PANACEAS!-No. 4. Among the nostrums and panaceas which have inundated the Materia Medica, none have probably ranked higher than what was known by the name of MUMMY! That which was most esteemed was the dried carcase of a human subject; other kinds were however, in much esteem, and we shall presently enumerate them, and their different preparations. We shall however, first remark, that every part of the human body, with out exception, seems to have been in cluded in the lists of medicines; of which the following may be considered proof, as given by Lanzoni, opera omnia. 1. p. 392.-3. p. 24. "Man, says he, possesses the first place amongst animals; from him are taken, for medical use, the hair,nails, saliva, cerumen of the ears, the cranium, teeth, bones, usnea (moss growing on the cranium), sweat, milk, inenstrua, secundines, urine, fæces, semen, blood, calculus, lice, membrane around the fatal head (caul) lumbrici, mummy; testicles, umbilicus, brain, heart, and uterus." No. 15. At present we shall confine ourselves to the article mummy, principally, as given by Salmon in his Dispensatory, p. 194. in 1676.-He gives us at the same time, some other preparations of the body, which we shall here introduce, although they are not so extended as we find them in Lanzoni. We shall only add that all these preparations, were in their day respectively considered as panaceas, equally estimable with any of those now held forth as such to the public. The name of mummy, has been variously explained. It has been applied by some writers, to the embalmed body alone-and this is the common acceptation of the term at present. Brassavola and others, have regarded it as an Arabic and Persian word, which denoted, according to Rhazes, Avicenna, Dioscorides, Serapion, &c., l'issasphal tum, or a species of rock oil, of a thick consistence and which was probably the substance employed in the embalming of the body, in combination with the aromatics conjointly used.-Bernadus Cæsius, the jesuit, says, the name is Mauritanean, and signifies a juice the most useful to physicians. Salmon seems to embrace all of them, in the account he gives of the article and we proceed therefore to what he says on the subject. We can only say, in relation to his statement," De gustibus non disputandum!” FROM A DEAD BODY. 21. Mumia, Arabian Mummy. It dissolves congealed and coagulated blood, provokes the terms, expels wind out of both bowels and veins, helps coughs, and is a great vulnerary: It is also said to purge, being given to the quantity of 3 j. in any convenient vehiculum. Mummy is five-fold: 1. Factitious pissasphaltum, made of bitumen and pitch. 2. Flesh of a carcase dried by the sun, in the country of the Hammonians between Cyrene and Alexandria, being passengers buried in the quick-sands. 3. Ægyptian, a liquor sweating from carcasses embalmed with pissasphaltum. 4. Arabian, a liquor which sweats from carcases embalmed with myrrh, aloes, and balsam. 5. Artificial, which is modern. Of all which, the two last are the best, but the Arabian is scarcely to be got; the second and third sorts are sold for it: the artificial is thus made. 22. Mumia Artificialis, Artificial or Modern Mummy, according to Crollius. Take the carcase of a young man (some say red hair'd) not dying of a disease, but killed; let it lie 24 hours in clear water in the air; cut the flesh in pieces, to which add powder of myrrh, and a little aloes: imbibe it 24 hours in the spirit of wine and turpentine, take it out, hang it up twelve hours: imbibe it again 24 hours in fresh spirit, then hang up the pieces in a a dry air, and a shadowy place, so will they dry, and not stink. 23. Tinctura Mumia, tincture or extract of mummy. Arabian or Egyptian mummy, extract it with spirit of wine or turpentine, and separate to the consistence of honey, so have you Quercetan's extract. But Crollius advises to take the artificial nummy, and make an extract in spirit in wine or elder only. It is a counter-poyson, prevents the plague, and resists all manner of infection being taken only to j. and cure being taken to zi or giss: It has all the vertues of mummy, at section 21. Of this Crollius makes a treacle thus. & of 24. Elixir Mumia, Elixir of Mummy. Artificial mummy cut small, to which put spirit of turpentine, putrifie it forty days in a vessel close luted; strain it, and put it into a bladder with S. V. digest, and in an alembick in sand draw off the quintessence with the spirit, which separate; the feces reverberate, and sublime to a salt, which unite with the separated quintessence by circulation: then digest this quintessence with treacle and musk to an elixir. It has all the vertues of the tincture, besides which this is more speedy in the cure of the plague. 