Chapter XIX

State of Medicine in remote Ages--Animals Teachers of
Medicine--Gymnastic Medicine--Cato’s Cure for a Fracture--Dearness
of ancient Medicines and Medical Books--Absurdity of the
ancient Materia Medica: Gold, Bezoar, Mummy--Prescription for a
Quartan--Amulets--Virtues of Gems--Corals--Charms--Charm for sore
Eyes--Medicine connected with Astrology--Cure by Sympathy--Sir
Kenelm Digby--The real Cause of the Cure--The Vulnerary Powder,
&c.--The Royal Touch--Evelyn’s Description of the Ceremony--Valentine
Greatrakes--Morley’s Cure for Scrofula--Inoculation--Vaccination--Dr.
Jenner--Animal Magnetism--M. Loewe’s Account of it--Mesmer, and
his Feats--Manner of Magnetizing--Report of a Commission on the
Subject--Metallic Tractors--Baron Silfverkielm and the Souls in
White Robes--Mr. Loutherbourg--Empirics--Uroscopy--Mayersbach--Le
Febre--Remedies for the Stone--The Anodyne Necklace--The Universal
Medicine 250

CONCLUDING CHAPTER.

Superstition of the Hindoos--The Malays--Asiatic Superstitions--The
Chinese--Miracle of the Blessed Virgin--Stratagem of an
Architect--Michael Angelo’s Cupid--Statue of Charles I.--Ever-burning
Sepulchral Lamps--Lamp in the Tomb of Pallas--The art of
Mimicry--Superiority of the Ancients--Fable of Proteus--Personation
of the insane Ajax--Archimimes at funerals--Demetrius the cynic
converted--Acting portraits and historical pictures--War dances of
the American Indians--The South Sea Bubble--Gay the poet--Law’s
Mississippi Scheme--Numerous Bubbles--Speculations in 1825 274

SKETCHES

OF

IMPOSTURE, DECEPTION,

AND

CREDULITY.