32. The reader will find this subject treated more fully in the Introduction to our work on “Medical Jurisprudence.”

33. See a Tour through England, by Dr. Nemnich of Hamburgh.

34. Nostrum, (our own.) This word, as its original meaning implies, is very significant of this characteristic attribute of quackery. See the note under the article ‘Liquor Opii Sedativus.’

35. Aristides was the dupe and victim of the Asclepiades for ten successive years; he was alternately purged, vomited, and blistered; made to walk bare-footed, under a burning sun in summer, and in winter he was doomed to seek for the return of health, by bathing his feeble and emaciated body in the river. All this severity, he was made to believe, was exercised towards him by the express directions of Esculapius himself, with whom he was persuaded to fancy that he conversed in his dreams, and frequently beheld in nocturnal visions. Upon one occasion, the god, fatigued with the importunities of his votary, ordered him to lose 120 lbs. of blood; the unhappy man not having so much in his body, wisely took the liberty of interpreting the oracle in his own way, and parted with no more than he could conveniently spare.

36. As we are here investigating the follies of Physic, it will not be foreign to the subject to state, that the above observation may with as much truth and force be applied to medical writings as to medical substances. Nothing is more fatal to the permanent success and character of an author, than the extravagant and unmerited encomiums of time-serving reviewers. It would be invidious to illustrate this truth by examples, or we might adduce some striking instances where the inappropriate wreath has strangled the object which it was intended to adorn. It is a matter of deep regret that the Magnates of our profession do not combine in supporting a respectable medical Review.—‘Manus Apolline dignum.’

37. This theory is still cherished in the preservation of the formula for Pilulæ Opiatæ, in the Edinburgh Pharmacopœia.

38. The practice of this physician does not appear to have been very successful, if we may credit Juvenal.—

39. See ‘An Experimental Enquiry into the effects of Tonics, and other Medicines, on the cohesion of the Animal fibre.’ By Dr. Crawford.

40. Van Swieten, in his Commentaries on the Venereal disease, has an aphorism founded on the same hypothesis, ‘Render the blood and lymph more fluid, and you will have destroyed the virus.’ Sect. 1477.

In the first volume of the Transactions of the Royal College of Physicians, there is a paper to the same effect, entitled, ‘On the Operation of Mercury, in different diseases and constitutions, by Edward Barry, M.D. F.R.S.’ Read at the College, July 13, 1767.

41. Genesis ix. 23.

42. The animal nature of the colouring matter of the blood was first pointed out by Dr. Wells, but Fourcroy and Vauquelin considered it to be owing to subphosphate of iron. Mr. Brande, in 1812, demonstrated the fallacy of this opinion, and proved, by satisfactory experiments, its title to be considered as a peculiar animal principle; the subsequent experiments of M. Vauquelin have confirmed Mr. Brande’s results.

43. The Magnet, or Loadstone, in powder, entered also as an ingredient in several plaisters, to draw bullets, and heads of arrows, out of the body, as in the ‘Emplastrum Divinum Nicolai,’ the ‘Emplastrum Nigrum’ of Augsburg, the ‘Opodeldock’ and ‘Attractivum,’ of Paracelsus, with several other preparations, to be found in the Dispensatory of Wecker, and in the practice of Sennertus.

44. Pyretologia, p. 17, A. D. 1692.

45. Sturmius, in his ‘Febrifugi Peruviani Vindiciæ,’ published in 1658, observes that he saw twenty doses of the powder sold at Brussels for sixty florins, in order to be sent to Paris, and that he would willingly have been a purchaser of some doses, even at that price; but the Apothecary was unable to supply him: an anecdote not more illustrative of the reputation of the bark, than of the honesty of the vender.

46. This produced a pamphlet from Dr. Slare, entitled ‘A Vindication of Sugars against the Charge of Dr. Willis and others: dedicated to the Ladies.’ 1715.

47. This conceit did not escape the notice of the metaphysical poets of the seventeenth century; Cowley frequently availed himself of it to embellish his verse.

