SIR JOHN MIDRIFF

OBSERVATIONS on the Spleen and Vapours: CONTAINING Remarkable CASES of Persons of both Sexes, and all Ranks, from the aspiring DIRECTOR to the humble BUBBLER, who have been miserably afflicted with those melancholy Disorders since the Fall of South-Sea, and other publick Stocks; with the proper Method taken for their Recovery, according to the new and uncommon Circumstances of each Case. THE WHOLE Digested by way of JOURNAL, and accommodated to publick Use. By Sir JOHN MIDRIFF, Knt M.D. (LONDON: Printed for J. ROBERTS, in Warwick Lane, 1721), pp. ii7.

Nothing is known about this writer apart from the fact that his name was not Midriff and he was probably not a knight. His satirical pamphlet, published in 1721, appeared fresh in the wake of the South Sea Bubble. The South Sea Company had been set up in 1711 and given a monopoly over trade with the South American colonies. Many people from all walks of life in Britain invested enthusiastically. Its shares increased in value tenfold, leading to widespread selling, a rapid drop in their value and a plunge in confidence. Apart from those few who had sold straight away, investors suffered enormous losses, worst of all amongst late investors who had paid top prices, often with borrowed money, only to see their shares reduce in value to around one tenth of their purchase price. This took place in the autumn of 1720. Midriff s pamphlet, therefore, has a claim to be the first medical satire to be based on a banking and investment crisis. From the detail he gives of medical prescribing, and from the kinds of symptoms he observes, it would seem likely that Midriff, whoever he was, had medical training, was possibly even a practising physician, in which case the patients he describes could well have been based on actual experience. The writing is not without ability, and while the intention is clearly satiric, aimed at the folly, avariciousness and vanity of those who unthinkingly follow a trend, it points at the same time to a strong relation between the incidence of illness, especially mental illness, and current events. The mass hysteria that accompanied the Bubble, with people increasingly desperate to invest and share what looked like easy money, was inevitably followed by a period of depression. The rise and fall of the nations financial well-being was matched by a similar dramatic shift in mood
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for significant numbers of people, and the force of the change would be most evident in the pattern of symptoms reported to the nations physicians. A stock figure in satires for much of the century, especially in periodical journals, was the person driven mad by the search for a sure means of finding the longitude at sea, for which parliament had offered a prize of 20,000 in 1714. The French Revolutionary period saw an increase in the number of mental patients obsessed by conspiracy fears. Midriff has identified a genuine factor relating to individual mental health, and one that has remained a powerful influence through the various national and international crises in the years since he wrote.

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Observations on the Spleen and Vapours

PREFACE.
The writing of practical Observations is so ancient, and so universally approvd among Physicians, that I need make no Apology for following that Method in those I now offer to the Publick. I shall only take Notice, that they come forth in the same Order as they stood in my own private journal; and therefore, if they be mixd with Incidents which are somewhat unusual in such Performances, yet, I hope they will not prove the less beneficial, as they are, in every Respect, calculated for the Relief of those Persons who date their Splenetick and Vapourish Disorders from the melancholy Circumstances of the Times, whereunto every good Physician ought to have a strict Regard, as the Impressions made by such Causes may sometimes require other Aids besides those of Physick. But there are other Reasons which may justify my deviating somewhat out of the common Road in this Particular, viz. The many concurring Aggravations which renderd those Maladies more than ordinarily obstinate. The Disasters which happend to Mens Pockets fell out, unluckily, about that Season of the Year,1 when above Two Thirds of the Nation are / naturally Splenetick, and when the Discontented of all Denominations usually set their Plots and Machinations on foot. It is no wonder therefore, if the ordinary Methods can avail nothing, but that we are forced to have Recourse to all the Stratagems and Arguments our Wit and Reason can afford us. This is all the Apology I thought necessary to make for what the Reader may find new or uncommon, and I shall take my Leave, by acquainting him, that I intend my Observations, for the two following Months, Shall also be publishd in a short Time, and will contain all the remaining Occurrences that were most remarkable in that Branch of my Practice, during blank and gloomy Season of the Year; and I doubt not, when my Labours are once finishd, they will have the same Effect with the most efficacious Remedies, either to kill or cure. / From the Feast of St. Michael,2 1720.

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OBSERVATIONS on the Spleen and Vapours, & c.

Henry freeman, Esq;3 aged 42, and of a plethorick Habit of Body, was seizd with a Giddiness, and a Rising in his Throat, accompanyd with Faintness, and many other Symptoms that attend Hypochondriack Disorders. He told me, when I askd him how long he had been ill, that he had found the Distemper creeping on him for above a Month, but that he was every Day grown worse than another; that the Giddiness was but newly come upon him, and that he believd it was causd by a Cold he had got in Exchange-Ally4 the Day before, where he had waited an Opportunity to sell some Stock. He told me likewise, that he had got a Pain, or rather an Uneasiness in his Left Side near the short Ribs; and that he believd it was occasiond by a Jew who came to beat down the Price of Stocks, carrying a large Bag of Money, which, by reason of the Crowd, happend to be pressd several times against his Side; that he had ever since then been troubled with a Faintness; and in fine, that he was so bad, that he believd he could hardly live to another Day, unless I could find some speedy Relief for him. I soon perceivd by those Circumstances, that the Gentleman / had been an Adventurer in the South-Sea, and that all his Ailments had taken their Date from the Time the Stocks began to fall; yet, as I was unwilling to dive particularly into his Affairs, I only told him, that I perceivd he had met with something lately that had lain heavy upon him, which had been the Cause of all these Disorders. That the Giddiness, when accompanyd with a Rising in the Throat, always denoted Trouble of Mind, either from some external Cause, which is able to make too violent Impressions on our Imaginations, or from our own distemperd Imaginations alone. That the Pain and Heaviness in his Side might also, with more Probability, proceed from the same universal Cause, than from any external Injury, as it was for the most part a concurring Symptom. I likewise took notice, that the Spirits were always seizd and much affected in those Disorders; because the Impressions were first made upon them. The Gentleman was fully persuaded that I had fallen rightly upon his Distemper, and began to tell me of his own accord, that he had been a considerable Loser of late, as he was one of the last Subscribers. He said, he always had a Diffidence in that great Project, and was even led into it in Compliance with the Multitude, tho it was against the plain Dictates of his own Mind. After which, he askd me if I thought his Disease would prove mortal; for he had never been in such a Condition before. I made Answer, that the Distemper seldom provd mortal to any but those who gave themselves wholly up to it, and would by no means arm themselves against it; I therefore advisd him to be chearful, and not to think too much of his Losses,

