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diff --git a/old/69197-0.txt b/old/69197-0.txt deleted file mode 100644 index cd56b5c..0000000 --- a/old/69197-0.txt +++ /dev/null @@ -1,2414 +0,0 @@ -The Project Gutenberg eBook of Sketches from the history of medicine, -ancient and modern, by Wm. Sedgwick Saunders - -This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere in the United States and -most other parts of the world 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. If you are not located in the United States, you -will have to check the laws of the country where you are located before -using this eBook. - -Title: Sketches from the history of medicine, ancient and modern - An oration delivered before the Hunterian Society - -Author: Wm. Sedgwick Saunders - -Release Date: October 21, 2022 [eBook #69197] - -Language: English - -Produced by: deaurider, Guus Snijders and the Online Distributed - Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net (This file was - produced from images generously made available by The - Internet Archive) - -*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK SKETCHES FROM THE HISTORY OF -MEDICINE, ANCIENT AND MODERN *** - - - - Transcriber's note: - - This version of the text cannot represent certain typographical - effects. Italics are delimited with the '_' character as _italic_. - - The few minor errors, attributable to the printer, have been - corrected. Please see the transcriber's note at the end of this - text for details regarding the handling of any textual issues - encountered during its preparation. - - ---------------------------------------------------------------- - - - - - SKETCHES - FROM - THE HISTORY OF MEDICINE - - Ancient and Modern. - - - =AN ORATION= - - DELIVERED BEFORE - - THE HUNTERIAN SOCIETY, - - AT THE LONDON INSTITUTION, - - ON THE 13TH FEBRUARY, 1867, - - BY - - W^M. SEDGWICK SAUNDERS, M.D. - - LICENTIATE OF THE ROYAL COLLEGE OF PHYSICIANS, EDINBURGH.—VICE-PRESIDENT - OF THE HUNTERIAN SOCIETY.—TREASURER TO THE NEW SYDENHAM SOCIETY.— - EXAMINING PHYSICIAN TO THE EAST INDIAN—SCINDE AND DELHI—BOMBAY - AND BARODA—GREAT SOUTHERN OF INDIA—CALCUTTA AND SOUTH EASTERN - —AND OUDE AND ROHILKUND RAILWAY COMPANIES.—MEDICAL OFFICER - TO THE CITY OF GLASGOW LIFE ASSURANCE CORPORATION AND THE - METROPOLITAN FIRE BRIGADE, &c.—AUTHOR OF THE “CAUSES - AND PREVENTION OF CHOLERA” AND “REPORTS ON - CHOLERA IN THE CITY OF LONDON, 1866.” - - PRINTED AT THE REQUEST OF THE COUNCIL. - - _For Private Circulation._ - - - - - - - - LONDON: - - PRINTED BY M. & W. COLLIS. 50, BOW LANE, CHEAPSIDE, E.C. - - 1868. - - - - - ORATION. - - -Mr. President, - -I purpose to devote the time, which your indulgence has placed at my -disposal this evening, to laying before you the results of some -inquiries into the origin and history of medicine and of the medical -profession; regarding the subject rather from a _social_ than from a -_scientific_ point of view. - -My scheme will introduce you to some of your old acquaintances; not for -instruction, but to remind you of those passages in their lives which -may have been pressed out of your memories by the sterner realities of -professional duties. - -An inquiry into the origin of medicine must begin with the history of -man himself, since pain and death are the inevitable conditions of his -existence; and the desire to mitigate the former, and postpone the -triumphs of the latter arose from, and has kept pace with, the -development of the various diseases to which time and circumstances have -subjected him. - -The _primal man_, we know, was created pure and innocent, free from -liability to pain, and possessed of unmixed capacity for the enjoyment -of the pleasures that surrounded him; glowing with health, and with -every emotion redolent of new delight. At sight of him, - - Each hill gave sign of gratulation, - Joyous the birds; fresh gales and gentle airs - Whisper’d it to the woods; and from their wings - Flung rose, flung odours from the spicy shrub:— - -Apprehension of the miseries to which his progeny were doomed, would -have marred this happiness; hence his ignorance of evil, and his belief -that the felicity he enjoyed would be as permanent as it was perfect. -But our business is with man in his _actual_ condition; the sport of - - “All maladies - Of ghastly spasm, or racking torture, qualms - Of heart-sick agony, all feverous kinds, - Convulsions, epilepsies, fierce catarrhs, - Intestine stone, and ulcer, colic pangs, - Demoniac phrensy, moping melancholy, - And moon-struck madness, pining atrophy, - Marasmus and wide wasting pestilence, - Dropsies and asthmas, and joint-racking rheums, - And over them triumphant Death his dart - Shook, but delayed to strike.”—— - -Undertaking to examine the subject _ab initio_, we must take into -account the sources of our information, and as our knowledge of every -event _antecedent to the discovery of writing_ must have been -transmitted by oral or traditional agencies, we have to settle, in some -degree, how far such evidence is worthy of credence. - -According to popular belief, the Noahic flood destroyed the whole human -race, with the exception of Noah and his family; who were therefore the -sole depositories of the traditions of the events which had occurred -between the time of Adam and themselves. The great longevity of these -antediluvian fathers made this oral transmission easy; and we know, that -the sons of Noah lived to see the birth of Abraham, whom, as the founder -of circumcision, we claim as the first operative surgeon on record. - -In dealing with dates, I adopt the commonly accepted chronology, unmoved -by those refined speculations so much in favour at this time. - -I begin with Moses, for whatever evidence may be urged upon us in the -shape of marbles, or monuments, claiming an antiquity anterior to the -advent of the Jewish lawgiver, it is a positive and unimpeachable fact, -that no _writings_ are in existence, which in point of age reach within -many centuries of the Pentateuch; indeed, as we shall presently see, the -oldest of the Greek writers are, in comparison with Moses, but as the -children of yesterday. - -The five books of Moses were written 1500 years before Christ. Hesiod, -the father of Greek literature, flourished 500 years later; and Homer, -the next in succession, nearly a century after Hesiod. - -Herodotus places Homer 400 years before himself; thus bringing the -“father of history,” as he is termed by Cicero, to about 500 years -before the advent of our Saviour, so that the difference of date between -the author of the Pentateuch and the oldest Greek historian cannot be -much less than 1000 years. - -I pass over the pretended antiquity of the Chinese and Parsis records: -these have been disposed of very satisfactorily, and however much -_fancy_ may dwell upon the losses to literature inflicted by the Caliph -Omar, when he destroyed the Alexandrian library,[1] in the year 640, a -very little reflection will convince us that as these treasures, real or -assumed, had been ransacked for ages, by the brightest spirits of Greece -and Rome, everything worthy of note has been handed down to us. - ------ - -Footnote 1: - - The library destroyed by the Caliph Omar, was situated in the temple - of Serapis, and consisted of 300,000 volumes; in addition to which - there existed in the Bruchion quarter of the city of Alexandria, a - second collection of 400,000 books, which was accidentally lost by - fire during the war with Julius Cæsar. - - Alexandria (founded 332 B.C.) stood in an intermediate position - between the east and west, and united the commerce of Europe, Aralia, - and India; here came first into collision the Greek and Oriental mind; - here the Septuagint translation of the Old Testament was written; and - the collections formed by the ancient kings of Egypt were rapidly - enriched and enlarged by the interchange of ideas with the Greek - philosophers. - ------ - -The _learned_ talk about the writings of the Assyrians, the Babylonians, -and the Egyptians; but they do not produce a single scrap of tangible -evidence in support of these pretensions. - -It may, however, be contended, that although there are no _writings_ -extant, _traditional_ evidence is very strong; and this establishes a -high antiquity for Lycurgus, who lived 900 years before the Christian -era. The more, therefore, we inquire, the stronger the proof becomes, -that Moses as a lawgiver flourished 600 years before the highest -claimant to our veneration on the grounds of primitiveness; and thus we -are entitled to assume that the Greek legislator took much that is -excellent, in the laws ascribed to him, from his Jewish predecessor. - -Lycurgus lived about the time that Shishak, king of Egypt, destroyed the -temple of Solomon, and carried away many captives: it is therefore no -very extravagant supposition, that the Pentateuch of Moses was known to -the great lawgiver. During the peaceful reign of king Solomon, the -intercourse between the Jews and the Egyptians was frequent and -extensive, for the great monarch, needing the assistance of skilful -artificers for the construction of the Temple at Jerusalem, broke down -that barrier of exclusiveness that had previously isolated his people. - -Now the _learned_ of that day were seekers after wisdom wherever it was -to be found; and moreover, as the fame of Solomon was co-extensive with -the then existing world, so acute an observer as the _founder_ of the -Grecian law could not fail to use the materials which the wide spread -knowledge of the Jewish kings sayings and doings had placed within his -reach. - -Every Jew was required to read the law, or hear it read, once a -year—each individual therefore became a living depository of its truths, -and, consequently, a somewhat competent teacher of those who might -desire to be instructed in such matters. - -_Moses_ then comes before us as the first _writer_, and the first -_lawgiver_; and we shall now proceed to show that to these titles he -added the still greater distinction of being the first _physician_, and -promulgator of sanitary precautions. - -At present, however, I will not further intrude upon your patience, but -leaving his claims where I have placed them, pass on to the -consideration of the character of the laws themselves;—and here we -arrive at a body of enactments so excellent, so well adapted, not only -to the requirements of a nomadic people wandering in a wild country, but -to that _same_ people when they subsequently became dwellers in cities, -and suffered all the encumbrances of a more advanced civilization. -_Moses_ made laws for _all_ times and for _all_ communities, _general_ -as well as _particular_, reaching the _nation_ through every individual -member thereof; his rules for the preservation of health embraced the -consideration of personal cleanliness enforced as a _religious_ -obligation in order that he might thereby enlist the unvarying -co-operation of the priesthood. - -In a climate incentive to animal enjoyments he placed strict barriers -for the preservation of _chastity_, and decreed that matters relating to -sexual intercourse should be under the surveillance of the priest; -directions were also given to the _menstruous_ woman, and for her -conduct during _pregnancy_ and in _childbed_. The ordinance of -circumcision was devised not alone for ablutionary purposes, but for -_other well understood_ objects conducive to purity. Further, it was -directed how the man should order himself in affections of the virile -organs; and more emphatically, what he was bound to observe when the -terrible _leprosy_ afflicted him. In such a calamity he was compelled to -withdraw from his house, to be separated from society, and present -himself to the priest at various periods during the progress of the -disease; he was also to remain in a cheerless exclusion, where, if by -chance any unwary passenger came in sight, the sufferer was commanded to -cry aloud, _unclean! unclean!_ When convalescence and health returned, -the _priest_ pronounced him cured of his leprosy, and he was then -permitted to return to his home; but if the leprosy was supposed to -cling to the _habitation_, _that_, too, was subjected to isolation, and -in some instances to total destruction. - -The _same precautions_ obtain in our own times, although nearly 3400 -years have elapsed since they were first insisted upon by Moses. - -Thus, we are told by Dr. Thompson, an eminent American writer on the -Holy Land (where he resided many years), that lepers are everywhere -regarded as unclean, and that at Jerusalem (where there is always a -considerable number of them) a separate quarter in the city is assigned -to them, to which they are rigidly confined. Dr. Thompson says: “I have -seen them cast out of the villages where they resided, and no healthy -person would touch them, eat with them, or use any of their clothes or -utensils, and even the Arab tent dwellers cast them out of camp. The -leper beggars stand apart, and never attempt to touch you, even as it -was in the time of the Saviour, when the ten lepers stood afar off and -lifted up their voice of entreaty.” - -The same writer furnishes us with the following graphic description, -which, as coming from an eye witness, we have deemed worthy of notice:— - -“Sauntering down the Jaffa road, on my way to the Holy City, I was -startled by the sudden apparition of a crowd of beggars, sans eyes, sans -nose, sans hair, sans everything; they held up their handless arms, -unearthly sounds gurgled through throats without palates, and, in a -word, I stood horrified, when, for the first time, I found myself face -to face with a leper.” He then goes on to say: “For many years I have -sought to get at the mystery of its origin, but neither books nor -learned physicians have thrown any light upon it. I have suspected that -this remorseless enemy originates in some self-propagating animalcules, -and thus I can conceive the possibility of the contagion reaching the -walls of a dwelling. No one has spoken with authority, as to what it -proceeds from or how it is generated. - -“New born babes of leprous parents are often as pretty and healthy in -appearance as other children, but the ‘_scab_’ comes on by degrees, the -hair falls off, joint after joint of the fingers and toes shrink up, the -gums are absorbed, and the teeth fall out and disappear; the nose, the -eyes, the palate are slowly consumed, and finally the wretched victim -sinks into the earth under a disease beyond the control of medicine, -which cannot even mitigate its tortures. - -“To my mind there is no conceivable manifestation of Divine power more -triumphantly confirmatory of Christ’s divinity than the cleansing of a -leper with a word.”