the instrument, and then began exactly where she had stopped in the
+most correct manner. These paroxysms occurred at irregular intervals,
+varying from one to fourteen and even twenty nights; and they were
+generally followed by a degree of fever and pain over various parts of the
+body.
+
+"After a year or two, her music was not confined to the imitation of the
+violin, but was often exchanged for that of a piano, of a very old
+description, which she was accustomed to hear in the house in which she
+now lived, and then she would begin to sing, imitating exactly the voices
+of several ladies of the family.
+
+"In another year from this time she began to talk a great deal in her
+sleep, in which she fancied herself instructing a young companion. She
+often descanted with the utmost fluency and correctness on a variety of
+subjects, both political and religious, the men of the day, the historical
+parts of Scripture, public characters, and particularly the character of
+the members of the family and their visiters. In these discussions she
+showed the most wonderful discrimination, often combined with sarcasm, and
+astonishing powers of mimickry. Her language through the whole was fluent
+and correct, and her illustrations often forcible and even eloquent. She
+was fond of illustrating her subjects by what she called _a fable_, and in
+these, her imagery was both appropriate and correct. The justice and truth
+of her remarks on all subjects, excited the utmost astonishment in those
+who were acquainted with her limited means of acquiring information.
+
+"She had been known to conjugate correctly Latin verbs, which she had
+probably heard in the school room of the family, and she was once heard to
+speak several sentences very correctly in French, at the same time stating
+that she had heard them from a foreign gentleman whom she had met
+accidentally in a shop. Being questioned on this subject when awake, she
+remembered having seen the gentleman, but could not repeat a word of what
+he had said.
+
+"During her paroxysms it was almost impossible to awake her, and when her
+eyelids were raised and a candle brought near the eye, the pupil seemed
+insensible to the light. For several years she was, during the paroxysm,
+entirely unconscious of the presence of other persons, but about the age
+of sixteen, she began to observe those who were in the apartment, and she
+could tell correctly their number though the utmost care was taken to have
+the room darkened. She now also became capable of answering questions that
+were put to her, and of noticing remarks made in her presence, and, with
+regard to both, she showed astonishing acuteness. Her observations indeed
+were often of such a nature, and corresponded so accurately with character
+and events, that, by the country people, she was believed to be endowed
+with supernatural power.
+
+"During the whole period of this remarkable affection, which seems to have
+gone on for at least ten or eleven years, she was, when awake, a dull
+awkward girl, very slow in receiving any kind of instruction, though much
+care was bestowed upon her; and in point of intellect, she was much
+inferior to the other servants of the family. In particular, she showed no
+kind of turn for music. She did not appear to have any recollection of
+what passed in her sleep; but during her nocturnal ramblings, she was more
+than once heard to lament her infirmity of speaking in her sleep, adding
+how fortunate it was she did not sleep among the other servants, as they
+teased her enough about it as it was.
+
+"About the age of twenty-one she became immoral in her conduct, and was
+dismissed the family. Her propensity to talk in her sleep continued to the
+time of her dismissal, but a great change had taken place in her nocturnal
+conversation. It had gradually lost its acuteness and brilliancy, and
+latterly became the mere babbling of a vulgar mind, often mingled with
+insolent remarks against her superiors, and the most profane scoffing at
+morality and religion. It is believed that she afterwards became insane."
+
+To what serious reflections does not this curious history give rise. Here
+there did unquestionably exist a double existence. The one a relative
+being surrounded with the realities of life; the other a natural
+condition, unshackled by constraint, and left entirely to the wild
+enjoyment of a luxuriant fancy and an apprehension quick and brilliant. In
+the former, the young creature found herself derided and degraded by her
+vulgar companions; her generous infirmities, if such they may be called,
+made the subject of low ribaldy. In her second existence, she became the
+free child of nature.
+
+Might not proper care have saved this interesting creature from misery!
+It is admitted that "much care had been bestowed upon her instruction,"
+but was she withdrawn from the low circle that surrounded her and placed
+in a society where, in her waking hours, she could have derived those
+advantages of a superior intercourse, which might have worked upon her
+vivid imagination as powerfully as the melodious sounds she had heard at
+other times? "She became immoral--scoffed at religion"--_in her sleep_.
+She was then in a state of nature; unconscious, to a certain extent, of
+immorality and religion, although conscious, no doubt, of relative good
+and evil. Is it not more than probable that when awake, not only were her
+ears assailed by profane and improper language, but is it not most likely
+that her ruin was perpetrated during her visionary slumbers, and ever
+after visited her mind during her paroxysms? Nor is it improbable that her
+affections had been bestowed upon her despoiler. Instead of being
+dismissed and cast upon the wide world, helpless, stigmatized, perhaps,
+with the odious epithet of witch--for we have seen that the lower order
+considered her such--might not a friendly hand have secured her in an
+abode where she might have been invited _to_ COME _and sin no more_! Alas!
+no wonder that the poor creature should have become insane! It is said
+that she was obtuse in intellect when awake. May not this be accounted for
+in some measure, by the exhaustion of her mental faculties during her
+paroxysms? It is to be lamented that the learned and philosophic Dr.
+Abercrombie, who has given this history, did not comment upon it. True
+Christianity and its benevolence breath in every line of the eloquent
+writer, and the poor Scotch _lassie_ might have afforded him a valuable
+theme. How proud would any humane person have felt in making this
+interesting object of pity what she might have been!
+
+Dr. Dewar also relates the case of an ignorant servant-girl, who, during
+the paroxysm of somnambulism, showed an astonishing knowledge of geography
+and astronomy, and expressed herself, in her own language, in a manner
+which, though often ludicrous, showed an understanding of the subject. The
+alteration of the seasons, for example, she explained by saying the world
+was set _a gee_.
+
+In many cases of somnambulism the sleeper is able to continue the
+occupation that he had previously carried on. Martinet mentions a
+watchmaker's apprentice, whose paroxysm came on once in the fortnight, and
+commenced in a sensation of heat ascending to the heart. This was followed
+by a confusion of thought and insensibility. His eyes were open, but
+fixed and vacant, and he was totally insensible to every thing around him.
+Yet he continued his usual employment, and was always much surprised when
+he awoke to find the progress that had taken place in his work. This case
+ended in epilepsy.
+
+Horstius, whom we have already quoted, tells us of a noble youth of
+Breslau, living in the citadel, who used to steal out of a window during
+his sleep, muffled up in his cloak, and ascend the roof of the building,
+where one night he tore in pieces a magpie's nest, wrapped up the little
+ones in his cloak, and returned to bed. The following morning he mentioned
+the circumstance as having occurred in a dream, but could not be persuaded
+of the reality of the circumstance till the magpies in the cloak were
+shown to him.
+
+Dr. Abercrombie has given a very remarkable case of a young woman of low
+rank, who, at the age of 19, became insane, but was gentle, and applied
+herself eagerly to various occupations. Before her insanity she had been
+only learning to read and to form a few letters; but during her lunacy she
+taught herself to write perfectly, though all attempts of others had
+failed; she had intervals of reason, which frequently continued three
+weeks and sometimes longer. During these she could neither read nor write,
+but immediately on the return of her insanity, she recovered the power of
+writing and reading.
+
+The faculty of conversing in a state of somnambulism is too well
+authenticated to be doubted, although in many instances it may have been a
+fraudulent trick of animal magnetism. This singular power has been
+recorded by several of the ancient writers, many of whom pretended that
+divine inspiration illumined the sleepers. Cicero tells us that when the
+Lacedaemonian magistrates were embarrassed in their administration, they
+went to sleep in the temple of Pasiphae, thus named from _Pasi phainein_,
+or "communicative to all." Strabo mentions a cavern, sacred to Pluto and
+Juno, where the sick came to consult sleeping priests. Aristides is said
+to have delivered his opinion while fast asleep in the temple of
+Aesculapius. It would be endless to quote all the authorities on this
+subject. Modern magnetisers, however, outstrip the ancients in the wonders
+they relate in regard to somnambulent faculties developed by magnetism. In
+1829, Cloquet, a very distinguished Parisian surgeon, assisted by Dr.
+Chapelain, removed the cancerous breast of a lady in her magnetic sleep,
+during which she continued her conversation, unconscious of the operation,
+which lasted twelve minutes.
+
+The faculty of seeing through the closed eyelids was fully substantiated
+in the presence of a commission of investigation appointed by the Academy
+of Medicine of Paris, and in the presence of fifteen persons. They found a
+somnambulist, of the name of Paul, to all appearance fast asleep. On being
+requested to rise and approach the window, he complied immediately. His
+eyes were then covered in such a manner as not to awaken him, and a pack
+of cards having been shuffled by several persons, he recognised them
+without the slightest hesitation. Watches were then shown him, and he
+named the hour and minute, though the hands were repeatedly altered. A
+book was then presented to him,--it happened to be a collection of
+operas,--and he read _Cantor et Pollux_ instead of _Castor et Pollux,
+Tragedie Lyrique_: a volume of Horace was then submitted to him, but not
+knowing Latin, he returned it, saying, "This is some church-book." The
+celebrated Dr. Broussais laid before the same somnambulist a letter he had
+drawn from his pocket; to his utter surprise he read the first lines: the
+doctor then wrote a few words on a piece of paper in very small
+characters, which the somnambulist also read with the utmost facility;
+but, what was still more singular, when letters or books were applied to
+his breast, or between the shoulders, he also perused them with equal
+accuracy and ease. In one instance the queen of clubs was presented to his
+back; after a moment's hesitation he said, "This a club--the nine;" he was
+informed that he was in error, when he recovered himself and said, "No,
+'tis the queen:" a ten of spades was then applied, when he hastily
+exclaimed, "At any rate this is not a court-card; it is--the ten of
+spades."
+
+The many astute tricks played by animal magnetisers, and frequently
+detected, naturally induced most persons to doubt the veracity of these
+experiments; but when we find that they were witnessed by seventy-eight
+medical men, most of them decidedly hostile to magnetism, and sixty-three
+intelligent individuals not belonging to the profession, and in every
+respect disinterested, what are we to say?--perhaps, exclaim with Hamlet,
+
+  There are more things in heaven and earth, Horatio,
+  Than are dreamt of in your philosophy!
+
+I cannot better conclude this article than by the following quotation from
+Dr. Pritchard's valuable work:[8] "There is an obvious relation between
+the state of the faculties in somnambulism and that which exists during
+dreams. It is indeed probable that somnambulism is dreaming in a manner so
+modified, that the will recovers its usual power over muscular motion, and
+likewise becomes endued with a peculiar control over the organs of sense
+and perception. This power, which gives rise to the most curious phenomena
+of somnambulism, is of such a kind, that, while the senses are in general
+obscured, as in sleep, and all other objects are unperceived, the
+somnambulator manifests a faculty of seeing, feeling, or otherwise
+discovering those particular objects of which he is in pursuit, towards
+which his attention is by inward movement directed, or with which the
+internal operations of his mind bring him into relation. As in dreams, so
+likewise in somnambulism the individual is intent on the pursuit of
+objects towards which his mind had been previously directed in a powerful
+manner, and his attention strongly roused; he is in both states impelled
+by habit, under the influence of which he repeats the routine of his daily
+observances. A somnambulator is a dreamer who is able to act his dreams."
+
+
+
+
+MEDICAL POWERS OF MUSIC.
+
+
+The powerful influence of music on our intellectual faculties, and
+consequently on our health, has long been ascertained, either in raising
+the energies of the mind, or producing despondency and melancholy
+associations of ideas. Impressed with its sublime nature, the ancients
+gave it a divine origin. Diodorus tells us that it was a boon bestowed on
+mankind after the deluge, and owed its discovery to the sound produced by
+the wind when whistling through the reeds that grew on the banks of the
+Nile. This science became the early study of philosophers and physicians.
+Herophilus explained the alterations of the pulse by the various modes and
+rhythms of music. In the sacred writings we have many instances of its
+influence in producing an aptitude for divine consolation. The derangement
+of Saul yielded to the harp of David, and the hand of the Lord came upon
+Elisha as the minstrel played. In Egypt certain songs were legally
+ordained in the education of youth, to promote virtue and morality.
+Polybius assures us that music was required to soften the manners of the
+Arcadians, whose climate was heavy and impure; while the inhabitants of
+Cynaethe, who neglected this science, were the most barbarous in Greece.
+The medical power of harmonious sounds was also fully admitted. We find
+Pythagoras directing certain mental disorders to be treated by music.
+Thales, called from Crete to Sparta, cured a disastrous pestilence by its
+means. Martinus Capella affirms that fevers were thus removed. Xenocrates
+cured maniacs by melodious sounds, and Asclepiades conquered deafness with
+a trumpet. In modern times it has been related of a deaf lady that she
+could only hear while a drum was beating, and a drummer was kept in the
+house for the purpose of enabling her to converse. Aulus Gellius tells us
+that a case of sciatica was cured by gentle modulations, and Theophrastus
+maintains that the bites of serpents and other venomous reptiles can be
+relieved by similar means. Ancient physicians, who attributed many
+diseases to the influence of evil spirits, fancied that harmonious sounds
+drove them away, more especially when accompanied by incantations; and we
+find in Luther, "that music is one of the most beautiful and glorious
+gifts of God, to which Satan is a bitter enemy."
+
+In more modern times we have several instances of the medical powers of
+music, and the effect produced by Farinelli on Philip of Spain is well
+known. This monarch was in such a deplorable state of despondency from ill
+health, that he refused to be shaved or to appear in public. On the
+arrival of Farinelli, the Queen was resolved to try the power of music,
+and a concert was ordered in a room adjoining the King's chamber:
+Farinelli sang two of his best airs,[9] which so overcame Philip that he
+desired he might be brought into his presence, when he promised to grant
+him any reasonable request he might make. The performer, in the most
+respectful manner, then begged of the King to allow himself to be shaved
+and attended by his domestics, to which Philip consented. Farinelli
+continued to sing to him daily until a perfect cure was effected.--The
+story of Tartini is rather curious: in a moment of musical enthusiasm he
+fell asleep, when the devil appeared to him playing on the violin, bidding
+him with a horrible grin to play as well as he did; struck with the
+vision, the musician awoke, ran to his harpsichord, and produced the
+splendid sonata which he entitled "_the Devil's_." Brueckmann, and Hufeland
+relate cases of St. Vitus's dance, cured by music, which, according to
+Desessarts, also relieved Catalepsy. Schneider and Becker have ascertained
+its influence in hysteric and hypochondriac affections.
+
+The following curious case is recorded by Paret:--"Une jeune fille
+d'environ 11 ans, fort prematuree relativement aux facultes, ayant le
+genre nerveux tres sensible et tres irritable, fut attaquee, il y a
+environ deux ans, de douleurs violentes dans tout le corps, avec insomnie,
+tension excessive et fort douleureuse des muscles de l'abdomen,
+accompagnee de fievre. Deux ans apres, des convulsions se declarerent,
+avec une violence qui surpassa tout ce que je craignais; les bonds, les
+elans, furent, pendant quatre or cinq jours et autant de nuits, si forts,
+qu'il fallait deux hommes pour retenir dans le lit la jeune personne,
+d'ailleurs faible et delicate. Enfin, je proposai d'employer la musique.
+On fit, en consequence, entrer deux menestriers, disposes a donner leur
+premier coup d'archet; a l'instant de leur apparition les convulsions
+cesserent d'abord et-reparurent peu de tems apres: on changea d'air, et
+les convulsions cesserent encore pour reparaitre, aussi au troisieme air,
+qui sans doute se trouva plus au gout de la malade, elle demanda un
+violon, qu'on lui donna, et quoiqu'elle n'eut jamais fait d'autre essai,
+son oeil fixe sur les joueurs, son attention fut si grande, et ses
+mouvemens si rapides, qu'elle suivait ceux des menetriers sans causer
+aucune discordance. Des connaisseurs ne pouvaient s'empecher de convenir
+de la justesse et de la precision qu'elle observait. Son oreille etait
+meme si delicate, qu'elle faisait des reproches aux menetriers, qui,
+obliges de jouer une grande partie de la nuit, se trouvaient eux-memes
+dans le cas de manquer de mesure.
+
+La petite malade continua de jouer pendant plus de 30 heures de suite,
+sans autre interruption que celle qu'il fallait pour prendre ses
+bouillons, et dans ce court intervalle on voyait les contractions des
+tendons se renouveller, quoique moins fortes. Les musiciens fatigues, elle
+se contenta de la voix, qu'elle accompagna de son instrument. Au bout de
+ce terme, un sommeil de six ou sept heures, qui vint tres naturellement,
+produisit une augmentation de calme. Au reveil, on varia les exercices, et
+ainsi se termina la scene qui avait dure 48 heures, apres laquelle les
+convulsions cesserent totalement. Trois jours apres, la malade se trouva
+parfaitement bien; et ne restait que des convulsions tres faibles, et la
+maladie se termina apres trois mois de duree."
+
+A still more singular effect of music is related by Roger in the case of a
+poor wretch broken upon the wheel. In his agonies he blasphemed in the
+most fearful manner, and cordially damned the spiritual comforter who
+sought to reconcile him to his sufferings. Some itinerant musicians
+chanced to pass by, they were stopped by the priest and requested to play
+to the patient, when to the surprise of all around, he seemed relieved,
+and became so tranquil, that he attended with calm resignation to their
+exhortations, confessed his manifold offences, and died like a good
+Christian.
+
+Rousseau, who entertained a sovereign contempt for French music, observes,
+that the _Cantates_ of Bernier cured the fever of a French musician, while
+they most probably would have given a fever to a musician of any other
+country.
+
+This remark of Rousseau reminds me of the French philosophical traveller
+(I believe it was Diderot), who on his journey to London from Dover, while
+horses were changing, had the curiosity to see a sick ostler with a raging
+fever attended by a country practitioner, who, despairing most probably of
+his patient, said, that he might be allowed to eat any thing he wished
+for. The man asked for a red-herring, which was forthwith given to him.
+Our tourist, generalizing like most of his brethren, immediately noted in
+his diary--_English Physicians allow red-herrings to fever patients_.
+
+Some months after he changed horses at the same inn, and asked how long
+the unfortunate creature had survived his herring, when, to his utter
+surprise, he was informed that the hale, hearty fellow who was bringing
+out the relays, was the very man. He of course pulled out his journal and
+entered--_red-herrings cure the fever of Englishmen_.
+
+Our traveller crossed over, and having accidentally seen in a French inn a
+poor devil whose case appeared to him similar to the sturdy ostler, he
+ventured to prescribe a similar remedy, which the patient only survived an
+hour or two; when his death was announced, he philosophically shrugged up
+his shoulders, and wrote in his book--_Though red-herrings cure fevers in
+England, they most decidedly kill in France_.
+
+Mad musicians seem to be more mad than others; for Fodere gives us the
+following strange account of some of them. "Les plus grands musiciens ne
+reconnaissent souvent plus leurs instruments: l'un prenant son violon, que
+je lui avais mis dans les mains, pour un vase de nuit, et un autre prenant
+sa flute pour un sabre, et voulait m'en frapper."
+
+We, however, frequently meet with lunatics who, although they have no
+remembrance of the past circumstances of their life, recollect and perform
+airs which they had formerly played.
+
+Various well-authenticated cases lead us to suppose, that a sensibility to
+music long latent may be called into action by accidental circumstances. A
+case is on record of a countrywoman, twenty-eight years of age, who had
+never left her village, but was, by mere chance, present at a _fete_ where
+a concert was performed, and dancing to a full band afterwards followed.
+She was delighted with the novelty of the scene; but, the _fete_
+concluded, she could not dismiss from her mind the impression the music
+had produced. Whether she was at her meals, her devotions, her daily
+occupation, or in her bed,--still, or moving about,--the airs she had
+heard, and in the succession in which they had been performed, were ever
+present to her recollection. To sleep she became a stranger,--every
+function became gradually deranged, and six short months terminated her
+existence, not having for one moment lost this strange sensation; and
+during this sad period, when any false note on the violin was purposely
+drawn, she would hold her head with both hands, and exclaim, "Oh! what a
+horrible note! it tears my brain!"
+
+Sir Henry Halford relates the case of a man in Yorkshire, who after severe
+misfortunes lost his senses, and was placed in a lunatic asylum. There, in
+a short time, the use of the violin gradually restored him to his
+intellects; so promptly, indeed, that six weeks after the experiment, on
+hearing the inmates of the establishment passing by, he said, "Good
+morning, gentlemen; I am quite well, and shall be most happy to accompany
+you."
+
+Curious anecdotes are related of the effect of music upon animals.
+Marville has given the following amusing account of his experiments.
+"While a man was playing on a trump-marine, I made my observations on a
+cat, a dog, a horse, an ass, a hind, some cows, small birds, and a cock
+and hens, who were in a yard under the window: the cat was not the least
+affected; the horse stopped short from time to time, raising his head up
+now and then as he was feeding on the grass; the dog continued for above
+an hour seated on his hind-legs, looking steadfastly at the player; the
+ass did not discover the least indication of his being touched, eating his
+thistles peaceably; the hind lifted up her large wide ears, and seemed
+very attentive; the cows slept a little, and, after gazing at us, went
+forward; some little birds that were in an aviary, and others on trees and
+bushes, almost tore their little throats with singing; but the cock, who
+minded only his hens, and the hens, who were solely employed in scraping
+a neighbouring dunghill, did not show in any manner that the trump-marine
+afforded them pleasure." That dogs have an ear for music cannot be
+doubted: Steibelt had one which evidently knew one piece of music from the
+other: and a modern composer, my friend, Mr. Nathan, had a pug-dog that
+frisked merrily about the room when a lively piece was played, but when a
+slow melody was performed, particularly Dussek's Opera 15, he would seat
+himself down by the piano, and prick up his ears with intense attention
+until the player came to the forty-eighth bar; as the discord was struck,
+he would yell most piteously, and with drooping tail seek refuge from the
+unpleasant sound under the chairs or tables.[10]
+
+Eastcot relates that a hare left her retreat to listen to some choristers
+who were singing on the banks of the Mersey, retiring whenever they ceased
+singing, and reappearing as they recommenced their strains. Bossuet
+asserts, that an officer confined in the Bastille drew forth mice and
+spiders to beguile his solitude with his flute; and a mountebank in Paris
+had taught rats to dance on the rope in perfect time. Chateaubriand states
+as a positive fact, that he has seen the rattlesnakes in Upper Canada
+appeased by a musician; and the concert given in Paris to two elephants in
+the Jardin des Plantes leaves no doubt in regard to the effect of harmony
+on the brute creation. Every instrument seemed to operate distinctly as
+the several modes of pieces were slow or lively, until the excitement of
+these intelligent creatures had been carried to such an extent that
+further experiments were deemed dangerous.
+
+The associations produced by national airs, and illustrated by the effect
+of the _Rans des Vaches_ upon the Swiss, are too well known to be related;
+and the _mal de pays_, or _nostalgia_, is an affection aggravated by the
+fond airs of infancy and youth during the sad hours of emigration, when
+the aching heart lingers after home and early ties of friendship and of
+love. It is somewhat singular, but this disease is frequent among soldiers
+in countries where they are forcibly made to march: but is seldom, if
+ever, observed in the fair sex, who most probably seek for admiration in
+every clime, and are reconciled by flattery to any region.
+
+The whims of musical composers have often been most singular; Gluck
+composed in a garden, quaffing champaign; Sarti, in a dark room;
+Paesiello, in his bed; Sacchini, with a favourite cat perched upon each
+shoulder. The extraordinary fancies of Kutswara, composer of the "Battle
+of Prague," are too well known, and led to his melancholy, but unpitied
+end.
+
+Great as the repute of the most popular musical performers, whether vocal
+or instrumental, in the present day may be, and enormous as their
+remuneration may seem, the ancients were more profuse in their generosity
+to musicians and the factors of musical instruments. Plutarch, in his life
+of Isocrates, tells us that he was the son of Theodorus, a flute-maker,
+who had realized so large a fortune by his business, that he was able to
+vie with the richest Athenian citizens in keeping up the chorus for his
+tribe at festivals and religious ceremonies. Ismenias, the celebrated
+musician of Thebes, gave three talents, or 581_l._ 5_s._ for a flute. The
+extravagance of this performer was so great, that Pliny informs us he was
+indignant at one of his agents for having purchased a valuable emerald for
+him at Cyprus at too low a price, adding, that by his penurious conduct he
+had disgraced the gem. The vanity of artists in those days appears to have
+been similar to the present impudent pretensions of many public
+favourites. Plutarch relates of this same Ismenias, that being sent for to
+play at a sacrifice, and having performed for some time without the
+appearance of any favourable omen in the victim, his employer snatched the
+instrument out of his hand, and began to play himself most execrably.
+However, the happy omen appeared, when the delighted bungler exclaimed
+that the gods preferred his execution and taste. Ismenias cast upon him a
+smile of contempt, and replied, "While _I_ played, the gods were so
+enchanted that they deferred the omen to hear me the longer; but they were
+glad to get rid of _you_ upon any terms." This was nearly as absurd as the
+boast of Vestris, the Parisian dancer, who, on being complimented on his
+powers of remaining long in the air, replied, "that he could figure in the
+air for half an hour, did he not fear to create jealousy among his
+comrades."
+
+Amoebaeus the harper, according to Athenaeus, used to receive an Attic
+talent of 193_l._ 15_s._ for each performance. The beautiful Lamia, the
+most celebrated female flute-player, had a temple dedicated to her under
+the name of Venus Lamia. The _Tibicinae_, or female flute-players, who
+formed collegiate bodies, were as celebrated for their talent and their
+charms, as for their licentiousness and extravagance. Their performances
+were forbidden by the Theodosian code, but with little success; since
+Procopius informs us that, in the time of Justinian the sister of the
+Empress Theodora, who was a renowned amateur _tibicina_, appeared on the
+stage without any other dress than a slight and transparent scarf.
+
+In the early ages of Christianity, the power of music in adding to
+religious solemnity was fully appreciated, and many of the fathers and
+most distinguished prelates cultivated the auxiliary science. St. Gregory
+expressly sent over Augustine the monk, with some singers, who entered the
+city of Canterbury singing a litany in the Gregorian chant, which extended
+the number of the four tones of St. Ambrose to eight. A school for church
+music was established at Canterbury; and it was also taught in the diocese
+of Durham and Weremouth. St. Dunstan was a celebrated musician, and was
+accused of having invented a most wonderful magic harp; it was, perhaps,
+to prove that the accusation was false, that he took the devil by the nose
+with a pair of tongs. This ingenious saint is said to be the inventor of
+organs, one of which he bestowed on the abbey of Malmesbury. It appears,
+however, that instruments resembling the organ were known as early as 364,
+and were described in a Greek epigram attributed to Julian the Apostate,
+in which he says, "I beheld reeds of a new species, the growth of each
+other, and a brazen soil; such as are not agitated by winds, but by a
+blast that rushes from a leathern cavern beneath their roots; while a
+robust mortal, running with swift fingers over the concordant keys, makes
+them, as they smoothly dance, emit melodious sounds."
+
+The influence of music on the fair sex has long been acknowledged, and
+this advantage has proved fatal to some artists who had recourse to its
+fascinating powers; Mark Smeaton was involved in the misfortunes of Anne
+Boleyn; Thomas Abel, who taught harmony to Catherine, met with a similar
+fate, and David Rizzio was not more fortunate. They were, perhaps, too
+much impressed with the ideas of Cloten: "I am advis'd to give her music
+o' mornings; they say it will penetrate."
+
+It is worthy of remark, that no woman was ever known to excel in musical
+composition, however brilliant her instrumental execution might have been.
+The same observation has been made in regard to logical disquisitions. To
+what are we to attribute this exception?--are we to consider these
+delightful tormentors as essentially unharmonious and illogical? We leave
+this important question to phrenologists.
+
+
+
+
+THE FOOD OF MANKIND. ITS USE AND ABUSE.
+
+
+Destined by Providence to wander over the globe, and to live in various
+climes, man is essentially an omnivorous animal. According to the country
+he inhabits, its productions and the nature of his pursuits, his mode of
+living differs. The inhabitant of cold and sterile regions on the borders
+of the ocean becomes ichthyophagous; and fish, fresh, dried, smoked, or
+salted, is his principal nourishment. The bold huntsman lives upon the
+game he pursues; while the nomadian shepherd, who tends his herd over
+boundless steeps, supports himself on the milk of his flock. In warm
+countries fruits and vegetables constitute the chief support of life; and
+there the disciples of Pythagoras can luxuriate on the rich produce of a
+bountiful soil, solely debarring themselves from beans, which, like all
+flesh, they consider to have been created by putrefaction. What would
+these good people have done among the Scythians and the Getae, who,
+according to Sidonius Apollinaris, mingled blood and milk for food--
+
+  ------------------Solitosque cruentum
+  Lac potare Getas, ac pocula tingere venis;
+
+or the stunted natives of the arctic regions, who feed upon whales and
+seals, drink deep potations of train-oil, and consider the warm blood of
+the seal an exquisite beverage, dried herrings moistened with blubber a
+dainty, and the flesh of the seal half frozen in snow during winter, or
+half corrupted in the earth in summer, the most delicious morsel. The
+semi-barbarous Russians, who during the late wars enjoyed the abundant
+bills of fare of France and Italy, accustom themselves easily to this
+disgusting diet on their return; and their troops, who live amongst the
+Samoiedes, thrive uncommonly well on raw flesh and rein-deer blood. It is
+in temperate regions that man displays his omnivorous propensities: there,
+animal food can be abundantly procured; and every description of grain,
+roots, and fruit, is easily cultivated. It is as we pass from these middle
+climes towards the poles, that animal substances are more exclusively
+consumed; and towards the equator that we enjoy refreshing fruits, and
+nourishing roots and vegetables. So scarce is food in some desolate
+tracts of the globe, that we find the wandering Indian satisfying his
+cravings with earth and clay: and Humboldt informs us that the Ottomaques,
+on the banks of the Mata and Oronoco, feed on a fat unctuous earth, in the
+choice of which they display great epicurean skill, and which they knead
+into balls of four or six inches in diameter, and bake slowly over the
+fire. When about to be used, these clods are soaked in water, and each
+individual consumes about a pound of them in the day; the only addition
+which they occasionally make to this strange fare consists in small fish,
+lizards, and fern-roots.
+
+The art of cookery has improved, no doubt, with the progressive advance
+and development of our other institutions; and it seems to prove that the
+employment of all kinds of food is as natural to man, as a stationary
+uniformity and restriction of one species of aliment is to animals. A most
+erroneous idea has prevailed regarding the use of animal food, which has
+been considered as the best calculated to render mankind robust and
+courageous. This is disproved by observation. The miserable and timid
+inhabitants of Northern Europe and Asia are remarkable for their moral and
+physical debility, although they chiefly live on fish or raw flesh;
+whereas the athletic Scotch and Irish are certainly not weaker than their
+English neighbours, though consuming but little meat. The strength and
+agility of the negroes is well known, and the South Sea islanders can vie
+in bodily exercises with our stoutest seamen. We have reason to believe,
+that, at the most glorious periods of Grecian and Roman power, their
+armies were principally subsisted upon bread, vegetables, and fruits.
+
+Man by his natural structure was created omnivorous, and there is no doubt
+but that a judicious mixed alimentation is the best calculated to ensure
+health and vigour, and enable the ambitious or the industrious wanderer to
+spend his winters near the poles, colonize beneath the equator, or inhabit
+regions where the hardiest of animals must starve and die. The teeth, the
+jaws, all the digestive organs fit him for this mode of existence. There
+is a curious passage in one of Dr. Franklin's letters in regard to wine:
+he pleasantly observes, that the only animals created to drink water are
+those who from their conformation are able to lap it on the surface of the
+earth, whereas all those who can carry their hands to their mouth were
+destined to enjoy the juice of the grape.
+
+The diversity of substances which we find in the catalogue of articles of
+food is as great as the variety with which the art or the science of
+cookery prepares them: the notions of the ancients on this most important
+subject are worthy of remark. Their taste regarding meat was various. Beef
+they considered the most substantial food; hence it constituted the chief
+nourishment of their athletae. Camels' and dromedaries' flesh was much
+esteemed, their heels most especially. Donkey-flesh was in high repute;
+Maecenas, according to Pliny, delighted in it; and the wild ass, brought
+from Africa, was compared to venison. In more modern times we find
+Chancellor Dupret having asses fattened for his table. The hog and the
+wild boar appear to have been held in great estimation; and a hog was
+called "animal propter convivia natum;" but the classical portion of the
+sow was somewhat singular--"vulva nil dulcius ampla." Their mode of
+killing swine was as refined in barbarity as in epicurism. Plutarch tells
+us that the gravid sow was actually trampled to death, to form a delicious
+mass fit for the gods. At other times, pigs were slaughtered with red-hot
+spits, that the blood might not be lost; stuffing a pig with asafoetida
+and various small animals, was a luxury called "porcus Trojanus;"
+alluding, no doubt, to the warriors who were concealed in the Trojan
+horse. Young bears, dogs, and foxes, (the latter more esteemed when fed
+upon grapes,) were also much admired by the Romans; who were also so fond
+of various birds, that some consular families assumed the names of those
+they most esteemed. Catius tells us how to drown fowls in Falernian wine,
+to render them more luscious and tender. Pheasants were brought over from
+Colchis, and deemed at one time such a rarity, that one of the Ptolemies
+bitterly lamented his having never tasted any. Peacocks were carefully
+reared in the island of Samos, and sold at such a high price, that Varro
+informs us they fetched yearly upwards of 2000_l._ of our money. The
+guinea-fowl was considered delicious; but, wretched people! the Romans
+knew not the turkey, a gift which we moderns owe to the Jesuits. Who could
+vilify the disciples of Loyola after this information! The ostrich was
+much relished; Heliogabalus delighted in their brains, and Apicius
+especially commends them. But, of all birds, the flamingo was not only
+esteemed as a _bonne-bouche_, but was most valuable after dinner; for,
+when the gluttonous sensualists had eaten too much, they introduced one of
+its long scarlet feathers down their throats, to disgorge their dinner.
+The modern gastronome is perhaps not aware that it is to the ancients he
+owes his delicious fattened duck and goose livers,--the inestimable _foies
+gras_ of France. Thus Horace:
+
+  Pinguibus et ficis pastum jecur anseris albi.
+
+The swan was also fattened by the Romans, who first deprived it of sight;
+and cranes were by no means despised by people of taste. In later days the
+swan seems to have been in great estimation in our own country. We find in
+the Northumberland household book that in one year twenty of these birds
+were consumed at the earl's table.
+
+While the feathered creation was doomed to form part of ancient delights,
+the waters yielded their share of enjoyments, and several fishes were
+immortalized. The _muraena Helena_ was educated in their ponds, and
+rendered so tame that he came to be killed at the tinkling of his master's
+bell or the sound of his voice.
+
+  Natat ad magistrum delicta muraena,
+
+says Martial. Hirtius ceded six thousand of these fish to Caesar as a great
+favour, and Vitellius delighted in their roe. The fame of the lamprey,
+_mustela_ of Ausonius and Pliny, is generally known; and the sturgeon, the
+_acipenser sturio_, was brought to table with triumphant pomp: but the
+turbot, one of which was brought to Domitian from Ancona, was considered
+such a present from the gods, that this emperor assembled the senate to
+admire it. Soles were also so delectable that punning on the word _solea_,
+they were called the _soles_ of the gods: the dorad, _sparus auratus_, was
+consecrated to Venus; the _labrus scarus_ was called the brain of Jupiter,
+and Apuleius and Epicharmus maintain that its very entrails would be
+relished in Olympus.
+
+To these dainties may be added the _Alphestae_, a fish always caught in
+pairs from their eagerness to be eaten. The _Amia_ so very delicious that
+the Athenians defied the worst cook to spoil them. The _Gnaphius_ that
+imparted to the water that had had the honour to boil them, the facility
+of taking out all stains. The _Pompilus_ which sprang with Venus from the
+blood of the sky. The fish called _fox_ by the Rhodians, and _dog_ by the
+Boeotians, was considered such a dainty that Archestratus recommended
+epicures to steal them if they could not procure them by honest means;
+adding, that all calamities should be considered immaterial after a man
+had once feasted on such a luscious morsel, too divine to be gazed upon
+by vulgar eyes, and which ought to be procured by the wealthy, if they did
+not wish to incur the wrath of the gods, for not appreciating at its true
+value the flower of their nectar. Eels were also highly esteemed by the
+ancients. The preference being given to the _Copaic_, which the
+Boeotians offered to the gods crowned with flowers, giving them the same
+rank among fish that Helen held amongst women.
+
+The _garum_, or celebrated fish-sauce of the Romans, was principally made
+out of the _sciaena umbra_, and the mackerel; the entrails and blood being
+macerated in brine until they became putrid.
+
+  Expirantis adhuc scombri, de sanguine primo
+  Accipe fastosum munera cara garum:--
+
+thus says Martial: and Galen affirms that this disgusting preparation was
+so precious, that a measure of about three or four pints fetched two
+thousand silver pieces. So delightful was the effluvium of the garum
+considered, that Martial informs us it was carried about in onyx
+smelling-bottles. But our luxurious civic chiefs are not aware that the
+red mullet--for such I believe was the _mullus_--was held in such a
+distinguished category among genteel fishes, that three of them, although
+of small size, were known to fetch upwards of 200_l._ They were more
+appreciated when brought alive, and gradually allowed to die, immersed in
+the delicious garum; when the Romans feasted their eyes in the anticipated
+delight of eating them, by gazing on the dying creature as he changed
+colour like an expiring dolphin. Seneca reproaches them with this
+refinement of cruelty--"Oculis quoque gulosi sunt;" and the most renowned
+of Apicius's culinary discoveries was the _alec_, a compound of their
+livers.
+
+Snails were also a great dainty. Fulvius Herpinus was immortalized for the
+discovery of the art of fattening them on bran and other articles; and
+Horace informs us they were served up, broiled upon silver gridirons, to
+give a relish to wine. Oysters were brought from our coasts to Rome, and
+frozen oysters were much extolled. Grasshoppers, locusts, and various
+insects, were equally acceptable to our first gastronomic legislators.
+Acorns, similar to those now eaten in Spain, formed part of a Roman
+dessert; the best were brought from Naples and Tarentum. It does not
+appear that the ancients had a great variety in their vegetable diet;
+condiments to stimulate the sluggish appetite seemed to be their principal
+research: amongst these the asafoetida, which is to this day highly
+relished in the East, was an indispensable ingredient; this has been
+doubted by various naturalists, but it appears certain, since Pliny
+informs us that it was frequently adulterated by _sagapenum_, which bears
+the strongest resemblance to it. This substance was called _laser_, and by
+many tasteless persons, such as Aristophanes and Apuleius, considered
+offensive and disgusting; hence the latter, "lasere infectas carnes," and
+"laseratum porcellum." According to Theophrastus, asafoetida was
+collected and preserved, as it is at present, in skins; and, despite its
+estimation as a culinary ingredient, it was not unfrequently named
+_stercus diaboli_. In addition to this gum, they seasoned their food with
+various other strong articles, such as coriander and cummin seeds, sumac,
+saffron, cinnamon, thyme; with divers peppers, salt, and sal-ammoniac.
+
+Instead of bread, which was only introduced in Rome 580, A. D. they used a
+heavy kind of unleavened paste, similar to the present _polenta_. This
+nourishment occasioned frequent indigestion, hence the use of warm water
+after meals, and the necessity of emetics. Warm water was sold about the
+streets in their thermopolia, and Seneca observed the paleness and
+debility that arose from its use and abuse; a practice recorded by
+Martial:
+
+  Et potet calidam, qui mihi livet, aquam.
+
+While water was thus freely drunk, wine was not disregarded; but the
+various articles with which it was adulterated, must have rendered it any
+thing but a delectable potation according to our received ideas. Thus we
+see the Greeks putting salt and sea-water in theirs; at other times
+dissolving mastic and myrrha, or infusing wormwood, in their choicest
+Falernian. Like modern tasters, however, they knew the method of
+developing the _bouquet_ by warmth; and, to appreciate the flavour, they
+frequently added hot water. That wines of a resinous taste were esteemed,
+appears from Martial:
+
+  Resinata bibis vina, Falerna fugis.
+
+But we may conclude that, according to our modern taste, their boasted
+wines did not equal ours either in flavour or in delicacy.
+
+The ancients however were very careful in the preparation of their bread,
+justly called the "staff of life," as constituting one of the most
+wholesome and nutritious parts of our food. The Athenian bakers bore the
+palm in the confection of this article. Archestratus recommended the
+wheaten bread of Athens and the barley meal of Lesbos, which their poets
+asserted was supplied to the gods. The Grecian millet bread was also in
+great repute, while delicious bread was also made with the _Zea_, the
+_Triticum Spella_ of Linnaeus and the _Far_ of the Romans. A species of
+wheat called _Tiphe_ was also much esteemed. Brown bread was made of a
+grain called _Olyra_, and it was with loaves of this description that
+Homer's heroes fed their horses.
+
+It appears that great attention was paid to the kneeding and the boulting:
+unboulted meal was called _Syncomista_, and when finely boulted in a
+woollen cloth, _Semidalis_. The most approved method of baking was in the
+_Cribanus_ or _Clibanus_, an earthen or iron vessel, which they surrounded
+with charcoal. Bread according to its superior or inferior quality was
+consecrated to various divinities. Thus the goddesses used the _Homoros_,
+and Hecate was served with the _Hemiantium_, but we are unacquainted with
+the preparation of these varieties. The flour of barley was used by the
+_Canephorae_, or virgins that bore the sacred baskets in the festivals of
+Ceres, to sprinkle themselves. Bread according to its particular kind was
+served up in various ways; wheaten bread was brought to table upon fresh
+leaves; barley bread upon a layer of reeds. At the feasts of Ceres and
+Proserpine, a large loaf was kneeded and baked by the ladies of Delos,
+called _Achainas_ which gave the name to the festival, instituted most
+probably in Achaia, to commemorate the invention of bread, which Ceres
+taught to Eumelus, a citizen of Patrae.
+
+Barley for the preparation of bread was used long before wheat or any
+other sort of corn, and hence Artemidorus calls it _Antiquissimum in
+cibis_. It was also given to the athletae who were thence called
+_Hordearii_. In latter times it was chiefly given to cattle, although used
+by the poorer classes. Barley bread was also issued to soldiers as a
+punishment, the loss of wheaten bread being considered a great privation.
+Vegetius tells us that soldiers who had been guilty of any offence were
+thus punished--"_hordeum pro frumentuo cogebantur accipere_." In the
+second Punic war we find Marcellus sentencing the cohorts that had lost
+their standards to this infliction. Suetonius also informs us that
+Augustus only allowed barley to the troops that had misbehaved in action.
+_Cohortes, si quae cepissent, loco, decimatas hordeo pavit._ But there is
+reason to believe that under the head of bread were included various kinds
+of cakes, many of which were prepared with honey, some of them were
+called _Placentae omnigenae_, and were prepared by bakers who bore the name
+of _pistores dulciarii_. This honied bread or cake it appears, was
+frequently resorted to, as in the present day, to quiet troublesome
+children as well as to please the taste of fastidious patients. Thus
+Martial:
+
+  Leniat ut fauces medicus, quas aspera vexat
+  Assidue tussis, Parthenopae tibi
+  Mella dari, nucleosque jubet dulcesque placentas.
+  Est quidquid pueros non sinit esse truces,
+  At tu non cessas totis tussire diebus
+  Non est haec tussis, Parthenopae gula est.
+
+The bread made of spring wheat was called _Collabus_, and the Athenians
+considered a toasted _Collabus_ eaten with a slice of a pig's belly, the
+very best cure for a surfeit occasioned by an excess in anchovies,
+especially the Phalerian ones, which were deemed fit for the gods.
+
+Fragments of bread it appears were used instead of napkins to wipe the
+fingers on. These were called _Apomygdaliae_, with which Aristophanes fed
+his sausage-makers. These dainty bits were usually thrown to dogs.
+
+The cooks of the ancients appear to have been much more consummate in
+their art than our modern practitioners. Athenaeus records various
+descriptions of their incomparable science. A new dish immortalized its
+inventor, and transmitted his name to posterity. Apicius's cakes were
+called Apicians; and Aristoxenes had attained such perfection in curing
+hams, that the glorious appellation of Aristoxenians was bestowed upon
+them. Philosophers and poets gloried in their culinary science; the
+pleasures of the table were the subject of their writings and their
+conversation. Archestratus tells us with delight, that, although various
+delicacies can only be enjoyed in their proper season, yet we can talk
+about them with watering mouths all the year round.
+
+One of these illustrious ministers of luxury attained such a degree of
+enviable perfection, that he could serve up a pig boiled on one side and
+roasted on the other, and moreover stuffed with all possible delicacies,
+without the incision through which these dainties were introduced being
+perceived. Supplicated to explain this wonderful secret, he swore solemnly
+by the manes of all the heroes who fell at Marathon, or conquered at
+Salamis, that he would not reveal this sacred mystery for one year. When
+the happy day arrived and he was no longer bound by his vows, he
+condescended to inform his anxious hearers, that the animal had been bled
+to death by a wound under the shoulder, through which the entrails were
+extracted; and afterwards hanging up the victim by the legs, the stuffing
+was crammed down his throat. One half of the pig was then covered with a
+thick paste, seasoned with wine and oil, put into a brass oven, and gently
+and tenderly roasted: when the skin was brown and crisp, our hero
+proceeded to boil the other moiety; the paste was then removed, and the
+boiled and roasted grunter triumphantly served up.
+
+So refined was the taste of the ancient _bons vivans_, that Montanus,
+according to Juvenal, would proclaim, at the first bite, whether an oyster
+was of English produce or not. Sandwich is believed to have been the
+favoured spot whence Rome imported her oysters and other shell-fish.
+Shrimps and prawns must have been in great estimation, since we find
+Apicius quitting his residence at Minturnae, upon hearing that the shrimps
+of Africa were finer than those he could procure in Campania. He instantly
+set sail for the happy coast, despite a gale of wind: after encountering a
+desperate storm, he reached the wished-for land of promise; but alas!--the
+fishermen displayed the largest prawns they could collect, and to his
+cruel disappointment, they could not vie, either in delicacy or beauty,
+with those of Minturnae. He immediately ordered his pilot to steer a
+homeward course, and left Africa's shore with ineffable contempt.
+
+These ingenious gluttons had recourse to every experiment that could add
+to their enjoyment. Philoxenus, and many others, used to accustom
+themselves to swallow hot water, that they might be able to attack
+scalding dishes before less fireproof guests would dare to taste them.
+
+Sinon maintained that cookery was the basis of all arts and sciences:
+natural philosophy taught us the seasoning of dishes; architecture
+directed the construction of stoves and chimneys; the fine arts, the
+beautiful symmetry of each dish; and the principles of war were applied to
+the drilling and marshalling of cooks, confectioners, and scullions,
+posting proper sentries to watch the fires, and videttes to keep off idle
+intruders. That man is a "cooking animal" is considered one of his
+proudest attributes, and a proper bill of fare may be considered as the
+_ne plus ultra_ of human genius!
+
+It may be easily imagined that when good living became a science,
+_sponging_ upon the wealthy _Amphitryons_ became an art amongst the needy
+_bons vivants_, and parasites, as in the present day, were ever seen
+fawning and cringing for their dinner. These sycophants stuck so close to
+their patrons, that they were called shadows. Thus Horace:
+
+  ----Quos Moecenas adduxerat umbras.
+
+They were also called flies, [Greek: gyias], by the Greeks, and _Muscae_ by
+the Romans; no doubt from their constant buzzing about the object of their
+devotion. Plautus calls an entertainment free from these despicable
+guests, _Hospitium sine muscis_. Horus Apollo tells us that in Egypt a fly
+was the symbol of an impudent fellow; because, although driven away, it
+will constantly return. We have, however, reason to believe that the term
+_parasite_ was originally applied to the followers of princes, Patroclus
+was the parasite of Achilles, and Memnon of Idomeneus; it was only in
+later times that the appellation was given to despicable characters and
+"_trencher friends_."
+
+Our Shakspeare had adopted the term of the ancients, as appears in the
+following passages:
+
+  In such as you,
+  That creep like _shadows_ by him, and do sigh
+  At each his needless heavings.
+
+And again--
+
+  Feast-won, fast-lost, one cloud of winter showers.
+  These _flies_ are couched.
+
+While climate points out the most suitable articles of food, it exercises
+a singular influence over their qualities and properties, more especially
+in vegetable substances. We find plants which are poisonous in some
+countries, edible and wholesome in others. Next to climate, culture and
+soil modify plants to a singular degree: flowers which yield a powerful
+perfume in some latitudes, are inodorous in others; and, according to
+climate, their aroma is pleasant or distressing. A striking proof of this
+fact can be adduced from the well-known effects of perfumes in Rome; where
+the inhabitants, especially females, cannot support the scent even of the
+rose, which has been known to produce syncope, illustrating the poet's
+line to
+
+  Die of a rose in aromatic pain.
+
+This variety in the action of vegetable substances is more particularly
+observable in such as are considered medicinal. Opium, narcotics, and
+various drugs, are more powerful in warm climates than in northern
+regions. The Italian physicians express astonishment at the comparatively
+large doses prescribed by our practitioners.
+
+Cultivation brings forth singular intermediate productions; and by its
+magic power we have seen the coriaceous and bitter almond transformed into
+the luscious peach, the sloe converted into the delicious plum, and the
+common crab transformed into the golden pippin. The same facts are
+observed in vegetables; the celery sprung from the nauseous and bitter
+_apium graveolens_, and the colewort, is metamorphosed into the cabbage
+and the cauliflower. All cruciform plants degenerate within the tropics,
+but acquire increased energies in cold countries.
+
+Recent experiments in Germany have demonstrated that in times of scarcity,
+the wood of several trees may be converted into a nutritious substance.
+The fibres of the beech, birch, lime, poplar, fir, and various other
+trees, when dried, ground, and sifted into an impalpable powder,
+constitute a very palatable article of food. If cold water be poured on
+this ligneous flour, enclosed in a linen bag, it becomes milky, and
+considerable pressure and kneading is required to express the amylaceous
+or starchy part of it. Professor Von Buch, in his travels through Norway
+and Lapland, has fully described the Norwegian _barke brod_. We find the
+savages scattered along the coast of the great austral continent mixing up
+a paste of the bark of the gum-tree with the ants and the other insects,
+with their larvae, which they find in it. Ground dried fish and fish-bones
+have from time immemorial been converted into bread; Arrianus tells us
+that Nearchus found several nations on the shores of the Red Sea living
+upon a bread of this description.
+
+It is thus evident that all substances from the animal and vegetable
+kingdom appear to afford more or less nutriment, provided that they
+contain no elements unlike the animal matter of the being they are
+intended to nourish. All others are either medicinal or poisonous. Food
+may be considered nourishing in the ratio of its easy digestion or
+solution. Magendie attributes the nutritious principle to the greater or
+lesser proportion of nitrogen or azote. According to his view of the
+subject, the substances that contain little or no nitrogen are the
+saccharine and acid fruits, oils, fats, butter, mucilaginous vegetables,
+refined sugar, starch, gum, vegetable mucus, and vegetable gelatin. The
+different kinds of corn, rice and potatoes, are elements of the same kind.
+The azotical aliments, on the contrary, are vegetable albumen, gluten, and
+those principles which are met with in the seeds, stems and leaves of
+grasses and herbs, the seeds of leguminous plants, such as peas and
+beans, and most animal substances, with the exception of fat.
+
+To this doctrine, it was objected, that animals who feed upon substances
+containing little nitrogen, and the field negroes, who consume large
+quantities of sugar, might be adduced as an exception. Magendie replies,
+that almost all the vegetables consumed by man and animals contain more or
+less nitrogen--that this element enters in large quantity in the
+composition of impure sugar--and lastly, that the nations whose principal
+food consists in rice, maize, or potatoes, consume at the same time milk
+and cheese.
+
+To support his theory, this physiologist had recourse to various curious
+experiments on dogs, whom he fed with substances which contained no
+nitrogen. During the first seven or eight days, the animals were brisk and
+active, and took their food and drink as usual. In the course of the
+second week they began to get thin, although their appetite continued
+good, and they took daily between six and eight ounces of sugar. The
+emaciation increased during the third week; they became feeble, lost their
+appetite and activity, and at the same time ulcers appeared in the cornea
+of their eyes. The animals still continued to eat three or four ounces of
+sugar daily, but, nevertheless, became at length so feeble as to be
+incapable of motion, and died on a day varying from the 31st to the 34th:
+and it must be recollected that dogs will live the same length of time
+without any food.
+
+The same were the results where dogs were fed upon gum, and butter; when
+they were fed with olive oil and water the phenomena were the same, with
+the exception of ulceration of the cornea.
+
+In Denmark, a diet of bread and water for a month is considered equivalent
+to the punishment of death. Dr. Stark died in consequence of experiments
+which he instituted on himself to ascertain the effects of a sugar diet.
+
+Muller has justly observed that these experiments of Magendie have thrown
+considerable light on the causes and the mode of treatment of the gout and
+calculous disorders. The subjects of these diseases are generally persons
+who live well and eat largely of animal food; most urinary calculi,
+gravelly deposits, the gouty concretions, and the perspiration of gouty
+persons, contain an abundance of uric acid, a substance in which nitrogen
+is contained in a large proportion. Thus, by diminishing the proportion of
+azotical substance in the food, the gout and gravelly deposits may be
+prevented.
+
+The experiments of Tiedemann and Gmelin have confirmed those of Magendie,
+whose curious observations on the necessity of varying diet I shall
+transcribe.
+
+1. A dog fed on white bread, wheat, and water, did not live more than
+fifty days.
+
+2. Another dog, who was kept on brown soldiers' bread did not suffer.
+
+3. Rabbits and guineapigs who were fed solely on any one of the following
+substances--oats, barley, cabbage, and carrots,--died of inanition in
+fifteen days; but they did not suffer when these substances were given
+simultaneously or in succession.
+
+4. An ass fed on dry rice, and afterwards on boiled rice, lived only
+fifteen days; a cock, on the contrary, was fed with boiled rice for
+several months with no ill consequence.
+
+5. Dogs fed with cheese alone, or hard eggs, lived for a long time; but
+they became feeble and lost their hair.
+
+6. Rodent animals will live a very long time on muscular substances.
+
+7. After an animal has been fed for a long period on one kind of aliment,
+which, if continued, will not support life, allowing it the former
+customary food will not save it: he will eat eagerly, but will die as soon
+as if he had continued to be restricted to the article of food which was
+first given him.
+
+Dr. Paris is of opinion that all that these experiments tend to prove is,
+that animals cannot exist upon highly-concentrated aliment. Horses fed on
+concentrated aliment are liable to various disorders, originating from
+diseased action of the stomach and liver, broken wind, staggers,
+blindness, &c.
+
+Professor Muller has given an excellent definition of indigestion. "It is
+a state of the digestive organs in which either they do not secrete the
+fluid destined for the solution of the aliment, or they are in such a
+condition of irritability or atony, that by the mechanical irritation of
+the food, painful sensations and irregular motions are exerted."
+
+But the most curious experiments made on the changes which the food
+undergoes in the stomach, according to the greater or lesser facility with
+which it is digested, were those of Dr. Beaumont. This physiologist had
+the rare opportunity of investigating this subject in a patient of the
+name of St. Martin, who came under his care in consequence of a gun-shot
+wound, which left a considerable opening in the stomach, which, when
+empty, could be explored to the depth of five or six inches by artificial
+distention. The food and the drink could in this manner be seen to enter
+it. This enabled him to keep an interesting journal and table, showing the
+time required for the digestion of different kinds of food, which were
+taken with bread or vegetables, or both. The following are some of his
+interesting observations:
+
+_Experiment 33._ At 1 o'clock St. Martin dined on roast beef, bread, and
+potatoes--in half an hour examined the contents of the stomach, found what
+he had eaten reduced to a mass resembling thick porridge. At 2 o'clock,
+nearly all chymified--a few distinct particles of food still to be seen.
+At half-past four, chymification complete. At 6 o'clock nothing in the
+stomach but a little gastric juice tinged with bile.
+
+_Ex. 42._ At 8 a.m., breakfast of three hard-boiled eggs, pancakes, and
+coffee. At half-past eight, found a heterogenous mixture of the articles
+slightly digested. At a quarter-past ten, no part of breakfast could be
+seen.
+
+_Ex. 43._ At 2 o'clock same day, dined on roast pig and vegetables. At 3
+they were chymified; and at half-past four nothing remained but a little
+gastric juice.
+
+_Ex. 18_, in a third series. At half-past eight a.m., two drams of fresh
+fried sausage, in a fine muslin bag, were suspended in the stomach of St.
+Martin, who immediately afterwards breakfasted on the same kind of
+sausage, and a piece of broiled mutton, wheaten bread, and a pint of
+coffee. At half-past eleven, stomach half empty, contents of bag about
+half diminished. At 2 o'clock p.m., stomach empty and clean, contents of
+bag all gone with the exception of fifteen grains, consisting of small
+pieces of cartilaginous and membranous fibres, and the spices of the
+sausage, which last weighed six grains.
+
+As I have elsewhere observed, various are the theories that have been
+entertained in regard to digestion, but the experiments of Dr. Beaumont
+seem to have proved beyond a doubt, that this operation is due to the
+action of the gastric juice, with which he was enabled to produce
+artificial digestion. Having obtained one ounce of this solvent from the
+stomach of his patient, he put into it a solid piece of recently-boiled
+beef, weighing three drams, and placed the vessel that contained it in a
+water bath heated to 100 deg. In forty minutes digestion had commenced on
+the surface of the meat; in fifty minutes, the fluid was quite opake and
+cloudy, the external texture began to separate and become loose; in sixty
+minutes, chyme began to form. At 1 p.m. (two hours after the commencement
+of the experiment), the cellular substance was destroyed, the muscular
+fibres loose and floating about in fine small threads very tender and
+soft. In six hours they were nearly all digested--a few fibres only
+remaining. After the lapse of ten hours, every part of the meat was
+completely digested. The artificial digestion by these experiments appears
+to be but little slower than the natural process--they also demonstrate
+the influence of the temperature, and the quantity of the solvent
+secretion. Having obtained from St. Martin two ounces of gastric juice, he
+divided this quantity into two equal portions, and laid in each an equal
+quantity of masticated roast beef. One he placed in a water bath at the
+temperature of 99 deg. Farh.--and left the other exposed to the open air
+at the temperature of 34 deg.; a third similar portion of meat he kept in a
+phial, with an ounce of cold water. An hour after the commencement of the
+experiment, St. Martin had finished his breakfast, which consisted of the
+same meat with biscuit, butter, and coffee. Two hours after the meat had
+been put into the phial, the portion in the warm gastric juice was as far
+advanced in chymification as the food in the stomach; the meat in the cold
+gastric juice was less acted on, and that in the cold water only slightly
+macerated. In two hours and forty-five minutes from the time that the
+experiment was begun, the food in the stomach was completely digested, the
+stomach empty, while even at the end of six hours the meat in the gastric
+juice was only half digested. Dr. Beaumont, therefore, having procured 12
+drams of fresh gastric juice, added now a portion to each of the phials
+containing meat and gastric juice, and to a portion of the half-digested
+food which he had withdrawn from the stomach two hours after the
+commencement of the experiment, and which had not advanced towards
+solution. After eight hours' maceration, the portions of meat in the cold
+gastric juice, and in the cold water, were little changed, but, from the
+time of the addition of the fresh gastric juice, digestion went on rapidly
+in the other phials, which were kept at the proper heat, and at the end of
+24 hours, the meat which had been withdrawn from the stomach after
+digestion had commenced, were, with the exception of a piece of meat that
+had not been masticated, converted into a thickish pulpy mass of a
+reddish-brown colour: the meat in the warm gastric juice was also
+digested, though less perfectly, while that in the cold gastric juice was
+scarcely more acted on than the meat in the water, which was merely
+macerated. Dr. Beaumont now exposed these two phials containing the meat
+in cold gastric juice, and meat in water, to the heat of the water bath
+for 24 hours, and the gastric juice, which when cold had no power on the
+meat, now digested it; while the meat in the water underwent no change,
+except that towards the end of the experiment, putrefaction had commenced.
+The antiseptic properties of the gastric juice were fully demonstrated in
+several other experiments.
+
+Various philosophers, in idle disquisitions, have endeavoured by the most
+absurd hypotheses to determine what is the natural food of man, and to
+show that he is not created omnivorous. The comparison between our species
+and animals confutes these vain theories. The masticatory and digestive
+organization of man assigns to him an intermediate rank between
+carnivorous and herbivorous creatures. The teeth may be said by their
+figure and construction to bear a relation with our natural food. The
+teeth of flesh-eating animals rise in sharp prominences to seize and
+lacerate their prey, and those of the lower jaw shut within those of the
+superior one. The herbivorous animals are not armed with these formidable
+weapons, but have broad flat surfaces with intermixed plates of enamel,
+that they should wear less rapidly in the constant labour of grinding and
+triturating. In the carnivorous, the jaws can only move backward and
+forward; in the herbivorous their motion is lateral, as observed in the
+cow when chewing her cud. Beasts of prey tear and swallow their food in
+masses, while in others it undergoes a careful communition before it is
+transmitted to the stomach. The teeth of man only resemble those of
+carnivorous animals by their enamel being confined to their external
+surface, while in the freedom of the motion of the jaws from side to side
+they partake of the conformation of the herbivorous. The teeth and jaws of
+man are in all respects more similar to those of monkeys than any other
+animals; only in some of the simiae the canine teeth are much longer and
+stronger, and denote a carnivorous propensity.
+
+It is to the abuse of this omnivorous faculty that Providence has bestowed
+upon mankind, that we owe many of the diseases under which our species
+labours. "Multos morbos, multa fercula fecerunt," sayeth Seneca; yet we
+are far more temperate in the present age than the ancients during the
+period of their boasted high civilization and prosperity. Their excesses
+must have been of the most disgusting nature, since, to indulge more
+easily in their gluttonous propensities, they had recourse to emetics both
+before and after their meals. "Vomunt ut edant, edunt ut vomunt, et epulas
+quas toto orbe conquirunt nec concoquere dignantur," was the reproach of
+the above-quoted philosopher. Suetonius and Dion Cassius give Vitellius
+the credit of having introduced this revolting custom into fashion; and
+splendid vessels for the purpose were introduced in their feasts. Martial
+alludes to it in the following lines:
+
+  Nec coenat prius, aut recumbit, ante
+  Quam septem vomuit meri deunces.
+
+And Juvenal tells us that the bath was polluted by this incredible act of
+bestiality,--
+
+  Et crudum pavonem in balnea portas.
+
+The sums expended by the ancients on their table exceed all belief.
+Vitellius expended for that purpose upwards of 3200_l._ daily, and some of
+his repasts cost 40,000_l._ At one of them, according to Suetonius, 7000
+birds and 2000 fishes were served up. Aelius Verus laid out 600,000
+sestertii on one meal; and some of the dishes of Heliogabalus cost about
+4000_l._ of our money. The excesses of this monster were such, that
+Herodianus affirms that he wanted to ascertain, not only the flavour of
+human flesh, but of the most disgusting and nameless substances. The
+freaks related of this emperor are scarcely credible; but his gastronomic
+profusion may be easily conceived when we find that his very mats were
+made with the down of hares or soft feathers found under the wings of
+partridges! When such ideas of _enjoyment_ prevailed, can we wonder that
+Philoxenus should have wished that he had the throat of a crane, that he
+might prolong the delights of eating!
+
+Our early ancestors were remarkable for their frugality, and it is
+supposed that luxurious, or, at least, full living was introduced by the
+Danes: it has been even asserted that the verb _gormandize_ was derived
+from _Gormond_, a Danish king, who was persuaded by Alfred to be baptized.
+Erasmus observed that the English were particularly fond of good fare.
+William the Conqueror, and Rufus, were in the habit of giving most
+splendid entertainments; and the former monarch was such an irascible
+epicure, that, upon one occasion, an underdone crane having been served up
+by the _master of the cury_, he would have knocked him down but for the
+timely interference of his _dapifer_, or purveyor of the mouth. This
+office of _dapifer_, with that of _lardrenius_, _magnus coquus_, _coquorum
+prepositus_, and _coquus regius_, were high dignitaries in those days.
+Cardinal Otto, the pope's legate, being at Oxford in 1238, his brother was
+his _magister coquorum_; and the reasons assigned for his holding that
+office were his brother's suspicious fears "_ne procuraretur aliquid
+venenosum, quod valde timebat legatus_." These officers were not
+unfrequently clergymen, who were elevated to the bench for their valuable
+services.
+
+Whatever barbarity the ancients may have shown in preparing their dainty
+dishes, none could have surpassed in refinement of cruelty. Their method
+of roasting and eating a goose alive, is thus directed: "Take a goose or a
+duck, or some such _lively creature_, (but the goose is best of all for
+the purpose,) pull off all her feathers, only the head and neck must be
+spared; then make a fire round about her, not too close to her, that the
+smoke do not choke her, and that the fire may not burn her too soon, nor
+too far off, that she may not escape the fire; within the circle of the
+fire, let there be small cups and pots full of water, wherein salt and
+honey are mingled, and let there be set also chargers full of sodden
+apples, cut into small pieces in the dish. The goose must be all larded
+and basted over with butter, to make her the more fit to be eaten, and may
+roast the better. Put the fire about her but do not make too much haste,
+when as you see her begin to roast; for by walking about, and flying here
+and there, being cooped in by the fire that stops her way out, the
+unscared goose is kept in; she will fall to drink the water to quench her
+thirst and cool her heart, and all her body, and the apple sauce will
+cleanse and empty her, and when she wasteth, and consumes inwardly, always
+wet her head and heart with a wet sponge, and when you see her giddy with
+running and begin to stumble, her heart wants moisture, and she is roasted
+enough. Take her up and set her before your guest, and she will cry as you
+cut off any part from her, and will be almost eaten up before she is dead.
+_It is mighty pleasant_ to behold."
+
+Our forefathers were most ingenious in these diabolical fancies, we find
+in Portar's Magick the way how to persuade a goose to roast _herself_ if
+you have a lack of cooks.
+
+The heroic conduct of French cooks has been recorded in history, and
+compared with the noble devotion of the ancients. Vatel, maitre d'hotel of
+Louis XIV., put an end to his wretched existence in consequence of fish
+not having arrived in time for dinner. On this sad event being reported to
+his sovereign, he both praised and blamed his courage; and, to use the
+words of Madame de Sevigne, he perished "a force d'avoir de l'honneur a sa
+maniere; on loua fort et l'on blama son courage." It is strange that
+Napoleon should have used the very same expressions when speaking of one
+of his most distinguished generals. In more modern times we have heard of
+persons who expected that clerical functions should be combined with
+various lay duties, as appears by the following curious advertisement in a
+late paper:
+
+"Wanted, for a family who have bad health, a sober, steady person, in the
+capacity of doctor, surgeon, apothecary, and man-midwife. He must
+occasionally act as butler, and dress hair and wigs. He will be required
+sometimes to read prayers, and to preach a sermon every Sunday. A good
+salary will be given." This was certainly an economical speculation for
+the use of soul and body.
+
+Cooks have sometimes been obliged to resort to pious frauds; and it is
+related of our Richard Coeur de Lion, that, being very ill during the
+holy wars, he took a strange fancy for a bit of pork, but, as no pig could
+be procured, a plump Saracen child was roasted as a substitute; and it was
+remarked that Richard was ever after partial to pork.
+
+There is little doubt but that our forefathers were harder livers than the
+present generation: even within the memory of man, drinking to excess is a
+vice seldom observed, excepting in some individuals belonging to the old
+school. The hours of refection have been singularly altered; and while our
+fashionable circles seldom sit down to table before eight o'clock in the
+evening, we find in olden chronicles that even royalty was used to dine at
+nine in the morning, more especially upon the Continent. In the Heptaemeron
+of the Queen of Navarre we find an account of the manner of spending the
+day:
+
+"As soon as the morning rose, they went to the chamber of Madame Oysille,
+whom they found already at her prayers; and when they had heard during a
+good hour her lecture, and then the mass, they went to dine at ten
+o'clock, and afterwards each privately retired to his room, but did not
+fail at noon to meet in the meadow. Vespers heard, they went to supper;
+and after having played a thousand sports in the meadow they retired to
+bed."
+
+During the reign of Charles V. of France, the court dined at ten, supped
+at seven, and retired to rest at nine. Holinshed gives the following
+curious description of our early diet: "Our tables are oftentimes more
+plentifully garnished than those of other nations, and this trade has
+continued with us since the very beginning; for, before the Romans found
+out and knew the way into our country, our predecessors fed largely upon
+flesh and milk, whereof there was great abundance in this isle, because
+they applied their chief studies unto pasturage and feeding.
+
+"In Scotland, likewise, they have given themselves unto very ample and
+large diet, wherein as for some respect nature doth make them equal with
+us, so otherwise they far exceed us in over much and distemperate
+gormandize, and so engross their bodies, that divers of them do oft become
+unapt to any other purpose than to spend their time in large tabling and
+belly cheer. In old times these North Britons did give themselves
+universally to great abstinence; and in time of war their soldiers would
+often feed but once, or twice at the most, in two or three days,
+especially if they held themselves in secret, or could have no issue out
+of their bogs and morasses, through the presence of an enemy; and in this
+distress they used to eat a certain kind of confection, whereof so much as
+a bean would qualify their hunger above common expectation. In those days,
+also, it was taken for a great offence over all to eat either goose, hare,
+or hen, because of a certain superstitious opinion which they had
+conceived of these three creatures. Amongst other things, baked meats,
+dishes never before this man's (James I.) days seen in Scotland, were
+generally so provided for by virtue of this act, that it was not lawful
+for any to eat of the same under the degree of a gentleman, and those only
+but on high and festival days. In number of dishes and changes of meat,
+the nobility of England (whose cooks are for the most part musical-headed
+Frenchmen and strangers) do most exceed; sith there is no day in manner
+that passeth over their heads, wherein they have not only beef, mutton,
+veal, lamb, kid, pork, cony, capon, pig, or so many of these as the season
+yieldeth, but also some portion of the red and fallow deer, beside great
+variety of fish and wild fowl, and thereto sundry other delicates, wherein
+the sweet hand of the seafaring Portingale is not wanting; so that for a
+man to dine with one of them, and to taste of every dish that standeth
+before him, is rather to yield unto a conspiracy, with a great deal of
+meat for the speedy suppression of natural health, than the use of a
+necessary mean to satisfy himself with a competent repast, to sustain his
+body withal. The chief part, likewise, of their daily provision is brought
+in before them commonly in silver vessels, if they be of the degree of
+barons, bishops, and upwards, and placed upon their tables; whereof when
+they have taken what it pleaseth them, the rest is reserved, and
+afterwards sent down to their serving-men and waiters.
+
+"The gentlemen and merchants keep much about one rate, and each of them
+contenteth himself with four, five, or six dishes, when they have but
+small resort; or, peradventure, with one or two, or three at the most,
+when they have no strangers. And yet their servants have their ordinary
+diet assigned, besides such as is left at their masters' boards, and not
+appointed to be brought thither the second time, which, nevertheless, is
+often seen, generally in venison, lamb, or some especial dish whereon the
+merchantman himself liketh to feed when it is cold.
+
+"At such times as the merchants do make their ordinary or voluntary
+feasts, it is a world to see what great provision is made of all manner of
+delicate meats from every quarter of the country, wherein, beside that
+they are often comparable herein to the nobility of the land, they will
+seldom regard any thing that the butcher usually killeth, but reject the
+same as not worthy to come in place. In such cases, also, _geliffes_ of
+all colours, mixed with a variety in the representation of sundry flowers,
+herbs, trees, forms of beasts, fish, fowls, and fruits; and thereunto
+_marchpane_ wrought with no small curiosity, tarts of divers hues and
+sundry denominations; conserves of old fruits, foreign and home-bred;
+suckets, codiniacs, marmalades, sugar-bread, ginger-bread, florentines,
+wild-fowl, venison of all sorts, and sundry outlandish confections,
+altogether seasoned with sugar, (which Pliny calls _mel ex arundinibus_, a
+device not common nor greatly used in old times at the table, but only in
+medicine, although it grew in Arabia, India, and Sicilia,) do generally
+bear the sway, besides infinite devices of our own not possible for me to
+remember. Of the potato, and such _venerous_ roots as are brought out of
+Spain, Portingale, and the Indies, to furnish our banquets, I speak not,
+wherein our _Mures_, of no less force, and to be had about Crosby
+Ravenswath, do now begin to have place.
+
+"And as all estates do exceed in strangeness and number of costly dishes,
+so these forget not to use the like excess in wine, insomuch as there is
+no kind to be had (neither any where more store of all sorts than in
+England, although we have none growing with us; but yearly the proportion
+of twenty or thirty thousand tun and upwards, notwithstanding the daily
+restraints on the same brought over to us) whereof at great meetings there
+is not some store to be had. Neither do I mean this of small wines only,
+such as claret, white, red, French, &c. which amount to about fifty-six
+sorts, according to the number of regions from whence they come; but also
+of the thirty kinds of Italian, Grecian, Spanish, Canarian, &c., whereof
+_Vernage_, _Cate-pument_, _Raspis_, _Muscadell_, _Romnie_, _Bastard Fire_,
+_Osey_, _Caprike_, claret, and malmsey, are not least of all accounted of,
+because of their strength and value. For as I have said of meat, so, the
+stronger the wine is, the more it is desired, by means thereof in old
+times, the best was called _Theologicum_ because it was had from the
+clergy and religious men, unto whose houses many of the laity would often
+send for bottles filled with the same, being sure that they would neither
+drink nor be served of the worst, or such as was any ways mingled or
+brewed by the vintner; nay, the merchant would have thought that his soul
+should have gone straightways to the devil, if he should have served him
+with any other than the best. Furthermore, when they have had their course
+which nature yieldeth, sundry sorts of artificial stuff, as _ypocras_ and
+wormwood wine, must in like manner succeed in turns, besides stale ale and
+strong beer, which nevertheless bears the greatest brunt in drinking, and
+are of so many sorts and ages as it pleaseth the brewer to make.
+
+"In feasting, the artisans do exceed after their manner, especially at
+bridals, purifications of women, and such like odd meetings, where it is
+incredible to tell what meat is consumed and spent; each one bringing such
+a dish, or so many as his wife and he do consult upon, but always with
+this consideration, that the _leefer_ (the more liberal) friend shall have
+the best entertainment. This is also commonly seen at these banquets, that
+the good man of the house is not charged with any thing, saving bread,
+drink, house-room, and fire.
+
+"Heretofore there hath been much more time spent in eating and drinking
+than commonly is in these days; for whereas of old we had breakfasts in
+the forenoon, _beverages_ or _nuntions_ after dinner, and thereto _rere
+suppers_, generally when it was time to go to rest (a toy brought in by
+Hard Canutus), now these odd repasts, thanked be God! are very well left,
+and each one in manner (except here and there some young hungry stomach
+that cannot fast till dinner-time contenteth himself with dinner and
+supper only). The Normans, disliking the gormandize of Canutus, ordained,
+after their arrival, that no table should be covered above once in the
+day; which Huntingdon imputeth to their avarice: but, in the end, either
+waxing weary of their own frugality, or suffering the cockle of old custom
+to overgrow the good corn of their new constitution, they fell to such
+liberty, that in often feeding they surmounted Canutus surnamed the Hardy;
+for whereas he covered his table but three or four times in the day, they
+spread their cloths five or six times, and in such wise as I before
+rehearsed. They brought in also the custom of long and stately sitting at
+meat, which is not yet left, although it be a great expense of time, and
+worthy reprehension; for the nobility and gentlemen, and merchantmen,
+especially at great meetings, do sit commonly till two or three of the
+clock at afternoon, so that with many it is an hard matter to rise from
+the table to go to evening prayer, and return from thence to come time
+enough to supper."
+
+The early prevalence of drinking in England seems to have been derived
+from our foreign intercourse. In the reign of Elizabeth and James I. we
+find various statutes against ebriety.
+
+Tom Nash, in his "Pierce Pennilesse" says, "Superfluity in drink is a sin
+that ever since we have mixed ourselves with the Low Countries is counted
+honourable; but, before we knew their lingering wars, was held in that
+highest degree of hatred that might be. Then, if we had seen a man go
+wallowing in the streets, or lain sleeping under the board, we should have
+spit at him, and warned all our friends out of his company."
+
+According to our laws intoxication is looked upon as an aggravation of any
+offence. Sir Edward Coke calls a drunkard _voluntarius daemon_. The Romans
+thought differently: with them intoxication was often deemed an
+extenuation of guilt, "Per vinum delapsis capitalis poena remittitur."
+The Greeks, more severe, had a law of Pittacus that enacted the infliction
+of a double punishment on those who committed a crime when drunk.
+
+That hard drinking was introduced from Flanders and Holland, and other
+northern countries, seems probable from the derivation of many of the
+expressions used in carousing. The phrase of being "half-seas over," as
+applied to a state of drunkenness, originated from _op zee_, which in
+Dutch meant _over sea_; and Gifford informs us that it was a name given
+to a stupifying beer introduced in England from the Low Countries, and
+called _op zea_; thus Jonson in the Alchemist:
+
+  I do not like the dulness of your eye;
+  It hath a heavy cast, 'tis _up see Dutch_.
+
+An inebriating draught was also called an _up see freeze_, from the strong
+_Friesland_ beer. The word "carouse," according to Gifford and Blount, is
+derived from the name of a large glass, called by the Danes _ruuse_, or
+from the German words _gar_, _all_, and _ausz out_: hence drink _all out_.
+
+Nash, in the work above quoted, says, "Now he is nobody that cannot drink
+_super nagulum_, carouse the hunters' _hoope_, quaff _upsee freze crosse_,
+with healths, gloves, mumpes, frolickes, and a thousand such domineering
+inventions." The origin of these slang terms is not quite evident.
+Drinking _super nagulum_, or on the nail, was a northern custom which
+consisted in only leaving one drop in the cup, which was poured upon the
+thumb-nail, to prove that justice had been done to the potation or toast;
+and that, to use the language of modern drinkers, the glass was _cleared_.
+This custom is alluded to by Bishop Hall in his "Mundus alter et idem," in
+which the Duke of Tenderbelly exclaims, "'Let never this goodly-formed
+goblet of wine go jovially through me:' and then he set it to his mouth,
+stole it off every drop, save a little remainder, which he was by custom
+to set upon his thumb's nail and lick it off." In Fletcher we find the
+phrase
+
+  I am thine _ad unguem_;
+
+which meant he was ready to drink with him to this extent. The term _hoop_
+alludes to the marks of hoops being traced upon drinking-pots to point out
+certain measures. Jack Cade says, "The three-hooped pot shall have ten
+hoops, and I will make it felony to drink small beer!" Hence probably the
+common saying of "drinking deep," or to the last hoop. The _peg tankard_
+was another measured vessel used in the jollifications of our forefathers,
+and is still to be found in some parts of England, more especially in
+Derbyshire. Pegge in his "Anonymiana," thus describes them: "They have in
+the inside a row of eight pins, one above the other, from top to bottom;
+the tankard holds two quarts, so that there is a gill of ale between each
+peg or pin. The first person who drank was to empty to the first peg, the
+second was to drink to the next, and so on; by which means the pegs were
+so many measures to the compotators, making them all drink alike or the
+same quantity." In Archbishop Anselm's Canons made in the council at
+London in 1102, priests are enjoined not to go to drinking-bouts, nor to
+_drink pegs_: "Ut presbyteri non eant ad potationes, nec ad _pinnas_
+bibant."
+
+_Gloves_, also called _shoeing-horns_, were relishes to encourage
+drinking, like our modern _devils_, introduced for a similar purpose.
+Bishop Hall says in his description of a carousal, "Then comes me up a
+service of _shoeing-horns_ of all sorts,--salt cakes, red-herrings,
+anchovies, and gammon of bacon, and abundance of such _pullers on_."
+Massinger thus describes these incentives:
+
+                                  I usher
+  Such an unexpected dainty bit for breakfast
+  As never yet I cooked; 'tis not _botargo_,
+  Fried frogs, potatoes marrow'd, cavear,
+  Carps' tongues, the pith of an English chine of beef,
+  Nor our Italian delicate oil'd mushrooms,
+  And yet a _drawer on too_; and if you show not
+  An appetite, and a strong one, I'll not say
+  To eat it, but devour it, without grace too,
+  (For it will not stay a preface,) I am shamed,
+  And all my past provocatives will be jeer'd at.
+
+The _botargo_ was a relish made of mullet's roes, and highly seasoned,
+much in use among the Italians.
+
+Amongst many other curious frolics of hard drinkers, we find the use of
+what they called _flap-dragons_, or _snap-dragon_, which consisted in
+igniting combustible substances, which were swallowed while floating on
+the glass of liquor. Johnson describes them "a play in which they catch
+raisins out of burning brandy, and, extinguishing them by closing the
+mouth, eat them." This prank is not uncommon to the present day in
+boarding-schools in certain festive entertainments of the _young ladies_.
+
+Drunkenness being considered a beastly propensity, its gradations were
+fixed by animal comparisons. In a curious treatise on drunkards by George
+Gascoigne, we find the following illustration of these degrees: "The first
+is _ape-drunk_, and he leaps and sings and hallos and danceth for the
+hearers; the second is _lion-drunk_, and he flings the pots about the
+house, calls the hostess w----, breaks the glass windows with his dagger,
+and is apt to quarrel with any man that speaks to him; the third is
+_swine-drunk_, heavy, lumpish, and sleepy, and cries for a little more
+drink and a few more clothes; the fourth is _sheep-drunk_, wise in his own
+conceit, when he cannot bring forth a right word; the fifth is
+_maudlin-drunk_, when a fellow will weep for kindness in the midst of his
+drink, and kiss you, saying, 'By G--! Captain, I love thee! Go thy ways;
+thou dost not think so often of me as I do of you; I would I could not
+love thee so well as I do!' and then he puts his finger in his eye and
+cries; the sixth is _martin-drunk_, when a man is drunk, and drinks
+himself sober ere he stir; the seventh is _goat-drunk_, when in
+drunkenness he hath no mind but in lechery; the eighth is _fox-drunk_,
+when he is crafty drunk, as many of the Dutchmen be, which will never
+bargain but when they are drunk. All these species, and more, I have seen
+practised _in one company at one sitting_."
+
+Drunkenness has at various periods been resorted to in religious and
+political fervour. Daring the usurpation of Cromwell, the Cavaliers were
+wont to drink their king's health in bumpers of wine in which some crumbs
+of bread had been thrown, exclaiming, "God send this _crum-well_ down!"
+and Whitelocke, in his Memorials, records the following barbarous
+Catilinian orgies: "Five drunkards agree to drink the king's health in
+their blood, and that each of them should cut out a piece of his buttock,
+and fry it upon the gridiron, which was done by four of them, of whom one
+did bleed so exceedingly that they were fain to send for a chirurgeon, and
+so were discovered. The wife of one of them, hearing that her husband was
+amongst them, came to the room, and, taking up a pair of tongs, laid about
+her, and so saved the cutting of her husband's flesh."
+
+The laws enacted to prevent drunkenness at various periods and by
+different governments, are curious. Domitian ordered all the vine-plants
+in the Roman territory to be rooted out. Charles IX. of France issued a
+similar edict. In 1536, under Francis I, a law was passed sentencing
+drunkards to imprisonment on bread and water for the first offence; a
+public whipping punished a second infringement; and, on reiteration,
+banishment and the loss of ears. The ancients, equally aware of the danger
+that arose from intoxication, were also anxious to prevent it. Draco
+inflicted capital punishments. Lycurgus destroyed the vineyards. The
+Athenians had officers, named _ophthalmos_, to prevent excesses in liquor
+drinking. In Rome, patricians were not allowed the use of wine until they
+had attained their thirty-fifth year. Wine was only drunk pure in the
+beginning of sober repasts in honour of _Deus Sospes_, and afterwards
+mixed with water in honour of _Jupiter Servator_. Notwithstanding these
+wise examples in support of prudent precepts, it appears that drunkenness
+was a common vice amongst the Romans. Tiberius was surnamed _Biberius_;
+and it was said of the parasite Bibulus, "dum vixit, aut bibit aut
+minxit." Aurelianus had officers of his household whose duty was to
+intoxicate foreign ambassadors; and Cato's partiality for the juice of the
+grape has been recorded by Horace,
+
+  Narratur et prisci Catonis
+  Saepe mero caluisse virtus.
+
+In the middle ages, drinking was resorted to by the monks as a religious
+libation; and they also drank to the dead, a custom which was condemned as
+idolatrous. These excesses were restrained by various regulations, and in
+817 the quantity of wine allowed each monk was fixed at five pints.
+Charlemagne, in his Capitularies, forbids the provocation of drinking
+healths and hob-nobbing (_pleger et trinquer_). Temperance societies are
+not modern institutions. In 1517, Sigismund de Dietrichstein established
+one under the auspices of St. Christopher; a similar association was
+formed in 1600 by Maurice Duke of Hesse, which, however, allowed a knight
+to drink seven _bocaux_, or glasses, at each meal, but only twice in the
+day. The size of these _bocaux_ is not recorded, but no doubt it was an
+endeavour to obtain a comparative condition of sobriety. Another temperate
+society, under the name of the Golden Ring, was instituted by Frederic V.
+Count Palatine.
+
+Whether the influence of temperate societies or their advocates will tend
+to diminish the consumption of wine and spirituous liquors in the British
+empire, it is difficult to say. Hitherto every act of interference, either
+from individuals or on the part of the legislature, has proved not only
+abortive, but has increased the evil it was intended to remedy. The
+imposition of heavy duties only threw the distillation of spirits into the
+hands of illicit speculators instead of respectable capitalists; and, as
+M'Culloch justly remarks, "superadded the atrocities of the smuggler to
+the idleness and dissipation of the drunkard." During the latter part of
+the reign of George I. and the earlier period of George II. gin-drinking
+was so prevalent, that it was denounced from the pulpit and the press. At
+length ministers determined to make a vigorous effort to put a stop to the
+further use of spirituous liquors except as a cordial or medicine. To
+accomplish this end, a duty of twenty shillings was laid on spirits,
+exclusive of a heavy licence duty to retailers, while a fine of 100_l._
+was levied on all defaulters. But instead of the anticipated effects,
+this act produced results directly opposite: the respectable dealers
+withdrew from a trade proscribed by the legislature; and the sale of
+spirits fell into the hands of the lowest and most profligate characters.
+The officers of the revenue were hunted down by the populace, and did not
+dare to enforce the law; and Tindal, in his Continuation of Rapin, says,
+"within two years of the passing of this act, it had become so odious and
+contemptible, that policy as well as humanity forced the commissioners of
+excise to mitigate its penalties." During these two years twelve thousand
+persons were convicted of offences connected with the sale of spirits,
+while no exertion could check the torrent of smuggling, and seven millions
+of gallons illicitly distilled were annually consumed in London and its
+environs. Our present consumption of British, Colonial and Foreign spirits
+is immense, but not equal to what it was at the period alluded to. The
+following is the account of this consumption in 1832:
+
+  In England,  1,530,988 imperial gallons, Foreign.
+               3,377,507        "          Colonial.
+               7,259,287        "          British.
+  In Scotland,    69,236     gallons,      Foreign.
+                 112,026        "          Colonial.
+               5,407,097        "          British.
+  In Ireland,     33,413        "          Foreign.
+                  24,432        "          Colonial.
+               8,657,756        "          British.
+
+In that year, 1832, the total amount of spirits that paid duty in the
+United Kingdom was 2,646,258 gallons, yielding a revenue of 8,483,247_l._
+In the same year the appearance and dread of the cholera produced a
+singular increase in the consumption of brandy. In the preceding year,
+1831, the entries for home use in England had amounted to 1,194,717
+gallons; but during this state of alarm, it increased to 1,508,924; in
+1833, the danger having subsided, the consumption declined to its former
+level, and did not exceed 1,356,620 gallons.
+
+From the above observations it may be inferred, that no penal enactments,
+no denunciations of canting senators or fanatic preachers, will ever
+succeed in checking the evils which must arise from excesses in the use of
+spirituous liquors. Gluttony and drunkenness can only be combated by the
+salutary effects of good example held out by the superior classes of
+society; by a gradual improvement in the moral education of the lower
+grades, for whom salutary amusements should be procured when a cheerful
+repose from their weekly labour will no longer be considered a breach of
+the sabbath. Diffusion of knowledge and habits of industry will do more
+than sanctimonious admonitions, and the Penny Magazines may be considered
+more hostile to gin-drinking than the ranting of pseudo-saints.
+
+In regard to the quantity that we should eat, no rules can be established,
+as individuals differ widely from each other, both as to their capacity
+and their inclination. Mr. Abernethy maintained, that it would be well if
+the public would follow the advice of Mr. Addison, given in the Spectator,
+of reading the writings of L. Cornaro, who, having a weak constitution,
+which he seemed to have ruined by intemperance, so that he was expected to
+die at the age of 32, did at that period adopt a strict regimen, allowing
+himself only 12 ounces daily. To this remark Dr. Paris very properly
+observes, "When I see the habits of Cornaro so incessantly introduced as
+an example for imitation, and as the standard of dietetic perfection, I am
+really inclined to ask with Feggio, 'Did God create Lewis Cornaro to be a
+rule for all mankind in what they were to eat and drink?'"
+
+In regard to the dyspeptic, Dr. Philips has given the very best advice in
+the following paragraph:
+
+"The dyspeptic should carefully attend to the first feeling of satiety.
+There is a moment when the relish given by the appetite ceases; a single
+mouthful taken after this oppresses a weak stomach. If he eats slowly and
+carefully attends to this feeling, he will never overload the stomach." To
+this Dr. Paris adds, "Let him remember to _eat slowly_." "This is an
+important condition--for when we eat too fast we introduce a greater
+quantity of food into the stomach than the gastric juice can at once
+combat with; the consequence of which is, that hunger may continue for
+some time after the stomach has received more than would be sufficient,
+under the circumstances, to induce satiety."
+
+The introduction of French cookery in every part of England amongst the
+wealthy will render attention to dietetic rules still more important than
+in former days; although Dean Swift, in his time, observed, "That modern
+epicurism had become so prevalent, that the world must be encompassed,
+before a washerwoman can sit down to breakfast."
+
+
+
+
+INFLUENCE OF IMAGINATION.
+
+
+Innumerable are the diseases that arise from our busy fancy. We are all
+subject to the tyrannic sway of imagination's empire. Under this mighty
+influence man displays energies which lead him boldly to dare danger and
+complicated sufferings, or he is reduced to the most degraded state of
+miserable despondency. These diseases are the more fearful, since they
+rarely yield to physical aid, and it is seldom that moral influence is
+sufficiently persuasive to combat their inveteracy. It is idle to tell the
+timid hypochondriac that he is not ill; the mere circumstance of his
+believing himself sick, constitutes a serious disorder. His constant
+apprehensions derange his functions until an organic affection arises. The
+patient who fancies that he labours under an affection of the heart
+disturbs the circulation, which is ever influenced by our moral emotions,
+till at last this disturbance occasions the very malady which he dreaded.
+These aberrations of the mind arise from various causes,--mental emotions,
+constitution, climate, diet, hereditary disposition, education. Tertullian
+called philosophy and medicine twin sisters; both may become powerful
+agents in controlling our imagination.
+
+The ancients have variously endeavoured to determine the seat of this
+faculty. Aristotle placed it in the heart, which, from the sense of its
+oppression observed in acute moral sufferings he considered the origin of
+our nerves, or sensorium. Avicenus and other philosophers located
+imagination in the anterior portion of the brain, which he called the
+_prow_; memory in the posterior part, which he denominated the _poop_, and
+judgment in the centre of the organ, or what mariners would term
+_mid-ship_. The notions of Gall and Spurzheim had long since been
+anticipated by philosophers and physicians, both in regard to the division
+of the cerebral organ, and the external appearance of the cranium, which
+denoted their preponderancy. That temperature exercises a powerful
+influence over our mental faculties is evident. In warm climates we find a
+greater exaltation of the mind, more enthusiasm and vivid emotion, than in
+northern latitudes. The East is the land of fancy, illustrated by their
+wondrous tales of fiction, and their vivid and fantastic imagery,
+displayed in the chimeras and the arabesques of their palaces and temples.
+In these regions all the passions are uncontrollable and wild. Love is
+characterized by furious or dark jealousy, according to the rank and
+power of the lover; and ambition is signalized by bloodthirsty and
+promiscuous barbarity. No opposition can be brooked: man is either a
+ferocious tyrant, or an abject slave; subjection alone preventing the
+oppressed from being as sanguinary as the oppressor. Government is
+despotism, and religion fatality and fanaticism. In northern climes, on
+the contrary, every thing is cold and calculating. The almighty passion of
+love may prevail; but its demonstrations are morose, concentrated,
+although not less ferocious than under a southern sky. In the one country,
+man seeks the dark shelter of the forest, and the solitude of the
+mountain, to ponder over his grievances, or soliloquise on his sufferings;
+in the other he courts the roseate bower and the orange grove, to lull him
+into a soft repose which may calm his feelings by temporary oblivion, to
+be roused again to action by the stimulus of opium, tobacco, and a burning
+sun. The ancients were so fully convinced of this influence of the
+amorphous constitution, that Lucianus tells us that the Abderites (a
+people so remarkable for their stupidity and sluggishness that _Abderitica
+mens_ was proverbial), having witnessed the performance of one of
+Euripides's plays under the fierce solar rays, became fired with such
+enthusiasm, that they ran about the streets in a wild phrensy, repeating
+aloud his sublime verses, until the coolness of the evening restored them
+to reason and to their native torpor. So predominant are these feelings,
+which owe their character to climate, that they regulate our ideas of a
+future state, as well as our conduct on earth. The paradise of the
+Mohammedan is a blessed region of everlasting pleasure and sensual
+enjoyments; beauteous houris await the soul, which is to luxuriate in
+corporeal voluptuousness; and the purple wine, forbidden to the living, is
+to flow in delectable streams, to delight the dead, who may, in the
+seventh paradise inhabit a land where rivers of wine, and milk, and honey,
+are ever flowing; where evergreen trees bend under luxurious fruits, whose
+very pips are transformed into lovely maidens, so sweet--to use their own
+metaphorical language--that the ocean would lose its bitterness if they
+did but condescend to spit in its briny waters; and all these enjoyments
+are secured to the true believer by hosts of guardian angels, who have
+seventy thousand mouths, and seventy thousand tongues, to praise God
+seventy thousand times each day in seventy thousand languages: and such is
+their horror of earthly heat, that in the other world one of the greatest
+rewards is the delight of being able to sleep under the cool shade of a
+tree each leaf of which is of such an expanse that a man might travel
+fifty thousand years under its benign protection. How different is the
+paradise of Odin! There, it is true, the soul of the departed dwells in
+magnificent palaces; but what are his enjoyments compared to those of the
+sensual Asiatic! Instead of soft music, the din of war is constantly to
+resound in his ear, while he luxuriates in drinking strong beer and
+hydromel, poured by the fair Valknas, the houris of the Vahalla paradise,
+into the skulls of his enemies. Their God is called the god of crows; and
+two of these sable familiars, _Hugin_, who represents the mind, and
+_Nunnin_, or memory, are constantly perched upon his shoulders, until they
+take flight to seek information for their master.
+
+To this day it is said that the Tartars fancy, that, in their future abode
+of bliss, their reward will be a sort of Platonic affection, and a
+perpetual and undisturbed state of meditation; in short, a celestial _far
+niente_. So convinced were the ancients of this effect of peculiar
+temperature, that the morose Heraclitus maintained that the power of the
+mind arose from a _dry splendour_; that all things were created by solar
+heat; and when ill himself, he sought health by endeavouring to dispel
+watery accumulations by the heat of a dunghill. Ptolemy and Posidonius
+assert, that southern climes engender genius and wit, and are better
+calculated for the study of things divine; and Plato, Hippocrates, and
+Galen, on the same principle, affirm that stupidity and forgetfulness are
+produced by cold and humidity. The celebrated Descartes, in his younger
+days, states that he felt his enthusiasm moderated by the damps and cold
+of Holland; and that he ever experienced more facility in pursuing his
+philosophic studies in winter than in summer. Poets, on the contrary,
+court the glowing rays of an inspiring sun, and their Phoebus and their
+Apollo is the conductor and the inspirer of the Muses:
+
+  Cynthius aurem vellit et admonuit.
+
+That the energies of our intellectual faculties are under the influence of
+our food, is a fact long since observed. The stupidity of the athletae, who
+lived upon coarse bread (coliphium) and underdone meat, was proverbial;
+even Hercules laboured under the imputation of a mind somewhat obtuse. Our
+genius, our energies are all affected by our mode of living. The rule of
+_Sanis omnia sana_, of Celsus, is applicable to very few individuals; and
+all our faculties may be rendered more keen or less vivid by temperance or
+excesses. As the nature of our _ingesta_ influences the functions of our
+digestive organs, so do these organs in their turn influence our moral
+powers when our physical energies are elevated or depressed. Our courage,
+our strength of mind, our religious and our moral train of thinking, are
+under the control of diet. Fasting has ever been considered as
+predisposing to meditation and ascetic contemplation. Tertullian tells us,
+that we should approach the altars fasting, or having eaten nothing but
+dry substances. All the religious ceremonies of the Egyptians were
+preceded by abstinence, and their sacrificators were allowed neither
+animal food nor wine. Indeed, the Egyptian priesthood were remarkable for
+their abstinence and self-denial, fearful, according to Plutarch, that
+"the body should not sit light upon the soul." Similar precautions were
+observed with animals, and the ox apis was not allowed to drink the waters
+of the Nile, as they were considered of a gross and fattening nature; even
+upon festive days they observed a similar moderation. It was customary, on
+the 9th day of the month Thoth, for every one to eat fried fish at their
+doors--the priests only conformed to the custom by burning theirs at the
+appointed time. In general they abstained from most sorts of pulse,
+especially beans and lentils, onions, garlic, leeks, mutton, pork; and on
+certain days of purification, even salt was forbidden. Many of their fasts
+lasted from seven to forty-two days, during which time they abstained
+entirely from animal food, from herbs and vegetables, and the indulgence
+of any passion. Similar privations were observed by all those who attended
+the mysteries of Juno and Ceres. In Holy Writ we find that it was after
+abstinence that Divine inspiration illumined the elect. The angel appeared
+unto Daniel after he had been three weeks without tasting flesh, or wine,
+or "pleasant bread." In the Acts, x., we find that the vision appeared to
+Peter, "when he had become hungry and would have eaten." Moses fasted
+forty days on Mount Sinai. We find in Jonah, that even cattle were
+frequently subject to this mortification, when he proclaimed in Nineveh
+that neither man nor beast, herd nor flock, should taste any thing; "let
+them not feed nor drink water." Congius Ripensis tells us, that the same
+restriction was imposed by the Lacedaemonians on their Helots and all
+domestic animals. Fasting was considered by the early Christians as an
+essential rite. St. Anthony prescribed to his disciples one meal of dry
+bread, salt and water, in the day without any food on Wednesdays and
+Fridays. In the monastery of Mocham, in Egypt, a monk of the name of Jonas
+was beatified for having lived until the age of eighty-five, working hard
+in the garden, and without any other food than raw herbs and grass steeped
+in vinegar; this abstemious cenobite added to his claims to canonization
+by always sleeping in his chair. St. Hilarius only ate fifteen figs and
+six ounces of barley bread _per diem_. St. Julian Sabus retired to a
+cavern, where he only luxuriated once in the week on millet-bread, with
+salt and water; and St. Macarius resolved to outdo him by restraining his
+sustenance to a few cabbage-leaves every Sunday. Not only did these
+gastric martyrs attribute their holy visions to abstinence, but they
+considered it as the source of their longevity. Thus, St. Anthony lived to
+the age of one hundred and five; St. Paphinus to ninety on dry bread; and
+St. Paul the Hermit thrived for one hundred and fifty-nine years upon
+dates. It is not derogatory to their supposed divine mission to say that
+all these men were as enthusiastic as the fakirs of the east.
+
+So acceptable to the Deity was starvation considered, that at various
+periods it was enforced by penal laws. Charlemagne denounces the
+punishment of death on all those who transgressed in this respect; and, by
+an old Polish edict, any sinner who ate on a fast-day was sentenced to
+have all his teeth drawn. However, monkish ingenuity endeavoured to elude
+these severe enactments, by interpreting the letter instead of the spirit;
+and we find, in the regulations of a German monastery, the following
+accommodation, "_Liquidum non frangit jejunium_," by which, on days of
+penance, the monks only took rich soups and succulent broth. In latter
+days, being permitted to eat fish in Lent, they saw no reason why fowl
+should not be included, on the authority of Genesis, that the waters
+brought forth every winged fowl after his kind. This relaxation in
+culinary discipline called forth loud indignation from many prelates. St.
+Ambrosius attributes the profligacy of the monks to these excesses; and
+Tertullian considers the fall of the Israelites as the punishment of their
+neglect in this respect. Our Shakspeare illustrates this belief in the
+influence of fasting as preparatory to inspiration.
+
+  Last night the very gods shew'd me a vision--
+  I _fast_ and pray'd for their intelligence.
+
+Not satisfied with this mystification in food, we find some austere monks
+endeavouring to reduce carnal appetites by other means, such as by
+blood-letting, _monialem minuere_; and claustral flesh was brought down by
+phlebotomy and purging at regular periods. To this day we find that
+well-behaved Turks, during the Ramasan, make it a godly point never to
+swallow their saliva.
+
+This digression on fasting was somewhat necessary, to show how much our
+diet tends to modify our being. It is well known that troops will display
+more activity and courage when fasting than after a meal; and an ingenious
+physician of our day is perfectly correct when he attributes a daring
+spirit or a pusillanimous feeling to the influence of our stomach.
+
+Intellectual weakness, frequently brought on by excesses, has proved a
+rich source to empiricism; hence the belief in mystic and supernatural
+agencies, and the power of certain nostrums. Coloured fountain water and
+bread pills have made the fortune of various quacks, when imaginary cures
+have relieved imaginary diseases. In our days, numerous have been the
+recoveries attributed to Hohenloe's prayers. Trusting to mystic numbers,
+three, five, seven, or nine pills have produced effects, when other
+numbers less fortunate would have failed. To this hour mankind, even in
+enlightened nations, are fettered by these absurd trammels. Credulity, and
+superstition her twin sister, have in all ages been the source whence
+priestcraft, and quackery have derived their wealth. Next to these rich
+mines we may rank fashion. The adoption of any particular medicine by
+princes and nobles will endow it with as great a power as that which was
+supposed to be vested in regal hands in the cure of scrofula, hence called
+_king's evil_; and we have too many instances of such cures having been
+effected by a monarch's touch to doubt the fact. The history of the potato
+is a strong illustration of the influence of authority: for more than two
+centuries the use of this invaluable plant was vehemently opposed; at
+last, Louis XV. wore a bunch of its flowers in the midst of his courtiers,
+and the consumption of the root became universal in France. The warm bath,
+so highly valued by the Romans, once fell into disrepute, because the
+Emperor Augustus had been cured by a cold one, which for a time was
+invariably resorted to. Thus Horace exclaims,
+
+  ----Caput ac stomachum supponere fontibus audent
+  Clusinis, Gabiosque petunt et frigida rura.
+
+Unfortunately, the means which had relieved Augustus killed his nephew
+Marcellus; and the _Laconicum_ and the _Tepidarium_ were again crowded
+with the "fashion."
+
+Persecution and its prohibitions have also been most powerful in working
+upon our imagination. Rare and forbidden fruits will always be considered
+more desirable than those we can easily obtain. The history of tobacco is
+a striking instance of this influence of difficulty upon the mind of man.
+Pope Urban VIII. prohibited its use in any shape, under the penalty of
+excommunication. It was afterwards forbidden in Russia, under the pain of
+having the offender's nose cut off. In some cantons of Switzerland the
+prohibition was introduced in the decalogue, next to the commandment
+against adultery. Amurath IV. ordered all persons taken in _flagranti
+delicto_ smoking tobacco, to be impaled, on the principle that its use
+checked the progress of population. The denunciation of our James I. may
+be considered as a masterpiece of the imaginary horrors attributed to this
+obnoxious weed. "It is," he says, "a custome loathsome to the eye,
+hatefull to the nose, harmefull to the braine, dangerous to the lungs, and
+in the black stinking fume thereof neerest resembling the horrible Stygian
+smoake of the pit that is bottomlesse." During the reign of this monarch
+such a restriction might have been necessary, unless the consumption of
+tobacco enriched the exchequer: for it appears that some _amateurs_
+consumed no less than L500 per annum in smoke. Surely we should reap some
+flourishing revenue from fashion and credulity, when we find our
+government awarding L5000 to a _certain_ Johanna Stephens for her
+discovery of _certain_ medicines for the cure of _calculi_! The same
+imaginary hope induced many a credulous creature to minister to the
+necessities of another Johanna, for _certain_ expectations. Alas! how this
+indefinite _sense_ exhibits the infinite folly of poor humanity!
+
+A morbid imagination, although frequently the source of much misery, will
+prove in many cases the fountain-head of many noble qualities; its
+exaltation constitutes genius, which is, in fact, a natural disposition of
+individual organization sometimes bordering upon insanity. "_Non est
+magnum ingenium sine mixtura dementiae_," says Seneca; and Montaigne
+observes, "De quoi se fait la plus subtile folie que de la plus subtile
+sagesse? il n'y a qu'un demi-tour a passer de l'une a l'autre." Aristotle
+asserts that all the great men of his time were melancholy and
+hypochondriac. The ancient and eastern nations entertained a singular idea
+regarding men of innate genius, and possessed of more than common
+attributes; they fancied that they were the first-born, and the offsprings
+of illicit love: Zoroaster, Confucius, Mahomet, Vishnou, were born of
+virgins; and Theseus, Hercules, Castor and Pollux, and Romulus, were all
+illegitimate.
+
+So prone is a lively imagination to a derangement of the intellectual
+harmony, that the greatest care should be taken during the youthful
+development to resort to a sound and proper exercise. The constant
+tendency to wild and supernatural visions, the disregard of every daily
+and vulgar matter of fact consideration, soaring in regions of fiction,
+should engage our incessant vigilance, such a state of mind, as
+Abercrombie justly observes, "tends in a most material manner to prevent
+the due exercise of those nobler powers which are directed towards the
+cultivation both of science and of virtue," and Foster has thus
+beautifully illustrated this subject in his essays.
+
+"The influence of this habit of dwelling on the beautiful fallacious forms
+of imagination, will accompany the mind into the most serious speculations
+or rather musings, on the real world, and what is to be done in it and
+expected; as the image which the eye acquires from looking at any dazzling
+object, still appears before it wherever it turns. The vulgar materials,
+that constitute the actual economy of the world, will rise up to its sight
+in fictitious forms, which it cannot disenchant into plain reality, nor
+will ever suspect to be deceptive. It cannot go about with sober, rational
+inspection and ascertain the nature and value of all things around it--in
+that paradise it walks delighted, till some imperious circumstance of real
+life call it thence, and gladly escapes thither again when the avocation
+is past. If a tenth part of the felicities that have been enjoyed, the
+great actions that have been performed, the beneficial institutions that
+have been established, and the beautiful objects that have been seen in
+that happy region, could have been imported into this terrestial
+place!--what a delightful thing the world would have been to awake each
+morning to see such a world once more!"
+
+Of the miseries the hypochondriacs experience the following extract of a
+letter to a physician will afford a specimen: "My poor body is a burning
+furnace, my nerves red-hot coals, my blood is boiling oil; all sleep has
+fled, and I am suffering martyrdom. I am in agony when I lie on my back; I
+cannot lie on either side; and I endure excruciating torture when I seek
+relief by lying on my stomach; and, to add to my misery, I can neither
+sit, stand, nor walk." The fancies of hypochondriacs are frequently of the
+most extraordinary nature: one patient imagines that he is in such a state
+of obesity as to prevent his passing through the door of his chamber or
+his house; another impressed with the idea that he is made of glass, will
+not sit down for fear of cracking; a third seems convinced that his head
+is empty; and an intelligent American, holding a high judicial seat in our
+West Indian colonies, could not divest himself of the occasional
+conviction of his being transformed into a turtle.
+
+The most melancholy record of the miseries of hypochondriacism is to be
+found in the diary of Dr. Walderstein of Gottingen. He was a man much
+deformed in person, and his mind seemed as distorted as his body. Although
+of deep learning and research, and convinced of the absurdity of his
+impressions, yet he was unable to resist their baneful influence. "My
+misfortune," says the doctor, "is, that I never exist in this world, but
+rather in possible combinations created by my imagination to my
+conscience. They occupy a large portion of my time, and my reason has not
+the power to banish them. My malady, in fact, is the faculty of extracting
+poison from every circumstance in life; so much so that I often felt the
+most wretched being because I had not been able to sneeze three times
+together. One night when I was in bed I felt a sudden fear of fire, and
+gradually became as much oppressed by imaginary heat as though my room
+were in flames. While in this situation, a fire-bell in the neighbourhood
+sounded, and added to my intense sufferings. I do not blush at what might
+be called my superstition any more than I should blush in acknowledging
+that my senses inform me that the earth does not move. My error forms the
+_body_ of my judgment, and I thank God that he has given it a _soul_
+capable of correcting it. When I have been perfectly free from pain, as is
+not unfrequently the case when I am in bed, my sense of this happiness has
+brought tears of gratitude in my eyes. I once dreamt," adds Walderstein,
+"that I was condemned to be burnt alive. I was very calm, and reasoned
+coolly during the execution of my sentence. 'Now,' I said to myself, 'I am
+burning, but not yet burnt; and by-and-by I shall be reduced to a cinder.'
+This was all I thought, and I did nothing but think. When, upon awaking, I
+reflected upon my dream, I was by no means pleased with it, for I was
+afraid I should become _all thought and no feeling_." It is strange that
+this fear of thought, assuming a corporeal form in deep affliction, had
+occurred to our poet Rowe, when he exclaims in the Fair Penitent, "_Turn
+not to thought my brain_." "What is very distressing," continues the
+unfortunate narrator, "is, that when I am ill I can think nothing, feel
+nothing, without bringing it home to myself. It seems to me that the whole
+world is a mere machine, expressly formed to make me feel my sufferings in
+every possible manner." What a fearful avowal from a reflecting and
+intelligent man! Does it not illustrate Rousseau's definition of
+reason--_the knowledge of our folly_.
+
+Dr. Rush mentions a man who imagined that he had a Caffre in his stomach
+who had got into it at the Cape of Good Hope, and tormented him ever
+since. Pinel relates the case of an unfortunate man who believed that he
+had been guillotined, but his innocence having been made complete after
+his execution, his judges decided that his head should be restored to him,
+but the person intrusted with this operation had made a mistake, and put
+on a wrong head. Dr. Conolly knew a man who really believed that he had
+been hanged, but had been brought to life by galvanism, but he maintained
+that this operation had not restored the whole of his vitality.
+
+Jacobi relates the case of a man confined in the lunatic asylum at
+Wurtzburg, in other respects rational, of quiet, discreet habits, so that
+he was employed in the domestic business of the house, but who laboured
+under the impression that there was a person concealed in his stomach,
+with whom he held frequent conversations. He often perceived the absurdity
+of this idea, and grieved in acknowledging and reflecting that he was
+under the influence of so groundless a persuasion, but he never could get
+rid of it. "It was very curious to observe," adds our intelligent author,
+"how, when he had but an instant before cried what nonsense!--is it not
+intolerable to be thus deluded? and while the tears which accompanied
+these exclamations were yet in his eyes, he again began to talk,
+apparently with entire conviction about the person in his belly who told
+him that he was to marry a great princess. An attempt was made to cure
+him, by putting a large blister on his abdomen, and the instant that it
+was dressed, moving from behind him a dressed-up figure, as if just
+extracted from his body. The experiment so far succeeded that the patient
+believed in the performance, and his joy was at first boundless in the
+full persuasion that he was cured; but some morbid feeling about the
+bowels, which he had associated with the insane impression, still
+continuing, or being again experienced, he took up the idea that another
+person similar to the first was still left within him, and under that
+persuasion he still continues to labour."
+
+A nobleman of the court of Louis XIV., fancied himself a dog, and would
+invariably put his head out of window to bark aloud. Don Calmet relates
+the case of some nuns in a convent in Germany, who imagined that they were
+transformed into cats, and wandered about the building loudly mewing and
+spitting at and scratching each other.
+
+One of the strangest aberrations of a disordered state of mind was
+exhibited by some impudent fellows who fancied themselves virtuous and
+modest females. Esquirol relates the case of a young man of 26 years of
+age, handsome and of a good figure, who had been in the habit of
+occasionally putting on woman's attire to perform female parts in private
+theatricals, and who had actually fancied himself a woman. In his
+paryoxysms he would put off his male clothes, and equip himself like a
+nymph,--the greater part of his day was spent before his looking-glass,
+decorating his person and dressing his hair--he was incurable!
+
+
+
+
+ANCIENT IDEAS OF PHRENOLOGY.
+
+
+Although Gall and Spurzheim may fairly claim the merit of having developed
+in this science the particular parts of the brain that are the seat of
+different faculties, yet we find in various ancient writers similar
+notions. Burton, in his Anatomy of Melancholy, thus expresses himself on
+this subject: "_Inner senses_ are three in number, so called because they
+are in the brain-pan; as _common sense_, _phantasie_, _memory_. This
+common sense is the judge or moderator of the rest, by whom we discern all
+differences of objects; _the fore part of the brain_ is his organ or seat.
+_Phantasie_, or imagination, which some call aestimative, or cogitative,
+(confirmed saith, Fernelius, by frequent meditation,) is an inner sense,
+which doth more fully examine the species perceived by _common sense_, of
+things present or absent, and keeps them longer, recalling them to mind
+again, or making new of his own: his organ is the _middle cell of the
+brain_. _Memory_ layes up all the species which the senses have brought
+in, and records them as a good register, that they may be forthcoming when
+they are called for by _phantasie_ and _reason_; his organ is the _back
+part of the brain_." This corresponds with the account of the faculties
+given by Aristotle, and repeated by the writers of the middle ages.
+Albertus Magnus, Bishop of Ratisbon, designed a head divided into regions
+according to these opinions in the thirteenth century; and a similar plan
+was published by Petrus Montaguana in 1491. Ludovico Dolce published
+another engraving on the subject at Venice in 1562. In the British Museum
+is a chart of the universe and the elements of all sciences, and in which
+a large head of this description is delineated. It was published at Rome
+in 1632. In the _Tesoretto_ of Brunetto Latini, the preceptor of Dante, we
+find this doctrine taught in the following lines:
+
+  Nel capo son tre celle,
+  Ed io diro di quelle,
+  _Davanti_ e lo intelletto
+  E la forza d'apprendere
+  Quello que puote intendere;
+  _In mezzo_ e la ragione
+  E la discrezione,
+  Che scherne buono e male;
+  E lo terno e l'iguale
+  _Dirietro_ sta con gloria
+  La valente memoria,
+  Che ricorda e retiene
+  Quello ch'in essa viene.
+
+
+
+
+PERFUMES.
+
+
+At all periods perfumes seem to have been more or less adopted as a luxury
+among the wealthy and fashionable. Tradition states that they were
+frequently rendered instrumental to sinister purposes, as the vehicle of
+poisonous substances. Historians relate that the Emperor Henri VI. and a
+prince of Savoy, were destroyed with perfumed gloves. Jeanne d'Albret,
+Queen of Navarre, and mother of Henri IV., died from the poisonous effect
+of gloves purchased from the noted Rene, perfumer and confidential agent
+of Catherine de Medicis. Lancelot, King of Naples, was destroyed by a
+scented handkerchief prepared by a Florentine lady. Pope Clement VII. sunk
+under the baneful effluvia of a torch that was carried before him; and
+Mathioli relates, that nosegays thus impregnated have been frequently
+known to prove fatal. It is certain that, without the aid of venenous
+substances, various flowers have caused serious accidents. Barton tells us
+that the _magnolia glauca_ occasioned a paroxysm of fever, and increased
+the severity of an attack of gout. Jacquin had seen the _lobelia
+longiflora_ producing a sense of suffocation; and the _nerium oleander_ in
+a close chamber, has caused death. The injurious effects of bulbous
+flowers in giving rise to violent headachs, giddiness, and even fainting,
+are generally known. The horror roses inspire to the Roman ladies is
+scarcely credible; and Cromer affirms that it was to the odour of that
+ornament of our gardens that the death of one of the daughters of Nicolas
+I., Count of Salm, and of a Polish bishop, was attributed. The sympathetic
+effect that this flower can create is illustrated by Capellini, who saw a
+lady fall into a syncope on perceiving a rose in a girl's bosom, although
+it turned out to be an artificial one. The partiality or antipathy to
+certain odours is equally unaccountable, for the Italian ladies, who dread
+the rose, delight in the disgusting aroma of rue, which they carry about
+as a salubrious plant, that, according to their notions, dispels the
+_cattiva aria_, although it is not impossible that they might fancy it
+possessed of those salutary qualities to which Ovid had alluded:
+
+  Utilius summas acuentes lumina rutas,
+  Et quidquid veneri corpora nostra negat.
+
+Rue, according to Serenus Samonicus, was one of the ingredients of the
+fabled antidote of Mithridates, which he thus describes:
+
+  Antidotus vero multis Mithridatica fertur
+  Consociata modis, sed magnus Scrinia regis
+  Cum raperit victor, vilem deprendit in illis
+  Synthesim, et vulgata satis medicamina risit.
+  Bis denum _Rutae_ folium, salis et breve granum,
+  Juglandesque duas, totidem cum corpore ficus;
+  Haec oriente die, parco conspersa Lycaeo,
+  Sumebat, metuens dederat quae pocula mater.
+
+The ancients were so fond of perfumes, that they scented their persons and
+garments, their vases, their domestic vessels, and their military
+insignia. They not only considered aromatic emanations as acceptable to
+the gods, and therefore used them in their temples, as they are at present
+by the Roman Catholics, but as announcing the presence of their
+divinities; and Virgil thus speaks of Venus:
+
+  --------Avertens rosea cervice refulsit,
+  Ambrosiaeque comae divinum vertice odorem
+  Spiravere.
+
+Chaplets of roses were invariably worn in festivals and ceremonies; and
+wines were also aromatised with various odoriferous substances. The Franks
+and the Gauls continued the same custom; and Gregory of Tours called these
+artificial-flavoured liquors, _Vina odoramentis immixta_. To this day,
+the manipulation of French wines gives them a fictitious _bouquet_, with
+raspberries, orris-root, and divers drugs to suit the British market.
+
+No external sense is so intimately connected with the internal senses as
+that of smell; none so powerful in exciting and removing syncope, or more
+capable of receiving delicate and delicious impressions: hence Rousseau
+has denominated this faculty "_the sense of imagination_." No sensations
+can be remembered in so lively a manner as those which are recalled by
+peculiar odours, which are frequently known to act in a most energetic
+measure upon our physical and moral propensities. How many perfumes excite
+a lively feeling of fond regret when reminding us of the beloved one who
+was wont to select them, and whom we long to meet again! It is not
+improbable that our partiality to the hair of those who are dear to us,
+arises from this circumstance. Every individual emits a peculiar odour;
+and, according to Plutarch, Alexander was distinguished by the sweet aroma
+that he shed. Perhaps the expression, so frequently found in the lives of
+the saints, "who die in odour of sanctity," may be referred to a belief
+that this peculiar gift was granted to beatitude.
+
+It has been observed, that animals who possess the most acute smell, have
+the nasal organs the most extensively developed. The Ethiopians and the
+American Indians are remarkable for the acuteness of this sense,
+accounting for the wonderful power of tracking their enemies. But although
+we may take the peculiar organization of their olfactory organs as being
+partly the cause of this keen perceptibility, we must in a great measure
+attribute this perfection to their mode of living. Hunting and war are
+their chief pursuits, to which they are trained from their earliest
+infancy: therefore this perfection may, to a certain extent, be the result
+of habit; and the sight and hearing of these wanderers are as singularly
+perfect as their smelling. Mr. Savage relates, that a New Zealander heard
+the report of a distant gun at sea, or perceived a strange sail, when no
+other man on board could discern it. Pallas, in speaking of the Calmucks,
+says that many of them can distinguish by smelling at the hole of a fox
+whether the animal be there or not; and on their journeys and military
+expeditions they often smell out a fire or a camp, and thus seek quarters
+for the night or booty. Olaus Borrich informs us, that the guides between
+Smyrna, Aleppo, and Babylon, when traversing the desert, ascertain
+distances by the smell of the sand. That odours float in the atmospheric
+air is obvious; the distance at which they are perceived is incredible.
+The spicy breezes of Ceylon are distinguished long before the island is
+seen; and it is a well-known fact that vessels have been saved by the
+olfactory acuteness of dogs, who, to use the common expression, were
+observed to "sniff" the land that had not been descried. As a proof of the
+intimate connexion between smell and respiration, when the breath is held
+odorous substances are not perceived, and it is only after expiration that
+they are again recognised. A proof of this may be easily obtained by
+placing the open neck of a small phial containing an essential oil in the
+mouth during the acts of inspiration and subsequent expiration. Willis was
+the first who observed that, on placing a sapid substance in the mouth,
+and at the same time closing the nostrils, the sensation of taste is
+suspended; and this observation has given rise to the prevailing opinion
+that smelling and tasting are intimately related. Odour which thus
+accompanies taste is termed flavour; and the ingenious Dr. Prout has
+admirably defined the distinction between taste and flavour, and he
+considers the latter an intermediate sensation between taste and smell.
+
+The acuteness of the sensation of smelling in animals is such, that in
+many instances our observations have been deemed fabulous. The distance at
+which a dog tracks his master is scarcely credible; and it is strange that
+the ancients attributed a similar perfection to the goose. Aelian affirms
+that the philosopher Lycadeus had one of these birds that found him out
+like a dog:
+
+  Humanum longe praesentit odorem
+  Romulidarum acris servator, candidus anser.
+
+Birds of prey will scent the battle-field at prodigious distances, and
+they are often seen hovering instinctively over the ground where the
+conflict is to supply their festival. Humboldt relates, that in Peru, at
+Quito, and in the province of Popayan, when sportsmen wish to obtain that
+species of vulture called _vultur gryphus_, they kill a cow or a horse,
+and in a short time these sagacious birds crowd to glut their ravenous
+appetites. Ancient historians assert that vultures have cleft the air one
+hundred and sixty-six leagues to arrive in time to feast upon a battle;
+and Pliny boldly affirms that even crows have so acute a sense of
+approaching corruption, that they can scent death three days before
+dissolution, and generally pay the _moribond_ a visit a day before his
+time, not to be disappointed. This notion has become a vulgar prejudice,
+as much so, indeed, as the howling of a dog, which is considered in most
+countries as foreboding death. In various animals an offensive odour is a
+protective gift. The _staphylinus olens_, for instance, sheds an effluvium
+which effectually keeps away the birds who would otherwise pounce upon
+him. But of all singular perfections in the sense of smelling that were
+ever recorded, may be cited the monk of Prague and the blind man in the
+Quinze-vingt Hospital of Paris, who possessed the faculty of ascertaining
+the presence of virginity whenever a female had the luck of being
+introduced to them.
+
+Many curious instances are recorded, where the loss of one sense has added
+to the acuteness of others. Dr. Moyse the well-known blind philosopher,
+could distinguish a black dress on his friends by the smell. Professor
+Upham of the United States, mentions a blind girl who could select her own
+articles out of a basket of linen brought in by the laundress.
+
+These anomalous senses, for such they may be called, are as wonderful as
+they are inexplicable, and appear to arise from a peculiar sensibility of
+the organs of smell, which renders them capable of being stimulated in a
+peculiar manner, that no language can express or define. It is scent, no
+doubt, that gives the migratory power to various animals; "which enables
+them," to use the words of Dr. Mason Good, "to steer from climate to
+climate, and from coast to coast; and which, if possessed by man, might
+perhaps render superfluous the use of the magnet, and considerably
+infringe upon the science of logarithms? Whence comes it that the
+fieldfare and red-wing, that pass the summer in Norway, or the wild-duck
+and merganser, that in like manner summer in the woods and lakes of
+Lapland, are able to track the pathless void of the atmosphere with the
+utmost nicety, and arrive on our own coasts uniformly in the beginning of
+October."[11]
+
+This sense is not limited to migratory animals, as instanced by
+carrier-pigeons, who have been known not only to carry bags in a straight
+line from city to city, but traverse the city with an undeviating flight.
+Surely this faculty must be attributed to the sense of smell; it can
+scarcely be referred to sight or hearing; although the wonders of the
+creation are such, that we can no more account for these peculiar
+attributes refused to the lords of the creation, than for the power of the
+lobster, who not only can reproduce his claws when deprived of them by
+accident, but cast them off to extricate himself, from the captor's grasp.
+The _Tipula pectiniformis_, or the daddy long-legs of our infant amusement
+and amazement, possesses the same renovating faculties. The gluttonous
+gad-fly may be cut to pieces without any apparent interruption in his
+meal, when fastened to one's hand: the polype does not seem to be at all
+discomposed when we turn him inside out; and, when divided into various
+sections, each portion is endowed with an instinctive and reformative
+power of multiplying his species in countless numbers! The diversity of
+our olfactory fancies is unaccountable and only illustrates the words of
+Petronius,
+
+  Non omnibus unum est quod placet; hic spinas, colligit ille rosas.
+
+
+
+
+LOVE PHILTERS AND POTIONS.
+
+
+It will scarcely be credited, but to this very day the superstitious
+belief in the power that certain medicinal substances possess of causing a
+sympathetic fondness, still obtains, even amongst classes of the community
+whose education one would imagine ought to have rendered such an absurdity
+revolting. In Italy, Spain, and Portugal, the influence of love powders
+and aphrodisiac drugs is universally confided in.
+
+The ancients thought that there existed, not only various charms to kindle
+amorous feelings, but also to check all fond desires. The latter influence
+they considered as _malefices_, vulgarly called in more modern times,
+"point tying." Plato, in his Republic, warns husbands to be on their guard
+lest their domestic peace might be disturbed by these diabolical
+practices. Lovers, separated from each other's embrace by these nefarious
+enchantments, were said to be tied down. Thus Virgil,
+
+              Dic, Veneris vincula necto:
+  Terna tibi haec primum triplici diversa colore
+  Licia circumdo.
+
+No power could release one from these bonds:
+
+  Quis neget et magicas nervos torpere per artes?
+
+By the laws of the twelve tables such enchantments were punished with
+death; and Numantina, wife of Plautius Sylvanus, was accused,
+
+  Injecisse carminibus et veneficiis vecordiam marito.
+
+When Faustina, the gay bride of Marc Antonius was rapturously enamoured
+with an histrionic favourite, she was only cured of her folly by a potion
+in which some of the comedian's blood had been introduced. Petrarch
+relates of Charlemagne, that this monarch was so fondly attached to a fair
+lady, that after her death he carried about her embalmed body in a superb
+coffin, until a venerable and learned bishop, who very wisely thought that
+a living beauty was preferable to the remains of a departed one, rebuked
+his sovereign for his irreligious and unnatural propensities, and revealed
+to him the important secret of his love arising from a charm that lay
+under the dead woman's tongue. Whereupon the bishop went to the corpse,
+and drew from it a ring, which the emperor had scarcely looked upon when
+he abhorred the former object of his attachment, and felt such an
+extraordinary fancy for the bishop that he could not dispense with his
+presence for a single moment, until the good prelate was so obseded with
+royal favour that he cast the ring into a lake. From that moment
+Charlemagne (his historian continues) "neglected all public business, and
+went to live in the middle of a fen in the vicinity of Aix, where he built
+a temple, near which he was finally buried."
