i 5 4 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



Within the last few years, a form of Perkinism, or rather " metal- 

 lic medicine," has appeared in Paris, clothed in the garb of science, 

 and under the protecting influence of the great M. Charcot. Gold, 

 silver, and other metals, in the form of coins, are applied to relieve 

 the manifestations of the graver forms of hysteria. It has become 

 quite the ' mode ' to visit the Hopital de la Salpetriere, and witness 

 the sensational cures performed publicly on the victims of hystero- 

 epilepsy. This notoriety is both pleasing to the patients and the 

 public. If a nervous disease is treated by unusual methods, it be- 

 comes common ; hysterical subjects having always a morbid desire 

 to make themselves remarkable, and so be the center of attraction, it 

 pleases their vanity and self-love. The consequence of the introduc- 

 tion of metallo-therapy into Parisian hospitals as a mode of treat- 

 ment is, that in Paris and its neighborhood an enormous number of 

 these rarer forms of hysteria and hystero-epilepsy have been, so to 

 speak, created, and the wards of some of the hospitals there are 

 crowded with female patients, eager to be treated in a sensational and 

 novel manner. They certainly derive benefit from the treatment, be- 

 cause, as a writer in the " Lancet " has said : " The symptoms for 

 which metals are applied can not be ascertained without calling the 

 patient's attention to their existence ; the strange and unusual remedy 

 of application of a string of coins can not be adopted Avithout exciting 

 expectation of a local result an expectation which it has been often 

 demonstrated is sufficient to determine the disappearance of local symp- 

 toms in this remarkable disease." 



My paper would be very incomplete should I fail to mention the 

 most successful quack this century has produced, John St. John Long. 

 He was the son of an Irish basket-maker, and was born near Done- 

 raile. In his boyhood he assisted his father, but, soon tiring of rush- 

 weaving, being a clever, pushing youth, he attached himself to a 

 Dublin portrait-painter, from whom he obtained some knowledge of 

 painting. When next we hear of him he is starring the provinces as an 

 historical and portrait painter, and an instructor in the art of painting 

 in oils. It was at this time that he adopted the name St. John. With 

 the Limerick gentry he was a great favorite, because of his entertain- 

 ing manners, and his ability to ride straight across country. Becom- 

 ing disgusted with provincial life, and feeling that his talents could 

 be more profitably employed in a larger sphere, he went to London. 

 Here, by his pleasant address and persuasive tongue, he managed to 

 get introductions into several respectable houses, and was elected a 

 member of the Royal Society of Literature and of the Royal Asiatic 

 Society. But he could not live on these honors, and was glad to color 

 anatomical drawings for the lecturers and students at the various 

 schools of anatomy. In this way he learned something about the 

 human frame, and before many months had passed he proclaimed to 

 the world the discovery of a wonderful liniment, which, when applied 