[2] - ------ - -Footnote 2: - - The contagiousness of Leprosy was held in universal belief up to the - seventeenth century, when certain writers on the subject began to - question the validity of a doctrine which had been handed down to them - through successive ages, by all the early observers of the Jewish, - Egyptian, Arabian, Grecian, and Hindoo countries, and the view then - advanced has been confirmed by the report of the Committee recently - appointed by the College of Physicians, who state that:—“The all but - unanimous conviction of the most experienced observers in different - parts of the world, is quite opposed to the belief that leprosy is - _contagious_ or _communicable_ by _proximity_ or _contact_.” - - On the other hand we have to consider the testimony afforded us by the - shrewd and intelligent teachers of ancient times. Thus, Aretæus - believed it to be as contagious as the _plague_, and like _it_ - communicable by respiration; and _Œtius_, following _Archigenes_, - thought that “the air became contaminated through the effluvia of the - sores.” _Avicenna_ believed leprosy to be contagious in the _general_ - sense of that term; _Avenzoar_ by contact; _Haly Abbas_ and - _Alsaharavius_ through the respiration; and _Rogerius_ “_per coitum_.” - - [These interesting facts are taken from an able article in the Lancet, - February 9, 1867.] - ------ - -The initiatory rite of circumcision was, by Divine command, first -performed by Abraham in the year of the world 2107, or about 1897 years -before Christ:—At the age of 99 years, Abraham, together with his son -Ishmael and all his dependents were circumcised. - -Ishmael at this time was thirteen years old, and, as we are informed by -Josephus, was the founder of the Arabian nation, who to this day do not -circumcise until after the thirteenth year. - -Isaac, the child of promise, the heir who was to carry on the race of -the patriarch, was circumcised on the eighth day after his birth, and -this, among the Hebrews, became a law, and a statute for ever. - -One of the tapestries at Hampton Court, in the time of Holbein, -represents the operation being performed upon Isaac, with what appears -to be a knife made of stone, which was the instrument used for many ages -for this purpose. - -By the kindness of my friend, the Rev. William Sparrow Simpson, the -learned Librarian and Minor Canon of St. Paul’s Cathedral, I am enabled -to show you some of these knives of stone; and further evidence of the -employment of such implements will be found in Exodus 4th chapter and -25th verse, where it is written—“Then Zipporah took a sharp stone and -cut off the foreskin of her son and cast it at his (Moses) feet.”[3] - ------ - -Footnote 3: - - _Pliny_ tells us that the priests of _Cybele_, the mother of the gods - had sharp stones with which they cut themselves in their extasies. - _Catullus_ says, that _Atys_ emasculated himself with such an - instrument. - - The Rabbinical law stands thus: “we may circumcise with anything, even - with a flint, with crystal (glass) or with anything that cuts, _except - with the sharp edge of a reed_, because the _enchanters_ make use of - that, or it may bring on a disease.” Again we have the evidence of - _Leutholf_ that the Æthopians used _stone knives_ for circumcision in - his time, 1581. Speaking of the _Alnajah_, an Æthopian race, he - says:—“Alnajah gens Æthiopum cultris lapideis circumcisionem peragit.” - - Mr. E. B. Tylor in his “Researches into the Early History of Mankind,” - has suggested as the probable reason why stone was used as a cutting - instrument, that it was less likely to cause inflammation than either - bronze or iron. And _Pliny_ states that the mutilation of the priests - of _Cybele_ was done with a sherd of Samian ware to avoid the same - danger. - ------ - -Some writers believe that the practice of circumcision existed for ages -amongst the Heathens before the time of Abraham, whilst others have not -hesitated to date its origin as far back as our first fathers, asserting -that Adam was taught by the angel Gabriel to satisfy an oath he had made -to cut off that flesh, which after his fall had rebelled against his -spirit. - -Much has been written with regard to the comparative _antiquity_ of this -custom among the Egyptians and Ethiopians; a point upon which the -erudite Herodotus leaves us in doubt. - -Circumcision of _both_ sexes exists amongst the Abyssinians, Nubians, -Egyptians (both ancient and modern), Hottentots, and probably many other -nations. But in Turkey, Persia, and in the South Sea Islands, and those -of the Indian Seas, the practice is confined to the _male_ sex. The -Mohammedans adopt the rite of circumcision, and Mahomet himself was -circumcised, although no mention is made of the fact in the Koran. - -Doubtless, the so-called circumcision of women, as it is practised in -some countries, is a modification of what _we_ understand by the term, -and involves structures other than the clitoris or nymphæ; and it is -equally true that the custom is adopted by many races totally -irrespective of any religious significance. - -Sonnini de Manoncourt, a distinguished traveller and naturalist of the -eighteenth century “having examined a young girl of Egyptian origin, -about eight years old, found a thick, flabby, and fleshy excrescence, -covered with skin, which grew above the commissure of the labia, and -hung down half an inch, resembling in size and shape the caruncle -pendent from the bill of a turkey cock.” - -Conditions of a similar nature are said to exist among the women of the -interior of Africa, and are probably due to climatic influences, but the -more common forms of disease are those of simple hypertrophy of the -external parts of generation; and it is not unreasonable to suppose that -the surgical interference necessary for their removal has given rise to -the general term of circumcision. - -“Simple _excision_ of the _clitoris_ has been practised for very many -centuries by certain nations,” and I purpose quoting some interesting -observations just published by Dr. T. H. Tanner, upon the subject. His -first extract is from Strabo, the geographer, A.D. 21, who, in speaking -of the Egyptians, says:—“They _circumcise_ the males and _excise_ the -females, as is the custom also among the Jews, who are of Egyptian -extraction.” The custom appears to have been continued down to a recent -period, and Mr. W. G. Brown,[4] who resided for some time at Darfour, -North Africa, writing in 1779, thus alludes to it:—“The excision of -females is a peculiarity with which the northern nations are less -familiar; yet it would appear that this usage is more evidently founded -on physical causes, and is more clearly a matter of convenience, than -the circumcision of males, as it seems not to have been ordained by the -precept of any inspired writer.” - ------ - -Footnote 4: - - Travels in Africa, Egypt, and Syria, from the year 1792 to 1798, p. - 347. London, 1799. - ------ - -“This excision is termed in Arabic ‘_chafadh_.’ It consists of cutting -off the clitoris a little before the period of puberty, or at about the -age of _eight_ or _nine_ years.” - -Again, the Nubian traveller[5] _Burckhardt_ tells us—“The daughters of -the Arabs _Ababde_, and _Djaafere_, who are of Arabian origin, and -inhabit the western bank of the Nile from Thebes, as high as the -cataracts, and generally those of all the people to the south of _Kenne_ -and _Esne_ (as far as Sennaar) undergo circumcision, or rather -_excision_ (excisio-clitoridis,) at the age of from _three_ to _six_ -years: Girls thus treated are called _mukhaeyt_.” - ------ - -Footnote 5: - - Travels in Nubia, by the late John Lewis Burckhardt, p. 332. London, - 1819. - ------ - -But perhaps the most trustworthy account of the circumcision of females -in Western Africa is that given by the late Mr. W. F. Daniel, who was a -distinguished member of our own profession. He tells us that “The -excisive process in Western Africa is variously performed in accordance -with the usages of the different districts where it is resorted to. The -operation consists either of:— - -“1. Simple excision of the clitoris; 2. excision of the nymphæ; 3. -excision of both nymphæ and clitoris; 4. excision of a portion of the -labia pudendi, with either or all of the preceding structures. - -“The history of the operation is involved in obscurity; that it was -secretly inculcated as one of those gloomy rites which the female -proselyte had to undergo, as a preliminary measure, prior to her -initiation into those dread mythological creeds, which, in Egypt and the -adjoining countries were swathed in the folds of an allegorical and -almost impenetrable mysticism, is the most likely inference.” -_Eventually_ the progressive decay of the religious institutions, -gradually led to its promulgation and practice among the masses of the -people; for the _priests_, who, independent of their scientific -attainments, were also well versed in medicine, might have advocated its -use both in a moral and hygienic point of view, as conducive to the -welfare of the female population. - -I have been led into this digression by reflecting over the barbarous -and unphilosophical meddling of certain practitioners of our metropolis -who are, in effect, degrading our practice of surgery to the level of -that of the savages we have just described, without possessing the same -claim to our consideration on the score of ignorance, barbarism, and -superstition. The modern antic yclept “_clitoridectomy_” (to which I -refer), is, as the “Lancet” says, “a proceeding which, if it be -_useless_, is a _lamentable mistake_, and if it be _unnecessary_, _a -cruel outrage_.” - -The next proposition we may fairly look for will be to imitate still -further the customs of these Western Africans who, in certain tribes, -whenever a girl shows any very strong indication of sexual feeling -(before she is betrothed), at once proceed to produce an obliteration of -her vagina by the intense inflammatory action set up by the forcible -introduction of a mass of the “capsicum fructescens,” or bird pepper—to -my mind not one shade more inhuman or barbarous than unsexing a woman -for ever, upon an assumption which grossly libels our female population. - -The position taken by the early Christians in reference to the practice -of circumcision was decidedly antagonistic, so far as any value, in a -_religious_ point of view, should be ascribed to it; nevertheless, their -apostles and teachers permitted it to continue, at the discretion or -inclination of those who chose to submit to it. - -It is an interesting fact to note that the Copts, whose Christianity -dates back from the persecution of Diocletian (called the era of -martyrs) in 303, and the Abyssinian Christians, who also reckon from the -fourth century, adopt the custom to this day, from a belief that it -gives them a further chance of entering Paradise, beyond the baptism -they receive as Christians. It is also singular that these sects accept -several other doctrines and precepts of the Mohammedans and Jews, among -whom they dwell. - -The precise mode of operating upon males varies in different countries. -In Madagascar three separate and distinct operations are inflicted upon -the individual. In the South Sea Islands the natives simply slit up the -prepuce on its dorsal aspect, and in earlier times the practice was to -cut the prepuce all round the corona, avoiding the frœnum. In the Fiji -Islands the instrument used is a sharp splinter of bamboo. - -Upon females the process of excision is performed by aged women. In -Egypt the custom is still maintained; and the women of the _Said_ travel -about from town to village, crying out “Circumcisor! who wants a -circumcisor?” In Old Calabar, Mr. Daniel had the opportunity of -witnessing the operation, which is likewise performed _there_ by aged -females. The girl having been placed on the knees of a woman, with the -legs apart, the clitoris was seized, _forceps-like_, by two pieces of -bamboo or palm-sticks, and being gently drawn forth, was severed with a -sharp razor. - -Among the Jews the peculiar and distinctive mark of circumcision is -perpetuated in our days, and without any material change of ceremonial. -The _modus operandi_ is as follows:—The godfather being seated, takes -the child on his knees, and the operator (who may be the father of the -child, if capable, or some friend of the family, or a professed expert) -takes up with his fingers, or a pair of tweezers, as much of the prepuce -as he intends to cut off, and, on applying the knife, says—“Blessed be -Thou, O God, who hast commanded us to use circumcision.” He then sucks -the blood, and spits it into a cup of wine, and having applied styptics -to the wound, retakes the cup, and having blessed _it_ and the child, -pronounces the name of the child, and moistens his lips with the -contents of the cup. Various prayers are then said, and the ceremony is -concluded. - -Though the modern Jews generally use a steel instrument, there is this -remarkable exception—that, when a male child dies before the eighth day, -it is circumcised prior to burial, and this is done, not with the -ordinary instrument, but with a fragment of glass or flint. - -The