authority of the Scriptures in support of this opinion: for what were the ear-rings which Jacob buried under the oak of Sechem, as related in Genesis, but amulets? and we are informed by Josephus, in his Antiquities of the Jews, (lib. viii. c. 2, 5,) that Solomon discovered a plant efficacious in the cure of epilepsy, and that he employed the aid of a charm or spell for the purpose of assisting its virtues; the root of the herb was concealed in a ring*, which was applied to the nostrils of the demoniac; and Josephus himself remarks, that he himself saw a Jewish priest practise the art of Solomon with complete success in the presence of Vespasian, his sons, and the tribunes of the Roman army. Nor were such means confined to dark and barbarous ages; Theophrastus pronounced Pericles to be insane, because he discovered that he wore an amulet about his neck; and in the declining era of the Roman empire, we find that this superstitious custom was so general, that the Emperor Caracalla was induced to make a public edict, ordaining, that no man should wear any superstitious amulets about his person.

In the progress of civilization, various fortuitous incidents†, and even errors in the choice and pre

* From this art of Solomon, exhibited through the medium of a ring or seal, we have the eastern stories which celebrate the seal of Solomon, and record the potency of its sway over the various orders of demons, or of genii, who are supposed to be the invincible tormentors or benefactors of the human race.

The discovery of the virtues of the Peruvian bark may here serve as an instance. The story goes, that an Indian (some say a monkey) being ill of a fever, quenched his thirst at a pool of water, strongly impregnated with the bark from some

paration of aliments, must gradually have unfolded the remedial powers of many natural substances: these were recorded, and the authentic history of medicine may date its commencement from the period when such records began.

We are told by Herodotus, that the Chaldeans and Babylonians carried their sick to the public roads and markets, that travellers might converse with them, and communicate any remedies which had been successfully used in similar cases; this custom continued during many ages in Assyria: Strabo states that it also prevailed among the ancient Lusitanians, or Portuguese: in this manner, however, the results of experience descended only by oral tradition. It was in the temple of Esculapius in Greece, that medical information was first recorded; diseases and cures were then registered on durable tablets of marble; the priests and priestesses, who were the guardians of the temple, prepared the remedies and directed their application; and as these persons were ambitious to pass for the descendants of Esculapius, they assumed the name of the Asclepiades. The writings of Pausanias, Philostratus, and Plutarch, abound with the artifices of those early physicians. Aristophanes describes in a truly comic manner, the craft and pious avarice of these godly men, and mentions the dexterity and promptitude with which they collected and put into bags the offerings on the altar. The patients, during this period, reposed on the skins of sacrificed rams, in order

trees having accidentally fallen into it, and that he was in consequence cured.

that they might procure celestial visions. As soon as they were believed to be asleep, a priest, clothed in the dress of Esculapius, imitating his manners, and accompanied by the daughters of the God, that is, by young actresses, thoroughly instructed in their parts, entered and delivered a medical opinion.

Definition of Amulets, &c.

All remedies working as it were sympathetically, and plainly unequal to the effect, may be termed Amulets; whether used at a distance by another person, or immediately about the patient: of these various are related. By the Jews, they were called Kamea; by the Greeks, Phylacteries, as already mentioned; and by the Latins, Amuleta or Ligatura; by the Catholics, Agnus Dei, or consecrated relicts, and by the natives of Guinea, where they are still held in great veneration, Fetishes. Different kinds of materials by these different people, have been venerated and supposed capable of preserving from danger and infection, as well as to remove diseases when actually present.

Plutarch relates of Pericles, an Athenian general, that when a friend came to see him, and inquiring after his health, he reached out his hand and shewed him his Amulet; by which he meant to intimate the truth of his illness, and, at the same time, the confidence he placed in these ordinary remedies.

Amulets still continue among us to the present day, indeed there are few instances of ancient superstition some parcel of which has not been preserved, and not unfrequently they have been adapted by men of otherwise good understanding, who

plead in excuse, that they are not nauseous, cost little, and if they can do no good they can do no harm. Lord Bacon, whom no one can suspect of being an ignorant man, says, that if a man wear a bone ring or a planet seal, strongly believing, by that means, that he might obtain his mistress, or that it would preserve him unhurt at sea, or in battle, it would probably make him more active and less timid; as the audacity they might inspire would conquer and bind weaker minds in the execution of a perilous duty.

There are a variety of Amulets used by the common people for the cure of ague; and however this may be accounted for, whether by the imagination or the disease subsiding of its own accord, many have been apparently cured by them, when the Peruvian bark had previously failed. Agues, says Dr. Willis, resisting Amulets have often been applied to the wrist with success. ABRACADABRA written in a conical form, i. e. in the shape of an Isoceles triangle, beginning with A, then A B, A BR, and so on, and placed under each other, will have a good effect. The herb Lunaria, gathered by moonlight, we are assured by very respectable authorities, has performed some surprising cures. Naaman, we are told (numero deus impare gaudet) was cured by dipping seven times in the river Jordan. An old gentleman, of eighty years of age, who had nearly exhausted his substance upon physicians, was cured of a strangury, by a new glass bottle that had never been wet inside, only by making water in it, and burying it in the earth. There were also certain formalities

performed at the pool of Bethseda for the cure of diseases. Dr. Chamberlayne's Anodyne necklace for a long time was the sina qua non of mothers and nurses, until its virtue was lost by its reverence being destroyed; and those which have succeeded it have nearly run their race. The Grey Liverwort was at one time thought not only to have cured hydrophobia, but, by having it about the person, to have prevented mad dogs from biting them. Calvert paid devotions to St. Hubert for the recovery of his son, who was cured by this means. The son also performed the necessary rites at the shrine, and was cured not only of the hydrophobia, "but of the worser phrensy with which his father had instilled him." Cramp rings were also used, and eel skins tied round the limbs, to prevent this spasmodic affection; and also by laying the sticks across on the floor in going to bed, have also performed cures this way. Numerous are the charms, amulets, and incantations, used even in the present day for the removal of warts. We are told by Lord Verulam (vol. iii. p. 234,) that when he was at Paris he had above an hundred warts on his hands; and that the English Ambassador's lady, then at court, and a woman far above all superstition, removed them all only by rubbing them with the fat side of the rind of a piece of bacon, which they afterwards nailed to a post, with the fat side towards the south. In five weeks, says my Lord, they were all removed.

As Lord Verulam is allowed to have been as great a genius as this country ever produced, it may not be irrelevant to the present subject, to