MEDIEVAL MEDICINE. 



433 



gone through many editions, and is still published at the present day. I am 

 informed that, of two editions, the smaller one has been sold at the rate 

 of about 1,370 copies per annum for the last fifty years, and a larger One 

 at about 200 per annum for the same period. 



The theory of likeness appears to have been applied even to the signs 

 of the zodiac, as the two following specimens of Culpeper's teaching 

 shows. 



" Under Aries [the Ram] are born men of thick hair, white or yellowish, 

 curling ; long visage, crooked nose, short legs, little feet. The first 

 fifteen degrees give a more gross body than the later." 



" Under Taurus [the Bull] are born men of short and thick stature, 

 big broad men, high forehead, wide nose, great mouth, fat short neck, dark 

 ruddy colour, short arms, thick hands, thick black hair, short legs ; slowe 

 to anger, but if once angered, hardly ever pleased again." 



Galen, who lived from a.d. 131-200, appears to have regarded drugs 

 as divisible into four groups, hot, dry, cold, and moist ; and then sub- 

 divided these into four degrees. This method of regarding drugs was 

 held well into the eighteenth century, if not later. 



The belief in the virtues of natural objects was largely based on 

 signatures. That is, because they seemed to represent the form or 

 colour connected with certain diseases, therefore such parts of plants &c, 

 were especially intended for the use of healing ; hence the stony fruits 

 of Gromwell were good for stone ; the yellow juice of Celandine for 

 jaundice, &c. 



An anaesthetic drug for surgical purposes is mentioned by Pliny, in 

 writing on the Mandrake, as being " given before incisions or punctures 

 are made in the body in order to ensure insensibility to the patient." * 



In the Middle Ages, a drug called "dwale " is described, composed of 

 Mandrake, Opium, black Solarium, Henbane, Hemlock, Bryony, Lettuce, 

 with the gall of swine and vinegar. " Then let him that shall be cut sit 

 near a good fire, and make him drink thereof till he fall on sleep. And 

 then men may safely cut him ; and when he hath been served fully and thou 

 wilt have him to wake, take vinegar and salt and wash well his temples 

 and cheeks and he shall awake anon right." It is difficult to find any 

 account of its actual use ; the drug seemingly being quoted by sixteenth- 

 century writers as only having formerly been employed. The latest was 

 Vigo, an Italian surgeon (lived 1460-1517 ?), who describes the Mandrake, 

 using the words, " wheniuewill cut off a member without feeling it, &c." ; 

 but adds there is " great danger " in its use. Possibly this was the cause 

 of the disuse of dwale. The Deadly Nightshade is now called Dwale. 



Strong vegetable perfumes were believed to be antiseptic* and to 

 neutralise the poisonous properties of the plague. Thus in ' Loimologia,' 

 published in 1720, a treatise on the plague of 1666, among other 

 remedies are aloes, cinnamon, myrrh, cloves, mace, mastic, &c. 



The contagion was thought to be due to an aura resulting from the 

 corruption of the " nitrous spirit of the air." Hence the recommendation 

 is made that "such things ought to be used as exhale very subtile 

 vapours, as the spicy drugs and gums. Such drugs as are from a 

 vegetable production and abound with subtile, volatile parts, are of service 

 * Nat. Hist. bk. 25, c. 94. 



