State of Medicine in remote Ages--Animals Teachers of Medicine--Gymnastic Medicine--Cato’s Cure for a Fracture--Dearness of ancient Medicines and Medical Books--Absurdity of the ancient Materia Medica: Gold, Bezoar, Mummy--Prescription for a Quartan--Amulets--Virtues of Gems--Corals--Charms--Charm for sore Eyes--Medicine connected with Astrology--Cure by Sympathy--Sir Kenelm Digby--The real Cause of the Cure--The Vulnerary Powder, &c.--The Royal Touch--Evelyn’s Description of the Ceremony--Valentine Greatrakes--Morley’s Cure for Scrofula--Inoculation--Vaccination--Dr. Jenner--Animal Magnetism--M. Loewe’s Account of it--Mesmer, and his Feats--Manner of Magnetizing--Report of a Commission on the Subject--Metallic Tractors--Baron Silfverkielm and the Souls in White Robes--Mr. Loutherbourg--Empirics--Uroscopy--Mayersbach--Le Febre--Remedies for the Stone--The Anodyne Necklace--The Universal Medicine--Conclusion. The history of the art of medicine begins with fable and conjecture, and rests on dubious tradition. Fifty years prior to the Trojan war, Esculapius is said to have been deified, on account of his medical skill; and Machaon and Podalirius, his sons, formed the medical staff of the Grecian army before Troy. In the temples of the gods diseases and cures were registered, and engraved on marble tables and hung up, for the benefit of others. The priests, at that time, prepared the medicines, and made it a lucrative trade; and fables were invented to increase the renown of the oracle, for difficult cases were stated to be caused by the immediate wrath of Heaven, in which the only remedies were prayer and sacrifices, fear urging the trembling patients to follow whatever course was prescribed. From the sacred writings little medical information is derived: Moses gave precautionary directions for the prevention or cure of leprosy, consisting chiefly of cleanliness; and religion was called in to enforce the medicinal ordinances. In Babylon, we are told by Herodotus, that the sick were carried out to the public roads, that travellers might converse with them, and acquaint them with any remedies they had seen used in such complaints with success. In Egypt, each physician applied himself to one disease; and Prosper Alpinus, in his History of Egyptian Medicine, reports that they took the hints of curing divers diseases from brute beasts: thus phlebotomy was taken from a practice noticed in the hippopotamus, or river-horse, which bleeds itself when plethoric, by pressing its thigh on a sharp-pointed reed. Dogs and cats are known, when sick, to vomit themselves by eating grass; swine, when ill, refuse meat, and so recover by abstinence. In like manner from numerous bodies, as flies, locusts, &c., being enclosed in amber, it is thought the art of embalming was first suggested.