Imagens das páginas
PDF
ePub

moor Indian. One day roaming the woods with his hatchet in his hand, he saw a quare looking trout reclining at his ease on the green sod. Thady was sure he had now clapped his eyes on one of them, and coming up, 'Musha,' says he, 'bud I never seen one o' your sort afore-why, man, you'll get your death o' could lying there!' "The wild man of the woods looked up. Queen o' glory, what a nose! They may talk o' Loughey Fudaghen's nose, but by the powers, your nose beats the noses of all the Fudaghens put together! Get up, like a good fellow; I've an odd tester left, and if there was a sheebeen near, I'd give you a snifterer.'

[ocr errors]
[ocr errors]

"The quare chap did get up, but my jewel, he appeared disposed to try a fall with Thady. And is it for wrestling you are? Cushendall for that-but stop, agrah, you grip too tight-take your fist out o' my shoulder, or I'll have an unfair hoult o' you ! Oh! bad luck to you, and the tailor that made your clothes, he has left no waistband on your breeches-oh, murder, murder, you're the jewel of a squeezer! But Thady contrived to get his tobacco knife out, and gave him a prod in the right place, and down he fell, to rise no more. Oh, murder, murder! I've kilt one o' them blackamoor blackguards! I'll be hanged, as I'm a living man, I'll be hanged-och, why did I leave ould Ireland? Poor Judy and the childer will see me die an unnathral death for this blackamoor thief! Och hone! och hone! what will I do? what will I do?' A neighbour in the woods came up. And what ails you, Thady? you roar like a bull in a bog.' 'Och! och! but I'm a sorrowful man this blessed day! I just gave one o' them thieves a prod, and there he is.' 'Mercy on us, Thady! that's a bear, that ten men couldn't kill!' 'Musha, is that a bear? By the powers, I'll drop them to you for a tester the dozen !'"'

PRACTICAL JOKES IN THE EAST INDIES.

A GENTLEMAN in the East India Company's service, equally eminent for his hospitality and his love of practical jokes, derived almost incessant amusement from playing tricks on the fresh comers from Europe. No sooner had he heard of the arrival of a fresh batch of "griffins," than he hastened to the beach, and, as he was somewhat of a physiognomist, selected the most simple and innocent-looking for the exercise of his talent. He once met a young cadet, exceedingly puzzled about his luggage, which he was unwilling to trust to the coolies, or porters, who ply between the beach and the town. The crafty old civilian, with affected sympathy, inquired the nature of his distress, and related so many stories of trunks disappearing, and coolies running away, that the young cadet was quite terrified, and was easily persuaded to have his baggage placed inside the palanquin, while he proceeded to town seated on the outside. This was just as if, in the days of sedan-chairs, a person had placed his luggage within, and astounded the chairmen by perching himself on the top. In this singular guise, much to the amazement and amusement of all who met him, the young man proceeded to report his arrival at the town-major's office, where he was informed of the trick that had been played upon him, by which he was made the laughing-stock of Madras, and exposed to the danger of a coup de soleil into the bargain. Some years elapsed; the cadet became an officer in the command of an outpost, and one day examining the passports, without which, until very recently, no European was allowed to travel through the interior, he recognised the name of the civilian who had given him so uncomfortable a ride. He went to the gentleman's tent, planning various schemes of retaliation, and found that he had gone to enjoy the luxury of bathing in a tank beyond the village. The officer immediately had all the civilian's clothes removed so craftily, that he did not discover his loss until he left the water. The scorching sun soon began to blister his naked body, and yet he could not venture to take the shortest road to his tent through a populous village, but was forced to make a circuit through thorny and pathless tracks. In the evening the clothes were restored, with a polite note, and the following lines:

"You gave me a ride on a palanquia,

I gave you a walk in the sun;

Now, neither can laugh at the other, I ween,

For both have been properly done.

The difference between us I thus may express :

I was done very raw in the town; And when you reflect, I am sure you'll confess In the country that you were done brown !" Major Bevan's Thirty Years in India.

EXETER HALL.

