Hufeland's Art of prolonging life / edited by Erasmus Wilson.

  • Hufeland, Christoph Wilhelm, 1762-1836.
Date:
1859
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Hufeland's Art of prolonging life / edited by Erasmus Wilson. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by The Royal College of Surgeons of England. The original may be consulted at The Royal College of Surgeons of England.

    19/294
    sensation. Nothing can engage our attention so much; nothing induce us to make so great sacrifices, and to call forth the most extraordinary display and exertion of our most secret powers, as the desire of preserving life, and of saving it in the moment of danger. To those, even, who are deprived of its comforts and enjoyments; to those who suffer under the pain of incurable disease, or who bewail the loss of freedom in the gloom of a dungeon, the idea of living and existing presents some charms; and it cer- tainly requires a derangement of the finest organs of sen- sation, a circumstance possible only in man; a total darkening and deadening of the mental faculties, to render life to us either disgusting or indifferent. In so wise and intimate a manner is the love of life, that desire so worthy of a thinking being, that grand pillar of individual and public felicity interwoven with our frame. It was very natural for men, therefore, to conceive the idea whether it might not be possible to prolong our existence, and to give more extent to the too fleeting enjoyment of so valuable a blessing. This question, indeed, has, at all times, en- gaged the attention of mankind, and in different ways. It has been a favourite object of the deepest thinking minds; it has afforded a fine field for visionaries; and has been the principal allurement employed by quacks and impostors: for we shall find that intercourse with spirits, the secret of making gold, or the art of prolonging life, were the pretences by which they deluded the mul- titude, and imposed on the credulity of the public. It is interesting, and may contribute something towards the history of the human mind, to see by what various, and often contrary, means people hoped to obtain that bene- fit; and, as in latter times, a Cagliostro and a Mesmer have supplied considerable materials for this subject, I hope I shall be forgiven if I here take a short view, before I proceed to my main purpose, of the principal methods that have been employed to lengthen the duration of life.