Sketch of the revolutions of medical science, and views relating to its reform / by P.J.G. Cabanis ; translated from the French, with notes, by A. Henderson.

Date:
1806
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Sketch of the revolutions of medical science, and views relating to its reform / by P.J.G. Cabanis ; translated from the French, with notes, by A. Henderson. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh. The original may be consulted at the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh.

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    The age in wiiich they lived was certainly more proper for the eftabljlhinent of fuch ridiculous fancies, than the nineteenth century. Tiie druids, in the midft of their retired forefts, employed the mifteltoe as an antidote to poifons and to fteri- iity, and the lelago, a plant analogous in its properties to the fabine, as a fort of univerfal medicine. Health, of which they pretended to be the difpofers, was paid for in advance, by rich offerings, and often, even by the blood of human victims, whom thofe afflided with dif- eafe conduced, or caufed to be dragged to the altars, The jewHh priefts appear to have been origi- nally the only phyficians of their nation. It was to the Levites, that the people addrcffed them- felves for the cure of leproly, and it was they who decided on the fate of the families and individuals, who \yere attacked with this diforder. In the porch of the temple of Jerufalem, a com- plete formulary of remedies was exhibited, of which Solomon was laid to be the author. The Effenes, a fe6t celebrated for the pure and mild fyftem of morality, which they endeavoured to propagate among an ignorant and fanatical peo- ple, cultivated the fcience of medicine, not only in order to render themfelves more refpccled, hut alio in order to difeover means to improve the* minds of their adherents, by rendering their bodies