ONE of the most striking and picturesque of the three great annual festivals of the Jews, was the Feast of Tabernacles. It took place immediately after harvest, when they had "gathered in their corn and wine," and their hearts were gladdened by the gifts of mother Earth. From all quarters of the kingdom flocked the Jews to Jerusalem, there to live in tents or booths, and to make themselves merry "with wine and strong drink," as they were commanded. Neither were they to appear "empty;" they were to carry "gifts" in their hands; and all ranks, high and low, rich and poor, were to enjoy a week of mirth and rejoicing. Our "MAY MEETINGS" form the "Feast of Tabernacles " to our modern religious world. The analogy is certainly not quite complete the Jews met in harvest, while we meet in spring; and the "wine and strong drink" are now supplanted by reports and strong speeches. Yet is not "strong drink" altogether banished from the precincts of Exeter Hall. Underneath that great room, where the Temperance Society sometimes hold their annual meetings, are vaults stored with bottled malt; and if the visitor wanders round by the back of the building, he will find out the entrance to Exeter Hall cellars, and see the placards of "Guinness's Extra Stout" outstaring those of the "Prayer-book and Homily Society." This, however, is a mere parenthetical observation, and may be passed over. As to the other points in the analogy between the Jewish and the Christian Feast of Tabernacles, we may remark that Exeter Hall is the Temple; the Jews met after harvest, when their hearts were disposed to be liberal, and we meet about the borders of summer, when the biting and blackening north-east winds are generally somewhat abated, when the " town is filling with visitors, and Hyde Park is in full feather on a Sunday. Then it is that reports are made up, and Committees meet, and speeches are poured forth, and collections are made; day by day is the great room of Exeter Hall crowded with fair and fashionable audiences; placards on all walls announce sermons by "great guns," who have come up from the provinces, and the whole religious world of London is in a pleasurable state of excitement.

[ocr errors]

The RELIGIOUS WORLD!-what a curious phrase that is! It is a self-contained world, and revolves in an orbit of its own. Like the planet Saturn, it has many satellites and a ring, nevertheless it does not comprise the whole solar system. Hundreds, ay, and thousands, born and bred in London, have never been in Exeter Hall; and at the very moment that lions are roaring within, and the cheers of a crowded auditory are making the roof to ring again, the great tide of human existence sweeps up and down the Strand; and if you were to step into some adjoining confectioner's shop to eat a bun, and ask, "What's a-doing in the Hall to-day," the answer would probably be, "Really, I don't know, Sir." But, for all that, the "Religious World" is a large and influential one. Like the tribes of Israel, it is composed of many bodies, some of whom do not regard others with a cordial affection; but over the entrance of Exeter Hall is inscribed

ΦΙΛΑΔΕΛΦΕΙΟΝ

which, being interpreted, is supposed to signify the abode of the brotherhood.

What amazing changes do certainly take place, when once the hand of alteration and improvement is let loose! Where, now, is Exeter 'Change, that huge, clumsy, ugly building, that once jutted out into the street, obstructing and deforming the Strand? Upwards of a century ago, a writer on the buildings of London and Westminster complained bitterly of Exeter 'Change, as an abominable nuisance; yet there it stood, till about fen years ago.

It is supposed to have been built in the reign of William and Mary, as a speculation, and took its name from some adjoining mansion of the Bishops of Exeter. The lower story, at the beginning of the last century, was appropriated to the shops of milliners; and upholsterers had the upper. Here, also, exhibitions were held; and at last a portion of it was parcelled off into cages for a menagerie; and all visitors of London were expected to see the wild beasts at Exeter 'Change, as well as the lions at the Tower. 46 Passing one day," says Leigh Hunt, "by Exeter 'Change, we beheld a sight strange enough to witness in a great thoroughfare-a fine horse startled and pawing the ground at the roar of lions and tigers. It was at the time, we suppose, when the beasts were being fed." But an "emancipation act" was passed, and the beasts were not liberated, but somewhat enlarged; Mr. Cross carried them from Exeter 'Change to the Mews at Charing Cross; and when the ground on which stood the Mews was wanted as a site for the National Gallery, Mr. Cross crossed the Thames, and, in imitation of the Zoological Gardens in the Regent's Park, founded the Surrey Zoological Gardens.

When it was resolved to pull down Exeter 'Change, and to widen the Strand, some of the influential leaders and movers in the religious world started the scheme of building an "immense edifice," for the meetings of the various societies. Hitherto, there had been no central point of union; some of the chief societies held their meetings in the fine room of the Freemasons' Tavern. But though this hall will hold 1,500 persons, it sometimes could not accommodate one half who clamoured for admittance. In 1829 the project was taken up of building on the site of Exeter 'Change the present structure, which has received the name of Exeter Hall. It was erected by a company, who subscribed shares and additional expense was defrayed by donations. The management of the Hall is under the direction of a committee or society, of which Sir Thomas Baring, Bart., is Chairman. The building was completed and opened in 1831.