practice extended to the Ishmaelites, and, as we have already -stated, was subsequently adopted by Mahomet, so that a very large -section of the human race are to this day, participators of a rite -established considerably more than 3000 years ago. - -The subject cannot be dismissed without noticing the fact that the Jews -under their various captivities, subjugations, and persecutions, -endeavoured, in some instances, to obliterate the marks of circumcision. -This is abundantly proved, not only by contemporary writers, but by the -evidence of Epiphanius, Celsus, Galen, Paulus Ægineta, Fallopius, and -others, who have enlarged upon the means adopted for the accomplishment -of this object. It is, further, a noteworthy circumstance that the Jews -_entirely_ suspended the practice of circumcision during the forty years -of their wanderings in the wilderness. - -In contemplating the sufferings of this unfortunate race, the heart -sickens at the punishments which resulted from their resistance to -foreign usurpation. Unable to discern the hand of God in their -humiliation, their struggles were, indeed, hopeless, but not the less -heroic. Captives in Babylon, after a long and cruel servitude, they were -restored only to be again scattered by the destruction of Jerusalem, -under Titus. Through the varying fortunes of the Romans, no -resting-place seems to have been vouchsafed to them; plundered and -disgraced, the fall of Rome only eventuated, as far as _they_ were -concerned, in a change of masters. Ruthless persecutors tracked them -through the dark ages, and what Heathenism spared, Christianity -despoiled; our pious ancestors praising God when they had a chance of -maltreating an Israelite. - -For these reasons, and with such incentives, can we doubt that the timid -amongst them would endeavour to remove the means of identity which -circumcision afforded. - -We have so refined away the simplicity of the patriarchal times, that it -is almost necessary to apologise for alluding to the reverential awe -with which all matters relating to the seed of Abraham were regarded. It -was a solemn and impressive act when the Patriarch, believing that the -time was come for his son Isaac to have a wife, sent for his chief -servant, and said, “Put, I pray thee, thy hand under my thigh, and swear -by the Lord that thou wilt choose a wife for my son out of mine own -kindred;” and the servant, with his hand on his master’s genitals, took -the required oath; and we all know how faithfully he performed it. -Whilst this simple, but deeply significant ceremony was being enacted, -the heart of the father of the faithful was doubtless filled with -contemplations of the great purposes for the accomplishment of which the -organs of generation were appropriately considered as the direct agents. - -This mode of taking the oath is further adverted to in the 47th chapter -of Genesis, when Jacob is taking his farewell of his children. - -In our blind adoration of classical heathenism we undervalue the sublime -and not less poetical incidents which mark the rise, progress, -culmination, and decay of that people with whom our highest interests -are identified. If, for instance, the Book of Job had not been written -under inspiration, and had been accidentally discovered among the ruins -of the _first_ Babylon, our antiquarians would have regarded it as the -loftiest of epics; and especially so if, instead of inculcating the -worship of the true God, its subject had been the glorification of -whatever false deity might have been in the ascendant when this most -ancient poem was composed. - -The prejudices of education subjugate the judgment, and the gross and -sensual attributes with which the Greek poets invested their deities, -are accepted with complacency, if not with admiration; even Pope, their -great panegyrist, describes their heroes thus:— - - “Gods, partial, changeful, profligate, unjust, - Whose attributes were _rage_, _revenge_, and _lust_.” - -This, of course, will be set down for rank blasphemy against the canons -of taste. We are exuberant in our praises of the _genius_ of Homer, and -not to worship his _inventive_ powers is an offence of the deepest dye; -but when we are barbarous enough to critically examine this wonderful -mythology, and to determine the claims to applause—say of supreme -Jove—we are rather troubled by the difficulty of reconciling the ways of -the first intelligence with our commonplace notions of decency. The -intrigues of the father of the gods, the artifices by which he eludes -the jealousy of his wife Juno, his incestuous, and, if they were not -classical, we should call them filthy debaucheries, draw largely upon -our faith in the beauties of these records of high Olympus; and our -admiration for the poet is sadly tinctured with disgust for the images -in which his creative powers are developed. - -Thus much of the ceremonial laws. Of the moral law, the law of God, it -becomes me not to speak; its obligations are as eternal as its author; -the everlasting truths of the decalogue have been incorporated more or -less into every system of religion and ethics which has been enunciated -during the ages interposing between us and the period in which they were -first promulgated on Mount Sinai. - -In dismissing Moses and his times, I crave your particular attention to -the manner in which the characters of priest and physician met in the -same person. As we proceed we shall find that this junction of -attributes continues through all the variations of time and -circumstances. The terrors of the _unseen_, overawing the ignorant, -placed them at the mercy of those daring minds which in every age have -assumed the office of interpreters of the will of the _demon_, or the -behests of the benign Deity. To deal as a mediator between the threats -of the terrible avenger and the awe-stricken victim of his own -bewildered imagination, to avert the consequences of the threatened -storm, or to turn aside any other manifestation of approaching evil is -the office of the _medicine-man_ of the North American Indian and the -_Obeah_ doctor of the African. Shrewd observers of nature, these -wretched impostors monopolize the whole of the intelligence, such as it -is, of the hordes of the human race upon whom the light of reason has -never dawned, or has dawned in vain. - -There is yet another aspect of the medical character, infinitely more -agreeable and important, and the consideration of it will bring us to -the times immediately preceding the days of the father of medicine. I do -not propose to penetrate into the story of Esculapius and his divine -origin, which probably, in an esoteric sense, merely meant that the -Giver of all good had inspired him with a knowledge of the healing art; -but (with a passing glance at Homer, the greatest poet of his own or any -subsequent age), proceed to offer some general observations on the -position which the study of medicine acquired under the tutorship of the -philosophers. - -The siege of Troy is supposed to have taken place about three hundred -years before the _Iliad_ was sung, and in that early time it appears -that the cultivation of our art formed part of the general education of -kings and warriors.[6] - ------ - -Footnote 6: - - “As for Medicine, something of it must have been understood in that - age, though it was so far from perfection, that, according to Celsus, - (book i.) what concerned _diet_ was invented long after by - Hippocrates. The accidents of life make the search after remedies too - indispensable a duty to be neglected at any time; accordingly, he - tells us, that the Egyptians, who had many medicinal plants in their - country, were all Physicians, and perhaps he might have learnt his own - skill from his acquaintance with that nation. - - “The state of war in which Greece lived, required a knowledge in the - healing of wounds, and this might make him breed his princes, - Achilles, Patroclus, Podalirius and Machaon, to the science; what - Homer thus attributes to others he himself knew, and he has given us - reason to believe, not slightly, for if we consider his insight into - the structure of the human body, it is so nice, that he has been - judged by some to have wounded his heroes with too much science; or, - if we observe his cure of wounds, which are the accidents proper to an - epic poem, we find him directing the chirurgical operations, sometimes - infusing lenitives, at other times bitter powders, when the effusion - of blood required astringent qualities.”—_Pope’s Essay on the - Character of Homer._ - ------ - -Homer introduces us to Machaon the son of Esculapius, who, when Menelaus -was treacherously wounded by Pandarus, is called to his aid: - - “When the wound appeared in sight, where struck - The stinging arrow, from the clotted blood - He cleansed it, and applied with skilful hand - The healing ointments, which, in friendly guise, - The learned _Chiron_ to his father gave.”[7] - ------ - -Footnote 7: - - Lord Derby’s Translation. - ------ - -Making due allowance for the debasing fable with which every great name -or talent is overlaid, it is rational to suppose that Chiron, the -teacher of Esculapius, was one of those shepherd philosophers, who like -their Babylonian brethren absorbed all the knowledge of the times; but -Homer gives us other examples in support of this idea. Chiron was the -preceptor of Achilles, and when Machaon is himself wounded, Patroclus is -sent by Achilles to his assistance; on his arrival he is urged by -Eurypylus, to - - “Draw the deadly dart, - With luke-warm water wash the gore away: - With healing balm the raging smart allay, - Such as sage _Chiron_, sire of pharmacy, - Once taught Achilles, and Achilles thee.”—_Pope._ - -He also complains that - - “Of two great _surgeons_, Podalirius stands - This hour surrounded by the Trojan bands, - And great _Machaon_ wounded in his tent - Now wants the succour which so oft he lent.” - -Then - - “Patroclus cut the forky steel away, - And in his hand a bitter root he pressed, - The wound he washed and styptic juice infused, - The closing flesh that instant ceased to glow, - The wound to torture and the blood to flow.” - -Machaon seems to have largely shared the goodwill of the Grecian hosts. -Nestor, in his anxiety, says:— - - A wise Physician skilled in wounds to heal, - Is more than _armies_ to the public weal. - -Military leaders in our days have no such weakness as this. Studied -neglect seems to them the befitting recompense of those on whom they -must necessarily rely for the health and sanitary welfare of their -troops. - -As we are still in the age of fable, it may not be out of place to -notice with what tenacity the human mind clings to those delusions which -fear engenders, and weak hopes sustain: with all our boasted -enlightenment, the _marvellous_ and the _incredible_ have more -worshippers than the _real_ and the _true_. Let us not wonder then, that -the pure monotheism enunciated in the Holy Scriptures had so little -charm for the sensuous and imaginative Greeks. Socrates, who, by the -simple force of reason and philosophy had reached the very portals of -the temple in which was enshrined the idea of the unity of God, in his -_last hour_ “sacrifices a cock to Esculapius.” The reputed offspring of -an impure deity, History is unhappily more abundant in records of human -folly and superstition, than in examples of purity of thought and -action—simplicity is everywhere despised—facts are distorted or made -subservient to sensations; for example:—It is not enough to tell us that -Chiron was skilled in physic, but to suit the depraved appetites of the -vulgar he is a _centaur_, and Esculapius a _god_. It is therefore with -something like relief that the name of Hippocrates comes before us, for -in him we have a _reality_, and in his works a remarkable record of the -condition of medical science in the fifth century before Christ. He was -born at Cos, a small island off the coast of Caria, not in Greece -proper, in the first year of the 80th Olympiad. - -Hippocrates was descended from Esculapius by his father’s side, and from -Hercules by his mother’s, and was the son of Heraclides, a physician of -the family of the Asclepiadæ, who furnish us with the very earliest -instance of a body of philosophers devoting themselves to the healing -art; for, although Pythagoras, who lived immediately before Hippocrates, -and Democritus, who was his contemporary, were both learned physicians, -yet, whatever fame they acquired, was ascribed to their powers as mental -philosophers and rhetoricians. - -It has been urged by way of apology for the mystery in which the -philosophers shrouded their wisdom, that “science, like modesty, should -cover itself with a veil to increase the charms of the treasure it -conceals;” and this principle has been, throughout all ages, more -generally acted upon than avowed. - -The character of Hippocrates is at once a study for the physician and -the moralist; the former will appreciate the astonishing evidences which -his works afford, of a deep acquaintance with the whole subject of -medicine, and his admiration will be increased by the remembrance that -all the principles laid down by this great and good man, were the -results of his own experience. - -No treatises on disease existed anterior to his time to aid him in his -investigations of the phenomena of nature, although it is true that in -the Asclepion or temple of Esculapius at Cos, records were kept and -votive tablets preserved commemorative of cures performed, and of the -remedies by which they were effected. But if the physician admires his -talents, the moralist does honour to the qualities of his mind and the -goodness of his heart. Benevolent and disinterested, pious towards the -gods, and incorruptibly devoted to his country, he instructed his fellow -men, not by shedding maudlin tears over their follies, like Heraclides, -nor by the coarse laughter of his friend Democritus, but by a calm and -even walk of