Methodus medendi : a sketch of the development of therapeutics / by Sir William Henry Allchin.

  • Allchin, William Henry, Sir, 1846-1911.
Date:
1908
Catalogue details

Licence: In copyright

Credit: Methodus medendi : a sketch of the development of therapeutics / by Sir William Henry Allchin. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by The Royal College of Surgeons of England. The original may be consulted at The Royal College of Surgeons of England.

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    wero nwai'dod the omnipotent nmndra^ora. It conciliated affection and maintained IVicrndwliip, ])i‘(‘Herved conjugal fealty, and developed benevolence. 'I'he immenHity of woi'th inherent in this mystical medicament, its vital essence, was by no means confimid t<j sustaininj^ health and pi-ovidin^ certain remedies for infirmities ; its power manipu- lated tribunals, and secured judicial favour at court ; and when this resistless amulet was held under the arm by a suitor' at law, however unjust his cause, the ve^'etable I'une controlhid the forum and obtained the verdict.”* In the Latin Herbarium of Apuleius Platonicus (supposed to have been wi'itten about the fifth centui'y) a chapter- is devoted to an account of this plant, its description, and its uses, and a translation of this Her-barirrm into Old Eng'lish forms a lar^e por-tion of the Anglo-Saxon Leechdoms. From this it appears that the r'oot was not to be dug up with an iron in.strurnent, but to be drrg r-ound about with an ivor'}?^ staff, and when sufficiently expo.sed was to be dragged out of the earth by being tied to a dog’s neck, the animal being encouraged to exertion by nreat placed ju.st out of reach. Full directions are given for the administration of the expressed juice for- headache, jrodagra, and other' ailments, and also for its use as an aniesthetic. “ It anyone has to have a limb amputated, or- burnt, or cut, let him drink an ounce and a half in wine, and he will sleep .so lorrg that the limb may be cut off without pain or- feelitrg.”f As illustr-atino- the extent to which drugs of this class have been employed, it ruaj^ be mentioned that in the Materia Medica of Dioscorides, compiled in the first century of our era, and the earlie.st and most complete of the works remaining to us of that class, between 600 and 700 articles are of vegetable origin. In the Lorrdon Pharmacopoeia of 1618 (the first j'^ear in which an official Pharmacopceia was issued in this countr}^) are included nearly 600 dr'Ugs;J: of the same nature, whilst the present British Pharrnacopceia (1898) contains about 70 less. It is not to be supposed that with this approximate correspondence in number, thei'e is also a correspondence in the actual articles represented by these figures. Thus, of those enumerated by Dioscorides, only about 80 are to be found in our present Pharmacopneia, including sucb drugs as opium, bjmscyamus, rhubarb, elaterium scammony, cardamoms, pepper, aloes, s(|uills, colchicum, male fern, galbanum, ammoniacum, gentian, and santonin. An interesting chapter in the subject of tlierapeutics is formed In* * Hi.story of Medical Eennony during the Middle Ages, by (i. E. Fort. New York, 1883. t8ee Englisli Medicine in the Ando-Saxon times. The Fitzpatrick Lectures, H.C.F., by Dr. J. F. Payne, 1904. X This number is made up of 97 roots, ‘22 barks, 8 w(kx1s, 186 leaves, 53 flowers, 53 fruits and buds, 113 seeds, 39 gums, 19 juices, and a ini.scellaneous group of T styled plantarum excremeuta.