REJUVENATIONS AND SATYRICONS OF YESTERDAY

By PAN. S. CODELLAS, M.D.

SAN FRANCISCO Whence and Whithe r ? and hard labour and exhausting diseases, HEN the grey matter in which the Fates give to men; they lived the human cortex began to like Gods with a soul not touched by sorrow, far away from labour and grief; develop and establish sen- there was no miserable senility; for always sation, perception, emo- the arms and legs were strong and inde- tions, instinctive, purposefulfatigable, or ra - enjoying merry feasts beyond tionalW reactions towards a desired the reach of all evils. They died as if they objective, association, memory, gen- were subdued into sleep.” [Hesiod’s eral intelligence, judgment, then man “Works and Days,” 90 seq.] began to realize environment and attempt to control it. The early man Impos ition of Death in his later intellectual infancy prob- ably was imbued with the curiosity Death was the subject of numerous to answer the question of the origin speculations as to its origin. Among of his earthly appearance and dis- the earliest primitive theories we appearance, of Life and Death. find it commonly thought to be a To primitive intellect human in- trick. At a later period it appears itium and exitus were not two op- to be due to the malevolence of posing ends as they are to maturing demons craving human flesh and for more advanced mind. this inflicting death to men. To some The earliest men thought of life death was the separation of the soul as a natural, normal condition, be- from the body, which was the result cause they realized by it in the male of sorcery. In higher, yet barbarian an increase of man-power and in the mentality, it was imposed as punish- female an added productivity of the ment upon mankind as the penalty tribe, while death was considered for some transgression, for the sin of as an abnormal, terrible misfortune. some fellow being that disobeyed the Therefore death early and gradually tenets of a god or gods, or from the began to assume a more vital and stupidity, overzealous curiosity or greater importance. envy of some lower animal.11 Man’s short route of beliefs and The tradition of ancient peoples, explanations responded promptly to primitives in the past and present, the his surrounding natural phenomena. Old Testament, and folk lore supply ample examples of the cause for which The Golde n Rac e death was engrafted upon mankind.1 The poet sings that there was a time To appease the imposed catastrophe when man enjoyed a blissful, eternal of death, to which even the gods, at juvenility, free of uncertainty, care, least of Egypt, are subject, primitive disease and disability. thought instituted the paregoric con- During the reign of Cronos then lived ception of continued life after the the Golden Race of men, free from ills, corporeal dissolution. Lon gev ity gives another classification by na- The development and retrogression tionality or race, wherein he mentions of the human body and its concomi- Scythians, Romans, Illyrians, Egyp- tant usefulness must have been noted. tains, Arabians, Brachmans, Persians, In prehistoric and ancient times Parthians, Bactrians, Arians, Chros- there must have been individuals of manians, Saccs, and Medes. unusually long life, to whom tradition It is reported that the seer Tiresias naturally added more years as it lived to be six generations old. handed their stories down to posterity, The most noteworthy is the people although we have no written records of Seres in India, who reach an age of them. of more than 300 years. Lucian gives Thus another life problem faced as cause of this long life, plain, simple the emerging human mind, which and rather scanty diet. For the Seres had to be accommodated as well, it is thought by some to be due to the Old Age and Longevity. air, by others to telluric influences or This founded the feasibility of at- to diet or any two of these. The people taining a prolongation of the allotted of the nation of Seres are reported as number of years. Once longevity be- drinking water all their lives.5 came a yearning with an established The Roman statistics that cover basis for support, human ingenuity the times of Vcspcsian show that six with unbridled imagination willingly individuals were 150 years old or more encountered the task of adding more when they died.8 Pliny mentions an years to an individual’s life with Illyrian of 500 years, also a Cyprian expected surety of success. king more than 160 years of age. The Old Testament gives long Litorius of Aetolia is said to have ages among which may be mentioned attained the age of 200 years. Among Noah’s of 150 years, Abraham’s 175, the surviving literature we find several Isaac’s 180 and Jacob’s 147 years. cases of even multiccntenarians. In To the Greeks and Romans lon- the rather recent writings also very gevity was not unknown. Onisicritus advanced old ages are reported, some states that some Greeks, even whole of which appear authentic. families, stayed youthful for centuries; The following is taken from the one named Papalius reached the age works of Dr. William Harvey and is of 500 years.6 given almost in full, as being, I believe Strabo relates that in Punjab some the one case of such prolonged age people live to be more than 200 years with an autopsy: old.6 Lucian’s “Longaevi,” addressed to The anatomical examination of the Quintillus, is an exposition of a de- body of Thomas Parr, who died at the age of one hundred and fifty-two years; tailed study of longevity, an excellent made by William Harvey, others of the treatise on the subject with a very king’s physicians being present, on the systematic and thoroughly method- 16th of November, the anniversary of the ical digestion of the data. He divides birth-day of her serene highness Henrietta his material according to professions Maria, Queen of Great Britain, France, and occupations, among