John Ayrton Paris

“ There is no sense more under the dominion of imagination, or more liable to be perverted by education, than those of taste and smell; we are also liable to form unjust prejudices from the indications of colour; for particular colours, from the influence of hidden associations, are not unfrequently the exciting cause of agreeable or unpleasant impressions. I have met with a person who regards green food, if it be of an animal nature, with unconquerable aversion and disgust, indeed an idea of unwholesomeness has not unfrequently been attached to this colour, without the least foundation of truth ”

“ I am well satisfied that the regulation of the dose of a medicine is even more important than it is usually supposed to be. Substances perfectly inert and useless in one dose may prove in another active and valuable. Hence may be explained the great efficacy of many mineral waters, whilst the ingredients which impart activity to them are found comparatively inert, when they become the elements of an artificial combination; and hence probably the failure of many alterative medicines, when no other rational cause can be assigned for it. ”

“ In tracing the history of the Materia Medica to its earliest periods, we shall find that its progress towards its present advanced state, has been very slow and unequal, very unlike the steady and successive improvement which has attended other branches of natural knowledge; we shall perceive even that its advancement has been continually arrested, and often entirely subverted, by the caprices, prejudices, superstitions, and knavery of mankind; unlike too the other branches of science, it is incapable of successful generalization ”

“ A patient in the hands of such a practitioner has not a much better chance than the Chinese Mandarin who, upon being attacked with any disorder, calls in twelve or more physicians, and swallows in one mixture all the potions which each separately prescribes!
Let not the young practitioner however be so deceived; he should remember that unless he be well acquainted with the mutual actions which bodies exert upon each other, and upon the living system, it may be laid down as an axiom, that in proportion as he complicates a medicine, he does but multiply the chances of its failure. ”

“ Let us then, before we decree the honours of a cure to a favourite medicine, carefully and candidly ascertain the exact circumstances under which it was exhibited, or we shall rapidly accumulate examples of the fallacies to which our art is exposed; what has been more common than to attribute to the efficacy of a mineral water, those fortunate changes of constitution that have entirely or in great measure, arisen from salubrity of situation, hilarity of mind, exercise of body, and regularity of habits, which have incidentally accompanied its potation. ”

“ It is impossible to cast our eyes over such multiplied groups, without being forcibly struck with the palpable absurdity of some—the total want of activity in many—and the uncertain and precarious reputation of all—or, without feeling an eager curiosity to enquire, from the combination of what causes it can have happened, that substances, at one period in the highest esteem, and of generally acknowledged utility, have fallen into total neglect and disrepute;—why others, of humble pretensions and little significance, have maintained their ground for so many centuries ”

“ The custom of infusing bitter herbs in vinous drinks is very ancient and universal; the Poculum Absinthiatum was regarded in remote ages as a wholesome beverage, and the Wormwood was supposed to act as an antidote against drunkenness. The Swiss peasant cheers himself amidst the frigid solitude of his glaciers, with a spirit distilled from Gentian, the extreme bitterness of which is relished with a glee that is quite unintelligible to a more cultivated taste. ”

“ It is an instinct in our nature to follow the track pointed out by a few leaders; we are gregarious animals, in a moral as well as a physical sense, and we are addicted to routine, because it is always easier to follow the opinions of others than to reason and judge for ourselves. “The mass of mankind,” as Dr. Paley observes, “act more from habit than reflection.” What, but such a temper could have upheld the preposterous system of Galen for more than thirteen centuries; and have enabled it to give universal laws in medicine to Europe—Africa—and part of Asia? ”

“ The degree of solubility possessed by a medicinal substance may perhaps be regarded by some practitioners as a circumstance of but little or no importance; it will however appear in many cases that it not only influences the activity of a remedy, but, like its dose, goes far to determine its specific operation; indeed, where a medicine is not, in itself, very soluble, the increase of its solubility by any chemical expedient, is tantamount to an increase of its dose. ”

“ As years and fashions revolve, so have these neglected remedies, each in its turn, risen again into favour and notice, whilst old receipts, like old almanacks, are abandoned until the period may arrive, that will once more adapt them to the spirit and fashion of the times. Thus it happens that most of our “New Discoveries” in the Materia Medica have turned out to be no more than the revival and adaptation of ancient practices. ”