life, mitigating sorrow by his skill, and showing the form -and beauty of virtue by his example. - -His portrait of a worthy physician may well serve for his own likeness, -and in its description we shall observe that the exalted principles of -professional ethics therein inculcated, are as strictly applicable to -our own times as they were to those which he himself enlightened and -adorned. His words are:—“The physician who is an honour to his -profession, is he who has merited the public esteem by profound -knowledge, long experience, consummate integrity, and irreproachable -life; who, esteeming all the wretched as equals in the eyes of the -Divine Being, hastens to their assistance, speaks with mildness, listens -with attention, bears with their impatience, and inspires that -confidence which sometimes of itself restores life; sensibly alive to -their sufferings, carefully studies the causes and progress of the -complaint; not disconcerted by unforseen accidents, but, in emergencies, -having exhausted his own resources, holds it a duty to call in his -brethren of the healing art to assist him with their advice. Having -struggled with all his strength against the malady, he is happy and -modest in success, and in failure congratulates himself that he has, at -least, alleviated the sufferings of his patient.” - -One of the great obstacles to the advancement of anatomy and physiology -was the universal reverence for the dead which the Greeks and Romans -shared in common with all the people of antiquity. Among the Jews, to -touch a dead body exposed the offender to a penance of seven days’ -exclusion and privation from the ordinary comforts of life; and it is -almost superfluous to add, that the Egyptians made this reverence a part -of their religion. - -He, then, who ventured on the dissection of the human body, did so at -great personal risk, and for more than 600 years after the foundation of -Rome, no instance is known of the existence of any public professor of -anatomy. About that time Archagathus, a Greek, practised surgery in -Rome; and it appears that his use of the knife, and the actual cautery, -was so abhorrent to the general feeling, that he was saluted with the -opprobrious title of “Carnifex.” Even in later days the learned -Tertullian classed anatomists and butchers together in a philippic he -pronounced against Herophilus, whom he charged with having tried -experiments on the living body. He commences:—“Herophilus, the -physician, or butcher, whichever you please, who to become better -acquainted with men, ripped them up alive,” &c. &c. - -Of this same Herophilus, who appears to have been a man of humour, as -well as genius, there is an excellent story told:—A certain _Diodorus_, -a contemporary philosopher and teacher of paradoxes, declared that there -was no such thing as _motion_. “If a body _moves_,” says he, “it moves -into the place where it _is_, _or_ into the place where it _is not_; now -it does not move into the place where it _is_, for what is _in_ a place -_remains_ there, and, consequently, one cannot say that _it moves_. It -also cannot move in a place where _it is not_; and therefore, it does -not move at all.” This acute gentleman having dislocated his arm, begged -the services of Herophilus, who, smiling, said:—“Either the bone of your -arm is moved into the place where it _was_, or into the place where it -_was not_; now it cannot move, according to your principles, either in -one place or another, consequently it is not displaced at all.” The poor -teacher of paradoxes saw that Herophilus was laughing at him, and in an -agony cried out:—“Leave, I pray you, _dialectics_ and _sophisms_ to me, -and treat me according to the laws of medicine.” - -The inference that dissection was not openly allowed, will be -strengthened by a short reference to the subject of the embalmment of -the dead—the first mention of this custom is found in the 50th Chapter -of Genesis; where, at the second verse, we read:—That “Joseph commanded -his servants, the physicians, to embalm his father, and the physicians -embalmed Israel;” and at 26th verse of the same chapter it is -written:—“So Joseph died, being an hundred and ten years old, and they -embalmed him.” - -The Egyptians believed that so long as the human body could be saved -from putrefaction or decay, the soul of that body continued in -existence; and from this feeling arose the custom of embalming, so -common in remote ages. The embalmer was, in a certain sense, a _sacred_ -functionary; nevertheless, it was the fashion to make a show of -resistance, when he began his operation, in order to mark the innate -horror of any, however necessary, profanation of the dead body. -Herodotus relates that in Egypt the mummy embalmers made the incision in -the side of the corpse with a sharp æthiopic stone. Of these stones two -varieties have been found in the tombs in Egypt, both of chipped flint, -and very neatly made. One kind is like a very small cleaver; the other -has more of the character of a lancet. The account given by Diodorus -Siculus of the resistance offered to the embalmer is, as follows:—“And -first, the body being laid on the ground, he who is called the scribe -marks on its left side how far the incision is to be made; then the -so-called slitter (paraschistes) having an æthiopic stone, and cutting -the flesh as far as the law allows, instantly runs off, the bystanders -pursuing him, and pelting him with stones, cursing him, and, as it were, -turning the horror of the deed upon him, for he who hurts a citizen is -held worthy of abhorrence.”[8] Immediately after death the corpse was -put into the hands of the embalmer, who in the presence of the friends -of the deceased, made an incision into the left side, as above -described, through which he extracted all the intestines, leaving the -heart and kidneys; the intestines were then washed in palm wine, and a -solution of astringent gums. The _brain_ was removed through the -nostrils by means of a hooked instrument, contrived for the purpose, and -the cavity filled with aromatic oils. The body was now anointed with -spice-oils and balsamic gums (frankincense being prohibited), and -allowed to remain for thirty days, after which it was immersed in a -solution of nitre for from forty to seventy days (the latter being the -extreme limit allowed); it was then enveloped in aromatised cere-cloths, -and all being ready, consigned to the coffin, on which were painted -emblems indicative of the condition of the deceased. The process is said -to have cost £300 of our money, and was, of course, only applicable to -the rich. The fee for embalmment alone, varied from a _Talent_ (which -has been estimated by some as equivalent to £193 15s., and by others to -£243 15s. of our present money) to a _Mina_, in value about £3 4s. 7d. - ------ - -Footnote 8: - - Taken from E. B. Tylor—“Early History of Mankind,” p. 217. - ------ - -The embalmment of the middle classes was, in some degree, regulated by -their means; the simplest form being, the destruction of the intestines -with strong oil of tar, and after their removal soaking the body in a -strong solution of nitre for a period not exceeding seventy days. - -Some have ascribed the practice of embalming to the fact of the -periodical inundations of the Nile rendering interment impossible at -such seasons, and hence have thought that necessity had quite as much to -do with the custom as the religious principle: but this idea is not well -founded, for although the Nile continues to overflow, embalmings have -ceased for ages. - -After Hippocrates the name of Aristotle comes before us. Aristotle, the -pupil and friend of the venerable Plato, whose doctrines he adopted and -developed, lectured at Athens 370 years before Christ. As a physician -and naturalist he was far in advance of his contemporaries, and as a -mathematician and moral philosopher, his transcendent learning was, for -ages, the theme of every scholar; and his “System of the Universe” -adopted by the whole of the civilized world. These great qualities -attracted the attention of Philip of Macedonia, who chose him as the -tutor of his son Alexander (the Great). Ignorance and superstition were, -however, omnipotent, and for having enunciated the doctrine of one God, -and a supreme first cause, the priests of the various temples seeing -their craft in danger, excited the populace, who threatened his life. -Warned by the fate of Socrates, he retired to Chalcis to wear away a -life embittered by personal suffering, and sorrow for the folly and -ingratitude of his countrymen. - -The heart’s deepest feelings are roused at the remembrance of the deeds -of violence perpetrated against every benefactor of mankind who has had -the courage to promulgate truths beyond the comprehension of the vulgar -on the one hand, and opposed to the vested interest of established -errors on the other. The fate of Aristotle is a common result, not -confined to the dark ages, nor without examples amongst ourselves. - -The learned Philo of Alexandria, who lived A.D. 40, has given us an -interesting account of the very remarkable sect living in Egypt in his -day, known as the “Theraputæ,” or “healers.” He describes them as a -confraternity who, after having received a special training in the -University of Alexandria, devoted themselves to the healing art; they -led a secluded, contemplative life, and laid the foundation of the -monastic system. Eusebius calls them Christians, but this is not -confirmed by Philo, who was a member of the sect; they were, probably, -Platonists, or philosophical pagans. They ascribed their cures to -prayers, fastings, and incantations, eschewed all material remedies, and -medicaments, but made free use of magical rites of both forms—the -leucomancy, or white magic, used in invoking the gods, and necromancy -when the demons were to be propitiated or coerced. St. Luke, before his -conversion, is supposed to have been a Therapeut; and St. Paul denounces -some of their errors. Of their faults we cannot judge, but we may admire -the benevolence with which they devoted themselves alike to the physical -and moral welfare of their fellow men—in this respect, no unworthy -forerunners of Him who commanded his disciples, not only to “instruct -the ignorant,” but to “heal the sick.” - -We pass over three centuries to come to the time of Celsus, who, in the -reign of Tiberius and the first century of our Lord, was established at -Rome; where he acquired great honour and renown. To these he was fairly -entitled by the extent of his learning and the especial attention he -paid to surgery and medicine. His principles governed the medical world -without a rival until the time of Galen, who divided the empire with him -for centuries. - -Celsus was the first native Roman physician whose name has been -transmitted to us: the practice of medicine and surgery being, prior to -his time, in the hands of eminent Greeks and Asiatics, excepting that -there existed in Rome (at that period) a race of native practitioners, -who belonged to the class of slaves[9] or persons of low degree; and to -whom were entrusted only the subordinate branches of the healing art. - ------ - -Footnote 9: - - See Notes and Letters of Pliny. - ------ - -The great proficiency of Celsus on the subjects of rhetoric, philosophy, -military tactics, and rural economy, as mentioned by Quintilian, has -induced many of our older writers to doubt whether he ever really -practised medicine and surgery, or, whether, like the elder Cato, he -simply studied them as a branch of general knowledge; and this -scepticism has been favoured by the fact of his name being omitted by -Pliny, in his “Treatise on the History of Medicine.” - -On the other hand, no one, I think, can rise from the perusal of his -celebrated work, “De Medicina,” without being thoroughly convinced that -his intimate acquaintance with the theory and practice of medicine, -surgery, and pharmacy, could only have resulted from close bedside -observation. - -Galen was born at Pergamos, in Asia, in the second century; his learning -was great, and his literary labours enormous. Having traversed Egypt and -Greece, and acquired a knowledge of every science taught in the schools -there, he settled in Rome. His works have been estimated at over 300 -volumes—medical, physical, and metaphysical. He practised bleeding more -frequently than his predecessors, but he gave very careful directions as -to the conditions under which venesection should be resorted to, as well -as to the quantity of blood to be taken. - -Averroes, Avicenna, and other Arabian physicians held him in great -veneration; and Dr. Alison says:— “For centuries after his death his -doctrines and tenets were regarded in the light of oracles, which few -persons had the courage to oppose; and the authority of Galen alone was -estimated at a much higher rate than that of all the medical writers -combined, who flourished during a period of more than twelve centuries.” - -Rome, in its decadence, was too much occupied with the intrigues and -villainies of the factions by which it was ultimately destroyed, to -spare any time for the culture of science. It was not until after the -total disappearance of the Eastern Empire, and the hollow tranquillity -which succeeded the triumphs of Mahomet, and the subsequent subjugation -of Spain by the Moors, that learning reared its head in Alexandria, and -the Arabian physicians came into view. - -Although Greece had disappeared, even in the noonday of its glory, its -literature never possessed more devoted admirers, nor more faithful -exponents than are to be found among the Arabian philosophers, and yet -what a striking contrast is exhibited in the characters of the two -people. Whilst making the philosophy of Greece their own, they by no -means lost their distinctiveness and individuality. The Greeks delighted -in all that was brilliant and fascinating, like the beautiful scenery of -Attica and Asia Minor. The Arabs were