Hanway, in his "Virtues of Humble Life," 1777, says, "there were then no fit prisons for houses of correction. There was one at Trim, in the county of Meath, Ireland, fitted up for that purpose, some years before there was one in England."

Yes, gentle reader, hundreds of our pious forefather, whose souls were inspired with holy truths, could not, and did not, like the pliant reed, bend with every gentle breeze or raging blast, were cruelly immured in them; and if they had had a Scott, to give elegant words to their oppressed thoughts, they might have said:

"I hate to learn the ebb of time,

From yon dull steeple's drowsy chime;

Or mark it to the sunbeam's crawl,
Inch after inch upon the wall."

Lady of the Lake.

MEDICINE.

“For the Lord hath created medicines out of the earth, and he that is wise will not abhor them." ECCLESIASTICUS.

"Garth, generous as his muse, prescribes and gives,

The shopman sells, and by destruction lives." DRYDEN.

On this important science, I have not much useful, but some curious information to give; this science was at a very low ebb glad should I be, if this century had furnished me with some certain remedies, for the cure or mitigation of any prevalent disorder. There were many of the same complaints that now afflict us, but the most prevalent were the plague, the

ague, the scurvy, the small pox,

"And lordly gout wrapt up in fur,

And wheezing asthma loth to stir." SWIFT.

Thomas Gale, quoted in Ballingal's Military Surgery, states, "they use such trumpery as is put to horses' heels, and laid upon scabbed backs, and cobblers' wax, in the time of Henry VIII." Some of the practitioners were mere animal farriers, and animal operators.

The following amusing extract may be found in a modern publication, from the original, in Her Majesty's State Paper Office, in which Lord Audelay prescribes for Mr. William Cecil, afterwards the great Lord Burghley, then one of Queen Mary's Secretaries of State. The orthography is modernized. "Good Mr. Cecil,

"Be of good comfort, and pluck up a lusty merry heart, and

then shall you overcome all diseases; and because it pleased my good lord admiral lately to praise my physic, I have written to you such medicines as I wrote unto him, which I have in iny book of my wife's hand, proved upon herself and me both, and if I can get anything that may do you any good, you may be well assured it shall be a joy to me to get it for you.

"A good medicine for weakness or consumption: "Take a sow-pig of nine days old, and slay him, and quarter him, and put him in a stillat, with a handfull of spearmint, a handfull of red fennel, a handfull of liverwort, half a handfull of red neap, a handfull of clarge, and nine dates, clean picked and pared, and a handfull of great raisins, and pick out the stones, and a quarter of an ounce of mace, and two sticks of good cinnamon bruised in a mortar, and distill it with a soft fire, and put it in a glass, and set it in the sun nine days, and drink nine spoonfuls of it at once when you list.

"A compost:

"Item.-Take a porpin, otherwise called an English hedgehog, and quarter him in pieces, and put the said beast in a still, with these ingredients. Item, a quart of red wine, a pint of rose water, a quarter of a pound of sugar. . . cinnamon, and two great raisins.

"If there be any manner of disease that you be aggrieved with, I pray you send me some knowledge thereof, and I doubt not but to send you a proved remedy. Written in haste at Greenwich, the 9th of May, by your true hearty friend-John of Audelay."

To the right worshipful Mr. Cecil, this letter be delivered with spede."

(Endorsed, "9th May, 1553.”)

[Gent. Mag.]

In Percy's "Reliques of ancient English poetry," we are informed" as to what will be observed in this ballad, (Sir Cauline,) of the art of healing, being practised by young princes; it is no more than what is usual, and was conformable to real manners, it being derived from the earliest times, among all the Gothic and Celtic nations, for women even of the highest rank, to exercise the art of surgery. In the northern chronicle, we always find the young damsels staunching the wounds of their lovers, and those of their husbands; and even so late as the time of queen Elizabeth, it is mentioned among the accomplishments of the ladies of court, that "the eldest of them are skilful in surgery."

The admirers of Shakspeare, will probably recollect the following lines, which to us appear an odd remedy:

"And telling me the sov'r'ingst thing on earth
Is parmasilty for an inward bruise.

When we consider the prevailing opinions of the times, the general credulity, and particularly their outrageous astrological opinions, we need not wonder the art of healing was so low: for without a knowledge of the influences of the heavenly bodies "no leech or doctor could pursue his craft:" it was only by reference to the conjunctions of the planets, the signs of the Zodiac, &c., that put the compositions of their vile nostrums into operation. These are amply discussed in a MS. book, found among some old papers at Losely house, in Surrey, sewed up in a cover of parchment, which had originally formed part of some ancient church music.

It was, probably, the manual of some monk or parish priest, containing various notes likely to be useful to him as a teacher of youth, a dispenser of medicine, a diviner of good and bad fortune, and a spiritual adviser of the sick and dying. Thus it had an elementary grammar, sundry prescriptions, a treatise on judicial astrology, divers prayers, and forms for last wills and testaments, demising property to ecclesiastical foundations for pious uses, and the good of the souls of the donors.

