For all these we are indebted to the
chemists who first invented and introduced them into practice; although
the use and application, as well as the methods of administering them to
the sick, to cure various other diseases than those they were first used
for, has been greatly improved by several learned and ingenious
physicians.
FOOTNOTES:
[142] See Demonologia, by J.S.F. p. 40.
[143] See Magazine of Natural History, April, 1830.
CHAPTER XXI.
MODERN EMPIRICISM.
In one respect we have but very little occasion to extol our own
enlightened age at the expence of those ages which are so frequently and
justly termed _dark_. We allude to the bold and artful designs of
imposture, and particularly _medical imposture_. Daily are seen
illiterate and audacious empirics sporting with the lives of a credulous
public, that seem obstinately resolved to shut their ears against all
the suggestions of reason and experience. The host of empirics,
mountebanks, and self-dubbed hygeists, which infest the metropolis, and
the tinctures, cordials, pills, balms, and essences, so much extolled by
their retailers, and swallowed by the public, are indeed so many proofs
of the credulity of the age, that to say the least, the march of
intellect has evidently made a _faux-pas_ in this direction.
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