+
+St. Jerome, in the Life of Hilarius, mentions a young man who so
+bephiltered a maiden that she fell desperately in love with him; and
+Sigismundus Schereczius, in his chapter _De Hirco Nocturno_, affirms that
+"unchaste women, by the help of these witches, the devil's kitchen-maids,
+have their lovers brought to them during the night, and carried back
+again, by a phantom flying in the air in the likeness of a goat." "I have
+heard," he adds, "divers confess that they have been so carried on a
+goat's back to their sweethearts many miles in a night." These wonderful
+potions were made of strange ingredients, for amongst them we find a
+man's blood chemically prepared, mandrake roots, dead men's clothes,
+candles, a certain hair in a wolf's tail, a swallow's heart, dust of a
+dove's heart, tongues of vipers, brains of a jackass, pebbles found in an
+eagle's nest, together with "_palliola quibus infantes obvoluti
+nascuntur_, _funis strangulati hominis_," &c. &c. &c. Cleghorn, in his
+History of Minorca, tells us that water in which a hedgehog has been
+allowed to run into corruption, was supposed to be possessed of similar
+exciting powers; and a pulverized bit of a caul, scrapings of nails, and
+chopped hair, are to this hour deemed equally effectual to obtain these
+desirable ends.
+
+Notwithstanding all these absurdities, it is undoubtedly true that certain
+articles of food have been considered as endowed with aphrodisiac
+properties; fish of various kinds, the mollusca and testaceous animals
+more especially. Juvenal attributes this quality to oysters, which, in
+this respect, with cockles and muscles have become vulgarly proverbial:
+
+  Grandia quae mediis jam noctibus ostrea mordet.
+
+Wallich informs us that the ladies of his time had recourse on such
+occasions to the brains of the _mustela piscis_. The _sepia octopus_ was
+also in great repute; and Plautus, in his _Casina_, brings on an old man
+who had just been purchasing some in the market. There is reason to
+believe that these ideas were not altogether as absurd as they may appear.
+Fourcroy and Vauquelin have attributed this influence to the presence of
+phosphorus, which is well known to be highly exciting. In the East,
+various vegetable productions are considered in the same light. Their
+_hakims_ have numerous receipts for the purpose; amongst which we find
+several electuaries,--such as the _diacyminum_, the _diaxylaloes_, the
+confections of _Luffa Abunafa_, and the _chaschab abusidan_ of the
+Arabians, of which wonderful effects are related.
+
+The laws of every country have provided against the offence of witchcraft,
+sorcery, conjuration, and enchantment. We find a statute of our first
+James, making it "felony, without benefit of the clergy, under the penalty
+of death, the act of all persons invoking any evil spirit, or consulting,
+covenanting with, entertaining, employing, feeding, or rewarding any evil
+spirits; or taking up dead bodies from their graves, to be used in any
+witchcraft, sorcery, charm, or enchantment; or killing or otherwise
+hurting, any person by such infernal arts. And if any person should
+attempt by sorcery to discover hidden treasures, or to restore stolen
+goods, or to _provoke unlawful love_, (lawful love did not come within
+these salutary provisions,) he or she should suffer imprisonment and
+pillory for the first offence, and death for the second." Strange to say,
+that act continued in force till very lately; and Blackstone observes,
+"that many poor wretches were sacrificed thereby to the prejudice of their
+neighbours, and their own illusions; not a few having, by some means or
+other, confessed the fact at the gallows."
+
+Nothing could be more absurd, nay atrocious, than the means judicially
+resorted to at that period to detect witchcraft. Sir Robert Filmer
+mentions two tests by fire: the first by burning the house of the
+pretended witch: the other, by burning any animal supposed to have been
+bewitched by her. In both these cases the witch would confess her
+_malefices_!
+
+Moreover, it was asserted that a witch, even while enduring the pangs of
+torture, could only shed _three tears_, and those from the _left eye_;
+this was considered a sufficient proof of guilt by the judges of the day!
+Swimming a witch was another expedient; in this ordeal the hag was
+stripped naked, and cross-bound, the right thumb to the left toe, and
+_vice versa_. Thus prepared, she was thrown into a pond or a river; in
+which, if guilty, she could not sink, for having by her compact with the
+Devil renounced the waters of baptism, the waters in return refused to
+receive her in their bosom.
+
+Our wise legislators maintained that old women were generally selected by
+the evil ones for their malicious purposes, and they usually appeared to
+them in the form of a man wearing a black coat or gown; and sometimes,
+especially in the north, with a bluish band and turned-up linen cuffs:
+hard bargains were sometimes driven between the parties for the value of
+the harridan's soul. This was also the case according to Echard, in the
+negotiation between Oliver Cromwell and the Devil before the battle of
+Worcester. There were black, white, and gray witches: some of them fond of
+junketing and merry-making, and often would Satan play on a pipe or a
+cittern to make them dance; and not unfrequently would he become enamoured
+with their withered charms, when toads and horrible serpents were the
+hated progeny of this unhallowed union. Sinclair tells us, in his
+"Invisible World," of one Mr. Barton, who was burnt with his wife for
+witchcraft, and who confessed, before he was tied to the stake, that he
+had intrigued with the Devil in the shape of a comely lady, who had given
+him 15_l._ for his trouble. His wife confessed at the same time, that the
+Devil in the shape of a poodle dog used to dance before her, playing upon
+the pipes with a candle under his tail. The Devil, particularly in
+Scotland would ever and anon get up into a pulpit, and preach a sermon in
+a voice "_hough_ and _gustie_."
+
+Burton gives us some curious traditions of these devilish amours, and
+quotes Philostratus's account of one Menippus Lycius, a young man
+twenty-five years of age, who going between Cenchreas and Corinth, met a
+phantom in the shape of a fair gentlewoman, which, taking him by the hand,
+carried him to her house in the suburbs of Corinth; and told him she was a
+Phoenician by birth, and, if he would tarry with her he should hear her
+sing and play, and drink such wine as never was drunk, and no man should
+molest him, but she, being fair and lovely, would live and die with him.
+The young man tarried with her awhile to his great content, and at last
+married her; to whose wedding, amongst other guests, came Apollonius; who
+by some probable conjecture, found her out to be a serpent--a lamia. When
+she saw herself discovered, she wept, and desired Apollonius to be silent;
+but he would not be moved, and thereupon she, plate, house, and all that
+was in it vanished in an instant.
+
+Florigerus also mentions the case of a young gentleman of Rome, "who on
+his wedding day went out walking with his bride and some friends after
+dinner; and towards the evening went to a tennis-court, and while he
+played he took off his ring, and placed it upon the finger of a brass
+_Venus statua_. The game finished, he went to fetch his ring; but Venus
+had bent her finger upon it, and he could not get it off. Whereupon, loth
+to make his companions tarry, he there left it, intending to fetch it the
+next day, went thence to supper, and so to bed; but in the night Venus had
+slipped between him and his wife, and thus troubled him for several
+successive nights. Not knowing how to help himself, he made his moan to
+one Palumbus, a learned magician; who gave him a letter, and bade him at
+such a time of the night, in such a cross way, where old Saturn would pass
+by with his associates, to deliver to him the script: the young man, of a
+bold spirit, accordingly did it; and when the old fiend had read it, he
+called Venus to him, who was riding before him, and commanded her to
+deliver the ring, which forthwith she did."
+
+Burton further quotes St. Augustine, Bodin, Paracelsus, and various other
+learned men, who firmly maintain that the Devil is particularly fond of a
+little flirtation with the ladies; and a Bavarian widower, who was sadly
+grieving for his beloved wife, was visited by Old Nick, who had assumed
+the form of the departed lady, and promised to live with him and comfort
+him on the condition that he would leave off swearing and blaspheming; he
+vowed it, married her, and she brought him several children; till one day,
+in an uxorious quarrel, he began to swear like a Pandour, whereupon she
+vanished, and never more was seen.
+
+The preservatives against witchcraft were as absurd as the fear it
+inspired: some hair, parings of nails, or any part of a person bewitched,
+were put into a stone bottle, with crooked nails, then corked close, and
+hung up the chimney; this expedient occasioned most horrible tortures to
+the witch, until the bottle was uncorked. Witches, moreover, cannot pursue
+their victims beyond the middle of a running stream, provided the
+fugitives had been baptized. I have now a patient under my care who
+fancies himself bewitched, and asserts that the only way to guard against
+the evil is by driving a nail in the impress left by a witch's foot on the
+threshold, when she will discontinue her visits.
+
+By an act of George II. these offences were considered as misdemeanors,
+and punished with a year's imprisonment, and standing four times in the
+pillory. There is no doubt that, notwithstanding the absurdity of such
+delusions and impostures, legislators must endeavour to secure the
+ignorant against these impositions, which are frequently of a perilous
+nature, and have been often known to occasion serious accidents, and even
+death. Many of the substances thus administered are of a most dangerous
+description, and these enchantments are not unfrequently resorted to with
+sinister intentions. It is related of the Asiatic women, that, under the
+pretext of giving these philters, they sometimes times prepare a beverage
+from the seeds of the _Datura Metel_, which produces a lethargic
+stupefaction of a convenient nature. The mischief that has frequently
+arisen from the exhibition of the _Lytta vesicatoria_ has been observed
+and recorded by every medical practitioner. The _Diablotini_, a kind of
+incentive sugar-plums of the Italians, have been known to occasion the
+most serious accidents; and the celebrated French actor Mole lost his life
+in one of these experiments. Yet penal enactments, in such cases, must be
+resorted to with much circumspection; for prohibition too frequently
+promotes the evils which it is designed to check.
+
+Montesquieu observes, that the ridiculous stories that are generally told,
+and the many impositions that have been discovered in all ages, are enough
+to demolish all faith in such a dubious crime, if the contrary evidence
+were not also extremely strong. Unquestionably, we have too many
+instances of criminal acts of superstition in which supernatural agency is
+believed; but did this philosophic writer mean to say that we have
+evidence of actual witchcraft and sorcery? It is with some degree of
+regret that we find our learned Blackstone avow his belief in these
+matters, and we borrow his own words on the subject: "To deny the
+possibility, nay, the actual existence of witchcraft and sorcery, is at
+once flatly to contradict the revealed Word of God, in various passages
+both of the New and Old Testament; and the thing itself is a truth to
+which every nation in the world hath in its turn borne testimony, either
+by examples seemingly well attested, or by prohibitory laws which at least
+suppose the possibility of a commerce with evil spirits. The civil law
+punishes with death not only the sorcerers themselves, but also those who
+consult them; imitating in the former the express law of God, 'Thou shalt
+not suffer a witch to live!'" Without calling into doubt the records of
+supernatural agency in Holy Writ, evident manifestations of the power and
+the will of the Divinity at that period, it may fairly be asked--Can we
+promulgate such opinions in the present times, when miraculous events do
+not seem to be permitted by our Creator in His inscrutable wisdom, without
+incurring the risk of plunging the ignorant in all the dark horrors of the
+early ages? Montesquieu himself has justly remarked, "that the most
+unexceptionable conduct, the purest morals, and the constant practice of
+every duty in life, are not a sufficient security against the suspicion of
+crimes like these." And yet, because, forsooth, there may be made to
+appear _examples seemingly attested_, and that on the faith of such an
+attestation the most absurd and cruel _prohibitory laws_ have been enacted
+by every _nation in the world, on the supposition of the possibility of
+such a crime_, however ignorant and brutalized by superstition these
+nations are or may have been, man is not only authorized by the Scriptures
+to persecute some poor miserable fool or vagrant impostor unto death, but
+he is sanctioned in founding this barbarous persecution on the laws of
+God! The mind sickens at such doctrines. It is grievous to find a man like
+our Addison sharing in such preposterous notions; notions which would
+induce a doubtful by-stander not to interfere with a mob of miscreants who
+were drowning some unfortunate old woman "for a witch."
+
+"There are," says Addison, "some opinions in which a man should stand
+_neuter_, without engaging his assent to one side or the other. It is with
+this temper of mind that I consider the subject of witchcraft. When I
+consider whether there are such persons in the world as those we call
+witches, my mind is divided between the two opposite opinions; or rather,
+to speak my thoughts freely, I believe in general that _there is_, and has
+been, such a thing as witchcraft, but, at the same time, can give no
+credit to any particular instance of it."
+
+Are we then still to believe that there may exist some supernatural hag,
+that can
+
+  --------Untie the winds, and let them fight
+  Against the churches--------
+  Control the moon, make ebbs and flows,
+  And deal in her command without her power?
+
+or who, with the influence given to them by our poet Rowe,
+
+  By force of potent spells, of bloody characters,
+  And conjurations horrible to hear,
+  Call fiends and spectres from the yawning deep,
+  And set the ministers of hell to work,
+
+with the liver of a blaspheming Jew, the nose of a Turk, the lips of a
+Tartar, the finger of a birth-strangled babe, and ditch-delivered by a
+drab, &c. &c.? If we are to believe in witches with Blackstone and
+Addison, we must give credence to all these mystic means by which they
+_work_ their _way_. All these _means_ have been _seemingly attested_, and
+led, from the just horror they inspired, to those _prohibitory laws_
+enacted by _every nation_; as if the laws of man could be of any avail in
+resisting the _admitted_ supernatural powers with which these witches,
+sorcerers, magicians, &c. must have been invested by the Deity to perform
+their terrific operations! If we deny this authority we are Manicheans.
+
+
+
+
+VENTRILOQUISM.
+
+
+This peculiar faculty was well known to the ancients. Hippocrates verily
+believed that there did exist individuals who could draw a voice from
+their belly. He speaks of the wife of Polimarchus, who, being affected
+with a quinsy, spoke in this manner; hence this power was called
+_Engastrimysm_. Plato gives the history of Euricles, who mentions three
+persons whom St. Chrysostom and Oecumenius considered to be endowed with
+a heavenly gift. Caelius Rhodiginus describes an old woman of Rovigo who
+used to deliver her oracles in the like manner, and who was never so
+eloquent as when stripped to the skin, when she would answer most
+accurately all the questions put to her by a familiar who attended upon
+her, and was called Cincinnatulus. Anthony Vandael, a physician of Harlem,
+considered ventriloquism as a supernatural power, enabling the voice to
+proceed "ex ventre inferiore et partibus genitalibus;" and he describes a
+woman of seventy-three years of age, called Barbara Jacobi, who used to
+ventriloquise with an imp of the name of Joachim, who would weep most
+piteously, or fall into roars of laughter, and sometimes danced and sung
+with remarkable grace and elegance, according to the depressing or the
+exhilarating nature of Mrs. Jacobi's communications. In the Septuagint the
+Hebrew word _Ob_ is rendered by _Engastrimythos_; and it was supposed that
+the Pythoness who evoked Samuel had recourse to this power. Oleaster,
+Grand Inquisitor of Portugal, in a work published at Lisbon in 1656,
+mentions a woman of the name of Cecilia who was brought before the court,
+and expressed herself in a ventriloquial voice, which she said was that of
+one Peter John, who had been dead for many years; but Peter John pleaded
+in vain for his hostess, for, despite his abdominal eloquence, she was
+sentenced to be transported. Whether Peter John accompanied her in exile
+is not stated. In 1643, Dickinson mentions a man at Oxford, who was called
+the King's Whisperer, and who expressed himself most clearly without
+opening the mouth or moving the lips. This faculty has frequently been
+employed in various speculations. In the sixteenth century, Borden relates
+the story of a valet of Francis I., named Brabant, who thus persuaded the
+mother of a young girl he courted to grant her consent to their marriage
+as speedily as possible, if she wished her husband's soul to get out of
+the torments of purgatory: after marriage, however, he was disappointed in
+his pecuniary expectations, and he applied his powers of ventriloquism to
+terrify a rich banker of Lyons, of the name of Corner, to bestow a fortune
+upon his wife; for which purpose he assumed the voice of Corner's father,
+who supplicated him to give the money as the only means of sending his
+poor consuming soul to paradise.
+
+One of the most celebrated ventriloquists was a grocer of St. Germains,
+one St. Gilles; but he applied the faculty he possessed to benevolent
+purposes. Being called to reclaim a newly-married young man from a
+disgraceful connexion, which rendered his wife most unhappy, his
+supernatural voice, supposed to come from heaven, succeeded; and he was
+equally fortunate in bringing to a sense of propriety one of the most
+sordid misers of his time.
+
+St. Gilles was not so felicitous in a trick he played to some monks,
+vainly attempting to prove the absurdity of their superstitious notions.
+One of the community had lately died, and, according to custom, the
+deceased was laid out in the church, and his brethren, grouped around him,
+were pouring forth prayers for the repose of his soul, when St. Gilles,
+throwing his voice into the coffin, returned them all the thanks of the
+departed friar for their supplications in his behalf. The astonished monks
+were most edified at this miraculous event; and their prior, who knew St.
+Gilles to be a freethinker, endeavoured to impress upon his mind the
+wonder that he himself had performed, and to inveigh most earnestly
+against the impiety and incredulity of modern philosophers, who
+entertained sceptic ideas concerning miracles. After a long exhortation,
+our ventriloquist burst into a fit of laughter, and avowed the deception
+he had practised: to convince the brotherhood of the veracity of his
+assertion, he gave them various specimens of his skill,--but to no
+purpose; he was called an infidel, a scoffer, an atheist, and, had it been
+in Spain, the stake would in all probability have rewarded his perilous
+frolic, or his stiff-necked impiety in refusing to believe in his own
+miracles.
+
+It is now pretty generally admitted that ventriloquism simply consists in
+a slow and gradual expiration, preceded by a strong and deep inspiration,
+by which a considerable quantity of air is introduced into the lungs,
+which is afterwards acted upon by the flexible powers of the larynx and
+the trachea: any person therefore, by practice, can obtain more or less
+expertness in this exercise; in which, although not apparently, the voice
+is still modified by the mouth and the tongue. Mr. Lespagnol, in a very
+able dissertation on this subject, has demonstrated that ventriloquists
+have acquired by practice the power of exercising the veil of the palate
+in such a manner, that, by raising or depressing it, they dilate or
+contract the inner nostrils. If they are closely contracted, the sound
+produced is weak, dull, and seems to be more or less distant; if, on the
+contrary, these cavities are widely dilated, the sound is strengthened by
+these tortuous infractuosities, and the voice becomes loud, sonorous, and
+apparently close to us. Thus any able mimic who can with facility disguise
+his voice, with the aid of this power of modifying sounds, may in time
+become a ventriloquist.
+
+
+
+
+CHAUCER'S DESCRIPTION OF A PHYSICIAN. THE DOCTOR OF PHYSIC.
+
+
+  With us there was a doctour of phisike;
+  In all this world, ne was there none him like
+  To speake of phisike and of surgerie,
+  For he was grounded in astronomie.
+  He kept his patient a full great dell
+  In houses: by his magike naturell
+  Well couth he fortune the assendent
+  Of his image for his pacient.
+  He knew the cause of every malady,
+  Whether it were of cold, heate, moist, or dry.
+  And whereof engendered was each humour.
+  He was a very parfit practisour;
+  The cause I knew, and of his haime the roote,
+  Anon he gave to the rich man his boot.
+  Full ready had he his apoticaries
+  To send him drugs and his lectuaries;
+  For each of them made other for to winne,
+  Their friendship was not new to beginne.
+  Well he knew the old Esculapius,
+  And Diascorides, and eke Ruffus,
+  And Hippocrates, and Galen,
+  Serapion, Rasis, and Avicen,
+  Aberrois, Damascene, and Constantin,
+  Bernard, Galisden, and Gilbertin
+  Of his diet measurable was he,
+  For it was of no superfluitie;
+  But of great nourishing and digestible.
+  His study was but little on the Bible.
+  In sanguine and in percepolad withall
+  Lined with taffata and with sendall;
+  And yet he was but easy of dispence.
+  He kept that he won in time of pestilence;
+  For gold in phisike is a cordial,
+  Therefore he loved gold speciall.
+
+It appears from this quaint and satirical picture, that, in our Chaucer's
+days, astrology formed part of a physician's study. It also plainly proves
+that a disgraceful collusion prevailed between medical practitioners and
+their apothecaries, mutually to enrich each other at the expense of the
+patient's purse and constitution. The poet, moreover, seems to tax the
+faculty with irreligion: that unjust accusation was not uncommon; hence
+the old adage, "Ubi tres medici, duo athei." To the disgrace of many
+illiberal persons of the present age, we have known some of our most able
+and praiseworthy physiologists charged with materialism.
+
+
+
+
+DAEMONOMANIA.
+
+
+This disease is perhaps the most distressing species of insanity; since,
+with the exception of the miserable belief of being possessed by the evil
+spirit, the patient is often in full possession of his other faculties,
+and will even endeavour to reason with his attendants, with some apparent
+plausibility, on the very aberration that constitutes the malady.
+
+The word 'daemon' among the ancients was not considered as specific of an
+evil spirit; on the contrary, it signified genius, intellect, mind.
+[Greek: Daimonion], from [Greek: daimon], meant wisdom, science. The first
+notions of daemons were probably brought from Chaldea, whence they spread
+amongst the Persians, Egyptians, and Greeks. Gales maintains that the
+original institution of daemons was an imitation of the Messiah. The
+Phoenicians called them _Baalim_. So far do these early opinions
+prevail, that among the Anabaptists we find a sect called Daemoniac, who
+believe that devils shall be saved at the end of the world.
+
+Plato gave the name of daemons to the benevolent spirits who regulated the
+universe. The Chaldeans and Jews considered them as the causes of all
+human maladies. Saul was agitated by an evil spirit, and Job and Joram
+suffered under a similar visitation.
+
+Daemonomania differs widely from the mental disease called Theomania. In
+the latter state of insanity the patient fancies that he is placed in
+communication with the Deity or his angels; in the former, he feels
+convinced that he has become the prey of the destroyer of mankind.
+
+Under the head of "Unlawful Cures," instances are related of the firm
+belief in the power of evil spirits to cause various diseases. Perhaps the
+origin of daemonomania may be traced to fanatical persecution; never was
+the malady so common as during the denunciations of Calvin, when torture
+was frequently resorted to, to make the victims of bigotry renounce a
+supposed pact with the devil. D'Agessau was right when, in advising the
+parliament of Paris to repeal all statutes against sorcery, he recommended
+that daemoniacs should be handed over to the physician, instead of the
+priest or the executioner.
+
+The sufferings which daemoniacs say they endure must be excruciating; so
+powerful is moral influence over our physical sensations. They will tell
+you that the devil is drawing them tight, and suffocating them with a
+cord; that he is pinching and lacerating their entrails, burning and
+tearing their heart, pouring hot oil or molten lead in their veins, while
+internal flames are consuming them. Their strength is exhausted, their
+digestive functions impaired, their appearance soon becomes miserable in
+the extreme, their countenances pale and haggard: the wretched creatures
+endeavour to conceal themselves during their scanty meals, or their
+attempts to enjoy a broken slumber; they are persuaded that they no longer
+possess a corporeal existence that requires refection or repose,--the evil
+spirit has borne away their bodies, the devil requires no earthly support;
+they even deny their sex: they are doomed to live for ever in constant
+agony. These unfortunate creatures are mostly women. One of them asserts,
+with horrid imprecations, that she has been the devil's wife for a million
+of years, and had borne him a numerous family; her body is nothing but a
+sack made of a devil's skin, and filled with their offsprings in the shape
+of devouring snakes, toads, and venomous reptiles. She exclaims that her
+husband constantly urges her to commit murder, theft, and every imaginable
+crime; and sometimes with bitter tears supplicates her keeper to put on a
+strait waistcoat, to prevent her from doing evil. Another woman,
+forty-eight years of age, assures us that she has two devils who have
+taken up their residence in both her hips, and have grown up to her ears:
+one of them is black and yellow, the other black, both in the shape of
+cats. She fills her ears with snuff and grease to satisfy their diabolical
+cravings. She eats with voracity, but is a perfect skeleton in appearance;
+the devils consume all, and leave her nothing. They constantly bid her to
+go and drown herself; but she cannot obey them, since eternity is her
+doom. They are scarcely sensible of painful agents, and are unconscious of
+heat, cold, or the inclemency of the weather. Their perspiration,
+frequently profuse, exhales a most unpleasant odour; hence the vulgar
+fancy that they smell of the lower regions. This circumstance is the usual
+consequence of many nervous affections, and arises, most probably, from
+the foulness of the breath, a natural result of impaired digestion, and
+from a peculiar acrimony of the cutaneous secretions.
+
+Pinel relates the case of a missionary whose enthusiastic aberrations led
+him into the horrible belief, that he could only be saved from eternal
+torments, by what he called a _baptism of blood_. This fatal mania induced
+him to attempt the life of his wife, who was fortunate to escape from the
+danger, after he had immolated two of his children, to secure their
+salvation! Tried for this crime he was sentenced to perpetual confinement
+in Bicetre. In his dungeon he fancied himself the _fourth person in the
+trinity_, maintained that he was sent upon earth to baptize with blood,
+and all the power of the universe could not affect his life. During ten
+years' confinement this miserable wretch, betrayed the same insanity
+whenever religious subjects were touched upon, in all other matters, he
+reasoned most soundly. His lucid intervals at last became so long in their
+duration and calm, that it was questioned whether he might not be
+liberated--until on a Christmas eve, his sanguinary monomania resumed all
+its intensity, and having by some means or other obtained possession of a
+leather-cutter's knife, he inflicted a desperate wound on one of his
+keepers, and cut the throat of two patients who were near them; many other
+inmates of the establishment would, no doubt, have been sacrificed by the
+desperate maniac had he not been secured. This case might decidedly be
+considered one of true daemonomania.
+
+It has been generally remarked that cases of daemonomania are more common
+amongst women than in men. Their greater susceptibility to nervous
+affections, their warmth of imagination and strong passions, which habit
+and education compel them to restrain, produce a state of concentration
+that must cause increased excitement, and render them more liable to those
+terrific impressions that constitute the disease. These terrors, from
+false notions of the Deity, make them anticipate in this world the
+sufferings denounced in the next. One woman has been known to become
+daemonomaniac after an intense perusal of the Apocalypse, and another by
+the constant reading of the works of Thomas a Kempis. Women, moreover, at
+certain critical periods are subject to great mental depression, which
+they have not the power to relieve by exciting pursuits, like men.
+Melancholy succeeds a dull sameness. Religion, viewed in a false light,
+becomes her refuge; more especially at an advanced period of life, when
+loss of youth and beauty is bitterly felt, as galled vanity compares the
+present with the past. Hysteric symptoms are now developed: the passions,
+which are too frequently increased even to intensity, rather than cooled,
+by years, prompt her to rebellious thoughts that religion and virtuous
+feelings strive to restrain; and these powerful agents, acting upon a
+predisposition morbidly impressionable from ignorance or the errors of
+education, accelerate the invasion of this cruel malady. Jacobi informs
+us, that this is still the character which, in some catholic countries,
+insanity connected with superstition frequently assumes.
+
+Pliny tells us that women are the best subjects for magical experiments;
+Quintilian is of the same opinion: Saul consults a witch; Bodin, in his
+calculations, estimates the proportion between wizards and witches as one
+to fifty. It is, perhaps, owing to these remarks that many ungenerous
+writers have denied _women_ a soul, as not belonging to _mankind_. There
+exists a curious anonymous work, published at the close of the sixteenth
+century, to prove that women are not men, or, in other words, reasonable
+creatures, and entitled "_Dissertatio perjucunda qua Anonymus probare
+nititur Mulieres homines non esse_." Our author upon this principle
+endeavours to show that women cannot be saved. One Simon Geddicus, a
+Lutheran divine, wrote a serious confutation of this libel upon the fair
+sex, in 1595, and promises the ladies an expectation of salvation on their
+good behaviour. According to a popular tradition among the Mahometans,
+women are excluded from paradise: St. Augustin, however, calls them the
+_devout sex_; and in the prayer to the Virgin of the Romish Church we find
+"_Intercede pro devoto foemineo sexu_." An hypothesis still more absurd
+was broached by a Doctor Almaricus, a theological Parisian writer of the
+twelfth century, who advanced that, had it not been for the original sin,
+every individual of our species would have come into existence a complete
+man; and that God would have created them by himself, as he created Adam.
+Our worthy doctor was a disciple of Aristotle, who maintained that woman
+was a defective animal, and her generation purely fortuitous and foreign
+to nature. Howbeit, my fair readers will learn with satisfaction that the
+doctrines of this aforesaid Almaricus were condemned by the church as
+heretical, and his bones were therefore dug up, and cast into a common
+sewer, as an _amende honorable_ to the offended ladies.
+
+"A woman," says one of the primitive fathers of the church, "went to the
+play, and came back with the devil in her; whereupon, when the unclean
+spirit was urged and threatened, in the office of exorcising, for having
+dared to attack one of the faithful, 'I have done nothing,' replied he,
+'but what is very fair; I found her on my own grounds, and I took
+possession of her.'"
+
+St. Cyprian informs us, that when he was studying magic, he was
+particularly intimate with the devil. "I saw the devil himself," he says;
+"embraced him; I conversed with him, and was esteemed one of those who
+held a principal rank about him." Who can doubt the assertion of a saint!
+It appears, that in those wonderful days the devil usually wore a black
+gown, with a black hat; and it was observed that, whenever he was
+preaching, his _glutei muscles_ were as cold as ice.
+
+At all times satire has endeavoured to make invidious distinctions between
+the sexes: this is not fair. Women are generally what men have made them.
+In a physical, and, consequently, to a certain degree in a moral point of
+view, their organization is essentially different from ours; therefore, a
+masculine woman is as intolerable as an effeminate man. The education of
+females tends in a great measure to increase that susceptibility to
+trifling excitements, which in after-life urges them to the extremes of
+good or evil. While the toys and amusements of boys are of a manly nature,
+a girl is taught to practise upon her darling doll all the arts which a
+few years after she will practise upon herself. Many intelligent writers
+have doubted the expediency of giving woman any education beyond the
+sphere of her domestic pursuits and occupations; Erasmus wrote largely on
+this subject to Budaeus. Vives treats of it in his _Institutio foeminae
+Christianae_; and a German authoress, Madame Schurman, has published a
+treatise on the problem, "_Num foeminae Christianae conveniat studium
+literarum?_"
+
+It is this nervous flexibility in women that exposes them to that constant
+succession of emotions which are expressed by a rapid transition from
+tears to smiles; and, anomalous as it may appear, they are more exposed to
+fond impressions in their grief than at any other moment; they then feel
+more helpless, and stand in greater need of consolation. The story of the
+Matron of Ephesus is not so great a libel on the sex as one might imagine.
+Their mind is prone to romantic enthusiasm; they delight in the
+extraordinary, the terrible, and as Madame de Sevigne, who well knew her
+sex, expresses it, they enjoy in chivalric tales _les grands coups
+d'epee_. Prudence preventing them too frequently from expressing their
+thoughts, thinking becomes more intense; and Publius Syrus has said,
+"_Mulier quae sola cogitat, male cogitat_:" but when the suppressed volcano
+bursts forth, its eruptions are boundless; it is then that one may
+exclaim, "_Notumque fuerit quid foemina possit_." No passion is more
+overwhelming than when it has been kept down by dissimulation; opportunity
+is their curse: Montaigne has too truly said, "_Oh le furieux avantage que
+l'opportunite_!" and our Denham has beautifully illustrated its fearful
+circumstances:
+
+  Opportunity, like a sudden gust,
+  Hath swell'd my calmer thoughts into a tempest.
+  Accursed opportunity!
+  That works our thoughts into desires; desires
+  To resolutions; those being ripe and quickened,
+  Thou giv'st them birth, and bring'st them forth to action.
+
+It is a perilous ordeal for such to whom the lines of Ovid might apply,
+
+  Quae, quia non liceat, non facit; illa facit.
+
+To what prejudice against women are we to trace their sex having been
+chosen to represent the Furies, stern and inexorable ministers of Divine
+wrath; the Harpies, who defiled all they touched; the perilous Sirens;
+unless it be to woman's fascinations in youth, and envious bitterness in
+old age--the conventional type of witchcraft? This unhappy selection of
+woman for working _malefices_ has been attributed to the facility which
+the devil found in tempting Eve. A witch is supposed by the most learned
+in the black art to be in compact with Satan, whom she is obliged to obey;
+whereas a sorcerer commands the devil himself by his knowledge of charms
+and invocations, but more especially of perfumes that the evil spirits
+delight in when properly suffumigated, or abhor when maliciously given
+them to smell. Thus the burning of a fish's liver by Tobit drove the devil
+into the remote parts of Egypt; and Lilly informs us, that one Evans
+having raised a spirit at the request of Lord Bothwell and Sir Kenelm
+Digby, and forgotten his favourite fumigation or incense, the angry elf
+whipped him up, and carried him from his house in the Minories to
+Battersea Causeway.
+
+Although fairies are mostly considered juvenile, and many of their kind
+acts are recorded, yet are they in general mischievous imps; Mr. Lewis
+describes those he saw in the silver and lead mines of Wales, as only
+being about half a yard high. As a punishment for their vagaries, all
+their children are stunted and idiotic; and this accounts for their
+abominable custom of substituting their own "base elfin breed" for healthy
+infants. Hence are idiots commonly called changelings.
+
+Daemoniacs are prone to commit suicide, less from their loathing an irksome
+life than through fear, not of future torments, but of the renewal or the
+continuance of their worldly sufferings. Perhaps they may entertain some
+doubts as to the punishment of another existence, while their actual
+condition is intolerable; we not unfrequently see desperate men rushing to
+meet the very fate they dread.
+
+Daemonomania may be referred to a false view of divine justice,--ignorance,
+and consequent weakness of intellect,--and a pusillanimous apprehension of
+perhaps a merited chastisement. It is a disease which seldom admits of a
+cure. If the consolations of true religion are proffered, they are either
+spurned with anger, or merely produce an evanescent melioration. Zacutus
+relates the case of a daemoniac who was cured by a person who appeared to
+her in the form of an angel, to inform her that her sins had been
+forgiven: it is possible that stratagems of a similar nature might
+prevail. I attended a monomaniac lady in Paris, who fancied herself in
+Jerusalem on the eve of its destruction. She furiously opposed all
+endeavours to move her from her residence; and it was only by personating
+a Jewish rabbi, and offering to take her to New Jerusalem as a place of
+refuge, that she consented to accompany me in a carriage to a _maison de
+sante_ near the capital. Here imagination subdued imagination. I have had
+the pleasure to hear that ever since I thus succeeded in breaking a link
+in the morbid association of her fancies, her state of mind rapidly
+improved, and that she is now restored to perfect sanity.
+
+Daemonomania has been known to be epidemic. From 1552 to 1554 no less than
+eighty-four persons became possessed in Rome. The endeavours of a French
+monk to exorcise them proved of no avail; and as most of the unfortunate
+victims of credulity were Jewesses who had consented to be baptized, the
+Jews were of course accused of sorcery. About the same period a similar
+disease broke out in a convent near Kerndrop, in Germany, when all the
+nuns were possessed, and denounced their cook, who, having confessed that
+she was a witch, was duly burnt alive with her mother.
+
+Daemonomania has been considered an hereditary visitation, and whole
+families have therefore been deemed in pact with the evil one. Insanity is
+unfortunately known to attach itself to certain generations; but perhaps
+it has not been sufficiently observed, when endeavouring to account for
+this melancholy fact, that the mind becomes gradually influenced by the
+nature of the constant conversation we daily and hourly are exposed to
+hear; and it is not impossible but that this transmission of mental
+disease may be attributed to morbid moral and physical sympathies, which
+might be avoided by withdrawing the persons exposed to it from the sphere
+of their action. Constant anxious thoughts and painful reflections tend to
+produce an increased sensorial power in the brain, with a diminished
+sensibility to external impressions. So great has been this effect upon
+the senses, that maniacs have been seen to gaze upon the meridian sun
+without any sensible effect on the organs of vision. It is therefore
+possible that an individual who beholds with incessant horror insanity in
+his family, or who constantly hears of their aberrations, may ultimately
+experience a similar peculiarity of the mind: hence wit as well as madness
+have been known to be the heir-looms of a race. Although the examples of
+vice, one might imagine, would inspire a love for virtuous actions, yet we
+daily see profligacy the characteristic of an entire family; and there are
+names which have been rendered by misconduct synonymous with depravity.
+This sad fact can only be attributed to natural temperament, whether it be
+sanguine or melancholic. It has been observed that our constitutions
+exercise a control over diseases, that modifies them in a peculiar manner.
+The more acute the sensibility, the greater is the predisposition to
+insanity. Warm and ungovernable passions will drive one female into all
+the horrid excesses of nymphomania, while the timid hypochondriac and
+hysteric woman will gradually sink into a morose or a malevolent
+despondency. Burton attributes daemonomania to other causes, and tells us
+that the devil is so cunning that he is able to deceive the very elect;
+and, to compel them the more to stand in awe of him, he sends and cures
+diseases, disquiets their minds, torments and terrifies their souls, to
+make them adore him; and all his study, all his endeavour, is to divert
+them from true religion to superstition; and because he is damned himself,
+and is in error, he would have all the world participate of his errors,
+and be damned with him.
+
+Amongst the various motives that induced the evil one to pay his sinister
+visits to frail mortality, that of inflicting upon them a salutary, or a
+vexatious fustigation, is frequently recorded by the fathers and other
+writers. It was more especially upon the backs of saints that this
+castigation took place. St. Athanasius informs us that St. Anthony was
+frequently flagellated by the devil. St. Jerome states that St. Hilarius
+was often whipped in a similar manner; and he calls the devil "a wanton
+gladiator," and thus describes his mode of punishment: "Insidet dorso ejus
+festivus gladiator; et latera calcibus, cervicem flagello verberans."
+Grimalaicus, a learned divine, confirms the fact in the following passage:
+"Nonnumquam autem et aperta impugnatione grassantes, daemones humana
+corpora verberant, sicut B. Antonio fecerant." St. Francis of Assisa
+received a dreadful flogging from the devil the very first night he came
+to Rome, which caused him to quit that city forthwith. Abbe Boileau's
+remarks on this circumstance savour not a little of impiety and
+freethinking, for he says, "It is not unlikely that, having met with a
+colder reception than he judged his sanctity entitled him to, he thought
+proper to decamp immediately, and when he returned to his convent told the
+above story to his brother monks." Howbeit, Abbe Boileau is no authority,
+and it is to be feared that, partaking of the satirical disposition of his
+brother, he sacrificed piety to wit; for it is well known, beyond the
+power of sceptic doubts, that the aforesaid saint's assertion cannot
+possibly be impugned by proper believers. His power over the fiery
+elements was established; whereby he possessed the faculty of curing
+erysipelas, honoured by the appellation of St. Anthony's fire. In the like
+manner St. Hubert cured hydrophobia, and St. John the epilepsy.
+
+It is, however, pleasing to know that it was not always that the beatified
+succumbed to these Satanic pranks, and many instances are recorded of the
+devil's being worsted in these sacrilegious amusements, as fully appears
+in the history of the blessed Cornelia Juliana, in whose room, one day,
+says her history, "the other nuns heard a prodigious noise, which turned
+out to be a strife she had had with the devil, whom, after having laid
+hold of him, she fustigated most unmercifully; then, having him upon the
+ground, she trampled upon him with her foot, and ridiculed him in the most
+bitter manner (_lacerabat sarcasmis_)." This occurrence is
+incontrovertible, being affirmed by that learned and pious Jesuit,
+Bartholomew Fisen.
+
+This partiality of devils for flagellation can most probably be attributed
+to their horribly jealous disposition; for it is well known that the
+saints took great delight in fustigating, not only those who offended
+them, but their most faithful votaries. Flagellation was therefore the
+most grateful punishment that could be inflicted to propitiate the
+beatified; and we have several well-authenticated facts which prove that
+the Virgin was frequently appeased by this practice. Under the pontificate
+of Sextus IV., a heterodox professor of divinity, who had written against
+the tabernacle, was flogged publicly by a pious monk, to the great
+edification of the by-standers, more particularly the ladies. The
+description of this operation would lose materially by translation, I
+therefore give it in the original. "Apprehendens ipsum revolvit super ejus
+genua; erat enim valde fortis. Elevatis itaque pannis, quia ille minister
+contra sanctum Dei tabernaculum locutus fuerat, coepit cum palmis
+percutere _super quadrata tabernacula_ quae erant nuda, non enim habebat
+_femoralia vel antiphonam_; et quia ipse infamare voluerat beatam
+Virginem, allegando forsitan Aristotelem in libro priorum, iste praedicator
+_illum confutavit legendo in libro ejus posteriorum_: de hoc autem omnes
+qui aderant gaudebant. Tunc exclamavit _quaedam devota mulier_, dicens,
+'_Domine Praedicator, detis ei alios quatuor palmatus pro me_; et alia
+postmodum dixit, 'Detis ei etiam quatuor; sicque _multae aliae_ rogabant,
+ita quod si illarum petitionibus satisfacere voluisset, per totum diem
+aliud facere non potuisset."
+
+We need not seek for similar instances of the mighty power of proper
+fustigation in foreign parts. The Annals of Wales record a singular
+instance of the kind, which happened in the year 1188, as related by
+Silvester Gerald, in such a circumstantial manner that the most obdurate
+incredulity alone could doubt the fact:--"On the other side of the river
+Humber," he says, "in the parish of Hoeden, lived the rector of that
+church, with his concubine. This concubine, one day, sat rather
+imprudently on the tomb of St. Osanna, sister to King Osred, which was
+made of wood, and raised above the ground in the shape of a seat: when she
+attempted to rise from that place, she stuck to the wood in such a manner
+that she could not be parted from it, till, in the presence of the people
+who flocked to see her, she had suffered her clothes to be torn from her,
+and had received a severe discipline on her naked body, and that too to a
+great effusion of blood, and with many tears and devout supplications on
+her part; which done, and after she had engaged to submit to further
+penitence, she was divinely released."
+
+In this instance, as in many others, freedom from vulgar habiliments
+appears to have been considered as acceptable to Heaven; so much so,
+indeed, that the state of greater or lesser nudity has been commensurate
+with the degree of the offence. The Cynic philosophers of Greece, among
+whom Diogenes made himself most conspicuous, used to appear in public
+without a rag upon them. The Indian wise men, called Gymnosophists, or
+naked sages, indulged in the same vagaries. In more modern times, the
+Adamites appeared in the simple condition of our first father. In the 13th
+century, a sect called _Les Turlupins_ (a denomination which appears to
+have been an opprobrious nickname), perambulated France, disencumbered of
+vain accoutrements; and, in 1535, some Anabaptists made an excursion in
+Amsterdam in the condition in which they had quitted their baths, for
+which breach of decorum the impious burgomasters had them bastinadoed. We
+further read of one Friar Juniperus, a worthy Franciscan, who, according
+to history, "entered the town of Viterboo, and, while he stood within the
+gate, he put his hose on his head, and his gown being tied round his neck
+in the shape of a load, he walked through the streets of the town, where
+he suffered much abuse and maltreatment from the wicked inhabitants; and,
+still in the same situation, he went to the convent of the brothers, who
+all exclaimed against him, but he cared little for them, _so holy was the
+good little brother_ (_tam sanctus fuit iste fraticellus_)."
+
+The pranks of brother Juniper have been performed at sundry periods by
+various holy men. Are we not warranted in conceiving that these
+individuals were daemonomaniacs? for surely the devil alone could have
+inspired them with such fancies, although Cardinal Damian defends the
+practice in the following terms, when speaking of the day of judgment:
+"Then shall the sun lose its lustre, the moon shall be involved in
+darkness; the stars shall fall from their places, and all the elements be
+confounded together: of what service then will be to you those clothes and
+garments with which you are now covered, and which you refuse to lay
+aside, to submit to the exercise of penitence?"
+
+It must be remarked, in extenuation of these exhibitions, that they were
+accompanied by flagellation; which sometimes bore a close analogy to those
+of the Saturnalia and Lupercalia, and the discipline of the flagellants
+was not always dissimilar to that of the Luperci.
+
+To resume: Daemonomania may be considered the result of a morbid condition
+of the mind, and the dread of supernatural agency. The belief of an
+incarnation of the devil leads to the natural apprehension of his having
+taken possession of our bodies, when a credulous creature fancies that he
+has fallen into his snares, and forsaken the ways of the Omnipotent. This
+sad delusion has been admirably illustrated by Sir Walter Scott in his
+curious and learned Demonology. "It is, I think," says he, "conclusive
+that mankind, from a very early period, have their minds prepared for such
+events (supernatural occurrences) by the consciousness of the existence of
+a spiritual world. But imagination is apt to intrude its explanations and
+inferences founded on inadequate evidence. Sometimes our violent and
+inordinate passions, originating in sorrow for our friends, remorse for
+our crimes, our eagerness of patriotism, or our deep sense of
+devotion,--these, or other violent excitements of a moral character, in
+the visions of the night, or the rapt ecstasy of the day, persuade us that
+we witness with our eyes and ears an actual instance of that supernatural
+communication, the possibility of which cannot be denied. At other times
+the corporeal organs impose upon the mind, while the eye and the ear,
+diseased, deranged, or misled, convey false impressions to the patient.
+Very often both the mental delusion and the physical deception exist at
+the same time; and men's belief of the phenomena presented to them,
+however erroneously, by the senses, is the firmer and more readily
+granted, that the physical impressions corresponded with the mental
+excitement."
+
+From the foregoing observations we may venture to conclude, that an
+individual who gives credence to apparitions will also believe in the
+incarnation of the devil. In both cases we infer that spiritual beings can
+assume corporeal forms; and, although we may not presume to question the
+possibility of such appearances when it may please the Omnipotent so to
+will it, to believe in possession is actually to admit that the devil is a
+spiritual being endowed with specific attributes and powers, and acting
+either independently or with the consent of the Almighty. This admission
+would to a certain extent border on the heresy of the Manicheans, who
+believed, with the heresiarch Cubricus, that there existed a good and an
+evil principle coeternal and independent of each other. We find in Holy
+Writ that indulgence was granted to Satan to visit the earth. But the
+period when miraculous power ceased, or rather was withdrawn from the
+church, is not determined. The Protestants bring it down beneath the
+accession of Constantine, while the Roman Catholic clergy still claim the
+power of producing or procuring supernatural manifestations when it suits
+their purpose; but, as Scott justly observes, it is alike inconsistent
+with the common sense of either Protestant or Roman Catholic, that fiends
+should be permitted to work marvels, which are no longer exhibited on the
+part of religion.
+
+Cullen's opinion on this disease is worthy of remark. He says, "I do not
+allow that there is any true daemonomania, because few people nowadays
+believe that demons have any power over our bodies or our minds; and, in
+my opinion, the species recorded are either a species of melancholy or
+mania,--diseases falsely referred by the spectators to the power of
+demons,--feigned diseases,--or diseases partly real or partly feigned."
+
+Esquirol, moreover, justly observes, that "in modern times the punishments
+that the priest denounces have ceased to influence the minds and the
+conduct of men, and governments have recourse to restraints of a
+different kind. Many lunatics express now as much dread of the tribunals
+of justice, as they formerly entertained of the influence of stars and
+demons."
+
+We frequently meet with despondent monomaniacs labouring under the fatal
+delusion of having forfeited all hopes of salvation, and being in fact
+inevitably doomed to perdition, but who are apparently of sound mind when
+touching upon other subjects. The case of one Samuel Brown was peculiarly
+striking. This unfortunate man, at a period when all his intellectual
+faculties were in full vigour, fancied that his rational soul had
+gradually succumbed under divine displeasure, and that he solely enjoyed
+an animal life in common with brutes.
+
+Esquirol affirms that this form of lunacy is of rare occurrence, and that
+out of upwards of 20,000 insane persons whom he has observed, scarcely one
+case of daemonomania could be found in a thousand, and these were amongst
+the lowest and most uneducated classes of society. The most powerful charm
+to withstand the efforts of the evil spirit, is the following one
+generally made use of in Livonia.
+
+_Two eyes have seen thee--may three eyes deign to cast a favourable look
+upon thee, in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost._
+
+
+
+
+THE PLAGUE.
+
+
+Pestilential diseases have ever been considered a punishment inflicted on
+mankind for their manifold offences. The ancients deified the calamity,
+and viewed it in the light of an avenging god. In the Oedipus of
+Sophocles, the chorus implore Minerva to preserve them from that divinity,
+which, without sword or buckler, strews the Theban streets with corpses,
+and is more invincible than Mars himself. Lucretius describes the plague
+of Athens as a holy fire,--
+
+  Et simul, ulceribus quasi inustis, omne rubore
+  Corpus, ut est, per membra _sacer_ quum diditur _ignis_.
+
+The plague was known in an early era both to the Israelites and to the
+Greeks, and its ancient and modern histories have descended to us depicted
+in the most terrific colours, in a regular stream of Hebrew, Greek,
+Arabic, and Roman writers, in most instances offering little variety from
+the descriptions of neoteric observers.
+
+The pestilences that visited the Israelites were, however, of a different
+character. They were also considered as a Divine chastisement of the sins
+of that stiff-necked nation. This visitation, accurately described in Holy
+Writ, has led to the most curious disquisitions. Bryant has endeavoured by
+the most recondite researches to give us the reasons why the Creator
+thought proper thus to visit his disobedient people. It has been truly
+observed that the sublime is not far removed from the ridiculous; and it
+may be said with equal correctness, that enthusiasm in religion too
+frequently borders upon impiety. Bryant, in his erudite labour, has
+unhappily fallen into this extreme, in assigning human motives to the
+decrees of the Deity. This matter is treated in so curious a manner that
+it will not be irrelevant to notice his bold assertions.
+
+In the first instance, taking the language of the Exodus in the most
+literal sense, he tells us that the river was turned into blood, _because_
+it was a punishment particularly well adapted to that blinded and
+infatuated people, as a warning to the Israelites of the insufficiency of
+the false gods that the Egyptians worshipped. They had rendered divine
+homage to the Nile; and Herodotus informs us that the Persians held their
+rivers in the highest veneration; while the same worship obtained among
+the Medes, the Parthians, and the Sarmatians. The Greeks adored the
+Spercheius, to whose god Peleus vowed the hair of his son; the laureated
+Peneus, the earth-born Achelous, and the loving Alpheus. For, although it
+may be said that these streams were merely venerated as the symbols of
+their respective gods, it is possible that the Greeks might have fallen
+into the same errors as the worshippers of saintly images in more modern
+and enlightened times. Therefore, says our learned author, there was a
+great propriety in the judgment brought upon this people by Moses. They
+must have felt the utmost astonishment and horror when they beheld the
+sacred stream changed and polluted, and the divinity which they worshipped
+so shamefully soiled and debased. Moreover, he tells us that the Egyptian
+priests were particularly nice and delicate in their outward habits,
+making constant ablutions; and abhorred blood, or any stain of gore. In
+this plague the fish that were in the river died, and the river stunk. Now
+the priests and holy men not only never tasted fish, but looked upon them
+as deities. A city was built in honour of the god-fish, Oxyrunchus; the
+Phagrus[12] was worshipped at Syene, the Maeotis at Elephantis, and
+Antiphanes tells us that the Egyptians equally reverenced the eel.
+
+The second plague were frogs, _because_, further saith our sapient
+authority, they added to the stink of the land, as they "died out of the
+houses, out of the villages, and out of the fields, and were gathered
+together in heaps, and the land stunk," Exodus viii. 13, 14. Bryant
+candidly confesses that he is rather uncertain if this reptile was an
+object of reverence, or of abhorrence to the Egyptians; nevertheless, he
+draws the conclusion that, as the ancients worshipped many deities of
+dread, and others that they despised, (such as Priapus, Fatua, Vacuna,
+Cloacina,) Mephitis, or foul effluvia, was held in religious awe,--and, to
+use his own expressions, since Mephitis "signified stink in the abstract,"
+and had a temple at Cremona, the pestilential emanation from the dead
+frogs might have been considered as entitled to some reverence.[13]
+Plutarch tells us that the frog was an emblem of the sun in Egypt, and
+that the brazen palm-tree at Delphi had many of these animals engraved on
+its basis. On the Bembine table we find it sitting upon the lotus, a
+circumstance observed in various ancient gems; the water-lily being,
+perhaps, congenial to this aquatic tribe, which were denominated the
+attendants of the deities of streams and fountains. It is also alleged
+that the frog was deemed an emblem of Apollo and Osiris, from its habit of
+inflation, which was looked upon as being typical of inspiration. That
+frogs were considered as evil symbols further appears in the Apocalypse,
+where we find that "three unclean spirits like frogs come out of the mouth
+of the dragon, and out of the mouth of the beast, and out of the mouth of
+the false prophet; they are the spirits of devils working miracles."
+
+The third plague was lice, _because_ the Egyptian priests affected great
+external purity, wore linen under their woollen garments, and shaved their
+heads, according to Herodotus, every third day, to prevent any louse, or
+any other detestable object, from finding a comfortable shelter. Some
+scholastics have ventured to insinuate that this insect was a species of
+gnat; but St. Jerome and Origen very properly observe that this would have
+been a presumptious anticipation of the plague of flies, which constituted
+the _fourth_ visitation, _because_ flies were also held sacred by the
+Egyptians, and were worshipped under the name of _Achon_, _Acoron_, and
+_Zebub_, more particularly in the city of _Acaron_ or _Accoron_. Baal was
+the god of flies, and the fly was worshipped at _Ekron_, where it was
+called _Baal-ze-bub_,--hence _Belzebub_.
+
+The next plague was the murrain of beasts; _because_ it was necessary that
+the Israelites should not only see that the cattle of the Egyptians were
+all infected, while theirs were exempted from the evil; but that their
+very living symbol of the bull Apis, in whom the soul of Osiris had taken
+up its dwelling, was affected with epizooty in common with other herds of
+horned deities, who were called _Dii Stercorei_; though it appears that
+the ass and the camel were involved in the same calamity.
+
+Our commentator attempts to account for the sixth plague of boils and
+blains with equal ingenuity. He affirms that this cruel disorder was sent
+among the Egyptians to show the Israelites that the medical men to whom
+they attributed divine powers, could neither cure nor alleviate the
+disease. The science of medicine bequeathed by Isis to her son Orus was of
+no avail, and the learned records of Tosorthrus yielded no information. In
+vain did their leeches search their cryptae and sacred caverns, or consult
+their mystic obelisks, which, according to Manetho, were inscribed with
+the aphorisms of medical experience; their physicians only increased the
+number of the _botches_ of the land. The Scriptures state that this
+pestilential malady was produced by the ashes that Aaron and Moses
+scattered up towards heaven to be wafted over the country. Bryant also
+accounts for this circumstance, and attributes this method of extending
+the calamity to the barbarous practice of the Egyptians of burning human
+victims and scattering the ashes in the air, in a like manner to
+propitiate their gods.
+
+The fall of rain, hail, fire, and thunder, that constituted the seventh
+plague, was a chastisement inflicted on the worshippers of these supposed
+elements. Their Isis presided over the waters, and Osiris and Hephaistus
+governed fire. Moreover the flax was smitten, whereby the Egyptians were
+deprived of the means of making linen, the finest of which was their boast
+and their pride. The barley was also destroyed, and they had no materials
+for brewing their favourite potation, barley-wine; a species of beer which
+constituted their chief beverage when the waters of the Nile were turbid
+and not potable.[14]
+
+But, according to Jacob Bryant, this destruction was not deemed
+sufficient, since the fecundity of Egypt would soon have replenished their
+granaries, manufactures, and breweries; therefore locusts were sent to
+devour every thing that the former devastation had spared; and this plague
+was a punishment of their belief that Hercules and Apollo had the power of
+controlling these ravenous insects, which were called _Parnopes_ and
+_Cornopes_, whence Apollo was named _Parnopius_, and Hercules _Cornopion_.
+It also appears that the grasshoppers, or _cicadae_, were venerated, both
+as sacred and musical; and the Athenians wore golden ones in their hair,
+to denote the antiquity of their race of earth-born breed.
+
+Now it is somewhat singular, that while our ingenious author makes such
+learned inquiries to account for the motives that induced God thus to
+visit the Egyptians, he does not venture to assign motives for similar
+calamities which befel other nations and countries; although his
+researches on the subject are so curious and interesting, that they
+deserve insertion.
+
+The following is the account given by Beauplam of the destructive inroad
+of these devourers in the Ukraine:--"Next to the flies, let us talk of the
+grasshoppers or locusts, which here are so numerous, that they put one in
+mind of the scourge of God sent upon Egypt when he punished Pharaoh. These
+creatures do not only come in legions, but in whole clouds, five or six
+leagues in length, and two or three in breadth, eating up all sorts of
+grain or grass, so that wheresoever they come, in less than two hours they
+crop all they can find, which causes great scarcity of provisions. It is
+not easy to express their numbers, for all the air is full and darkened;
+and I cannot better represent their flight to you, than by comparing it to
+the flakes of snow driven by the wind in cloudy weather; and when they
+alight to feed, the plains are all covered. They make a murmuring noise as
+they eat, and in less than two hours they devour all close to the ground;
+then rising, they suffer themselves to be carried away by the wind. When
+they fly, though the sun shines never so bright, the air is no lighter
+than when most clouded. In June 1646, having stayed in a new town called
+Novogorod, I was astonished to see so vast a multitude. They were hatched
+here last spring; and being as yet scarcely able to fly, the ground was
+all covered, and the air so full of them, that I could not eat in my
+chamber without a candle, all the houses being full of them, even the
+stables, barns, chambers, garrets, cellars, &c. I have seen at night, when
+they sit to rest themselves, that the roads have been four inches thick of
+them, one upon another. By the wheels of the carts and the feet of our
+horses bruising these creatures, there came from them such a stink, as
+not only offended the nose but the brain. I was not able to endure the
+stench, but was forced to wash my nose with vinegar, and to hold a
+handkerchief dipped in it to my nostrils perpetually. These vermin
+increase and multiply thus: they generate in October, and with their tails
+make a hole in the ground, and having laid three hundred eggs in it, and
+covered them with their feet, die; for they never live above six months
+and a half. And though the rains should come, they would not destroy the
+eggs; nor does the frost, never so sharp, hurt them. But they continue to
+the spring, which is about mid-April; when the sun warming the earth, they
+are hatched, and leap about, being six weeks old before they can fly; when
+stronger, and able to fly, they go wherever the wind carries them. If it
+should happen that a north-east wind prevails, it carries them all into
+the black sea; but if the wind blows from any other quarter, they go into
+some other country to do mischief. I have been told by persons who
+understand the languages well, that the words _Boze Guion_, which mean the
+scourge of God, are written in Chaldee characters upon their wings."
+
+Norden mentions that there were supposed to be hieroglyphic marks upon the
+heads of these insects. Such was the pestilential scourge of the Ukraine;
+although I do not apprehend that its inhabitants ever worshipped
+_Parnopius_ or _Cornopion_, or decorated their filthy heads with golden
+grasshoppers. Other regions were occasionally visited by these insects.
+Ludolphus, in speaking of Ethiopia, says, "But much more pernicious than
+these (the numerous serpents) are the locusts, which do not frequent the
+desert and sandy places, like the serpents, but the places best manured,
+and orchards laden with fruit. They appear in prodigious multitudes, like
+a cloud which obscures the sun; nor plants, nor trees, nor shrubs appear
+untouched, and wherever they feed, what is left appears as it were parched
+with fire. A general mortality ensues; and regions lie waste for years."
+
+Francis Alvarez thus speaks of the same calamity in the country of Prester
+John. "In this country, and in all the dominions of Prete Janni, there is
+a very great and horrible plague: this arises from an innumerable number
+of locusts, which eat and consume all the corn and the trees. And the
+number of these creatures is so great as to be incredible, and with their
+numbers they cover the earth, and fill the air in such wise, that it is a
+hard matter to see the sun. And if the damage they do were general through
+all the provinces, the people would perish with famine. But one year they
+destroy one province, sometimes two or three of the provinces; and
+wherever they go the country remaineth more ruined and destroyed than if
+it had been set on fire." The author adds, that he exorcised them upon
+their invading a district in which he resided, when they all made off; but
+in the mean time, he adds, "there arose a great storm and thunder towards
+the sea, which came right against them. It lasted three hours, with an
+exceeding great shower and tempest. It was a dreadful thing to behold the
+dead locusts, (whom, by the way he had exorcised,) which we measured to be
+above two fathoms high upon the banks of the rivers."
+
+Barbot, in describing Upper Guinea, tells us that "famines are some years
+occasioned by the dreadful swarms of grasshoppers or locusts, which come
+from the eastward, and spread all over the country in such prodigious
+multitudes, that they darken the air, passing over our heads like a mighty
+cloud."
+
+Orosius states that in the consulship of Marcus Plautius Hypsaeus and
+Marcus Fulvius Flaccus, A.R. 628, Africa was desolated by a swarm of these
+insects, which for a while were supported in the air, but were ultimately
+cast into the sea. "After this," he adds, "the surf threw up upon that
+long extended coast such numerous heaps of their dead and corrupted
+bodies, that there ensued from putrefaction a most unsupportable and
+poisonous stench. This soon brought on a pestilence, which affected every
+species of animals, so that all birds, and sheep, and cattle, also the
+wild beasts of the field died, and their carcases being soon rendered
+putrid by the foulness of the air, added greatly to the general
+corruption. In respect to men, it is impossible, without horror, to
+describe the shocking devastation. In Numidia, where at the time Micipsa
+was king, eighty thousand persons perished. Upon that part of the
+sea-coast which bordered upon the regions of Carthage and Utica, the
+number of those carried off by this pestilence is said to have been two
+hundred thousand."
+
+Now when man in all his proud ignorance dares to assume the power of
+canvassing the acts of the Almighty, and to attribute to his inscrutable
+will human motives, which generally arise from mortal frailty, he might as
+well endeavour to account for similar casualties which visited other
+nations than the Egyptians, and seek for the causes of the scourges of
+Carthage, Ethiopia, and Tartary. It is grievous to see the intellectual
+faculties of man perverted in such idle, one might venture to say, in such
+impious researches. It is strange that the learned Bryant did not
+associate the death of the first-born with ideas of primogeniture!
+
+The ninth plague of darkness he attributes to the prevalence of the
+worship of the sun, under the title of Osiris, Ammon, Orus, Isis, and the
+like. _Because_ the Egyptians, the Ethiopians, Persians, Phoenicians,
+Syrians, Rhodians, and various other nations, considered themselves
+Heliadae, or descendants of the sun. "What, then, can be more reasonable,"
+continues our antiquary, "than for a people who thus abused their
+faculties, who raised to themselves a god of Day, their Osiris, and
+instead of that intellectual light, the wisdom of the Almighty,
+substituted a created and inanimate element as a just object of
+worship,--what could be more apposite than for people of this cast to be
+doomed to a judicial and temporary darkness?" Unfortunately, in the very
+next paragraph we are told that the Egyptians showed an equal reverence to
+night and darkness: obscurity, therefore, was only replacing one false god
+by another. They paid a religious regard to the _mugall_, a kind of mole,
+on account of its supposed blindness; and night was conceived more sacred
+than day, from its greater antiquity, since, according to the Phoenician
+theology, the wind _Copias_ and his wife _Baan_ were esteemed the same as
+night, and were the authors of the first beings. In the poems of Orpheus,
+Night is considered as the creative principle; and in the Orphic hymns we
+find Night invoked as "the parent of gods and men, and the origin of all
+things."
+
+This attempt to show an analogy between the crimes and sins of the
+Egyptians and the punishment they received, is too curious to be
+overlooked. The mania of seeking for the cause of every thing, reminds one
+of a singular character in Trinity College, Dublin, formerly well known,
+who invariably gave a reason for every direction he thought proper to
+issue; and he was once heard to address a servant in the following words:
+"Pat, put a cover upon that mutton. It is not for the purpose of keeping
+it hot, _because_ it is cold, but it is _because_ I do not wish the flies
+to get at it, _because_ fly-blown meat is both unpleasant to the taste and
+injurious to the health."
+
+It appears probable that the plague originated in Egypt. From time
+immemorial to the present day the lower provinces have been subject to
+this cruel scourge. Wars, intestine commotions, and misrule have too
+frequently prevented the local authorities from paying proper attention to
+measures of public salubrity. Herodotus tells us, that when he was at
+Memphis, Egypt was just liberated from a long-protracted war, during
+which political economy had been neglected, canals had been abandoned and
+choked up, and the frontiers of the land were infested with banditti,
+while the interior was desolated by pestilential disorders. My much
+esteemed friend Baron Larrey, in his valuable work upon Egypt, has given a
+topographical description of the country; and the influence that the
+seasons exercise upon it, must be evident. He informs us that after the
+spring equinox, and especially towards the beginning of June, the
+southerly winds are prevalent for about fifty days. Their scorching
+influence is experienced for upwards of four hours, while they waft with
+fatal rapidity putrid emanations exhaled by animal and vegetable bodies
+decomposed in the lakes formed by the receding waters of the Nile. From
+various observations it has been concluded that the plague is both an
+endemic and contagious disease in Lower Egypt, but simply contagious in
+Upper Egypt, Syria, the other Turkish provinces, and Europe. No account of
+the plague in Abyssinia, Sennaar, or the interior of Africa, is given by
+any traveller.
+
+The most fatal European plagues were probably those that desolated London
+in 1664, and Marseilles in 1720. The accounts of these fearful visitations
+are as curious as they are appalling. In London it broke out in the
+beginning of December, when two foreigners (Frenchmen it was reported)
+died of this disorder in Long-Acre, near Drury Lane. The cold weather and
+frost that followed, seemed to check its progress, until the month of
+April, when it appeared with intensity in the parishes of St. Andrew,
+Holborn, and St. Clement Danes. In May, the parish of St. Giles buried a
+great number. Wood Street, Fenchurch Street, and Crooked Lane, were soon
+visited, until terror was so general, that crowds of inhabitants
+panic-struck, on foot, on horse, in coaches, waggons, and carts, were
+thronging Broad Street and Whitechapel, fleeing from the calamity. To such
+an extent was migration carried, that not a horse could be bought or
+hired. Many fugitives, fearful of stopping at inns, carried tents to lie
+in the fields, and people moved in the centre of the streets, in dread of
+coming into contact with others sallying forth from their houses. During
+this state of universal panic, it may be easily imagined that hypocrisy
+and roguery were busily employed in increasing the evil, at the expense of
+the credulous. Pretended wizards and cunning people affirmed that a comet
+had appeared several months previous to the increase of the malady, as a
+similar meteor had visited London before the great fire; only the fire
+comet was bright and sparkling, and the plague comet was dull, and of a
+languid colour. Lilly's Almanac and Gadbury's Astrological Predictions
+were in general demand; while pamphlets, entitled "Come out of her, my
+people, lest you be partakers of her plagues," "Fair Warning," and
+"Britain's Remembrancer," were eagerly circulated, as they denounced the
+utter ruin of the city. One of these prophets ran about the streets,
+without the encumbrance of any garment, roaring out, "Yet forty days, and
+London shall be destroyed;" while another, equally divested of raiment,
+bellowed out, "Oh! the great and the dreadful God!" Some asserted that
+they had seen a hand with a flaming sword coming out of the clouds, while
+others beheld hearses and coffins floating in the air.
+
+The following is a quaint narrative of these absurdities: "One time before
+the plague was begun, I think it was in March, seeing a crowd of people in
+the street, I joined with them to satisfy my curiosity, and I found them
+all staring up in the air to see what a woman told them appeared plain to
+her, which was an angel clothed in white, with a fiery sword in his hand,
+waving it and brandishing it over his head. She described every part of
+the figure to the life, showed them the motions and the form; and the poor
+people came into it readily. 'Yes, I see it all plainly,' says one;
+'there's the sword as plain as can be.' Another saw his very face, and
+cried out, 'What a glorious creature he was!' One saw one thing, and one
+another. I looked as earnestly as the rest, and said I could see nothing
+but a cloud. However, the woman turned from me; called me a profane fellow
+and a scoffer; told me that it was a time of God's anger, and dreadful
+judgments were approaching, and that despisers such as I should _wonder
+and perish_. Another encounter I had in the open day also, in going
+through a narrow passage from Petty-France into Bishopsgate churchyard. In
+this narrow passage stands a man looking through between the palisadoes
+into the burying-place, and he was pointing now to one place, then to
+another, and affirming that he saw a ghost walking upon such a
+grave-stone; he described the shape, the posture, and the movement of it
+so exactly, crying on a sudden, 'There it is--now it comes this way--now
+'tis turned back!' till at length he persuaded the people into so firm a
+belief of it, that they fancied they saw it; and thus he came every day,
+making a strange hubbub, till Bishopsgate clock struck eleven, and then
+the ghost would start and disappear on a sudden."
+
+Such sanctimonious tricks are historical. Don Bernal Dias del Castello
+tells us, in his account of the Mexican conquest, that St. Jago appeared
+in the van of the army, mounted on a white horse, and leading the troops
+on to victory. He frankly owns that he did not see this blessed vision;
+nay, that a cavalier, by name Francisco de Morla, mounted on a chestnut
+steed, was fighting in the very place where the patron of Spain was said
+to have appeared; but, instead of drawing the natural conclusion, that the
+whole business was got up as an illusion, he devoutly exclaims, "Sinner
+that I was, what am I that I should have been permitted to behold the
+blessed apostle!"
+
+These impostures remind us of the story of the wag who, fixing his eyes
+upon the lion over Northumberland House, exclaimed, "By heaven! it
+wags--it wags!" and contrived by these means to collect an immense mob in
+the street, many of whom swore that they did absolutely see the lion
+wagging his tail.
+
+Crowds of pretended fortune-tellers, and astrologers and cunning men, were
+soon in good business, and their trade became so generally practised, that
+they had signs denoting their profession over their doors, with
+inscriptions announcing, "Here lives a fortune-teller,"--"Here you may
+have your nativity cast;" and the head of Friar Bacon, Mother Shipton, or
+Merlin, were their usual signs: and if any unfortunate man of grave
+appearance, and wearing a black cloak, went abroad, he was immediately
+assailed by the mob as a necromancer, and supplicated to reveal futurity.
+At such a period, it may be easily imagined that quacks were not satisfied
+with mere gleanings; and _infallible pills_, _never-failing
+preservatives_, _sovereign cordials_, and _incomparable drinks_, against
+the plague, were announced in every possible manner; and _universal
+remedies_, _the only true plague-water_, and _the royal antidote_, became
+themes of universal discourse. An eminent _High_ Dutch physician, newly
+come over from Holland, where he resided during all the time of the
+plague,--an Italian gentlewoman, having a choice secret to prevent
+infection, and that did wonders in a plague that destroyed twenty thousand
+people a-day, were announced by bills at every corner.
+
+One ingenious mountebank realized a fortune by announcing _that he gave
+advice to the poor for nothing_: crowds flocked to consult him; but he
+took half-a-crown for his remedy, on the plea that, although his advice
+was given gratis, he was obliged to sell his physic. While these
+speculations were going on, all "plays, bear-baiting, games, singing of
+ballads, and buckler-play," were prohibited; all feasting, "particularly
+by the companies of this city," was punished; watchmen guarded the doors
+of the pestiferated, to prevent their egress, and a red cross was painted
+on their houses. The inhabitants, thus shut up to suffer the pangs of
+starvation in addition to those of pestilence, made the best of their way
+out of their prison by every possible stratagem and bribery. While fervent
+prayers and loud ejaculations for mercy were heard amongst distracted
+families, the most offensive blasphemy and ribaldry prevailed amongst the
+gravediggers, dead-cart drivers, and their wanton companions. If any one
+ventured to rebuke them, he was asked, with a volley of oaths, "what
+business he had to be alive, when so many better fellows were shovelled in
+their graves?" to which was added a salutary recommendation to go home and
+pray, until the dead-cart called for him. The watchmen got their share of
+ill-usage and abuse.
+
+All the guards had been marched out of town, with the exception of small
+detachments at Whitehall and the Tower. Robbery of every description was
+of course in full vigour, and every vice indulged in with impunity, while
+despair drove many to madness and suicide,--several individuals rushing
+naked out of their houses, and running to the river to drown themselves if
+not stopped by the watch. People fell dead while making purchases of
+provisions in the market; where, instead of receiving the meat from the
+butcher's hands, each buyer unhooked his purchase, and paid for it by
+throwing the value in a vessel filled with vinegar. Mothers destroyed
+their children, and nurses smothered their patients, while the bedclothes
+were stolen from the couch of the dead.
+
+Among the curious anecdotes of the time, the following is worth insertion:
+"A neighbour of mine, having some money owing to him from a shopkeeper in
+Whitecross-street, sent his apprentice, a youth of eighteen years of age,
+to get the money; he came to the door, and finding it shut, knocked pretty
+hard until he heard somebody coming down stairs. At length the man of the
+house came to the door; he had on his breeches or drawers, a yellow
+flannel waistcoat, no stockings, and a pair of slipt shoes, a white cap on
+his head, and death in his face. When he opened the door, he said, 'What
+do you disturb me thus for?'--'I come from such a one, my master,' replied
+the boy, 'to ask for the money you owe him.'--'Very well, my child,'
+returns the living ghost; 'call as you go by at Cripple-gate church, and
+bid them toll the bell.' So saying, he went up stairs again, and died the
+same hour."
+
+The story of the piper is founded on fact. This poor fellow having made
+merry in a public-house in Coleman-street, fell fast asleep under a stall
+near London Wall, Cripplegate; the under-sexton of St. Stephen's, one John
+Hayward, was going his rounds with his dead-cart, when he espied the
+piper, and, conceiving him to be a dead man, tumbled him on his heap of
+corpses, till, arrived at the burying-pit at Mount Hill, as they were
+about shooting the cart, the musician awoke, and, to the utter terror of
+the sexton and his comrades, began to set up his pipes.
+
+The following relation of a case of grief is rather remarkable. "A man was
+so much affected by the death of all his relations, and overcome with the
+pressure upon his spirits, that by degrees his head sunk into his body so
+between his shoulders, that the crown of his head was very little seen
+above the bones of his shoulders, and, by degrees losing both voice and
+sense, his face looking forward, lay against his collar-bone, and could
+not be kept up any otherwise unless held up by the hands of other people;
+and the poor man never came to himself again, but languished near a year
+in this condition, and died." This was _depression_ with a vengeance!
+
+Some of these unfortunate victims of the pestilential disease seem to have
+had poetical inspirations, for one of two men who had fled to the country
+was found dead with the following inscription cut out with his knife on a
+wooden gate near him:
+
+       OmIsErY
+  WE. BoTH ShaLL. DyE
+      WoE. WoE:
+
+and our historian, who fortunately escaped the calamity, terminates his
+work with the following lines:
+
+  A dreadful plague in London was
+    In the year sixty-five,
+  Which swept an hundred thousand souls
+    Away; yet I alive.
+
+Astrologers were of opinion that the plague of London arose from a
+conjunction of Saturn and Jupiter in Sagittarius on the tenth of October,
+or from a conjunction of Saturn and Mars in the same sign on the twelfth
+of November.[15]
+
+Great as the mortality was during this affliction, the history of various
+other pestilences in foreign countries presents as melancholy a result. In
+Moscow, the plague introduced by the Turkish army carried off 22,000
+inhabitants in a single month, and sometimes 12,000 in twenty-four hours.
+In Morocco, the mortality amounted to 1000 daily; in Old and New Fez, to
+1500; in Terodant to 800. The total loss sustained in these cities and in
+the Mogadore was estimated at 124,500 souls.
+
+The black pestilence of the fourteenth century also caused the most
+terrific ravages in England. It has been supposed to have borne some
+resemblance to the cholera, but that is not the case; it derived its name
+from the dark livid colour of the spots and boils that broke out upon the
+patient's body. Like the cholera, the fatal disease appeared to have
+followed a regular route in its destructive progress; but it did not, like
+the cholera, advance westward, although like that fearful visitation it
+appears to have originated in Asia.
+
+The black pestilence descended along the Caucasus to the shores of the
+Mediterranean, and instead of entering Europe through Russia, first spread
+over the south, and after devastating the rest of Europe penetrated into
+that country. It followed the caravan, which came from China across
+Central Asia, until it reached the shores of the Black Sea; thence it was
+conveyed by ships to Constantinople, the centre of commercial intercourse
+between Asia, Europe, and Africa. In 1347 it reached Sicily and some of
+the maritime cities of Italy and Marseilles. During the following year it
+spread over the northern part of Italy, France, Germany, and England. The
+northern kingdom of Europe was invaded by it in 1349, and finally Russia
+in 1351,--four years after it had appeared in Constantinople.
+
+The following estimate of deaths was considered far below the actual
+number of victims:
+
+  Florence lost                 60,000 inhabitants
+  Venice     "                  10,000      "
+  Marseilles "  in one month    56,000      "
+  Paris      "        "         50,000      "
+  Avignon    "        "         60,000      "
+  Strasburg  "        "         16,000      "
+  Basle      "        "         14,000      "
+  Erfurth    "        "         16,000      "
+  London     "        "        100,000      "
+  Norwich    "        "         50,000      "
+
+Hecker states that this pestilence was preceded by great commotion in the
+interior of the globe. About 1333, several earthquakes and volcanic
+eruptions did considerable injury in upper Asia, while in the same year,
+Greece, Italy, France, and Germany suffered under similar disasters. The
+harvests were swept away by inundations, and clouds of locusts destroyed
+all that the floods had spared, while dense masses of offensive insects
+strewed the land.
+
+As in the recent invasion of cholera, the populace attributed this scourge
+to poison and to the Jews, and these hapless beings were persecuted and
+destroyed wherever they could be found. In Mayence, after vainly
+attempting to defend themselves, they shut themselves up in their
+quarters, where 1200 of them were burnt to death. The only asylum found by
+them was Lithuania where Casimir afforded them protection; and it is
+perhaps owing to this circumstance that so many Jewish families are still
+to be found in Poland.
+
+A curious monumental record of the plague is to be seen at Eyam, an
+insignificant village in Derbyshire, to the eastward of Tideswell. It is
+an ancient stone cross of curious form and workmanship, erroneously stated
+to have been erected to commemorate the extinction of the pestilence which
+was supposed to have been brought there in a bag of woollen clothes, sent
+from London to a tailor of the place. The hamlet was soon infected, and
+its panic-struck inhabitants fled in every direction, scattering death in
+their flight, until driven back within their boundaries. During the
+prevalence of this scourge, tradition makes honourable mention of the
+rector of the parish, William Mompesson. Determined not to abandon his
+flock in the hour of need, he never quitted the devoted spot. In vain he
+entreated his wife to remove from the pestilential sphere of action--she
+would not leave him. Eyam was now cut off from all communication with the
+neighbourhood. The worthy clergyman addressed the Earl of Devonshire, then
+residing at Chatsworth, acquainting him with his resolution, and
+requesting that regular supplies of provisions might be duly placed in
+certain points of the adjacent hills. If this request was attended to, he
+pledged himself that none of his parishioners should transgress a given
+boundary. Troughs and wells, which are still there, were dug to secure
+water supplied by a stream, which to this day bears the hallowed name of
+_Mompesson brook_. The following account of this benevolent pastor's
+conduct in this emergency is not without interest:
+
+"Aware that any assemblage of people breathing the same air under a
+confined roof, and coming into immediate contact with each other, must be
+highly dangerous, he closed the door of the church, availing himself of a
+nobler substitute "not made with hands,"--a rock that projected from the
+side of a steep hill, near the village, in a deep and narrow dingle. This
+rock is excavated through in different directions, the arches being from
+12 to 19 feet high. In the middle of this romantic dell, from one of these
+natural porticoes, three times a week did he read prayers, and twice on
+Sundays did he address to his death-stricken congregation, the words of
+eternal life. By his own immediate directions, they arranged themselves on
+the declivity near the bottom, at the distance of a yard asunder. This
+spot is deservedly still held sacred, and known by the name of _Cucklet
+church_."
+
+The following letter from this worthy clergyman, dated 20th November,
+1666, energetically describes the calamity:
+
+"The condition of this place has been so sad, that I persuaded myself it
+did exceed all history and example. I may truly say that our place has
+become a Golgotha--the place of a skull; and had there not been a small
+remnant of us left, we had been as Sodom, and been made like unto
+Gomorrha; my ears never heard, my eyes never beheld such ghastly
+spectacles. Now, blessed be God, all our fears are over, for none have
+died of the infection since the 11th of October, and all the pesthouses
+have been long empty. I meant, God willing, to spend most of this week in
+seeing all woollen clothes fumed and purified, as well for the
+satisfaction as the safety of the country.
+
+"Here has been such burning of goods, that the like I think was never
+known. I have scarcely left myself apparel to shelter my body from the
+cold, and have wasted more than needed, merely for example. As for my
+part, I cannot say that I had ever been in better health than during the
+time of this dreadful visitation, neither can I say that I have had any
+symptoms of the disease."
+
+During a considerable time the benevolent man and his wife had escaped the
+malady, but at last his excellent wife was smitten, and died in his arms
+at the age of 27--far from her children, who had been sent away at the
+commencement of the invasion.
+
+In 1813, Malta was visited with this fatal malady; when the scenes of the
+plague that desolated the island in the sixteenth century were renewed,
+notwithstanding all the sanitary precautions adopted by various
+governments since that period.
+
+Count Ciantar in his "_Malta illustrata_," gives an interesting account of
+the introduction of the plague at four different periods in that island.
+The first was in 1592; when, in the month of May, four galleys belonging
+to the Grand Duke of Tuscany, entered the port to procure pilots for the
+service. By permission of the Grand Master, Cardinal Verclula, a pilot was
+obtained, and the vessels steered towards the Egyptian coast. In the
+vicinity of Alexandria, they captured a galley bound to Constantinople,
+having on board 150 Turks. On hearing that the plague was raging at
+Alexandria, they returned to Malta with their prize, which was discovered
+to be infected, and for the first time the plague was brought into the
+country.
+
+The second plague broke out in 1623, and originated in the house of Paulus
+Emilius Ramadus, guardian of the port. But the whole of the infected
+persons having been immediately sent to the Lazaretto, the progress of the
+disease was checked, and it only carried off forty-five persons.
+
+The third plague took place in 1633, and broke out at the Marina gate,
+where vessels from the Levant usually anchored. The proprietor of a house
+in that quarter, having had some communication with one of these ships,
+contracted the disease, and infected his sister, who resided in the
+country at Casal Zeitun, and shortly after the whole family was attacked,
+their speedy removal to the Lazaretto, however arrested the disease.
+
+The fourth appearance of this malady in Malta, was far more destructive
+than it had been in the preceding years, even in 1675, and it continued
+its ravages for seven months. This circumstance has been attributed to a
+difference of opinion that prevailed among the members of the
+commissioners appointed to take the necessary steps for checking the
+progress of the disease. It appears that doubts were entertained as to the
+nature of the malady, hence the requisite precautions were not enforced;
+and instead of separating the diseased from the healthy part of the
+community, with the utmost rigour, prayers were put up, vows and offerings
+were made, and processions paraded the streets, nor it was not until the
+Grand Master had sent to France for medical aid, that the scourge was
+mitigated. On their arrival the first steps adopted by these physicians
+was to confine the inhabitants to their homes, and to remove the sick to
+the Lazaret. The ravages of the disease must have been very great, since
+out of a population of about 60,000, there died in Valetta 4000, in Burgo
+1800, Senglen 2000, Burmola 1200, and in the villages upwards of 200.
+
+The last plague was supposed to have been brought in by a vessel from
+Alexandria, that entered the port on the 28th of March, 1813. It appeared
+that two of the crew had been seized during the voyage with symptoms of
+plague, then prevailing in Alexandria, which place the vessel had left
+with a foul bill of health. On the same day another vessel, the Nancy
+arrived from the same port, having also on board two men labouring under
+the disease, and she was followed by a Spanish polacca, the Bella Maria,
+from the same quarter. It was on the 16th of April that the disease first
+appeared in the island, in the case of a shoemaker in the Strada St.
+Paolo. The increase of the disorder was gradual, and from Valetta it
+spread to Citta Vecchia Bircharcara.
+
+My late friend, staff-surgeon Tully, thus describes the situation of the
+Island at this period: "The warm season was now rapidly advancing, the
+thermometer having risen several degrees at the latter end of May, and
+unfortunately, through the superstitious prejudices of the natives,
+considerable dependence was placed upon the anxiously-looked-for
+alteration in the state of the atmosphere, and every day was consequently
+expected to diminish the danger. This belief was too generally inculcated
+not to be productive of much mischief, as most persons felt assured that,
+if they could avoid danger until the summer heat set in, the evil would
+cease, and that the greatly-dreaded disease would then die a natural
+death. The consequence of this unfortunate belief was fatal--the freedom
+of intercourse produced by this blind confidence, led to a very general
+contamination, and men every where exposed to the baneful influence of the
+plague, became the active agents of the dissemination throughout the whole
+island."
+
+While the plague was thus raging at Malta, it made its appearance amongst
+the inhabitants of the Morea, having, it is supposed, been introduced from
+Romelia, by a man of the name of Kalangi, who was taken ill on his
+arrival, and died in two days. The following day his wife and daughter
+were attacked by the malady, which rapidly extended to Tornovo, and all
+the neighbouring towns. During the years 1813 and 1814, the banks of the
+Lepanto and the shores of Albania were nearly depopulated.
+
+In 1815 the fatal scourge broke out in the island of Corfu, in the village
+of Marathia. None of the medical men who attended the sick during this
+period, attributed the invasion of the disease to contagion.
+
+The doubt that had arisen in the minds of several experienced
+practitioners in regard to the non-contagious nature of the plague, is a
+matter of vital interest, since it not only concerns the health of
+nations, but in a commercial point of view it becomes a question of
+political economy of the utmost importance, as the severity of the
+quarantine laws, which must materially effect the prosperity of trade,
+would become useless if it could be proved that no contagion is to be
+apprehended from a free intercourse. It is somewhat curious that Dr. Mead
+long ago expressed his decided opinion that whenever the doctrine of
+non-contagion should be revived in England, (and it will be so, he adds,
+even a hundred years hence,) it will always excite alarm amongst those
+nations who are more prudent than ourselves, and less eager to entertain
+every kind of wild and visionary speculation.
+
+The contagionists affirm that the destructive ravages of the plague of
+Marseilles in 1720, when 60,000 inhabitants were carried off, arose from
+neglect in enforcing a rigid separation of the diseased from the healthy
+part of the community. The mortality in the plague of Messina, in 1743,
+during which 43,000 people fell victims to the disorder, is also referred
+to similar causes. They also maintain that the London plague of 1593,
+which destroyed 11,503 persons, was ascertained to have been introduced
+from Alkmaer; that the pestilence of London in 1603, which carried off
+36,269 inhabitants, was brought from Ostend, and further that in 1636, the
+scourge which destroyed 13,480 victims in our metropolis, had been
+imported from Leyden. In 1665, when its still more fatal ravages swept
+away 68,596 citizens, it had also been traced to our foreign intercourse.
+Dr. Merlens who has accurately described the plague that raged at Moscow
+in 1771, asserts that it was introduced by a communication with the
+Turkish army. Notwithstanding which, by keeping the patients strictly
+guarded, the city was maintained free from infection, while the disease
+raged around in every quarter.
+
+Mr. Jackson gives a similar account of the plague at Morocco; and he adds,
+that daily observations convinced him that the epidemic was not caught by
+approach, unless that approach was accompanied by an inhaling of the
+breath, or by tending upon the infected person. With such a discrepance of
+opinion, we cannot be surprised at this anxiety to impugn the doctrine of
+those practitioners who maintain, that contagion is not to be dreaded, and
+that severe sanitary precautions are therefore vexatious and oppressive.
+If the progress of the disease, say the non-contagionists, depends upon
+personal contact with infected persons or goods, its ravages would never
+cease in those countries where no precautionary measures are taken to
+prevent communication between the infected and the healthy; that in Turkey
+for instance, where these precautions are not resorted to, there would be
+no cessation of the malady until it had swept away the whole of the
+population.
+
+To these arguments, plausible as they may appear in theory, it has been
+replied, that the plague to a certain extent has never ceased to exist in
+the Ottoman empire, but breaks out occasionally after temporary
+intermissions. As to the permanence of the diseases it is well known that
+like all other epidemic or endemic diseases, the plague may also be
+subject to atmospheric influence and be arrested in its progress without
+human aid. Sir James M'Grigor illustrates this fact in his "Sketches of
+the Expedition of the Indian Troops to Egypt." When the disease first
+broke out in the army, the cases sent from the regiments were from the
+commencement attended with typhoid symptoms; while those from the Bengal
+volunteer battalion, and the other corps encamped near the marshes of El
+Hamed, were of an intermittent and remittent type. The cases that occurred
+in the cold and rainy months of December and January, were of an
+inflammatory character, after which, as the weather became warmer, the
+disease at Cairo, Ghiza, Boula, and the isthmus of Suez assumed the form
+of a mild continual fever. The plague of London in 1665, was in like
+manner distinguished by a peculiar constitution of the atmosphere.
+
+It has also been doubted whether the plague be contagious in every
+instance of its appearance. Various persons have inoculated themselves
+with its virus with impunity, though several were ultimately victims of
+the bold experiment. In Egypt Dr. White inoculated himself ten times, but
+died of the disease after the eleventh trial.[16]
+
+The atmosphere of contagion it appears is limited, and strict attention to
+keep up a line of separation generally proves effectual in arresting or
+checking its progress. Contact appears necessary to extend the malady, and
+a direct absorption through the skin forms the ordinary means of
+transmission. When the cutaneous pores are closed by oil, or any other
+substance of the kind, an exemption from the fatal scourge has been
+frequently observed. Mr. Baldwin states, that among upwards of a million
+of inhabitants carried off by the plague in Upper and Lower Egypt during
+the space of four years, not a single oil-man, or dealer in oil, had
+suffered. Mr. Jackson made the same observation in the plague of Tunis.
+Dr. Assalini, an intelligent medical officer of the French army in Egypt,
+does not attribute this exemption to the stoppage of the pores, but as the
+result of profuse perspiration which the inunction of oil produces. The
+_zeit jagghy_ or olive oil, is considered a specific by most of the
+Asiatics; and my late friend Mr. Tully observed that all the attendants
+upon patients suffering from the plague, who carefully smeared their
+persons and their clothes with this substance, were exempt from the
+infection. The same observation was corroborated by Sir Brooke Faulkener,
+during the plague of Malta.
+
+Various have been the remedial means proposed in this terrific malady, and
+preservatives against it have been recorded in the following distich:
+
+  Haec tria labificum tollunt adverbia pestem;
+  Mox, longe, tarde,--cede, recede, redi.
+
+The celebrated plague-water was composed of master-wort, angelica, peony,
+and butter-bur, viper-grass, Virginia snake-root, rue, rosemary, balm,
+carduus, water-germander, marygold, dragon-blood, goats'-rue, and mint,
+infused in spirits of wine.
+
+It appears manifest from all the evidence adduced by the contending
+theorists, that we may come to the following corollaries:
+
+1. Plague may generally be considered as arising from contagion.
+
+2. The spread and decline of the disease is influenced by local
+peculiarities and revolutions in atmospheric constitution.
+
+3. It appears probable, that under peculiar local circumstances, it may
+have arisen spontaneously, without having been introduced by contagion;
+but this invasion must be considered of very rare occurrence.
+
+4. Although transmitted by contagion, a certain distance preserves the
+healthy from the contamination of the diseased.
+
+5. The enforcement of a limit of separation must be considered
+indispensable in all our sanitary regulations, in the framing of which
+great attention must be paid to discriminate between contagion and
+infection--two sources of distemper essentially different from each other.
+
+Although these precautions are pointed out by the result of long and
+unbiassed experience, they will in all probability be solely applicable to
+the plague: for we have every reason to believe that these sanitary
+measures will not prove efficient against the invasion of cholera, the
+yellow fever, and other diseases, which are by no means proved to be
+infectious or contagious. Without entering into the discussion, I feel no
+hesitation in giving it, as my decided opinion, that the cholera and
+yellow fever are not contagious.
+
+
+
+
+ABSTINENCE.
+
+
+Hippocrates asserted that most individuals who abstain from food for seven
+days, die within that period; or, if they survive this time, and are even
+then prevailed upon to eat or drink they still perish. Various instances
+of persons who have lived much longer without sustenance have been
+observed. In the records of the Tower we find the history of Cicely de
+Ridgeway, who was condemned to death for the murder of her husband in the
+reign of Edward III., and who remained for forty days without food or
+drink. This being ascribed to a miracle, she was of course pardoned. From
+the result of this starvation, the story may be considered fabulous for
+two reasons: first, from the improbability of the alleged abstinence; and,
+secondly, from the selection of forty days, a period clearly fixed upon
+for miracle-making, being the exact number of days our Saviour fasted.
+
+We have a better authenticated case in the one mentioned by Dr. Eccles in
+the Edinburgh Medical Essays for 1720. The starved person was a beautiful
+young lady, about sixteen years of age, who, in consequence of the sudden
+death of her father, was thrown into a state of tetanus (lock-jaw) so
+violent as to render her incapable of swallowing for two long and distinct
+periods,--the first of thirty-four, and the second of fifty-four
+days,--during which she neither experienced a sense of hunger nor of
+thirst, and when she recovered, she was scarcely reduced in size. Sir
+William Hamilton saw a girl, sixteen years of age, who was extricated from
+the ruins of a house at Oppido, in which she had remained eleven days: an
+infant in her arms, but a few months old, had died on the fourth day, as
+the young are not so able to endure abstinence. Dr. Willan attended a
+young man who had abstained from any sustenance except a little water
+flavoured with orange-juice for sixty days: death ensued a fortnight
+after. Fodere mentions some workmen who were extricated alive from a cold
+damp cavern, in which they had been immured under a ruin for fourteen
+days. Cetois, a physician of Poitiers, relates a still more singular case
+of total abstinence in a girl, who, from the age of eleven to that of
+fourteen, took no nourishment.
+
+Ann Moore, called the fasting woman of Tutbury, was to a certain extent an
+impostor, for although there was no truth in her assertion that she lived
+an incredible time without food, yet it appeared evident that her chief,
+if not her only support, was tea. That fluid is sufficient to maintain
+life appears evident from two papers inserted in the Philosophical
+Transactions; one of them giving an account of four men who were compelled
+to subsist upon water for twenty-four days, and the other of a young man
+who tasted nothing but the same fluid for eighteen years. An imposition
+having been suspected, he was shut up in close confinement for twenty days
+as a trial, when he uniformly enjoyed good health.
+
+Another wonderful instance of the same kind is that of Janet M'Leod,
+published by Dr. M'Kenzie. She was at the time thirty-three years of age,
+unmarried, and from the age of fifteen had had various attacks of
+epilepsy, which had produced so rigid a lock-jaw that her mouth could
+rarely be forced open by any contrivance; she had lost very nearly the
+power of speech and deglutition, and with this all desire to eat or drink.
+Her lower limbs were retracted towards her body; she was entirely confined
+to her bed, slept much, and had periodical discharges of blood from the
+lungs, which were chiefly thrown out by the nostrils. During a few
+intervals of relaxation, she was prevailed upon with great difficulty to
+put a few crumbs of bread comminuted in the hand into her mouth, together
+with a little water sucked from her own hand, and, in one or two
+instances, a little gruel; but, even in these attempts, almost the whole
+was rejected. On two occasions, also, after a total abstinence of many
+months, she made signs of wishing to drink some water, which was
+immediately procured for her. On the first experiment the whole seemed to
+be returned from her mouth, but she was greatly refreshed in having it
+rubbed upon her throat. On the second occasion she drank off a pint at
+once, but could not be prevailed upon to drink any more, although her
+father had now fixed a wedge between her teeth. With these exceptions,
+however, she seemed to have passed upwards of four years without either
+liquids or solids of any kind, or even an appearance of swallowing; she
+lay for the most part like a log of wood, with a pulse scarcely
+perceptible from feebleness, but distinct and regular. Her countenance was
+clear and pretty fresh; her features neither disfigured nor sunk; her
+bosom round and prominent, and her limbs not emaciated. Dr. M'Kenzie
+watched her with occasional visits for eight or nine years, at the close
+of which period she seemed to be a little improved.
+
+A Dutch girl of the name of Eve Hergen is reported to have lived from the
+year 1597 to 1611 with no other support than the scent of flowers. The
+magistrates of Meurs suspecting imposition, had her closely watched for
+thirteen successive days, without being able to detect any fraud. Over her
+picture were affixed some Latin verses, of which the following translation
+was given in a book called "An Apologie or Declaration of the Power and
+Providence of God, by George Hakewell, 1635:"
+
+  This maid of Meurs thirty-six yeares spent,
+  Fourteen of which she tooke no nourishment;
+  Thus pale and wan, she sits sad and alone,
+  A garden's all she loves to looke upon.
+
+According to Pliny, the _Astoni_ had no other food than this Batavian
+maiden, being unfortunately born without mouths. Sauvages mentions an
+academician of Toulouse who never thirsted, and passed his summers,
+notwithstanding the intense heat, without drinking. In most of the
+recorded cases of total or nearly total abstinence, water has been found
+more or less necessary, but not invariably.
+
+That some animals can thrive upon water, and even upon air, is
+demonstrated by naturalists. Snails and chameleons have been known to
+exist upon air for years. Garman has found that this nutriment is
+sufficient for the support of spiders; and Latreille has confirmed the
+experiment by fixing a spider to a piece of cork, and precluding it from
+any communication. Every entomologist repeatedly sees insects living in
+their cases, although pinned down for an incredible length of time. Mr.
+Baker relates that he kept a beetle shut up for three years without any
+food. Mr. Bruce kept two cerastes, or horned snakes, in a glass jar for
+two years, without any apparent food; he did not observe that they slept
+in the winter season, and they cast their skin as usual on the last day of
+April.
+
+Rudolphi kept a _Proteus Anguinus_ five years, and Zoys had one for ten
+years living on spring water renewed from time to time. Redi found that
+birds could sustain the want of food from five to twenty-eight days. A
+seal lived out of the water and without nourishment for four weeks. Four
+individuals of a large species of larval shell, (_Bulimus_,) from
+Valparaiso, were brought to England by Lieut. Graves. They had been packed
+up in a box, and enclosed in cotton; two for a space of thirteen, one for
+seventeen, and a fourth for upwards of twenty months; but on being exposed
+to the warmth of a fire in London, and provided with tepid water and
+leaves, they revived and lived for several months in Mr. Loddige's palm
+house, till accidentally drowned. Dogs can live without food from
+twenty-five to thirty-six days, but man does not easily support starvation
+more than a week, except in disease or insanity.
+
+The general effects of long fasting, however, are highly injurious when
+not destructive. They are chiefly feelings of great debility, fever,
+delirium, violent passion alternating with deep despondency. In general
+the temperature of the body falls several degrees, although Currie
+observed the contrary in a patient who died of inanition in consequence of
+a stricture of the oesophagus; the respiration becomes fetid, the
+secretion of the kidneys acrid and burning, and according to Magendie and
+Collard bloody, and the stomach is found contracted after death.
+Experiments on the duration of life in man and animals deprived of food,
+show that the warm-blooded animals are best able to support the want of
+food.
+
+But a phenomenon still more wonderful is the faculty that animals have
+been known to possess of living when deprived of atmospheric support. A
+hog, weighing about one hundred and sixty pounds, was buried in his sty
+under thirty feet of the chalk of Dover cliff for one hundred and sixty
+days. When dug out, it weighed but forty pounds, and was extremely
+emaciated, but clean, and white. The animal had nibbled the wood of the
+sty, and eaten some loose chalk. Lizards, especially the Newt, have been
+found embedded in chalk-rock, apparently dead, but have reassumed living
+action on exposure to the atmosphere. On their detection in this state,
+the mouth is usually closed with a glutinous substance so tenaciously,
+that they are often suffocated in their efforts to extricate themselves
+from confinement. Toads have been repeatedly discovered in a similar
+situation, embedded in blocks of stone, or in the very heart of trees. Dr.
+Edwards, a learned physiologist in Paris, has ascertained that blocks of
+mortar and heaps of sand possess sufficient porosity to admit enough air
+to support the life of reptiles; but they all perish if immersed in water
+or mercury, when surrounded by an exhausting receiver. The duration of
+existence of the amphibials of the Batrachian family, when plunged in
+water, depends in a great measure on its temperature. They die speedily if
+the water be lower than 32 deg. Fahrenheit, or higher than 108 deg.; and
+the longest duration of life is under 32 deg.
+
+How can we account for these anomalies? Various solid substances are known
+to proceed from invisible elementary principles. Do water and air contain
+them? Metallic stones of large volume fall from the air: how are they
+produced? whence come they? How vain and feeble are our pursuits, when the
+vanity of science seeks to penetrate into the arcana of nature; searching
+and endeavouring to account for the causes of causation! What absurd and
+impertinent hypotheses have not been broached on scholastic benches! They
+remind us of an anecdote related of the old Parisian Academy, when one of
+its sapient members read a voluminous memoir to prove that tides were
+provided by the Creator for the purpose of bringing vessels in and out of
+harbour; when one of the Encyclopedian wits gravely observed, that he had
+no doubt of the fact, since he had discovered, after unceasing and
+laborious research, that noses were made for the purpose of wearing
+spectacles!
+
+Although total abstinence from food for any length of time, excepting with
+hibernating animals, is a wondrous phenomenon, yet it is singular how
+little aliment is necessary for the purpose of sustaining life, and even
+health. Many instances of a frugality bordering upon starvation are known.
+The most economical housekeeper on record was Roger Crabb, the
+Buckinghamshire hermit, who allowed himself three farthings a week.
+
+Dr. Gower of Chelmsford had a patient who lived for ten years on a pint of
+tea daily, now and then chewing half a dozen raisins and almonds, but
+without swallowing them; once a month, by way of a treat, she ate a morsel
+of bread the size of a nutmeg.
+
+The late Duke of Portland, after a long illness, during which he was
+attended by Dr. Warren, lived on bread and water for six weeks, at the
+expiration of which he was allowed _one boiled smelt_. Numerous persons
+have been known to live to old age, in perfect health, who never used
+animal food or wine; such was Dr. Hecquet, the Sangrado of Lesage, who
+published a curious treatise on fasting in Lent: Paris, 1709.
+
+The following lines were written on a man named Offley:
+
+  Offley three dishes had of daily roast;
+  An egg, an apple, and the third a toast.
+
+Most unquestionably, if this Offley was not a man of hard labour, or who
+took much exercise, this diet, scanty as it may appear, would have been
+quite sufficient to support life, for his fare was sumptuous, compared to
+the diet prescribed by St. Theresa to her Carmelite nuns, and which
+consisted of one egg, herb-soup, with wormwood ashes and aloes. However,
+in regard to the wondrous fasting of various hermits and holy men, we must
+take their histories _cum grano salis_. They clearly belonged to two
+classes,--enthusiasts or impostors: enthusiasm, which is little short of
+lunacy, enables the monomaniac to endure starvation with ease; and as to
+impostors, it is probable that, like Friar Tuck they had a _bonne bouche_
+in a corner of their cells.
+
+
+
+
+POISON OF THE UPAS, OR IPO.
+
+
+Such are the names given by the natives of the Molucca Islands and in the
+Indian Archipelago to a deadly poison which is used to impregnate the
+heads of their arrows. The tree from which it is extracted is named _Bohou
+Upas_, _Boa Upas_, and _Pohou Antiar_. Various accounts of its deleterious
+nature have been given by ancient travellers. Cleyer and Spielman
+described it upwards of a century back, and state that no antidote to its
+dreadful action is known, though vomiting, produced by the most disgusting
+means, was considered the only method of arresting its dire effects.
+Spielman asserts that the land for several miles round these trees is
+desolate and barren, for no plant can grow under their influence. The
+poison, he states, flows in a milky form from the tree, and no one can
+approach it at this period, as one drop of the fatal juice falling upon
+the face or hands produces instant stiffness of every limb, followed by
+rapid death; it is therefore obtained at the end of long bamboo canes,
+armed with a pointed tube to receive it when plunged into the bark.
+Rumphius confirms in a great measure the above statements, and describes
+the tree, which he divides into male and female: he adds, that they only
+grow in the island of Celebes, and that all around the dreaded spot is
+desert and consumed. A more recent Dutch traveller, Foersech or Fooerch,
+did not let so fertile a subject escape, and has cultivated most
+industriously this dreary desert in the following account.
+
+Sterility prevails for upwards of ten miles round this dreadful tree on
+the part of the island of Java where it grows. When criminals are
+sentenced to death, they are offered a free pardon if they consent to seek
+a small boxful of this valuable yet terrific poison. They are first sent
+to the dwelling of a priest who resides at a safe distance from the spot;
+there they arrive, accompanied by their disconsolate and wailing families.
+They remain with this holy man for a few days, during which he affords
+them both spiritual comfort and good advice; the latter urging the
+precaution not to set out until the wind blows in such a direction as to
+waft from them the floating emanations. On their departure on this dreaded
+expedition he gives them a small box of silver or tortoise-shell, covers
+their head and face with a leathern hood with glass eyes, and protects
+their hands with a thick pair of gloves of the same material. He then
+accompanies them about two miles on their sad journey, and then he
+describes the hellish spot where this treasure is to be found as minutely
+as any one can describe what he has not seen; then, giving the poor
+pilgrim his blessing, he departs on his return. This worthy man informed
+our traveller that, during thirty years which he had held that enviable
+situation, he had sent off no less than seven hundred criminals, of whom
+only twenty-two returned: and he confirmed the statement by exhibiting a
+list bearing their names and the offences for which they had been tried.
+Mynheer Foersech further assures his gentle readers that he witnessed
+several of these expeditions, and entreated the culprits to bring him some
+branches of the tree; but two withered leaves were the only specimens he
+could obtain from the solitary wretch who had the good fortune to escape,
+and who described the tree as growing on the borders of a rivulet, being
+of moderate height, and surrounded by a cluster of young ones. The ground
+around them was of a brown sandy nature, and strewed with the remains of
+human victims. He also clearly ascertained that no living creature can
+exist within fifteen miles of the spot. The streams that flow near it
+yield no fish, and the birds that fly over it fall to the ground; several
+of the latter were occasionally brought to the priest,--whether he ate
+them, or not, the Dutchman does not inform us. Amongst various offenders
+doomed to death by this poison he relates the case of thirteen ladies,
+who, for the crime of infidelity, were inoculated in the bosom with the
+point of a kritz or Malayan dagger dipped in the upas; and in sixteen
+minutes they had ceased to live. By recent experiments upon animals this
+part of his narration may be credited; but, in regard to the other
+account, we must apply to it the French saying, "_Il vaut mieux y croire
+que d'y aller voir_." Indeed the whole of Foersech's account is justly
+considered a fiction.
+
+However, some French travellers thought otherwise; and Mr. Deschamps,
+physician and naturalist attached to the expedition of Mr.
+D'Entrecasteaux, when in Java, ascertained that this wonderful tree was
+not uncommon in the forests of the country, nor was the approach to it in
+the slightest degree apprehended. The juice procured by incisions in the
+bark was called by the natives _upas_ or _oupas_, and was of so active a
+nature that it caused immediate death when thrown into the circulation.
+The Malays mixed it with various other ingredients more especially galanga
+and garlic, when they employed it. The Javanese only impregnated their
+arrows with it for the chase: a proof that they did not consider it as
+affecting the system of the slain animal. Most probably Foersech's priest
+was aware of this circumstance when he accepted from the privileged
+malefactors the game killed by the tree they had sought.
+
+This tree, according to Deschamps, is named in the country, _pohou
+antiar_; it frequently rises to the height of thirty or forty feet. When
+one of its branches is broken, or its bark incised, a milky juice exudes,
+which becomes inspissated when in contact with the atmosphere. In
+appearance this tree bears some resemblance to our elm. Mr. Deschamps
+confirms the relation of Rumphius, who stated that the Dutch, in their
+wars with the natives, were obliged to wear thick buff cuirasses to
+protect them against their poisoned missiles, the wounds of which were
+inevitably fatal.
+
+Further information relative to the upas has been afforded by the
+ingenious Mr. Leschenault, who, during his residence in Java, procured two
+specimens of the poisonous substance obtained in Java, and of that brought
+from the islands of Borneo and Macassar. In Borneo, the mountaineers of
+the interior, who are called _Orang-Daias_, collect it, and keep its
+preparation a profound secret. They carry it carefully wrapped up in
+palm-leaves. Their hunting arrows have heads spear-pointed, and
+impregnated with this substance; those that are prepared for war bear a
+shark's tooth fixed in a brass socket, and merely attached to the shaft by
+the gum resin of the ipo; the barbed point remaining rankling in the wound
+it has inflicted, the gum dissolves, and speedily brings on death. Mr.
+Leschenault tried these arrows on dogs and other animals, and they expired
+shortly after in horrible convulsions.
+
+But the latest account of this celebrated tree is given by Dr. Horsfield
+who was in Java during its occupation by our troops. He informs us that
+although the Dutch surgeon Foersech's account must have been a
+fabrication, yet there did exist a tree called the _Anchar_ from the sap
+of which the natives prepared a fatal poison. The tree belongs to the 21st
+class of Linnaeus, the _Monaecia_. The male and female flowers are produced
+on the same branch at no great distance from each other, the females being
+in general above the males. The seed-vessel is an oblong drupe, covered
+with the calyx; the seed an ovate nut with cells. The top of the stem
+sends off a few stout branches, which spreading nearly horizontally with
+several irregular curves, divide into smaller branches, and form a
+hemispherical, not very regular crown. The stem is cylindrical,
+perpendicular, and rises completely naked to the height of sixty or
+seventy, and even eighty feet. Near the surface of the ground it spreads
+obliquely like many of our large forest trees. The bark is whitish,
+slightly bursting into longitudinal furrows. Near the ground this bark is,
+in old trees, more than half an inch thick, and when wounded yields
+copiously the milky juice from which the poison is prepared. This juice is
+yellowish, frothy, and becomes brown when exposed to the air.
+
+In making these researches Dr. Horsfield had some difficulty with the
+native labourers, who feared a contagious eruption, but nothing more. The
+Doctor further informs us that it is fatal to animals,--destroying dogs in
+an hour, mice in ten minutes, monkeys in seven, and cats in fifteen, while
+a buffalo subjected to the experiment was two hours and ten minutes dying.
+
+The natives of Macassar also call this venomous production _ipo_. They
+have two varieties of the tree, as in Java; the one called _upas antiar_,
+and the other, much more violent and prompt in its action, _upas tieute_
+In the preparation of the poison for use much mystery is observed by the
+natives, and various ingredients are mixed up with it; but as they are
+known to be harmless, such as onion and garlic juice, pepper, ginger,
+galanga, they are most probably employed to deceive the curious who might
+wish to ascertain the nature of this deadly composition.
+
+Mr. Leschenault having brought home a small quantity of this poison, it
+was tried by Messrs. Delile and Magendie in several experiments, when it
+was found to act more or less violently, according to the age and size of
+the individual, or the quantity of the upas. One grain and a half
+inoculated in a young dog killed it in four minutes, only producing one
+convulsive fit. In a dog weighing fourteen pounds, half a grain of upas
+occasioned death at the expiration of one hour and fifty-seven minutes,
+during which the animal experienced several violent convulsions. A few
+drops of diluted upas, injected in the chest of a dog, weighing twenty
+pounds, occasioned a lock-jaw, which destroyed him in a minute and a half.
+Eight drops injected in the jugular vein of a horse produced immediate
+tetanus and speedy death. For further information regarding these cruel
+experiments we must refer to the experimenter's publication. It appears,
+however, that the power of this venomous substance is so intense that time
+does not weaken it; for the upas employed in these experiments had been
+collected and kept for upwards of seven years, when its effects were as
+prompt as when tried in a recent state. The natives of Java consider
+sea-salt as the best antidote, but Mr. Delile found it quite inert:
+various experiments induced him to think that in these cases death is
+produced by asphyxia; and he considers the means employed to restore
+suspended animation in persons supposed to have been drowned, as the most
+likely to save the life of individuals who might be wounded with this
+substance. The rapidity with which poisonous substances are absorbed in
+the system is truly terrific, more especially in such as are of a narcotic
+nature. The latter act by abolishing all nervous energies, but when
+applied locally their effects are also local, as is shown by the following
+experiments of Mueller:
+
+"I held the nerve of a frog's leg which was separated from the body, in a
+watery solution of opium for a short time, and that portion of the nerve
+lost its irritability, i.e. its property of exciting twitchings of the leg
+when it was irritated; but below the part that the poison had touched the
+nerve still retained this function."
+
+It is therefore evident that before narcotic poisons can exert a general
+influence they must be carried into the circulation. Duprey and Brachet,
+two French physiologists, have sought to prove that animals cannot be
+destroyed by narcotic poisons, introduced in the stomach, if the _nervus
+vagus_ has been divided on both sides; at least, that they do not die so
+soon. However, Wernscheidt, in thirty experiments on mammalia, could not
+perceive this difference, provided the animals were of the same size and
+species.
+
+Prussic acid exerts its influence so rapidly that it cannot be supposed to
+have been thrown into the circulation. The spirituous solution of the
+extract of nux vomica introduced in the mouth of a rabbit, produces
+immediate death, whereas when applied to any nerve distant from the brain
+it produces no general symptoms.
+
+This rapid effect of prussic acid is supposed to arise from its great
+volatility and powers of expansion, by which it is diffused more quickly
+through the circulation than the blood. According to Schrader one drop of
+this substance introduced in the bill of a bird killed it in four or five
+minutes. Hydrocyanic acid gas mixed with atmospheric air has when inhaled
+destroyed dogs, cats, rabbits, and various birds, in from two to ten
+seconds. Magendie found that the introduction of one drop of the acid in
+the jugular vein caused instantaneous death; a glass tube dipped in this
+perilous substance applied to the tongue of a dog, produced a similar
+effect, which was also the result when applied to the eye.
+
+It is not generally known that tobacco and its preparations are deadly
+poisons, one drop of oil of tobacco introduced in the mouth of a dog
+produced violent convulsions with hurried breathing; a quarter of an hour
+after, the unfortunate animal seemed to be recovered, when the
+introduction of another drop killed it in two minutes. M'Cartney and
+Orfila obtained similar results, though no such effects were produced when
+it was applied to a nerve or the surface of the brain.
+
+The French poet Santeuil died from having drank wine in a glass containing
+some snuff. In all cases of death produced by this substance the lungs are
+found dense and livid.
+
+It is not only in the upas that the Indians seek the means of poisoning
+their missiles. In America they employ the _Ticronas_ a juice extracted
+from various plants, and the preparation of which, transmitted from one
+generation to another is considered a valuable secret. La Condamine
+asserts that its mere odour is sufficient to destroy the criminals doomed
+to smell it, but Fontana has found by many experiments that this assertion
+was made upon report, which travellers too frequently rely upon to save
+themselves the trouble of investigation. Arrows saturated with this
+poison, become more active after having been dipped in hot water.
+
+The Indians of Guiana dip their arrows in the juice of the _Woorara_, and
+the _Curara_, which also occasions rapid death and decomposition of the
+lungs. Humboldt informs us that the _Curara_ is obtained from the bark of
+a tree called _Vejuco_ de _Mavacure_; it is inspissated over a slow fire
+and then mixed with a gum drawn from the _Kiracagnero_. The Abbe Salvador
+Gilii tells us in his history of America, that he has seen the strongest
+animals succumb instantly when thus wounded, but the poison does not
+produce any effect on their meat.
+
+
+
+
+HOMOPHAGOUS AND POLYPHAGOUS.
+
+
+These are appellations given to certain individuals of a depraved
+appetite, that enables them to devour raw meat, and various other
+substances which most unquestionably would destroy any person not gifted
+or cursed with such an omnivorous digestion.
+
+Various are the ancient stories related of such voracious wretches. Ovid
+describes one Erisichthon, who, as a punishment for cutting down the
+groves of Ceres, (very possibly to obtain fuel to cook his food,) was
+sentenced to perpetual hunger, and terminated his gluttonous career by
+eating up his own limbs. Theagenes thought nothing of an ox for his
+dinner; and the famed Crotonian athlete, Milo, knocked down bullocks with
+his fist for his daily meals, which usually consisted of twenty _minae_ of
+meat and the same ration of bread. Vopiscus relates that a man was brought
+before the Emperor Maximilian, who devoured a whole calf, and was
+proceeding to eat up a sheep, had he not been prevented. To this day, in
+India, some voracious mountebanks devour a live sheep as an exhibition.
+Dr. Boehmen of Wittenberg witnessed the performance of one of these
+polyphagous individuals, who commenced his repast by eating a raw sheep, a
+sucking-pig, and, by way of dessert, swallowed sixty pounds of prunes,
+stones and all. On another festive occasion, he ate two bushels of
+cherries, with several earthen vases, and chips of a furnace. This meal
+was followed up by sundry pieces of glass and pebbles, a shepherd's
+bagpipe, rats, various birds with their feathers, and an incredible number
+of caterpillars. To conclude his dinner, he swallowed a pewter inkstand,
+with its pens, a pen-knife, and a sandbox. During this deglutition he
+seemed to relish his food, but was generally under the influence of
+potations of brandy. His form was athletic, and he could carry four heavy
+men on his shoulders for a league. He lived to the age of seventy-nine,
+but died in a most emaciated state, and, as might be imagined, toothless.
+
+Helwig knew an old man who was in the habit of eating eighty pounds of
+different articles of food daily. Real Colomb mentions an omnivorous
+glutton, who, in the absence of any salutary aliment, satisfied his
+cravings with any other substance, and was once known, when hungry, to eat
+the contents of a sack of charcoal, and then to swallow the bag to
+facilitate its digestion. One of the attendants on the menagerie of the
+Botanical Gardens in Paris, who bore the euphonious name of _Bijou_, used
+to devour all the offals of the theatre of Comparative Anatomy, and ate a
+dead lion in one day. He was active, and lived to the age of sixty. A
+cannibal once desolated the Vivarais, by dragging human victims to his
+den, where he devoured them. On the opening of the corpse of a convict in
+the galleys of Brest, there were found in his stomach about six hundred
+pieces of wood, pewter, and iron.
+
+All these accounts might appear most exaggerated, perhaps fabulous, had
+not many physicians in Paris known the celebrated Tarrare. The history of
+this monster is as curious as his habits were disgusting. He commenced his
+career in life in the capacity of clown to an itinerant quack, and used to
+attract the notice of the populace by his singular powers of deglutition,
+swallowing with the utmost ease corks, pebbles, and basketsful of apples.
+However, these experiments were frequently followed by severe pain and
+accidents, which once obliged him to seek assistance in the Hotel Dieu of
+Paris. His sufferings did not deter him from similar experiments; and he
+once tried to exhibit his wonderful faculties by swallowing the watch,
+chain and seals, of Mr. Giraud, then house-surgeon of the establishment.
+In this repast he was foiled, having been told that he would be ripped up
+to recover the property. In the revolutionary war, Tarrare joined the
+army, but was soon exhausted on the spare diet to which the troops were
+obliged to submit. In the hospital of Sultzen, although put upon four full
+rations, he was obliged to wander about the establishment to feed upon any
+substance he could find however revolting, to subdue his voracious hunger.
+These singular powers induced several physicians to ascertain how far
+these omnivorous inclinations could carry him in his unnatural cravings.
+In presence of Dr. Lorentz he devoured a live cat, commencing by tearing
+open its stomach, and sucking the animal's blood with delight. What was
+more singular, after this horrible feast, like other carnivorous brutes,
+he rejected the fur and skin. Snakes were to him a delicious meal, and he
+swallowed them alive and whole, after grinding their heads between his
+teeth. One of the surgeons, Mr. Courville, gave him a wooden lancet-case
+to swallow in which a written paper had been folded. This case was
+rejected undigested, and the paper being found intact, it became a
+question whether he might not be employed to convey secret correspondence;
+but having been taken up at the Prussian outposts as a spy, being
+disguised as a peasant without a knowledge of the language, he received a
+severe bastinado, which effectually cured him of an appetite for secret
+service, and on his return he had recourse to the safer means of obtaining
+food in kitchens, slaughter-houses, and dunghills. At last, a child of
+fourteen months old having disappeared under suspicious circumstances, he
+was driven out of the hospital, and lost sight of for four years, when he
+applied for admission into the hospital of Versailles, in a state of
+complete exhaustion, labouring under a violent diarrhoea, which
+terminated his hateful existence in his twenty-sixth year. He was of the
+middle size, pale, thin, and weak; his countenance was by no means
+ferocious, but, on the contrary, displayed much timidity; his fair hair
+was remarkably fine and soft; his mouth was very large, and one could
+scarcely say that he had any lips; all his teeth were sound, but their
+enamel was speckled; his skin was always hot, in a state of perspiration,
+and exhaling a constant offensive vapour. When fasting, the integuments of
+his abdomen were so flaccid that he could nearly wrap them round him.
+After his meals the exhalation from his surface was increased, his eyes
+and cheeks became turgid with blood, and, dropping into a state of
+drowsiness, he used to seek some obscure corner where he might quietly lie
+down and digest. After his death, all the abdominal viscera were found in
+a state of ulceration.
+
+Instances are recorded where a similar facility to swallow fluids had been
+observed. At Strasburg the stomach of a hussar was exhibited who could
+drink sixty quarts of wine in an hour. Pliny mentions a Milanese, named
+_Novellus Torquatus_, who, in presence of Tiberius, drank three _congii_
+of wine. Seneca and Tacitus knew a man of the name of Piso who could drink
+incessantly for two days and two nights; and Rhodiginus mentions a
+capacious monster called _the Funnel_, down whose throat an amphora of
+liquor could be poured without interruption.
+
+To what are we to attribute these uncommon, nay, these unnatural
+faculties? Neither physiological experiments during life, nor anatomical
+investigation after death, have hitherto enabled us to form an opinion.
+Great as the progress of science has been, we are still doubtful as to the
+nature of the digestive process. All the hypotheses on the subject are
+liable to insuperable objections. Hippocrates and Empedocles attributed
+digestion to the _putrefaction_ of food. Experiments have clearly
+demonstrated the fallacy of this doctrine: rejected food is never in a
+state of putridity; on the contrary, meat in a perfect state of
+putrescence has been restored to sweetness and freshness on being received
+into the stomach. Dead snakes have been found with animal substances,
+part of which had been swallowed and the remainder hanging out of their
+mouths; when the swallowed portion was fresh, and the portion exposed to
+the atmosphere in a state of corruption. Galen, and after his school, Grew
+and Santarelli, ascribed digestion to a _concoction_, during which, food
+was maturated by the stomach's heat, like fruit by the solar rays. Pringle
+and Macbride advocated the doctrine of _fermentation_; while Borelli,
+Keil, and Pitcairn resolved the question by the mechanism of
+_trituration_, making a mill of the stomach, which ground down food,
+according to Pitcairn's calculations, with a pressure equal to a weight of
+one hundred and seventeen thousand and eighty pounds. Boerhaave
+endeavoured to reconcile the opinions of the _concocters_ and _grinders_,
+by combining the supposed theory of _concoction_ and _trituration_.
+Lastly, Cheselden fancied that digestion was operated by a peculiar
+secretion in the stomach, called _gastric juice_; and Haller, Reaumur,
+Spallanzani, Blumenbach and most other modern physiologists, concur with
+him in the same opinion, although admitting that this function is most
+probably assisted by various accessory circumstances.
+
+This juice was found, upon experiment, to be endowed, not only with the
+antiseptic power of preserving the contents of the stomach from
+putrefaction, but with the property of being a most powerful solvent.
+Pieces of the toughest meats and bone have been enclosed in perforated
+metallic tubes, and thrust down the stomach of carnivorous birds, and in
+the space of about twenty-four hours the meats were found to be
+diminished, or, in other words, digested to three-fourths of their bulk,
+while the bones had totally disappeared. Dr. Stevens had recourse to a
+similar experiment on the human stomach, by means of a perforated ivory
+ball, and with the same result. The gastric juice of the dog dissolves
+ivory; and that of a hen has dissolved an onyx, and diminished a golden
+coin. Not long since, upon examining the stomach and intestines of a man
+who died in a public-house, he was found to have been a _polyphagous_
+animal, since several clasp-knives that he had swallowed were discovered
+with their blades blunted and their handles consumed. Since these
+experiments, however, Dr. Montegre of Paris, who was gifted with the
+faculty of discharging the contents of his stomach at will, has fully
+proved that this gastric juice, when not in an acid state, is subject to
+putrefaction when submitted to external animal heat; that this corruption
+did not occur when an acid prevailed, and saliva intermixed with vinegar
+was equally free from a similar decomposition. He moreover asserts, that
+he had recourse to numerous experiments to digest food artificially in
+this supposed solvent, but without obtaining results similar to those
+advanced by Spallanzani; and, finally, he found little or no difference
+between the gastric juice and saliva. This acid, which generally exists in
+the gastric juice, has been ascertained by Dr. Prout to be the muriatic,
+both free and in combination with alkalis: while Tiedemann and Gmelin
+maintain that, in its natural state, no acid is to be met with; but that,
+when food is commingled, an acid which they consider the acetic acid is
+produced in considerable quantity.[17]
+
+The ostrich, that may be considered a connecting link between birds and
+quadrupeds, is gifted with powerful digestive organs, and is known to
+swallow stone, glass, and iron; but this faculty appears to be a gift of
+all-bounteous Providence, to enable the creature to digest the various
+substances it meets with when traversing burning deserts for hundreds of
+miles, when these hard bodies actually perform the function of teeth in
+the animal's stomach, by aiding the comminution of its indigestible food.
+The structure of the ostrich has a near resemblance to that of the camel,
+destined to perform the same dreary journeys. The wings are not designed
+for flight, and in speed he equals the horse. Adanson affirms that he had
+seen two ostriches at the factory of Podore, that were broken in to carry
+single or double riders, and the strongest and youngest would run more
+swiftly with two negroes on his back than the fleetest racer.
+
+Spallanzani endeavoured to prove that the pebbles and gravel swallowed by
+various birds were of no use in the process of digestion; but Hunter, who
+had found two hundred pebbles in the gizzard of a turkey, and one thousand
+in that of a goose, demonstrated their utility in the trituration of their
+food, since these birds were found to be unable to digest, and
+consequently to thrive upon their nourishment when deprived of this
+mechanical aid. It is curious that the owl, which easily digests meat and
+bones, cannot be made to digest bread or grain, and yet dies if confined
+to animal food. The eagle, and other birds of prey, can dissolve both. A
+singular process of digestion is observed in the stormy petrel, which
+lives entirely on oil and fat substances whenever it can obtain them; but
+when fed with other articles of food, Nature, true to her laws, converts
+them into oil; the bird still discharges pure oil at objects that offend
+him, and feeds his young with the same substance. The petrel must, no
+doubt, be a bilious subject, for he delights in misery, and his presence
+is a sure presage of foul weather to the experienced seamen; and when
+
+              The wrathful skies
+  Gallow the very wanderers of the dark,
+  And make them keep their caves,
+
+he is seen riding triumphantly on the whirlwind, and skimming the deepest
+chasms of the angry waves. This bird is said to be named 'petrel' from
+Peter, since, like that saint, he is supposed to have the power of walking
+on the waters.
+
+The singular appetites which have been noticed seem to have been
+individual peculiarities, uninfluenced by a morbid condition; but there
+are cases in which a depraved appetite is symptomatic of disease, where we
+see persons otherwise possessed of sound judgment longing, not only for
+the most improper and indigestible food, but for substances of the most
+extraordinary and even disgusting nature. Thus we have seen patients, more
+especially young females and pregnant women, devouring dirt, cinders,
+spiders, leeches, hair, tallow, and paper. An ingenious writer affirms
+that "more literature in the form of paper and printed books has been thus
+devoured, than by the first scholars in Christendom."
+
+Dr. Darwin tells us that he saw a young lady about ten years of age that
+used to fill her stomach with earth out of a flowerpot, and then vomited
+it up, with small stones, bits of wood, and wings of various insects. John
+Hunter has described an endemic disease among the Africans in Jamaica, in
+which they devoured dirt. Mason Good, when speaking of this affection,
+says, "that the longing for such materials is, in this disease, a mere
+symptom, and rarely shows itself till the frame is completely exhausted by
+atrophy, dropsy, and hectic fever, brought on by a longing of a much more
+serious kind,--a longing to return home, a pining for the relations, the
+scenes, the kindnesses the domestic joys, of which the miserable sufferers
+have been robbed by barbarians less humanized than themselves, and which
+they have been forced or trepanned to resign for the less desirable
+banquet of whips, and threats, and harness, and hunger."