:

The stranger, walking along the Strand, might miss Exeter Hall, unless he looked sharp. The entrance is of an ornamental character, but being narrow, and flanked by shops, it is apt to be passed in the bustle of the Strand. The entrance is a porch or portico, formed of two Corinthian pillars, with a flight of steps from the pavement. But the building extends a great way back. The principal room is 90 feet broad, 138 in length, and 48 high, and is lighted by 18 large windows. It will hold 3,000 with ease, and 4,000 crowded. The platform is at the east end, and can accommodate 500 persons: it is fenced from the rest of the Hall by a railing. Underneath the large hall is a smaller one, for meetings of a more limited character; and there are various rooms appropriated to the use of particular committees or societies. Sometimes, there are meetings in both the halls at the same moment; and a speaker in the lower room will occasionally be annoyed by the reverberations of the thunders of applause shaking the great room above him.

and management? At the present moment, the religious world is more widely divided than at any time since these societies came into operation. Members of the establishment, who used to glory in their co-operation with dissenters, now begin to stand aloof, and look stern; and dissenters, who used to join hand in hand with churchmen, are returning scowl for scowl. Antagonistic sounds drop more frequently from speakers in Exeter Hall; allusions to schisms," even in our own university," draw forth an uproarious tumult of applause; and more frequently than ever are trumpet-blasts heard, and “boot-and-saddle ” calls made upon the hearers to resist popery, Socinianism, and infidelity. All this is not exactly in the "spirit of meekness and love;" and if it spreads, the Greek inscription may be erased from the front of Exeter Hall, and "Ichabod" be written in its stead.

Exeter 'Change could not have exhibited a more varied combination of strange and contrary natures in its collection of “fine animals," than Exeter Hall does, in its various meetings. All kinds of sounds and all kinds of action are uttered and exhibited by the speakers. Classic English, broad Scotch, and strong Milesian accents are heard, mingled with Yorkshire, or Northum. berland, or harsh north of Ireland; some speakers roar, others lisp, some stand perfectly composed, and others utter lachrymose and trembling sounds, as if awed into fear by the "sea of heads " before them. It is curious, too, to remark how speakers tone their speeches to the particular character of the society in whose behalf they are speaking. At a "Protestant" meeting every thing is screwed up to a high pitch; crowds of elegantly dressed ladies are ready to join the tremendous shouts that ring around the speaker, who has planted his foot on "No surrender," and seems determined to give battle to his invisible foe. A Bible meeting is of a more quiet and sober character; universal benevolence is not supposed to let its voice be heard so loudly in the streets, neither does it make Exeter Hall to tremble under the cry of war. But it would be difficult, indeed, at any meeting, to restrain, if any body wanted to restrain, the spirit of applause, which effervesces at a touch. A solemn appeal to the feelings is answered by a whirring sound, which commences at the platform, and eddies round the hall; some anecdote, told in a taking manner, provokes shouts of laughter, and the audience may be ɛeen all looking at each other, and then at the speaker, some faces stretched into broad grins, and others dimpled with smiles; the announcement of the name of a favourite speaker is the signal for a hurricane; and when one sits down who has given the audience anything like a good speech, he gets value received in a noise, which, if it makes his heart glad, may also make his head ache. It is marvellous how some of the ladies get through the "May Meetings;" they sit for hours together in a crowded hall, and every now and again hear a noise that might waken the Seven Sleepers; but the truth is, without the noises the meetings would be exceedingly dull.

The characters who have appeared at Exeter Hall are as varied as the societies that hold their meetings there. On one occasion we may see noble-looking Earl Winchelsea, with his high Protestant principle and church conservatism; on another, silverytoned Dr. Wardlaw, who lately came all the way from Glasgow to

It is only societies of a religious and moral nature which hold their meetings in Exeter Hall; but though their objects are apparently one and the same-the improvement of the human race-there are some strong and startling contrarieties in their modes of action, their feelings and opinions. The only society which may be sup-break a lance with Dr. Chalmers. Now stands up the Bishop of posed to represent what is understood as the "catholic" character of Exeter Hall, is the BRITISH AND FOREIGN BIBLE SOCIETY. Yet even this noble institution is losing its catholic character; its management has become more and more restricted in the hands of particular parties; and a cloud is now passing over it. If this be the case with such an institution as this, what may we not expect from other societies, more sectarian in their construction

