HARD WICKE'S SCIENCE- G OS SIP. 



8- 



The real science of pharmacy in all likelihood, dates 

 from a period embraced in that I shall treat of ; and 

 one must leave to the antiquarian the consideration 

 of the antiquated prescriptions of a date prior to this. 

 Indeed it is chiefly to the lover of nature (as the 

 stand-point from which I write) that I address these 

 remarks, in the hope that I shall interest him with an 

 array of curious information on the economic purposes 

 to which his subjects were submitted in times past, 

 and the queer notions that men of education held 

 with regard to them little more than a century ago. 



The sources of my information have been many 

 and representative. I shall have occasion to quote 

 from a variety of books, mainly from those of the 

 widest popularity, and in the hands of nearly every 

 accredited practitioner of physic in their time ; works 

 that were then considered of reliability and put to 

 frequent application. To facilitate reference to those 

 I shall quote from most often, I shall add a few words 

 on my chief authorities. 



The " Pharmacopoeia Bateana " or " Bate's Dispen- 

 satory " (a volume of 700 or 800 pages) was translated 

 by Wrn. Salmon, M.D., from Jas. Shipton's Latin 

 version of the celebrated Dr. Bate's autograph pre- 

 scriptions. Bate had been "physician to two Kings 

 of England and a Protector," and Salmon, as himself 

 a practical physician, added sufficient original matter 

 to entitle the book to be regarded as a compendium 

 of the medical knowledge of his day. It ran through 

 several editions, and to the latest of these, corrected 

 by the original editor and dated 17 13, I shall fre- 

 quently refer, under the recognition of " Bate " when 

 I quote from the original, and " Salmon " when I 

 use the observations of his editor — a peculiar con- 

 junction of names. This will be my chief authority 

 for the beginning of the century. 



The English translation, by Mr. Humphreys, of 

 the Abbe de la Pluche's celebrated "Spectacle de la 

 Nature" (5th edition, 1740), will serve to explicate 

 deficiencies of zoological knowledge. I shall refer tc 

 it as " Nature Display 'd." 



That justly classical work, the "Domestic Medi- 

 cine" of Dr. Buchan(M.D., F.R.C.P., Edin.), which 

 ran through upwards of twenty English editions in 

 forty years, and was certainly the most popular work 

 of its kind ever written, will furnish evidence of that 

 revolution in the medical art which abolished the 

 prescription of heterogeneous compounds in favour of 

 " the prevention and cure of diseases by regimen and 

 simple medicines." Mine is the complete edition of 

 Dr. Nisbet, 1813, but as the book was first issued in 

 1770 (its author dying in February, 1805, as his tomb 

 in Westminster Abbey bears witness), it comes well 

 within the period under consideration. I shall 

 acknowledge excerpts as " Buchan." 



Another work from which I will draw is the 

 " Medical Dictionary " of Robt. Hooper, M.D. 

 (1811), which superseded the "Lexicon Medicum " 

 of Quincy, and will bear true witness to the state of 



medicine at the close of the age I deal with. I shall 

 refer to it as "Hooper." It is noteworthy that 

 Hooper, in his list of the fourteen most noteworthy 

 British and foreign Pharmacopoeias (p. 614), includes 

 the P. Bateana with which I have commenced. Of 

 these and a score of works of lesser note I have read 

 every word, to have a thorough handling of my 

 subject. 



My scheme in the following papers shall be to deal 

 methodically with the animalian orders, taking them 

 in rotation. I shall devote perhaps half-a-dozen 

 chapters to the Mammals, another to the rest of the 

 Vertebrata, and a last to the Invertebrates. 



1. —Primates. 



The principal corporal provision to the laboratory, 

 from the leading order of creation, was— incredible as 

 it may seem nowadays — two centuries ago obtained 

 from that single species of the Biinana, komo sapiens 

 himself! Perhaps I ought to say him and herself, 

 for female bodies were greatly utilised by man ; indeed, 

 almost every portion of his structure had a remedial 

 value, even the evacuations and humours of his system 

 being supposed to possess a curative virtue. The 

 prescriptions in which these somewhat loathsome 

 ingredients were included are so numerous that I 

 shall quote only some of the most remarkable of the 

 least objectionable. 



Human bones were of the commonest occurrence, 

 a fanciful preference being held for those of the 

 skull. 



Bate (p. 631) includes "calcin'd man's bones" 

 among the composition of his Pulvis hermadactylormn 

 compositits, which Salmon prescribes every third or 

 fourth day for scurvy, dropsy, and king's evil. 



Salmon (p. 39) includes " elixir of man's skull " 

 in his " spirit of black cherries," which was to be 

 administered " morning and evening for two months 

 together" against falling sickness, although "the 

 usual way of exhibiting these kinds of medica- 

 ments is only three days before and after the full and 

 change of the moon." Another of Salmon's recipes 

 (p. 361) for falling sickness was taken from Mynsicht, 

 and required one ounce of " man's skull filled (? filed) 

 or calcined without fire." Sennertus, in the same 

 medicament, employed cinnabar of antimony, 

 "crude man's skull and magisteries of coral and 

 pearls " in equal proportions. 



For epilepsy, apoplexy, and some uterine dis- 

 orders, Salmon gave two to four grains of "salt of 

 man's or beast's skulls," in one ounce of Bate's 

 Syritptcs lumbricornm (of which later) at bed time. 

 It was also "said to be a specifick against rheuma- 

 tisms " (p. 597). An epileptic powder of Bate's 

 (p. 629) contains pulverised human skull : Salmon 

 asserts that this powder cured venomous bites. 

 Another epileptic powder of the latter (p. 627) is 

 furnished with volatile salt of man's skull as an 