48. Genesis xxx. 14.

49. This mineral derives its name from the ancient belief that it was found in the nest of the eagle. It is a variety of iron ore.

50. ‘Chrysost. Magneni Exercit. de Tabaco.’

51. For a further account of this conceit, see Crollius, in a work appended to his “Basilica Chymica,” entitled, ‘De Signaturis internis rerum, seu de vera et viva Anatomia majoris et minoris mundi.’

52. In various black-letter works on Dæmonology we are assured that three scruples of the ashes of the witch, when she has been well and carefully burnt at a stake, is a sure Catholicon against all the evil effects of Witchcraft! The popular author of Waverley alludes to this superstition in his Abbot.

53. Massaria, a learned Professor of Pavia in the sixteenth century, absolutely declares that he would rather err with Galen than be in the right with any other physician!

54. This practice of Bishop Berkeley has been ridiculed with great point and effect, in a pamphlet entitled ‘A cure for the Epidemical Madness of drinking Tar Water,’ by Mr. Reeve; in which, addressing the Bishop, he says, “thus, in your younger days, my Lord, you made the surprising discovery of the unreality of matter, and now in your riper age, you have undertaken to prove the reality of a universal remedy; an attempt to talk men out of their reason, did of right, belong to that author who had first tried to persuade them out of their senses.” Tar water was also at one period considered to possess very considerable efficacy in Syphylis.

55. The Euphrasia Officinalis, or Eye-bright, which is indebted for its celebrity to the doctrine of Signatures, as before stated, is actually employed at this time in cases of dimness of sight. See a Paper upon the efficacy of this plant by Dr. Jackson, in the London Medical and Physical Journal, vol. 23, p. 104.

56. Its rejection was proposed by the late Dr. Heberden, and upon the College dividing on the question, there were found to be thirteen votes for retaining, and fourteen for rejecting it.

57. This preparation consists of 72 ingredients, which are arranged under 13 heads—viz. Acria, of which there are 5 species. Amara, of which there are 8. Styptica vulgo Astringentia, 5 in number. Aromatica Exotica, 14. Aromatica Indigena, 10. Aromatica ex Umbelliferis, 7. Resinosa et Balsama, 8. Grave-Olentia, 6. Virosa, seu quæ Narcosin inducunt, under which head there is but one species, viz. Opium. Terrea Insipida et Inertia; this comprises only the Lemnian Earth. Gummosa, Amylacea, &c. 4 species. Dulcia, liquorice and honey. Vinum, Spanish.

Upon no principle of combination can this heterogeneous farrago be vindicated. It has, however, enjoyed the confidence of physicians for many ages, and is therefore entitled to some notice. It was supposed to have been invented by Mithridates, the famous king of Pontus, the receipt for which was said to have been found among his papers after his defeat by Pompey, at which time it was published in Rome under the title of ‘Antidotum Mithridatum;’ but the probability is, says Dr. Heberden, that Mithridates was as much a stranger to his own antidote as several eminent physicians have since been to the medicines that are daily advertised under their names. It was asserted, that whoever took a proper quantity in the morning, was insured from poison during the whole of that day, (Galen de Antidot. Lib. 1.) and it was further stated, that Mithridates himself was so fortified against all baneful drugs, that none would produce any effect when he attempted to destroy himself. (Celsus, lib. 5. c. 23.) In the course of ages it has undergone numerous alterations. According to Celsus, who first described it, it contained only 35 simples; Andromachus, Physician to Nero, added vipers, and increased the number of ingredients to 75; and when thus reformed, he called it γαλήνη—but in Trajan’s time it obtained the name of Theriaca, either from the vipers in it, or from its supposed effect in curing the bites of venomous animals. Damocrates gave a receipt for it in Greek Iambics, which has been preserved by Galen. It appears then that its composition has hardly remained the same for a hundred years; it is, says Dr. Heberden, a farrago, that has no better title to the name of Mithridates than, as it so well resembles, the numerous undisciplined forces of a barbarous king, made up of a dissonant crowd collected from different countries, mighty in appearance, but in reality, an ineffective multitude, that only hinder each other. ANTIOPIAKA, by W. Heberden, M. D. 1745.