thoughtful and grave, monotonous -and arid, like the deserts they inhabited. The genius of poetry -illumined all the meditations of the former, and their thoughts were -graceful, even in their errors; whilst the reflections of the latter -were dull and melancholy, albeit they were based on truths. - -A dreary night now ensues—we have no name of note until Paulus Ægineta -in 640—but what a series of historically grand events interpose: The -invasion of Europe by the Huns—Division of the Roman Empire—Taking of -Rome by Alaric—Visigoths established in Spain—Saxon heptarchy -begun—Conquest of Italy by Totila—Birth of Mahomet, down to the taking -of Alexandria by the Arabs—Greece and Rome having virtually disappeared; -and our next author (Paulus) probably present at the burning of the -great library of the Ptolemies. - -Paulus Ægineta is entitled to our homage, as the author of an abridgment -of the works of Galen, and many excellent treatises on medical subjects, -especially on those incident to childbed, and the diseases of women; he -was the first writer upon _small-pox_ and _measles_, and the originator -of the theory of _zymosis_, which has received so much attention of -late. Paulus died about the middle of the seventh century, and with him -expired the last of the Greek writers upon medicine. His labours have -been thought worthy of being translated by the Sydenham Society. - -Avicenna, who lived in the year 980, deserves a fuller notice than we -can afford him; his works are said to present great clearness and -acuteness. At the early age of eighteen he was chosen Physician to the -Court of the Caliph of Bagdad, where for some offence he was imprisoned, -and ultimately died. He has been called the “Hippocrates of the Arabs.” - -Rhazes was contemporary with Avicenna, and has attracted the respectful -attention of the lovers of ancient medicine. His most esteemed work is a -treatise on small-pox, which was translated by Dr. Mead in 1548. - -I will conclude these sketches of the Arabian schoolmen with a brief -notice of Averroes, the most eminent of them:— - -This profound scholar was born at Cordova, in Spain, of which city his -father was the alcade, about the year 1120. He was educated in Morocco, -then in its glory, and in the celebrated schools there studied law, -philosophy, and medicine. His admiration for Aristotle was unbounded, -and his unwearied application to the examination of that great man’s -works, secured for him the reputation of being the ablest commentator on -the Aristotelian philosophy. He rose to the dignity of a judge in -Morocco, but the freedom of his opinions being in advance of the age, he -was imprisoned for some years, and only released on recanting his -errors; he died 1206, during the Caliphate of Almanzer. - -The glories of the Moorish power now began to wane, and after repeated -discomfitures in 1516, that intelligent and highly civilized people were -finally expelled by Ferdinand the Catholic: the cross triumphs—the -crescent retires, and takes with it all that is admirable in arts, or -humanizing in science; the Spaniard has chased away Mahomet, and -receives the Inquisition as the first-fruits of his conquest. - -The war against opinion was carried on so vigorously that Copernicus, -whose acute perception had discovered the errors of Aristotle’s theory -of heavenly bodies, was fiercely denounced. Copernicus was born in -Westphalia in 1473, he studied at Cracow, where he received the degree -of Doctor of Medicine; at Bologna his piercing genius discovered that -the sun was the centre of the planetary system, that the earth was a -planet and revolved round the sun like other planets, and thus was first -made known the true system of the universe. These discoveries being -distasteful to the church, the Pope issued a sentence of -excommunication; and the great astronomer died with a heart oppressed by -such unmerited persecution. - -These discoveries were further pursued by another learned physician, -Galileo, who was born at Pisa in 1564. He entered the university there -in 1581, and prosecuted his studies with such zeal and success, that in -a very few years he became Professor of Mathematics. He now began his -career as a teacher of the philosophy of Copernicus, and soon received -unpleasant evidences that the disciple of truth must be ready to suffer. -A congregation of cardinals, monks, and mathematicians of the old -school, determined that his works were heretical and dangerous, and the -holy inquisition sentenced him to prison. After remaining incarcerated -some months he was taken before his judges, and required to renounce his -errors, and with his hand upon the Gospel, to swear that they were -sinful and detestable. Having performed this horrid penance, his -conscience upbraided him, and as he rose from his knees, he exclaimed, -“yet it does move,” for which relapse he was further sentenced to -perpetual imprisonment. He continued thus secluded for many years, -during which time blindness, deafness, and pains in his limbs embittered -his existence, and death at length, more merciful than the Holy See, -released him from his trials. Newton was born in the year in which this -noble martyr died. - -For the edification of the worshippers of the “good old times,” a few -more instances of the loving kindness which prevailed may be acceptable. - -The clerical sages of the University of Salamanca pronounced that the -assertion of Christopher Columbus, that a continent existed beyond the -seas, was blasphemous and feloniously wicked. A bishop of Salsburg -expressing his belief in the existence of the antipodes was denounced by -the bishop of Mentz as a dangerous heretic, and committed to the flames. - -Bigotry, however, is not confined to any one creed, since we know that -Calvin the reformer, a man who had suffered persecution without learning -mercy, no sooner found himself invested with the power to punish the -freedom of thought in which he had himself indulged, than he persecuted -to death the learned physician, Michael Servetus, not for any immoral -proclivity, but because he believed him to be unsound on the doctrine of -the Trinity. Servetus took the degree of Doctor of Medicine at the -University of Paris about the year 1535. He is the author of some -medical treatises on the circulation of the blood, and also translated -Ptolemy’s geography; he was for some time in constant correspondence -with Calvin, but as the “Odium theologicum” is the bitterest, Calvin -shewed his christian charity by causing his antagonist to be consigned -to the flames. - -But I must hasten forward, Fallopius looms in the distance, and with him -our medical celebrities come fast and numerous. Gabriel Fallopius was -born at Modena about the year 1523, and was one of the great triad of -anatomists in Italy who, at the close of the 16th century, laid the -foundation of the modern science of anatomy. Fallopius succeeded -Vesalius in the chair of anatomy and surgery at Padua in 1557. His -career was brilliant but short, and he died in 1562. It should be -mentioned that Fallopius shared the usual fate of great discoverers; his -originality was disputed, and his learning questioned; but it has been -always so, and in appreciating the works of our predecessors, we must -keep in view the enormous difficulties by which every onward step, -whether in art or science, is beset: - - “Envy doth merit, as its shade pursue.” - -truth does indeed ultimately prevail, but too frequently the heart of -the discoverer is broken before the obtuseness of the mediocrities in -power, by whom it is obstructed, can be overcome. - -Although a little diverging from the strict chronological order, I must -here introduce to you our old acquaintance, Paracelsus; this eccentric -genius had too little virtue to be admired, and too much talent to be -despised. He was born at Zurich, in Switzerland, in 1493, and was -consequently contemporary with many more learned, but less celebrated -men; an unblushing and presumptuous egotist, he presents himself, in a -moral point of view, as the exact antithesis of the amiable and virtuous -Hippocrates. That he made some very useful discoveries must be granted -to him; he introduced the use of opium into Germany, and was the first -practitioner who employed preparations of mercury, antimony, sulphur, -iron, and other remedies. - -Van Helmont is the most indulgent of his biographers, and Lord Bacon the -most severe; but perhaps the description given by Zimmerman comes -nearest the truth—“Paracelsus burnt publicly at _Bàle_ the works of -Galen, Avicenna, and other eminent predecessors, because, he said, ‘they -knew nothing of the cabballa and magic,’ which lay at the root of all -medical and natural laws. He undertook to cure all diseases by the use -of certain words and charms. He enjoined secresy on his disciples, and -certainly was the first _great quack_ from whom the numerous band of -Charlatans have proceeded.” - -He has left his mantle behind him, and his descendants, with none of his -brains, have largely inherited his presumption. On the occasion of his -inauguration in the Chair of Medicine, he thus expresses himself:— - -“Know,” says he, “that my _cap_ has more learning than all your -professors, and my beard more experience than all your academies! I -speak to you Greeks, Latins, Frenchmen, Italians, &c. &c. _You_ will -follow _me_, _I_ shall not follow _you_. You, I say, doctors of Paris, -Montpellier, Dalmatia, of Athens; you Jews, Arabs, Spaniards, English, I -tell you all that nature obeys me; and if God does not deign to assist, -I have yet the devil to resort to. I am king of all science, and command -all the hosts of hell.” - -We have in this impostor the very embodiment of the true quacks of -to-day; their language is indeed a little subdued, but their pretensions -are as large; and, let me add, that whereas Paracelsus, in his days, had -the countenance and support of many persons of rank, so in ours, there -does not exist an ignorant pretender without the patronage of the great, -and this patronage, too often, in the exact ratio of his presumption and -falsehood. - -It must not be overlooked that this arch imposter died miserably, in -poverty, induced by dissipation, and the possessor of the “elixir of -immortality” breathed out his drunken soul at the age of fifty. - -We have a lively picture of the state of things begotten of this man in -the pages of Burton, an example in himself of the power of credulity, -and a proof that great scholastic learning was by no means at variance -with the wild vagaries of the times. He appears not unconscious of his -peculiarities, and offers the following apology for his frequent -reference to callings other than his own:— - -“If any physician shall infer ‘ne sutor ultra crepidam,’ and be grieved -that I have intruded into his profession, I tell him, in brief, he does -the same by us:—I know many of his sect who have taken Orders in hope of -a Benefice—’tis a common transaction; and why may not a melancholy -divine, who can get nothing but by _Simony_, profess _Physic_? Marsilius -Ficinus was ‘semel et simul,’ a priest and physician, at once ‘sacerdos -et medicus;’ and also divers Jesuits are at this time ‘permissu -superiorem,’ chirurgeons, panders, bawds and midwives. Many poor vicars, -for want of other means, are driven to turn mountebanks, quacksalvers -and empirics; and in every village have we not wizards, alchymists, -barbers, goodwives, Paracelsians (as they call themselves), possessing -great skill, and in such numbers that I marvel how they shall all find -employment?” - -Burton lived about 1576, and was consequently of the same age as our own -great Harvey, of whom we shall speak presently. - -Let me offer you one specimen on the subject of demoniacal possession, -first introducing you to a new character, Cornelius Gemma, who was born -at Louvain in 1535, and was one of the greatest scholars of his age, a -professor of medicine in his native town (the chair having been -conferred upon him by the great Duke of Alva, who governed the low -countries), and whose writings embrace the subjects of medicine, -mathematics, magic, and spiritual possession. Like Cardan, he was -thought a little extreme in some views, but this one example suffices to -demonstrate the evil influences of Paracelsus. Gemma, in his second book -on natural miracles, says:—“A young maid, called Katherine Gualter, a -cooper’s daughter, in the year 1571, had such strange passions that -three men could not hold her. She purged a live eel—I myself saw and -touched—a foot and a half long; she vomited twenty-four pounds of -fulsome stuff of all colours twice a day for fourteen days, and after -that great _balls of hair_, _pieces of wood_, _pigeons’ dung_, _coals_, -and after them _two pounds_ of pure blood, and then again coals and -stones (_of which some had inscriptions_) bigger than a walnut. All this -I saw with horror. Physic could do no good, so she was handed over to -the clergy.” - -Marcellus Donatus relates a story of a country fellow who had four -knives in his belly, every one a span long, and indented like a saw; -also a wreath of hair, and much other baggage. How they “came into his -guts” he knew not. - -This personal testimony of Gemma is a melancholy proof that the light of -christianity, during fifteen centuries, had done but little towards the -emancipation of the human mind from the trammels of superstition, for, -we find Josephus, who lived A.D. 30, also favoring us with his -_personal_ testimony to facts quite as marvellous, and no doubt as -veracious, as those recorded by our Dutch philosopher. Yet although -common sense rejects such “materials of history” where shall we look for -better evidence of authenticity than is thus furnished by two men of -unimpeachable integrity. The pride of enlightenment is indeed checked by -the reflection that A.D. 1867 we hear of believers in “Spiritual -Manifestation” not only among the vulgar but in classes of society