CHAPTER XIII.

THE PIONEERS OF PHARMACY AND BOTANY—PHYSIC GARDENS. The operation of distillation was unknown to the ancient Greeks and Romans, although Dioscorides and Pliny describe a process which may be considered that of distillation in its infancy. The process was not known in England until the time of Henry II. To the Arabs we are indebted for the discovery of manna, cassia, senna, and rhubarb, also aromatics, such as musk, nutmeg, mace, and cloves. Blisters were known and used by the Arabs, who are the first also on record to mention sugar extracted from the cane, and sugar-candy, which they called honey of cane. Rhazes and Avicenna were the first physicians to introduce improvements in pharmaceutical preparations. The latter was the first to mention the three mineral acids, and distinguish between vegetable and mineral alkalies. In the year 1226, Roger Bacon, a native of Ilchester, in Somersetshire, and a Franciscan monk, may be said to have laid the foundation of chemical science in Europe. He was excommunicated by Pope Nicholas, and imprisoned for ten years for supposed dealings with the devil. He professed to have discovered an elixir of life, which he affirmed prevented corruption of any constitution and the infirmities of age for many years. Following Bacon, at the end of the thirteenth century, came Arnoldas de Villa Nova, or Villeneuve, who was the first to recommend the distilled spirit of wine impregnated with certain herbs, from which we date our use of tinctures in medicine. Basil Valentine followed as a pioneer in the administration of metallic medicines; he made volatile alkali from sal-ammoniac, and noticed the production of ether from alcohol. In the year 1493, Phillipus Theophrastus, Bombast of Hohenheim, afterwards known as Paracelsus, was born near Zurich in Switzerland, a man of extraordinary conceit and boldness, but who wrought a greater change and influence in _materia medica_ than any physician since the time of Galen. He travelled all over Europe, and so obtained an extensive knowledge of chemistry and medicine. This genius of science and quackery, for such Paracelsus must be termed, who scoffed at all the doctrines believed in since the time of Hippocrates, professed to have received his knowledge from the Divine Being Himself. His sheer impudence carried the sympathies of the public with him, and they kissed the skirts of his gown as he passed through the streets, whilst he had among his followers many princes and nobles. He denounced the apothecaries, who, he said, “could only compose insipid syrups and repulsive concoctions, when they have ready to hand at the bottom of their stills, extracts and dyes derived from the best vegetables and minerals”. He disagreed with the doctors also, whose prescriptions he stigmatised as barbarous, and was much against the use of correctives being added to pharmaceutical recipes when they had no natural relation to the preparation itself. He believed in the existence of an active principle in plants, which he termed the “Ether of Aristotle,” that could be isolated and used to avert the various disorders of the human body—an idea which is now the leading spirit in pharmaceutical research. His labours did much to stimulate the practical side of chemistry, though his language was mysterious, as, like other alchemists, he wrapped up all his wisdom and his ignorance in the garb of allegory. He was reported to carry about a familiar spirit in the pommel of a long sword that always hung at his side. Paracelsus is said to have been the first to use mercury internally; he also employed opium, antimony, and lead largely in his treatment; and devised a process for the preparation of red oxide of mercury. He was sent for to many of the European Courts, and by the interest of Erasmus was made Professor of Chemistry at Bale, the first chair that was established in Europe. It was here while seated in his chair, that with arrogant impudence he burnt with great solemnity the writings of Galen and Avicenna, saying that “if God would not impart the secrets of physic, it was not only allowable, but was justifiable, to consult the devil”. He had the greatest contempt for his fellow physicians, and said he had more knowledge in the very down on his bald pate than was in all their writings, and in the buckles of his shoes there was more learning than in Galen and Avicenna, and in his beard more experience than all their universities. The man was a mass of conceit and egotism, yet feared and liked by the people for his boldness. Latterly he took to drinking heavily, seldom taking off his clothes for many nights together. At length he broke down, and the end came at the age of forty-eight, when this singular man died after