Note 138 — PART FIRST. (continued 8)

As it might by some be deemed an affront offered to the wisdom of antiquity, should we pass over in silence the opinions of the more ancient physicians, I shall in this note give a short account of some of their most remarkable modes of practice, as they are recorded in Burnet’s Thesaurus.

1. Forestus, in many respects a respectable author, recommends an antidote composed of equal parts of rue, figs and almonds, beat into a pulp in a stone mortar with a wooden pestle till united (which is not very easily done) into an uniform mass, adding as much syrup of citrons with vinegar as would render it soft, with a little powdered salt put in last. The efficacy of this he tells us he experienced in himself as well as all his family as a preventive; himself taking in the morning the bigness of a small nutmeg of this, made up into a confection with the ancient theriac, mithridate, Armenian bole, terrasigillata, &c.

In his regular practice (for the above must be accounted quackery) he advises bleeding within the first twelve, or at most twenty-four, hours; such as were bled afterwards he says died. If performed in seven or eight hours after the commencement of the disease the cure went on the better. Where bleeding was inadvisable he used cupping with scarifications, finishing the cure with sweating and cordials. He remarks that where black tumours or eschars, lentil shaped, appeared, the disease always proved mortal, without a single exception. These were small, like a grain of black pepper, and therefore called by the vulgar peppercorn; undoubtedly the tokens of Dr. Hodges.

2. Hildanus, also a respectable writer, has an high opinion of issues as a preventive. He says he never knew but one or two (and those of a very bad habit of body) who had issues in their legs and arms that perished in the plague, and says that he has known its efficacy as a preventive not only in himself but many others. He says he kept two issues in his own body, one in the left arm, the other in the right leg. (See above p. 339) To the same purpose Mercurialis relates that he never knew but one, and he was a priest, who died of the plague having an issue. He says also that he had inquired of many other physicians, who all gave a similar testimony. According to him, in the plague at Lausanne, all who were attacked by vomiting or looseness, and almost all who were bled, fell victims to the disease.

As preventives he advises amulets made up of arsenic, powder of toads, and other things. These are to be hanged round the neck in times of plague, and are undoubtedly of great virtue (maximam ad præservationem vim habere, non est quod dubites!) This remedy he says he had from his preceptor Cosmas Slotanus, a very celebrated surgeon.

Brine of pork is another preventive, which he never tried himself, but asks Sennerius about it. It was recommended to Hildanus by a lawyer of his acquaintance. The brine is first to be boiled in a kettle, and well skimmed, till it becomes clear, poured into earthen vessels. and kept shut up from the air for a twelvemonth; after which it was fit for use. A draught of this was given to people infected with plague, and operated by sweat, stool or vomit, or perhaps both by vomit and stool. The patient was to abstain from drink for some hours after. The brine of anchovies is recommended by Sam. Formius, as useful in the plague at Montpelier in 1630.

3. The same author (Formius) tells us of a man and his wife and wife’s sister, in Montpelier, who, being taken with the plague, swallowed a solution of their own excrements in urine, strained through a linen cloth, and thus got clear of the distemper. It produced excessive vomiting and purging. Dr. Russel mentions one of his patients, who, he suspected, had got a dose of bezoar in urine.

4. Johannes Helmontius says, that to his certain knowledge (me conscio) Hibernus Butlerus cured some thousands of the plague, at London; though unhappily our author got only part of the secret, and which is to the following purpose. “He ordered me to suspend by the legs before the fire, a large toad taken in the afternoon in the month of June; putting below him a cake of yellow wax. At length, after three days suspension, the toad vomited earth, and some walking insects (insectas ambulantes) viz. flies with shining wings of a greenish colour, as if gilt: the toad died immediately after this evacuation, nor did it take place, notwithstanding his suspension till the third day. He (Butlerus) then told me that I had medicine enough for curing forty thousand people infected with the plague, and promised to show me the mystery of the matter (rei cardinem) but being suddenly sent into banishment he departed.” The best part of the secret being thus lost, it is needless to trouble the reader with any further account of experiments made with other toads roasted alive, powdered and made up into troches,&c. presuming that these could not equal the value of the original receipt. I proceed therefore,

5. To the antidote of the celebrated Avenzoar, who drove away the plague by the smell of the urine of an he goat; and Mercurialis says that in the house of a most reverend canon in Hungary, he saw a large he goat kept for this purpose.

6. From such horribly disgusting remedies we certainly turn with pleasure to the elegant tablets prepared for the Emperor Maximilian II. These were composed of Armenian bole, prepared pearl, prepared coral, prepared emeralds, prepared jacinct, gold-leaves (ingredients in a medical view equally efficacious with chalk or oyster shells) along with a little ambergrease and some other ingredients of little value, as medicines, and made into tablets with conserve of roses——It is needless to spend time in commenting on such ridiculous remedies; suffice it to say, that the intention of all rational practice both ancient and modern has been to effect a cure by sweating. From the instance related by Sydenham, as well as that of Dr. Power above mentioned, it seems, that if the exact time in which the disease begins could be known, it might be carried off by profuse blood-letting; but as this for the most part cannot be discovered, it is certainly better to wait, even though the event should not prove favourable, than to run the risk of killing, the patient instantly by an ignorant effort to save him.