where -the yearning after the mysterious sets both reason and philosophy at -defiance. - -The universality of belief in the existence of demons, and their -occasional possession of the bodies of men, pervades the whole course of -sacred and profane history, and Josephus, in enumerating the great -qualities of King Solomon, bears testimony to the power of the Jewish -Monarch as an “_Exorcist_:”—After informing us that Solomon exceeded all -men in knowledge of natural things, that he was familiar with every sort -of tree, from the cedar to the hyssop on the wall; that he knew the -habits of every living creature, whether upon the earth, or in the seas, -or in the air, and described their several attributes like a -philosopher, and demonstrated his exquisite knowledge of them; he goes -on to say:—“God also gave him understanding to attain to skill against -demons for the benefit of mankind; for having composed incantations, -whereby diseases are removed, he also left behind him certain kinds of -exorcisms whereby demons may be expelled so as never to return, and this -method of cure is effectual or prevails much among us to this day: for -_I saw_ one Eleazar, my countryman, in the presence of Vespasian and his -sons, and many tribunes and other soldiers, deliver men who were seized -by these demons. The cure was in this manner:—Applying to the nostrils -of the demoniacs a ring, having under the seal one of those roots of -which Solomon taught the virtues, he drew out the demon from the -nostrils of the man who smelled to it:—The man presently falling down, -the Exorcist mentioned the name of _Solomon_, and reciting the charms -composed by _him_, adjured the demon never to return:—Moreover Eleazar, -to satisfy all the company of his power, placed a small vessel full of -water, in which feet are washed, and commanded the demon as he went out -of the man to overthrow it, that all present might be sensible that he -had left the man: this being done the wisdom of Solomon was manifest.” - -In the seventh book of his “Wars of the Jews,” he gives us the following -account of one of the roots employed by Exorcists:—“On the north side of -the City of Machœrus there is a valley, in which is a place called -Baaras, in which is found a plant bearing the same name: it is of a -flaming colour and towards evening shines very bright: it is not easy to -be gathered for it withdraws itself and does not stay unless one pours -upon it the urine of a woman, or menstruous blood, and even then it is -certain death to him who takes it unless he carries the root hanging -down upon the hand—There is another way of getting it without -danger:—They dig all round it, so that a very little bit of the root is -left in the ground, then they tie a dog to it, and the dog attempting to -follow him who tied it, the root is easily pulled up, but the dog dies -presently, as it were, instead of the man who would get the plant, -afterwards there is no danger to those who touch it. With all these -dangers the root is desirable, for demons, as they are called, who are -the spirits of wicked men entering into the living, and killing those -who have no help, this root presently expels; if it be only brought near -to them who are diseased.” - -We have already shewn how it took the devils by the nose. - -Before we proceed, it may not be out of place to notice the general -belief in astrology, and especially lunar influences, which prevailed at -this period. Herbs and roots had their several patrons, and it was only -when gathered and preserved under certain prescribed circumstances that -their specific virtues were assured. - -Similar superstitions are not yet extinct; even in this year of grace, -1867, we are not quite emancipated from the ignorance of the middle -ages, and it is not a very unusual thing to see an advertisement in the -_Times_ announcing a “child’s caul” for sale. These and such like -absurdities, - - “Though it make the unskilful laugh, - Cannot but make the judicious grieve.” - -Nor is this credulity confined to the illiterate classes. The dupes of -St. John Long, as many of us may remember, included “potent, grave, and -reverend signiors,” and on his memorable trial, a certain noble lord[10] -gave evidence that Mr. Long had extracted a piece of lead from his head. -Some scoffers think it a pity that the quack, having succeeded to some -extent, left so much behind. - ------ - -Footnote 10: - - The Earl of Shrewsbury. - ------ - -In speaking of Harvey, it is difficult to strike out any new path in a -tale that has been told so often. Yet, we may extract something out of -the consideration of the times in which he lived, and the men by whom he -was surrounded. He was born at Folkestone, in 1578, and commenced his -travels at 19 years of age. What his previous education had been does -not appear, but we find him at the age of 24 elected Doctor of Medicine -at Padua—then the most famous University in the world. On his return to -England he received the honour of the degree of Doctor of Medicine at -Cambridge. James the First, and his son, Charles the First, favoured him -with their countenance, and in 1628 he was induced to publish an account -of his great discovery. As a matter of course he was at once denounced -as a visionary; personal abuse was unsparingly poured upon him; but as -the grand fact enunciated was not to be shaken, his enemies turned round -and discovered that, after all, it was not new, and had been the -doctrine of many eminent physicians from the earliest days. The old, old -story: the same sickening detraction—the same miserable envy rife in -every age and clime. Harvey died in 1658. - -Shakespeare was 14 years old when Harvey was born, and the garrulous but -erudite Burton was about the same age, yet strange to say, the great -poet seems to have been unknown to the men of his own generation: -scholars knew nothing of poor players, and he who was born to delight -and instruct the future of mankind shone with but small lustre then. - -The history of medicine in England now begins, although for some time -subsequently medical instruction was sought for in the schools of Italy, -France and Holland. The Reformation had swept away the monastic -institutions; but during the depressing middle ages, all the learning -that barbarism had spared took refuge in the cloister. The monks -practised physic very extensively, and considering the ignorance and -superstition of the period, it was natural that the vulgar should prefer -the medical assistance of those who arrogated to themselves the -immediate assistance of Heaven in the preparation of their remedies. The -women were especially fond of consulting the monks, if there be any -truth in the old epigram:— - - “To Esculapian monks the good wives roam - What marvel, they have husbands sick at home.” - -The alchymists again, like their lineal descendants in our days, -professed to have discovered the philosophers stone, and _universal -specifics_, and they were, as they are now, believed in proportion to -their presumption. The practice of medicine being chiefly engrossed by -empirics and monks, the latter very readily obtained licenses from the -Bishops of the various dioceses who had authority to examine candidates, -without having themselves any knowledge of the subjects in question, -beyond that acquired in their general education. - -By the 5th Henry VIII., chap. vi., we find there were but twelve regular -Surgeons practising in all London, and about the same number of -Physicians. - -The college of Physicians in London owes its foundation to Dr. Thomas -Linacre, of All Soul’s, Oxford, a man of profound learning, who had won -honours at Rome, Bologna, and Florence. - -Linacre, through his interest with Wolsey, a wise and liberal patron of -learning, obtained, in 1518, letters patent from Henry the Eighth, -constituting a corporate body of regular Physicians in London. He was -elected the first president, and meetings were held at his house in -Knight Ryder Street until his death. With a munificence not without many -worthy imitators in our profession, as we shall presently point out, he -bequeathed this house to the College. - -His successor in the presidential chair was one of those bright lights -who have contributed largely to the fame of medicine, in what I have -already called its social and scientific aspect, and therefore deserves -a passing notice. Dr. John Caius Kaye, of Gonville Hall, Cambridge, was -Court Physician to Edward the Sixth, and as he retained the favour of -Mary, after the demise of the pious young King, he procured from her a -license to advance Gonville Hall into a _College_ under the name of -Gonville and Caius College, on condition of enlarging the institution at -his own expense. In order to devote himself to this object, he resigned -the presidency of the College of Physicians, and completed his buildings -at Cambridge. The mansion of learning thus raised by his liberality, -became the retreat of his old age, and having given up the dignified -position of _Master_, with a disinterestedness equalled only by his -generosity, he continued to reside there as a gentleman commoner until -his death in 1573. - -Harvey was elected president of the College of Physicians in 1654, but -excused himself on account of his age and infirmities. Such, however, -was his attachment to that body (best evinced by _donationes inter -vivos_), that in 1656, he made over his personal estate in perpetuity -for its use, having previously (on the occasion of the College being -removed from Knight Ryder Street to Amen Corner) built them a library -and public hall,[11] which he granted for ever to the corporation, -together with his own valuable collection of books and instruments. -Harvey’s grand result was the work of a quarter of a century of -unremitting toil. An admirer wrote:— - - “There didst thou trace the blood, and first behold - What dreams mistaken sages coined of old. - For till thy Pegasus the fountain brake, - The crimson blood was but a crimson lake, - Which first from thee did tyde and motion gaine, - And veins became its channel, not its chaine. - With _Drake_ and _Ca’ndish_ hence thy bays are curl’d, - Fam’d circulator of the lesser world.” - -He died in 1658. - ------ - -Footnote 11: - - Now the site of Stationers’ Hall. - ------ - -I may here mention, that, after the fire of London, the College of -Physicians was rebuilt on a site in Warwick Lane, which, until the -erection there of the palatial residence of Guy of Warwick, the King -maker, was called Eldenesse Lane. - -Sir Christopher Wren was the architect of the new College, and its -burnished dome gave Garth the opportunity of displaying his powers of -satire thus:— - - “Witness a dome, majestic to the sight, - And sumptuous arches bear its oval height; - A golden globe, placed high, with artful skill, - Seems to the distant sight—a gilded pill.” - -Amongst the remarkable men of Harvey’s time were Shakespeare, Bacon, Van -Helmont, and Sydenham, all of whom had personal intercourse with him; of -these we shall first notice Thomas Sydenham, who was born in 1624. -Boerhaave called him the second Hippocrates on account of his close -observation of the natural phenomena of disease, but he is too well -known to us to require any detailed description either of his method, or -of his general knowledge. The story of his reply to Dr. Blackmore, when -asked by him what books he should read, that “Don Quixote was a very -good book” has been erroneously supposed to express his contempt for -learning, but the joke was a personal one. Blackmore was a poet, and -Sydenham saw that the man who consulted him did not possess the stuff of -which doctors are made, he therefore referred him to the most lively -piece of writing then in existence, as furnishing fitter pabulum for a -poet, than the dry discussions of medical subjects could afford. To -describe the character of Sydenham, it would be necessary to call to our -aid the highest forms of panegyric; a good and honourable man, living in -harmony with his brethren, and as far as the troubled state of the -country would allow, in peace with all men. He lived to see the -revolution of 1688 accomplished, and his aspirations as a patriot being -thus gratified, he died in the following year. - -Contemporary with Sydenham, we find the celebrated Sir Wm. Petty, the -founder of the Lansdowne family. He was the eldest son of Anthony Petty, -who, Aubrey the Antiquary tells us, was a clothier in Romsey. In his -early days he showed great liking for all mechanical operations, and at -twelve years of age had acquired considerable skill in carpentry and -smiths’ work. Educated at the free school of his native place, at the -age of fifteen he began his remarkable career as a self-helping man; -from his own account, we learn that he went over to Caen, in Normandy, -with a little stock of merchandise, and had such good success that out -of the profits he educated himself in the French tongue, and perfected -his knowledge of classics and mathematics. In his twentieth year he had -saved about three-score pounds, and acquired as much progress in -mathematics as any of his age: to his love of learning was joined the -desire to acquire wealth; he was at all times _practical_, and seems to -have held pecuniary advantage to be the most comprehensive form of the -practical. He tells us that when the civil wars between the King and -Parliament grew hot “I had _sixty pounds_ in money and went into the -Netherlands and France for three years, and vigorously pursued my -studies, especially that of medicine at Utrecht, Leyden, Amsterdam, and -Paris. I returned to Romsey with about _ten pounds more_ than I had -carried out of England.” In Paris, Petty made the acquaintance of -Hobbes, who retired early from the civil wars. Hobbes soon discovered -the capacity of his young friend, and read with him the Anatomy of -Vesalius. He entered at Brazennose College, Oxford, in April, 1648, and -took his degree there as