Curiosities of Medical Experience Part 51

---- Defense de l'Esprit des Lois, 1750.

Rousseau--Discours sur l'Influence des Sciences et des Lettres, 1750.

---- Discours sur l'Inegalite des Conditions, 1754.

Voltaire--Essai sur les Moeurs et l'Esprit des nations, 1757.

Condillac--Essai sur l'Origine des Connaissances Humaines, 1746.

---- Traite des Sensations, 1754.

Helvetius--De l'Esprit, 1758.

[2] The _h.o.m.o diluvii testis_, the skeleton of which was described by Scheuchzer, was considered by Cuvier to have belonged to a species of Salamander.

[3] For the further ill.u.s.tration of this curious subject, Dr. Eliotson's valuable notes on Blumenbach may be consulted to advantage.

[4] The dream of Ertucules seems to have been connected with similar phantasies. "I dreamed, venerable sir," said he to Edebales, "that the brightness of the moon did proceed from your bosom, and thence afterwards did pa.s.s into mine: when it was thither come, there sprung up a tree from my umbilic, which overshadowed at once many nations, mountains, and valleys. From the root of this tree there issued waters sufficient to irrigate vines and gardens; and then both my dream and my sleep forsook me." Edebales after some pause thus answered: "There will be born unto you, my good friend, a son whose name shall be Osman; he shall wage many wars, and shall acquire victory and glory; and my daughter must be married to your son Osman, and she is the brightness which you saw come from my bosom into yours, and from both sprung up the tree."--_Lips. Marsil._

[5] Vide the article "Enthusiasm."

[6] The choenix contained a pint.

[7] These lines afford a convincing proof of the minute attention the ancients paid to the phenomena of nature. Our poet had no doubt observed the frequent effect of the application of cold to the surface of the body producing a reaction in the circulation tending to overcome the noxious agent by a glow of heat, which in many instances of predisposition may a.s.sume a febrile character.

[8] A Treatise on Insanity.

[9] _Pallido il Sol_ and _Per quanto dolce ampla.s.so_ of Ha.s.se.

[10] Much curious matter will be found in Mr. Nathan's valuable work upon music, ent.i.tled, "_Musurgia vocalis_."

[11] That animals are more frequently guided by the sense of smelling than by sight, is evident in those plants that shed a cadaverous effluvia, especially the _arum dracunculus_ and the _stapelia variegata_ of the Cape, which attract various insects that usually deposit their eggs in a stercoraceous or corrupt nidus. Here these insects have been deceived by vision, and imagined in their illusion that they had safely lodged their progeny in carrion.

[12] According to aelian, the presence of this fish indicated the approaching overflow of the Nile.

[13] The Irish, in their metaphorical language, give a corporeal form to foul effluvia, and one of them a.s.sured me that he had a terrier who would always c.o.c.k up his tail and bark whenever he _saw_ a stink.

[14] Diodorus, Strabo, and other ancient writers, state that the beer of the Egyptians called _Zythus_ was scarcely inferior to wine. This beer was made with barley, to which was added the lupin, the skirret, and the root of an a.s.syrian plant. We find the following in Columella:

"Jam siser, a.s.syriaque venit quae semine radix Sectaque praebetur madido satiata lupino, Ut Pelusiaci proviset pocula zythi."

The vicinity of Pelusium was famed for this beverage and its lentils.

[15] Diemerbrook states that, in the Plague of Nimeguen all those who were taken ill about new and full moon rarely escaped.

[16] Dr. Desgenettes, physician to the French army, in order to inspire confidence among the troops, inoculated himself twice without experiencing any other consequence than a slight inflammation of the inoculated parts.

Sonnini mentions a Russian surgeon, who was a prisoner in Constantinople with a number of his countrymen, and who took it into his head to inoculate his comrades, with a view of protecting them from the contagion; but, unfortunately, two hundred of them died, and, fortunately perhaps for the survivors, the operator himself died of his own treatment.

[17] On this subject see what has been already said in the preceding article of _Food, its use and abuse_, in Dr. Beaumont's experiments.

[18] Otway.

[19] Shaftesbury.

[20] Oil is, however, a useful application to wounds in warm climates.

During the retreat of our troops after the battle of Talavera, I found the wounds of many of our men, that had not been dressed for three or four days, pullulating with maggots. This was not the case with the Spanish soldiers, who, to prevent this annoyance (which was more terrific than dangerous), had poured olive oil upon their dressings. I invariably resorted to the same practice when I subsequently had to remove the wounded in hot weather.

[21] A Hebrew proverb originating from a tradition that Abraham wore a precious stone round his neck, which preserved him from disease, and which cured sickness when looked upon. When Abraham died, G.o.d placed this stone in the sun.

[22] The ancients considered the spleen the seat of mirth, and the liver the organ of love; hence their old proverb.

[23] _Cordia Sebestena_; according to some, the _C. Myxa L._, a species of Egyptian date. It was formerly employed as a demulcent. A viscid black glue was also prepared from it, and exported in considerable quant.i.ties from Alexandria.