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and I would order what was proper, by way of Physick; and when I had prescribd him a Vomit and some Pills, with a Bottle of Cephalic Drops, I left him. Next Day I found him easd of the worst Symptoms, but the Heaviness and Pain of his Side was not / altogether abated, and the rising of his Throat continued; he seemd also to be very melancholy; whereupon I ordered him a Liniment for his Side, and bid him continue in the Use of those Things I had already prescribd; but above all, to arm himself against the Disturbance of his Mind, which I perceivd at that Time to be great; but as he was naturally a Man of Sense and Resolution, he soon got the better of his Distemper. Lady Arabella Blackham, aged 37, of a sanguin Complexion, but of a somewhat delicate Make, was suddenly seized with violent Fits; but before I could get to her Lodgings, they had left her, and she was faln asleep. I askd her Woman after what Manner she was taken, who made Answer, that her Lady had been in a very strange Condition, and had been very ill for a Month or longer, with hot Flushings in her Face, and had got several Cordials from the Apothecary, and was sometimes better and sometimes worse; but that something the Apothecary had said to her the Day before had lain so on her Mind, and had brought her into such Madness, that they were not able to hold her; but she tore every one that came near her, sometimes laughing, and sometimes crying, and was but just quieted. She said her Lady had never been well since the Fall of the Stocks; having put all Misss Fortune into the South-Sea,5 with an Intention to marry her to Sir John Frisks eldest Son, who would have 20000 Pounds a Year at the Death of his Father, that she had borrowed Money on all her own Plate and Jewels, excepting one Salver and a Pair of Candlesticks; and that she believd her Lady designd herself to marry a Gentleman that usd to visit her, but that the Match was broke off within this Fortnight. After so full an Account, I could not be at a loss how to judge of my Ladys Indisposition. I told the young Woman I would wait upon her Lady in the / Morning, because I was of Opinion she would probably rest all Night, after she had been so much fatigud. Next Day I calld as soon as it was proper; but the Lady was somewhat frightend when she first saw me, and askd me if the Plague was come to London; begging, if I had been with any one that had it, not to come near her. I assurd her, London was very free from the Plague, and that she needed not be under any Apprehensions. The reason of the Ladys Surprize, as I came to know since, was from what the Apothecary had said to her. He is accounted a very honest Man; but it seems, from a Desire the Lady should think him learned enough in his Profession, he told her she had some bad Signs, and would be apt to have the Furor Uterinus;6 this being a Disease she had never heard of, made her imagine it might be the new Distemper that now infests our neighbouring Kingdom.

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After I had deliverd the Lady out of all her Fears, I went and examind her Pulse, and found it very languid. She told me she was very full of Pain, and seemd as if she had been beat with Cudgels. That, I said, was nothing but what was usual after all such violent Disorders, and that she would recover her Soreness7 in a few Days. I orderd her some Pills with Asaftida, and a Galbanum Plaister,8 as also an Hysterical Julep to drink after her Pills, or at any other Time when the Fits threatend. I orderd her likewise a volatile and cephalick Mixture, whereby the Lady is now altogether recoverd, excepting only that the Flushings sometimes return upon her. Another Disorder of the same Kind happend also at this Time to one Mary Duroy, the Wife of Thomas Duroy Mercer in the Strand. I found her very much in the Vapours, and scarcely sensible; she told me little of her Indisposition, but said she was the unhappiest Woman in the World. That she had / a Husband, who kept all his Affairs to himself, and never would acquaint her with any Thing he did, but went on his own Way to ruin himself and his whole Family. But as I had no Business with the Concerns between Man and Wife, I turnd to an elderly Woman who attended her as her Nurse, to learn what Condition her Mistress had been in. But the Nurse had, it seems, entred into Confederacy with her Mistress against Mr. Duroy; and to please her, had been exasperating his Faults, and, at the same Time, heightening her Mistresss Disorders. For instead of answering my Question, she took up the Story where the other had ended. We Women, says she, are now-a-days no more looked upon by the Men, than if we were Hobby-Horses.9 Look ye, Sir, my Master went a stock-jobbing, and usd to get his hundred Pounds a Day; my Mistress, like a good Wife, kept in the Shop all the while, from Morn to Night, and chargd him every Day to bring her home a Gold Watch, which was but a small Thing to his gettings. He told her one Week after another he would be worth 500l. a Year the next, and then she should have one of threescore Pounds; and till then, it was not becoming her to wear one; but God knows how he has jobbd it at last, I am sure he has left my Mistress in a strange Condition, and never comes near her but on Sundays, and then he sits moping all Day without speaking to any Body; and if my Mistress asks him a Question, he tells her shes a Fool, and Women will always be meddling with what does not concern them. Here I put a Stop to the Nurse, who I found was but beginning her Narration, in order to know something of her Mistresss Disorders; but they were both so full of their Indignation against Mr. Duroy, that I could learn but little from them. The Hopes and Expectations of most Women are too violent to be baulkd, and when they meet with / Disappointments, their soft delicate Natures are the least able to bear them; they never fail to occasion great Disorders, both in Body and Mind, let the Object be never trifling. The chief cause of Mrs. Duroys Sickness, by what I could gather, proceeded from the Want of the Gold Watch, a thing she had set her Heart very much upon, and perhaps had conceived Ideas

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of insulting some of her Neighbours,10 who had got the start of her in other Respects. I found her Case to be much the same with that of Lady Arabella, and therefore put her under the same Method of Cure. The Accident which happened to that Lady, put me also upon a Stratagem which I managed, so as to be of Benefit to her, not withstanding it had like to have cost the other her Life. Nothing contributes so much to wear off a settled Imagination, as the giving Birth to some new Passion. I told her there was a very dangerous Sickness in Town, and tho she was altogether free from any Symptoms of it, yet it behovd her not to give Way to fretting, otherwise I could not promise what might follow. Upon this both she and her Nurse were quieted, Mrs. Duroys Sorrow and Discontent was changed into a moderate Fear, which soon wore off, and now she is so well, as to attend her Husbands Business in his Absence. This Week I was calld to several other Women in the same Condition, viz. to the Wife of a Salesman in Long-lane, who had raild at her Husband for selling old Rags, when others were getting Estates in the South-Sea, and setting up their Coaches. The Wife of John Tape, Haberdasher of Small-Wares, who, by the Losses her Husband had sustaind in the Bubbles, was disappointed of a Diamond-Ring, a new white Damask Gown and Petticoat, and a large Silver Cup, which she intended against her next Lying-in.11 But there is one Circumstance which ought not to be omitted, because it contributed very much to / the Aggravation of her Distemper, and that was her Husbands ill Usage. It seems she had been the Cause of his going into the Bubbles; and from the Time they sunk, he never ceasd upbraiding her with her imaginary Finery, until he made the poor Woman not only miscarry, but in that Weakness almost distracted. Martha Firkin, the Wife of Jonathan Firkin, Cheesemonger, and Mary Pickle, the Wife of James Pickle, Salter,12 were also in a miserable Condition. I found both these good Women had persuaded their Husbands very earnestly not to meddle with the Stocks. But the one had promisd his Wife a new Damask-Bed for the best Chamber, and an easy Chair of the same, with a Carpet for the Dining-Room; and the other had bought his Wife a Set of new China, with half a dozen newfashiond Spoons, a Silver Tea-Pot, and a Soop-Ladle; but the Misfortunes those Men had drawn upon themselves, had been the Cause of their Wives Disorders. Most of these have succeeded very well under my Care; but there was a Number of others who are like to continue in a miserable Condition, whose Names I have omitted out of Tenderness, because I found them subject to an Infirmity which is not altogether becoming their Sex; and that is, an unseasonable and immoderate Use of Spirituous Liquors. Nothing is so destructive to hysterical Women as Drams; and yet, from a kind of craving Necessity, they are apt to have Recourse to them in their Languors and sinking Fits, which confirm them so into a Habit, that they return upon every Surprize, or upon the least slight Disorder. /

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ANON.

