25 
PATHOLOGY. 
being able to do with fo fmall a number of furgeons; which 
is, that, immediately after a battle, fuch of the meaner 
fort of foldiers, whofe wounds feemed to require a con- 
fiderable time for cure, were by the general difmifled, 
with a fmall pecuniary provifion to carry them home: 
this, according to Barnes’s Hillory of Edward III. was 
done immediately after the battle of PoiSliers. Perhaps 
likewife the inferior furgeons, ftyled barbers, were taken 
from the ranks, and therefore paid and multered as pri¬ 
vate men. 
The prafticeof medicine did not keep pace in improve¬ 
ment with anatomy and furgery. In the early part of 
the i6th century the moll conspicuous name we meet 
with is that of Paracelfus. This-bold and conceited che- 
mill, who had been'greatly neglefted in his education, 
endeavoured to combine the principles of alchemy, me¬ 
dicine, and altrology. He travelled much in fearch of 
remedies, which he did not difdain to accept from old 
women, gipfies, and conjurers. He acquired very great 
reputation; and on his return to Germany he was ap¬ 
pointed profeffor of furgery to the univerfity of Bade. 
The pathological dodlrines of Paracelfus are very im¬ 
perfectly underltood. It appears, however, that he ad¬ 
mitted three component parts of the animal body, fait, 
mercury, and fulphur. We mull not fuppofe that he 
carried his notions fo far as to conceive that thefe che¬ 
mical fubllances were really exillent in our frame. On 
the contrary, he appears to have merely ufed the above- 
mentioned terms to illullrate his meaning by analogy. 
Thus, mercury is fuppofed to mean the principle of fluid¬ 
ity, fulphur that of inflammability, and fait folidity. The 
vital principle of Paracelfus he denominated Archaus$ it 
was feated in the Itomach, and was the principal agent 
in digeftion; it feparated the noxious, and prepared for 
aflimilation the nutritious, parts of our aliment, with a 
great deal of intelligence, and was the principal agent in 
the recovery and prefervation of health. Paracelfus like¬ 
wife mentioned a humour as producing difeafe, though 
he had abufed with fo much virulence the humoral pa¬ 
thology of Galen. This humour he called Turturus ; it 
produced rigidity of the folids, vifcidity of the fluids, 
See. but it fhould be remarked, that this author did not, 
like Galen, impute difeafe to the prefence of humour, 
but humour to difeafe; for the proximate caufe of this 
Tartarus he contended was the irregular aCtion of the 
Archsus, or prefiding fpirit. He moreover mentioned 
five remote caufes of difeafe, viz. ens ujlrule, ens veneni, ens 
naturale, ens fpirituule, and ens deale. Diverted of che¬ 
mical jargon and obfcurity, the theory of Paracelfus feems 
to be this. He remarked, with many others before him, 
the three principles of the animal frame ; folidity, fluidity, 
and contradlility or irritability ; and he endeavoured to 
trace their origin in fubllances which poflefl'ed properties 
bearing to them a remote analogy. In the fecond place, 
in tracing the phenomena of difeafe, he referred to the 
defective or inordinate energy of the vital power the alfi- 
snilation of noxious particles of food into the blood: 
hence a humour which, circulating in all parts, produced 
the varied phenomena of difeafe. Paracelfus in his prac¬ 
tice ufed the chemical remedies with fome luccefs: he 
has the merit of firft introducing mercury as a cure for 
the venereal difeafe, which had before his time been 
treated with inert quintefcences, diet-drinks, guaiacum, 
Sec. He was likewife the fit'll who prefcribed opium freely ; 
and he was no friend to that abfurd practice, which had 
come into vogue with the Arabian phyficians, of com¬ 
pounding 50 or 60 fimples together, under the miftaken 
notion that all the fubllances would retain and exert their 
feparate virtues, or that among fo great a number forne- 
thing would be found applicable to the cafe. 
Modern pharmacy may be faid to commence about the 
middle of the fifteenth century, at which time it appears 
to have been in a moll deplorable ftate of empirical bar¬ 
barity. Though it is probable that, among the earlier 
pradlitioners of medicine, remedies were employed in 
Vol.XIX. No. 1284. 
their moll Ample forms, the art of compounding a num¬ 
ber of fimples together into one medicine had, by the 
time of which we are now fpeaking, arrived at a pitch of 
extravagance which has never been exceeded. What 
carried this oftentation of compofition to thehigheft ex¬ 
cels, was the project of framing antidotes, which being 
previoufly adminiftered, might defend againft any poifon 
whatever that fliould afterwards be taken into the body. 
