62 BRITISH ASSOCIATION FOR THE ADVANCEMENT OF SCIENCE* 



as on otliers connected mth the subject before us, we may look for more precise 

 information than at present we possess, when the great woi'k on the Greek and 

 Latin physicians, in course of publication at Paris, has made further progress. 

 Meanwhile, the following references to the torpedo, will sufficiently illustrate the 

 electro-practice of the ancient physicians. I quote them in chronological order, so 

 far at least as centuries are concerned. Aselepiades who flourished in the first 

 Century, B.C., employed the torpedo in inflammation; but only fragments of his 

 Works have reached us. 



Of the application of the torpedo as a stupefaeient, we find mention in 

 several writers anterior to Seribonius : Nicander alludes to it ; and Aselepiades, 

 who practised medicine in Rome a century before Seribonius, employed it in in- 

 flammation : and Anterus, a freedman of Tiberius, was successfully treated for 

 gout through the application of alive torpedo, by advice of Charicles, 



Pliny (first century) has many references to the torpedo. The following is one 

 of the more general and speculative : — 



" And then, besides, even if we had not this illustration by the agency of the 

 echeneis," would it not have been quite sufficient only to cite the instance of the 

 torpedo, another inhabitant also of the sea, as a manifestation of the mighty 

 powers of nature? From a considerable distance even, and if touched only with 

 the end of a spear or staff, this fish has the property of benumbing even the most 

 vigorous arm, and of riveting the feet of the runner, however swift he may be in 

 the race. If, upon considering this fresh illustration, we find ourselves compelled 

 to admit that there is in existence a certain power which, by the very exhala- 

 tions, and as it wei-e, emanations therefrom, is enabled to affect the members of 

 the human body, What are we net to hope from the remedial influences which 

 nature has centered in all animated beings ?" 



The succeeding quotations illustrate more precisely the mode of applying the 

 torpedo : — 



Seribonius Largus (first century) thus writes : — " Capitis dolorem quemvis ve- 

 terem et intolerabilem protinus tollit, et inperpetuum remediat torpedo viva nigra, 

 imposita eo loco qui in dolore est, donee desinat dolor, et obstupescat ea pars; 

 quod quum primum senserit, removeatur remedium, ne sensus auferatur ejus 

 partis. Plures autem parandse sunt ejus generis torpedines, quia nonnunguam 

 vix ad duas tresve respondet curatio, id est torpor ; quod sigaum est remedia- 

 tionis." 



Galen ( second century) refers in similar terms to the treatment of headache : 

 " Sed et torpedineni totam, dico autem animal marinum, capitus dolores sanare 

 capiti admotam sedemque eversam coercere a quibusdam est proditum. Verum 

 ego quum utrumqus essem expertus, neutrum verum comperi. Eam igitur cum 

 cogitassem vivam esse applicandam, cui caput doleret, posse enim fieri ut hoc 

 medicamenlum anodynon esset, ac dolore liberaret similiter ut alia quaj sensum 

 obstupefaciunt, ita habere comperi. Pntoque eum, qui primus est usus tali qua- 

 piam motum ratione experiri aggressum." 



Aetius, who wrote in the end of the fifth century, does little more than abbre- 

 viate the prescriptions of his predecessors:— "Torpedo viva apposita diuturnum 

 capitis dolore depellit, et prolabentem sedem intro pellit mortua vero, aut oranino 

 non, aut modice hsec facit." 



Paulus ^gineta (end of the sixth or the beginning of the seventh century), who 

 as his learned commentator, Dr Francis Adams, tells us, " continued to be looked 