58. The consumption of Tea has greatly increased in England during the last thirty years. In 1787 the total amounted to sixteen millions of pounds, whereas in 1821, it exceeded twenty-two millions.

59. Hernandez de Toledo sent this plant into Spain and Portugal in 1559, when Jean Nicot was Ambassador at the Court of Lisbon from Francis II, and he transmitted, or carried either the seed, or the plant to Catherine de Medicis: it was then considered as one of the wonders of the new world, and was supposed to possess very extraordinary virtues; this seems to be the first authentic record of the introduction of this plant into Europe. In 1589 the Cardinal Santa Croce, returning from his nunciature in Spain and Portugal to Italy, carried thither with him Tobacco, and we may form some notion of the enthusiasm with which its introduction was hailed, from a perusal of the poetry which the subject inspired; the poets compare the exploit of the holy Cardinal with that of his progenitor who brought home the wood of the true cross.

In England, it is said that the smoking Tobacco was first introduced by Sir Walter Raleigh on his return from America. James the First wrote a philippic against it, entitled a “Counterblaste to Tobacco,” in which the royal author, with more prejudice than dignity, informs his loving subjects that ‘it is a custome loathsome to the eye, hatefull to the nose, harmefull to the braine, dangerous to the lungs; and in the blacke stinking fume thereof, neerest resembling the horrible Stigian smoake of the pit that is bottomlesse.’ In 1604 this monarch endeavoured by means of heavy imposts to abolish its use in this country, and in 1619 he commanded that no planter in Virginia should cultivate more than 100 lbs. It must be confessed that some legislative enactment was necessary at this period for restricting the custom of smoking Tobacco; for we are told in the Counterblaste, that many persons expended as much as five hundred pounds per annum in the purchase of this article, which in those days was an enormous amount.

In 1624 Pope Urban the VIIIth published a decree of excommunication against all who took snuff in the church. Ten years after this, smoking was forbidden in Russia, under the pain of having the nose cut off; in 1653 the Council of the Canton of Appenzel cited smokers before them, whom they punished, and they ordered all innkeepers to inform against such as were found smoking in their houses. The police regulations of Bern made in 1661 was divided according to the Ten Commandments, in which the prohibition of smoking stands immediately beneath the command against adultery; this prohibition was renewed in 1675, and the Tribunal instituted to put it into execution—viz.; Chambre au Tabac—continued to the middle of the eighteenth century. Pope Innocent the XIIth, in 1690 excommunicated all those who were found taking snuff or tobacco in the church of St. Peter at Rome; even so late as 1719 the Senate of Strasburgh prohibited the cultivation of Tobacco from an apprehension that it would diminish the growth of corn; Amurath the IVth published an edict which made smoking Tobacco a capital offence; this was founded on an opinion that it rendered the people infertile. Those who are curious to learn more of the history of this extraordinary plant, I beg to refer to a very interesting paper by ‘Medicus,’ in the 24th volume of the ‘London Medical and Physical Journal,’ page 445.

60. What other discovery or invention ever produced such political consequences as the introduction of the Potatoe as an article of food? From its operation as the main constituent of national sustenance the population of Ireland has advanced from little more than one million to near seven millions, within the last century and a half!

61. Med. Trans. of the College of Physicians, vol. vi. p. 92.

62. That the warm and not the cold bath was esteemed by the ancient Greeks, for its invigorating properties may be inferred from a dialogue of Aristophanes, in which one of the characters says, ‘I think none of the sons of the gods ever exceeded Hercules in bodily and mental force,’—upon which the other asks ‘Where didst thou ever see a cold bath dedicated to Hercules?’

63. The prohibition of the bath was numbered amongst the mortifications to which certain priestesses in Greece were bound by the rigid rules of their order.

64. T. Bartholini Hist. Anat. et Med. cent v. Hafniæ. Med. Transactions, vol. 3, p. 177.

65. Madame Nouffleur’s Receipt is as follows. Three drachms of the root of the Male Fern, reduced to a fine powder, and mixed with water—this constitutes one dose. Two hours after taking the powder, a bolus of Calomel, Scammony, and Gamboge, is to be administered.

