5 1 6 Medicine. 



and Parkinson, have successively appeared, and 

 acquired much distinction. 



The different modes of making impressions on 

 the human system, in various slates of disease, 

 through the medium of the imagination, and all 

 the endless impositions o{ Quackery and Charlatan- 

 ism, have been astonishingly multiplied in the 

 course of the eighteenth century. Though medical 

 knowledge has been evidently increasing, through- 

 out this period, medical imposture has, at least, 

 kept pace with it. Among many instances which 

 might be adduced in support of this remark, may 

 be mentioned the audacious pretensions of Count 

 Cagliostro, with respect to his Balsam of Life; 

 the far famed imposition concerning Animal Mag- 

 netism, by Mesmer, and his followers ; and more 

 recently, the claims o'i Ferldnism, so denominated 

 from Dr. Perkins, late a citizen of the United 

 States. But it is worthy of remark, that while 

 these kinds of imposture have rather gained ground, 

 those wbich consist in Witchcraft, Spells, and In- 

 cantations, and all the supposed influence- of De- 

 moniacal powers, in producing health or disease, 

 have manifestly declined wuthin the period under 

 review. 



The cultivation and progress of medical science 

 in the United States deserves some attention be- 

 fore closing this chapter. It is to be lamented that 

 the want of suitable documents renders a full and 

 satisfactory view of this part of the retrospect im- 

 possible. For though little was done in our country, 

 for the science of medicine, until within the last 

 forty years; yet of a considerable portion of that 

 little the knowledge is either totally lost, or pre- 

 served only in that vague and indistinct manner iu 

 which traditional records are usually presented. 



