DISEASES OF THE NERVOUS SYSTEM. 525 



disease, so a great number of medicines and measures have been 

 praised as preventives. People have had great faith in sea bath- 

 ing, and went to the sea coast to be ducked and half drowned 

 ever)' day for six weeks. Some of the specifics, as you may sup- 

 pose, are secrets ; and they who possess them, whether they be- 

 lieve in them or not is another matter, sell them at no cheap rate 

 to those who, having been bitten by the dog, are weak enough to 

 be bitten again by the quack. The composition of several of them 

 has transpired ; and they are found to consist either of ingredients 

 the most insignificant or worthless, or of poisons of which the in- 

 efficacy has already been ascertained. Among those of the early 

 days of medicine were burnt crabs, hyena's skin, liver of the 

 rabid animal, tin and mithridate, the latter being the same as the 

 confectis damocratis, which includes some eighty ingredients, 

 among others, the bellies of lizards. The celebrated pulvis anii- 

 fyssus which was introduced by Dr. Mead into the London phar- 

 macopoeia was a mixture of ash colored liverwort and black pep- 

 per ; it was the brilliant discovery of one Dampier. Next came 

 the famous "East India medicine," consisting of equal portions 

 of native and factitious cinnabar made into a powder with musk, to 

 be dissolved in arrack : this was also known as the " Tonguin 

 Remedy." Another celebrated remedy was " Palmarius's Pow- 

 der," composed of the leaves of rue, vervain, sage, poly pody, worm- 

 wood, mint, mug\vort, balm, betony, St. John's-wort and lesser 

 centaury : each herb to be gathered only in its prime, and dried 

 separately in the shade and powdered. There was the " Ormskirk 

 medicine," long famous, and even now scarcely obsolete in some 

 parts of Great Britain : it was made up of bole armeniac, alum, 

 chalk, elecampane, and oil of anise seed. Then there were the 

 " Tanjore Pills," whose ingredients were mercury and arsenic ; " Sir 

 George Cobb' s Remedy ; " " My Lady Bountiful's Infallible Remedy." 

 In 1806 the New York Legislature bought a " preventative " for 

 hydrophobia which was given to the public. It was as follows : 



Once ounce of jaw bone of a dog burnt and pulverized. The 

 false tongue of a newly foaled colt dried and pulverized ; and one 

 scruple of verdigris raised from the surface of a copper of George 

 I, or George II, by laying it in moist earth. These to be mixed, 

 dose a teaspoonful. The filings of half a copper of the above 



