July 30, 1915] 



SCIENCE 



139 



of Defoe into that of the immortal "Robinson 

 Crusoe. ' ' » 



In Dover's "Ancient Physicians Legacy 

 to his country ' ' we find the following inter- 

 esting passages: 



When I took by Storm the two Cities of Guaia- 

 quil, under the Line, in the South Seas, it happen 'd, 

 that not long before, the Plague had raged amongst 

 them. For our better Security, therefore, and keep- 

 ing our People together, we lay in their churches, 

 and likewise brought thither the Plunder of the 

 Cities. 



... In a very few days after we got on board, 

 one of the Surgeons came to me, to acquaint me, 

 that several of my men were taken after a violent 

 Manner, with that Langour of Spirits, that they 

 were not able to move. I immediately went among 

 them, and, to my great Surprise, soon discerned 

 what was the Matter. In less than Forty-eight 

 Hours we had in our several Ships, one Hundred 

 and eighty Men in this miserable condition. 



I order 'd the Surgeons to bleed them in both 

 Arms, and to go round to them all, with Command 

 to leave them bleeding till all were blooded, and 

 then come and tie them up in their Turns. Thus 

 they lay bleeding and fainting, so long, that I 

 could not conceive they lost less than an hundred 

 Ounces each Man. 



If we had lost so great a Number of our People, 

 the poor Remains must infallibly have per- 

 ished. . . . 



We had on board Oil and Spirit of Vitriol suffi- 

 cient, which I caused to be mixed with Water to 

 the Acidity of a Lemon, and made them drink very 

 freely of it; so that notwithstanding we had one 

 hundred and eighty odd down in this most fatal 

 Distemper, yet we lost no more than seven or 

 eight; and even these owed their Deaths to the 

 strong Liquors which their Mess-Mates procured 

 for them . . . Now if we had had Recourse to 

 Alexipharmioks, such as Venice Treacle, Diascor- 

 dium, Mithridate, and such-like good-for-nothing 

 Compositions, or the most celebrated Gasooin's 

 Powder, or Bezoar, I make no Question at all, con- 

 sidering the heat of the Climate, but we had lost 

 every Man. 



Of non-medical literature the Satire of 

 Gil Bias, written early in the eighteenth 

 century, but in reality giving a picture of 



9 "Chronicles of Pharmacy," Wootton, II., p. 



seventeenth-centuiy excesses in blood- 

 letting, is worth citing. 



Dr. Sangrado is called in to prescribe 

 for a gouty old canon, and he at once sends 

 for a surgeon and orders him to "take six 

 good porringers of blood in order to supply 

 the need of perspiration." The surgeon 

 was ordered to return in three hours and 

 take as much more and to repeat the evacu- 

 ation the next day. The patient was "re- 

 duced to death's door in less than two 

 days," and, the notary being summoned to 

 make the will, seized his hat and cloak in a 

 huriy when he learned from the messenger, 

 Gil Bias that Dr. Sangrado was the physi- 

 cian. "Zooks," cried he, "let us make 

 haste, for the doctor is so expeditious that he 

 seldom gives the patient time to send for 

 notaries; that man has choused me out of 

 a great many jobs." 



But the misuse of bleeding continued in 

 the centuries following, and at no time was 

 the practise more abused than in the latter 

 part of the eighteenth or even in the first 

 five decades of the past century. French 

 and Italian authorities, especially, were 

 great believers in blood-letting. Broussias 

 (1772-1832) is said to have used 100,000 

 leeches in his hospital wards in one year. 

 This physician and his follower, Bouilland, 

 actuated by false theories of the cause of 

 fevers, recommended the bleeding of a pa- 

 tient 10 to 12 and even 20 times in the 

 course of treatment. 



But more and more the opponents of gen- 

 eral and excessive bleeding made headway 

 in their respective countries. Many are 

 the names that might here be named, as 

 Pinel, Andral, Louis in France, Dietl the 

 pupil of Skoda and WoUstein the professor 

 of veterinary medicine in Vienna, Mezlar, 

 Rademacher, von Pfeufer and others in 

 Germany, Marshall HalP" and later Sir 



10 ' ' While Marshall Hall favored Venesection, he 

 was one of the earlier and important members of 