66. Duke of Portland’s Powder for the Gout.—Equal quantities of the roots of Gentian, and Birthwort (Aristolochia rotunda) the tops and leaves of Germander (chamædrys) Ground Pine (Chamæpitys) and lesser Centaury, (Chironea Centaurium) powdered and mixed together.—As this is a combination of bitters, it might, without doubt, be serviceable in certain cases of Gout.

67. This medicine was brought into vogue by M. Husson, a military officer in the service of France, about fifty years ago.

68. So popular was this plant that it acquired the title of ‘Anima articulorum.’ It formed the basis of the Dia Articulorum, the Pulvis Arthriticus Turneri, and the Vienna Gout Decoction.

69. Alexander’s Prescription consisted of Hermodactyllus, Ginger, Pepper, Cummin seed, Aniseed, and Scammony; which, says he, will enable those who take it to walk immediately.

70. “Magisterium Opii fit solvendo Opium in aceto, et præcipitando cum sale tartari.——”

71. This was the favourite remedy of Dr. Andrew Boorde, who practised physic in Hampshire, and in his work printed in the black letter in London, entitled a ‘Breviarie of Health,’ he advises for a tooth-ache depending upon worms, ‘a candell of waxe with Henbane seeds, which must be lighted so that the perfume of the candell do enter into the tooth.’ This said Dr. Andrew Boorde is too important a personage to be passed over without some farther notice in this place, being no less than the Founder of that dignified class of the medical fraternity, better known by the name of Merry Andrews. Dr. Andrew Boorde lived in the reigns of Henry VIII, Edward VI, and Queen Mary, and was in the constant habit of frequenting fairs and markets, at which he harangued the populace publicly: his speeches were extremely humourous and occasioned considerable mirth; his successors in this same line naturally endeavoured to imitate his bright example, and hence this class of itinerant quacks obtained the generic appellation of Merry Andrews. Since the humiliating triumph of Quackery displayed at the Freemason’s tavern, under the presidency of the member for Coventry, and more recently at Margate, there is reason to believe that this class of itinerant mountebanks will assume a new and more dignified appellation, and that in commemoration of the services of their philosophical president, the worthy member above stated, they will in future be designated by the name of Ranting Peters.

72. I have been lately much amused with the lucubrations of a classical friend, who by way of casting ridicule upon such researches, undertakes to prove to my satisfaction that Warren’s Blacking is no other than the νασμος μελαναυγες “Black flowing Splendour,” described in the Hecuba of Euripides.

73. This species of delusion, from mistaking the Post hoc, for the Propter hoc, always reminds me of the story of the Florentine Quack, who gave the countryman six pills which were to enable him to discover his lost Ass,—the pills beginning to operate on his road home, obliged him to retire into a wood, where he found his ass. The clown soon spread a report of the wonderful success of the empiric, who in consequence, no doubt, reaped an ample reward from the proprietors of strayed cattle.

74. The grant of £5000 to Joanna Stephens, for her discovery of certain medicines for the cure of the Stone, is notified in the London Gazette of June, A. D. 1739. See Liquor Calcis.

75. Wesley’s Journal, vol. xxix. 290–293.

76. Soon after the invention of the art of Printing, the works of Dioscorides, Theophrastus, and Pliny, were published in various forms, and Commentators swarmed like locusts. The eagerness with which this branch of knowledge was cultivated may be conceived, when it is stated that the Commentary of Matthiolus on Dioscorides, which was first printed in 1554, passed through seventeen editions, and that 32,000 copies had been sold before the year 1561; and he tells us in this work, that he received in its execution the assistance and reward of Emperors,—Kings,—Electors of the Roman Empire,—Arch-dukes,—Cardinals,—Bishops,—Dukes, and Princes, ‘which,’ says he, ‘gives greater credit to our labours than any thing that could be said.’ In very many cases, however, says Dr. Pultney, ‘this learned Commentator mistook the road to truth, and did but perplex the science he so industriously laboured to enlighten.’

