Curiosities of Medical Experience

Another wonderful instance of the same kind is that of Janet M'Leod, published by Dr. M'Kenzie. She was at the time thirty-three years of age, unmarried, and from the age of fif...

Our commentator attempts to account for the sixth plague of boils and blains with equal ingenuity. He affirms that this cruel disorder was sent among the Egyptians to show the I...

I do not at all presume to invalidate the statements of Dr. Gall. The profession is highly indebted to him for his accurate description of the brain; and physiology must ever co...

Dreams, to whatever causes they may be attributed, vary according to the nature of our sleep: if it is sound and natural, they will seldom prevail; if, on the contrary, it be br...

Various philosophers, in idle disquisitions, have endeavoured by the most absurd hypotheses to determine what is the natural food of man, and to show that he is not created omni...

This real or supposed efficacy was scarcely discovered before it became the domain of priests: and common rain or river water became valuable and sanctified when blessed by them...

It is a melancholy reflection that, at various periods, impostors have impiously called in Scriptural aid to promote their sordid or ambitious views. Chiromancers have quoted th...

These errors of description amongst medical writers have of course occasioned much obscurity and perplexity in the productions of travellers and historians, who have generally c...

This overwhelming power, most fortunately wise and humane, was maintained by every artifice that ingenuity could devise. Egypt has justly been denominated the _Alma Mater_ of su...

In illustration of the phenomena of the preceding case, Dr. Abercrombie gives the following very curious history: "A girl, aged seven years, an orphan of the lowest rank, residi...

Some of these unfortunate victims of the pestilential disease seem to have had poetical inspirations, for one of two men who had fled to the country was found dead with the foll...

Antony and Dolabella were both men of some corpulence. The Roman ladies dreaded above all things too voluminous a development of the bosom: to prevent it they were in the habit...

Medical writers have divided the night-mare, according to its phenomena, into complete, incomplete, mental, and bodily. The complete night-mare, in which the suspension of the f...

With a view of producing a fresh poisonous action that might neutralize the former one, it has also been proposed that a venomous serpent should be made to inflict a wound under...

While water was thus freely drunk, wine was not disregarded; but the various articles with which it was adulterated, must have rendered it any thing but a delectable potation ac...

Drunkenness being considered a beastly propensity, its gradations were fixed by animal comparisons. In a curious treatise on drunkards by George Gascoigne, we find the following...

Thus we find that the high state of perfection which the surgical art has attained is solely due to the efforts of industry to free itself from the ignoble trammels of bigotry a...

Various well-authenticated cases lead us to suppose, that a sensibility to music long latent may be called into action by accidental circumstances. A case is on record of a coun...

_Night sight_, specifically called _Lucifuga_, was also termed _Nyctalopia_, from [Greek: nyx], _night_, and [Greek: ôps], _eye_; it was also known as the _Noctem amans_. This a...

A celebrated Dublin surgeon was once known to give a lesson of economy to a wealthy and fashionable young man remarkably fond of his handsome face and person. He was sent for, a...

It therefore appears to me more than probable that monstruosities are by no means original mal-conformations, but arise, during gestation, from physical or moral influences that...

The doctrine of man and the universe having been created an emanation of the Creator, renders the Creator material, or matter itself; matter being considered intelligent, and su...

The Indians of Guiana dip their arrows in the juice of the _Woorara_, and the _Curara_, which also occasions rapid death and decomposition of the lungs. Humboldt informs us that...

Dæmonomania may be referred to a false view of divine justice,--ignorance, and consequent weakness of intellect,--and a pusillanimous apprehension of perhaps a merited chastisem...

I cannot conclude this article without noticing the singular properties of those electric fishes denominated the _torpedo-ray_ and the _gymnote_. They had been long known to nat...

Jeffrey Hudson, the dwarf of King Charles, must also have been of a very diminutive stature, since we find that he was served up in a pie to the royal table, and jumped out when...

The Roman empire dismembered, Persia became an asylum for fugitive philosophy, and the Nestorians founded a medical school at Edessa in Mesopotamia, while other sectarians equal...

The primitive title of _iatros_ gradually descended to surgical practitioners. We find that Nebrus and Heraclides were the chief _iaters_ of Cos, the birthplace of Hippocrates....

It will be found that the progress of domestication, the natural result of civilized improvement, tends more materially to operate a wonderful change in the animal conformation,...

The subject of quackery, in every sphere of life, whether it be resorted to by diplomatists or physicians, sanctimonious adventurers or fashionable _roués_, leads to serious con...

Intellectual weakness, frequently brought on by excesses, has proved a rich source to empiricism; hence the belief in mystic and supernatural agencies, and the power of certain...