+
+Roderic a Castro relates the case of a lady who could eat twenty pounds of
+pepper, and another who lived upon ice. Tulpius mentions a woman who,
+during her pregnancy, longed for salt herrings, and ate fourteen hundred
+at the rate of five herrings per diem. Longius affirms that a lady in
+Cologne, who was in that state that ladies wish to be who love their
+lords, took such a fancy to taste the flesh of her husband that she
+actually assassinated him, and, after indulging in as much fresh meat as
+the weather permitted, salted the remainder for further use. This cannibal
+inclination seems not to be uncommon. The said Roderic a Castro knew a
+woman in the same thriving condition, who felt an inexpressible desire for
+a bit of the shoulder of a neighbouring baker, and her husband was
+persecuted by her constant prayers and lamentations to prevail on the
+worthy man to allow her one bite for charity's sake: but the first bite
+was so heartily inflicted, that the crusty baker would not submit to a
+second.
+
+In the Philosophical Transactions there is a case related of a woman whose
+fancies were not quite so solid, and who used to gratify her aerial
+appetites by putting the nozle of a bellows down her throat, and blowing
+away until she was tired. These longings of parturient women are most
+common; but it is rather curious, that, among our negroes in the West
+Indies, the husbands pretend to long for their wives, and endeavour to
+gratify them by proxy. Possibly such might have been the fancy of Cambes,
+the Lydian prince, who, according to Aelian, took it into his head one
+night to eat up his beloved wife.
+
+
+
+
+CAUSES OF INSANITY.
+
+
+Madness is attributed to moral and physical causes. Physicians do not
+agree as to the prevalence of either of these sources of human misery.
+Some of them, most unjustly accused of materialism, seem to lean to the
+opinion that, generally speaking, physical causes can be traced in _post
+mortem_ examination; while others, equally skilled in accurate anatomical
+investigations, maintain that these organic derangements are very seldom
+met with.
+
+Lawrence affirms that he had "examined after death the heads of many
+insane persons, and had hardly seen a single brain which did not exhibit
+obvious marks of disease;" and he further states, "that he feels convinced
+from his own experience, that very few heads of persons dying deranged
+will be examined after death without showing diseased structure, or
+evident signs of increased vascular activity." The celebrated Morgagni
+gives similar results of his extensive dissections. Meckel and Jones are
+of the same opinion. However, Pinel, whose anatomical pursuits on the
+subject were most extensive, clearly declares that he never met with any
+other appearance within the cavity of the skull than are observable in
+opening the bodies of persons who have died of apoplexy, epilepsy, nervous
+fevers and convulsions. Haslam, whose experience in this matter was also
+very great, asserts that nothing decisive can be obtained in reference to
+insanity from any variations of appearance that have hitherto been
+detected in the brain. Greding observed in two hundred and sixteen
+maniacal cases which he examined, the whole of whom died of disorders
+unconnected with their mental ailments, that three of the heads were
+exceedingly large, two exceedingly small; some of the skull bones were
+extremely thick, others peculiarly thin; in some the frontal bones were
+small and contracted, in others the temporal bones compressed and narrow.
+
+In this confusion and clashing of opinions, when unfortunately each
+theorist views, or fancies that he views, functional or organic
+derangements sufficiently evident (in his eyes at least) to support his
+doctrine, it is no easy matter to come to a fair conclusion. It can only
+be observed, that, as the wonderful sympathies of the brain with other
+organs especially the viscera of the abdomen, are universally
+acknowledged, the morbid condition in which the brain is occasionally
+found may have arisen from a primary morbid condition of some other organ.
+Hence it is difficult to say whether insanity is most generally a primary
+or a secondary affection. Physical causes act both upon the brain and the
+abdominal system. Concussion and compression of the brain will occasion
+nausea, vomiting, and hepatic affections, and the presence of worms in the
+intestines will excite convulsions and epilepsy. In regard to moral
+causes, they may also act directly or indirectly upon the brain, or the
+parts that sympathize with it. Sudden or violent emotions are known to
+produce an immediate effect upon our digestive functions, which may in
+turn by their sympathetic connexion act upon the brain and the mind,
+although the connexion between brain and mind is not yet proved in any
+conclusive manner.
+
+However, in a practical point of view, whatever discrepancy of opinion may
+prevail on this subject, I think it will be found advisable to consider
+most, if not all recent cases of insanity, as arising from physical
+causes, and therefore to submit the patient to such a medical treatment in
+addition to moral aid, as the prevalence of morbid symptoms of local
+derangement are more or less evident. My own experience has fully
+convinced me that a morbid condition of the cerebral organ, and the
+viscera of the thorax and abdomen, are invariably met with, and must have
+proved of sufficient importance to develop symptoms which the slightest
+observations might have detected. How far the organic derangement may have
+been either the cause or the result of insanity I am not prepared to say,
+but they have generally borne the appearance of having originated in undue
+excitement.
+
+On this most important subject I feel much gratification in quoting the
+following opinion of the experienced Pinel: "It appears in general that
+the primitive seat of insanity is in the region of the stomach and
+intestinal canal, and it is from this central part that mental aberration
+is propagated as by irradiation." Esquirol is of opinion that insanity
+arises from a lesion of the vital functions of the brain, and not
+unfrequently from a disturbance in the various points of sensibility in
+different parts of the system.
+
+That mental emotions, whether producing any alteration in the physical
+condition of the individual, or not, occasion various degrees of insanity,
+is proved by experience. The French revolution, during its execrable
+phases, offered a wide and fertile field of observation on this subject;
+and the various events that marked those fearful times were certainly well
+calculated to affect any brain capable of becoming deranged. The following
+results of these observations are curious: "Among the lunatics confined at
+Bicetre," says Pinel, "during the third year of the Republic, I observed
+that the exciting causes of their maladies, in a great majority of cases,
+were extremely vivid affections of the mind; such as ungovernable or
+disappointed ambition, religious fanaticism, profound chagrin, and
+unfortunate love. Out of one hundred and thirteen madmen with whose
+history I took pains to make myself acquainted, thirty-four were reduced
+to this state by domestic misfortunes, twenty-four by obstacles to
+matrimonial union, thirty by political events, and twenty-five by
+religious fanaticism. Those were chiefly affected who belonged to
+professions in which the imagination is unceasingly or ardently engaged,
+and not controlled in its excitement by the exercise of the tamer
+functions of the understanding, which are more susceptible of satiety and
+fatigue. Hence the Bicetre registers were chiefly filled from the
+professions of priests, artists, painters, sculptors, poets, and
+musicians, while they contained no instances of persons whose line of life
+demands a predominant exercise of the judging faculty,--not one
+naturalist, physician, chemist, or geometrician."
+
+The following is a return of the supposed moral causes of insanity
+observed in the Salpetriere. In the years 1811 and 1812
+
+  Domestic affliction             105
+  Disappointed love                46
+  Political events                 14
+  Fanaticism                        8
+  Fright                           38
+  Jealousy                         18
+  Anger                            16
+  Misfortunes in circumstances     77
+  Offended vanity                   1
+                                  ---
+  Total                           323
+
+In Mr. Esquirol's private establishment during the same period:
+
+  Domestic affliction              31
+  Disappointed love                25
+  Political events                 32
+  Fanaticism                        1
+  Fright                            8
+  Jealousy                         14
+  Misfortunes                      14
+  Offended vanity                  16
+  Baffled ambition                 12
+  Intense study                    13
+  Misanthropy                       2
+                                  ---
+  Total                           168
+
+It must be observed that the latter return, in which we find twenty-eight
+persons maddened by disappointed ambition and offended pride, is of a
+private establishment, whose inmates of course belonged to the better
+classes of the community.
+
+By the return from Pennsylvania, out of fifty lunatics, thirty-four cases
+arose from moral causes. Of physical causes hereditary madness is the most
+prevalent, as appears clearly from the following table extracted from the
+registers of the Salpetriere.
+
+  Hereditary insanity             105
+  Convulsion during gestation      11
+  Epilepsy                         11
+  Female derangements              55
+  Diseases of child-birth          52
+  Critical periods                 27
+  Old age                          60
+  Insolation                       12
+  Injuries of the head             14
+  Fever                            13
+  Syphilis                          8
+  Effects of mercury               14
+  Worms                            24
+  Apoplexy                         60
+
+When speaking of hereditary madness, Dr. Abercrombie is of opinion that
+where a tendency to insanity exists, there may be in many cases,
+circumstances in mental habits or mental discipline calculated to favour
+or to counteract the tendency, when the mind wanders away from the proper
+duties of life or luxuriates amid scenes of imagination, thus permitting
+mental emotions, of whatever kind, to be excited in a manner
+disproportional to the true relation of the object which gave rise to
+them; allowing the mind to ramble among imaginary events, or to be led
+away by slight and casual relations, instead of steadily exercising the
+judgment in the investigation of truth.
+
+These observations are no doubt most luminous, yet as I have elsewhere
+remarked, hereditary predisposition to insanity may be brought into
+action, by the constant scenes that pass in the presence of those
+individuals who may daily have to witness the aberrations of an unhappy
+relative. The mind dwells on the sad subject, and it becomes a source of
+constant apprehension, when the mere dread of an hereditary evil is
+perhaps sufficient to drive to madness. So powerful is the sway even of
+imaginary terror, that we need not wonder that natural fear should be
+productive of results still more injurious to our intellects. There seems
+to exist a certain fascination in what we should dread and avoid; instead
+of resisting evil, by a strange fatality we seem to be self-impelled to
+court it. We indulge in thoughts, in hopes and fears, too often
+chimerical, instead of endeavouring to dismiss them from our mind, by
+other pursuits and busy occupation; and we brood upon future and ideal
+miseries until we actually, from supineness and timidity, sink under their
+overwhelming influence.
+
+Esquirol relates some curious coincidences of hereditary insanity. A Swiss
+merchant lost both his sons in a state of mania at the age of 19. A lady
+lost her senses after childbirth at the age of 25. Her daughter became
+insane in her 25th year. In one family, the grandfather, the father, and
+the son, destroyed themselves at the age of 50. Near Newton, seven insane
+sisters had been observed in one family. An unfortunate female in the
+Salpetriere, under the influence of liquor, threw herself three times in
+the river and her sister in a state of intoxication drowned herself. A
+gentleman whose intellects became deranged in consequence of the
+misfortunes of the revolution remained for ten years secluded in his
+chamber. His daughter became insane about the same period, and with equal
+obstinacy could not be prevailed upon to leave her room.
+
+There is no doubt, but that were these early predispositions attended to
+and watched, an active course of education adopted, and change of locality
+resorted to, much future misery might be avoided, and possibly the
+invasion of the malady arrested.
+
+If the observations of the phrenologist are entitled to consideration, the
+mind may become mainly instrumental in attaining this _desideratum_, as
+the detection of certain propensities may place us upon our guard in the
+education of youth. This would be a point of still greater importance,
+were these organs innate, dooming us to the blind law of fatality; but the
+phrenologists maintain, that the development of these organic inequalities
+on the surface of the cranium are produced and developed by a
+corresponding enlargement of the brain, which is greater or lesser in the
+ratio of the preponderance of the organ as the indulgence in the
+propensities which they indicate.
+
+Pinel relates a curious case of hereditary mania in a man who, up to the
+age of fifty, fulfilled with intelligence and activity the duties of an
+important office which he held. At this period he indulged in various
+excesses, and sunk in the debasement of the lowest society. These excesses
+he represented to his wondering friends and acquaintances as the source of
+divine pleasure and celestial enjoyment. He declared that he would erect a
+temple to the god of love, and officiate himself as high priest at his
+altars; he compared the very lowest of women to angelic creatures; and
+finally was confined, a furious and desperate maniac.
+
+Education carried on upon mistaken principles has also been known to
+prepare the way to insanity, and La Bruyere has justly observed, that
+there are parents, the study of whose life appears to have been, their
+giving their children just reason not to regret their loss. Pinel has
+given us the interesting history of two orphan brothers, who had been
+brought up in a most anomalous manner--with extreme kindness and
+effeminacy by a nurse, and with much harshness and injustice by a tutor.
+The result of this erroneous management was a deficient development in
+their intellectual faculties, and a debilitated frame, which gradually led
+to a state of imbecility. When examined by Pinel at the age of twenty and
+twenty-two, their conversation was puerile in the extreme, and they both
+displayed a taste for infantile sports and pastimes, befitting children of
+three or four years old. They sought to express themselves with great
+volubility, but their language, consisting chiefly of broken syllables,
+was scarcely intelligible. Notwithstanding their apathic appearance, by a
+sort of automatic habit, every evening brought on an absurd scene of
+sentimentality. They would join each other in earnest conversation in a
+corner of the room; and, with bitter tears and deep sighs, bewail the loss
+of their parents, who had thus left them in a helpless orphan condition,
+in their tender years, expressing the sincerest affection for their nurse,
+but speaking of their tutor with bitter imprecations. A great partiality
+shown to one sister has driven another one to a state of dementia, that
+arose from her continually dwelling on the wrongs she experienced, which,
+of course, were exaggerated by jealousy.
+
+External agents producing sudden terror have been frequently known to
+bring on insanity. It is related of a child of three years of age, who was
+so terrified on being brought into a madhouse, that he was subject to
+horrible dreams and visions until his seventeenth year, when he became a
+perfect lunatic. Women frightened during pregnancy have often become
+alienated; and there are two cases reported of young ladies who were found
+insane the day after their nuptials.
+
+While disappointments and misfortunes are often the origin of insanity, a
+sudden melioration in circumstances, and unexpected pleasing intelligence
+have been also known to derange the intellects. A man who came into the
+possession of a large fortune, after having lived for many years in
+penury, was so alarmed at the thought of losing this property, that the
+apprehension of the evil deprived him of his senses. An instance is
+recorded of a young girl, long separated from her lover by parents averse
+to their union, who became insane immediately after her marriage.
+
+Children are generally exempted from this calamitous visitation; yet Frank
+relates the case of a child at St. Luke's who had been deranged since he
+was two years old. Age, to a certain extent, seems to influence insanity,
+and most individuals are alienated between their twentieth and fiftieth
+years. Haslam states, that out of one thousand six hundred and sixty-four
+patients admitted into Bedlam, nine hundred and ten came within this
+period of life. In France it appears that most cases of insanity are
+noticed between the ages of twenty-five and thirty-five. One-fifteenth of
+these cases among men, and one-sixth among women, are observed before
+their twentieth year; and in the wealthy classes of society one-fourth
+occur before the same period. The following table from Bicetre regarding
+age is not without interest.
+
+  Years. Aged  15  20  30  40  50  60  Total.
+  -------------------------------------------
+  1784   ...    5  33  31  24  11   6   110
+  1785   ...    4  29  49  25  14   3   124
+  1786   ...    4  31  40  32  15   5   127
+  1787   ...   12  39  41  26  17   7   142
+  1788   ...    9  43  53  21  18   7   151
+  1789   ...    6  38  39  33  14   2   132
+  1790   ...    6  28  34  19   9   7   103
+  1791   ...    9  26  32  16   7   3    93
+  1792   ...    6  26  33  18  12   3    98
+  1793   ...    4  36  28  22  13  10   113
+               ----------------------------
+  Total        65 329 380 236 130  53  1193
+
+Thus it would appear that the astounding events which took place in
+France, but more especially in Paris, from the year 1789, the breaking out
+of the revolution, to 1793, the reign of terror, had no effect upon the
+intellects of the population; unless it is supposed that the entire nation
+being in a state of insanity, either madmen were not noticed as any
+peculiarity, or rushed into mischief and were murdered. This observation
+as to the influence of public events is confirmed by the following
+statement of admissions in the Salpetriere during the comparatively
+tranquil years of 1811, 1812, 1813, and 1814, although many cases of
+insanity were said to have arisen from the harsh laws of the conscription.
+
+  Years. Aged  20  25  30  35  40  50  60  70  80 Total.
+  ------------------------------------------------------
+  1811   ...  34  37  38  27  48  38  24  12   4   262
+  1812   ...  52  34  33  18  38  57  26  19   3   280
+  1813   ...  43  29  33  41  32  57  31  13   6   285
+  1814   ...  42  35  38  31  26  53  34  22  10   291
+              ----------------------------------------
+  Total      171 135 142 117 144 205 115  66  23  1118
+
+Therefore one might fairly conclude that the taking of the Bastille, the
+execution of Louis XVI., the bloody sway of the Jacobins, the ambitious
+wars of Napoleon, and the restoration of Louis XVIII., did not in the
+slightest degree affect the brains of our happy and philosophical
+neighbours.
+
+It has been generally imagined that women are more subject to mental
+alienation than men; this, however, is by no means proved by observation
+in other countries, as will appear by the following calculation:
+
+                                                Men.  Women.
+  1756       Marseilles                          50     49
+  1786       Paris                              500    509
+  1786-1794  Bedlam                            4992    882
+  1807       St. Luke's                         110    153
+  1802       Paris                                1  to  2
+  ----       Berlin                               1  to  2
+  ----       Vienna                             117     94
+  ----       Pennsylvania                         2  to  1
+  1807-1812  Various Madhouses in France        488    700
+  1802-1814  Mr. Esquirol's establishment       191    144
+                                               ----   ----
+                                      Total    6452   6536
+
+In the Lunatic Asylum of Hanwell I have now under my care 265 males, and
+351 females.
+
+It has long been a current opinion that madness is a more common disease
+in our country than any where else. This may possibly arise from the
+greater number of our eccentric countrymen that are widely scattered over
+the globe; and whenever an individual is observed whose manners and
+conduct are totally at variance with the habits of any other member of the
+community, he is generally considered an Englishman. Voltaire came to the
+sweeping conclusion that one half of the nation was scrofulous, and the
+other moiety insane.
+
+However, it would appear that insanity is on the increase; for in the
+report of the commissioners for licensing lunatic establishments we find
+the following statement: "Insanity appears to have been _considerably_ on
+the increase; for if we compare the sums of two distant lustra, the one
+beginning with 1775, and the other ending with 1809, the proportion of
+patients returned as having been received into lunatic asylums during the
+latter period, is to that of the former nearly as one hundred and
+twenty-nine to one hundred." Dr. Burrows has endeavoured to impugn the
+correctness of this statement by proving that suicide is more frequent in
+other countries; now, unless Dr. Burrows can prove that suicide is always
+an act of insanity, which will by no means be admitted, his observation
+can bear no weight.
+
+It is but too true that in melancholy madness we often observe a
+prevailing propensity to self-destruction. Dr. Abercrombie's views on this
+subject are so luminous that I shall transcribe them.
+
+"When the melancholic hallucination has fully taken possession of the
+mind, it becomes the sole object of attention, without the power of
+varying the impression, or of directing the thoughts to any facts or
+considerations calculated to remove or palliate it. The evil seems
+overwhelming and irremediable, admitting neither of palliation,
+consolation, nor hope. For the process of mind calculated to diminish such
+an impression, or even to produce a hope of the palliation of the evil, is
+precisely that exercise of mind which in this singular condition, is lost
+or suspended; namely, a power of changing the subject of thought, of
+transferring the attention to other facts and considerations, and of
+comparing the mental impression with these, and with the actual state of
+external things. Under such a conviction of overwhelming and hopeless
+misery, the feeling naturally arises of life being a burden, and this is
+succeeded by a determination to quit it. When such an association has once
+been formed, it also fixes itself upon the mind, and fails to be corrected
+by those considerations which ought to remove it. That it is in this
+manner the impression arises, and not from any process analogous to the
+determination of a sound mind, appears, among other circumstances, from
+the singular manner in which it is often dissipated, namely by the
+accidental productions of some new impression not calculated in any degree
+to influence the subject of thought, but simply to give a momentary
+direction of the mind to some other feeling. Thus a man mentioned by Pinel
+had left his house in the night, with the determined resolution of
+drowning himself, when he was attacked by robbers. He did his best to
+escape from them, and having done so, returned home, the resolution of
+suicide being entirely dissipated. A woman mentioned, I believe by Dr.
+Burrows, had her resolution changed in the same manner, by something
+falling on her head, after she had gone out for a similar purpose.
+
+"A very irregular modification occurs in some of these cases. With the
+earnest desire of death, there is combined an impression of the
+criminality of suicide; but this instead of correcting the hallucination,
+only leads to another and most extraordinary mode of effecting the
+purpose; namely by committing murder, and so dying by the hand of justice.
+Several instances are on record in which this remarkable mental process
+was distinctly traced and acknowledged; and in which there was no mixture
+of malice against the individuals who were murdered. On the contrary,
+these were generally children; and in one of the cases, the maniac
+distinctly avowed his resolution to commit murder, with the view of dying
+by a sentence of law; and at the same time his determination that his
+victim should be a child, as he should thus avoid the additional guilt of
+sending a person out of the world in a state of unrepented sin. The mental
+process in such a case presents a most interesting subject of reflection.
+It appears to be purely a process of association, without the power of
+reasoning. I should suppose that there had been at a former period, during
+a comparatively healthy state of the mental faculties, a repeated
+contemplation of suicide which had been always checked by an immediate
+contemplation of its dreadful criminality.
+
+In this manner a strong connexion had been formed, which when the idea of
+suicide afterwards came into the mind, during the state of insanity, led
+to the impression of its heinousness, not by a process of reasoning, but
+by simple association. The subsequent steps are the distorted reasonings
+of insanity, mixed with some previous impression of the safe condition of
+children dying in infancy. This explanation I think is strongly
+countenanced by the consideration that, had the idea of the criminality of
+suicide been in any degree a process of reasoning, a corresponding
+conviction of the guilt of murder must have followed it. I find, however,
+one case which is at variance with this hypothesis. The reasoning of that
+unfortunate individual was, that if he committed murder, and died by the
+hand of justice, there would be time for his making his peace with the
+almighty between the crime and his execution, which would not be the case
+if he should die by suicide. This was a species of reasoning but it was
+purely the reasoning of insanity."
+
+Still these remarks do not go to prove that suicide is always the result
+of insanity, since it can in most instances be attributed to a moment of
+despair and impatience under a heavy visitation of calamity, or the dread
+of contempt of society. The frequency of this rash act, cannot therefore
+be adduced as a proof of the greater prevalence of madness in any country.
+With greater reason, self-destruction is to be referred to the want of a
+proper religious education and feeling, which will enable man to bear up
+against the world's vicissitudes, and deem life a more or less painful
+journey to a peaceful abode.
+
+Montesquieu was one of the many writers who attributed this propensity as
+being nearly exclusive to the English. "Les Anglais," he says, "se tuent
+sans qu'on puisse imaginer aucune raison qui les y determine; ils se tuent
+dans le sens meme du bonheur. Cette action, chez les Romains etait l'effet
+de l'education, elle tenait a leur maniere de penser et a leurs coutumes;
+dans les Anglais c'est l'effet d'une maladie, elle tient a l'etat physique
+de la machine."
+
+Two very curious works on suicide have been lately published in Germany by
+Dr. Arntzenius and Dr. Schlegel. The former writer divides this fatal
+propensity into acute and chronic; the first marked by great physical
+excitement, the latter accompanied or preceded by sadness, moroseness, and
+love of solitude. Curious cases are related in illustration of this
+doctrine, amongst others we remark that of an English nobleman who cast
+himself into the crater of Vesuvius. A German in the same year, not being
+able perhaps to travel so far, threw himself into a smelting furnace.
+Several cases are recorded of individuals who formed the desperate
+resolution of starving themselves. It appears that in many instances the
+most trifling circumstance has driven these reckless beings to the
+commission of this desperate action. The case of a young Parisian author
+of the name of Escoupe, who suffocated himself because one of his dramatic
+productions had been severely criticised, is well known. A German student
+destroyed himself because he had a club-foot, and another youth put an end
+to his existence in consequence of his not having been allowed to put on
+his Sunday clothes. Dr. Schlegel has given a curious table of the means of
+destruction resorted to according to the several ages of individuals, and
+we give the following abstract:
+
+                                   By pistol.  By hanging.
+  Between 10 and 20 years of age.      61          68
+      "   20-30          "            283          51
+      "   30-40          "            182          94
+      "   40-50          "            150         188
+      "   50-60          "            161         256
+      "   60-70          "            126         235
+      "   70-80          "             35         108
+      "   80-90          "              2
+                                     ----        ----
+                                     1000        1000
+
+In classing 9000 cases of suicide which happened in Paris between the
+years 1796 and 1830, Dr. Schlegel concludes that what he terms the
+"philosophic suicide," is that which is perpetrated after deliberation,
+during the night or shortly before sunrise; whilst when it is not the
+result of premeditation, it occurs during the day.
+
+The choice between shooting and hanging may be accounted for on the same
+grounds. A young man, in a fit of frantic passion, from disappointed love,
+or losses at play, will probably, on his return home, seize a pistol and
+blow out his brains; whereas hanging needs reflection and some preparation
+and precaution, which would alone suffice to bring a reflective creature
+to a proper sense of his folly, unless predetermined to destroy himself by
+"philosophic suicide."
+
+It appears in these accounts that suicide in France has greatly increased
+since the revolution. The average number during the last forty-two years
+being 409-5/6, the number in Paris being 1639 annually. Dr. Schlegel
+informs us that there exists a society in Paris called, "Society of the
+Friends of Suicide." It consists of twelve members, and a lot is cast
+annually to decide which of them is to destroy himself in the presence of
+the others. Certain qualifications and testimonials were required before a
+candidate could be admitted into this amiable club:
+
+1. He must prove himself a man of honour.
+
+2. He must have experienced the injustice of mankind, been injured by a
+dear friend, or betrayed by a mistress or a wife.
+
+3. He must have experienced, for some considerable time, a miserable
+vacuity of soul, and a discontent with every thing in the world.
+
+This association reminds me of a ball that was established in Paris after
+the reign of terror, called _Le Bal des Victimes_, to which no person
+could be admitted unless they had had a near relation guillotined.
+
+Dr. Schlegel has also given the following statistical table of the
+proportion of suicides to various populations--both as regarding counties
+and principal cities:
+
+  _Countries._           _Proportion of suicides to population._
+
+  Sweden                              1 in  92,375
+  The Milanais                        1 ... 72,570
+  Russia, 1819-1820                   1 ... 36,860
+  ----    1824-1827                   1 ... 34,246
+  Prussia                             1 ... 14,224
+  Saxony                              1 ...  8,446
+  St. Petersburg                      1 ...    416
+  London, 18th century                1 ... 10,572
+  ----    19th century                1 ... 21,491
+  Paris                               1 ...  2,215
+  Geneva                              1 ...  3,714
+  Berlin, 1788-1797                   1 ... 23,066
+  ----    1798-1807                   1 ... 12,917
+  ----    1813-1822                   1 ...  3,312
+  Hamburg                             1 ...  4,800
+  Leipzig                             1 ...  3,143
+  Milan                               1 ...  1,821
+  Naples                              1 ... 27,230
+  New York                            1 ...  9,474
+  Baltimore                           1 ... 15,696
+  Philadelphia                        1 ... 20,000
+
+According to our ingenious author, drunkenness is the chief cause of
+suicide in England, Prussia, and Germany; love and gambling in France;
+whilst bigotry, or the fear of dying without having received the
+sacrament, he supposes, prevents it in Spain, where, comparatively
+speaking, suicide is seldom heard of.
+
+The same remark may apply to Italy, where a Roman lady, having heard of
+such an action, exclaimed, "_Dev' essere un forestiere; gli Italiani non
+sono tanto matti_." She was right, the suicide was a melancholy German
+tailor.
+
+In India, where the doctrine of predestination is generally prevalent, it
+is calculated that in one year there were forty suicides in a population
+of 250,000, twenty-three of which were females.
+
+Arntzenius quotes Gall's opinion, that suicide arises from too great a
+predominance of the organ of cautiousness. Combe and other phrenologists
+are of opinion, that with this predominance a deficient development of
+hope and a large destructiveness must be conjoined.
+
+It has been remarked that in Spain and Portugal, where insanity is
+comparatively rare, malconformation of the brain and consequent idiotism
+are very frequent.
+
+Since the peace it may be more difficult to arrive at any conclusion on
+the subject of increase of lunacy, founded on the admission of lunatics
+into public and private establishments, since emigration has carried so
+many families and operatives of every description abroad, many of whom,
+from various disappointments and vexations, might have been predisposed to
+insanity.
+
+It appears that in 1836 there existed in England and Wales 6402 lunatics,
+7265 idiots--13,667 lunatics and idiots. Of paupers alone, or lunatics and
+idiots, there were 1.00098 of the total population, or 1 in 1024.
+
+However, according to the most probable calculation, the number of
+lunatics in England amounts to about 14,000, out of which about 11,000 are
+paupers. Idiots are nearly as numerous as lunatics. Sir A. Halliday states
+the former to amount to 5741, and the latter to 6806. To this it must be
+observed that many harmless idiots are allowed to remain in their usual
+residence. In Wales it appears that idiots are to lunatics in the
+proportion of seven to one. The difficulty of obtaining any certain
+information on this subject, however, is such, that it is scarcely
+possible to decide the question with any chance of a probable certainty.
+
+In regard to the prevalence of lunacy in other countries, the following
+are curious statistical statements:
+
+In Spain, in 1817, according to the report of Dr. Luzuriaga, there only
+existed in the asylums of Toledo, Granada, Cordova, Valencia, Cadiz,
+Saragossa, and Barcelona, 509 lunatics--only fifty were in the hospitals
+of Cadiz, sixty in that of Madrid, and thirty-six in the kingdom of
+Granada.
+
+In Italy, in twenty-five asylums in Turin, Genoa, Milan, Brescia, Verona,
+Venice, Parma, Modena, Bologna, Ferrara, Florence, Sienna, Lucca, and
+Rome, Mr. Brierre only found 3441 patients. The population of these parts
+of Italy amounting to about 16,789,000 inhabitants, which gives one
+lunatic to 4879 persons.
+
+Scott, who accompanied Lord Macartney's embassy to China, observed that
+very few insane persons were to be found there. Humboldt states that
+madness is rare amongst the natives of South America. Carr made the same
+remark in Russia. In Spain and Italy, religious melancholy, and that most
+vexatious species of insanity called _erotomania_, are the more common.
+
+In the savage tribes of Africa and America insanity is very rare. Dr.
+Winterbotham affirms, that among the Africans near Sierra Leone, mania is
+a disease which seldom if ever occurs. Idiotism was likewise a rare
+phenomenon among them. Among the negro slaves in the West Indies it is
+scarcely known, and during three years' residence in the Bahamas, only one
+case of monomania fell under my observation. Amongst the native races of
+America it scarcely exists. From these observations we may conclude, with
+Esquirol, that insanity belongs almost exclusively to civilized races of
+men, that it scarcely exists among savages, and is rare in barbarous
+countries. To what circumstance are we to attribute this exemption?
+Possibly it may be attributed to simplicity in living, which predisposes
+to less disease and morbid varieties of organization, and to the absence
+of that refined education which exposes man to the artificial wants and
+miseries of high civilization. It is moreover probable that the constant
+occupation which the existence of the savage requires to satisfy his
+absolute necessities, does not leave him leisure time to ponder over
+gloomy ideas and fictitious sufferings. In addition to these
+circumstances, Dr. Pritchard has justly remarked, that we might also
+conjecture that congenital predisposition is wanting in the offspring of
+uncivilized races. The same author admits the probability of the brain
+receiving a different development in the progeny of cultivated races, or
+of those whose mental faculties have been awakened.
+
+Various professions have been supposed to exercise much influence on the
+intellectual faculties. The following observations at the Salpetriere
+during one year may tend to illustrate this subject:
+
+  Field labourers                       43
+  Servants                              51
+  Needlework women                      85
+  Cooks                                 16
+  Shopkeepers                           21
+  Pedlars                               16
+  Shoemakers                             8
+  House-painters and varnishers          5
+  Housekeepers                         192
+  Women of the town                     33
+
+In Mr. Esquirol's establishment:
+
+  Farmers                                3
+  Military men                          33
+  Seamen                                 3
+  Merchants                             50
+  Students                              25
+  Clerks in public offices              21
+  Engineers                              2
+  Lawyers                               11
+  Chemists                               4
+  Physicians                             4
+  Artists                                8
+
+According to the prevalence of the ideas connected with their former
+pursuits do we observe the hallucination of these unfortunate persons to
+be of a different character. Dr. Abercrombie relates the case of a Scotch
+clergyman, who was brought before a jury to be what is called in Scotland
+_cognosced_, or declared incapable of managing his affairs. Amongst the
+acts of extravagance alleged against him was, that he had burnt his
+library. When he was asked by the jury what account he would give of this
+part of his conduct, he replied in the following terms: "In the early part
+of my life I had imbibed a liking for a most unprofitable study, namely,
+controversial divinity. On reviewing my library, I found a great part of
+it to consist of books of this description, and I was so anxious that my
+family should not be led to follow the same pursuits, that I determined to
+burn the whole." He gave answers equally plausible to questions which
+were put to him respecting other parts of his conduct; and the result was,
+that the jury found no sufficient ground for cognoscing him; but in the
+course of a fortnight from that time, he was in a state of decided mania.
+
+What a school of humility is a lunatic asylum! What a field of observation
+does it not present to the philosopher who ranges among its inmates! We
+find the same aberrations that obtain in society; similar errors, similar
+passions, similar miserable self-tormenting chimeras, empty pride,
+worthless vanity, and overweening ambition. There we
+
+  See that noble and most sovereign reason,
+  Like sweet bells jangled, out of tune and harsh.
+
+Each madhouse has its gods and priests, its sovereigns and its subjects,
+terrific mimicry of worldly superstitions, pomp, pride, and degradation!
+There, tyranny rules with iron sway, until the keeper's appearance makes
+tyrants know there does exist a power still greater than their own. In
+madhouses egotism prevails as generally as in the world, and nothing
+around the lunatic sheds any influence unless relating to his wretched
+self. In this struggle between the mind and body, this constant action and
+reaction of the moral and the corporeal energies, when reason has yielded
+to the brute force of animal passions, and the body with all its baseness
+has triumphed over the soul, one cannot but think of Plutarch's fanciful
+idea, that, should the body sue the mind for damages before a court of
+justice, it would be found that the defendant had been a ruinous tenant to
+the plaintiff.
+
+In many cases of insanity we observe a singular fertility of glowing
+imagination and a vivacity of memory which is often surprising. Dr. Willis
+mentions a patient who was subject to occasional attacks of insanity, and
+who assured him that he expected the paroxysms with impatience, as they
+proved to him a source of considerable delight. "Every thing," he said,
+"appeared easy to me. No obstacles presented themselves either in theory
+or in practice. My memory acquired of a sudden a singular degree of
+perfection. Long passages of Latin authors occurred to my mind. In general
+I have great difficulty in finding rhythmical terminations, but then I
+could write verse with as much facility as prose."
+
+Old associations thus recalled into the mind are often mixed up with
+recent occurrences, in the same manner as in dreaming. Dr. Gooch mentions
+a lady who became insane in consequence of an alarm of fire in her
+neighbourhood. She imagined that she was transformed into the Virgin Mary,
+and that a luminous halo beamed round her head.
+
+It is said that the Egyptians placed a mummy at their festive board, to
+remind man of mortality. Would not a frequent visit to a lunatic asylum
+afford a wholesome lesson to the reckless despot, the proud statesman, and
+the arbitrary chieftain? There they might converse with tyrants,
+politicians, and self-created heroes, in all the naked turpitude of the
+evil passions, who in their frantic gestures would show them that which
+they wish to be--that which the world considers they are! Often would they
+hear the maniac express the very thoughts that ruffle their own pillows,
+until the dreaded bell that announces the doctor's visit, and which with
+one loud peal destroys his fond illusions, herald of that knell which
+sooner or later must call them from the busy world they think their own.
+How beautifully has Filmer expressed the madman's fears!
+
+  See yon old miser laden with swelling bags
+  Of ill-got gold, with how much awkward haste
+  He limps away to shelter! See how he ducks,
+  And dives, and dodges with the gods; and all
+  Only in hope to avoid, for some few days
+  Perhaps, the just reward of his own sad extortions.
+  The hot adulterer, now all chill and impotent
+  With fear, leaps from the polluted bed,
+  And crams himself into a cranny!
+  There mighty men of blood, who make a trade
+  Of murder, forget their wonted fierceness;
+  Out-nois'd, they shrink aside, and shake for fear
+  O' th' louder threat'nings of the angry gods.
+
+Whatever may be the nature of insanity or our fallacious views regarding
+it, it is a matter of great consolation to find that our mode of treating
+it is at last founded on rational and humane principles. The unfortunate
+lunatic is no longer an object of horror and disgust, chained down like a
+wild beast, and sunk by ignorance or avarice, even below the level of that
+degradation in the scale of human beings, to which it had pleased
+Providence to reduce him,--we no longer behold him rising from his foul
+and loathsome bed of straw, scantily covered with filthy tatters, his hair
+and beard wild and grisly--his eyes under the influence of constant
+excitement, darting menacing looks--the foam bubbling through his gnashing
+teeth--clanking his fetters with angry words and gestures, threatening
+heaven and earth--gazed at with dismay, through massive bars--the very
+female seeming of doubtful sex:
+
+                Her unregarded locks
+  Matted like fury-tresses, her poor limbs
+  Chain'd to the ground; and stead of those delights
+  Which happy lovers taste, her keeper's stripes,
+  A bed of straw, and a coarse wooden dish
+  Of wretched sustenance.[18]
+
+Now, the unfortunate persons are restored to social life as much as their
+sad condition allows; they enjoy every comfort that can solace them in
+their lucid intervals, when their hallucinations cease; in illness they
+are treated with kindness and liberality, and in health, their former
+associations with the busy world, are recalled by labour, voluntarily
+performed or stimulated by the incentive of some additional comfort. No
+coercion is resorted to, except to prevent the furious maniac from
+injuring himself and others, and then, such means are adopted that
+restrain his violence without a painful process. Even the straight
+waistcoat, which impedes respiration, is generally banished in all
+well-regulated establishments, and belts, sleeves, and muffs, which merely
+secure the hands, without preventing a free motion of the articulations,
+are usually resorted to. To such an extent is healthy occupation carried
+on in lunatic asylums, that at this moment at Hanwell, out of upwards of
+600 inmates under my care, 421 are at work and distributed as follows:
+
+  _Males._
+
+    57 Working in the garden and grounds.
+    53 Handicrafts at various trades.
+    38 Assistants in the wards.
+    28 Picking coir, or the external fibre of the cocoa-nut,
+         for stuffing mattresses, &c.
+     2 Clerks in the office.
+  ----
+   178
+  ----
+
+  _Females._
+
+   120 At needlework.
+     2 Making brushes.
+    21 In the kitchen and dairy.
+    21 Assisting in the wards.
+    26 Picking coir.
+    30 Working in the garden.
+    23 In the laundry.
+  ----
+   243
+  ----
+
+Hanwell may be said to be an asylum for incurables, since it is doomed to
+receive old cases that scarcely ever afford a chance of recovery; to which
+are added a large proportion of the idiots and epileptics of Middlesex,
+whose families cannot support them.
+
+Let us hope from this gradual amelioration in the condition of this
+illfated class of our fellow-creatures, that every institution, both
+public and private, will shortly be conducted upon a similar plan, having
+sufficient grounds attached to it, to give occupation to such of their
+inmates as may still be able to enjoy some share, however trifling it may
+be, of the blessings of this life.
+
+
+
+
+LEPROSY.
+
+
+Bontius informs us that this disease was observed on the banks of the
+Ganges, where it was known by the name of _Cowrap_. Kaempfer noticed it in
+Ceylon and Japan. In Sumatra, whole generations are infected with both
+leprosy and elephantiasis; and those who are labouring under the latter
+disease, although it is not contagious, are driven into the woods.
+Christopher Columbus found lepers in the island of Buona Vista in 1498,
+and frictions of turtle blood were used to relieve them.
+
+In our days it is a disease of rare occurrence, at least in Europe; yet it
+was observed at Vetrolles and Martignes, in France, in 1808, and at Pigua
+and Castel Franco, in Italy, in 1807. The elephantiasis still prevails in
+our West India colonies, more especially that species which is called
+"elephant leg," and which is not uncommon at Barbadoes, St. Christopher,
+and Nevis. Parsons, in his Travels in Asia and Africa, informs us that a
+similar complaint exists on the coast of Malabar, where it is called the
+"Cochin leg." The Hindoo physicians treat it with pills of arsenic and
+black pepper.
+
+A curious species of leprosy appeared in Rome under the reign of Tiberius,
+which was brought thither from Asia. The eruption first broke out upon the
+chin, whence it was called _Mentagra_, and is thus alluded to by Martial:
+
+  Non ulcus acre, pustulaeve lucentes;
+  Nec triste mentum, sordidive lichenes.
+
+From the chin it extended over the entire body, and on its disappearance
+left scars more unsightly, if possible, than the former disease. Its
+virulence and difficulty of cure induced the Romans to send to Egypt for
+attendance. The same disease prevailed in the second century, and Soranus,
+a physician of Aquitania, was sent for to heal it. Crispus, a friend of
+Galen, is said to have discovered the best method of cure. Pliny has given
+an accurate account of the mentagra in his Natural History, lib. xxvii.
+cap. 1. According to the same writer, elephantiasis was brought to Rome by
+Pompey's troops. Plutarch fixes its apparition to the time when
+Asclepiades of Bithynia flourished as one of his disciples. Themison wrote
+a treatise on the disease, which is mentioned by Caelius Aurelianus, but
+has not been preserved from the ravages of time. Lucilius called the
+affection _odiosa Vitiligo_. The _Gemursa_ of Pliny appears to have been a
+similar complaint; and Triller thinks that it was the _Gumretha_ of the
+Talmud.
+
+Formerly, in England, the causes of lepers were committed to the
+ecclesiastical courts, as it was prohibited to prosecute a leper before a
+lay judge, as they were under the protection of the church, which
+separated them from the rest of the people by a ritual. At this period a
+law existed, called _Leproso amovendo_, for the removal of lepers who
+ventured to mix in society. Thus leprosy may be considered one of the most
+terrific maladies inflicted on mankind. Holy Writ affords us abundant
+proofs of its fatal character. It is probable that this disease was first
+observed under the scorching sun of Egypt, whence it spread its ravages to
+Greece and Asia; and when the East was obliged to submit to the Roman
+legions, the conquerors carried the scourge of the vanquished to their own
+country. From Italy the disorder extended to France; and in the reign of
+Philip I. we find some members of the church militant, called
+_hospitaliers_, who spent their arduous life in attending upon lepers, and
+waging war against the infidels.
+
+The Hebrew tribes, on quitting Egypt, were subject to three kinds of
+leprosy; all of them were distinguished by the name of _Berat_ ([Hebrew]),
+or "bright spot." One called _Boak_ ([Hebrew]), of a dull white; and two
+named _Tsorat_ ([Hebrew]), or "venom or malignity:" the first variety of
+the latter being the _Berat Lebena_, or bright white berat; and the next
+the _Berat Cecha_, or the dark and dusky berat; both of which were highly
+contagious, and rendered those who laboured under their attack unclean,
+and dangerous to society.
+
+Manetho, Justin, and several historians, pretend that the Hebrews were
+expelled from Egypt in consequence of their being infected with this
+formidable disease; a reproach from which Josephus attempted to exculpate
+his countrymen. It appears, however, that, during their captivity of one
+hundred and thirty-four years, the Israelites laboured under this awful
+visitation; and, three thousand years after their migration we find
+Prosper Alpinus describing the banks of the Nile as the principal seat of
+the disease. Lucretius gives the same account of it:
+
+  Est Elephas morbus, qui, propter flumina Nili
+  Gignitur, Aegypto in media, neque praeterea usquam.
+
+Pliny and Marcellus Empiricus refer the calamity to the same source. They
+state, however, that it was more general in the lower classes, although it
+sometimes attacked their sovereigns; an event which added to the horrors
+of the infliction, since it appears that royalty had the privilege of
+bathing in human blood as one of the most effectual curative means. Gaul
+and Avicenna attribute its fatal prevalence in Alexandria to the influence
+of the climate, and the quality of their food. The Persian writer thus
+expresses himself: "Et quando aggregatur caliditas aeris cum malitia cibi,
+et ejus essentia ex genere piscium, et carne salita, et carne grossa, et
+carnibus asinorum, et lentibus, procul dubio est ut eveniat lepra, sicut
+multiplicatur in Alexandria."
+
+The _Boak_, or slighter berat, which is not considered to be contagious,
+still bears the same denomination amongst the Arabs, and is the [Greek:
+lepra alphos] or dull white leprosy of the Greeks. The bright white and
+dusky berats of the Hebrews were distinguished on account of their
+malignity, and with the _Tsorat_ ([Hebrew]) are still called among the
+Arabians by the Hebrew generic term with a very slight alteration, for the
+_Berat Lebena_ is their _Beras Bejas_, and the _Berat Cecha_, the _Beras
+Asved_.
+
+While the Arabians borrowed the Hebrew terms, the Greeks took their
+denominations from the same source; and from _Tsorat_ they adopted the
+word _Psora_. The _Tsorat_ is restrained by the Hebrews to the contagious
+form of leprosy. Amongst the Greeks Lepra was a generic synonyme of
+_Berat_ or _Beras_.
+
+This confusion in the adaptation of the names given to the varieties of
+leprosy has occasioned much perplexity in the study of the disease.
+Actuarius, in endeavouring to rectify these errors, has produced a greater
+confusion. According to him, they are different forms of a common genus.
+However, the most important distinction was that which defined the
+contagious and the non-contagious forms. The leprosy described by Moses
+under the name of _Boak_ or _Bohak_ was the [Greek: alphos] of
+Hippocrates; _Seeth_ the [Greek: phakos]; _Saphachath_ and _Misphachath_
+the [Greek: leichen]; and _Bahereth_ the [Greek: leuke]; and according to
+Carthenser and other writers, this leprosy was the _Leuce_ of the Greeks.
+
+The elephantiasis was long confounded with leprosy; but the former is a
+tubercular affection of the skin, widely different from the scaly leprosy,
+and certainly not contagious. Its singular name was derived from the
+condition of the surface of the huge misshapen limbs of those who were
+affected with the malady, and which bore some resemblance to the leg of an
+elephant. This morbid state is not uncommon in the island of Barbadoes,
+and in England it has been called "the Barbadoes leg." The original Arabic
+name for this affection was _Dal Fil_, or "the elephant's disease," which
+is now the common denomination; although it is frequently abridged into
+_Fil_ alone, literally _Elephas_. The elephantiasis is not even alluded to
+by Moses in his descriptions of leprosy. However, the elephant leg of the
+Arabians is a disease totally different from the specific elephantiasis,
+which is a disorder of the skin, the roughness of which led to the name,
+and which the Arabians called _Juzam_ or _Judam_.
+
+These errors of description amongst medical writers have of course
+occasioned much obscurity and perplexity in the productions of travellers
+and historians, who have generally confounded all these diseases with the
+Hebrew leprosy, or the leprosy which for so long a period desolated the
+fairest portions of Europe, where every country was crowded with hospitals
+established for the exclusive relief of the malady. The number of
+leper-houses, as they were denominated, has been singularly exaggerated.
+Paris has been made to assert that there were nineteen thousand of these
+hospitals, whereas he merely stated that the Knights Hospitalers, under
+various patron saints, but more particularly St. Lazarus, were endowed
+with nineteen thousand manors to support their extensive establishments;
+and he thus clearly expressed himself: "_Habent Hospitalarii novemdecim
+millia maneriorum in Christianitate_." It appears that in the reign of
+Louis VIII., France had no less than two thousand of these hospitals.
+Leprosy was well known in the eighth century, and St. Ottomar and St.
+Nicholas, were considered the first founders of establishments for its
+treatment in France and in Germany. The Crusaders, however, by their
+connexions with the East, materially increased its inroads in Europe, and
+the disgusting malady appears to have been considered as a proof of
+holiness. Moehser, in his work "_De medicis equestri dignitate
+ornatis_," informs us that the Knights of the order of St. Lazarus were
+not only intrusted with the care of lepers, but admitted them into their
+noble order: their Grand Master was himself a leper. The Crusaders,
+returning from their useless wars, eaten up with the disease, received the
+honourable distinction of being _pauperes Christi, morbi beati Lazari
+languentes_. The most distinguished individuals in the land attended upon
+them with the utmost humility; and Robert, King of France, used to wash
+and kiss their filthy feet to keep himself in odour of sanctity. All these
+attentions, however, did not always prevent the lepers from complaining of
+their complicated sufferings, but they were exhorted by holy men (who of
+course had never experienced the miseries of the malady) to be of good
+comfort, as their illness was a blessed favour conferred upon them as the
+elect of the land. St. Louis thought the Sire de Joinville an unbeliever;
+for having once asked him which he would prefer, being a _mezieu_ or
+_laide_ (a leper), or having to reproach his conscience with any mortal
+sin, his favourite replied to the singular question, that he would rather
+be guilty of thirty deadly sins; whereupon the sanctified monarch severely
+rebuked him by telling him in the quaint language of the times, "Nulle si
+laide mezeuerie n'est, comme de estre en peche mortel."
+
+Notwithstanding the sanctity of their disease, lepers were by various laws
+separated from the healthy portion of the community. The ceremonies used
+on these occasions were curious; and we find the following description of
+them in the History of Bretagne: A priest in his sacerdotal robes went to
+the leper's dwelling, bearing a crucifix. He was then exhorted to submit
+with resignation to the affliction: he afterwards threw holy water upon
+him, and conducted him to church. There he was stripped of his ordinary
+vestments, and clothed in a black garment; he then knelt down to hear
+mass, and was again sprinkled with holy water. During these ceremonies,
+the office for the dead was duly sung, and the leper was finally led to
+his destined future residence. Here he again knelt, received salutary
+exhortations to be patient, while a shovelful of earth was thrown on his
+feet. His dwelling was most diminutive: his furniture consisted of a bed,
+a water-jug, a chest, a table, a chair, a lamp, and a towel. He further
+received a cowl, a gown, a leathern girdle, a small cag with a funnel, a
+knife, a spoon, a wand, and a pair of _cliquettes_, (a sort of castanets,)
+to announce his approach. Before leaving him, the priest added another
+blessing to these gifts, and departed, after commanding him under the
+severest penalties never to appear without his distinctive apparel, and
+barefooted; never to enter a church, a mill, or a baker's shop; to perform
+all his ablutions in streams and running waters; never to touch any
+article he wanted to purchase, except with his wand; never to enter
+drinking-houses, but to buy his liquor at their doors, having it poured
+into his barrel by means of the funnel graciously given him for that
+purpose; never to answer any question unless he was to windward of his
+interlocutor; never to presume to take a walk in a narrow lane; never to
+touch or go near children, or look at a good-looking wench; and only to
+eat, drink, and junket with his brother lepers; and invariably to announce
+his unwelcome approach by rattling his castanets.
+
+The offsprings of these sequestrated creatures were seldom baptized; and
+when this rite was performed, the water was thrown away. After this
+oration his ghostly adviser took his final leave, and the patient's former
+dwelling was burnt to the ground. The sepulchre of St. Mein, in Britanny,
+was frequently visited by these poor creatures; and on such occasions they
+were obliged to have both their hands covered with woollen bags, as a
+distinguishing mark amongst the other pilgrims. Lepers were only allowed
+to intermarry with fellow-sufferers; yet we find in one of the Decretals
+of St. Gregory, that any woman who chose to run the chances of contagion
+could please her fancy. St. Gregory perhaps thought this the most
+effectual method of preventing the dreaded intercourse, as most probably,
+had it been prohibited, lepers would have been in great request, they
+having always been notorious for their amorous propensities. Muratori
+informs us that these unfortunate persons did not always submit quietly to
+these severe regulations, but several times joined the Jews in a revolt
+against the authorities.
+
+This affliction has been observed in various countries. In Iceland it is
+called _Likraa_; in Norway, _Radesyge_ or _Spedalskhed_. It is to be
+apprehended that many of these cases of leprosy belong more particularly
+to the elephantiasis: such is the red disease of Cayenne, and the _Boasi_
+of Surinam.
+
+It is especially in the East, its probable original seat, that leprosy is
+observed. In Damascus there are two hospitals for its treatment. The
+waters of the Jordan are still considered efficacious in its cure, and the
+waters of Abraham's well are looked upon as a specific. In Candia the
+disease was common, and lepers were noted for their obscene profligacy.
+From Crimea it has also been carried to Astracan, whence it infected the
+Cossacks of Jaick. Pallas and Gmelin have given an accurate account of its
+invasion.
+
+
+
+
+THE ASPIC.
+
+
+Various opinions are entertained respecting the reptile that inflicted the
+fatal sting on Cleopatra. According to Pliny, it had hollow fangs, which
+distilled the venom in the same manner as the tail of the scorpion. Aelian
+states it to have been a snake that moves slowly, covered with scales of a
+reddish colour, his head crowned by callous protuberances, his neck
+becoming swollen and inflated when he sheds his poisonous secretion. Other
+naturalists affirm that the scales are shining, and the eyes of a dazzling
+brightness; while some authorities maintain that the reptile's hue is of a
+dark brown colour, and that, like the chameleon, it can assume the colour
+of the ground on which it drags its writhing form. However, later
+observers have now clearly ascertained that the aspic of the ancients is
+the _coluber haje_, called by the Arabs _nascher_, and classed by Lacepede
+as the Egyptian viper. Lucan seems to have described this serpent in the
+following lines:
+
+  Hic, quae prima caput movit de pulvere tabes
+  Aspida somniferum tumida cervice levarit.
+
+According to Hasselquist, the aspic's head is raised in a protuberance on
+both sides behind the eyes; the scales which cover the back are small, of
+a dirty white colour, and speckled with reddish spots. The lower surface
+of the reptile is striated with one hundred and eighteen small parallel
+zones, and forty-four smaller ones are under the tail. The teeth resemble
+in their structure those of other vipers; and, when the animal is
+irritated, its neck and throat are swelled up to the size of the body.
+Authors vary in regard to its length. Hasselquist, from whom we have
+derived the above description, says that it is a short reptile; while
+Savary assures us that it sometimes measures six feet.
+
+The ancients stated that the poison of the aspic did not occasion any
+pain, but that the person it had stung gradually sunk into a calm and
+languid state, which was followed by a sound sleep, the forerunner of
+dissolution. Modern travellers assure us, on the contrary, that this venom
+is most active; and Hasselquist has observed an aspic in Cyprus, the bite
+of which brought on a rapid mortification, which generally proved fatal in
+a very few hours.
+
+In Egypt the viper is still made use of in medicinal preparations; and a
+great number of them are sent to Venice for the confection of the
+celebrated _Theriaca_. Under Nero, we are told, that these reptiles were
+imported into Rome for pharmaceutical purposes.
+
+In the above description, and endeavour to ascertain the nature of the
+aspic of the ancients, there must be some error. The _coluber aspis_ of
+Linnaeus is not venomous, and we may therefore conclude that the aspic was
+of the same species as our viper. The venom of this animal is of a yellow
+tinge, and small in quantity, seldom exceeding two grains in weight. In
+hot weather it becomes more active in its effects. Time does not seem to
+deprive it of its fatal properties; for instances have been known of
+persons having pricked their fingers with the pointed fangs of a viper
+preserved in spirits, when the most serious accidents have followed. The
+dried teeth lose this noxious power. The venom of the viper may be
+swallowed without any risk, provided there is not an ulcer in the mouth.
+Fontana has made upwards of six thousand experiments to prove the activity
+of this substance. A sparrow died under its influence in five minutes, a
+pigeon in eight or ten; a cat sometimes did not experience any
+inconvenience, a sheep seldom or never; and the horse appears to be proof
+against its action.
+
+Some naturalists have affirmed that the female viper, in cases of sudden
+alarm, possesses the faculty of securing the safety of her young by
+swallowing them and keeping them concealed in her stomach, as the kangaroo
+secures her offspring in her pouch. This assertion, although fabulous, was
+credited by Sir Thomas Brown, and since by Dr. Shaw. Stories equally
+absurd have been circulated of this reptile. The Egyptians considered the
+viper as a typification of a bad wife, since they believed that during
+their union the female was in the habit of biting off her partner's head.
+They also looked upon it as the emblem of undutiful children, from the
+idle belief that the viper came into the world by piercing an opening in
+its mother's side.
+
+
+
+
+SELDEN'S COMPARISON BETWEEN A DIVINE, A STATESMAN, AND A PHYSICIAN.
+
+
+If a physician sees you eat any thing that is not good for the body, to
+keep you from it he cries out "It is _poison_!" If the divine sees you do
+any thing that is hurtful to your soul, to keep you from it he cries out
+"You are _damned_!"
+
+To preach long, loud, and damnation, is the way to be cried up. We love a
+man who damns us, and we run after him again to save us. If a man has a
+sore leg, and he should go to an honest and judicious surgeon, and he
+should only bid him keep it warm, or anoint it with some well-known oil
+that would do the cure, haply he would not much regard him, because he
+knows the medicine beforehand to be an ordinary medicine. But if he should
+go to a surgeon that should tell him, "Your leg will be gangrene within
+three days, and it must be cut off; and you will die, unless you do
+something that I could tell you," what listening there would be to this
+man! "Oh! for the Lord's sake, tell me what this is:--I will give you any
+contents for your pains."
+
+This ingenious antiquary has also made some quaint comparisons between
+doctors of the body and doctors of the public interests. "All might go on
+well," he says, "in the commonwealth, if every one in the parliament would
+lay down his own interest and aim at the general good. If a man was rich,
+and the whole college of physicians were sent to him to administer to him
+severally; haply, so long as they observed the rules of art, he might
+recover. But if one of them had a great deal of scammony by him, he must
+put off that; therefore will he prescribe scammony; another had a great
+deal of rhubarb, and he must put off that; therefore he prescribes
+rhubarb: and they would certainly kill the man. We destroy the
+commonwealth, while we preserve our own private interests and neglect the
+public."
+
+Grotius called John Selden "the honour of the English nation;" and Bacon
+had such an implicit faith in his judgment, that he desired in his will
+that his advice should be taken respecting the publication or suppression
+of his posthumous works.
+
+
+
+
+THE LETTUCE.
+
+
+Various species of this plant were known to the ancients. Its type is
+supposed to be the _Lactuca quercina_, or the _Lactuca scariola_; both of
+Asiatic origin. Many powerful effects were formerly attributed to its use.
+It was considered as producing sleep, and recovery from intoxication; it
+was in consequence of this belief that this salad was served up after
+meals. Thus Martial tells us,
+
+  Claudere quae coenas Lactuca solebat avorum,
+  Die mihi cur nostras inchoat illa dapes.
+
+Columella thus describes its properties:
+
+  Jamque salutari properet Lactuca sapore
+  Tristia quae relevet longi fastidia mori.
+
+This belief in its narcotic qualities induced the ancients to esteem it as
+an aphrodisiac: the Pythagoreans had therefore named it [Greek:
+eunouchion]; and Eubulus calls it the food of the dead, _mortuorum cibum_.
+Venus covered the body of her beloved Adonis with lettuce-leaves to calm
+her amorous grief; and vases, in which they were planted, were introduced
+in the Adonian festivals. Galen, who had faith in its powers, called it
+the herb of sages, and in his sleepless nights sought its influence by
+eating it at supper. It was also frequently put under the pillow of the
+rich to lull them to repose. Its cooling qualities were so much dreaded by
+the Roman gallants, that its use was abandoned; but Augustus's physician,
+Antonius Musa, having calmed by its prescription his master's uneasiness
+in a hypochondriac attack, lettuce recovered its popularity: a statue was
+erected to the doctor, and salad once more became the fashion, although
+the prejudices against it could not be removed. Lobel informs us that an
+English nobleman, who had long wished for an heir, but in vain, was
+blessed with a numerous family by leaving off this Malthusian vegetable.
+
+
+
+
+MEDICAL FEES.
+
+
+Such is the perversity of our nature, that the remuneration given with the
+greatest reluctance is the reward of those who restore us, or who
+conscientiously endeavour to restore us to health. The daily fees, it is
+true, are not handed with regret, for the patient is still suffering; but
+if they were to be allowed to accumulate to a considerable amount, they
+would be parted with, with a lingering look. The lawyer's charges for a
+ruinous litigation, the architect's demands for an uncomfortable house,
+are freely disbursed, though if exorbitant they may be taxed; but the
+doctor's--a guinea a visit!--is sheer extortion. 'Send for the apothecary:
+the physician merely gives me advice; the apothecary will send me plenty
+of physic: at any rate I shall have something for my money.'
+
+To what can this unjust, this illiberal feeling be attributed? Simply to
+vanity and pride. Illness and death level all mankind. The haughty
+nobleman, who conceives himself contaminated by vulgar touch, can scarcely
+bring himself to believe that he is placed upon the same footing as a
+shoe-black. All _prestiges_ of grandeur and worldly pomp vanish round the
+bed of sickness; and the suffering peer would kneel before the humblest
+peasant for relief. Then it is that money would be cheerfully lavished to
+mitigate his sufferings. But how soon the scene is changed! The patient is
+well, thrown once more in the busy vortex of business or of pleasure. He
+had been slightly indisposed; his natural constitution is excellent: the
+doctors mistook his case; thought him very ill, forsooth; but nature cured
+him.
+
+Could the ambitious mother admit for one moment that her daughter had been
+seriously ill?--a sick wife is an expensive article! If her medical
+attendant unfortunately hinted that the young lady had been in danger, he
+is considered a busy old woman, exaggerating the most trifling ailment to
+obtain increase of business; in fact, a dangerous man in a family where
+there are young persons--to be provided for. Nor can we marvel at this. No
+one likes to be considered morally or physically weak, excepting
+hypochondriacs, who live upon groans, and feel offended if you tell them
+that they do not look miserable. The soldier will describe the slightest
+wound he received in battle as most severe and dangerous; a feeling of
+pride is associated with the relation. The bold hunter will boast of a
+fractured limb; the accident showed that he was a daring horseman. Nay,
+the agonizing gout is a fashionable disease, which seems to proclaim good
+living, good fellowship, and luxury: it is, in short, a gentlemanly
+disease. But the slow ravages of hereditary ailments, transmitted from
+generation to generation with armorial bearings, the development of which
+may be averted by proper care, or hurried on by fashionable imprudence!
+how difficult even to hint to a family the presence of the scourge, when,
+through the transparent bloom of youth and beauty, our experienced eye
+reads the fierce characters of death in the prime of years. The aerial
+coronet floats in fond visions before the doting mother's ambitious eyes.
+A man would be a barbarian, nay, a very brute, to deprive the darling girl
+of the chances of Almacks, the delights of the pestiferous ball-room, or
+the galaxy of court or opera!
+
+To attend the great is deemed the first stepping-stone to fortune, and
+patronage is considered as more than an equivalent of remuneration. Too
+frequently does the physician placed in that desirable situation forget
+what Hippocrates said of the profession. "The physician stands before his
+patient in the light of a demi-god, since life and death are in his
+hands."
+
+Curious anecdotes are related of this unbecoming subserviency. A courtly
+doctor, when attending one of the princesses, was asked by George III. if
+he did not think a little ice might benefit her. "Your majesty is right,"
+was the reply; "I shall order some forthwith." "But perhaps it might be
+too cold," added the kind monarch. "Perhaps your majesty is right again;
+therefore her royal highness had better get it warmed."
+
+This absurd deference to rank and etiquette by a physician who at the
+moment is superior to all around him, reminds one of an account given by
+Champfort of a fashionable doctor. "D'Alembert was spending the evening at
+Madame Du Deffand's, where were also President Henault and M. Pont de
+Vesle. On this flexible physician's entering the room, he bowed to the
+lady with the formal salutation, '_Madame, je vous presente mes tres
+humbles respects_.' Then, addressing M. Henault, '_J'ai bien l'honneur de
+vous saluer_.' Turning round to M. de Vesle he obsequiously said,
+'_Monsieur, je suis votre tres humble serviteur_;' and at last,
+condescending to speak to D'Alembert, he nodded to him with a '_Bonjour,
+Monsieur_!'" On such occasions a condescending smile from power is
+considered a fee.
+
+Reluctance in remunerating medical attendants was also manifested by the
+ancients; and Seneca has treated the subject at some length. The
+difficulty in obtaining remuneration has unfortunately rendered many
+physicians somewhat sordid, and loth to give an opinion unless paid for.
+In this they are unquestionably right, as gratuitous advice is seldom
+heeded; and one of the most distinguished practitioners used to say, that
+he considered a fee so necessary to give weight to an opinion, that, when
+he looked at his own tongue in the glass, he slipped a guinea from one
+pocket into another.
+
+To consider themselves in proper hands, patients must incur expenses, and
+as much physic as possible be poured down. Malouin, physician to the Queen
+of France, was so fond of drugging, that it is told of him, that once
+having a most patient patient, who diligently and punctually swallowed all
+the stuff he ordered, he was so delighted in seeing all the phials and
+pill-boxes cleaned out, that he shook him cordially by the hand,
+exclaiming, "My dear sir, it really affords me pleasure to attend you, and
+you _deserve_ to be ill." Our apothecaries must surely meet with incessant
+delight!
+
+The most extraordinary remuneration was that received by Levett, Dr.
+Johnson's friend and frequent companion. It was observed of him that he
+was the only man who ever became intoxicated from motives of prudence. His
+patients, knowing his irregular habits, used frequently to substitute a
+glass of spirits for a fee; and Levett reflected that if he did not accept
+the gin or brandy offered to him, he could have been no gainer by their
+cure, as they most probably had nothing else to give him. Dr. Johnson says
+"that this habit of taking a fee in whatever shape it was exhibited, could
+not be put off by advice or admonition of any kind. He would swallow what
+he did not like, nay, what he knew would injure him, rather than go home
+with an idea that his skill had been exerted without recompence; and had
+his patients," continues Johnson, "maliciously combined to reward him with
+meat and strong liquors, instead of money, he would either have burst,
+like the dragon in the Apocrypha, through repletion, or been scorched up,
+like Portia, by swallowing fire." But though this worthy was thus
+rapacious, he never demanded any thing from the poor, and was remarked for
+his charitable conduct towards them.
+
+Various professional persons have sometimes endeavoured to remunerate
+their medical attendants by reciprocal services: thus an opera-dancer
+offered to give lessons to a physician's daughters for their father's
+attendance upon him; and a dentist has been known to propose to take care
+of the jaws of a whole family to liquidate his wine bill. One of the
+wealthiest merchants of Bordeaux wanted to reduce the price of a
+drawing-master's lessons, on the score of his taking his children's daubs
+with him to sell them _on account_. This arrangement, however, did not
+suit the indignant artist, who left the Croesus in disgust.
+
+A singular charge for medical attendance was lately brought before the
+court of requests of Calcutta, by a native practitioner. He demanded 314
+rupees for medicine alone, and in the items of drugs appeared pearls, gold
+leaf, and monkeys' navels!
+
+In one of the old French farces there is an absurd scene between Harlequin
+and his physician. The motley hero had been cured, but refused to
+remunerate his Esculapius, who brought an action for his fees, when
+Harlequin declares to the judge that he would rather be sick again; and he
+therefore offers to return his health to the doctor, provided he would
+give him back his ailments, that each party might thus recover their own
+property. This incident was perhaps founded on an ancient opinion of
+Hippocrates, who frequently mentioned salutary diseases. In 1729, a Dr.
+Villars supported a thesis on this subject, entitled "_Dantur-ne morbi
+salutares?_" and Theodore Van Ween has also written a learned dissertation
+on the same subject.
+
+A celebrated Dublin surgeon was once known to give a lesson of economy to
+a wealthy and fashionable young man remarkably fond of his handsome face
+and person. He was sent for, and found the patient seated by a table,
+resting his cheek upon his hand, whilst before him was displayed a
+five-pound note. After some little hesitation he removed his hand, and
+displayed a small mole on the cheek. "Do you observe this mark,
+doctor?"--"Yes, sir, I do."--"I wish to have it removed."--"Does it
+inconvenience you?"--"Not in the least."--"Then why wish for its
+extirpation?"--"I do not like the look of it."--"Sir," replied the
+surgeon, "I am not in the habit of being disturbed for such trifles;
+moreover, I think that that little excrescence had better remain
+untouched, since it gives you no uneasiness; and I make it a rule only to
+take from my patients what is troublesome to them." So saying, he took the
+five-pound note, slipped it into his pocket, and walked out of the room,
+leaving the patient in a state of perfect astonishment.
+
+It is related of a physician who received his daily fee from a rich old
+miser, who had it clenched in his fist when he arrived, and turned his
+head away when he opened his hand for the doctor to take it, that, on
+being informed his patient had died in the morning, not in the least
+disconcerted he walked up to the dead man's chamber, and found his
+clenched fist stretched out as usual; presuming that it still grasped the
+accustomed remuneration, with some difficulty he opened the fingers, took
+out the guinea, and departed.
+
+The Egyptian physicians of old were paid by the state, but they were not
+prevented from accepting remuneration from individuals, and they were
+allowed to make demands for their attendance except on a foreign journey,
+and during military services.
+
+When we compare the value of money it appears probable that the fees of
+olden practitioners were more considerable than the remuneration of the
+present day. Attendance upon royalty and the court seems also to have been
+more profitable. Dr. Radcliffe says, that he received from King William
+200_l._ a year more than any other physician in ordinary--this monarch
+upon his appointment, gave him moreover, 500 guineas out of the privy
+purse for his attendance on the Earl of Portland, and the Earl of
+Rochford. When the same physician went to Hanau to attend Lord Albemarle,
+he received 1200_l._ from the king, with 400 guineas from his patient,
+besides a valuable diamond ring.
+
+Dr. Radcliffe's fortune must have been considerable, as appears from his
+legacies, bequeathing 5000_l._ for the improvements of University
+College--4000_l._ for the building of a library at Oxford--and 500_l._
+yearly for the amelioration of the diet of St. Bartholomew's hospital.
+Radcliffe had not been a year in London when he received 20 guineas daily,
+and he mentions that his fee for a visit from Bloomsbury Square to Bow,
+was five guineas.
+
+We do not exactly know what was the exact honorarium of Doctors in former
+days, yet Baldwin Hammey informs us that in 1644, Dr. Robert Wright who
+had only been settled three years in London, was in the habit of receiving
+a thousand broad pieces (22 shillings) in the course of the year.
+
+The following is a curious account of a puritan's consultation with Dr.
+Hammey.
+
+"It was in the time of the civil wars when it pleased God to visit him
+with a severe fit of sickness, or peripneumonia, which confined him a
+great while to his chamber, and to the more than ordinary care of his
+tender spouse. During this time he was disabled from practice; but the
+very first time he dined in his parlour afterwards, a certain great man in
+high station came to consult him on an indisposition--(_ratione vagi sui
+amoris_,) and he was one of the godly ones too of those times. After the
+doctor had received him in his study, and modestly attended to his long
+religious preface, with which he introduced his ignominious circumstances,
+and Dr. Hammey had assured him of his fidelity, and gave him hopes of
+success in his affair, the generous soldier (for such he was) drew out of
+his pocket a bag of gold and offered it all at a lump to his physician.
+Dr. Hammey, surprised at so extraordinary a fee, modestly declined the
+acceptance of it; upon which the great man, dipping his hand into the bag
+himself, grasped up as much of his coin as his fist could hold, and
+generously put it into the doctor's coat-pocket, and so took his leave.
+Dr. Hammey, returned into his parlour to dinner, which had waited for him
+all that time, and smiling (whilst his lady was discomposed at his being
+absent so long), emptied his pocket into her lap. This soon altered the
+features of her countenance, who telling the money over, found it to be
+thirty-six broad pieces of gold: at which she being greatly surprised,
+confessed to the doctor that surely this was the most providential fee he
+ever received; and declared to him that during the height of his severe
+illness, she had paid away (unknown to him) on a state levy towards a
+public supply, the like sum in number and value of pieces of gold; lest
+under the lowness of his spirits, it should have proved a matter of
+vexation, unequal to his strength at that time to bear; which being thus
+so remarkably reimbursed to him by Providence, it was the properest
+juncture she could lay hold on to let him into the truth of it." It has
+been supposed, that the sanctimonious sufferer was no other than Ireton,
+Cromwell's son-in-law.
+
+During the imprisonment of Dr. Friend in the tower, Dr. Head attended his
+patients, and on his liberation he presented him with 5000_l._ the amount
+of the fees received on his account. Dr. Meade's practice averaged from
+5000_l._ to 6000_l._ per annum. It is somewhat strange, that this
+celebrated physician whose evenings were generally spent in convivial
+meetings at Batson's Coffee-house, used in the forenoon to receive
+consulting apothecaries at a tavern near Covent-garden, prescribing for
+the patients without seeing them at half-a-crown fee.
+
+
+
+
+ENTHUSIASM.
+
+
+Enthusiasm, from its derivation, might in strictness be called a _fixity
+of idea in divinity_; but Locke has given a better definition of this
+morbid state of our intellectual faculties in considering it as a heated
+state of the imagination, "_founded neither on reason nor divine
+revelation, but arising from the conceits of a warmed or overweening
+brain_." I shall not venture to take the field of controversy to support
+this doctrine against that of some metaphysicians, who most probably would
+consider this mental aberration as an original and natural judgment
+inspired by the Almighty, founded not on reason or reflection, but an
+instinctive impulse of the powers of the mind.
+
+The Hebrews named this impulse _Nabi_ [Hebrew], (plural _Nebiim_,) "to
+approach or enter," on the surmise that the spirit pervaded the prophets,
+who were called _Roeh_ [Hebrew], or _Seeing_, hence _Seers_.
+
+Plato divided enthusiasm into four classes. I. _The Poetical_, inspired by
+the Muses. II. _The Mystic_, under the influence of Bacchus. III. _The
+Prophetic_, a gift of Apollo; and IV. _The Enthusiasm of love_, a blessing
+from Venus Urania. This immortal philosopher was not the visionary
+speculatist which some writers have represented him; his logic did not
+consist of frivolous investigations, but embraced the more useful subject
+of correct definition and division, as he sought to reconcile practical
+doctrines of morality with the mysticism of theology by the study of
+Divine attributes. Whatever some of the Eclectic philosophers might have
+asserted, Plato considered that our ideas were derived from external
+objects, and never contemplated the extravagant doctrine of imbodying
+metaphysical abstractions, or personifying intellectual ideas.
+
+To this day, the attentive observer will find Plato's classification of
+enthusiasm to be correct. The ecstatic exaltation of religion and of love
+are not dissimilar; only the latter can be cured, the former seldom or
+never admits of mitigation: the fantastic visions of the lover may be
+dispelled by infidelity in the object of his misplaced affection; the
+phantasies of fanaticism can only yield to an improbable state of
+infidelity. Shaftesbury has justly observed, "There is a melancholy which
+accompanies all enthusiasm, be it of love or religion; nothing can put a
+stop to the growing mischief of either, till the melancholy be removed,
+and the mind be at liberty to hear what can be said against the
+ridiculousness of an extreme in either way."
+
+Our poet Rowe has beautifully pointed out the facility with which a noble
+and martial soul can free itself from love's ignoble trammels.
+
+                          Rouse to the combat,
+  And thou art sure to conquer; war shall restore thee:
+  The sound of arms shall wake thy martial ardour,
+  And cure this amorous sickness of thy soul,
+  Begot by sloth, and nurs'd by too much ease.
+  The idle God of Love supinely dreams
+  Amidst inglorious shades and purling streams;
+  In rosy fetters and fantastic chains
+  He binds deluded maids and simple swains;
+  With soft enjoyment woos them to forget
+  The hardy toils and labours of the great:
+  But if the warlike trumpet's loud alarms
+  To virtuous acts excite, and manly arms,
+  The coward Boy avows his abject fear,
+  On silken wings sublime he cuts the air,
+  Scar'd at the noble horse and thunder of the war.
+
+The only trumpet that can arouse the religious enthusiast from his ascetic
+meditations is the war-whoop that calls him to destroy all those who
+impugn his doctrines in a battle-field, where each champion seeks
+pre-eminence in cruelty, and rancorous persecution.
+
+When we contemplate the miseries that have arisen from fanaticism, or
+fervid enthusiasm, although it is but a sad consolation, yet it affords
+some gratification in our charitable view of mankind, to think, nay to
+know, that this fearful state of mind is a disease, a variety of madness,
+which may in many instances be referred to a primary physical
+predisposition, and a natural idiosyncrasy. It is as much a malady as
+melancholy and hypochondriacism. In peculiar constitutions it grows
+imperceptibly. Lord Shaftesbury has made the following true observation:
+"Men are wonderfully happy in a faculty of deceiving themselves whenever
+they set heartily about it. A very small foundation of any passion will
+serve us not only to act it well, but even to work ourselves in it beyond
+our own reach; a man of tolerable goodnature, who happens to be a little
+piqued, may, by improving his resentment, become a very fury for revenge."
+
+Thus it is with enthusiasm, a malady which in its dreadful progress has
+been known to become contagious, one might even say epidemic. Vain terrors
+have seized whole populations in cities and in provinces; when every
+accident that happened to a neighbour was deemed a just punishment of his
+sins, and every calamity that befel the fanatic was considered the hostile
+act of others. Jealousy and dark revenge were the natural results of such
+a state of mind, when the furious fire of bigotry was fanned by ambition
+until monomania became daemonomania of the most hideous nature, and every
+maniac bore in his pale and emaciated visage the characteristic of that
+temperament which predisposes to the disease. Seldom do we observe it in
+the _sanguineous temperament_, remarkable for mental tranquillity, yet
+determined courage when roused to action. The _choleric_ and _bilious_,
+impetuous, violent, ambitious, ever ready to carry their point by great
+virtues or great crimes, may no doubt rush into a destructive career; but
+then they lead to the onset the atrabilious, men saturated with black
+bile, and constituting the _melancholy temperament_. Here we behold the
+countenance sallow and sad; the visage pale and emaciated, of an unearthly
+hue; gloom, suspicion, hate, depicted in every lineament; the mirror of a
+soul unfitted for any kind sentiment of affection, pity, or forgiveness.
+Detesting mankind, and detested, they seek solitude, to brood upon their
+wretchedness, or to derive from it the means to make others as miserable
+as themselves. Such do we usually find the enthusiastic monomaniac. His
+ideas are concentrated into a burning focus, which consumes him like an
+ardent mirror. His life of relation is nearly extinguished. His external
+senses are rendered so obtuse and callous that he becomes insensible to
+hunger and thirst, to heat and cold however intense; and bodily injuries,
+which would occasion excruciating agonies in others, he bears without any
+apparent feeling. On this subject of religious enthusiasm the remarks of
+Evagrius are worthy of notice. "Contrarieties," he says, "are in
+themselves so tempered, and the grace of God maketh in them such an union
+of discordant things, that life and death, which are in essence so
+opposite to each other, seem to join hands and dwell together in them.
+Happy are they while they live, and happier still when they depart." It
+has been known amongst these rigid ascetics that when a stranger visited
+them, they mortified themselves by entertaining him and partaking of the
+good cheer. Thus inventing a novel kind of fasting--eating and drinking
+against their will.
+
+It is related of St. Macarius, that one day having killed a gnat that had
+stung him, he was struck with such compunction at the sight of blood, that
+by way of atonement, he threw off his clothes, and remained in a state of
+nudity for six months in a marsh exposed to the bites of every noxious
+insect. Sozomen in praising this mortification, assures us that this
+exposure to the inclemency of the weather, did so harden and tan him that
+his beard could not make its way through the skin.
+
+It has been erroneously supposed that such individuals, being hostile to
+mankind, are prone to do evil,--this is not generally the case; they seem
+satisfied with their own sufferings, and only seek to inflict them upon
+others when roused from their concentration by fanaticism.
+
+A late ingenious writer, in his work entitled "The Natural History of
+Enthusiasm," has somewhat overdrawn the portrait of these unfortunate but
+dangerous beings when labouring under the disease, which he thus defines:
+"It will be found that the elementary idea attached to the term in its
+manifold applications, is that of fictitious fervour in religion, rendered
+turbulent, morose, or rancorous by junction with some one or more of the
+unsocial emotions; or, if a definition as brief as possible were demanded,
+we should say that fanaticism is enthusiasm inflamed by hatred. Fanaticism
+supposes three elements of belief: the supposition of malignity on the
+part of the object of our worship; a consequent detestation of mankind at
+large, as the subjects of malignant power; and then, a credulous conceit
+of the favour of Heaven shown to the few, in contempt of the rules of
+virtue."
+
+Shaftesbury had already said, that "nothing besides ill-humour, either
+natural or forced, can bring a man to think seriously that the world is
+governed by any devilish or malicious power." Such a fearful conviction
+constitutes a clear case of daemonomania. Patients labouring under that
+malady are ever prone to injure themselves and others, prompted, as they
+constantly avow, by an evil spirit; but enthusiasts, who live in solitary
+mortification until a paroxysm of fanaticism draws them from their
+retreat, seldom or never meditate mischief to others, or indeed that
+hatred to mankind which our author considers a feature of their condition.
+Society may become irksome, and may be shunned for ever, without a
+sentiment of hate. The gayest of the gay may be impelled by feelings more
+or less morbid to seek a voluntary endurance, to expiate real or imaginary
+offences, without experiencing a desire of a uselessly vindictive
+sentiment towards the former companions of their vices or follies.
+Extremes of depravity and contrition do not infrequently meet; and it has
+been remarked in Eastern countries, where asceticism arose, that the gates
+of the most splendid and luxurious cities open upon desert wilds or
+mountainous solitudes, to which the penitent may flee from his former
+scenes of ambition and enjoyment.
+
+Such enthusiasts, excepting when enjoying the beatitude of ecstatic
+exaltation, are more to be pitied than feared. Persecution would most
+probably drive them to a dangerous state of fanatic rage; and the noble
+philosopher whom I have already quoted, very justly observes, "They are
+certainly ill physicians in the body politic who would needs be tampering
+with these mental eruptions, and, under the specious pretence of healing
+the itch of superstition, and saving souls from the contagion of
+enthusiasm, should set all nature in an uproar, and turn a few innocent
+carbuncles into an inflammation and a mortal gangrene."
+
+Enthusiasts are supposed by their followers to be gifted with the faculty
+of prophecy; and it is somewhat strange that the ancients considered
+certain temperaments as best fitted for this inspiration. The atrabilious
+temperament took the lead; and this melancholy state was to be increased
+by abstinence, mortification, and more especially rigid continence. The
+latter privation, indeed, was deemed indispensable for prophets; and the
+Jewish Rabbins inform us that Moses abandoned his wife Zipporah the very
+moment that he was prophetically inspired. A physical reason has been
+adduced to prove the necessity of a chaste life, which I here must be
+allowed to pass over; but upon the same principle, emasculation was
+considered as rendering man totally unfit for prophetic revelation, or
+indeed any holy inspiration; and we find in the first of Deuteronomy that
+such subjects were not admissible to the service of the Temple.
+
+Jesaias, and some other Jewish writers, have affirmed that Daniel belonged
+to that class of beings; but it has been shown that the name of _Spado_,
+which he bore, merely gave him the high rank that eunuchs held at the
+Assyrian court. Potiphar bore the same title among the Pharaohs. Baruch
+Spinosa maintained that temperaments should vary according to the nature
+of the prophecy; thus, a gay prophet would predict victory and happiness,
+a gloomy one misery and wars; peace and concord, if he is human;
+destruction and merciless events, if he were sanguinary: and, in support
+of his doctrine, he quotes the passage in Kings, where Elisha, when
+brought before Jehosophat, called for a minstrel ere he predicted that
+victory should crown the arms of Judah.
+
+Various artificial means have been resorted to at all periods to prepare
+the intellects for inspirations, by creating a heated imagination. Pliny
+informs us that, in his days, the root of the _Halicacabum_, supposed to
+be a species of hyoscyamus, was chewed by soothsayers. Christopher
+D'Acosta relates that the Indians employ a kind of hemp called _Bangue_
+for the same purpose: and in St. Domingo their supposed prophets masticate
+a plant called _Cohaba_. The priestesses of Delphi were also in the habit
+of chewing laurel-leaves before they ascended the tripod, which it is
+stated was originally formed of a laurel-tree root with three branches.
+Sophocles calls the Sibyls [Greek: daphnephagos], laurel-eaters; and thus
+Tibullus,
+
+  Vera cano, sic usque sacras innoxia lauros
+  Vescar, et aeternum sit mihi virginitas.
+
+Auguries were drawn from the burning of the laurel-leaf. If it crackled
+and sparkled during combustion, the inference was favourable; the
+reverse, if it was consumed in silence. Propertius alludes to this belief:
+
+  Et tacet extincto laurus adusta foco.
+
+Yet so far from possessing exhilarating qualities, laurel-leaves were
+supposed to diminish the excitement produced by wine; and Martial affirms
+that the Roman ladies made use of them to drink large potations with
+impunity:
+
+  Foetere multo Myrtale solet vino;
+  Sed fallat ut nos, folia devorat lauri,
+  Merumque, cauta fronde, non aqua miscet.
+
+May it not be inferred that the leaves given to the Pythia might have been
+those of the _Lauro-cerasus_, the effects of which are similar to those of
+prussic acid, producing vertigo, dizziness, and various convulsive
+symptoms? This tree was first observed by Belon, who discovered it in his
+eastern voyages in 1546; but it might have been well known to the
+ancients. We may thus account for the violent convulsions in which the
+priestesses of Apollo were thrown on these mystic occasions, and which
+were said to arise from the gas over which they were seated. Although the
+tree from which the leaves were gathered grew near the temple, and was the
+common _Lauros nobilis_, yet the leaves of the _Lauro-cerasus_ might have
+easily been substituted on the occasion; since, always green and shining,
+they are not very unlike each other, and the flowers of both trees are
+pedunculate; and, no doubt, the priests well knew to what extent they
+could carry the dose to serve their purposes; possibly the modern
+preparation of _noyau_ might have been a Pythian dram.
+
+The effects of enthusiasm in rendering its victims insensible to all
+external agents is truly surprising, and cannot be better illustrated than
+by a relation of the horrors which the famous Convulsionists of Paris and
+other parts of France underwent, not only voluntarily, but at their most
+earnest prayer and solicitation.
+
+This work of miracles, as it was called, was first performed by a priest
+of the name of Paris, in 1724, and strange to say, the aberration
+continued for upwards of twelve years. Paris having departed this life in
+the odour of sanctity, (at least according to the conviction of the
+Jansenists, who had opposed with no little violence the famous bull
+_Unigenitus_), the Appellants, for such they thought proper to denominate
+their sect, appealed to the remains of their beatified companion to
+operate miracles in support of their common cause. The Appellants were
+absurdly persecuted, therefore miracles became manifestations easy to
+obtain. Having succeeded in finding credulous dupes, the next step was to
+work their credulity into a useful state of enthusiasm. They therefore
+summoned all the sick, lame, and halt of their sectarians to repair to the
+tomb of St. Paris for radical relief. Crowds were soon collected round his
+blessed sepulchre. It is now generally supposed that animal magnetism was
+resorted to in these curative operations, or rather religious ceremonies.
+Had not the means thus employed for the purpose been recorded and
+authenticated by the most irrefragable authorities, the sceptic might long
+pause before he would yield them credence.
+
+The patient (a female) was stretched on the ground, and the stoutest men
+that could be found were directed to trample with all their might and main
+upon her body; kicking the chest and stomach, and attempting to tread down
+the ribs with their heels. So violent were these exertions, that it is
+related a hunchbacked girl was thus kicked and trampled into a goodly
+shape.
+
+The next exercise was what they called the plank, and consisted in laying
+a deal board upon the patient while extended on the back, and then getting
+as many athletic men as could stand upon it, to press the body down; and
+in this endeavour they seldom showed sufficient energy to satisfy the
+supposed sufferer, who was constantly calling for more pressure.
+
+Next came the experiment of the pebble, a diminutive name they were
+pleased to give to a paving-stone weighing two-and-twenty pounds, which
+was discharged by the operator upon the patient's stomach and bosom, from
+as great a height as he could well raise the weighty body. This terrific
+blow was frequently inflicted upwards of a hundred times, and with such
+violence, that the house, and the furniture of the room, vibrated under
+the concussion, while the astonished bystanders were terrified by the
+hollow sound re-echoed by the enthusiast at every blow.
+
+Carre de Montgeron affirms that the _pebble_ was not found sufficiently
+powerful, and the operator was obliged in one case to procure an iron
+fire-dog (_chenet_), weighing about thirty pounds, which was discharged as
+violently as possible on the pit of the patient's stomach at least a
+hundred times. This instrument having for the sake of curiosity been
+hurled against a wall, brought part of it down at the twenty-fifth blow.
+The operator further states, that he had commenced according to the usual
+practice, by inflicting moderate blows, until he was induced by her
+lamentable entreaties to redouble his vigour, but all to no purpose; his
+strength was unavailing and he was obliged to employ a more athletic
+surgeon, who fell to work with such energy that he shook the whole house.
+The convulsionist, who was of the gentle sex, would not allow sixty blows
+she had received from her first doctor to be included in the calculation
+of the dose, but insisted upon having her whole hundred as prescribed. It
+further appears, that at each stroke the delighted enthusiast would
+exclaim in ecstacy, "Oh, how nice!" "Oh, what good it does me!" "Oh, dear
+brother, hit away--again--again!" For be it known, these operators were
+called by the affectionate name of brothers, whose claims to fraternal
+affection were in the ratio of the weight of their kindness towards the
+sisterhood.
+
+One of these young ladies, who was not easily satisfied, wanted to try her
+own skill, and jumped with impunity into the fire, an exploit which
+obtained her the glorious epithet of Sister Salamander. The names that
+these amiable devotees gave to each other were somewhat curious. They all
+strove to imitate the whining and wheedling of spoiled children, or petted
+infants; one was called _L'Imbecile_, another _L'Aboyeuse_, a third _La
+Nisette_, and they used to beg and cry for barley-sugar and cakes;
+barley-sugar signified a stick big enough to fell an ox, and cakes meant
+paving-stones. The excesses of these maniacs were at last carried to so
+fearful an extent, and their religious ceremonies were so debased by
+obscenities that the police was obliged to interfere, and forbid these
+detestable practices; hence it was affirmed that the following somewhat
+impious notice was suspended over the church-door:
+
+  De par le Roi, defense a Dieu,
+  De faire miracle en ce lieu.
+
+These lunatics, for such they must be considered, were not impostors. They
+had been worked to this degraded state by the plastic power of
+superstition, and implicit reliance was placed in their assertions; for,
+as Pascal said, "we must believe people who are ready to have their
+throats cut." Whether the Jansenist priests belonged to the same class, I
+leave to the reader to decide.
+
+Cabanis, in his interesting work, "Rapports du Physique et du Moral de
+l'Homme," offers the following remarks on this most curious subject:
+"Sensibility may be considered in the light of a fluid the quality of
+which is determined, and which, when carried to certain channels in
+greater proportion than to others, must of course be diminished in the
+latter ones. This is evident in all violent affections, but more
+especially in those ecstasies where the brain and other sympathetic organs
+are possessed of the highest degree of energetic action, while the faculty
+of feeling and of motion--in short, the vital powers--seem to have fled
+from the other parts of the system. In this violent state, fanatics have
+received with impunity severe wounds, which, if inflicted in a healthy
+condition, would have proved fatal or most dangerous; for the danger that
+results from the violent action of external agents on our organs depends
+on their sensibility, and we daily see poisons, which would be deleterious
+to a healthy man, innocuous in a state of illness. It was by availing
+themselves of this physical disposition that impostors of every
+description, and of every country operated most of their miracles; and it
+was by these means that the Convulsionists of St. Medard amazed weak
+imaginations with the blows they received from swords and hatchets, and
+which in their ascetic language they called _consolations_. This was the
+magic wand with which Mesmer overcame habitual sufferings, by giving a
+fresh direction to the attention, and establishing in constitutions
+possessed of great mobility a sense of action to which they had been
+unaccustomed. It was thus also that the _Illuminati_ of France and Germany
+succeeded in destroying external sensations amongst their adepts,
+depriving them in fact of their relative existence."
+
+In these phenomena we do not witness miracles or supernatural agency.
+Enthusiasts are simply maniacs. Like maniacs, their vital endowments are
+deranged; they lose the faculty of feeling, of reasoning, of comparing, of
+associating their ideas; their volition, their memory have fled, and all
+the functions of organic life are more or less disturbed. Rousseau never
+proved more clearly that his own intellectual faculties were occasionally
+impaired, than when he stated "that the state of reflection is unnatural,
+and that the man who meditates is a depraved animal."
+
+Insanity may be divided into four species:
+
+1st, _Monomania_, and _melancholy_, in which the delirium is confined to
+one or few objects.
+
+2nd, _Mania_, where the delirium embraces a variety of impressions, and is
+accompanied with violence.
+
+3rd, _Dementia_, or insanity in the full acceptation of the word, where
+the senses are totally bewildered, and the faculty of thinking destroyed.
+
+4th, _Imbecility_ or _idiotcy_, where, from imperfect organisation,
+ratiocination cannot be correct.
+
+To the first of these categories enthusiasts generally belong. Delirium,
+or wandering, is to a certain extent applicable to all, being a want of
+correspondence between judgment and perception. Locke and Condillac
+characterize madness as a _false judgment_, or a disposition to associate
+ideas incorrectly, and to mistake them for truths. Hence it is observed by
+Locke that "Madmen err, as men do that argue right from wrong principles."
+Dr. Beattie refers madness to _false perception_; and Dr. Mason Good,
+justly remarks, that "the perceptions in madness seem, for anything we
+know to the contrary, to be frequently as correct as in health, the
+judgment or reasoning being alone diseased or defective."
+
+I hope that I may not be accused of _materialism_ when I venture to affirm
+that all these enthusiasts labour under a physical disease; but whether
+this state was originally brought on by a morbid condition of the
+intellectual or the empassioned faculties of the mind, or, in other words,
+whether a diseased state of the mind brought on a diseased state of the
+body, I shall not at present venture to decide, as the disquisition would
+be foreign to the nature of this work, and lead us into investigations of
+little interest to the generality of readers.
+
+In the German Psychological Magazine we meet with a curious case of a
+patient who believed that he was supernaturally endowed with the power of
+working miracles. The man was a gend'arme of the name of Gragert, of a
+harmless and quiet disposition, but rather of a superstitious turn of
+mind. From poverty, family misfortunes, and severe military discipline, a
+series of sleepless nights and a mental disquietude were brought on that,
+according to his own report, nothing could dissipate but a perusal of
+pious works. In reading the Bible he was struck with the book of Daniel,
+and was so much pleased with it, that it became his favourite study; from
+that moment the idea of miracles so strongly possessed his imagination,
+that he began to believe that he could perform some himself. He was
+persuaded more especially that if he were to plant an apple-tree with the
+view of its becoming a cherry-tree, such was his power that it would bear
+cherries. He was wont to answer every question correctly, except when the
+subject concerned miracles, in regard to which he ever entertained his old
+notions; adding, however, that he would relinquish this thought if he
+could be convinced that the event of his trials did not correspond with
+his expectations.
+
+That many enthusiasts, although incurable in their peculiar aberration,
+have possessed some amiable qualities, is undeniable. Such rare
+occurrences remind one of the curious case of madness recorded by Tidemann
+of a lunatic of the name of Moses, who was insane on one side, and who
+observed his insanity with the other; his better half constantly rebuking
+his worse half for its absurdities. This case was certainly typical of the
+married state.
+
+In vain have physicians endeavoured to break through this morbid
+catenation of incongruous ideas by diversions, or what the French call
+_distractions_, which in general answered to our literal translation of
+the word, and _distracted_ their patients. Dramatic performances were once
+allowed in a mad-house near Paris; but the violence of the maniacs, the
+moroseness of the melancholy, and the stupidity of the idiots, rendered
+the exertions of the actors perilous to some, and idle to all. Mr.
+D'Esquirol once took one of his patients to a play, and the man swore that
+every performer who came on was making love to his wife; and a young lady,
+placed in a similar situation, exclaimed that all the people were going to
+fight about her. Jealousy and vanity were, no doubt, the ruling passions
+in both these cases. Travel has been recommended both by the ancients and
+the moderns. Seneca on this subject quotes Socrates, who replied to a
+melancholy wight who complained that his journeys had afforded him no
+amusement, "_I am not surprised at it, since you were travelling in your
+own company_."
+
+The contagion of enthusiasm is a marvellous fact. Pausanias relates that
+the malady of the daughters of Proetus, who ran about the country
+fancying that they were transformed into cows, was common amongst the
+women of Argos. Plutarch states that a disease reigned in Miletium, in
+which most of the young girls hung themselves; recent observations have
+confirmed this singular circumstance. Dr. Deslages, of St. Maurice,
+relates that a woman having hanged herself in a neighbouring village, most
+of her companions felt an invincible desire to follow her example.
+Primrose and Bonet tell us that at one period it was found difficult to
+prevent the young girls in Lyons from casting themselves into the river.
+Simon Goulard has recorded the prevalent madness amongst the nuns of the
+States of Saxony and Brandenburg, and which soon extended its influence to
+Holland, during which these religious ladies "predicted, capered, climbed
+up walls, spoke various languages, bleated like sheep, and amused
+themselves by biting each other." History has recorded the horrible
+judicial murder of Urbain Grandier, at Laudun, who was sacrificed for
+bedevilling a nunnery. The recent gift of tongues amongst the _Irvingites_
+is still in full vigour, and the _Southcotians_ are still on the look-out
+in London, as the _Sebastianists_ are in Lisbon.
+
+Addison has remarked that an enthusiast in religion is like an obstinate
+clown, and a superstitious man like an insipid courtier. On this subject
+he quotes the following old heathen saying recorded by Aulus
+Gellius--_Religentem esse oportet, religiosum nefas_; for, as the author
+tells us, Nigidius observed upon this passage, that the Latin words which
+terminate in _osus_ generally imply vicious characters, or the having any
+quality to excess. That we should enthusiastically admire all that is
+holy, sublime, or endowed with uncommon superiority in religion, in
+poetry, in the fine arts, is not only justifiable but praiseworthy. Genius
+cannot exist without a certain degree of fervour; its inspiration is a
+gift divine, naturally associated with a religious feeling. The man thus
+inspired must bend in humble admiration before the wondrous harmony that
+surrounds him. The poet, the painter, the musician, can only seek
+excellence by studying primitive perfection. Nothing that is not natural
+can be truly sublime or beautiful. A rigid observation of nature can alone
+lead to superiority, and we can only be taught to create by, endeavouring
+to imitate the beauties of the creation. How distant are these generous
+feelings from the low grovelling prejudices of bigotry! We admire
+perfection even in our enemies; and Erasmus was not a truant to his faith
+when, transported with Socrates's dying speech, he exclaimed, "O Socrates!
+I can scarce forbear kneeling down to thee, and praying,
+
+  _Sancte Socrates, ora pro nobis_."
+
+While considering this interesting subject, a curious question arises: is
+enthusiasm more frequently excited by truth than by error? I sadly fear
+that the latter influence will in general be found to predominate,
+although falsehood then assumes the deceptive garb of veracity. The noble
+writer whom I have already cited,[19] has justly said, "that truth is the
+most powerful thing in the world, since even fiction itself must be
+governed by it, and can only please by its resemblance."
+
+To what then are we to attribute this power that fallacy possesses of
+inspiring the mind with visionary hopes and fears? Simply because we cease
+to reason upon matter of fact, and soar in fanciful regions in search of a
+flittering phantom, a creature of our own imaginative faculties. What
+falls every day under our personal observation ceases to amaze, and one
+might even become familiarized to miracles were they of frequent
+occurrence. Man is naturally disposed to admire what he cannot understand,
+and to venerate what is incomprehensible. The nature of the divinity being
+essentially incomprehensible, a religious character is attached to all
+other subjects that are equally beyond the limits of our understanding.
+Sir Thomas Brown has said, "Methinks there be not impossibilities enough
+in religion for an active faith. I love to lose myself in a mystery, to
+pursue my reason to an _O altitudo_! I can answer all the objections of
+Satan and my rebellious reason, with that odd resolution I learned from
+Tertullian, _Certum est quia impossibile est_." From our earliest infancy
+we are delighted with fictions, which we verily fancy to be relations of
+true facts, and whether we believe with the ancients in the metamorphoses
+of heathen mythology, the absurd papal stories of the miracles of their
+saints, or the wondrous incidents of a fairy tale, we listen to these
+rhapsodies with avidity; whether Jupiter is turned into a shower of gold,
+St. Denis and St. Livarius travel with their heads under their arm, or Tom
+Thumb pulls on his seven-league boots. These absurdities are our day
+thoughts, our night dreams--nay, busy fancy does so dwell on these
+enchanting phantasies, that, in some cases, the intellectual faculties
+become deranged, and I have at present under my care, a female who lost
+her reason by constantly reading the Arabian Nights, and who in her
+hallucinations, describes as many marvellous voyages as could have done
+the sailor Sinbad.
+
+The foundation of incredulity no doubt is ignorance, but too often we find
+men of refined education and feeling the most easily imposed upon by
+incredible assertions; we seldom experience as much enthusiasm in the
+possession of any object as in the pursuit, more especially if that
+pursuit be vain. The merchant who has realized a splendid fortune in his
+commercial ventures, is satiated with his business, and becomes careless
+in the pursuit of greater riches, but let him for one moment contemplate
+the possibility of discovering the philosopher's stone, he will lose, and
+cheerfully too, all his past earnings in the chimerical pursuit, and the
+man who would doze over his ledger, will spend his sleepless nights
+contemplating his crucibles, and studying the black art.
+
+What is there of an exciting nature in the common events of life and the
+usual course and uniformity of nature? Very little. However wondrous the
+works of the creation may be, habit has so accustomed us to behold them,
+that they are familiar to our eyes; they become matter of fact, and
+science has taught us to comprehend the nature of many phenomena, which
+might otherwise have appeared incredible: but when we seek for an
+unattainable object, however fallacious its attraction may be, the mind is
+roused to energetic action: if we strive to excel all others in the fine
+arts, in poetical productions, we become fired with an exalted zeal, which
+age and experience alone can temper. In our vain pursuit of ideal
+perfection, the mind may be compared to a focus in which our burning
+thoughts are concentrated, until we are consumed by disappointment: the
+love of Pygmalion was probably the most ardent passion that could fire the
+breast of man. Enthusiasm laughs to scorn the suggestion of the senses and
+common understanding, therefore all its priests and votaries are
+surrounded with a deceptive halo; and Plotinus maintained that a proper
+worship of the gods consisted in a mysterious self annihilation and a
+total extinction of every faculty. The same may be said of love, which,
+like all other enthusiastic passions, may be considered a temporary
+hallucination.
+
+Moreover the language of fiction is not required to maintain the
+self-evident testimonies of facts.
+
+            As true as truth's simplicity,
+  And simpler than the infancy of truth.
+
+Whereas false doctrines and fallacious opinions need all the aid of
+imagination's vivid colours to disguise their real form with a goodly
+outside. We may in general conclude that enthusiasts are at first deceived
+themselves to become in turn deceivers. Seldom does man display sufficient
+humility to admit that he has erred in his favourite doctrines, and how
+much less will he be disposed to confess his deviation from rectitude,
+when imposture becomes the source of wealth and power, and hypocrisy a
+trade: to the ghostly speculator we may well apply the lines of Massinger:
+
+  Oh, now your hearts make ladders of your eyes,
+  In show to climb to heaven, where your devotion
+  Walks upon crutches.
+
+It is, however, fortunate that errors generally assist the development of
+truth. The progress of the Christian faith was materially forwarded by the
+absurdities and fallacies of all other religions; and Helvetius has truly
+observed that if we could for a moment doubt the truth of Christianity,
+its divine origin would be proved by its having survived the horrors of
+popery. False theories led Columbus to correct geographic conclusions, and
+Galileo's discoveries overthrew his own former theories.
+
+
+
+
+MEDICINAL EFFECTS OF WATER.
+
+
+Amongst the various means resorted to by quackery to speculate upon the
+credulity of mankind, simple river or spring water, coloured and flavoured
+with inert substances, has not been the least productive; and many a time
+the Thames and Seine have been fertile sources of supposed invaluable
+medicines. Sangrado's doctrines on aqueous potations have long prevailed
+in the profession; and it has been stoutly maintained that a water diet
+can cure the gout and various other diseases. That relief, if not cures,
+have been obtained by this practice, there cannot be the least doubt. Are
+we to attribute these favourable results to the effects of the
+imagination, the beneficial efforts of nature, or the salutary abstinence
+which this prescription imposed? Possibly they all combined to assist the
+physician's efforts, or rather aid his effete treatment. Cold water and
+warm water have in turn been praised to the very skies by their eulogists,
+and become the subject of ridicule and persecution on the part of more
+spirited practitioners.
+
+In surgery, water has ever been considered of great utility; it, no doubt,
+was instinctively used by man to cleanse and heal his wounds. Patroclus,
+having extracted the dart from his friend Eurypylus, washes the wound; and
+the prophet Elisha prescribes to Naaman the waters of Jordan. Rivers had
+various qualities, and were supposed to prove as different in their action
+on the economy as the mineral springs which from time immemorial, have
+been resorted to. These effects may in fact not be altogether doubtful;
+for, although these salutary streams may not possess sufficient active
+ingredients to be recognised by chemical tests, yet we know that
+substances which appear perfectly inert may prove highly active and
+effectual when combined and diluted naturally or artificially. Moreover,
+in the effects of watering-places on the invalid or valetudinarian, we
+must not forget the powerful influence of change of air and habit, the
+invigorating stimulus of hope, and the diversion from former occupations.
+To these auxiliaries many a remedy has owed its high reputation; and
+probably when Wesley attributed his recovery to brimstone and
+supplication, he in a great measure might have considered rest from
+incessant labour the chief agent in his relief. The exhilarating effects
+of the picturesque site of many of these salutary places of resort is
+universally acknowledged. Montaigne, Voltaire, Alfieri, acknowledged their
+influence on the imagination. Petrarch's inspirations flowed with the
+waters of Vaucluse, some of Sevigne's most delightful letters were written
+at Vichy, and Genlis and Stael were particularly happy in their epistolary
+elegance at Spa and Baden.
+
+We owe to accident many valuable discoveries in medicine. It is said that
+several Indians, having used the waters of a lake in which a cinchona tree
+was growing, experienced the benefit which led to the use of the Peruvian
+bark; and the thermal properties of the baths of Carlsbad were first made
+known by the howling of one of Charles the Fourth's hounds, that had
+fallen in them in a hunt. It has been also observed, in various countries,
+that particular waters produced various morbid affections; and to this
+cause have been attributed goitres, cretinism, calculi, and other
+distressing diseases. The ancients dreaded the impurity of their rivers.
+The Romans boiled their water in extensive _thermopolia_, where not only
+potations were drunk hot, but occasionally refrigerated with ice and snow,
+and, when thus prepared, called _decocta_. Juvenal and Martial refer this
+custom to the Greeks. Herodotus informs us that the Persian monarchs were
+accompanied on their expeditions by chariots laden with silver vases
+filled with the water of the _Choaspes_ that had been boiled, and which
+was solely destined for the king's use: Athenaeus tells us that it was
+light and sweet. Many ancient coins and inscriptions have recorded these
+salutary properties of certain waters.
+
+This real or supposed efficacy was scarcely discovered before it became
+the domain of priests: and common rain or river water became valuable and
+sanctified when blessed by them: hence the introduction of lustral water.
+The fluid extracted from the gown of Mahomet is the sacred property of the
+sultan. The moment the fast of the Ramazan is proclaimed, this holy
+vestment is drawn from a gold chest, and, after having been kissed with
+due devotion, plunged in a vase of happy water, which, when wrung from the
+garment, is carefully preserved in precious bottles, that are sent by the
+monarch as valuable presents, or sold at exorbitant prices as cures for
+any and every disease. Thus were the good effects of ablution, especially
+in wounds, attributed to some secret charm or quality conferred upon it by
+clerical benediction or the legitimacy of princes. When a quack of the
+name of Doublet cured the wounded at the siege of Metz in 1553, the water
+he used was considered to have been of a mystic nature; and Brantome
+describes his treatment in the following words: "Durant le susdit et tant
+memorable siege, etait en la place un chirurgien nomme Doublet, lequel
+faisait d'estranges cures avec du simple linge blanc, et belle eau claire
+venant de la fontaine ou du puit; mais il s'aidait de sortileges et
+paroles charmees, et chacun allait a luy." This Doublet, no doubt, was
+acquainted with an ingenious treatise on gun-shot wounds, written by
+Blondi in 1542, in which he strongly recommended the use of cold water;
+but, as his recommendation was not founded on any miraculous quality, he
+was forgotten, while Doublet was considered a supernatural being. Previous
+to this simple and sagacious method of healing wounds, various curious
+applications were in high repute; more especially the oil of kittens,
+which the celebrated Pare discovered to his great delight, was prepared by
+boiling live cats, coat and all, in olive oil, and was until then a
+valuable secret preparation, called _oleum catellorum_, and its use, with
+that of other nostrums, was known under the name of _secret
+dressing_.[20]
+
+This simple mode of dressing wounds, especially those that were inflicted
+by fire-arms, was a great desideratum; for, up to this era in surgery,
+these injuries were healed by the application of scalding oil or red-hot
+instruments, under the impression that they were of a poisonous nature.
+Pare was one of the first army-surgeons who exploded this barbarous
+practice. Having, according to his own account, expended all his boiling
+oil, he employed a mixture of yolk of egg, oil, and turpentine, not
+without the apprehension of finding his patients labouring under all the
+effects of poison the following day; when, to his great surprise, he found
+them much more relieved than those to whom the actual cautery had been
+applied. In more recent times, armies have been unjustly accused of making
+use of poisonous balls; and this absurd charge was brought against the
+French after the battle of Fontenoy, when the hospital fever broke out
+among the wounded crowded in the neighbouring villages. Chewing bullets
+was also considered a means of imparting to them a venomous quality. Lead
+and iron, the metals of which these projectiles were usually cast, were
+also deemed of a poisonous nature. A sort of aristocratic feeling seemed
+to obtain in those days; and it is related that two Spanish gentlemen had
+procured gold balls to fire at Francis I. at the battle of Pavia, that so
+noble and generous a prince should not fall by the vile metal reserved for
+vulgar people; and, in the adverse ranks, La Chatarguene, a noble of the
+French court, had prepared bullets of the same costly material for the
+reception of Charles V. It was under the impression of this poisonous
+nature of wounds, that individuals of both sexes, called suckers, followed
+armies, and endeavoured to extract the venom by suction; the records of
+chivalry give us instances of lovely damsels who condescended to perform
+this operation with their lovely mouths upon their _damoiseaux_; and
+Sibille submitted the wounds of her husband, Duke Robert, to a similar
+treatment: indeed, these suckers were chiefly females. May not this
+practice be the origin of the term _leech_, applied in ancient times to
+medical men? Leechcraft was the art of healing. Thus Spenser:
+
+            And then the learned leech
+  His cunning hand 'gan to his wounds to lay,
+  And all things else the which his art did teach.
+
+To this day, the custom of sucking wounds prevails among soldiers; and
+there is every reason to hope, from the experiments of the late Sir David
+Barry, that the exhaustion produced by cupping-glasses will be found of
+essential service in all venomous wounds. This practice of suction, no
+doubt, was known in Greece; Machaon performed it at the siege of Troy. The
+mothers and wives of the ancient Germans had recourse to the same process.
+In India the suction of wounds constitutes a profession. It was by this
+means that the Psylli cured the bite of serpents; and it is related of
+Cato, that his abhorrence of the Greek surgeons was such, that he directed
+Psylli to follow the Roman armies.
+
+Water affords a beautiful illustration of that indestructibility with
+which the Creator invested matter for the preservation of the world he
+formed from elementary masses, and appears to have existed unchangeable
+from the commencement of the universe. Its constituent parts are not
+broken into by any atmospheric revolution; they continue the same, whether
+in the solid ice, the fluid state of a liquid, or the gaseous form of a
+vapour. Its powers are undiminished, whether in the wave or the steam; the
+most effective agent in the hands of man to promote that welfare and
+happiness which his own errors deprive him of, frequently bringing on
+those calamities that his perversity attributes to the will of the
+Omnipotent. Water is the same in the atmosphere as on the earth, and falls
+in the very same nature as it ascends; electricity has no other influence
+upon it than that of hastening its precipitation. Chemical agents, however
+powerful, can only decompose its elementary principles upon the most
+limited scale. The heterogeneous substances with which water may
+occasionally be alloyed must be considered as purely accidental.
+
+The homogeneous characters of this fluid admit of no alteration, and, like
+atmospheric air, are still obtained as pure most probably as when they
+first emerged from chaotic matter. The same principles are found in the
+clouds, the fogs, the dews, the rain, the hail, and the snow. For the
+preservation of the world it was indispensable that water should be
+endowed with the property of ever retaining its fluid form, and in this
+respect become subject to a law different from that of other bodies, which
+change from fluid to solid. This is a deviation from a general decree of
+Nature. Were it not for this wise provision of the Creator, the world
+would shortly have been converted into a frozen chaos. All bodies contract
+their dimensions, and acquire a greater specific gravity by cooling; but
+water is excepted from this law, and becomes of less specific gravity,
+whether it be heated, or cooled below 42 deg. 5'. Were it not for this
+exemption, it would have become specifically heavier by the loss of its
+caloric, and the waters that float on the surface of rivers would have
+sunk as it froze, until the beds of rivers would have been filled up with
+immense masses of ice. From the observations of Perron, there is reason to
+believe that the mountainous accumulations of ice that have hitherto
+arrested the progress of polar navigators have been detached from the
+depths of the ocean to float upon its surface. This circumstance would
+account for the difference of temperature of the sea according to its
+depth. The experiments of Perron, made with an instrument of his own
+invention, which he called the thermobarometer, gave the following
+results:
+
+1st, The temperature of the sea upon its surface, and at a distance from
+shore, is at the meridian, lower than that of the atmosphere in the shade;
+much more elevated at midnight, but in a state of equilibrium morning and
+evening.
+
+2nd, The temperature rises as we approach continents or extensive islands.
+
+3rd, At a distance from land, the temperature of the deep parts of the sea
+is lower than that of the surface, and the cold increases with the depth.
+It is this circumstance which led this ingenious philosopher to conclude
+that even under the equator the bottom of the sea is eternally frozen.
+
+Humboldt is of a contrary opinion, and maintains that the temperature is
+from two to three degrees lower in shallow water; and he therefore is of
+opinion that the thermometer might prove of material use to navigators. He
+attributes this diminution of temperature to the admixture of the lower
+bodies of water with that of the surface. Who is to decide between these
+two ingenious experimentalists? "Experientia fallax, judicium difficile."
+The curious reader may consult in this investigation the tables of Forster
+in Cook's second voyage, those of Lord Mulgrave when Captain Phipps, and
+various other navigators.
+
+The salutary medicinal effects of sea-bathing are generally acknowledged,
+although too frequently recommended in cases which do not warrant the
+practice; in such circumstances they often prove highly prejudicial. The
+ancients held sea-water baths in such estimation, that Lampridius and
+Suetonius inform us that Nero had it conveyed to his palace. As
+sea-bathing is not always within the reach of those who may require it,
+artificial sea-water has been considered a desirable substitute; and the
+following mode of preparing it, not being generally known, may prove of
+some utility. To fifty pounds of water add ten ounces of muriate of soda,
+ten drachms of muriate of magnesia, two ounces of muriate of lime, six
+drachms of sulphate of soda, and the same quantity of sulphate of
+magnesia. This is Swediaur's receipt. Bouillon Lagrange, and Vogel,
+recommend the suppression of the muriate of lime and sulphate of soda, to
+be replaced with carbonate of lime and magnesia; but this alteration does
+not appear necessary, or founded on sufficient chemical grounds for
+adoption.
+
+Sea-water taken internally has been considered beneficial in several
+maladies; and, although not potable in civilized countries, it is freely
+drunk by various savage tribes. Cook informs us that it is used with
+impunity in Easter Island; and Schouten observed several fishermen in the
+South Sea drinking it, and giving it to their children, when their stock
+of fresh water was expended. Amongst the various and capricious
+experiments of Peter the Great, an edict is recorded ordering his sailors
+to give salt water to their male children, with a view of accustoming them
+to a beverage which might preclude the necessity of laying in large stocks
+of fresh water on board his ships! The result was obvious: this nursery of
+seamen perished in the experiment. Russel, Lind, Buchan, and various other
+medical writers, have recommended the internal use of sea-water in
+scrofulous and cutaneous affections; but its use in the present day is
+pretty nearly exploded.
+
+
+
+
+PROVERBS AND SAYINGS REGARDING HEALTH AND DISEASE.
+
+
+An ague in the spring is physic for a king.
+
+Agues come on horseback, but go away on foot.
+
+A bit in the morning is better than nothing all day.
+
+You eat and eat, but you do not drink to fill you.
+
+An apple, an egg, and a nut, you may eat after a slut.
+
+_Poma, ova, atque nuces, si det tibi sordida, gustes._
+
+Old young and old long.
+
+They who would be young when they are old, must be old when they are
+young.
+
+  When the fern is as high as a spoon,
+  You may sleep an hour at noon.
+  When the fern is as high as a ladle,
+  You may sleep as long as you are able.
+  When fern begins to look red,
+  Then milk is good with brown bread.
+
+At forty a man is either a fool or a physician.
+
+After dinner sit a while, after supper walk a mile.
+
+After dinner sleep a while, after supper go to bed.
+
+A good surgeon must have an eagle's eye, a lion's heart, and a lady's
+hand.
+
+Good kale is half a meal.
+
+If you would live for ever you must wash milk from your liver.
+
+_Vin sur lait, c'est souhait; lait sur vin, c'est venin._
+
+Butter is gold in the morning, silver at noon, and lead at night.
+
+He that would live for aye, must eat sage in May.
+
+_Cur moriatur homo, cui salvia crescit in horto?_
+
+After cheese comes nothing.
+
+An egg and to bed.
+
+You must drink as much after an egg as after an ox.
+
+He that goes to bed thirsty rises healthy.
+
+_Qui couche avec la soif, se leve avec la sante._
+
+One hour's sleep before midnight is worth two hours after.
+
+Who goes to bed supperless, all night tumbles and tosses.
+
+Often and little eating makes a man fat.
+
+Fish must swim thrice.
+
+_Poisson, goret, et cochon vit en l'eau, mort en vin._
+
+Drink wine and have the gout, drink no wine and have it too.
+
+Young men's knocks, old men feel.
+
+_Quae peccamus Juvenes, ea luimus Senes._
+
+Go to bed with the lamb, and rise with the lark.
+
+  Early to bed, and early to rise,
+  Makes a man healthy, wealthy, and wise.
+
+Wash your hands often, your feet seldom, and your head never.
+
+Eat at pleasure, drink by measure.
+
+_Pain tant qu'il dure, vin a mesure._
+
+  Cheese is a peevish elf,
+  It digests all but itself.
+
+  _Caseus est nequam,
+  Quia digerit omnia se quam._
+
+The best physicians are Dr. Diet, Dr. Quiet, and Dr. Merryman.
+
+  _Si tibi deficiant medici, medici tibi fiant
+  Haec tria; mens laeta, requies, moderata diaeta._
+
+  Drink in the morning staring,
+  Then all the day be sparing.
+
+Eat a bit before you drink.
+
+Feed sparingly and dupe the physician.
+
+Better be meals many than one too many.
+
+You should never touch your eye but with your elbow.
+
+_Non patitur ludum fama, fides, oculus._
+
+The head and feet keep warm, the rest will take no harm.
+
+_Tenez chaud le pied et la tete, au demurant vives en bete._
+
+_Qui ne boit vin apres salade, est en danger d'etre malade._
+
+Cover your head by day as much as you will, by night as much as you can.
+
+Fish spoils water, but flesh mends it.
+
+Apples, pears, and nuts spoil the voice.
+
+Quartan agues kill old men and cure young.
+
+Old fish, old oil, and an old friend.
+
+_Pesce, oglio, ed amico vecchio._
+
+Raw pullet, veal, and fish, make the churchyard fat.
+
+Of wine the middle, of oil the top, of honey the bottom.
+
+_Vino di mezzo, oglio di sopra, e miele di sotto._
+
+The air of a window is the stroke of a cross-bow.
+
+_Aria di finestra, colpo di balestra._
+
+_Piscia chiaro, ed incaca al medico._
+
+When the wind is in the east, it's neither good for man nor beast.
+
+A hot May makes a fat churchyard.
+
+That city is in a bad case, whose physicians have the gout.--_Hebrew
+Proverb._
+
+When the sun rises, the disease will abate.[21]
+
+If you take away the salt, throw the meat to the dogs.
+
+_Splen ridere facit, cogit amare jecur._[22]
+
+  Lever a cinq, diner a neuf.
+  Souper a cinq, coucher a neuf.
+  Font vivre dans nonante neuf.
+
+_Surge quinta, prande nona, coena quinta, dormi nona, nec est morti vita
+prona._
+
+Hunger's the best sauce.
+
+_Optimum condimentum fames._
+
+_Plures occidit gula quam gladius._
+
+_Qui a bu, boira._ Ever drunk ever dry.
+
+_Vinum potens, vinum nocens._
+
+The child is too clever to live long.
+
+_Praecocibus mors ingeniis est invida semper._
+
+  Le chant du cocq, le coucher du corbeau,
+  Preservent l'homme du tombeau.
+
+Bitter to the mouth, sweet to the heart.
+
+_Paulo deterior, sed suavior potus est cibus; meliori quidem, sed ingrato,
+praeferendus est._
+
+  Apres la soupe, un coup d'excellent vin
+  Tire un ecu de la poche du medecin.
+
+
+
+
+THE NIGHT-MARE.
+
+
+The Night-mare or Ephialtes, _incubus_, from [Greek: ephallomai], "to leap
+upon," and _incubo_, "to lie upon," may be considered a sympathetic
+affection of the brain during our sleep, generally arising from a
+derangement in the digestive functions. We therefore observe it after a
+heavy supper, or the use of any article of food of difficult digestion. It
+is to these circumstances more than to the "unusual loss of volition,"
+which some physiologists consider as its cause, that we are to attribute
+this unpleasant perturbation of our repose, which impresses the sleeper
+with the idea of some living being pressing upon the chest, inspiring
+terror, impeding respiration, and subduing all voluntary action that might
+endeavour to remove the unwelcome visiter. It has been observed that
+persons of a melancholy and contemplative disposition are more subject to
+it than the gay and the vivacious. Sedentary employment and anxiety of
+mind often bring it on; and it has been noticed in _nostalgia_, or regret
+of home, in soldiers and sailors. The sense of apprehension remains after
+the sufferer is awakened, and the fluttering of the heart and quick pulse
+are observed for some time after, while drops of cold perspiration
+frequently trickle down his brow. When the night-mare is the result of too
+much repletion, it is possible that its symptoms denote a pressure of the
+loaded stomach on the solar plexus.
+
+It is said that the _night-mare_ derives its name from _Mara_, an evil
+spirit of the Scandinavians, which, according to the Runic theology,
+seized men in their sleep, and deprived them of the powers of volition.
+Our old Anglo-Saxon name for the disease was _Elf-Sidenne_, or
+elf-squatting; hence the popular term "hag-ridden."
+
+There is a variety of the malady which makes its attack by day, and when
+waking: it has been called the day-mare, or _ephialtes vigilantium_. This
+affection, although uncommon, has been noticed by Forestus, Rhodius,
+Sauvages, and Good. Forestus has known it to return periodically like an
+intermittent fever.
+
+It is not always that the patient experiences unpleasant sensations in
+these nocturnal attacks, which were not unfrequently of a curious nature.
+The ancients thought that these intruders were sometimes sportive Fauns;
+hence Pliny calls the affection _ludibria Fauni_. At a subsequent period,
+superstition replaced the Fauns by _Incubi_, or evil spirits, who visited
+the earth to destroy virtuous women; and it was once gravely discussed by
+the Sorbonne, whether the offspring of such an union should be considered
+human, or the fair lady's reputation injured by the involuntary act of
+giving a young incubus to the world. The absurd stories of the pranks of
+the _Succubi_ and _Incubi_ are well known.
+
+Ephialtes has been known to be epidemic, and has attacked numbers at a
+time. Caelius Aurelianus informs us that Silimachus, a disciple of
+Hippocrates, observed the phenomenon in Rome, when the disease generally
+proved fatal. It is more than probable that in these cases the night-mare
+was merely symptomatic of other complaints. A French physician, Dr.
+Laurent, however, has related a very curious instance of a species of
+night-mare attacking an entire regiment; he thus relates the singular
+occurrence:
+
+"The first battalion of the regiment Latour d'Auvergne, of which I was the
+surgeon, was garrisoned at Palmi, in Calabria, when we received a sudden
+order at midnight to march with all possible speed to Tropea; a flotilla
+of the enemy having appeared off the coast. It was in the month of June;
+we had a march of forty miles of the country, and only arrived at our
+destination at seven o'clock the following evening, having scarcely halted
+during those thirty-one hours, and suffered considerably from the heat of
+the sun. On our arrival the men found their rations cooked and their
+quarters prepared; but, having arrived the last, our regiment had the
+worst accommodation, and eight hundred men were pent up in a building
+scarcely capacious enough for half the number. The soldiers were in
+consequence much crowded, and slept upon the straw without any bedding,
+and most uncomfortably. The building was an abandoned monastery; and the
+inhabitants warned us that we should not be able to occupy it quietly, as
+it was haunted every night. We laughed at their superstitious fears, but
+were much amazed when, towards midnight, we heard loud cries, and the
+soldiers rushed tumultuously, and in evident terror, out of their rooms.
+Being interrogated as to the causes of this alarm, they all affirmed that
+the devil was in the abbey; that they had seen him enter in the shape of a
+large black dog, that had jumped upon their breasts and disappeared. To
+convince them of the absurdity of their fears was of no avail; not a
+single man could be persuaded to return to his quarters, and they
+wandered about the town until daybreak. On the following morning I
+questioned the most steady non-commissioned officers and the oldest
+soldiers; and though under ordinary circumstances they were strangers to
+fear, and never gave credit to any tales of supernatural agency, they
+assured me that the dog had weighed them down and nearly suffocated them.
+We remained that day in Tropea, and had no other quarters to occupy but
+the same monastery, and the soldiers would only take up their residence on
+the condition that we should remain with them: the men retired to
+sleep--we watched; all was quiet until about one in the morning; when they
+awoke in the same terror, and fled from the building in dismay. We had
+looked out most attentively, but could not perceive the cause of this
+commotion. The following day we returned to Palmi; and, although we
+marched over a great part of Italy, and were frequently equally crowded
+and uncomfortable, a similar scene never recurred."
+
+Dr. Laurent very judiciously attributes this singular attack to the
+pernicious local influence of some deleterious gas, and the very crowded
+state the men slept in. It is also probable that they did not take off
+their accoutrements, and lay down with their belts on: might they not also
+have eaten some unwholesome fruit upon the line of march, for it was in
+the month of June, when various berries grow in abundance along the
+road-side?
+
+Hippocrates's theory of the night-mare was, that, during our sleep, our
+volition being suspended, the soul, still awake, watches over all the
+functions of the body. It is rather odd that the animal that most persons
+pretend to have thus annoyed them, is a long-haired black dog. Forestus
+assures us that it was a similar visiter that tormented him in his youth.
+This circumstance can only be attributed to vulgar superstition and
+tradition. Dubosquet has preceded his Treatise on Ephialtes with the
+engraving of a large monkey who had perplexed a young lady whom he
+attended; the monkey most probably came on horseback, as his steed is also
+delineated looking over the sleeping victim.