[24] Quod Caeretani totum orbem vano quodam ac turpi superst.i.tionum genere ludificantes continu peregrinantur, familia domi relicta.

[25] Patin called it _l'impertinente nouveaute du siecle_.

[26] The priesthood in thus stigmatizing the medical profession so soon as its practice ceased to be their exclusive privilege, displayed the same spirit of intolerance and thirst for omnipotent sway that characterized their anathemas on the drama when they no longer were the authors, actors, and managers of their own sacrilegious plays, which they called mysteries and moralities. Previously to the drama becoming the pursuit of laymen, the monkish exhibitions had been so holy, that one of the popes granted a pardon of one thousand days to every person who went to the plays performed in the Whitsun week, beginning with a piece called "The Creation," and ending the season with the performance of "The General Judgment." In these representations the performers belonged to various corporations, and acted under the direction of the clergy. "The Creation"

was performed by the _Drapers_,--"The Deluge" by the _Dyers_,--"Abraham, Melchizedek, and Lot," by our friends the _Barbers_,--"The Purification"

by the _Blacksmiths_,--"The Last Supper" by the _Bakers_,--"The Resurrection" by the _Skinners_,--and "The Ascension" by the _Tailors_.

The following curious anecdotes are recorded in the description of a mystery performed at Veximel, near Metz, by the order of Conrad Bayer, bishop of the diocese. This play was called _The Pa.s.sion_; and it appears that by some mismanagement a priest by the name of Jean de Nicey, curate of Metrange, who played Judas, was nigh meeting with an untimely end; for his neck had slipped and tightened the noose by which he was suspended to the tree, and, had he not been cut down, he would have performed the part most effectually.

A play was acted in one of the princ.i.p.al cities in England by these clerical performers, representing the terrestrial Paradise, when Adam and Eve made their appearance entirely naked.

[27] Mr. J. A. St. John.

[28] As this worthy never took off his cuira.s.s, it may be shrewdly suspected that his lashes were such as our old friend Sancho Panca inflicted on the tree.

[29] The diseases to which the blood is subject was another ground upon which the vitality of this fluid was founded. The most remarkable kind of diseased blood is that which occurs in cholera, where it is dark, nearly black, even in the arteries. The cause of this phenomenon is by no means decided. Dr. Thomson attributes it to a diseased condition of the blood, which unfits it for being duly arterialised. Dr. O'Shaughnessy denies the a.s.sertion, and proves that choleric blood can be rendered florid by the absorption of oxygen. Dr. Stevens, in his treatise on the blood, attributes this dark appearance to the contagion of the malady, which throws the fluids into a morbid state, the effect of which is the diminution of the saline matter which the healthy blood contains. He observed that in cholera-hospitals the blood of all the persons residing in them was also dark. It is, however, more than probable that this morbid condition of the blood arises from the deranged state of the circulation, and may be attributed to a disease of the solids, which must invariably affect the fluids that they propel with more or less energy, flowing in a rapid current, or in a sluggish stream.

I have fully ill.u.s.trated this want of oxygen in the blood of cholera patients in a work I published in Bordeaux, in 1831, ent.i.tled _Observations sur la nature et le traitement du Cholera Morbus d'Europe et d'Asie_; and, from several experiments subsequently made on cholera patients, I feel convinced that the inspiration of oxygen gas will be ultimately found the most energetic and effective practice in combating this fearful disease.

By the experiments lately made by Dr. Donne of Paris, it has been found that the globules of blood, when submitted to microscopic examination, varied in magnitude according to the description of animals from which it was drawn. In certain diseases, globules of pus have also been detected in the sanguiferous stream. They were larger than those of the blood, and, instead of being defined by a marginal line, were fringed on their circ.u.mference, and their centre was striated with interwoven lines.

The same physiologist discovered animalcules in the pus of certain ulcers not dissimilar in appearance to the _vibrio lineola_ of Muller. Other animalcules, which he has named the _tricomonas v.a.g.i.n.alis_, were also found in great number when the mucous membranes of the organ (whence the latter part of their denomination was derived) were in a state of inflammation. These animalculi could not be detected in healthy mucus. The knowledge of this influence of inflammation may lead to many important practical results.

[30] During the horrors of the French Revolution, various experiments were made by Sue and other physiologists to ascertain if the bodies of the guillotined victims possessed sensibility. No conclusion, however, could be elicited from these inquiries, which gave rise to many absurd tales, such as that the face of Charlotte Corday blushed when the executioner slapped it, as he held it out to the enraptured Parisians.

[31] Organon, x.x.xii.

[32] Op. cit. x.x.xi.

[33] Ibid. x.x.xiii.

[34] Op. cit. x.x.xviii.

[35] Organon, xl. This will be found to be the case in all diseases that are dissimilar; the stronger suspends the weaker, except in case of complication, which is a rare occurrence in acute diseases, but they never cure each other reciprocally.

[36] On Chronic Diseases. Translation of Begel, p. 107.

[37] Sir Gilbert Blane's Medical Logic.

[38] Organon, v.