A Treatise of DISEASES of the Head, Brain, and Nerves. More especially of the PALSY, APOPLEXY, LETHARGY, EPILEPSY, CONVULSIONS, FRENZY, VERTIGO, MEGRIM, inveterate HEAD-ACH, &c. with Directions for their Thorough Cure; and how these and many other deplorable Nervous Distempers, may be Prevented as well as Cured, and consequently many Lives saved, by the Medicines herein, in English, prescribd without the least Reserve. To which is subjoind, A DISCOURSE Of the Nature, real Cause and certain Cure of Melancholly in MEN, and Vapours in WOMEN: Instructing Persons how to Cure themselves absolutely of these perplexing and pernicious Disorders, with Safety, Ease, and Expedition. By a Physician. (The Fourth Edition Corrected. Printed, and Sold by the Authors Appointment, at the Two Blue Posts, in Haydon-Yard in the Minories, London, 1721), pp. 518.

The author of this work is unknown, though he clearly had a medical background and, given that the present text is from the fourth edition, his book can be assumed to have sold in reasonable quantities. The work addresses a very wide range of diseases of the head, many of them physical, and melancholy is only one of them. Even here, his is a distinctly material view, with the various kinds of melancholy usually explained by something happening in the body. Melancholy, it seems, can be accounted for as readily as apoplexy, vertigo or migraine. This is particularly the case when he turns to what he regards as the most common form of melancholy, that of the Hypochonders (p. 47). Here there are very firm physiological causes, with conspicuous symptoms manifest in certain parts of the body, like the stomach, the bowels, the heart, the bladder and the lungs. One noticeable feature of the discussion is the attempt, like Burtons, to embrace a large number of different subdivisions of melancholy under the single label, rather as depression in our own time is taken to cover a multitude of causes and manifestations. Some, like his fifth heading, Melancholly of the Womb (p. 47), are surprising to a modern reader, while others seem to be splitting hairs in order to discover a distinction. The intention, however, is clear: to organize different experiences of what he takes to be the same fundamental condition in order to present the appearance of an ordered classification, and therefore understanding, of his topic. He is noticeably more comfortable, though, with hypochondriacal melancholy, where there are indisputable and easily recognized
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bodily symptoms with, therefore, more readily prescribable treatments inevitably involving evacuations. Interestingly, like George Cheyne a decade later, who popularized the idea, the Physician at one point reverts to the Aristotelian notion that to suffer from melancholy is a mark of some mental distinction: it being seldom seen that Fools and Blockheads are troubled with that Distemper. His conclusion, that I never found, where the Patient was steady in the Method prescribed him, but that in the End a Cure was obtained (p. 49), is indicative of the energies and optimism of medicine during the course of the eighteenth century, albeit an optimism that was frequently misplaced.

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A Treatise of Diseases of the Head, Brain, and Nerves

A DISCOURSE
of the Nature, real Cause, and certain Cure of Melancholly in MEN, and Vapours in WOMEN:

Instructing Persons how to Cure themselves absolutely, of those perplexing and pernicious Disorders; with Safety, Ease, and Expedition.

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CHAP. I.
Of Melancholly; its Nature, Cause, and Cure.

Tho Melancholly cannot be strictly said to be a Disease of the Head, yet as the Head is oftentimes disturbed by it, it comes properly enough to be spoken of here. Melancholly, or as some call it, the Hippo, is a sort of Dotage arising from disturbd Phantasms1 filling / the Person afflicted with anxious Thoughts and Solitariness, being, as it were, ingulphed therein, with Pensiveness, Fury, or Fever; some are afflicted with a deep Sadness or Pensiveness, without apparent Cause, and a long continued Silence, or else an incongruous Talk at random of some particular Thing. It is caused by a Distemper of the Animal Spirits, hurt by a Malancholly Phantasm or Vapour, made misty, opacous,2 thick, and dark, almost fixd and immoveable, and from thence it is that Melancholly People are Tenacious; for that all kinds of objects are fixd in their Minds, according to the
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Condition and Quality of the depravd Spirits; and this is acquired either from a default in the Brain, declining from its genuine Whiteness, and generating such like Spirits, or from a default of the Blood and Vital Spirits, or from some degenerate Melancholly Matter, as Humour, Vapour, or both, mingled with the Blood and Spirits. If it proceeds from the Brain, it is known by Sadness, Fearfulness, Hatred, and other strange Imaginations; some think themselves Beasts, some one thing, some another; some would kill themselves, others are afraid, some laugh, some weep, some prophecy, &c. which shews it is from Melancholly Blood. The Species or Kinds of Melancholly are many, as first, that of the Brain, when it declines in Quality of Substance from its Purity and Cleanness, which is known by a perpetual and vehement Doting, arising either externally, from strange Fancy and Imagination, as from Fear, Dispair, and such like sad Afflictions of the Mind, which dry up the radical Moisture, and cause Cares, Watchings, &c. or internally, from a Melancholly Humour gathered together in the Head, either by some cold or dry Matter left behind in the Brain, after some hot Distemper, / the thinner part of the Matter being resolvd and gone; Or from a Melancholly Habit and Constitution, either Hereditary from the Parents Blood, or from a cold and dry, or hot and dry Disposition of the Body, causing either Doting with Laughter, or a dull Slothfulness, or Anger, Discontent and Peevishness. 2dly, Another kind of Melancholly is that of the whole Body, the Blood having acquired a Melancholly Habit, distributing the same to all the Parts, and then to the Brain; this is known because the Dotage or Delirium is indeed continual, but so that it is with some Exasperations and Remissions, with general Signs of a Melancholly Habit. 3dly. There is another sort of that Distemper, calld the Melancholly of the Heart, when the Vital Spirits that are there bred, by reason of a cold and dry Distemper, are made impure. 4thly, There is that which is Hypochondriacal, wherein Melancholly Juice either cold and serous, or adust and burnt, in the Branches of the Vena Porta, is gathered together in the Hypochondria, (which occasions the most common sort of Melancholly, from whence, time after time, black Melancholly Vapours are continually sent forth to corrupt the Animal Spirits in the Brain; and this is known by its seizing the Patient by Intervals and certain Seasons, but in its approach, it surprizes without any Notice, except by windy Belchings and a Pain distending the Stomach, with Anxiety of Mind, Difficulty of Breathing, Palpitation of the Heart, Immoveableness of the Tongue, Mist or Darkness before the Eyes, Noise in the Ears, and a Stupidity or Benumbedness in both Arms. These Melancholly Vapours or Humours, are transmitted from the Hypochondria to Brain, either by the Orifice of the Stomach, as / some imagine, or else by the Branches of the Vena Cava, where they cloud and darken the Spirits.