Doctor of Physic, in March, 1649. The date of -his admission to the College of Physicians is 25 June, 1650. He had been -previously deputy to Doctor Thomas Clayton, Professor of Anatomy at -Oxford, who laboured under the singular disqualification of having an -insurmountable aversion to the sight of a mangled corpse. On the -resignation of Clayton in 1651, Petty became Anatomical Professor, and -about the same time he succeeded Dr. Knight in the Professorship of -Music in Gresham College. About the year 1645, the Royal Society was -formed, and Petty was one of the earliest members of the Oxford branch. - -In 1652 he was appointed Physician to the Army in Ireland, which post he -retained for seven years, at a salary of twenty shillings a day, while -his practice produced him £400 a year more. His first great step to -wealth, however, arose from his dealings with the forfeited lands in -Ireland, and in a few years he managed his financial affairs so -skilfully that he acquired a rental of £18,000 a year; part of this he -was dispossessed of at the Restoration, as being unfairly obtained. He, -however, had still a large fortune at his command, and bought the Earl -of Arundel’s house and gardens in Lothbury, and erected thereupon the -buildings forming Tokenhouse Yard, which was partly destroyed by the -great fire. Petty had the tact to make his peace with the new -government, and became a favourite with Charles II., who knighted him, -and bestowed on him the place of Surveyor General for Ireland; and it is -said, by Aubrey, that he was created Earl of Kelmore, though he never -assumed the title. When the College of Physicians obtained its new -Charter his name was published in the list of Fellows, although he had -then resigned practice. The universality of his genius is clearly shewn -by the list of his published works. He was a man of a genial character -and handsome person:—“If he has a mind to it,” says Aubrey, “he will -preach extempore, either as a Presbyterian, Independent, or as a Capucin -friar, or Jesuit.” As a proof of his humour, when he was challenged to -fight by Sir H. Sankey, he told his opponent, that as his short sight -would not allow of the usual mode of warfare, he would meet him, if he -was so minded, in a dark cellar, each to have a carpenter’s axe for his -weapon: this the knight declined. He died in 1687 of a gangrene of the -foot, and was buried at Romsey, by the side of his father and mother: -there lie his remains, covered with a flat stone, on which an illiterate -workman has cut these words:—“_Here layes Sir William Pety._” - -The part played by the Good-Wives and Ladies Bountiful in this age -deserves a passing notice, and we will make one or two quotations from -books especially devoted to their use. Thus: “To make Oil of -Swallows:—Take lavender cotton, spikenut grass, ribwort, and twenty -other simples, of each a handful, sage of virtue, camomiles and red -roses, of each two handsful, _twenty live_ swallows; beat all together -in a mortar, add a quart of neatsfoot oyl or May-butter, and mix. This -oyl is exceeding sovereign for any broken bones, bones out of joint, or -any grief of the sinews.” - -“The ‘_Usnea Humana_’[12] described as a moss two lines long, grown on -the skulls of malefactors who have been a long time exposed to the air. -This little plant is found chiefly in England and Ireland, where the -bodies of men are left hanging in chains for many years after their -execution. It is of a volatile astringent nature, good for bleeding of -the nose, and of use internally for epilepsy.” The writer adds, “I have -seen in the apothecaries’ shops in London these skulls exposed with the -Usnea upon them.” Then again we have a whole tribe of “holy remedies” -and cabalistic charms, &c. - ------ - -Footnote 12: - - Corroborative evidence of the esteem in which this remedy was held - will be found in Macaulay’s account of the death scene of Charles - II.:—“All the medical men of note in London were summoned. Several of - the prescriptions have been preserved; one of them is signed by - fourteen doctors. The patient was bled largely. Hot iron was applied - to his head. A loathsome volatile salt, _extracted from human skulls_, - was forced into his mouth.” - - [This volatile salt is thus described in the Dictionares des Drogues: - Amsterdam, 1716. “L’Usnée humaine contient beaucoup de sel volatil et - d’huile; elle ne bouillonne point avec les acides.”] - ------ - -Hiera Picra and Solomon’s seal are used to this day. The charm for burns -is as follows:—“In the name of, &c. There came two angels from the East, -one brought fire, the other water; I command them both: out fire!! in -water!! and so I say _Amen_.” This is mumbled by the charmer, and the -sufferer is relieved without daring to doubt, for if he _doubts_ the -charm is destroyed. Warts and wens are disposed of by a similar process. - -So much for the march of intellect; in its progress very much like the -military goose step. - -A belief in the curative power of the Royal touch over scrofulous -affections continued to be universally held so late as the time of -William III. Shakespeare gives us an account of it in the tragedy of -Macbeth, which I have thought worth transcribing. In the 4th Act, Scene -3rd, a room in the King, of England’s palace:— - - - Enter a Doctor. - - Malcolm. Comes the king forth, I pray you? - - Doctor. Ay sir: There are a crew of wretched souls - That stay his cure. Their malady convinces - The great assay of art: but, at his touch, - Such sanctity hath heaven given his hand, - They presently amend. [Exit Doctor. - - Macduff. What’s the disease he means? - - Malcolm. ’tis called the Evil: - A most miraculous work in this good king; - Which often, since my here-remain in England, - I have seen him do. How he solicits heaven, - Himself best knows: but strangely-visited people; - All swoln and ulcerous, pitiful to the eye, - The mere despair of surgery, he cures; - Hanging a golden stamp about their necks, - Put on with holy prayers; and ’tis spoken, - To the _succeeding_ royalty he leaves - The healing benediction. - - -Macaulay gives us the following graphic account of the practice of -touching for the scrofula, as performed by that _most religious_ and -_gracious_ King Charles the Second. - -“This ceremony had come down almost unaltered from the darkest of the -dark ages to the time of Newton and Locke. The Stuarts frequently -dispensed the healing influences in the Banqueting House. The days on -which this miracle was to be wrought were fixed at sittings of the Privy -Council, and were solemnly notified by the clergy in all the parish -churches of the realm. When the appointed time came, several divines in -full canonicals stood round the canopy of state. The surgeon of the -royal household introduced the sick. A passage from the sixteenth -chapter of the Gospel of St. Mark was read. When the words ‘They shall -lay their hands on the sick, and they shall recover’ had been -pronounced, there was a pause, and one of the sick was brought up to the -King. His Majesty stroked the ulcers and swellings, and hung round the -patient’s neck a white ribbon, to which was fastened a gold coin. The -other sufferers were then led up in succession; and, as each was -touched, the chaplain repeated the incantation, ‘They shall lay their -hands on the sick, and they shall recover.’ Then came the epistle, -prayers, antiphones and a benediction.... Theologians of eminent -learning, ability, and virtue gave the sanction of their authority to -this mummery; and, what is stranger still, medical men of high note -believed, or affected to believe, in the balsamic virtues of the royal -hand. We must suppose that every surgeon who attended Charles the Second -was a man of high repute for skill; and more than one of the surgeons -who attended Charles the Second, has left us a solemn profession of -faith in the King’s miraculous power.... We cannot wonder that, when men -of science gravely repeated such nonsense, the vulgar should believe it. -Still less can we wonder that wretches tortured by a disease over which -natural remedies had no power should eagerly drink in tales of -preternatural cures: for nothing is so credulous as misery. The crowds -which repaired to the palace on the days of healing were immense. -Charles the Second, in the course of his reign, touched near a hundred -thousand persons. The number seems to have increased or diminished as -the King’s popularity rose or fell. - -“In 1682, he performed the rite eight thousand five hundred times. In -1684, the throng was such that six or seven of the sick were trampled to -death. James, in one of his progresses, touched eight hundred persons in -the choir of the Cathedral of Chester. The expense of the ceremony was -little less than ten thousand pounds a year, and would have been much -greater but for the vigilance of the royal surgeons, whose business it -was to examine the applicants, and to distinguish those who came for the -cure from those who came for the gold.” (_History of England, Vol. III., -p. 478._) - -William the Third gave great offence to the nonjurors by sneering at a -practice sanctioned by the highest ecclesiastical authorities; yielding -to importunity, he once consented to lay his hands on a patient, but his -good sense compelled him to exclaim:—“God give you better health and -more wisdom, my friend.” - -Shortly after the death of Sydenham came Dr. Freind, who was born in -1675. Being a man of worth and learning, he soon acquired a leading -position in his profession, and having devoted himself early in life to -the study of politics, he was returned to Parliament as member for -Launceston, where, having warmly espoused the cause of the amiable -Atterbury, he fell under the censure of Walpole, who sent him to the -Tower on a charge of treason. This misfortune gave rise to one of the -finest instances of devotion, on the part of his friend Mead, that has -ever been recorded for the honour of human nature. Walpole was taken -seriously ill, and of course sent for Mead, who at that time was the -most popular physician. The doctor is reported to have addressed the -minister thus:—“You are very ill, Sir Robert, and I can cure you; but -one condition is indispensable. Dr. Freind has been in prison some -months, and my esteem for him is so great that I will not prescribe a -single thing for you until he is set at liberty.” Walpole hesitated, but -Mead was resolute, and at length the tyrant gave way. Freind was -released, and Mead when he paid his first visit of congratulation, took -with him a considerable sum of money, the produce of fees he had -received from Freind’s patients during his incarceration. Freind was a -voluminous writer, and compiled a history of medicine in which he -attacked some of the opinions of Leclerc, who had gone more extensively -and accurately into the subject. - -Next in order, we must say a few words of Dr. Mead. Richard Mead was -born in 1673, at Stepney. Political troubles drove his father, who was -rector of the parish, into Holland, where this future ornament of the -medical profession was educated, at Utrecht, under Grœvius. He continued -his studies at Leyden, and travelling into Italy, took his degree of -doctor at Padua. On his arrival in England, whither his fame had -preceded him, the University of Oxford confirmed his title, and the -College of Physicians received him with applause, as did the Royal -Society (then but recently established.) He soon became the leading -practitioner of the day, and in course of time Physician to George the -Second. For more than half a century he attended at St. Thomas’s -Hospital, and is said to have suggested to Guy the foundation of the -hospital known by that name. A more noble, disinterested, and generous -man than Mead never lived. His emoluments were very large, and his -benevolence and hospitality kept pace with his income. It is stated that -no poor applicant ever left his door unrelieved. - - “Large was his bounty, and his soul sincere, - Heaven did a recompense as largely send.” - -After a life of 80 years, he died full of honours, leaving his many -literary labors as monuments of his talents and industry. - -The reign of Queen Anne has been called the Augustan age of literature -in England, and was in no less degree looked upon as the great day of -medical science. Amongst the literary men we have to name Swift, -Addison, Warburton, Pope, Steele, Parnell, Rowe, Gay, and others; and -amongst Physicians—Freind, Mead, Radcliffe, Cheselden, Arbuthnot, Garth, -&c. &c. - -Radcliffe next comes under notice; he was a man cast in a rougher mould -than Mead. John Radcliffe was born at Wakefield, in Yorkshire, in 1650, -and educated at Oxford, where he became a Fellow of Lincoln College; -after a two years residence he resigned his Fellowship and devoted -himself to physic, removed to London, and settled in Bow-street, Covent -Garden. He was a man of ready wit, and great conversational powers, with -much pleasantry and frankness. In 1686 he was appointed physician to -Princess Anne of Denmark, and after the revolution was often consulted -by William the Third; the latter on his return from Holland sent for -Radcliffe, and shewing him his ankles swollen, and his body emaciated, -the doctor brusquely said, “Truly I would not have your Majesty’s two -legs for your three kingdoms.” This sally lost him the king’s favour, -nevertheless he still prospered, and sat in Parliament for the borough -of Buckingham. - -In the last illness of Queen Anne, Radcliffe was sent for, but excused -his attendance on account of indisposition; the Queen died the next day, -and Radcliffe was greatly censured, which is said to have hastened his -own death, which took place three months after. - -There is a story told of his quarrel with Sir Godfrey Kneller, the -celebrated painter. They were next door neighbours, and enjoyed a -certain garden in common. Kneller complained that Radcliffe took no care -that the door leading