+
+Various medicines have been recommended to prevent these attacks; amongst
+others, saffron and peony: and several learned commentators have
+endeavoured to prove and disprove that they were only specific in the form
+of an amulet. Zacutus Lusitanus recommends aloes, and his advice is
+perhaps as good a one as could be given. The ancients attributed many
+powerful effects to saffron, and, amongst other properties, it was
+considered as an effective narcotic, and was said to occasion violent
+headaches. Curious anecdotes are related of its effects. Amatus Lusitanus
+having exhibited this medicine to accelerate a tardy accouchement, the
+woman was delivered of two yellow daughters; and Hertodt, in his work
+called Crocology, relates that, having tried it on a bitch, all her pups
+were of a similar colour. The ancients called saffron the king of plants,
+the vegetable panacea, and the soul of the lungs. In modern times we do
+not recognise any peculiar property in this production; and in Spain and
+Italy it is used as a condiment with perfect impunity. Peony was also
+deemed a valuable remedy, when gathered as the decreasing moon was passing
+under Aries: the slit root being then tied round the neck of an epileptic
+person, he was forthwith cured. "Unlimited scepticism," Dugald Stewart
+observes, "is as much the child of imbecility as implicit credulity." How
+difficult it is to steer the vessel of our understanding between those
+shoals!
+
+Medical writers have divided the night-mare, according to its phenomena,
+into complete, incomplete, mental, and bodily. The complete night-mare, in
+which the suspension of the functions had been so powerful, has been known
+to prove fatal. In the incomplete, we fancy ourselves placed in a peculiar
+situation, opposed by some unexpected obstacle, and all our efforts seem
+of no avail to extricate ourselves from our difficulties. There is an
+incubus, called indirect, in which the dreamer is not the individual
+arrested in his movements; but he is impeded in his progress by the
+stoppage of his horse, his carriage, his ship, which no power can propel.
+In the mental or intellectual night-mare, the flow of our ideas is
+embarrassed, all the associations of our very thoughts appear to be
+singularly unconnected; we think in an unintelligible language; we write,
+and cannot decipher our manuscript: all is a mental chaos, and no thread
+can lead us out of the perplexing labyrinth. In the corporeal ephialtes,
+we imagine that some of our organs are displaced, or deranged in their
+functions. One man fancies that a malevolent spectre is drawing out his
+intestines or his teeth: a patient of Galen felt the cold sensation of a
+marble statue having been put into bed with him. These, however, are
+nothing else than the actual sensations we experience at the time. Thus
+Conrad Gesner fancied that a serpent had stung him in the left side of the
+breast; an anthrax soon appeared upon the very spot, and terminated his
+existence. Arnauld de Villeneuve imagined that his foot had been bitten,
+and a pimple which broke out on the spot soon degenerated into a fatal
+cancerous affection. Corporeal night-mare may therefore be simply
+considered as a symptom of disease, and not as a mysterious forewarning.
+
+The cold stage of fever that often invades us in our sleep is the natural
+forerunner of the malady. This was the case with Dr. Corona, the physician
+of Pius VI. who upon two occasions was attacked with typhus fever, ushered
+in by a distressing dream or incubus. These physical phenomena only
+strengthen the opinion, that in our sleep we are equally alive to mental
+impressions and bodily sufferings; and that, correctly speaking, there is
+no suspension of our intellectual faculties of perception, nor is there
+any interruption in the susceptibilities of our relative existence. The
+various doctrines regarding dreams illustrate this position.
+
+
+
+
+INCUBATION OF DISEASES.
+
+
+The term "incubation" in its rigid sense applies to the act of hatching
+eggs, either naturally or artificially. It has however been adopted by
+physicians to denote that state of predisposition to disease, in which the
+germ of the malady lurks, latent and unperceived by the inexperienced
+observer. Too frequently the individual who is thus menaced is totally
+unaware of his condition. So far from being depressed in spirits, his
+hopes are more sanguine, and his future projects more industriously formed
+than usual. At other times, on the contrary, he labours under a load of
+despondency which he cannot explain, and his gloom seems to anticipate his
+end. This presentiment has oftentimes been singularly prophetic. Moreau de
+St. Remy relates the case of one of his most intimate friends, who visited
+him, saying, "I come to die near you." He was apparently in perfect
+health, but the prediction too soon proved true.
+
+It is no doubt probable, that in these cases the influence of the mind
+labouring under these fatal impressions brings about, by its all-powerful
+sympathetic power on our functions, the expected yet dreaded event.
+
+Incubation is observed in many contagious affections; and in hydrophobia
+its duration is amazing, this dreadful malady developing itself years
+after the original accident. In mental diseases, aberrations of the
+intellectual faculties are noticed long before the patient can be
+pronounced insane; oddities, as they are called, are frequently the
+precursors of mania.
+
+The ancient Greeks and Egyptians use the term "incubation" in another
+sense. With them it expressed the religious ceremony of sleeping in the
+temples of the gods, to be inspired with the means of relieving their
+sufferings. Nothing can express this superstitious rite more forcibly than
+the following letter from Aspasia to Pericles, recorded by one of the
+scholiasts of Aelian.
+
+"Aspasia to Pericles, greeting. Podalirius! Podalirius, to whom Love
+taught the art of healing, and who in return didst consecrate thine art to
+Love, I return thee my thanks. Athens will once more see me beauteous! I
+shall have lost none of my attractions, and Pericles shall find in his
+Aspasia all that he once held dear! Podalirius, I return thee my thanks;
+and thou, Pericles, be grateful to my benefactor. I did not wish to write
+to thee until I was certain that I had been cured. I shall relate to thee
+my voyage. I punctually followed the instructions of Nocrates, that wise
+and enlightened physician. I first repaired to Memphis, where I visited,
+but without success, the temple of Isis. I there beheld the goddess, and
+her son Orus, seated on a throne, supported by two lions. The
+_Sebestus_[23] grew round her shrine! Incense was burnt in the morning,
+myrrha during the day, and cyplis at eve. I was assured that young
+Alexander had come to this temple not long before to indulge in a holy
+contemplation, and learn by inspiration the means of curing his friend
+Ptolemy: his supplications were heeded. I also slept in the temple, but
+found no relief. This misfortune, alas! was attributed to my incredulity.
+I took my departure, and repaired to Patras. There I saw in her temple the
+divine Hygeia; not as she was represented by Aristophanes, when she
+relieved Plutus, sweet and graceful, clothed in an aerial robe and a short
+tunic, and holding in her hand a cup of _Musa_, whence a serpent was seen
+to spring, but she appeared to me in the form of a mysterious pentagon. I
+first paid a devout visit to the fountain; and while I deposited my
+offerings at the feet of the goddess, a mirror was floating on the surface
+of the waters upon which I gazed by order of the priests, but I was not
+cured! Thence I went to sleep at Pergania and at Hercyna. But the gods
+seemed to slumber when Aspasia slept! On a sudden the name of Podalirius
+struck mine ear! I was informed that his temple was at Lacera. I instantly
+sought it; and, on my arrival, bathed in the Althonus. After the bath, I
+was anointed with the perfumed balsams that our friend Sosinius had given
+me in the temple of Mercury the day I left Athens. I then put up my
+prayers to deserve the favour I implored from the god. At nightfall I
+sought repose on the skin of a ram close to the statuary pillar. I soon
+found myself in that state when we are no longer wide awake, but when
+sleep has not yet lulled our senses to repose. Methought that a celestial
+light was shed around me. Aesculapius appeared to me with his two
+daughters; and, from the clouds that surrounded him, he promised me my
+pristine health. I soon after fell into a profound sleep; but towards the
+break of day I beheld Cypris--Cypris who was always the friend of
+Podalirius: she came herself! I recognised her, although she had assumed
+the form of a gentle dove. Yes, Cypris came to cure me. Podalirius!
+Aesculapius! Cypris! each day shall you be thanked by Aspasia and by
+Pericles.
+
+"I must now relate to thee the vision of a Daunian, who slept near me. She
+suffered from an affection of her breast, and this she dreamed:--She
+beheld the young god Harpocrates lying on leaves of lotos, and covered
+with bandages from the head to the feet. He appeared weak and emaciated;
+he cried like an infant, supplicating the poor woman to nurse him. Soon
+after, she dreamt that a lamb came to seek his sustenance from her bosom.
+The dream was fulfilled,--it clearly indicated the use of a certain plant;
+but, until it could be obtained, the Daunian was advised to eat nothing
+but stewed raisins. Learn that here various names are given to various
+inspirations. The last dream I have related is called _allegorical_. When
+a dream prescribes a certain remedy, it is named _theorematic_. Here are
+many dreams: wise Pericles, thou art perhaps smiling at them; but what is
+_not_ visionary is my perfect recovery, and my love for thee. Farewell!"
+
+Although this letter of Aspasia is an evident fiction, yet it gives an
+excellent, though a romantic description of the incubation of the
+ancients. Aspasia was supposed to be labouring under one of the most
+vexatious disorders that can affect a pretty woman,--an eruption in the
+face; hence the gods sent her a mirror, that her devotion might be
+increased by her unsightly appearance. It is not improbable that in those
+days, as in the present era, women of a certain, or rather an uncertain
+age, were more fervid in their endeavours to render themselves acceptable
+to Heaven when they ceased to be admired and sought for upon earth.
+
+
+
+
+QUACKERY AND CHARLATANISM.
+
+
+The origin of the word "quack" is not ascertained. Johnson derives it from
+the verb "_to quack_, or gabble like a goose." Butler uses this verb as
+descriptive of the encomiums empirics heap upon their nostrums. Thus in
+Hudibras:
+
+  Believe mechanic Virtuosi
+  Can raise them mountains in Potosi,
+  Seek out for plants with signatures
+  To _quack_ of universal cures.
+
+The word _charlatan_ is equally enveloped in obscurity. Furetiere and
+Calepin say that it is derived from the Italian word _Ceretano_, from
+_Caeretum_, a town near Spoleto, whence a band of impostors first sallied
+forth, marching under the banners of Hippocrates, and roving from town to
+town, selling drugs and giving medical advice.[24] Menage has it that
+_charlatan_ springs from _Circulatanus_, from _Circulator_. Other
+etymologists trace it to the Italian _Ciarlare_, to chatter; hence
+_Ciarlatan_.
+
+The Romans called their quacks _Agyrtae_, or _Seplasiarii_, from
+_Seplasium_, the generic name of aromatic substances. _Seplasium_ was the
+place where they vended their drugs. Thus Martial:
+
+  Quodque ab Adumaeis vectum _seplasia_ vendunt,
+  Et quidquid confert medicis lagaea cataplus.
+
+An empiric was also called _Planus_ and _Circulator_ "_unde Plani unde
+levatores_."
+
+Some of the stratagems resorted to by needy empirics to get into practice
+are very ingenious, and many a regular physician has been obliged to have
+recourse to similar artifices to procure employment. It is related of a
+Parisian physician, that, on his first arrival in the capital, he was in
+the habit of sending his servant in a carriage about daybreak to rap at
+the doors of the principal mansions to inquire for his master, as he was
+sent for to repair instantly to such and such a prince, who was dying. The
+drowsy porter naturally replied, with much ill-humour, "that he knew
+nothing of his master."--"What! did he not pass the night in this house?"
+replied the footman, apparently astonished. "No," gruffly answered the
+Swiss; "there's nobody ill here."--"Then I must have mistaken the house.
+Is not this the hotel of the Duke of ----?"--"No. Go to the devil!"
+exclaimed the porter, closing the ponderous gates. From this house his
+valet then proceeded from street to street, alarming the whole
+neighbourhood with his loud rap. Of course nothing else was spoken of in
+the porter's lodge, the grocer's shop, and the servants' hall for nine
+days.
+
+Another quack, upon his arrival in a town, announced himself by sending
+the bellman round, offering fifty guineas reward for a poodle belonging to
+Doctor ----, Physician to his Majesty and the Royal Family, Professor of
+Medicine, and Surgeon General, who had put up at such and such an inn. Of
+course the physician of a king, who could give fifty guineas for a lost
+dog, must be a man of pre-eminence in his profession.
+
+Another indigent physician having complained of his ill-fortune to an
+ingenious friend, received the following advice: The _Cafe de la Regence_
+is now in fashion: I play at chess every day at two o'clock, when a
+considerable crowd is assembled. Come there at the same hour; do not
+pretend to know me; call for a cup of coffee, and always pay the waiter
+his money in a rose-coloured paper: leave the rest to me. The doctor
+followed his advice; and his eccentric manners were soon observed,--when
+his friend informed the persons around him, that he was one of the ablest
+practitioners in the land; that he had known him for upwards of fifteen
+years, and that his cures were most marvellous,--his extreme modesty alone
+having prevented him from giving publicity to his abilities. He further
+added, I have long wished to become intimate with so great a man; but he
+is so absorbed in the study of his profession, that he scarcely ever
+enters into conversation with any one. In a short time, the Rose-colour
+Doctor was in extensive business.
+
+Many years ago, the jaw-breaking words _Tetrachymagogon_ and _Fellino
+Guffino Cardimo Cardimac Frames_, were chalked all over London, as two
+miracle-working doctors. Men with such names must have some superior
+qualification, and numbers flocked to consult them. Another quack put up
+as an advertisement, that he had just arrived in town, after having made
+the wonderful discovery of the green and red dragon and the female
+fern-seed. This was sure to attract notice. An advertisement was handed
+about of a learned physician, "who had studied thirty years by
+candle-light for the good of his countrymen." He was, moreover, the
+seventh son of a seventh son, and was possessed of a wonderful cure for
+hernia, as both his father and his grandfather had been ruptured. This
+reminds one of the oculist in Mouse Alley, mentioned in the Spectator, who
+undertook to cure cataracts, in consequence of his having lost an eye in
+the Imperial service. Dr. Case made a fortune by having the lines, _Within
+this place, lives Doctor Case_, written in large characters upon his door.
+
+The accidental circumstances which frequently bring medical men into
+extensive practice, or that notoriety which may lead to it, are truly
+curious. It is well known that a most eminent English physician owed all
+his success to his having been on a particular occasion in a state of
+intoxication. Disappointed on his first arrival in London, he sought
+comfort in a neighbouring tavern, where the servant of the house at which
+he lodged went to fetch him one evening, after a heavy potation, to see a
+certain countess. The high-sounding title of this unexpected patient
+tended not a little to increase the excitement under which he laboured. He
+followed a livery footman as steadily as he could, and was ushered in
+silence into a noble mansion, where her ladyship's woman anxiously waited
+to conduct him most discreetly to her mistress's room; her agitation most
+probably preventing her from perceiving the doctor's state. He was
+introduced into a splendid bedchamber, and staggered towards the bed in
+which the lady lay. He went through the routine practice of pulse-feeling,
+&c., and proceeded to the table to write a prescription, which, in all
+probability, would have been mechanically correct. But here his powers
+failed him. In vain he strove to trace the salutary characters, until,
+wearied in his attempts, he cast down the pen, and, exclaiming "Drunk, by
+G--!" he made his best way out of the house. Two days afterwards he was
+not a little surprised by receiving a letter from the lady, enclosing a
+check for 100_l._, and promising him the patronage of her family and
+friends, if he would observe the strictest secrecy on the state he found
+her in. The fact simply was, that the countess had been indulging in
+brandy and laudanum, which her abigail had procured for her, and was
+herself in the very condition which the doctor had frankly applied to
+himself.
+
+Chance, more than science or ability, has frequently brought professional
+men to the summit of their business. There is an Eastern story of a
+certain prince who had received from a fairy the faculty of not only
+assuming whatever appearance he thought proper, but of discerning the
+wandering spirits of the departed. He had long laboured under a painful
+chronic disease, that none of the court physicians, ordinary or
+extraordinary, could relieve; and he resolved to wander about the streets
+of his capital until he could find some one, regular or irregular, who
+could alleviate his sufferings. For this purpose he donned the garb and
+appearance of a dervish. As he was passing through one of the principal
+streets, he was surprised to see it so thronged with ghosts, that, had
+they been still inhabitants of their former earthly tenements, they must
+have obstructed the thoroughfare. But what was his amazement and dismay
+when he saw that they were all grouped with anxious looks round the door
+of his royal father's physician, haunting, no doubt, the man to whom they
+attributed their untimely doom. Shocked with the sight, he hurried to
+another part of the city, where resided another physician of the court,
+holding the second rank in fashionable estimation. Alas! his gateway was
+also surrounded with reproachful departed patients. Thunderstruck at such
+a discovery, and returning thanks to the prophet that he was still in
+being, despite the practice of these great men, he resolved to submit all
+the other renowned practitioners to a similar visit, and he was grieved to
+find that the scale of ghosts kept pace with the scale of their medical
+rank. Heartbroken, and despairing of a cure, he was slowly sauntering back
+to the palace, when, in an obscure street, and on the door of an humble
+dwelling, he read a doctor's name. One single poor solitary ghost, leaning
+his despondent cheek upon his fleshless hand, was seated on the doctor's
+steps. "Alas!" exclaimed the prince, "it is, then, too true that humble
+merit withers in the shade, while ostentatious ignorance inhabits golden
+mansions. This poor neglected doctor, who has but one unlucky case to
+lament, is then the only man in whom I can place confidence." He rapped;
+the door was opened by the doctor himself, a venerable old man, not rich
+enough, perhaps, to keep a domestic to answer his infrequent calls. His
+white locks and flowing beard added to the confidence which his situation
+had inspired. The elated youth then related at full length all his
+complicated ailments, and the still more complicated treatment to which he
+had in vain been submitted. The sapient physician was not illiberal enough
+to say that the prince's attendants had all been in error, since all
+mankind may err; but his sarcastic smile, the curl of his lips, and the
+dubious shake of his hoary head, most eloquently told the anxious patient
+that he considered his former physicians as an ignorant, murderous set of
+upstarts, only fit to depopulate a community. With a triumphant look he
+promised a cure, and gave his overjoyed client a much-valued prescription,
+which he carefully confided to his bosom; after which he expressed his
+gratitude by pouring upon the doctor's table a purse of golden sequins,
+which made the old man's blinking eyes shine as brightly as the coin he
+beheld in wondrous delight. His joy gave suppleness to his rigid spine,
+and, after bowing the prince out in the most obsequious manner, he
+ventured to ask him one humble question: "By what good luck, by what kind
+planet, had he been recommended to seek his advice?" The prince naturally
+asked for the reason of so strange a question: to which the worthy doctor
+replied, with eyes brimful with tears of gratitude, "Oh, sir, because I
+considered myself the most unfortunate man in Bagdad until this happy
+moment; for I have been settled in this noble and wealthy city for these
+last fifteen years, and have only been able to obtain one single
+patient."--"Ah!" cried the prince in despair, "then it must be that poor,
+solitary, unhappy-looking ghost that is now sitting on your steps!"
+
+It has been observed that religious sects have materially contributed to
+the elevation of physicians in society, and political associations have
+been equally beneficial. The celebrated Mead was the son of a
+non-conforming minister, who, knowing the influence he possessed over his
+numerous congregation, brought him up as a physician, in the full
+confidence of obtaining the splendid result that rewarded the speculation.
+His example was followed by several dissenting preachers; among whom we
+may name Oldfield, Clarke, Nesbitt, Lobb, Munckly, whose sons all rose to
+extensive and most lucrative practice. At that period, St. Thomas's and
+Guy's Hospitals were under the government of Dissenters and Whigs; and so
+soon as any one became a physician to the establishment, his fortune was
+made. The same advantages attended St. Bartholomew's and Bethlem, both of
+royal foundation.
+
+Dr. Meyer Schomberg, who was a poor Jew of Cologne, came to London without
+any profession, when, not knowing what to do to obtain a living, to use
+his own words, he said, "I am a physician;" and, having thus conferred a
+degree upon himself, he sedulously cultivated the acquaintance of all his
+fellow Jews about Duke's-place, got introduced to some of their leading
+and wealthy mercantile brethren, and a few years after Dr. Schomberg was
+in the annual receipt of four thousand pounds. It is rather strange, but
+the Jew was succeeded in his lucrative practice by a Quaker. This was the
+celebrated Dr. Fothergill. Brought up an apothecary, he took out a Scotch
+degree, and, attaching himself to Schomberg, calculated on following his
+example; and, on his patron's decease, he slipped into the practice of
+both Jew and Gentile.
+
+Amongst many singular instances of good fortune may be mentioned a surgeon
+of the name of Broughton, to whom our East India Company may consider
+themselves as most indebted, since he was the person who first pointed out
+the advantages that might result from trading in Bengal. Broughton
+happened to travel from Surat to Agra in the year 1636, when he had the
+luck to cure one of the daughters of the Emperor _Shah-Jehan_. To reward
+him, this prince allowed him a free trade throughout his dominions.
+Broughton immediately repaired to Bengal to purchase goods, which he sent
+round by sea to Surat. Scarcely had he returned, when he was requested to
+attend the favourite of a powerful nabob, and he fortunately restored her
+to health, when, in addition to a pension, his commercial privileges were
+still more widely extended; the prince promising him at the same time a
+favourable reception for British traders. Broughton lost no time in
+communicating this intelligence to the Governor of Surat; and it was by
+his advice that the company sent out two large ships to Bengal in 1640.
+
+There are some amusing anecdotes related regarding a vocation for the
+medical profession. Andrew Rudiger, a physician of Leipsic, when at
+college, made an anagram of his name, and, in the words _Andreas Rudiger_
+he found "_Arare Rus Dei Dignus_," or "worthy to cultivate the field of
+God." He immediately fancied that his vocation was the church, and
+commenced his theological studies. Showing but little disposition for the
+clerical calling, the learned Thomasius recommended him to return to his
+original pursuits. Rudiger confessed that he had more inclination for the
+profession of medicine than the church; but that he had considered the
+anagram of his name as a divine injunction. "There you are in error,"
+replied Thomasius; "that very anagram calls you to the art of healing; for
+_Rus Dei_ clearly meaneth the churchyard."
+
+The subject of quackery, in every sphere of life, whether it be resorted
+to by diplomatists or physicians, sanctimonious adventurers or fashionable
+_roues_, leads to serious consideration. How comes it that man seems more
+anxious to be deceived than enlightened? Simply from the errors of his
+education, which foster a love for the marvellous, and induce him to
+admire that which really is not or cannot be comprehended. The superiority
+of the intellectual faculties of the ancients, at an earlier age than the
+generality of men in the present times, is solely to be attributed to
+their having been brought up with philosophical views. Mallebranche has
+justly said, "that to become a philosopher, we must _see clearly_; but to
+be endued with faith, we must _believe blindly_." Although we cannot admit
+this axiom in matters of revealed religion, yet in many worldly concerns
+it does hold. If a youth was not educated with the scholastic jargon,
+commonly called learning, he would be considered ignorant. Helvetius has
+said, that man is born ignorant, but not a fool; and that it is even no
+easy matter to make him one; and the same writer has very justly divided
+stupidity into that which is natural, arising from ignorance, and that
+which is acquired and the result of instruction. It is thus that, by
+speaking to the passions, naturally weak, and to our desires and
+apprehensions, ever ready to grasp at a favourite phantom,--the artful
+manage to exercise a more powerful control, and incline persons to believe
+what their senses actually discredit. The traffic of hope and fear has
+ever been a lucrative trade; and while fear became the staple commodity of
+priestcraft, hope was the fortune of medical quacks. The multiplication of
+sins increased the profits of the one; the various diseases, real and
+imaginary, to which flesh is heir, became the source of emolument to the
+other. It is under these cherished impressions of ameliorating our
+condition, that many men of common sense, and even of judgment, are
+induced to rely on the most absurd and fallacious promises; so prone are
+we to believe all that we wish;--the fidelity of a woman, the truth of a
+sycophant, and the candour of a flatterer. If there could be established a
+regular college of quackery, where the errors of mankind might be studied,
+and pupils taught to avail themselves of their follies, as a future
+vocation, a more perfect knowledge of the world would be acquired than in
+all the universities in Europe. Our sovereigns would be wise in selecting
+their ministers amongst the graduates of this academy. Cardinal Du Perron,
+who, in a long homily, convinced his sovereign, Henry III., of the
+existence of a God, and afterwards informed him that he would prove the
+contrary, if it could afford his Majesty any consolation, might have been
+selected as a proper rector for such an institution.
+
+It is also to be observed that the founders of all doctrines, however
+hypothetical and absurd, have generally assumed a dogmatic language, which
+gives to their fallacious assertions an appearance of truth, and Bacon has
+long ago said, "Method, carrying a show of total and perfect knowledge,
+has a tendency to general acquiescence."
+
+Quackery is considered by many practitioners as necessary to forward the
+views of medical men. It is related of Charles Patin, that being on a
+visit to a physician at Basle, where his son was studying medicine, he
+questioned the youth on the principal studies required to form a
+physician; to which the future candidate for medical popularity replied,
+"Anatomy, physiology, pathology, and therapeutics." "You have omitted the
+chief pursuit," replied his catechiser, "_quackery_."
+
+When we cast our eyes on the absurd names which many Italian academies
+adopted to characterize the nature of their studies, we find an ample
+illustration of this science in the _Seraphici_, the _Oscuri_, the
+_Immaturi_, the _Infecundi_, the _Offuscati_, the _Somnolenti_, and
+_Phantastici_!
+
+The most ridiculous and disgusting epithets have been considered
+honourable distinctions. Thus, when the science of _Uroscopia_ and
+_Uromancy_ prevailed, we find a Dr. Theodorus Charles, a Wirtemberg
+physician, calling another learned practitioner, "_Urinosa Claritas_."
+
+
+
+
+ON THE USE OF TEA.
+
+
+Such is the growing consumption of this now indispensable article in
+England, that in 1789 there were imported 14,534,601 lbs., and in 1833 the
+quantity was increased to 31,829,620 lbs.; the latter importation yielding
+a revenue of 3,444,101_l._ In other countries we find the consumption much
+less. Russia in 1832 imported 6,461,064 lbs.; Holland consumes about
+2,800,000 lbs., and France only 230,000 lbs.
+
+It is supposed that tea was first introduced into Europe by the Dutch,
+about the middle of the seventeenth century; and Lords Arlington and
+Ossory are said to be the first persons who made it known in England. In
+1641, Tulpius, a Dutch physician, mentioned it in his works. In 1667,
+Fouquet, a French physician, recommended it to the French faculty; and in
+1678, an elaborate treatise was written on it by Cornelius Boutkoe,
+physician to the Elector of Brandenburg. About the same time, several
+travellers and missionaries, amongst whom we find Koempfer, Kalm,
+Osbeck, Duhalde, and Lecomte, give various accounts of the plant and its
+divers qualities.
+
+The Chinese name of this plant is _theh_, a _Fokien_ word. In the Mandarin
+it is _tcha_, and the Japanese call it _tsjaa_. _Loureiro_, in his _Flora
+Cochin-China_, describes three species of tea. It is a polyandrous plant
+of the natural order _Columniferae_, growing to a height varying from three
+to six feet, and bearing a great resemblance to our myrtle. The blossom is
+white, with yellow style and anthers, not unlike that of the dog-rose; the
+leaves are the only valuable part of the plant. The _camellias_,
+particularly the _camellia sesanqua_, of the same natural family, are the
+only plants liable to be confounded with it. The leaves of the latter
+camellia are indeed frequently used as a substitute for those of the
+tea-plant in several districts of China. This shrub is a hardy evergreen,
+growing in the open air from the equator to the forty-fifth degree of
+northern latitude; but the climate that appears the most congenial to it
+seems to be between the twenty-fifth and thirty-third degree. Almost every
+province and district in China produces tea for local consumption: but
+what is cultivated for trade is chiefly in Fokien, Canton, Kiang-nan,
+Kiang-si, and Che-Kiang; Fokien being celebrated for its black tea, and
+Kiang-nan for the green. The plant is also cultivated in Japan, Tonquin,
+and Cochin-China, and in some parts of the mountainous tracts of Ava,
+where, in addition to its use in infusion, it is converted into a pickle
+preserved in oil. When tea was first introduced as a luxury on particular
+occasions in the wild districts of Ireland, the people used to throw away
+the water in which it had been boiled, and eat the leaves with salt-butter
+or bacon like greens. The Dutch are now endeavouring to propagate this
+valuable plant in Java, and for that purpose employ cultivators, who have
+emigrated from Fokien. The Brazilians are making similar attempts, and
+some tolerable tea has been reared near Rio Janeiro.
+
+The black teas usually imported from Canton are the _bohea_, _congou_,
+_souchong_, and _pekoe_, according to our orthography: the French
+missionaries spelt them as follows: _boui_, _camphou_ or _campoui_,
+_saotchaon_, and _pekao_ or _peko_. Our green teas are the _twankay_,
+_hyson-skin_, and _hyson_, _imperial_, and _gunpowder_; the first of which
+French travellers write _tonkay_, _hayswin-skine_, and _hayswin_. The
+French import a tea called _tehulan_, but it is artificially flavoured
+with a leaf called _lan hoa_, or the _olea fragrans_ of Linnaeus.
+
+The tea-plant grows to perfection in two or three years: the leaves are
+carefully picked by the family of the growers, and immediately carried to
+market, where they are purchased for drying in sheds. The tea-merchants
+from Canton repair to the several districts where it is produced, and,
+after purchasing the leaves thus simply desiccated, submit them to various
+manipulations; after which they are packed in branded cases and parcels
+called _chops_, from a Chinese word meaning a seal. Some of the leaf-buds
+of the finest black tea plants are picked early in the spring, before they
+expand: these constitute _pekoe_, sometimes called "white-blossomed tea,"
+from their being intermixed with the blossoms of the _olea fragrans_. The
+younger the leaf, the more high-flavoured and valuable is the tea. Green
+teas are grown and gathered in the same manner; but amongst these the
+gunpowder stands in the grade of the _pekoe_ among the black, being
+prepared with the unopened buds of the spring crops. The alleged
+preparation of green teas upon copper plates, to give them a verdant
+colour, is an idle story. They are dried in iron vases over a gentle fire;
+and the operator conducts this delicate work with his naked hand, and the
+utmost care not to break the fragile leaves. This part of the
+manipulation is considered the most difficult, as the leaves are rolled
+into their usual shape between the palms of the hands until they are cold,
+to prevent them from unrolling. Teas are adulterated by various
+odoriferous plants, more especially the _vitex pinnata_, the _chloranthus
+inconspicuus_, and the _illicium anisatum_. In our markets the chief
+adulteration is operated by the mixture of sloe and ash leaves, and
+colouring with terra Japonica and other drugs.
+
+That tea is a substance injurious to health is beyond a doubt. Nothing but
+long habit from early life renders it less baneful than it otherwise would
+be: persons who take its infusion for the first time invariably experience
+uncomfortable sensations. It is well known that individuals who are not in
+the practice of taking tea in the evening, never transgress this habit
+with impunity; and it is quite clear that a preparation which deprives
+them of sleep, and renders them restless during a whole night, cannot be
+salubrious by day; and although the following opinion of Dr. Trotter
+regarding the use of this leaf is somewhat exaggerated, it is founded on
+experience; and I have known several persons afflicted with a variety of
+serious affections who never could obtain relief until they had ceased to
+consume it.
+
+"Tea is a beverage well suited to the taste of an indolent and voluptuous
+age. To the glutton it affords a grateful diluent after a voracious
+dinner; and, from being drunk warm, it gives a soothing stimulus to the
+stomach of the drunkard: but, however agreeable may be its immediate
+flavour, the ultimate effects are debility and nervous diseases. There may
+be conditions of health, indeed, where tea can do no harm, such as in the
+strong and athletic; but it is particularly hurtful to the female
+constitution, to all persons who possess the hereditary predisposition to
+dyspepsia, and all diseases with which it is associated, to gout, and to
+those who are naturally weak-nerved. Fine tea, where the narcotic quality
+seems to be concentrated, when taken in a strong infusion, by persons not
+accustomed to it, excites nausea and vomiting, tremors, cold sweats,
+vertigo, dimness of sight, and confusion of thought. I have known a number
+of men and women subject to nervous complaints, who could not use tea in
+any form without feeling a sudden increase of all their unpleasant
+symptoms; particularly acidity of the stomach, vertigo, and dimness of the
+eyes. As the use of this article of diet extends among the lower orders of
+the community and the labouring poor, it must do the more harm. A man or
+a woman who has to go through much toil and hardship has need of
+substantial nourishment; but that is not to be obtained from an infusion
+of tea. And if the humble returns of their industry are expended in this
+leaf, what remains for the purchase of food better adapted to labour? In
+this case tea becomes hurtful, not only from its narcotic quality, but
+because that quality acts with double force in a body weakened from other
+causes. This certainly is one great reason for the increased and
+increasing proportion of nervous, bilious, spasmodic, and stomach
+complaints, &c. appearing among the lower ranks of life."
+
+It is well known that tea is frequently resorted to by literary men to
+keep them awake during their lucubrations. Dr. Cullen said he never could
+take it without feeling gouty symptoms; and we frequently see aged
+females, who are in the habit of taking strong green tea, subject to
+paralytic affections. Many experienced physicians, such as Grimm,
+Crugerus, Wytt, Murray, Letsom, condemn the abuse of the plant as highly
+dangerous.[25] That it is a most powerful astringent we well know; and the
+hands of the Chinese who are employed in its preparation are shrivelled,
+and, to all appearance, burned with caustic. Chemists have extracted from
+it an astringent liquor containing tannin and gallic acid. This liquor,
+injected in the veins or under the integuments of frogs, produces palsy of
+the posterior extremities, and, applied to the sciatic nerve for half an
+hour, has occasioned death.
+
+There is no doubt that tea acts differently on various individuals. In
+some it is highly stimulant and exhilarating; in others its effects are
+oppression and lowness of spirits; and I have known a person who could
+never indulge in this beverage without experiencing a disposition to
+commit suicide, and nothing could arouse him from this state of morbid
+excitement but the pleasure of destroying something, books, papers, or any
+thing within his reach. Under no other circumstances than this influence
+of tea were these fearful aberrations observed. It has been remarked that
+all tea-drinking nations are essentially of a leucophlegmatic temperament,
+predisposed to scrofulous and nervous diseases. The Chinese, even the
+degraded Tartar races amongst them, are weak and infirm, their women
+subject to various diseases arising from debility. Although their
+confined mode of living, and want of the means of enjoying pure air and
+exercise, materially tends to render them liable to these affections;
+still their immoderate use of strong green tea, taken, it is true, in very
+small quantities at the time, but repeatedly, greatly adds to this
+predisposition.
+
+From long experience I am convinced that, although tea may in general be
+considered a refreshing and harmless beverage, yet in some peculiar cases
+it is decidedly injurious; and many diseases that have baffled all medical
+exertions, have yielded to the same curative means so soon as the action
+of tea had been suspended.
+
+
+
+
+MANDRAGORE.
+
+
+Self-styled wandering Turks and Armenians are frequently met with in
+crowded cities vending rhubarb, tooth-powder, and various drugs and
+nostrums, exciting the curiosity of the idlers that group around them, by
+exhibiting a root bearing a strong resemblance to the human form. This is
+the far-famed mandragore, of which such wonderful accounts have been
+related by both ancients and moderns.
+
+This plant is the _Atropa Mandragora_ of Linnaeus, and grows wild in the
+mountainous and shaded parts of Italy, Spain, and the Levant, where it is
+also cultivated in gardens. The root bears such a likeness, at least in
+fancy's eyes, to our species, that it was called _Semi-homo_. Hence says
+Columella,
+
+  Quamvis semihominis vesano gramine foeta
+  Mandragora pariat flores moestamque cicutam.
+
+The word _vesano_ clearly refers to the supposed power it possessed of
+exciting delirium. It was also named _Circaea_, from its having been one of
+the mystic ingredients employed in Circe's spells; although the wonderful
+mandragore was ineffectual against the more powerful herb the _Moly_,
+which Ulysses received from Mercury. This human resemblance of the root,
+which is, moreover, of a blackish hue and hairy, inspired the vulgar with
+the idea that it was nothing less than a familiar daemon. It was gathered
+with curious rites: three times a magic circle was drawn round it with a
+naked sword; and the person who was daring enough to pluck it from the
+earth, was subject to manifold dangers and diseases, unless under some
+special protection; therefore it was not unusual to get it eradicated by a
+dog, fastened to it by a cord, and who was whipped off until the precious
+root was pulled out. According to Josephus, the plant called _Buaras_,
+which was gifted with the faculty of keeping off evil spirits, was
+obtained by a similar canine operation. Often, it was asserted, did the
+mandragore utter piteous cries and groans, when thus severed from mother
+earth. Albertus the Great affirms that the root has a more powerful action
+when growing under a gibbet, and is brought to greater perfection by the
+nourishing secretions that drop from the criminal's dangling corpse.
+
+Amongst its many wonderful properties, it was said to double the amount of
+money that was locked up with it in a box. It was also all-powerful in
+detecting hidden treasures. Most probably the mandragore had bad qualities
+to underrate its good ones. Amongst these, we must certainly class the
+blackest ingratitude, since it never seemed to benefit the eloquent
+advocates of its virtues, who, in general, were as poor as their boasted
+plant was rich in attraction.
+
+It was also supposed to possess the delightful faculty of increasing
+population and exciting love; and the Emperor Julian writes to Calixines
+that he is drinking the juice of mandragore to render him amorous. Hence
+was it called _Loveapple_; and Venus bore the name of _Mandragontis_. It
+has been asserted by various scholiasts, that the _mandrake_ which Reuben
+found in the fields and carried to his mother, Leah, was the mandragore;
+the _Dudaim_, however, which he gathered was not, according to all
+accounts, an unpleasant fruit, but is supposed to have been a species of
+orchis, still used in the East in love-philters and prolific potions. The
+word _Dudaim_ seems to express a tuberculated plant; and in Solomon's
+Songs, he thus describes it: "The mandrakes give a smell, and at our gates
+are all manner of pleasant fruits, new and old, which I have laid up for
+thee, O my beloved." Now it is utterly impossible, whatever may have been
+the revolution in taste since the days of Solomon, that the nauseous and
+offensive mandragore could have been considered as a propitiating present
+to a lady.
+
+The etymology of the word _Dudaim_ would seem to describe it. It is
+derived from the word [Hebrew], (_Dadim_) breasts, or [Hebrew], (_Dodim_)
+friends, neighbours, twins; which indicates that this plant is formed of
+two similar parts. It is thought that the _Dudaim_ might be the
+highly-scented melon which is cultivated in the East, especially in
+Persia, and known by the name of _Destenbuje_, or the _Cucumis Dudaim_ of
+Linnaeus, and which is also found in Italy, where its powerful aroma is
+imparted to garments and chambers. It must have been an odoriferous
+production, since in the _Talmud_ we find it denominated _Siglin_, which
+has been considered the jessamine or the lily. The orchis is remarkable
+for its double bulbous roots and its agreeable perfume; we may therefore
+justify the idea that the _Dudaim_ of the Jews was a species of this
+plant.
+
+Frontinus informs us that Hannibal employed mandragore in one of his
+warlike stratagems, when he feigned a retreat, and left in the possession
+of the barbarians a quantity of wine in which this plant had been infused.
+Intoxicated by the potent beverage, they were unable to withstand his
+second attack, and were easily put to the sword. Was it the mandragore
+that saved the Scotch in a similar _ruse de guerre_ with the Danish
+invaders of Sweno? It is supposed to have been the _Belladonna_, or deadly
+nightshade, the effects of which are not dissimilar to those of the plant
+in question.
+
+In the north of Europe, this substance is still used for medicinal
+purposes; and Boerhaave, Hoffberg, and Swediaur have strongly recommended
+it in glandular swellings, arthritic pains, and various diseases where a
+profuse perspiration may be desirable.
+
+Machiavel has made the fabulous powers of the mandragore the subject of a
+comedy, and Lafontaine has employed it as an agent in one of his tales.
+
+Another root that excited superstitious phantasies and reverential awe,
+from its supposed resemblance to the human form, was the Gin-seng, a
+Chinese production, which, according to the author of the
+_Kao-li-tchi-tsan_, or Eulogium of the Kingdom of Corea, "imitates the
+configuration of man and the efficacy of spiritual comfort, possessing
+hands and feet like a human being, and the mental virtues that no one can
+easily comprehend." According to Jartoux, _Gin-seng_ signifies "the
+representation of man." It appears, however, that the learned father was
+in error. _Jin_, it is true, signifies _man_; but _Chen_ does not mean
+representation, but a _ternary body_. Hence _Gin-seng_ signifies the
+_ternary of man, making three with man and heaven_!--no doubt some
+superstitious tradition, since this root bears various names in other
+countries, that plainly denote the veneration in which it was held. In
+Japan it is called _Nindsin_, and _Orkhoda_ in the Tatar-Mandchou
+language, both of which mean "the queen of plants." Father Lafitau
+informs us that the name of _Garent-oguen_ of the Iroquois, which it also
+bears, means the _thighs of man_. The _Gin-seng_ is a native of Tartary,
+Corea, and also thrives in Canada, Virginia, and Pennsylvania, in shaded
+and damp situations, as it soon perishes under the solar rays. The Chinese
+attach considerable value to it. Thunberg informs us that it sometimes is
+sold for forty pounds a pound; and Osbeck states that in his time it was
+worth twenty-four times its weight in silver. This enormous price
+frequently induced foreign smugglers to bring it into the Chinese
+territory; but the severest laws were enacted to punish this fraudulent
+traffic. The Tartars alone possess the privilege of cultivating and
+collecting it; and the districts that produce this precious plant are
+surrounded with palisades, and strictly guarded. In 1707, the Emperor of
+China, to increase his revenue, sent a body of ten thousand troops to
+collect the gin-seng. According to the Chinese physicians, this root
+possesses the faculty of renovating exhausted constitutions, giving fresh
+vigour, raising the drooping moral and physical faculties, and restoring
+to health and _embonpoint_ the victim of debauchery. It is also said that
+a bit of the root chewed by a man running a race will prevent his
+competitor from getting the start of him. It is somewhat singular that the
+same property is attributed to garlic; and the Hungarian jockeys
+frequently tie a clove of it to their racers' bits, when the horses that
+run against them fall back the moment they breathe the offensive odour. It
+has been proved that no horse will eat in a manger if the mouth of any
+other steed in the stable has been rubbed with the juice of this plant. I
+had occasion to ascertain this fact. A horse of mine was in the same stall
+with one belonging to a brother officer; mine fell away and refused his
+food, while his companion throve uncommonly well. I at last discovered
+that a German groom, who had charge of the prosperous animal, had recourse
+to this vile stratagem. It is also supposed that men who eat garlic knock
+up upon a march the soldiers who have not made use of it. Hence, in the
+old regulations of the French armies, there existed an order to prohibit
+the use of garlic when troops were on a march.
+
+
+
+
+BARBER-SURGEONS, AND THE PROGRESS OF CHIRURGICAL ART.
+
+
+No consideration should render man more thankful to his Creator, and
+justly proud of the progress of human intellect, than the perfection to
+which the art of surgery has been carried. In its present improved
+condition, we are struck with horror at the perusal of the ancient
+practice, and marvel that its barbarity did not sooner induce its
+professors to diminish the sum of misery it inflicted on their victims.
+Ignorance, and its offspring Superstition, seemed to sanctify this
+darkness. Improvement was considered as impious and unnecessary; and to
+deny the powers of the chirurgical art, heresy against the holy men, who
+alone were permitted to exercise it.
+
+This supposed divine attribute of the priesthood can be traced to remote
+ages: Aesculapius was son of Apollo, and princes and heroes did not
+consider the art of surgery beneath their dignity. Homer has illustrated
+the skill of Podalirius and Chiron; and Idomeneus bids Nestor to mount his
+chariot with Machaon, who alone was more precious than a thousand
+warriors; while we find Podalirius, wrecked and forlorn on the Carian
+coast, leading to the altar the daughter of the monarch whom he cured, and
+whose subjects raised a temple to his memory, and paid him divine honours.
+
+Tradition informs us, that in the infancy of the art all its branches were
+exercised indiscriminately by the medical practitioners. It was not then
+supposed that the human body was subject to distinct affections, external
+and internal; yet, as its study advanced, the ancients were led into an
+opposite extreme, and we find that in Egypt each disease became the
+province of a special attendant, regulated in his treatment by the sacred
+records handed down by their hierarchy.
+
+Herodotus informs us, that "so wisely was medicine managed by the
+Egyptians, that no physician was allowed to practise any but his own
+peculiar branch." Accouchments were exclusively the province of females.
+
+These practitioners were remunerated by the state; and they were severely
+punished, when, by any experimental trials, they deviated from the
+prescribed rules imposed upon them, and, in the event of any patient
+dying under a treatment differing from the established practice, the
+medical attendant was considered guilty of a capital offence. These wise
+provisions were made, says Diodorus, in the full conviction that few
+persons were capable of introducing any new treatment superior to that
+which had been sanctioned and approved by old practitioners.
+
+Pliny complains that no such laws existed in Rome, where a physician was
+the only man who could commit murder with impunity; "Nulla praeterea lex,"
+he says, "quae puniat inscitium capitalem, nullum exemplum vindictae.
+Discunt periculis nostris, et experimenta per mortes agunt: medicoque
+tantum hominem occidisse impunitas summa est."
+
+By one of these singular anomalies in public opinion, this supposed divine
+science was soon considered an ignoble profession. In Rome it was chiefly
+practised by slaves, freedmen, or foreigners. From the overthrow of the
+Roman empire till the revival of literature and the arts in Europe,
+medicine and surgery sought a refuge amongst the Arabians, who studied
+both branches in common; for, though exiled to the coast of Africa in
+point of scientific cultivation, it was necessarily cultivated in other
+countries, and in the greater part of Europe became the exclusive right of
+ecclesiastics. In time, however, it was gradually wrested from their hands
+by daily necessities; and every one, even amongst the lowest classes,
+professed himself a surgeon, and the cure of the hurt and the lame was
+intrusted to menials and women.
+
+As the church could no longer monopolize the art of healing, it became
+expedient to stigmatize it, although that very faculty had but lately been
+their boast; but it had fallen within the powers of vulgar and profane
+comprehension, and therefore was useless to maintain sacerdotal
+pre-eminence. In 1163, the Council of Tours, held by Pope Alexander III.,
+maintained that the devil, to seduce the priesthood from the duties of the
+altar, involved them in mundane occupations, which, under the plea of
+humanity, exposed them to constant and perilous temptations. The edict not
+only prohibited the study both of medicine and law amongst all that had
+taken religious vows, but actually excommunicated every ecclesiastic who
+might infringe the decree. It appears, however, that the temptations of
+the evil one were still attractive, as Pope Honorius III., in 1215, was
+obliged to fulminate a fresh anathema on transgressors, with an additional
+canon, ordaining that, as the church abhorred all cruel or sanguinary
+practices, not only no priest should be allowed the practice of surgery,
+but should refuse their benediction to all who professed it.[26]
+
+The practice then fell into the hands of laymen, although priests, still
+regretting the advantages that it formerly had yielded them, were
+consulted in their convents or houses; and when patients could not visit
+them without exposing them to clerical censure, they asserted their
+ability to cure diseases by the mere inspection of the patient's
+dejections; and so much faith was reposed in this filthy practice, that
+Henry II. decreed that upon the complaints of the heirs of persons who
+died through the fault of their physicians, the latter should suffer
+capital punishment, as having been the cause of their patient's death,
+unless they had scientifically examined what was submitted to their
+investigation by the deceased's relatives or domestics: and then proceeded
+to prescribe for the malady.
+
+Unable to quit their cloisters, in surgical cases, which could not be so
+easily cured at a distance, sooner than lose the emoluments of the
+profession, they sent their servants, or rather the barbers of the
+community, who shaved, and bled, and drew teeth in their neighbourhood
+ever since the clergy could no longer perform these operations, on the
+plea of the maxim "_Ecclesia abhorret a sanguine_;" bleeding and
+tooth-drawing being, I believe, the only cases where this maxim was
+noticed. From this circumstance arose the barber craft or barber-surgeons.
+
+These practitioners, from their various avocations, were necessarily
+dexterous; for, in addition to the skill required for good shaving,
+tonsurating the crowns of clerical heads was a delicate operation; and it
+was about this period that Pope Alexander III. revised the canon issued by
+the synod of Carthage respecting the tonsure of the clergy. Surgery being
+thus degraded, the separation between its practice and that of medicine
+became unavoidable, and the two branches were formally made distinct by
+bulls of Boniface VI. and Clement V.
+
+St. Louis, who had witnessed the services of surgeons in the field of
+battle during the crusades, had formed a college or _confrerie_ of
+surgeons, in honour of St. Cosme and St. Damian, in 1268; and wounds and
+sores were dressed _gratis_ in the churches dedicated to those saints on
+the first Monday of every month. To this body, of course, the
+barber-surgeons, or _fraters_ of the priests, who had not received any
+regular education, did not belong. Hence arose the distinction, which even
+to the present day obtains in various parts of the Continent, where
+surgeons are divided into two classes,--those who had gone through a
+regular course of studies, and those who, without any academical
+education, were originally employed as the servants of the priests and
+barbers. So late as the year 1809, one of my assistants in the Portuguese
+army felt much hurt at my declining his offer to shave me; and in 1801,
+some British assistant-surgeons, who had entered the Swedish navy, were
+ordered to shave the ship's company, and were dismissed the service in
+consequence of their refusal to comply with this command.
+
+But to return to our barbers.--These ambitious shavers gradually attempted
+to glean in the footsteps of the regular chirurgeons, and even to encroach
+upon their domain, by performing more important operations than phlebotomy
+and tooth-drawing; the audacious intruders were therefore very properly
+brought up _ex officio_ by the attorney-general of France, and forbidden
+to transgress the boundaries of their art, until they had been duly
+examined by master chirurgeons; although these said masters were not
+better qualified than many of the barbers. Such was their ignorance
+indeed, that Pitard, an able practitioner, who had successively been the
+surgeon of St. Louis, Philip the Brave, and Philip the Fair, obtained a
+privilege to examine and grant licences to such of these masters who were
+fit to practise, without which licence all practitioners were liable to be
+punished by the provost of Paris; and in 1372 barbers were only allowed to
+dress boils, bruises, and open wounds.
+
+Although this account chiefly refers to France and its capital, yet the
+same distinction and division between surgeons and barbers prevailed in
+almost every other country; and privileges were maintained with as much
+virulence and absurdity as the present controversial bickerings between
+physicians and surgeons.
+
+In 1355 these master-surgeons constituted a faculty, which pocketed
+one-half of the penalties imposed upon the unlucky wights who had not the
+honour of belonging to their body. They also enjoyed various immunities
+and exemptions; amongst others, that of not keeping guard and watch in the
+city of Paris. To increase their emoluments, they granted as many honorary
+distinctions as they could in decency devise, and introduced the
+categories of bachelors, licentiates, masters, graduates, and
+non-graduates of surgery. The medical faculty now began to complain of the
+encroachments of the master-surgeons on their internal domain of poor
+mortality with as much bitterness as the masters complained of the
+impertinent invasion on the part of the barbers, of their external
+dominion. To court the powerful protection of the university against these
+interlopers, the surgeons consented to be considered as the scholars of
+the medical faculty, chiefly governed by clerical physicians.
+
+In 1452 a fresh source of dissension arose amongst clerical physicians,
+lay physicians, master surgeons, and barbers. Cardinal Etoutville
+abolished the law which bound the physicians of the university to
+celibacy, when, to use the historian's words, "many of the clerical
+physicians, thinking there was more comfort to be found in a wife without
+a benefice than could be expected in a benefice without a wife, abandoned
+the priesthood, and were then permitted to visit their patients at their
+own houses." Thus thrown into the uncontrolled practice of medicine, these
+physicians became jealous of the influence of the surgeons, to whom they
+had been so much indebted; and they had recourse to every art and
+manoeuvre that priestcraft could devise to oppress and degrade them. To
+aid this purpose, they resorted to the barbers, whom they instructed in
+private, to enable them to oppose the master-surgeons more effectually.
+The surgeons, indignant at this protection, had recourse to the medical
+faculty, supplicating them to have the barbers shorn of their rising
+dignity. Thus for mere motives of pecuniary interest, and the evident
+detriment of society, did these intriguing practitioners struggle for
+power and consequent fees; and, according to the vacillation of their
+interests, the barbers became alternately the allies of the physicians or
+the mercenary skirmishers of the surgeons.
+
+From this oppression of the art, for nearly three centuries surgery was
+considered a degrading profession. Excluded from the university, not only
+were surgeons deprived of all academic honours and privileges, but
+subjected to those taxes and public burdens from which the members of the
+university, being of the clerical order, were exempted. This persecution
+not only strove to injure them in a worldly point of view, but the priests
+carried their vindictive feelings to such a point of malignity that when
+Charles IX. was about to confer the rites of apostolical benediction upon
+the surgeons of the long robe, the medical faculty interposed on the plea
+of their not being qualified to receive this benediction, as they did not
+belong to any of the four faculties of the university; and as the
+chancellor, or any other man, had not the power of conferring a blessing
+without the pope's permission and special mandate, both surgeons and
+barbers ought to be irrevocably damned. The apostolical benediction in
+those days was considered of great value, since it exempted all candidates
+from examination in anatomy, medicine, surgery, or any other
+qualification, when they applied for a degree.
+
+Ever since the healing art ceased to be a clerical privilege, and a state
+of rivalry prevailed between spiritual and corporeal doctors, the former
+have sought to represent their opponents as infidels and atheists--the
+unbelief of physicians became prevalent, and to this day medical men are
+generally considered freethinkers;--an appellation which in a strictly
+correct acceptation might be considered more complimentary than
+opprobrious, since it designates a man, who extricating his intellectual
+faculties from the meshes of ignorance or prejudices, takes the liberty of
+thinking for himself.
+
+Sir Thomas Brown in his "Religio Medici," alludes to this injurious
+opinion entertained of medical men, when he says, "For my religion, though
+there be several circumstances that might persuade the world I have none
+at all, _as the general scandal of my profession_, the natural course of
+my studies, the indifferency of my behaviour and discourse in matters of
+religion--yet in despite thereof, I dare, without usurpation, assume the
+honourable style of Christian."
+
+Sir Kenelm Digby in his observations on the work from which the above is
+extracted, entertains a similar opinion, and quotes Friar Bacon in support
+of it. The following are his words: "Those students who busy themselves
+much with such notions as reside wholly in the fantasy, do hardly ever
+become idoneous for abstracted metaphysical speculations; the one having
+bulky foundations of matter, or of the accidents of it, to settle upon--at
+the least with one foot; the other flying continually, even to a lessening
+pitch in the subtile air. And accordingly it hath been generally noted,
+that the excellent mathematicians, who converse altogether with lines,
+figures, and other differences of quantity, have seldom proved eminent in
+metaphysics or speculative divinity. Nor again, the profession of their
+sciences in other arts, much less can it be expected that an excellent
+physician, whose fancy is always fraught with the material drugs that he
+prescribeth his apothecary to compound his medicines of, and whose hands
+are inured to the cutting up, and eyes to the inspection of anatomized
+bodies, should easily and with success ply his thoughts at so towering a
+game, as a pure intellect, or separated and unbodied soul."
+
+That such ideas should be maintained in former days, when bigotry and
+prejudice reigned paramount, we cannot be surprised; but one must marvel
+to see a modern and intelligent annotator of Brown's work,[27] coincide in
+this illiberal opinion, in the following terms:
+
+"Imaginative men, that is, persons in whom the higher attributes of genius
+are found, seldom delight in the sciences conversant with mere matter or
+form; least of all in medicine, the object of which is the derangement, or
+imperfection of nature, and the endeavour to substitute order and harmony
+in the place of their opposites. Brought thus chiefly into contact with
+diseased organization, surrounded by the worst elements of civil society,
+(for their experience must in general be among the intemperate and the
+vicious,) they may be said to exist in an infected moral atmosphere, and
+it is therefore not greatly to be wondered at that among such persons a
+highly religious frame of mind should be the exception and not the rule."
+
+The absurdity of this observation can only be equalled by its extreme
+illiberality. Can it be for one moment entertained, that the physician who
+gives his care to every class of society and at all ages "exists in an
+infected moral atmosphere?" Supposing that he is not fortunate enough to
+attend upon the opulent and the great, and is limited to a pauper or an
+hospital practice, does Mr. St. John mean to say that instances of
+intemperance and vice are confined to the indigent, although want of
+education, and poverty may degrade them in crapulous pursuits? If there
+does exist a profession pre-eminent for its philanthropic character, and
+the power of discrimination between good and evil, and right and wrong, it
+is undoubtedly that of medicine. The finest feelings of humanity are
+constantly brought to bear, both in seeking to relieve bodily sufferings
+and solacing an afflicted mind--whether it be with the scalpel in hand in
+an anatomical theatre, or by the bedside of an agonized sufferer, whom he
+hopes, under Providence, to restore to health and to his family, the
+physician has daily opportunities of beholding the wonders of the creation
+and the benevolence of the Creator--he is a constant witness of the
+fervent supplication of the unfortunate and the heartfelt gratitude of
+those suppliants at the throne of mercy, whose prayers have been heard. A
+man of exalted benevolence (and such a physician ought to be), he must be
+alive to all the generous feelings of humanity, and he is doomed more
+frequently to move in an _infected moral atmosphere_, when gratuitously
+attending some of the troublesome and pedantic legislators of the republic
+of letters, than when exerting his skill to relieve the grateful poor who
+may fall under his care.
+
+It has been maintained that the physician seeking in the arcana of nature
+the causes of every vital phenomenon becomes a materialist: nothing can be
+more unjust, nay, more absurd, than such a supposition. The study of
+physiology teaches us, more perhaps then any other pursuit, to admire the
+wonderful works of our Creator, and Voltaire has beautifully illustrated
+the fact in the following lines:
+
+  Demandez a Sylva par quel secret mystere
+  Ce pain, cet aliment dans mon corps digere,
+  Se transforme en un lait doucement prepare;
+  Comment, toujours filtre dans des routes certaines,
+  En longs ruisseaux de pourpre il court enfler mes veines;
+  A mon corps languissant donne un pouvoir nouveau,
+  Fait palpiter mon coeur et penser mon cerveau;
+  Il leve au ciel les yeux, il s'incline, il s'ecrie
+  Demandez le a CE DIEU qui m'a donnez la vie.
+
+Broeseche has justly said, _Tanta est inter deum, religionem, et medicum
+connexio, ut sine Deo et religione nullus exactus medicus esse queat_; and
+it has truly been said by a later writer, "that a philosophic physician
+must seek in religion, strength of mind to support the painful exertions
+of his profession, and some consolation for the ingratitude of mankind."
+
+Amongst the many glaring absurdities which retarded the progress of
+medical studies, one cannot but notice the presumptuous claims of the
+physicians to the exclusive privilege of teaching surgery to their pupils,
+while anatomy was solely professed by surgeons, and not considered
+necessary in the instruction of a physician. All these anomalies can be
+easily traced to that spirit of dominion, exclusion, and monopoly, which
+invariably characterized clerical bodies. To such a pitch was this
+destructive practice carried, that surgeons were only allowed to perform
+operations in the presence of one or more physicians: nor were they
+permitted to publish any work on their profession until it had been
+licensed by a faculty who were utterly ignorant of the matter of which it
+treated. The celebrated Ambrose Pare could only obtain as a special favour
+from his sovereign, the permission to give to the world one of its most
+valuable sources of information.
+
+So late as 1726 we find the medical faculty of Paris making a formal
+representation to Cardinal de Noailles and the curates of that capital to
+prevent surgeons from granting certificates of health or of disease, and
+this application was grounded on the pious motive of enforcing a more
+rigid observance of Lent! They further insisted that this indispensable
+mortification was eluded in consequence of the facility of obtaining
+certificates that permitted persons stated to be indisposed to eat animal
+food, eggs, and butter, whence infidelity was making a most alarming
+progress, threatening the very existence of church and state, and the
+overthrow of every ancient and glorious institution. The faculty were
+formally thanked for their pious zeal in the true interests of religion,
+and the spiritual welfare of their patients; and orders were affixed upon
+the door of every church, anathematizing all certificates that emanated
+from the unholy hands of surgeons and barbers.
+
+These unfortunate barbers, although they humbly submitted to the sway of
+both physicians and surgeons when it suited their purpose, were in turn
+persecuted by both their allies and alternate protectors; so much so, that
+the clerical practitioners at one time prohibited them from bleeding, and
+conferred this privilege upon the bagnio-keepers. From the well-known
+nature of these establishments, various may be the reasons that led to
+this patronage, which was clearly an attempt to qualify bagnio-keepers to
+extend their convenient trade.
+
+At last, in the year 1505, barbers were dignified with the name of
+surgeons. Their instructions were delivered in their vernacular tongue,
+until the university again interfered, and ordered that lectures should be
+delivered in Latin; once more closing alma-mater against illiterate
+shavers, who were, however, obliged to give a smattering of classical
+education to their sons destined to wield alternately the razor and the
+lancet. In 1655, surgeons and barber-surgeons were incorporated in one
+college; a union which was further confirmed, in 1660, by royal
+ordonnance, under some limitations, whereby the barbers should not assume
+the title of licentiates, bachelors, or professors, nor be allowed to wear
+the honourable gown and cap that distinguished the higher grades of
+learning. Red caps were in former times given by each barber to his
+teacher on his being qualified, and gloves to all his fellow-students.
+
+Thus we find that the high state of perfection which the surgical art has
+attained is solely due to the efforts of industry to free itself from the
+ignoble trammels of bigotry and prejudice. Intellectual progress has
+invariably been opposed in every country by those powerful and interested
+individuals who derived their wealth and influence from the ignorance of
+society. Corporate bodies monopolizing the exercise of any profession will
+invariably retard instruction and shackle the energies of the student. It
+is, no doubt, indispensable that the practice of medicine in all its
+branches should only be allowed to such persons as are duly qualified; but
+whenever pecuniary advantages are derived from the grant of the
+permission, abuses as dishonourable as they are injurious to society will
+infallibly prevail. In Great Britain the period of study required in
+medical candidates is by no means sufficient. Five or six years is the
+very lowest period that should be insisted on; and, when duly instructed,
+degrees and licences should be conferred without fee, on all applicants,
+by a board of examiners unprejudiced and disinterested. This mode of
+granting licences would add to the respectability of the profession, while
+it would ensure proper attendance to the public. Physicians and surgeons
+would then become (what to a certain extent the latter are at present,
+though illegally as far as the laws of the college go), general
+practitioners, and society would no longer be infested by the swarms of
+practising apothecaries, who, from the very nature of their education, can
+only be skilled in making up medicines, or who must have obtained
+experience in the lessons taught by repeated failures in their early
+practice, unless perchance they have stepped beyond the usual confined
+instruction of their class. The consequences that arise from this fatal
+system are but too obvious. These men live by selling drugs, which they
+unmercifully supply, to the material injury of the patient's constitution.
+If, after ringing all the changes of their materia medica without causing
+the church-bell to toll, they find themselves puzzled and bewildered, a
+physician or a surgeon is called in, and too frequently these
+practitioners are bound by tacit agreement not to diminish the revenue
+that the shop produces. If it were necessary to prove the evils that
+result from the monopolizing powers vested in corporate institutions, the
+proof might be sought and found in the virulence and jealousy which they
+evince in resisting reform, from whatever quarter it may be dreaded; and
+it may be said that too many of the practising apothecaries of the present
+day stand in the same relative situation in the medical profession as the
+barbers of olden times.
+
+This faculty of exercising every branch of the profession, however
+qualified, is of olden date, and we find on the subject the following
+lines in the writings of Alcuin in the time of Charlemagne:
+
+  Accurrunt medici mox Hippocratica tecta:
+  Hic venas findit, herbas hic miscet in olla;
+  Ille coquit pultes, alter sed pocula perfert.
+
+
+
+
+ON DREAMS.
+
+
+Philosophical ingenuity has long been displayed in the most learned
+disquisitions in an endeavour to account for the nature of these
+phenomena. The strangeness of these visionary perturbations of our
+rest--their supposed influence on our destinies--their frequent
+verification by subsequent events--have always shed a mystic _prestige_
+around them; and superstition, ignorance, and craft, have in turns
+characterized them as the warnings of the Divine will, or the machinations
+of an evil spirit.
+
+Macrobius divided them into various categories. The first, the mere
+_dream_, _somnium_, he considers a figurative and mysterious
+representation that requires to be interpreted. Dion Cassius gives an
+example of this in the case of Nero, who dreamt that he saw the chair of
+Jupiter pass into the palace of Vespasian, which was considered as
+emblematical of his translation to the empire.
+
+The second distinction he terms a _vision_, _visio_, or a foreboding of
+future events. The third he deemed _oracular_, _oraculum_, and this was
+the case when a priest, or a relative, a deity, a hero, or some venerable
+person, denounced what was to happen, or warned us against it. As an
+example of this inspiration, for such it was considered, an anecdote of
+Vespasian is related. Having heard that a man in Achaia had dreamt that a
+person unknown to him had assured him that he should date his prosperity
+from the moment that Nero should lose a tooth,--a tooth just drawn from
+that emperor being shown to him the following day, he foresaw his
+destinies: soon after Nero died, Galba did not long survive him, and the
+discord that reigned between Otho and Vitellius ultimately placed the
+diadem on his brow. These inspirations were considered by Cicero, and
+various philosophers, as particularly appertaining to the shrine of the
+gods; those who sought that heavenly admonition were therefore recommended
+to lie down in temples. The Lacedaemonians sought slumber in the temple of
+Pasithea; Brizo, the goddess of sleep and dreams, was worshipped at Delos,
+and her votaries slept before her altars with their heads bound with
+laurel, and other fatidical symbols; hence divination by dreams was called
+_Brizomantia_. Supplications were offered up to Mercury for propitious
+visions, and a caduceus was placed for that purpose at the feet of beds;
+hence was it called [Greek: ermies].
+
+Diodorus informs us that dreams were regarded in Egypt with religious
+reverence, and the prayers of the devout were often rewarded by the gods
+with an indication of appropriate remedies. But the confidence in
+supernatural agency and the power of magic, was only deemed a last
+resource, when human skill had been baffled. Some persons promised a
+certain sum of money for the maintenance of sacred animals, consecrated to
+the divinity whose aid they implored. In the case of infants, a certain
+portion of their hair was cut off and weighed, and when the cure was
+effected an equal quantity of gold was given to the successful
+intermediator.
+
+The fourth division was _insomny_, _insomnium_, which was characterized by
+a disturbed repose, caused either by mental or bodily oppression, or
+solicitude. The fifth class of dreams was the _phantasm_ or _visus_, which
+takes place between sleeping and waking, in a dozing and broken slumber,
+when the person thinks himself awake, and yet beholds fantastic and
+chimerical figures floating around his couch. Under this class is placed
+the _ephialtes_, or night-mare. Macrobius represents the phantasm and the
+insomnium as little deserving of attention, being of no use in divination
+and prediction.
+
+When these notions prevailed, the interpretation of dreams became a
+profitable trade; and it is a lamentable truth, that, to the present day,
+it is considered a speculation upon credulity. We find in Plutarch's Life
+of Aristides that there were tables drawn out for this purpose; and he
+speaks of one Lysimachus, a grandson of Aristides, who gained a handsome
+livelihood by this profession, taking up his station near the temple of
+Bacchus. Rules of interpretation were formed by Artemidorus, who lived in
+the reign of Antoninus Pius, and he drew his conclusions from
+circumstances considered either propitious or sinister. Thus, to dream of
+a large nose, signified subtlety; of rosemary or sage, trouble and
+weakness; of a midwife, disclosure of secrets; of a leopard, a deceitful
+person. These interpretations became so multiplied, that at last it was
+decreed that no dreams which related to the public weal should be
+regarded, unless they had visited the brains of some magistrates, or more
+than one individual. But what limits can any enactment assign to the
+influence of credulity and superstition? Cicero informs us that the Consul
+Lucius Julius repaired to the temple of Juno Sospita, in obedience to a
+decree of the senate regarding the dream of Caecilia, daughter of
+Balearicus.
+
+In more modern times we have often seen dreams resorted to, in order to
+assist the speculations of policy and priestcraft; some of them as absurd
+in their nature as revolting in their interpretation. Monkish records
+relate that St. Bernard's mother dreamed that she had a little white dog
+barking about her, which was interpreted to her by a religious person as
+meaning "that she should be the mother of an excellent dog indeed, who
+should be the hope of God's house, and would incessantly bark against its
+adversaries, for he should be a famous preacher, and cure many by his
+medicinal tongue." Our Archbishop Laurence, to whom we owe the church of
+Our Lady at Canterbury, was about to emigrate to France under the
+discouragement of persecution, until warned in a dream, and severely
+scourged by St. Peter for his weakness. It was on the relation not only of
+this dream, but on actually exhibiting the marks of the stripes he had
+received, that Eadbald was baptized, and became a protector of the church.
+It was in a dream of this description that St. Andrew instructed Peter
+Pontanus how to find out the spear that had pierced our Saviour's side,
+and which was hidden somewhere near Antioch. Antioch was at that time
+besieged by the Persians, and half famished; but this weapon being carried
+by a bishop, enabled the besieged to beleaguer Caiban, the Persian
+general.
+
+The Peripatetics represented dreams as arising from a presaging faculty of
+the mind; other sects imagined that they were suggestions of daemons.
+Democritus and Lucretius looked upon them as spectres and _simulacra_ of
+corporeal things, emitted from them, floating in the air, and assailing
+the soul. A modern writer, Andrew Baxter, entertained a notion somewhat
+similar, and imagined that dreams were prompted by separate immaterial
+beings, or spirits, who had access to the sleeper's brain with the faculty
+of inspiring him with various ideas. Burton divides dreams into natural,
+divine, and daemoniacal; and he defines sleep, after Scaliger, as "the rest
+or binding of the outward senses, and of the common sense, for the
+preservation of body and soul."
+
+Gradually released from the trammels of superstition, modern philosophers
+have sought for more plausible explanations of the nature and causes of
+dreams, but perhaps without having attained a greater degree of certainty
+in this difficult question than our bewildered ancestors. Wolfius is of
+opinion that every dream originates in some sensation, yet the independent
+energies of the mind are sufficiently displayed in the preservation of the
+continued phantasms of the imagination. He maintains that none of these
+phantasms can prevail unless they arise from this previous sensation. De
+Formey is of the same opinion, and conceives that dreams are supernatural
+when not produced by these sensations. But of what nature are these
+sensations? Are they corporeal impressions received prior to sleep, and
+the continuances of reflection, or are they the children of an idle brain?
+Although it is not easy to trace an affinity between the subjects of our
+dreams and our previous train of thought, yet it is more than probable
+that dreams are excited by impressions experienced in our waking moments,
+and retransmitted to the sensorium, however difficult it may be to link
+the connexion of our ideas, and trace their imperceptible catenation.
+Moreover, there does not exist a necessary and regular association in the
+state of mind that succeeds any particular impressions. These impressions
+only predispose the mind to certain ideas, which act upon it with more or
+less subsequent energy, and with more or less irregularity, according to
+the condition in which the predisposing causes have left it. It has been
+observed that we seldom dream of the objects of our love or our
+antipathies. Such dreams may not be the natural results of such
+sentiments. We may fondly love a woman, and in our dreams transfer this
+soft sensation of fondness to another individual,--to a dog that fondles
+us, or any other pleasing object. We may have experienced fear--in a storm
+at sea; yet we may not dream of being tossed about in a boat, but of being
+mounted upon a runaway horse who hurries us to destruction, or of flying
+from a falling avalanche. Our mind had been predisposed by fear to receive
+any terrific impression, and most probably these alarming phantasms will
+be of a chimerical and an extravagant nature. A man who has been bitten by
+a dog may fancy himself in the coils of a boa-constrictor. When dreaming,
+the mind is in an abstracted state; but still is its reciprocal influence
+over the body manifest, although it is powerless on volition. Vigilance in
+sleep is still awake; but her assistance is of no avail until the
+connexion between mind and body is aroused by any alarm from external
+agents. It is well known that a hungry man will dream of an ample repast.
+A patient with a blister on his head has fancied himself scalped by
+Indians in all their fantastic ornaments. Somnambulism clearly proves that
+the mind retains its energies in sleep. Locke has justly observed that
+dreams are made up of the waking man's ideas, although oddly put together.
+Hartley is of opinion that dreams are nothing but the reveries of sleeping
+men, and are deducible from the impressions and ideas lately received, the
+state of the body, and association. I have endeavoured to explain, on the
+ground of the general effects of predisposition, the anomalies which so
+often are displayed in these associations. Of the surprising powers of the
+mind in somnambulism we have many instances too well authenticated to be
+doubted. Henricus ab Heeres was in the habit of composing in his sleep,
+reading aloud his productions, expressing his satisfaction, and calling to
+his chamber-fellow to join in the commendation. Caelius Rhodiginus when
+busied in his interpretation of Pliny, could only find the proper
+signification of the word _ectrapali_ in his slumbers. There is not the
+least doubt but that the mind is capable of receiving impressions of
+knowledge, but more particularly inspirations of genius, when the body is
+lulled in a state of apparent repose. Dreams have been ingeniously
+compared to a drama defective in the laws of unity, and unconnected by
+constant anachronisms. Yet certain incoherences are not frequent: Darwin
+has justly remarked that a woman will seldom dream that she is a soldier,
+and a soldier's visions will seldom expose him to the apprehensions of
+child-birth. Buffon has observed, "We represent to ourselves persons whom
+we have never seen, and such as have been dead for many years; we behold
+them alive and such as they were, but we associate them with actual
+things, or with persons of other times. It is the same with our ideas of
+locality; we see things not where they were, but elsewhere, where they
+never could have been."
+
+Dugald Stewart has endeavoured to account for these phenomena by the
+doctrine that in sleep the operations of the mind are suspended, and that
+therefore the cause of dreams is the loss of power of the will over the
+mind, which in the waking condition is subject to its control. Now, if
+this be the case, dreams must consist of mental operations independent of
+the will. However, it is not the suspension of the will and of the powers
+of volition that alone constitutes sleep; it is the suspension of the
+powers of the understanding,--attention, comparison, memory, and judgment.
+It is in consequence of this suspension of all our active intellectual
+faculties that we never can _will_ during our dreams; in that state there
+appears to be a resistance of the powers of volition with which the mind
+struggles in vain, and which is expressed both by moans, and the character
+of the sleeper's every feature, which portrays a state of anguish and
+impatience. In all dreams that are not of a morbid nature, every action is
+passive, involuntary. This state is widely different from delirium, in
+which the brain is in a morbid state of excitement; and the body is more
+susceptible than usual of external agency, while the mind is perplexed by
+hallucinations of an erroneous nature.
+
+Dr. Abercrombie considers insanity and dreaming as having a remarkable
+affinity when considered as mental phenomena; the impressions in the one
+case being more or less permanent, and transient in the other.
+Somnambulism he considers an intermediate state. Dreams, according to his
+theory, are divided into four classes: the first, when recent events and
+recent mental emotions are mixed up with each other, and with old events,
+by some feeling common to both; the second class relates to trains of
+images brought up by association with bodily sensations; the third, the
+result of forgotten associations; and the fourth class of dreams contains
+those in which a strong propensity of character, or a strong mental
+emotion, is imbodied in a dream, and by some natural coincidence is
+fulfilled. The following interesting cases that fell under Dr.
+Abercrombie's immediate notice, illustrate his views and the above
+classification.
+
+Regarding the first class, Dr. A. relates the following: "A woman, who was
+a patient in the clinical ward of the infirmary of Edinburgh, under the
+care of Dr. Duncan, talked a great deal in her sleep, and made numerous
+and very distinct allusions to the cases of other sick persons. These
+allusions did not apply to any patients who were in the ward at the time;
+but, after some observation, they were found to refer correctly to the
+cases of individuals who were there when this woman was a patient in the
+ward two years before."
+
+The following is an instance of phantasms being produced by our
+associations with bodily sensations, and tends to show how alive our
+faculties continue during sleep to the slightest impressions:
+
+The subject of this observation was an officer in the expedition to
+Louisburg in 1758, who had this peculiarity in so remarkable a degree,
+that his companions in the transport were in the constant habit of amusing
+themselves at his expense. They could produce in him any kind of dream by
+whispering in his ear, especially if this was done by a friend with whose
+voice he had become familiar. One time they conducted him through the
+whole progress of a quarrel, which ended in a duel; and when the parties
+were supposed to have met, a pistol was put into his hand, which he fired,
+and was awakened by the report. On another occasion they found him asleep
+on the top of a locker in the cabin, when they made him believe he had
+fallen overboard, and exhorted him to save himself by swimming. They then
+told him that a shark was pursuing him, and entreated him to dive for his
+life. He instantly did so, and with so much force as to throw himself from
+the locker upon the cabin floor, by which he was much bruised, and
+awakened of course. After the landing of the army at Louisburg, his
+friends found him one day asleep in his tent, and evidently much annoyed
+by the cannonading. They then made him believe that he was engaged, when
+he expressed great fear, and showed an evident disposition to run away.
+Against this they remonstrated, but at the same time increased his fears
+by imitating the groans of the wounded and the dying; and when he asked,
+as he often did, who was hit, they named his particular friends. At last
+they told him that the man next himself in his company had fallen, when he
+instantly sprung from his bed, rushed out of the tent, and was only roused
+from his danger and his dream by falling over the tent-ropes. A
+remarkable thing in this case was, that after these experiments he had no
+distinct recollection of his dreams, but only a confused feeling of
+oppression or fatigue, and used to tell his friends that he was sure they
+had been playing some trick upon him. It has been observed that we seldom
+feel courageous or daring in our dreams, and generally avoid danger when
+menaced by a foe, or exposed to any probable peril.
+
+The third class of dreams relates to the revival of forgotten
+associations. The person in question was at the time connected with one of
+the principal banks in Glasgow, and was at his place at the teller's
+table, where money is paid, when a person entered demanding payment of a
+sum of six pounds. There were several people waiting, who were in turn
+entitled to be attended to before him; but he was remarkably impatient and
+rather noisy, and being besides a remarkable stammerer, he became so
+annoying, that another gentleman requested him to pay the money and get
+rid of him. He did so accordingly, but with an expression of impatience at
+being obliged to attend to him before his turn, and thought no more of the
+transaction. At the end of the year, which was eight or nine months after,
+the books of the bank could not be made to balance, the deficiency being
+exactly six pounds. Several days and nights had been spent in endeavouring
+to discover the error, but without success, when he returned home much
+fatigued, and went to bed. He dreamt of being at his place in the bank,
+and the whole transaction of the stammerer, as now detailed, passed before
+him in all its particulars. He awoke under the full impression that the
+dream would lead him to the discovery of what he was so anxiously in
+search of, and on examination he soon discovered that he had neglected to
+enter the sum which he had thus paid.
+
+The following singular dreams are examples of the fourth class. A
+clergyman had come to Edinburgh from a short distance in the country, and
+was sleeping at an inn, when he dreamt of seeing a fire, and one of his
+children in the midst of it. He awoke with the impression, and instantly
+left town on his return home. When he arrived in sight of his house, he
+found it on fire, and got there in time to assist in saving one of his
+children, who in the alarm and confusion had been left in a situation of
+danger.
+
+A gentleman in Edinburgh was affected with aneurism of the popliteal
+artery, for which he was under the care of two eminent surgeons, and the
+day was fixed for the operation. About two days before the appointed time,
+the wife of the patient dreamt that a favourable change had taken place
+in the disease, in consequence of which the operation would not be
+required. On examining the tumour in the morning, the gentleman was
+astonished to find that the pulsation had entirely ceased, and, in short,
+this turned out to be a spontaneous cure,--a very rare occurrence in
+surgical practice.
+
+The following dream is still more remarkable. A lady dreamt that an aged
+female relative had been murdered by a black servant, and the dream
+occurred more than once. She was then so impressed by it, that she went to
+the house of the lady, and prevailed upon a gentleman to watch in an
+adjoining room during the following night. About three o'clock in the
+morning, the gentleman, hearing footsteps on the stairs, left his place of
+concealment, and met the servant carrying up a quantity of coals. Being
+questioned as to where he was going, he replied, in a hurried and confused
+manner, that he was going to mend his mistress's fire, which at three
+o'clock in the morning in the middle of summer was evidently impossible;
+and, on further investigation, a strong knife was found concealed beneath
+the coals.
+
+Dreams, to whatever causes they may be attributed, vary according to the
+nature of our sleep: if it is sound and natural, they will seldom prevail;
+if, on the contrary, it be broken and uneasy, by a spontaneous association
+dreams will become fanciful, and might indeed be called visions, so
+fantastic and chimerical are all the objects that present themselves in
+motley groups to the disturbed mind. This derangement in the sensorium may
+be referred to various physical causes,--the sensations of heat or of
+cold, obstruction in the course of the circulation of the blood, as when
+lying upon the back, a difficult digestion. In a sound sleep our dreams
+are seldom remembered except in a vague manner; whereas, in a broken
+sleep, as Formey has observed, the impression of the dream remains upon
+the mind, and constitutes what this philosopher called "_the lucidity of
+dreams_." It not unfrequently happens to us that we have had a similar
+dream several times, or at least we labour under this impression; nay,
+many persons fancy that particular events of their life at the moment of
+their occurrence had clearly taken place at a former period either in
+reality or in a dream. Morning "winged dreams" are more easily remembered
+in their circumstantial vagaries than those of the preceding night, for at
+that period (the morning) our sleep is not sound, and dreams become more
+lucid. These _revasseries_, as the French call them, are admirably
+described by Dryden:
+
+  A dream o'ertook me at my waking hour
+  This morn, and dreams they say are then divine,
+  When all the balmy vapours are exhal'd,
+  And some o'erpow'ring god continues sleep.
+
+That we are more or less impressionable in our sleep is rendered evident
+by the facility with which even a sound sleeper is disturbed by the
+slightest noise: the sparkling of a fire, or the crackling produced by the
+wick of our night-lamp when coming into contact with the water in the
+glass, the sting of an insect, the slightest admission of a higher or
+lower temperature, will occasion a broken sleep and its dreams. It has
+been remarked that the sense of seeing is more frequently acted upon in
+dreams than that of hearing, and very seldom do we find our smell and
+taste under their influence. It is possible that this peculiarity may
+arise from the greater variety of impressions with which the sight is
+daily struck, and which memory communicates by association or
+retransmission. Next to feeling, vision is the first sense brought into
+relation with external objects. When we hear noises, explosions,
+tumultuous cries, it is more than probable that our dreams partake of a
+delirious and morbid nature, or of sensorial or intellectual
+hallucinations, in which the mind is actually diseased, and our
+perceptions become erroneous: then we speak loudly to others, and to
+ourselves. When these hallucinations prevail after sleep, the invasion of
+mania may be apprehended.
+
+Cabanis, in his curious investigations on the mind, has endeavoured to fix
+the order in which the different parts of our organization go to sleep.
+First the legs and arms, then the muscles that support the head and back:
+the first sense that slumbers, according to his notions, is that of sight;
+then follow in regular succession the senses of taste, smell, hearing, and
+feeling. The viscera fall asleep one after the other, but with different
+decrees of soundness. If this doctrine be correct, we may easily conceive
+the wild and strange inconsistencies of our dreams, during which the
+waking and the sleeping organs are acting and reacting upon each other.
+
+Corporeal sensations and different organic actions frequently attend our
+dreams; but these may be attributed to our mode of living, or the
+indulgence in certain unruly desires and conversations. That man and
+animals dream of the pursuits of the preceding day there can be no doubt:
+hence the line,
+
+  Et canis in somnis leporis vestigia latrat.
+
+The effects of a heavy meal, more especially a supper, in disturbing our
+rest, was well known and recorded by ancient physicians: and Crato tells
+us "that the fittest time to repair to rest is two or three hours after
+supper, when the meat is then settled in the bottom of the stomach: and
+'tis good to lie on the right side first, because at that side the liver
+doth rest under the stomach, not molesting any way, but heating him as a
+fire doth a kettle that is put to it. After the first sleep 'tis not amiss
+to lie upon the left side, that the meat may the better descend; and
+sometimes again on the belly, but never on the back."
+
+Our ancestors had recourse to various devices to procure sound sleep.
+Borde recommends a good draught of strong drink before going to bed;
+Burton, a nutmeg and ale, with a good potation of muscadine with a toast;
+while Aetius recommends a sup of vinegar, which, according to Piso,
+"_attenuat melancholiam et ad conciliandum somnum juvat_." Oppression from
+repletion will occasion fearful dreams and the night-mare; and bodily
+sufferings, when exhaustion has brought on sleep, will also be attended
+with alarming and painful visions.
+
+Levinus Lemnius recommended to sleep with the mouth shut, to promote a
+regular digestion by the exclusion of too much external air. The
+night-mare is admirably described in Dryden's translation of Virgil:
+
+  And as, when heavy sleep has closed the sight,
+  The sickly fancy labours in the night,
+  We seem to run, and, destitute of force,
+  Our sinking limbs forsake us in the course:
+  In vain we heave for breath; in vain we cry;
+  The nerves, unbraced, their usual strength deny,
+  And on the tongue the falt'ring accents die.
+
+In the Runic theology it was regarded as a spectre of the night, which
+seized men in their sleep, and suddenly deprived them of speech and of
+motion. It was vulgarly called witch-riding, and considered as arising
+from the weight of fuliginous spirits incumbent on the breast.
+
+_Somnus ut sit levis, sit tibi coena brevis_, is the ancient axiom of
+our distich,
+
+  That your sleep may be light,
+  Let your supper be slight.
+
+Notwithstanding this rule of health, it is nevertheless true that many
+persons sleep more soundly after a hearty supper; and, most
+unquestionably, dreams are more frequent towards morning than in the
+beginning of the night. In my opinion, I should apprehend that the sound
+sleep of supper-eaters is to be attributed to the narcotic nature of their
+potations, more than the meal, although the _siesta_ of southern countries
+might be advanced in favour of a contrary opinion.
+
+When philosophers speak of dreams being mental operations independent of
+the will, they speak vaguely, for the operations of the mind when we are
+awake are too frequently uncontrolled by volition. Did we possess this
+power over our rebellious thoughts, who would constantly ponder on a
+painful subject? Our thoughts cannot be suspended at will, and their
+influence has been beautifully described by Shakspeare:
+
+  My brain I'll prove the female to my soul,
+  My soul the father; and these two beget
+  A generation of still breeding thoughts.
+
+Volition has no more power over thought when we are awake than sleeping;
+and, despite all metaphysical and psychological speculations, it cannot be
+demonstrated that the mind does not retain its full energies during sleep,
+only they cease to be regulated by judgment, and are not, to use Locke's
+words, under the rule and conduct of the understanding; and even on this
+opinion it has been fairly observed, that much of incongruity which is
+supposed to prove suspension of reason, and much of the wild discordancy
+of representation which appears to prevail during our sleep, may arise
+from the defect of memory when we are awake, that does not retain the
+impression of images which have passed across the mind in light and rapid
+succession, and which, therefore, exhibit but a partial and imperfect
+sketch of the picture that engaged the attention in sleep. The well-known
+fact that the impressions of our dreams are oftentimes more vivid and
+correct, when some time has elapsed, than on our awakening, tends to
+confirm this hypothesis; and these recollections are the more vivid when
+they bear any analogy to circumstances that come to pass.
+
+Sir Thomas Brown was of opinion that sleep was the waking of the soul; the
+ligation of sense, but the liberty of reason; and that our waking
+conceptions do not match the fancies of our sleep. He thus expresses
+himself in his Religio Medici: "At my nativity my ascendant was the watery
+sign of Scorpius; I was born in the planetary hour of Saturn, and I think
+I have a piece of that leaden planet in me. I am no way facetious, nor
+disposed for the mirth and galliardise of company; yet in one dream I can
+compose a whole comedy, behold the action, apprehend the jests, and laugh
+myself awake at the conceits thereof. Were my memory as faithful as my
+reason is then fruitful, I would never study but in my dreams, and this
+time also would I choose for my devotions; but our grosser memories have
+then so little hold of our abstracted understandings, that they forget the
+story, and can only relate to our awaked souls a confused and broken tale
+of that that hath passed."
+
+Dreams have been considered as prescriptive in various diseases. Diodorus
+Siculus relates that a certain Scythian dreamed that Aesculapius had drawn
+the humours of his body to one place, or head, to have it lanced. When
+Galen had an inflammation of the diaphragm, we are told that he was
+directed in a dream to open a vein between the thumb and the fourth
+finger--an operation which restored him to health. Marcus Antoninus
+asserted that he learned in his dreams various remedies for spitting of
+blood. It is related of Sir Christopher Wren, that, when at Paris, in
+1671, being disordered with "a pain in his reins," he sent for a
+physician, who prescribed blood-letting, but he deferred submitting to it,
+and dreamed that very night that he was in a place where palm-trees grew,
+and that a woman in a romantic habit offered dates to him. The next day he
+sent for dates, which cured him. Now, although this cure, brought about by
+a dream, was considered wonderful, its circumstances offer nothing
+supernatural. It is more than probable that Sir Christopher had frequently
+read in foreign works on medicine, that dates were recommended as an
+efficacious remedy in nephritic complaints; and, moreover, had met in his
+daily perambulations female quacks, who exhibit themselves to this day in
+the French metropolis, fantastically attired, and vending their far-famed
+nostrums. That he should have remembered dates, and that the phantasm of
+the she-mountebank might at the same time have struck his fancy, were two
+associations by no means improbable.
+
+It is very likely that all the strange stories of prophetic dreams might
+be traced to a similar connexion of ideas. I have before observed that
+dreams do not always assume their complexion from recent occurrences, and
+our bodily sufferings during sleep bring to our recollection every
+circumstance that regards the malady. A patient who had a bottle of hot
+water placed at his feet dreamed that he was walking in great agony in the
+burning lava of Vesuvius. Similar associations exist when awake: the man
+whose arm has been amputated constantly refers the pain he experiences to
+the lost hand, or to that part of the limb which received the injury; and
+the very same nervous illusion prevails during his slumbers. A case is
+recorded of an officer who had lost his leg, and, when cold, felt comfort
+and warmth by wrapping the stump of his wooden leg in flannel.
+
+In various diseases the nature and the period of the invasion of dreams
+afford a valuable ground of observation to the physician both in his
+diagnosis and prognosis of the case. In incipient hydro-thorax, for
+instance, dreams occur at the very moment the patient falls asleep, and he
+fancies himself suffocated by some impending and destructive weight.
+Diseases of the heart are accompanied by alarming dreams, from which the
+patient starts up in great terror. In children the perturbation of their
+sleep frequently indicates the seat of their sufferings; and the valuable
+researches on the nervous system by Charles Bell have enabled the medical
+attendant to read in the features of a sleeping infant whether the malady
+be in the head, the cavity of the chest, or the abdomen.
+
+If proof were wanting that dreams arise from our waking thoughts, it might
+be found in the circumstance of those sleepers who divulge their secrets,
+and verify the lines of Shakspeare:
+
+  There are a kind of men so loose of soul,
+  That in their sleep will mutter their affairs.
+
+Reason, therefore, prompts us to reject the idea of dreams being
+preternatural suggestions. In general, we may consider them as a morbid
+excitement of the brain, arising either from moral or physical causes, and
+depending essentially on the condition of our mind and body. Our most
+lively hopes are ever linked with fears that prey upon us even when most
+secure; and these apprehensions, recurring in our dreams, prove too often
+prophetic of the very events we dreaded. The prejudices of early education
+shed around these forewarnings circumstantial incidents; and fear is the
+greatest ally of superstition.
+
+If our visions by night are fraught with such singular circumstances, our
+"day dreams," or _reveries_, are frequently attended with strange
+associations. The impressions received during these ecstatic visions or
+trances will occasionally act so powerfully upon the mind, that during our
+waking hours and the usual pursuits of life we cannot divest ourselves of
+the existence of their reality.
+
+Dr. Arnould has given the following curious account of a case of this
+kind, as narrated by the individual himself:--"One afternoon in the month
+of May, feeling himself a little unsettled and not inclined to business,
+he thought he would take a walk into the city to amuse his mind, and
+having strolled into St. Paul's Churchyard, he stopped at the shop window
+of Carrington and Bowles, and looked at the pictures, among which was one
+of the cathedral. He had not been long there before a short grave-looking
+elderly gentleman, dressed in dark brown clothes, came up and began to
+examine the prints, and occasionally casting a glance at him, very soon
+entered into conversation with him, and praising the view of St. Paul's
+which was exhibited at the window, told him many anecdotes of Sir
+Christopher Wren the architect, and asked him at the same time if he had
+ever ascended to the top of the dome. He replied in the negative. The
+stranger then inquired if he had dined, and proposed that they should go
+to an eating-house in the neighbourhood, adding that after dinner he would
+accompany him up St. Paul's. It was a glorious afternoon for a view, and
+he was so familiar with the place that he could point out every object
+worthy of attention. The kindness of the old gentleman's manner induced
+him to comply with the invitation, and they went to a tavern in some dark
+alley, the name of which he did not know. They dined and very soon left
+the table, and ascended to the ball just below the cross, which they
+entered alone.
+
+"They had not been there many minutes, when, while he was gazing on the
+extensive prospect and delighted with the splendid scene below him, the
+grave gentleman pulled out from an inside coat-pocket something like a
+compass, having round the edge some curious figures; then having muttered
+some unintelligible words, he placed it in the centre of the ball. He felt
+a great trembling, and a sort of horror came over him, which was increased
+by his companion asking him if he should like to see any friend at a
+distance and to know what he was at that time doing, for if so, the latter
+could show him any such person. It happened that his father had been for a
+long time in bad health and for some weeks past he had not visited him. A
+sudden thought came into his mind, so powerful, that it overcame his
+terror, that he should like to see his father. He had no sooner expressed
+the wish than the exact person of his father was immediately presented to
+his sight in the mirror, reclining in his armchair and taking his
+afternoon sleep. Not having fully believed in the power of the stranger to
+make good his offer, he became overwhelmed with terror at the clearness
+and truth of the vision presented to him, and he entreated his mysterious
+companion that they might immediately descend, as he felt himself very
+ill. The request was complied with, and on parting under the portico of
+the northern entrance, the stranger said to him, 'Remember you are the
+slave of the man of the mirror.'"
+
+He returned in the evening to his home, he does not know exactly at what
+hour; felt himself unquiet, depressed, gloomy, apprehensive, and haunted
+with thoughts of the stranger. For the last three months he has been
+conscious of the power of the latter over him. Dr. Arnould adds, "I
+inquired in what way his power was exercised? He cast on me a look of
+suspicion mingled with confidence, took my arm, and after leading me
+through two or three rooms and then into the garden, exclaimed, 'It is of
+no use--there is no concealment from him, for all places are alike open to
+him--he sees us--and he hears _us now_.' I asked him where the being was
+who saw us and heard us? He replied in a voice of deep agitation, 'Have I
+not told you that he lives in the ball below the cross on the top of St.
+Paul's, and that he only comes down to take a walk in the churchyard and
+get his dinner at the house in the dark alley. Since that fatal interview
+with the necromancer,' he continued, 'for such I believe him to be, he is
+continually dragging me before him in his mirror--he not only sees me
+every moment of the day, but he reads all my thoughts, and I have a
+dreadful consciousness that no action of my life is free from his
+inspection, and no place can afford me security from his power.' On my
+reply that the darkness of the night would afford him protection from
+these machinations, he said, 'I know what you mean, but you are quite
+mistaken--I have only told you of the mirror, but in some part of the
+building which he passed on coming away, he showed me what he called a
+great bell, and I heard sounds which came from it, and which went to it,
+sounds of laughter, and of anger, and of pain; there was a dreadful
+confusion of sounds, and I listened with wonder and affright'--he said,
+'this is my organ of hearing; this great bell is in communication with all
+the other bells within the circle of hieroglyphics, by which every word
+spoken by those under my control is made audible to me.' Seeing me look
+surprised at him, he said, 'I have not yet told you all, for he practises
+his spells by hieroglyphics on walls and houses, and wields his power,
+like a detestable tyrant as he is, over the minds of those whom he has
+enchanted, and who are the objects of his constant spite within the circle
+of his hieroglyphics.' I asked him what these hieroglyphics were, and how
+he perceived them? He replied, 'Signs and symbols which you in your
+ignorance of their true meaning have taken for letters and words, and
+read, as you have thought, _Day and Martin_ and _Warren's blacking_. Oh!
+that is all nonsense! they are only the mysterious characters which he
+places to mark the boundaries of his dominions, and by which he prevents
+all escape from his tremendous power. How I have toiled and laboured to
+get beyond the limits of his influence! Once I walked for three days and
+three nights, till I fell down under a wall exhausted by fatigue, and
+dropped asleep; but on awaking I saw the dreadful sign before my eyes, and
+I felt myself as completely under his infernal spell at the end as at the
+beginning of the journey.'"
+
+Dr. Pritchard remarks on this singular case of insanity, that this
+gentleman had actually ascended to the top of St. Paul's, and that
+impressions there received being afterwards renewed in his mind when in a
+state of vivid excitement, in a dream or ecstatic revery, became so
+blended with the creation of fancy, as to form one mysterious vision, in
+which the true and the imaginary were afterwards inseparable.
+
+It is also possible that this person, being of a nervous and susceptible
+disposition, had been struck, when on the dizzy height of the cupola, with
+a vertigo, or fit, during which these phantasms had struck him in so vivid
+a manner as to derange his intellects--the loud and terrific sound of the
+bell adding to the horror of his situation. It is well known that persons
+have recollected circumstances that occurred around them during an
+epileptic and an apoplectic attack. Our worthy visionary was for two years
+an inmate of a private asylum.
+
+In regard to the verification of dreams, they may be easily accounted for
+by that proneness that most men, especially if of a weak and
+impressionable state of mind, experience in courting the object of their
+hopes or fears. Thus have the absurd prognostications of fortune-tellers
+been too frequently fatal, as we may work up our thoughts to such an
+intensity as to bring on the very death that we apprehend. Dr. Pritchard
+relates the case of a clergyman, in an indifferent state of health, who,
+when standing one day at the corner of a street, saw a funeral procession
+approaching him. He waited till it came near him, saw all the train pass
+him, with black nodding plumes, and read his own name on the coffin, which
+was carried by, and entered, with the whole procession, into the house
+where he resided. This was the commencement of an illness which put an end
+to his life in a few days.
+
+During a severe fever, in the peninsula, my nightly rest was constantly
+disturbed by the threatening appearance of animals with fearful horns and
+antlers, incessantly hovering about me. For a long time after my recovery
+the spectral illusion continued, and every horse or mule that passed by
+me appeared to be armed with immense horns.
+
+It is to be feared that, notwithstanding the ingenuity of the many
+physiologists who have sought to investigate the nature of dreams, we
+shall never come to any satisfactory conclusion, since we follow too
+frequently the example of the German philosopher, Lesage, who, in his
+endeavour to throw some light on this obscure subject, sought to ascertain
+the intermediate condition of the mind when passing from the waking state
+into sleep, a transition which never has been, and, most probably, never
+can be ascertained, since sleep, to a certain degree, is a suspension of
+all power of attention, perception, volition, and every spontaneous
+faculty.
+
+
+
+
+ON FLAGELLATION.
+
+
+Amongst the various moral and physical remedies introduced by the
+priesthood and physicians for the benefit of society, flagellation once
+held a most distinguished rank. As a remedy, it was supposed to reanimate
+the torpid circulation of the capillary or cutaneous vessels, to increase
+muscular energy, promote absorption, and favour the necessary secretions
+of our nature. No doubt, in many instances, its action as a revulsive may
+be beneficial; and urtication, or the stinging with nettles, has not
+unfrequently been prescribed with advantage. As a religious discipline,
+for such has this system of mortification been called, it has been
+considered as most acceptable to Heaven; so much so, indeed, that the
+fustigation was commensurate with the sinner's offence. Under the head of
+Daemonomania I have endeavoured to show that whipping was equally agreeable
+to the evil spirit, who delighted in flogging the elect.
+
+It appears that at this period a belief prevailed that heavenly mercy
+restored the grace that had been forfeited, commuting for temporal
+punishment that which else would have been eternal. The monks of Fonte
+Avellana, for instance, had decreed that thirty psalms, said or sung, with
+an accompaniment of one hundred stripes to each psalm, would be considered
+as a set-off for one year of purgatory; and, by this calculation, the
+whole psalter, which would have demanded fifteen thousand stripes, would
+have procured a relief of five years from the fiery ordeal. It was no
+doubt under this impression that St. Dominic the Cuirassier, so named from
+his wearing, day and night, an iron cuirass next his skin, and which he
+never took off, adopted this same covering when, upon entering into
+priest's orders, his parents presented the bishop who ordained him with a
+rich fur garment, an offence for which the holy man wished to atone by
+donning an iron vestment.
+
+This said madman belonged to the congregation of Fonte Avellana, the monks
+of which never touched either wine or oil, and, during five days of the
+week, lived upon bread and water; moreover, every day after service they
+flogged each other. Dominic, in extenuation of his family's offence in
+having presented his diocesan with a luxurious gown, lashed himself at the
+rate of ten psalters, and thirty thousand lashes _per diem_; by which he
+calculated that he was redeeming three thousand six hundred and fifty
+years of purgatorial torments _per annum_: but, in addition to this
+wholesome allowance, he humbly petitioned his superior to allow him,
+during Lent, a supplementary punishment of one hundred years, when his
+day's work was two psalters and a half, and thirty-four thousand five
+hundred lashes. This punishment did not seem sufficient in his eyes to
+propitiate the Creator; and St. Pietro Damiano informs us that, during the
+Lenten days, he actually recited the psalter two hundred times, with a
+_crescendo_ accompaniment of sixty millions of stripes. It was on this
+occasion that Yepes shrewdly observed, that he marvelled less at a man's
+head being able to retain so many verses than that his arm was able to
+carry on such a flagellation; or, to use his own words, how his flesh,
+unless made of iron, could resist such a castigation. This blessed man
+must have been endowed with powers that were increased by exertion, since
+we find that his ambition gave him such energy, that once beginning his
+operations in the evening, and singing and flogging, and flogging and
+singing, _con amore_, through the day and night, at the expiration of
+twenty-four hours he had gone through the psalms twelve times, begun them
+a thirteenth time, and proceeded as far as _Beati quorum_, the
+thirty-second psalm; having inflicted upon himself one hundred and
+eighty-three thousand one hundred stripes, thereby reducing purgatorial
+stock to the amount of sixty-one years, twelve days, and thirty-three
+minutes, to a fraction.
+
+It would be perfectly idle and absurd for any freethinker to doubt this
+fact, recorded by an eyewitness--Pietro Damiano, a saint, and moreover a
+cardinal; and Calmet himself maintains that no man should dare to doubt a
+saint's assertion, more especially when speaking of another beatified
+person. Notwithstanding this assertion, a stiff-necked arithmetician
+calculated that, if during these twenty-four hours the saint had given
+himself two blows every second, the number of lashes would only have
+amounted to one hundred and seventy-two thousand eight hundred, being ten
+thousand three hundred short of the amount stated! However, this
+difficulty was overcome by Father Castaniza, who makes up the amount by
+maintaining that he made use of cats with ten tails, and therefore had
+actually a balance in his favour in his _winding_-sheet.[28]
+
+_Ubi stimulus ibi affluxus_, has been a physiological axiom since the days
+of Hippocrates; and flagellation thus employed is only a modification of
+blistering, or exciting the skin by any other irritating method. The moral
+influence of flagellation in the treatment of different diseases has been
+appreciated by the ancients: it was strongly recommended by the disciples
+of Asclepiades, by Caelius Aurelianus, and since by Rhasis and Valescus, in
+the treatment of mania. No doubt, the terror which this castigation
+inspires may tend materially to facilitate the management of the insane.
+To the present day this opinion has prevailed to a revolting degree, and
+it is no easy matter for the humane physician to convince a keeper of the
+cruelty or inutility of this practice. Seldom or never does this harsh
+management become necessary: I had charge of a military lunatic asylum for
+a considerable time, and, with one exception, never found myself warranted
+in causing corporal punishment to be inflicted, notwithstanding the
+association of ideas of discipline which such a chastisement must have
+produced amongst men then exposed to the capricious infliction of the
+lash. The case to which I allude was one of a Sergeant N--, who had twice
+attempted my life, and who fully remembered every circumstance in the
+remissions of his malady; so much so, indeed, that doubts were entertained
+in the minds of the casual visiter as to the real condition of his mental
+faculties; and in the establishment now under my superintendence a keeper
+is discharged when convicted of having struck a patient _under any
+circumstances_.
+
+To return from this digression: the authoritative power of man over the
+brute creation is daily witnessed, even with unruly and ferocious
+animals; and there are, no doubt, cases where bodily punishment becomes
+indispensable, when the body will feel what the judgment cannot
+comprehend. Boerhaave relates the case of a hypochondriac who swore that
+his legs were made of straw; but an officious servant-maid, who was
+sweeping the room, struck him across the shins with her broomstick, and
+soon brought him to a sense of his erroneous impression.
+
+Flagellation draws the circulation from the centre of our system to its
+periphery. It has been known in a fit of ague to dispel the cold stage.
+Galen had observed that horse-dealers were in the habit of bringing their
+horses into high condition by a moderate fustigation; and therefore
+recommended this practice to give _embonpoint_ to the lean. Antonius Musa
+treated a sciatica of Octavius Augustus by this process. Elidaeus Paduanus
+recommends flagellation or urtication when the eruption of exanthematic
+diseases is slow in its development. Thomas Campanella records the case of
+a gentleman whose bowels could not be relieved without his having been
+previously whipped.
+
+Irritation of the skin has been often observed to be productive of similar
+effects. The erotic irregularities of lepers is well authenticated; and
+various other cutaneous diseases, which procure the agreeable relief that
+scratching affords, have brought on the most pleasurable sensations. There
+exists a curious letter of Abelard to his Eloisa, in which he says,
+"Verbera quandoque dabat amor, non furor; gratia, non ira; quae omnium
+unguentorum suavitatem transcenderent."
+
+This effect of flagellation may be easily referred to the powerful
+sympathy that exists between the nerves of the lower part of the spinal
+marrow and other organs. Artificial excitement appears in some degree
+natural: it is observed in various animals, especially in the feline
+tribe. Even snails plunge into each other a bony and prickly spur that
+arises from their throats, and which, like the sting of the wasp,
+frequently breaks off and is left in the wound.
+
+In the monastic orders of both sexes, flagellation became a refined art.
+Flagellation was of two species, the upper and the lower; the upper
+inflicted upon the shoulders, the lower chiefly resorted to when females
+were to be fustigated. This mode was adopted, according to their
+assertions, from the accidents that might have happened in the upper
+flagellation, where the twisting lash might have injured the sensitive
+bosom. In addition to this device, nudity was also insisted upon. In the
+article Daemonomania I have recorded various abominations of the kind. Nor
+was it only amongst religious orders and their followers that this custom
+obtained. It was practised by ladies of high rank amongst their commensals
+and attendants. Brantome gives us a curious and quaint account of this
+amusing castigation. Mademoiselle de Limeuil, one of the queen's maids of
+honour, was flagellated for having written a pasquinade, in company with
+all the young ladies who had been privy to the composition. And on another
+occasion he tells us: "J'ai oui parler d'une grande dame de par le monde,
+voire grandissime, mariee et veuve, qui faisait depouiller ses dames et
+filles, je dis les plus belles, et se delectait fort a les voir, et puis
+elle les battait du plat de la main, avec de grandes clacquades et
+blamuses assez rudes; et les filles qui avaient delinque en quelque chose,
+avec de bonnes verges, et elle les clacquait ainsi selon le sujet qu'elles
+lui en donnaient, pour les faire ou rire ou pleurer."
+
+The minions of Henry III. of France, and other princes, were decked in
+white robes, then stripped, and whipped in procession for the
+gratification of their royal masters. Not unfrequently the ladies
+themselves were the executioners in cases where any man had offended them;
+and the adventure of Clopinel the poet is worth relating. This unfortunate
+wight had written the following lines on the fair sex:
+
+  Toutes etes, serez, ou futes,
+  De fait ou de volonte putes;
+  Et qui bien vous chercherait
+  Toutes putes vous trouverait.
+
+This libellous effusion naturally excited the indignation of the ladies at
+court, who decided that Clopinel should be flagellated by the plaintiffs
+without mercy; and it is difficult to say to what extent they might have
+carried their vengeance but for a timely witticism of the culprit, who
+piteously addressing the angry yet beauteous group around him with
+uplifted arm and rod, humbly entreated that the first blow might be struck
+by the honourable damsel who felt herself the most aggrieved. It is
+needless to add that not a lash was inflicted.
+
+Medical men were frequently consulted as to the adoption of the upper or
+lower discipline, as flagellation on the shoulders was said to injure the
+eyesight. It was from the fear of this accident that the lower discipline
+was generally adopted amongst nuns and female penitents, as appears by the
+following rule: "Quippe cum ea de causa capucini, multaeque moniales,
+virorum medicorum ac piorum hominum consilio, ascesim flagellandi sursum
+humeros reliquerint, ut sibi nates lumbosque strient asperatis virgis, ac
+nodosis funiculis conscribillent."
+
+In a medical point of view, urtication, or stinging with nettles, is a
+practice not sufficiently appreciated. In many instances, especially in
+cases of paralysis, it is more efficacious than blistering or stimulating
+frictions. Its effects, although perhaps less permanent, are more general
+and diffused over the limb. This process has been found effectual in
+restoring heat to the lower extremities; and a case of obstinate lethargy
+was cured by Corvisart by repeated urtication of the whole body. During
+the action of the stimulus, the patient, who was a young man, would open
+his eyes and laugh, but sink again into profound sleep. His perfect cure,
+however, was obtained in three weeks.
+
+
+
+
+ON LIFE AND THE BLOOD.
+
+
+THE LIFE OF ALL FLESH IS THE BLOOD THEREOF. On this doctrine, expressed in
+the Mosaic books, many of the olden writers founded their hypothesis that
+blood was the principle of life. It is, however, more than probable that
+this opinion was derived from a more ancient ritual than the Levitical
+code, since we find a similar belief among the Parsees, Hindoos, and other
+Oriental nations of very remote antiquity, who no doubt owed the practice
+of abstaining from blood to the early patriarchs.
+
+The Greeks and the Romans, if we take the expressions of their poets as
+being conclusive, entertained similar notions regarding the vital fluid;
+and the "purple death" of Homer and "the purple life" of Virgil, are
+phrases evidently applicable to this theory, which Critias, Empedocles,
+and their sects maintained. This opinion, however, does not appear to have
+dictated the expressions made use of by Moses. When he says "the life of
+all flesh is the blood thereof," it merely signifies that when the blood
+is abstracted death ensues; a circumstance that must have been daily and
+hourly observed. It is probable that this injunction was promulgated to
+check the barbarous custom of devouring raw meat, which seems to have
+prevailed long before the Jewish legislator. We read in Genesis ix. 4,
+"Flesh with the life thereof, which is the blood thereof, shall you not
+eat." From this circumstance we may infer that, like the Abyssinians of
+Bruce's time, the Jews were in the habit of tearing and cutting flesh from
+live animals. Saul's army was guilty of a similar practice. It therefore
+behoved their legislators to oppose a custom that increased the natural
+ferocity and cruelty of the nation they ruled.
+
+This theory of the ancients has been frequently revived in modern times,
+and has not a little contributed to increase the mystery that veils the
+nature of our existence. Harvey, who discovered the circulation of the
+blood, was a convert to this doctrine; Hoffman also adopted it; and Huxham
+not only fully believed in it, but sought the immediate part of the blood
+that constituted life, and fancied that he had discovered it in its red
+particles. It was John Hunter, however, who first established the system
+on any thing like a rational basis, although his arguments on the subject
+have led to much doubt and illiberal controversy. "The difficulty," says
+he, "of conceiving that blood is endowed with life while circulating,
+arises merely from its being a fluid, and the mind not being accustomed to
+the idea of a living fluid. I shall endeavour," he continues, "to show
+that organization and life do not in the least depend upon each other;
+that organization may arise out of living parts and produce action; but
+that life can never arise out of or produce organization." The errors of
+this doctrine are obvious, and have led many ingenious physiologists into
+a maze of idle wandering. The fact is, that life is the instrument of
+organization, or, in other words, organization is the result of life. The
+embryo could not be developed, did not the fluid that animates it possess
+a principle of vitality which it communicates to a body previously
+organized. In this confusion the word "life" has sometimes been applied to
+the power, and at others to the result. Without organization, life cannot
+be transmitted; and the moment the principle of life ceases, a
+disorganization, more or less rapid, ensues.
+
+The doctrine of the vitality of the blood has very lately been maintained
+by several physiologists. Professor Schultz speaks of an active vital
+process which can be seen constantly going on between the individual
+molecules of the blood and the substance of the vessels; but Muller
+asserts that, during ten years, he examined the circulation of the blood
+in various parts, at every opportunity and with different instruments,
+but had never seen what Schultz describes--the constant assimilation,
+disappearance, and new formation of the globules; nor had Rudolphi,
+Purkinje, Koch, and Meyer, been more successful in their investigation;
+and Muller further maintains that the motion of these red particles in the
+circulation is purely passive, which may be proved by compressing the
+vessels of the limb, or the limb itself.
+
+Eber and Meyer pretended that these red particles were infusory animals.
+On this important and curious subject I shall quote Muller's opinion: "The
+question whether the blood be living fluid or not, calls to mind a
+critical state of our science. Every thing which evidences an action which
+cannot be explained by the laws of inorganic matter, is said to have an
+organic, or, what is the same thing, a vital property. To regard merely
+the solids of the body as living, is incorrect, for there are strictly no
+organic solids; in nearly all, water constitutes four-fifths of their
+weight. Although, then, organic matter generally be considered as merely
+'susceptible of life,' and the organized parts as 'living,' yet the blood
+also must be regarded as endowed with life, for its action cannot be
+comprehended from chemical and physical laws. The semen is not merely a
+stimulus for the fructification of the egg, for it impregnates the eggs of
+the Batrachia and fishes out of the body; and the form, endowments, and
+even tendencies to disease, of the father, are transferred to the new
+individual. The semen, therefore, although a fluid, is evidently endowed
+with life, and is capable of imparting life to matter. The impregnable
+part of the egg, the germinal membrane, is a completely unorganized
+aggregation of animal matter; but, nevertheless, is animated with the
+whole organizing power of the future being, and is capable of imparting
+life to a new matter, although soft, and nearly allied to a fluid. The
+blood also evidences organic properties; it is attracted by living organs,
+which are acted upon by vital stimuli. There subsists between the blood
+and the organized parts a reciprocal vital action, in which the blood has
+as large a share as the organs in which it circulates."
+
+This doctrine is, no doubt, ingenious, but I do not consider it as
+conclusive. It is not because that in inflammation, the blood becoming
+solid, forming pseudo membranes, which are shortly after supplied with a
+proportion of blood-vessels, blood possesses life. If this adventitious
+coagulation were not supplied with blood, it would prove a foreign body;
+but it is not, therefore, shown that the circumstance of its possessing
+vitality after its formation is a proof of the life of the blood; it only
+shows that the secretions of the blood are endowed with a susceptibility
+of life, when having assumed a solid form, needing vessels for its
+support. I shall not dwell longer on a professional question of great
+interest, but which would need a development foreign to the nature of
+these sketches.
+
+The Greeks had distinct appellations for the cause and result of life; the
+former they termed [Greek: psyche] the latter [Greek: zoe]. The essential
+nature of life is, and most probably will ever remain, an impenetrable
+mystery. Living matter is endowed with a property which we call life; but
+to find out to what we may venture to attribute this property, is a vain
+and hypothetical attempt. Equally vain and absurd have been the endeavours
+to ascertain whether life began at the creation to be subsequently
+transmitted from parent to offspring, or owed its origin to a spontaneous
+generation from matter. Many ancient philosophers considered matter as
+eternal: such was the doctrine of the Pythagoreans; amongst whom we must
+particularly notice Lucanus Ocellus, whose system, developed in a work
+written in the Attic dialect, was adopted by Aristotle, Plato, and
+Philo-Judaeus. This work was first translated into Latin by Nogarola. These
+doctrines led to the unanswerable question, What was this matter--this
+_invisa materia_--from which every thing visible has proceeded? Has it
+existed from all eternity, or has it been called into being by the
+Creator? Has it uniformly exhibited its present harmonious arrangement, or
+was it once a waste and shapeless chaos? Was this matter endowed with
+intelligence as a whole, or in its separate fractions?
+
+The eternity of matter was maintained by these philosophers from the
+belief that _no thing could be created out of nothing, and that no thing
+could ever return to nonentity_. Such was the doctrine of the Epicureans,
+of Democritus, and of Aristotle. The poets were of the same belief; and
+Lucretius expresses himself as follows:
+
+          Ubi viderimus nihil posse creari
+  De nihilo, tune, quod sequimur, jam rectius inde
+  Perspiciemus.
+
+Persius maintains the same idea:
+
+                                Gigni
+  De nihilo nil, in nihilum nil posse reverti.
+
+This dogma was no doubt transmitted to the Greeks from the East; and, to
+the present day, it is a doctrine of the Brahminical creed, clearly
+expressed in the following terms in their Yajur Veid: "The ignorant assert
+that the universe in the beginning did not exist in its author, and that
+it was created out of nothing. O ye, whose hearts are pure! how could
+something arise out of nothing?" The fathers of the church embraced a
+similar belief; and Justin Martin says that "the word of God formed the
+world out of _unfashioned matter_. This Moses distinctly asserts, Plato
+and his adherents maintain, and ourselves have been taught to believe."
+
+Such was the doctrine of the schools that professed the eternal nature of
+matter. Other philosophers supported as warmly a different opinion. Thales
+of Miletus, Zeno of Citium, Xenocrates, and Dicearchus the Messenian,
+insisted that the human race had a first origin at a period when mankind
+did not exist. According to this hypothesis, the universe is an emanation
+or extension of the essence of the Creator. Zeno and the Stoics attribute
+this creation to the universal elements of fire and water. Anaximander the
+Milesian asserted that the primitive animals were formed of earth and
+water mixed together, heated and animated by the solar rays; these aquatic
+creatures became amphibious, and were gradually transformed into the human
+races. Strange to say, this extraordinary idea has found proselytes even
+in our days, and was advocated by Professor De Lamark in his Zoological
+Philosophy. This fancy pervades the poetry of the ancients. Homer makes
+Tethys, the wife of Ocean, the daughter of Uranus and Terra, the first
+parents; and Hesiod, in his Cosmogony, raises Venus and Proteus from the
+foam of the sea.
+
+The vital and intellectual fire of the ancients that animated all living
+beings was admitted by most of their physicians, especially by
+Hippocrates, Galen, and Aretaeus. Aristotle describes an universal creative
+agent in all the elements, the source of life upon earth, and of the
+celestial movements in the firmament. Descartes, in modern times,
+maintained that a vital flame existed in the heart of every animal. This
+fire, and the genial warmth that it diffused, was considered the soul of
+the universe; and on this subject Gassendi expresses himself as follows:
+"Si quis velit talem calorem etiam animam dicere, nihil est similiter quod
+vetet."
+
+It was natural for man, even in an uncivilized state, to attribute to
+solar heat the same influence on animals as was manifest in its actions
+upon plants. When life had fled, the inanimate corpse was cold, and
+caloric was therefore considered the principle of vitality. It was from
+this conviction that we find the sun and fire objects of adoration both in
+ancient times and amongst savages to the present day. Fire is idolized by
+the Tartars, and various African tribes. The Yakouts, a Siberian horde,
+believe that the deity of good and evil has taken his abode in this
+supposed element. The Columbian Indians were fire-worshippers; and Pallas
+informs us that the Chinese on the confines of Siberia held it in such
+religious respect, that they never attempted to extinguish it even when
+their dwellings were burning.
+
+The doctrine of man and the universe having been created an emanation of
+the Creator, renders the Creator material, or matter itself; matter being
+considered intelligent, and susceptible of this organization. This was the
+belief of the Brahmins, and was no doubt transmitted to the Academic and
+Eleatic schools of Greece by Pythagoras. We find in the Yajur Veid,
+already alluded to, the following passages, that clearly demonstrate this
+belief: "The whole universe is the Creator, proceeds from the Creator, and
+returns to him. The ignorant assert that the universe in the beginning did
+not exist in its author, and that it was created out of nothing. O ye,
+whose hearts are pure! how could something arise out of nothing? This
+first being alone, and without likeness, was the ALL in the beginning. He
+could multiply himself under different forms. He created fire from his
+essence, which is light." And further: "Thou art Brahma! thou art Vishnu!
+thou art Kodra! thou art the moon! thou art substance! thou art Djam! thou
+art the earth! thou art the world!"
+
+These Brahminical doctrines were, beyond doubt, also held by the Greeks.
+In a poem ascribed to the fabled Orpheus we find the following lines,
+translated by Mason Good with as much correctness as elegance:
+
+  Jove first exists, whose thunders roll above,
+  Jove last, Jove midmost; all proceeds from Jove.
+  Female is Jove--immortal Jove is male;
+  Jove the broad earth--the heavens' irradiate pale.
+  Jove is the boundless spirit, Jove the fire,
+  That warms the world with feeling and desire;
+  The sea is Jove, the sun, the lunar ball;
+  Jove king supreme, the sovereign source of all.
+  All power is his; to him all glory give,
+  For his vast form embraces all that live.
+
+It may be easily imagined that a subject so recondite and obscure must
+have led philosophers into the wildest speculations. By some, life was
+considered as the result of a general consent or harmony between the
+different organs of which the vital frame is formed; while, as we have
+seen, many have attributed its phenomena to the blood. That blood, to a
+certain extent, is endowed with vitality is beyond a doubt; Hunter has
+endeavoured to prove the fact by various experiments. It is capable of
+being acted upon and contracting like the solid fibres; this we daily
+witness when blood is coagulated and comes into contact with the
+atmosphere. It preserves an equality of temperature in whatever medium an
+animal may move. He also has shown that this fluid can form solid vessels
+of every description; and its life is also proved by the death inflicted
+when any excessive stimulus destroys the muscular fibre. Thus, in a body
+struck with lightning, the muscles remain flaccid and uncontracted, while
+the blood preserves its fluidity, and is left uncoagulated.
+
+All this specious reasoning shows that blood is a living fluid, but does
+not in the slightest degree demonstrate to what principle this vitality is
+to be attributed. It merely proves that every part of a living animal,
+whether solid or fluid, is endowed with a certain degree of life; but
+leaves us in impenetrable darkness as to the nature of life. The one
+cannot be killed without the other; and, as Mason Good justly observes,
+"that which is at one time alive, and at another dead, cannot be life
+itself." It is clear that life cannot exist without blood, but at the same
+time it is equally evident that the blood is merely a secretion of the
+living system, and dependent upon the action of the solids, which
+influence its quantities and properties.[29]
+
+It is from this notion of the vitality of the blood that the absurd idea
+of transfusing it was first conceived. Transfusion consisted in the
+injection of the arterial blood of young and healthy animals into the
+veins of the aged and the debilitated. It was about forty years after the
+discovery of the circulation of the blood by Harvey that this singular
+project was tried upon animals, and afterwards upon man. Medicated liquids
+had already been introduced in Germany into the system by this method,
+principally by Wahrendorf. Dr. Christopher Wren, an English physician, was
+the first who proposed the injection of blood, and Dr. Lower put it into
+practice. The result of his experiments seemed to warrant their adoption.
+An animal was drained of a considerable proportion of blood, and lay faint
+and expiring; but the blood of another animal being thrown into the
+languid system, active circulation was restored, and the patient ran about
+with as much facility as before the experiment. When too great a quantity
+of blood was injected, the creature became drowsy, and shortly after died
+of plethora.
+
+These experiments were reported by the transfusers with many absurd
+details. In one case a simpleton had become witty by a supply of lamb's
+blood; in another, an old mangy cur was cured by the vital fluid of a
+young spaniel; a blind old dog, transfused by a Mr. Gayant, bounded and
+frisked about like a young pup. Dr. Blundel seriously conceived that this
+operation might be practised with great advantage in cases of haemorrhage,
+more especially in women.
+
+Of late years these curious experiments have again been tried with
+singular results. Prevost and Dumas have shown that the vivifying power of
+the blood does not reside so much in the serum as in the red particles. An
+animal bled to syncope, is not revived by the injection of water or pure
+serum of a temperature of 68 deg. Fahrenheit into its vessels. But if blood
+of one of the same species is used, the animal seems to acquire fresh life
+at every stroke of the piston, and is at last restored. Diemenbach has
+confirmed these experiments. It is also stated by these physiologists,
+that revival takes place likewise when the blood injected had been
+previously deprived of its fibrin.
+
+Another very singular fact has been elicited by these experiments; blood
+of animals of a different genus, of which the corpuscules, though of the
+same form, have a different size, effects an imperfect restoration, and
+the animal generally dies in six days.
+
+The injection of blood with circular corpuscules into the vessels of a
+bird (in which the corpuscules are elliptic and of a larger size) produces
+violent symptoms similar to those of the strongest poisons, and generally
+death, which ensues indeed instantaneously, even when a small quantity
+only of the blood has been injected. Such, for example, was the effect of
+the transfusion of some blood of the sheep into the veins of a duck; while
+in many cases in which the blood of sheep and oxen were injected into the
+vessels of cats and rabbits, these animals were revived for a few days.
+The fact of the blood of mammalia being poisonous to birds is very
+remarkable; it cannot be explained mechanically. The injection of fluids
+containing globules of greater diameter than the capillary vessels of the
+injected animal most probably produces death, by obstructing the pulmonary
+vessels and producing suffocation; but the globules of the blood in
+mammalia are even smaller than those of birds. In Dieffenbach's
+experiments, pigeons were killed by a few drops only of the blood of
+mammalia, and the blood of fishes, it is asserted, is as fatal to mammalia
+as to birds.
+
+These interesting facts have been confirmed by Dr. Bischoff. In all his
+experiments made with the fresh blood of mammalia, birds died within a few
+seconds after the transfusion, with violent symptoms resembling those of
+poisoning; but when, instead of the fresh unchanged blood, he injected
+blood from which the fibrin had been removed by stirring, and which was
+heated to a proper temperature, he was surprised to find that no such
+symptoms were produced, the animal not appearing to suffer any
+inconvenience.
+
+It seems indeed from these experiments, that the blood of an animal of a
+different class, is not adapted for the operation.
+
+When transfusion was first proposed in France, it met with furious
+opponents; and Lamartiniere declared that it was a barbarous operation
+proceeding from Satan's workshop. The controversy between the transfusers
+and their adversaries was at length carried on with such virulence, that
+in 1668 the practice was forbidden by a decree of the Chatelet, unless the
+operation had been sanctioned by the faculty of Paris. In Italy it
+continued to be in vogue. Riva and Manfredi frequently performed it; and a
+physician of the name of Simboldus submitted himself to the experiment.
+According to the accounts given by the patients who had been thus
+injected, they first experienced an increased heat with violent pulsation,
+profuse perspiration with pains in the loins and stomach, and a sense of
+suffocation. Violent vomiting frequently arose, and the patient gradually
+sank into a torpid and heavy sleep. Whatever may be the theoretical
+ingenuity in favour of this practice, it is not probable that it will ever
+be adopted.
+
+While young blood was thus supposed to give fresh vigour to the aged, the
+heat communicated by young persons to debilitated bedfellows was also
+resorted to. This practice seems to have been founded on observation. It
+is an acknowledged fact that an uncommon depression of vital power takes
+place in the young when such experiments are tried. This abstraction of
+vital power is frequently observed in young females married to very old
+men. In illustration of this fact, Dr. Copeland relates the following
+case: "I was a few years since consulted about a pale, sickly, and thin
+boy of about five or six years of age. He appeared to have no specific
+ailment; but there was a slow and remarkable decline of flesh and
+strength, and of the energy of all the functions,--what his mother very
+aptly termed 'a gradual blight.' After inquiring into the history of the
+case, it came out that he had been a very robust and plethoric child up to
+his third year, when his grandmother, a very aged person, took him to
+sleep with her; that he soon afterwards lost his good looks, and that he
+had continued to decline progressively ever since, notwithstanding
+medical treatment. I directed him to sleep apart from his aged parent, and
+prescribed gentle tonics, change of air, &c., and the recovery was very
+rapid."