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5thly, There is Melancholly of the Womb in Women, which is discovered by a Pain in the Left-side, and a manifest Pulse and Beating in the Back near the Diaphragm, being caused by Stoppage of the Courses, or other Natural Evacuations. 6thly, There is a Melancholly from Love, occasioned either from Philters or Love Potions, or else from a Lustful Appetite, or Desire of Venery, caused from an hot Constitution, and an over abundance of Seed; in which Case the Fancy is not fixd upon one Person, but the Patient by Fits delights to be in the Company of Men promiscuously, talks leudly, and is ready to call them to her, tho before, and at other times, she is very Chaste and Modest. But as the sort of Melancholly which generally afflicts People, is that of the Hypochonders, it may not be amiss to say something more at large of its Nature, and after that of its Cause, before I come to shew the Cure of it. Hypochondriack Melancholly is a Collection of filthy and vicious Humours in the Branches of the Vena Porta, Caeliacal and Mesenterical Arteries, by reason of a Fault of the Concoction of the Spleen, without Putrifaction, thence sending many Vapours, causing imminent Symptoms. Tis calld Hypochondriacal, because it possesses the place of both Hypochonders, viz. that part of the Body, which under the Bastard or short Ribs, reaches as far as the Loins, on both sides, comprehending with the Muscles the Bowels themselves, and calld Melancholly, when the Brain is affected by Consent. Those that are afflicted with Hypochondriack Melancholly, find a Rawness, Windiness, sharp Belchings, Crudities, Burning, and Pain of the Stomach and Sides, which / are pluckd upwards, and sometimes inflamed; the Belly is bound, sleep little, and that with troublesome Dreams, Sadness, given to be Thoughtful, Idle, &c. These are the general Symptoms, but the more particular ones, which people afflicted find more or less, according as they are of Constitution, &c. are ranged as follow, viz. 1. Crudity of the Stomach, so sower sometimes as to set the Teeth an Edge. 2. Pains in the Stomach, reaching even to the Back, and returning upon Eating. 3. Costiveness of Body, from an universal Melancholly Habit. 4. An Inflammation of the Hypochonders, attended with Redness of the Cheeks, and sudden Flushings in the Face. 5. Urine sometimes thin and pale like Water, and sometimes thick and troubled with now and then a Sediment of red Sand. 6. A Motion of Wind in the left Hypochonder causing great pain. 7. Anxiety, caused by Wind distending the Hypochonders, thereby causing a straitness in those Parts, which have Nerves from the sixth Conjugation. 8. A Palpitation of the Heart, either from the Malignity of the Vapours in the part, or by Consent of the Stomach.

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9. A beating in the Left Hypochonder, caused either by the great Pulsation of the Caeliacal Branch of the Arteries after Anger or violent Motion, or by the Compression of the Arteries in the Mesentery, by the Glandules being more than ordinarily extended. 10. A Dryness in the Mouth, Tongue and Palate, by reason of hot Vapours ascending through the Gullet and rough Artery./ 11. A Difficulty of Breathing, both by reason of the Affection of the Nerves dedicated to the Muscles of the Breast, and of the Affusion of evil Matter into the Spaces of the Muscles. 12. A Perturbation of the Brain from Vapours resolvd, which if they be obscure they darken the Spirits, and cause Melancholly Dotage; if dry, an Epilepsy and Watchings; and if many, the Vertigo and a Fear of Strangling, or Stupidity. These are the Symptoms of Hypochondriack Melancholly, but all of them are rarely to be seen in one Person, the most certain Symptoms that always attend are Gripings and Wind in the Bowels, a weak Stomach, and sometimes a very keen one, Costiveness, Belchings, Palpitation of the Heart, Perturbations of the Head, and a disturbd or uneasy Mind. The Symptoms being thus premised, let us now inquire more particularly after their Cause. The first Cause is a Vicious Acid in the Stomach, inlarging the Appetite, but unfit for Digestion, hence ensues an Acid Crudity in the first Passages, which depraves the Crasis3 of the Blood, prevents the due separation of the Volatile Spirits; upon, which the Lymphatick Juice becomes Acid, and the Bileous Juice Inactive. These are the Sources of all the preceding Symptoms, since Wind, Noise, Griping in the Guts, and Costiveness, are the natural Result of a Viscous Acid in the first Passages; as also Flushings in the Face, arising from its Effervessence with the Bile. The Convulsions of the Nervous Membranes in several Parts of the Body, are the Effects of its Irritation; its Crudity impairs the due Fermentation of the Blood, and causes a Palpitation of the Heart, and difficulty in Breathing; it depraves the Nutritious Juice of the Bowels, which settles into hard Swellings, and occasions / a Degeneracy and Austerity in the Spirits; hence Fear, Melancholly, irregular Thoughts, and uncouth Emotions ensue. The Procatartick or remote Causes that promote Crudities, are Acid Liquors, or Salt Victuals, or such as are dried in the Smoak; both which partake of the Acid Spirit of Salt or Soot; want of Motion to promote Digestion, and the speedy Assimilation of Chyle; Nocturnal Study or Care, exhausting the Blood and rendring the Lympha Acid, which at length brings on a Nervous Atrophy; this Disease being an Enemy to the Nervous System.

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So much for the Symptoms and Causes of the Hypochondriack Disease, which is generally observd to happen to Scorbutick Bodies, and to People of the best Sense and good Understanding, it being seldom seen that Fools and Blockheads are troubled with that Distemper. This Disease is truly difficult to Cure, by reason of the mighty Heap of Symptoms that commonly attend Persons afflicted with it; it is seldom mortal, but of very long continuance, sometimes lasting even the whole period of Life, for which Reason it is calld The Disgrace of Physicans. If it be attended with continual Pain and Giddiness of the Head, it gives fears of the Epilepsy, Apoplexy, or Blindness. If it be accompanyed with a moderate Flux of the Belly, (for it is good to beloose, bad to be costive) Vomiting, or Hmorrhoids, it is good, but if those Fluxes continue long, it is dangerous. Sometimes the Patient seems to be cured, and then in a few Months it returns again. It is much easier cured if taken in the beginning, and happening to People neither in a full, or declining Age; also Men are easier cured than Women; the Fat and Fair, than the Lean and Swarthy. / The Cure of this Distemper consists primarily and peculiarly in opening all Obstructions in the Stomach, Bowels and other Passages, by which the Digestions may be perfected and good Chyle assimilated. Secondly in tempering the Evil Quality of the Humours. Thirdly in evacuating the Morbifick4 Matter. Fourthly in altering the Habit of the Body, and strengthening the weakened Parts. To accomplish these Four Intentions, Authors prescribe more Medicines than there are Symptoms, and which for any one to follow, would rather perplex than profit. Some run altogether on Steel Courses, and prescribe them promiscuously to all; others are much devoted to Testaceous Pouders, which they call Sweetners; others again to Acids, and others in opposition to Alcalies. Some are for Volatile Salts and Spirits, others for fixd Salts and Cardiacks; some highly applaud Emeticks, others condemn them, and cry up Catharticks; others are for Alteratives, others for Aperitives. And thus do they vary as their Opinions or Inclinations lead them, without considering with that mature Judgment they ought, or making just Observations; which is the reason so few are cured, or so ordinarily relieved. But as the whole Cure of this Distemper hinges upon the Four Points mentioned, when those Points are maturely considered, and. Medicines accordingly adapted, it is not to be doubted but the end will be accomplishd; and to speak truly, I never found, where the Patient was steady in the Method prescribed him, but that in the End a Cure was obtained. /