a few hours’ illness at Saltzburg, in Austria, a bottle of his boasted panacea for all ills being found in his pocket. He believed the human body to be composed of salt, sulphur, and mercury, and that in these “three fast substances” health and disease consist. To give Paracelsus his due, although empiricism and quackery were the chief elements in his career, he exerted an undoubted influence on the medical practice of his time, and with all his egotism did his best to advance the science and art of medicine. The next pioneer was Van Helmont, who flourished some hundred years later. He was the first to notice the existence of gases, also to use alum in uterine hæmorrhage, through which he acquired a great reputation. Little was known of _materia medica_ by the nations of the West from the eighth to the tenth century. The chief cultivation of medicinal herbs took place in the monasteries, each having its own botanical garden, which contributed much to the progress of medicine. At this time the knowledge of the medicinal value of herbs and roots was much more advanced in the East, and we find that during the reign of Almansour, in the eighth century, a large school was founded at Bagdad, which became a refuge for scientists when exiled from Athens and Alexandria. The works of Aristotle and Galen were translated into Syriac, and the greatest generosity and encouragement were shown to _savants_ who settled there. Before this the Arabs had considerable knowledge of the use of plants in medicine, and had made some valuable discoveries. Their physicians recommended the use of senna, tamarinds, and cassia in place of the violent purgatives used by the Greek physicians, and a number of new plants were introduced by Rhazes from India, Persia, and Syria. Mesué wrote his treatise on medicine (_De Remedica_), which, on being translated into Latin, was used as a manual in all the schools up to the Renaissance. Constantine was the first to introduce the most noted Arabic works into Europe, himself a writer of no little repute. Then several Arab travellers added to the store of knowledge; among these, Ebor-Taitor, a native of Malaga, travelled in Asia to study plants, and eventually became minister of the Caliph at Cairo. Otho, of Cremona, in a poem of 1500 lines, contributed his knowledge of plants, and John of Milan, in his _Code of the School of Salerno_, compiled the discoveries of a century in medical botany. Coming to the twelfth century, scientific progress was not so rapid, yet all the investigation that was made originated in the study of medicine. Most of the monasteries and convents besides their botanical gardens, had collections of minerals and animals, which were carefully watched and tended, and the monks and nuns would not only administer to the sick of their own orders, but also to the suffering who claimed their charity. Once lodged there, the treatment was good and wholesome, and consisted mostly of decoctions of simples, backed up by good kitchen medicine, quietness, and rest. One or two monks who had a special knowledge of herbs were usually allotted to this department. It can then hardly be wondered at, that during the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries most of the records we have of medicine are from works by the brethren of the monasteries. An excellent collection of recipes, comprising also a summary of plants, animals, and minerals was compiled by Hildegarde, Abbess of Bingen, and called the _Jardin de Santé_. This good lady, like many other abbesses of her time, was much interested in the art of healing. She cultivated her own medicinal plants, and carefully noted down their properties for the use of others, and thus left a valuable record. In the thirteenth century an advance was made in _materia medica_ by Gilbert and Hernicus Arviell, two Englishmen who travelled through Asia to study plants and their uses. Simon de Cordo, called Simon of Genoa, also took a botanising exploration into Sicily and the islands of the Archipelago, and afterwards wrote a botanic dictionary. Another eminent botanist of this period was Peter de Crescenzi, a man of good birth and fortune, who was born at Bologna in 1330, and who greatly interested himself in botany and horticulture. His great work, which was translated into several languages, was called _Opus Rubarium Commodorum_. Contemporary with Peter were three names we must not omit, _viz._, Vincent de Beauvais, Albertus Magnus, and Arnaud de Villeneuve, who professed a knowledge of alchemy, astrology, and physic. Vincent de Beauvais was a Dominican monk, and his great work, the _Speculum Naturale_, is saturated with the superstition of the time. In this book he states, “the mandragora is of the