+
+This selfish indulgence of the aged in endeavouring to deprive their young
+bedfellows of heat and strength has been often remarked; and young women
+thus circumstanced have shrewdly suspected the cause of their debilitated
+condition. It is extremely probable that in these cases electricity is
+conducted from one body to another. This hypothesis is in some degree
+confirmed by the experiments made upon Casper Hauser by Von Feuerbach.
+This Casper Hauser had been kept from infancy until he was eighteen years
+of age in a perfectly dark cage, without leaving it, and where he never
+saw a living creature or heard the voice of man. He was restricted from
+using his limbs, his voice, his hands, or senses; and his food consisted
+of bread and water only, which he found placed by him when wakening from
+his sleep. When exposed in Nuremberg, in 1828, he was consequently at
+eighteen years as if just come into the world, and as incapable of
+walking, discerning objects, or conveying his impressions, as a newly born
+infant. These faculties, however, he soon acquired; and he was placed
+under an able instructor, who has recorded his singular history. Darkness
+had been to him twilight. The light of day was at first insupportable,
+inflamed his eyes, and brought on spasms. Substances, the odour of which
+could not be perceived by others, produced severe effects upon him. The
+smell of a glass of wine, even at a distance, occasioned headache; of
+fresh meat, sickness; and of flowers, a painful sensation. Passing by a
+churchyard with Dr. Daumer, the smell of dead bodies, although altogether
+imperceptible to the doctor, affected the young man so powerfully as to
+occasion shudderings, followed by feverish heat, terminating in a violent
+perspiration. He retained a great aversion, owing to their disagreeable
+taste and smell, to all kinds of food excepting bread and water.
+
+When the north pole of a small magnet was held towards him, he described a
+drawing sensation proceeding outwards from the epigastrium, and _as if a
+current of air went from him_. The south pole affected him less, and he
+said it blew upon him. Professor Daumer and Hermann made several
+experiments of the kind, calculated to deceive him, and, even although the
+magnet was held at a considerable distance from him, his feelings always
+told him very correctly. These experiments always occasioned perspiration
+and a feeling of indisposition. He could detect metals placed under
+oil-cloths, paper, &c. by the sensation they occasioned. He described
+these sensations as a drawing, accompanied with a chill, which ascended,
+according to the metal, more or less up the arm, and attended with other
+distinctive feelings, the veins of the hand exposed to the metal becoming
+visibly swollen.
+
+The variety and multitude of objects which at once came rushing upon his
+attention when he thus suddenly came into existence, the unaccustomed
+impressions of light, free air, and sense, and his anxiety to comprehend
+them, were too much for his weak frame and acute senses: he became
+dejected and enfeebled, and his nervous system morbidly elevated. He was
+subject to spasms and tremors, so that partial exclusion from external
+excitements became for a time requisite. After he had learned regularly to
+eat meat, his mental activity was diminished; his eyes lost their
+brilliancy and expression; the intense application and activity of his
+mind gave way to absence or indifference, and the quickness of
+apprehension became diminished. It may be questioned whether this
+alteration proceeded from the change of diet, or the painful excess of
+excitement that had preceded it.
+
+Among the various doctrines regarding the creation of animals, that of
+_Panspermia_ was most ingenious and attractive. According to this theory,
+maintained by Anaxagoras and Heraclitus, all bodies contained the germ or
+the organic molecules necessary for their generation. Hippocrates favoured
+this idea, as plainly appears in his book _de Diaeta_; and in modern times
+Perrault, Gesik, Wollaston, Sturm, and other physiologists, have
+endeavoured to revive the doctrine, of which the organic molecules of
+Buffon and the living molecules of Ray were merely modifications. The
+expression in Genesis which sanctions the belief that the earth
+spontaneously germinated its productions, cannot be referred to the animal
+kingdom. Were this the case, similar animals would be found in every
+quarter of the globe. Spontaneous generation was also attributed to
+putrefaction; and Virgil describes the manner in which Aristaeus drew forth
+a swarm of bees from the corrupted entrails of a heifer. Pliny admits the
+spontaneous creation of rats, mice, frogs, and other small tribes of
+animals. These errors, however, were soon dispelled by the light thrown on
+the subject by the microscopic experiments of Valisneri, Swammerdam,
+Reaumur, and many other naturalists, who discovered sexual organs in all
+these supposed self-created individuals.
+
+This doctrine was the foundation of the classification of the generative
+principle into _equivocal_ and _univocal generations_,--the former the
+effect of putrefaction, but which in reality was _univocal_, since it was
+soon ascertained that this production arose from the incubation of
+numerous eggs deposited by various insects and animalculi in these
+corrupted bodies. The following experiment afforded a convincing proof of
+the fact: A piece of meat was placed in an open vessel, and another in a
+vase hermetically closed; so soon as these animal substances entered into
+decomposition, myriads of insects pullulated in the exposed meat, whereas
+that which was protected from external agency remained free from this
+invasion.
+
+It is a recognised fact that it is only through organized beings that
+organization can be transmitted; for how can corrupt substances, dead and
+deprived of vitality, give life to any organized matter? Generation is
+life; putrescence is death. By a law of nature, generation may be said
+ultimately to destroy the generative powers; a striking illustration of
+mortality, since life is transmitted at the expense of our very existence,
+and many individuals in the catenation of organized beings perish the very
+moment that they have tended to perpetuate their race. Death advances with
+rapid strides in the very ratio of the energies of life; and the surest
+method to attain longevity is to be sparing in the exercise of our
+exhausting faculties.
+
+  Et quasi vitai lampada tradunt.
+
+_Latent_ or insensible life, such as that of the seeds of plants, or the
+animal enveloped in its egg, may last for a number of years, so long as
+they are able to germinate; here vitality is not worn out by relative
+life. Various species of the snail, the wheel-polybe, the tile-eel, and
+divers animalcules, have been kept apparently dead, and in the form of
+dried preparations, withered and hardened, for months and even years, but
+have afterwards been restored to life by the agency of warmth, moisture,
+and other stimulants. Snails have been thus reanimated after a lapse of
+fifteen years; and Bauer revived the _Vibrio tritici_, after an apparent
+death of five years and eight months, by merely soaking it in water.
+Adders have been found in hard winters not only completely frozen but
+absolutely brittle, yet have been restored to life when thawed. A shower
+of fragments of ice has fallen at Leicester, containing the horsehair eel,
+with the nuclei of a greater number. Colonel Wilks found eggs in the solid
+rocks of St. Helena susceptible of being hatched. The vitality in the
+seeds of plants is truly amazing; barley taken out of the bodies of
+mummies, Indian corn discovered in the tomb of a Peruvian Inca, and the
+bulb of an onion found in the hand of a mummy 3000 years old have been
+sown and have thriven luxuriantly. The most intense heat cannot destroy
+the vital property. The seeds of roasted apples, the kernels of baked
+prunes and boiled elder-berries have germinated. Sir John Herschel found
+that the _Acacia Lophanta_ lived after having been steeped in boiling
+water for twelve hours, and Ludwig informs us that the seeds of a species
+of cedar only germinated after ebullition. Fresh-water shells have been
+found in the thermal waters of Gastein at a temperature of 117 deg., and
+Niebuhr found a conferva growing in water at 142 deg. Raspberry-seeds
+taken from the corpse of an ancient Briton, contemporaneous with the
+Druids, have produced fruit when recommitted to the earth.
+
+Some have endeavoured to explain the resurrection of the dead by these
+natural phenomena; forgetting that in these instances no corruption or
+actual disorganization had taken place. Stahl expresses himself in the
+following words when defining life: "Life is formally nothing more than
+the preservation of the body in mixture, corruptible indeed, but without
+the occurrence of corruption;" and in Junker we find, "What we call life
+is opposite to putridity."
+
+The next theory attributed the principle of life to a subtle _gas_ or
+_aura_. This doctrine constituted one of the principles of the Epicurean
+philosophy, and was illustrated by Lucretius in his poem on the Nature of
+Things:
+
+  Nam penitus prorsum latet haec natura, subestque;
+  Nec magis hac infra quidquam est in corpore nostro;
+  Atque anima est animae proporro totius ipsa.
+
+According to these notions, there existed a volatile principle that bore
+no specific name, but was diffused through every part of living bodies,
+more subtile than heat, air, or vapour. In later times this same gaseous
+agent received various appellations. Van Helmont designated it as the
+_aura vitalis_, while other philosophers called it the _aura seminalis_
+and the _aura sanguinis_. The _archeus faber_ of Van Helmont, the _astrum
+internum_ of Crollius, the _principium energoumenon_ of Michael Alberti,
+the _substantia energetica naturae_ of Glisson, may all be referred to this
+unseen but powerful agency. Hippocrates called it [Greek: physis], or
+nature, which he elsewhere denominates [Greek: enoronta]. It was also the
+[Greek: dynamis xotike] of Galen. This soul, or breath, or spirit,
+directed and preserved the whole economy; and Chrysippus asserts that it
+acted like salt upon pork.
+
+Modern chemistry has sought this principle in specific agents. Caloric, or
+the matter of heat; oxygen, or the vital part of atmospheric air, first
+discovered by Priestley, and explained by Lavoisier; and finally, the
+fluid collected by the Voltaic trough, were then considered as the
+principle of life. The experiments of Professor Galvani of Bologna, in
+which he produced the phenomena of life many hours after death, induced
+many physiologists to maintain that the identity that existed in galvanic
+electricity and the nervous influence, proved that this _aura_ was the
+creative agent in our economy.
+
+The late experiments of Mr. Crosse seemed to show that insects were
+produced in silicate of potash under a long-continued action of voltaic
+electricity. Now whether this be really the case or not, it is grievous in
+the present enlightened age, to see these experiments and the assertions
+that resulted from them, denominated the work of atheism, and the labour
+of another Frankenstein!--I do not suppose for one moment that Mr. Crosse
+pretended to have discovered the power of imparting life, but merely of
+having developed a vital principle in substances supposed to be inorganic.
+Every experimentalist who thus develops the vital principle may be said to
+bestow life, without being exposed to the absurd charge of impiety.--The
+man who brings forth chickens from the incubation of eggs, instead of
+eating them; the physiologist who rots a piece of meat to develop myriads
+of living beings in the putrid nidus, might just as well be called an
+atheist.
+
+While naturalists were thus groping in nature's dark labyrinth,
+endeavouring to account for the wonders of the _natura naturans_, that
+divinity of the Stoics that Lucan thus describes,
+
+          Superos quid quaerimus ultra?
+  Jupiter est quodcumque vides, Jovis omnia plena,--
+
+other wise men fancied that they had actually discovered the seat of
+life, which, according to their fanciful speculations, they had lodged in
+certain organs. The nervous system, the spinal marrow, the brain, the
+heart, were all and each of them considered in turn as the head-quarters
+of vitality; while the workshop of alimentation, or much-abused stomach,
+did not pass unnoticed and unhonoured. The heart of a turtle, and of some
+reptiles, has been seen contracting and dilating hours after its
+extraction from the body; the stomach has been excited into an action
+bearing some analogy to vomiting, when separated from the trunk; but all
+these curious phenomena, explained and accounted for (in some measure, at
+least) by physiology, do not tend to prove that any one organ, or any
+chain of organs, is possessed of separate vitality independent of the
+general principle of life. The brain, which has been regarded as the chief
+seat of this principle, is not always essential to life; for although man
+perishes, or at least his vital functions cease to act, when he is
+decapitated,[30] yet various birds and reptiles continue to live for hours
+and days after the head has been severed from the body, while we actually
+behold a regeneration of the head in the earth-worm. Moreover, we have
+upon record many cases of _acephalous_ children, or born without any head;
+and _anencephalous_ children who lived (for a short time, it is true)
+without any brains. Fontana removed the entire brain of a turtle, yet it
+lived six months, and walked about as before.
+
+Sandiford had divided acephalous animals into three classes: the first, in
+which the head was wanting; the second, where other organs were also
+missing; and the third, where the foetus presented an unformed mass. In
+the acephalous twin described by Beclard, no liver, spleen, stomach, or
+oesophagus could be discovered, and the intestinal tube commenced at the
+superior extremity of the body. The infant had ten ribs on each side, and
+regular nerves arose from the spinal marrow. Although headless animals may
+not be gifted with intellectual faculties evident to our senses, yet they
+clearly live and feel. The zoophytes and polypes, without brains or heads,
+possess irritability and sensibility; they can seek their food, seize it,
+reject what is not edible, are susceptible of the powers of light and
+heat, can contract their fibres when touched or injured, and, in short,
+manifest various innate or instinctive powers. Gall has maintained that
+the passions resided in the brain, and, therefore, that brainless animals
+did not experience their influence. This is a bold assertion. Can he prove
+that worms, insects, zoophytes, that possess only what is called a
+ganglionic system, are strangers to instinctive fears and partialities? I
+apprehend that it will be found that passions belong to instinct much more
+than to our volition.
+
+It is nevertheless true that animals may be killed by wounding the spinal
+marrow, by the process commonly called "_pitting_." This practice may be
+traced to high antiquity; and Livy informs us that when the Carthaginian
+troops were routed, Asdrubal ordered their unmanageable elephants to be
+destroyed by driving the point of a knife between the junction of the head
+and spine.
+
+From these observations it will appear quite clear that life has no
+necessary connexion with sensation, although the latter cannot be
+experienced without the former. Vegetables are endowed with vitality; but
+we have no reason to suppose that they feel. It is also more than probable
+that, as the degree of intelligence decreases, the intensity of the
+corporeal feelings are also diminished. Did not this scale of sensibility
+exist, insects could not live under the supposed agonies that the
+entomologist daily inflicts. This supposition does not rest upon
+indefinite reasoning, for in our own race we observe that those parts
+which are gifted with a reproductive power are possessed of the smallest
+degrees of sensation; and the cuticle, the hair, the beard, and the nails
+will even grow after death. This fact may calm the apprehensions of those
+very humane persons who look upon experimental physiologists as very
+monsters of barbarity. Vaillant took out the intestines of a locust, and
+stuffed it with cotton, then fixed it down in his box with a pin, yet,
+five months after, the insect moved its feet and antennas. Spallanzani has
+shown that the snail can renew its head.
+
+All this confusion in theories and wandering of the imagination have
+arisen from our confounding the vital principle, of which we know nothing,
+with the phenomena of sensation, for which patient and calm investigation
+may account. That there does exist a principle of life that animates,
+vivifies, and preserves all living bodies, until its powers cease, no one
+can deny; although to find out its nature is a vain pursuit, as idle as
+our endeavours to penetrate into the _causes of causation_. As Richerand
+observes, "its _essence_ is not designed to preserve the aggregation of
+our constituent molecules, but to collect other molecules, which, by
+assimilating themselves to the organ that it _vivifies_, may replace those
+which daily losses carry off, and which are employed in repairing and
+augmenting them; the word _vital principle_ is therefore not designed to
+express a distinct being, but denotes the _totality of powers alone_ which
+animate living bodies, and distinguish them from inert matter, the
+_totality of properties_ and _laws_ which govern the animal economy."
+
+Of all the doctrines upon this abstruse subject (of which I have noticed
+the principal ones), that of the pre-existence of an organic germ appears
+the most plausible, or at any rate the easiest to conceive. It was from
+this conviction that the ancients held as an axiomatic principle _Omnia ex
+ovo_. It is upon this theory that Buffon rested his organic molecules, and
+Ray his vital globules. The primitive lineaments of organization may be
+traced in the egg, even before it is fecundated. The embryo that we find
+in its involucra is soft, flexible, ready to receive the plastic
+impression of the vivifying secretion,--the fecundating agency that
+imparts existence and all its wondrous attributes, to the pre-existing
+_ova_, the _ova subventanea_. It does not appear that the first organ of
+the embryo which exhibits the living principle is the heart, hence
+denominated in the foetus the _punctum saliens_; the principle of life
+has probably organized every molecule of the animal long before this
+supposed fountain of vitality had been seen to flow. It is more likely
+that the nervous system has received the first impressions imparted by the
+fecundating secretion, which the ancients supposed to have been a direct
+emanation from the brain, and bearing in its vivifying molecules the life
+of every part of the being it was about to organize; thus Valescus:
+"Sperma hominibus descendit ex omni corporis humore, qui fit ex subtiliori
+natura. Habet autem hoc sperma nervos et venas proprias attrahentes se a
+toto corpore ad testiculos--a membris disconditur principalibus--a corde,
+epate, cerebro mittuntur spiritus, ex quibus resultat spiritus
+informativus, et non aliter nisi cum spermate--ergo ab iis principaliter
+sperma disconditur."
+
+Such were the doctrines on this curious subject until the days of
+Fabricius d'Acquapendente and Harvey. Buffon, however, exerted all his
+eloquence to revive the theory. The following are the notions of this
+elegant writer, who unfortunately only studied natural history in books
+and cabinets. He maintains that there exist two sorts of matter,--the one
+living, the other dead: the first enjoying a permanent vitality; the
+second universally spread, passing from vegetables to animals through the
+channels of nutrition, and returning from animals to vegetables through
+the medium of putrefaction,--thus in a constant state of circulation to
+animate living beings. This vital matter exists in determined quantities
+in nature, and is composed of an infinity of organic molecules, primitive,
+living, active, incorruptible, and in relation, both as regards action and
+numbers, with the molecules of light, and enjoying an immutable existence,
+since the usual causes of destruction can only affect their adherence. It
+is these molecules which, being cast in regular moulds, constitute all the
+organized bodies that surround us. According to this doctrine,
+_development_ and _growth_ are only a change of form operated by the
+addition of organic molecules; _nutrition_, the preservation of this form
+by the accession of fresh molecules that replace those that are destroyed;
+_generation_, the combination of these particles; and _death_, their
+separation from cohesion and association.
+
+This ingenious system is not dissimilar to that of Maupertuis, who thought
+that the mysteries of generation could be explained by the usual laws of
+elective attraction. Various were the physical, metaphysical, and moral
+batteries raised against this visionary fabric. One single fact was
+sufficient to overthrow it. We constantly see parents deficient in a limb,
+or misshapen, producing perfect offspring; if each part of the economy was
+to transmit to its progeniture molecules similar to itself, the child
+would naturally be visited with the imperfection of the parent.
+
+Notwithstanding these fallacies, we cannot but admit that chemical and
+molecular attraction constitute the principle that harmonizes all
+organized bodies. Generation is simply a function of organization and
+life. Organized bodies alone can generate. The living only can impart
+life. Animals and plants transmit to their descendants their several
+properties; and the inheritance of organization departs with the vital
+spark. Life is the property of no one; it is a transmitted heir-loom that
+never perishes; it resembles a torch that communicates an eternal flame
+while consuming itself. Organized beings have justly been considered the
+fuel of the universal vital fire, and we all are the _daily bread_ of that
+monstrous animal called _the world_. All are ingulfed in that vortex which
+Beccher has called the "_circulus aeterni motus_" Metempsychosis was
+simply an illustration of this fact recognised in all ages in the East,
+and taught in European schools by Pythagoras. Nothing perishes; and even
+combustion produces fresh combinations.
+
+Poetical philosophy has considered _Love_ as the source and arbiter of
+_life_, and the _Venus Generatrix_ the fount of our existence. Lucretius
+recognises this power in the following lines:
+
+    Per te quoniam genus omne animantum
+  Concipitur, visitque exortum lumina solis.
+
+Then again,
+
+  Omnibus incutiens blandum per pectora amorem,
+  Efficis ut cupide generatim saecia propagent.
+
+Virey, a delightful French physiologist, seems to partake of this
+mythological opinion in the following passage: "L'amour est l'arbitre du
+monde organique; c'est lui qui debrouille le chaos de la matiere, et qui
+l'impregne de vie. Il ouvre et ferme a son gre les portes de l'existence a
+tous les etres que sa voix appelle du neant, et qu'il y replonge.
+L'attraction dans les matieres brutes est une sorte d'amour ou d'amitie
+analogue a celle qui reproduit des etres organises. Ainsi la faculte
+generative est un phenomene general dans l'univers; elle est representee
+par les attractions planetaires et chimiques dans les substances brutes,
+et par l'amour ou la vie dans les corps organises."
+
+According to our amatory neighbours, the word _ame_, or soul, comes from
+_amor_ and _amare_, and _amare_ is derived from _animare_; hence
+_animation_ and _animal_ may be syllogistically referred to love.
+
+I know not how far this etymological disquisition may illustrate the
+history of their _enfans trouves_, or our foundling hospitals, the inmates
+of which are generally uncommonly ill favoured by beauty. The offspring of
+the aforesaid Venus Generatrix must have been especially ungrateful; and
+if it be true that Julius Caesar was her son, he certainly exerted his best
+endeavours to depopulate his mother's territories.
+
+
+
+
+OF THE HOMOEOPATHIC DOCTRINES.
+
+
+It is a matter worthy of remark, that, while the doctrines of
+homoeopathy have fixed the attention and become the study of many
+learned and experienced medical men in various parts of Europe, England is
+the only country where it has only been noticed to draw forth the most
+opprobrious invectives. It is certainly true that no one but an ardent
+proselyte of the visionary Hahnemann could for one moment become the
+advocate of all his absurd ideas; yet, while we reject his errors, great
+and important truths beam from the chaotic clouds that shroud his
+wanderings; and, however wild his theories may be, incontrovertible facts
+have been elicited from his apparently inefficacious practice.
+
+Before I enter into an examination of the practical views of the
+homoeopathists, I shall give a brief sketch of their doctrines and of
+their founder.
+
+Samuel Hahnemann was born in Meissen in Saxony, on the 10th of April,
+1755. His father was an humble porcelain manufacturer. The first rudiments
+of education that young Hahnemann received were gratuitous; and his
+master, pleased with the progress of his ambitious but needy scholar,
+strongly urged him to repair to Leipzig, where, at the age of twenty, he
+arrived, with exactly the same number of crowns in his pocket as he
+numbered years. At this university he zealously pursued his favourite
+studies of the natural sciences, supporting himself by translating French
+works, and giving lessons; and finally he graduated in the university of
+Eslan--in 1779.
+
+It was during his arduous studies that Hahnemann was struck with the
+conflicting systems and the deplorable controversies which for centuries
+divided in turn the medical schools of Europe, and were triumphant or
+overthrown by scholastic revolutions; each doctrine being doomed to
+obscurity and oblivion in the ratio of its ephemeral splendour. The
+result of his reflections and experiments was the system of homoeopathy.
+Its novelty, its apparent absurdity, soon exposed him not only to
+opposition, but to violent persecution. As is usual in all cases of
+oppression, whether justly or unjustly resorted to, proselytes as furious
+and as fanatical as his persecutors joined their chief. Despite the
+sanatary regulations of Saxony, which prohibited physicians from
+dispensing their medicines, Hahnemann prepared and supplied his
+homoeopathic remedies; and, being expelled from Leipzig, sought a refuge
+at Koethen, where, exasperated by the harsh treatment he had
+experienced, he fulminated his anathema on all past and present systems of
+medicine with no small degree of furious resentment, pronouncing his
+doctrine to be stamped with the seal of infallibility, and denouncing all
+others as the aberrations of ignorance and error, or the speculations of
+imposture and fraud.
+
+As might have been expected, few of his opponents thought it worth their
+while to study his system calmly and dispassionately; nor, indeed, was
+such an application necessary, for his doctrines needed no deep
+investigation on the part of his foes, so fraught were they with apparent
+errors and false deductions, not only from his own pretended experience,
+but the experience of ages. Finding that he could not enjoy a despotic
+sway over the schools, he was resolved at any rate to seek the palm of
+martyrdom, and had recourse to such violence in words and actions, that
+many of his enemies maintained he was a more fitting subject for a lunatic
+asylum than the _soi-disant_ founder of a rational doctrine; for he and
+his fanatical disciples set all ratiocination at nought, considering his
+_dixit_ as a fiat of condemnation passed on all who dared to doubt his
+infallibility, although at different periods their oracle was obliged to
+retract many erroneous assertions and contradict fallacious statements.
+
+In the short view of his doctrines which I am about to give, these
+fallacies will become evident.
+
+Hahnemann had observed in his studies and hospital practice that the
+prevalent systems of medicine were founded on the rational principle of
+combating effects by striking at morbid causes. Physicians sometimes
+endeavoured to attain this desirable end by producing in the system an
+artificial action differing from the nature of the malady, and founded
+their practice on the scholastic axiom of _contraria contrariis curantur_;
+at other times they raised or depressed the vital energies according to
+the prevalence of excitement or debility, or modified the character of the
+disease by revulsion and derivation, a practice which received the name of
+antagonistic, or _allopathic_,--a term used by Hahnemann in
+contradistinction to homoeopathy, and derived from [Greek: allos],
+_different_, and [Greek: pathos], _affection_.
+
+In his therapeutic pursuits Hahnemann had been forcibly struck with the
+long-acknowledged fact that medicinal substances supposed to possess a
+certain specific property in the treatment of diseases, were known in the
+healthy subject to produce phenomena bearing a close analogy to the
+symptoms of those identical diseases. Thus, mercurial preparations
+occasioned symptoms of syphilis, sulphur produced cutaneous irritation,
+and, in some instances, the exhibition of cinchona had been known to bring
+on febrile intermissions. In various works he found these observations
+established. For instance, amongst many others, he found in the
+publications of Beddoes, Scott, Blair, and various writers, that nitric
+acid, which was known to produce ptyalism, relieved salivation and
+ulceration in the mouth. Arsenic, which, according to Henreich, Knape, and
+Heinze, occasioned cancerous anomalies in healthy subjects, was stated by
+Fallopius, Bernharde, Roennow, and many other surgeons, to be efficacious
+in relieving, if not curing, similar disorders; preparations of copper
+were asserted by Tondi, Ramsay, Lazermi, and numerous practitioners, to
+have produced epileptic attacks; and Batty, Baumes, Cullen, Duncan, and
+several experienced medical practitioners, recommended similar remedies in
+epilepsy. In short, the illustrations of the power inherent in certain
+substances to produce accidents analogous to the symptoms of the various
+diseases in the treatment of which they had proved efficacious, induced
+Hahnemann to consider whether a treatment founded on _similia similibus
+curantur_ might not be found more effectual than the former practice based
+upon the _contraria contrariis_. He was of opinion that no medicine was
+possessed of any _curative property_, but solely acted by its _morbific
+power_ of producing a disordered condition in the system; and on this and
+other principles, which we shall shortly notice, he asserts that nature
+does not possess any curative power, totally denying the _vis medicatrix_
+of the schools. He further maintained, that there does not exist any
+specific malady; but that which we consider to be a disease is nothing but
+a complexity of symptoms, and that a cure can only be effected when these
+complex symptoms are made to disappear.
+
+Impressed with these ideas, he and his disciples proceeded to try various
+medicinal substances upon themselves and others when in health, and,
+carefully recording the symptoms which these medicines produced, they drew
+up a statement of their various powers, that they might be afterwards
+resorted to, to relieve the same symptoms in a morbid state. Grounding
+this practice on the principle (in many instances correct) that two
+similar diseases cannot coexist, they conceived that if, to counteract a
+natural malady, one can produce by any medication an artificial
+derangement of the same nature, the artificial disorder will overcome the
+natural disease, and a radical cure be obtained. To explain more
+distinctly this idea, I shall quote the author's words.
+
+"The curative power of medicines is thus founded on the property they
+possess to give rise to symptoms similar to those of the disease, but of a
+more intense power. Hence no disease can be overcome or cured in a
+certain, radical, rapid, and lasting manner, but through the means of a
+medicine capable of provoking a group of symptoms similar to those of the
+disease, and at the same time possessed of a superior energetic
+power."[31] And further,
+
+"If two dissimilar maladies happen to be coexisting, possessed of an
+unequal force, or if the oldest disease is more energetic than the recent
+one, the latter will be expelled by the former. Thus, an individual
+labouring under a severe chronic disease will not be subject to the
+invasion of an autumnal dysentery, or any other slight epidemic. Larrey
+affirms that the districts of Egypt in which scurvy was prevalent were
+exempt from the plague. Jenner asserts that rachitis prevents the effect
+of vaccination; and Hildebrand assures us that phthysical patients never
+experience epidemic fevers unless of the most severe character."[32]
+
+"If a recent affection, dissimilar to a more ancient one be more powerful
+than the latter, then will the progress of the latter be suspended until
+the malady is either cured or has been expended in its career, and then
+the old one will reappear."[33]
+
+"But the result is totally different when two similar diseases meet in the
+organism; that is to say, when a pre-existing affection is complicated
+with one of the same nature, but possessed of more energy."[34]
+
+"Two maladies resembling each other in their manifestation and their
+effects, that is to say, in the symptoms which they determine, mutually
+destroy each other, the strongest conquering the weakest."[35]
+
+He further contends that the essential nature of every disease is unknown;
+that their existence is revealed by alterations and changes in the system
+perceptible to our senses, and constituting what are called _symptoms_,
+and it is the series of these symptoms which characterize the disease in
+its course and its development. According to his notions, the physician
+has only to follow and study the succession and the grouping of these
+symptoms; in short, the phases and the phenomena of diseases. Attack and
+destroy these symptoms, and you will have destroyed the malady.
+
+All classification of diseases, and their various denominations, he
+therefore deemed absurd, as, according to his doctrines, no one disease
+resembles another; so various were their modifications, that, with few
+exceptions, it was idle to give them a particular name, since disease was
+simply a derangement in our organization manifested by peculiar symptoms.
+
+We are also, according to Hahnemann, ignorant of the essential properties
+of medicines, and can only observe and record their effects by
+experimental observation. Like diseases, they also produce a derangement
+in our organism, manifested by peculiar symptoms, their sole action
+consisting in developing specific diseases.
+
+In conformity with these notions, to cure disease we have only to produce
+a similar affection; the primitive one would then give way to the
+secondary affection artificially produced, and in time the artificial one
+would cease to exist when the means that produced it were no longer
+brought into action.
+
+Homoeopathic medicines, he maintained, have the property of acting in a
+direct manner upon the affected part of the system; and this is proved
+when the disease, and the medicine given to relieve it, produce similar
+morbid manifestations: and he further contended that our vital organism
+was less susceptible of the action of natural affections than of those
+which are artificially produced.
+
+On this basis did the homoeopathic doctrinarians ground their practice;
+but a still more singular theory was broached by their leader; he
+maintained that medicinal substances, to prove efficacious, should be
+administered in an attenuated and diluted state, carried to such an extent
+as to become infinite in their division; he further asserts that this
+infinite division, far from diminishing their medicinal power and
+properties, imparts greater energy and certainty of action when these
+particles encounter in our organization an affinity of disposition, or a
+homogeny in action; that is to say, that these atomic attenuations act
+with greater power in those affections which manifest symptoms similar to
+those which these very medicines are known to produce when experimentally
+tried upon a healthy subject.
+
+Upon this principle the homoeopathist condemns all combinations of
+medicines as likely to neutralize each other's properties by their various
+affinities; therefore generally speaking, no fresh medicine should be
+given until the effects of the former have subsided; and to guide this
+practice, while they endeavoured to ascertain the symptoms produced by
+medicines, they also sought to ascribe certain limits to the duration of
+their action: thus, the influence of aconite lasts forty-eight hours, and
+that of crude antimony fifteen days.
+
+Dreading all substances that could tend to weaken or neutralize the effect
+of medicine, the homoeopathists made it their particular study to
+discover the peculiar action of all alimentary substances on the organism,
+and characterized as antidotes all such articles of food as they
+considered opposed to this supposed action: thus, wine and vegetable acids
+were deemed antidotes to aconite; coffee, to Angustura bark; vinegar, to
+asarum, &c.
+
+I have already stated that the homoeopathists conceive that the infinite
+dilution of their atoms of medicinal substances increase their energy; and
+this fact they so strenuously maintain, that they assert that accidents of
+a serious nature may arise when this division is carried too far; and
+these accidents are then to be met with the medicinal antidotes they
+pretend to have discovered: thus, camphor is an antidote to cocculus;
+opium, to the crocus sativus; camomile and camphor, to ignatia amara; and
+so on.
+
+The minuteness with which the specific actions of various medicinal
+substances on certain organs is detailed is scarcely credible; and the
+following extract from the homoeopathic materia medica will give a
+slight idea of their industrious labours. Taking as an example phosphorus,
+which they affirm produces--
+
+Vertigo, determination of blood to the head, headache in the morning, fall
+of the hair, difficulty in opening the eyelids, burning sensation and
+ulceration of the internal canthus of the eye, when exposed to the open
+air, lachrymation and adhesion of the palpebrae; inflammation of the eyes,
+with the sensation of particles of sand having been introduced; sparks and
+spangles floating before the eyes, a dark tinge in objects that are looked
+on, diurnal cecity, the appearance of a gray veil drawn before the eyes,
+pulsation in the ears, epistaxis, mucous discharge from the nostrils,
+foulness of breath, tumefaction of the throat, whiteness of the tongue,
+ulceration of the mouth, expectoration of glairy mucus, dryness of the
+mouth by night and by day, spasmodic eructation, nausea, sense of hunger
+after eating, anxiety after meals; in short, twenty-four octavo pages are
+devoted to the innumerable effects of this substance on the organism.
+
+Of _magnesia artificialis_ three hundred and twelve symptoms are noted;
+six hundred and fifty of the _rhus radicans_; nine hundred and forty of
+_pulsatilla_; five hundred of _ignatia amara_; four hundred and sixty of
+_arsenic_: in short, volumes upon volumes are crowded with these
+observations, not only recording physical effects, but singular results on
+our moral faculties; such as serenity or moroseness, gaiety or sadness, a
+disposition to commit suicide or a fond partiality to life, courage or
+cowardice, a weak intellect or a vigorous conception. For
+instance,--common sea-salt occasions irascibility, lowness of spirits,
+taciturnity, melancholy, palpitation of heart, disposition to shed tears,
+pusillanimity, and despair; while potash gives rise to ill-temper without
+apparent cause at noon and in the evening, with violent paroxysms of rage
+in the morning, impetuous desires, furious passion, with gnashing of
+teeth, if all around does not yield to the patient's desires; while the
+vision of a bird hovering about the window produces loud shrieks of alarm,
+exaltation of the intellects, and a horror of the future. So innumerable,
+indeed, are all these singular effects attributed to various medicines
+thus experimented, that no memory, however retentive, could possibly bear
+them in recollection. The following are the directions laid down for
+conducting this curious inquiry:
+
+The person upon whom medicines are tried must be free from disease; but
+weak substances should be given to subjects of a delicate and sensitive
+constitution. The medicine is to be tried in its most pure and simple
+state, possessing all its energies, taking special care that it is not
+combined with any heterogeneous substances during the day it is exhibited,
+and the time while its action is supposed to last. The diet must be
+moderate; all spices and high-seasoned food to be avoided, as well as
+green vegetables, roots, salads, &c. which are known to possess medicinal
+properties. The dose of the medicine to be similar to that which is
+usually prescribed by practitioners. If, at the expiration of about two
+hours, no effect is observed, a stronger dose is to be given. Should the
+first dose operate powerfully at the commencement, but gradually lose its
+influence, the second will be given the following morning; and a still
+stronger one, four times the strength of the first, be administered on the
+third day.
+
+The result of these experiments being recorded, homoeopathic agents are
+selected to oppose morbid symptoms; and when the choice of remedies has
+been appropriate, an aggravation of the symptoms is observed. This
+aggravation is usually considered as an increase of the disorder, whereas
+it is solely the effect of the homoeopathic remedy. "For these
+phenomena," say the homoeopathists, "were frequently observed by
+physicians, who little thought at the time, that they were the result of
+the medicines they had given." Thus, when the pustules of itch became more
+rife after the exhibition of sulphur, it was thought that the increase of
+the eruption was merely the affection _coming out_ more freely; whereas,
+the aggravation was occasioned by sulphur. Leroy informs us that the
+heart's-ease, _viola tricolor_, increased an eruption in the face. Lyrons
+says that elm-bark aggravated cutaneous affections, which were cured by
+this remedy; but neither of them were aware of the nature of this
+homoeopathic development. For further information on this head, the
+Organon of Hahnemann must be consulted.
+
+Such were his doctrines for a period of about twenty years,--doctrines
+which he emphatically pronounced infallible, and founded on the immutable
+laws of homoeopathy. In 1828, however, convinced by numerous failures in
+the treatment of chronic diseases, that other causes than those which he
+acknowledged,--such as the improper preparation of the medicine, or
+dietetic neglect on the part of the patient,--contributed to these
+disappointments, he announced that he had discovered the hidden source of
+the obstacles he encountered; and that, after many years of experiments
+and meditation, he had come to the conclusion that almost all chronic
+diseases originated from constitutional miasmatic affections or
+predispositions, which he divided into _sycosis_, _syphilis_, and _psora_,
+or, in plain English, the itch. To this latter affection he attributes
+innumerable disorders. In diseases of a syphilitic character, he had found
+his mode of treatment infallible; and he therefore concluded that all
+obstinate and rebellious affections were the result of some other
+constitutional predisposing circumstances. He tells us that he laboured in
+profound secrecy to discover this great, this sublime desideratum: his
+very pupils knew it not; the world was to remain in ignorance of his
+pursuits until he could proclaim the most inestimable gift that Divinity
+bestowed upon mankind. This immortal discovery was neither more nor less
+than the itch; to which malady, according to his views, since the days of
+Moses, seven-eighths of the physical and moral miseries to which flesh is
+heir, were to be referred. Whether rendered evident by eruptions, or
+latent from our cradle, it was a curse transmitted to us, by the
+modification and degeneration of leprosy, through myriads of
+constitutions, and which only disappears from the surface to fester in
+malignity until it bursts forth again in the multifarious forms of
+innumerable diseases, amongst which we find scrofula, rachitis, phthisis,
+hysteria, hypochondriasis, dropsy, hydrocephalus, haemorrhage, fistula,
+diseases of the head and liver, ruptures, cataracts, tic-douloureux,
+deafness, erysipelas, cancers, aneurisms, rheumatism, gout, apoplexy,
+epilepsy, palsy, convulsions, stone, St. Vitus's dance, nervous affections
+of every description, loss of sight, of smell, of taste, stupidity and
+imbecility.[36] In support of this doctrine, Hahnemann adduces ninety-five
+cases recorded by medical writers, in which the disappearance of the itch
+was followed by various acute and chronic maladies.
+
+The next miasmatic generator is _sycosis_, or the disposition to warty
+excrescences; but this source of disease Hahnemann does not consider so
+prolific as syphilis, or his favourite psora.
+
+Such are the principal features of the homoeopathic system. I have
+already stated that its followers consider the most minute particles of
+medicine more powerful than larger doses; they therefore have recourse to
+infinite trituration or dilution in three vehicles which they consider
+free from any medicinal property,--distilled water, spirits of wine, and
+sugar of milk; by these means they procure a decillionth or a
+quintillionth fraction of a grain. One drop of their solution is
+considered sufficient to saturate three hundred globules of sugar of milk;
+and three or four of these globules are deemed a powerful medicine. To
+give a better idea of Hahnemann's notions on this subject, I shall quote
+his own words:
+
+"By shaking a drop of medicinal liquid with one hundred drops of alcohol
+_once_, that is to say, by taking the phial in the hand which contains the
+whole, and imparting to it a rapid motion by a single stroke of the arm
+descending, I shall then obtain an exact mixture of them; but two or
+three, or ten such movements, would develop the medicinal virtues still
+further, making them more potent, and their action on the nerves much more
+penetrating. In the extenuation of powders, when it is requisite to mix
+one grain of a medicinal substance in one hundred grains of sugar of milk,
+it ought to be rubbed down with force during one hour _only_, in order
+that the power of the medicine may not be carried to too great an extent;
+medicinal substances acquiring at each division or dilution a new degree
+of power, as the rubbing or shaking they undergo develops that inherent
+virtue in medicines which was unknown until my time, and which is so
+energetic, that latterly I have been forced by experience to reduce the
+number of shakes to two."
+
+As a further illustration of this theory, he affirms that gold is without
+any action in our organism in its natural state; but that when one grain
+of this metal is triturated according to the above process until each
+grain of the last triturated preparation contains a quadrillionth part of
+the original grain of the mineral, it will be so powerful that it will be
+sufficient to place this single grain in a phial, to be inspired for a
+moment, to produce the most amazing results, and none more so than the
+faculty of restoring to a melancholy individual, disposed to commit
+suicide, his pristine partiality to life.
+
+Unfortunately for Hahnemann, many of these assertions are unsupported by
+facts or sound reasoning, and appear mere wanderings of an ardent
+imagination; and thus soaring in regions of fancy, he himself has struck
+many fatal blows to his own doctrines. For instance, what are the
+arguments he adduces to prove that in two similar diseases the strongest
+will overcome the weakest?
+
+"Why," he exclaims, "does the splendid Jupiter disappear during the
+twilight of morn to the eyes of the contemplator? It is because a similar
+power, but possessed of greater energies, the breaking day, acts upon our
+organs."
+
+This is a defective analogy. Hahnemann tells us that a stronger power
+banishes a weaker one in a permanent manner, whereas the bright planet he
+here alludes to will return with the night. Then again:--
+
+"With what do we endeavour to relieve the olfactory nerves when offended
+by disagreeable odours? By snuff, which affects the nostrils in a similar
+but in a more powerful manner." This is not correct: when the action of
+snuff has ceased, the disagreeable effluvia become again offensive. In
+some instances his poetical vagaries are preposterous. "By what means," he
+adds, "do we endeavour to protect the ears of the compassionate from the
+lamentations of the poor wretched soldier condemned to be scourged? Is it
+not by the shrill notes of the fife united to the loud beat of the drum?
+How do we endeavour to drown the roar of distant artillery that causes
+terror in the heart of the soldier? By the roll of the double drum;--nor
+would this feeling of compassion, this sense of terror, have been checked
+by admonition or by splendid rewards. In the same manner our grief, our
+regret, subside, upon receiving the intelligence, true or false, that a
+more lively sorrow has affected another person." It would be idle to dwell
+upon the absurdity of such visions and erroneous statements.
+
+To support his doctrines, Hahnemann should have proved, 1st, that
+medicinal powers do produce an artificial malady similar to the natural
+affection; 2nd, that the organism only remains under the influence of the
+medicinal disease; 3rd, that this medicinal disease is of short duration;
+and 4th, that all these effects can only be produced by a medicine
+selected according to their similarity of symptoms. Our theorist has
+utterly failed in his endeavours to establish these facts; therefore have
+his doctrines been impugned by many of his most zealous disciples, amongst
+whom may be mentioned Griesselich, Rau, Schroen. The aggravation which he
+asserts takes place after the exhibition of a homoeopathic medicine is
+not only unsupported by proof, but positively denied by many of their
+practitioners; and Hartman plainly affirms that, after a homoeopathic
+dose, the patient frequently experiences a state of calm, a disposition to
+slumber, and often falls into a profound sleep more or less prolonged, in
+waking from which he finds himself much relieved, if not perfectly cured.
+Thus several physicians who have adopted his practical views reject many
+of the doctrines on which they are founded; and a homoeopathist has
+justly compared his works to a wild virgin forest, in which we meet with a
+number of valuable trees and plants in the midst of arid brushwood and
+parasitic weeds that would check the growth of the most useful
+productions.
+
+Yet, notwithstanding the many gratuitous assertions, and consequent
+erroneous inductions, we meet with in the _Organon_, it is probable that
+this system is destined to operate a gradual but material revolution in
+the _practice_ of medicine. As to theories, we must agree with Voltaire
+when he said "En fait de systeme, il faut toujours se reserver le droit de
+rire le lendemain de ses idees de la veille."
+
+Hippocrates laid down in his Aphorisms the incontrovertible fact, "Duobus
+doloribus simul obortis, non tandem eadem in parte, vehementior alterum
+obscurat. A. 46." To a certain degree, it was upon this assertion, which
+the experience of ages has confirmed, that Hahnemann founded the principal
+and most important point of his doctrine; but, going much farther than the
+father of medicine, he affirms that similar diseases effectually remove
+each other. For centuries practitioners have been acting
+homoeopathically; the exhibition of specifics, in fact, being nothing
+else. As we have already shown, specifics are known to produce symptoms
+similar to the diseases they cure. Hitherto the number of such medicines
+has been confined to a very few agents; and perhaps with the exception of
+mercury, sulphur, and bark, with their several preparations, scarcely any
+article in the materia medica could have claimed this peculiar property.
+To extend these limits, which confined in so exiguous a compass our
+therapeutic agents, has been the laborious and singular study of Hahnemann
+and his disciples. Haller had first given the example, and they arduously
+applied themselves to discover by experiments on the healthy subject, both
+upon their own persons and others, what were the peculiar effects or
+symptoms produced by various medicinal substances. These observations are
+so numerous and confused, that, on reading them, we feel plunged in a
+chaotic labyrinth of symptoms, without any clue to extricate ourselves
+from its perplexing mazes. Still, from this multifarious catalogue much
+important information can be collected; and it cannot be denied that the
+homoeopathist has not only thrown a new light on the action of many
+medicines which we daily prescribe, but brought into practical
+consideration the necessity of attending to dietetic discipline, by an
+investigation of the several properties of our usual _ingesta_.
+
+It is obvious that any enthusiast who would blindly embrace the foregoing
+doctrines without serious and deep investigation, and boldly apply the
+wild theory to practice, would at once throw open the flood-gates of
+absurdity, and lend his aid in destroying, if possible, with one fell
+swoop, the result of ages of mature study and experience. Hahnemann, to
+fertilize the fields of science, had recourse to inundation instead of
+wise and cautious irrigation; and the fury with which he and his rash
+disciples maintained their opinions materially tended to retard their
+progress. Truth needeth not violence; its own lustre will beam through
+surrounding darkness, without being dragged into light.
+
+The objections to Hahnemann's doctrines are glaring. The art of healing,
+from the dawn of science until the present day, has been more or less
+founded on the faculties of reasoning. We are taught, in the first
+instance, to observe carefully the phenomena of disease, and, by referring
+effects to probable causes, endeavour, however difficult the task, to
+trace their catenation. Many of these causes are perhaps sealed for ever
+in the inscrutable book of our destinies; yet, if we cannot obtain a
+knowledge of the origin of these disorders, still when we take into mature
+consideration the complication of all accidental circumstances, and from
+visible effects seek invisible relations, guided by our experience in
+anatomy, physiology, and the revelations of pathology, we may find this
+pursuit less difficult than it may be imagined. But the homoeopathist
+despises and rejects as idle, all those collateral means of diving into
+nature's arcana. He bids us dwell only upon evident symptoms, or, in other
+words, look to the effects alone, and cast away all thoughts of
+discovering their causes. Nothing can be more illogical than this
+argument; for certainly we can scarcely hope to remove effects without
+striking, as far as in our power lies, at their cause. To deny the
+existence of any specific affection because we cannot account for its
+origin, is absurd. As well might we reject the use of medicines known to
+possess specific properties, from our utter ignorance of their _modus
+operandi_. The exclusive consideration of symptoms would lead us into
+lamentable error, since the same symptoms are observable in various
+diseases. Similar pains, for instance, may be the symptoms of rheumatism,
+nephritic affections, and calculus; headaches may arise from inflammation,
+and from various and well-known sympathies with distant organs: yet,
+without seeking to ascertain these relations, the mechanical and
+empirical homoeopathist will prescribe such medicines as are known to
+occasion pains in the loins, or headaches; only bearing in mind
+perceptible derangements, heedless of the phenomena of organization, the
+state of the secretions and excretions, the history, the rise and progress
+of the disorder, or the idiosyncrasy of the patient. The liver is
+diseased; the discovery is of no importance. We have only to attend to the
+pain extending up the clavicle and shoulder, or the uneasiness experienced
+in the right hypochondrium: the pulse, the respiration, the condition of
+the excretions, the temperature of the skin, the appearance of the tongue,
+are all regarded as minor considerations. It is not _hepatitis_ that we
+are called upon to cure; it is to relieve a pain in the shoulder and in
+the hypochondrium, or a difficulty of lying on the left side.
+
+No one will pretend to deny that our safest, perhaps our sole, guide in
+the study of disease is the group of symptoms, that become more and more
+perceptible during the course of our investigations. It was principally on
+the study of symptoms that the most learned practitioners of every age and
+country grounded their diagnosis and their prognosis; but they never
+viewed them either singly, or in their complexity, as unconnected with the
+particular diseases to which they were not only essentially united, but
+from which they originated, and of the existence of which they were to be
+considered the diagnostic signs. Therefore did the ancients classify them
+as principal and accessory, univocal and equivocal, characteristic or
+common, as they afforded more or less information in our pathological
+deduction; and in that light they were weighed with greater or less
+application, as our judgment could only be formed by the attentive
+consideration of the phenomena of the organism in health and in disease.
+
+But while the homoeopathist's attention is chiefly directed to the
+discovery of means that can enable him to produce symptoms analogous to
+those of the disorder, he seems to disregard the laws of sympathy, by
+which our organism appears to be ruled; a mysterious agency which can only
+be ascertained by observation and experiment, when, to use the words of a
+distinguished writer,[37] "by the former we may be said to listen to
+nature, by the latter to interrogate her." Health depends upon the due
+co-operation of all these associations; and one organ in the wonderful
+machinery cannot be deranged in its functions without influencing others,
+however distant and unconnected they may appear. In this co-ordination,
+these vital relations have been very properly divided into mechanical,
+functional, and sympathetic. Their study constitutes the groundwork of all
+rational induction. It is not by individual or complex symptoms that we
+can decide where the want of equilibrium is to be traced. Various have
+been the theories on this most important subject, and great have been the
+erroneous ideas dogmatically laid down. The illustrious Bichat himself
+erred when he maintained that sympathies were aberrations--morbid
+developments of our vital properties. Sympathies, on the contrary, may be
+considered as constant phenomena, essential and inseparable from our
+organism, whether in health or in sickness; and are, if I may be pardoned
+the expression, co-ordinated to co-operate with each other in their
+mechanical, their functional, and their sympathetic associations.
+
+An incarcerated hernia causes hiccup, nausea, vomiting. Will the
+homoeopathist tell us that we must seek in his catalogue of innumerable
+effects some substance which is known to produce similar symptoms? Surely
+the rupture must first call our attention. This example is adduced as
+referring to nearly every case in which it might be rashly attempted to
+separate causes from effects. The mammary glands are variously affected in
+uterine diseases; their impressions are reciprocal, yet the uterine
+affection must be the chief object of our solicitude. A peculiar pruritus
+is a symptom of calculus. Are we then to administer a homoeopathic dose
+of _cannabis_, or any other medicine which may give rise to a similar
+sensation? It may be objected to this observation that these are purely
+surgical cases, in which we need not be guided by symptoms to discover
+causes; but it has too frequently happened that nausea and vomiting have
+been attended to, while the hernia was overlooked, until fatal accidents
+were manifested. Moreover, a diseased liver, a diseased spleen or kidney,
+would be just as perceptible as hernia or calculus, if these parts could
+be brought into view or contact.
+
+It may be said that an erroneous notion of Hahnemann's doctrines on this
+subject has been taken; it is therefore necessary to quote his own words:
+
+"It may be easily conceived that the existence of a malady presupposes
+some alteration in the interior of the human organism; but our
+understanding can only lead us to suspect this alteration in a vague and
+deceitful manner, from the appearance of the morbid symptoms, the sole
+guide we can depend on except in surgical cases. The essence of the
+internal and invisible change is undiscoverable, nor have we any means of
+guarding against deceptive illusions."[38]
+
+"The invisible substance that has undergone a morbid alteration in the
+interior of the human body, and the perceptible changes, which are
+externally developed,--in other words, symptoms,--form by their union what
+is called disease; but the symptoms are the only points of the malady
+which are accessible to the physician, the sole indication whence he can
+derive any intuitive notion, and the principal objects with which he ought
+to become acquainted to effect a cure. From this incontestable truth there
+is nothing discoverable in disease beyond the totality of its symptoms to
+guide us in the selection of our curative means."[39]
+
+It is not to be supposed that an experienced physician, although a
+homoeopathist, will rest satisfied with this study of symptomatic
+medicine, without endeavouring to attach these effects to some cause,
+however occult it may appear; but such a doctrine becomes pernicious,
+since it bids us close the only book of truth that can reveal our
+errors,--_post mortem_ investigations. Surely, if a group of certain
+symptoms attend a disease which, when terminating fatally, shows
+disorganization in certain viscera, we are not only justifiable in giving
+to that disorganization a specific name in our scientific classification
+and categories, but in considering the symptoms of no other importance
+than as corroborative of those facts that morbid anatomy daily brings to
+light.
+
+It is generally admitted that most nosologies are imperfect, and may
+occasionally lead the young practitioner into error. This is easily
+accounted for when we consider the Protean forms that the same disease
+assumes in different individuals; yet, without this classification, the
+science of medicine could not be studied. A certain arrangement is
+necessary to simplify all our pursuits in natural science, and to seek a
+variety we must know the order and the genus.
+
+Had Hahnemann given a better system of nosology than those we possess, and
+with his truly praiseworthy zeal and industry enumerated the various
+symptoms of disease as minutely and as accurately as he has recorded the
+effects of medicinal substances, his labours might have proved a most
+valuable addition to our store of knowledge.
+
+Let us now direct our attention to the absurdities to which these opinions
+have led. Solely attentive to effects, and heedless of the
+disorganization of various important parts of the human economy which
+morbid anatomy detects, Hahnemann endeavours to discover the occult
+causes--the original source--the germ--of the malady, which most likely
+are beyond the reach of our researches; and he boldly affirms that all
+chronic diseases spring from syphilis, a disposition to warts and the
+itch. Now experience has proved that such an assumption is unfounded. The
+most healthy subjects, those who attain the finest old age, are more
+liable to this disgusting affection than the wealthy and cleanly part of
+the community. The Irish and Scotch peasantry from their infancy, and
+through life, are most subject to psora; and certainly our soldiers and
+sailors, amongst whom the disease is common, are not more predisposed to
+chronic diseases than any other classes of society, of course not taking
+into consideration the effects of unhealthy climates.
+
+Syphilis, it will be readily granted, has a considerable share in
+producing anomalous _sequelae_, more especially when in combination with
+mercury. Warts, except of a syphilitic character, were never known to
+germinate diseases; indeed, they affect the most healthy and robust
+individuals. Yet to these three miasmatic causes does Hahnemann attribute
+nearly every disease that was ever known to afflict mankind; while he
+passes over in silence the predisposition to scrofula, gout, rheumatism,
+to which we can unfortunately trace with too much certainty the source of
+much human misery.
+
+That the itch is a disease of great antiquity is a matter of doubt. It has
+been maintained that it is the same eruptive disorder described by Celsus
+under the appellation of _scabies_; yet this writer does not allude to its
+contagious nature, and moreover says, that in some cases it disappears
+completely, whereas in others it is renewed at certain periods of the
+year.
+
+Celsus, moreover, includes other forms of pustular eruptions among the
+different species of scabies, not sufficiently distinguishing them from
+each other. The character of his scabies is more analogous to the lichen
+agrius of Willan.
+
+Nor did the ancients consider their _psora_ as our itch. It appears to
+have been the scaly tetter, which they sometimes denominated _psoriasis_,
+at others _lepra_, a synonymous affection; but neither pustular nor
+vesicular. Leprosy, indeed, is a malady totally distinct from the itch in
+all its characters. Hahnemann asserts that the species of leprosy that
+afflicted the Jews, and which is described by their legislator in the 13th
+chapter of Leviticus, was the itch; but any one who will peruse this
+description will perceive that it does not bear the slightest resemblance
+to that disorder. It appears, on the contrary, to have been that kind of
+leprosy called _leuce_ by the ancients. Nor was leprosy constantly
+attended with itching, one of the chief characteristics of the malady, and
+from which sensation it derives its very name. Hippocrates mentions a
+leprosy that usually occasioned a prurience before rain. There are no
+diseases in the classification of which more obscurity exists than in
+cutaneous affections; and Hahnemann's ideas would tend to increase this
+confusion, since he tells us that he considers the _framboesia_ of
+America, the _sibbens_ of Norway, the _pellagra_ of Lombardy, the _plica_
+of Poland, the _pseudo-syphilis_ of the English, and the _asthenia
+Virginiensis_ of Virginia, complications of his three miasmatic
+principles; and he further informs us, no doubt on the faith of some idle
+tradition, that _psora_ lost its external deformity on the return of the
+Crusaders, who brought from the Holy Land the use of linen shirts, a
+cleanly and salutary precaution that eradicated the disease at a period
+when France had no less than two thousand hospitals for the reception of
+_itch_ patients,--a plain proof that he confounds leprosy with itch, since
+the hospitals he alludes to were distinctly considered leper-houses.
+
+It is certainly true that there does exist in our system a constant
+predisposition to eruptive affections of some kind or other. We are born
+heirs to certain exanthematic affections, such as the measles and
+smallpox; and it would be as difficult to find a being morally immaculate
+as an individual free from speck or blemish. Many of these eruptions are
+considered of a critical and salutary nature; and the ancients fancied
+that nature relieved herself by throwing upon the surface some "peccant
+humours." Hence their dread of the retrocession of any of these "breakings
+out;" and there is no doubt but that accidents frequently followed their
+sudden disappearance, in the same manner as drying up an issue or a
+blister established for some time, and become habitual, may occasion
+internal mischief; but to maintain that all chronic diseases arise from
+three eruptive principles is a most gratuitous and untenable assertion.
+
+Enthusiastically anxious to support his doctrines, Hahnemann is frequently
+led into erroneous assertions. Thus he tells us that life will suddenly
+cease if a little water, or the mildest liquid, is injected into a vein;
+whereas experience has proved, in the treatment of cholera, and various
+other instances, that the most stimulating solutions may be thus
+introduced, not only with impunity, but with salutary results.
+
+It is needless to enter more deeply into the ungracious business of
+pointing out errors, many of which were evident to Hahnemann himself;
+since, not only in the several editions of his Organon, but in various
+paragraphs in the same volume, he contradicts himself.
+
+A much more gratifying and important task is now undertaken, to prove, by
+the evidence of facts, supported by practical reasoning, that the art of
+healing is more indebted to the homoeopathic doctrines than to any
+system that has hitherto been delivered in our schools.
+
+That the all-bountiful Creator, in permitting, for purposes unknown to us,
+mankind to be visited by so many scourges, has also scattered around us
+means to counteract these evils, cannot be a matter of doubt. Instinct
+leads animals to find out these salutary agents, and various specifics
+have been discovered by man. The rudest savage is in possession of
+curative substances unknown to civilized man, and performs cures where
+learning and experience have proved of no avail.
+
+To extend the limits of specifics, must therefore be considered a most
+desirable step towards adding to our means of relieving disease; and in
+this pursuit it is impossible to bestow too much praise on the
+homoeopathic observer. Enthusiasm--predilection to a favourite but
+persecuted system--may induce an ardent proselyte not only to deceive
+others, but unwittingly to deceive himself. It is therefore not only
+possible, but probable, that in the experimental investigations of the
+effects of medicine, Fancy, in her multifarious colours, may have
+depicted, with apparent fidelity, a state of body and mind that only
+existed in an excited imagination; but when we behold various individuals,
+distant from each other, and totally unconnected, observing similar
+results from the exhibition of various medicinal substances, we have no
+right to call their assertions into doubt. These assertions, moreover, are
+not laid down dogmatically, but are earnestly recommended to be submitted
+to the test of experiment. For instance, the homoeopathist has found out
+that certain substances, by diminishing the energy of the heart and
+arteries, subdue inflammatory action as effectually as venesection. This
+is a fact daily witnessed, and of which any practitioner may convince
+himself. It is not asserted, that in cases of sudden determination of
+blood, which require immediate revulsion and abstraction of the vital
+fluid, homoeopathic remedies will be found possessed of sufficient
+activity to afford prompt relief; but experience has fully proved that in
+cases which can admit of a few hours' delay, these medicines very
+frequently supersede the necessity of debilitating the patient by a
+copious loss of blood.
+
+Dr. Paris, in his admirable work on Materia Medica, has justly observed,
+"that observation or experiment upon the effects of 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." This has been the main object of the
+homoeopathist; and a further quotation from the above distinguished
+writer will illustrate the importance of their labours. "It is impossible
+to cast our eyes over such multiplied groups (of medicinal substances)
+without being forcibly struck with the palpable absurdity of some, the
+disgusting and loathsome nature of others, the total want of activity in
+many, and the uncertain and precarious reputation of _all_, without
+feeling an eager curiosity to inquire, 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. That such fluctuation in opinion and versatility in practice
+should have produced, even in the most candid and learned observer, 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. A late foreign writer, impressed with this sentiment, has given the
+following _flattering_ definition of our profession: _Physic is the art
+of amusing the patient, while Nature cures his disease_."
+
+With such a lamentable view of the practice of medicine, can we be too
+thankful to those observers who strenuously endeavour to rescue it from
+the dark trammels in which prejudice and interested motives have bound it?
+In no country more than in Great Britain is such an investigation
+desirable. We have become proverbial from our incessant abuse of a farrago
+of medicinal substances; and what is usually termed an _elegant
+prescription_ signifies an amalgam of various drugs and preparations,
+which most probably, by their affinities, neutralize the expected effects
+of each other; for, however great and flattering may have been the
+discoveries of modern chemistry, many of these affinities are unknown to
+us. Surely when our labours cannot detect any difference in the component
+parts of the purest Alpine atmosphere and the deleterious air of a
+loathsome dungeon, we cannot expect to form a correct idea of pharmaceutic
+combinations.
+
+The mere hopes of being able to relieve society from the curse of constant
+drugging, should lead us to hail with gratitude the homoeopathist's
+investigations. That many physicians, but especially apothecaries, who
+live by overwhelming their patients with useless and too frequently
+pernicious medicines, will warmly, nay furiously inveigh against any
+innovation of the kind, must be expected as the natural result of
+interested apprehension; and any man who aims at simplicity in practice
+will be denounced as guilty of medical heresy. Have we not seen
+inoculation and vaccination branded with the most opprobrious epithets,
+merely because their introduction tended to diminish professional lucre?
+
+In these remarks upon medicinal combinations, it is not meant to infer,
+that, because they are chemically incompatible, they are
+ineffectual,--experience has proved the contrary; but no one will contend
+that, if we can attain the same beneficial results from a single
+ingredient, administered in small quantities and at distant periods, as
+from the exhibition of repeated and nauseous doses of pills, powders,
+draughts, potions, &c. which hang over the bed of sickness, nay, of slight
+derangements, like the sword of Damocles, we have not effected a most
+salutary reform in the practice of physic. It is related of one of these
+ingenious and industrious practitioners, that, having seen a prescription,
+that only contained half a dozen medicines, he exclaimed, "What! nothing
+more?" To which the prescriber replied, "If you choose, sir, we'll step
+over to the apothecary, and see what else he has in his shop."
+
+Specifics may be divided into two classes; the one producing a peculiar
+effect upon particular organs, the other producing general results. Thus,
+the action of cantharides and digitalis on the urinary system, of emetics
+on the stomach, of certain purgatives on the small intestines, and of
+others on the large ones, are generally known; whereas the action of
+mercury and opium is still a matter of controversy. A study of these
+effects constitutes the chief object of the homoeopathist; and, having
+determined their peculiar action, these medicinal agents are given
+singly, and, as we have already observed, in the most minute doses.
+
+It is this division into infinite fractions that has drawn upon the
+homoeopathic practice the denunciation of the allopathic physicians, as
+it is considered utterly impossible that such imponderable particles can
+produce any beneficial or prejudicial effect; and the Academy of Medicine
+of Paris, when officially condemning the doctrine, asserts, in support of
+this argument, that great danger arises from it "in frequent and serious
+cases of disease, where the physician may do as much injury, and cause no
+less mischief, by ineffectual means as by those which are prejudicial."
+
+This is perhaps one of the most important points of the homoeopathic
+doctrine. If these fractional doses are inert, and yet the disease is
+cured, then must the successful treatment be solely ascribed to the
+dietetic regimen and the efforts of nature. However, experience has
+afforded abundant proofs that these infinite atoms do produce positive and
+evident effects. What appears to our feeble organs an atomic fraction may
+produce phenomena on the organism which we cannot comprehend, but should
+not therefore be denied. Let one grain of iodine be dissolved in one
+thousand five hundred and sixty grains of water, the solution will be
+limpid; let two grains of starch be dissolved in two ounces of water and
+added to the first solution, and the liquor will forthwith assume a blue
+tint. In this experiment the grain of iodine has been divided into
+1/15360. Dissolve the four-hundredth part of one grain of arsenic in four
+hundred thousand parts of water, and the hydric-sulphite will bring it
+into evidence. Let a five-thousandth part of arseniate of ammonia be
+dissolved in five hundred thousand parts of water, and the addition of the
+smallest proportion of nitrate of silver will obtain a yellow precipitate.
+Numerous experiments of a similar nature may be daily resorted to, to
+prove that the most minute particles of two substances possessed of
+chemical affinities may be brought into action, although diluted _ad
+infinitum_. But the power that the smallest particle possesses in
+producing natural phenomena cannot be more evidently proved than by
+Spallanzani's experiments in fecundation. This physiologist having wrapped
+up a male frog in oil-silk, fecundation could not take place; but having
+collected on the point of a camel-hair pencil a particle of the
+fecundising fluid, he succeeded in vivifying thousands of eggs. Surprised
+at this result, he dissolved three grains of the secretion in a pound of
+water, and one globule of the solution was endowed with the same faculty.
+In this case the globule of water only contained 1/2994687500 part of one
+grain. This curious experiment has been tried with a similar result by
+Prevost and Dumas. How imponderable and impalpable must be the effluvium
+which enables the dog to track his master for miles! the particle of atter
+of roses that perfumes a whole chest of clothes! and what must the power
+of the aroma be which is preserved for thousands of years in some Egyptian
+mummies! Would the vulgar believe in the wonders of the solar and gaseous
+microscopes unless they were exposed to view? In these we behold in
+amazement myriads of individuals in one drop of fluid, each of them as
+perfect in organization as the mighty mammoth of old or the sagacious
+elephant of our days, endowed with distinct habits, destructive and
+reproductive propensities and faculties.
+
+It has been advanced by the opponents of homoeopathy that the
+insignificant dose of three or four medicinal globules cannot possess any
+power, since one might swallow a thousand of them with impunity. To this
+it is answered, that it is only under certain morbid conditions that these
+medicines act by their homoeopathic affinities. Moreover, it is well
+known that small doses of medicinal substances will frequently produce
+more powerful effects than larger quantities. Tartar-emetic, sugar of
+lead, calomel, afford daily instances of this fact; and it is also
+admitted that many substances act differently upon the healthy or the
+sick. An individual in health can take any food without apprehension; but
+when his functions are deranged, the slightest imprudence in regimen may
+lead to serious consequences. There are primordial and inscrutable
+peculiarities in our constitution that cannot be accounted for; and the
+medicine which relieves one patient will aggravate the sufferings of
+others. The exhalations of the American _rhus_ are deadly to some persons,
+but innocuous to others; and many poisons which cause instantaneous death
+to some animals may be given with safety to others. Whence has arisen the
+controversy regarding damp sheets, which many maintain are not dangerous,
+simply from the fact that a healthy person with a vigorous circulation may
+sleep in them with impunity, when a feeble and languid subject will be
+exposed to some dangerous determination of blood?
+
+A learned writer already quoted thus expresses himself on this
+matter:[40] "The virtues of medicines cannot be fairly nor beneficially
+ascertained by trying their effects on sound subjects, because the
+peculiar morbid condition which they are calculated to remove does not
+exist." It may be said that this observation militates against the
+homoeopathic experiments, and to a certain extent it evidently does; but
+it cannot be inferred that because a medicinal substance will occasionally
+act differently in health and in disease, that it may not frequently
+operate in a similar manner when the morbid condition does prevail, since
+it is generally admitted that medicines act in a relative manner according
+to the state of the system. Hence classifications of medicines are too
+frequently erroneous and imperfect. The doses of medicines determine their
+effects. Linnaeus says, "Medicines differ from poisons, not in their
+nature, but in their dose;" and Pliny tells its aphoristically, "_Ubi
+virus, ibi virtus_." According to their doses, medicines will produce a
+general or a local effect; and Dr. Paris, whom I feel much gratification
+in quoting, lays down as a rule that "substances perfectly inert and
+useless in one dose may prove in another active and valuable." It would be
+foreign to my purpose to enter more fully into this most important
+subject; but the cases which shall be adduced will be deemed sufficient to
+convince the most incredulous, of the power of homoeopathic doses.
+
+Those who have denied this property have boldly attributed homoeopathic
+cures to dietetic means. Admitting this statement by way of argument,
+surely, if any observer, by ascertaining the peculiar action of our
+ingesta, can so regulate the regimen as to produce salutary effects
+without the aid of medicine, mankind would be most essentially benefited.
+How many persons do we not daily meet with, who have never taken any
+medicine since their childhood, when maternal care strove to destroy their
+digestive organs with apothecary's _stuff_, and who regulate their
+functions by mere attention to their mode of living. I know one gentleman,
+a physician, who relieves constipation by green chilies; another, with
+cold milk; a third, with warm milk: in some habits spinach and sorrel will
+act as a powerful and safe aperient; in others, cheese, or a hard egg,
+will operate in a contrary way. Fermented and spirituous liquors all
+possess specific properties. Some gouty persons cannot drink Claret
+without bringing on a paroxysm, and others dread a glass of Champagne or
+Burgundy. Nay, different wines have been known to bring on arthritic
+attacks in particular parts; and I have known Champagne to produce gout in
+the wrist, and Burgundy in the knee, in subjects who under other
+circumstances never experienced the disorder in those articulations. Our
+peculiar aversion, nay, our dread, of various alimentary substances are
+well known. The odour of cheese, of strawberries, have occasioned fainting
+and convulsions; and in certain constitutions, several articles of diet
+bring on indigestion. In short, the study of our ingesta is one of the
+greatest importance; and here again the homoeopathist is entitled to our
+best thanks.
+
+This investigation will moreover prompt physicians to be more attentive in
+inquiring into the various effects of alimentary and medicinal substances
+on their patients. Instead of hastily drawing out routine prescriptions
+for such and such a disorder, they will accurately ascertain the physical
+and moral condition of the subject, taking into due consideration previous
+habits, predispositions, and pursuits in life. Indeed, it would be
+desirable that practitioners followed the example of army medical men, who
+keep an exact register of every individual they attend, and in which is
+diligently recorded every circumstance connected with the disease and its
+treatment.
+
+Moral influence has also been called into aid in opposition to this
+practice, and cures have been attributed to the mere power of fancy and
+credulity. We have certainly known superstition and mental imbecility to
+be productive both of good and evil,--to have created some maladies, and
+cured others; but homoeopathy has succeeded when the patient was unaware
+of the treatment to which he was submitted. But, conceding the point, and
+admitting that inert substances, such as starch, (and this experiment was
+resorted to in Paris,) may have obtained singular beneficial results,--the
+results of a weak imagination, this circumstance alone would be
+illustrative of the power of moral agency; and who would not gladly wish
+for a mental relief in lieu of a nauseating and injurious course of
+medicine?
+
+Others will exclaim, although the homoeopathist disavows the _vis
+medicatrix naturae_, that he solely succeeds by leaving the malady to the
+salutary efforts of the constitution. Here again we must admit, that, were
+we to leave many diseases to run their course, we might be more successful
+in obtaining a cure than by a rash and detrimental interference, founded
+on the principle that a physician "must order something."
+
+But the facts I am about to record,--facts which induced me, from having
+been one of the warmest opponents of this system, to investigate carefully
+and dispassionately its practical points,--will effectually contradict all
+these assertions regarding the inefficacy of the homoeopathic doses, the
+influence of diet, or the agency of the mind; for in the following cases
+in no one instance could such influences be brought into action. They were
+(with scarcely any exception) experiments made without the patient's
+knowledge, and where no time was allowed for any particular regimen. They
+may, moreover, be conscientiously relied upon, since they were made with a
+view to prove the fallacy of the homoeopathic practice. Their result, as
+may be perceived by the foregoing observations, by no means rendered me a
+convert to the absurdities of the doctrine, but fully convinced me by the
+most incontestable facts that the introduction of fractional doses will
+soon banish the farrago of nostrums that are now exhibited to the manifest
+prejudice both of the health and the purse of the sufferer.
+
+
+CASE I.
+
+A servant-maid received a blow of a stone upon the head. Severe headache,
+with dizziness and dimness of sight, followed. Various means were resorted
+to; but general blood-letting could alone relieve the distressing
+symptoms, local bleeding not having been found of any avail. The relief,
+however, was not of long duration, and the distressing accidents recurred
+periodically, when abstraction of blood became indispensable. Reduced by
+these frequent evacuations, I was resolved to try the boasted "bleeding
+globules" of the homoeopathist, when, to my great surprise, I obtained
+the same mitigation of symptoms which the loss of from twelve to sixteen
+ounces of blood had previously accomplished. Since the first experiment no
+venesection became necessary, and the returns of the violent headache were
+invariably relieved by the same means.
+
+
+CASE II.
+
+An elderly woman was subject to excruciating headache, with an evident
+determination of blood to the brain. Numerous leeches were constantly
+applied. The usual remedies indicated in similar affections were resorted
+to, but only afforded temporary relief. A homoeopathic dose of aconite
+was given, and the relief that followed was beyond all possible
+expectation.
+
+
+CASE III.
+
+My much-esteemed friend Dr. Grateloup of Bordeaux was subject to frequent
+sore-throats, which were only relieved by local blood-letting, cataplasms,
+&c., but generally lasted several days, during which deglutition became
+most difficult. I persuaded him to try a dose of the belladonna, neither
+of us having the slightest confidence in its expected effects. He took the
+globules at twelve o'clock, and at five P.M. the tumefaction of the
+tonsils, with their redness and sensibility, had subsided to such an
+extent that he was able to partake of some food at dinner. The following
+morning all the symptoms, excepting a slight swelling, had subsided.
+
+Since this period Dr. G. has repeatedly tried the same preparation in
+similar cases, and with equal success. In my own practice, I can record
+seven cases of cynanche tonsillaris which were thus relieved in the course
+of a few hours.
+
+
+CASE IV.
+
+H--, a young woman on the establishment of the Countess of --, was
+suffering under hemiplegia, and it was resolved by Dr. Brulatour and
+myself to try the effects of nux vomica. At this period the wonders of the
+homoeopathic practice had been extolled to the skies by its advocates,
+and we were resolved to give one of their supposed powerful preparations a
+fair trial. The girl was told that the powder she was about to take was
+simply a dose of calomel; and on calling upon her the following morning we
+did not expect that the slightest effect could have been obtained by this
+atomic dose, when, to our utter surprise, the patient told us that she had
+passed a miserable night, and described to us most minutely all the
+symptoms that usually follow the exhibition of a large dose of strychnine.
+It is but fair to mention that the homoeopathic treatment did not cure
+the disease; but the manifest operation of this fractional dose, that
+could not possibly be denied, is a fact of considerable importance.
+
+
+CASE V.
+
+Mrs. ---- of Brompton, Bow, had laboured under hectic fever for several
+months, and was so reduced by night perspirations, that she was on the
+very brink of the grave. Called into consultation, I frankly told her
+husband that every possible means known in the profession had been most
+judiciously employed, and that I saw no prospect of obtaining relief. At
+the same time I mentioned to him that the homoeopathic practitioners
+pretended that they had found the means of relieving these distressing
+symptoms, which he might submit to an experimental trial if he thought
+proper. He immediately expressed his wish that it should be adopted. I
+gave her a homoeopathic dose of phosphoric acid and stannum; and, to the
+surprise of all around her, the night sweats did not break out at their
+usual hour,--three o'clock in the morning. What renders this case still
+more interesting is the fact of these perspirations recurring so soon as
+the action of the medicine ceased; a circumstance so evidently
+ascertained, that the patient knew the very day when another dose became
+necessary.
+
+
+CASE VI.
+
+A daughter of the same lady was subject to deafness, which I attributed to
+a fulness of blood. This cause I clearly ascertained by the relief
+afforded by the application of a few leeches behind the ear. I was
+therefore induced, on a recurrence of the complaint, to endeavour to
+diminish vascular action by a dose of aconite. The effects were evident in
+the course of four hours, when the deafness and the other symptoms of
+local congestion had entirely disappeared.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+I could record numerous instances of similar results, but they would of
+course be foreign to the nature of this work. I trust that the few cases I
+have related will afford a convincing proof of the injustice, if not the
+unjustifiable obstinacy, of those practitioners who, refusing to submit
+the homoeopathic practice to a fair trial, condemn it without
+investigation. That this practice will be adopted by quacks and needy
+adventurers, there is no doubt; but homoeopathy is a science on which
+numerous voluminous works have been written by enlightened practitioners,
+whose situation in life placed them far above the necessities of
+speculation. Their publications are not sealed volumes, and any medical
+man can also obtain the preparations they recommend. It is possible, nay,
+more than probable, that physicians cannot find time to commence a new
+course of studies, for such this investigation must prove. If this is the
+case, let them frankly avow their utter ignorance of the doctrine, and not
+denounce a practice of which they do not possess the slightest knowledge.
+
+Despite the persecution that _Hahnemannism_ (as this doctrine is
+ironically denominated) is at present enduring, every reflecting and
+unprejudiced person must feel convinced that, although its wild and
+untenable theories may not overthrow the established systems (if any one
+system can be called established), yet its study and application bid fair
+to operate an important revolution in medicine. The introduction of
+infinite small doses, when compared, at least, with the quantities
+formerly prescribed, is gradually creeping in. The history of medicine
+affords abundant proofs of the acrimony, nay, the fury, with which every
+new doctrine has been impugned and insulted. The same annals will also
+show that this spirit of intolerance has always been in the _ratio_ of the
+truths that these doctrines tended to bring into light. From the preceding
+observations, no one can accuse me of having become a blind bigot of
+homoeopathy; but I can only hope that its present vituperators will
+follow my example, and examine the matter calmly and dispassionately
+before they proceed to pass a judgment that their vanity may lead them to
+consider a final sentence.
+
+
+
+
+DOCTRINE OF SIGNATURES.
+
+
+One of the most absurd medical doctrines that ever prevailed in the dark
+aeras of science was the firm belief that all medicinal substances
+displayed certain external characters that pointed out their specific
+virtues. This curious theory may be traced to the Magi and Chaldaeans, who
+pretended that every sublunary body was under a planetary influence. To
+find the means of concentrating or fixing this stellary emanation became a
+cabalistic study, called by Paracelsus the "_ars signata_;" and talismans
+of various kinds were introduced by the professors of sideral science. The
+word talisman appears to be derived from the Chaldaean and Arabic
+_tilseman_ and _tilsem_, which mean characteristic figures or images.
+
+Paracelsus, Porta, Crollius, and many other philosophers and physicians,
+cherished this vision, which had been transmitted to them through the
+dense mists of superstition from more ancient authorities; amongst
+others, Dioscorides, Aelius, and Pliny.
+
+The _lapis aetites_, or eagle-stone, which was supposed to be found in the
+nests of this bird, but which, in fact, is nothing more than a variety of
+iron-ore, was said to prevent abortion if tied to the arm, and to
+accelerate parturition if affixed to the thigh. This conceit arose from
+the noise that seemed to arise from the centre of the stone when it was
+shaken: "Aetites lapis agitatus, sonitum edit, velut ex altero lapide
+praegnans." From this absurd hypothesis sprung the doctrine; and the very
+names of plants were supposed to indicate their specific qualities. For
+instance, the _euphrasia_, or eye-bright, exhibiting a dark spot in its
+corolla, resembling the pupil of the eye, was considered efficacious in
+affections of that organ. The blood-stone, the _heliotropum_, from its
+being marked with red specks, was employed to stop haemorrhage; and is to
+this day resorted to in some countries, even in England, to stop a
+bleeding from the nose.[41] Nettle-tea was prescribed for the eruption
+called _nettle-rash_. The _semecarpus anacardium_, bearing the form of a
+heart, was recommended in the diseases of this viscus. The _cassuvium
+occidentale_, resembling the formation of a kidney, was prescribed in
+renal complaints; and the pulmonary lichen of the oak, the _sticta
+pulmonaria_, from its cellular structure, was esteemed a valuable
+substance in morbid affections of the lungs. Deductions still more absurd,
+if possible, are recorded: thus saxifrage, and other plants that grow in
+rocky places, embodied as if it were in calcareous beds, were advised to
+dissolve the stone; and the _echium_, bearing some faint resemblance to a
+viper, was deemed infallible in the sting inflicted by this reptile. The
+divers colours of substances supposed to be medicinal were also another
+_signature_. Red flowers were given for derangement in the sanguiferous
+system, and yellow ones for those of the bile. In Crollius's work,
+entitled "_De Signaturis Plantarum_," many curious observations may be
+found; and Sennert, Keuch, Dieterich, and other writers displayed great
+industry in the division of these signatures, which, by the ancients, were
+considered as something denoting no particular quality, and were then
+called [Greek: asemoi charakteroi]; or [Greek: semantikoi], when their
+virtues were evident.
+
+Amongst the various influences and indications that were attributed to
+colours, black was especially considered as the mark of melancholy.
+Baptista Porta affirms, that if a "black spot be over the spleen, or in
+the nails, it signifies much care, grief, contention, and melancholy."
+Cardan assures us that a little before his son's death he had a black
+spot, which appeared in one of his nails, and dilated itself as he
+approached his end.
+
+While nature was thus supposed to mark the virtues of her productions on
+their external configuration, man assumed the same authoritative power,
+and marked medicines with certain signs or seals. For this purpose, the
+ancient physicians carried signets or rings, frequently worn upon the
+thumb, and on which were engraved their own names, sometimes written
+backwards, or the denominations of the nostrums they vended. On one of
+these seals we find the word _aromaticu_, from _aromaticum_; on another,
+_melinu_, abbreviation of _melinum_,--a collyrium prepared with the alum
+of the island of Melos. A seal of this kind is described by Tochon
+d'Annecy, bearing the words _psoricum crocodem_, an inscription that has
+puzzled medical antiquaries. The word _psoricum_ was applied to an
+eruptive affection of the eye; and Actuarius mentions a _collyrium
+psoricum_ of Aelius; while Marcellus Empiricus records the virtues of the
+_psoricum stratioticum_, which restored sight in twenty days to a patient
+who had been blind for twelve years; but, when it was applied, it was
+ineffectual, unless the words "_Te nunc resunco, bregan gresso_," were
+religiously pronounced. _Crocodem_ was also supposed to apply to _crocus_
+or saffron, or to _crocodes_, a remedy for sore eyes, mentioned by Galen;
+while some learned men refer the word to the dejections of the crocodile,
+which were said to possess various virtues. The earth of Lemnos was sealed
+with the figure of Diana, and to this day the bolar argils, brought from
+Greece, bear various seals and characters; hence the _bolus Armeniae_, and
+_bolus ruber_, are called _terra sigillata_.
+
+The influence of colours was supposed to have been so great, that in our
+own annals we find John de Gaddesden, mentioned by Chaucer, ordering the
+son of Edward I., when labouring under the small-pox, to be wrapped up in
+scarlet; and to the present day, flannel, died nine times blue, is
+supposed to be most efficacious in glandular swellings. Tourtelle, a
+French army physician, has made the following singular observation on this
+subject: "I observed that those soldiers of the Republic who were affected
+with diseases connected with transpiration were more severely indisposed,
+and not unfrequently exhibited symptoms of putrescency, when their wet
+clothes had left a blue tinge on the skin, than when they had been merely
+wetted by the rain." The explanation of this supposed phenomenon, is
+simply that those men who had been coloured by their uniforms, had, no
+doubt, been long wearing them, saturated by incessant rains, whereas the
+others had merely been exposed to occasional showers. From this
+observation, I do not pretend to affirm that any deleterious substances in
+a dye might not occasion a dangerous absorption; but the accidents that
+may result from such a circumstance could be easily explained without
+having recourse to any particular influence of colour. The colour of
+cloth, especially in army clothing, may also materially tend to influence
+cutaneous transpiration, as some colours are more powerful conductors of
+heat than others; and it is not impossible that the French soldiers, not
+belonging to fresh levies, and who had always been clad in white, might
+have experienced some difference of temperature when marching under
+intense heat in dark blue and green uniforms.
+
+Some of the terms used by the signature doctrinarians may puzzle the most
+learned. The Greeks called them [Greek: semantika]; and, in addition to
+the all-powerful _abracadabra_,--an infallible cure of ague, when
+suspended round the neck,--we find the magic terms of _sator_, _asebo_,
+_tenet_, _obera_, _rotas_, _abrac_, _khiriori_, _gibel_, engraved upon
+amulets. For the bite of a mad dog, _pax max_, and _adimax_, were
+irresistible; and for a fractured arm or a luxation, _araries_,
+_dandaries_, _denatas_, and _matas_, would have set at defiance the most
+experienced chirurgeons. I must refer the curious reader on this important
+subject to the work _De figuris Persarum Talismanicis_ of Guffarel, to the
+_Oedipus_ of Kircher, the book of Crollius _De signaturis internis
+rerum_, and _Isagoge physico-magico-medica_ of Elzer.
+
+The church vehemently denounced these abominations; and we find in the
+council of Laodicea an injunction forbidding the priesthood the study and
+practice of enchantment, mathematics, astrology, or the binding of soul by
+amulets. These incantations were dreaded in every age. Thus Lucan:
+
+  Mens, hausti nulla sanie polluta veneni,
+  Incantata perit.
+
+Philosophers have justly observed that most of the diseases treated and
+supposed to have been cured by these mystic means, were of a nervous
+description, and therefore depending, in a great measure, upon moral
+influence. Here faith and hope assisted the physicians,--two great
+auxiliaries in every worldly turmoil and trouble. Therefore do we find
+most of these cures referred to epilepsy, paralysis, melancholy,
+hypochondriasis, hysteria, as well as to many periodical affections, the
+return of which is frequently arrested by mental impressions. A fright has
+checked the paroxysm of an intermittent fever; and many natural functions
+are impeded or brought on by a similar agency. The sight of a dentist has
+been often known to calm an excruciating toothache; and there is no
+complaint that has been cured by more singular means than this troublesome
+affection. In 1794, a tract was published in Florence by Dr. Ranieri
+Gerbi, a professor of mathematics in Pisa, entitled _Storia naturale di un
+nuovo insetto_, which he called _curculio anti-odontalgicus_, and which,
+being squeezed between the fingers, imparted to them, for the period of
+one year, the wonderful power of relieving toothache with the mere touch;
+and the author asserts that by this simple process he cured four hundred
+and one cases out of six hundred and twenty-nine. This may be considered a
+branch of magnetism, and has been treated by Schelhammar, in his book _De
+Odontalgia tactu sedanda_.
+
+This wonderful insect belonged to the _coleoptera_, and was simply the
+_curculio_ and the _coccinella septem-punctata_, well known to
+entomologists, and which, according to Cipriani Zuccagni, and more
+particularly Carradori, possessed these singular properties, which,
+however, subsequent experiments have fully disproved.
+
+While we find some _charms_ having sufficient power over our weak
+imagination to cure diseases, there were others considered sufficiently
+energetic to occasion death. Sometimes a wax figure was made, supposed to
+represent the devoted victim, and which was pierced with a pointed
+instrument, each stab being accompanied by a magic imprecation:
+
+  Devovet absentes, simulacraque cerea fingit.
+
+These means the ancients called _carmina, incantationes, devotiones
+sortiariae_. It is somewhat strange that this same ceremony of the waxen
+image to destroy the object of our hate was also employed to obtain love.
+The figure was on these occasions called by the name of the person, and
+afterwards placed near the fire, when, as the heat gradually melted it,
+the obdurate heart of the lover was simultaneously softened. At other
+times two images were thus exposed to heat, the one of clay, the other of
+wax; and, while the one melted, the other became more hardened:--a
+vindictive feeling, to render our own heart insensible, while we mollified
+that of an ingrate; or perhaps with a view to render that heart inflexible
+to others, while it propitiated the addresses of the supplicant. Thus
+Virgil:
+
+  Limus ut hic durescit, et haec ut cera liquescit,
+  Uno eodemque igni; sic nostro Daphnis amore.
+  Sparge molam, et fragiles incende bitumine lauros.
+  Daphnis me malus urit, ego hanc in Daphnide laurum.
+
+The wishes of the ancients for those they loved were sometimes curious,
+and they often turned round a mystic wheel, praying that the object of
+their affections might fall down at their door and roll himself in the
+dirt.
+
+The ancients, who daily witnessed this influence of the imagination in
+causing and in curing disease, have left us many valuable injunctions on
+the subject; and Plato thus expresses himself: "The office of the
+physician extends equally to the purification of mind and body; to neglect
+the one is to expose the other to evident peril. It is not only the body
+that by its sound constitution strengthens the soul, but the
+well-regulated soul, by its authoritative power, maintains the body in
+perfect health."
+
+
+
+
+COFFEE.
+
+
+It is doubtful to whom we owe the introduction of this article of luxury
+into Europe. The plant is a native of that part of Arabia called _Yemen_,
+but we find no mention made of it until the sixteenth century; and it is
+believed that Leonhart Rauwolf, a German physician, was the first writer
+who spoke of it, in a work published in 1573. The plant was also described
+by Prosper Alpinus, in his treatise on Egyptian plants, published in 1591
+and 1592. Pietro della Valle wrote from Constantinople in 1615 that he
+would teach Europe the manner in which the Turks made their _cahue_. This
+spelling was no doubt incorrect; for, in a pamphlet printed at Oxford in
+1659, in Arabic and English, it is written _kauhi_, or _coffee_. Purchas,
+who was a contemporary of Della Valle, called it _coffa_; and Burton thus
+speaks of its use: "The Turks have a drink called _coffa_, so named of a
+berry as black as soot and as bitter, which they sip still of, and sup as
+warm as they can suffer. They spend much time in their coffa-houses, which
+are somewhat like our alehouses and taverns, and there they sit chatting
+and drinking to drive away the time and to be merry together, because they
+find by experience that kinde of drink so used helpeth digestion and
+procureth alacrity."
+
+The first coffee-house opened in London was in 1652. A Turkey merchant, of
+the name of Edwards, having brought with him from the Levant some coffee
+and a Greek servant, he allowed him to prepare and sell this beverage;
+when he established a house in St. Michael's Alley, Cornhill, on the spot
+where the Virginia Coffee-house now stands. Garraway's was the first
+coffee-house opened after the fire in 1666. It appears, however, that
+coffee was used in France in 1640; and a sale of it was opened at
+Marseilles in 1671.
+
+The introduction of this berry was furiously opposed; and it appears that
+in its native land it was treated with no less severity, since, in an
+Arabian MS. in the King of France's library, coffee-houses were suppressed
+in the East. In 1663 appeared a pamphlet against it, entitled "A Cup of
+Coffee, or Coffee in its Colours." In 1672 the following lines were to be
+found in another publication, "A Broadside against Coffee, or the Marriage
+of the Turk:"
+
+  Confusion huddles all into one scene,
+  Like Noah's ark, the clean and the unclean.
+  For now, alas! the drench has credit got,
+  And he's no gentleman who drinks it not.
+
+Then came "The Woman's Petition against Coffee," which appeared in 1674,
+in which we find the following complaint: "It made men as unfruitful as
+the deserts whence that unhappy berry is said to be brought, so much so,
+that the offspring of our mighty ancestors would dwindle into a succession
+of apes and pigmies; and on a domestic message a husband would stop by the
+way to drink a couple of cups of coffee." It was then sold in convenient
+pennyworths;--hence coffee-houses where wits, _quidnuncs_, and idlers
+resorted, were called "penny universities."
+
+While it had adversaries, coffee was not left without eloquent advocates.
+Sir Henry Blount, in his _Organon Salutis_, 1659, thus speaks of it: "This
+coffa-drink has caused a great sobriety among all nations. Formerly
+apprentices, clerks, &c. used to take their morning-draughts in ale,
+beer, or wine, which often made them unfit for business. Now they play the
+good-fellows in this wakeful and civil drink. The worthy gentleman, Sir
+James Muddiford, who introduced the practice hereof in London, deserves
+much respect of the whole nation."
+
+It appears, however, that the jealousy with which the use of coffee was
+viewed, even by the government, arose more from the nature of the
+conversations that took place in coffee-houses during moments of public
+excitement, than from the apprehension of any injury that its consumption
+might have caused to the public health. In the reign of Charles II.
+coffee-houses were shut up by a proclamation, issued in 1675, as the
+retailing of coffee "nourished sedition, spread lies, _scandalized great
+men_, and might therefore be considered a _common nuisance_." As a
+_nuisance_, its abolition was considered as not being an infringement of
+the constitution! Notwithstanding this Machiavellian torturing of the
+letter to serve the spirit, this arbitrary act occasioned loud and violent
+discontent; and permission was given to reopen coffee-houses, on condition
+that the landlords should not allow any scandalous papers containing
+scandalous reports against the government or _great men_ to be read on
+their premises!
+
+The use, or rather the abuse, of coffee is said to produce feverish heat,
+anxiety, palpitations, trembling, weakness of sight, and predisposition to
+apoplexy. Its effects in checking somnolence have been long known.
+However, the action of this berry differs according to its being roasted
+or raw. An infusion of torrefied coffee assists digestion, and frequently
+removes headaches resulting from derangement in the digestive functions.
+It also neutralizes the effect of narcotics, especially opium, and this
+power is increased by the addition of lemon juice. A similar mixture has
+been known to cure obstinate agues. Musgrave and Percival recommended its
+use in asthma: indeed, most persons who labour under this distressing
+malady seem to derive relief from its use.
+
+Taking into consideration all that has been advanced in regard to the
+inconveniences that may attend the use of coffee and tea, they must be
+considered as overruled by the moral results that have arisen from the
+introduction of these beverages; and a late writer has observed, that it
+has "led to the most wonderful change that ever took place in the diet of
+civilized nations,--a change highly important both in a moral and physical
+point of view. These beverages have the admirable advantage of affording
+stimulus without producing intoxication." Raynal observes, that the use of
+tea has contributed more to the sobriety of the Chinese than the severest
+laws, the most eloquent discourses, or the best treatises on morality.
+
+The quality and effects of coffee differ according to the manner in which
+it is roasted. Bernier states that when he was at Cairo there were only
+two persons in that great city who knew how to prepare it to perfection.
+If it be underdone, its virtues will not be imparted, and its infusion
+will load and oppress the stomach; if it be overdone, its properties will
+be destroyed, and it will heat the body, and act as an astringent.
+
+The best coffee is the _Mocha_, or that which is commonly called Turkey
+coffee. It should be chosen of a greenish, light, olive hue; the berries
+of a middling size, clean, and plump.
+
+The bad effects of coffee may in all likelihood be attributed both to its
+powerful and stimulating aroma and to its pungent acidity. According to
+Cadet, this acid is the _gallic_; while Grindel considers it the _kinic_,
+and Pfaff terms it the _caffeic_ acid. When strongly heated, it yields a
+_pyro-caffeic_ acid, from which may be obtained a most pungent vinegar,
+that has recently been thrown into trade, but, I believe, with little or
+no success.
+
+The principle of coffee is the _caffein_, discovered by Robiquet, in 1821;
+and it is to this active principle that its beneficial or baneful effects
+can be attributed. Recent experiments tend to show that it is possessed of
+powerful febrifuge virtues. To obtain this result, raw coffee has been
+used. It gives to water a greenish hue, and, thus saturated, it has been
+called the _citrine coffee_. Grindel has used this preparation in the
+treatment of intermittent fevers in the Russian hospital of Dorpat; he
+also administered the raw coffee in powder. In eighty cases of this fever
+scarcely any resisted the power of this medicine, given either in
+decoction, powder, or extract; but he seems to consider the latter form
+the most effectual. From this physician's observations, coffee may become
+a valuable addition to our _materia medica_; and the homoeopathic
+practitioners maintain that they have employed it with great success in
+various maladies.
+
+
+
+
+AQUA TOPHANIA.
+
+
+It was for a long time supposed that there actually did exist in Italy a
+secret poison, the effects of which were slow, and even unheeded, until a
+lingering malady had consumed the sufferer. No suspicions were excited;
+or, had they led to any _post mortem_ examination, no trace of the
+terrific preparation's effects could have been detected.
+
+It was towards the year 1659, during the pontificate of Alexander VII.,
+that the existence of this baneful preparation was suspected. Many young
+women had been left widows; and many younger husbands, who might have
+ceased to please their wives, had died away. A certain society of young
+ladies had been observed to meet under the auspices of an elderly matron
+of rather a questionable character, who had been known in her horoscopic
+predictions to announce deaths that had but too truly taken place about
+the period she prophesied. One of the society, it appears, _peached_
+against her companions, who were all apprehended and put to the torture;
+and the lady patroness, whose name was Spara, was executed with four of
+her pupils. This Spara was a Sicilian, who had obtained the fatal secret
+from Tofania at Naples. Hence the composition was named _aqua Tofania_,
+_aqua della Toffana_, and _acquetta di Napoli_. These deadly drops had
+been charitably distributed by Tofania to various uncomfortable ladies who
+wished to get rid of their lords, and were contained in small phials,
+bearing the inscription of "_Manna de San Nicolas de Bari_." This hag had
+lived to an old age, but was at length dragged from a monastery, in which
+she had sought a sanctuary, tortured, and duly strangled, after a
+confession of her crimes.
+
+Garelli, physician to Charles VI., thus wrote to Hoffmann on the subject:
+"Your elegant dissertation on the popular errors respecting poisons
+brought to my recollection a certain slow poison which that infamous
+poisoner, still alive in prison at Naples, employed to the destruction of
+upwards of six hundred persons. It was nothing else than crystallized
+arsenic dissolved in a large quantity of water by decoction, with the
+addition, but for what purpose I know not, of the herb _cymbalaria_
+(_antirrhinum_). This was communicated to me by his Imperial Majesty
+himself, and confirmed by the confession of the criminal in the judicial
+procedure."
+
+Abbe Gagliani, however, gives a different account of the secret Neapolitan
+drug. "At Naples," he says, "the mixture of opium and cantharides is known
+to be a slow poison; the surest of all, and the most infallible, as one
+cannot mistrust it. At first, it is given in small doses, that its effects
+may be insensible. In Italy it is called _aqua di Tufinia_: no one can
+avoid its attacks, since the liquid is as limpid as water, and cannot be
+suspected. Most of the ladies of Naples have some of it lying carelessly
+on their toilet-tables with smelling-bottles; but they always can know the
+fatal phial when they need its contents." A curious observer has remarked
+on these two preparations, that the mixture of Garelli was, perhaps,
+intended for husbands, while that of Gagliani was for the use of lovers.
+
+This remark appears judicious, since the potion described by the Abbe was
+evidently intended as an amorous philter. Under that head I have related
+many curious circumstances. There is no doubt but that these preparations
+often contained deadly drugs, the perilous qualities of which were most
+probably unknown to those who made them up without any sinister motives.
+Plutarch and Cornelius Nepos inform us that Lucullus, the Roman General,
+lost his reason, and subsequently his life, from having taken one of these
+mixtures; and Caius Caligula was driven into a fit of insanity by a
+philter given to him by his wife Caesonia, as described by Lucretius:
+
+  Tamen hoc tolerabile, si non
+  Et furere incipias, ut avunculus ille Neronis
+  Cui totam tremuli frontem Caesonia pulli
+  Infudit.
+
+Virgil also alludes to the powerful and baneful nature of the plants
+employed in magical incantations:
+
+  Has herbas, atque haec Ponto mihi lecta venena
+  Ipse dedit Moeris; nascuntur plurima Ponto.
+  His ego saepe lupum fieri, et se condere silvis
+  Moerin, saepe animas imis excire sepulchris,
+  Atque satas alio vidi traducere messes.
+
+Female poisoners of a somewhat similar description were known amongst the
+ancients. Nero, when he resolved to destroy Britannicus, sent for one of
+those murderers, named Locusta, who, convicted of several assassinations,
+was pardoned, but kept by the emperor to execute his secret purposes. He
+wished that on this occasion the poison should produce immediate death.
+Locusta prepared a drug that destroyed a goat in a few minutes. This was
+not sufficiently active. The next preparation killed a hog in a few
+seconds. It was approved of. The ill-fated youth was seated at the
+imperial festive board--the potion poured into his goblet--and he died in
+epileptic convulsions. Nero, undisturbed, requested his guests to remain
+quiet--the youth he said was subject to similar attacks, which in general
+were but of short duration; but soon the black, the livid hue of the face
+betrayed the poison, which the imperial assassin sought to conceal, by
+ordering this tell-tale sign to be concealed with paint. Sir Henry Halford
+seems to think that Juvenal alludes to this circumstance in his first
+Satire.
+
+  Instituit rudes melior Locusta propinquas
+  Per famam et populum _nigros_ effere maritos.
+
+The poisons used by the ancients appear to have been of various kinds;
+some more slow in their action than others, to suit, most probably, the
+views of their employers. Socrates, it is supposed, drank the _cicuta_,
+the action of which must have been very slow and weak, since his gaoler
+informed him that if he could exert himself in a warm debate, the effects
+might be arrested. The philosopher, however, remained tranquil. He shortly
+after experienced a numbness in the legs, gradually became insensible, and
+expired in convulsions.
+
+These secret poisons were conveyed in the most stealthy manner. Hence it
+is related, that the poison prepared by Antipater, to destroy Alexander,
+had been conveyed in a mule's hoof, being of so corroding a nature, that
+no metallic vessel could contain it. This absurd story was credited by
+Plutarch and Quintus Curtius, whereas it appears more probable that poison
+was carried in an _onyx_, of which trinkets to contain precious ointments
+were frequently made, or under a human nail, also called _Unguis_, or
+[Greek: onux]. The latter case was the opinion of Dr. Heberden.
+
+Sir Henry Halford, in his learned and interesting essay on the deaths of
+illustrious persons of antiquity, has clearly proved that Alexander was
+not poisoned, but died of a lingering fever of a remittent type; a disease
+that was most probably endemic in the marshes surrounding the city of
+Babylon.
+
+Many absurd ideas regarding venenose substances prevailed in ancient days
+as well as in modern times. Hannibal and Themistocles were said to have
+been poisoned with bullocks' blood.
+
+Eastern nations fancy that a fascinating power is the gift of virtue. In
+the _Hitapadesa_ of _Vishnusannan_ we find the following aphorism: "As a
+charmer draweth a serpent from his hole, so a good wife, taking her
+husband from a place of torture, enjoyeth happiness with him." Possibly
+some receipt of this description may be found in the archives of Doctors'
+Commons.
+
+
+
+
+PLICA POLONICA AND HUMAN HAIR.
+
+
+Hair may be considered a vegetation from the surface of the body. In a
+state of health, hairs are insensible, and it is more than probable that
+they possess no nerves, and that the circulation is carried on in the same
+manner as in plants. In the bulb or root of the hair, however, the vessels
+that promote this circulation are numerous, and there we may trace the
+diseases that affect this beauteous ornament of mankind, more especially
+in the Caucasian race. Long hair, of course, requires more nutriment than
+scanty locks, and some physicians have been of opinion that their great
+length debilitates. Dr. Parr affirms that he has observed symptoms of
+plethoric congestion to arise after long hair had been suddenly cut off.
+
+Vauquelin has made curious experiments on this substance. A solution of
+black hair has deposited a black matter containing bitumen, sulphur, and
+iron; and alcohol extracted from the same coloured hair a whitish and a
+grayish-green oil. Red hair yielded whitish matter and a blood-red oil.
+White hair contained phosphate of magnesia, affording a proof of the
+disposition towards the formation of calcareous matter in old age. When
+hair becomes suddenly white under the shock of a severe moral impression,
+Vauquelin is of opinion that this phenomenon is to be attributed to the
+sudden extrication of some acid, as the oxymuriatic acid is found to
+whiten black hair. Parr thinks that this accident may be owing to an
+absorption of the oil of the hair by its sulphur, as in the operation of
+whitening woollen cloths.
+
+The _plica_ is a curious and disgusting malady, that has been considered a
+disease of the hair, which, according to vulgar report, secreted and shed
+blood. This affection is common and endemic in Poland; hence the term
+_Polonica_ that has been given to it. The invasion of this pestilence has
+been traced to the irruption of the Moguls, from 1241 to 1287, chiefly
+under the command of Cayuk, grandson of Yenghiz. The most absurd tales
+were then related of the manner in which this dreaded infection was
+propagated. Spondanus affirms that it arose from the waters having been
+poisoned by venomous plants. Pistorius and Pauli relate that these waters
+were corrupted by the great number of human hearts that the Moguls cast in
+rivers and in wells. This supposition arose from the unheard-of acts of
+barbarity perpetrated by the ferocious invaders on the wretched population
+of Prussia, Poland, Hungary, and Transylvania. Their refined cruelty has
+been depicted by Gebhardi, in his history of Hungary, in the most glowing
+language.
+
+Other historians assert that the plica originated in the East; such is the
+opinion of Stabel, Spreugel, and other writers. Rodrigo de Fonseca relates
+that the Indians, after drinking certain waters, were attacked with a
+disease in which the hair became agglomerated and matted in the most
+disgusting manner. Erndtel attributes the malady in Poland to the
+gluttonous consumption of horseflesh. However this may be, Poland has been
+ever considered the country most exposed to this visitation.
+
+This disease affords a convincing proof of the vascularity of the hair,
+since it tumefies, augments in capacity so as to allow an evident
+circulation of blood, as the hairs will often bleed when divided with the
+scissors. Dr. Kerckhoffs regards the malady as the mere result of the
+custom among the filthy Poles of letting the hair grow to an immense
+length, of never combing or cleaning it, and always keeping the head
+covered with a woollen or leathern cap. Hence he observes that the rich
+are generally exempt from the affection which particularly prevails
+amongst the Jews. With this view of the disorder, he thinks that
+cleanliness and the excision of the matted hair are sufficient to effect a
+cure.
+
+It is, however, more than probable that other causes occasion this
+horrible disease; and there is but little doubt that the system is
+affected by a particular virus. In many instances affections of the head
+complicate it; although it is likely that they may result from the
+constant irritation of the scalp, that sympathizes so powerfully with the
+membranes of the brain.
+
+The different names given to the _plica_ indicate more or less the ideas
+that prevail regarding its nature. The Poles call it _gwozdiec_ or
+_gwodziec_, which signifies a _nail_ that splits the wood into which it is
+driven. In the district of the Roxolans it is termed _koltun_, _a stake_.
+In Germany superstitious fancies have also given it various curious
+denominations. It is called _alpzopf_ and _schraitelzopf_, as being the
+result of the _malefices_ of vampires and incubi. By some it is asserted
+that the Moravians, natural enemies of the Poles, not having been able to
+conquer them by their arms, had recourse to magical art to inflict this
+scourge: hence they term it _mahrenflechten_, _mahrenwichtung_. To this
+day it is called _hexenzopf_ and _bichteln_, or unbaptized, alluding, no
+doubt, to the Jews, who were accused of having introduced the disorder in
+the deadly hate they bore the Christians; hence was it also known by the
+name of _Judenzopf_ (_Coma Judaeorum_).
+
+Amongst the whimsical ideas to which the _plica_ has given rise, the most
+extraordinary effort of the imagination was that of Hercules Saxoniae. He
+maintained that the fabulous description of the heads of the Gorgons and
+the Furies was derived from this affection: "_Caput Gorgoneum, caput
+Furiarum, vera humana capita fuisse, et fictitiis poetarum occasionem
+praebuisse_."
+
+There are instances on record of infants being born with this loathsome
+malady. Davidson attributes this circumstance to the mental impressions of
+the mother: "_Si ita matris ac nutricis superstitioni placere libuerit_."
+The length of the matted hair in plica is frequently considerable:
+Bachstrom relates the case of a Prussian woman whose hair extended beyond
+the sides of her bed, and she was in the habit of turning it over to make
+a quilt of it; Caligerus saw a man in Copenhagen whose clotted locks were
+six feet three inches in length; and Rzaczyinski gives an account of a
+woman whose hair measured six ells. In the museum of Dr. Meckel, at Halle,
+is to be seen a specimen of the disease eight feet long. The beard and the
+hair of other parts of the body are equally liable to these attacks; while
+the affection has been observed in horses, dogs, and other animals. A
+curious case is related on this subject by Dr. Schlegel: A drunken
+coachman was carried away by a pair of spirited young horses, who
+precipitated themselves, with the fragments of the broken carriage, into
+the Moskwa. One of the animals was drowned; but the other contrived to
+extricate itself, and swam ashore. It continued sick for a considerable
+time, and, on its convalescence the plica broke out in its entire coat.
+
+The assertion that the hairs become endowed with sensibility in this
+disorder is unfounded. The pain is experienced in the root or bulb; thus a
+painful sensation is occasionally felt when a lock of hair has been turned
+back under the nightcap. There is little doubt that the plica is to be
+attributed to a specific virus, which pervades the whole system unless
+successfully treated. The most serious accidents have arisen from
+neglecting it; and Starnigelio gives the following horrible account of its
+ravages. "Magno omnium malo magnoque cruciatu divagatur: infringit ossa,
+laxat artus, vertebras eorum infestat. Membra conglobat et retorquet;
+gibbos efficit, pediculos fundit, caputque aliis atque aliis succedentibus
+ita opplet, ut nequaquam purgari possit. Si cirri raduntur, humor ille et
+virus in corpus relabitur, et affectos, ut supra scriptum est, torquet;
+caput, manus, pedes, omnes artus, omnes juncturas, omnes corporis partes
+exagitat."
+
+Amongst the various specifics recommended for the cure of plica, is the
+_lycopodium_, hence called _herba plicaria_; the _vinca_, or _perventia_.
+The [Greek: daphnoeides] and [Greek: kamai daphne] of the Greeks was also
+extolled, possibly from its supposed powers in cases of incantation,
+whence Apuleius calls it "_victoria, quod vinceret pervinceretque injuriam
+temporis_." This is the plant for which Rousseau felt such a predilection,
+that in after life he never beheld it without experiencing a delightful
+recollection of the pleasures of his boyhood. Its flowers are considered
+the symbol of virginity, and in Flanders are still called _Maegden-palm_.
+In Etruria maidens are crowned with a wreath of it on their funerals.
+
+The decay and fall of the hair is an accident of frequent occurrence. This
+unpleasant drawback on vanity has been termed _alopecia_, from the Greek
+word [Greek: alopex], _vulpes_, a _fox_; this animal and the wolf being
+said to lose their hair and become bald sooner than any other quadruped.
+The Arabian writers were impressed with the same belief, and named the
+affection _daustaleb_, literally the _wolf disease_. Baldness is more
+frequent in males than in females; and it has been observed, that
+emasculated subjects are exempt from its visitation.
+
+Amongst the singular anomalies that characterize our ideas, the respect in
+which hair (naturally unclean unless most carefully attended to) was held
+at various periods is as singular as the fond devotion with which it is
+treasured when having belonged to the objects of our affections. In
+ancient Rome neglected hair was the badge of bondage, and slaves were
+distinguished by the _capillum passum, fluxum, et intonsum_. Free men, on
+the contrary, took great care of it; and the term _caesaries_ is said to be
+derived from the frequency of its cutting, while _coma_ alluded to the
+great attention paid to its ornamental appearance. The Gauls wore long
+hair, and their country was thence called _Gallia Comata_. The German
+chiefs, deprived of their rank and power, were shorn of their locks as a
+mark of degradation and loss of strength. Shaving the heads of criminals
+is to this day considered ignominious.
+
+Hair, most unquestionably, constitutes the proudest ornament of female
+beauty; and clustering locks, compared both by the ancients and the
+Oriental poets to the growth of grapes, has ever been considered a
+_desideratum_ at the female toilet, artificial means to curl it having
+been resorted to from time immemorial, even by men. We find Virgil
+speaking contemptuously of Aeneas for the care he took of his locks:
+
+  Vibratos calido ferro, myrrhaque madentes.
+
+The Romans called a man who thus frizzled himself, _homo calamistratus_.
+
+Crisp and curled ringlets were ever admired, and Petrarch thus describes
+them:
+
+  Aura che quelle chiome bionde e _crespe_
+  Circondi, e movi, e se mossa de loro
+  Soave mente, e spargi quel dolce oro
+  E poi'l raccogli, e'n bei nodi _l'increspe_.
+
+Apuleius maintains, that if Venus were bald, though circled by the graces
+and the loves, she would not please even swarthy Vulcan. Petronius, in his
+description of Circe, describes her tresses naturally curling, and falling
+negligently over her shoulders, which they entirely covered. Apuleius
+praises her trailing locks, thick and long, and insensibly curling,
+dispersed over her divine neck, softly undulating with carelessness. Ovid
+notices those beauties who platted their braided hair like spiral shells.
+Petronius, to give an idea of a perfect beauty, says, that her forehead
+was small, and showed the roots of her hair raised upwards. This fashion,
+adopted by the Chinese, was not long ago a modish _coeffure_ in France.
+Lucian, however, makes Thais say of a rival courtezan, "Who can praise
+her person, unless he is blind? Does she not draw up her scanty hair on
+her large forehead?"
+
+The ancients also perfumed their hair, especially on festivals, with
+various ointments, composed of the spikenard and different balsams. They
+also occasionally painted it with a bright yellow. Unhappy must have been
+the poor slaves who had to attend a Roman lady's toilet; if a single
+ringlet was displaced, the scourge was applied, and the _cow-skin_ of our
+West Indian planters, the _Taurea_ ("_scutica de pene taurino_") brought
+into play; and not unfrequently the head of the offender was broken with
+the steel mirror that betrayed their negligence to the impatient fair one.
+As we are on the subject of female ingenuity in endeavouring to spread
+their nets more cunningly, it may be some comfort to our modern coquettes
+to know that antiquity seems to sanction the use of rouge, notwithstanding
+the fate of Jezabel. Plautus tells us that the Roman dames daubed their
+faces with the "_fucus_, compound of white lead and of vermilion:" hence
+were they called _fucatae_, _cerusatae_, and _minionatae_. Various cosmetics
+were also employed, and, when at home, their faces were preserved with a
+coat of paste, the skin having been previously rubbed with a pumice-stone,
+and then washed with asses' milk. Poppaea, the wife of Nero, had five
+hundred asses milked every day for her baths; and when she was exiled, a
+reduction of her establishment to fifty asses was considered a severe
+chastisement. Patches were also worn, of various shapes and dimensions,
+even by men; and Pliny tells us of one Regulus, a lawyer, who put a patch
+upon his right or left eye as he was going to plead for plaintiff or
+defendant.
+
+The ancients also wore a certain hair-powder, a custom that was only
+revived in Europe in the seventeenth century, since it appears that this
+filthy fashion was brought in vogue at the fair of St. Germain, in 1614,
+by some beautiful ballad-singers.
+
+In ancient mythology, hair was the symbol of life. All dead persons were
+supposed to be under the jurisdiction of the infernal deities, and no man
+could resign his life until some of his hair was cut off. Euripides
+introduces Death going to cut off some of the hair of Alcestis, when
+doomed to die instead of her husband Admetus; and Virgil describes Dido
+unable to resign her life, from her hair having been cut off by
+Proserpine, until Iris was sent by Juno to perform the kind office:
+
+          "Hunc ego Diti
+  Sacrum jussa fero, teque isto corpore solvo."
+  Sic ait, et dextra crinem secat; omnis et una
+  Dilapsus, calor, atque in ventos vita recessit.
+
+Locks of hair were suspended over the door of the deceased, to show that
+the family were in mourning. On these occasions, the hair was torn, cut
+off, or shaved. It was then sometimes strewed over the dead body, or cast
+on the funeral pile. On the demise of great men, whole cities and
+communities were shorn, while animals shared a similar fate. Admetus, on
+the death of Alcestis, ordered this operation to be performed on his
+chariot horses: and when Masistius was slain by the Athenians, the
+Persians shaved themselves, their horses, and their mules. Alexander, not
+satisfied with this testimony of grief, ordered the very battlements of a
+city to be knocked down, that the town might look bald and shorn of its
+beauty.
+
+While in some cases bald heads were expressive of affliction, in others
+long hair denoted grief; Joseph allowed his hair to grow during his
+captivity; and Mephibosheth did the same when David was banished from
+Jerusalem. Juvenal informs us that mariners, on their escape from
+shipwreck, shaved their heads; and Lycophron describes long and neglected
+hair as a sign of general lamentation.
+
+To be shaved by barbers was a proof of cheerfulness; but to cut off one's
+own hair denoted mourning. Hence Artemidorus informs us that for a man to
+dream of shaving himself was a presage of some calamity. However, this
+ceremony may, in its signification, be attributed to the customs of the
+various nations. Where the hair was generally worn short, its length
+indicated grief, and _vice versa_. The filth of long and neglected hair
+might also have been considered a proper and respectful mark of
+tribulation; for the ancients fancied that rolling themselves in the dirt
+was a convincing proof of affection; and we see Oeneus besmearing
+himself with nastiness on the death of his son Meleager:
+
+  Pulvere canitiem genitor, vultusque seniles
+  Foedat humi fusos, spatiosumque increpat aevum.
+
+Shaving was also a nuptial ceremony, when virgins presented their hair to
+Venus, Juno, Minerva, Diana, and other propitious divinities. At
+Troezene virgins were obliged to sacrifice their hair to Hippolytus, the
+son of Theseus, who died for his chastity. The Megarensian maidens
+presented them to Sphinoe, daughter of Alcathous, who died a virgin.
+Statius records this ceremony, when speaking of Minerva's temple:
+
+            Hic more parentum
+  Insides, thalamis ubi casta adolescerat aetas,
+  Virgineas libare comas; primosque solebant
+  Excusare toros.
+
+
+
+
+ANIMAL MAGNETISM.
+
+
+Are we to give credit to the various observations that record the
+wonderful effects of animal magnetism; or should we reject them as the
+impostures of knaves, or the result of the credulity of fools? It is now
+nearly half a century since this method of relieving diseases has been
+introduced by modern practitioners. Thousands of disinterested and candid
+witnesses have corroborated their assertions, and testified to their
+veracity. How, then, are we authorized to treat this doctrine as visionary
+or fraudulent? The most learned bodies have not thought it derogatory to
+their dignity to investigate the matter; and, notwithstanding opposition,
+ridicule, and contempt, the practice obtains to the present day. It has,
+no doubt, been materially impeded in its progress by the invectives of
+occasional scepticism; but such will ever be the case with science, and
+those discoveries which accelerate its inevitable empire on the human
+understanding. Persecution may be considered as the harbinger of truth,
+or, at any rate, of that investigation which directs to it. Pythagoras was
+banished from Athens; Anaxagoras was immured in a dungeon; Democritus was
+considered a maniac, and Socrates condemned to death. An advanced and
+honourable old age did not protect Galileo against his barbarous
+persecutors. Varolius was decreed an infamous and execrable man for his
+anatomical discoveries, and our immortal Harvey was looked upon as a
+dangerous madman. Inoculation and vaccination were deemed impious attempts
+to interfere with the decrees of Providence.
+
+Magnetism may be defined as a reciprocal influence which is supposed to
+exist between individuals, arising from a state of relative harmony, and
+brought into action by the will, the imagination, or physical sensibility.
+This influence is said to exist in a peculiar fluid, transmissible from
+one body to another under certain conditions of each individual, without
+which the expected results are not manifest. Under these conditions, the
+effects of animal magnetism are obtained by manual application, by
+gestures, words, and even looks, more frequently, as may be easily
+conceived, with nervous, weak, and impressionable individuals. By these
+means magnetizers affirm that they can effect cures when all other
+remedial endeavours have been of no avail, either when the patient is
+awake or in a state of artificial somnambulism.
+
+The history of this doctrine is curious. The ancients fully admitted the
+power of sympathy in the cure of diseases; but generally attributed its
+action to the interference of Divinity, or the operation of sorcery and
+enchantment. A remarkable affinity can be traced between modern magnetism
+and its supposed phenomena, and the relations of the Pythian and Sibylline
+oracles, the wonders of the caverns of Trophonius and Esculapius, and the
+miraculous dreams and visions in the temples of the gods. Amongst the
+Hebrews, the Egyptians, the Greeks, and Romans, we constantly discover
+traces of this supposed power of manual apposition, friction, breathing,
+and the use of the charms of music and mystic amulets. The Egyptian
+priesthood were considered as possessing a divine attribute in healing
+diseases. Prosper Alpinus, in his treatise on the medicine of the
+Egyptians, informs us that mysterious frictions were one of their secret
+remedies. The patients were oftentimes wrapped in the skins of animals,
+and carried into the sanctuary of their temples to be assisted by visions,
+that appeared either to them or to their physicians, who pretended that
+Isis was the immortal source of these celestial inspirations. The same
+divine assistance was firmly believed by the Hebrews. It was intimated to
+Miriam and Aaron that the Lord would make himself known to them in a
+vision, and speak to them in a dream; and we find in Deuteronomy that the
+signs and the wonders of prophets and dreamers of dreams were to be
+considered as the abominations of idolaters, who were to be put to death
+without pity. This anathema on false prophets was not unfrequently
+rigorously carried into execution, and we read in the Book of Kings the
+destruction of all the worshippers of Baal. Ahab marched upon
+Ramoth-Gilead by the advice of his prophets.
+
+The sympathetic power of corporeal apposition was illustrated when Elisha,
+to revive the widow's child, stretched himself three times upon him and
+prayed to the Lord. When Elisha restored the child of the Shunamite to
+life he lay upon it, put his mouth upon his mouth, his eyes upon his eyes,
+and his hands upon his hands, and he stretched himself upon the child, and
+the child opened its eyes. Miracles were generally wrought by manual
+application or elevation. Naaman expected that Elisha would have stricken
+his hand over the place to cure his leprosy; and we find in the Scriptures
+that our SAVIOUR healed the sick upon whom he laid his hands. Amongst the
+Greeks we again see the same ceremonies performed on all wonderful
+recoveries. Plutarch tells us that Pyrrhus cured persons with diseased
+spleens by passing his hand over the seat of the malady. Aelianus informs
+us that the Psylli performed their cures by stretching themselves upon the
+patients, and making them swallow water with which they had rinsed their
+mouths; and he also mentions that those who approached these mysterious
+agents were seized with a sudden stupor, and deprived of their intellects
+until they had left them. Apollonius brought a young girl to life by
+touching her, and leaning over her as though he were whispering some magic
+words in her ear; and Origenes affirms that there were sages who dispensed
+health with their mere breath. Vespasian restored sight to the blind by
+rubbing their eyes and cheeks with his saliva, and cured a paralytic by
+merely touching him: the same emperor kept himself in perfect health by
+frequently rubbing his throat and his body. From a passage of Plautus, it
+appears that this manual application was resorted to in his days to
+procure sleep. Mercury is made to say, "Quid si ego illum tractem, tangam
+ut dormiat;" to which Sosia replies, "Servaveris, nam continuas has tres
+noctes pervigilavi."
+
+Pliny maintains that there exist persons whose bodies are endowed with
+medicinal properties; but he admits, at the same time, that imagination
+may produce these salutary emanations. Celsus informs us that Asclepiades
+by friction could calm a phrensy; and further states, that when these
+frictions were carried to too great an extent, they brought on a lethargic
+state. Caelius Aurelianus recommends manual frictions for the cure of
+pleurisy, lethargy, and various other maladies, describing the manner in
+which they are to be conducted: for instance, in epilepsy, the head and
+forehead are to be chafed, then the hand is to be carried gently over the
+neck and bosom; at other times, the extremities of the hands and feet are
+to be grasped, that "we may cure by the very act of holding the limb."
+
+That remedies were indicated in a state of somnambulism is affirmed by
+Tertullian, who thus speaks of one of the followers of Prisca and
+Maximilla, two women who foretold future events when they fell into an
+ecstatic swoon: "She conversed with angels, discovered the most hidden
+mysteries, prophesied, read the secrets of the heart, and pointed out
+remedies when she was consulted by the sick." He thus describes ecstasy in
+his treatise _De Anima_: "It is not sleep, for during sleep all reposes;
+whereas in ecstasy the body reposes, while the soul is actively employed.
+It is therefore a mixed state of sleep and ecstasy which constitutes the
+prophetic faculty, and it is then that we have revealed unto us, not only
+all that appertaineth to honour, to riches, but the means of curing our
+diseases." St. Stephen relates the case of a youth who was in such a
+lethargic state, that he was insensible to all painful agents, and could
+not be awakened; but when he recovered his senses, he declared that two
+persons, the one aged, the other young, had appeared to him and
+recommended sea-bathing. He complied with the instruction, and was cured.
+But the miracles of paganism were soon discredited, when the relics and
+tombs of saints were resorted to instead of the temples of the false gods;
+and priests assumed the power once held by their Chaldean and Egyptian
+predecessors, and the Druids of Gaul. The beatified were not only
+physicians during their life, but medicinal after death. St. Gregory of
+Tours tells us that St. Cosmus and St. Damian were not only able
+physicians during their blessed existence, but assisted all those who
+consulted them in their tombs, not unfrequently appearing to them in
+visions, and prescribing the proper remedies. A saint's breathing upon a
+veil, and then placing it on the head of a demoniac, infallibly cast out
+the evil one; and St. Bernard never failed in his exorcisms, by making the
+possessed swallow some water in which he had dipped his hands. St. Martin
+stopped the most fearful hemorrhage by merely touching the patient with
+his garment. The shrines of St. Litardus, St. Anthony, and various other
+saints, lulled to sleep, and inspired with miraculous visions those who
+sought their aid.
+
+However, as the progress of intellect dispelled the dark clouds that
+shrouded the middle ages in superstitious and credulous prejudices,
+philosophy endeavoured to investigate the nature of this mysterious
+agency, which priests had for so many centuries usurped as their special
+gift and property. Sceptic as to supernatural powers in the common
+occurrences of life, philosophers attributed these phenomena to some
+peculiar principle with which organized bodies were endowed, and hence
+arose the dawn of the doctrine of animal magnetism. So early as 1462,
+Pomponatius of Mantua maintained, in his work on incantation, that all the
+pretended arts of sorcery and witchcraft were the mere results of natural
+operations; he further gave it as his opinion, that it was not improbable
+but that external means, called into action by the soul, might relieve our
+sufferings; that there, moreover, did exist individuals endowed with
+salutary properties, and it might therefore easily be conceived that
+marvellous effects should be produced by the imagination, and by
+confidence, more especially when they are reciprocal between the patient
+and the person who assists his recovery; physicians and men of sense being
+well convinced that if the bones of any animal were substituted for those
+of a saint, the result would be the same. It need not be added that our
+author was violently persecuted for this heretical doctrine. Two years
+after, Agrippa, in Cologne, asserted that the soul, inflamed by a fervent
+imagination, could dispense health and disease, not only in the individual
+himself, but in other bodies. In 1493, Paracelsus expressed himself in the
+following language: "All doubt destroys work, and leaves it imperfect in
+the wise designs of nature. It is from faith that imagination draws its
+strength. It is by faith that it becomes complete and realized. He who
+believeth in nature, will obtain from nature to the extent of his faith.
+Let the object of this faith be real or imaginary, you nevertheless reap
+similar results; and hence the cause of superstition."
+
+Cardanus, Bacon, and Van Helmont pursued this study; and the latter
+physician, having cured several cases by magnetism, was considered a
+sorcerer, and was seized by the Inquisition. Magnetism, he observed, "is a
+universal agent, and only novel in its appellation, and paradoxical to
+those who ridicule every thing they do not comprehend, or attribute to
+Satan what they cannot understand. The name of magnetism is given to that
+occult influence which bodies possess on each other at various distances,
+either by attraction or by impulsion. The means or the vehicle of this
+influence is an ethereal spirit, pure, vital, (_magnale magnum_,) which
+penetrates all matter, and agitates the mass of the universe. This spirit
+is the moderator of the world, and establishes a correspondence between
+its several parts and the powers with which it is endowed. We can attach
+to a body the virtues that we possess, communicate to it certain
+properties, and use it as the intermediate means to operate salutary
+effects. I have hitherto withheld the revelation of this great mystery.
+There exists in man a certain energy, which can act beyond his own person
+according to his will or his imagination, and impart virtues and exercise
+a durable influence even in distant objects. Will is the first of powers."