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WILLIAM STUKELEY (16871765)

Of The SPLEEN, Its DESCRIPTION And HISTORY, USES and DISEASES, Particularly The VAPORS, with their REMEDY. Being a LECTURE read at the Royal College of Physicians, London, 1722. To which is Added Some ANATOMICAL OBSERVATIONS in the Dissection of an ELEPHANT. By WILLIAM STUKELEY, M.D. CML. & SRS. (LONDON: Printed for the AUTHOR. MDCCXXIII. [1723][1724]), pp. 647.

Stukeley was one of the most vocal and colourful of the medical men of his time. He was born in Lincolnshire and was intended by his father, an attorney, for a career in the law. His interests, though, were wide, including natural philosophy and antiquities, and he was allowed instead to enter Corpus Christi, Cambridge, in 1703 to study medicine. He graduated BM in 1708 and moved to London to continue his studies, working at St Thomass Hospital under the celebrated Dr Richard Mead for two years, after which he returned to Lincolnshire and set up in medical practice. He moved back to London in 1717, where he became well known both as a physician and as a writer. In 1719 he was awarded his MD by Cambridge University, becoming a Fellow of the Royal College of Physicians in 1720. His interests, however, remained wide, and he was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society in 1718. His circle included not only other physicians like Mead and Sir Hans Sloan, President of the Royal College of Physicians, but scientists like Edmond Halley and Sir Isaac Newton, and the theologian and mathematician William Whiston. His interests in the new science, though, were balanced by his religious orthodoxy. A man, obviously, of considerable energies, he joined in re-establishing the Society of Antiquaries in 1718, became interested in freemasonry, serving as a Grand Master in 1721, and he travelled the length of Hadrians Wall in 1725. He moved again to Lincolnshire in 1726, where he took holy orders, and was presented to the living of All Saints, Stamford, and then again back to London and the living of St George the Martyr in Bloomsbury, which he took up in 1747. During the last twenty years of his life he developed a strong interest in druidism, and even adopted the self-styled title of Arch Druid. He allowed himself to be hoaxed, in 1747, into publishing in support of forged medieval documents, supposedly by
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Richard of Cirencester but actually by Charles Bertram, and also supported the Ossian forgeries by James Macpherson in 1763. Of the Spleen is his best-known work, and in itself mirrors the energies of its author. It is dedicated to Sir Hans Sloan, and includes Anne Finchs A Pindaric Ode on the Spleen among its preliminary pages. It ends, curiously, with a description of two dissections of elephants, one by Stukeley himself and the other by Sloan, complete with engraved illustrative plates. The text of the book is from his own Goulstonian Lecture series, delivered to the Royal College of Physicians in 1722. As such, it is wordy in style, but nevertheless sets out to give a scientific analysis of the spleen, its physical functions (it is the great regulator or watergage to the heart (p. 53)), and its significance, through the regulation of black bile or melancholic juice (p. 55), to the mental and emotional health of the individual, as well as to his physical well-being. Basing his discussion also in Greek medical writers and philosophers, he concludes this extract with examples of figures from the ancients, actual as well as mythical, who suffered from melancholy, and even, he claims, died because of it. As such, he is a distinctive example of a medical man looking to literary and cultural sources of an earlier time to support his views.1

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Notes
1. See Stukeley, William (16871765), ODNB.

Of the Spleen, its Description and History

Sect. XVII. The residue of our time, as order requires, must be allotted to Diseases. consideration of the diseases of the spleen, and what are properly so called, the VAPORS, whither that which goes under the title of hypochondriacism, peculiarly ascribd to men, or the more frequent torment of the fair sex, hysteric disorders. Its obvious the execution of this multifarious task would require a volume, and vastly exceed the boundaries of this lecture (which we have transgressd already) should we pursue it thro its utmost labyrinths. But presuming upon the great candor, as well as patience of the most learned auditory in the world, I shall at present observe, that in case the doctrine we have advancd be founded upon truth, the whole hysteric theory must be fetchd from a somewhat different sourse than has hitherto generally obtaind. Therefore I may perhaps more easily bespeak your curiosity whilst as concisely as possible I only pretend to trace out a general scheme of what may be said upon this disease, which both antients and moderns have attributed to the part, but, as far as I guess, not perfectly apprehended the reason. Whence probably the distemper has been found so difficult and stubborn, and as well as some others stild opprobrium, and flagellum medicorum. Laurentius, Bessardus, &c.1 We said before, life, at least health, when the original stamina are found, depends upon a libration or quipoundium of the solids and fluids mutually opposing each other, much as motion and attraction conserve the volubility of the celestial orbs by a contrary nisus.2 And this is what properly is meant by the constitution of a person, which varies one from another, or in different stages of life in the same, as these fundamental causes cooperate, or prevail one above the other. And the spleen is by us supposd the great regulator or watergage to the heart, and conservator of this quilibrium, like a court of admiralty3 within us; as the moon to our globe is sovereign of the seas, giving a motion salutary, regular and constant to the fluid element. I hope I may be excusd for using such sort of comparisons, since nothing perfects our ideas so well as analogy from things evident to those we endeavor to make so, where the resemblance is tolerably just. How eminent then is the station of the spleen? for it is as necessary that the heart should move, as we may say, by rythm and concord, as that it move at all.

