cypress was set on fire for this purpose, and the efficacy of the remedy was heightened by the needle-shaped leaves of the tree flying off and sticking in the spirit.
Sometimes a medical man may feel disposed to smile when he sees the priest in church “censing” the Bible in order to drive away the evil one before he begins to read it. Yet fumigation has lingered on long in medicine as well as in religion. During the severe epidemics of cholera in Egypt not so many years ago, hundreds of pounds weekly were spent upon bonfires of sulphur in the streets of Cairo, a method of disinfection more likely to drive of demons than to destroy the comma bacillus in the drinking-water !
In mediæval, Jacobean, and Georgian medicine, fumigation was a favourite remedy. Every one, for example, is familiar with the old-fashioned treatment of fainting by burning feathers under the nose. And perfumes and aromatics in general were widely used in the medicine of those days, as the following extract from Salmon’s “Dispensatory” (1696) shows :
“Balsamum Apoplecticum Horstii, Apoplectick Balsam of Horstius.
“Take of the Oils of Nutmegs ℥i., of white Amber rectified ℥ƒ, Roses (commonly called Adeps Rosarum) of Cinnamon A. ℈i., of Lavender, of Marjoram A. grs. xv. of Benjamin, of Rue A. ℈ƒ of Cloves, of Citrons A. grs. iv. Mix all well together, then add Ambergrise ʒƒ, Oriental Civet ℈iv., Choice