To this fcheme is owing the multitudinous compofition 
of the celebrated Mithridate and the Theriaca; for fuch 
medicines muft of courfe recommend themfelves by the 
number and variety of their ingredients, as they were to 
contain a proper antidote for every poflible fpecies of 
poifon, and more el'pecially as thefe compofitions were 
to be farther wrought up into little lefs than univerfal 
remedies forall difeafes to which the human body is fubjedt. 
The firft of thefe antidotes was faid to be compofed 
from the refult of experiments made feparately with all 
kinds of Ample antidotes by the famous king whofe name 
it bears 5 but, as no records are left us of any of thofe 
particular experiments, we may reafonably confider this 
tale as fabulous. As’ it is not likely that this medicine 
or the Theriaca will ever again appear in our Pharmaco¬ 
poeias, we Ihall, for the amufement of our readers, de- 
feribe the compofition of each, as given in the London 
Pharmacopoeia publifhed in 1746. 
The Mithridate is thus compofed. “ Take of 
cinnamon 14 drams, of myrrh n drams ; agaric, 
fpikenard, ginger, faffron, feeds of treacle muftard, or 
of mithridate muftard, frankincenfe, Chio turpentine 
of each 10 drams; camel’s hay, coftus, or in its Head ze- 
doary, Indian leaf, or in its Head mace, French lavender, 
long pepper, feeds of hartwort, juice of the rape of cif- 
tus, ftrained ftorax, opoponax, (trained galbanum, balfam 
of Gilead, or in its Head exprefled oil of nutmegs, Ruffian 
caftor, of each an ounce; poley-mountain, water-ger¬ 
mander, the fruit of the ’balfam-tree, or in its Head cu- 
bebs, white pepper, feeds of the carrot of Crete, bdellium 
ftrained, of each feven drams; Celtic nard, gentian-root, 
leaves of dittany of Crete, red rofes, feeds of Macedonian 
parfley, the lefler cardamom-feeds freed from their hulks, 
fweet fennel-feeds, gum Arabic, opium ftrained, of each 
five drams; root of the fweet flag, root of wild vale¬ 
rian, anile-feed, fagapenum ftrained, of each three drams; 
fpignel, St. John’s wort, juice of acacia, or in its Head 
Japan earth, the bellies of feinks, of each two drams and 
a half; clarified honey, thrice the weight of all the reft. 
Difl'olve the opium firft in a little wine, and then mix it 
with the honey made hot; in the mean time melt toge¬ 
ther in another veffel the galbanum, ftorax, turpentine, 
and the balfam of Gilead, or the exprefled oil of nutmeg, 
continually ftirring them round, that they may not burn ; 
and, as loon as thefe are melted, add to them the hot 
honey, firft by fpoonfuls, and afterwards more freely: 
laftly, when this mixture is nearly cold, add by degrees 
the reft of the fpecies reduced to powder.” 
The preparation of the Theriaca Andromuchi, or Venice 
treacle, is thus directed. “Take of the trochesof fquills, 
half a pound; long pepper, opium ftrained, dried vipers, 
of each three ounces; cinnamon, balm of Gilead, or in 
its Head exprefled oil of nutmeg, of each two ounces; 
agaric, the root of Florentine orris, water-germander, red 
rofes, feeds of navew, extradl of liquorice, of each an 
ounce and a half; fpikenard, faffron, ammomum, myrrh, 
coftus, or in its Head zedoary, camel’s hay, of each an 
ounce; the root of cinque-foil, rhubarb, ginger, Indian 
leaf, or in its Head mace, leaves of dittany of Crete, of 
horehound, and of calamint, French lavender, black 
pepper, feeds of Macedonian parfley, olibanum, Chio 
turpentine, root of wild valerian, of each fix drams ; 
gentian-root, Celtic nard, fpignel, leaves of poley- 
mountain, of St. John’s wort, of ground-pine, tops of 
creeping-germander with the feed, the fruit of the 
balfam-tree, or in its Head cubebs, anifefeed, fweet fen¬ 
nel-feed, the lefler cardamom-feeds freed from their 
H hulks, 