25. Balsamum Mumia, Balsam of Mum my. Be Artificial mummy cut small, digest it forty days with oil olive in a luted vessel; put it in a glass body, and in B. M. let the fœtid scent exhale, till the mummy is dissolved, digest it twenty days or more with S. V. which separate, and you have a sweet-scented red oil. This oil is exalted by degestion with S. V. and drawing it off four or five times. Where note, that Quercetan uses fresh flesh instead of artificial mummy. This balsam, Quercetan says, has all the properties of the natural balsam of Syria, and the vertues of the Tincture and Elixir of Mummy: and being exalted, it has such a piercing quality, that it pierceth all parts, restores wasted limbs, consumptions, hecticks, and cures all ulcers and corruptions, if gr. iiij, v, or vj be given twice every day in a proper vehicle. 26. Aqua Divina, divine water. Take the whole carcase of a man violently killed, with the intrails, cut it in pieces, and mix them; distil it from a retort twice or thrice. It is reputed to have a magnetic power: if to 3j. of this water you put a few drops of the blood of a sick person, and set them on the fire, and they mix, the sick recovers; if not, the sick dies: for want of blood, take the urine in a larger quantity. 27. Adeps. Grease or Fat. It is emollient, discutient, anodyne, and cosmetick; it is said to fill up the pits, after the small-pox; mixt with the spirit of vitriol, it becomes a clammy liniment, which pierces much, and is useful against the gout, contracted sinews, and driness of the parts. 28. Ossa humana, man's bones. They stop fluxes of the belly, of rheums, of the terms, astringe, being often mixt with arthritick purges: they are taken, either levigated into fine powder with water, or calcin'd in a potter's furnace to ashes. By a retort you may distil an oil from them, which is very anodyne and discutient, and eases pains of the gout; their marrow is of excellent use to cure contracted sinews and members. 29. Cranium, the skull. It is a specifick in the cure of most diseases of the head, but chiefly the falling sickness; you may give it either levigated on a marble, or calcin'd, or some of the following preparations thereof: the triangular bone in the temples is the most specifical against the epilepsie. 30. Magisterium Cranii humani, magistery of man's skull. Dissolve it in the spirit of vitriol, and then precipitate. Dose is from gr. xv. to 3ss. in any convenient vehicle. $1. Galreda Paracelsi, Paracelsus, his extract of man's skull. Digest filings of a skull with S. V. and sage fifteen or twenty days; distil by a retort, and digest fifteen days more; then cohobate thrice, after circulate seven days, and separate the S. V. in balneo maria, keeping the coagulated essence for use. Give every day in a convenient vehicle six or seven grains; but in abstracting of the S. V. it is much to be questioned, whether it does not carry away with it much of the finer spirit of the skull. 32. Tinctura Cranii Quercetani, Quercetans tincture of skulls. Digest filings of skulls with juniper or sage, four or five inches above, in a bolt-head well luted, with a gentle heat for fifteen days; then strain it out with a press, so have you a red liquor; strain it again, and abstract in balneo vaporis to the consistency of honey. This is an excellent thing against the falling sickness, and fitts of the mother: Give à Ass a Dj. 33. Aqua Oleum Cranii humani, water and oil of man's skull. Distil skulls (grossly beaten) in a retort, so have you liquor, oil, and volatile salt: the oil you may rectifie with S. V. by often cohobating. It is one of the most powerful things against the falling sickness, and suffocation of the womb: that is you may give à gut. iiij. ad x. of the oil, mixt with sugar, and its own water, as a vehiculum. 34. Sal Cranii humani, salt of man's skull. Be. The skull and calcine it; or reverberate the caput mortuum of the former, dissolve in water, filterate, coagulate, and purifie it, as you do that of tartar. It is a perfect cure for the falling sickness, vertigo, lethargy, numbness, and all head-diseases. Dose in peony-water, or other convenient vehicle, à Ass. ad 3ss. 35 Essentia Cranii humani, essence of man's skull. It is made of water, oil, volatile salt, and fixt salt, dissolved and mixt together, and digested 40 days in sand. Brendelius says, it is prevalent against the falling sickness, beyond all other things what soever. 