316 PHARMACOPEIAL DRUGS 



2. The extravagant claims of enthusiastic empiri- 

 cists. 



Thus, under prevailing therapeutic methods and 

 theories, distrust of the remedy was natural, and antag- 

 onism to it became inevitable. The leaders of the pro- 

 fession of the date following 1820, neglecting Thacher's 

 advice, either ignored scutellaria as a "quack" remedy 

 for hydrophobia, or discredited it because of its mild 

 inoffensiveness. Whether, in the ultimate, this ostra- 

 cism of the remedy was just or unjust, in the face of all 

 the evidence, rests yet unsettled. In the light of its 

 record and of what history teaches concerning medical 

 politics in the first half of the 19th centuiy, it may be 

 considered an open question whether scutellaria is an 

 invaluable remedy that dropped from sight because of 

 the prejudice of the men ("skeptics," they were called 

 by Rafinesque), who opposed the methods of its advo- 

 cates and refused to test the drug, or was dropped 

 because it has no virtues. The talented scientist, 

 C. S. R. Rafinesque, giving a summary of its hydro- 

 phobia record, in 1830, expresses himself much as the 

 evidence appeals to us: 



"Many empirics and some enlightened physicians 

 have employed Scutellaria successfully. But several 

 skeptical physicians have since denied altogether these 

 facts, and pronounced the plant totally inert, because 

 it has no strong action on the system, and has failed in 

 their hands. Dr. W. P. C. Barton and Dr. Tully have 

 strenuously asserted this, but without analyzing the 

 plant, and denying instead of proving. ... In hydro- 

 phobia it appears to be a good prophylactic, if not a 

 certain cure. A physician (Dr. White, of Fishkill), 

 bitten by a mad dog, has assured me that he alone 