77. Turner, the father of English Botany, was of opinion, that it was the Polygonum Bistorta; Munting, a Dutch physician, that it was the Hydrolapathum Magnum, or Rumex Aquaticus or Great Water Dock, an opinion which received the sanction of Ray. Others have supposed it to have been Polygonum Persicaria, and some have considered it as the Primula Auricula. This one example is adduced to shew the mortifying uncertainty that involves the history of ancient plants.

78. Meade thinks that the Athenian poison was a combination of active substances,—perhaps that described by Theophrastus as the invention of Thrasyas, which, it was said, would cause death without pain, and into which Cicuta and Poppy entered as ingredients.

79. .sp 1

It is a curious fact that in Tuscany the word Vervena is applied to denote any kind of slips, shoots, suckers, or bundles of plants, at this very day.

80. Amlyum, the Starch of wheat, originally denoted a powder that was obtained without the application of a mill, from α, not, and μυλος, a mill; thus Dioscorides “Αμυλον ὡνόμασται δἷα τὸ χωρὶς μυλου κατασκευαζεσθαὶ”—i. e. because it is prepared without a mill.

81. Gerard in his Herbal (1597) denominates it, by way of distinction, Potatoe of Virginia, and he recommends it to be eaten as a delicate dish, not as common food; indeed some time elapsed after its introduction before it became general, and it was cultivated as an article of diet in Ireland several years before it was common in England.

82. The inhalation of the fumes of Orpiment is a practice attributed to Galen; and one of the most distinguished of his disciples, Rhazes, recommends it to be inhaled by consumptive patients, in combination with stimulant and resinous substances, such as Storax, Myrrh, Galbanum, and Aristolochia root. Bennet recommends the same practice in such cases. Willis informs us that a similar custom prevailed among certain empirics of his day, and asserts that they took such pieces of carpet as were dyed with Orpiment, and having cut them into small pieces, exposed them to heat, and, by means of an inverted funnel, made the patients inhale the vapour. Sir Alexander Crichton seems disposed to believe that such applications might prove useful by changing the action of any ulcer to which they were applied.

83. Calomel.—There is some doubt respecting the original meaning of this word, it literally signifies, fair, black, καλος, μελας. Sir Theodore Mayerne is said to have given the name to it, in consequence of his having had a favourite black servant who prepared it; but is it not more probable, that its name was derived from the change of colour which it undergoes from black to white, during its preparation? Another explanation has been also given, viz. quòd nigro humori sit bonum—a good (καλος) remedy for black (μελας) bile. This Theory derives much support from the black appearance of the stools, which is usually produced by the use of Calomel, and which was erroneously attributed to the searching and efficacious nature of the purgative. The Calomel of Riverius was a compound of Hydrargyri Sub-muriat: ℈j and Scammoneæ gr. vij, and Mr. Gray thinks that the term Calomel was first applied to this remedy, as being a mixture of a white and dark coloured powder.

84. For further information upon this subject the reader may consult my work on “the Elements of Medical Chemistry.”

85. Dr. Blair thinks that the ancients were led in many instances by the comparison of habit, to ascribe similar virtues to plants; there does not however appear to be a trace of what may be called System, in the writings of Theophrastus, Dioscorides, or Pliny. Cæsalpinus was the father of botanical system, and he was probably the first who suggested the idea that the virtues of plants were discoverable by their structure and alliance to each other. In his preface to his work, “De Plantis,” he says ‘Quæ enim generis societate junguntur, plerumque et similes possident facultates.’ This idea was pursued by Petiver, an apothecary in the city of London, a name well known in the annals of Botany; there is a paper by him on this subject, in the 21st volume of the Philosophical Transactions, entitled, “Some attempts to prove that herbs of the same make and class, for the generality, have the like Vertue, and Tendency to work the same Effects.” Dr. Murray has adopted an arrangement founded upon natural character in his celebrated work entitled, “Apparatus Medicaminum”.

