XIII 



THE ACTION OF DRUGS 

 ONG after the Renaissance, the practice of 



medicine was still under the influence of 

 magic. Whatever things were rare and precious 

 were held to be good against disease — gold, amber, 

 coral, pearls, and the dust of mummies ; whatever 

 took strange forms of life — toads, earthworms, and 

 the like ; whatever looked like the disease, after 

 the doctrine of signatures — pulmonaria for the 

 lungs, because the spots on its leaves were like 

 tubercle, a kidney-shaped fruit for the kidneys, a 

 heart-shaped fruit for the heart, and yellow carrots 

 for the yellow jaundice. Among the drugs in the 

 1 6 1 8 Pharmacopoeia are cranium humanum, mandi- 

 bula lucii, nidus hirundinum, sericum crudtwi, 

 linum vivum, and pilus salamandrce. In the Phar- 

 macopoeia of 1677 are exuvice serpent is, teloe aran- 

 earum, saliva jejuni, cranium hominis violenta morte 

 extincti, and worse obscenities. 



Soon after the publication of this Pharma- 

 copoeia, on 14th February 1685, King Charles II. 

 died ; and in the Library of the Society of Anti- 



299 