+Van Helmont fully admitted the wonderful faculties that somnambulism
+seemed to develop, and informs us that it was chiefly during his sleep
+that he was inspired with his doctrines. One might have imagined that
+these philosophic researches would have put an effectual stop to the
+progress of superstition, or rather of persecution; yet their promulgation
+could not save Urbain Grandier, and many supposed sorcerers, from a
+barbarous death.
+
+It was in the beginning of the eighteenth century that various experiments
+were made with the loadstone in researches regarding electricity. In 1754,
+Lenoble had constructed magnets that could be used with facility in the
+treatment of various diseases. In 1774, Father Hell, a Jesuit and
+professor of astronomy at Vienna, having cured himself of a severe
+rheumatism by magnetism, related the result of his experiments to Mesmer.
+This physician was immediately struck with observations that illustrated
+his own theories respecting planetary influence. He forthwith proceeded to
+procure magnets of every form and description for the gratuitous treatment
+of all those that consulted him; and, while he widely diffused his
+doctrines, he sent his magnets in every direction to aid the experimental
+pursuits of others, and thus expressed himself on the subject in a memoir
+published in 1779: "I had maintained that the heavenly spheres possessed a
+direct power on all the constituent principles of animated bodies,
+particularly on the _nervous system_, by the agency of an all-penetrating
+fluid. I determined this action by the INTENSION and the REMISSION of the
+properties of matter and organized bodies, such as gravity, cohesion,
+elasticity, irritability, and electricity. I supported this doctrine by
+various examples of periodical revolutions; and I named that property of
+the animal matter, which renders it susceptible to the action of celestial
+and earthly bodies, ANIMAL MAGNETISM. A further consideration of the
+subject led me to the conviction that there does exist in nature an
+universal principle, which, independently of ourselves, performs all that
+we vaguely attribute to nature or to art."
+
+Mesmer, as might have been foreseen, became the object of persecution and
+of ridicule, and withdrew to Switzerland and Suabia. It was there that he
+met with a certain Gassner of Braz, who, having fancied that an exorcism
+had relieved him from a long and painful malady, took it into his head to
+exorcise others. He considered the greater part of the disorders, to which
+flesh is heir as the work of the devil, and he counteracted his baneful
+influence in the name of our SAVIOUR. He divided these diabolical
+visitations into _possessions_, _obsessions_, and _circumsessions_; the
+latter being trifling invasions. For the purpose of ascertaining whether
+his patients laboured under natural or infernal ailments, he conjured
+Satan to declare the truth. If, after three solemn interpellations, and
+signs of the cross, the devil did not answer, the disorder was considered
+as coming within the province of medicine; but if, on the contrary, the
+patient fell into convulsions, Gassner drew forth his stole and crucifix,
+and, in the name of the Redeemer, commenced rubbing and pinching,
+sometimes in the most indecorous manner, when females were submitted to
+his manipulations. When his attempts failed, he accused the patient of
+want of faith or of the commission of some deadly sin, which baffled his
+endeavours. His fame became so universal, that the Bishop of Ratisbon sent
+for him, and he exercised his art under his auspices. At one period, the
+town was so crowded with his patients, that ten thousand of them were
+obliged to encamp without the walls. It appears that this adventurer had
+the power of acting upon the pulse, and could increase or retard it,
+render it regular or intermittent, and was even reported to paralyze limbs
+and produce tears or laughter at will. It is scarcely credible, yet the
+celebrated De Haen, one of the most distinguished and learned
+practitioners in Germany, not only believed in the power of this Gassner,
+but actually attributed it to a paction with the devil.
+
+Mesmer was not so credulous, and explained the miraculous cures of Gassner
+by the doctrines of the animal magnetism which he advocated. From Suabia
+he returned to Vienna, whence he was expelled as a quack; and in 1778
+arrived at Paris, a capital that had patronised Cagliostro and St.
+Germain, and was ever ready to be deceived by ingenious empiricism. In
+1779 he published a paper on the subject, in which he maintained
+twenty-seven propositions to establish his supposed influence between the
+celestial bodies, the earth, and animated matter, produced by a fluid
+universal, subtile, susceptible of receiving, transmitting, and
+communicating its impressions, on mechanical principles, until then
+unknown, and producing alternate effects of flux and reflux. This powerful
+agent, he said, acted chiefly on the nervous system. The human body,
+moreover, according to his notions, possessed properties analogous to the
+loadstone, and presenting an opposed polarity, subject to various
+modifications, which either strengthened or weakened it. The action of
+animal magnetism, according to him, was not confined to animal matter, but
+could be equally communicated to inanimate bodies at various distances.
+Mirrors could reflect and increase its power like the rays of light, and
+sound could propagate and increase it. This magnetic property, he further
+stated, could be accumulated, concentrated, and transported at pleasure,
+although there did exist animated bodies possessed of properties so
+opposite as to render this powerful agent inefficient. He found that the
+loadstone was susceptible of animal magnetism, and of its opposite
+virtues, without any apparent influence on its power over iron and the
+needle; whence he concluded that there existed a wide difference between
+animal and mineral magnetism.
+
+Mesmer soon found a warm advocate of his doctrines in a Dr. D'Eslon, and
+animal magnetism became in fashionable vogue. Not only were men and
+animals subjected to their experiments, but this wondrous influence was
+communicated to trees and plants, and the celebrated elm-tree of Beaugency
+was magnetized by the Marquis de Puysegur and his brother; while the
+enthusiastic D'Eslon absolutely went knocking from door to door to procure
+patients. Breteuil, who was then one of the ministers, offered Mesmer a
+yearly pension of thirty thousand francs, with a sum of three hundred
+thousand francs in cash, with the decoration of St. Michael, if he would
+consent to reveal the mysteries of his science to the medical faculty.
+This tempting offer our magnetizer indignantly rejected, and a secret
+society was instituted under the name of the Lodge and Order of Harmony.
+The charms and the power of youth and music were not neglected as
+auxiliaries to propagate the fashionable doctrine. Young men of elegant
+manners and athletic form were initiated in the practice of magnetizing,
+and the _salons_ of Paris consecrated to this worship (for such it might
+have been termed) were crowded with the most fascinating women that the
+gay metropolis of France could produce. Most of these females, impassioned
+by nervous excitability, as loose in their morals as to outward appearance
+they were fervent in their devotions, abandoned themselves without reserve
+to the delightful sensations that magnetism and its surrounding machinery
+were said to afford. In their ecstasies, their hysteric attacks, their
+spasms, Mesmer, the high-priest, fancifully dressed, but in the height of
+fashion, with his useful acolytes, endeavoured to soothe and calm the
+agitation of their enchanting patients by all the means that Mesmerism
+could devise.
+
+It soon became pretty evident that these phenomena were solely to be
+attributed to the influence of imagination; and Doppet, one of the most
+ardent disciples of the new creed, frankly avowed that "those who were
+initiated in the secrets of Mesmer entertained more doubts on the subject
+than those who were in thorough ignorance of them." Notwithstanding this
+evidence brought forward against Mesmer's fascinating practice, he was
+warmly eulogised even by high churchmen; and Hervier, a doctor of
+Sorbonne, did not hesitate to assert that the Golden Age was on the
+return; that man would be endowed with fresh vigour, live for the space of
+five generations, and only succumb to the exhaustion of age; that all the
+animal kingdom would enjoy a similar blessing; while magnetized trees
+would yield more abundant and delicious fruits. This belief of the good
+ecclesiastic arose, according to his own assertion, from his having been
+cured of some cruel disorder by magnetism, while all his intimate
+acquaintances insisted that he had never ceased to enjoy perfect health.
+
+Such were the circumstances that attended the introduction of animal
+magnetism, which to this day is defended and maintained by ardent
+proselytes. Sound philosophy can only attribute its wonderful phenomena,
+many of which cannot be denied, to the influence of the imagination, and
+the all-powerful deceptive agency of faith. It is an incontrovertible
+fact, that the nervous system may be so worked upon, thrown by various
+secret and physical means into such a morbid condition, that results
+bordering upon the miraculous in the eyes of the credulous may be easily
+obtained. Every circumstance that appears to differ from the usual course
+of nature is deemed miraculous by the ignorant; and the Greek proverb
+[Greek: thaumata morois], plainly maintains that miracles are only for the
+simple. In fact, who are the persons who in our times cry out "miracle,"
+but weak and timid men, worn out by excesses or age, labouring under the
+influence of terror; silly old women, who have not the power of reasoning;
+or nervous and enthusiastic females, who seek for some saving clauses in a
+pact between vice and virtue, depravity and religion.
+
+All the wonders of the creation are miraculous, if we are to consider
+those phenomena that are, and most probably will ever remain, beyond our
+humble and miserable comprehension to be such. The manifestations of the
+Creator's will are daily exhibited in stupendous forms that strike the
+ignorant with awe, while they lead the man of science to bow in grateful
+veneration to that Almighty power that has harmonized the creation for our
+wellbeing, if we would only obey the sublime dictates of his laws, without
+attempting to scrutinize their spirit by quibbling with their letter.
+
+There can be but little doubt that the wonders of magnetism may be
+referred to the imagination; yet some of the phenomena must excite our
+surprise, and may occasion some degree of hesitation in invariably
+attributing its results to fancy. The Academy of Medicine of Paris having
+appointed a commission of twelve members to examine and report upon it,
+their inferences were as follow:
+
+1. The effects of magnetism were not evident in healthy persons, and in
+_some_ invalids.
+
+2. They were _scarcely_ apparent in others.
+
+3. They _often_ appeared to be the result of ennui, monotony, and the
+influence of imagination.
+
+4. Lastly, _they are developed independently of these causes, very
+probably by the effects of magnetism alone_.
+
+The points of this report that I have printed in italics prove most
+clearly that the members of the commission, all of whom were decidedly
+adverse to the doctrine, were convinced, at least to a certain extent, by
+the experiments they had witnessed, of some singular powers residing in
+this mysterious science. Such must have been the case, since we find three
+members seceding from their associates, Laennec, Double, and Magendie, all
+well known as distinguished physiologists, somewhat inclined to pure
+materialism, and what may be termed _matter-of-fact_ men, who would
+hesitate in yielding their belief to any assertion that the scalpel could
+not demonstrate. Notwithstanding the protest of these gentlemen, the
+following were the conclusions of the commission:
+
+1. Contact of the thumbs and magnetic movements are the means of relative
+influence employed to transmit magnetic action.
+
+2. Magnetism acts on persons of different age and sex.
+
+3. Many effects appear to depend on magnetism alone, and are not
+reproduced without it.
+
+4. These effects are various. Sometimes magnetism agitates, at other times
+it calms. It generally causes acceleration of the pulse and respiration,
+slight convulsive movements, somnolency, and, in a few cases,
+somnambulism.
+
+5. The existence of peculiar characters of somnambulism has not yet been
+proved.
+
+6. It may, however, be inferred that this state of somnambulism prevails
+when we notice the development of new faculties, such as _clairvoyance_
+and intuitive foresight, or when it produces changes in the physiological
+condition of the individual, such as insensibility, sudden increase of
+strength, since these effects cannot be attributed to any other cause.
+
+7. When the effects of magnetism have been produced, there is no occasion
+on subsequent trials to have recourse to _passes_.[42] The look of the
+magnetizer and his will have the same influence.
+
+8. Various changes are effected in the perceptions and faculties of those
+persons in whom somnambulism has been induced.
+
+9. Somnambulists have distinguished with closed eyes objects placed before
+them. They have, then, read words, recognised colours, named cards, &c.
+
+10. In two somnambulists we witnessed the faculty of foreseeing acts of
+the organism to take place at periods more or less distant. One announced
+the day, the hour, and the minute of the invasion and recurrence of an
+epileptic fit; the other foresaw the period of his recovery. Their
+anticipations were realized.
+
+11. We have only seen one somnambulist who had described the symptoms of
+the diseases in three individuals presented to her.
+
+12. In order to establish justly the relations of magnetism with
+therapeutics, one must have observed the effects on a number of
+individuals, and have made experiments on sick persons. Not having done
+this, the commissioners can only say, they have seen too few cases to
+enable them to form a decisive opinion.
+
+13. Considered as an agent of physiological phenomena, or of therapeutics,
+magnetism should find a place in the range of medical science, and be
+either practised, or its employment superintended by a physician.
+
+14. From the want of sufficient opportunities, the commission could not
+verify the existence of any other faculties in somnambulists; but its
+reports contain facts sufficiently important to conclude that the Academy
+ought to encourage researches in animal magnetism, as a curious fact of
+psychology and natural history.
+
+This report was impugned by Mr. Dubois, in what he calls his rational
+conclusions, which of course maintain that those of the commission were
+irrational. However, in this paper he merely affirms his own incredulity,
+without supporting it upon any grounds of experiment or observation; and
+therefore his observations must be considered an individual attempt to
+refute the assertions of a body of scientific men, who, after diligently
+and maturely weighing the arguments in favour of a doctrine that they were
+previously disposed to condemn as unworthy of research, came to the
+conclusions that we have seen.
+
+While the French Academy did not consider it beneath their dignity to
+investigate this doctrine, in other parts of Europe it attracted the
+attention both of the reigning monarchs and the most distinguished
+physicians. In Prussia, Hufeland, who had been one of the warmest
+opponents of magnetism, became a convert; and a clinical hospital was
+established in Berlin, by order of the government, to observe and record
+its phenomena. At Frankfort and Groningen, Drs. Passavant and Bosker
+published works on the subject; the latter having translated the critical
+history of Deleuze. At Petersburg, Dr. Stoffreghen, first physician of the
+Emperor, pronounced himself with several colleagues in its favour; and
+most of these distinguished men seemed to partake of the opinion of the
+justly celebrated Orfila, who certainly may be considered as an authority,
+and who thus expressed himself on the subject:
+
+"If there exists trickery and quackery in animal magnetism, its
+adversaries are too hasty in refusing to admit all that has been asserted
+in regard to its effects. The testimony of enlightened physicians should
+be considered as proofs. If the magnetic phenomena appear extraordinary,
+the phenomena of electricity appeared equally marvellous in its origin.
+Was Franklin to be considered a quack when he announced that with a
+pointed metal he could command thunder? Whether magnetism acts in good or
+in evil, it is clearly a therapeutic agent, and it behoves both the honour
+and the duty of the Academy to examine it."
+
+Such is the present state of this curious science. To what credit it may
+be entitled, and how far it may become a useful medical agent, experience
+alone can decide. At the same time, it would be unjust to assert, in our
+present ignorance, that all the learned and independent men who support it
+are either fools or knaves.[43]
+
+
+
+
+POISONOUS FISHES.
+
+
+The deleterious qualities of certain fishes have long been the subject of
+medical conjectures. It is somewhat singular, and most difficult to
+account for, that the same fish should be wholesome in some waters, and
+deadly in others, although under the same latitude, and when, to all
+appearance at least, no local cause can be discovered to which we might
+reasonably attribute this fatal property. So powerful and prompt moreover,
+it is in its action that rapid death will ensue whenever a small portion
+of the fish has been eaten. Such, for instance, is generally the case with
+the yellow-bill sprat, the _clypea thrissa_.
+
+Some naturalists attribute this poison to copper banks, on or near which
+the fish may feed. The absurdity of this opinion has been fully
+demonstrated; in the first instance, no such copper banks have been
+discovered in the West Indies, and these fish abound on the coasts of
+islands of coral formation. Moreover, it is not likely that this mineral
+should saturate the animal; and, even if it could produce this effect, the
+entire body would in all probability be affected, whereas the poison seems
+to lie in particular parts, chiefly in the intestines, the liver, the fat,
+&c. This is evident from the practice of fishermen, who can eat poisonous
+fish with impunity if they have taken the precaution to draw them
+carefully and salt them. In addition to these observations, the symptoms
+of the disease thus produced, by no means resemble those of mineral
+poisons. Dr. Chisholm, who pretends that copper banks do exist in the
+Windward Islands, is of this opinion. Admitting the facts, it may be
+asked, have the waters of these seas been impregnated by the copper? if
+they are not, how can its influence extend to its inhabitants? and why are
+particular fish only affected? Moreover, although it is well known that
+certain substances are deleterious to some animals and harmless to others,
+yet one might fancy that, if the coppery principal of an animal's flesh
+could poison, it is not irrational to think that the same deadly substance
+would also destroy the animal. The presence of this mineral has never been
+detected by any chemical test; and, if the poison consisted in copper, how
+could salting the fish destroy it? In opposition to these objections, it
+has been maintained that fish may be rendered poisonous by feeding on the
+marine plants that grow upon these deadly banks. Now, unless it could be
+proved that copper is not injurious to fish, these same lithophyta and
+zoophyta would no doubt poison them.
+
+However, it is more than probable that it is to a certain injurious food
+that these dangerous qualities are to be referred. Various plants that
+grow in these regions are of a poisonous nature to man, although, as I
+have just observed, they may not be so destructive to fish. The
+circumstance of the alimentary tube being more poisonous than any other
+part seems to warrant the conclusion; and I have observed in the West
+Indies, that the crabs that feed upon banks where the manchineel is to be
+found, frequently occasion serious, and sometimes fatal accidents. On the
+coast of Malabar, crabs are poisonous in the month of October, when the
+_blue tithymale_ abounds.
+
+Whatever may be the causes of this deadly principle, the effects are most
+rapid. When a large quantity has been taken, the patient soon dies in
+strong convulsions; but frequently, when the quantity and the nature of
+the poison have not been sufficient to occasion death, the body becomes
+emaciated, the cuticle peels off, particularly on the palms of the hands
+and the soles of the feet, the hair drops, acute pains shoot through every
+joint, and the sufferer not unfrequently sinks under a lingering disease.
+In these cases change of climate has been found the most effectual remedy,
+and a return to Europe becomes indispensable.
+
+The usual symptoms that denote the presence of the poison, are languor,
+heaviness, drowsiness, great restlessness, flushing of the face, nausea,
+griping, a burning sensation, at first experienced in the face and eyes,
+and then extending over the whole body; the pulse, at first hard and
+frequent, soon sinks, and becomes slow and feeble. In some cases the
+salivary glands become tumefied with a profuse salivation; and the body,
+and its perspiration, are as yellow as in the jaundice. These peculiar
+symptoms have frequently been known to arise after eating the _rock-fish_.
+
+The remedies that are usually resorted to are stimulants. Capsicum has
+been considered a powerful antidote; and the use of ardent spirits or
+cordials has also been strongly urged. It has been observed, that persons
+who had drunk freely, or who had taken a dram after eating fish that had
+disordered others, were, comparatively speaking, exempt from the severity
+of the disease. A decoction of the root of the _sour-sop_, and an infusion
+of the flowers of the _white cedar_ and the _sensitive plant_ have also
+been advised by several West India practitioners.
+
+The practice of putting a silver spoon in the water in which fish is
+boiled, to ascertain its salubrity, is a popular test that cannot be
+depended on. Fishermen have observed that fish that have no scales are
+more apt to prove injurious; and those of uncommon size are looked upon as
+the most dangerous.
+
+To ascertain whether the nature of the fishes' food could thus render them
+poisonous, Mr. Moreau de Jonnes had recourse to many curious experiments.
+He took portions of polypes found in the waters reputed dangerous, more
+particularly the _liriozoa Caribaea_, the _millepora polymorpha_, the
+_gorgonia pinnata_, the _actinia anemone_, &c., and, having enveloped them
+in paste, he fed fishes with them; but in no one instance was any
+prejudicial result observed. He tried in the same manner the _physalis
+pelagica_ of Lamark, which contains an acrid and caustic fluid; but the
+fish invariably refused it, nor would they touch fragments of the
+manchineel apple.
+
+Oysters have been known to produce various accidents; and, when they were
+of a green colour, it has been supposed that this peculiarity was also due
+to copper banks. This is an absurdity; the green tinge is as natural to
+some varieties as to the _esox belone_, whose bones are invariably of the
+same hue as verdigrise. Muscles frequently occasion feverish symptoms,
+attended with a red, and sometimes a copper-coloured, efflorescence over
+the whole body. These accidents appear to arise from some peculiar
+circumstances. In Boulogne I attended a family in which all the children
+who had eaten muscles were labouring under this affection, while not
+another instance of it was observed in the place. In the Bahama Islands I
+witnessed a fatal case in a young girl who had eaten crabs; she was the
+only sufferer, although every individual in the family had shared in the
+meal. The idea of the testaceous mollusca avoiding copper-bottomed
+vessels, while they are found in abundance on those that are not sheathed,
+is absurd; this circumstance can be easily explained by the greater
+facility these creatures find in adhering to wood. There is every reason
+to believe, that the supposed poisonous oysters found adhering to the
+copper bottom of a ship in the Virgin Isles, and the occasional accidents
+amongst the men that ate them, were only so in the observer's imagination,
+and that part of the ship's company were affected by some other causes.
+Another report, equally absurd, was that of the fish having gradually
+quitted the Thames and Medway since coppering ships' bottoms has been
+introduced! The following may be considered the fish that should be
+avoided:
+
+  The Spanish mackerel,     _Scomber caeruleo-argenteus_.
+  The yellow-billed sprat,  _Clupea thrissa_.
+  The baracuta,             _Esox baracuta_.
+  Grey snapper,             _Coracinus fuscus_.
+  The porgie,               _Sparus chrysops_.
+  The king-fish,            _Scomber maximus_.
+  The hyne,                 _Coracinus minor_.
+  Bottle-nosed cavallo,     _Scomber_.
+  Old wife,                 _Balistes monoceros_.
+  Conger eel,               _Muraena major_.
+  Sword-fish,               _Xiphias gladius_.
+  Smooth bottle-fish,       _Ostracion globellum_.
+  Rock-fish,                _Perca manna_.
+
+I have known accidents arise from the use of the dolphin on the high seas;
+and, while I was in the West Indies, a melancholy instance of the kind
+occurred, when the captain, mate, and three seamen of a trading vessel
+died from the poison; a passenger, his wife, and a boy, were the only
+survivors, and were fortunately picked up in the unmanageable vessel.
+
+The above catalogue of poisonous fishes is extracted from Dr. Dancer's
+"Jamaica Practice of Physic," and its correctness fell under my own
+observation in the Wrest Indies. The different systems and classifications
+of ichthyologists have produced much confusion, and may lead to fatal
+errors; I think it therefore advisable to submit to travellers, who may
+have to visit these unhealthy regions, the names of the _toxicophorous_
+fishes according to the French momenclature.
+
+  Le poisson arme,          _Diodon orbicularis_.
+  La lune,                  _Tetraodon mola_.--LINN.
+  Le tetraodon ocelle,      _T. ocellatus_.
+  Le t. scelerat,           _T. scelreatus_.
+  La vieille,               _Balistes vetula_.
+  La petite vieille,      { _B. monoceros_.--LINN.
+                          { _Alutus monoceros_.--CUVIER.
+  Le coffre triangulaire,   _Ostracion trigonus_.--BLOCH.
+  La grande orphie,         _Esox Brasiliensis_.--LINN.
+  La petite orphie,         _E. marginatus_.--LACEPEDE.
+  Le congre,                _Muraena conger_.--MINN.
+  Le perroquet,             _Sparus psittacus_.--LACEPEDE.
+  Le capitaine,             _S. erythrinus_.--BLOCH.
+  La becune,                _Sphyraena becuna_.
+  Le thon,                  _Scomber thynnus_.--LINN.
+  La carangue,              _Caranx carangus_.
+
+A work, in which a _synonymous_ catalogue of all the fishes supposed to be
+poisonous might be found, would be highly desirable, as they generally
+bear different popular and scientific names, thus producing a dangerous
+confusion even amongst naturalists; how much more dangerous amongst
+seafaring people and voyagers!
+
+I cannot conclude this article without noticing the singular properties of
+those electric fishes denominated the _torpedo-ray_ and the _gymnote_.
+They had been long known to naturalists, and the ancients attributed their
+destructive faculties to a magic power that Oppian had recorded in his
+_Alieuticon_, where he describes a fisherman palsied through the hook, the
+line, and the rod. This influence being voluntary on the part of the
+animal, seemed to warrant the belief in its mischievous nature, since it
+allows itself sometimes to be touched with impunity, while at others it
+burrows itself under the sand of the beach, when the tide has receded, and
+maliciously benumbs the astonished passenger who walks over it. This
+singular fish, which is common in the Mediterranean Sea, has been
+described both by the Greek and Roman writers; amongst others, by
+Aristotle and Athenaeus: and Socrates, in his Dialogues, compares a
+powerful objection, to the influence of the torpedo.
+
+This voluntary faculty has been observed by Lacepede and Cloquet in the
+Mediterranean, and at La Rochelle. In torpedos kept in water for
+experimental purposes, Reaumur found that he handled them without
+experiencing any shock for some time, until they at last appeared to
+become impatient: he then experienced a stunning sensation along the arm,
+not easily to be described, but resembling that which is felt when a limb
+has been struck with a sudden blow. One of the experiments of this
+naturalist proved the extensive power of this faculty. He placed a torpedo
+and a duck in a vessel containing sea-water, covered with linen to prevent
+the duck from escaping, without impeding the bird's respiration. At the
+expiration of a few minutes the animal was found dead, having been killed
+by the electric shocks of its enemy.
+
+Redi was the first who demonstrated this faculty. Having laid hold of a
+torpedo recently caught, he had scarcely touched it, when he felt a
+creeping sensation shooting up to the shoulder, followed by an unpleasant
+tremor, with a lancinating pain in the elbow. These sensations he
+experienced as often as he touched the animal; but this faculty gradually
+decreased in strength as the animal became exhausted and dying. These
+experiments he related in a work entitled "_Esperienze intorno a diverse
+cose naturali_." Florence, 1671.
+
+In 1774, Walsh made some very interesting experiments at the Isle of Re
+and La Rochelle, and clearly demonstrated this electric faculty in a paper
+_On the electric property of the torpedo_. In one of them he found that
+this fish could produce from forty to fifty shocks in the course of ninety
+minutes. The electrified individuals were isolated; and at each shock the
+animal gave, it appeared to labour under a sense of contraction, when its
+eyes sunk deep in their sockets.
+
+The _trichiurus electricus_ of Linnaeus, the _rhinobatus electricus_ of
+Schneider, and the _gymnonotus electricus_ of _Surinam_, are the species
+of this singular fish with which experiments have chiefly been made. The
+_gymnonotus_ is a kind of eel, five or six feet in length, and its
+electric properties are so powerful that it can throw down men and horses.
+This animal is rendered more terrific from the velocity of his powers of
+natation, thus being able to discharge its thunder far and near. When
+touched with one hand the shock is slight; but when grasped with both, it
+is so violent that, according to the accounts of Collins Flag, the
+electric fluid can paralyze the arms of the imprudent experimentalist for
+several years. This electric action is analogous to that which is obtained
+by means of the fulminating plate, which is made of glass with metallic
+plates. Twenty-seven persons holding each other by the hands, and forming
+a chain, the extremities of which corresponded with the points of the
+fish's body, experienced a smart shock. These shocks are produced in quick
+succession, but become gradually weaker as the fluid appears to be
+exhausted. Humboldt informs us, that, to catch this fish, wild horses are
+driven into the water, and after having expended the fury and the vigour
+of the gymnonotus, fishermen step in and catch them either with nets or
+harpoons. Here we find that the irritable or sensorial power is exhausted
+through the medium of electricity. These phenomena may be attributed to an
+electric or Voltaic aura; and the organ of the animal that secretes the
+fluid resembles in its wonderful structure the Voltaic apparatus. Both the
+gymnote and the torpedo obey the laws of electricity, and their action is
+limited to the same conducting and non-conducting mediums. The electric
+sparks proceeding from the gymnote have been plainly seen in a dark
+chamber by Walsh, Pringle, Williamson, and others. The fish has four
+electric organs, two large and two small ones, extending on each side of
+the body from the abdomen to the end of the tail. These organs are of
+such a size that they constitute one third of the fish's bulk. Each of
+them is composed of a series of aponeurotic membranes, longitudinal,
+parallel, horizontal, and at about one line's distance from each other.
+Hunter counted thirty-four of these fasciculi in one of the largest. Other
+membranes or plates traverse these vertically, and nearly at a right
+angle; thus forming a plexus or net-work of numerous rhomboidal cells.
+Hunter found no less than two hundred and forty of these vertical plates
+in the space of eleven inches.
+
+This apparatus, analogous to the Voltaic pile, is brought into action by a
+system of nerves rising from the spinal marrow, each vertebra giving out a
+branch; other branches, rising from a large nerve, running from the basis
+of the cranium to the extremity of the tail. All these ramifications are
+spread and developed in the cells of the electric organs, to transmit its
+powerful fluid, and strike with stupor or with death every animal that
+comes within its reach. Lacepede has justly compared this wonderful
+mechanism to a battery formed of a multitude of folio-electric pieces.
+
+The electric organ of the _malapterus electricus_ is of a different
+formation. This fish, found in the Nile and in other rivers of Africa, is
+called by the Arabs _raash_ or thunder. In this animal the electric fluid
+extends all round the body, immediately under the integuments, and
+consists of a tissue of cellular fibres so dense, that it might be
+compared to a layer of bacon; but, when carefully examined, it consists of
+a series of fibres forming a complex net-work. These cells, like those in
+the gymnote, are lubricated with a mucous secretion. The nervous system of
+this intricate machinery is formed by the two long branches of the
+pneumo-gastric nerves, which in fishes usually run under each lateral
+line. Here, however, they approach each other on leaving the cranium,
+traversing the first vertebra.
+
+Linnaeus had classed the torpedo in the genus _ray_, and hence called it
+_raia torpedo_. Later naturalists have restored to it its ancient name, as
+given by Pliny, and termed it _torpedo_, of which four species are
+described: the _T. narke_, or with five spots; the _T. unimaculata_,
+marked, as the name indicates, with one spot; the _T. marmorata_, and the
+_T. Galvanni_.
+
+The ancients placed much faith in the medicinal properties of these
+fishes. Hippocrates recommends its roasted flesh in dropsies that follow
+liver affections. Dioscorides prescribed its application in cases of
+obstinate headaches and rheumatisms. Galen and other physicians recommend
+the application of the living animal; and Scribonius Largus states that
+the freedman Anteroes was cured of the gout by this practice. To this day,
+in Abyssinia, fever patients are tied down on a table, and a torpedo is
+applied to various parts of the body. This operation, it is affirmed,
+causes great pain, but is an infallible remedy.
+
+
+
+
+MEMORY AND THE MENTAL FACULTIES.
+
+
+This noble faculty, the proudest attribute of mankind, justly called the
+mother of the Muses, is subject to be impaired by various physical and
+moral causes, while a similar agency can sometimes restore it to its
+pristine energy, or develope its powers when sluggish and defective.
+Memory may be considered as the history of the past chronicled in our
+minds, to be consulted and called upon whenever circumstances stances or
+the strange complication of human interests demand its powerful aid. Its
+powers and nature widely differ, and these varieties depend upon
+education, natural capacities, mode of living, and pursuits. Thus memory
+has been divided into that faculty that applies to facts, and to that more
+superficial quality that embraces a recollection of things, to which must
+be added the memory of localities and words: "Lucullus habuit divinam
+quamdam memoriam rerum, verborum majorem Hortensius," said Cicero.
+
+It is on this division that Aristotle founded his belief that the brute
+creation had not the faculty of reminiscence, although he allowed them to
+possess memory. According to his doctrine, reminiscence is the power of
+recollecting an object by means of a syllogistic chain of thought; an
+intellectual link with which animals do not seem to be gifted. Their
+memory appears solely to consist of the impressions received by the return
+of circumstances of a similar kind. Thus, a horse that has started on a
+certain part of a road will be apt to evince the same apprehension when
+passing the same spot. This is an instinctive fear, but not the result of
+calculation or the combination of former ideas. Reminiscence is the
+revival of memory by reflection; in short, the recovery or recollection of
+lost impressions.
+
+The recollection of things or facts can alone bring forth a sound
+judgment. It implies a regular co-ordination of ideas, a catenation of
+reflections, in which circumstances are linked with each other. The chain
+broken, no conclusion can be drawn. Newton was wont to lose the thread of
+an important conversation when his mind was in search of an idea. This is
+the reason why the society of the learned is seldom entertaining to the
+generality of men. They are considered absent, while their brain is busily
+employed in pursuits perhaps of great importance; they must therefore be
+anything but agreeable to those who generally think through the medium of
+other persons' brains.
+
+The brain is considered to be the seat of memory. When it is injured,
+remembrance is impaired; and, on the other hand, an accident has been
+known to improve the recollective faculties. A man remarkable for his bad
+memory fell from a considerable height upon his head; ever after he could
+recollect the most trifling circumstance. The effects of different
+maladies will also produce various results on this faculty. In some
+instances names of persons and things are completely forgotten or
+misapplied; at other times, words beginning with a vowel cannot be found.
+Sudden fright and cold have produced the same effects. An elderly man fell
+off his horse in crossing a ford in a winter's night; ever afterward he
+could not bring to his recollection the names of his wife and children,
+although he did not cease to recognise and love them as fondly as before
+the accident. Cold has been at all times considered injurious to memory;
+hence Paulus Aeginus called Oblivion the child of Cold.
+
+In fevers, and a state of great debility, in a disordered condition of the
+digestive functions, and various affections of the head, we generally find
+that the attention cannot long be applied to any one subject or a
+continued train of thoughts; all past circumstances are readily forgotten,
+while passing occurrences are most acutely observed and felt, excepting in
+cases of delirium, when we have the perception of surrounding objects or
+receive an erroneous impression of their nature and agency. In many cases
+of this nature, we find that conversation produces great excitement and
+increases the evil, for the subject of such intercourse is generally
+misconceived and distorted through the medium of a morbid conception,
+while the past, the present, and the future are grouped in a confused and
+most heterogeneous and incoherent jumble.
+
+Philosophers have endeavoured to fix the seat of memory in various
+portions of the brain. The ancients fancied that it was lodged in the
+posterior part of the cranium; having observed that when persons
+endeavoured to recollect any thing, they usually scratched the back part
+of the head. The Arabian physicians entertained a similar belief.
+Gratarola maintained that a great protuberance of the occiput indicated a
+good memory. Gall places it above the orbitary cavity of the eye, and even
+behind it. It has long been thought that persons with protuberant eyes had
+quick recollections. The physical condition of the brain has also been
+considered as materially affecting memory. What physiologists have called
+a moist brain was looked upon as unfavourable to its development; and it
+was therefore owing to the soft and pulpy condition of the cerebral organs
+in young children that the difficulty of impressing anything upon their
+minds arose; the same stupidity being observed in cases where water was
+supposed to be lodged in the brain. While this humid state was considered
+as injurious to memory, dryness of the organ was also esteemed an obstacle
+of a similar nature; and in old age it is by this state of siccity that
+failure in memory was attempted to be explained. This failure of memory as
+age advances may, however, be explained in a much more rational manner.
+Old people will bear in lively recollection the events that attended their
+childhood, their youth, and manhood; it is only recent occurrences that
+shed a transient impression on their minds. The cause of this may be
+considered to arise from the extreme _impressionability_ that prevails in
+early life, when every organ is prompt in responding to each call upon its
+powers; when the charms of novelty tinge with a brighter, yet a more
+lasting lustre, all our pleasurable sensations; when grief had not yet
+wrung the young heart till its fibres became callous to future pangs, when
+perfidy and ingratitude have shown us that all is vanity, and calm
+philosophy has tutored our passions in the school of Adversity. Reason now
+sits upon the judgment-seat, and all that we then can wonder at that is,
+at any time we could have wondered at any thing. Why, then, are we to seek
+for a material theory of the mind, when our daily experience shows us that
+it is under the influence of so many moral agents?
+
+We have, moreover, convincing proof that the brain may be materially
+affected, without any deterioration of the mental faculties. Dr. Ferriar
+mentions a man in whom the whole of the right hemisphere, that is, one
+half of the brain, was found destroyed, but who retained all his faculties
+till the very moment of his death. Diemerbrook states another case where
+half a pound of matter was found in the substance of the brain. O'Hallaran
+relates the history of a man who had suffered such an injury of the head,
+that a large portion of his brain was removed on the right side; and
+extensive suppuration having taken place, an immense quantity of pus,
+mixed with large masses of the substance of the brain, was discharged at
+each dressing, through the opening. This went on for seventeen days, and
+it appears that nearly one half of the brain was thrown out, mixed with
+the matter, yet the man retained all his intellectual faculties to the
+very last moment of his dissolution, and through the whole course of the
+disease, his mind maintained uniform tranquillity. I attended a soldier at
+Braburne Lees, who had received a wound in the head during ball practice.
+The ball remained in the brain, and during three weeks large masses of
+brainular substance were brought away with pus. To the last day of his
+life he would relate, with every circumstantial particular, the neglect of
+the comrade by whom he had been wounded, and who fired while he was
+running to the target to mark the shots. It is somewhat singular, but
+suppuration of the brain is more offensive than the foulest ulcer, and it
+is with great difficulty that the pestilential effluvia can be tolerated.
+These cases plainly show that cerebral diseases have but little influence
+on the manifestations of the mind.
+
+Amongst the many curious doctrines that have been started, to account for
+the operations of memory, some philosophers have compared it to the art of
+engraving; pretending that on those subjects where it requires much time
+and trouble to work an impression it was more durable, while it was only
+traced in a superficial manner on those brains that were ever ready and
+soft to receive this plastic influence. These several faculties they
+therefore compared to bronze or marble, to butter and to wax. Descartes,
+following up the phantasy, compared recollection to etching, and said that
+the animal spirits, being passed over the lines previously traced, brought
+them more powerfully to the mind; thus comparing the brain to the
+varnished copper-plate over which the engraver passes his mordants.
+Malebranche endeavoured to establish another doctrine, and compared our
+cerebral organ to an instrument formed of a series of fibres, so arranged,
+that when any recent emotion agitated one of these chords the others would
+immediately be thrown into vibration, renewing a past chain of ideas. As
+these chords became less flexible in old age, of course these vibrations
+were more difficult to obtain. Recollection was also considered an
+attribute of each molecule of the brain; and Bonnet endeavoured to count
+how many hundred ideas each molecule was capable of holding during a long
+life.
+
+The controversies of learned psychologists on the relation of memory and
+judgment, indeed on the analogies that exist between our several mental
+faculties, have been as various as they are likely to prove interminable.
+Without offending these illustrious controversionalists, we may endeavour
+to enumerate these faculties, which, despite the ingenuity of theorists,
+appear in a practical point of view to exercise a wonderful influence upon
+each other. The first may be considered the faculty of _perception_,
+assisted by that of _attention_, to which we are indebted for our _ideas_.
+These are preserved and called into action from the rich stores of the
+mind by _memory_, justly called by Cicero the guardian of the other
+faculties. _Imagination_ is the faculty of the mind that represents the
+images of remembered objects as if they were actually present.
+_Abstraction_ forms general deductions from the foregoing faculties; while
+_judgment_ compares and examines the analogies and relations of the ideas
+of sense and of abstract notions. Finally, _reason_ draws inferences from
+the comparisons of judgment.
+
+It is from the combination and the workings of these wonderful powers that
+_appetency_, _desires_, _aversions_, and _volition_ arise. _Appetency_
+occasions _desires_, and these, when disappointed or satiated, inevitably
+usher in aversions and antipathies; although, as we shall see in another
+article, our antipathies are frequently instinctive, and not arising from
+any combination of the faculties I have enumerated.
+
+Dr. Gall has considered these mental faculties as fundamental; and in this
+view he was certainly correct, since they may be considered the source
+whence all other distinct capacities are probably formed by particular
+habits of study and the nature of our pursuits, independently of those
+specific capacities which appear to be innate, and, according to the
+system of the phrenologists, organic. Every man possesses these
+fundamental faculties in a greater or less degree, according to the
+obtuseness or the energies of his mind; but it is absurd to conceive that
+specific capacities can be brought into action without the agency of those
+which are fundamental. Let us take the instinct to destroy life, the
+sentiment of property, metaphysical sagacity, or poetic talent,--in short,
+any one of Gall's various faculties; can we for one instant conceive that
+they are not under the influence of _perception_, _memory_, _imagination_,
+and _abstraction_, although they may not be properly ruled by _judgment_
+and by _reason_? Instincts are equally under a similar influence, and are,
+according to circumstances, regulated by judgment in the various modes of
+life of animals. Phrenologists deny that instinct is a general faculty,
+and assert that it is an inherent disposition to activity possessed by
+every faculty, and that there are as many instincts as fundamental
+faculties. This is a postulation by no means clear. Instinct is an
+inherent disposition possessed by every animal, but not by every faculty.
+It is a disposition dependent upon the combination of all the mental
+faculties, according to the degree in which the animal may possess them:
+the reminiscences of animals prove it. We have instanced the horse, who
+endowed with the memory of locality, starts when passing by the same spot
+where he had started before. But here the memory of facts, _memoria
+realis_, and probably of words, _memoria verbalis_, are superadded to the
+_memoria localis_. The horse recollects the tree, the carrion, the object
+that startled him, whatever it might have been; but to this reminiscence
+are associated the chiding, the punishment he received from his rider. If
+this horse had possessed the faculties of _abstraction_, _judgment_, and
+_reason_, he would not have started, to avoid a reiteration of punishment;
+but he started under the impression of _perception_, _attention_, and
+_memory_. Wherever there does not exist a combination of the faculties,
+the intellectual ones may be considered imperfect. We certainly may have a
+greater perception and memory of one subject than of others. Thus, a man
+with a musical organisation will recollect any tune he may have heard,
+though it may not have attracted the _attention_ of one who "hath no music
+in his soul." We daily perceive different talents in children educated
+together. This is, no doubt, a strong corroboration of the doctrine of
+organic dispositions, which in reality no philosophic observer can deny;
+but to assert that these several dispositions are not regulated by what
+have been called the fundamental faculties, is, I apprehend, a position
+that cannot well be maintained; and we may be warranted in the conclusion
+that a particular faculty may be the result of the combined action of
+several faculties, if not of all; for, whether a man be a poet or a
+painter, a miser or a spendthrift, an affectionate father or an assassin,
+every one of the mental faculties that I have enumerated will to a
+certain extent be brought into action, however morbid that action may be.
+
+All these disquisitions, however attractive they may be, when decked out
+with the fascination of the fancy, are the mere wanderings of metaphysical
+speculation, that never can be proved or refuted until we attain a
+knowledge of the nature and quality of the perceptions which material
+objects produce in the mind through the medium of the external senses. But
+while some of these speculations are idle and harmless, others may be
+fraught with danger, and occasion much misery to society. Let us for one
+moment conceive the possibility of our resolves and actions being dictated
+by a supposed phrenological knowledge,--a knowledge earnestly recommended
+to statesmen, and indeed to mankind in general;--what would be the result?
+A diplomatic bungler would be sent on an embassy, because a minister, or a
+sovereign, with a phrenological map before him, may fancy that he displays
+the faculty of circumspection, or the sense of things; and a chancellor of
+the exchequer be found in some needy adventurer who possessed the organ of
+relation of numbers!
+
+I do not at all presume to invalidate the statements of Dr. Gall. The
+profession is highly indebted to him for his accurate description of the
+brain; and physiology must ever consider him as one of the brightest
+ornaments of science: but I do maintain, that to recommend his conclusions
+as a guide to society would be the most rash of visionary speculations;
+and, to my personal knowledge, no man was ever more mistaken in his
+estimate of the persons whom he met in society than the learned doctor
+himself. Of this I had frequent opportunities of convincing myself, when I
+met him in Paris in the circle of a Russian family which he daily visited.
+If I could admit, with a late ingenious writer, "that phrenology teaches
+the true nature of man, and that its importance in medicine, education,
+jurisprudence, and everything relating to society and conduct must be at
+once apparent," I should certainly agree with him in recommending its
+study to parents, judges, and juries; but for the present, I am inclined
+to believe that, although it may prove a most interesting and valuable
+pursuit to the physiologist, it is by no means calculated to be the _vade
+mecum_ of any liberal man.
+
+The memory of various persons is amazing, and has been remarked in ancient
+times with much surprise. Cyrus knew the name of every soldier in his
+army. Mithridates, who had troops of twenty-two nations serving under his
+banners, became a proficient in the language of each country. Cyneas,
+sent on a mission to Rome by Pyrrhus, made himself acquainted in two days
+with the names of all the senators and the principal citizens. Appius
+Claudius and the Emperor Hadrian, according to Seneca, could recite two
+thousand words in the order they had heard them, and afterwards repeat
+them from the end to the beginning. Portius Latro could deliver all the
+speeches he had hastily written without any study.
+
+Esdras is stated by historians to have restored the sacred Hebrew volumes
+by memory when they had been destroyed by the Chaldeans; and, according to
+Eusebius, it is to his sole recollection that we are indebted for that
+part of Holy Writ. St. Anthony, the Egyptian hermit, although he could not
+read, knew the whole Scripture by heart: and St. Jerome mentions one
+Neopolien, an illiterate soldier, who, anxious to enter into monastic
+orders, learned to recite the works of all the fathers, and obtained the
+name of the Living Dictionary of Christianity; while St. Antonius, the
+Florentine, at the age of sixteen, could repeat all the Papal Bulls, the
+Decrees of Councils, and the Canons of the Church, without missing a word.
+Pope Clement V. owed his prodigious memory to a fall on his head. This
+accident at first had impaired this faculty; but by dint of application he
+endeavoured to recover its powers, and he succeeded so completely, that
+Petrarch informs us he never forgot anything that he had read. John Pico
+de la Mirandola, justly considered a prodigy, could maintain a thesis on
+any subject,--_de omni re scibili_,--when a mere child; and when verses
+were read to him, he could repeat them backward. Joseph Scaliger learned
+his Homer in twenty-one days, and all the Latin poets in four months.
+Haller mentions a German scholar, of the name of Muller, who could speak
+twenty languages correctly. Our own literary annals record many instances
+of this wonderful faculty.
+
+To fortify this function when naturally weak, or to restore it to its
+pristine energy when enfeebled by any peculiar circumstances, has been
+long considered an essential study both by the philosopher and the
+physician. Reduced to an art, this pursuit has received the name of
+_Mnemonia_; and at various periods professors of it, more or less
+distinguished by their success, have appeared in the several capitals of
+Europe.
+
+It has been justly observed, that remembrance is to the past what our
+sensations are to the present, and our busy conjectures to futurity.
+Memory gives a lesson to mankind, by stripping past events of their
+_prestige_; thus enabling us to view what passes around us with a more
+calm and philosophic resignation, while at the same time it tends to
+protect us, in the career lying before us, against the many contingencies
+that are likely to impede our path. Although it might appear desirable
+that we could obliterate from the mind the painful scenes of our past
+life, yet the wisdom of the Creator has deemed this faculty as necessary
+to our happiness as our utter ignorance of our future destiny. For let us
+mistake not by a hasty glance on this most important subject; the
+remembrance of past sufferings is not always painful. On the contrary,
+there is that which is holy in our past sorrows, that tends to produce a
+calm, nay a pleasurable sensation of gratitude. St. Theresa beautifully
+expressed this hallowed feeling when she exclaimed, "Where are those
+blissful days when I felt so unhappy!" _Et olim meminisse juvabit._
+
+Memory depends in a great measure on the vivacity with which these past
+scenes are retraced--I may say re-transmitted to the mind, in ideal forms
+"as palpable" as those that may be present. Therefore reminiscence may be
+said to result from a connexion between ideas and images recalled into
+being by a regular succession of expressive signs that the brute creation
+do not possess. Those characteristic signs and images that are generally
+circumstantial are co-ordained and classified in the mind, and tend
+materially in weak memories to produce an artificial mode of recollecting
+the past. This faculty is therefore matured by habit. A literary man,
+whose library is properly classed, will find the book he wants in the
+dark. The classification of his books is ever present to his mind. These
+circumstantial signs are always remembered by a sort of association in our
+ideas. Thus Descartes, who fondly loved a girl who squinted, was always
+affected with strabismus when speaking of her. When we first see a person
+in any particular costume, the individual is clad in the same apparel
+whenever brought to our minds, even after a lapse of many years, when
+fashion has banished even from general recollection the costume that
+memory thus retraces individually. From these observations it has been
+concluded that the most probable method of improving memory would be to
+regulate these associations by a proper classification. One link of this
+ideal chain will naturally lead to another. Many military men, to
+recollect any number, will associate it with that of a regiment, so far at
+least as the number of regiments extend; and the recollection of this
+particular regiment will not only bring to his mind the number of the
+house he seeks, but various other circumstances connected both with the
+regiment and the number. For instance, I wish to recollect No. 87 in a
+certain street. I had, when the number was mentioned to me, attached it to
+the 87th regiment; and instantly I not only recollect that the 87th
+regiment are the Irish Fusiliers, but that they took an eagle at Barossa,
+where they distinguished themselves, and that the figure of that eagle is
+borne upon all the appointments of the corps. At the same moment, with the
+rapidity of lightning I recollect all the circumstances of the battle of
+Barossa; the different conversations I may have had at various times with
+the officers of the 87th; the town, the camp, the bivouac where I last had
+met them. Thus are innumerable circumstances instantaneously converging in
+a mental focus while simply seeking for the lodgings of an individual.
+This may be called the memory of locality, since it is locality that
+revives the recollection of it.
+
+This train of thought has also been called the memory of association, and
+associations have been referred to three classes:--
+
+I. Natural or philosophical associations.
+
+II. Local or incidental associations.
+
+III. Arbitrary or fictitious associations.
+
+Dr. Abercrombie has admirably treated this subject, and I refer the reader
+to his interesting work.[44] The poet Simonides is said to have been the
+founder of the mnemonic art. Cicero informs us, that, supping one night
+with a noble Thessalian, he was called out by two of his acquaintance, and
+while in conversation with them the roof of the house fell in, and crushed
+to death all the guests he had left at table. When the bodies were sought
+for, they were so disfigured by the accident that they could not be
+recognised even by their nearest friends; but Simonides identified them
+all, by merely recollecting the seats they had held at the banquet.
+
+Cicero and Quintilian adopted his system, connecting the ideas of a
+discourse with certain figures. The different parts of the hilt of a
+sword, for instance, might regulate the details of a battle; the different
+parts of a tree associate the relations of a journey. Other mnemonic
+teachers recommended the division of ideas to correspond with the
+distribution of a house; while some of them refreshed the memory by
+associations connected with the fingers and other parts of the hand.
+Cicero expresses himself plainly on this subject: "Qui multa voluerit
+meminisse, multa sibi loca comparet: oportet multos comparare locos, ut in
+multis locis multas imagines collocemus."
+
+The celebrated Feinagle who delivered lectures on memory had adopted the
+system of aiding the memory by dates, changing the figures in the dates
+into the letters of the alphabet corresponding to them in number. These
+letters were then formed into a word to be in some way associated with the
+date to be remembered--for instance--Henry IV., King of England, was born
+in the year 1366. This date changed into letters makes _mff_ which was
+very easily changed into the word _muff_--the method is not so obvious of
+establishing with this a relation to Henry IV., but Hen_ry_ IV., says Mr.
+Feinagle, means four hens, and we put them in a muff, one in each corner,
+and no one after hearing this is in any danger of forgetting the date of
+Henry IV.'s birth.
+
+Learning poetry by heart in infancy and youth is perhaps one of the best
+methods of improving memory, since it lays the early foundation of a
+classification of words and ideas. Virgil has justly said, "Numeros
+memini, si verba tenerem." To abridge, resume, and analyze what we have
+read or heard, is another practice highly beneficial; for, the more
+clearly we comprehend a subject, the deeper will it remain engraved in our
+memory. Reading what we wish to recollect before going to bed will
+materially assist the memory. We sleep over the impressions we have
+received, and dreams alone can weaken them. From this very reason we can
+write with more facility upon subjects that require much mental exertion
+in the morning, fasting, when the mind has not been disturbed by the
+events of the day, and when the functions of digestion have not drawn upon
+our faculties, too frequently with the lavishness of a spendthrift. It is
+somewhat singular, but, despite the interruption of dreams, our ideas are
+matured during our sleep. Quintilian expresses himself as follows on this
+subject: "Mirum dictu est quantum nox interposita adferat firmitatis, sive
+quiescit labor ille cujus sibi ipsa fatigatio obstabat, sive maturatur ac
+coquatur, seu firmissima ejus pars est recordatio. Quae statim referri non
+poterant, contexuntur postero die, confirmatque memoriam idem illud tempus
+quod esse in causa solet oblivionis."
+
+Memory is subject to be variously disturbed in certain maladies. There is
+an affection called _amnesia_, in which it utterly fails, and another
+termed _dysmnesia_, when it is defective. Failure of memory is generally
+more manifest on some subjects than on others. Salmuth relates the case of
+a man who had forgotten to pronounce words, although he could write them.
+Another person could only recollect the first syllables. An old man had
+forgotten all the past events of his life, unless recalled to his
+recollection by some occurrence; yet every night he regularly recollected
+some one particular circumstance of his early days. A curious anecdote is
+recorded of an elderly gentleman who had fallen into the meshes of an
+artful courtesan, and who frequently took his own wife for this insidious
+acquaintance, frequently saying to her, "Madam, I feel that I am doing
+wrong by devoting to you so much of my time, for, when a man has a wife
+and children, such conduct is unpardonable;" and, after this polite
+observation, he took up his hat, and would have walked off, had not his
+wife, wise enough not to manifest displeasure, contrived to undeceive him.
+
+Dietrich mentions a patient who remembered facts, but had totally
+forgotten words; while another could write, although he had lost the
+faculty of reading. Old men are frequently met with who confound
+substantives, and will call their snuff-box a cane, and their watch a hat.
+In other cases letters are transposed, and a musician has called his
+_flute_ a _tufle_. Dr. Abercrombie relates the case of a gentleman who
+uniformly called his snuff-box a hogshead. In Virginia he had been a
+trader in tobacco, so that the transition from snuff to tobacco, and from
+tobacco to a hogshead seemed to be natural. Another person, affected in a
+similar manner, always called for paper when he wanted coals, and coals
+when he needed paper. Others are known to invent names and unintelligible
+words. Some curious anagrams have been made by these irregularities. John
+Hunter was suddenly attacked with a loss of memory, which is thus related
+by Sir Everard Home: "He was at the time on a visit at the house of a
+friend. He did not know in what part of the house he was, not even the
+name of the street when he was told, nor where his own house was. He had
+not a conception of anything existing beyond the room in which he was, and
+yet he was perfectly conscious of the loss of memory. He was sensible of
+impressions of all kinds from the senses, and therefore looked out of the
+window, although rather dark, to see if he could be made sensible of the
+situation of the house. The loss of memory gradually went off, and in less
+than half an hour his memory was perfectly recovered." Such momentary
+accidents I have frequently observed in gouty patients; and for a second
+or two I have myself experienced the sensation, which was for the moment
+of a most alarming nature. Hunter was subject to arthritic attacks.
+
+Corvinus Messala lost his memory for two years, and in his old age could
+not remember his own name. This is an occurrence by no means uncommon; and
+I knew a person in perfect health who could only recollect his name by
+writing it. We frequently see individuals who, although they are generally
+correct orthographers, cannot sometimes spell a simple conjunction. An
+anecdote is related in the Psychological Magazine of a German statesman,
+who having called at a gentleman's house, the servants of which not
+knowing him, was asked for his name, which he had, however, so totally
+forgotten, that he was under the necessity of turning round to a friend
+and saying with great earnestness, "Pray tell me who I am, for I cannot
+recollect."
+
+Cases are recorded of the forgetfulness of a language constantly spoken,
+while one nearly forgotten from want of practice was recovered. A patient
+in St. Thomas's Hospital, who had been admitted with a brain-fever, on his
+recovery spoke an unknown language to his attendants. A Welsh milkman
+happened to be in the ward, and recognised his native dialect; although
+the patient had left Wales in early youth, had resided thirty years in
+England, and had nearly forgotten his native tongue. Boerhaave relates a
+curious case of a Spanish poet, author of several excellent tragedies, who
+had so completely lost his memory in consequence of an acute fever, that
+he not only had forgotten the languages he had formerly cultivated, but
+even the alphabet, and was obliged to begin again to learn to read. His
+own former productions were shown to him, but he could not recognise them.
+Afterwards, however, he began once more to compose verses, which bore so
+striking a resemblance to his former writings, that he at length became
+convinced of his having been the author of them.
+
+Dr. Abercrombie relates the case of an aged gentleman, who, in an attack
+of the head, had almost forgotten the English language, and expressed
+himself in a mixed dialect of French, Italian, Spanish, German, and
+Turkish. Having been some time afterwards severely burnt about the head,
+by setting fire to the curtains of his bed, he was observed to make use of
+some English words; this being followed by a course of blistering, he
+continued to speak more English, but only occasionally and in very short
+sentences. These were sometimes correctly applied, but at other times most
+erroneously; for instance, having been taken to see a small house, he
+observed, "it is very neat, but it is a very little child."
+
+Dr. Beattie mentions the case of a clergyman who, on his recovery from an
+apoplectic attack, had exactly forgotten a period of four years; and Dr.
+Abercrombie records a lady who had thus forgotten ten or twelve years of
+her life. Wepfer mentions a gentleman, who on recovery from an apoplectic
+attack, was found to know nobody and remember nothing. After several weeks
+he began to know his friends, to remember words, to repeat the Lord's
+Prayer, and to read a few words of Latin, rather than German, his native
+language. When urged to read more than a few words at a time, he said that
+he formerly understood those things, but now did not. After some time he
+began to pay more attention to what was passing around him, but while thus
+making slight and gradual progress, he was, after a few months, suddenly
+cut off by another attack of apoplexy. Dr. Beattie relates the case of a
+gentleman who, after a blow on the head, lost his knowledge of Greek, and
+did not appear to have lost any thing else.
+
+Loss of memory has been observed as a frequent occurrence after the
+prevalence of pestilential diseases. Thucydides relates, that after the
+plague of Athens several of the inhabitants forgot their own names and
+those of their parents and friends. After the disastrous retreat of the
+French army in Russia, and the disease which swept away so many of their
+troops at Wilna, many of the survivors had no recollection of country or
+of home. Injuries of the head appear to occasion different results. This
+circumstance was observed by the ancients. Valerius Maximus relates the
+case of an Athenian, who, being struck on the head with a stone, forgot
+all literary attainments, although he preserved the recollection of other
+matters. A man wounded with a sword in the eye completely forgot Greek and
+Latin, in which he had formerly been a proficient. A young man, having
+fallen off his horse and contused his head, lost his memory to such an
+extent, that he would repeat a question a hundred times over, although the
+very first interrogation had been answered. He had not the slightest
+recollection of his accident. Epileptic and paralytic attacks frequently
+usher in this melancholy result, which has also been often observed after
+child-birth.
+
+Dr. Abercrombie knew a lady who was seized with an apoplectic fit while
+engaged at cards; the attack took place on a Thursday evening--she lay in
+a state of stupor on Friday and Saturday, and recovered her consciousness
+rather suddenly on Sunday. The first words she then uttered were, "What is
+trump?"
+
+Dr. Conolly mentions a young clergyman who, when on the point of being
+married, suffered an injury of the head, by which his understanding became
+impaired. He lived in this condition to the advanced age of eighty, and to
+the last day of his existence, spoke of nothing but his approaching
+wedding, expressing impatience for the arrival of the happy day.
+
+A singular instance of forgetfulness is related of a lady who had been
+united to a man she loved, after much opposition on the part of her
+family, and who lost her memory after the birth of a child. She could not
+be made to recollect any circumstance that had occurred since her
+marriage; nor could she recognise her husband or her infant, both of whom
+she maintained were utter strangers to her. At first she repulsed them
+with apparent horror, but was at last, by the entreaties of her family,
+induced to believe that she was a wife and a mother; and although she
+yielded to their solicitations, yet for years she could not persuade
+herself that their assertions were correct, as she actually was convinced
+"against her will." In this instance disease not only destroyed memory,
+but affection.
+
+The case of Dr. Broussonnet was remarkable. An accident he had met with in
+the Pyrenees brought on an apoplectic attack. When he recovered, he could
+neither write nor pronounce correctly any substantives or personal names
+either in French or Latin, while adjectives and epithets crowded in his
+mind. Thus, when speaking of a person, he would describe his appearance,
+his qualities, and, without pronouncing the word "coat," would name its
+colour. In his botanical pursuits he could point out the form and colour
+of plants, but had not the power of naming them. A Parisian merchant,
+after severe losses, experienced such a failure in recollection, that he
+was constantly guilty of the most absurd anachronisms;--would talk of the
+battles of Louis the Fourteenth with Alexander the Great, and describe
+Charles the Twelfth ascending triumphantly Mount Valerian; and one night,
+after witnessing the performance of Talma, could not be persuaded that he
+had not applauded Lekain.
+
+Sudden fright has also obliterated this faculty. Artemidorus lost his
+memory from the terror inspired by treading on a crocodile. Bleeding has
+produced the same effects; while, on the other hand, blood-letting has
+restored an absent man to perfect recollection. Various venenose
+substances have also been said to produce amnesia. History records several
+instances of the kind. The soldiers of Anthony, on their return from the
+Parthian war, were attacked with loss of memory after eating some
+poisonous plants on their march. Bamba, king of the Goths, was suddenly
+deprived of all recollection after taking a draught presented to him by
+Eringius. Plater and Baldinger attributed a similar accident to the use of
+hemlock and arsenic. Narcotics, no doubt, may produce similar effects, but
+they will be of a transient nature; I do not know that this injurious
+power has been detected in any other productions, as the cases related by
+writers are not supported by sufficient authority to be entitled to
+unqualified belief.
+
+The cause of these affections will most probably ever be unknown. Equally
+futile have proved all the endeavours to ascertain in what part of the
+brain memory is seated, since we have found some physiologists lodging
+this wonderful faculty in the posterior, and others in the anterior
+portion of the cranium. I apprehend that we might torture the brute
+creation, from the elephant down to the lowest reptile, for centuries,
+without being able to ascertain this point; and even could we attain this
+information, _cui bono_? Would it protect this privileged quarter of the
+cerebral organ from the action of external agency, or restore it to its
+healthy functions when diseased? The mode in which our mental faculties
+are developed is an impenetrable mystery; and, instead of vainly
+endeavouring to raise the mystic veil to gratify our curiosity, or rather
+our vanity, let us endeavour to apply these functions to the use for which
+they were intended by the allwise Creator, and exert them for the purpose
+of increasing the prosperity, or at any rate in endeavouring to diminish
+the sum of sufferings of his creatures, whether they be our fellow-men or
+the divers races that are submitted to our capricious power.
+
+
+
+
+AFFECTIONS OF THE SIGHT.
+
+
+The different terms applied to the various morbid affections of vision
+have been frequently misconceived, and consequently have occasioned much
+confusion in their application. Those vitiated conditions which are
+usually noticed may be classed as follows:
+
+    I. Night sight.
+   II. Day sight.
+  III. Long sight.
+   IV. Short sight.
+    V. Skew sight.
+   VI. False sight.
+
+_Night sight_, specifically called _Lucifuga_, was also termed
+_Nyctalopia_, from [Greek: nyx], _night_, and [Greek: ops], _eye_; it was
+also known as the _Noctem amans_. This affection was thus named in
+consequence of the person labouring under it being only able to see at
+night, or in a deep shade; hence the first name: while nyctalopia has been
+used by most modern writers in the opposite sense of _night-sight ache_,
+agreeably, according to Mason Good's observations, to the technical or
+implied meaning of _opia_, in which case it always applies to a diseased
+vision; whence nyctalopia has been made to import day sight, instead of
+night sight.
+
+This disease appears to be dependent upon a peculiar irritability of the
+retina, produced by two different causes,--a sudden exposure to a stronger
+light than the eye has been accustomed to bear, or a deficiency of the
+black pigment which lines the choroid tunic. If the iris be weak and
+torpid, it is enlarged; if strong and contracted, diminished. Thus, those
+who from peculiar circumstances reside in dark caverns and subterraneous
+abodes, or who have long been confined in obscure dungeons, labour under
+the first of these causes; instances of which were observed in two of the
+captives liberated from the Bastille in 1789.
+
+Ramazzini informs us that this affection is commonly observed among the
+Italian peasants, amongst whom he was not able to trace any other
+peculiarity than an enlargement of the pupil. This state of the vision,
+however, has been attributed to the peculiar brightness of the Italian
+sky, its clear atmosphere, and the relaxing warmth of the temperature.
+The Italian peasants are therefore constantly exposed to all those causes
+that tend to debilitate the iris, while they irritate the retina. We thus
+find these causes acting with renewed power at the season when the disease
+usually makes its attack,--the vernal equinox, when an increased flood of
+solar rays breaks on them. Such is the dimness that this brightness
+produces, that the peasantry frequently lose their way in the fields in
+the glare of day; but on the approach of night they can see distinctly.
+Hence are they obliged to remain for some weeks in the shade to recover
+their sight.
+
+A deficiency of the black pigment of the eye is occasionally found in
+persons of a very fair complexion and light hair. This affection is
+therefore common in the Albinoes. This circumstance arises from the
+whiteness of the eyelashes and hair, whereby the retina is deprived of the
+natural shade that softens the light in its descent. This debilitated race
+generally inhabit warm and damp regions; they are seldom long-lived, and
+frequently low-spirited and morose. The iris is of a pink colour, and this
+circumstance, added to the constant winking that the weakness of the organ
+occasions, gives them a distressing appearance. In horses, this want of
+the dark pigment constitutes what is called the _wall eye_.
+
+Acuteness in night vision is natural to most, if not to all, animals that
+prowl in the dark. In the feline genus we observe that the iris can be
+contracted much closer than in mankind, when exposed to a vivid glare; but
+they also expand to a much greater degree when obscurity sets in. Owls,
+bats, and many insects, possess a similar faculty.
+
+_Day sight_, the nyctalopia of some authors, is said to be endemic in some
+countries,--Poland, the West Indies, Brazil, and various intertropical
+regions. This affection arises from causes totally different from the
+former one. Here the eye is habitually exposed to too great a flood of
+light, whence the retina becomes torpid. It has been said to be endemic in
+some districts of France, particularly in the neighbourhood of Roche
+Guyon, on the banks of the Seine; but here the soil is of a dazzling
+white: and as it makes its attacks in the spring, and continues for three
+months, it is supposed to arise from the keenness of the reflected light,
+after the dreary winter months.
+
+This disease has also been commonly observed in Russia, especially in the
+summer, when the eye is exposed, with scarcely any intermission, to the
+constant action of light, as the sun dips but little below the horizon,
+and there is scarcely any interval of darkness. Hens are subject to this
+affection, and cannot see to pick up their food in the dusk of the
+evening. The complaint is, from this circumstance, called _hen blindness_.
+
+Dr. Heberden has communicated the following curious case of this species
+of affection: "A man about forty years old had in the spring a tertian
+fever, for which he took too small a quantity of bark, so that the returns
+of it were weakened without being removed. Three days after his last fit,
+being then employed on board a ship in the river, he observed at
+sun-setting that all objects began to look blue, which blueness gradually
+thickened into a cloud; and not long after he became so blind as hardly to
+perceive the light of a candle. The next morning about sunrising his sight
+was restored as perfectly as ever. When the next night came on, he lost
+his sight again in the same manner, and this continued for twelve days and
+nights. He then came ashore, where the disorder of his eyes gradually
+abated, and in three days was entirely gone. A month after he went on
+board another ship, and after three days' stay in it the night blindness
+returned as before, and lasted all the time of his remaining in the ship,
+which was nine nights. He then left the ship, and his blindness did not
+return while he was upon land. Some little time afterwards he went into
+another ship, in which he continued for ten days, during which time the
+blindness returned only two nights, and never afterwards." It appears,
+however, that this individual had previously laboured under an affection
+produced by the use of lead, which had left him in a state of much nervous
+debility. Notwithstanding this circumstance, this case clearly proves that
+the affection is liable to be increased and brought on by local influence.
+
+_Long sight._ In this species of vision the iris is habitually dilated,
+and not easily stimulated into contraction. Several varieties of this
+affection have been observed. Dr. Wells, in the Philosophical
+Transactions, relates the case of a young person who, from a permanent
+dilatation of the pupil, saw near objects with much difficulty and
+confusion, but remote bodies with singular accuracy. The power of moving
+the upper lid was completely lost. This dilatation of the pupil, which may
+be artificially produced by the application of belladonna, can be remedied
+by the use of convex glasses.
+
+_Short sight._ In this case the iris is contracted, and the cornea, which
+in long sight is too much flattened, is too convex or polarised; therefore
+spectacles of an opposite character, and with concave glasses, become
+necessary. Mice are said to be short-sighted; hence the affection has been
+termed myopia or myopiasis, literally "mouse-sight."
+
+_Skew sight_, or _sight askew_, is a condition of our vision only accurate
+when the object is placed obliquely, in consequence of some partial
+obfuscation of the cornea, frequently from slight scars, scarcely, if at
+all, observable. In this lateral vision the axis of the eye affected
+usually coincides with that of the sound eye. In squinting, on the
+contrary, the two axes do not coincide.
+
+In _false sight_, imaginary objects float before the sight; or, at other
+times, objects assume imaginary forms and qualities. The latter species
+has been divided in cases where the objects that are supposed to be seen
+have no real existence, and in cases where actual objects have assumed
+qualities that do not appertain to them. The first are termed ocular
+phantasms or spectres; the latter, ocular transmutations or illusions.
+These spectres sometimes form dark spots, called by physicians _muscae
+volitantes_. In another species, a net-work seems to be spread before the
+eyes; hence called _visus reticularis_. In a third form sparks
+scintillate, and this appearance is experienced when the eye has been
+struck. The eye is also troubled with an imaginary sense of dazzling,
+constituting the _myrmaryge_ of the Greek writers; at other times, an
+iridescent appearance, exhibiting the colours of the rainbow, is
+experienced, although sometimes this impression is confined to a single
+colour. Dr. Heberden relates the case of a lady of advanced age, lodging
+on the eastern coast of Kent, in a house that looked immediately upon the
+sea, and exposed to the glare of the morning sun. The curtains of her room
+were white, a circumstance which added to the intensity of the light. When
+she had been there about ten days, she observed one evening, at the time
+of sunset, that first the fringes of the clouds appeared red, and soon
+after the same colour was diffused over all the objects around her,
+especially if they were white. This lasted the whole night, but in the
+morning her sight was again perfect. This alternation of morbid and sound
+sight prevailed the whole time the lady resided on the coast, which was
+three weeks; and for nearly as long after she left it, at which time it
+ceased suddenly of its own accord.
+
+There exists another variety of false sight, that Plenk has denominated
+_metamorphopsia_, and in which objects appear changed in their natural
+qualities, producing error of form, error of motion, error of number, and
+error of colour. I had a patient in Lisbon who fancied that all the horses
+he saw carried horns or extensive antlers. A young lady whom I attended
+beheld every one of a gigantic height. Dr. Priestley has given a curious
+case of error of colour in five brothers and two sisters, all adults. One
+of the brothers could form no idea whatever of colours, though he judged
+very accurately of the form and other qualities of objects; hence he
+thought stockings were sufficiently distinguished by the name of
+stockings, and could not conceive the necessity of calling them white or
+black. He could perceive cherries on a tree; but only distinguished them,
+even when red-ripe, from the surrounding leaves by their size and shape.
+One of the brothers appeared to have a faint sense of a few colours, but
+still a very imperfect notion; and, upon the whole, they did not seem to
+possess any other distinguishing power than that of light and shade, into
+which they resolved all the colours presented to them,--so that dove or
+straw colour were regarded as white; and green, crimson, and purple, as
+black or dark. On looking at a rainbow, one of them could distinguish that
+it consisted of stripes, but nothing more. Dr. Nicholl relates the case of
+a boy who confounded green with red; and called light red and pink, blue.
+His maternal grandfather and one uncle had the same imperfection. The
+latter was in the navy, and having a blue coat and waistcoat, purchased a
+pair of red breeches to match. The same physician knew a gentleman who
+could not distinguish green from red; a cucumber and a boiled lobster did
+not offer the least difference in colour. His brother and his niece
+laboured under a similar affection.
+
+Some philosophers are of opinion, that in the power of conceiving colours
+there is a striking difference in individuals, and are inclined to think
+that in many instances the supposed defects of sight ought to be ascribed
+to a defect in the power of conception, arising probably from some early
+habit of inattention. This theory is scarcely tenable. The utmost
+inattention and indifference regarding surrounding objects could never
+lead to a delusive view of any colour; also, it is more than probable
+that, in the case of a child in whom such a defective vision was observed,
+his attention would be incessantly called on by those around him, to
+correct, if possible, so strange a delusion. Moreover, this defect of
+vision, as we have seen, appears in some instances to be hereditary; and
+to prevail in families.
+
+Phrenologists of course are of opinion that the judgment of colours
+resides in a particular organ, remarkably full and prominent in painters
+distinguished by the perfection of their colouring. According to Gall, a
+local deficiency of brain is observable where the power of distinguishing
+colours is wanting.
+
+The sense of vision exhibits more variety in the different classes of
+animals than any of the others. In man, and the greater number of
+quadrupeds, this organ is guarded by an upper and a lower lid, both of
+which in man are fringed with lashes. This is not the case in most
+quadrupeds. In the elephant, opossum, seal, cats, other mammalia, birds,
+and all fishes, we find a third eyelid, or nictitating membrane, as it is
+called, arising from the internal angle of the eye, capable of covering
+and protecting the eye from danger, either wholly or in part. In the dog
+this membrane is narrow; in oxen and horses it extends half over the
+eyeball. It is by means of this veil that eagles are capable of fixing
+their eyes on the noon-day sun. The largest eyes in proportion to the size
+of the animal are found in birds,--nearly the smallest in whales; but the
+most diminutive are those of the shrew and mole, the latter's not
+exceeding the size of a pin's head.
+
+The situation of the organs of vision differs materially. In man and
+monkeys they are placed directly under the forehead; in some fishes, such
+as the turbot and flounder tribes, both eyes are placed in the same side
+of the head. In the snail they are situated on the horns; and in the
+spider, distributed over various points of the body, and in different
+arrangements.
+
+Eyes, however, are not indispensable to become sensible of the presence of
+light. Several zoophytes, that do not possess the organs of vision, are
+perfectly alive to its influence. A distinct organ is not always
+indispensable for a distinct sense. It is probable that in those animals
+that appear to be endowed with particular senses, without displaying
+particular organs relating to them, the senses are diffused like that of
+touch, over the whole surface. This subject has been admirably commented
+on by Cuvier.
+
+
+
+
+HELLEBORE.
+
+
+From time immemorial this substance has been considered an efficacious
+remedy in mania. The Greeks pretended that the daughters of Proetus,
+smitten with insanity by Bacchus, were restored to reason by the shepherd
+Melampus, who gave them some milk drawn from goats that had eaten
+hellebore. It is supposed that the use of purgatives arose from this
+fabulous tradition, whence this plant was called _melampodium_.
+
+The ancients described two varieties, the white and the black. The first,
+according to Theophrastus, was found on a part of Mount Oeta called
+Pyra, on which the body of Hercules was burnt. It is not certain whether
+they confounded our hellebore with our veratrum. Pinel supposes that the
+veratrum album was their hellebore, as it is not probable that the
+veratrum nigrum should have been thus confounded. Tournefort, in his
+travels in the Levant, fancied that he had discovered the root of the
+ancients in one that the Turks called _zopteme_, which answered in its
+character to the description recorded in older writers.
+
+Howbeit, it was considered a powerful purgative and emetic, especially
+indicated in the treatment of mental affections. Celsus forbade its
+exhibition in summer and during the winter, or whenever febrile symptoms
+were prevalent. This precaution, however, applied to all purgative
+medicines; and to this day, in several parts of the continent, similar
+injunctions are usual; and even in France practitioners of the old school
+prepare a patient several days before any opening medicine is given,--a
+learned precaution, that has but too frequently rendered every medicine
+useless.
+
+The exhibition of this drug was a matter of so much importance amongst the
+ancients, that it was specifically termed _helleborism_; and it was
+considered of so powerful a nature in mania, that the treatment of the
+malady was called _navigare Anticyras_, since it was near the town of
+Anticyras that the plant was generally gathered. If this process of
+helleborism proved efficacious, it is more than probable that its
+beneficial results proceeded from the violent evacuations that preceded
+it. The following was the mode adopted with the helleborised: The patient
+was first well fed for several days until the decline of the moon, when a
+powerful emetic was given to him; five days after a similar dose was
+prescribed, and then good living ordered for a month: at the expiration of
+this invigorating respite, emetics began again to work him every three
+days. After the last attack on his digestive head-quarters, he was bathed,
+fed again, and hellebore was given after he had been submitted to several
+hours' friction with olive oil. The emetics were invariably administered
+on a full stomach, which was cleared either by medicine or the excitement
+of the beard of a quill poked down the unfortunate patient's throat. At
+other times, (by way, no doubt, of variety,) rejection was excited by
+making the patient eat a pound or more of horseradish; after which he was
+walked about for some time; and then, after a short repose, the fingers or
+the quill were brought into action. After this operation he was lulled to
+sleep by a regular shampooing. It appears that, despite of all these
+practices, the stomachs of the ancients were sometimes so pertinaciously
+retentive, that more powerful means to _relieve_ them were adopted; and
+when the longest feather that could be plucked from a goose proved
+unavailing, gloves dipped in the oil of cyprus were put on, and the
+fingers thus inuncted replaced the feathers. When this failed, the
+obstinate sufferer was made to swallow a quart or two of honey and hot
+water, in which rue had been infused; and when this proved ineffectual, he
+was slung in a hammock to produce the sensation of sea-sickness. In some
+cases it appears that, despite this practice, the patient thought proper
+to faint. On such occasions little wedges of wood were driven between his
+obstinate and rebellious teeth clenched against medicine, so as to allow
+the introduction of the goose-quill, while cephalic snuff of the precious
+hellebore and euphorbia was blown up his nostrils to produce sneezing. The
+last trial to relieve him was tossing the ill-fated wight in a blanket.
+After this experiment the patient was left to nature or to his friends, if
+he _would_ not recover. These friends immediately proceeded to give him
+punches in the stomach, roll him about the floor, and endeavour to restore
+him to his senses by driving him out of them by every possible noise that
+could frighten him, if his _frightful_ condition was at all susceptible of
+any thing left in the arsenal of medicinal ingenuity.[45]
+
+Small doses of hellebore seem to have been taken not only with impunity,
+but were supposed to assist the mental faculties. According to Valerius
+Maximus and Aulus Gellius, orators were in the practice of using this
+stimulus before their disputations. Such, it is said, was the habit of
+Carneades, whose doctrines might well have been applied to this very day
+to many theories, since he denied that any thing in the world could be
+perceived or understood.
+
+Hellebore is to this day an ingredient in many of the fashionable pills
+vended by successful quacks. This introduction, at any rate, shows that
+their compounders have candour enough to think (although they may not
+acknowledge it) that the intellectual faculties of the purchasers of their
+nostrums do stand in need of some medicinal aid.
+
+
+
+
+SYMPATHIES AND ANTIPATHIES.
+
+
+The constant effects produced by causes which do not appear connected with
+them, are phenomena both of organic and inorganic nature which have long
+fixed the attention of philosophers, and have not yet been satisfactorily
+explained. This operation between distant bodies cannot be traced to any
+medium of communication. It arises from an attractive and a repulsive
+power that cannot be defined. Almost every substance evinces inclinations
+or antipathies; is attracted with more or less strength by one body,
+indifferent towards a second, and constantly avoiding a third; nay, bodies
+appear to act where they are not present, and where no communication can
+exist. We are as ignorant of the nature of these phenomena as of those of
+gravitation, magnetism, and electricity. Still, although this medium of
+communication is not evident, it must be admitted by inference that there
+must exist a connecting channel, although its nature be unknown.
+
+The ancients called sympathy _consensus_, and the moderns have also
+defined it a _consent of parts_; nor is this definition incorrect, since
+sympathy arises from the relative ties that mysteriously unite our several
+organs, however distant and unconnected they may appear; thus establishing
+a beauteous harmony between all the functions of the animal economy.
+Sympathies must therefore constitute the chief study of the physiologist:
+on this alone can the physician ground his investigation of the various
+disorders to which flesh is heir. Symptoms arise from sympathies: without
+a knowledge of the one we can never attain a clear insight in the other.
+
+Sympathies are of a physical or a moral nature. The first consist, as I
+have already stated, of a consent between the different parts of the
+organism; the latter of certain impressions, unaccountable, unconquerable,
+that harmonize in a multiplicity of phenomena various individuals, or that
+induce them, without their being able to assign any reason or motive to
+warrant the repugnance, to avoid each other, and not unfrequently to
+entertain a feeling of disgust or horror. A secret voice has
+spoken,--organism instinctively obeys. Moral sympathies have been defined
+as faculties that enabled us to partake of the ideas, the affections, or
+the dislike of others; although this sentiment is by no means reciprocal,
+and we often dislike those who fondly love us. So far sympathy is
+instinctive; yet, like many instincts, it is more or less under the
+control of our reason. We often acquire an artificial partiality to
+substances that we naturally disliked. Our senses may be considered the
+instruments of our sympathies; yet senses are regulated by education and
+habit. Oil, olives, tobacco, and various other substances, are naturally,
+one might say instinctively, unpleasant to most individuals; yet by custom
+they are not only relished, but ardently wished for when they cannot be
+obtained. It is the same with our relative partiality or aversion towards
+individuals; and indifference is often turned into affection, while the
+most ardent love is not far remote from hate, when vanity more especially,
+removes its boundaries.
+
+If we admit that our sympathies are lodged in certain specific organs, we
+must consider that we are the slaves of organism; whereas it is pretty
+positive that to a certain extent we are the slaves of habit. Even the
+most ardent and prevailing passions, the indulgence in which has become an
+absolute necessity, cease to be brought into action when they have long
+remained dormant. To associate our moral sympathies with physical consents
+of parts is to level man with the brute creation; although we hourly see
+the most decided instinctive dislikes in animals overcome by education. A
+mouse may be brought up with a cat, and a hawk with a sparrow; although a
+chicken has been known to dart at a fly the moment its head was out of the
+egg.
+
+Nor can we view in the same light the affinities of inorganic bodies. They
+are subject to chemical laws; each is endowed with specific qualities
+that seldom or never vary, and some other body must be interposed to check
+their attraction; and that body, in the relation of inorganic matter, may
+be compared to the influence of the mind in intellectual beings. In
+animals, the very laws of nature are not unfrequently unheeded; and in
+these instances natural instincts appear less powerful than the mechanical
+discrimination that we witness in vegetable life, where germs, and
+molecules, and fibrils not only select each other, according to nature's
+harmonic institutions, but actually attract each other from distant
+situations. This attractive power is beautifully illustrated in the
+mysterious vegetation of the _vallisneria spiralis_, an aquatic plant, in
+which the male and female are distinct individuals. The organization of
+the male qualifies it to adapt itself to the surface of the water, from
+the bottom of which the plant shoots forth, and to float in the middle of
+the deep and rapid tide. The female, on the contrary, is only found in
+shallow waters, or on shores where the tide exerts but little influence.
+Thus differently formed and situated, how does their union take place? It
+is a wonderful mystery. As soon as the male flower is perfect, the spinal
+stem dries away, and the flower thus separated sails away towards the
+shore in pursuit of the female, for the most part driven by a current of
+wind or the stream; yet as soon as it arrives near its destination it
+obeys a new influence, and is attracted towards the object of its pursuit,
+despite the powers of that wind and tide which until then directed it. No
+hypothesis, however ingenious, can explain this phenomenon.
+
+Notwithstanding the doctrines of various writers, I am of opinion that our
+passions are clearly instinctive, but fortunately more or less under the
+control of our mental faculties in well-regulated individuals, who do not
+yield to these instinctive feelings an unbridled course; and I doubt much
+if there does exist a single passion, however inordinate it may appear,
+that cannot be mastered. Both good and evil qualities are frequently
+artificial, and arise from peculiar moral and physical conditions.
+Self-preservation is an instinctive feeling; yet man will wantonly risk
+his existence from false views regarding his social position. Courage has
+been considered as differing in its quality (if I may use the term), and
+arises sometimes from a natural animal or brute propensity, at others from
+calculation and reflection; and the latter most unquestionably may temper
+the former. Duclos' distinction between what is called the courageous
+heart and the courageous mind, is by no means as objectionable as some of
+his opponents maintain. If courage is an instinctive faculty, residing in
+a certain organ, how comes it that this organism varies at different
+periods? How comes it, moreover, that this variety depends upon
+circumstances? I have seen a desperate duellist disgrace himself by a
+cowardly flight in the field of battle. I have known an arrant poltroon
+defend himself desperately against robbers; and a man, considered of
+undoubted courage, surrender his arms to a single footpad. In our
+instincts, our sympathies, we are to a certain extent the children of
+circumstances; and it would be as absurd to maintain that we cannot
+control our moral sympathies, as to excuse the commission of murder or of
+theft.
+
+Our physical sympathies are of a nature totally different. Here they are
+brought into action according to certain laws of the organization, as
+uncontrollable as chemical affinities; and I doubt much whether our
+unaccountable antipathies may not be considered as appertaining to this
+category: they seem to depend upon certain laws of attraction and
+repulsion. The channel of this communication, as I have already observed,
+will perhaps remain for ever in utter obscurity. To this day we know not
+in what manner certain articles of food and medical substances find a path
+to the kidneys with such a rapidity as to render it improbable that it was
+through the medium of the circulation. The nature of other physiological
+phenomena is equally unexplained. Through what channel of communication
+does the cat-hater know that one of these animals is in the room, although
+unseen by him? Yet these antipathies might be conquered. A man was wont to
+fall into fits at the sight of a spider; a waxen one was made, which
+equally terrified him. When he had recovered his faculties, his error was
+pointed out, the wax figure was put into his hand without inspiring dread,
+and shortly the living insect no longer disturbed him.
+
+Certain antipathies appear to depend upon a peculiarity of the senses. The
+horror inspired by the odour of certain flowers may be referred to this
+cause. Amatus Lusitanus relates the case of a monk who fainted when he
+beheld a rose, and never quitted his cell when that flower was blooming.
+Scaliger mentions one of his relations who experienced a similar horror
+when seeing a lily. In these instances it is not the agreeableness or the
+offensive nature of the aroma that inspires the repugnance; and Montaigne
+remarked on this subject, that there were men who dreaded an apple more
+than a musket-ball. Zimmerman tells us of a lady who could not endure the
+feeling of silk and satin, and shuddered when touching the velvety skin of
+a peach. Boyle records the case of a man who felt a natural abhorrence to
+honey. Without his knowledge, some honey was introduced in a plaster
+applied to his foot, and the accidents that resulted compelled his
+attendants to withdraw it. A young man was known to faint whenever he
+heard the servant sweeping. Hippocrates mentions one Nicanor who swooned
+whenever he heard a flute: our Shakspeare has alluded to the effects of
+the bagpipe. Julia, daughter of Frederick, king of Naples, could not taste
+meat without serious accidents. Boyle fainted when he heard the splashing
+of water; Scaliger turned pale at the sight of water-cresses; Erasmus
+experienced febrile symptoms when smelling fish; the Duke d'Epernon
+swooned on beholding a leveret, although a hare did not produce the same
+effect. Tycho Brahe fainted at the sight of a fox, Henry the Third of
+France at that of a cat, and Marshal d'Albert at a pig. The horror that
+whole families entertain of cheese is generally known. Many individuals
+cannot digest, or even retain certain substances, such as rice, wine,
+various fruits, and vegetables.
+
+There are also antipathies that border upon mental aberration. Such was
+the case with a clergyman who fainted whenever a certain verse in Jeremiah
+was read. I lately dined in company with a gentleman who was seized with
+symptoms of syncope whenever a surgical operation or an accident was
+spoken of. St. John Long's name happened to be mentioned, and he was
+carried out of the room. I have also known a person who experienced an
+alarming vertigo and dizziness whenever a great height or a dizzy
+precipice was described. A similar accident has been occasioned by Edgar's
+description of Dover Cliff in King Lear. All these sympathies may be
+looked upon as morbid affections, or rather peculiar idiosyncrasies,
+beyond the control of our reason or our volition, although it is not
+impossible that they might be gradually checked by habit. Our dislikes to
+individuals are often as unaccountable, when we are obliged to confess
+with the poet Martial:
+
+  Non amo te, Sabidi, nec possum dicere quare;
+  Hoc tantum possum dicere, Non amo te.
+
+It is the same with our affections. The ancients, amongst others
+Empedocles, fancied that attraction and repulsion constituted the
+principal actions of life, and harmonized the universe. Hesiod dispels
+Chaos through the agency of Love. Aversions were attributed to the
+influence of an evil eye. To avoid its direful effects, strange practices
+were adopted, according to Tibullus; and to check the malefices of wicked
+crones, it was customary to spit three times in an infant's bosom,
+
+  Despuit in molles et sibi quisque sinus;
+
+while the well-known amulet representing the god Fascinus, was suspended
+round the child's neck. Maidens were veiled to guard them against this
+noxious power, and secrecy and retirement were deemed the most effectual
+means of security.
+
+  Latendum est dum vivimus, ut feliciter vivamus.
+
+In a preceding article I have given a sketch of the custom of
+administering love-philters.
+
+The singular sympathies that forewarn a future union between the sexes
+have in some instances been most surprising. The following example, that
+came within my knowledge, is perhaps one of the most singular: Mr. ----, a
+brother officer of mine, was a man of taciturn and retired habits, seldom
+frequenting public places of amusement, and, when there, felt any thing
+but gratification. One evening after dinner he was, however, prevailed
+upon to go to a ball. We had not been long in the room when, to my utter
+surprise, he expressed great admiration of a young lady who was dancing,
+and, what still more amazed us all, he engaged her to dance. Such an act
+of apparent levity on his part struck us as a singularity which might have
+been attributed to an unusual indulgence at table, had not the contrary
+been the case, for he was remarkably abstemious. The dance was scarcely
+over when he came to me, and told me with a look of deep despondency, that
+his lovely partner was a married woman. The tone of sadness in which he
+addressed me was truly ludicrous. A few minutes after he left the
+ball-room. The strangeness of his conduct led me to fear that his mind was
+not altogether in a sound state; but I was confirmed in my apprehension
+when he told me the following morning that he was convinced he should be
+married to the object of his admiration, whose husband was a young and
+healthy clergyman in the neighbourhood. Here matters rested, and we both
+went abroad. We did not meet until three years after, when, to my utter
+surprise, I found that his prediction had been verified. The lady's
+husband had died from a fall from his horse, and the parties were married.
+But what rendered this circumstance still more strange is, that a similar
+presentiment was experienced by the young lady herself who, on returning
+from the ball, mentioned to her sister with much emotion, that she had
+danced with a stranger, to whom she felt convinced that she was destined
+to be married. This conviction embittered every moment of her life, as,
+despite her most strenuous endeavours, she could not dismiss her partner
+from her constant thoughts, reluctantly yielding to the hope of seeing him
+again.
+
+The sympathetic power of fascination is another unaccountable phenomenon.
+It is well known that in regions infested with venomous snakes, there are
+persons endowed both by nature and by art with the power of disarming the
+reptiles of their poisonous capacities. The ancient Cyrenaica was overrun
+with poisonous serpents, and the Psylli were a tribe gifted with this
+faculty. When Cato pursued Juba over the Cyrenaica desert, he took some of
+these Psylli with him to cure the poisoned wounds that these reptiles
+might have inflicted on his soldiers. Bruce informs us that all the blacks
+in the kingdom of Sennaar are perfectly armed by nature against the bite
+of either scorpion or viper. They take the cerastes, or horned serpent,
+(one of the most venomous of all the viper tribe,) in their hands at all
+times, put them in their bosoms, and throw them to one another, as
+children do apples or balls; during which sport the serpents are seldom
+irritated to bite, and, when they do bite, no mischief ensues from the
+wound. It is said that this power is derived from the practice of chewing
+certain plants in their infancy. This is most probably the fact; these
+substances may impregnate the body with some quality obnoxious to the
+reptile. The same traveller has given an account of several of these
+roots. In South America a similar practice prevails, and a curious memoir
+on the subject was drawn out by Don Pedro d'Orbies y Vargas, detailing
+various experiments. He informs us that the plant thus employed is the
+_vejuco de guaco_, hence denominated from its having been observed that
+the bird of that name also called the serpent-hawk, usually sucked the
+juice of this plant before his attacks upon poisonous serpents. Prepared
+by drinking a small portion of this juice, inoculating themselves with it
+by rubbing it upon punctures in the skin, Don Pedro himself, and all his
+domestics, were accustomed to venture into the fields, and fearlessly
+seize the most venomous of these serpents. Acrell, in the _Amoenitates
+Academicae_, informs us that the _senega_ possesses a similar power. The
+tantalus or ibis of Egypt, that derives its chief food from venomous
+animals, depends in a like manner on the protection of antidotes. This
+power of fascinating serpents is so great, that they remain totally torpid
+and inactive under its influence, and are not even able to offer any
+resistance when skinned from tail to head like an eel, and eaten alive.
+According to Bruce, they sicken the moment they are laid hold of, and are
+exhausted by this invincible power as though they had been struck by
+lightning or an electric battery, shutting their eyes the moment they are
+seized, and never attempting to turn their mouth towards the person that
+holds them. It has been asserted that the Hindoo jugglers render serpents
+innocuous by the extraction of their teeth, and although this may be the
+practice in some parts of India, it is not generally resorted to in other
+countries.
+
+Dr. Mead and Smith Barton of Philadelphia endeavour to explain this power
+by the influence of terror. This supposition, however, is not correct,
+since the serpent will injure one man and not another, if the latter is
+gifted with this faculty and the former one is not. Major Gordon of South
+Carolina attributes the fascinating power of reptiles to a vapour which
+they exhale and shed around them; and he mentions a negro who, from a
+peculiar acuteness of smell, could discover a rattlesnake at two hundred
+feet distance. That certain odours are overpowering there is not the least
+doubt; and trout and other fresh-water fishes are charmed and caught
+without resistance when the hand is smeared with asafoetida, marjoram,
+and other aromas. The fishes, delighted no doubt with this odour, or
+intoxicated by its power, will actually flock towards the fingers, and
+allow themselves to be laid hold of.
+
+Thieves and housebreakers have been known to possess the power of quieting
+watch-dogs, and keeping them silent during their depredations. Lindecrantz
+informs us that the Laplanders can instantly disarm the most furious dog,
+and oblige it to fly from them with every expression of terror. The
+strange faculty of taming the most unmanageable horses, possessed by an
+Irishman, hence called the _Whisperer_, is well known. Several
+horse-breakers have appeared at various periods possessing the same art,
+and they would make the wildest horse follow them as tamely as a dog, and
+lie down at their bidding. It has been affirmed that these whisperers
+introduce a globule of quicksilver, or some other substance, into the
+animal's ears. It is, however, more probable that these charmers derive
+their power of fascination from some natural or artificial emanation. The
+most singular power of fascination is perhaps that exhibited by the
+jugglers of Egypt, who, by merely pressing the serpent called _haje_ on
+the neck, stiffen the reptile to such a degree, that they can wave it like
+a wand.
+
+To explain this sympathetic influence that living beings exercise on each
+other, as I have already observed, has long been the study of
+philosophers. Their chief theories may be divided into those of the
+advocates of _pneumatism_ or _spiritualism_, who maintained that the
+nerves transmitted a subtle fluid susceptible of external transmission.
+Such were the disciples of Plato; and, amongst the moderns, the Arabian
+writers, Paracelsus, Van Helmont, Willis, Digby, Wirdig, and even
+Boerhave. The _mechanicians_ formed another class, refusing to admit the
+doctrine of influences, and submitting all sympathetic phenomena to the
+laws of mechanism and chemistry. Amongst these we find the Cartesians,
+Boyle, Hoffmann, and Haller. Their doctrine had already been established
+amongst the ancients by Asclepiades. The third system was that of the
+_organicians_, who attributed these effects to our organization, governed
+by a principle of free agency. In this school are recorded the names of
+Hippocrates, Galen, Stahl, Bordeu, and many illustrious writers of various
+ages. An investigation of these discrepancies would be foreign to these
+sketches. I can only observe, that none of them are tenable, and have only
+tended to display scholastic learning and ingenuity, without any practical
+beneficial results. Indeed, the only advantages that might possibly accrue
+from these pursuits would be the shedding of some faint light upon our
+systems of early education, by finding out the most judicious method of
+counteracting innate dispositions and peculiar idiosyncrasies.
+
+The life of man is a relative and external existence. He lives in
+communion with all around him, and before his ultimate dissolution he is
+doomed to die with every object of his affections that perishes before
+him. To these objects he has been united by the secret powers of sympathy.
+The organism of both appears to have been subject to mutual laws; and
+grief and joy, our pains and pleasures, are transmitted with the rapidity
+and power of the magnetic fluid. Nor time nor distance can affect these
+sympathies, which have been known to remain latent in our breasts till
+called into action by accidental circumstances. Thus, a man has never
+known how fondly he loved until he was suddenly deprived of the object of
+his sympathies, although until that moment this affection had been unknown
+even to himself. This circumstance clearly proves that these sympathies
+are not under the influence of our imagination. Although it is to this
+creative faculty that these reminiscences are attributed by Madame De
+Stael in the following exquisite words, "The creative talents of
+imagination, for some moments at least, satisfies all our desires and
+wishes,--it opens to us heavens of wealth; it offers to us crowns of
+glory; it raises before our eyes the pure and bright image of an ideal
+world: and so mighty sometimes is its power, that by it _we hear in our
+hearts the very voice and accents of one whom we have loved_."
+
+Sympathies might be denominated a moral contagion in mankind: in the brute
+creation they merely produce a physical impulse. Reid attributed to the
+nervous system an atmosphere of sensibility, influencing all that came
+within its range. Ernest Platner maintained that our soul could diffuse
+itself in mutual transmission; and in another paper I have shown that life
+may be prolonged by sacrificing the health of others, when the genial
+warmth of youth is surreptitiously communicated to decrepitude.
+
+What is then this invisible vital fluid, this electric principle, that the
+touch, the breath, the warmth, the very aroma of those we are fond of,
+communicates, when trembling, fluttering, breathless, we approach them?
+that enables us, even when surrounded with darkness, to recognise by the
+feel the hand of her we love? Nay, whence arises the feeling of respect
+and veneration that we experience in the presence of the great and the
+pre-eminently good? It may be said this is the result of our education; we
+have been taught to consider these individuals as belonging to a superior
+class of mortals. To a certain extent this may be true; yet there does
+exist an impressive contagion when we are brought into the presence, or
+placed under the guidance, of such truly privileged persons. Their
+courage, their eloquence, their energies, their fanaticism, thrill every
+fibre, like the vibration of the chord under the skilful harpist's hand.
+Actuated by this mystic influence the coward has boldly rushed into the
+battle, the timid dared imminent perils, and the humane been driven to
+deeds of blood. Fanatic contagion has produced both martyrs and heroes.
+Example stimulates and emulates, despite our reasoning faculties. _Regis
+ad exemplar totus componitur orbis._ Imitation is the principle of action,
+the nursery of good and great deeds. We either feel degraded by the
+ascendancy of others, when we fancy, however vainly, that we may attain
+their level; or devote ourselves to their cause and their service, when we
+tacitly recognize their mastery. It is more particularly in our devotion
+and in our love,--two sentiments more analogous than is generally
+believed,--that this _mutuality_ of sympathies prevails; and when Galigai
+was asked by his judges by what means he had obtained his influence over
+Mary of Medicis, his reply was similar to that of the Moor when describing
+his course of love,--the witchcraft he had used to win his Desdemona, when
+with a greedy ear devouring his discourse.
+
+There is no doubt that education, circumstances, our state of health,
+predisposes us more or less to the action of these sympathetic powers, for
+then our feelings are actually more or less morbid. Affliction, for
+instance, predisposes to tender sentiments. There is perhaps much
+psychological matter of fact in the old story of the Ephesian widow; and
+our immortal Shakspeare felt the truth not only of the contagion of grief,
+but of its consoling power when reciprocally felt, although no doubt the
+reciprocity has often been assumed to woo and win.
+
+  Grief best is pleased with grief's society.
+  True sorrow then is feelingly surprised,
+  When with like feeling it is sympathized.
+
+Fortunately for our frail race, sympathies are liable to be worn out by
+their own exhausting powers. Attrition polishes but indurates at the same
+time: thus does social intercourse harden our gentle predispositions. The
+mathematical world dispels the illusions of our fervent youth, as chilling
+truth banishes fancy's flattering dreams. Experience is to man what rust
+is to iron; it corrodes, but at the same time protects the metal to a
+certain degree, from the magnet's mighty power.
+
+Although the nature of sympathies most probably will never be ascertained,
+their study is essential both to the moralist and the physician, and both
+may be materially aided in their vocations by the temperament of the pupil
+or the patient; for, as I shall endeavour to show in a subsequent sketch,
+our temperaments generally indicate individual characteristics. It is in
+vain that some philosophers may deny the power of innate faculties and
+dispositions. The very expression '_human nature_' implies their
+existence. To encourage their growth, or to check their developement,
+becomes the duty of those who are entrusted with the education of youth,
+when yielding to, or counteracting propensities, becomes as necessary as
+the care the horticulturist devotes to his plants. By the inclination that
+trees have taken, we can generally learn the prevalent winds of a
+district. The plastic hand of our early teachers may, in most instances,
+obtain a similar result; though in the vegetable kingdom, as well as in
+the animal kingdom, there will be constantly found stubborn trunks that
+will resist all influence. Were we to admit that our material organism
+cannot be counteracted, we should inevitably fall into many lamentable
+errors, and many a crime would be extenuated on the plea of fatalism. It
+is to be feared that some of our ingenious theorists have too frequently
+tortured organism on a Procrustean couch, to suit their favourite
+phantasies. We might reply to the visions of these enthusiasts in the
+words of Iago, "Our bodies are our gardens, to which our wills are
+gardeners--either to have it sterile with idleness, or manured with
+industry. The power and corrigible authority of this lies in our wills. If
+the balance of our lives had not one scale of reason to poise another of
+sensuality, the blood and baseness of our natures would conduct us to the
+most preposterous conclusions."
+
+
+
+
+THE ARCHEUS OF VAN HELMONT.
+
+
+One of the most ingenious fictions of those speculators who have
+endeavoured to explain the mysteries of our wonderful organization, was
+perhaps the Archeus of Van Helmont, a term derived from [Greek: arche],
+_origin_, _principle_, _authority_, _power_. According to the doctrines of
+this physician, the archeus was an internal agent that commanded and
+regulated all the vital functions. I cannot better describe it than by
+partly borrowing the language of the founder of the doctrine.
+
+The archeus and matter are the natural causes of all. The molecules of
+matter, essentially inert, receive from this principle their movements,
+their order, their distribution, their conformation: the archeus is the
+internal agent that penetrates them, the nucleus of their inspiration; it
+is the mould in which they are elaborated, brought into form by this
+plastic influence meeting in this material substance the requisite
+docility to realize its ideas of perfection. Thus the archeus is an active
+and an intelligent power, possessing the faculty of amalgamating and
+identifying itself with matter; penetrating its inmost recesses, it
+modifies and changes each particle of matter, producing that
+incomprehensible series of oscillations of spontaneousness and
+equilibrium, that catenation and marvellous automatism, that constitute
+the consciousness of our existence, and whence springs the only notion we
+can form of its causation. It is the archeus that presides over our sense
+of smelling, of tasting, and consequently the selection of our food; it is
+_he_ that dissolves it in our digestive organs, liquefies it, and prepares
+it for due assimilation; it is he that imparts a conservative action to
+the blood, and converts this vital fluid into bone and muscle. Should any
+particle of our aliments have escaped from this transforming power, these
+substances become foreign bodies, irritating by their presence this
+sovereign power, calling forth his energies and his activity, and exciting
+his indignation and wrath by their repeated provocations. His just fury
+stimulates and accelerates the vital functions; but, instead of wreaking
+its vengeance on external matter, it overwhelms all internal obstacles,
+whether diffused in the system or concentrated on any given point. It is
+this tumultuous confusion that constitutes maladies, which arise from two
+evident causes,--an alteration in matter and a reaction of the archeus.
+
+Of these two morbid elements, the first is susceptible of a thousand
+varieties both in nature and extent, and therefore produces as many
+modifications in the corrective power. Then does the archeus, threatened
+on different points in different manners, regulate his plans and
+operations both of defence and of attack, selecting his weapons according
+to the nature of his antagonists. In this mutual struggle our archeus
+wisely checks the impetuosity of his onset, husbands his forces, and
+merely detaches them from the main body according to the circumstances of
+the conflict; thus ever keeping a powerful reserve. It is this wisdom of
+conduct that ultimately restores tranquillity, and compels the rebellious
+molecules to submit to the laws of organization. For what constitutes the
+cure of a disease, whether obtained by nature or by art? Nothing more than
+the dignified repose of the mighty archeus, when the fire of his wrath has
+consumed his foes. Diseases, therefore, are simply the execution of vast
+and complex projects that inspire the archeus, and which he carries into
+execution as the statuary embodies on the marble the conceptions of his
+genius. When the morbid idea is in conformity with his plans, a favourable
+result will ensue; if, on the contrary, the archeus labours under a
+misconception, if he is thrown by erroneous impressions into disordinate
+steps, then may this power, excited without a just motive, or a
+determinate and proper object, turn its arms against itself, and destroy
+the ties that united it to matter. It is then that art, whose aim it is to
+meet the foe with his own weapons, must have recourse to medicine for the
+purpose of rousing the torpor of the archeus, reanimate his energies if he
+droops, overthrow him if he becomes unruly, and finally compel him to
+yield, by a salutary terror; forcibly bringing him back to that judicious
+equilibrium in action, when all the functions contribute in harmony and
+concert to the general welfare of the system.
+
+Such were the truly poetical ideas of Van Helmont, who might have written
+an epic on the government, revolutions, and battles, in the archean state,
+similar to the Holy War of our ingenious Bunyan; for, like the cobler
+poet, our theorist divided and subdivided his legions and their officers.
+The archeus is merely the sovereign commander, whose head-quarters and
+throne were in the stomach; all the other viscera have distinct
+commandants, receiving their orders from their chief, who employed the
+nerves of his _aides-de-camp_. Nor was it an easy matter to keep all these
+captains in a proper state of discipline. Their irregularities occasioned
+constant tumults; for the court of the archeus, like all other courts, was
+most depraved and capricious in its practices, and intriguing in all its
+machinations, and the archeus had great trouble in keeping his
+subordinates in a proper state.
+
+The most rebellious of his generals was the one who commanded the uterine
+district. There it was in vain that the articles of war were constantly
+read,--that solitary confinement and prison-diet were resorted to. Its
+constant mutinies not only demanded the utmost vigilance, but it was no
+easy matter to prevent its dangerous influence from contaminating the
+other branches of the service; and treasonable correspondences were not
+unfrequently discovered with the staff of the brain. This rebellious
+province, indeed, excited incessant apprehension, constantly agitated the
+entire commonwealth, and, on the plea of national welfare and liberty, it
+hoisted at times a standard of defiance, and precipitated the country in
+all the miseries of civil war; the more to be dreaded, as it always put
+forth the most specious pleas, destroying with words of peace.
+
+This whimsical doctrine is not unlike the Platonic theories, and resembles
+the _naturism_ or [Greek: enormon] of Hippocrates, and the autocracy of
+the soul, of Stahl. Van Helmont not only established his archei in
+animals, but in plants, and even in our food. The archeus of man he
+sometimes called _ens seminale_, _ens spirituale_, _impetum faciens_,
+_aura vitalis_. Well aware that the most powerful despot cannot reign
+without rival powers, Van Helmont admitted certain _imperia in imperio_:
+for instance, there was a troublesome minister in his own cabinet, whom
+the archeus frequently could not control,--one _pylorus rector_, or master
+of the ceremonies; then he had to apprehend the power of a secret faculty
+possessed by the stomach and spleen, which he called a _duumvirate_,--_jus
+duumvirat'_. The sensitive and immortal soul was another check on his
+sway; while the spirit of life residing in the blood was not easily
+managed. All these vexations occasioned frequent attacks of illness in the
+monarch, and Van Helmont has described these several affections; for,
+although he possessed the power of conceiving and executing plans of
+disease, like many physicians, he did not know how to cure himself.
+
+When we consider that systems similar to this absurd doctrine, if not more
+extravagant, have ruled the medical schools for centuries with a despotic
+sway, can we marvel that medicine should have incurred the invectives of
+scepticism, or the scurrility of wits? In the very ratio of their
+absurdity have these flitting systems been maintained with scholastic
+fury; their proselytes would have vied in excesses with monastic
+persecutors, had they been able to assume a religious mask. It is painful
+to observe that unbelief and impious ridicule in theologic matters may be
+referred to the same causes as medical scepticism,--the vain and
+presumptuous endeavour of man to explain that which the CREATOR has most
+probably willed to remain inexplicable. Instead of wisely referring all
+that is mysterious to the Almighty Power that knows no limit, man has
+sought to explain and comment upon human principles, nay upon human
+motives; and when they could no longer attribute evil to GOD, they crossed
+the _pons asinorum_ to call in the Devil. In like manner, when they
+proudly fancied that they had regulated all the functions of the animal
+economy in that harmonious manner that they were modest enough to call
+admirable and wondrous, they endeavoured to account for a derangement of
+this equilibrious condition, either by the introduction of some evil
+spirit, or the unmanageable rebellion of some organ, some principle, some
+agency, and for this purpose they gave individuality and specific vitality
+to those agents, each of the _dramatis personae_ having a particular part
+to perform in bringing on a tragic catastrophe or a happy _denouement_ of
+the drama of life.
+
+Let not the learned doctors of modern schools exclaim, that these were the
+errors of former days and of dark ages. They themselves are grovelling and
+groping in the dark whenever they pretend to fly from the trammels of
+empiricism, and, like our forefathers, account for what is unaccountable.
+But, above all, let them be meek and modest (if they can) in passing
+judgment upon others, and inscribe upon the doors of their splendid
+libraries the saying of the olden sage, "All that we know is our own
+ignorance."
+
+
+
+
+MONSTERS.
+
+
+Philosophers have puzzled their brains to no purpose in endeavouring to
+account for the unnatural formation of animals. The ancients, amongst whom
+we may name Democritus and Epicurus, attributing all organization to an
+atomic aggregation, fancied that matter was endowed with an elective
+faculty and certain volition in attaining this organism; and considered
+monstruosities as mere experiments on the part of these atoms to produce
+some other species or races. This chimera was of a par with the archeus
+and his satellites of the preceding article. There is no doubt, however,
+that in the myriads of organized creatures various circumstances may tend
+to affect most materially the regularity of these developments, in the
+same manner as the properties and peculiar qualities of their organs may
+depend in a great measure upon similar influences. Conservation and
+reproduction are in the ratio of this perfection and imperfection. It is
+true, generally speaking, that the healthy and the best organized are less
+liable to engender an ill-conformed offspring; yet parents of this
+description have been known to produce monsters. Still the _fortes
+creantur fortibus_ of Horace has become a proverbial expression; and some
+fanciful wanderers in the mazes of imagination framed rules for their
+_megalanthropogenesy_, or the art of creating illustrious men and
+distinguished women by uniting the learned and the witty.
+
+Generation is a wondrous mystery. Many casual circumstances may check the
+mechanism of its action, (if I may be allowed the expression,) and affect
+its results. Any sudden physical or moral impression acting violently
+might produce this result; although, despite the theories and experiments
+of philosophers, it has not been proved that conception depends in the
+slightest degree upon the passions, being an act of nature totally
+independent of the control of mental emotions or bodily sufferings. This
+fact is clearly proved in cases of brutal violence.
+
+The ideas entertained by several naturalists, that organized beings were
+cast in a certain mould, were not altogether visionary, or unfounded in
+observation. The great resemblance between children, and their hereditary
+mal-conformation and defectuosities in whole families, would seem to a
+certain degree to warrant this conclusion; but it is more probable that
+imagination may have some influence in this irregularity, although at the
+time we may be unconscious of the relative action of moral agency on
+physical functions. The supporters of the existence of this plastic mould
+in which organized matter is cast, would then maintain that the mind
+having once influenced the conformation of the matrix, it would ever after
+preserve this deviation from nature's general laws.
+
+It is evident that different species of animals and vegetables have
+disappeared on the face of the earth, some within the memory of man. We
+neither know how these species have ceased to exist, nor whether all that
+possibly can be created has hitherto been brought into being; neither can
+we form any idea regarding the perpetuity of the races that surround us.
+Perpetuity and eternity (as far as regards this world) are conventional
+terms: races were supposed to be perpetuated by the successive evolutions
+of germs, as I have observed in a former article. To a certain extent this
+doctrine is correct, and is rendered evident in the evolutions of plants
+arising from their seed. Preternatural conditions are merely
+irregularities in this germination. The doctrine, that at each creation a
+true generation and gradual formation of a new conception from the
+formless genital matter takes place, does not appear to me reconcileable
+with sound physiology, nor supported by observation; for, were this the
+case, it is more than probable that preternatural formations would be more
+frequent. It was upon this doctrine that the learned Blumenbach founded
+his _nisus formativus_, an expression that he thus explains: "The word
+_nisus_ I have adopted chiefly to express an energy truly vital, and
+therefore to distinguish it as clearly as possible from powers merely
+mechanical, by which some physiologists formerly endeavoured to explain
+generation. The point upon which the whole of this doctrine respecting the
+_nisus formativus_ turns, and which is alone sufficient to distinguish it
+from the _vis plastica_ of the ancients, or the _vis essentialis_ of
+Wolff, and similar hypotheses, is _the union and intimate co-exertion of
+two distinct principles in the evolution of the nature of organized
+bodies_,--_of the_ PHYSICO-MECHANICAL _with the purely_
+TELEOLOGICAL;--principles which have hitherto been adopted, but
+separately, by physiologists in framing theories of generation."
+
+The ingenuity of this hypothesis must be admitted, but it does not
+militate against the pre-existence of germs. Germs are visible in the ovum
+before fecundation; in these germs the very primordia of future
+organization can be distinguished. It is by no means necessary to allow
+these germs an exciting power, or a formative power, as has been objected:
+they are more or less profuse, and under the influence, as I have already
+said, of accidental circumstances. It has been maintained that monsters
+are more common in domesticated animals than in wild ones. This is by no
+means evident, since we have little opportunity of ascertaining the case
+in forests and in wildernesses; but, admitting the fact, it only tends to
+corroborate my opinion regarding the influence of accidental causes in
+physical development, since domestication must expose animals to many
+emotions unknown in their natural condition. It has been said that
+monsters are especially observed among sows. There perhaps is no animal
+under the subjection of man, excepting, perhaps, the unfortunate donkey,
+more exposed to physical injuries during gestation; and as the Portuguese
+maintain that a _cajado_ (a stick) springs from the earth whenever an ass
+is born, so our bumkins and malicious urchins fancy that every one owes a
+kick to a gravid sow. Howbeit, I doubt much whether the swinish multitude
+are more subject to bear monstruosities than other animals; and
+preternatural conformations are, I believe, as frequent in lambs, and
+calves, and chickens; and double-headed and double-legged specimens of
+these animals are more frequently exhibited than monstrous pigs.
+
+Monstruosities are of two kinds, and exhibit either an excess of parts or
+a defect. Thus, some children are born with more limbs than usual, whilst
+others are deprived of their natural proportions. It is not unlikely that
+in the former case twins were being developed; whereas, in the other, the
+proper nourishment of the parts that are either wanting or stunted in
+their growth had somehow or other been impeded in its assimilation. This
+opinion seems to be warranted by the facts observed in the artificial
+incubation of eggs, the different parts of the chick being more or less
+perfect where the heat had been more or less steadily applied; the produce
+of those eggs that had enjoyed more warmth being invariably the stronger.
+The same remark applies to plants. Eggs and seeds are in most respects
+ruled by similar laws in the phenomena of their germination: the arms and
+legs grow from the animal foetus, as the branches originate from the
+trunk of the tree. These ramifications are frequently as symmetrical as
+human limbs. When there are preternatural excesses in formation, it is
+probable that twins were intended: thus we see foetuses with double
+heads, or with two bodies. The same irregularity is observed in double and
+triple cherries, and other fruits. It is probable that this union took
+place when these bodies were in a soft state, and the vessels inosculated
+in their intricate ramifications with greater facility, until further
+development had consolidated the junction.
+
+If a proof were wanting that monstruosities do not arise in the original
+organization of the embryo, but from subsequent accidents during
+gestation, it might be sought in those preternatural appearances that
+arise from frights or longings, and constitute what are called _naevi
+materni_. Thus are infants born bearing the marks of some fruit the mother
+had desired, or some animal that had terrified her. This phenomenon
+plainly shows that there does exist a wonderful sympathy between external
+objects and the uterine system; yet this sympathy is not as surprising as
+that which is subsequently observed between these marks and the fruit they
+represent. It is a well-authenticated fact that they will assume a tinge
+of maturity when the fruit is ripening, and become gradually more pale as
+it is going out of season. The same observation has been made in regard to
+animal marks; for instance, these marks have displayed a deeper colour
+when the mouse or the rat that had occasioned them was mentioned. I know a
+lady who, during her pregnancy, was struck with the unpleasant view of
+leeches applied to a relative's foot. Her child was born with the mark of
+a leech coiled up in the act of suction on the identical spot. Mr. Bennett
+has published a remarkable instance of this uterine sympathy. A woman gave
+birth to a child with a large cluster of globular tumours growing from the
+tongue, and preventing the closure of the mouth, in colour, shape, and
+size exactly resembling our common grapes, and with a red excrescence from
+the chest, as exactly resembling in figure and appearance a turkey's
+wattles. On being questioned before the child was shown her, she answered
+that, while pregnant, she had seen some grapes, longed intensely for them,
+and constantly thought of them; and that she was also once attacked and
+much alarmed by a turkey-cock.
+
+Various writers have positively denied these facts. Gerard tells us that
+he had known three pregnant women whose minds had been constantly occupied
+with the unpleasant recollections of a cripple, of a dancing-dog
+fantastically dressed, and a basket of beautiful peaches; yet their
+offspring bore no marks of these objects. This is no argument. No rational
+person could imagine for a single moment that every impression thus
+received is to be transmitted. Buffon, who also doubts this influence,
+thus expresses himself: "We must not expect that we shall be able to
+convince women that the marks their children may bear have no analogy with
+ungratified longings. I have frequently asked them, before the birth of
+their infants, what had been their wishes, and consequently what would be
+the marks that they might expect? By this question I frequently gave
+unintentional offence."
+
+Now, with all due respect to this celebrated naturalist, this argument is
+by no means conclusive. We perfectly well know that pregnant women are
+frequently alarmed without such consequences, and the most fantastic
+phantasies may cross their idle brains, without any such result. It has
+been observed on this subject, "that when a circumstance may proceed from
+many causes, we do not universally reject any one because it is frequently
+alleged without reason." We have too many well-authenticated cases before
+us to doubt this strange effect of maternal impressions, so clearly
+observed and recorded in Holy Writ in the following passage of Genesis:
+"And Jacob took him rods of Green poplar, and of the hazel and chestnut
+tree, and pilled white strakes in them, and made the white appear which
+was in the rods. And he set the rods which he had pilled before the flocks
+in the gutters in the watering-troughs, when the flocks came to drink,
+that they should conceive when they came to drink. And the flocks
+conceived before the rods, and brought forth cattle ring-straked,
+speckled, and spotted."
+
+The sympathy that evidently exists between bodies separated from each
+other, but previously connected, has given rise to many absurd stories. It
+is told of Taliocotius, that having made a nose for a patient, cut out of
+a pig, the poor man's snout fell off the moment the hog was slaughtered. A
+similar belief prevails among horticulturists, who assert that the graft
+perishes when the parent tree decays. A very singular phenomenon is
+observed in wine countries, where the wine in wood enters into a state of
+slight effervescence, and even efflorescence, when the vines begin to
+throw out their blossoms.
+
+It therefore appears to me more than probable that monstruosities are by
+no means original mal-conformations, but arise, during gestation, from
+physical or moral influences that affect the mother, however unconscious
+she may be of their action. We have frequent instances of violence
+occasioning preternatural developements. Mr. Giron Buzareingues mentions
+that a violent blow was given to a gravid bitch, who produced eight pups,
+all of which excepting one, had the hind-legs wanting, malconformed, or
+weak.
+
+A further disquisition would lead me beyond the limits of a sketch. I
+shall therefore relate some curious cases of monstruosities, that would
+seem to set at nought our ideas regarding the _indispensability_ of
+certain organs to the functions of life.
+
+Various instances are recorded of the union of two or more foetuses. We
+have lately seen the Siamese twins, and such a preternatural formation is
+by no means uncommon. In the Journal de Verdun, 1709, a case is related of
+two twin female children who were united at the loins, with only one
+intestinal canal. They were seven years old, could walk about, embrace
+each other in the fondest manner, and both were proficient in several
+languages. Buffon gives the history of two Hungarian girls, who were also
+joined together in the lumbar region. Helena, who was the first-born,
+became tall and straight; Judith, her sister, was of a diminutive size,
+and slightly arched. At six years of age she was attacked with hemiplegia,
+and never recovered perfect health. Helena was sprightly and intelligent.
+With the exception of the smallpox and measles, under which they laboured
+at the same time, their ailments were always distinct. They lived until
+the age of twenty-two, when Judith was attacked with a fever, that shortly
+terminated her existence. The horror expressed by Helena in beholding her
+dead companion, with whom she had been identified in sisterly love for so
+many years, cannot be described; but her agonies were of short duration,
+for in three minutes she also had ceased to live. On their _post mortem_
+examination each was found to have possessed distinct viscera. The aorta
+and vena cava were united above the origin of the iliac arteries, so that
+no severing operation could have been performed without destroying them
+both.
+
+Duverney relates the case of twins united at the lower part of the
+abdomen. They only lived six days; the strongest of the two died first,
+and was followed by his companion three hours after. Haller records
+upwards of thirty cases of a similar nature; and various skeletons of
+this description are to be seen in our museums. Munster saw two girls
+united by the forehead. They had then attained their tenth year, when one
+of them died. It therefore became indispensable to separate them, but the
+unfortunate creature did not survive the operation. Daubenton describes
+two children united at the back of the head.
+
+Such miserable junctions naturally suggested the idea of effecting a
+separation by surgical means; but I believe this operation was only once
+performed with a successful result. Two little girls were united from the
+xiphoid cartilage to the umbilicus. The uniting substance was an inch in
+thickness, six lines in breadth, and five inches in circumference. In the
+centre of the junction was the umbilical ring common to both. The
+umbilical vessels were separated and tied; the ligature fell at the
+expiration of nine days; and then Zwingler, the operator, proceeded to
+divide the remaining bonds.
+
+Various monsters have been seen with four arms and three legs, or four
+legs and two or three arms. The history of the double-headed infant of
+Oxford is curious. This creature had two heads diametrically opposite,
+four arms, one body and two lower extremities. These heads were doubly
+baptized; one by the name of Martha, and the other Mary. The features were
+different; Mary's was smiling, Martha's dejected. The latter died two days
+after her birth, and Mary expired a quarter of an hour after.
+
+A curious monster of a similar description is recorded to have lived at
+the court of James IV. of Scotland. It had been taught several languages,
+and music. One head was intelligent, the other remarkably stupid. This
+creature lived twenty-eight years, when one of the individuals died. The
+other survived several days, but gradually drooped as the body of his late
+companion was decomposing. In olden writers we have many curious cases.
+How far they may be entitled to credit I cannot say; although we have no
+reason to deny the fact, when we daily witness the most singular
+malconformations. Liceti relates the case of a child with two legs, but
+seven heads and seven arms. Bartholinus mentions one with three heads,
+each of which uttered the most horrible cries, and then expired.
+
+While these unfortunates were visited with several heads, instances have
+been known of heads that had attained a most enormous volume. In Tunis,
+there was a Moor of thirty years of age, whose head was so large, that
+crowds followed him in the streets; and his mouth was of such a capacity,
+that he could devour a large melon as easily as an apple. This man was an
+idiot. At Lucca, Benvenuti saw a lad, otherwise well-proportioned, whose
+head at the age of seven began to increase so rapidly, that when he was
+twenty-seven it measured thirty-seven inches eight lines in circumference,
+and his face was fifteen inches long.
+
+Singular monstruosities have been seen, where heads and bodies seemed
+actually to be growing from or hanging to individuals. Winslow knew an
+Italian child, of eight years of age, who carried a little head under the
+third left rib, and peeping out as if the body of the one had been
+concealed in that of the other. Both heads had been christened; the one
+James, the other Matthew. When the ear of little Matthew was pinched, his
+host James forthwith began to roar. The Bengal child, whose case is
+related by Valentin and Horne, is equally singular. Here one head was
+placed above the other, the superior one nearly as well conformed as the
+lower; both adhered intimately. The upper face assumed somewhat of an
+oblique direction. Each head had its distinct brain: sometimes one head
+was fast asleep while his neighbour was wide awake, and one head would cry
+most piteously if you pulled the hair of the other; but, what was still
+more singular, when the one was fed, its companion expressed its
+gratification, and water flowed from its mouth. This monster lived four
+years, and probably would have lived much longer, but for the bite of a
+venomous reptile.
+
+In a former article I alluded to encephalous and anencephalous cases,
+where there were either no heads or heads without brains. Of the first
+variety Beclard relates the following: A woman at Angers was delivered of
+twins, one of which not only was without a head, but only showed the
+inferior part of the body; without arms, a small stump-like excrescence
+growing from the upper part of the chest; the feet were turned inwards,
+and without toes. The creature was of the male sex. The body presented one
+cavity without any diaphragm; nor could any trace of liver, spleen,
+oesophagus, or stomach be detected: the intestinal tube commenced at the
+upper part of the body, but was impervious; the pancreas and kidneys were
+as usual; the umbilical vein arose from the cava, and the umbilical
+arteries from the hypogastric. There were ten ribs on each side, and the
+spinal marrow threw out its regular nerves.
+
+Brunel has recorded the case of a male infant born without brains. The
+frontal bone was thrown back, and flattened on the sphenoid in such a
+manner that the eyes appeared above his head. The parietal and the
+squamous portion of the temporal were wanting, although the organ of
+hearing was well conformed. Not a vestige of brain could be discovered;
+yet the carotid and vertebral arteries crossed the basis of the cranium.
+The spinal marrow arose from the fourth cervical vertebra. The organs of
+sight were perfect. Saviard describes an infant in which all the bones of
+the cranium were wanting, and, instead of a brain, the skin merely covered
+a cyst, containing a red pulpy substance resembling brain, whence arose
+several nerves.
+
+It is, no doubt, to these malconformations that we are to attribute the
+various stories of children with heads of monkeys, goats, pigs, &c., or of
+that child whose face represented the devil, and who was described as
+"Cacodaemonis picturae quam humanae figurae similius," &c. The idle tales of
+Cyclopes are also to be sought in such accidental preternatural
+appearances, and several instances are recorded of children born with a
+single eye in the forehead. It would be useless to dwell longer on this
+painful subject. Those who wish for more information may gratify their
+curiosity by consulting the works of Haller, Soemmering, and other
+writers, who have treated this matter _ex professo_.
+
+In conclusion, it appears to me that monstruosities are purely accidental,
+subject to no laws of nature, but deviations from them. We leave to
+theologasters the question of their being visitations of divine wrath. The
+only theories that can admit of discussion are the following: 1st, The
+imagination of the mother; 2nd, Accidental causes; and 3rd, An original
+monstrous germ. Maternal marks arising from longings and terror, as I have
+already observed, seemed to warrant the first conclusion; yet it is not
+tenable. What has imagination to do with the vegetable kingdom, which also
+presents monstrous conformations? Are we to attribute the same power of
+imagination to the brute creation? and, although we may fully admit the
+sympathy that exists between the uterine system and external objects, yet
+we cannot refer headless and double and triple embryos to this influence.