“ Daily experience convinces us that the same quantity of alcohol, applied to the stomach under the form of natural wine, and in a state of mixture with water, will produce very different effects upon the body, and to an extent which it is difficult to comprehend; it has, for instance, been demonstrated that Port, Madeira, and Sherry, contain from one-fourth to one-fifth their bulk of alcohol, so that a person who takes a bottle of either of them, will thus take nearly half a pint of alcohol, or almost a pint of pure brandy! ”

“ I have already observed that all extravagant systems tend, in the course of time, to introduce practices of an opposite kind; this truth finds another powerful illustration in the history of medicinal combination, and it becomes a serious question, which it will be my duty to discuss, whether the disgust so justly excited by the poly-pharmacy of our predecessors, may not have induced the physician of the present day to carry his ideas of simplicity too far, so as to neglect and lose the advantages which in many cases beyond all doubt may be obtained by scientific combinations. ”

“ The advanced state of Botanical Science will now prevent the recurrence of those doubts and difficulties which have formerly embarrassed the history of vegetable remedies, by furnishing a strictly philosophical language, independent of all theory, and founded upon natural structure, and therefore necessarily beyond the controul of opinion; while the advancement of chemical knowledge, by enabling us better to distinguish and identify the different substances we employ, will also materially assist in preventing the confusion which has formerly oppressed us. ”

“ Crawford, in proof of the chemical origin of animal heat, are highly ingenious and plausible, but it is now generally admitted that the temperature of animals depends upon the living principle [180] which animates them, and that although the absorption of oxygen, in the act of respiration, may directly contribute something to its production, yet that its chief action is that of serving as a stimulus to the living power in generating it; for, as Sir Gilbert Blane [181] remarks, oxygen plays an interesting and active part as an exciting power throughout all nature, both animate and inanimate. ”

“ CREDULITY. Although it is nearly allied to Superstition, yet it differs very widely from it. Credulity is an unbounded belief in what is possible, although destitute of proof and perhaps of probability; but Superstition is a belief in what is wholly repugnant to the laws of the physical and moral world. Thus, if we believe that an inert plant possesses any remedial power, we are credulous; but if we were to fancy that, by carrying it about with us, we should become invulnerable, we should in that case be superstitious. Credulity is a far greater source of error than Superstition ”

“ The Pilulæ Opii of the former Pharmacopœia of London, consisted of equal proportions of opium and extract of liquorice, and the mass was so insoluble that its effects were extremely uncertain and precarious; in the present edition, soap has been very judiciously substituted; but in certain cases where we wish to protract the influence of opium, or that of any other active body, so as not to obtain its full effects at once, we may very advantageously modify its solubility by combining it with a gum resin or some substance which will have the effect of retarding its solution in the stomach. ”

“ It is a well known fact that volatile bodies are sooner converted into a gaseous state by the presence of water in the atmosphere; this is strikingly exemplified by the greater rapidity with which Limestone is burnt and reduced to quick-lime in moist weather, and by the assistance which is rendered in a dry season, by placing a pan of water in the ash-pit; so again the perfume of flowers is most sensible when the air is humid, as during the fall of the evening dew, or in the morning when the dew evaporates, and is dissipated by the rays of the rising sun ”

“ THE ASSIGNING TO ART THAT WHICH WAS THE EFFECT OF UNASSISTED NATURE, OR THE CONSEQUENCE OF INCIDENTAL CHANGES OF HABIT, DIET, &c. Our inability upon all occasions to appreciate the efforts of nature in the cure of disease, must always render our notions, with respect to the powers of art, liable to numerous errors and multiplied deceptions. Nothing is more natural, and at the same time more erroneous, than to attribute the cure of a disease to the last medicine that had been employed ”

“ That an impression made upon the stomach by a medicinal agent, should be the means of exciting an action in the distant parts of the machine, will not appear extraordinary when we consider how universal a sympathy and control this central organ exercises over every function of the body; imbued with exquisite and diversified sensibilities,—subjected to the first and coarsest impressions of our various ingesta,—stretched occasionally to an enormous extent by the unrestricted indulgence of appetite,—disturbed by the passions,—exhausted by volition, and debilitated by intense thinking ”

“ In apportioning the dose of a very active medicine, it is of the greatest moment to determine the relative degrees of power between the system and the remedy, and to know to what extent the latter is likely to be carried, consonantly with the powers of life to resist it; thus, after a patient has been exhausted by protracted and severe suffering and watching, a dose, different to one at the commencement of the disease is requisite. ”