London, with his broad chest, high forehead, twinkling eyes, and determined air; graceful, classic Lord Glenelg speaks, as he has often spoken, in aid of the principles of universal philanthropy, and of the diffusion of the Bible round the globe; thundering Dr. Duff, whose slender serpentine figure and lion-like voice make a strange contrast, comes from India to renovate his health, and stir the public on behalf of the "Church of Scotland Missions;"

massive-made and brilliant Dr. Croly, whose glowing imagination is more than a match for his judgment, pours out his stately sentences; pale-faced and exact-looking Lord Ashley patronises the Church Pastoral Aid Society; and startling Hugh M'Neile blows his trumpet in behalf of the Protestant Association. But space would fail us were we to attempt to enumerate either the regular or occasional speakers at Exeter Hall. Burnet, the Independent minister at Camberwell, a splendid platform speaker; Cumming, the Presbyterian minister of Crown Court, a clever fellow; tall, graceful, earnest Baptist Wriothesley Noel, minister of St. John-street chapel, Bedford-row; pleasant Dr. Sumner, the Bishop of Winchester; and boisterous Hugh Stowell from Manchester. More remarkable characters appear at rarer intervals and extraordinary occasions. The "Wandering Jew," Joseph Wolff; doleful Sir Andrew Agnew, whose face has been described as the impersonation of despair; broad, burly Daniel O'Connell, the type of an Irishman in face, figure, and accent; and he, all brain and nerves, who will never rest till he rests in the grave, splendid, extraordinary, restless Lord Brougham.

[ocr errors]

The word "tavern," which we have applied to the best of our public-
houses, means in Italian the worst.
"We remember," says our
gossip, some Italians were much puzzled in reading in the news-
papers, that English princes, royal dukes, marquises, and lords, the
very pink of our nobility, thought nothing of dining at the Taverna
di Londra (the London Tavern), which to their ears sounded every
bit as vulgar as the Pig and Tinder-box, or the Cat and Mutton."
One word more about Exeter Hall before we part. After the
bustle of May, it obtains a long period of tranquillity, being only
| used at intervals for meetings of an extraordinary nature, arising
out of particular circumstances. Some of the rooms are occa-
sionally let for exhibitions of pictures, &c. ; others are permanently
occupied by the committees and secretaries of certain societies.

QUACKS AND QUACK-MEDICINES.

Ir is a remarkable fact that England, which claims to be the centre of civilisation, should contain a population more quackridden, more credulous as regards the efficacy of universal secret specifics for the cure of disease, than that of any other country in the world. Immense trading establishments are wholly supported by the sale of quack medicines; most of the provincial newspapers derive their principal profits from advertising these pretended remedies; and, as a winding-up of the climax, the government finds a most unholy and disgraceful branch of revenue in the sale of compounds which our rulers know and admit to be impositions upon the uninformed public. In the present enlightened age, there is no Englishman of liberal education to whom it is unknown that, as diseases frequently proceed from causes directly opposed to each other, the remedy that would cure one would aggravate another; that, consequently, a universal remedy, applicable to all diseases, is impossible. The legislature, therefore, in taxing secret remedies and permitting their sale, commits a dishonest act, and tampers with the public morals as well as with the public health.

But the reader would err grievously if he imagined that the May Meetings at Exeter Hall presented an invariable source of splendid intellectual excitement. A treat they are undoubtedly to all who take an interest in the proceedings of societies, whose objects are the good of their fellow-men. But it is not always that the meetings can boast of a succession of good speakers. Not seldom a kind-hearted prosy old man will spin a tedious yarn; or a timid young one, abashed at so many eyes staring full upon him, will tremulously hesitate, and perhaps rally with difficulty, even though buoyed on by a cheer. Yet it does not require a large amount of intellect to make a speech at Exeter Hall. "Here the poorest speakers have a certain degree of advantage, while those of a superior order are heard under less favourable circumstances. He who could not plead the clearest cause at the bar, or discuss a simple question in the Houses of Legislature, may here make a very respectable figure, by telling a few facts in an agreeable manner, and appealing even quietly to the hearts or principles of his hearers. On the other hand, a first-rate debater finds nothing to combat there is no scope for argument or reply. Logic is thought dry, and definitions tedious; and he who could convince a jury against their will, or carry a senate away by the resistless force of his demonstrations, must here be content to take his stand on the same level with the man whom he may consider as a fifth or sixth rate; while, compelled to rely on his own declamatory talents, hesist of vegetable matters, it is equally difficult to discover them by may perhaps make a worse figure than those who possess not a tithe of his abilities or genius."

