226 ON THE VAGARIES OF MEDICINE. 



public mind to a comparatively modern date. In the latter part of the 

 15th century, when we find the first notice of the most intricate dis- 

 ease as well as the most revolting to humanity — so close was the alli- 

 ance with these Reverend Gentlemen, (either as prescribers or patients) 

 that the writers of the day gave it the name of Rheume Ecclesiastique. 

 Not to trouble you with the names of such impostors as Valentine 

 Greateacre, who astonished the Isondon world about the middle of the 

 16th century with his wonderful cures, but which, in more modern 

 times, was called Mesmerism, I will only allude to a few of the vaga- 

 ries with which science-proper has had to contend. My object bemg 

 to call your attention to the fact that the Science of Medicine has des- 

 cended in an unbroken chain, from the earliebt ages to our own, separ- 

 ate from the absurdities foisted upon it, receiving in each era addition- 

 al links or more firm welding, and Avere I able, like a modern Plutarch," 

 to parallel the other sciences, ivould be constrained to show the picture 

 much to the advantage of medicine. 



As now, so of yore, men sought for specifics, some single principle 

 upon which all cure was to rest — the- Alchymist in his universal sol- 

 vent, 'till a more wise made the grand discovery — that if successful 

 they would have nothing to keep it in. The first great principle was 

 Vitality, its source, power, and influence, but as this was associated as 

 much with Philosophy as Medicine, I need give it only a passing 

 notice. 



Phlogiston or Caloric, the principle of heat, was the life-giving power 

 at one time, and many and curious too, were the expedients proposed 

 to impart and regulate its influence as a sole curative. Oxygen, in 

 the last century, claimed a higher state, no less than the source of the 

 former and its vitality. 



In like manner Magnetism yielded its place to modern Electricity, 

 which, with all its boasted power of giving life to inanimate objects, 

 must, with its twin sister Spiritualism, yield to the ever-existing truth, 

 that life is solely the gift of the Creator, and goes back to its giver 

 when the created resolves into its elements. 



Long and tiresome were the disputes on the classification of disease, 

 which in time were reduced to the synoptic and systematic — the first 

 being dogmatic, and biased by the peculiar mind of each writer, at last 

 gave way to the latter, which, arranged, and re-arranged, according to 

 discoveries of different periods, is now acknowledged by the profes- 

 sion proper. 