It appears that at this period a belief prevailed that heavenly mercy restored the grace that had been forfeited, commuting for temporal punishment that which else would have be...

In support of the practice it has been urged, that mankind owes the most valuable discoveries in the science of medicine and its collateral branches to the vivisection of animal...

Then came "The Woman's Petition against Coffee," which appeared in 1674, in which we find the following complaint: "It made men as unfruitful as the deserts whence that unhappy...

I have already stated that the homoeopathists conceive that the infinite dilution of their atoms of medicinal substances increase their energy; and this fact they so strenuously...

The yew-tree has also been considered an emblem of mourning from the earliest times. The custom of planting it singly appears also to be very ancient. Statius, in his Thebaid, c...

In regard to the antiquity of the practice of inoculation amongst the Chinese, I cannot do better than give Mr. Moore's own words on so very interesting a subject. "No account i...

To what are we to attribute this apparent regularity in the scale of births, deaths, and the commission of crimes? Are we ruled by _certain_ laws that are only changed in the ma...

Although the nature of sympathies most probably will never be ascertained, their study is essential both to the moralist and the physician, and both may be materially aided in t...

"The invisible substance that has undergone a morbid alteration in the interior of the human body, and the perceptible changes, which are externally developed,--in other words,...

Moral influence has also been called into aid in opposition to this practice, and cures have been attributed to the mere power of fancy and credulity. We have certainly known su...

That every degree of action in the _glottis_ is due to the muscles of the _larynx_ is proved by the experiment of tying or dividing the recurrent nerves, when the voice is destr...

Let us hope that the mischievous distinction between surgery and medicine may soon become an obsolete prejudice, that was never founded upon reason, but simply based upon ambiti...

This peculiar faculty was well known to the ancients. Hippocrates verily believed that there did exist individuals who could draw a voice from their belly. He speaks of the wife...

The next important question was to decide whether this insect was the cause of the disgusting disorder. For this purpose Galès placed several of them on the back of his hand. He...

Nor can we view in the same light the affinities of inorganic bodies. They are subject to chemical laws; each is endowed with specific qualities that seldom or never vary, and s...

Sandiford had divided acephalous animals into three classes: the first, in which the head was wanting; the second, where other organs were also missing; and the third, where the...

Apuleius maintains, that if Venus were bald, though circled by the graces and the loves, she would not please even swarthy Vulcan. Petronius, in his description of Circe, descri...

This morbid condition of our intellectual faculties has been admirably described by Johnson, in his Rasselas. "To indulge the power of fiction, and send imagination out upon the...

Domestic affliction 31 Disappointed love 25 Political events 32 Fanaticism 1 Fright 8 Jealousy 14 Misfortunes 14 Offended vanity 16 Baffled ambition 12 Intense study 13 Misanthr...

The different prevalent propensities in various individuals, the development of which appeared to be under the influence of a certain and constitutional organization, have recei...

Birds of prey will scent the battle-field at prodigious distances, and they are often seen hovering instinctively over the ground where the conflict is to supply their festival....

"Now comes a spirit of universal contentment with himself and all the world. He thinks no more of misery: it is dissolved in the bliss of the moment. This is the acme of the fit...

Carré de Montgeron affirms that the _pebble_ was not found sufficiently powerful, and the operator was obliged in one case to procure an iron fire-dog (_chenet_), weighing about...

Sweden 1 in 92,375 The Milanais 1 ... 72,570 Russia, 1819-1820 1 ... 36,860 ---- 1824-1827 1 ... 34,246 Prussia 1 ... 14,224 Saxony 1 ... 8,446 St. Petersburg 1 ... 416 London,...

Mesmer was not so credulous, and explained the miraculous cures of Gassner by the doctrines of the animal magnetism which he advocated. From Suabia he returned to Vienna, whence...

No consideration should render man more thankful to his Creator, and justly proud of the progress of human intellect, than the perfection to which the art of surgery has been ca...

Dr. Caius calls it a pestilential fever of one day; and it prevailed, he says, with a mighty slaughter, and the description of it was as tremendous as that of the plague of Athe...

SURGEON TO THE FORCES; RESIDENT PHYSICIAN OF THE COUNTY OF MIDDLESEX PAUPER LUNATIC ASYLUM AT HANWELL; MEMBER OF THE MEDICAL SOCIETY OF THE ANCIENT FACULTY OF PARIS; OF THE MEDI...

In regard to the variety of races, it has been observed that those people who sooner attain pubescence are the shortest-lived. Precocious excitement must bring on premature old...

The following curious anecdotes are recorded in the description of a mystery performed at Veximel, near Metz, by the order of Conrad Bayer, bishop of the diocese. This play was...