same shape as the human body; the winged dragon is capable of carrying off an ox, and devouring the same whilst flying”. He also describes the scythion lamb, a sort of animal plant which had roots and grew in the ground, and other fearsome creatures, and declared that “in Scotland the fruits of certain trees, when they fall into the water, produce the birds called black divers”. Villeneuve wrote many treatises on plants and animals, and eventually became teacher of medicine and botany at the University of Paris. He was undoubtedly a man in advance of his time, and boldly declared “that the most solemn mysteries of the Catholic faith could be explained by the teachings of natural history and experimental physics”. He was therefore accused by the magistrates of sorcery and magic, but escaped through the special protection of Charles of Anjou into Italy, where he settled for a long time. The fourteenth century saw little advance in the medical art, but it was enriched by one or two great works. One of these, written in Latin by Bartholomew Glanvil, an English monk, was a kind of encyclopædia of immense size, and was called _Liber de Proprietatibus Rerum_, and had a great reputation for centuries afterwards. The advent of printing about the middle of the fifteenth century rapidly spread the knowledge of more recent discoveries throughout Europe, and many large works on botany and herbalism, illustrated with woodcuts, were published at Mayence and Louvain. At Venice many of the works of the old Arab physicians, Avicenna, Mesué, and others, were printed and eagerly purchased. The discovery of America in 1492 heralded the introduction of numerous fresh additions to _materia medica_, which were brought to this country by explorers and naturalists. In the sixteenth century, by the labours and researches of George Agricola, a German, and Conrad Gesner, a Swiss, a considerable advance was made in the knowledge of what was called chemical medicine and botany. Agricola, who was the greatest mineralogist the world had then seen, explored and spent much time in the mines of Bohemia and Saxony, and thus obtained a practical knowledge of the then known methods of the working of metals. His contemporary, Conrad Gesner, born at Zurich in 1516, has been called the originator of scientific botany, as he was the first to discover a method of recognising each genus and kind by examining the organs of fructification, and in this way discovered 1800 new varieties. A famous physic garden was planted in Paris in the early part of the seventeenth century by Jacques Gohory, an enthusiastic pharmacist, and this garden eventually became part of the _Jardin des Plantes_. In connection with this garden a school of medicine was founded, the first occupant of the chair of chemistry being William Davisson, a Scotchman, and predecessor to Lefebvre, who afterwards became a chemist at St. James’s. The practice of the teachers of this time was to dictate to their students, and in order to save themselves the trouble of dictating and the students the trouble of writing, which was a very laborious matter in those days, the lecturer would write a book. Thus Jean Beguin wrote a chemical text-book in 1612, which passed through no fewer than fifty-three editions. We must not omit to mention two other pioneers of this period, who made important discoveries in botany; they were Matthias of Lille, who eventually settled in England, and Andrew Cesalpin, professor of botany at Pisa. The former first formulated the true principles of classification of plants and arrangement into families, such as the orchids, palms, and mosses; and to the latter belongs the honour of having devised the first system of botany. Having compared the process of generation in animals to the seeds of plants, he distinguished male plants by their stamens, and those which yielded seed as female. The next era is marked by the publication of the first pharmacopœia at Nuremberg in 1542. “For this act,” says Paris, “we are indebted to Valerius Cordus, a young student, who, during a transient visit at that place, accidentally produced a collection of medical receipts which he had selected from the works of the past esteemed writers, and with which the physicians of Nuremberg were so highly pleased that they urged him to print it for the benefit of the apothecaries, and obtained the sanction of the Senate to the undertaking.” To this slight circumstance we owe the institution of pharmacopœias. The first _London Pharmacopœia_ was, however, not published until the reign of James I., in 1618, of which there were twelve subsequent editions, the last being in 1841. The _Dublin Pharmacopœia_ first appeared in 1807, the last edition being published in 