The modern philosopher, or Terrible tractoration : in four cantos, most respectfully addressed to the Royal College of Physicians, London / by Christopher Caustick.

  • Thomas Green Fessenden
Date:
1806
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: The modern philosopher, or Terrible tractoration : in four cantos, most respectfully addressed to the Royal College of Physicians, London / by Christopher Caustick. 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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    XU EREFAeE. in a great measure explained:* and the cases of their hav- ing performed cures are attested by too many respectable characters, both in Europe and America, to render it pos- sible that they should be an illusion. I likewise found that though by many they were condemned as the offspring of quackery, their most bitter opponents were generally men who deserved to be ranked with the Solomons and Brodums who disgrace the profession of physickf- Justice requires that I should acknowledge my obliga- tions to some friends in London, for many materials which * I am tempted in this place to present the reader with a quota- tion from Cavallo, which shows that metallick substances have a powerful effect on animals. The principle phenomena of animal electricity, viz. the pro- perty of being put in motion by a metallick communication between the nerves and muscles is not peculiar to a few animals, but must be a property of all; a law of nature which admits of few excep- tions, and these of a very doubtful nature. The experiments have already been tried with a great variety of terrestrial, aerial, and aquatick animals. The human body, whilst undergoing certain chirurgical operations on its recently amputated limbs, has been convulsed by the application of metals. From the ox and the horse down to the fly, the effects of metallick applications have been re- peatedly and unequivocally observed, with the same power. t Many respectable English reviews spoke in favourable terms of the tractors. I shall here quote the authority of the Anti-Jaco- bin Review, the reputation of which is so well established that we cannot suppose it possible that its conductors would give any thing like quackery the sanction of their authority. In a review of a satyrical work of one Carry who had written against the trac- tors, they observe, with equal avidity, though certainly with but little knowledge or skill, does our angry satirist fall upon Perkins's metallick tractors. Much as we detest and reprobate quackery of every description, we do not feel ourselves authorized to restrain or suppress the extension of scientifick discovery; and considering the tractors to be constructed on known philosophical principles, they do not appear so contemptible as this author affects to represent them. Anti Jacobin fievitw for April, 1802, p. 399.
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