288 
Original Communications. 
the most celebrated writers upon medicines in ancient times. 
Galen, particularly, obtained a reputation and authority which 
have, perhaps, been unequalled in the history of the medical 
art. His dogmas speedily gained general credit from the ig- 
norance of the age; and for the space of fifteen hundred years, 
his writings were almost unanimously recognized as a kind 
of medical Gospel, which it was heresy to dispute. He 
flourished in the second century, and was the last author 
upon the subject of medicines, particularly worthy of notice, 
among the ancient Greeks and Romans. 
At no period of antiquity had the science of Materia Medi- 
ca advanced beyond the mere rudiments. The catalogue of 
medicines was numerous, but abounded in superfluities, intro- 
duced either upon false experience or absurd theoretical 
opinions. Thus, resemblances or analogies in colour, shape, 
or other sensible property, between the medicine and certain 
parts of the body or certain products of disease, were sup- 
posed to have an important bearing upon its curative powers; 
and a mysterious influence naturally existing, or imparted by 
incantations or other supernatural agency, was believed to 
be possessed by various substances, which were worn as 
amulets about the body. Objects calculated to inspire dis- 
gust, fear, or horror, were thought to extend over the frame 
the same spells in which they held the spirit; and hence toads, 
reptiles, venomous insects, and even human bones received a 
place in the Materia Medica. Many of these absurdities, 
though long since banished from the schools, have found a 
refuge among the vulgar, even in the most polished nations, 
and, in various semi-civilized countries of the old continent, 
flourish in almost their pristine vigour. To most of us it may 
appear strange, that men of the least cultivation should ever 
have yielded to such absurd claims upon their faith; but no 
stretch of credulity seems too great for an intellect not care- 
fully instructed in fundamental truths; and when we witness, 
among our own contemporaries, such extravagances as a be- 
lief in the almost universal virtues of a secret panacea on the 
one hand, and in the powerful efficacy of the trillionth of a 