36. Spiritus Cerebri humani, spirit of man's brains. . The brain of a young man slain, with all its membranes, arteries, veins and nerves, with all the spinal marrow, beat them, and add essence of tile-flowers, peony, bettony, black cherries, lavender, rosemary, lilly of the valley, cowslips, sage, mesleto, ana, so much as to be four inches above; digest a while; then distil in B. M. add Sack a fourth part, distil and cohobate three times; make a salt of the feces calcin'd, which join to the spirit. It is a noble antepileptick, and may be given aj ad iiij. 37. Oleum Cerebri humani, oil of man's brains. Macerate the brains with common salt, and distil by a glass retort in sand, so have you oil with a little water; which you may separate, and rectifie the oil with S. V. by oftep cohobating. Where note, that the whole substance of the brain will nearly turn into oil. It has the vertues of the former: you may give to Ass. or more. 38. Fel humanum, man's gall. An extract of it with S. V. dropt in the ear cures deaf child with the exhibition of its pictures; another besmears it with buttered fingers at the breakfast-table; the servant tears out the title page to light her parlour fire, because she is in a hurry; young Master is allowed to strip it to embellish his kite; and Miss throws it to her favourite Chloe, to play with on the floor; another reads it by the fire till the binding is warped off from the leaves, or till he falls asleep, and the book falls a prey to the flames." The author complains that "nothing is more common than to hear booksellers assure us, that innumerable quantities of books are eagerly sought after, and purchased by those who are commissioned to commit them to the flames, under the specious pretext of conferring a benefit on mankind." "What complaint, adds he, can be more common, or unfortunately more just, than the little care taken with borrowed books?" "Were people but to make it a point of honour, never to lend a borrowed book, there would be much less danger: but we can more often answer for the honesty of an acquaintance than we can for his care. The man who borrows my book, shows, or commends it to another, who borrows it again, with repeated assurances of its being carefully returned; this man lends it to a third person, on the like conditions, but who never returns it, because it was lent to a fourth, who lost it."- By those who are resolved to gratify the wish of a friend by the loan of a book, perhaps the following inscription might be generally adopted: Read and return, nor other's goods disperse; Be you the better, and the book no worse. 1 constructed? How are they graduated, and why is the conical prefered to the cubical form in their construction? Can any of your correspondents give any information on the nature and natural History of what is vulgarly called mother of pearl? Would any unpleasant consequence arise, if our citizens, were to pursue the Indian practice of plucking instead of the present mode of shaving their beards? These may be deemed matters of trifling moment to some, but I have been so often questioned on them that I feel desirous of having it in my power to give a reasonable reply. For myself I would beg leave to ask of you, Gentlemen, or any of your correspondents, Why the rains that fall from the eastward, i. e. the rains that are brought by easterly winds, are so generally in fine drops, (in common language drizzles,) and those from clouds coming from the west in large drops? Why there is so much more thunder in a S. W. squall than in a squall from any eastern point of the compass? By replying to these questions, or presenting them to your subscribers, for a reply you will, Gentlemen, oblige Yours, INTERROGATOR. EROSTATION. It is scarcely possible to imagine the ancients altogether unacquainted with the principles of ærostation. The Fairy Tales and Arabian Nights, afford a strong presumptive proof of this in those excursions through the air, by wooden horses, Turkey carpets, &c. which they so delightfully describe to the astonished and bewildered fancy of the youthful inquirer into the accounts of former ages! Can we not discover some vestiges of the same in the tale of Fortunatus?— and, long before those tales were penned, we may perhaps, trace in the flight of Icarus and Daedalus some proof that balloons were even then known and employed. The downfall of the former was but the prototype of the celebrated de Rozier. To demonstrate this beyond all cavil, is perhaps impossible, and we shall there |