Pharmacologia; comprehending the art of prescribing upon fixed and scientific principles; together with the history of medicinal substances / By J.A. Paris, with notes and additions.

  • Paris, John Ayrton, 1785-1856.
Date:
1828
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Pharmacologia; comprehending the art of prescribing upon fixed and scientific principles; together with the history of medicinal substances / By J.A. Paris, with notes and additions. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    23/568 (page 11)
    Every substance whose origin is involved in mystery,* has at different times been eagerly applied to the purposes of medicine : not long since, one of those showers which are now known to consist of the excrement of insects, fell in the north of Italy; the inhabitants regarded it as Manna, or some supernatural panacea, and they swallowed it with such avidity, that it was only by extreme address, that a small quantity was obtained for a chymical examination. A propensity to attribute every ordinary and natural effect to some ex¬ traordinary and unnatural cause, is one of the striking peculiarities of medical superstition; it seeks also explanations from the most prepos¬ terous agents, when obvious and natural ones are in readiness to solve the problem. Soranus, for instance, who was cotemporary with Galen, and wrote the life of Hippocrates! | tells us that honey proved an easy remedy for the aphth® of children, but instead of at once referring the fact to the medical qualities of the honey, he very gravely explains it, from its having been taken from bees that hived near the tomb of Hip¬ pocrates! And even those salutary virtues which many herbs possess, were, in these times of superstitious delusion, attributed rather to the planet under whose ascendancy they were collected or prepared, than to any natural and intrinsic properties in the plants themselves; indeed such was the supposed importance of planetary influence, J that it was usual to prefix to receipts a symbol of the planet under whose reign the ingredients were to be collected, and it is not perhaps generally known, that the character which we at this day place at the head of our prescrip- ; tions, and which is understood, and supposed to mean Recipe, is a relict of the astrological symbol of Jupiter, as may be seen in many of the \ older works on pharmacy, although it is at present so disguised by the addition of the down stroke, which converts it into the letter that were it not for its cloven foot, we might be led to question the fact of its su¬ perstitious origin. Sennertus describes as a remedy capable of curing the Jaundice, which he allows is effected ‘ by secret attraction, and the power of amulets.’ In the course of time, it became a reputed food in the cure of that disease, and Tench broth was prescribed upon all such occasions. * Mystery is the very soul of Empiricism; withdraw the veil, and the confidence of the patient instantly languishes; thus Pliny,‘Minus credunt quae ad suam salu- tem pertinent, si intelligunt.’ t It was this historian who said, that Medicine was invented by Apollo, improved by Esculapius, and brought to perfection by the physician of Cos. f Paracelsus exclaims, ‘ Stellas terrenes esse Plantas, qufe celestes plantas, i. e. Stellas, respiciant, ita ut qusevis planta suam habeat stellam specificam.’ The Druids of Gaul and Britain, who were both priests and physicians, gathered and cut the Mistletoe with a golden knife, only when the Moon was six days old, and being afterwards consecrated by certain forms, it was considered as an antidote to poisons, and a preventive of sterility. Plinii. Lib. xvi. c. 44; The Vervain, (Verbena Officinalis,) aVter libations of honey, was to be gathered at the rising of the dog-star, when neither sun nor moon shone, with the left-hand only ; when thus prepared, it was said to vanquish fevers, and other distempers, was an an¬ tidote to the bite of serpents, and a charm to conciliate friendship. Plin. Lib. xxv. c. 9. I shall however hereafter show that the medicinal reputation of this herb de¬ rived its origin from a source more ancient even than that of Druidism. Magnenus (Ex- ercitat. de Tabaco,) has given us the following precept,—‘ Tabacum seratur luna erescente, colligatur autem decrescente luna.’