Perhaps the very best of all the meetings at Exeter Hall during the month of May, is that of the British and Foreign Bible Society. The magnitude of its operations, its professed freedom from all merely local or narrow interests, and the principle of its action—the diffusion of the Bible, and the Bible alone,-render its meetings not now exciting, but pleasing. Even he who refused to admit the Bible to be a revelation, might find much to excite reflection, on the fact of the existence of such a great engine for its diffusion, and translation into the various languages of the earth. The meeting of the London Missionary Society is also an exceedingly interesting one: the Hall is always crowded long before the proceedings commence.

From the latter end of April to the end of the month of May, upwards of thirty different religious societies have held their meetings here. One or two others have held their meetings in Freemasons' Hall and Hanover-square Rooms, and the Society for the Protection of Religious Liberty met last at the "London Tavern." And this mention of the London Tavern reminds us of a traveller's story.

"They manage things better in France," is now a trite saying, though often very unjustly applied. To the subject under consideration we may however apply it, without being taxed with injustice. In France, no secret remedies are allowed to be sold, under very heavy penalties, involving even corporeal punishment. This is a security to the public against improper and even poisonthat the specification at the office of patents affords an equally ous compounds. It may be said, in justification of our own law, good security. No such thing :-the specification is an absolute mockery. Scarcely any inventor of a patent medicine specifies the true mode of preparing it, or the real matters of which it is composed. If the medicine consist of a known substance and be the result of a secret process, this is almost impossible of detection; as in the instance of James's Powder, a preparation of antimony, which none of the chemists who aid the College of Physicians in compiling the Pharmacopoeia can successfully imitate. If, on the other hand, the constituents of the medicine are unknown and con

ordinary chemical analysis, and, when discovered, to ascertain their quantitative proportions. Then, again, who is to bear the and no official analysis therefore takes place. The specification is expense of such analysis? The government ought, but does not; then a mere idle ceremony, upon which it is dangerous to rely.

To such an extent is the blind infatuation carried in favour of secret remedies, that even perfumers, who certainly possess no medical knowledge, nor an education that will qualify them for acquiring it, boldly compose and advertise their nostrums for specific disorders; the barber-surgeon of former times being thus replaced by the perfumer-physician of a more refined age. Every newspaper is eloquent on the miracles wrought by pills and extracts, balsams and ointments, the fruit assuredly of intuitive knowledge -if knowledge of any kind be the seed from which it sprang. Nor are letters and certificates wanting to confirm the impudent lies set forth in the newspaper advertisements. They who trust to them, often find themselves suddenly afflicted with premature and irremediable infirmities; and many, from the effects of such remedies, spend a life of torture and die a lingering and painful death. Thus, not only is the public poisoned with impunity, but the inventors and sellers of the poisonous trash protected and encouraged duty, which, after all, comes from the purse of the dupe who on account of the bribe paid to the state in the shape of a stamp buys, the price of the stamp being always added to that of the medicine. By a singular inconsistency, many well-educated per

sons, who rail against quack-medicines, and are well aware that such remedies are entitled to no confidence, use them, nevertheless, in secret. But the pseudo-doctors who compound them are too wise to be guided by such an example, as the following anecdote will show.

A brace of London advertising quacks, brothers we believe, sold, wholesale and retail, a balsam with a singular name, and claiming as many virtues as the far-famed balm of Gilead compounded by Dr. Solomon and his successors. One of these self-styled doctors, who belong to the scattered remnant of the unconverted tribes of Israel, being in bad health, applied to a regular practitioner for advice. "Why don't you take your own balsam?" asked the Christian, for such was the medical man "called in." "Because," the candid patient replied, "it will do me no good. Our balsam is made for sale. They who have faith in its virtues will purchase it; and the benefit they derive will be proportionate to such faith. As I have none, the balsam will not relieve me, and I have therefore recourse to your professional skill."

Why quackery should have grown to such a goodly tree in England, is matter of interesting inquiry and research. Are we more credulous than our neighbours, or is quackery a plant of indigenous growth in our soil?

