354 FALLACIES. 



this, that a fearful animal passing by us portended 

 unto us something to be feared; as upon the like con- 

 sideration the meeting of a fox presaged some future 

 imposture." Such superstitions as these last must 

 be the result of study; they are too recondite for na- 

 tural or spontaneous growth. But when the attempt 

 was once made to construct a science of predictions, 

 any association, though never so faint or remote, 

 by which an object could be connected in however 

 far-fetched a manner with ideas either of prosperity 

 or of danger and misfortune, was enough to determine 

 its being classed among good or evil omens. 



An example of rather a different kind from any of 

 these, but falling under the same principle, is the 

 famous attempt, on which so much labour and inge- 

 nuity were expended by the alchemists, to make gold 

 potable. The motive to this was a conceit that pota- 

 ble gold could be no other than the universal medi- 

 cine: and why gold? Because it was so precious. 

 It must have all marvellous properties as a physical 

 substance, because the mind was already accustomed 

 to marvel at it. 



From a similar feeling, " every substance," says 

 Dr. Paris*, " whose origin is involved in mystery, has 

 at different times been eagerly applied to the purposes 

 of medicine. Not long since, one of those showers 

 which are now known to consist of the excrements of 

 insects, fell in the north of Italy; the inhabitants 

 regarded it as manna, or some supernatural panacea, 

 and they swallowed it with such avidity, that it was 

 only by extreme address that a small quantity was 

 obtained for a chemical examination." The super- 

 stition, in this instance, though doubtless partly of a 



Pharmacologies Historical Introduction, p. 16. 



