ON THE VAGARIES OF MEDICINE. 231 



causes of the disease, nor the complexion of patients, nor the peril of 

 accidents, nor the true method of cure. 



Still one chooses for his physician an Allopath, another a Homoeopath, 

 a third an Eclectic, without, for an instant, giving a thought as to 

 whether the individual man thus chosen be ^competent to manage the 

 intricacies of disease, or blindly ignorant of the first-most rudimentary 

 principles of any skill — a simple retailer of other men's ideas. Not 

 many years since, a man by the name of John Long, a prototype of a 

 Dr. Tumblety, in this country, commenced the sale of a wonderful 

 specific in the City of London, with plenty of effrontery and a pleasing 

 address, he soon found his sales increasing, and, fired with ambition at 

 such success, issued a card with the name of St. John Long, and "in 

 one year's operations his pass-book at his bankers contained credit to 

 the amount of £13,400." Little more than a century back the British 

 House of Commons passed " an act for the providing a reward to 

 Joanna Stephens, upon proper discovery to be made by her, for the 

 use of the public, of the medicines prepared by her," granting her the 

 enormous sum of ^65,000 sterling. A committee of twenty was ap- 

 pointed by the Government for the examination, who reported that 

 she had made the discovery to their satisfaction, and that *' we have 

 examined the medicines, and her method of preparing the same, and 

 are convinced, by experiment of the utility, efficacy, and dissolving 

 power thereof." 



These medicines, in the words of the lady, " are a powder, a decoc- 

 tion and pills ; the powder consists of eggshells and snails, both cal- 

 cined. The decoction is made by boiling some herbs (together with a 

 ball, which consists of yoap, swine-cresses, burnt to blackness, and 

 honey) in water. The pills consist of snails calcined, wild carrot 

 seeds, burdock seeds, ashen keys, hips and haws, all burned to black- 

 ness, soap and honey. Preposterous as was this recipe, it was pur- 

 chased in that enlightened age which a distinguished chronicler said, 

 "produced more men of letters as well as more men of science, than 

 any epoch of similar extent in the literary history of England. 



I now give one quotation from Dr. Mason, good in confirmation of 

 my position : " "Whilst a few species of diseases are now no longer to 

 be found, which are described by earlier writers, a few seem to have 

 supplied their place which are of modern origin ; yet, upon the whole, 

 the march of nature is but little interfered with, and hence the prog- 

 nostics and aphorisms of Hippocrates, the medical histories of Aretseus 