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There must be a nice adjusted plenitude in the vessels, or the animal pump will languish, be disturbd, hurryd or suffocated, as we have already and sufficiently inculcated. And if there be a deviation from this measure on one side or other for some continuance of time, thro failure of this ballance of the spleen, ( tho we suppose all the other viscera and solids in good condition ) great disorders must ensue throout the whole conomy. All secretions must be vitiated of course, the whole mass being of an undue composure. Digestion is depravd, evacuations irregular; nature put upon a million of unguided sallies, convulsions, tumults, and the human machine become a seat of rebellion and misrule, and must suffer in a most unaccountable manner, such we call the vapors. A distemper of so dissimilar a complexion, that it is never alike in any two persons or scarce in two fits of the same person. Sydenbam calls it farrago qudam phnomenon incomposita atque inordinate.4 Other diseases by many learned writers are well solvd by particularities of the afore-mentiond deviations: but this is a complication of them all, and may appositely deserve the definition of a morbus morborum.5 Then, if we consider the consequences of it, when run to some length, and the whole frame drawn into / consent and defection, we need not wonder that without regard to the necessary varieties of age, sex, climate, constitution, diet and other nonnaturals,6 different passions, and a thousand variable incidents, the concomitant symptoms must be as proteiform7 as can possibly be imagind. That where a part is concernd that has so distant and various a communication with others, where the accumulated depravation of so many noble uses as we above assignd, falls on us with full weight, an hysteric hydra8 should be producd. In a word, we may venture to call the vapors a relaxation of the tonic action Definition of the spleen, whether from any proper disorder or defect in it self; or whether joind with an universal relaxation of the vascular compages9 or solids in general, whether causing or caused. But rather beginning the prelude, which must soon be followd by the whole; whence it is but a sort of half life, and accompanyd with the utmost despondence and despair of relief. When we fix the rise and lay the scene thereof in the spirits, or to speak in more intelligible terms, the nervous system, we mistake the consequence and effect for the primary cause. But from hence the name of vapors seems to arise, pointing to those nimble agents in all animal actions, to which we fancy the quick transitions and volatile nature of the symptoms here are most like. As Baglivi makes the meninges, as it were, the heart of the brain; and I think all his doctrin de fibra motrice very much confirmd by our modern practice of snuff-taking;10 so we make the spleen the heart of the abdomen. That each of the three cavities may have its great auxiliary and superintendant, which in their due subordination and harmonic co-operation, constitute the animal conomy. The true heart indeed throws the blood to both the other, the meninges regulate the secretion of the animal spirits which is the cause of the motion to all: But the spleen presides oer the fountain head, the

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Stukeley, Of the Spleen, its Description and History

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organs of concoction and its dependent instruments of distribution of the chyle, which is to make the blood, the ocean whence all streams are derivd and all vitality; not only so, but regulates it, that it may be really useful to the other two, and to the whole. So that for the true cause of this disease, we must search for the foundation, which if weak and defective, no wonder that the highest pinacles nod, and whose fall will only help to make the ruin greater. Such I take to be the case of the spleen in this complex malady, by the ancients calld melancholy or black bile, which they supposd heaped up in the part, and wanted evacuation or volatilisation, so as to become good blood again, and fit for nutrition and other functions of the body. This notion they derivd from inspection, finding generally the spleen in this case much swelld and stuffed with thick unactive blood. The yellow or true bile they thought of a dry and hot temper, this black bile or melancholic juice was cold or moist; meaning that in this circumstance the blood was of an undue crassitude,11 poverty and humidity, and wanted much of the fire which ripens all things. They observd too, that melancholics often vomited black matter like soot, and made black urine with black sediment, all pronouncd signs of the spleen affected. [] That they had a tremor, when they awakd, of all the parts of the left side; so that they saw the truth plainly, tho by their term of refrigeration is meant relaxation, in our later way of speaking, an inactivity of the circulation, and lentor12 of the blood. / Galen defines the hysteric passion an intemperies frigida,13 which neither Cause. arises soon, nor ceases soon, which is no more than a lax and moist constitution, degenerated into an habitual indolence and remissness of action, between the solids and fluids, in which the spleen has so mighty an interest. Gal. [] calls it the distention of the spleen by flatuss. Hipp. says, pituita14 is always joind with melancholy, and that the blood of such is full of ichor and crudities. So that splenetics have no great thirst tho they make much water, they likewise sweat much, and spit for weeks together as if salivated. Any ulcerated part will run much. Old authors complain in these cases of the patients having drank much water. Now this moisture abounding, drowns the volatile salts in the blood, whence the spirits and principles of action in the body; and leaves it thick, black, sluggish, earthy and unqualifyd for its office. The vascular system, which it permeates and nourishes, is become consequently languid and unactive, and both go to wreck from the reciprocal dependance on each other. No marvail the symptoms of this malady are so infinitely various, that they suffer in every limb and member and viscus, even in the whole body to such a degree, that it appears like witchcraft, when it arises from a temper and constitution quite opposite. Most frequently indeed from that which is humid and remiss, yet sometimes from the dry, the hot and fiery, which by an extravagant evaporation and wasting of the fluid and spirituous parts of the sanguinary mass, leaves the blood in just the forementiond condition, or creates this atra bilis, or stagnant state thereof, where

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it was not before; and this seems more peculiarly that melancholy which terminates in madness. So that to point out in few words the causes of the vapors, tis want of action or too much passion, the mind and body join hands in their own overthrow; any thing that depauperates the blood, wastes the spirits, that for some time together defeats the true proportion and harmony between the solids and fluids, which is maintaind by the spleen. Such are a lazy indolent life, lying too long in bed, a stagnating, marshy, saline air, tedious fevers or other diseases, hmorrhages, drinking too much water especially in winter, middle age and peircing wit, for a slow and temperate genius seldom runs into this excess. Too much study, especially upon one topic, variety being as much a relaxation, as total abstinence from books. Nocturnal lucubrations, excessive grief, care, solitude, watchings, solicitude, too much indulgence of one passion, especially that predominant one of love. We may add too much labor and fatigue in a hot, dry air or season, salt food, an abuse of spirituous liquors, which in reality drink up the vital flame. And sometime tis hereditary, as Hipp. says.15 Nor does any thing hinder but that there may be an original and natural debility in the part as well as acquird, particularly where the solids in general appear to be soft and lax. Therefore this being a distemper that scholars and ingenious people are more addicted to than others, the consideration of it must needs be very inviting, but above all in compassion to the tender sex, without whom the world it self would incur the disease, they being one main spring of all action in the wondrous machine. Melancholy. Aristotle probl.16 . 30. enquires why this melancholy should prove so obnoxious to men that have been most famous for war, for wit, philosophy, legislature, poetry, arts, &c. such as Hercules, Ajax, Bellerophon, Empe-docles, Socrates, Plato, Heraclitus, Timon and the like, who all dyd of this distemper; v. Drelincourt. de lienosis17 p. 44. Hercules burnt himself / on his own funeral pile, Ajax slew himself with Hectors sword, Bellerophon wanderd in the Aleian fields,

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Is miser Elis solus errabat in agris, Ipse suum cor edens, hominum vestigia vitans. Hom. II. iii. v. 202.18

Lucian in his comment on astrology supposes Bellerophon a great student in that science, which made him vapord and melancholy, and a lover of solitude. Thence the fable of his being thrown off Pegasus into these famous fields, where I suppose he walkd to contemplate the heavenly motions.19 This is Tullys opinion Tusc. qu. iii. n. 26. Eustach.20 t. i. p. 494 13.
Sic nimi bilis morbum assignavit Homerus Bellerophonteis sollocitudinibus. Nam juveni offenso svi post tela doloris Dicitur humanum displicuisse genus. Rutil.21