86. Russell’s Nat. Hist. of Aleppo.

87. The student will find an interesting dissertation upon this subject in a late work, entitled “L’Histoire Naturelle des Medicamens.” Par J. J. Virey, 1820.

88. Lord Bacon attributes the operation of purgatives to three causes, viz. 1. to extreme bitterness, as in Aloes, 2. to loathsomeness and horrible taste, as in Agaric and black Hellebore, and 3. to a secret malignity, as in Antimony, &c.

89. This might be illustrated by the recital of numerous fallacies to which our most simple perceptions are exposed from the powers of association, but I will relate an anecdote, which to my mind elucidates the nature and extent of such fallacies more strikingly than any example which could be adduced. Shortly after Sir Humphry Davy had succeeded in decomposing the fixed alkalies, a portion of Potassium was placed in the hands of one of our most distinguished chemists, with a query as to its nature? the philosopher observing its aspect and splendour, did not hesitate in pronouncing it to be metallic, and uniting at once the idea of weight with that of metal, the evidence of his senses was even insufficient to dissever ideas so inseparably associated in his mind, and, balancing the specimen on his fingers, he exclaimed, “it is certainly metallic, and very ponderous?” Now this anecdote is not related in disparagement to the philosopher in question. Who could have been prepared to meet with a substance, so novel and anomalous as to overturn every preconceived notion?—A METAL SO LIGHT AS TO SWIM UPON WATER, AND SO INFLAMMABLE AS TO CATCH FIRE BY THE CONTACT OF ICE!

90. Virey, “Essai d’Histoire Naturelle et Physicolog: sur la perfectibilité de l’homme.”

91. Second Voyage of Captain Cook, vol. 4.

92. The cause of the green colour of oysters is sometimes an operation of nature, but it is more generally produced by art, by placing them in situations where there is a green deposit from the sea, which appears to consist of the vegetating germs of marine Confervæ and Fuci, and which impart their colour to the oysters. For this object the Dutch formerly took oysters from beds on our coasts, and deposited them on their own. Native oysters transported into the Colchester beds soon assume a green colour. It is unnecessary to refute the popular error which attributed this change of colour to the operation of copper.

93. We must admit that some of these allegories are too obvious to be mistaken. Homer attributes the plague that prevailed in the Grecian camp to the darts of Apollo; what was meant by this, but that it arose from the action of a burning sun, upon the marshes and slimy shores of Troas? and what, again, can be more obvious than the allegory by which Echo is made the daughter of air and earth?

94. Bacon’s works, vol. 5, p. 470. 4th Edit. London, 1778.

95. Leslie’s Elements of Natural Philosophy.

96. Virg. Georg. iv. 392–402.

97. Dioscorides and Pliny describe a process, which may be considered that of distillation in its infancy; it consists in obtaining oil from pitch, by spreading over it while boiling, fleeces of wool, which receive the vapour and afterwards yield it by expression. In this country the art of distillation was unknown at the time when the Romans had possession of it. It is said to have been introduced in the early part of Henry II.

98. It was destroyed in the sixth century, by the Caliph Omar, the cotemporary and companion of Mahomet.

99. The Saracens, in their treaty with the Greek Emperors, demanded, by express articles, the works of the ancients.

100. Garcias as well as Geoffroy and Hill say that Ætius mentions camphor, but it cannot be found, as Dr. Alston has observed, in that, or in any other Greek author. There is a Camphoræ herba in Myrepsus; but this is evidently a different thing.

101. The Records of Physic, if I am not deceived, will afford numerous instances of similar error, from mistaking figurative expressions for literal truths. A knowledge of this species of fallacy will explain the origin of several very extraordinary receipts. I shall select the following instance, by way of illustration. In many of the ancient works on Physic, we find the blood of the goat extolled for its efficacy in dissolving stones, and, from this supposed lithontriptic virtue, it forms the principal ingredient of the Powder of Nicolaus, and of the Electuary of the Queen of Colein. The expression which gave origin to this belief was evidently allegorical, signifying that the blood of the goat, by which our Saviour was typified, was capable of softening the stony hearts of his enemies, or, according to others, that by his influence, the stony rocks, and veil of the temple were shatterd. Browne’s Vulgar Errors.