In ages long gone by, when the house-leech was barber, surgeon, apothecary, and physician, and high-born dames were cunning in the healing art-when ignorance and superstition paraded arm-inarm, as the joint guides of civilised man,-medical science consisted as much in charms and ceremonies as in the use, or, according to the technical term employed at present, in the exhibition of medicines and the application of medicaments.* This was the case throughout Europe; it is still so in many parts of England, among the ignorant rustics, in spite of the village apothecary, and is one of the consequences of the absence of education and useful knowledge.

In ages more recently past, even since the discovery of the circulation of the blood, the practice of medicine has scarcely been more rational. The Greek physicians of antiquity were to many the sole oracles of modern practice. The pretended science of alchemy was likewise connected with that of medicine, and the latter frequently wrapped up in as much mystery as the former. As the fermentation of human intellect forced men's minds to work, many vain theories were invented, and many books written by physicians whose names have descended to the generations which have followed them, because their theories, though far from perfect and in many instances founded on error, have nevertheless served as pioneers to clear a road for the discovery of the truth. During the period to which we refer, embracing the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, and the beginning of the nineteenth, the practice of medicine was a pursuit of systems, rather than an application of the discovered principles of pathology to idiosyncratic cases. The consequence was frequent failure. Many a life, during this period, has been taken by the doctor, and not by the disease; many a bereavement has followed the physician's attendance, which would not have occurred had nature been left to her own resources and exertions. Is it a subject for gaping wonder, then, that quacks should have sprung up and undertaken to repair the blunders of the regular practitioners; or that many of these latter should themselves have become quacks; or that nostrums for particular diseases, and pretended universal specifics, should have been the consequence, and have been eagerly purchased by sufferers who had tried the physician's golden knowledge, and found it nothing but base metal?

Such indeed was the state of medical science throughout Europe; and the ludicrous pictures of the professors of the healing art drawn by Le Sage and other satirical writers are scarcely caricatures. But when, at length, chemical science arose in its infant purity, and shook off the tinsel trappings with which its half-insane mother, Alchemy, had bedizened it, the nostrums and secret universal specifics of quackery were submitted to the test of experiment and found wanting: 1st, because they possessed no chemical properties to produce the effects ascribed to them; 2dly, because, since diseases of different natures often proceed from opposite causes, the remedy which would cure the one would aggravate the other. We will practically illustrate this latter point; the other requires no illustration.

Dr. Broussais states irritation to be the cause of all general and organic disease, however produced. He further alleges that there are two kinds of irritation, the sanguineous and the nervous.

* The word "medicine" [Fr. médecine] signifies a remedy taken into the stomach; the word "medicament" expresses a topical application.

The former originates from an excess of the principle of life, in which the germ of disease engenders inflammation. All inflammatory diseases, therefore, are effects of sanguineous irritation and must be combated by depletion. Nervous irritation, on the other hand, owes its origin to a deficiency in the principle of life; and the fever or irritation arising from any of the diseases belonging to its class, requires strengthening and stimulating medicines. Now, sanguineous irritation may be immediately succeeded by nervous, or this latter by sanguineous, in the same patient; and the symptoms of both kinds of irritation bear sometimes so strong a resemblance to each other, that to distinguish them is a very nice test of pathological knowledge. Yet the necessity of not mistaking the one for the other is so great that, if depletion were applied to nervous irritation or stimulants to sanguineous irritation, loss of life would be the consequence.

Medical men are fond of trite sayings and maxims, as well as of systems; they delight to dazzle the understanding of uncultivated minds. The adage which for ages past has been the "open sesame" of medical practice, is contraria contrariis curantur ;* but Dr. Hahnemann has lately started forth with a fresh adage, upon which he founds one of the most absurd systems which it ever entered the feeble imagination of man to conceive-that of homoeopathy. This new maxim is the exact opposite of the former: it is similia similibus curantur.† As men dearly love a paradox, especially when it floats upon novelty, Dr. Hahnemann's saying has spread, dragging along with his system. A race of homoeopathic practitioners have rapidly sprung up, because it requires but comparatively little previous study and training for the exhibition(!) of Dr. Hahnemann's infinitesimal doses of medicine, pathology being the loadstar of his system, and as much clouded from the sight of his followers as it is from the sight of very many practitioners who pursue the old system. Anatomy, physiology, and chemistry, cannot be necessary to the homoeopathist, becaus when he has ascertained the disease of the patient, he has only to turn to the good Dr. Hahnemann's tables, ascertain what drug will communicate the same disease, and give his drug to his patient in the minute doses peculiar to the system he follows. The result will, or will not, be a "similar cured by a similar," that is to say, a disease cured by the agent that would produce it in a healthy person. According to this system, the best cure for the bite of a viper would be to let the reptile bite you again; the best remedy for hydrophobia from the bite of a mad dog, that of being again bitten by a rabid animal.