The lapse of two centuries did not produce any change in the superstitious belief in the occult influences of the heavenly bodies; and, therefore, with the certainty of that almanac, which still bears the name of an old astrologer, Vincent Wing, and tells us in our own time what parts of the human body will be affected in each successive day of the week throughout the year, we find a physician of the period of Queen Elizabeth informing his patient, that on Friday and Saturday the planetary influence would affect his heart, and on Sunday, Monday, and Tuesday, reign in his stomach: when remedies would be in vain opposed to the domination of what Chaucer calls magic natural; the uncontrolable secret influence of the spheres; but that on the Wednesday seven night, and from that time forward for fifteen or sixteen days, the administration of medicine would be passing good. Thus the physician found himself circumscribed in his healing efforts by the stars, and constrained to wait for their propitious aspect, as patiently as the mariner who brings his ship to anchor, expecting the next spring tide to carry her over the shoals which oppose her passage to the destined port.

By degrees, the science of medicine emancipated herself from the dominion of the stars; but over the fortunes of private individuals even to the present time, with some they still hold mysterious sway. It may also be observed, that the Pharmacopeia of ancient apothecaries, and chemists, formerly exhibit

ed the most extraordinary drugs. "Mummy," the crumbling dust of Egypt's swathed kings; tincture of sculls; oil of bricks and of flints; aurum potabile, " preserving life, in med'cine potable," and hundreds of other strange ingredients were employed by the old professors of chemistry, and the healing art. The irregular nostrums of quacks and non-medical prescribers also abounded.

"The Birthe of mankinde, otherwise called the Woman's Boke," was translated from the German, 1540: it was the first book illustrated with wood cuts, and the first on midwifery; the first edition has the name of Dr. Richard Jones, physician to the Queen Catharine, of Arragon; the actual translator was a Dr. Thomas Reynolds.

During the seventeenth century, the accoucheur, or male professional attendant, was substituted for the midwife. The princess de Conti was thus brought into the world; she was the daughter of Madame de la Valliere. From statements which the writer has read in Gray's "Suppliment to the Pharmacopeiæ," it may be doubted, whether humanity has been benefited by the change, and there is no doubt of its having been injurious to the cause of female delicacy.

Turner's "English Herbal," was published, 1551.

Dr. Linnacre, established the college of physicians; it was incorporated, 1588.

In physics, there have always been epochs, theories, and hypothesis, the sects of physicians, have been as numerous as in religion.

The cause of one of their prevalent disorders, the scurvy, was from their eating, during winter, vast quantities of salt meat, and little or no vegetables.

Like other cooks, I do not supper dress,
That put whole meadows in a platter,

And make no better of the guests than beeves

With herbes and greenes to feede them fatter.+

According to Tusser, they began killing for winter on St. Martin's day, 11th November. In large wealthy families, the quantity of salted provisions was almost past belief; whole hecatombs were slaughtered; there was not only plenty of bacon, but often times twenty large fat sheep, and several oxen.

We have seen among the stores of an old wine cellar in Devonshire, a bottle containing a liquid, in which leaves of gold were floating, glittering like golden fishes in a glass vase. The compound had a strong taste of aniseed. Was this the aurum potabile? Gent. Mag.

+ From a scoffing cook in Plautus.

แ

dried flitches of smoked beeve

Hang'd on a writhen wythe since Martinmas eve;

*

*

*

*

When Easter comes, who knows not then
That veale and bacon is the main ?

*

And Martinmas beefe doth beare good tacke,
When country folke do dainties lack." TUSSER.

Then their breakfasts consisted of broths, thickened with oat meal, made from this salted meat, so that the miserable scurvy was very prevalent. It much affected their teeth and gums: an old receipe from Bacon's work's, prescribes mastic and dragon's blood, of each the same quantity, finely powdered and mixed together, as a fashionable application.*

For many centuries the surgeon was connected with the barber; the two societies were joined until the year 1746.

It was stated by lord Thurlow, 1797, "by a statute still in force, the barbers and surgeons were each to use a pole. The barbers were to have their pole blue and white, striped, with no other appendage; but the surgeons, which was the same in other respects, was likewise to have a gallipot and a red rag, to denote the particular nature of their vocation."

Randle Holmes, a writer of 1688, gives some amusing information about this craft; "the barber's dish had a piece of the rim cut out to fit the neck, and they made the lather, and applied it with the hand;" the brush was, as the reader might expect, a French invention, and was not used before the year 1756; a good lather is half the shave." As the operator had a great deal to do, such as pick out the ears, rasp the point of a tooth, and bleed if needful, hold a glass to the face for his patient to see if all was as he wished, and then brush his clothes, he would be sure to have customers waiting, so, for their amusement, there was a cittern, resembling a guitar, for them to play music upon.† The barber's art, according to an old dramatist, a character speaks thus, "I instructed thee in the phrases of our eloquent occupation, as how, sir, will you be

* Lord Bacon mentions, "a countess of Desborough, who lived seven score years, and did dentise twice, casting her old teeth, and others coming in their places.

The following is a modern dentifrice, by M. Cadet de Gassincourt: "white sugar and powdered charcoal, each one ounce; Peruvian bark half an ounce, of cream of tartar one and a half drachm, and of canella twenty-four grains, rubbed together to an impalpable power. He describes it as strengthening the gums, cleansing the teeth, and destroying the disagreeable odour in the breath, which arises from decayed teeth: and as a preventive of tooth ache. Washing the mouth and teeth twice a day, with salt and water is strongly recommended." Combe's" Physiology of Digestion."

+ It appears, from Lyson, that the first of the clergy who wore wigs, was Archbishop Tillotson, which was then not unlike natural hair, and no powder.