Note 216 — PHARMACOLOGIA. ON THE OPERATIONS OF MEDICINAL BODIES, AND ON THE CLASSIFICATIONS FOUNDED ON THEM. (continued 2)

This conceit does not appear to have been confined to the ignorant alone, for we learn from Spratt’s History of the Royal Society, that very shortly after the institution of that learned body, a series of questions was drawn up by their direction, for the purpose of being submitted to the Chinese and Indians, which clearly shews their belief in the possibility of such an operation, viz. “Whether the Indians can so prepare that stupifying herb, Datura, that they make it lie several days, months, years, according as they will have it, in a man’s body, without doing him any hurt, and at the end kill him without missing half an hour’s time?”