480 FALLACIES. 



explanation, namely that instead of a substance separated, there was 

 on the contrary a substance absorbed. 



Many of the absurd practices which have been deemed to possess 

 medicinal efficacy, have been indebted for their reputation to non- 

 obsei"A'ance of some accompanpng circumstance which was the real 

 ao-ent in the cures ascribed to them. Thus, of the sympathetic powder 

 of Sir Kenelm Digby : " Whenever any wound had been inflicted, 

 this powder was applied to the weapon that had inflicted it, which 

 was, moreover, covered ■v\'ith ointment, and dressed two or three times 

 a day. The wound itself, in the meantime, was directed to be brought 

 to"-ether, and carefiilly bound up \\'ith clean linen rags, but above all, 

 to be let alone for seven days, at the end of which period the bandages 

 were removed, when the wound was generally found perfectly united. 

 The tri^unph of the cure was decreed to the mysterious agency of the 

 sympathetic powder which had been so assiduously applied to tlie 

 weapon, whereas it is hardly necessary to observe that the promptness 

 of the cure depended upon the total exclusion of air from the wound, 

 and upon the sanative operations of nature not baring received any 

 disturbance from the officious interference of art. The result, beyond 

 all doubt, furaished the first hint which led surgeons to the improved 

 practice of healing wounds by what is technically called the Jirst inten- 

 tion.'"* " In all records," adds Dr. Paris, " of extraordinary cures 

 performed by mysterious agents, there is a great desire to conceal the 

 remedies and other em'ative means which were simultaneously admin- 

 istered with them : thus Oribasius commends in high terms a necklace 

 of Peeony root for the cure of epilepsy ; but we le"ani that he always 

 took care to accompany its use with copious evacuations, although he 

 assigns to them no share of credit in the cure. In later times we have 

 a good specimen of this species of deception, presented to us in a work 

 on Scrofula by INIr. Morley, written, as we are infonned, for the sole 

 purpose of restoring the much injured character and use of the Ver- 

 vain ; in which the author directs the root of this plant to be tied -vrith 

 a yard of white satin riband around the neck, where it is to remam 

 imtil the patient is cured ; but mark — during this inten-al he calls to 

 his aid the most active medicines in the materia medica !"t 



In other cases the cures really produced by rest, regimen, and 

 amusement, have been ascribed to the medicinal, or occasionally to 

 the supernatural, means which were put in requisition. " The cele- 

 brated John Wesley, while he commemorates the triumph of sulphur 

 and supplication over his bodily infirmity, forgets to appreciate the 

 resuscitating influence of foirr months repose from his apostolic labors ; 

 and such is the disposition of die human mind to place confidence in 

 the operation of mysterious agents, that we find him more disposed to 

 attribute his cure to a brown paper plaster of e^^ and brimstone, than 

 to Dr. Fothergill's salutaiy prescription of country air, rest, asses' milk, 

 and horse exercise. "f 



In the following example, the circumstance overlooked was of a 

 somewhat diSerent character. " Wlien the yellow fever raged in 

 America, the practitioners trusted exclusively to the copious use of 

 mercm-y ; at first this plan was deemed so universally efficacious, that, 

 in the enthusiasm of the moment, it was triumphantly proclaimed that 



* Pharmacologia, pp. 23-4. f Ibid., p. 28. t Ibid., p. C2. 