+The last hypothesis is also fraught with objections. We have every reason
+to believe that all germs or seed are perfect in themselves. Were there
+monstrous germs, there would ensue monstrous races. That germs may be
+accidentally vitiated and impaired there can be no doubt; but such an
+adventitious occurrence does not constitute an original monstruosity.
+Duverney and Winslow maintained that, in the case of a double monster, the
+monstruosity arose in the primitive germ. Lemery and other physiologists,
+on the contrary, insisted that double foetuses arise, as I have already
+stated, from a junction or fusion between two separate bodies, or, in
+short, the union of twins or triple conceptions, &c. Anatomical
+investigations confirmed this opinion, since in double-headed foetuses
+two distinct sets of organs are generally found.
+
+This subject has occupied the most ingenious philosophers for centuries;
+and the result of their experiments and debates seems to warrant the
+probability of these melancholy deviations from nature, foolishly
+denominated _lusi naturae_, being purely accidental. The experiments of
+Jacobi seem to confirm this opinion, since he was able to produce
+preternatural fecundation in the eggs of fishes.
+
+This investigation may appear idle; yet, in a physiological point of view,
+it is fraught with interest as regarding the generation of animals and
+plants. Its study affords a lively illustration of those laws of
+attraction and repulsion that regulate the universe, and which seem to
+admit that every particle of matter should be endowed with a specific
+vitality, a specific individuality. This attraction is daily seen in the
+fecundation of the spawn of fish. Myriads of these eggs are accumulated in
+ponds and rivers; yet in this mass the fecundating principle solely
+selects and impregnates those that naturally claim its vivifying powers.
+Wonderful harmony, that man alone endeavours to destroy!--harmony so
+perfect, that Aristoxenus and Alcmaeon maintained that it was an emanation
+of the diapason of celestial music between the planets, our globe, and our
+five senses, forming a diatonic series of seven tones; while Hippocrates
+justly denominated these organic laws the CONFLUXUS UNUS, CONSPIRATIO
+UNICA, CONSENTIENTIA OMNIA.
+
+
+
+
+LONGEVITY.
+
+
+The greater the complexity of a piece of machinery, and the more labour it
+is called upon to perform, the more rapid will be its wear and tear. This
+applies to human life as well as to mechanism. The derangement of its
+component parts--its springs and wheels, will also be in the ratio of
+their complication. Thus do we find that the brute creation are less
+subject to those affections that abridge their days than mankind. Their
+life is natural, except when under the sway of domestication: ours is
+artificial; and high civilization tends to render it still more unnatural
+than it would most probably have been in a simple and patriarchal
+existence. Endowed with more acuteness of sensibility than animals, we are
+rendered more susceptible of the extremes of pleasure and of pain; and our
+voluptuous enjoyments are perhaps more prejudicial than our sufferings.
+Had not the Creator wisely granted us the faculty of reasoning, we should
+have been the most wretched of all organized beings.
+
+The tenure of life depends upon the sum of vitality originally deposited,
+and the extent of our drafts upon this capital, which we too frequently
+exhaust by untimely expenses. Experience has proved that under ordinary
+circumstances, man can live six or seven times longer than the years
+required to attain puberty. This epoch is placed at our fourteenth year.
+This calculation would therefore yield from 84 to 98 years of age. Our own
+imprudences, and the disorders resulting from them, are more hostile in
+abridging this period than nature, all-wise and all-bountiful. Indeed,
+when we reflect on all the excesses to which we expose our frail and
+complicated being, as if we were resolved to try by every possible
+experiment how far it possesses the power of resisting destructive agents,
+we can only marvel in beholding so many instances of longevity. In this
+wasteful existence how many valuable hours do we not lose? how many real
+enjoyments have we not deprived ourselves of? When compared to the
+immensity of time, life is but an idle span. Let us deduct even from old
+age the years of infancy, the years of caducity, and the years of
+sleep,--alas! what remaineth of our many and our energetic days?
+Maupertuis calculated that in an ordinary life man could scarcely enjoy
+more than three years of happiness, mixed up with sixty or eighty years of
+misery or insipidity; and yet how miserable are we at the thought of
+quitting this short-leased tenement, though every wretchedness renders our
+abode a constant scene of uneasiness. It has been computed that out of
+about nine hundred millions of human beings that are scattered over the
+globe, it is more than probable that we could not find nine thousand
+individuals blessed with happiness, even taking happiness in its most
+limited sense--content. Were it not for the terrors of futurity, it is
+more than probable that our existence would lose much of its value.
+Socrates termed philosophy "the preparation for death;" the same may be
+said of our existence.
+
+Happily for man, life is a dream, all is illusion; sufferings alone are
+positive; Pandora's box is its best illustration. Could we have slept away
+our existence in constant visions, we should have lived as long as in a
+waking state. When we contemplate the flocks of human beings scattered
+like cattle on the face of the universe, with scarcely more intellect than
+the beasts of the same field, we might ask for what were they created?
+doomed to all the horrors of sickness or of war, victims of their own
+follies or the ambitious projects of others! As far as regards this life,
+it is worse than idle to seek a solution of the problem. In these
+inquiries we too often seek to guess that which we can never know, and to
+know that which we can never guess! We all complain and murmur like the
+woodman in the fable, yet are loath to accept the relief we loudly call
+for.
+
+The longevity of the first races, and the patriarchs, are records foreign
+to the investigations of natural history; we must seek for more recent
+examples. Haller had collected the cases of many centenaries, amounting to
+sixty-two who had reached from 100 to 120; twenty-nine from 120 to 130;
+and fifteen from 130 to 140. Few instances are authenticated beyond this
+period: yet we find one Eccleston, who lived 143 years; John Effingham,
+who attained his 144th; a Norwegian, who counted a century and a half; and
+our Thomas Parr would most probably have passed his 152nd year but for an
+excess. Henry Jenkins lived to 169; and we have on record the case of a
+Negress, aged 175. The Hungarian family of John Rovin were remarkable for
+their longevity: the father lived to 172, the wife to 164; they had been
+married 142 years, and their youngest child was 115; and such was the
+influence of habit and filial affection, that this _child_ was treated
+with all the severity of paternal rigidity, and did not dare to act
+without his _papa's_ and _mamma's_ permission.
+
+By the calculations of Sussmilch, out of one thousand individuals, only
+one attained 97; and not more than one lived to the age of 100, out of one
+hundred and fourteen thousand. In the census of Italy, taken under
+Vespasian, there were found fifty-four of 100, fifty-seven of 110, two of
+125, four of 130, and three of 140. In China, under Kien Long, in 1784,
+there were only four individuals who had attained their 100th year.
+According to Larrey, there were at Cairo thirty-five persons who had
+exceeded their century. In Russia, in 1814, out of eight hundred and
+ninety-one thousand six hundred and fifty deaths, were three thousand five
+hundred and thirty-one from 100 to 132. In a register of deaths in Paris,
+taken in 1817, there were found in twenty-one thousand three hundred and
+ninety-two, nine from 95 to 100, and the general proportion of centenaries
+in that city is one to three thousand.
+
+What are the circumstances most favourable to longevity? This question is
+not easily answered; for we find in instances of advanced age that some
+individuals have led a most regular and abstemious life, while others have
+indulged in various excesses. These observations, however, are by no means
+calculated to form a conclusive opinion, as the constitutional vigour and
+peculiar idiosyncrasies of individuals differ widely. It is probable that
+a regular mode of living is the most likely to prolong our years, whatever
+may be that regularity in a comparative point of view. A sober man, who
+commits occasional excesses, is more likely to suffer than another man who
+gets drunk every night, provided that these excesses do not differ in
+regard to the quantity or quality of stimulus. In these melancholy
+instances the excitement is constant, and the indirect debility which it
+may produce has scarcely time to break down the system ere it is again
+wound up to its usual pitch, to use the vulgar expression, "by a hair of
+the same hound." The principal attribute of life that renovates for a
+while its moral and its physical exhaustion is _excitability_, and a
+constant _excitement_ is therefore indispensable, to serve as fuel to the
+consuming fire. This was to a certain degree the basis on which Brown
+founded his doctrine. He traced a scale of life like that of a
+thermometer,--health in the centre, death at each extremity: one scale
+ascending from health was graduated according to stimulating agency, the
+other to debilitating causes; and therefore the system was to be
+stimulated or lowered according to this gradation. It would be foreign to
+this work to point out the absurdity of this theory, although we must
+admit its ingenuity, and to a certain extent its correctness. The chief
+practical objection to it was the diversity of constitutions and
+idiosyncrasies, and the different action of stimulating or depressing
+agents in health and in disease; the effects of alimentary and medicinal
+substances being totally different in these several conditions.
+
+According to habit, a certain sum of stimulus is requisite to keep up the
+necessary excitement; and this sum cannot be immediately and suddenly
+withdrawn in weak subjects without some risk; in health, perhaps, the
+experiment may be safely made at all times, and under any circumstances,
+although it might be wiser to operate the change by degrees; and it must
+moreover be recollected, that an habitual drunkard is in a morbid
+condition, and must be treated accordingly.
+
+Six causes chiefly exert their influence upon life:
+
+1. Climate and soil.
+
+2. Difference of races.
+
+3. Complexion and stature.
+
+4. Period of development during gestation, and of subsequent growth.
+
+5. Mode of living.
+
+6. Moral emotions, occupations.
+
+Climates that are moderately cold are more favourable to long life. This
+observation equally applies to the vegetable kingdom; and trees that have
+scarcely attained their full growth in northern regions are drooping in
+the south. There also we find beasts and birds resisting the inclemency of
+the weather by the thickness of their coats and plumage, or a layer of
+grease; while many animals burrow in the earth to seek a state of torpor
+and insensibility, until restored to active life by a more genial
+temperature. Dryness of soil is another source of health and life; and the
+hardy mountaineer's existence is seldom abridged by the diseases that
+visit the inhabitants of damp and swampy regions. Steril plains are more
+salubrious than regions covered with a rank and exuberant vegetation, or
+highly cultivated grounds, from many obvious reasons. The humid earth is
+not turned up, and decayed vegetable substances are not acted upon in a
+deleterious manner by the solar heat. When we consider the various causes
+of disease that must abound in crowded and corrupt cities, we might
+imagine that mortality would be much greater than in the country; yet
+observation has not proved this difference to be as material as one might
+expect, at least as regards disease, the sad effects of poverty and
+starvation not being taken into account. Various reasons may be assigned
+for this apparent anomaly. In cities a more regular state of excitement
+prevails, and man's constant occupations scarcely give him time to attend
+to slight ailments, that, under other circumstances, might be aggravated.
+Moreover, intermittent fevers and visceral affections are more frequent in
+the country; and cottagers are exposed to more constant damp and severer
+revolutions in the atmospheric constitution than citizens. The mortality
+amongst men is greater in cities than in women; the latter do not enjoy so
+long a life in the country. March and April have been found the most fatal
+months. They are periods of atmospheric transition from cold to a higher
+temperature, and must therefore prove trying to the weak and the aged. The
+end of autumn is also deemed a sickly period; and the equinoxes have ever
+been considered critical, the solstices much less injurious. In Great
+Britain and the north-westerly regions of Europe, northerly and easterly
+winds are more prevalent in March, April, and May, owing, it is supposed,
+to the currents established to replace the warmer air, as it rises from
+the surface of the Atlantic and more southerly countries. These winds are
+generally dry and cold, followed by fogs, and give rise to catarrhs,
+bronchial and pulmonary affections. It is calculated that in our climes
+pulmonary affections carry off one-fifth of the population, or 191 in
+1000.
+
+In regard to the variety of races, it has been observed that those people
+who sooner attain pubescence are the shortest-lived. Precocious excitement
+must bring on premature old age. Negroes seldom attain an advanced period
+of life; and the progress of years is more rapidly descried in their
+features and their form than in Europeans who have migrated to their
+clime. The negroes of Congo, Mozambique, and Zanguebar, seldom reach their
+fiftieth year. In northern latitudes longevity is more frequent: this is
+observed in Sweden, Russia, Poland, Norway. Some writers have looked upon
+the established religion of a country as influencing the duration of life;
+and Toaldo asserted that Christians are shorter-lived than Jews. To this
+observation it may be remarked, that Jews are in general a very sober,
+industrious, and active race, circumstances that must materially tend to
+prolong their days. Moreover, by their legislation they are very careful
+in the choice of the meat they consume. In Catholic countries fasting may
+be taken into calculation, not from the effects of abstemiousness, which
+would be more favourable to health than injurious, but the sudden return
+to feasting and gormandizing, by way of revenge, when the fast is over.
+Shrove Tuesday and Easter Sunday are noted in red letters in the
+gastronomic almanac; and the suppers that follow the midnight masses of
+Christmas generally require the apothecary's aid on the following
+morning.[46]
+
+In regard to conformation, very tall and spare subjects are seldom
+long-lived; and the same observation applies to the stunted and
+diminutive. A well-set body, with a broad and deep chest, a neck not
+over-long, with well-formed and firm muscles, generally hold forth a fair
+prospect of old age.
+
+Children born before the regular period of gestation, those who have been
+weaned too early, or given to nurses whose milk was not of a proper
+quality, are seldom strong. Too rapid a growth will also shorten the space
+of existence.
+
+Our avocations and pursuits materially affect health and the consequent
+duration of life; and the nature of the excitement man is submitted to
+produces a remarkable effect. It has been calculated in France that one
+hundred and fifty-two academicians, whose aggregate years were ten
+thousand five hundred and eleven, averaged sixty-nine years and two
+months. The following calculation of Madden will further illustrate this
+curious subject.
+
+  AGES OF GREAT MEN.
+
+  _Natural Philosophers._
+
+  Bacon               78
+  Buffon              81
+  Copernicus          70
+  Cuvier              64
+  Davy                51
+  Kepler              60
+  Laplace             77
+  Leibnitz            70
+  Newton              84
+  Whiston             95
+  Euler               76
+  Franklin            85
+  Galileo             78
+  Halley              86
+  Herschel            84
+  Lalande             75
+  Lewenhoeck          91
+  Linnaeus             72
+  Tycho Brahe         75
+  Wollaston           62
+
+  _Poets._
+
+  Ariosto             59
+  Byron               37
+  Collins             56
+  Cowper              69
+  Dryden              70
+  Gray                57
+  Milton              66
+  Pope                56
+  Spenser             46
+  Thomson             48
+  Burns               38
+  Camoens             55
+  Cowley              49
+  Dante               56
+  Goldsmith           44
+  Metastasio          84
+  Petrarch            68
+  Shenstone           50
+  Tasso               52
+  Young               84
+
+  _Moral Philosophers._
+
+  Bacon               65
+  Berkeley            79
+  Condillac           65
+  Diderot             71
+  Fitche              52
+  Helvetius           57
+  Hume                65
+  Kaimes              86
+  Malebranche         77
+  Stewart             75
+  Bayle               59
+  Condorcet           51
+  Descartes           54
+  Ferguson            92
+  Hartley             52
+  Hobbes              91
+  Kant                80
+  Locke               72
+  Reid                86
+  St. Lambert         88
+
+  _Dramatists._
+
+  Alfieri             55
+  Goethe              82
+  Marlow              32
+  Racine              60
+  Shakspeare          52
+  Congreve            59
+  Crebillon           89
+  Farquhar            30
+  B. Jonson           63
+  Moliere             53
+  Corneille           78
+  Massinger           55
+  Otway               34
+  Schiller            46
+  Voltaire            84
+  Colman              61
+  Cumberland          80
+  Goldoni             85
+  De Vega             73
+  Murphy              78
+
+  _Authors on Law and Jurisprudence._
+
+  Bentham             85
+  Butler              83
+  Erskine             73
+  Gifford             48
+  Hale                68
+  Littleton           75
+  Montesquieu         66
+  Romilly             61
+  Tenterden           78
+  Vatel               53
+  Blackstone          57
+  Coke                85
+  Filangieri          36
+  Grotius             63
+  Holt                68
+  Mansfield           88
+  Redesdale           82
+  Rolle               68
+  Thurlow             74
+  Wilmot              83
+
+  _Miscellaneous and Novel Writers._
+
+  Cervantes           70
+  Scott               62
+  Smollett            51
+  Defoe               70
+  Richardson          72
+  Johnson             75
+  Warton              78
+  Tickell             54
+  Bathurst            84
+  Hawkesworth         59
+  Le Sage             80
+  Fielding            47
+  Rabelais            70
+  Ratcliffe           60
+  Sterne              56
+  Addison             48
+  Steele              59
+  Montaigne           60
+  Thornton            44
+  Hazlitt             58
+
+  _Authors on Revealed Religion._
+
+  Baxter              76
+  J. Butler           60
+  Calvin              56
+  Doddridge           54
+  J. Knox             67
+  Luther              63
+  Melancthon          64
+  Porteus             77
+  Sherlock            67
+  Whitefield          56
+  Bellarmine          84
+  Bossuet             77
+  Chillingworth       43
+  G. Fox              67
+  Lowth               77
+  Massillon           79
+  Paley               63
+  Priestley           71
+  Wesley              88
+  Wycliffe            61
+
+  _Authors on Natural Religion._
+
+  Annet               55
+  Cardan              75
+  Sir W. Drummond     68
+  N. Freret           61
+  Lord Herbert        68
+  St. Pierre          77
+  Tindal              75
+  Vannini             34
+  Bolingbroke         79
+  Chubb               65
+  Dupuis              67
+  Gibbon              58
+  Spinosa             45
+  Shaftesbury         42
+  Toland              53
+  Volney              66
+
+  _Medical Authors._
+
+  J. Brown            54
+  Cullen              78
+  Fordyce             67
+  Gall                71
+  Harvey              81
+  J. Hoffman          83
+  W. Hunter           66
+  M. Good             64
+  Pinel               84
+  Tissot              70
+  Corvisart           66
+  Darwin              72
+  Fothergill          69
+  J. Gregory          48
+  Heberden            92
+  Hunter              65
+  Jenner              75
+  Paracelsus          43
+  Sydenham            66
+  T. Willis           54
+
+  _Philologists._
+
+  Bentley             81
+  Casaubon            55
+  Hartzheim           70
+  Heyne               84
+  Parr                80
+  Pighius             84
+  Raphelengius        59
+  J. J. Scaliger      69
+  H. Stephens         71
+  Vossius             73
+  Burton              64
+  Cheke               44
+  J. Harman           77
+  Lipsius             60
+  Pauw                61
+  Porson              50
+  Salmatius           66
+  Sigonius            60
+  Sylburgius          51
+  Wolfius             64
+
+  _Artists._
+
+  Bandinelle          72
+  Canova              65
+  Flaxman             71
+  Giotto              60
+  San Sovino          91
+  A. Caracci          49
+  David               76
+  Raphael             37
+  Salvator Rosa       58
+  P. Veronese         56
+  Bernini             82
+  Donatello           83
+  Ghiberti            64
+  M. Angelo           96
+  Verocchico          56
+  Claude              82
+  Guido               67
+  Reynolds            69
+  Titian              96
+  West                82
+
+  _Musical Composers._
+
+  Arne                68
+  Beethoven           57
+  Bull                41
+  Corelli             60
+  Greby               72
+  Haydn               77
+  Kerser              62
+  Mosart              36
+  Piccini             71
+  Scarlatti           78
+  Bach                66
+  Burney              88
+  Cimarosa            41
+  Gluck               75
+  Handel              75
+  Kalkbrenner         51
+  Martini             78
+  Paesiello           75
+  Porpore             78
+  Weber               40
+
+To this list we may add the following instances of longevity from the late
+publication of Mr. Farren:
+
+  Adling              93
+  Alcock              91
+  Bernabel            89
+  Celdara             90
+  Canpra              84
+  Casipini            90
+  Cervetti           101
+  Child               90
+  Creighton           97
+  Eichole             80
+  Genimani            96
+  Gibbons             93
+  Hasse               90
+  Hempel              86
+  Hesse               91
+  Leveridge           90
+  Lopez              103
+  Pittoni             90
+  Reike              100
+  Sala                99
+  Schell              87
+  Schramm             82
+  Telleman            86
+  F. Turner           99
+  W. Turner           88
+  Wagennell           98
+
+In regard to the mortality of musicians, we give with much pleasure the
+following extract from the same work:
+
+"The ages of 468 persons at death, were all that could be obtained from a
+biography of musicians; of these, 109 born since the year 1740 are
+excluded, because some of their cotemporaries were yet living at the date
+of such biography, also 41 more are excluded as having died under 50 years
+of age. There remain then, the ages at death of 318 persons on which the
+present observation is made.
+
+"From the ages of 50 years to the end of life, the _apparent_ rate of
+mortality among musicians, appears very nearly with the lowest known rate,
+or that which prevails in villages, and it is scarcely probable that such
+rate should so agree without being the true one. For a musician to belong
+to the last class of human life, is very credible, when it is considered
+that eminence can only be attained by close mental devotion to an exalted
+science, and unremitting application to its practical acquirement, which
+abstraction would interrupt and intemperance destroy.
+
+"The mean age of musicians, born _since_ 1690, is 67-3/4 years, or two
+years greater than those born before 1690, from which it might be
+conveniently concluded, that the moderns were longer lived than the
+ancients. The case is precisely the reverse, at least for ages above 50,
+to which alone the materials are applicable. The expectation of life at
+the age of 60 of the ancients were nearly 15 years, of the modern
+musicians 13-1/2. The materials (limited as they are) from which these
+conclusions are drawn, support the doctrine, that the mortality of the
+moderns is less at middle, but greater at advanced age, than the mortality
+of the ancients."
+
+Dr. Caspar, of Berlin, in his late very interesting work on the duration
+of human life, has given the following conclusions:
+
+                  Medium longevity.
+  Clergymen              65
+  Merchants              62
+  Clerks                 61
+  Farmers                61
+  Military men           59
+  Lawyers                58
+  Artists                57
+  Medical men            56
+
+The results of the other classes, with respect to their united ages, and
+the average of each, are--
+
+                                                Average.
+  Moral philosophers   united ages       1417      70
+  Sculptors and painters                 1412      70
+  Authors on law and jurisprudence       1394      69
+  Medical authors   united ages          1368      68
+  Authors on revealed religion           1350      67
+  Philologists                           1323      66
+  Musical composers                      1284      64
+  Novelists and miscellaneous authors    1257      62-1/2
+  Dramatists                             1249      62
+  Authors on natural religion            1245      62
+  Poets                                  1144      57
+
+This calculation was made most probably in Prussia.
+
+Dr. Caspar's view of longevity are not only highly interesting but, if
+correct, may lead to many important conclusions. He maintains that--
+
+1. The female sex enjoys, at every period or epoch of life, except at
+puberty, at which epoch the mortality is greater among young females--a
+greater longevity than the male sex.
+
+2. Pregnancy and labour occasion, indeed, a considerable loss of life, but
+this loss disappears or is lost in the general mass.
+
+3. The so-called climacteric periods of life do not seem to have any
+influence on the longevity of either sex.
+
+4. The medium duration of life at this present time (1835), is in Russia,
+about 21 years; in Prussia, 29; in Switzerland, 34; in France, 35; in
+Belgium, 36; and in England, 38 years.
+
+5. The medium duration of life has, in recent times, increased very
+greatly in most cities of Europe.
+
+6. In reference to the influence of professional occupations in life, it
+seems that clergymen are on the whole, the longest, and medical men are
+the shortest livers. Military men are nearly between the two extremes, but
+yet, proportionably they more frequently than others reach very advanced
+years.
+
+7. The mortality is very generally greater in manufacturing than in
+agricultural districts.
+
+8. Marriage is decidedly favourable to longevity.
+
+9. The mortality among the poor is always greater than among the wealthier
+classes.
+
+10. The mortality in a population appears to be always proportionate to
+its fecundity--as the number of births increases, so does the number of
+deaths at the same time.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+If this last assertion be correct, Malthus's doctrine must have been idle.
+
+It appears that in general more males are born than females--this
+difference has been attributed to the age of the parents; when the mother
+is older than the father the female offspring are more numerous--the same
+is observed when both parents have attained an advanced age--but when the
+father's age exceeds that of the mother's, sons are chiefly the result of
+their union, it has been also observed that widowers are most frequently
+blessed with daughters.
+
+Quetelet has very justly observed that the laws which preside over the
+development of man, and modify all his actions, are in general the result
+of his organization, of his years, his state of independence, the
+surrounding institutions, local influence, and an infinity of other
+causes, difficult to ascertain, and many of which, most probably, never
+can be known. Still if we admit the fact, our wellbeing, in a great
+measure, rests in our own hands, as the progress of our intellectual
+attainments may gradually enable us to improve our condition, in most of
+the points to which we have alluded; and Buffon has observed "that we know
+not to what extent man may perfect his nature, both in a moral and a
+physical point of view."
+
+Still the laws of our organization, and which regulate life, appear to be
+beyond human speculation; and it has been observed that, under ordinary
+circumstances, we are ruled by a harmonizing system tending to equalize
+society despite its institutions. Thus, births, marriages, and deaths,
+appear regulated on a certain scale in proportions singularly similar.
+This circumstance is rendered obvious by the following tables of nativity
+at Amsterdam.
+
+  +-------+--------------------------------------------------+
+  |       |      Still-born.      ||        Born alive.      |
+  |       |-----------------------||-------------------------|
+  | Years.| Boys. | Girls. |Total.|| Boys. | Girls. | Total. |
+  |-------|-------|--------|------||-------|--------|--------|
+  | 1821  |  288  |   246  | 534  || 3742  |  3600  |  7342  |
+  | 1822  |  280  |   222  | 502  || 3887  |  3713  |  7600  |
+  | 1823  |  268  |   198  | 466  || 3734  |  3448  |  7182  |
+  | 1824  |  266  |   216  | 482  || 4011  |  3849  |  7860  |
+  | 1825  |  207  |   173  | 404  || 3802  |  3559  |  7352  |
+  | 1826  |  231  |   173  | 404  || 3803  |  3635  |  7438  |
+  | 1827  |       |        |      || 3524  |  3366  |  6890  |
+  | 1828  |       |        |      || 3699  |  3529  |  7208  |
+  | 1829  |       |        |      || 3785  |  3618  |  7403  |
+  | 1830  |  241  |   169  | 410  || 3727  |  3579  |  7306  |
+  | 1831  |  208  |   168  | 376  || 3843  |  3499  |  7342  |
+  | 1832  |  210  |   151  | 361  || 3351  |  3101  |  6452  |
+  +----------------------------------------------------------+
+
+A statistical result much similar, was made also in Paris in the Bureau
+des Longitudes, as appears by the following return:
+
+  +------------------------------------------------------------+
+  |        |        Still-born.      |         Born alive.     |
+  |        |-------------------------|-------------------------|
+  | Years. | Boys. | Girls. | Total. | Boys. | Girls. | Total. |
+  |--------|-------|--------|--------|-------|--------|--------|
+  |  1823  |  847  |   662  |  1509  | 13752 |  13318 |  27070 |
+  |  1824  |  810  |   677  |  1487  | 14647 |  14647 |  28812 |
+  |  1825  |  846  |   675  |  1521  | 14989 |  14264 |  29253 |
+  |  1826  |  810  |   737  |  1547  | 15187 |  14783 |  29970 |
+  |  1827  |  904  |   727  |  1631  | 15074 |  14732 |  29860 |
+  |  1828  |  883  |   743  |  1626  | 15117 |  14484 |  29601 |
+  |  1829  |  925  |   788  |  1713  | 14760 |  13961 |  28721 |
+  |  1830  |  943  |   784  |  1727  | 14488 |  14099 |  28587 |
+  |  1831  |  954  |   755  |  1709  | 15116 |  14414 |  29530 |
+  |  1832  |  994  |   726  |  1720  | 13494 |  12789 |  26283 |
+  +------------------------------------------------------------+
+
+In these statements, of which many to the same effect might be produced,
+it is singular that the number of still-born infants bears such a regular
+proportion with the nativity of living ones.
+
+The proportion of deaths to births is also strangely regular, despite the
+difference of climate, and institutions, and the state of medical science
+in various countries, as will appear manifest by the following scales:
+
+  +----------------------------------------------------------------+
+  |  Cities.   |Proportion of inhabitants|Proportion of inhabitants|
+  |            |      to one death.      |      to one birth.      |
+  |------------|-------------------------|-------------------------|
+  | London     |   46 0}                 |    40 8}                |
+  | Glasgow    |   46 8}    46 4         |    29 5}     35 2       |
+  | Madrid     |   36 0}                 |    26 0}                |
+  | Leghorn    |   35 0}                 |    25 5}                |
+  | Lyons      |   32 2}                 |    28 5}                |
+  | Moscow     |   33 0}                 |    27 5}                |
+  | Palermo    |   32 0}    32 3         |    24 5}     27 0       |
+  | Paris      |   31 4}                 |    27 0}                |
+  | Lisbon     |   31 1}                 |    28 3}                |
+  | Copenhagen |   30 3}                 |    30 0}                |
+  | Hamburg    |   30 0}                 |    25 5}                |
+  | Barcelona  |   29 5}                 |    27 0}                |
+  | Berlin     |   29 0}                 |    21 0}                |
+  | Bordeaux   |   29 0}                 |    24 0}                |
+  | Naples     |   28 6}                 |    23 8}                |
+  | Dresden    |   27 7}    26 6         |    23 0}                |
+  | Amsterdam  |   27 5}                 |    26 0}                |
+  | Brussels   |   25 8}                 |    21 0}     24 2       |
+  | Stockholm  |   24 6}                 |    27 0}                |
+  | Prague     |   24 5}                 |    23 3}                |
+  | Rome       |   24 4}                 |    30 6}                |
+  |            |                         |    20 0}                |
+  |            |                         |    26 5}                |
+  |            |                         |    20 0}                |
+  | Vienna     |   22 5                  |    20 0                 |
+  | Venice     |   19 4}                 |    26 5}                |
+  | Bergamo    |   18 0}    18 7         |    20 0}     23 2       |
+  +----------------------------------------------------------------+
+
+While such a regular proportion prevails in births and deaths, a still
+more singular law seems to regulate the commission of crimes, of which the
+following registers of the cases brought to trial in France is a proof.
+
+  +------------------------------------------------------------------+
+  |                        | 1826 | 1827 | 1828 | 1829 | 1830 | 1831 |
+  |                        |------|------|------|------|------|------+
+  |Murder in general       |  241 |  234 |  227 |  231 |  205 |  266 |
+  |With fire arms          |   56 |   64 |   60 |   61 |   57 |   88 |
+  |Swords, daggers, &c.    |   15 |    7 |    8 |    7 |   12 |   30 |
+  |Knives                  |   39 |   40 |   34 |   46 |   44 |   34 |
+  |Sticks, bludgeons, &c.  |   23 |   28 |   31 |   24 |   12 |   21 |
+  |Stones, &c.             |   20 |   20 |   21 |   21 |   11 |    9 |
+  |Cutting and contusing   |      |      |      |      |      |      |
+  | instruments, tools, &c.|   35 |   40 |   42 |   45 |   46 |   49 |
+  |Strangulation           |    2 |    5 |    2 |    2 |    2 |    4 |
+  |Drowning                |    6 |   16 |    6 |    1 |    4 |    3 |
+  |Kicks, and blows with   |      |      |      |      |      |      |
+  | the fist               |   28 |   12 |   21 |   23 |   17 |   26 |
+  |Fire                    |  ... |    1 |  ... |    1 |  ... |  ... |
+  |Unknown means           |   17 |    1 |    2 |  ... |    2 |    2 |
+  +------------------------------------------------------------------+
+
+The criminal statistics of France have produced the following calculation:
+From 7000 to 7300 criminals are tried every year, out of which number 61
+out of 100 are found guilty; 170,000 offenders are charged with minor
+offences and misdemeanors, of whom 85 in the 100 are condemned to various
+punishments, and the greatest annual calculation which Quetelet remarks in
+an annual budget, paid much more regularly than taxes, is as follows:
+
+  Condemned to capital punishment     100 to 150
+  To hard labour for life             280
+  Hard labour for a period           1050
+  Imprisonment                       1220
+
+The following curious table has been drawn of the causes that excited to
+the commission of murder and the means resorted to:
+
+  +------------------------------------------------------------------+
+  |Apparent motives, |       |       |Assassi- |           |         |
+  |from 1826 to 1829.|Poison.|Murder.|  nation.|Incendiary.| Total.  |
+  |                  |       |       |         |           |         |
+  |------------------|-------|-------|---------|-----------|---------|
+  |Cupidity          |   20  |   39  |   237   |     66    |  362    |
+  |Adultery          |   48  |    9  |    76   |    ...    |  133    |
+  |Domestic broils   |   48  |  120  |   131   |     84    |  333    |
+  |Jealousy and      |       |       |         |           |         |
+  | debauchery       |   10  |   58  |   115   |     37    |  220    |
+  |Revenge, hatred,  |       |       |         |           |         |
+  | and other motives|   23  |  903  |   460   |    229    | 1615    |
+  |------------------|-------|-------|---------|-----------|---------|
+  |            Total |  149  | 1129  |  1019   |    366    | 2663[47]|
+  +------------------------------------------------------------------+
+
+To what are we to attribute this apparent regularity in the scale of
+births, deaths, and the commission of crimes? Are we ruled by _certain_
+laws that are only changed in the manifestations of Providence, by
+peculiar visitations, such as war, famine, and pestilential maladies? What
+a vast and curious field of research and reflection! what an argument for
+the fatalist! Man no doubt possesses a moral power that to a certain
+extent subjugates the creation to his influence and his will. Plants and
+animals seem to obey certain natural laws, that are only disturbed by
+perturbative agents; and it is difficult to point out what are the human
+actions that arise from natural impulses, or from accidental
+circumstances, although experience would tend to show that they bear a
+singular proportion in the similarity of their results; and one must come
+although reluctantly to the conclusion, that this perturbative power
+exercises but a slender influence on the laws of nature, which seem to set
+at defiance the destructive efforts of man. Thus have we seen of late
+years, that the most fearful and long-protracted wars, which one might
+have imagined would have devastated the fairest parts of Europe, have not
+checked a surprising increase in its population, and the destructive
+effects of the most fatal pestilence have vanished with a promptness that
+seemed to keep pace with the preceding havoc. Bigotry and fanaticism are
+the only scourges which appear to dare the benevolent views of Providence,
+and when we traverse the desolate fields of most Roman Catholic countries,
+one would imagine that Heaven has abandoned their inhabitants to their own
+blind wills and evil ways. Spain at this period and at many epochs of her
+bloody history, seems to corroborate the fable of the Titans who sought
+refuge in that ill-fated land from the anger of the gods.[48]
+
+To return: we find in the preceding _resumes_ of longevity that poets are
+the shortest-lived; next to them, authors on natural religion, dramatists,
+and novelists. May not this circumstance be attributed to the fervour of
+their imagination and to their unequal mode of living? A species of
+madness is the attribute of genius. Many authors on natural religion may
+come under the denomination of monomaniacs. The jealous irritability of
+poets and dramatists,--and next to them in the scale of vanity we find
+musicians,--may also contribute to wear them out, and bring on various
+chronic diseases, by digestive derangements; more especially as their
+habits of living are seldom regular, fits of sobriety alternating with
+bouts of merry-making. Moral philosophers, painters, and sculptors, whose
+average life appears the longest, follow more sedentary pursuits; and,
+although artists in general cannot boast of remarkable discretion in their
+mode of living, the nature of their profession requires much steadiness.
+It is moreover to be observed that, in the preceding calculation,
+historical painters have chiefly been noticed. Would the same calculation
+apply to the lighter branches of the art? It has been remarked that actors
+generally attain old age, notwithstanding the fatiguing and harassing
+nature of their profession. This may be attributed to the constant
+excitement of a similar nature to which they are subject, as well as to
+their continued exposure to the sudden transitions from heat to cold,
+which renders them less susceptible of the variations of temperature that
+affect those who can avoid these vicissitudes. Any person who would expose
+himself to the constant checked perspirations to which dancers are liable,
+would infallibly pay dear for the experiment; and those who have had
+occasion to witness the fatigues of their exercises, marvel at their not
+being constantly attacked with pulmonary inflammation, and the many
+maladies that result from similar exposures. On the very same principle,
+troops when engaged upon active service do not suffer from the inclemency
+of the weather, although saturated with wet by day, and sleeping under
+torrents of rain by night. So long as they are marching with an object in
+view, this excitement supports them, even against hunger; but the moment
+this excitement ceases, let them halt, in tranquil cantonments, or
+commence a retreat under unfavourable circumstances, that moment the
+invasion of disease is observed. The chief source of health and long life
+is an equilibrious state of the circulation. This condition a moderate
+mental excitement tends to maintain. Depression, on the contrary, will
+produce a languid flow of the vital stream, congestion, and chronic
+diseases.
+
+On the same principle, good temper and hilarity are also necessary to
+prolong life. Violent passions must tend to occasion dangerous
+determinations, while the inward gnawings of offended vanity and pride
+corrode every viscus, and lay the seeds of future mental and bodily
+sufferings. Apathy and insensibility are, unfortunately, the best sources
+of peace of mind, and as Fontenelle observed, a good stomach and a bad
+heart are essential to happiness. Perhaps the best maxim to prolong our
+days, and render them as tolerable as possible, is the "_Bene vivere et
+laetari_."
+
+I have just observed that conformation materially affects our existence;
+and this circumstance may in a great measure be referred to temper, and
+the wear and tear that it occasions in ill-conditioned individuals. Little
+people seldom attain the longevity of stronger individuals; and it is also
+a well-known fact that diminutive persons are generally spiteful and
+malicious. As Providence has bestowed destructive venoms on reptiles, so
+has it gifted these insignificant members of society with obnoxious
+qualities, to make amends for their want of physical power in the
+strategies of attack and defence. The same observation holds good with the
+deformed; but here we have a moral cause for this sourness of disposition.
+They too frequently are objects of ridicule, contempt, or pity, sentiments
+the most humiliating to mankind. In childhood they are not able to partake
+of the boisterous and active sports of their companions; they have not the
+power to resent an injury, and the more powerless we are, the greater is
+our thirst of revenge. Hence does tyranny degrade, and renders its victims
+cruel and vindictive. The deformed, moreover, find it necessary to improve
+their intellectual faculties, which in aftertimes fill their quivers with
+keen shafts of retaliation. In this study they also have more leisure, and
+they apply to their books while their comrades are at play. This very
+study adds to their sense of inferiority; they can never hope to share the
+warrior's laurels, or, what is perhaps still more painful, the myrtle of
+successful love. Their only chance of success in either of these careers
+is by kindling wars by their intrigues, or winning a woman's heart by
+intellectual superiority,--two very improbable events. Thus they gradually
+envy men who are looked upon by the world as their superiors, and hate
+women for the preference they show to those privileged individuals. In
+general we find these ill-shaped beings bitterly sarcastic whenever
+woman's name is mentioned. Pope, perhaps from these very reasons, was
+inexhaustible in his abuse of the sex: and Boileau abhorred them, since he
+had been emasculated by a turkey-cock.
+
+The intellectual superiority of hunchbacks has also been attributed to
+their physical condition; and it is generally believed that with them the
+circulation of blood in the brain is more rapid than in well-conformed
+subjects, and this increased action is supposed to contribute materially
+to the vivacity of the imagination, and the quickness of apprehension.
+Another circumstance is said to increase their mental powers, and that is,
+their continence, considered both by the ancients and the moderns as a
+source of intellectual energies. Minerva and the Muses were virgins; and
+in this and other fabulous traditions, we find the ancients illustrating
+in their mythologic allegories many physical facts and observations. Our
+Bacon had made the same remark; and Newton, and many other great men,
+considered the passion of love beneath the dignity of science. Continence
+and abstinence were deemed by Horace as indispensable privations in the
+cultivation of genius. In the deformed both are to a certain degree
+natural, or at least cannot be lost sight of without endangering life. The
+digestive powers of the deformed are generally weak; and this debility has
+ever been looked upon as a concomitant of superior intellects. Thus in
+Celsus, "_Imbecilli stomacho pene omnes cupidi litterarum sunt_;" while on
+the contrary, "_Obesus venter non parit subtilem intellectum_."
+
+The common expression of a child being too clever to live, is
+unfortunately founded on observation. Scrofulous and sickly children are
+in general remarkable for the quickness of their intellects; and Rousseau
+maintained that a man who could meditate was a depraved animal. It is a
+fact that the perfection of one faculty can seldom be attained but at the
+expense of others. The more our faculties are generally called into
+action, the less perfect will they be individually;--"_Pluribus intentus,
+minor est ad singula_." Thus, the singing of birds is improved by
+depriving them of sight.
+
+The influence of the mind upon our health is as evident as the influence
+of our health in the duration of existence. This corollary explains the
+shortness of life of the diminutive and the deformed, unconnected with
+such physical defects of organization as might impede the due exercise of
+their organs.
+
+The fable of Prometheus is a strong illustration of the pernicious effects
+of intemperance; and by Darwin, and other physiologists, has been
+considered as comparing the celestial fire that he purloined, to the
+artificial inspirations of excitement that ultimately preys upon the liver
+and the other viscera like a voracious vulture. A much deeper philosophy
+is concealed in this theogenic allegory. Prometheus was the son of
+Japetus; brother to Atlas, Menoetius, and Epimetheus, who all surpassed
+mankind in fraud and in guilt. Prometheus himself scoffed the gods, and
+violated their shrine. Heaven and Earth had formed his father, who had
+united his destinies with Clymene, one of the Oceanides. Thus Prometheus
+and Epimetheus arose from the very cradle of the universe; and their very
+names, [Greek: Promandanein] and [Greek: Epimandanein], signify foresight
+and improvidence,--_praediscere et postea discere_,--the prevalent
+characteristics of all mortals, that either tend to promote or retard the
+progress of human reason and human happiness. Prometheus strove impiously
+to possess himself of Divine knowledge, and created man with a base
+amalgam of earth and the bones of animals, vivified by the celestial fire
+he had obtained. Jupiter, indignant at his audacity, commanded Vulcan to
+create a beauteous tempter in the form of woman, on whom every attractive
+gift might be conferred; and Pandora was sent upon earth with the fatal
+present of the father of the gods, the box that contained all the evils
+and distempers that were destined for mankind. The foresight of Prometheus
+resisted her charms; his improvident brother opened the dreaded casket.
+Have we not here an illustration of the vanity of science, that aims even
+at Divine attributes, and whose votaries, like Prometheus, would
+endeavour, if possible, to deprive wisdom of her power, and break down the
+boundaries of human intellects? His punishment describes in energetic
+language the endless and consuming studies of the learned, whose very
+viscera are corroded in lucubrations too often fruitless, and not
+unfrequently injurious to themselves and others. Hercules alone could
+relieve him from his torments:--and does not Hercules in this allegory
+typify the power of reason, that enables us to release the mind from the
+trammels both of ignorance and vanity, separated from each other by a
+gossamer partition? Prometheus, who could resist the most powerful of
+temptations,--beauty and talent combined,--dared Olympus to seek for that
+wisdom which would have doomed him to everlasting sufferings, had not
+strength of mind and the powers of reflection destroyed his merciless
+tormentor. Can we be surprised that the ancients consecrated games to this
+beautiful allegory?--games that are still carried on in our days; but,
+alas! where every vain competitor pretends that he has reached the goal
+with an unextinguished torch!
+
+
+
+
+CRETINISM.
+
+
+This singular disorder was first discovered and noticed by Plater, about
+the middle of the seventeenth century, among the poor inhabitants of
+Carinthia and the Valais, where, as in the valleys of the Lower Alps and
+the Pyrenees, it is also found to be an endemic affection. According to
+Sir George Staunton, it is also observed in Chinese Tartary. It has been
+erroneously confounded by some writers with bronchocele and rachitis, from
+both of which it is totally distinct.
+
+Cretinism presents various modifications in kind, and every intermediate
+grade between that extreme degree of physical and mental debasement which
+is characterized by the utmost deformity, and entire absence of mental
+manifestation, the organic and vegetative functions only being performed.
+There are certain circumstances that distinguish cretins from idiots; and
+their infirmities appear to depend upon endemic or local causes, regarding
+which much diversity of opinion has prevailed both amongst medical men and
+travellers.
+
+The cretins were also called _Cagots_ and _Capots_. In Navarre these
+unfortunates go by the name of _Gaffos_ and _Ganets_; and in various
+valleys of the Pyrenees they are called _Gezits_ or _Gezitains_. Near La
+Rochelle, some of them are also found, and there they are known by the
+appellation of _Coliberts_; and in Britanny _Cacons_ and _Cagneux_. The
+derivation of these names shows the contempt and disgust that they
+excited,--_Cagot_, according to Scaliger, being derived from _Canis
+Gottus_, or _Dog of a Goth_; _Colibert_ is traced to _quasi libertus_, or
+slave. The Spaniards call them _Gavachos_, a term of reproach, which they
+also applied to the French during the Peninsular struggle.
+
+The body of these poor creatures is stunted, their height not exceeding
+four feet. There is a total want of due proportion between it and the
+other parts, the height of the head with reference to the body being from
+one-fourth to one-fifth, instead of one-eighth, the natural proportion;
+the neck is strong, and bent downwards; the upper limbs reach below the
+knees, and the arm is shorter than the fore-arm; the chest narrow, the
+abdomen hemispherical, and of a length not exceeding the height of the
+head; the thighs, with the haunches, of greater width than the shoulders,
+and shorter than the legs, the calves of which are wanting; the feet and
+toes distorted. In the head, the masticating organs, the lower jaw, and
+the nose, preponderate considerably over the organs of sense and
+intelligence; the skull is depressed, and forms a lengthened and angular
+ellipsis; the receding forehead presents internally large frontal sinuses,
+to which the brain has yielded part of its place; the top of the head is
+flattened, instead of being vaulted; the occiput projects but slightly,
+and runs almost even with the nape of the neck, as in ruminating animals.
+The face is neither oval nor round, but spread out in width; the eyes are
+far apart, slightly diverging, small, and deep-seated in their orbits; the
+pupil contracted, and not very sensitive to light; the eyelids, except
+when morbidly swollen, are flaccid and pendent. Their look is an unmeaning
+stare, and turns with indifference from every thing that is not eatable.
+The elongated form of the lower jaw, the thick and puffed lips, give them
+a greater resemblance to ruminating creatures than to man. The tongue is
+rather cylindrical than flat, and the saliva is constantly running from
+the angles of their mouth. Enlargement of the thyroid glands generally
+prevails, sometimes to an enormous extent. Indeed, this appearance is
+commonly considered as a distinguishing sign of cretinism. The other
+glands of the throat are also obstructed. Many of these poor wretches are
+both deaf and dumb; yet do they appear unconscious of their miserable
+existence. Stretched out or gathered up under the solar rays, their head
+drooping in idiotic apathy, they are only roused from their torpor when
+food is presented to them.
+
+This endemic malady is supposed to arise from the use of snow-water, or of
+water impregnated with calcareous earth. Both of these opinions are
+without foundation. All the inhabitants of districts near the glaciers,
+drink snow and ice waters without being subject to the disorder; and the
+common waters of Switzerland, strongly impregnated with calcareous
+substances, are most salubrious. At Berne, the waters are extremely pure,
+yet Haller observed that swellings of the throat are not uncommon. De
+Saussure has assigned another cause, and refers the disorder to the
+physical features of the mountainous districts in which it prevails. The
+valleys, he tells us, are surrounded with very high mountains, sheltered
+from currents of fresh air, and exposed to the direct, and what is worse,
+the reflected rays of the sun. They are marshy, and hence the atmosphere
+is humid, close, and oppressive. When to these chorographical causes, he
+further says, we add the domestic ones, which are also well known to
+prevail among the poor of these regions,--such as innutritious food,
+indolence, and uncleanliness, with a predisposition to the disease from an
+hereditary taint of many generations,--we can sufficiently account for the
+prevalence of cretinism in such places, and for the most humiliating
+characters it is ever found to assume.
+
+This specious reasoning, however, is overthrown by observation. In the
+first instance, this character of the country does not affect its other
+inhabitants; and secondly, the _goitre_ is found in warm latitudes, and
+Mungo Park observed it amongst the Africans of Bambara, on the banks of
+the Niger. Marsden has also seen it at Sumatra. Moreover, this affection
+is scarcely ever seen in the mountains, but principally prevails in the
+valleys.
+
+It is more than probable that these ill-favoured creatures belong to a
+particular race; for we must take care not to confound goitre with
+cretinism, since goitre is common where cretinism is prevalent. It has
+been remarked that the offspring of the natives of the Valais who
+intermarry with persons from the Italian side of the Alps, are more
+subject to goitres than those born of native parents; and that females who
+have husbands from the higher Alps, seldom have children affected with
+this infirmity. It is pretty clear that in these observations, goitre and
+cretinism are confounded.
+
+That these miserable cagots belong to a particular race of men, most
+probably accidentally degraded in their transmission from our primitive
+stock, appears most likely. We have sought the derivation of the several
+terms of contempt and disgust attached to them in different countries, to
+which migration may have led their parents. Some writers have traced their
+descent to the Goths and Vandals, thus chastised for their devastations.
+Gebelin, Belleforet, and Ramont consider them as descendants of the
+Visigoths; while Marca, bishop of Couserans, denounces them at once as
+Jews and Saracens; and other clerical writers have maintained that they
+are the miserable relicts of the heretic Albigenses who had escaped the
+holy massacres of 1215; although there did exist cagots in the year 1000,
+in the abbey of St. Luc, as they are described in a _for_ of Navarre,
+bearing date 1074, and issued by Ramirez.
+
+These helpless beings have also been considered as the offspring of
+Bohemians and gipsies. Bishop, or rather Senator Gregoire, maintained that
+they sprung from the hordes of northern barbarians who overran the south
+of Europe in the third and fourth centuries. Whatever might have been the
+origin of these poor creatures, they seem to share that ignominious
+destiny that has marked various races in different countries. The _Agotos_
+of Navarre, the _Maragotos_ of Leon, the _Batuecos_ of Castile, the
+_Wendes_ of Silesia, are all held in as much contempt as the _Parias_ and
+the _Vaddahs_ of India. Even in Otaheite a degraded caste was found, from
+which victims were selected to appease Divine wrath, or propitiate their
+gods.
+
+The traditional contempt in which certain races are held, a contempt that
+seems to have affected their physical appearance, may perhaps be traced to
+the degradation of slavery, that seems to deprive man of all his proud
+attributes, both in a moral and physical point of view. The effects of
+tyranny, and the distinctions that oppression has created in the several
+castes and ranks of mankind, are every where evident. What a difference
+exists in Scotland between the chieftains and the humbler individuals of
+their clans!--between the naires of India and their vassals! In France,
+said Buffon, you may distinguish by their aspect, not only the nobility
+from the peasantry, but the superior order of nobility from the inferior,
+these from the citizens, and citizens from the peasants. "The field-slaves
+in America," observes the enlightened Dr. Smith, "are badly clothed, fed,
+and lodged, live in small huts in the plantations, remote from the example
+and society of their superiors. Living by themselves they retain many of
+the customs and the manners of their ancestors. The domestic servants, on
+the other hand, who are kept near the persons or employed in the families
+of their masters, are treated with great lenity, their service is light,
+they are well fed and clothed. The field-slaves, in consequence of their
+condition, are slow in changing the aspect and figure of Africa; while the
+domestic servants have advanced far before them in acquiring the agreeable
+and regular features, and the expressive countenance, of civilized
+society. The former are frequently ill-shaped; they preserve in a great
+degree the African lips, and nose, and hair; their genius is dull, and
+their countenances sleepy and stupid. The latter are straight and well
+proportioned; their hair extends to three or four, sometimes even to six
+or eight inches; the size of their mouth is handsome, their features
+regular, their capacity good, and their looks animated." Dr. Prichard has
+also stated that similar changes become visible in the third and fourth
+generations in the West India islands; and I have seen several negresses
+in those colonies perfectly beautiful. In the Bahama islands I knew a
+female slave of the name of Leah, belonging to my late friend Mr.
+Commissary Brookes, as black as jet, and descended in the third
+generation from African parents, whose features would have vied in
+symmetry with the fairest specimen of the Caucasian race.
+
+Let us not, therefore, seek in snow-water or calcareous impregnations for
+the causes of deformity and degradation in any unfortunate castes of
+mankind. Their misery may more probably be traced to the iron rod of
+despotism, or the oppression of bigotry,--influences that mark out races
+as abject slaves, or objects of Divine wrath, that ought to be scorned by
+the wealthy and the powerful, and spurned and persecuted by the faithful
+and the elect; although, when it has served its purposes, priestcraft has
+held up the cagot, and the leper, and the idiot, as objects of veneration.
+When the tourist, in his Alpine and Pyrenean excursions, meets a wretched
+cagot, let him pause and contemplate the offspring of slavery, and reflect
+on what man is, and on what man might be,--nay, on what man _will_ be.
+
+
+
+
+TEMPERAMENTS.
+
+
+The different prevalent propensities in various individuals, the
+development of which appeared to be under the influence of a certain and
+constitutional organization, have received the name of temperaments; or,
+rather, this term applies to this peculiar organization of the
+constitution or idiosyncrasy. The Greek physiologists were the first to
+classify these peculiarities, or _temperamenta_,--the _naturae_ of
+Hippocrates, the _mixturae_ of Galen. They considered organized bodies as
+an assemblage of elements endowed with different properties, but combined
+in such manner that their union should constitute a whole, in which none
+of them should predominate in a healthy condition; but, on the contrary,
+they were to modify and _temper_ each other, their simultaneous action
+being directed and controlled by the spirit of life, _spiritus_. It was
+the due combination of these elements that constituted a perfect
+temperament; their aberrancy produced disease of body or of mind.
+
+The ancients divided these elements into cold and hot, dry and moist; from
+the combination of these principles they classified the fluids of the
+body. The blood was hot and moist, the bile hot and dry, the phlegm cold
+and damp, and the melancholy cold and dry. This division led to a further
+classification; and temperaments, according to the predominance of these
+elements, were divided into the _sanguineous_, the _bilious_, the
+_phlegmatic_, and the _melancholic_.
+
+These supposed radical fluids, influencing the whole animal frame, were
+dependent upon certain organs for their specific production. The blood was
+furnished by the heart, the phlegm by the head, the yellow bile by the
+gall-duct, and the black bile or atrabile,--the principle of
+melancholy,--by the spleen. Notwithstanding the many revolutions in the
+doctrine of physiology that have shaken the schools since the days of
+Hippocrates, this classification of his has remained to a certain degree
+to the present day, and has laid the foundation of all the systems of
+temperaments, constitutions, and natural characters, that have at various
+periods been advanced by philosophers; the only novel introduction in this
+ancient classification being the nervous temperament, which, after all, is
+only a modification of the four other categories.
+
+To illustrate the operations of these temperaments, it became necessary to
+adopt terms expressive of their combination, and _temper_ and _humour_
+were adopted. Both are Latin terms; the first, in its original sense,
+imports mingling, modifying, tempering the four radical fluids, and
+producing that equilibrious condition of the frame, termed _constitution_.
+_Humour_ was derived from the Greek [Greek: chumos], _chumos_; and its
+radical sense imported moisture, or fluid of any kind. Hence _humid_ and
+_humidity_. This doctrine of fluidity is still applied to many functions
+that we cannot otherwise describe, and we talk, although in a figurative
+manner, of the nervous fluid, the vital fluid; and a good humour, a bad
+humour, a vein of humour, or a humorous vein, are illustrations of
+peculiar tempers and temperaments,--for temperaments are still
+distinguished by the same terms applied to them by the ancients, and we
+describe one man as _choleric_, or bilious, for _choler_ ([Greek: chole])
+means bile; another as being _melancholic_; a third of a _sanguine
+disposition_; and a fourth of a _phlegmatic habit_. The _sanguine_, that
+imports a predominance of the blood, indicated a warm and ardent
+exuberance of spirits; whereas the _phlegmatic_, denoting a thin and cold
+watery fluid, referred to a frigid and spiritless indolence.
+
+We thus see that modern physiology has scarcely advanced this branch of
+science, for the _nervous temperament_ may be considered as merely a
+modification of the other ones; and it is more than probable that the old
+classification will long prevail, notwithstanding the ingenuity of modern
+hypotheses. Husson divided the temperaments into those that referred to
+the vascular system, to the nervous system, and to the muscular system,
+with subdivisions applied to regions and to organs; all these temperaments
+being either natural and primitive, or acquired. Dr. Thomas, of Paris, has
+founded his arrangement according to the predominance of the head, chest,
+or abdomen,--or the mental, circulatory, or digestive organs,--and
+according to the relative bulk and predominance of these three regions
+will be the relative energy of the mental, muscular, or abdominal
+functions. Notwithstanding the ingenuity of these systems, the old
+arrangement, as I have already observed, is likely to prevail; and as
+Blumenbach observes, that although this division was founded on an
+imaginary depravation of the elements of the blood, if made to stand alone
+it will prove both natural and intelligible.
+
+This division I shall therefore endeavour to illustrate. In the
+_sanguineous temperament_ the heart and arteries possess a predominant
+energy; the pulse is strong, frequent and regular; the veins blue, full,
+and large; the complexion florid, the countenance animated, the stature
+erect, the muscular forms marked and firm; the hair of a yellow, auburn,
+or chestnut colour; the nervous impressions acute, the perception quick,
+the memory retentive, the imagination lively and luxuriant, the
+disposition passionate but not vindictive, and passion is easily appeased;
+amorous, and fond of conviviality and good cheer.
+
+In this temperament we find athletic strength and fortitude of mind in
+resisting the power of external agency, with mental tranquillity in the
+midst of danger; a calmness arising from a consciousness of power, and
+from less acuteness of external impressions and mental perceptions. Such a
+man, when roused to action, will endeavour to surmount every physical
+difficulty; but he will rarely attain pre-eminence in sciences and the
+fine arts, which require exquisite sensibility and mobility,--qualities
+seldom met with in such forms as those described by the poets in Hercules
+and Ajax.
+
+In the _choleric_ or _bilious_ temperament the liver and biliary organs
+are as redundant in their power as the sanguineous vessels, and, for the
+most part, at the expense of the excernent or cellulous and lymphatic
+system. The pulse is strong and hard, but more frequent than in the
+sanguineous; the veins superficial and projecting; the sensibility
+extremely acute and easily excited, with a capacity of pondering for a
+long time on the same object. The skin is sallow, with a tendency to a
+yellow tinge; the hair black or dark brown; the body moderately fleshy,
+the muscles firm and well marked, the figure expressive; the temper of the
+mind abrupt, impetuous, and violent,--bold in the conception of a project,
+inflexible in its pursuit, persevering and dauntless in its execution.
+These are the temperaments that have urged men both to noble and to
+execrable deeds. Such were Alexander, Brutus, Mahomet, Cromwell, Charles
+the Twelfth, Robespierre, Napoleon. All these celebrated characters
+evinced from their earliest youth the ambitious nature of their
+dispositions; and though circumstances might have checked the development
+of their predominant passions, it was also to adventitious circumstances
+that they owed their elevation, and the opportunities of displaying their
+good or evil qualities. Most of these men were irascible, vindictive, and
+cruel, and equally susceptible of ardent love and mortal hate. In these
+temperaments we find a mixed exuberance of blood and bile in a constant
+struggle for predominance.
+
+The _melancholy_ or _atrabilious_ temperament is of a different character.
+Here the biliary organs are brought into a constant and a morbid action,
+while the sanguineous system is weak and irregular. In these gloomy
+subjects the skin assumes a sallow, unearthly tinge, the pulse is hard and
+contracted, the digestive functions torpid and irregular, the imagination
+is gloomy and full of suspicion, and a dark gloom is shed on all around
+the morbid sufferer, for such he may be called, since the condition under
+which he labours may be considered one of disease. These subjects are
+prone to various monomanias; uncertain, fickle, and oftentimes
+capriciously cruel. Tiberius and Louis the Eleventh are quoted as examples
+of this temperament. Many melancholic individuals have displayed great
+genius, and at the same time great depth of thought. Richerand considers
+Tasso, Pascal, Zimmermann, and Rousseau as illustrating this unhappy
+disposition.
+
+The fourth temperament is the _phlegmatic_, _lymphatic_, _pituitous_, or
+_watery_, for all these terms used by different physiologists are
+synonymous. Here the proportion of fluids is too considerable for that of
+the solids; hence the body attains a considerable, unwholesome bulk. The
+muscles are soft and flaccid, the skin fair and transparent, the hair
+flaxen or sandy, the pulse weak and slow, all the vital actions are
+languid, the memory little tenacious, and the attention wavering; an
+insurmountable indolence prevails; and, averse to mental and corporeal
+exercise, the _far niente_ is their greatest enjoyment, and a nightcap is
+preferable to a diadem. These subjects are generally good, easy persons;
+susceptible of kindly feelings, but of a transient nature. Their mind is
+generally depraved by effeminacy, and their love is purely animal. They
+are not courageous; yet they show great tranquillity of mind in moments of
+danger, and would rather quietly sink than struggle with the waves. If
+their dwelling was on fire, they would calmly walk out of it, but not
+exert themselves to put down the conflagration; and, when hereditary power
+places them at the helm of a state, a wreck of the vessel may be speedily
+expected, unless the sceptre is wrested from their feeble hands by the
+choleric or the atrabilious enthusiast.
+
+The fifth, or _nervous_ temperament, as I have already stated, may be
+considered of a complex nature, as it influences the sanguineous as well
+as the choleric, the melancholy, and the phlegmatic. In this constitution
+the sentient system predominates, and there exists a great susceptibility
+to all external impressions. This temperament is generally acquired, and
+proceeds from a sedentary life, too great an enjoyment of sensual
+pleasures, and fanciful ideas brought on by romantic readings and romantic
+thoughts indulged in hours of idleness. The determination of such
+individuals is prompt, but uncertain; their affections warm for a while,
+are selfish and fickle; their sensations are vivid, but leave no
+impressions. Women, especially when educated in boarding-schools,
+essentially belong to this class, and are subject to hysterical and
+convulsive affections that render them a plague to others and a nuisance
+to themselves. In man the muscles are small, flabby, and wasted. The
+nervous may possess much vivacity of conception, but no depth of judgment;
+and, in general, their productions are as morbid as their mind. This
+condition frequently attends the melancholy temperament, "that wings the
+soul, and points her to the skies."
+
+Nervous excitability seldom prevails in the sanguineous constitution,
+where muscular masses are pronounced in athletic forms. Hence the
+sanguineous are not easily brought into action; but, when once roused,
+their energies are irresistible. This power is beautifully described by
+Virgil in the conflict between Entellus and Dares; still are these
+exertions governed by nervous influence, and the result of the
+excitability and contractibility of the muscular fibre, termed by
+Chaussier its _myotility_.
+
+Mason Good has very justly observed that these temperaments, or generic
+constitutions, are perpetually running into each other, and consequently
+that not one of them, perhaps, is to be found in a state of full
+perfection in any individual; he further aids this remark by the
+following illustration: "Strictly speaking, Mr. Pitt and Mr. Fox belonged
+equally, in the main, to the second temperament; there was the same
+ardour, genius and comprehensive judgment in both, with a considerable
+tendency to the sanguineous, and hence with more irritability, but more
+self-confidence, audacity, and sanguine expectation: the latter, while
+possessing the same general or bilious temperament, was at the same time
+more strongly inclined to the lymphatic, and hence his increased corporeal
+bulk, and with less bold and ardent expectation he possessed one of the
+sweetest and most benevolent dispositions to be met with in the history of
+the world. The first was formed to be revered, the second to be beloved;
+both to be admired and immortalized."
+
+I apprehend that a profound study of human temperaments and propensities
+may afford a more desirable guide in the education of youth, and the
+selection of men in the different concerns of life, than that of either
+physiognomy or phrenology; although the temperament must materially affect
+the general character of the countenance. Yet, from the apparent
+prevalence of any temperament we are not to form a rash and hasty judgment
+in regard to the future capacities or propensities of youth. As one
+temperament runs into another, and assumes a complex form, so can
+education regulate the one that naturally predominates, and modify it by a
+fusion with another. Thus, the restlessness of the bilious and choleric
+may be attuned to a phlegmatic state by the power of reason, and the brute
+courage and audacity of the sanguineous checked by inspiring sentiments of
+true valour. That every temperament, excepting perhaps the phlegmatic, is
+capable of displaying bravery, has been well described by Joanna Baillie
+in the following lines:
+
+  The brave man is not he who feels no fear,
+  For that were stupid and irrational;
+  But he whose noble soul its fear subdues,
+  And bravely dares the danger nature shrinks from.
+  As for your youth, whom blood and blows delight,
+  Away with them!--there is not in their crew
+  One valiant spirit.
+
+
+
+
+SOLAR INFLUENCE.
+
+
+While both ancient and modern physiologists were of opinion that the
+various phenomena of organized bodies were influenced by lunar phases, the
+power of the solar rays was not less active in regulating our functions
+both in health and in disease. The name of Phoebus signified the torch
+of life, and Apollo was the father of medicine and the fine arts. The sun
+was considered as a deity in most countries, the Supreme Being,--the
+father of light, Diespiter,--Jupiter, Jehovah, the creator of all living
+matter,--the residence of the Most High--_In sole posuit tabernaculum
+suum_, said the Psalmist;--and in Egypt three hundred and sixty-five
+priests were ordained to watch its heavenly movements during the year,
+while many philosophers attributed the propagation of the human race to
+the union of man with the orb of day. The disciples of Plato and
+Pythagoras considered it as possessing a soul; and Origenus, in his
+Periarchon, maintained that it displayed both virtues and vices,--an
+heretical doctrine very properly condemned by the second Synod of
+Constantinople; and, although St. Augustin was of that opinion, it was
+warmly combated by St. Basil and St. Ambrose, and many other beatified
+divines. Anaxagoras, on the contrary, considered this luminary to be a
+burning stone; Plato called it a compact fire; Aristotle maintained that
+it was formed of one-fifth of the elements that constitute the planets;
+Epicurus, a mass of lava, or ignited pumice-stone; Xenophon asserted that
+it was fed by exhalations, and Zeno by watery vapours; Empedocles
+considered it a translucent body; Philolaus, a concave mirror,
+concentrating the rays of light from every part of the universe to reflect
+it upon nature. Kepler was of a similar opinion, and further insisted that
+the sun was composed of a limpid fluid upon which a luminous aether was
+reflected, whence its centre was blue, while the limbs were yellow. A
+modern philosopher, Woodward, attempts to show that the sun and fixed
+stars are masses of electric fluid, requiring no alimentation, yielding no
+smoke, and the light that emanates from them offers the bluish brilliancy
+of the electric spark. It has been justly observed, that if, like Eudoxus,
+we endeavoured to approach this luminary, the better to study and
+describe its nature, we should still remain in impenetrable darkness,--in
+which I must leave the matter, to confine myself to those influences which
+experience seems to show that the sun actually exercises on the animal
+economy.
+
+The genial and invigorating glow that moderate solar heat produces has
+ever been considered as tending to prolong our life. Hippocrates observed,
+that old men are double their age in winter, and younger in summer. To
+enjoy this reviving influence, the ancients had terraces on their
+house-tops called _solaria_, in which, to use their own expression, they
+took a solar air-bath. Pliny the younger, in speaking of his uncle, tells
+us, _Post cibum, aestate, si quid otii, jacebat in sole_. The ancients
+fancied that when the sun rose diseases declined, and _Levato sole levatur
+morbus_ became a medical axiom. Aristotle records the case of an innkeeper
+of Tarentum, who, although able to attend to his business by day, became
+insane so soon as the sun had set. The moderns relate many similar
+instances of derangement brought on by the absence of solar influence.
+Bouillon mentions a woman who lost her senses at sunset, but who recovered
+them at break of day. Other cases are recorded of a different nature, when
+maladies were aggravated by this influence. Sauvage tells us of a woman
+who became maniacal whenever the sun was at its zenith; an influence that
+could not be prevented even by various stratagems, such as keeping her in
+a dark room, and deceiving her in regard to the hour. Humboldt knew a
+Spanish lady in Madrid who lost her voice the moment the sun dipped in the
+horizon, but the paralysis of the nerves of the tongue ceased the
+following morning. A removal to Naples cured this singular affection.
+Parham relates the cases of several individuals who were deprived of
+vision when the sun had set. In a former paper I have alluded to the
+effects of a vivid flood of light upon the Italian peasantry, as observed
+by Ramazzini. Daily practice shows us that the paroxysms of fever and
+various maladies are under a similar influence; and the evening gun in our
+garrisons is often the signal of severe exacerbation in certain febrile
+cases, while the _reveillee_ develops acute aggravation in others.
+Sydenham and Floyer had observed that the gout and asthma were usually
+ushered in after our first sleep; and I have noticed that, during the
+prevalence of the cholera, the invasion of this fatal disorder generally
+occurred towards daybreak. The ancients divided their elementary
+predominance according to the diurnal cycle: thus, morning regulated the
+blood, noon the bile, evening the atrabile, and night the cold phlegmatic
+influence. Nor was this arrangement unnatural; we more or less observe it
+in a state of health, when man awakes refreshed and active at morn;
+towards noon his train of thoughts becomes more serious and busy; in the
+evening his mind is more gloomy and susceptible of unpleasant impressions;
+until night either sheds its poppies o'er his couch, or agitates his frame
+with its fearful dreams. The repose of night is ever more refreshing than
+that of day, however we may have changed the natural applications of our
+hours, and find, as Seneca said of Roman civilization, that _antipodes
+habemus in urbe_. The influence of night and day is equally observable in
+animals. Towards evening myriads of insects, who had shunned the solar
+heat, hum around us; while night calls forth its choristers; and as they
+cease to sing other creatures proclaim the dawn. Some animals, such as the
+_simia beelzebud_, and the _simia seniculus_, salute both the setting and
+the rising sun with fearful howls; and it may be considered as a law of
+nature, that we cannot turn night into day with impunity.
+
+Dr. Balfour's opinion on the influence of the heavenly bodies is of great
+weight: he conceives that the influence of the sun and moon when in a
+state of conjunction, which he names solar-lunar influence, produces
+paroxysms or exacerbations in continued fever, in all cases at least where
+paroxysms are observable. As this influence declines in consequence of the
+gradual separation of these luminaries from each other, and their getting
+into a state of opposition, a way is left open for a critical and
+beneficial change; in other words, that paroxysms and exacerbations in
+fever may be expected to take place at spring-tides, and crises at
+neap-tides.
+
+It has been observed in intermitting fevers, that paroxysms of the
+quotidian recur in the morning, the tertian at noon, and the quartan in
+the afternoon; in no instance do they take place at night.
+
+There can be no doubt that lunation, more especially in tropical climes,
+influences diseases; but the effects of insolation are every where
+observable. One of the most serious accidents resulting from this exposure
+is the _ictus solis_, the _coup de soleil_ of the French, and the [Greek:
+siriasis] of the Greeks, from the star _Sirius_, to whose influence they
+attributed the scorching heat of the dog-days. This attack is in general
+sudden, and the patient falls down as if struck with a blow on the head.
+Troops on a march, and labourers in the field, frequently are the victims
+of this solar power, which usually kills them on the spot. It has been
+known to destroy great numbers. In Pekin, from the 14th of July to the
+25th, in the year 1743, it is related that eleven thousand persons were
+struck dead. On a hot day's march in Portugal, I lost six men in a brigade
+under my charge. They first reeled as if under the influence of liquor,
+and then fell dead with a slight convulsive struggle. One of them, the
+batman of the paymaster of the 3rd foot, or Buffs, was struck dead while
+speaking to me. A great number of greyhounds perished on the same march;
+but no other species of dog seemed to suffer, although we had many
+pointers and spaniels with us. Horses, mules, and cattle were also exempt
+from the attack, though it proved fatal to some weak donkeys who were
+following the troops. The shakos worn by our army are well calculated to
+preserve the soldier from these accidents, to which troops are constantly
+exposed during summer operations.
+
+
+
+
+SWEATING FEVER.
+
+
+This disastrous pestilence, which proved, if possible, more fatal and
+terrific than the cholera, made its first appearance in London, in 1480 or
+1483, first showing itself in the army of Henry VII. on his landing at
+Milford Haven. In London it only broke out a year or two after, and
+visited that capital occasionally for upwards of forty years. It then
+spread to Holland, Germany, Belgium, Flanders, France, Denmark, and
+Norway, where it continued its ravages from 1525 to 1530; it then returned
+to England, and was observed for the last time in 1551.
+
+Dr. Caius calls it a pestilential fever of one day; and it prevailed, he
+says, with a mighty slaughter, and the description of it was as tremendous
+as that of the plague of Athens. Dr. Willis states that its malignity was
+so extreme, that as soon as it entered a city it made a daily attack on
+five or six hundred persons, of whom scarcely one in a hundred recovered.
+This malignant fever ran its course in a single paroxysm; and the cold fit
+and hot fit were equally fatal. If the patient was fortunate enough to
+reach the sweating stage, he was in general saved. It commenced its attack
+with a pain in the muscles of the neck, shoulders, legs, and arms, through
+which a warm aura seemed to creep; after these symptoms a profuse
+perspiration broke forth. The internal organs grew gradually hot and
+burning, the pungent heat extending to the extremities; with an
+intolerable thirst, sickness soon followed by jactitation, coma, and
+delirium. At Shrewsbury it raged for seven months, and carried off upwards
+of one thousand patients. The invasion of this terrific disorder was
+generally preceded by a thick noisome fog, especially in Shropshire. A
+dark cloud usually took the lead, and the distemper followed its course.
+It is somewhat singular, but most fatal contagions have been ushered in,
+both in ancient and modern times, by noxious fogs or mists, with clouds of
+various insects, either bending their course in innumerable bodies,
+covering vegetation, or falling in dead heaps upon the ground. The disease
+was generally supposed to arise from inclement seasons and injured grain;
+particularly wheat infested with the mildew or smut, or rye attacked with
+the spur. It was observed by Dr. Willan, that the contemporary inhabitants
+of Scotland and Wales, who fed on barley and oats, were not affected.
+
+One of the most singular features of this malady was its only attacking
+the English. Foreigners, and even the Scotch and Irish, in England, seemed
+to be exempted from this scourge, which attacked the monarch himself, and
+two Dukes of Suffolk, who sunk under its virulence. In Westminster the
+number of daily deaths averaged one hundred and twenty. It may be easily
+imagined that this special liability of Englishmen to contract the disease
+was attributed to Divine wrath for their manifold offences; and we find
+the following lines in Phemtophius:
+
+                  Coelestia numina nobis
+  Nil sunt quam nugae, fabula, verba, jocus:
+  Inde fames nobis, pestes, Mars; denique fontem
+  Hinc etiam inclemens [Greek: idoonretos] habet,
+  Saevum, horrendum, atrox genus immedicabile morbi,
+  Nostrae perfidiae debitum.
+
+Dr. Armstrong has also recorded this peculiar visitation in the following:
+
+  Some, sad at home, and, in the desert, some,
+  Abjur'd the fatal commerce of mankind.
+  In vain: where'er they fled, the Fates pursued.
+  Others, with hopes more specious, cross'd the main,
+  To seek protection in far distant skies;
+  But none they found. It seemed, the general air
+  From pole to pole, from Atlas to the East,
+  Was then at enmity with English blood;
+  For, but the race of England, all were safe
+  In foreign climes; nor did this Fury taste
+  The foreign blood which England then contained.
+
+That the atmosphere was saturated by this disease was obvious from the
+circumstance of vast numbers of birds falling dead, when, upon
+examination, pestilential swellings were found under their wings. Schiller
+attributed the disease to sideral influence. England, however, was not the
+only country where the wrath of Heaven was considered as having fulminated
+this scourge! and at Marburg it had such an effect, that it actually put
+an end to the violent disputes between Luther and Zuingle concerning the
+Eucharist, and which were on the eve of kindling a religious war.
+
+A disease somewhat similar manifested itself in Picardy in 1773, having
+first appeared at Hardivilliers, five leagues from Beauvais; but, instead
+of terminating in a single day, it ran on to the third, fifth, and
+seventh: a fever of the same description was also observed in Gascony.
+
+But of all the maladies that affect cutaneous transpiration, _diapedesis_,
+or sweating of blood, is the most singular; so much so, indeed, that its
+existence has been doubted, although several well authenticated cases are
+on record, both in the ancient and modern annals of medicine. It is
+mentioned by Theophrastus and Aristotle, while Lucan thus describes it:
+
+                        Sic omnia membra
+  Emisere simul rutilum pro sanguine virus.
+  Sanguis erant lacrymae; quacumque foramina novit
+  Humor, ab his largus manat cruor: ora redundant,
+  Et patulae nares; sudor rubet; omnia plenis
+  Membra fluunt venis: totum est pro vulnere corpus.
+
+The detestable Charles IX. of France sunk under this disorder, thus
+described by Mezeray: "La nature fit d'etranges efforts pendant les deux
+dernieres semaines de la vie de ce Roi. Il s'agitait et se remuait sans
+cesse; le sang lui rejalliait par les pores et par tous les conduits de
+son corps. Apres avoir longtems souffert, il tomba dans une extreme
+faiblesse et rendit l'ame." The same historian relates the case of a
+governor of a town taken by storm, who was condemned to die, but was
+seized with a profuse sweating of blood the moment he beheld the scaffold.
+Lombard mentions a general who was affected in a similar manner on losing
+a battle. The same writer tells us of a nun who was so terrified when
+falling into the hands of a ruthless banditti, that blood oozed from every
+pore. Henry ab Heer records the case of a man who not only laboured under
+diapedesis, but small worms accompanied the bloody secretion.
+
+In the Memoirs of the Society of Arts of Haarlem, we read of the case of a
+sailor, who, falling down during a storm, was raised from the deck
+streaming with blood. At first it was supposed that he had been wounded,
+but, on close examination, the blood was found to flow from the surface of
+the body. Fabricius de Hilden mentions a case that came under the
+observation of his friend Sporlinus, a physician of Bale; the patient was
+a child of twelve years of age, who never drank any thing but water:
+having gone out into the fields to bring home his father's flocks, he
+stopped upon the road, and contrary to habit, drank freely of white wine.
+He shortly after was seized with fever. His gums first began to bleed, and
+soon after an haemorrhage broke out from every part of the integuments, and
+from the nose. On the eighth day of the malady he was in a state of
+extreme debility, and the body was covered with livid and purple spots,
+while every part from whence the blood had exuded was stopped with clots.
+A case is also related of a widow of forty-five years of age, who had lost
+her only son. She one day fancied that she beheld his apparition
+beseeching her to relieve him from purgatory by her prayers, and by
+fasting every Friday. The following Friday, in the month of August, a
+perspiration tinged with blood broke out. For five successive Fridays the
+same phenomenon appeared, when a confirmed diapedesis appeared. The blood
+escaped from the upper part of the body, the back of the head, the
+temples, the eyes, nose, the breast, and the tips of the fingers. The
+disorder disappeared spontaneously on Friday the 8th of March of the
+following year. This affection was evidently occasioned by superstitious
+fears; and this appears the more probable from the periodicity of the
+attacks. The first invasion of the disease might have been purely
+accidental; but the regularity of its subsequent appearance on the stated
+day of the vision may be attributed to the influence of apprehension.
+Bartholinus mentions cases of bloody sweat taking place during vehement
+terror and the agonies of torture.
+
+The case of Catherine Merlin, of Chamberg, is well authenticated, and
+worthy of being recorded. She was a woman of forty-six years of age,
+strong and hale. She received a kick from a bullock in the epigastric
+region, that was followed by vomiting of blood: this discharge having been
+suddenly stopped by her medical attendants, the blood made its way through
+the pores of various parts of her body, every limb being affected in turn.
+The sanguineous discharge was invariably preceded by a prickly and itching
+sensation; frequently this itching exudation proceeded from the scalp.
+The discharge usually occurred twice in the twenty-four hours; and on
+pressing the skin, the flow of blood could be accelerated and increased.
+
+Dr. Fournier relates the case of a magistrate who was attacked with
+diapedesis after any excitement, whether of a pleasurable or a painful
+nature.
+
+A singular idiosyncrasy was transmitted to her male children by an
+American Female named Smith, occasioning a severe haemorrhage wherever the
+skin was slightly pricked or scratched. This loss of blood would sometimes
+continue for several days. Several of her sons sunk under the affection,
+which was found at last to yield to the sulphate of soda. What is most
+singular, all her daughters were exempted from this fearful
+predisposition.
+
+It is probable that this strange disorder arises from a violent commotion
+of the nervous system, turning the streams of blood out of their natural
+course, and forcing the red particles into the cutaneous excretories. A
+mere relaxation of the fibres could not produce so powerful a revulsion.
+It may also arise in cases of extreme debility in connexion with a thinner
+condition of the blood.
+
+Curious cases are recorded of a sandy sweat, in which the perspiration
+becomes crystallized on the surface of the skin. Bartholinus, Schunig, and
+Mollenbroek have related several cases of the kind. It is probable, as
+Mason Good observes, that this morbid secretion may arise from an excess
+of uric acid, translated from the kidneys to the skin; this sand is
+generally of the same red colour as that of the renal secretions deposited
+in a lateritious sediment.
+
+Scented perspiration is another singular peculiarity. This odour,
+frequently unpleasant, has also been known to shed an agreeable aroma,
+compared to the perfume of violets, roses, and musk. This quality is
+common in various animals; in the _Simia jacchus_, hedgehogs, hares,
+serpents, and crocodiles. The _Viverra zibetha_ and _V. civetta_ yield
+this odour abundantly; and it has been observed in a faint degree in our
+domestic cat. Many insects exhale an agreeable odour; especially the
+_Cerambix moschatus_, the _Apis fragrans_, the _Tipula mochifera_. The
+_Cerambix suaveolens_ emits a delicious smell of roses, and the Petiolated
+sphex a highly fragrant balsamic ether. In the Memoirs of the Queen of
+Navarre, we read that Catherine de Medicis was a perfect nosegay; and
+Cujacius and Lord Herbert of Cherbury were equally distinguished by the
+suavity of their transpiration.
+
+The general perspiration of every man seems to be of a peculiar nature.
+Savages can distinguish their friends and foes by the scent. The boy born
+deaf and dumb, whose history is related by Dugald Stewart, distinguished
+persons by their odour; and the dealers in hair can ascertain by the smell
+the nation to which the hair belongs.
+
+The quantity of perspiration secreted by a well-grown adult weighing about
+one hundred and forty-six pounds, is at the rate of twenty-eight ounces in
+the twenty-four hours, sixteen ounces during the period usually allotted
+to waking, and twelve ounces during sleep.[49] It is not so much increased
+by moderate elevation of temperature as might be imagined; it appears
+increased after meals and during sleep. While the skin thus secretes so
+considerable a quantity of watery fluid, its powers of absorption are
+wonderful, and are frequently resorted to for medicinal purposes. This
+absorption evidently tends to assist in repairing the strength. A boy at
+Newcastle who had been greatly reduced for a race, gained thirty ounces in
+weight in the course of an hour, during which time he had only taken a
+glass of wine. Dr. Home, after going to bed much fatigued and supperless,
+gained two ounces before the morning. Keill says that one night he gained
+eighteen ounces in his sleep. Immersion in water and damp air materially
+increases this power. Frogs, toads, even lizards, increase in weight
+although only partially dipped in water; and remarkably so if previously
+deprived of part of their moisture by exposure to air. The power of
+absorbing medicinal substances when immersed in their solution has been
+demonstrated by Dr. Massy, an American physician, who found that if the
+body was immersed in a decoction of madder,[50] this substance immediately
+tinged the renal secretion. Dr. Rousseau made a similar experiment with
+rhubarb. It is now clearly demonstrated that friction is not necessary to
+produce absorption.
+
+The keenness of the deaf and dumb boy in ascertaining the effluvium of
+various individuals, to which I have alluded, induces me to give a short
+sketch of this curious individual. His name was James Mitchell; and having
+no other source by which he could discover or keep up a connexion with
+surrounding objects than those of smell, taste, and touch, he depended
+chiefly upon the first, like a domestic dog, in distinguishing persons
+and things. By this sense he identified his friends and relations; and
+conceived a sudden attachment or dislike to strangers. It was difficult,
+however, to ascertain at what distance he could thus exercise this
+faculty; but, from Mr. Wardrop's observations, it appears that he
+possessed it at a considerable distance. This was particularly striking
+when a person entered the room, as he seemed to be aware of this before he
+could derive any information from any sense than that of smell. When a
+stranger approached him, he eagerly began to touch some part of the body,
+commonly taking hold of his arm, which he held near his nose; and, after
+two or three strong inspirations through the nostrils, he appeared to form
+a decided opinion concerning him. If it were favourable, he showed a
+disposition to become more intimate, examined more minutely his dress, and
+expressed in his countenance more or less satisfaction; but if it happened
+to be unfavourable, he suddenly went off to a distance, with expressions
+of carelessness or disgust.
+
+
+
+
+SMALLPOX.
+
+
+The first description we have of this dreadful disease is to be found in
+the writings of Almansor of Rhazes, published about the end of the ninth
+or the beginning of the tenth century. He, however, quotes an Alexandrian
+physician of the name of Aaron, who had treated the same subject so early
+as the year 622. There is no substantial ground to warrant a belief that
+it was known to the Greeks or Romans. The opinion of Hahn, who considered
+it to have been their anthrax, is absurd. Had this pestilence prevailed
+amongst the ancients, and left the traces of its ravages,--which have
+marked most fearfully so many individuals,--it is probable that these
+impressions would have been attached to their names, as they were in the
+habit of designating many of their illustrious personages by their
+physical peculiarities, either natural or accidental. Hence we find
+Ovidius _Naso_, Tullius _Cicero_, Horatius _Cocles_, Scipio _Nasica_,
+Curius _Dentatus_.
+
+The term _variolae_, which this disease bears, was first applied to a
+malady presenting the same symptoms, by Marius, bishop of Avanches, and
+appears to be derived from _varius_, spotted. Howbeit, to whatever region
+we may be indebted for this scourge, it appears that it existed in Asia,
+and especially in China, long before its introduction into Europe. About
+the middle of the sixth century, it was supposed to have been carried from
+India to Arabia by trading vessels, where no doubt the Arabian and
+Saracenic armies introduced it into the Levant, Spain, and Sicily. In 640,
+under the caliphate of Omar, the Saracens spread the contagion over Syria,
+Chaldaea, Mesopotamia, Egypt, and Persia. Its appearance in Europe may be
+referred to the eighth century. In the ninth century, as I have stated, we
+find it described by the Arabian physicians. In the tenth century we find
+it described by other Arabian writers, chiefly Avicenna and Hali Abbas. In
+962, Count Baudouin of Flanders, died from its attack. It appears certain
+that it prevailed in Gaul long before; we find in the works of Marius,
+already mentioned, the following passage: "Hoc anno (570) morbus validus,
+cum profluvio ventris et _variolis_, Italiam Galliamque valde afflixit."
+About the same period we find Dagobert and Clodobert, sons of Chilperic,
+falling victims to the disorder; and Austregilda, wife of Gontran King of
+Burgundy, died of it in 580, at the age of thirty-two, so enraged with her
+physicians, Nicholas and Donet, that she insisted that they should
+accompany her to the other world, to reward them for causing her untimely
+end. Her affectionate and disconsolate husband Gontran of course had both
+their throats cut upon her tomb.
+
+In the eleventh and twelfth centuries we find the smallpox in all the
+southern parts of Europe. The north was for a long time tolerably exempted
+from the scourge, until the Holy War introduced it into those regions; and
+it appears to have been the only trophy that the English and Germans
+brought home to commemorate their exploits in the Crusades.
+
+In the thirteenth century the Muscovites, Laplanders, and Norwegians were
+free from the disorder, the progress of which seemed to have been delayed
+by the cold; although at the same time, according to the relation of
+Gordon, it was most destructive all over France. Most physicians at this
+period partook of the opinion of the Arabians, who considered the disease
+as being in the blood, thrown by it into a state of ebullition,
+particularly in childhood and youth. According to the Arabian Auaron, or
+Ahron, it sometimes affected the same individual twice. This doctrine of
+the boiling up and bubbling forth of the blood to throw out its peccant
+qualities, tended not a little to increase the mortality and exasperate
+the disease; as the physicians, to encourage this concoction, were in the
+habit of wrapping up their patients in warm clothing, and keeping their
+apartments as hot as possible;--a fatal practice that subsequent
+experience has rejected as destructive.
+
+In 1517 the Spaniards carried it to St. Domingo, nearly depopulating the
+country. South America soon received this additional visitation, said to
+have been carried amongst them by a negro. So terrific were the ravages of
+this pestilence, that the Americans considered its invasion as one of the
+_data_ of their melancholy chronicles. The brother of the noble Montezuma
+was one of its earliest victims; worthy attendant on the Spanish banners,
+it accompanied their detested hordes in all their conquests.
+
+The northern districts of America were free from the contagion, when the
+English carried it with their commercial productions amongst the natives
+of Boston in 1649, and subsequently to Virginia and Carolina, and the
+remaining provinces. The Spaniards infected Nootka Sound, and the Russians
+desolated Kamtschatka about the same period.
+
+Inoculation appears nearly as ancient as the disease, if we can credit the
+missionaries, who were sent into China by the Church of Rome, and who,
+from their address and insinuation, gained access to the historical
+records: they have transmitted detailed accounts of the history of the
+Chinese, and of their knowledge in various branches of science. There is a
+memoir written on the smallpox by the missionaries at Pekin, the substance
+of which is extracted from Chinese medical books, and especially from a
+work published by the Imperial College of Medicine, for the instruction of
+the physicians of the empire. This book is entitled _Teou-tchin-fa_, or a
+treatise from the heart to the smallpox; which states that the disease was
+unknown in the very early ages, and did not appear until the dynasty of
+Tcheou, which was about 1122 years before Christ. The Chinese name for the
+malady is a singular one, _Tai-tou_, or venom from the mother's breast;
+and a description is given of the fever, the eruption of the pustules,
+their increase, flattening, and crusting. In the same Chinese book there
+is also an account of a species of inoculation discovered seven centuries
+previously; but, according to a tradition, it had been revealed in the
+dynasty of Long, that is, about 590 years before Christ. Father
+d'Entrecolles, the Jesuit, in his correspondence from China, gives some
+information respecting the smallpox, which confirms the material part of
+the above information; for he notices having read some Chinese work which
+mentions the smallpox as a disease of the earliest ages. He also describes
+a method of communicating the disease, which was called _sowing the
+smallpox_; this was generally performed by planting some of the crusts
+upon the nose,--an operation which was approved of by some but disapproved
+by others.
+
+Although the tradition of the smallpox being a disease originally
+transmitted to man by camels may be fanciful, yet the existence of the
+vaccine in cows might give some probability to its having been the case.
+Moore thus expresses himself on the subject: "This notion probably took
+its rise from the circumstance that land commerce from Egypt to India was
+only practicable by means of this animal. But such kind of traffic was
+tedious and difficult, and it is conjectured that no person known to have
+the smallpox would ever have been suffered to join himself to a caravan."
+Now this observation would rather confirm the fact than invalidate it;
+since, if no individual affected with the malady could have carried the
+contagion, the disease might have been spread by their camels.
+
+In regard to the antiquity of the practice of inoculation amongst the
+Chinese, I cannot do better than give Mr. Moore's own words on so very
+interesting a subject. "No account is handed down of the origin of this
+custom; but the reverence in which agriculture is held by the Chinese may
+have suggested the name (sowing of the smallpox) and the usual manner of
+performing the operation: for they took a few full dried smallpox crusts,
+as if they were seeds, and planted them in the nose; a bit of musk was
+added in order to correct the virulence of the poison, and the whole was
+wrapped up in a bit of cotton to prevent it dropping from the nostrils.
+The crusts employed were always taken from a healthy person who had had
+the smallpox favourably; and, with the vain hope of mitigating their
+acrimony, they were sometimes kept in close jars for years, and at other
+times fumigated with salutary plants. Some physicians beat these crusts
+into powder, and advised their patients to take a pinch of this snuff; and
+when they could not prevail upon them, they mixed it with water into a
+paste, and applied it in that form. In Hindostan, if tradition may be
+relied upon, inoculation has been practised from remote antiquity. The
+practice was in the hands of a particular tribe of Brahmins, who were
+delegated from various religious colleges, and who travelled through the
+provinces for this purpose. The natives were strictly enjoined to abstain
+during a preparatory month from milk and butter; and, when the Arabians
+and Portuguese appeared in that country, they were prohibited from taking
+animal food also. These were commonly inoculated on the arm; but the
+girls, not liking to have their arms disfigured, chose that it should be
+done low on the shoulder: and whatever part was fixed upon was well rubbed
+with a piece of cloth, which afterwards became a perquisite of the
+Brahmin. He then made a few slight scratches on the skin with a sharp
+instrument, and took a bit of cotton, which had been soaked the preceding
+year in variolous matter, moistened it with a drop or two of the holy
+water of the Ganges, and bound it upon the punctures. During the whole of
+this ceremony, the Brahmin always preserved a solemn countenance, and
+recited the prayers appointed in the _Attharna Veda_, to propitiate the
+goddess who superintended the smallpox. The Brahmin then gave his
+instructions, which were regularly observed. In six hours the bandage was
+to be taken off, and the pledget allowed to drop spontaneously. Early next
+morning, cold water was to be poured upon the patient's head and
+shoulders, and this was to be repeated until the fever came on. The
+ablution was then to be omitted; but, as soon as the eruption appeared, it
+was to be resumed and persevered in every morning and evening till the
+crusts should fall off. Confinement to the house was absolutely forbidden;
+the inoculated were to be freely exposed to every air that blew; but when
+the fever was upon them, they were sometimes permitted to lie on a mat at
+the door. Their regimen was to consist of the most refrigerating
+productions of the climate; as plantains, water-melons, thin gruel made of
+rice or poppy-seeds, cold water, and rice."
+
+While sowing the disease was thus prevalent in some countries, selling and
+buying it was adopted in others, when children bartered fruit in exchange
+for the infection. It does not appear that the faculty took any notice of
+inoculation until the year 1703, when Dr. Emmanuel Timoni Alpeck wrote an
+account of his observations in Constantinople, in a letter to Woodward: a
+Venetian physician, of the name of Pylamus, about the same time noticed
+the success of the practice in Turkey. Lady Mary Wortley Montagu pursued
+the inquiry in her voyage to that country, by causing her son Edward to be
+inoculated by Maitland, surgeon to the embassy, and, on her return to
+England in 1722, had the operation tried with successful results on her
+daughter. Still, although two of the princesses of the royal family had
+also been inoculated with equal benefit, inoculation was furiously opposed
+by the profession, and even from the pulpit; and so successful was this
+opposition, that it succeeded in bringing it into disuse both in England
+and throughout Europe, many cases of smallpox of a confluent character
+having made their appearance after inoculation, and in 1740 the practice
+had nearly fallen into disuse. In this virulent controversy, a singular
+circumstance was observed: while regular practitioners stated the practice
+to be unsuccessful, whenever it was adopted by quacks, monks, and old
+women, the result was invariably favourable; and the report that reached
+Europe of a Carmelite friar having inoculated thousands of Indians, an old
+woman being equally fortunate in Greece, while at the same time a planter
+in St. Christopher's inoculated three hundred persons without the loss of
+a single patient, the practice was again resumed, chiefly in our seaports,
+and gradually extended over the country. Mead materially assisted its
+progress by stating that the Circassian ladies chiefly owed their beauty
+to this salutary preservative. In the year 1763, Daniel Sutton, son of a
+surgeon in Suffolk, recommended the practice, modified, however, in the
+treatment of the malady, and brought inoculation into general repute.
+
+It appears, however, that inoculation was by no means a novel introduction
+even in England, as it had been long practised in Pembrokeshire and
+several parts of Wales. On the Continent it had been tried at Cleves.
+Bartholinus mentions it as adopted in Denmark; and traces of its adoption
+were evident in Auvergne and Perigord.
+
+Various modes of performing this operation were adopted. The Arabians
+inserted the virus with a pointed instrument between the thumb and the
+index; the Georgians on the fore-arm; and the Armenians on the thigh. The
+traveller Motraye mentions a Circassian old woman who used to inoculate
+with three pins tied together. It appears that this practice was generally
+prevalent in Turkey in 1673. Trinoni and Pilarini observed that the
+natural smallpox was generally fatal in Constantinople, while the disease
+produced artificially was most benign. Bruce relates that from time
+immemorial inoculation was practised in Nubia by old Negresses or Arabs.
+
+Strange to say, it was only in 1727 that inoculation became general in
+France; and its adoption was materially forwarded by Voltaire, who also
+took special care to acquaint the fair sex that it was to this practice
+that the Circassian and Georgian odalisks owed their beauty.
+
+The terrific mortality that attended this disease was much increased by
+the injudicious treatment to which patients were submitted. Instead of
+adopting the natural plan resorted to by eastern nations, and allowing
+the patients a free current of air, with a refrigerant diet, cordials and
+a hot regimen were enforced, under which the disorder soon assumed a
+destructive malignity. Cold affusion, which has also been extolled by
+modern physicians as a recent improvement in medical practice, we have
+seen, was also employed centuries ago. Sutton, who is generally, but
+erroneously, considered as being the introducer of inoculation, did
+nothing more, as I have already observed, than modify the treatment of the
+disorder. Thus do we daily see impudence and quackery receiving rewards
+for supposed discoveries, and the keepers of the public purse on such
+occasions seem much less careful of it than of their own. In our days, for
+instance, chain-cables have been decreed a discovery, and their inventor
+entitled to a national recompence, whereas we read the following passage
+in Caesar's Commentaries, when speaking of the shipping of the
+Gauls,--"Anchorae, pro funibus, ferreis catenis revinctae:" any schoolboy
+could have given this information to our sapient legislators.
+
+The reappearance or supposed increased prevalence of the smallpox after
+vaccination, for the last few years, may call for some observation. Ever
+since the year 1804 a belief was entertained by many persons that the
+cowpox only afforded a temporary security. This doubt, however, never did
+rest upon any solid foundation. Dr. Jenner maintained in the most
+strenuous manner, that to render the cowpox efficient, it was absolutely
+necessary to attend most carefully to the character of the pustule, and
+the time and quality of the lymph taken from it; on the very same
+principle inoculation of the smallpox also failed. For it must be clearly
+understood, that Jenner considered the smallpox and the cowpox as identic
+maladies, and by no means dissimilar in their nature: on this important
+subject I feel much gratification in quoting a passage from a late
+valuable publication,[51] to which I refer the reader. "It was then
+clearly ascertained, that there were deviations from the usual course of
+smallpox, which were quite as common and infinitely more disastrous than
+those which took place in vaccination. These deviations regarded two
+apparently different states of the constitution. In the one the
+susceptibility of smallpox, was not taken away by previous infection,
+while, on the other hand some constitutions seem to be unsusceptible of
+smallpox infection altogether. It was found, that similar occurrences
+took place in the practice of vaccination, but as the security which the
+latter afforded was never more likely to be interfered with by slight
+causes than the former, it became absolutely necessary that great care
+should be shown in watching the progress and character of the pustule. Dr.
+Jenner had from the beginning felt the propriety of this watchfulness; and
+had distinctly announced that it was possible to propagate an infection by
+inoculation conveying different degrees of security, according as that
+affection approached to or receded from the full and perfect standard. He
+also clearly stated that the cause of the vaccine pustule might be so
+modified as to deprive it of its efficacy. That inoculation from such a
+source might communicate an inefficient protection, and that all those who
+were thus vaccinated were more or less liable to the subsequent smallpox."
+
+Dr. Bacon is of opinion that the cowpox is now what it was at the
+beginning. There are instances, in which it has passed from one human
+subject to another for more than thirty years, consequently through
+fifteen or sixteen hundred individuals, but yet in which no degeneration
+has taken place. He nevertheless admits that recent lymph from the cow
+should be preferred, when it can be procured; he is further of opinion
+that the occurrence of smallpox after inoculation does not exceed in
+number the cases of smallpox after smallpox. My own experience confirms
+these views. I was in practice in Bordeaux during the prevalence of what
+is called smallpox in vaccinated cases,--the cases were rare, doubtful,
+and very seldom fatal.
+
+There is little doubt that the smallpox would sweep away thousands of our
+dense population but for the protecting power of vaccination, the failure
+of which, ought more frequently to be attributed to the vaccinator, or the
+constitution of the patient, than to Jenner's immortal discovery. Dr.
+Severn has just published an essay on this most important subject, and it
+appears by his statistical tables, that such has been the decrease of
+mortality since the introduction of vaccination, that the number of
+patients admitted into the smallpox hospital from 1775 to 1800,--were
+7017--the deaths 2277--whereas from the year 1800 to the year 1825, the
+number admitted was 3943, and the deaths 1118--not half the number,
+although the population of London had doubled during that period. Dr.
+Severn further calculates that the proportion of failures is 6 in 3000.
+
+We read with feelings of deep regret in his late bibliography, that the
+man at whose intercession the magic of his name obtained the liberation of
+Napoleon's prisoners, could not obtain an appointment for the members of
+his own family from the British Government; nay, the College of Physicians
+despite the exertions of Dr. Baillie, refused to admit him to a fellowship
+in their learned body. It was when reflecting on such national
+ingratitude, that he wrote to a friend, "Never aim, my friend at being a
+public character, if you love domestic peace." And not long before he
+terminated his invaluable career he made this remarkable expression: "I am
+not surprised that men are not thankful to me; but I wonder that they are
+not grateful to God for the good which he has made me the instrument of
+conveying to my fellow-creatures."
+
+It is in vain that France with her usual _jactance_ pretends that the
+first idea of vaccination arose in that country, they have no more claim
+to the discovery than their Marshals to Wellington's immortal glory.
+
+
+
+
+GENERATIVE ANIMALCULES.
+
+
+Microscopic experiments daily demonstrate the existence of myriads of
+animalcules in every substance. They have recently been discovered in the
+progress of certain crystallizations; and some philosophers maintain that
+most inorganic bodies are formed of the remains of organic substances. The
+existence of animalcules in the generative secretion was first noticed by
+Lewis Hamme, a young German student, and shown by him to Leeuwenhoeck, who
+published an account of them. Hartzoeken wrote upon the subject the
+following year, and asserted that he had seen these animalcules three
+years before they had been observed by Hamme. This curious subject soon
+attracted the notice, not only of physiologists, but of priests, artists,
+and even courtiers, for we find our Charles II. making curious inquiries
+on this investigation. Although many opticians could not discover these
+creatures, the eyes of courtiers were more keen than theirs, and to
+gratify their royal master's depravity, described them most minutely.
+Their length was 3/100000 of an inch, their bulk such as to admit the
+existence of 216,000 in a sphere whose diameter was the breadth of a hair,
+and their rate of travelling nine inches in the hour. They saw them in
+the seminal secretion of every animal; and, what was still more
+remarkable, they were of a similar size whatever might have been that of
+the animal: they saw them in the sprat and in the whale; they could
+distinguish the male from the female; and they all moved along in
+gregarious harmony like a flock of sheep: nay, more; Dalenpatius actually
+saw one of them, more impatient than his companions, burst from his
+ignoble shackles, and actually assume the human form. At other times they
+were discovered swimming in shoals to given points, turning back,
+separating, meeting again, and frisking about like golden fish in a pond.
+Kauw, Boerhaave, Maupertius, Lieuland, Ledermuller, Monro, Nicholas,
+Haller, and indeed most of the philosophers of Europe, were convinced of
+their existence.
+
+Buffon, however, and other naturalists, contended that these were not
+animalcules, but organic particles; and Linnaeus imagined them to be inert
+molecules, thrown into agitation by the warmth of the fluid. Finally, to
+determine the question, Spallanzani began an assiduous course of
+observations and experiments. He found these animalcules in the human
+species to be of an oval form, with a tail tapering to a point. This
+appendage, by moving from side to side, propelled them forward. They were
+in constant motion in every direction. In about twenty-three minutes their
+movements became more languid, and in two or three hours they generally
+died. The duration of their life, however seemed to depend, in a great
+measure, on the temperature of the medium: at 2 deg. (Reaumur) they died
+in three quarters of an hour; while at 7 deg. they lived two hours, and at
+12-1/2 deg. three hours and three quarters. If the cold was not too
+intense, they recovered upon the temperature being raised; when only 3 deg.
+or 4 deg., they recovered after a lethargy of fourteen hours; and according
+to the less intensity of the cold, they might be made to pass from the
+torpid to the active state more frequently. They were destroyed by river,
+ice, snow, and rain water; by sulphur, tobacco, camphor, and electricity;
+even the air was injurious to them: in close vessels their life was
+prolonged to some days, and their movements were not constant and hurried.
+They were of various sizes, and perfectly distinct from all species of
+animalcules found in vegetable infusions, &c. In short, Spallanzani
+completely confirmed the principal observations of Leeuwenhoeck, and
+satisfactorily explained the sources of the inaccuracies of other
+inquirers. Prevost and Dumas have recently confirmed the observations of
+the Italian physiologist.
+
+This doctrine of life being perpetuated by the transmission of animated
+particles, or animalcules, is by no means of modern date. We find this
+theory advanced by Hippocrates, and Aristotle, and Plato. Democritus
+described worms that assumed, in the progress of their development, the
+human form; and Lactantius thus refuted his ideas: "Erravit ergo
+Democritus, qui vermiculorum modo putavit homines effusos esse de terra,
+nullo auctore, nullaque ratione." Hippocrates plainly says, that the
+seminal secretion was full of animalcules, whose several parts were
+developed, and grew afresh; that nothing did exist that had not
+pre-existed; and that what we term birth was nothing more than that
+transition of these hitherto imperceptible animalcules from darkness to
+light.
+
+Gesner has endeavoured to prove that the word [Greek: psyche], so
+frequently found in the writings of Hippocrates, and translated _anima_,
+was synonymous with _insectum_, _animalculum_, _papilio_. Plato, when
+expressing himself on this curious subject, compares the matrix to a
+fertile field, in which animalcules are gradually developed, at first of
+such a small size that they are imperceptible, but, by taking the food
+prepared for them, grow in strength until they are brought to light in a
+state of perfect generation; and St. Augustine thus follows: "Hunc
+perfectionis modum sic habent omnes ut cum illo concipiantur atque
+nascuntur; sed habent in ratione, non in mole, sicut ipsa jam membra omnia
+sunt latenter in semine; cum etiam natis nonnulla desint, sicut dentes, ac
+si quid ejusmodi." In the works of Seneca we also find the same notions:
+"In semine omnis futuri hominis ratio comprehensa est, et legem barbae et
+canorum nondum natus infans habet; totius enim corporis, et sequentis
+aetatis, in parvo occultoque lineamenta sunt."
+
+It may be said that these opinions were similar to those of the
+_Ovarians_, who, as we have observed already, believed that every thing
+arose from the egg. Such were Aristotle, Empedocles, and other
+philosophers: "For the egg is the conception," said the first of these
+great men, "and after the same manner the animal is created;" but there
+was a manifest difference in their systems. Harvey, Haller, De Graef, were
+amongst the most warm advocates of this doctrine, which indeed prevails to
+the present day, as it would be difficult to find organized beings that
+did not spring from an original germ.
+
+It thus appears that, notwithstanding the absurd doctrines of generation
+being founded upon the existence of these animalcules, they clearly do
+exist. Modern microscopic experiments daily confirm the fact; not only in
+the generative secretion, but in the other fluids of the body: creatures
+of an inch to an inch and a quarter in length have been found to inhabit
+the mesenteric arteries of asses and horses. Mr. Hodgson found them in
+seven asses out of nine. They have also been found in the blood of female
+frogs, salamanders, and tadpoles. What wonders are perhaps in store for
+the microscopic observer and the physiologist! All living matter seems to
+be animated by particles, by atoms, equally possessed of life. Does the
+vitality of these constituent molecules hold any influence over our
+existence? Is their life necessary to the preservation of ours? Is any
+agency destructive to them injurious or destructive to us? In a former
+paper I have recorded recent observations, where animalcules of a peculiar
+description were found in the purulent secretion attending various
+affections. A morbid condition seems thus to produce a new series of
+animated beings, or this new series of living atoms perhaps have produced
+a morbid state. Many eruptive maladies are either caused by the presence
+of insects, or insects are subsequently developed in their pustules.
+Wichmann, and many other physicians, have maintained that the itch was
+produced by an insect of the genus _acarus_, or _tick_.
+
+Latreille has given a minute description of this creature in his _Genera
+crustaceorum et insectorum_, and calls this offensive species the
+_sarcoptes scabiei_. Linnaeus classed it among the _aptera_, and termed it
+the _acarus scabiei_. This insect is nearly round, with eight legs; the
+four fore-legs terminated with a small head, the hind ones with a silky
+filament. The Arabian Avenzoar had long since observed them, and it was
+from his writings that Mouffet was induced to pursue the inquiry. Redi, an
+Italian physician, was the first propagator of this doctrine in modern
+times, and published, in 1685, a paper of Cestoni of Leghorn, who had
+frequently observed mendicants and galley-slaves extracting these insects
+from the pustules of itch with the point of a pin, in the same manner as
+_chigoes_ are extracted from their cyst in the West Indies.
+
+It was this communication of Cestoni that led to a further and more minute
+investigation. Curiosity was every where excited, and the most learned
+and intelligent naturalists and physicians, amongst whom we find the
+illustrious names of Borelli, Etmuller, Mead, Pringle, Pallas, Bonani,
+Linnaeus, Morgagni, strove with incessant diligence to ascertain this
+important fact, which certainly was likely to shed a new light on our
+pathological speculations. The existence of the acarus was established.
+
+The most conclusive experiments on the subject were those of Gales, in
+1812. The following is the account of them: "I placed under a microscope a
+watch-glass with a drop of distilled water, after having carefully
+ascertained that it did not contain any visible animalcules. I then
+extracted from an itch pustule a small portion of the virus, which I
+diluted in the water with the point of a lancet. I watched most
+attentively for upwards of ten minutes, without having been able to notice
+any animation. Two similar experiments were equally ineffectual.
+Disappointed in my expectations, I was about giving up the task, when an
+idea struck me of submitting the liquid of the first experiment to another
+trial. I had left it in the watch-glass, exposed to solar heat. I then was
+not a little surprised when I discovered a perfect insect struggling with
+its legs to extricate itself from the viscid fluid that confined it.
+Having succeeded in reaching a more limpid part of the liquor, its form
+was so distinct that Mr. Patrix, who was with me, was enabled to take an
+exact drawing of its configuration."
+
+This curious result naturally induced Gales to pursue his inquiries, and
+he discovered that this insect chiefly occupies the pustules that are
+filled with a thin serum, and avoids those that contain a thicker
+secretion. Hence the watery pimples in itch are invariably those that
+produce the most intolerable prurience.
+
+The next important question was to decide whether this insect was the
+cause of the disgusting disorder. For this purpose Gales placed several of
+them on the back of his hand. He then covered the part with a small
+watch-glass, kept in place with a bandage. Three hours after he awoke,
+experiencing a sensation of itching on the part. The following morning
+three itch pustules were evident, and convinced him that he had succeeded
+in inoculating himself with the loathsome complaint. This fact he
+communicated to Olivier, Dumeril, Latreille, and Richerand. Experiments in
+the hospital were immediately directed to be made, and all produced a
+similar result; affording a convincing proof that these insects could
+produce the affection, which they had merely been thought to have
+complicated.
+
+Many writers, who, like Mason Good, had decided that "whenever these
+insects appear, they are not a cause but a consequence of the disease,"
+opposed and contradicted the statement of Gales, and the numerous
+practitioners who had procured and witnessed facts, which are never
+"stubborn things" to speculative minds. These writers maintained that
+whenever any organ was weakened, or in a morbid condition, it was apt to
+become a nidus for some insects or worms to burrow in. Hence the numerous
+varieties of invermination in debility of the digestive organs. But it is
+needless to observe that their objections cannot stand against the
+imbodied evidence brought forward in proof of their error. Bosc, Huzard,
+Latreille, Dumeril, and many other naturalists, subsequently found these
+acari in the eruptive diseases of many animals.
+
+I repeat it, this subject is replete with interest; and microscopic
+experiments may some time or other throw a material light on the practice
+of medicine. Those substances that are known to destroy the insect that
+produces the itch, cure the malady. May not this analogy lead to singular
+results?
+
+
+
+
+CIRCULATION OF THE BLOOD.
+
+
+The circulation of the blood was first taught by the unfortunate Servetus
+in 1553, who was burnt to death as a heretic; and, a century afterwards,
+demonstrated by our Harvey, who is justly considered as having discovered
+the wonderful mechanism of the motion of the vital fluid.
+
+There is no doubt, however, that the ancients had formed, if not a
+correct, at least an ingenious, idea of it. Hippocrates tells us "that all
+the veins communicate with each other, and flow from one vessel into
+others; and that all the veins that are spread over the body carry a flux
+and movement originating in a single vessel." He avows that he is ignorant
+of the principle whence it arises, or of its termination, it appearing
+to be a circle without beginning or end. He further states, that the heart
+is the source of the arteries, through which blood is carried over the
+body, communicating life and heat; and he adds, that they are so many
+rivulets that irrigate the system, and carry vitality into every part: the
+heart and veins are in constant motion; and he compares the circulation of
+blood to the course of rivers, that return to their source by
+extraordinary deviations. He therefore directs blood-letting to restore a
+free current of the blood and other spirits in apoplexies and other
+diseases of a similar nature, which he attributed to obstruction in the
+vessels intercepting the flow of their contents. He also observes, that
+when bile enters the blood, it deranges its consistence, and disturbs its
+ordinary course towards another point: and he compares the circulation to
+balls of thread, the threads of which return to each other in a circuitous
+manner, terminating at the point whence their motion arose.
+
+Plato thought that the heart was the source of the veins, and of the
+blood, that was rapidly borne to every part of the body. Aristotle tells
+us that the heart is the principle and source of the veins and of the
+blood. He considered that there were two veins proceeding from this organ,
+one from the left side, the other from the right; the first he termed
+_aorta_: and he further maintained that the arteries communicated with the
+veins, with which they were intimately connected.
+
+Julius Pollux taught, in his _Gnomasticon_, that the arteries are the
+channels through which the spirits circulate as the veins propel the
+blood; and he describes the heart as having two cavities, one
+communicating with the arteries, and the other with the veins. Apuleius
+tells his disciples that the heart propels the blood through the lungs, to
+be afterwards distributed over the system.
+
+In the writings of Nemesius, bishop of Emissa, we read that the movement
+observed in the pulse originates in the heart, chiefly from the artery of
+the left ventricle of the viscus. This artery is dilated, and then
+contracted, by a constant and powerful harmonious action. When dilated the
+vessel draws towards it the most subtile portions of the neighbouring
+blood, and the vapour or exhalation of this fluid, that feeds the animal
+spirits; but when it contracts, it exhales, through various channels of
+the body, all the vapours that it contains.
+
+Strange as it may appear, doubts were once entertained as to the actual
+situation of the heart, whether it was lodged in the right or the left
+side of the body. The question was finally settled by a professor of
+Heidelberg, who for the purpose killed a pig in the presence of the
+Margrave of Baden, Durlach, who then laboured under a supposed disease of
+that organ, which it was then clearly shown occupied the left side. The
+result of this experiment, however proved somewhat detrimental to his
+Highness's physician, who was dismissed, although he maintained with all
+becoming courtesy and respect, that the heart of his princely master could
+not _possibly be_ in the same position as that of a hog.
+
+Michael Servetus, in his work, _De Christianismi restitutione_, also in
+the 7th book, _De Trinitate Divina_, for which he was sentenced to the
+stake a very short time after its publication, gives us the following
+description of this important function: The blood, which is a vital
+spirit, is diffused all over the body by _anastomoses_, or inosculation of
+two vessels through their extremities. The air in the lungs contributes to
+the elaboration of the blood, which it draws for that purpose from the
+right ventricle of the heart through the pulmonary artery. This blood is
+prepared in the lungs by a movement of the air that agitates it,
+subtilizes it, and, finally, mingles it with that vital spirit which is
+afterwards retransmitted to the heart by the movement of the diastole, as
+a vital fluid proper to maintain life. This communication and preparation
+of the blood, he further states, is rendered evident by the union of the
+arteries and veins in this organ; and he concludes by affirming that the
+heart, having thus received the blood prepared by the lungs, transmits it
+through the artery of the left ventricle, or the aorta, to every part of
+the body.
+
+Great care was of course taken to destroy this abominable heretical
+publication, which was burnt by the common hangman in Geneva, Frankfort,
+and several provinces of France. The work thence became so scarce, that it
+is said only three or four copies of it are in existence. One of them was
+in the library of the Landgrave of Hesse-Cassel.
+
+John Leonicenus relates that the celebrated Paul Sarpi otherwise named Fra
+Paolo, had also discovered this circulation, and demonstrated the valves
+of the veins, which open to afford a free passage to the blood, and close
+to prevent its return. This discovery, it is pretended, was made known to
+Fabricius ab Aquapendente, professor of medicine in Padua in the sixteenth
+century, and successor of Fallopius, and who communicated the fact to
+Harvey, then a student in that university.
+
+Some time before Harvey's discovery, Cesalpinus had described with great
+precision the pulmonary circulation; and, on finding that veins swelled
+under a ligature, he attributed this enlargement to the warmth of the
+blood. This warmth, he says, proceeds from a spirit residing in the blood.
+The left ventricle is filled with blood of a spirituous nature; and one
+can trace the movement of the blood towards the superior parts, and its
+return (_retrocessus_) to the internal ones,--that is to say, a return by
+which it comes back from the extremities to the heart, when awake or
+sleeping, from every part of the body; for if you tie the vessels, or if
+they are obstructed, the current of the blood is stopped, and then their
+smaller ramifications tumefy towards their origin. The following are his
+words: "Sic non obscurus est ejusmodi motus in quacumque corporis parte,
+si vinculum adhibeatur, aut alia ratione occludantur venae: cum enim
+tollitur permeatio, intumescunt rivuli qua parte fluere solent." From
+these expressions it is clear that Cesalpinus suspected the great
+circulation, and had a fair idea of its nature; yet there is no doubt but
+that it was to our Harvey that the first demonstration of this wondrous
+function was reserved.
+
+
+
+
+DRUNKENNESS.
+
+
+At all periods this degrading vice appears to have been more or less
+prevalent. We find it frequently mentioned in the early history of the
+Jews. Tacitus informs us that it was common amongst the ancient Germans;
+and in Greece and Rome it was not only common, but frequently extolled as
+beneficial--as medicinal:
+
+  Si nocturna tibi noceat potatio vini,
+  Hora matutina rebibas, et erit medicina.
+
+Socrates considered the indulgence in wine pardonable. Thus, C. Gallus:
+
+  Hoc quoque virtutem quondam certamine, magnum
+  Socratem palmam promeruisse ferunt.
+
+According to Horace, Cato the Censor had often recourse to its
+exhilarating virtues:
+
+  Narratur et prisci Catonis
+  Saepe mero incaluisse virtus.
+
+Seneca informs us that even the Roman ladies frequently indulged in these
+potations. The drunkenness of the ancients bore all the disgusting
+character of the present day, and was thus admirably described by
+Lucretius:
+
+          Cum vini penetravit--
+  Consequitur gravitas membrorum, praepediuntur
+  Crura vacillanti, tardescit lingua, madet mens,
+  Nant oculi; clamor, singultus, jurgia gliscunt.
+
+However, from the language of the ancients, we cannot come to the
+conclusion that Socrates, and other great men who were accused of
+inebriety, were habitual drunkards, or even that, under the influence of
+their potations, they were occasionally deprived of their reason. On the
+contrary, there is every reason to believe that the ancients both ate and
+drank a great deal during their repasts; and thus mingling their wine and
+their food, like most of the continental nations, they were less subject
+to the inconveniences that arose from their indulgence in liquor. Indeed,
+the term sobriety applies to a proper regulation of our ingesta, according
+to our constitution and our state of health. Extreme abstinence on some
+occasions may prove as prejudicial as intemperance; and there are peculiar
+idiosyncrasies where a certain quantity of stimulus is absolutely
+requisite to keep up the animal spirits, and at the same time assist
+assimilations which become languid under mental depression. No doubt, this
+necessity has arisen from habit,--most probably a very bad habit; still,
+when it does exist, physicians should be cautious in suddenly forbidding
+customary indulgences: we must also consider on such occasions the
+pursuits of different individuals. The laborious classes, who require more
+frequent refection, from the constant exhaustion to which their avocations
+expose them, can bear with impunity a moderate use of strong liquors. Such
+a practice would destroy the sedentary and the studious. Temperance is
+essentially requisite to perfect not only our intellectual faculties, but
+many of our physical functions. The senses both of man and the brute
+creation are rendered much more keen by abstinence. The scent of the dog,
+the vision of the hawk, are less acute after feeding; and this is one of
+the chief causes of the greater perspicuity in our ideas when fasting in
+the morning. The ancients had an axiom founded upon observation, "_if you
+wish to become robust, eat and labour; if you wish to become wise, fast
+and meditate_." The Greeks called sobriety, [Greek: sophrosune]; or,
+according to Aristotle, as though they said, [Greek: sozousan ten
+phronesin], it assisted our intellectuals. Plato tells us that Socrates
+termed this quality [Greek: soterian tes psroneseos], or the health of the
+mind. Xenophon maintained that it prevented men from spitting or blowing
+their noses, as we were not in need of superfluities when we decreased the
+consumption of what was necessary. The ancients looked upon sobriety as a
+bent bow, that required occasional relaxation.
+
+It is said, but I know not on what authority, that Hippocrates recommended
+an indulgence in potations once a month. Celsus recommends persons in
+perfect health not to be too rigorous in their diet; sometimes to fast,
+and at others to live more freely. In more modern times this supposed
+precept of Hippocrates has been advocated, and we find two theses on the
+subject, entitled "_Non ergo singulis mensibus repetita ebrietas
+salubris_," and "_Non ergo unquam ebrietas salubris_," by Hammet and
+Langlois. Zacchias, in his medical questions, asks if a physician can
+recommend such a departure from the laws of temperance without committing
+a sin. This query has been also debated by divines. Frederick Hoffmann
+maintained that poets required this indulgence, and attributes in a great
+measure the falling off of genius amongst the modern Greeks to the
+destruction of their vineyards by the Turks. In ancient Iconography we
+oftentimes find Bacchus placed near Minerva. The allusions of Heathen
+mythology to drunkenness, its effects, and the means of tempering its
+influence, are curious. Silenus, the preceptor of Bacchus, although
+represented as always intoxicated, was a philosopher, who accompanied his
+pupil in his Indian expedition, and aided him by the soundness of his
+judgment. Virgil makes him deliver the principles of the epicurean
+doctrines on the formation of the world, and the nature of things. Aelian
+gives us his conversation with Midas regarding the unknown world of Plato
+and other philosophers. He was also considered an able warrior and a wit.
+Aelian derives his name from _Sillainein_. The nymphs who follow his train
+were considered as typical of the water necessary to dilute his potations,
+and the influence of love in checking intemperance.
+
+Montaigne informs us that the celebrated Sylvius recommended an occasional
+debauch; and the late Dr. Gregory was of opinion than an occasional excess
+is, upon the whole, less injurious to the constitution than the practice
+of daily taking a moderate quantity of any fermented liquor or spirit.
+Experience, however, does not uphold the doctor's opinion; and, as I have
+observed in a preceding article, occasional excesses are far more
+injurious than habitual indulgences, under which, in the most
+unfavourable climates, men attain advanced years. An occasional excess
+actually brings on a state of sickness, which, in persons habitually
+sober, may not only last for several days, incapacitating them from any
+pursuit, but be frequently followed by serious accidents. Of course I am
+not alluding to a constant state of intoxication, which will often bring
+on delirium, tremor, apoplexy, and other destructive accidents.
+
+The appearances after death in drunkards exhibit great derangement in
+organic structure. The brain is generally firmer than usual. Serum is not
+unfrequently found effused in its cavities; and, what is singular, this
+watery fluid is often impregnated with the odour of the deceased's
+potations, such as rum, gin, or brandy. Schrader relates several instances
+of the kind. Aether has also been detected after the medicine had been
+freely exhibited. Dr. Ogston states that above four ounces of fluid were
+found in the ventricles of a drunkard's brain, that had all the physical
+qualities of alcohol. He thinks that this effusion takes place previously
+to the coma of intoxication, as he found it in considerable quantities in
+two cases of drowning in the stage of violent excitement from spirituous
+liquors. The mucous coats of the stomachs of drunkards, instead of being
+"worn out," according to the vulgar expression, are thickened, and
+sometimes softened; but in most cases they are found hardened. This
+condition is not likely to accelerate death; on the contrary, the stomach
+is less susceptible of the action of stimulating articles of diet, or
+excess in eating or drinking, than when in a healthy state of
+excitability. When drunkenness proves fatal, it appears that a portion of
+the spirituous part of the liquor is actually absorbed and carried into
+the circulation and the brain. Dr. Copeland has given the following very
+luminous and correct view of the pathology of drunkenness. "During the
+general nervous and vascular excitement consequent on the stimulus,
+increased determination to the head takes place, attended by excited
+vascular action, which soon terminates in congestion as the excitement
+becomes exhausted, and gives rise to drowsiness, sopor, and coma. With
+this state of the disorder effusion of serum takes place in the ventricles
+and between the membranes, heightening the sopor and coma. When the
+congestion or effusion amounts so high as to impede the functions of the
+organs at the basis of the encephalon and of the respiratory nerves,
+respiration becomes unfrequent and laborious, and consequently the changes
+produced by it on the blood insufficiently performed. In proportion as the
+blood is less perfectly changed in the lungs, the circulation through them
+is retarded, and the phenomena of asphyxy,--congestion of the lungs,
+right side of the head, brain, and liver; the circulation of
+unarterialized blood; the imperfect evolution of animal heat, and sedative
+effects upon the brain and nervous system generally,--follow in a more or
+less marked degree, according to the quantity of the intoxicating fluid
+that has been taken, and either gradually disappear after some time, or
+increase until life is extinguished. These phenomena are heightened by
+cold, which depresses the vital action in the extremities and surface to
+which it is applied, and increases the congestion in the above organs. The
+fatal consequences of intoxication are often averted by the occurrence of
+vomiting, the stomach thereby being relieved from a great part of the
+poison."
+
+Besides wine and spirituous liquors various other substances have been
+employed to bring on this supposed pleasurable state. The Syrian rue
+(_Peganum Harmala_), was constantly used by Sultan Solyman. The _Hibiscus
+Saldarissa_ of the Indians, which furnishes their _bangne_, is supposed to
+be the _Nepenthes_ of the ancients. The _Penang_ or Indian beetle, the
+_Hyosciamus Niger_. The _Belladonna_, the _Cocculus Indicus_, are drugs
+that have been resorted to by various nations. The last ingredient has
+made the fortune of many of our wealthy brewers, at the expense of public
+sobriety and health.
+
+In the accidents that follow intoxication, bleeding has frequently been
+resorted to. Nothing can be more hazardous than this practice, justly
+condemned by Darwin, Trotter, and most physicians, who have had frequent
+opportunities of witnessing the distressing train of symptoms that
+inebriety brings on. Coffee and green tea will be found the most
+efficacious antidotes, when no sickness prevails. Nausea is counteracted
+by effervescent and aromatic draughts, such as soda-water, (so highly
+appreciated by Byron, when accompanied by a sermon, after a night's
+conviviality,) spruce-beer, Seidlitz powders, &c. The ancients had
+recourse to various means to counteract the effects of wine, and amongst
+others we find olives and olive oil, wormwood, and saffron. The Greeks
+used a solution of salt, a common remedy among seafaring men to the
+present day; and the Romans surrounded their heads with wreaths of various
+refreshing plants. When Aristotle tells us that Dionysius of Syracuse
+remained in a state of intoxication for eighty days, we must suppose that
+he got drunk every morning.
+
+That the ancients were in the habit of diluting their wine with water,
+there cannot be a doubt. The Lacedaemonians accused those who drank it pure
+of acting like Scythians,--an expression introduced ever since Cleomenes
+the Spartan had learned to drink freely amongst them. The Thracians were
+also accused of this practice, which clearly proves that it was not
+general. Philochorus reports that Amphictyon, king of Athens, learned to
+mix wine and water from Bacchus himself, on which account he dedicated an
+altar to the god. According to Athenaeus, this dilution was of various
+strength; sometimes in the proportion of one to two, at others of one to
+five. The Lacedaemonians used to boil their wine till the fifth part was
+consumed, under the impression that they thus deprived it of its
+spirituous qualities. Sometimes this boiled wine was laid by for four
+years.