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No more is meant by the eating of the heart or liver of Tityus, Prometheus.22 So Empedocles threw his life away in a fit, and little did Aristotle think it would be his own case. And thus was the fate of many other of the famous ancients, as Sappho,23 which gave rise to the several fables and invention of the greek poets. What can we think otherways of Orpheus? thus Virgil describes his symptoms for loss of his wife, Georg. iv.
Septem illum totos perhibent ex ordine menses Rupe sub aeria deserti ad Strymonis undam Flevisse,& gelidis hc evoluisse sub antris. Solus hyperboreas glacies Tanaimqe nivalem, Arvaque Riphis nunquam viduata pruinis Lustrabat, raptam Eurydicen atque irrita Ditis Dona querens. 24

Ovid thus,
Septem tamen ille diebus Squallidus in ripa Cereris sine munere sedit, Cura dolorque animi lacrymque alimenta fuere. Met. x.25

I imagine the same of the Sybils and Prophetesses, of the dancing Corybantes, the revelling Bacchinalians, & c. and Priests in general, who from their secret and silent way of life fell into this calamity, as our modern Carthusians, Hermits, Monks, Dervis, &c. So that when they came to exercise their offices, they were forcd to make themselves drunk and mad, and all their extravagant actions and speeches were taken for sacred fury and inspiration. Then was the time they gave oracles, then they fancyd themselves, or were vulgarly thought to be, possest with a supernatural spirit of wisdom and foresight. And not long since have we seen somewhat very like this in England.26 /

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that season of the Year: autumn, and especially November, was traditionally the time of year when the English were believed to become depressed and suicidal. 2. the Feast of St. Michael: Michaelmas, 29 September. 3. Henry Freeman, Esq: The name, Freeman, whether based on a real case history or not, is clearly chosen to suggest the birthright of every Englishman, and implies that investment in the Bubble was a selling out on, or pawning of, that birthright. 4. Exchange-Ally: in the City, connecting Cornhill, where the Royal Exchange is, to Lombard Street. Trading in stocks and shares was at one time carried out in the open air. The Alley was particularly associated with the South Sea Bubble. 5. South-Sea: The lady has invested her daughters fortune in the South Sea Company, intending to use the profits to capture for her an eligible husband. 6. Furor Uterinus: literally, a fury, or rage, of the womb. 7. recover her Soreness: The meaning is that she would recover from her soreness. 8. Galbanum Plaister: a plaster of lead covered with galbanum, which is an aromatic gum resin derived from Asian umbelliferous plants, mixed with turpentine and other substances. 9. Hobby-Horses: A hobby-horse is a childs toy horse, consisting of a stick, sometimes with two wheels at one end, with a horses head. It also, however, came to mean an obsession, which makes its use here particularly appropriate. 10. insulting some of her Neighbours: showing off in front of them. 11. Lying-in: her confinement after giving birth. 12. Martha Salter: A firkin is a measure of beer, butter or cheese; a salter deals in salted foods. Both names, therefore, are chosen to fit the occupations. 1.

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1. 2. 3. 4. Phantasms: illusions or visions. opacious: opaque. Crasis: the combination of elements or humours in the body. Morbifick: disease-causing.

Stukeley, Of the Spleen

1. Laurentius, Bessardus, &c.: Stukeley is paraphrasing Burton here: Tis a crabbed humour to purge, and, as Laurentius calls this disease, the reproach of Physicians; Bessardus, flagellum medicorum, their lash (Burton, Anatomy of Melancholy, p. 299). Andreas Laurentius (15581609) was a prominent French physician who became Professor of Medicine at the University of Montpellier, one of the foremost medical centres in Renaissance Europe. He was best known for his works on anatomy, Opera anatomica (1593) and Historia anatomica (1600), both of them drawing heavily on previous authorities. We have been unable to trace Bessardus. quipondium nisus: Balance, or equilibrium, was the foundation of the humoral view of the body and of medical treatments that were, in spite of significant progress, still partially based on it. Equally, in the Newtonian universe, systems of motion, of magnetic attraction and repulsion, were responsible for retaining the balance of the solar system,

2.

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3. 4.

5. 6.

7. 8.

9. 10.

11. 12. 13. 14. 15.

16.

even though Stukeley uses the medieval celestial orbs to signify the motions of the heavenly bodies. Nisus means ambition, or inclination. a court of admiralty: The Courts of Admiralty, each covering a section of the English coast, were responsible for all laws relating to maritime shipping and mercantile affairs. Sydenham inordinata: Thomas Sydenham (162489) was one of the most influential physicians of his time, especially in the area of clinical medicine. The quotation is from his Opera Universa, published in London in 1705 (p. 361). The remark means: a hotchpotch without form, clumsy and excessive. morbus morborum: disease of diseases, or sickness of sicknesses. nonnaturals: The six non-naturals of Galenic medicine, so-called because they are environmental rather than bodily inherent, are air quality, food and drink, exercise and rest, sleep and wakefulness, evacuation and retention of waste matter, and mental and emotional factors. They remained influential long into the eighteenth century. proteiform: changeable in form. hydra: The hydra in Greek mythology was a many-headed water serpent with poisonous breath. If one head was cut off, two more would grow in its place. It was killed by Hercules as one of his twelve labours. Hercules cauterized each decapitated neck with a hot brand to prevent the next heads from growing. compages: a linking of several parts, so vascular compages is the system of connections through the blood vessels. Baglivi snuff-taking: This is Giorgio Baglivi (16681707), the Italian physician. The meninges are membranes covering and protecting the brain. Baglivi had made a close analogy between the meninges and the heart, and argued that the dura mater, the harder outer covering, expresses a fluid, reaching the furthest of the nerves, just as the heart does blood. Baglivis Tractatus de fibra motrice et morbosa was first published in 1700, though he developed in earlier works his theories about the living fibres of the body, especially the cerebral membrane. He observed, for example, that a muscle like the heart contracts spontaneously hence Stukeleys comment about snuff, which affects the organs without the intervention of our will. crassitude: the state of being crude and unrefined. For the humours of the body, see Introduction. lentor: slowness. Galen frigid: The phrase means a cold violence. For Galen, see Harvey, Morbus Anglicus, n. 5. Hipp. pituita: Pituita is mucus or phlegm. Hippocrates believed that this was secreted by the brain. For Hippocrates, see Harvey, Morbus Anglicus, n. 8. as Hipp. says: The word hysteria is not found in the Hippocratic Corpus, the collection of texts gathered between the late fifth and early fourth centuries bc. However, Hippocrates has long been credited with the coining of the name. He certainly regarded all psychological disorders as likely to be influenced by heredity. Aristotle probl: Aristotle (384 bc322 bc) was one of the most significant and lastingly influential philosophers of all time. His work covers a multitude of areas, scientific, cultural and ethical as well as in the fields of logic and metaphysics. For a while he was tutor to the future Alexander the Great. The Problema XXX.1 starts: Why is it that all those who have become eminent in philosophy or politics or poetry or the arts are clearly of an atrabilious temperament, and some of them to such an extent as to be affected by diseases caused by black bile, as is said to have happened to Heracles among the heroes? See The

