398 



SCIENCE. 



[N. S. Vol. VII. No. 169. 



France; more than one hundred publica- 

 tions, including three journals devoted to 

 the cause, attest its influence and its popu- 

 larity. 



The founder of this novel school of chem- 

 ical medicine, Count Cesare Mattel, was an 

 interesting character ; he owed his higher 

 education to a duel and his medical knowl- 

 edge to his neighbor's dog. He was most 

 successful in organizing a huge scheme for 

 swindling unfortunate victims of disease, 

 though unable to plead poverty as an 

 apology ; to his dupes he posed as a philan- 

 thropist and his friends regarded him as a 

 second iEsculapius. Mattel was born 

 January 11, 1809, at Bologna, in the pala- 

 tial residence of his parents ; his primary 

 education was in local schools, but at the 

 age of nineteen he lost his father, who be- 

 queathed him a princely estate and a for- 

 tune, whereupon he spent several years in 

 travel and gay life. He seems, however, to 

 have turned his attention to medicine at an 

 early date, for he published a work on 

 ' Treatment for Cancer ' in 1830. 



"When about thirty years of age Mattel 

 fought a duel with a young blade, after a 

 quarrel at a masked ball, and soon after he 

 attacked his adversary in a satirical pam- 

 phlet, which greatly amused the fashionable 

 circles of Bologna. This pasquinade fell 

 into the hands of Paolo Costa, the venerated 

 instructor of youth, who sought out Mattel 

 and in a single interview eiFected his con- 

 version to the serious study of philosophy. 

 The quondam duellist became Costa's favor- 

 ite pupil in the physical and natural sciences 

 and in literature. 



The troubled years 1847-1849 threw Mat- 

 tel into public life, and championing the 

 cause of Pope Pius IX. the latter rewarded 

 him with the title of Count and other honors. 

 Eetiring to an old castle, on his estate, 

 which he had sumptuously restored in Moor- 

 ish style, Mattel devoted himself to the 

 -Study of botany, chemistry and physiology. 



He adopted the principles of Hahnemann, 

 but was not satisfied with the curative re- 

 sults of this system of medical practice. 



One day, while promenading on his es- 

 tate, he noticed a dog, belonging to a neigh- 

 bor, eagerly devouring certain plants which 

 the animal's instinct had showed him was 

 suited to his condition. Mattel at once 

 began a series of investigations which re- 

 sulted in the discovery of an entirely orig- 

 inal materia medica and an amazing phil- 

 osophical system. He collected the plants 

 sagaciously indicated by the dog, and ex- 

 tracted from them, by processes known 

 only to the medieval latro-Chemists, the 

 active principles. With these he experi- 

 mented on the poor peasants living on his 

 estate and ascertained that they had ex- 

 traordinary power in curing all scrofulous 

 diseases. He next examined other vege- 

 table growths and little by little discovered 

 other active principles, thus building up a 

 unique materia medica. This comprises 88 

 medicines, of which 32 are in the form of 

 pills and 6 in the shape of fragrant, color- 

 less liquids. 



Instead of naming the first discovered 

 medicine after his neighbor's dog, he un- 

 gratefully called it ' Antiscrofoloso No. 1,' 

 which, for convenience, is abbreviated to 

 ' Scrofoloso No. 1 ; ' this proved to be a 

 veritable panacea for the greatest variety 

 of ailments, healing 90 per cent, of the 

 patients who came under his care. Eight 

 other medicines received the name ' scro- 

 folosa, ' being distinguished by appro- 

 priate numbers and adjectives ; ten 'of 

 them are dubbed ' canceroso, ' and the 

 rest are varieties of angioitico, pettorale, 

 febbrifugo, vermifuge, linfatico, venereo, 

 and so forth. Five of the six colorless 

 liquids were colored to facilitate diiferen- 

 tiation, and are named ' red electricity,' 

 ' yellow electricity,' 'blue electricity,' 'green 

 electricity ' and ' white electricity.' The 

 sixth liquid, known as 'Aqua per la pella ' 