True medical science despises all sayings and maxims such as we have mentioned. It cures disease by first ascertaining its cause, which requires joint pathological, anatomical, and physiological knowledge, and then removing that cause by an application of such knowledge under the guidance of chemical science. There are many further requisites for a good physician, who should possess a general knowledge of the philosophy of matter. Trite sayings and maxims quoted in a dead language constitute, however, a part of that professional quackery which clothes ignorance in the garb of learning to impose upon the uninstructed. This description of quackery exists more especially among the practitioners of thirty or forty years' standing, but is rejected by those who have constantly elevated their practice to a level with the successive discoveries that have been made since they began to exercise their profession. Comparatively few of our medical men have done this, but among that few we have some of the most distinguished names in Europe.

Though, in most countries on the Continent, the light of che mistry has dissipated the illusions attached to the action of a great variety of pharmaceutical preparations, and the most simple medicines are used to combat disease concurrently with the other means indicated by science, the art of healing is still associated, in England, with the fancied necessity of swallowing nauseous drugs in great quantities. In country places, besides the various nostrums compounded from simples, often assisted by a charm, and their preparation kept secret by those who have received them as a secret

Contraries are cured by contraries.

Similars are cured by similars.

It will scarcely be credited that, in a work on pharmaceutics, published in 1821, the following remedies are to be found. We have selected them from a great number of the same description.

HUMAN SKULL. Cranium hominis. The powder, in doses of a drachm, used in epilepsy: those which have been long buried are to be preferred. HUMAN BLOOD. Sanguis hominis. Anti-epileptic, dried, half a drachm in water every morning.

PUPPIES. Catelli. Live puppies split and applied while warm, have been employed as poultices to draw out venom from sores or boils,

the acutest men of the present day: here is his "opinion," without a fee:

**In the mathematical and physical sciences, and in the arts which are founded upon them, we may commonly trust the conclusions which we take upon authority. For the adepts in these sciences and arts mostly agree in their results, and lie under no temptation to cheat the ignorant with error. I firmly believe, for example, that the earth moves round the sun, though I know not a tittle of the evidence from which the conclusion is inferred. And my belief is perfectly rational, though it rests upon mere authority; for there is nothing in the alleged fact contrary to my experience of nature: whilst all who have scrutinised the evidence concur in affirming the fact, and have no conceivable motive to assert and diffuse the conclusion, but the liberal and beneficent desire of maintaining and propagating truth *."

ence.

We must qualify a sentence in the foregoing "opinion." Mr. Austen says, "there is nothing in the alleged fact contrary to our experience of nature." The revolutions of the Earth on its axis and in its orbit are not contrary to our reasonable experience of nature, but they are contrary to our visual and perceptive experi"One of the most involved and complicated problems," says the Rev. Mr. Moseley, "ever proposed to the ingenuity of man, was the problem of the Heavens. A hollow concave above him, the whole of whose surface, go where he may, is apparently at the same comparatively small distance from him; the sun taking his journey across it, in a path which is not daily the same; returning day after day, through some unknown region, to flood again the vast canopy of the heavens with light; stars seen in thousands at night, on this vast canopy, moving with one common motion slowly across it, between night-fall and daybreak; this host of stars, different at different seasons of the year, but the same at the same season, preserving, in the general alteration of their position, their relative distances, except six of them, which wander about among the rest with a most devious motion, and are therefore called planets; the moon, too, moving with the common daily motion of the rest of the host of heaven; but, besides, revolving completely through it every month; winter, spring, summer, and autumn, connecting themselves somehow with the variations of the daily path of the sun, and returning, year after year, at their appointed seasons; and eclipses of the sun and moon, dependent by some inscrutable relation upon relative positions of the sun and moon:-all these things requiring, as they must have done, and did, a great length of time, and much and patient observation to discover, constitute in their aggregate a relation of phenomena which as far surpasses every other offered to us in nature in its complication, and the vastness and dignity of the truths which it embraces, as in the simplicity of the scheme into which it resolves itself." Well, therefore, may it be added, that "the process of reasoning by which the complicated apparent motions of the sun, moon, and planets, are made to resolve themselves into their few real and elementary motions, is one of the highest and most successful efforts that has ever been made by the intellect of man t."

