360 Analysis of Scientific Books. 
tively suggested themselves for the relief of pain; and when 
such resources failed, charms and incantations were resorted to. 
Our author observes that Dr. Warburton is evidently wrong 
in assigning the origin of amulets to the age of the Ptolomies, 
(300 years before Christ), since Galen tells us that Nechepsus, 
630 years before the Christian era, recommended a green 
jasper cut into the form of a dragon, and applied externally to 
the stomach, to strengthen digestion. Again, what were 
the ear-rings which Jacob buried under the oak of Shechem but 
amulets? Nor were such means confined to barbarous ages. 
Theophrastus pronounced Pericles to be insane because he 
wore a charm; and Caracalla, in the declining era of the 
Roman empire, issued an edict ordaining that no one should 
wear superstitious amulets. 
In the progress of civilization various incidents in the 
choice and preparation of aliments must have unfolded the 
remedial powers of many natural substances; these were re- 
corded, and the authentic history of medicine may date its 
commencement from the period when such records began. In 
the temple of Esculapius, in Greece, diseases and cures were 
registered upon marble tablets; and the priests prepared the 
remedies and directed their application, and thus began the 
profession of physic. The earliest records show that the an- 
cients possessed many powerful remedies. Melampus admi- 
nistered steel wine and hellebore; Podalirius practised vene- 
section; the nepenthe of Homer, if not opium, was some ana- 
logous sedative prepared from the poppy. ‘The sedative powers 
of the lettuce were also known in the earliest times, for we read 
that after the death of Adonis, Venus lulled her grief by repos- 
ing upon a bed of lettuces. Under the mystic title of the Eye of 
Typhon, the Egyptians administered squills in the cure of 
dropsy; and cataplasms are also of extreme antiquity, for 
Nestor applied a mixture of cheese, onion, flour, and wine, to 
the wounds of Machaon. 
“‘ The revolutions and vicissitudes” says Dr. Paris, ‘“‘ which 
remedies have undergone in medical as well as popular opinion 
from the ignorance of some ages, the learning of others, the 
superstitions of the weak, and the designs of the crafty, afford 
ample subject for philosophical reflection.” From his lengthy 
account of these revolutions we shall endeavour to select the 
most prominent facts. 
Lord Bacon has justly observed that, ‘ in the opinion of the 
ignorant multitude, witches and impostors have always held a 
competition with physicians,” and this competition, we are sorry 
to add, as far as impostors are concerned, has extended to our 
own time. Superstition, under its various aspects, has always 
predominated in physic, partly in consequence of obscurity 
in the nature of disease and the art of its removal, and partly 
