Curiosities of Medical Experience Part 7

This theory is, however, subject to many objections. It is difficult to imagine that any substance introduced into the organ of digestion should retain its former principles of inflammability. Although Cuvier and Dumeril relate, that in opening the body of a man who died from excess of drinking, the effluvia of the liquor arose from every cavity.

On this subject, fraught with much interest, nothing positive has been ascertained, despite the late progress of chemical investigation. This combustion indeed differs widely from all other burning; sometimes a flickering and bluish flame arises; at other times a smothered heat or fire, without visible flames, is the consuming agent. Water increases the combustion instead of allaying it. It is moreover a well-known fact, that a considerable quant.i.ty of fuel is required to consume a dead body, whereas in this combustion, incineration is most rapid. The human body, indeed, is not easily consumed; a case is related of a baker-boy, named Renaud, who was sentenced to be burnt at Caen; two large cart-loads of f.a.gots were required to consume the body, and at the end of more than ten hours, some remains were still visible.

The extreme incombustibility of the body was singularly exemplified in the case of Mrs. King, whose murderer was engaged for several weeks in endeavouring to burn her remains without effecting his purpose.

It has also been affirmed by various medical observers, that the human body will occasionally secrete an inflammable matter emitted by perspiration. Thus, it is stated, that the perspiration of the wife of a physician of the Archbishop of Toledo was of such a combustible nature, that a ribbon which she had worn, being exposed to the air, took fire.

Borelli relates the case of a peasant, whose linen would ignite in a similar manner, whether it was laid up in a chest or hung up to dry.

Amongst the many curious stories of the kind, we quote De Castro, who affirms that he knew a physician, from whose back-bone fire issued so vividly as to dazzle the eyes of the beholders. Krautius informs us, that certain people of the territory of Nivers (?) were burning with an invisible fire, and that some of them lopped off a foot or a hand to cut off the conflagration!

BRa.s.sICA ERUCA, OR THE ROCKET PLANT.

This plant, now in total disuse, was considered by the ancients as a most powerful aphrodisiac, and consecrated to Venus. Hence Martial and Ovid--

Et Venerem revocans eruca morantem.

Nec minus erucas jubeo vitare salaces.

But the most curious doc.u.ment regarding this obnoxious weed is found in Lobel, who states that it was carefully cultivated in the gardens of monasteries and nunneries, to preserve their chast.i.ty.

"Haec eruca, major Hispanica, vel quia in condimentis lautior, vel ad venerem vegetior erat, gentilis vulg vocata fuit; quo vocabulo Hispanica et Itala gens designat quamlibet rem aptam reddere hominem laetum et experr.e.c.t.u.m ad munia vulg pausibilia, ut joca ludicra et venerem; quae commoda ut ex ea perciperet monachorum saginata caterva, in perquam amoena Magalonae, insula maris Narbonensis, hujus gentilis erucae semine a fratre quodam Hispano ambulone donato, quotannis hocce serebat, et in mensis cuilibet, vel maximo gulae irritamento, vel blandimento, praeferebat; nimirum usu gnara quantum frequens esus conferret ad calorem venereum in illis otio et frequenti c.r.a.pula obrutum, ad vigorem animi excitandum, et praesertim corpus obesum extenuandum, somnumque excutiendum, quo illi veluti ursi gliresve tota hyeme saginati, ferme adipe suffocabantur. Verum isto Hispanico remedio ade hilarescebant et gentiles fiebant, ut plerumque recinctis lumbis cast.i.tate, coacti essent vota et coen.o.bii moenia transilire, et aliquid solatii venerei ab vicinis plebanis efflagitare. n.o.bis haec visa et risa. Eruca ver inibi superstes est copiosissima, monumentum futura monasticae cast.i.tatis et rei veritatis."--_Adv. p. 68._

CAGLIOSTRO.

