Pharmacologia : being an extended inquiry into the operations of medicinal bodies upon which are founded the theory and art of prescribing / by J.A. Paris.

  • John Ayrton Paris
Date:
1846
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Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Pharmacologia : being an extended inquiry into the operations of medicinal bodies upon which are founded the theory and art of prescribing / by J.A. Paris. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by the National Library of Medicine (U.S.), through the Medical Heritage Library. The original may be consulted at the National Library of Medicine (U.S.)

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    G REVOLUTIONARY HISTORY also in the earliest times* Among the fables of antiquity we read that, after the death of Adonis, Venus threw herself on a bed of lettuces, to lull her grief and repress her desires. The sea-onion, or squill, was administered in cases of dropsy by the Egyptians, under the mystic title of the Eye of Typhon ; and the application of spirit to wounds was prac- tised by the Greeks ; for we find the experienced Nestor applying a cataplasm, composed of cheese, onion, and meal, mixed up with the wine of Pramnos, to the wounds of Machaon.f In tracing the history of the Materia Medica from its earliest periods, we shall find that its progress towards its present advanced state has been very slow and unequal; very unlike the steady and successive improvement which has marked other branches of natural knowledge ; we shall perceive, even, that its advancement has been continually ar- rested, and often entirely subverted, by the caprices, prejudices, super- stitions, and knavery of mankind ; unlike, too, the other branches of sci- ence, it is incapable of successful generalization ; in the history of rem- edies, when are we able to produce a discovery or improvement which has been the result of that happy combination of observation,^ analogy, and experiment, which has so eminently rewarded the labours of mod- ern science ? Thus, observation led Newton to discover that the re- fractive power of transparent substances was, in general, in the ratio of their density, but that, of substances of equal density, those which pos- sessed the refractive power in a higher degree were inflammable.^ Analogy induced him to conclude that, on this account, water must contain an inflammable principle ; and experiment enabled Cavendish and Watt to demonstrate the surprising truth of Newton's induction, in their immortal discovery of the chemical decomposition of that fluid.' But it is clear that such principles of research and combination of methods can rarely be applied in the investigation of remedies :|| for * Allusions to this plant frequently occur in the medical writings of antiquity we are told that Galen, in the decline of life, suffered much from morbid vigilance until he had recourse to eating a lettuce every evening, which cured him. t The Materia Medica of the ancients seems to have been quite as extensive as that of the moderns. In the works of Hippocrates, there are enumerated thirtv-six mineral 300 vegetable, and 150 animal substances ; in all 580; while Dioscoridedescribe™ metv minerals, 700 plants, and 168 animal substances, being 058 in all Galen de^nhf, Sr articles of the Materia Medica from the vegetable kingdom thSDi«^^bShe™ merates more animal and mineral substances.—Am Ed t. Observation, says Professor Leslie, is the close inspection and attentive exam .nation of those phenomena which arise in the course of nature; Experiment as^ fore, WHho0*rT? -ay be said to listen to nature, wMe°he who 2ffi^£*E her. Herschel, however, very justly states, that, by thus distininiwMn., /k . rro£ates experiment, it is by no means intended to place them in a,Vkfed of contrast'! '^/'T they are much alike, and differ rather in degree than in kind so LT X■' ,essentlally be better to express their distinction by the terms pa^e and aciL obse v^tion * ^ $ 1 he refractive power of an inflammable body bears also a DroDOrtinn £»£«„ t .■ whence it may he sometimes used as a test of its purity Thus T?rW n , Perfection, genuine oil of cloves had a refractive power of]-535, while hit nf a , ,0Vd that not exceed 1-498. ' ttlat ol an lnlenor quality did II It is indeed true that Sir John Herschel has lately presented ii<= «Htv, n u- medical discovery, which might vie with the most triumphant wSinE^?**0?* °? * duction; but Sir John is sanguine, I will not say credulous Tho I I Baconian ln- receive the account of it in his own words : A soap manufacture., J ' ,nowever. shall siduum of his ley, when exhausted of the alkali for wind 11, 1, remarks that the re- rosion of his copper boiler, for which he cannot account Ho ™J ■<*■ ' Pr,odces a cor- scientific chemist for analysis, and the result is the discovertnf I.? nds of a and important chemical elements, iodine. The properties n( tliL i t4hc,m?st Slnglar to concur most appositely in illustration and support of a varietv of Studled> are found structive views then gaining ground in chemistry, and thus ma^TiSS influtnS