102. Silver, Mercury, Copper, Iron, Tin, Lead.

103. Agricola de veteribus et novis metallis: Lib. 1.

104. 2 Kings, chap. ix. verse 30.

105. It has been already stated, that we are indebted to an Indian for the discovery of Bark, and it now appears we derived our knowledge of Mercury to the wildest of the alchemists. May it not then be said that we are indebted to a savage, and a madman, for two of our most powerful remedies?

106. Erasmus, the friend, the correspondent, and the patient of our own Linacre! Had not modern times, says Sir George Baker, furnished similar instances, it would have been a matter of astonishment to us to have heard that Erasmus should have deserted an accomplished physician whom he so greatly extols in his Epistles, in order to consult so wild and illiterate an enthusiast as Paracelsus.

107. Paracelsus maintained that the human body is composed of salt, sulphur, and mercury, and that in these “three first substances,” as he calls them, health and disease consist: that the mercury, in proportion to its volatility, produces tremors, mortifications in the ligaments, madness, phrensy, and delirium, and that fevers, phlegmons, and the jaundice, are the offspring of the sulphureous principle, while he supposed that the cholic, stone, gravel, gout, and sciatica derive their origin from salt.

108. Amongst the writers engaged in this contest, no one was more animated with party spirit than Guy Patin, who was profuse in his personalities against those who defended the use of Antimony; he drew up a long register of the unsuccessful cases in which this medicine had been employed, which he published under the title of “Antimonial Martyrology.”

109. In the year 1644 Schroeder published a Chemico-medical Pharmacopœia, which delineates with accuracy the pharmacy of these times, and enumerates almost all the chemical medicines that were known towards the close of this period.

110. The Dispensatories of London and Edinburgh, the former by Mr. A. T. Thomson, and the latter by Dr. Duncan, are works which reflect credit on the age and country in which they were written.

111. The first Pharmacopœia was published at Nuremburg, under the sanction of its Senate, in the year 1542; for this important act we are indebted to Valerius Cordus, a young student, who during a transient visit at that place, accidentally produced a collection of medical receipts which he had selected from the works of the most esteemed writers, and with which the physicians of Nuremburg were so highly pleased that they urged him to print it for the benefit of the apothecaries, and obtained the sanction of the Senate to the undertaking; so casual was the circumstance to which we owe the institution of Pharmacopœias. The London College were among the last to frame a standard Code of Medicines; most cities in Europe having anticipated us in the performance of this task; our first Pharmacopœia was not published until the reign of James the first, A. D. 1618, exactly a century after the College had received their Charter from Henry. Successive editions appeared in the following years, viz. in 1650; 1677; 1721; 1746; 1787; 1809.

112. What would be the surprise and gratification of the Pharmaceutist who lived a hundred years ago, if he could now visit Apothecaries Hall? the application of steam for the various purposes of pharmacy, and for actuating machinery, for levigation, trituration, and other mechanical purposes, is no less useful, in ensuring uniform results, than it is in abridging labour and economising time. The greatest credit is due to the gentlemen under whose guidance this national laboratory is conducted, and more especially to their worthy and public spirited Treasurer, William Simons, Esq. whose zeal and liberality suggested and promoted the fitting up of the Steam Laboratory, as well as the ingenious machine for triturating mercury with lard, or conserve.

113. Since the publication of the last edition of this work, Mr. Archdeacon Wollaston has paid the debt of nature; his name will be cherished in grateful remembrance by those who had the good fortune to have been his pupils; as one of that number I will venture to say, that there never existed a lecturer on Experimental philosophy, who was more eminently gifted with those qualifications, upon which the success of a public teacher must depend. He possessed a peculiar method of demonstration, a singular vivacity in the manner of conducting the experiments, and of keeping awake the attention of his auditors during their progress; while those details of manipulation which would have proved, in other hands, a source of tedium, he converted into subjects of the most lively interest.