which he and Ireland. includes emperors, generals, philoso- Thomas Parr, born near Winnington in phers, historians, rhetoricians. He the county of Salop, died November 14th 1635, lived 152 years, nine months, was socially organized groupings, we may presented to his majesty the King, by the say that there is no agreeing dis- Earl of Arundel, made an examination position towards senescence, it de- of the body of this aged individual by pends upon the individual, facing command of his Majesty, . . . the afternoon of life and nearing the His body was muscular, chest hairy, setting down, and his aspects, vanities, . . . The organs of generation were healthy, the penis neither retracted nor experience and philosophy. extenuated, nor the scrotum filled with Generally the Greeks had a gloomy any serous infiltration, as happens so com- stare at old age and a pessimistic tend- monly among the decrepid; the testes, too ency. Aphrodite, addressing Odysseus, were sound and large; so that it seemed represents the Olympian view on not improbable that the common report old age, “Age that is pitiless, and was true, viz., that he did public penance ruinous, and weary, and weak, and under a conviction for incontinence, after that cometh on old men, and that is he had passed his hundred years; and his hateful to the gods.” wife, whom he had married as a widow in Hesiod calls age destructive and his hundred-and-twentieth year did not conceives it as “the offspring of Black deny that he had intercourse with her Night” (“Theogony,” 224, 225). To after the manner of other husbands with him the cause of old age is the modern their wives, nor until twelve years back had he ceased to embrace her frequently. complicated mode of living and its The cartilages of the ribs were not found hardships, “for in misery men grow harder or converted into bone in any old” (“Works and Days,” 109). greater degree than they are in ordinary Age is personified as a Ker, a Fate, man; on the contrary they were soft and an unavoidable condition. The ap- flexible. The cause of death seemed fairly pended illustration depicts Herakles referrible to a sudden change in the non- in the act of dealing a deadly blow on naturals, the chief being connected with the head of Geras, or Old Age, as the the change of air, . . . And then for one figure with the cane is inscribed, thus hitherto used to live on food unvaried in settling its identity.3 kind, and very simple in its nature, to be Theognis, the Megarian,2 sheds set at a table loaded with variety of vi- tears, “I weep the exhausting old ands, tempted not only to eat more than wont, but to partake of strong drink, it age”; “the destructive and ugly old must needs fall out of the functions of age overhangs our heads.” He prays all the natural organs would become to Zeus: “Keep far away from me the deranged ... no wonder that the soul, evil Keres, defend me from wasting little content with such a prison, took its Old Age and the end of Death” flight.4 (1015, 1128). To Archilochus, the Parian,2 “the highway of old age is Long life is often the object of charms. Most religions have prayers killing” (Ixv). Simonides, the Coan,2 thinks of “old age as unenviable” for long life. The greater number of good wishes of man to man are for an (ccxxxi). Mimnermus, the Colopho- increase in the number of years of nian,2 lends his lyricism to a dirge, “what is life without the Joyful life. Aphrodite? I wish to die when 1 Attitude tow ards Old Age cannot care of these any longer”; Excluding the collective feeling and “We blossom like the leaves that behavior of clans, tribes or of later come in the spring, . . . but always at the goal stand black Kcres, one shadowy living” (“Agamemnon,” 79 holding in her hand grievous Old seq.). . Age, and the other Death” (ii, 5-10). Euripides spits his venom with He prays to die at sixty free of disease and sorrow. He calls old age painful, exhausting (i: 1, 5, 6, 10). “To Tithonos Zeus gave endless old age, which is colder shivering than death” (iv). Solon, the Athenian and one of the seven Wise Men,2 simply denotes old age ugly (xii, 10). The Greeks of classic and later times may be taken as representing the consensus of the feelings of hu- manity; they all give us a well- nigh concordant opinion, except Plato, whose portrayal of the aged is a self-composed, philosophical, satisfied turning into the downwards arm of the curve of life, facing closer and hate and a curse: “ I hate the horrible closer the terma, free now of the murdering age; be it drowned by the temptations, emotions, ambitions, en- waves of the storm!” (Herakles Fur., thusiasm, desires and dreams of youth 637 seq.). Pindar in almost the same and manhood; this delineates the chord invests his verses (Nem. vii, 5). preserved senility especially in body Strabo, representing the sentiment of and its concomitant infirmities with- a later period, shows no change in the out the mental deterioration. This disposition of the Greeks referring statement may be due to the planning to old age (p. 486). of the Ideal State, for it is found in Aristotle paints Old Age with horror the “Republic” (329A) and cannot for it destroys beauty and vigor and be accepted as representing his candid mars enjoyment, and couples Death personal attitude, while all the rest with it as the “two inevitable de- differ. Sophocles in one place at least mons.” The deep and clear thinker agrees with Plato, yet in another with of Stagira gives us his ideal of good a choleric tone tints this station in old age: it must be free of ill-health, life’s journey: “and then at last age come on slowly, be free of pains, have possess him, age abhorred, infirm, enough strength, naturally adopted unsociable, friendless, that misery of to carry on labors, without annoy- misery may be a room-mate” (Oed. ing others, free of disagrecableness Col., 1230 sqq.). (“ Rhetorica,” 