+
+To add to the intoxicating power of wine various means were resorted to,
+and a mixture of myrrha was supposed to produce this effect. Such was the
+_murrhina_ of the Romans, mentioned in St. Mark's gospel, and which was
+given to malefactors before their execution.
+
+Notwithstanding the sobriety of the ancients, my fair readers may perhaps
+be glad to know that the ladies were allowed to indulge in an occasional
+stoup; and the Greek matrons and virgins were by no means restricted in a
+moderate use of the grape's delicious juice, as illustrated by Homer in
+Nausica and her companions. In the ancient entertainments the first
+libation was offered up to Vesta, as being, according to Cicero, _rerum
+custos intimarum_, or keeper of things most concealed; or, according to
+Aristocritus, for the services rendered by this goddess to Jupiter in his
+war against the Giants. However, without any erudite comments, it is very
+probable that even the poor Vestals were sometimes delighted when they
+could take a drop of wine to beguile their solitude.
+
+The phenomena of drunkenness have been so ably described by Macnish, that
+I most gladly transcribe the following passage from that author's
+excellent work, called the "Anatomy of Drunkenness."
+
+"First an unusual serenity prevails over the mind, and the soul of the
+votary is filled with a placid satisfaction. By degrees he is sensible of
+a soft and not unmusical humming in the ears, at every pause of the
+conversation. He seems, to himself, to wear his head lighter than usual
+upon his shoulders. Then a species of obscurity, thinner than the finest
+mist, passes before his eyes, and makes him see objects rather
+indistinctly. The lights begin to dance and appear double, a gaiety and
+warmth are felt at the same time about the heart. The imagination is
+expanded, and filled with a thousand delightful images. He becomes
+loquacious, and pours forth, in enthusiastic language, the thoughts, which
+are born, as it were, within him.
+
+"Now comes a spirit of universal contentment with himself and all the
+world. He thinks no more of misery: it is dissolved in the bliss of the
+moment. This is the acme of the fit--the ecstasy is now perfect. As yet
+the sensorium is in tolerable order, it is only shaken, but the capability
+of thinking with accuracy still remains. About this time the drunkard
+pours out all the secrets of his soul. His qualities, good or bad, come
+forth without reserve; and now, if at any time, the human heart may be
+seen into. In a short period, he is seized with a most inordinate
+propensity to talk nonsense, though he is perfectly conscious of doing so.
+He also commits many foolish things, knowing them to be foolish. The power
+of volition, that faculty which keeps the will subordinate to the
+judgment, seems totally weakened. The most delightful time seems to be
+that immediately before becoming very talkative. When this takes place a
+man turns ridiculous, and his mirth, though more boisterous, is not so
+exquisite. At first the intoxication partakes of sentiment, but, latterly,
+it becomes merely animal.
+
+"After this the scene thickens. The drunkard's imagination gets disordered
+with the most grotesque conceptions. Instead of moderating his drink, he
+pours it down more rapidly than ever, glass follows glass with reckless
+energy. His head becomes perfectly giddy. The candles burn blue, or green,
+or yellow, and when there are perhaps only three on the table, he sees a
+dozen. According to his temperament, he is amorous, or musical, or
+quarrelsome. Many possess a most extraordinary wit, and a great flow of
+spirits is generally attendant. In the latter stages, the speech is thick
+and the use of the tongue in a great measure lost. His mouth is half open,
+and idiotic in the expression; while his eyes are glazed, wavering and
+watery. He is apt to fancy that he has offended some one of the company,
+and is ridiculously profuse in his apologies. Frequently he mistakes one
+person for another, and imagines that some of those before him are
+individuals who are in reality absent or even dead. The muscular powers
+are all along much affected; this indeed happens before any great change
+takes place in the mind and goes on progressively increasing. He can no
+longer walk with steadiness, but totters from side to side. His limbs
+become powerless and inadequate to sustain his weight. He is, however, not
+always sensible of any deficiency in this respect, and while exciting
+mirth by his eccentric motions, imagines that he walks with the most
+perfect steadiness. In attempting to run, he conceives that he passes the
+ground with astonishing rapidity. In his distorted eyes all men and even
+inanimate nature itself, seem to be drunken, while he alone is sober.
+Houses reel from side to side, as if they had lost their balance; trees
+and steeples nod like tipsy bacchanals; and the very earth seems to slip
+under his feet and leave him walking and floundering in the air.
+
+"The last stage of drunkenness is total insensibility. The man tumbles,
+perhaps, beneath the table, and is carried off in a state of stupor to his
+couch _dead drunk_.
+
+"No sooner is his head laid upon the pillow, than it is seized with the
+strongest throbbing. His heart beats quick and hard against his ribs. A
+noise like the distant fall of a cascade, or rushing of a river is heard
+in his ears--rough--rough--rough--goes the sound. His senses now become
+more drowned and stupified. A dim recollection of his carousals, like a
+shadowy and indistinct dream, passes before the mind. He still hears, as
+in echo, the cries and laughter of his companions. Wild fantastic fancies
+accumulate thickly around the brain. His giddiness is greater than ever;
+and he feels as if in a ship tossed upon a heaving sea. At last he drops
+insensibly into a profound slumber.
+
+"In the morning he awakes in a high fever. The whole body is parched; the
+palms of the hands, in particular, are like leather. His head is often
+violently painful. He feels excessive thirst; while his tongue is white,
+dry, and stiff. The whole inside of the mouth is likewise hot and
+constricted, and the throat often sore. Then look at his eyes--how sickly,
+dull and languid! The fire which first lighted them up the evening before
+is all gone. A stupor like that of the last stage of drunkenness still
+clings about them, and they are disagreeably affected by the light. The
+complexion sustains as great a change: it is no longer flushed with gaiety
+and excitation, but pale and wayworn, indicating a profound mental and
+bodily exhaustion. There is probably sickness, and the appetite is totally
+gone.
+
+"Even yet the delirium of intoxication has not left him, for his head
+still rings, his heart still throbs violently, and if he attempt to get
+up, he stumbles with giddiness. The mind also is sadly depressed, and the
+proceedings of the previous night are painfully remembered. He is sorry
+for his conduct, promises solemnly never again so to commit himself, and
+calls impatiently for something to quench his thirst.
+
+"Persons of tender and compassionate minds are particularly subject,
+during intoxication, to be affected to tears at the sight of any
+distressing object, or even on hearing an affecting tale. Drunkenness, in
+most characters, may be said to melt the heart and open the fountain of
+sorrow. Their sympathy is often ridiculous, and aroused by the most
+trifling causes. Those who have a lively imagination, combined with this
+tenderness of heart, sometimes conceive fictitious cases of distress, and
+weep bitterly at the woes of their own creating.
+
+"There are also some persons on whom drunkenness calls forth a spirit of
+piety, or rather of religious hypocrisy, which is both ludicrous and
+disgusting. They become sentimental over their cups, and while in a state
+of debasement most offensive to God and man, they will weep at the
+wickedness of the human heart, entreat you to eschew swearing and profane
+company, and have a greater regard for the welfare of your immortal soul.
+These sanctimonious drunkards seem to consider ebriety as the most venial
+of offences!"
+
+Inebriety has sometimes a curious effect upon the memory. Actions
+committed during intoxication may be forgotten on a recovery from that
+state.
+
+Drunkenness differs materially according to the nature of the intoxicating
+potation. Wine in general may be considered as less injurious, and its
+effects more transient than spirituous liquors, that produce great
+excitement, followed by indirect debility and visceral obstruction. The
+inebriety produced by alcoholic preparations, moreover, is attended with a
+delirious state, furious and uncontrollable, or followed by congestion and
+torpor. Malt liquors render their victims heavy, stupid, and more
+obstinate than violent, and a long continuance in their use produces a
+state of imbecility, observed so early as Aristotle.
+
+Similar differences are observable in the effects of different liquors on
+the imagination. Wine most undoubtedly produces a greater vivacity of
+ideas and a more brilliant scintillation of wit and fancy. Hoffmann,
+indeed, considered the juice of the grape as indispensable to poetic
+inspiration, and it is very doubtful whether Pegasus was ever benefited by
+a draught of beer. But, alas! of what avail are the considerations
+regarding the effects of the pernicious habit of drinking? When once
+accustomed to the cheering stimulus of liquor, it matters not what the
+drunkard takes, and if Champagne or Burgundy are not at hand, gin or rum
+will prove a substitute, perhaps less grateful, but still not unwelcome.
+Drinking becomes the only refuge from those cares which owe their very
+origin to excesses, and they must be drowned in any bowl that can be
+filled to drive away the blue devils.
+
+  Vina parant animos, faciuntque caloribus aptos,
+  Cura fugit, multo diluiturque mero:
+  Tunc veniunt risus, tunc pauper cornua sumit;
+  Tunc dolor et curae, rugaque frontis abit,
+  Tunc aperit mentis aevo, rarissima nostro
+  Simplicitas, artes excutiente Deo.
+
+
+
+
+DECAPITATION.
+
+
+As I have observed in a preceding article, much doubt exists whether
+decapitation puts an end to our sufferings, as it has not and most
+probably will never be ascertained, whether the body or the head are first
+deprived of sensation or vitality. Galvanic experiments had been resorted
+to, but were warmly opposed by Professor Ferry on the plea of humanity, as
+he maintained that unless we were certain that sensation had ceased, we
+had no right to submit the unfortunate culprits who had been decapitated
+to this trial. Guillotin (whose name was given to the terrific machine so
+closely connected in our recollection with the horrors of the French
+Revolution, which he introduced from the East and Germany) maintained that
+the moment the head was severed from the body all sensation ceased.
+Cabanis and Petit were of a similar opinion. Sue, Aldini, Mojon, Weicard,
+Liveling, Castel, and other physiologists, founded their belief in a
+contrary doctrine, upon numerous experiments on various animals. Sue
+grounded his arguments upon two chief points: first, the sudden effect
+produced by decapitation upon the two most powerful regulators of the
+functions of life, the brain and the heart; and secondly, on the
+consideration that the section of the neck was often uneven and jagged,
+splinters of bones irritating the bruised nerves, vessels, and spinal
+marrow.
+
+According to this view of the matter, existence was not immediately
+destroyed by decollation. Castel thought that this principle was
+extinguished in the head sooner than the body. Sue and Julia de Fontenelle
+were of a different opinion. Dubois of Amiens endeavoured to prove the
+non-existence of pain after decapitation, by showing that convulsive
+movements, epileptic and hysteric attacks, were not accompanied by any
+painful sensations. In decapitation, he thinks that the suddenness and
+violence of the blow must produce insensibility, for we cannot imagine
+that the section of the spinal marrow thus violently performed can
+occasion pain; and if any sensations were experienced in that awful
+moment, it is more than probable that the violent perturbation would
+render them obtuse. As to any feelings of the separated head, he does not
+think that any muscular convulsions observed in it can indicate the
+existence of pain.
+
+To these arguments of the Amiens physiologist, Julia de Fontenelle replied
+that it was never maintained that convulsive movements were expressive of
+pain, although it was not impossible that epileptic and hysterical
+patients may have experienced painful sensations during their attacks that
+might be forgotten upon their recovery, as somnambulists bear no
+recollection of what passed during their disturbed slumbers. The
+convulsive affections alluded to by Dubois were frequently expressive both
+of pleasure and of pain, or marked with a character of stupor or of
+indifference, whereas the convulsive movement observed in the features of
+the decapitated invariably expressed anguish; in support of his firm
+belief in the existence of the power of sensation after execution, he
+refers to the observations of Soemmering, Mojou, and Sue, who had
+remarked that when the head was turned towards the solar rays, the eyes
+instantly closed,--a phenomenon that could not take place if the eyes were
+dead. Dr. Montault jocosely observes that it is to be regretted that, to
+decide this controversy, recourse cannot be had to the experiments,
+recorded by Bacon, of an inquisitive person who hanged himself for the
+purpose of ascertaining if strangulation was a painful operation. One of
+his friends very fortunately cut him down ere it was too late, when the
+curious experimentalist was quite satisfied that hanging was by no means
+painful or unpleasant, and that the moment strangulation took place, he
+had been struck with a flickering light, that was instantly followed by
+utter darkness.
+
+Various cases are recorded of individuals thus cut down, when hanged by
+accident, or executed. In most instances they stated that they had
+experienced a pleasurable sensation as strangulation took place. I have
+already alluded to the curious fate of the well-known composer of the
+"Battle of the Prague."
+
+
+
+
+MUMMIES.
+
+
+Much doubt exists regarding the derivation of the word _mummy_. Bochard,
+Menage, Vossius, attributed it to the Arabic noun _mum_, meaning _wax_.
+Salmasius derives it from _mumia_, a body embalmed and aromatized. The
+Persian word _mumiya_, means bitumen or mineral pitch. Abd-Allatif, an
+Arabian physician, describes mummy as a substance flowing from the tops of
+the mountains, and which mixing with the water that streamed down,
+coagulates like mineral pitch.
+
+Many are the opinions relating to the custom of embalming men and various
+animals in ancient Egypt. By some it has been considered a superstitious
+practice, by others the result of affection. To keep the remains of those
+we loved upon earth free from the destructive power of death, and
+preserving in some degree those forms that once flitted before us and
+around us in all the enjoyments of life, is a natural, one might almost
+say an instinctive, sentiment;--preserving those fond remains upon earth,
+exempted from the painful sight of beholding them committed to the
+earth--earth to earth--for ever! How different must have been the feelings
+of the relatives of the departed, when leaving the body reposing in the
+tomb, still preserving the form of its mortal coil--still in the
+world--where all we loved might be visited and spoken to in the language
+of affection and regret--how different must have been these feelings when
+compared to those that compress the respiration and check our utterance,
+after seeing that body separated from us, and leaving a chasm around us
+deeper still than the grave. We are, however, to seek in this practice
+other motives. The wisdom of the theocratic government of ancient Egypt
+was most admirable, and not founded upon mortal affections and dislikes.
+The sovereign priesthood had to attend to concerns of greater magnitude.
+The first inhabitants of Egypt, migrating most probably from the upper
+regions of Ethiopia, had to colonize an unhealthy region, to struggle with
+swamps and marshes, and destroy myriads of animals, whose decomposition
+added to the dangers they had to encounter when settling in such an
+unhealthy land. Pestilence, no doubt, as in after times, frequently
+desolated the infant kingdom. Their priests, in whose temples were
+recorded in mystic legends all the science of the age, must have applied
+their experience and their judgment to meet the evil, and surmount it,
+were it possible. The ideas of corruption are closely connected with those
+of putrescency; and putrescency has ever been considered the chief source
+and focus of pestilential maladies. To avoid corruption and putrescence,
+then, became one of the most important Hygienic studies; and, like Moses,
+who had received his early education in Egypt, its priesthood enforced
+salutary laws as the injunction of the Creator; nor was the task as
+difficult as it might have proved in a more extensive and more diversified
+region. The population resided in a land of no very great extent; their
+climate did not vary according to prominent topographical circumstances;
+and the produce of the soil, as regarded alimentary substances, admitted
+of little variety. Thus it became easy to establish salutary institutions
+to regulate the mode of living of the obedient people, who looked upon the
+commands of their sainted legislators as dictates from the eternal throne.
+
+Impressed with the conviction of the immortality of the soul, the Egyptian
+priesthood imagined, or, at any rate, endeavoured to persuade the
+multitude that the immortal part of our being was retained within its
+earthly house so long as the corporal form could be preserved entire, and
+if (which is most probable) they believed in the resurrection of the soul
+either in its human form or that of some other animal, this doctrine may
+be easily accounted for as founded upon reason, and grateful to the
+sensitive feelings. A belief in the transmigration of souls naturally led
+to the desire of retaining them as long as it was possible in their former
+abodes; and the lines of Virgil--
+
+      Animamque sepulchro,
+  Condimus,
+
+would seem to warrant this belief amongst the ancients. St. Augustine
+clearly tells us that the Egyptians did believe in a resurrection.
+
+Amongst other prophylactic means to resist epidemic diseases the embalming
+of the dead must naturally have occurred to the sacred college as one of
+the most effectual means of checking or preventing contagion. Not only was
+man submitted to this process, but every animal, domestic or obnoxious,
+was equally preserved. It may be said, if destruction was rendered a
+prudent step, why were not these bodies consumed by fire? The reason
+appears to me obvious. It was necessary to check the consumption of animal
+food; therefore were various animals considered sacred, and not allowed to
+be immolated for the use of the multitude; other animals were considered
+noxious, and as such their use was forbidden. Religion thus stamped them
+with the irrevocable dye of holiness or corruption. Mystic characters were
+traced upon their remains. The sanctity of these animals sometimes varied
+in different districts, and the ibis was venerated where the serpent was
+disregarded. When we contemplate the thousands of crocodiles in the
+caverns of Samoun, the myriads of the ibis in the desert of Hermopolis,
+Antinoe, Memphis,--when we behold even the eggs that were destined to
+perpetuate their race thus preserved,--had not these animals been thus
+respected, they would have become the food of the inhabitants, and, both
+from their abundance and their unwholesome qualities, have added to the
+frequent scourges that desolated the land.
+
+Here again we find that this anomaly was unavoidable: those myriads of
+animals, from the nature of the climate and the soil would have increased
+to such numbers as to overrun the land. What was to be done? Had they been
+considered edible, most unquestionably they would have been devoured as
+food; it therefore became necessary to destroy and embalm them: this
+destruction was no doubt inculcated as a religious duty; otherwise, how
+should we find even to the present day, such numbers of these creatures,
+preserved through the lapse of ages, with their very eggs,--another proof
+that even their incubation was checked. Placed between the desolate desert
+and the sea, numerous must have been the races of animals who sought
+refuge in this wondrous region; and, as Lagasquie observes, in the
+Necropolis of Alexandria and Memphis, at Arsinoe, Charaounah, Achmin,
+Beni-Hacan, Samoun, Hermopolis, Thebes, and in innumerable hypogean
+monuments, we find the remains of thousands--nay of millions--of ibises,
+crocodiles, cats, rats, dogs, jackals, wolves, monkeys, serpents, nay,
+fishes of various kinds. Passalacqua found at Thebes numbers of birds,
+rats, mice, toads, adders, beetles and flies, all embalmed together. Nay,
+Herodotus informs us that the animals considered sacred in one city, were
+held in abhorrence in others, a difference of opinion that not
+unfrequently occasioned bitter hostilities. Thus the Ombites fought with
+the Tentyrites on account of the sparrowhawks, and the Cynopolitans waged
+war with the Oxyrhynchites from disputes about dogs and pikes. These
+schisms no doubt arose from priestly ambition, each temple claiming its
+especial shrine of adoration, for whatever might have been the original
+motive that led to those theological practices, there is no doubt but all
+these animals were to a certain degree typical of the good and evil
+propensities of the various deities, as manifested in their several
+habits, whence they were selected in the symbols and attributes of the
+sovereign powers. Abbe Banier endeavours to prove that the bull was the
+symbol of Osiris and Isis, and that these divinities were themselves
+symbolic of the sun and moon. Thus the worship of the bull, Mnevis and
+Apis. The inhabitants of Mendes adored the god Pan, and worshipped him
+under the figure of a goat, and Mercury is represented with the head of a
+dog, the most intelligent of animals. Thus in time people lost sight of
+the origin of the worship, and transferred their adoration to the symbols,
+as many Roman Catholics transfer their worship of the saints to their
+wooden images.
+
+The priesthood of Egypt sought not their power in terror, but in affection
+and gratitude. They strove to convince the people that they were their
+true friends and real benefactors; their sole study was their welfare,
+their greatest pride the nation's prosperity. Gratitude appears to be the
+sentiment they most sought to inculcate. The serpent was held in
+veneration, because it destroyed noxious vermin; the ibis was respected
+from the same motive; the crocodile for the protection it afforded their
+navigable waters; yet, by one of those strange anomalies that we find in
+most mythological _reveries_, animals were held sacred, although they
+constantly destroyed other sacred creatures; and while the crocodile was
+worshipped, the ichneumons that destroyed its eggs were also entitled to
+respect. Such was the value of the remains of departed relatives and
+friends, that their embalmed bodies were often pledged for large sums. The
+more readily advanced, since their redemption was considered a sacred
+duty. Thus do we find worldly regulations, bearing the sanctity of a
+theologic seal. Then again how mighty must have been the hierarchy from
+whose doctrines emanated the Pharaonic splendour of their stupendous
+monuments--works of art, that attracted the notice and the admiration of
+all the civilized part of the globe, whose travellers while they flocked
+to view their magnificence, were taught to cultivate the sciences and
+arts, which the priesthood professed, smatterings of which those visiters
+proudly carried back as a precious gift to their country. Moreover what
+occupation must have been afforded to the people and to their numerous
+captives, whom they continually dreaded, from the apprehension that in
+their constant wars, their prisoners might join their enemies--a
+circumstance fully proved in Holy Writ, where we find, in Exodus i. 10,
+that the Hebrews were oppressed, "lest when there falleth out any war,
+they join also unto our enemies and fight against us."
+
+This overwhelming power, most fortunately wise and humane, was maintained
+by every artifice that ingenuity could devise. Egypt has justly been
+denominated the _Alma Mater_ of superstition, since we have every reason
+to suppose, that with much less wisdom and learning, every successive
+hierarchy has sought by similar means to retain an equal sway. In Egypt
+this influence must have been amazing, they held the first rank after the
+sovereign, whom they assisted in the performance of all his public duties,
+were present in all his councils, and directed his judgment from the
+lessons which were laid down for his conduct in the sacred records. All
+the judges and principal officers of state were also selected in the
+priesthood; their number must also have been very considerable, since we
+find them classed as chief priests or pontiffs, and inferior priests of
+various grades belonging to the sacred deities, prophets, judges,
+hierophants, magistrates, hierogrammats, or sacred scribes; Basilico
+grammats, or royal scribes; Sphragistae, whose office it was to examine the
+victims, and to put a seal of approbation on them before the sacrifice.
+Hierostoli, who had access to the Adytum, to clothe the statues of the
+gods; doctors, embalmers; hierophori, or the bearers of sacred emblems;
+pterophori, or bearers of the fans carried before the gods; praecones, or
+pastophori, bearers of the holy images, and keepers of the sacred animals;
+hierolaotomi, or masons of the priestly order, besides innumerable
+painters, sculptors, sprinklers of holy water, and flappers to drive away
+the flies.
+
+Kings were chiefly selected from the priestly order, and when they had
+been members of the military class, they were obliged to enter a
+sacerdotal college before they could ascend the throne; even then, they
+were only allowed to be attended by the children of families belonging to
+the priesthood.
+
+If such was the influence of priests, that of the priestesses were not the
+less powerful. The Pellices, or Pallacides of Amun, filled offices of the
+highest importance, and not unfrequently queens and princesses prided
+themselves in performing their duties. The subdivision of the female
+attendants of the temples was also sanctified, and they were chiefly
+selected in the families of priests. If we are to believe the Grecian
+accounts, these holy women were not remarkable for their chastity; their
+indiscretions, however, were confined to their own circle. These
+assertions, have been by no means general, nor is it probable that a class
+of men who affected so much purity, and observed such a rigid abstinence
+to obtain the character of sanctity to which their power was due, would
+have exposed themselves to the results of such an improvident mode of
+living.
+
+My view of the origin of embalming both men and animals is borne out by
+another striking circumstance. The moment the practice of embalming the
+bodies of men and animals ceased in Egypt, pestilence appeared. At the
+period when Christianity was introduced into Egypt, the new religion had
+to encounter many obstacles in overcoming the obstinate prejudices of the
+ancient creed. During the four first centuries of its propagation, the
+ancient customs were persevered in; at last the cross triumphed and was
+enthroned, and the practice of embalming was abolished. In 356, St.
+Anthony, upon his death-bed, anathematised it as sacrilegious; his last
+injunction according to St. Athanasius, his historian, had such an effect,
+that an injudicious zeal prevailed in Rome, in Constantinople, and other
+large cities, and led to the practice of inhuming bodies in churches and
+cemeteries, notwithstanding the prohibition of the magistracy. While the
+dead were interred in towns, or their vicinity, in dwelling houses and
+gardens, the remains of animals were scattered abroad to become part of
+the soil, and thus this most dangerous innovation hurried on the
+development of the most dangerous of diseases. In 1542, under Justinian,
+Egypt was avoided as the focus of pestilence. It would be difficult to
+point out the exact period when the custom of embalming fell into disuse;
+but it had ceased to be practised at the time when pestilence burst forth
+over the land in all its irresistible horrors. The coincidence was too
+remarkable not to have been noticed.
+
+It is certainly true that the plague had visited Egypt at former periods,
+recorded in holy writ, when we know not to what extent the preparation of
+mummies might have been carried, although we find that Jacob was embalmed
+by physicians; but when we consider the topography of Egypt presenting a
+vast plain exposed to a yearly inundation, its soil preserved for
+centuries from the admixture of animal substances, but of a sudden changed
+into a mass of corrupted bodies of men and animals, acted upon by heat and
+moisture,--when the inhumation of man was neglected, and the offals of
+beasts and reptiles accumulated in pestilential heaps,--we may easily
+imagine what a luxuriant field was submitted to the scythe of death.
+
+The Egyptians had, no doubt, introduced the practice of embalming the dead
+from Ethiopia, a country abounding in various gums, which served them to
+preserve the remains of their relatives. The transparency of these
+substances had induced some travellers to assert that the bodies were
+imbedded in glass, like insects found in amber. De Pau, and many other
+writers, have exposed the absurdity of such a report, since it is more
+than probable that glass was scarcely, if at all, known amongst them. The
+Persians enveloped their dead in wax; and the Scythians sewed them up in
+skins.
+
+While the foresight and wisdom of the Egyptian sacerdocy was thus
+distinguished by Hygienic institutions, their interests were not
+neglected; and the art of embalming, which they monopolized with every
+other branch of learning, tended not a little to add to their emoluments.
+Every dead body was their property. Herodotus tells us, that if the corpse
+of an Egyptian, or a stranger, was found in the Nile, or cast upon its
+banks, the priests alone had the power to touch it, and afford it a
+sepulture. This interesting, although not very veracious author, gives the
+following account of the process. There are in Egypt a particular class of
+people whose sole business consists in embalming bodies. When a corpse is
+shown them, they exhibit models of mummies depicted upon wood. These
+models are of three kinds, and vary in prices. The bargain being
+concluded, the embalmers commence their labours. The brains are first
+extracted through the nose with a crooked iron instrument; an incision is
+then made in the side of the body with a sharpened Ethiopian stone,
+through which the viscera are drawn. These are cleansed out, washed in
+palm wine, and then strewed with pulverized aromatic substances. The
+abdomen is stuffed with powdered myrrha, cinnamon, and other perfumes, but
+without incense. After these manipulations, the body is sewn up, and
+salted with natrum for seventy days. This period elapsed, the corpse is
+again washed, and swaddled up with rollers of linen, covered with gum,
+which the Egyptians commonly use instead of glue. The relations, after
+this operation, carry home the body, and place it in a wooden case
+resembling the human form; afterwards locking it up in chambers destined
+for the purpose, and placing it upright against the wall. This is the most
+expensive process. The next is more economical. Syringes are filled with
+an unctuous fluid, extracted from the cedar; this liquor is thrown into
+the body through an incision performed in the side, and is of such a
+nature that it gradually corrodes and destroys the viscera: after the body
+has been duly salted, nothing then remains but the bones and skin, which
+this substance does not affect.
+
+Diodorus Siculus gives an account somewhat similar, but adds some curious
+particulars. The first class of funerals cost a silver talent; the second
+twenty minae; and the third scarcely any thing. The embalmers divide their
+labours into various offices. The first, or the scrivener, points out the
+part of the body on the left side where the incision is to be made. The
+next operator is the incisor, who uses for the purpose a sharp Ethiopian
+pebble; the viscera are then drawn out, with the exception of the heart
+and kidneys; and the body is then washed with palm wine and aromatics. The
+corpse is afterwards inuncted with the gum of cedar, and strewed with
+myrrha, cinnamon, and various spices. It is ultimately returned to the
+family of the deceased, in such preservation that the eyebrows and eyelids
+are uninjured, and the countenance preserves the character that
+distinguished it during life.
+
+Porphyrius informs us that the embalmers, after having extracted the
+intestines, exposed them to the sun, putting up a prayer to that luminary,
+and declaring that if the deceased had ever been guilty of any act of
+gluttony, the intestines alone were guilty, and they were therefore cast
+into the Nile. Plutarch alludes to a similar ceremony. The _incisor_
+appears to have been considered a degraded being, for Diodorus tells us,
+that, after the operation, he was pursued by the relations of the defunct,
+and pelted with stones, as having polluted the remains of the dead.
+
+These accounts of the ancients have been warmly impugned by modern
+antiquaries, who maintained that the various substances stated to have
+been made use of in the process of embalming, did not possess the
+qualities attributed to them,--especially the liquor called _cedria_,
+drawn from the cedar-tree. Rouyer, a member of the Egyptian commission of
+sciences and arts, corroborates in a great measure the accounts of ancient
+historians; and, in a very interesting paper on the subject, we find that
+the bones of the nose are destroyed in some mummies, but left intact in
+others,--a circumstance that would lead us to think that on such occasions
+the brain was left in the cranium. The opening in the side did not appear
+to have been sewn up, but the lips of the incision merely brought into
+apposition. He divides mummies into those in which tanno-balsamic
+substances had been introduced, and those that had merely been salted. The
+first species were found stuffed either with aromatic resinous substances,
+or asphaltum and pure bitumen. These resinous substances emitted no odour,
+but, when cast into the fire, a thick smoke arose, and a strong aroma
+became evident. The mummies thus preserved were light, dry, and fragile;
+preserved their teeth, their hair, and eyebrows. Some of them had been
+gilded all over; in others, the gold had only been applied to the face,
+the hands, and the feet, and other parts. This practice of gilding was so
+general, that it does not warrant the belief that it was only the remains
+of the illustrious and wealthy that were thus ornamented. These mummies,
+so long as they were kept in a dry place, were unaltered; but were soon
+decomposed, and emitted an unpleasant effluvium, when exposed to
+atmospheric moisture. The mummies thus prepared were of an olive colour,
+while those preserved with bituminous substances were of a reddish tinge;
+the integuments hard and shining, as if varnished. The features were not
+altered, and the cavities were filled with a black, hard, and inodorous
+resinous substance. The ingredients thus employed were similar to the
+bitumen of Judea; most of them were gilded.
+
+Other mummies were found without any lateral incision, when, most
+probably, the intestines were drawn out through the rectum. These cavities
+were filled with the substance termed by historians _Pissasphaltos_. In
+the mummies merely cured with salt, when this ingredient is abundant, the
+features are obliterated, the surface of the body having been smeared with
+bitumen. These mummies which of course are the remains of the poorer
+classes, are the most common. They are heavy, hard, and black, and shed an
+unpleasant odour. They boast of no gilding; only the palms of the hands,
+the soles of the feet, and the nails, had frequently been decorated with a
+red tinge; most probably by the application of the _henne_. These were the
+mummies which were sold by the Arabs in former times for medicinal
+purposes. For a further description of the mode of enveloping the bodies
+and the history of embalming, I must refer to the valuable labours of Mr.
+Pettigrew.[52] The process of embalming appears to have consisted simply
+in extracting the viscera, or destroying them by some corrosive injection;
+dissolving the mucous and fatty matter by the long application of natrum;
+and, finally, in desiccating the corpse by exposure to air or stoving.
+
+Mummies have been also found in the Canary islands, where they were named
+by the Guanchi _xaxos_. They were light, dry, of a yellow colour, shedding
+a slight aroma, and carefully enclosed in goat-skins. The operation was
+also performed with a sharpened Ethiopian stone, called _tabona_. Humboldt
+found numerous mummies in Mexico, where desiccated bodies have not
+unfrequently been seen in the open air.
+
+Certain soils appear to possess a preservative quality, without any
+apparent preparation having been made use of. In the catacombs of Bordeaux
+and Toulouse, these dried bodies may be seen, the hair and eyebrows still
+intact; but they are dark and shrivelled, and it does not appear that the
+contents of the cavities had been extracted or heeded, the process of
+desiccation being general. The miraculous conservation of bodies recorded
+by Calmet in his History of Vampires was nothing more than instances of a
+similar preservation.
+
+Various experiments have proved that the progress of chemistry has been so
+great, that we might equal the Egyptians in the preparation of mummies, if
+ever such an absurd practice were introduced.
+
+In the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries mummies formed one of the
+ordinary drugs found in Apothecaries shops, and as considerable sums were
+expended in its purchase as had been laid out upon the _besoards_ of
+various rare animals. It became a lucrative branch of trade to the Jews.
+The demand not being easily supplied from the vigilance of the Egyptian
+Government, various frauds were introduced. So powerful were the supposed
+qualities of mummies, that Francis I. always carried a small parcel of it
+about him mixed with rhubarb. Lord Bacon tells us that mummy has great
+force in stanching of blood. Boyle assures us that it is one of the useful
+medicines commended and given for falls and bruises. The Arabs to this day
+make use of mummy powder mixed up with bitters. This preparation is called
+_mantey_, and is esteemed a sovereign remedy for bruises.
+
+
+
+
+HYDROPHOBIA.
+
+
+This term has been erroneously applied to the disease arising from the
+bite of a rabid animal, since many instances are recorded of mad dogs not
+only drinking freely of water and other fluids, but actually swimming
+across rivers; while, on the other hand, the horror of water has attended
+maladies totally unconnected with rabid injuries: Sauvages plainly
+expresses himself on this subject. "Apud Gallo-provincales, experientia,
+canes lubosque rabidos bibisse, munducasse, flumen transnasse, ut olim
+Maralogis et bis Forolivii observatum, adeoque nec potum aversari." Dr.
+James relates the case of a mad dog that drank both milk and water, and
+swam through a pond. Similar cases are recorded of mankind.
+
+This disease was known to the ancients, and the Greek term for rabies was
+_lyssa_, referred to several times by Homer, when Hector is compared to a
+mad dog by Teucer and Ulysses. It was also known by the name of
+_cynolisson_, _phobodipson_, and _hygrophobia_. According to Plutarch, the
+disease was first observed in the time of Asclepiades. Coelius
+Aurelianus is the most correct of the ancient writers on the subject. This
+disease, although it may appear in every climate, is far less common in
+hot regions than in those of a moderate temperature. In the West Indies it
+is unknown; nor has it been observed in South America. In Egypt and Syria
+it has never been seen. Mr. Barrow informs us that at the Cape of Good
+Hope, and amongst the Caffres, their dogs are exempt from the malady,
+although constantly fed upon putrid meat.
+
+Water-dread has been observed in various rheumatic and inflammatory
+affections, and frequently arises in a spontaneous manner; while many
+cases are recorded of the alarming symptoms being witnessed when no rabid
+bite has been inflicted. Violent passions, both in men and animals, seem
+to impart a peculiar acrimony to the saliva. Meekren, Wolff, Zacutus
+Lusitanus, mention fatal cases after the bite of a man in a passionate
+fit. Le Cat gives a case of death produced by the bite of an enraged duck.
+Thiermayer gives us two fatal cases of the bite of a hen and a goose, and
+Camararius has an instance of epilepsy produced by the bite of a horse.
+
+Of the cause of this disease we are utterly ignorant: thirst, without the
+means of quenching it,--the use of putrid food,--sultry weather, have been
+considered as producing the fearful disorder; but no one instance is
+recorded that can justify the opinion. The streets of Lisbon are crowded
+with dogs, feeding upon disgusting offal, under a burning sky, yet rabies
+is scarcely ever observed among them. It is more probable that certain
+mental emotions, such as anger and fear, have a peculiar influence on the
+animal. All the aggregate symptoms of the disease show that the nervous
+system is disturbed; and the singular effect of confidence in the
+treatment of persons bitten by a rabid animal, confirms the fact. This is
+further proved by many cases of hydrophobia unconnected with rabid bites.
+Marcel Donat relates the case of a woman who complained of pains in the
+neck and right arm, with constant trembling. In three days the pain
+ceased, but the tremor continued; a sense of suffocation followed, which
+was attended with a horror of water and every liquid, although the throat
+was burning. In five days she died in excruciating agonies, but preserving
+her senses until the last. Koehler saw a young soldier, who, having
+fallen asleep against a stove, was suddenly awakened with a sensation of
+intense thirst, which he quenched with a draught of cold water.
+Hydrophobia immediately ensued, and the next day terminated his existence.
+Selig relates the case of a man at Neukirchen, who was attacked with all
+the alarming symptoms of this malady after having laboured in the fields
+on a very hot day, and bathed in the river. The following day he was
+affected with violent rheumatic pains, which shortly ushered in an
+intolerance of fluids, and inability of swallowing. In the course of
+twenty-four hours he expired. It appeared upon inquiry that a year before
+he had purchased from the hangman of the town some dog's grease, to rub
+himself to relieve some troublesome affection; and it was stated that the
+dog had been killed by a gamekeeper, who suspected him of being mad.
+
+Cases of plague have been attended with water-dread. Lalius Diversus saw a
+woman labouring under the epidemic, who was thrown into agonies when she
+even saw other persons drinking. Sarcotius, in his history of the epidemic
+diseases of Naples, informs us that the fever was invariably attended with
+hydrophobic symptoms. The fever that prevailed at Breslau in 1719,
+presented the same peculiarity.
+
+Various venene substances have also been known to give rise to this
+disease. Professor Brera, of Pavia, witnessed it after the use of
+stramonium. Rancid oils have caused similar accidents. In regard to the
+causes that produced madness in dogs, numerous experiments have been made,
+particularly in the Veterinary School of Alfort: one dog was fed with
+salted meat, and totally restrained from drinking; another was allowed
+nothing but water; and the third was not allowed food or drink of any
+kind. The first died on the forty-first day; the second on the
+thirty-third; and the third on the twenty-fifth; not one of them evincing
+any symptoms of rabies.
+
+It appears that a peculiar predisposition renders some individuals more
+subject to the accidents that follow the bite of rabid animals than
+others. Mr. Hunter gives an instance in which, out of twenty persons who
+were bitten by the same dog, only one received the disease. It appears,
+however, that this virus is less volatile than most others, and is capable
+of remaining in a dormant state for a very long period; and if we are to
+give credence to many reports on the subject, it may linger in the system
+for several years. At other times, its destructive nature has proved
+immediately injurious. Heisler has given a case where a man was affected
+by merely putting into his mouth the cord by which the mad dog had been
+confined. Palmarius relates the case of a peasant, who, in the last stage
+of the disease, communicated it to his children by kissing them. It has,
+however, been clearly demonstrated, that inoculation of rabid saliva does
+not propagate the distemper. Experiments were made both by Magendie and
+Breschet in 1813. In 1800, when a dresser in the Hotel Dieu of Paris, I
+witnessed several experiments of the kind, and with similar results. At
+the same period, I had occasion to observe the effect of imagination in
+many cases. Several persons had been bitten by a rabid dog in the Faubourg
+St. Antoine, and three of them had died in our wards; a report, however,
+was prevalent that we kept a mixture that would effectually prevent these
+accidents; no less than six applicants were served with a draught of
+coloured water, and in no one instance did any accident ensue.
+
+The period of the development of the accidents after the bite in animals
+is various. According to Meynall, the disease appears amongst dogs from
+ten days to eight months after the injury. In the hounds of Earl
+Fitzwilliam, who were bitten in June 1791, the intervals varied from six
+weeks to six months. Dr. James made a similar observation in Mr. Floyer's
+pack.
+
+No malady has been submitted to more curious and fearful modes of
+treatment than hydrophobia; and in many cases such has been the dread of
+the disease, that patients have been smothered or drowned. Dioscorides
+seared the wound with irons heated to whiteness; other practitioners first
+excised the wounded part, and then applied fire or caustic. While fire was
+resorted to by some practitioners, water was recommended by others, and
+submersion in a river or a pond has frequently been urged as an effectual
+remedy. In the time of Celsus, the miserable sufferer was thrown without
+any warning into a fishpond, alternately plunging his head under water and
+raising it: when the poor wretch could swim, he was forcibly kept immersed
+until filled with water. After this experiment, which Celsus terms the
+_unicum remedium_, for fear that the patient might be attacked with
+convulsions, he was taken out of the pond, and soused in warm oil. Van
+Helmont recommended that the poor devil should be kept under water while
+the psalm _Miserere_ was sung, and most probably the terrified choristers
+were not expeditious in their performance. Morin relates the case of a
+young woman, twenty years old, who was plunged in a tub of water, with a
+bushel of salt dissolved in it, and dipped repeatedly, until she became
+insensible; however, much to the surprise of the bystanders, who thought
+her dead, she recovered, and could not only look upon water, but was able
+to drink it. Bleeding nearly to death, mercury, cantharides, and various
+medicines, have been also called into aid; but none have appeared to prove
+effectual in curing this dreadful disorder. One of the most singular modes
+of treatment was the introduction of rabid blood into the system of the
+patient,--in fact, a homoeopathic plan of Dr. Rithmeister of Powlowsk,
+in Finland, who has recorded several cases to prove that the blood of a
+rabid animal, when drunk, is a specific against canine hydrophobia. The
+doctor communicates a letter from Dr. Stockmann, a Russian physician,
+stating this practice to be both common and effectual in White Russia.
+
+With a view of producing a fresh poisonous action that might neutralize
+the former one, it has also been proposed that a venomous serpent should
+be made to inflict a wound under the bite of the mad dog. I do not believe
+that this experiment has ever been tried; and, as Good observes, the claim
+of ingenuity is, most probably, the only one it will ever have to receive.
+This fatal disease is enveloped in so much darkness, both as regards its
+causes and its treatment, that it may well be considered one of the
+opprobriums of the profession. The experiments of my late friend Sir David
+Barry are, however, of great importance; and in many cases of poisonous
+wounds, the application of cupping-glasses has been followed by evident
+favourable results.
+
+To ascertain the existence of rabies in animals, more especially in dogs,
+is a matter of great importance, as being frequently the source of moral
+depression or of sanguine hope, that may tend to increase or diminish the
+severity of the accidents. One may apprehend madness in a dog when we see
+the animal dull, and seeking solitude and darkness, his sleep disturbed,
+and when awakened refusing food or drink. Its head droops, the tail hangs
+between the legs. The animal soon quits the abode of his master, the mouth
+secreting a viscid foam, the tongue pendulous and dry, the eyes bright and
+sparkling. His gait soon becomes uncertain; now precipitate, then slow and
+undecided. Impatient, and parched with a burning thirst, he cannot rest;
+and the sight of any fluid occasions an instinctive shudder. The rabid
+symptoms now become more violent; the animal will attack and bite other
+dogs, although much superior in strength. It is asserted that dogs avoid
+him with terror. On these occasions the fury of the animal is not to be
+controlled; all ties of attachment are dissolved; and his master is but
+too frequently the first victim of his indiscriminate rage. Hence the
+absurd popular notion that mad dogs inflict their first bite on those to
+whom they are attached,--a circumstance that simply can be attributed to
+the natural endeavours of a master to check the violence of a domestic
+creature whom he generally can control. Mad dogs seldom bark, but express
+their angry uneasiness with a growl, which gradually becomes weaker, until
+the animal staggers, droops, and dies. Yet as there may exist many
+maladies amongst animals in which these symptoms are observed, to destroy
+them, as is usually the case, is a most absurd practice, since the
+individuals whom they may have bitten will sink into a fatal despondency;
+whereas, by allowing them to live, if they recover, it is evident that the
+patient will be easily persuaded that the dog was not in a rabid state.
+
+The following cases, recorded by Dr. Perceval, are curious instances of
+the dormant state of this fearful virus, the effects of which are
+accidentally developed.
+
+A wine-porter was labouring under a low fever; after a time appeared some
+symptoms of hydrophobia, and much inquiry elicited the recollection of his
+having been slightly bitten by a dog six weeks before. In the interval he
+was convicted of some fraudulent practice in the cellar of his master, to
+whom he owed great obligation, and was dismissed with disgrace. Anxiety on
+this event seemed to produce the fever, which terminated in rabies.
+
+Lately an officer was bitten by a dog, whose madness being recognised, the
+bitten part was excised immediately: after an undisturbed interval of two
+months, he was advised to go to England to dissipate the recollection of
+the accident. There he exercised himself violently in hewing wood, felt
+pain in the hand which had been bitten, embarked for Ireland, had symptoms
+of hydrophobia on board the packet, and died soon after his arrival. From
+the varying period of attack, we might infer that the influence of
+occasional causes is very considerable. In the last patient, hydrophobia
+supervened exactly five weeks from the time of the bite: he lost one
+hundred and twenty ounces of blood in twelve hours, which sunk him much;
+violent perspiration, and at length delirium, attended the water-dread;
+during the last twenty-four hours he swallowed, and recovered his senses;
+and died slightly convulsed, whilst cutting an egg. These cases seem to
+point out agitation of mind and feverish excitation as powerful occasional
+causes.
+
+Herman Strahl has recently related the following case of rabies in which
+the dog that had bitten the patient was not mad. In the month of January,
+1833, an innkeeper was taken ill. The doctor found him dressed, and
+stretched upon his bed. He did not complain of any particular ailment, but
+loathed all food. He at last admitted that he experienced some difficulty
+in swallowing; and his mother having offered him a cup of tea, he refused
+it with a sense of horror, and his countenance immediately assumed a
+character of ferocity that terrified the bystanders. An apple having been
+given to him, he ate it without repugnance. It was now discovered that,
+five weeks before, he had been bitten by a dog he was training; and the
+wound was slow in healing. The dog was sought, and did not show the
+slightest sign of disease,--barking, playing, and drinking freely. In the
+evening the patient's case was aggravated; and it was with the utmost
+difficulty that he was made to swallow a spoonful of ptisan. The next day
+he was seized with a violent attack of rabies: seeing one of his sisters
+drinking, he fell into a furious rage, dashed a looking-glass to pieces,
+and entreated his relatives to withdraw, as he otherwise would inevitably
+bite them. This outrageous paroxysm lasted half an hour; at its expiration
+he fell into a tranquil sleep. But at night he was seized with another
+attack; and he began to howl and imitate the barking of a dog, and
+commenced breaking every thing in the room of a shining appearance. His
+sisters fled in dismay; but he seized his mother, a woman of sixty-five
+years of age, cast her on the ground, and bit her in the cheek. After this
+desperate act, he seemed to be struck with a conviction of what he had
+done, and became more tranquil; but, half an hour after, on entering his
+chamber, he was found dead, his head under the bedclothes. His mother did
+not experience any accidents from the injury.
+
+It is singular that, in this miserable condition, the patients will
+frequently show singular partialities; and, although repulsing any fluid
+offered to them by some individuals, will take it from others, and
+attempt, however vainly, to drink. In the Hotel Dieu of Paris, a young
+girl, affected with hydrophobia, would only take a cup of ptisan from me;
+but with looks of inexpressible anxiety returned it to me, after having
+struggled to moisten her burning lips. At Boulogne, a postilion, bitten by
+a mad dog, was violent with every one but one of my nephews: from him he
+also accepted drink, although unable to swallow it; before dying in
+excruciating agonies, he repeatedly asked for him, and begged that he
+might be sent for. He would not allow, even in his last moments, any other
+person to come near him;--another striking instance of that unknown power
+of sympathy to which I have frequently alluded in the preceding pages.
+
+
+
+
+ON THE RISE AND PROGRESS OF THE SCIENCE OF MEDICINE.
+
+
+In a former paper I have given a sketch of the progress of the Chirurgical
+profession, relating the many difficulties its members had to encounter in
+their endeavours to attain that degree of perfection to which surgery has
+risen; a perfection which we have every reason to believe will still
+continue to be improved by the daily discoveries of the Physiologist,
+whose labours may be considered the theoretical guide of the practitioner.
+The history of medicine is equally fraught with much interest, since its
+being a science more or less conjectural, it has opened a vast career to
+the speculative mind, and a wide field for the ambitious. Having been long
+considered a divine inspiration, priesthood in every age considered this
+science an attribute of their vocation, adding to their spiritual and
+temporal power.
+
+In a rude state of society it is more than probable that the art of curing
+diseases, as well as that of healing injuries, did not constitute a
+special profession, but was practised indiscriminately by all persons
+whose experience and position in the midst of their uncivilized kinsfolks,
+gave some weight and importance to their advice. Warriors attended their
+wounded companions in arms. Parents sought to relieve their offspring, and
+children endeavoured to alleviate the sufferings of their aged and infirm
+sires. Thus, I may say, was the art of healing instinctively taught, and
+not unfrequently the brute creation guided the efforts of humanity; when
+man contemplated the means animals resorted to when labouring under
+disease. Plutarch affirms that it is to these instinctive efforts of
+animals that we are indebted for the knowledge of the various properties
+of plants. The wild goats of Crete pointed out the use of the _Dictamus_
+and vulnerary herbs--dogs when indisposed sought the _Triticum repens_,
+and the same animal taught to the Egyptians the use of purgatives
+constituting the treatment called _Syrmaism_. The hippopotamus introduced
+the practice of bleeding, and it is affirmed that the employment of
+enemata was shown by the ibis. Sheep with worms in their liver were seen
+seeking saline substances, and cattle affected with dropsy anxiously
+looked for chalybeate waters. This study might therefore have been called
+an instinctive school.
+
+Herodotus tells us that the Babylonians and Chaldeans had no physicians,
+and in cases of sickness the patient was carried out and exposed on the
+highway, that any persons passing by who had been affected in a similar
+manner, might give some information regarding the means that had afforded
+them relief. Shortly, these observations of cures were suspended in the
+temples of the gods, and we find that in Egypt the walls of their
+sanctuaries were covered with records of this description. The priests of
+these shrines soon considered these treasures as their property, and
+turned their possession to a good account. Amongst the Hebrews we find
+that the Levites were considered as the only persons who could cure
+leprosy, and the practice of medicine became their province.
+
+The priests of Greece adopted the same practice, and some of the tablets
+suspended in their temples are of a curious character which will
+illustrate the custom. The following votive memorials are given by Gurter:
+"Some days back, a certain Caius, who was blind, learned from an oracle,
+that he should repair to the temple, put up his fervent prayers, cross the
+sanctuary from right to left, place five fingers on the altar, then raise
+his hand and cover his eyes. He obeyed, and instantly his sight was
+restored amidst the loud acclamations of the multitude. These signs of the
+omnipotence of the gods were shown in the reign of Antoninus."
+
+"A blind soldier named Valerius Apes, having consulted the oracle, was
+informed that he should mix the blood of a white cock with honey, to make
+up an ointment to be applied to his eyes, for three consecutive days: he
+received his sight and returned public thanks to the gods."
+
+"Julian appeared lost beyond all hope, from a spitting of blood. The god
+ordered him to take from the altar some seeds of the pine, and to mix them
+with honey, of which mixture he was to eat for three days. He was saved,
+and came to thank the gods in presence of the people."
+
+The _Ex volos_ of modern times suspended at the altars of saints in
+Catholic churches, are similar testimonials of superstitious credulity,
+and priestly fraud, and constitute a lucrative branch of business, more
+particularly to waxchandlers, who fabricate simulacra of every organ or
+member of the body that may be diseased.
+
+Such was the study and practice of medicine, until the days of
+Hippocrates, justly named the father of medicine. But even this great man
+in his study of the problematic science, attributed to divine influence
+all that could not be comprehended and explained, giving the appellation
+of sacred, to that which appeared prodigious and inexplicable. This divine
+influence which was considered as invincible, setting at nought all human
+speculation and mortal efforts, he denominated the [Greek: to theion] the
+_Divinum quid_, he also fancied that the principle of fire was the source
+of all animation; for the which opinion, more modern writers pronounced
+him an atheist, amongst other bigots, who thus accused him, we find
+Gundling and Drelincourt, and even Mosheim; while on the other hand, Will
+Schmidt, Fabricius, and Bellunensi have sought to reconcile his doctrine
+with the scriptures; and so far from this accusation being founded, it is
+well known that Hippocrates had such an implicit belief in the power of
+the gods, that he got himself initiated in the Eleusinian mysteries at
+Athens. We find in his Praenotum the following singular passage:
+"Nevertheless, there does exist in all diseases something of a divine
+nature, and the physician who is able to foresee their results, must be
+admired for his judgment."
+
+This divine _something_, has been the subject of much research and angry
+disputation. Galen considered it to reside in the atmosphere. Fernel
+considered it the principle of putrefaction and disorganization.
+Mercuriali placed it in sideral influence, while Professor Martianus
+maintained that Hippocrates had a firm belief in demons and malevolent
+spirits. It would be endless to recount all the idle disquisitions on this
+matter, which have too frequently converted universities into
+Pandemoniums.
+
+The earliest teachers of medicine were the philosophers, amongst whom we
+must remark Pythagoras, who founded the school of Crotona, where assuming
+the sanctity of the priesthood he obtained such an authority over his
+disciples, that it gave rise to the common expression of _jurare in verba
+magistri_. This truly wonderful man had learnt in Egypt the secret
+symbolic mode of writing of the priests, and he certainly did apply his
+extensive acquirements to the welfare of his country and the benefit of
+mankind; according at least to his views of the subject, which we have
+every reason to believe were conscientious. From his youth, when he bore
+away the prize in the Olympic games, his lofty ambition, which scarcely
+knew any bounds, constantly urged him on in a career of perfection in
+every branch of learning, which ultimately placed him on the highest
+ground that ever philosopher attained.
+
+After Pythagoras, we find medicine taught by Anaxagoras, Democritus,
+Heraclitus; but Hippocrates was justly considered the father of medicine,
+and deserved the name of _great_--every line of his immortal works
+breathes a deep knowledge of the phenomena of nature, and an ardent desire
+to release the most important of all human sciences from the degrading
+trammels of ignorance and imposture. Nothing can afford a more convincing
+proof of the purity of his motives, and the integrity of his principles
+than the formula of the oath which he exacted from his disciples, and
+which runs as follows:
+
+"I swear by Apollo, by Esculapius, by Hygeia, and all the gods, to fulfil
+religiously the solemn promise which I now do make.
+
+"I will honour as my father, the master who shall teach me the art of
+healing, and convince him of my gratitude, by endeavouring to minister to
+all his necessities. I will consider his children as my own, and will
+gratuitously teach them my profession should they express a desire to
+follow it.
+
+"I shall act in a similar manner to all my brethren who are bound by a
+similar engagement, but shall not admit any other to my lessons, my
+discourses, or the exercises of my profession.
+
+"I shall prescribe to my patients, such a course of regimen as I may
+consider best suited to their condition, according to the best of my
+judgment and capacity, seeking to preserve them from any thing that might
+prove injurious.
+
+"No inducement shall ever lead me to administer poison, nor shall I ever
+give a criminal advice, or contribute to an abortion.
+
+"My sole end shall be to relieve and cure my patients, to render myself
+worthy of their confidence, and not to expose myself, even to the
+suspicion of having abused this influence, more especially when a woman is
+in the case.
+
+"I shall seek to maintain religiously both the integrity of my conduct,
+and the honour of my art.
+
+"I will not operate for the stone, but leave that operation to those who
+cultivate it.
+
+"To whatever dwelling I may be called, I shall cross its threshold with
+the sole view of succouring the sick, abstaining from all injurious views
+and corruption, especially from any immodest action.
+
+"If during my attendance, or even after a recovery, I happen to become
+acquainted with any circumstances of the patient's life which should not
+be revealed, I shall consider this knowledge a profound secret, and
+observe on the subject a religious silence.
+
+"May I as a rigid observer of this my oath, reap the fruit of my labours,
+enjoy a happy life, and obtain general esteem--should I become a perjurer,
+may the reverse be my lot."
+
+At this period the physician who founded a school taught every branch of
+the science, and after examining his disciples, gave them a permission to
+practise the profession when properly qualified. Hippocrates was succeeded
+by his sons Thessalus and Draco.
+
+The school of Hippocrates was followed by that of Plato who founded the
+dogmatic sect, but his speculative views were succeeded by the more sound
+doctrines of Aristotle, who was one of the first philosophers who applied
+himself to practical anatomy in the frequent dissections of various
+animals, and he struck out the important path which his successor
+Herophilus was fortunate enough to follow for the welfare of mankind, by
+submitting human bodies to the scrutinizing scalpel under the protection
+of Ptolemy Lagus, a protection which became the more necessary as he had
+been actually accused of having dissected living subjects. Tertullian
+affirms that he had thus sacrificed six hundred victims; but what faith
+can we place in such an absurd charge, which very probably arose from envy
+or prejudice; although his successor Erasistratus, was accused of a
+similar offence, and in more modern times Mondini, who was the first to
+reintroduce human dissections was exposed to a like charge. It was
+Herophilus who founded the celebrated school of Alexandria, where under
+the auspices of Ptolemy Philadelphus, Erasistratus succeeded him, followed
+by Strabo of Berytus, Strabo of Lampsacus, Lycon of Troas, Apollonius of
+Memphis, and many other distinguished philosophers.
+
+It was at this period that physicians began to practise surgery, which was
+first taught with great repute in the Alexandrian school, and where
+Ammonicus and Sostrates, surnamed the lythotomists, first distinguished
+themselves by this important operation.
+
+While the science of medicine thus flourished in Greece and Egypt it was
+scarcely known in Rome, where the first physician who ventured to practise
+was Archagathus from Peloponnesus. At first the bold adventurer was
+favourably received, but his operations having shocked a people who
+constantly glutted their eyes in scenes of horror, and who beheld the
+blood of gladiators flowing in their arena or streaming under the lictors
+axe! the imprudent practitioner was stoned to death by the populace, and a
+hundred and fifty years elapsed ere another physician could be induced to
+visit the ungrateful country, nor was it until the time of Pompey and of
+Caesar that any medical men dared to visit the "eternal city."
+
+The first of these was Asclepiades, who commenced by giving lessons of
+rhetoric, which were succeeded by lectures on physic, in the first school
+of medicine which he founded in Rome. It was on these benches that
+Aufidius and Nico, Artonius and Niceratus were initiated in the art of
+healing, while Asclepiades formed his celebrated disciple Themison founder
+of the sect of the Methodists or Solidists. To this school are we also
+indebted for the learned Celsus justly called the _Cicero of medicine_.
+Under Trajan and Adrian the medical profession had attained great
+celebrity and splendour, and under M. Antoninus, and Marcus Aurelius the
+world became indebted to the glorious labours of Galen--but the bright
+days of the healing art were sinking with the star of Rome in the dark
+horizon of barbarism, and the works of these illustrious masters were
+sacrificed at the shrine of astrology, magic, and Eastern theosophy.
+
+From this period we find Eastern superstitions mingled with the early
+practices and creed of Christianity, when, to use the words of Sprengel,
+"An allegorical explanation of words and even of the scriptures, was
+carried so far by the Jews that it was considered the utmost perfection of
+human learning. The essence of every science, and the only method of
+obtaining, without laborious studies, and in a state of idle
+contemplation, a degree of wisdom beyond the reach of all other mortals.
+It is thus that during the first century of our era the science of Cabala
+arose, a tissue of all the chimeras of Zoroaster, Pythagoras, and the
+Jews, and which in time, to the shame of human intellect, invaded the
+domain of learning, and became closely connected with medicine."
+
+In the commencement of the second century of the church, Acibba published
+a work called _Jezirach_, and Cimeon-Ben-Ischai wrote his book entitled
+_Sohan_, in which their cabalistic labours sought to prove, that there
+existed a supreme being from whom emanated ten angels, who formed the
+first world, in which resided three personified abstractions--knowledge,
+intelligence, and wisdom.--Besides this first or primitive world, there
+existed three others moving in concentric circles--the world created, the
+world formed, and the world constructed! So united, so constructed, that
+whatever might happen in the last of these worlds had already existed in
+imagination in the first. From this theory it was maintained that the
+practice of physic was to call into action all the powers of the superior
+worlds; a problem that could only be solved by a cabalistic physician, who
+by his piety and contemplation had succeeded in rendering himself worthy
+of a communication with celestial agency.
+
+Facts and observations recorded by long experience were now considered
+useless and contemptible _data_, and all terrestrial knowledge despised.
+Anatomy was deemed worse than useless, and the established doctrines of
+various schools a dead letter. Chaldean, Phoenician, Hebrew words with
+mystic significations were introduced as symbolic illustrations of
+science: no language that could be understood, was deemed intelligible,
+and any system that could bear the test of reason was denounced as
+impious.
+
+Thus was the career opened to the craft of priests boundless. It had been
+believed that the apostles were gifted with the power of healing by the
+mere apposition of their hands, and their self-named descendants pretended
+to possess the same divine attributes--and not only beatified monks cured
+with various oils and ointments; but their very mortal remains, became
+precious in the hands of their monastic successors. When their mouldering
+bones had been sold wholesale and retail as precious relics, their very
+sepulchres and their shadows brought hosts of pilgrims to herd round their
+shrines.
+
+The study of medicine destroyed with the glories of Rome, was revived in
+Egypt, where Zeno of Cyprus delivered courses of lectures at Alexandria, a
+school which soon after dwindled into decay, sinking into obscurity with
+the once famed academies of Greece.
+
+The Roman empire dismembered, Persia became an asylum for fugitive
+philosophy, and the Nestorians founded a medical school at Edessa in
+Mesopotamia, while other sectarians equally oppressed by ostensible
+orthodoxy, sought a refuge in the city of Dschondi-Sabour, where numbers
+of Persian and Arabian students flocked to learn their doctrines, and thus
+we have the origin of the celebrated school of Bagdad under the protection
+of their caliphs.
+
+This regeneration of science was soon communicated to the shores of
+Europe, and the Caliph Alhakam founded a school at Cordova possessing
+upwards of 300,000 volumes, and Seville, Toledo, Saragossa, and Coimbra
+followed the bright example. Thus was a science, banished from Europe by
+bigoted and misguided Christians, restored to its former seat by
+Mohammedans.
+
+The progress of the science of medicine under the Moorish government was
+so rapid in Spain, that we find one hundred and fifty medical writers in
+the schools of Cordova, and sixty-two in Murcia. While the Moors thus
+encouraged these important studies, the priests in the western states kept
+the nations under their control in a state of dense ignorance, and the
+practice of medicine such as it was, was confined within the cloisters of
+monasteries and nunneries. There does still exist a treatise of medicine
+written by Hildegarde, Abbess of a convent at Rupertsberg. Monks opened
+medical schools in several cathedrals, and we find Gregory I. sending one
+of these medical propagators to Canterbury, where Theodore, one of its
+archbishops, practised the healing art.
+
+While the study of medicine had become a privilege of ignorant friars, it
+was destined to assume a semblance of learning in Italy, where some
+intelligent Benedictines founded a school at Salerno. Here the works of
+the Greeks, and Romans, and Arabian physicians were once more brought to
+light, and in the eighth century we find Salerno crowded with students,
+pilgrims, and invalids. In the eleventh century, this school had obtained
+a pre-eminence over every other medical institution, and at the period of
+the crusades its fame was universal--not that the ignorant and barbarous
+crusaders were capable of shedding any light on the improvement of their
+several countries from what they might have learned in Holy Land, but many
+of them who had happily returned to Europe, and been landed in the kingdom
+of Naples, were cured of their wounds and infirmities by these Benedictine
+doctors, who themselves owed much of their erudition to an African of the
+name of Constantine, who had studied at the school of Bagdad, and
+translated for the monks, who had offered him an asylum, Greek, Latin, and
+Arabian works, which to them were sealed volumes. Amongst the celebrated
+adventurers of rank who had escaped from the holy wars, was Robert, son of
+William the Conqueror, who was cured at Salerno of a supposed incurable
+wound in the arm. In this manner was the fame of the Salernian school
+spread far and nigh, and soon Ferdinand II. founded universities at Naples
+and Messina.
+
+The course of studies in the school of Salerno was three years of logic,
+and five years of medicine and surgery. At the expiration of these
+sessions, the student was admitted to examination, and after having
+passed, was still obliged to practise for another year under the
+immediate eye of an experienced physician. It was only upon his
+certificate as to his professional capacities, that a licence to practise
+was granted, upon his engaging himself by oaths, to observe the laws of
+the college, to attend the poor gratuitously, and to report to the
+magistracy all apothecaries that adulterated their drugs or neglected the
+proper preparation of medicines prescribed.
+
+The custom of granting academic dignities may be traced to the Nestorians
+and the Jewish professors in the East, where it was carried into the
+Moorish possessions in Spain. The school of Salerno was the first
+collegiate body that adopted it in the western Christian institutions. The
+degree they conferred was that of _Magister_. Previous to the granting of
+this distinction seven years study were required, and the candidate was to
+be upwards of one-and-twenty years of age. He had to explain in a public
+meeting the _Articella_ of Galen--a passage of the _Aphorisms_ of
+Hippocrates, and of the first book of Avicenna, after which he was
+examined in the works of Aristotle, he then received the degree of
+_Magister Artium et Physices_. It was only the professors who bore the
+title of Doctors.
+
+In this manner did the science of medicine struggle for several centuries
+with obstacles that appeared insurmountable--in turn practised and
+persecuted--anathematized by the clergy, and soon after becoming a
+lucrative privilege of the church--prejudice, superstition, and ignorance
+had closed anatomical theatres, and from the days when flourished the
+school of Herophilus until the fourteenth century, the dissection of
+animals was alone permitted, and it was only by stealth that the student
+sought some knowledge of the human structure, from mouldering bones
+purloined from the cemetery. A brighter era arose in the year 1315, when
+Mondini de Luzzi, Professor of Anatomy at Bologna, ventured to dissect
+human bodies--a bold attempt, as seventeen centuries had elapsed since
+this investigation of the book of nature, the only record where errors can
+be detected and truth sought for, had been prohibited. The example of
+Mondini, who had written a practical anatomical manual was followed in
+various other schools, but a barber was the person charged with the
+opening of the subjects, and with no other instrument then his razor he
+endeavoured to demonstrate the parts which Mondini's work described.
+
+From this period we may date the revival of medicine, although in the
+following century it made but little progress, still clogged by
+astrological absurdities and Arabic errors--and a Florentine physician,
+Marcillo Ficin, obtained a high repute by promulgating the doctrine that
+the vital spirits of man were similar to the ether which filled space and
+directed the planets; concluding that if man could obtain this ethereal
+principle he might prolong his days beyond human conception, he
+recommended the use of preparations of gold to obtain longevity and even
+advised the aged to drink youthful blood to prolong their precarious life.
+These absurdities were refuted by Chancellor Gerson, and the faculty of
+Paris condemned the Florentine's visions as diabolical and perilous--but
+what could have been the facilities offered at that time for the study of
+anatomy when we find Professor Montagnana, of Padua, boasting of having
+examined _fourteen_ subjects.
+
+However the fifteenth century was destined to witness a remarkable event
+in the annals of medical learning, Emmanuel Chrysolore, embassador of
+Emmanuel Paleologus, arrived in Italy, to solicit means from the Christian
+powers against the inroads of the Turks. Chrysolore, during a protracted
+residence at Venice, employed the leisure which his diplomatic occupations
+left him to deliver lectures on various branches of science, and not only
+did he encourage the study of the Greek language, but corrected the many
+errors that teamed in the Arabic translation of classic works. It was to
+this learned man that the succeeding century were indebted for their
+knowledge of the works of Hippocrates, and we find that his doctrine
+formed the groundwork of medical studies over Europe.
+
+But the study of the phenomena of nature founded on experience and
+observation was not sufficiently visionary and mystic, and soon we see
+cabalistic calculation and judicial astrology again subverting all
+doctrines that might lead to sound conclusions. Cornelius Agrippa of
+Cologne traversed the fairest cities of Europe, to expound the philosophy
+of Zamolxis and Abaris; maintaining that every Hebrew character had a
+natural signification, the Hebrew being, according to his ideas, not only
+the most ancient but a sacred language. He asserted that the language of
+demons was the Hebraic, and that all Hebrew letters being either
+favourable or hostile to these evil spirits, they might be conjured by a
+proper knowledge of their powers.
+
+This visionary not only fancied that letters possessed this influence, but
+that it was shared by numbers. Thus to cure a tertian fever he directs the
+use of Verbena, to be cut at the third articulation of the plant; but in
+the treatment of a quartern, the disease would only yield to the fourth
+joints. He added that every man was under the influence of three
+demons--a sacred demon (a divine gift)--an innate demon--and a
+professional demon, sent us by the constellations and the celestial
+intelligences.
+
+These reveries, however, were interrupted by the still greater absurdities
+of Paracelsus, a man whose ignorance could only be equalled by his vanity,
+since he maintained that as the genius of Greece had produced Hippocrates,
+the genius of Germany had created him for the salvation of mankind. He
+further assured his disciples that all the universities in the world had
+less knowledge than his beard, and that every hair of his head was more
+learned than all their writers.
+
+Paracelsus was perhaps one of the most singular enthusiasts that ever
+swayed the schools of medicine, or assumed a despotic stand in science. To
+superstition, credulity, and disreputable living, he certainly did add a
+certain degree of genius, but more particularly a _tact_ which established
+such a reputation, that, without much presumption, he might have claimed
+the title which he assumed, of "_Prince of Medicine_," to which he added
+the pompous appellation of _Aureolus, Philippus, Paracelsus Theophrastus
+Bombastus ab Hoppenheim_.
+
+This strange personage was born in 1493, at Einsidlen, a village near
+Zurich; he studied under Fugger Schwartz, a celebrated professor of what
+was then called the _Spagyristic_ school, or _Hermetic Medicine_, founded
+on a visionary doctrine that I shall shortly notice. He subsequently
+travelled over the greater part of Europe, chiefly courting a motley
+society of physicians, philosophers, old women, and barbers, culling all
+that he could from pretended science or unblushing ignorance. After having
+visited the German mines, where he became tainted with the superstition of
+the credulous workmen, he repaired to Russia, when he was made prisoner by
+a party of Tartars, who conducted him to their Cham. Taken into favour by
+their chief, he accompanied his son to Constantinople, where he pretended
+to have discovered the philosopher's stone. On his return to his native
+country, the magistrates of Bale appointed him to the chair of medicine;
+and in 1527 we find him delivering a course of lectures in the German
+tongue, being but an indifferent scholar. This sedentary life did not suit
+his roving habits; and being, moreover, likely to bring his ignorance into
+its proper light, he set out for Alsace with another enthusiast of the
+name of Oporinus, with whom however he shortly quarrelled. He continued to
+wander from town to town, scarcely ever sleeping, or changing his linen,
+clad in the most slovenly manner, and generally in a state of
+intoxication, until at Saltzburg in 1541 he was taken ill at a miserable
+inn and died in the 48th year of his busy life.
+
+He no doubt had obtained during his adventurous career much experience,
+having for a long time followed armies and attended at sieges, and during
+epidemic maladies; but he sought to disguise his want of a proper
+education by the assumption of a supernatural influence. One of his
+wildest flights of fancy was, perhaps, his receipt to make a man without
+conjunction.
+
+His doctrines were founded upon Judicial Astrology, Alchymy, Cabal, and
+Chemistry. Grossly ignorant in the last science, he pretended that all our
+diseases depended upon its combinations,--the combustion of sulphur, the
+effervescence of saline particles, and the coagulation and stagnation of
+mercury in our humours: all under the influence of the _Ens Astrorum_, the
+_Ens Deale_, the _Ens Spirituale_, the _Ens Veneni_, and the _Ens
+Naturale_. _Mercury_ was evacuated through the pores of the skin;
+_sulphur_ emanated from the nostrils; _deliquescent sulphur_ was
+discharged by the intestines; a _watery solution of sulphur_ arose from
+the eyes, while _arsenic_ oozed out of the ears. When these evacuations
+did not take place, the humour became putrid, and putrescency was
+_Localiter_ or _Emunctor labiter_--as the humours were either retained or
+excreted.
+
+This humoral doctrine of Paracelsus, strange to say, obtained for upwards
+of a century, and many were the learned men who distracted their brains
+and that of their disciples to multiply his errors, since we find
+Sanctorius calculates 90,000 morbid alterations in these peccant humours.
+
+In another part of this work, I have related the absurdities of Van
+Helmont, another visionary of the seventeenth century. Endless would be
+the task of recording the many systems and doctrines that have in turn
+ruled the schools of medicine, and been supported both by professors and
+disciples with a degree of virulent hostility as implacable as religious
+controversies; and still, while we read with contempt the absurd doctrines
+of our forefathers, and smile at the folly of their visions, we ourselves
+are advocating systems which, after a lapse of some few years, will appear
+just as ridiculous and preposterous to our successors in the doubtful
+career.
+
+One question naturally arises from all this controversial discrepance--has
+society benefited by the successive revolutions which have overthrown
+schools and doctrines, chairs and professors? have the advocates of
+Sangradian phlebotomy, and those who considered that the lancet has
+committed greater havoc than the sword--have the employers of antimony,
+and those who would have sent to the scaffold opponents who gave an
+antimonial preparation--have either of these enthusiasts diminished, in
+any sensible manner, the scale of mortality, or have they influenced the
+prevalence of disease? This is a most important question, and, however
+ungracious may be the task, I shall endeavour to consider it.
+
+It is but too true, that, with the exception of the introduction of
+inoculation and the cowpox, the bills of mortality do not appear, at any
+period, to have been influenced by the prevalence of any one medical
+system. This circumstance, however, cannot be admitted as invalidating the
+claims of medical men to a due consideration of their respective merits. I
+have endeavoured to show, in a preceding article, that the laws of nature
+appear to have regulated the equilibrium of life and death and the
+progress of disease with such harmony, indeed, that we might say that our
+existence was regulated with arithmetical accuracy. If this is admitted,
+it might be alleged, that if such be our fated tenure of life, recourse to
+medical aid becomes useless, and the efforts of physicians must prove
+effete. Such a deduction would be fatalism in its most absurd form; for,
+admitting that our days are thus numbered, the human frame may be assailed
+by many ailments, that may not prove fatal, but admit of relief, if they
+cannot be cured. It is, therefore, obvious, that the services of a
+physician are of great value, if he merely can alleviate our sufferings,
+and render a painful existence tolerable. Daily facts corroborate this
+assertion, and the most cruel pangs are constantly relieved by
+professional aid, although it is not equally evident that the same skill
+can prolong the patient's life, if "his hour is come;" but, as we know not
+when that fatal moment may strike, we must clearly seek to wind up the
+marvellous machinery, and keep it "going" as long as we can. We constantly
+behold individuals whose existence is most precarious, and yet who linger
+on for years, frequently to the disappointment of expectant heirs; for
+there is much truth in the old saying concerning those invalids who are
+considered to "have one foot in the grave," they find _that foot_ so very
+uncomfortable, that they hesitate for a long time ere they thrust in its
+fellow.
+
+There is little doubt but that much mischief has been done by ignorant
+men, yet, perhaps, if the truth were known, more vital injury has been
+inflicted on mankind by enthusiastic science--ignorance gropes its way, so
+long, at least, as modesty allows to doubt; but, so soon as presumption
+leads the way, then ignorance assumes dogmatic assurance, and places the
+hardy practitioner on the same line as presumptive science--or, at least,
+what is considered such. It is then that enthusiasm, combined with
+interested motives, seeks to maintain an acquired influence by
+experimental proofs of supremacy; and, as it has been truly said, "There
+is no writ of error in the grave," mother earth shrouds the fallacies, and
+every disease that the eminent practitioner cannot cure is deemed
+incurable.
+
+On the other hand, the Creator has gifted mankind with an innate and
+latent power of resisting noxious influence--a power called by the schools
+the _vis medicatrix naturae_, and which is generally sufficient to throw
+off morbid attacks, when this principle is not exhausted, and the
+functions not impeded by organic derangement which involves the healthy
+equilibrium of life; then it is, that the prudent and experienced
+physician will carefully watch this precious faculty, and instead of
+counteracting the efforts of nature, assist her bounteous labours. This
+watchful practice, which may, however, be sometimes too inert, has been
+called _expectant medicine_--a slow and tardy process for the energetic
+practitioner, who, assuming the reins of life in his bold hands endeavours
+to goad and drive on nature in spite of herself; this practice has
+obtained the name of _active medicine_, of which our British practitioners
+are accused, by the _expectant_ continental physicians, who, to use a
+French expression, "_voient venir_," and the French themselves are so well
+aware of the imprudence of this hesitation in assisting nature, that they
+say "_Your physicians kill their patients, whereas ours let them die_."
+There is more truth in this remark than we perhaps are willing to believe.
+
+The power of nature in the cure of diseases has been acknowledged by the
+most experienced and wise physicians. Stahl, in his dissertation, "_De
+Medicina sine Medico_," perhaps exaggerated the influence of this faculty.
+Bordeu maintains that out of ten patients, two-thirds are cured without
+assistance, and come within the circle of all those minor ailments to
+which flesh is the constant heir. The illustrious Boerhaave doubted
+whether the successful practice of the small number of able physicians was
+a compensation for the evils that arose from the errors of the ignorant;
+and, in this sad calculation, he seems disposed to think that it would
+have been better for mankind that the science of medicine had never
+existed.
+
+All these deductions are both unjust and unwise; for, as I have already
+said, if physicians only possessed the means of affording relief, their
+mission upon earth is of the utmost importance. At the same time, while
+we watch the efforts of nature, it is our duty to rouse her energies when
+they become torpid, or to check inordinate action which would soon exhaust
+her power. Asclepiades very truly called the expectant practice of
+medicine "_a contemplation of death_." The powers of nature may be, and
+not inaptly, compared to those of the swimmer; however skilled in the art
+of natation, and able under ordinary circumstances to baffle an adverse
+tide, are we not to hasten to his succour, when we find that he is borne
+away by an inevitable current, or deprived by a cramp, of the power of
+stemming the stream?
+
+We are also willing to forget, that the turbulence of passions, the "wear
+and tear" of life, by excesses or irregularities, gradually tend to render
+the "medicinal power" of nature of little or no avail; and it has been
+truly said, that had we no cooks, we perhaps might not have needed
+physicians. Man in fact, in a high state of civilization, seems determined
+to counteract all the efforts both of nature and of art to relieve him
+from the manifold curses of intemperance; and it is fortunate that his own
+feelings of gradual decay prompt him more energetically to a reform in his
+habits, than the most persuasive language his physician could employ.
+
+In this illiberal view of the profession, how often do we lose sight of
+hereditary transmissions--heir-looms of disease--ingrafting misery on the
+variegated woof of our destinies--germs of fatal maladies which we
+bring into the world--a scourge on our posterity!--and yet, strange to
+say, our vain self-estimation blinds us in the contemplation of this
+doom--for the gratification of our desires, we bring forth a fearful
+generation--scrofulous, insane! Nay, we glory in the smiling offspring
+blooming around us--heedless, that the very roses we admire on their
+transparent cheeks, the coral hue that tinges their lips, are typical of
+flowers scattered on a grave, and the joyful beams of their bright yet
+languid looks are but the harbingers of the smile of death--the last kind
+look on earthly things.--And the physician is expected to arrest the hand
+of Providence--to eradicate germs struck before birth!
+
+It must also be observed, that many of our maladies are, in fact,
+reactions of nature, endeavouring to overcome other affections--a struggle
+for harmonious unity--for healthy equilibrium. Thus do we see a burning
+fever, tending to cast upon the surface exanthematic eruptions--a febrile
+reaction which we call critical, and which too often, like a political
+crisis, destroys in fruitless endeavours to save. "_Si natura non moveat,
+move, tu, motu ejus_" was an ancient axiom; but how often, in seeking to
+trim the expiring lamp of life, do we not extinguish the last vital spark!
+
+In regard to the influence of medicine on population, can it be expected,
+that when the most fatal pestilences do not thin it, the most erroneous
+medical practice can be more destructive? And, if nine-tenths of cholera,
+or pestiferated patients perish, on the other hand, nine-tenths of other
+cases of a less serious character are cured without medical intervention;
+and possibly, the chief study of a physician should be not to produce a
+more obstinate disease by the means he employs to cure an affection less
+formidable. Late years have proved that the effects of mercury were far
+more dreadful than the disease it was supposed to eradicate.
+
+In the animadversions that are accumulated upon the physician, an
+insidious comparison to his disadvantage, has been made with the utility
+of the surgeon--a utility which man is compelled, however reluctantly, to
+acknowledge, since it is evident to his most gross senses--an amputated
+limb--a reduced luxation--are before his eyes, while the favourable
+changes operated on a morbid condition of the body are not self-evident,
+and can only be recognised by sound and unbiassed judgment. In this
+illiberal view, it is forgotten that the mere operative surgeon is nothing
+more than a mechanical agent--a butcher could perform the same operation
+with his rude knives and saws as the chirurgeon with his refined and
+improved instruments; it is the judgment that we look to, and the skill in
+attending to the general health of the patient, to bring him to a perfect
+cure; in these functions, of much more importance than the dexterity of
+the hand, the surgeon clearly assumes the duties of the physician; and it
+is not possible for a man to excel in one part of the profession without
+being conversant with the other; a surgeon must be a sound anatomist, and
+an observant physiologist--without the knowledge of these fundamental
+sciences, a surgeon and a physician might be compared to the bungler who
+attempted to repair a watch, without a previous acquaintance with its
+intricate machinery.
+
+Let us hope that the mischievous distinction between surgery and medicine
+may soon become an obsolete prejudice, that was never founded upon reason,
+but simply based upon ambitious lucre. Let us hope that the graduate of an
+university will not conceive it beneath his dignity to save a
+fellow-creature's life by breathing a vein, and not esteem a vain and
+pompous piece of parchment an immunity from humane feelings and
+philanthropic duties.
+
+As good often results from apparent evil, the converse must also be
+frequently admitted. That much evil has occurred from errors in medical
+doctrine is unfortunately but too true, yet this evil has never attained
+the extent which is generally supposed. I have already alluded to the
+curative powers of nature, ever tending, while still enjoying a portion
+even of their energies, to repel obnoxious agents--this power has saved
+the lives of many; and indeed, when we daily witness the excesses
+committed by the sensualist and the drunkard with apparent impunity,
+although exposed to destructive agencies more powerful than the generality
+of medicinal substances, we must come to the conclusion that the kitchen
+and the cellar are, at least, as formidable as the officinal preparations
+of the pharmacopolist.
+
+That the physician, guided by experience and sound observation, is able,
+in very many cases to afford relief, must even be admitted by the most
+hostile depreciator of his science, who refuses to admit that he possesses
+the power of curing. This simple admission of daily facts, must entitle
+him to some degree of weight in our confidence, whatever may be our
+sceptical view of his doctrines.
+
+While the real merits of a physician are so frequently overlooked, we
+constantly see a blind confidence reposed in a quack. The cause is
+obvious. A man of real merit seldom extols his own good qualities, nor
+does he seek the fulsome adulation and praise of others. He rests upon his
+own deserts; but how seldom are they rewarded: when modesty places her
+light "under a bushel" who will bring it into view?
+
+Duclos has explained in some measure this apparent anomaly.--"The desire,"
+he says "to obtain a high stand in the estimation of society, has given
+rise to reputation, celebrity, and renown,--the mainsprings of worldly
+action--arising from a similar principle, but showing different means and
+results. Both reputation and renown may be enjoyed at the same time and
+yet be widely different. The public is not unfrequently surprised at the
+reputations that it had itself created. It seeks to inquire into their
+origin, but not being able to discover a merit which never did exist, it
+gradually admires and respects a phantom of its own evocation. As society
+thus bestows a reputation in a capricious manner, quacks will usurp one by
+their intrigues or by a barefaced impudence, which cannot claim the
+comparatively honourable denomination of proper pride and dignity. They
+themselves proclaim their merit to the world--at first their impertinence
+becomes a subject of derision, but they repeat the assertion of their
+superior skill so frequently and confidently, that they end by imposing
+themselves upon society. People forget where, whence, and from whom they
+heard these flattering eulogies, to which at last they yield their
+credence, and an adventurer who thus resolves to establish a reputation,
+with perseverance and impudence seldom fails."
+
+It must also be remembered, that most medical men owe their success to
+woman's all-powerful aid. They are in general as blind and as pertinacious
+in their partialities as in their dislikes; seldom bestowing much judgment
+in either, but acting according to the impulses of their warm passions and
+flexibility. Females, from their situation in the world, stand in constant
+need of a friendly adviser, although they are rarely disposed to follow
+any advice, if their pleasures are marred by the suggestion, but when art
+and opportunity enable a man to turn their flexibility, their
+_impressionability_ to a good account, with the combined aid of vanity and
+weak nerves, he will in all probability succeed in obtaining a high
+estimation in the mind of a loquacious dame, who will blazon his fame far
+and near like the trumpeter of a mountebank. If this lady moves in an
+elevated and influencial sphere of life, to question her recommendation is
+to question her sense and power, both of which would be bold attempts; and
+thus have we seen an intriguing noble dame forcing a physician even upon
+royalty. Moreover, when we recollect that the wealthy send for a physician
+for every trifling real or supposed indisposition, which fashion or
+expediency may aggravate at will, to excite interest or carry a desirable
+point, it is manifest that the _cures_ of such a practitioner must be most
+numerous, since the attainment of any desire constitutes a _panacea_; and
+frequently we have seen a box at the opera, a check on a banker, a new
+carriage, or a diamond necklace, more efficacious than the most renowned
+nostrum, while the expulsion of an unpleasant plain-spoken acquaintance,
+or the kind reception of a dangerous and treacherous inmate, may produce
+more sudden recoveries than the most approved specific. The great science
+of such practitioners is to practise with equal success upon every branch
+of the family, to whom in return for their confidence, they can ensure
+peace and pleasure if they cannot bestow health. I cannot better conclude
+this article than by quoting the following passage of the sceptic
+Voltaire:
+
+It is true that regimen is preferable to physic. It is also true that for
+a long period of time, out of one hundred physicians were twenty-eight
+quacks, and it is also true, that Moliere had very good reason to turn
+them into ridicule. It is also certain that nothing can be more absurd
+than to behold a crowd of silly women, and men, not less feminine in their
+habits, whenever they are satiated with eating, drinking, gambling, and
+late hours, calling in a physician for every trifling headache; consulting
+him as though he were a divinity, and praying for the miraculous gift of
+combined health and intemperance. It is nevertheless true, that a good
+physician in a hundred cases may preserve life and limb. A man falls down
+in an apoplectic fit, it will neither be a captain of infantry or a privy
+councillor that will relieve him. A cataract obscures my vision; my
+neighbouring gossips will not restore my sight; for here I make no
+distinction between the physician and the surgeon. For a long time the two
+professions have been inseparable. Men who would make it their study to
+restore health to their fellow-creatures on the sole grounds of humanity
+and benevolence, should be considered greater than the greatest man upon
+earth, and bordering upon divine attributes, for preservation and
+restoration stand next in rank to creation. The Romans were for upwards of
+five hundred years without physicians. Their people, continually employed
+in killing, thought but little of the preservation of life; what did they
+do when they were attacked with a putrid fever, a fistula, a hernia, or a
+pleurisy?--_They died._
+
+
+
+
+MEDICINE OF THE CHINESE.
+
+
+This singular people possess works on medical science which they trace as
+far back as three thousand years, and chiefly written by two of their
+emperors, _Chin-nong_ and _Hoang-ti_. It has been asserted that they
+received the early elements of the science from the Egyptians, but it is
+more probable that they derived their information from their constant
+intercourse with the Bactrians, whose arts and sciences were flourishing
+at the period of Alexander's conquests, and the Chinese historians in
+support of this probability, state that several learned physicians came
+from Samarcand to establish themselves amongst them. Moreover, the
+doctrines of Erasistratus bear much resemblance to those of the Chinese.
+
+The superstitious regard shown to the bodies of the departed, must
+naturally have materially retarded the progress of anatomical pursuits,
+although this people assure us that 2706 years before our era they
+possessed a work on this subject, entitled _Nim Kin_. Howbeit it seems
+probable, from their extreme ignorance of the structure of the human body,
+that this important branch of the science of medicine has remained
+stationary ever since the publication of the aforesaid treatise.
+
+The Chinese physicians divide the body into a right and left portion, and
+three regions. The upper one, comprising the head and the chest, a middle
+one, extending from the lower part of the thorax to the umbilicus, and an
+inferior region, comprising the hypogaster and lower extremities. They
+admit twelve viscera as the sources of life, but they do not appear to
+have any distinct notion of the division, uses and conformation of the
+muscles, nerves, vessels, and the various tissues of the human economy.
+Their ignorance equally extends to the construction of animals.
+
+They consider that man is influenced by two principles, heat and humidity,
+the harmony of which constitutes life, which ceases when their
+equilibrious state is destroyed. Vital moisture resides in the heart,
+lungs, liver, spleen, and kidneys, while vital heat pervades the
+intestines, the stomach, the pericardium, the gall-bladder and the
+ureters. These two principles are transmitted through the medium of the
+vital spirits and the blood by twelve canals, one of which carries a
+fecundating moisture from the head to the hands; another from the liver to
+the feet; a third from the kidneys to the left side of the body; and a
+fourth from the lungs to the right division.
+
+In addition to these channels of vital transmission, they imagine that the
+state of our internal organs can be ascertained by the appearance of
+various parts of the head, which they consider as indicative sympathies of
+the action of the internal viscera. For instance, the head corresponds
+with the tongue, the lungs with the nostrils, the spleen with the mouth,
+the kidneys influence the ear, the liver acts upon the eyes, and thus they
+consider that they can form a correct idea of the nature of internal
+maladies by the complexion, the state of the eyes, the sound of the voice,
+the taste, and the smell of the patient.
+
+The Chinese physiologists also consider the human body as a harmonic
+instrument, of which the muscles, tendons, nerves, arteries, &c. are
+vibrating chords, producing various sounds and modulations, and the pulse
+their chief guide in ascertaining the nature of disease, is but the result
+of a modification of these sounds as the chords are more or less extended
+or relaxed.
+
+In addition to these singular views of the human economy, they imagine
+that the body is influenced by five elementary agents, earth, minerals,
+water, air, and fire.
+
+Fire prevails in the heart and the thoracic viscera, which bear an
+astronomic relation with the south.
+
+The liver and the gall-bladder are under the influence of air, which is in
+relation with the east, whence the winds arise, and it is towards spring
+that these organs are generally affected.
+
+The kidneys and ureters are ruled by water, astronomically associated with
+the north--hence winter is the usual season of the maladies in these
+parts.
+
+The stomach and spleen are regulated by earth, and are placed in connexion
+with the centre of the firmament, between the five cardinal points, and
+affections of these parts are observed in the third month of each quarter.
+
+Diseases are distinguished by their vicinity to or their distance from the
+central part of the body, the heart and lungs, and are usually occasioned
+by vicissitudes in the atmospheric constitution--varying with cold, heat,
+and moisture.
+
+The minuteness of their division of maladies is as great as the mechanical
+precision which all their labours exhibit: for instance, they admit no
+less than forty-two varieties of the smallpox; according to the shape,
+colour, situation of the pustules, which they compare to the cocoons of
+the silkworm--to strings of beads--chaplets of pearls--and lay equal
+stress on their being flat or round--black, red, or violet. This disease
+has, indeed, been described by them with much accuracy and judgment, as
+regards its benign or its confluent character; and there is no doubt that
+inoculation was practised among them from time immemorial, as I have
+already shown in the article on that head. Equally accurate have they been
+in detailing the various symptoms of gout, scurvy, elephantiasis, and
+syphilis, which also scourges the "Celestial empire."
+
+The chief guide, however, in their diagnosis and prognosis, is the state
+of the pulse, and a very curious work, called "The Secrets of the Pulse,"
+and said to have been written two centuries before our era, by
+_Ouang-chou-ho_ or _Vam-xo-ho_. The pulse is divided into the external,
+the middle, and the deep--producing _nine_ different pulsations called
+_Heon_, and the arterial beats were formerly sought for in the joint of
+the big toe; this custom is now abandoned, but they still follow the
+strange practice of taking up the right wrist in women and the left in
+men.
+
+The external pulse, called _Piao_, is subdivided into several varieties.
+
+1. The superficial P. in _Feou_, which yields to the slightest pressure.
+
+2. The hollow P. _Kong_, which announces that the artery is empty when
+pressed upon.
+
+3. The slippery P. _Hang_, which slides under the fingers, like the beads
+of a necklace.
+
+4. The full P. _Che_, striking against the fingers with a full caliber of
+blood.
+
+5. The tremulous P. _Hien_, vibrating like the chord of a musical
+instrument.
+
+6. The intermittent P. _Kin_, vibrating by starts, like the instrument
+called _Kin_.
+
+7. The regurgitating P. _Hong_, the strong pulsation of a full and
+distended vessel.
+
+These seven characters are considered much more favourable than the eight
+which follow, and which, arising from a deeper action, require a more
+forcible pressure.
+
+1. The deep P. _Tehin_, only discovered by a firm pressure.
+
+2. The filiform P. _Ouei_, a threadlike pulsation.
+
+3. The moderate P. _Ouan_, slow and languid.
+
+4. The sharp P. _Soe_, producing the sensation of a cutting or sawing
+instrument.
+
+5. The slow P. _Tehis_, when the pulsations follow each other with languid
+intervals.
+
+6. The sinking P. _Fou_, when the pulse, although pressed hard, sinks
+under the finger.
+
+7. The soft P. _Sin_, which feels like a drop of water one might press
+upon.
+
+8. The weak P. _Yo_, which yields the sensation of feeling like a worn-out
+texture, and ceases to be observed when pressed upon for any time.
+
+To these are added nine other varieties, called _Tao_.
+
+1. The long P. _Tehang_, full, smooth--feeling like a full tube.
+
+2. The short P. _Toan_, presenting a pointed surface, that seems
+indivisible.
+
+3. The empty P. _Hin_, insensible under moderate pressure.
+
+4. The tight P. _Tsou_, which the finger feels with difficulty.
+
+5. The embarrassed P. _Kie_, languid and occasionally stopping.
+
+6. The intermittent P. _Tai_, when several pulsations appear to be
+missing.
+
+7. The slender P. _Sie_, so slow and weak, that it feels like a hair.
+
+8. The moving P. _Tong_, that one might compare to stones under water.
+
+9. The tense P. _Ke_, feeling like a distended drum-head.
+
+But as many Chinese doctors were not satisfied with this confusion in the
+classification of pulses, and, like practitioners in other countries,
+sought to render darkness still more visible--they sought to strike out a
+new career by increasing the multiplication, and introduced the following
+_addenda_:
+
+1. The strong pulse, _Ta_, filling the vessel, yet yielding to pressure.
+
+2. The precipitate P. _Son_, in which the pulsation was rapid in
+succession.
+
+3. The scattered P. _San_, soft, slow, and non-resisting.
+
+4. The stray P. _Li-king_, strong--not pulsating three times in each
+inspiration.
+
+5. The firm P. _Tun_, consistent and resisting.
+
+6. The lively P. _Ki_, pulsation rapid in succession.
+
+7. The skipping P. _Teng_, pulsation unequal, sudden, and frequent.
+
+In this minute attention to the many variations of the pulses, the Chinese
+aided their study, by attending to age, sex, stature, constitution, the
+seasons, the passions, and the comparative state of health and disease.
+
+In a person of high stature, the pulse was full--concentrated in
+diminished individuals--deep and embarrassed in fat subjects--long and
+superficial in the meager--soft in the phlegmatic temperament--tremulous
+in the lively and the active--slower in man than in woman, excepting when
+threatened with disease--full and firm in the adult--slow and feeble in
+old age--soft and vivacious in infancy.
+
+The rhythm of the pulse was affected by the passions, though chiefly in a
+transient manner:--moderately slow, in joy--short, in grief--deep, under
+the impression of fear--precipitate and regurgitating, in anger. In the
+spring, they maintained that the pulsation was tremulous--replete, in
+summer--spare and superficial, in autumn--dry and deep, in winter. Much
+mysterious ceremony was observed by the Chinese physicians in this
+investigation; they felt the pulse with four fingers, which they
+alternately raised or dropped on the vessel, as if playing on a musical
+instrument.
+
+In this profound study, they attributed to every disease a peculiar state
+of the pulse by which it could be recognised and ascertained, and at the
+same time it enabled them to form a favourable or unfavourable
+prognostic. Some of these rules are curious. If the pulses stop before
+fifty pulsations have been counted, disease is at hand; when an
+interruption in the course of the circulation takes place after forty
+pulsations, the patient has not more than four years to live; when an
+interruption takes place after the third pulsation, three or four days are
+the probable term of existence; but the patient may linger on for six or
+seven days more, when the interruption only succeeds the fourth pulsation.
+
+Idle as these speculations may appear, it is to be feared that while the
+Chinese paid such minute attention to the state of the circulation, more
+distinguished and learned schools do not consider this powerful indication
+of the strength or weakness of the vital functions with sufficient care
+and discrimination, and perhaps a translation of the works of
+_Ouang-chou-ho_, might not be altogether useless in the present
+enlightened age. I have no hesitation in saying that this important
+investigation is sadly neglected in medical education--so much so indeed,
+that the different appellations given to the varied state of the pulse,
+are neither well defined nor generally understood. The French physician
+Bordeu has given much valuable information on this subject, which occupied
+the ancients as much as it seems to have fixed the attention of the
+Chinese. We find that the Indians, in the time of Alexander, accurately
+studied this important point.
+
+Notwithstanding the assertion of Sprengel, Hippocrates was a most
+attentive observer of the state of the pulse. Thus we find him giving the
+name of [Greek: sphygmos] to that violent and spasmodic beating of the
+artery, which was not only sensible to the touch, but evident to the
+bystander's eye--in more than forty passages of his immortal works do we
+find important references to the pulse, which he also declared could
+enable us to detect the secret workings of the passions. Many were the
+ancient physicians who have minutely entered into these investigations,
+amongst them we may name Herophilus, Erasistratus, Zeno, Alexander
+Philalethes, Heraclides of Erythrae, Heraclides of Tarentum, Aristoxenes.
+Several of the doctrines founded on these observations were most absurd,
+attributing the various conditions of the circulation to the _Pneuma_ of
+the heart and arteries; such were the doctrines of Asclepiades, Agathinus,
+Galen, and many others; and amongst the Arabians we find _Thabeth Ebn
+Ibrahim_ asserting that by the state of the pulse he could ascertain what
+articles of food had been taken--in more modern times Baillou, Wierns,
+Boerhaave, Hoffmann, have sedulously applied themselves to this most
+essential study, and Schelhammenn asserts that the pulse never once
+deceived him.
+
+The effect of our passions on the circulation is much more powerful than
+is generally believed, and they are a more fertile source of our maladies
+than is commonly apprehended. We can readily conceive why the Spartan
+Chilo died through excess of joy whilst embracing his victorious son.[53]
+
+In the treatment of disease, the Chinese, so fond of classification,
+divide the medicinal substances they employ into heating, cooling,
+refreshing, and temperate; their _materia medica_ is contained in the work
+called the _Pen-tsaocang-mou_ in fifty-two large volumes, with an atlas of
+plates; most of our medicines are known to them and prescribed; the
+mineral waters, with which their country abounds, are also much resorted
+to; and their emperor, _Kang-Hi_, has given an accurate account of several
+thermal springs. Fire is a great agent, and the _moxa_ recommended in
+almost every ailment, while acupuncture is in general use both in China
+and Japan; bathing and _champooing_ are also frequently recommended, but
+blood-letting is seldom resorted to.
+
+China has also her animal magnetizers, practising the _Coug fou_, a
+mysterious manipulation taught by the bonzes, in which the adepts produce
+violent convulsions.
+
+The Chinese divide their prescriptions into seven categories.
+
+1. The great prescription.
+
+2. The little prescription.
+
+3. The slow prescription.
+
+4. The prompt prescription.
+
+5. The odd prescription.
+
+6. The even prescription.
+
+7. The double prescription.
+
+Each of these receipts being applied to particular cases, and the
+ingredients that compose them being weighed with the most scrupulous
+accuracy.
+
+Medicine was taught in the imperial colleges of Pekin; but in every
+district, a physician, who had studied six years, is appointed to instruct
+the candidate for the profession, who was afterwards allowed to practise,
+without any further studies or examination; and it is said, that, in
+general, the physician only receives his fee when the patient is cured.
+This assertion, however, is very doubtful, as the country abounds in
+quacks, who, under such restrictions as to remuneration, would scarcely
+earn a livelihood. Another singular, but economical practice prevails
+amongst them--a physician never pays a second visit to a patient unless he
+is sent for. Whatever may be the merits of Chinese practitioners both in
+medicine and surgery, or their mode of receiving remuneration, it appears
+that they are as much subject to animadversion as in other countries:--a
+missionary having observed to a Chinese, that their medical men had
+constantly recourse to fire in the shape of moxa, redhot iron, and burning
+needles; he replied, "Alas! you Europeans are carved with steel, while we
+are martyrized with hot iron; and I fear that in neither country will the
+fashion subside, since the operators do not feel the anguish they inflict,
+and are equally paid to torment us or to cure us!"
+
+
+
+
+EXPERIMENTS ON LIVING ANIMALS.
+
+
+However ungrateful the discussion of this subject may be, since, in truth
+and justice, it must be considered with an unbiassed and unprejudiced
+mind, and elicit observations which may prove offensive to many, and
+absurd to some, it is one of such moment on the score of humanity, that I
+undertake the task without hesitation or reluctance.
+
+In support of the practice it has been urged, that mankind owes the most
+valuable discoveries in the science of medicine and its collateral
+branches to the vivisection of animals; that since the brute creation was
+intended for the use of our species, we could not apply them to a more
+important and justifiable purpose, than that of endeavouring to initiate
+ourselves in those wonderful functions of nature, a knowledge of which
+would give us a clearer insight of the mysterious machinery, and thereby
+the better enable us to remedy their derangement when in a morbid state.
+It has further been maintained, that when man to indulge his capricious
+appetites and his various amusements, tortures every creature that can
+minister to his depraved fancies or his unruly pleasures--he would be
+more excusable, if not fully justifiable even in the eyes of the most
+sentient philanthropist, in submitting these creatures to smaller or
+greater sufferings, if mankind could be ultimately benefited by this
+sacrifice of feeling. What, indeed, could be our commiseration when
+beholding the agonies of a mangled dog or a cat, if the throes of his
+sufferings, and the incalculable pangs he endured, could restore a beloved
+child to his disconsolate parents, or a sinking father to his helpless
+family. Moreover, is not man, from the very nature of his social position,
+created to suffer more than animals, not only from the many natural
+diseases to which flesh is heir, but to the torturing wounds received on
+the field of battle--the burning fevers of distant climes--the chances of
+war, pestilence, and famine--all of which are aggravated by that power of
+judgment, that reflection and consciousness derivating from the possession
+of an immortal soul, which makes the future more horrible than the
+present, however great its miseries may be. It has also been urged, that
+animals in their savage state, undomesticated by the _humane_ interference
+of man, inflict upon each other injuries under which they linger and die
+in excruciating pain; and, therefore, when we submit them to similar
+agonies, we only fill up the intended measure of their destined
+sufferings.
+
+It is painful to assert it, but all these allegations, I consider as not
+only unsupported by facts and experience, but grounded on speculative
+sophistry; for, in regard to the injuries which animals in their wild
+condition may inflict upon each other, they may be the result of the wise
+provisions of the CREATOR, with which man, however presumptuous he be, has
+nothing to do, and even were it in his power to check their furious and
+destructive propensities, it is more than likely, from what we daily
+witness, that he would turn them to a profitable or a pleasurable account,
+as most probably, the sight of a combat between a wild elephant and a
+rhinoceros (provided the spectators were perfectly secure), would attract
+a greater multitude, and _draw_ more money, than a dog-fight or a
+bull-bait--a tiger-hunt, were it not attended with some personal danger
+which requires courage, would prove more delectable than the pursuit of a
+timid hare.
+
+But I now come to a much more important consideration--the benefit to
+mankind that has occurred or that may be derived from such experiments.
+And here I must give as my most decided opinion, that if any such
+beneficial results did arise from the inquiries, they were not
+commensurate with the barbarity of the experiments; nay, I shall
+endeavour to show, that they are frequently more likely to deceive us, by
+propping up fallacious and tottering theories, than to shed any valuable
+light on the subject of investigation.
+
+I readily admit that there does exist much analogy in the structure of man
+and certain animals in the higher grades of the creation; that the
+functions of respiration, digestion, absorption, locomotion, are to a
+certain extent similar, and that experiments made to ascertain the
+mechanism of these functions (if I may so express myself), may tend, in
+some measure, to teach us that which the inanimate corpse of man cannot
+exhibit; but, admitting to the full extent of argumentation, the analogy
+of these functions, I do maintain that the phenomena of life differ widely
+between man and animals, and the very nervous influences which we seek to
+discover are, in life, of a nature totally different. Were it not so,
+would the senses of different animals, rendered more or less acute or
+obtuse according to their natural pursuits and protective habits, be so
+materially unequal? Indeed, the laws of nature that submit every creature
+to the immutable will of Providence are totally unlike; and each apparatus
+of life in divers beings seems to be especially calculated for the
+identical race: what is poison to the one is an aliment to another; and
+the vivid light which the eyes of one creature can bear, would produce
+blindness in another; the same effluvia which one animal would not notice,
+would guide another over trackless wastes in search of friend or foe. I
+therefore maintain, that the mere material examination of the living
+organs of animals can no more tend to illustrate their vital principle,
+than the keenest anatomical labours can enable us to attain a knowledge of
+the nature of our immortal and imperishable parts.
+
+I shall enter still more minutely into this subject. In the barbarous
+experiments to which I allude, animals bearing the strongest resemblance
+to man (at least in their conformation, for Heaven, in its mercy, did not
+gift them with what we call _mind_) are usually selected amongst such as
+possess a heart with four cavities, and double lungs. The dog--the natural
+companion of man, his most faithful friend in weal and woe, the guardian
+of his couch and property, the protector of his infants, the only mourner
+o'er the pauper's grave!--dogs, are in general selected for the scientific
+shambles; and this for obvious reasons,--they are more easily procured,
+and at a _cheaper rate_; moreover, they are more manageable and
+unresisting under the mangling scalpel. Well, thousands of these creatures
+have been starved to death with butter, sugar, and oil, to prove that they
+must die in all the aggravated pangs of hunger,--pangs producing ulcerated
+eyes, blindness, staggers, parched up organs, unless their food contains
+azote. Will any one maintain, that a similar nourishment would produce
+similar effects on man? Certainly not. The one was created by nature to
+consume animal substances highly azotized; the other, from the transition
+of life to which he is born to be exposed, is essentially polyphagous.
+
+Then, again, millions of animals have had their bones broken, scraped,
+bruised in every possible manner, to discover the process of the formation
+of bone, called _Osteogeny_: has a single fracture of a human limb been
+more rapidly consolidated by these experiments, which fill hundreds of
+pages in the works of Duhamel, Haller, Scarpa, and other physiologists?
+Animals will digest substances that would kill a human being--have the
+experiments in which their palpitating stomach and intestines have been
+torn from them, lacerated, pricked, cut, separated from their surrounding
+vessels and nerves, increased our means of relieving the dyspepsia of the
+sensualist, the surfeit of the glutton, or the nausea of the dissolute? On
+the other hand, the gin, the ardent spirits in which the drunkard wallows,
+would soon destroy what we think proper to call a _brute_!
+
+In many animals, moreover, there is a tenacity of life--highly convenient
+to the physiologist, since it enables him to prolong his experimental
+cruelties--which man does not possess; and we find the electric fluid
+acting much longer upon their muscles even after death, than on a human
+body or its severed limbs.
+
+Another point to be considered is the assertion of the advantages to be
+derived from contemplating the living viscera in a healthy state. Good
+God! a healthy state!--what a mockery, what a perversion of language!
+Behold the dog, stolen from his master--(for theft is encouraged to supply
+the man of science--and theft of the worst character, since it is of the
+most cruel nature;--our goods, our money, may be restored, replaced by
+industry, but what hand can restore the faithful companion of our
+solitude, whose looks seem to study our thoughts! left us perhaps by the
+lost one of our heart, symbol of that fidelity which death alone
+abridged!) the poor animal hungry, chained up for days and nights pining
+for his lost master, is led to the butchery. Still he looks up for
+compassion to man, his natural protector, licks the very hand that grasps
+him until his feeble limbs are lashed to the table! In vain he
+struggles--in vain he expresses his sufferings and his fears in piteous
+howls: a muzzle is buckled on to stifle his troublesome cries, and his
+concentrated groans heave his agonized breast in convulsive throes, until
+the scalpel is plunged in his helpless extended body! His blood flows in
+torrents, his very heart is exposed to the torturer's searching hand, and
+nerves which experience anguish from a mere breath of air, are lacerated
+with merciless ingenuity,--and this is a healthy state! The viscera
+exposed to atmospheric influence are already parched, and have lost their
+natural colour, and not a single function is performed in normal
+regularity. One only effort is natural until vital power is exhausted--a
+vain instinctive resistance against his butchers!--The heart sickens at
+such scenes, when cruelty that would bid defiance to the savage's
+vindictive barbarity, sacrifices thousands of harmless beings at the
+shrine of vanity. For let the matter not be mistaken--these experiments
+are mostly made to give an appearance of verisimilitude to the most absurd
+and visionary doctrines; and if a proof were required of this assertion,
+it can be easily obtained by reading the works of various physiologists at
+different periods, who all draw _different_ deductions from _similar_
+facts. For when the mind labours under a certain impression, or a
+reputation is founded upon the support of a doctrine, these facts are
+distorted with Procrustean skill to suit the views of the experimentalist.
+
+Let us, for instance, consider the subject of digestion, to ascertain the
+nature of which, thousands--millions of animals have been ripped up alive.
+This practice has been attributed to _coction_, to _elixation_, to
+_fermentation_, to _putrefaction_, to _trituration_, to _maceration_, to
+_dissolution_, and to many other shades and shadows of similar theories;
+and were additional millions of living victims sacrificed in further
+scientific hecatombs, posterity may deem our present vain glorious
+physiologists as ignorant of the matter as they might consider their
+numerous predecessors in the same career of groping curiosity. Has the
+cruel extraction of the spleen from a thousand dogs to show that they
+could live without that viscous, explained the nature of its functions, or
+enabled us more successfully to control its obstinate diseases?
+
+We know nothing of the phenomena of life; all our functions are regulated
+by an allwise Power that sets at naught human presumption--and
+Hippocrates justly called this harmonic organization a _concensus_, or a
+circle, in which we could not discover the commencement or the end.
+
+There does however exist one course of experiments which probably might
+prove beneficial to mankind. The search of antidotes to various poisons
+that are too frequently administered by criminal hands; but here again
+experiments fall short of our expectations, for these substances act
+differently upon different animals, and even to some the prussic acid in
+large doses may be given with impunity. But I affirm, and can prove it,
+that in ninety-nine cases out of one hundred, in which such substances are
+given to animals, it is not with a view to discover antidotes, but to
+ascertain, according to the unfortunate creature's species, size, and
+condition, how long he can linger under the pangs of the poison, or what
+is the dose sufficient to occasion death. Of what benefit can it be to
+humanity to know that thirty drops of hydro-cyanic acid destroys dogs and
+cats in the space of six, twelve, or fifteen minutes; that twenty-six
+drops kill a rabbit in three minutes; that one drop introduced into the
+bill of a sparrow deprives it of life in eleven minutes; that a duck takes
+fifteen drops to put an end to its convulsive struggles; and that the
+exposing animals to the influence of hydro-cyanic acid gas destroys them
+in two, four, six, eight, and ten seconds? What benefit does society reap
+from the knowledge that, after the most excruciating suffering, a dog died
+in five hours after having taken half an ounce of tobacco, and that
+another ill-fated canine victim in whose limbs tobacco had been
+introduced, died of paralysis and in horrible convulsions in about an
+hour? Were antidotes sought in the thousands of similar cases that I could
+adduce? Certainly not--the experiments merely went to ascertain the power
+of the drug, and the only possible good that could have resulted from the
+barbarous trial, was the appearance of the viscera after death; a fact
+that one experiment could demonstrate as well as one thousand--but which
+could be more effectually exhibited in human creatures who died from the
+effects of deleterious substances. In short, these experiments are nothing
+more than cold calculations on the tenacity of life in various
+individuals. Every one knows that arsenic and prussic acid destroy life,
+and surely such an assertion on the part of a lecturer to his pupils
+should satisfy them on this head without having recourse to illustrations
+of the fact. In the case of supposed poison introduced into alimentary
+substances, and which are given to dogs to prove the criminal act, surely
+chemistry is not so little advanced in its boasted progress, not to be
+able to afford us a test of the presence of poison, without having
+recourse to so savage an expedient.
+
+Another most absurd argument has been upheld in favour of these
+experiments in the presence of pupils, that of hardening their feelings in
+the contemplation of acute sufferings. This assertion is worse than idle
+and absurd; many of our most able surgeons and anatomists have never
+practised these cruelties, and yet their nerves have not been unstrung
+during the most fearful operations. With hands imbrued in blood I have
+performed the arduous duties of my profession in fourteen battles, yet I
+never could _witness_ these heartless exhibitions without disgust, and I
+am sorry to say contempt. I am aware that these sentiments have been
+called _puling_ professions of humanity; nay, that there are men and women
+who would weep bitterly over the sufferings of a sick pet, while they
+would view accumulated human misery unmoved. These are painful anomalies
+arising too frequently in disappointed minds, when the cup of life has
+been imbittered by ingratitude, and the "milk of human kindness" curdled
+by deceit. These are not reasons to prevent us from censuring acts of
+cruelty, when they may be considered _useless_ in a scientific point of
+view, and _degrading_ to mankind in regard to private feelings. I can
+readily believe that the best and the most humane of men, may be induced
+by an ardent desire to elucidate obscure parts of physiologic inquiry, to
+try such experiments; but most undoubtedly--unless the object to be so
+attained was commensurate with the sacrifice and abnegation of humane
+sentiments, I should deeply lament their obduracy, and be inclined to
+doubt their benevolence towards their fellow-creatures.
+
+  I would not enter on my list of friends
+  (Though graced with polish'd manners, and fine sense,
+  Yet wanting sensibility), the man
+  Who needlessly sets foot upon a worm.
+  An inadvertent step may crush the snail
+  That crawls at evening in the public path;
+  But he that hath humanity forewarned
+  Will tread aside, and let the reptile live.
+
+In fine, whenever it is not evident that such practices can benefit
+mankind and increase our means of reducing the sum of human misery--it is
+a barbarous and criminal abuse of that power which the Creator has given
+us over the inferior grades of animated beings; and it is deeply to be
+lamented that no legislative measures can be adopted to restrain it, if it
+cannot be altogether prohibited. At any rate, professors alone should be
+allowed the "_indulgence_," but in no instance should such
+pseudo-scientific practices become a public exhibition or a student's
+pastime. Brought up in early life, amidst all the complicated horrors of a
+revolution, I have been sadly convinced that the contagion of CRUELTY is
+much more doubtless and active than that of PESTILENCE!
+
+
+THE END.
+
+
+WHITING, BEAUFORT HOUSE STRAND.
+
+
+
+
+FOOTNOTES:
+
+[1] During these ten years the following works appeared:
+
+  Montesquieu--Esprit des Lois, 1748.
+  ---- Defense de l'Esprit des Lois, 1750.
+  Rousseau--Discours sur l'Influence des Sciences et des Lettres, 1750.
+  ---- Discours sur l'Inegalite des Conditions, 1754.
+  Voltaire--Essai sur les Moeurs et l'Esprit des nations, 1757.
+  Condillac--Essai sur l'Origine des Connaissances Humaines, 1746.
+  ---- Traite des Sensations, 1754.
+  Helvetius--De l'Esprit, 1758.
+
+[2] The _Homo diluvii testis_, the skeleton of which was described by
+Scheuchzer, was considered by Cuvier to have belonged to a species of
+Salamander.
+
+[3] For the further illustration of this curious subject, Dr. Eliotson's
+valuable notes on Blumenbach may be consulted to advantage.
+
+[4] The dream of Ertucules seems to have been connected with similar
+phantasies. "I dreamed, venerable sir," said he to Edebales, "that the
+brightness of the moon did proceed from your bosom, and thence afterwards
+did pass into mine: when it was thither come, there sprung up a tree from
+my umbilic, which overshadowed at once many nations, mountains, and
+valleys. From the root of this tree there issued waters sufficient to
+irrigate vines and gardens; and then both my dream and my sleep forsook
+me." Edebales after some pause thus answered: "There will be born unto
+you, my good friend, a son whose name shall be Osman; he shall wage many
+wars, and shall acquire victory and glory; and my daughter must be married
+to your son Osman, and she is the brightness which you saw come from my
+bosom into yours, and from both sprung up the tree."--_Lips. Marsil._
+
+[5] Vide the article "Enthusiasm."
+
+[6] The choenix contained a pint.
+
+[7] These lines afford a convincing proof of the minute attention the
+ancients paid to the phenomena of nature. Our poet had no doubt observed
+the frequent effect of the application of cold to the surface of the body
+producing a reaction in the circulation tending to overcome the noxious
+agent by a glow of heat, which in many instances of predisposition may
+assume a febrile character.
+
+[8] A Treatise on Insanity.
+
+[9] _Pallido il Sol_ and _Per quanto dolce amplasso_ of Hasse.
+
+[10] Much curious matter will be found in Mr. Nathan's valuable work upon
+music, entitled, "_Musurgia vocalis_."
+
+[11] That animals are more frequently guided by the sense of smelling than
+by sight, is evident in those plants that shed a cadaverous effluvia,
+especially the _arum dracunculus_ and the _stapelia variegata_ of the
+Cape, which attract various insects that usually deposit their eggs in a
+stercoraceous or corrupt nidus. Here these insects have been deceived by
+vision, and imagined in their illusion that they had safely lodged their
+progeny in carrion.
+
+[12] According to Aelian, the presence of this fish indicated the
+approaching overflow of the Nile.
+
+[13] The Irish, in their metaphorical language, give a corporeal form to
+foul effluvia, and one of them assured me that he had a terrier who would
+always cock up his tail and bark whenever he _saw_ a stink.
+
+[14] Diodorus, Strabo, and other ancient writers, state that the beer of
+the Egyptians called _Zythus_ was scarcely inferior to wine. This beer was
+made with barley, to which was added the lupin, the skirret, and the root
+of an Assyrian plant. We find the following in Columella:
+
+  "Jam siser, Assyriaque venit quae semine radix
+  Sectaque praebetur madido satiata lupino,
+  Ut Pelusiaci proviset pocula zythi."
+
+The vicinity of Pelusium was famed for this beverage and its lentils.
+
+[15] Diemerbrook states that, in the Plague of Nimeguen all those who were
+taken ill about new and full moon rarely escaped.
+
+[16] Dr. Desgenettes, physician to the French army, in order to inspire
+confidence among the troops, inoculated himself twice without experiencing
+any other consequence than a slight inflammation of the inoculated parts.
+Sonnini mentions a Russian surgeon, who was a prisoner in Constantinople
+with a number of his countrymen, and who took it into his head to
+inoculate his comrades, with a view of protecting them from the contagion;
+but, unfortunately, two hundred of them died, and, fortunately perhaps for
+the survivors, the operator himself died of his own treatment.
+
+[17] On this subject see what has been already said in the preceding
+article of _Food, its use and abuse_, in Dr. Beaumont's experiments.
+
+[18] Otway.
+
+[19] Shaftesbury.
+
+[20] Oil is, however, a useful application to wounds in warm climates.
+During the retreat of our troops after the battle of Talavera, I found the
+wounds of many of our men, that had not been dressed for three or four
+days, pullulating with maggots. This was not the case with the Spanish
+soldiers, who, to prevent this annoyance (which was more terrific than
+dangerous), had poured olive oil upon their dressings. I invariably
+resorted to the same practice when I subsequently had to remove the
+wounded in hot weather.
+
+[21] A Hebrew proverb originating from a tradition that Abraham wore a
+precious stone round his neck, which preserved him from disease, and which
+cured sickness when looked upon. When Abraham died, God placed this stone
+in the sun.
+
+[22] The ancients considered the spleen the seat of mirth, and the liver
+the organ of love; hence their old proverb.
+
+[23] _Cordia Sebestena_; according to some, the _C. Myxa L._, a species of
+Egyptian date. It was formerly employed as a demulcent. A viscid black
+glue was also prepared from it, and exported in considerable quantities
+from Alexandria.
+
+[24] Quod Caeretani totum orbem vano quodam ac turpi superstitionum genere
+ludificantes continuo peregrinantur, familia domi relicta.
+
+[25] Patin called it _l'impertinente nouveaute du siecle_.
+
+[26] The priesthood in thus stigmatizing the medical profession so soon as
+its practice ceased to be their exclusive privilege, displayed the same
+spirit of intolerance and thirst for omnipotent sway that characterized
+their anathemas on the drama when they no longer were the authors, actors,
+and managers of their own sacrilegious plays, which they called mysteries
+and moralities. Previously to the drama becoming the pursuit of laymen,
+the monkish exhibitions had been so holy, that one of the popes granted a
+pardon of one thousand days to every person who went to the plays
+performed in the Whitsun week, beginning with a piece called "The
+Creation," and ending the season with the performance of "The General
+Judgment." In these representations the performers belonged to various
+corporations, and acted under the direction of the clergy. "The Creation"
+was performed by the _Drapers_,--"The Deluge" by the _Dyers_,--"Abraham,
+Melchizedek, and Lot," by our friends the _Barbers_,--"The Purification"
+by the _Blacksmiths_,--"The Last Supper" by the _Bakers_,--"The
+Resurrection" by the _Skinners_,--and "The Ascension" by the _Tailors_.
+
+The following curious anecdotes are recorded in the description of a
+mystery performed at Veximel, near Metz, by the order of Conrad Bayer,
+bishop of the diocese. This play was called _The Passion_; and it appears
+that by some mismanagement a priest by the name of Jean de Nicey, curate
+of Metrange, who played Judas, was nigh meeting with an untimely end; for
+his neck had slipped and tightened the noose by which he was suspended to
+the tree, and, had he not been cut down, he would have performed the part
+most effectually.
+
+A play was acted in one of the principal cities in England by these
+clerical performers, representing the terrestrial Paradise, when Adam and
+Eve made their appearance entirely naked.
+
+[27] Mr. J. A. St. John.
+
+[28] As this worthy never took off his cuirass, it may be shrewdly
+suspected that his lashes were such as our old friend Sancho Panca
+inflicted on the tree.
+
+[29] The diseases to which the blood is subject was another ground upon
+which the vitality of this fluid was founded. The most remarkable kind of
+diseased blood is that which occurs in cholera, where it is dark, nearly
+black, even in the arteries. The cause of this phenomenon is by no means
+decided. Dr. Thomson attributes it to a diseased condition of the blood,
+which unfits it for being duly arterialised. Dr. O'Shaughnessy denies the
+assertion, and proves that choleric blood can be rendered florid by the
+absorption of oxygen. Dr. Stevens, in his treatise on the blood,
+attributes this dark appearance to the contagion of the malady, which
+throws the fluids into a morbid state, the effect of which is the
+diminution of the saline matter which the healthy blood contains. He
+observed that in cholera-hospitals the blood of all the persons residing
+in them was also dark. It is, however, more than probable that this morbid
+condition of the blood arises from the deranged state of the circulation,
+and may be attributed to a disease of the solids, which must invariably
+affect the fluids that they propel with more or less energy, flowing in a
+rapid current, or in a sluggish stream.
+
+I have fully illustrated this want of oxygen in the blood of cholera
+patients in a work I published in Bordeaux, in 1831, entitled
+_Observations sur la nature et le traitement du Cholera Morbus d'Europe et
+d'Asie_; and, from several experiments subsequently made on cholera
+patients, I feel convinced that the inspiration of oxygen gas will be
+ultimately found the most energetic and effective practice in combating
+this fearful disease.
+
+By the experiments lately made by Dr. Donne of Paris, it has been found
+that the globules of blood, when submitted to microscopic examination,
+varied in magnitude according to the description of animals from which it
+was drawn. In certain diseases, globules of pus have also been detected in
+the sanguiferous stream. They were larger than those of the blood, and,
+instead of being defined by a marginal line, were fringed on their
+circumference, and their centre was striated with interwoven lines.
+
+The same physiologist discovered animalcules in the pus of certain ulcers
+not dissimilar in appearance to the _vibrio lineola_ of Mueller. Other
+animalcules, which he has named the _tricomonas vaginalis_, were also
+found in great number when the mucous membranes of the organ (whence the
+latter part of their denomination was derived) were in a state of
+inflammation. These animalculi could not be detected in healthy mucus. The
+knowledge of this influence of inflammation may lead to many important
+practical results.
+
+[30] During the horrors of the French Revolution, various experiments were
+made by Sue and other physiologists to ascertain if the bodies of the
+guillotined victims possessed sensibility. No conclusion, however, could
+be elicited from these inquiries, which gave rise to many absurd tales,
+such as that the face of Charlotte Corday blushed when the executioner
+slapped it, as he held it out to the enraptured Parisians.
+
+[31] Organon, xxxii.
+
+[32] Op. cit. xxxi.
+
+[33] Ibid. xxxiii.
+
+[34] Op. cit. xxxviii.
+
+[35] Organon, xl. This will be found to be the case in all diseases that
+are dissimilar; the stronger suspends the weaker, except in case of
+complication, which is a rare occurrence in acute diseases, but they never
+cure each other reciprocally.
+
+[36] On Chronic Diseases. Translation of Begel, p. 107.
+
+[37] Sir Gilbert Blane's Medical Logic.
+
+[38] Organon, v.
+
+[39] Ibid. vi.
+
+[40] Sir G. Blane.
+
+[41] The celebrated Boyle used to apply to his wrists for the same
+purpose, the moss that grew from a human skull.
+
+[42] The term that designated magnetic manipulation.
+
+[43] Since the first edition of this work was published, animal magnetism
+has become the subject of much controversy and animadversion in London and
+various parts of the empire. The utmost virulence has as usual been
+resorted to, not only to impugn the doctrine, but to stigmatize its
+supporters; while, on the other hand, the greatest ingenuity has been
+displayed to convince unbelievers, and to give to the many experiments
+practised for this purpose the semblance of undeniable facts. Baron
+Dupotet's labours and publications have been submitted to the test of a
+public investigation; while Dr. Elliotson and several other practitioners
+have aided the practice apparently with success. It would be foreign to
+the nature of this work to consider this matter more elaborately; it is
+now before the tribunal of public opinion, whose decision we must await.
+
+[44] Inquiries concerning the Intellectual Powers, &c.
+
+[45] That serious accidents might have resulted from the use of hellebore
+is most likely, since various plants resembling it have been mistaken for
+it; chiefly the _adonis vernalis_, _trollius Europaeus_, _actaea spicata_,
+_astrantia major_, _veratrum album_, and the _aconitum neomontanum_, the
+last of which is a most virulent poison.
+
+[46] The advocates of fasting have calculated that in one hundred and
+fifty-two hermits who had lived eleven thousand five hundred and
+eighty-nine years, the average age was seventy three years and three
+months.
+
+[47] On this very curious subject the reader may consult the various
+statistical works of Quetelet.
+
+[48] It is somewhat strange, but in the mountains of the South of Spain,
+there does still exist a dance called _los Titanos_, in which the
+performers raise their hands in threatening attitude against the heavens!
+
+[49] The matter of insensible perspiration is calculated at being daily
+equal weight to one half of the food.
+
+[50] Madder, when given to animals tinges the surface of their bones with
+a red hue.
+
+[51] The life of J. E. Jenner, M.D. &c., by John Bacon, M.D. &c.
+
+[52] History of Egyptian Mummies, &c. &c., 1834.
+
+[53] In a work on the "Anatomy of the Passions," which I am about
+publishing, I have entered most minutely into this important sympathy.
+
+
+
+***END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK CURIOSITIES OF MEDICAL EXPERIENCE***
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