1850. Until the Medical Act passed in 1858, the right of publishing the _Pharmacopœia_ for England, Scotland, and Ireland was vested in the College of Physicians of London, Edinburgh, and Ireland respectively; and as these books contained several preparations similar in name and different in strength, such obvious danger arose for travellers that the _British Pharmacopœia_, published in 1864, became, by Act of Parliament, the standard for Great Britain and Ireland. The Chelsea Physic Garden is the oldest public botanical garden in Great Britain, but there were private ones of older date, such as that of Gerard, the author of _The Herbal_, which was situated in Holborn, and that of Tradescant, the famous Dutch traveller, gardener to James I., who had an extensive garden of exotic plants in Lambeth. The founders of the Chelsea Garden were the members of the Society of Apothecaries, who have maintained it for over two centuries entirely for scientific purposes, as was stipulated in the deed of gift, executed by Sir Hans Sloane, in which the growing or cultivation of plants for purely pharmaceutical purposes, or for trade, was strictly forbidden. The origin of this so-called Physic Garden was somewhat amusing, and anything but scientific. The ground was first fixed upon as an eligible spot for building a boathouse for the state barge of the Apothecaries’ Company. This ground was walled in about 1674, and planted with trees in 1678, and herbs were grown in it for use in the company’s laboratories, some of these plants being from time to time exchanged for others from the University of Leyden. Sir Hans (then Dr.) Sloane bought the estate in 1712; and, as might have been expected of a man of his parts, a pupil of the chemist Stahl and of the botanist Tournefort, and a friend of the great Ray, a new era of usefulness was begun in the Chelsea Garden. In 1722 he handed over the land to the Apothecaries’ Society, at a yearly rental of £5, and an undertaking that fifty specimens of fifty species of distinct plants, well dried and mounted as herbarium specimens and properly named, should be handed over to the Royal Society each year until 2000 had been duly delivered. In a catalogue issued in 1730, written by Miller, the head gardener, are enumerated 499 plants, mostly medicinal, so one may judge of the extent of the gardens at that time. Exotics were cultivated in hothouses in 1732, and in 1736 Linnæus paid a visit to the garden. Thomas Dover, the originator of Dover’s powder, was born in England in the year 1660. He settled and practised medicine for a time in Bristol; left there for a period, and returned again. He lived with, and was contemporaneous with Sydenham. He gained much professional reputation on the occasion of a severe epidemic of fever. This may have suggested to him the use of ipecacuanha and opium in a compound. In Dover’s day and time, the apothecaries were in the ascendancy, being the medical practitioners, whilst the physicians were chiefly called in to attend in childbirth and protracted illness. Indeed, it is naïvely stated that the apothecary surgeons rode in their chaises, while the doctors _walked_, and that the former were generally first consulted when the choice of a family physician was to be made. Mercury had at this time an unrestrained use—perhaps _abuse_ would be a better word,—and much severe public stricture was made upon the fact. Crude quicksilver was administered, and Dover was a warm advocate of its use—in fact, he was called the _quicksilver doctor_. One Captain Henry Coit, a patient of Dover’s, took an ounce and a quarter of crude mercury daily, until he had used more than two pounds weight! Dover professed to believe that mercury freed the patient from all vermicular diseases, opened all obstructions, and made a pure balsam of the blood. The doctors and apothecaries were at loggerheads. Dover said the best way to affront the latter was to order too little physic—each patient being deemed to be worth a certain sum to the dispenser. In 1708 Dover joined the company of a group of Bristol merchants in a scheme to fit out two vessels for privateering in the South Seas. Dover, it seems, went as captain, and the voyage was eminently successful in booty. They took in various reprisals from the Spaniards—the hoards of treasure and gold which they in turn had obtained from the native Indians—the principle of _might_ applied to _right_. The expedition returned to Britain enriched with spoil, the treasure amounting to £170,000 sterling. It was during this memorable voyage that Dover, landing with some of his crew on the island of Juan Fernandez, discovered the existence of Alexander Selkirk—Robinson Crusoe—in his dreary solitude on this desert shore.