122 TORPEDO. 



Then down the rod with easy motion glides, 

 And entering in the fisher's hand subsides. 

 On every joint an icy stiffness steals, 

 The flowing spirits binds, and blood congeals. 

 In vain he tries to grasp the sinking rod, 

 And all his fishing-tackle strews the sod." 



B. 3. 



At a time when sea and land were ransacked for remedies 

 to cure the various diseases that flesh is heir to, it would have 

 been surprising if the wonderful powers of this fish had not 

 been resorted to; but as a very large proportion of the medical 

 practice of that age was in the hands of those who held them- 

 selves out to the public as magicians, and, to use the language 

 of the present day, were at least irregular practitioners of the 

 art of medicine; with whom things the most strange and 

 unaccountable in their effects were thought the most highly of, 

 there is some reason to suppose that the first attempts to turn 

 this energy to use had their origin with them. On this subject 

 we are indebted again to Pliny for most of the information 

 we possess; for recording which, and many others of the pre- 

 vailing beliefs that had currency among his people, he has been 

 severely condemned, as if he gave credit to the whole. I am 

 of opinion, however, that even a small amount of reflection will 

 prove sufficient to relieve him from the general charge of credulity 

 so commonly brought against him. 



At the time when the Roman empire was in its highest 

 grandeur, the larger number of the physicians practising their 

 profession in the city were foreigners, and chiefly from Egypt, 

 a country which then continued to hold the highest reputation 

 for the study of physic and the science of nature; but there 

 does not appear to have existed there, and still less at Home, 

 any test by which the impudent pretender might be distin- 

 guished from the scientific physician; and consequently the 

 boldest assurance might well calculate on achieving the greatest 

 success. A single cure effected on a man of eminence, however 

 fortuitously obtained, was sufficient to bring a fortune to a 

 physician; and the more wonderful the means employed, the 

 greater was believed to be the skill of him who used them. 

 The rational science of Galen or Celsus was less regarded 

 than that laid claim to by one who could employ the secrets of 

 magic and astrology; and where no one was able to disprove 