The first appellation the Grecians gave to those who exercised the art of healing was _iatros_. Originally it merely signified a man possessed of the power of relieving accidents, either by manual exertions, or the hidden virtues of some amulet or charm. s.e.xtus tells us that in ancient times it applied to an extractor of arrows, _sagittarum extractor_. No doubt, this operation const.i.tuted the chief business of the surgeon in the infancy of the art; and warriors and heroes themselves performed it on the field of battle, as fully exemplified in Homer.

The primitive t.i.tle of _iatros_ gradually descended to surgical pract.i.tioners. We find that Nebrus and Heraclides were the chief _iaters_ of Cos, the birthplace of Hippocrates. To this day the same name is given to medical men in Greece, where, until lately, they were in the habit of perambulating the streets, and seeking occupation by crying out at certain distances, _Callos iatros!_ (The good doctor!) Balsamo, a celebrated mountebank, being at Cairo, where he died, one of his disciples repaired to Europe, and, anxious to bear a singular name, a.s.sumed this cry, and called himself _Calloiatro_, or, according to the corrupt p.r.o.nunciation, _Cagliostro_: his history is well known, and he certainly excelled in impudence and industry all his predecessors. These Greek _iaters_, when going over to Italy to practise, called themselves _medici_, which Cato wanted to change into _mendici_, for, said he, "These creatures, (_Illi Graeculi_,) quit their native country, where they were starving, to seek their fortune in Rome (_ut fortunam sibi mendicent_)." Under this austere censor few of these emigrants dared to settle in the Roman territories, but after his demise they inundated the country to such an extent, that it was said that Rome had more physicians than patients who needed their attendance. This influx of pract.i.tioners occasioned constant compet.i.tion, and each _iater_ endeavoured to obtain fame and emolument by underrating his opponents, and endeavouring to introduce novel doctrines, seeking a livelihood, as Pliny observed, _inter mortes et mendacia_. It was on these adventurers that the following epigram was written:

Fingunt se cuncti medicos,--idiota, sacerdos, Judaeus, monachus, histrio, rasor, a.n.u.s.

The quackery of these candidates for popularity became the subject of bitter satire; and Martial thus speaks of the _Iatre_ Symmachus:

Languebam, sed tu comitatus protinus ad me Venisti centum, Symmache, discipulis; Centum me tetigere ma.n.u.s, aquilone gelatae, Non habui febrem, Symmache; nunc habeo.[7]

This Symmachus, it appears, invariably moved abroad surrounded by hundreds of his disciples, whose cold investigating hands produced upon their patients the effects to which Martial alludes.

LUNAR INFLUENCE ON HUMAN LIFE AND DISEASES.

The ancients, who were chiefly guided in their medical notions by the simple operations of nature, attached great importance to the influence of the moon. As the stars directed their navigators, so did the planets in some degree regulate their other calculations. Finding that the state of the weather materially acted on our organism whether in health or in sickness, they attributed this influence to the appearance of the moon, which generally foretold the vicissitudes in the atmospheric const.i.tution.

Thus Hippocrates advises his son Thessalus to study numbers and geometry, as the knowledge of astronomy was indispensable to a physician, the phenomena of diseases being dependent on the rising or the setting of the stars. Aristotle informs his disciples that the bodies of animals are cold in the decrease of the moon, that blood and humours are then put into motion, and to these revolutions he ascribes various derangements of women. To enter into these medical opinions would be foreign to the present purpose, but the notions of the ancients regarding lunar influence in other matters are curious.

Lucilius, the Roman satirist, says that oysters and echini fatten during lunar augmentation; which also, according to Gellius, enlarges the eyes of cats: but that onions throw out their buds in the decrease of the moon, and wither in her increase, an unnatural vegetation, which induced the people of Pelusium to avoid their use. Horace also notices the superiority of sh.e.l.l-fish in the increase.

