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ROYAL VETERINURY COLLEGE. 
tings of his nails, bound to the navel, would remove dropsy. 
When the gall of a hedgehog mixed with the brain of a bat 
was resorted to as a depilatory; and the filth of the ears and 
dried bees, with a recently killed chicken, or urine and soot, 
were the remedies for colic; or a tarred red-herring a cure 
for red-water in cattle. When boiling oil or molten lead 
was poured into fistulous wounds, and open joints were 
plugged up with plaster of Paris. Yet this boiling oil — like 
the farrier’s boasted DiAPENTE, the receipt for which we 
have had handed down to us from the Centaur Chiron, 
who was the instructor of Esculapius in the art of medi- 
cine, both human and veterinary — can boast of its antiquity, 
it being used by the native doctors of India. Major Edwards, 
in his account of the war in the Punjaub, states that “ if a 
man’s arm was carried off by a musket shot at the elbow, he 
was made by his * medical adviser’ to plunge the stump 
into a cauldron of hot oil, salt, and blue-stone, whereby the 
flesh shrivelled up like the end of a leg of mutton!” Now in 
the treatment of wounds we almost leave Nature to her own 
resources, merely assisting her when we perceive it to be 
necessary. We shield the wound with a layer of collodion, 
and keep the surrounding parts wet, so as to prevent too much 
irritation being set up. Of course, the knife of the surgeon is 
not withheld when there is a needs-be for it, and the state of 
the system is most carefully attended to. 
But while these absurdities may be said to have passed 
away, others, not in the least degree less reprehensible, have 
taken their place in the minds of the vulgar, of which several 
instances were brought forward. Under the same category — 
charlatanism — he was inclined to place many of the modern 
systems advocated for the removal of diseases, such are Homoeo- 
pathy, Hydropathy, Mesmerism, metallic tractors, and galvanic 
rings and chains ! These are merely a love for the marvellous, 
a belief in incredulities; or, at best, the influence of mind over 
matter ; mere vagaries of the imagination : or, if it be liked 
better, they are a verification of Ben Jonson’s satirical definition 
of physic — “The art of amusing the patient while Nature cures 
the disease.” 
On this subject Roger Bacon, in his discourse on ‘Art and 
Nature,’ is very plain. He writes : “ Knowing that the raising 
of the imagination is of great efficacy in curing diseases of 
the body ; raising the soul from impurity to health, by joy and 
confidence, is done by charms ; for they induce the patient to 
receive the medicine with greater faith. They excite courage, 
more liberal confidence, and hope. The physician, then, who 
would magnify his cure, must devise some way of exciting 