into this garden should be kept properly shut, and -sent a snappish message to the doctor, that if he were not more mindful -he would shut up the door and keep the key. Radcliffe’s answer was, -“Tell Sir Godfrey Kneller he may do what he likes with the door provided -he does not paint it.” Kneller retorted to this sarcasm, “Tell the -doctor I will take anything from him except his physic.” - -I cannot find that Radcliffe ever published any work; but at his death -he left the munificent sum of £40,000 to the University of Oxford for -the formation of a public library of medical and philosophical science, -and a further considerable sum to provide for an annual augmentation of -books and instruments. Garth, in allusion to this bequest, remarked that -for Radcliffe to found a library was as if an Eunuch should establish a -Seraglio. - -Samuel Garth was among the celebrities of this time: the correspondent -of Bolingbroke, the friend of Swift and Addison, and the patron of Pope, -he must have possessed great merit to have reached such a position. He -was born of a good family in Yorkshire: the date of his birth I have -been unable to discover, but he was admitted a Fellow of the College of -Physicians in 1693. Johnson classes him with the English Poets, and in -his description of him says, “He is always mentioned as a man of -benevolence, and it is just to suppose that his desire to help the -helpless disposed him with so much zeal to undertake the founding of a -dispensary:—Whether physicians have, as Temple says, _more_ learning -than the other faculties I will not stay to inquire, but I believe every -man has found in physicians great liberality and dignity of sentiment, -very prompt effusion of benevolence, and willingness to exert a -lucrative art, where there is no hope of lucre.” - -Garth was an active and zealous Whig, and consequently familiarly known -to all the great men of that party; his orthodoxy was questioned, but it -was the fashion of the times to be a free thinker. Pope apostrophises -him in his second pastoral:— - - “Accept, O! Garth, the muses early lays, - That add this wreath of ivy to thy bays.” - -And again, in conjunction with Arbuthnot, in “the Farewell to London:”— - - “Farewell Arbuthnot’s raillery - On every learned sot, - And Garth the best good Christian he - Although he knows it not.” - -Pope’s favourite physician was Dr. John Arbuthnot, and never was -grateful affection better bestowed. He was the son of an Episcopal -clergyman in Scotland, born in 1675, and went through a course of -academical studies at Aberdeen, where he also took the degree of Doctor -of Physic. On his arrival in London he supported himself as a teacher of -mathematics, in which he was a great proficient, and became known to the -world of letters by his examination of Dr. Woodward’s “Account of the -Deluge,” and by an able treatise on the “Advantages of Mathematical -Learning.” The first book of the memoirs of “Martinus Scriblerus” has -also been attributed to him. An accident introduced him to Prince George -of Denmark, and led the way to his appointment as Physician to Queen -Anne; he retained the favour of the Court until the death of the Queen, -when, being more than suspected of Jacobite proclivities, he was -compelled to leave his quarters in St. James’s Palace, and retired to a -small house in Dover Street. - -Pope dedicated to him the prologue to his satires, and thus gracefully -mentions him:— - - “Friend to my life (which did not you prolong, - The world had wanted many an idle song.”) - -The concluding stanzas are so full of tenderness that I venture to give -them:— - - “Oh! friend, may each domestic bliss be thine, - Be no unpleasing melancholy mine, - Me, let the tender office long engage - To rock the cradle of reposing age, - With lenient arts extend a mother’s breath, - Make langour smile and smooth the bed of death. - Explore the thought, explain the asking eye, - And keep a while one parent from the sky! - On cares like these, if length of days attend, - May Heaven, to bless those days, preserve my friend, - Preserve him social, cheerful, and serene, - And just as rich as when he served a Queen.” - -About the time of his preferment he made the acquaintance of the great -luminaries of art and learning, particularly Swift, (the mad parson as -he was first designated) Pope, Gay, Parnell, Atterbury, Congreve, &c., -and greatly assisted, with his ready and witty pen, the ambitious -Bolingbroke. - -What is greatly to his honour, in the midst of an age of scoffers, he -retained a deep sense of the importance of personal religion, and seems -to have lived in the affectionate esteem and remembrance of his friends; -Swift said of him, “Oh! if the world had a dozen Arbuthnots in it, I -would burn my travels” (Gulliver’s); and on another occasion expresses -himself thus, “Arbuthnot has more wit than all we have, and his humanity -is equal to his wit.” - -For some time before his death he suffered from asthma and dropsy, and -bore his affliction with characteristic fortitude and resignation. He -died in 1734, leaving a son, who was one of Pope’s executors, and two -daughters. - -Next to the illustrious Scotchman whom we have just dismissed, comes a -very worthy native of the Emerald Isle—Hans Sloane, the son of Alexander -Sloane, the head of a colony of Scotchmen, who, in the reign of James I. -settled in the north of Ireland. Hans was born at Killileagh, in the -year 1660. He very early showed a liking for Natural History, and on his -arrival in London attended lectures on Anatomy, Botany, and their -kindred sciences, and formed a close intimacy with Boyle and Ray. After -four years study he visited Paris and Montpellier, in which places he -took his degrees in Medicine. In 1684 he returned to London and -commenced practice, being a Fellow of the Royal Society and of the -College of Physicians. On the appointment of the Duke of Albemarle to -the government of Jamaica he accompanied that nobleman, and thus -acquired a rich addition to his Museum of Natural History. George the -First created him a Baronet, and on the death of Sir Isaac Newton, he -became President of the Royal Society—estimable as a man, and eminent in -science, he lived to a great age, and at his decease, bequeathed his -museum to the nation, conditionally on the sum of £20,000 being paid to -his executors for the benefit of his survivors: this sum bore no -proportion to the value of his collection, and as it laid the foundation -of the British Museum, it must ever be regarded as a patriotic and -generous act. - -A curious illustration of the observant mind of Sir H. Sloane is -furnished by the fact of his having noticed that the natives of the West -Indian Islands, who eat much of the green fat of the turtle, perspired a -yellow oil; the explanation being that the true green fat of the turtle -is a green-coloured cellular tissue enclosing a yellow oil, which passes -through the system undigested. The anatomical data on which this -statement is advanced have been, at a comparatively recent period, -verified by actual experiments performed by the late Dr. Pereira, -assisted by our much esteemed former President, Dr. Daldy. It occurred -to my mind that this fact in dietetics might present a lesson of caution -to an audience peculiarly exposed, as citizens of London, to the -temptation of eating a material, which, however appetising, is incapable -of healthy assimilation. - -In a sketch of such limited pretension we are compelled to pass over -names well deserving a niche in the temple of Esculapius:—every letter -of the alphabet furnishes its contingent. To many of the men, into whose -labours we have here entered, the civilised world is indebted for their -contributions to general literature, as well as to the science of -medicine; and in our endeavour to chronicle their importance, we can -never cease to admire the fertility of their talents, and the extent of -their industry in bringing to light so much useful knowledge out of the -scanty materials by which their enquiries were aided:—Akenside, Bacon, -Boyle, Blackmore, Cheselden, Darwin, Petty, Ray, among others, may be -noted as examples. - -We have now reached the period at which legitimate medicine was -established in this country; and as my discourse has already exceeded -the assigned limits, it remains only to record our solemn tribute of the -affectionate remembrance we all entertain towards those members of our -society whose faces we shall so sadly miss in our next sessional -meetings. Constituted as our cherished society is, as a friendly -gathering of kindred spirits, actuated by mutual necessities, meeting as -brothers, knowing no rivalry but the desire to impart, each to other, -the results of our matured experience, it is with more than ordinary -grief that we bow submissively when Providence sees fit to lessen our -numbers by death. - -But it is not we alone who have sustained a loss. The name of Barlow -will live for ages to come as the type of the scientific physician of -the nineteenth century. A man of cultivated intellect, of elegant mind -and blameless life, of calm judgment and exalted feeling, I look upon -his death as nothing less than a calamity to the whole medical -profession. - -Too soon, alas! after him, we were shocked by the almost sudden removal -of the accomplished and genial Jeaffreson, endeared to his brethren by -those solid endowments which mark and govern the high minded -practitioner and amiable gentleman—no less than to the public by those -qualities that are inherent in a warm, kindly, and generous nature. And, -what then shall we say of our dear friend, Henry Blenkarne, so recently -carried to his rest. Who can ever forget his pure and simple nature, his -spotless life, and those endearing virtues which attached him so closely -to all whose privilege it was to enjoy his friendship—one of Nature’s -gentlemen, delicate and considerate of the feelings of others, generous -to the poor at the sacrifice of his valuable life, ready at all seasons -to give his time for the promotion of any and every benevolent scheme in -connexion with our calling; we shall long mourn over the good old man. -As I stood by and saw his remains committed to the ground but the other -day, my mind reverted to the other honoured members I have mentioned, -and I felt that one and all had realized and fulfilled to the letter the -following monition of Bacon:— - -“I hold every man a debtor to his profession, from the which as men of -course do seek to receive countenance and profit, so ought they of duty -to endeavour themselves, by way of amends, to be a help and ornament -thereunto.” - -I now beg permission to draw the curtain. I have laid before you, with -but little skill, some rapid sketches of our illustrious predecessors. I -have shown how worthily they have fulfilled their mission; and, having -approached the advent of that great man, to whose memory we dedicate -this evening, I make my bow and retire, first thanking you for the -attention you have accorded to my dull recital. I pause now because I -can add nothing to your knowledge of the character and labours of John -Hunter. His patience under such difficulties as would have destroyed an -ordinary worker, and his sublime indifference to personal comfort and -advantage when the interest of that science, which he so well loved was -in question—are “familiar in your ears as household words.” - -But, whilst we honour him by these periodical meetings, and by the -discussion of subjects the elaboration of which formed the happiness of -his life, it is only in the great museum, founded by his energy, that -the grandeur of his character can be felt. - -In that hallowed path, in which he delighted to tread, the mantle of his -genius has fallen upon one who, with a kindred love, aided by the -marvellous instinct of his own original mind, still follows out the -investigations of the great author, adding each day something to the -knowledge which went before, and still turning over some new page of the -book of Nature, wherein the finger of God has written, in characters -hitherto undeciphered, fresh evidences of His glorious infinity. Under -the auspices of our honorary member, Professor Owen, we gaze and admire. - - - - - THE END. - - - - - Transcriber’s notes: - - ● The errors deemed most likely to be the printer’s have been - corrected, and are noted here. - ● Where hyphenation occurs on a line break, the decision to retain - or remove is based on occurrences elsewhere in the text. - ● Errors in punctuation and quotes have been silently restored. - ● The footnotes were moved near the corresponding paragraph. - ● The numbers below reference the page or footnote and line in the - original book. - - - reference correction original text - 5.24 lawgiver Jewish law-giver, it is a positive - fn3.11 Alnajah Speaking of the alnajah, an - 34.13 fellow men he instructed his fellow-men, - fn8.1 Tylor Taken from E. B. Tyler—“Early History - 56.11 Harvey our own great Hervey, of whom we - 60.10 menstruous menstrous blood, and even then it is - 68.23 carpentry skill in carpentery and smiths’ work. - 92.6 knowledge something to the knowlege which went - - ---------------------------------------------------------------- - -*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK SKETCHES FROM THE HISTORY OF -MEDICINE, ANCIENT AND MODERN *** - -Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions will -be renamed. - -Creating the works from print editions not protected by U.S. copyright -law means that no one owns a United States copyright in these works, -so the Foundation (and you!) can copy and distribute it in the -United States without permission and without paying copyright -royalties. Special rules, set forth in the General Terms of Use part -of this license, apply to copying and distributing Project -Gutenberg-tm electronic works to protect the PROJECT GUTENBERG-tm -concept and trademark. 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