We come now to our grounds of faith. We believe in astronomers, because of their prophetic power. They affirm that, by laborious observation and calculation, they know accurately the roads which certain heavenly bodies travel, and also the rate at which they travel, and can therefore predict certain events years before they happen. And this prophetic power is not a mere empty sign, a thing of no account, beyond its serving as a seal of the truth of their testimony, but, like a miracle of healing, is fruitful to man. "The determination of the longitude and latitude by astronomical observation is the great problem of nautical astronomy; and with such accuracy is this problem now solved, that ships are frequently months at sea without sight of land, and yet is their course steered continually, and almost without wandering, to some little speck of land, of which they see nothing

Austen's Province of Jurisprudence Determined.

† Lectures on Astronomy, by the Rev. H. Moseley. London, 1839.

until they are within a mile or two of it, but towards which, for thousands of miles, their voyage has been directed through the pathless wilderness of waters."

[ocr errors]

We believe in astronomers, because they appeal to our common sense—that is, to our sense of the fitness and propriety of things. At first sight, it does appear somewhat bold for a creature so small as man, in relation to the bulk of the globe, to affirm that he has weighed and measured a floating mass nearly 25,000 miles in girth, and 8000 miles in diameter, and to lay down that "it does not occupy continually the same position in the centre of the sphere of the visible heavens-that its centre, and the axis within itself, about which its revolution takes place, are not at rest that these are in fact moving at the rate of about nineteen miles in each second of time-that this motion is not directly forward in space, but continually round in a curve which returns into itself, and which is very nearly a circle, whose radius is 95,000,000 of miles-and that nevertheless this enormous circle of the earth's revolution is itself as nothing in its dimensions, compared with the dimensions of the great sphere of the visible heavens." On the first mention of it, one might be excused exclaiming, with Godwin, "Certainly the astronomers are a very fortunate and privileged race of men, who talk to us in this oracular way of the unseen things of God from the creation of the world,' hanging up their conclusions upon invisible hooks, while the rest of mankind sit listening gravely to their responses, and unreservedly acknowledging that their science is the most sublime, the most interesting, and the most useful, of all the sciences cultivated by man.' But then, if we refuse to believe what the astronomers tell us, they have a right to call upon us for some explanations. If the earth is not a sphere, how is it that we never arrive at some termination or boundary, but, go where we may, have still the heavens concave above us, and a horizon where sky and earth appear to touch? Or how can a vessel sail out south-west to Cape Horn, go north-west to Van Diemen's Land, or New Holland, and then, proceeding to the East Indies, return home by the Cape of Good Hope? Ships have sailed in every direction over the earth's surface, and can find no termination-no limit-no spot where the sky and earth touch, and obstruct all further progress. Then, if the earth be a sphere, it must rest upon nothing. We have gone round it-how could we do so, if it rested on anything? But granted that the earth is a sphere, and rests on nothing, how do we prove that it moves ? Something moves, that is very certain. Either the sun flies over our heads by day, and the stars by night, or our globe flies, and its motion deceives our sight, just as trees, banks, and houses, appear to fly past, when we are carried smoothly and rapidly along. The popular arguments for the motion of the earth are, however, all derived from circumstantial or probable evidence, or proof. There is direct evidence of the motion of the earth in the aberration of light, discovered by Bradley, one of the greatest of astronomers but it requires mathematical science to understand it. However, the popular arguments are of a very satisfactory nature, and may be understood by a child. It is just to choose between two hypotheses-either to believe in the revolution of the whole host of heaven round our earth, or the double revolution of our earth on its axis, and in its orbit; and so simple, so effective, so grand, is the latter, that it commends itself to the understanding of every school-boy who hears, for the first time, a lecture on astronomy.

Our present space is exhausted, but we may, after this introductory paper, enter upon the vast and deeply interesting subject in future numbers.

NECESSITY OF SELF-CULTIVATION.

It was said, with truth, by Charles the Twelfth, of Sweden, that he who was ignorant of the arithmetical art was but half a man. With how much greater force may a similar expression be applied to him who carries to his grave the neglected and unprofitable seeds of faculties, which it depended on himself to have reared to maturity, and of which the fruits bring accessions to human happiness-more precious than all the gratifications which power or wealth can command!-Dugald Stewart,

« AnteriorContinuar »