Pliny not only recognises this influence on sh.e.l.l-fish, but observes, that the streaks on the livers of rats answer to the days of the moon's age; and that ants never work at the time of any change: he also informs us that the fourth day of the moon determines the prevalent wind of the month, and confirms the opinion of Aristotle that earthquakes generally happen about the new moon. The same philosopher maintains that the moon corrupts all slain carca.s.ses she s.h.i.+nes upon; occasions drowsiness and stupor when one sleeps under her beams, which thaw ice and enlarge all things; he further contends, that the moon is nourished by rivers, as the sun is fed by the sea. Galen a.s.serts that all animals that are born when the moon is falciform, or at the half-quarter, are weak, feeble, and shortlived; whereas those that are dropped in the full moon are healthy and vigorous.

In more modern times the same wonderful phenomena have been attributed to this planet. The celebrated Ambroise Pare observed, that people were more subject to the plague at the full. Lord Bacon partook of the notions of the ancients, and he tells us that the moon draws forth heat, induces putrefaction, increases moisture, and excites the motion of the spirits; and, what was singular, this great man invariably fell into a syncope during a lunar eclipse.

Van Helmont affirms, that a wound inflicted by moonlight is most difficult to heal; and he further says, that if a frog be washed clean, and tied to a stake under the rays of the moon in a cold winter night, on the following morning the body will be found dissolved into a gelatinous substance bearing the shape of the reptile, and that coldness alone without the lunar action will never produce the same effect. Ballonius, Diemerbroeck, Ramazzini, and numerous celebrated physicians, bear ample testimony to its baneful influence in pestilential diseases. The change observed in the disease of the horse called moon-blindness is universally known and admitted.

Many modern physicians have stated the opinions of the ancients as regards lunar influence in diseases, but none have pushed their inquiries with such indefatigable zeal as the late Dr. Mosely; he affirms that almost all people in extreme age die at the new or at the full moon, and this he endeavours to prove by the following records:

Thomas Parr died at the age of 152, two days after the full moon.

Henry Jenkins died at the age of 169, the day of the new moon.

Elizabeth Steward, 124, the day of the new moon.

William Leland, 140, the day after the new moon.

John Effingham, 144, two days after full moon.

Elizabeth Hilton, 121, two days after the full moon.

John Constant, 113, two days after the new moon.

The doctor then proceeds to show, by the deaths of various ill.u.s.trious persons, that a similar rule holds good with the generality of mankind:

Chaucer, 25th October 1400, the day of the first quarter.

Copernicus, 24th May 1543, day of the last quarter.

Luther, 18th February 1546, three days after the full.

Henry VIII, 28th January 1547, the day of the first quarter.

Calvin, 27th May 1564, two days after the full.

Cornaro, 26th April 1566, day of the first quarter.

Queen Elizabeth, 24th March 1603, day of the last quarter.

Shakspeare, 23rd April 1616, day after the full.

Camden, 9th November 1623, day before the new moon.

Bacon, 9th April 1626, one day after last quarter.

Vand.y.k.e, 9th April 1641, two days after full moon.

Cardinal Richelieu, 4th December 1642, three days before full moon.

Doctor Harvey, 30th June 1657, a few hours before the new moon.

Oliver Cromwell, 3rd September 1658, two days after full moon.

Milton, 15th November 1674, two days before the new moon.

Sydenham, 29th December 1689, two days before the full moon.

Locke, 28th November 1704, two days before the full moon.

Queen Anne, 1st August 1714, two days after the full moon.

Louis XIV, 1st September 1715, a few hours before the full moon.

Marlborough, 16th June 1722, two days before the full moon.

Newton, 20th March 1726, two days before the new moon.

George I, 11th June 1727, three days after new moon.

George II, 25th October 1760, one day after full moon.

Sterne, 13th September 1768, two days after new moon.

Whitfield, 18th September 1770, a few hours before the new moon.

Swedenburg, 19th March 1772, the day of the full moon.

Linnaeus, 10th January 1778, two days before the full moon.