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But when at last, distracted in his mind, Forsook by heavn, forsaking human kind, Wide oer th Aleian field he chose to stray, A long, forlorn, uncomfortable way! Woes heapd on woes consumd his wasted heart. (VI, ll. 2459)

Complete Works of Aristotle, vol. 2, ed. J. Barnes (Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1984), 953a1014 (translation by E. S. Forster). 17. Hercules lienosis: Charles Drelincourt (163397) was Professor of Physic at the University of Leiden. His Dissertatio anatom. practica de lienosis was first published in 1711. In it, he includes the fates of these famous figures of the ancient world, all of whom could arguably have suffered, and even died, from melancholy. Hercules was driven to distraction by the agony of a poisoned shirt. He is widely referred to by Burton in the Anatomy as suffering from various kinds of melancholy. Ajax went mad through jealousy of Odysseus, who had been awarded the armour of the dead Achilles. He slaughtered a flock of sheep under the impression that they were the enemy, and on coming to himself chose to commit suicide rather than live as a madman. He, too, is used by Burton (e. g. Anatomy, p. 253). Bellerephon, the great slayer of monsters, eventually angered Zeus by attempting to fly to Mount Olympus on the back of the winged horse Pegasus and was caused to fall back to earth. He spent the remainder of his days lame, wandering alone through the Plain of Aleion. Empedocles, the philosopher of the fifth century bc, died, according to legend, by throwing himself into the crater of the volcano Mount Etna, apparently to prove that he was immortal and would ascend to the heavens. (See also Burton, Anatomy, p. 244.) Socrates and Plato both had a lasting reputation as melancholics, not least because of the stoical manner of Socrates suicide. Both are widely cited by Burton. Heraclitus, the sixth- to fifth-century bc philosopher, was known as The Weeping Philosopher from his retired and lonely lifestyle. (See Burton, Anatomy, p. 171.) Timon of Athens, who lived around the beginning of the fifth century bc, famously despised mankind. He was the figure behind Shakespeares play, Timon of Athens. He, too, has several citations in Burton (eg. Anatomy, p. 117). 18. Is Il. Iii. v. 202: The story of Bellepheron is in fact told in the sixth book of The Iliad (not the fifth, as Stukeley says). Alexander Pope translates the lines as:

19. Lucian motions: This tongue-in-cheek remark is made by the Greek writer and satirist, Lucian (c. ad 117c. ad 180) in his essay On Astrology: I can never bring myself to believe that he had a flying horse, but suppose he was fond of astrology, engaged in the study of sublime knowledge, and conversant with the stars; that he ascended into the heavens, not by the assistance of a horse, but by the strength of his own mind (The Works of Lucian, from the Greek, by Thomas Francklin, D.D., 2 vols (London: T. Cadell, 1780), vol. 2, p. 58). 20. Tully Eustach: Tully is Cicero (106 bc43 bc), the Roman orator and writer. In his Tusculan Disputations (c. 45 bc) he actually observes (at the reference Stukeley gives) that Bellerophon, like many people, took himself to a lonely desert as fitting to his state of mind. Eustach is Eustathius of Thessalonica (c. 111595), the Greek scholar who became Archbishop of Thessalonica. His commentaries on Homer are in fact collections of previous scholarship and commentary. He casts doubt on the whole story of Bellerophons use of Pegasus. 21. Sic Rutil: The quotation is from Rutilius Namatianus, the Latin poet who lived between the end of the fourth and the beginning of the fifth centuries ad. His elegiac poem De reditu suo gives an account of his journey from Rome to his native Gaul. The

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quoted lines mean: Thus to the malady of too much bile / Did Homer trace Bellerophons despairs; / Mankind were hateful to the outraged youth / After his cruel sorrows wound (ll. 44952) (The Homecoming of Rutilius Caludius Namatianus from Rome to Gaul in the year 416 A.D., ed. C. H. Keene, trans. G. F. Savage-Armstrong (London: George Bell and Sons, 1907), pp. 1467). 22. Tityus, Prometheus: In Greek myth, Tityus was a giant, the son of Zeus and Elara. He split his mothers womb because of his size. He tried to rape Leto, mother of the twin gods Apollo and Artemis, who combined together to kill him. His punishment in the underworld was to be racked during the day while vultures fed on his liver, which grew back each night. Prometheus, for attempting to steal fire from Mount Olympus, suffered the same punishment while chained to a rock, until released by Hercules. Prometheus, too, is cited by Burton (e.g. Anatomy, p. 274). 23. Aristotle Sappho: Towards the end of his life, Aristotle fled, because of anti-Macedonian feeling and to escape a charge of impiety, from Athens to his birth place of Chalcis, though he died of natural causes. Sappho, the Greek poet of the seventh to the sixth centuries bc, was born on the island of Lesbos. At some point she was reportedly exiled to Sicily, though it is believed she eventually returned to Lesbos. Though widely associated with lesbian love, one legend has it that she committed suicide, throwing herself from the Leucadian cliff after being accepted, and then rejected, by the boatman Phaon. 24. Orpheus querens: Orpheus, having failed in his quest to lead his dead wife Eurydice back from the underworld, thereby losing her forever, is described by Virgil as lamenting far from the haunts of men. In John Drydens translation, the lines mean: The wretched swain his sorrows did renew; By Strymons freezing streams he sate alone, The rocks were movd to pity with his moan: Alone he tempts the frozen floods, alone Th unhappy climes, where spring was never known: He mournd his wretched wife, in vain restord, And Plutos unavailing boon deplord. (Georgic IV, ll. 7369, 7504)

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(The Works of Virgil, translated by John Dryden, Esq; in three volumes, Glasgow: Robert and Andrew Foulis, 1769, II, 1556.) Orpheus, too, is cited by Burton (Anatomy, p. 212). 25. Ovid Met. x: Ovids lines are: Seven Days he wanderd without Sustenance, and in a sordid Robe along the Stygian Banks: Care, Grief of Mind, and Tears, were his Food (Metamorphoses X, ll.735) (A New Translation of Ovids Metamorphoses into English Prose (London: Joseph Davidson, 1748), p. 352). 26. I imagine England: Stukeley here collects various cults and groups from antiquity, including the Corybantes, followers of Cybele, goddess of the earth, whose male acolytes are supposed to have castrated themselves and worn womens clothing, and the devotees of Bacchus, god of wine, as well as more modern orders. The remark, not long since , is a reference to the behaviour of late seventeenth- and early eighteenth-century religious sects such as the Ranters, who gained notoriety by committing outrageous and often lewd acts in public for the Lords sake.