11: xii, 13, 1; v. 15; Aeschylus draws with bold strokes ii, 13). “the over loaded in years old age now This pictures the art of becoming as a dried, lifeless leafage goes over and being a good old man, but the the Three-Foot-Uphill-Journey, not “Spartans knew best how to get old” even having the strength of a child (Plutarch). for the service of Ares, a dream to Nevertheless Old Age generally is open eyes during mid-day, a feeble garbed with honor and respect, being the palpable link of the ancestors, endogamy was enforced. The totem upon whom the whole structure of of the tribe, be it a plant or animal, national life, religion, institutions and was among the tabus. Laws were civilization is founded. Such duty- instituted accordingly, to ban their bound exemplar citizens are the use as foodstuffs. Porphyry says that Spartans. the Egyptians and Phoenicians had The fear to face the inevitable, and rather eat human flesh than that of a desire to escape the ugliness and the cow (de Abst., ii, 11). Generally weakness, that man might die at cannibals eat the enemies for revenge least in advanced good old age with and the relatives for ritual purposes. comparative vigor, was devoutly to There are as many varieties of be wished. anthropophagy as motives: for ac- Calypso to extract a promise from quiring qualities, strength or the soul Odysseus that he stay with her, of the victim, for magical reasons, offered him youthful long life (Od. out of affection, for hatred, through v, 515)- gluttony, for religious, ritualistic, po- litical or social purposes. Certain Evo lut ion of Organo the rap y animals were eaten for their out- The first gross difference that can standing qualities absent in man. Valor, be observed in a dead body compared strength, audacity, ferocity, swiftness, to a living one is absence of mo- cunning, keenness of senses, fearless- tion, cessation of all functions and ness, long life were much sought for sensibility. by early man, that he might be To erect a conception of life and successful in the struggles of life. death from this basis was beyond Probably this was the outcome of the primitive mentality. the established fact of the sustaining In early thought life was confused power of food. Therefore the con- with the soul and other “life” prin- clusion was jumped upon, that by ciples. Finally the idea of life was eating the flesh of a beast or a man, conceived and reared in magic. The his qualities would be assimilated and magical ideation became the chief incorporated into the eater’s body. governing force of social and religious This was fortified by the magical activities. Nutrition and its elemen- theory of the part being equal to tary principles, adopting magic, be- the whole and able to substitute came an extensive vitalism. To begin and supply the qualities of the entire it was an effort to secure life. Upon object. The development of Animism this was built a vast amount of aided this theory of appropriation of superstition about food into which virtues by eating the flesh of the magical and later vitalistic theories owner. In many cases part of the were introduced. flesh or organ was consumed, the Cannibalism was natural to man heart, liver, eyes, tongue, cheeks, in his early dawn. Anthropophagy lungs, marrow, or the blood was probably antedates Neolithic and even drunk, according to the prevailing Palaeolithic man. belief of which organ was the seat Established and conscious kinship of the soul or of the Iooked-for limited the field of man-eating custom, quality. Chippewa women fed their in -a similar manner as the tabu of children with the blood and pieces of the flesh of English prisoners to knows no obstacles or limitations, and make warriors of them. Cannibalism having the omnipotent Magic at hand of this sort only requires a part of employs it to stay the decaying of the body or organ; it is not a complete human frame, restore the waned stage meal.11 and sustain the plateau of vitality, Upon these ideas we may easily friskincss, beauty, vivacity, delight- understand the introduction and fulness and youthfulness. foundation of medical cannibalism, The testicles play a prominent wherein it is believed that the Hesh role by sympathetic influence. or part of the dead body can impart Medicine-men, Shams, Lamaistic into the partaker’s frame strength priests, Parsee and Mohamedan and the power to combat and alleviate faquirs and hakims esteem the use or cure diseases. of male generative organs very highly Thus the pharmacopoeias were en- as nerve tonics and stimulants, and riched by including among the official use them exclusively. The Chinese preparations and ingredients parts of stores in San Francisco display at a corpse. To each particular part their show-windows the testicles of was assigned a special pharmacological sea-lions, which are used medicinally. virtue. Pliny cites a number of medical The Chinese physicians use them concoctions whose main ingredients extensively. I am told by a Chinese were parts of the human body (N. H., pharmacist, trained in our materia xxviii, i). mcdica, that their greatest use is Horace gives an instance of what as a tonic, especially during the may be called magical cannibalism, menopause. when he mentions that love-philters The Indians of the Northwest, were compounded from dried human of the Rocky Mountains and the marrow and liver (Od., V: v). Plains employ them in the form of a The Zulus to obtain long life eat powder prepared from dried-up testes. the flesh of animals known to be long- The older Indians encourage the eat- lived.* Medea, rejuvenating Aeson, ing of raw buffalo and antelope testes. throws long-lived deer and crow into They claim that they increase power the seething cauldron containing the in every respect and especially in restorer of youth. The Olympian sexual vigor and bravery.9 Gods owe their immortality to their diet of ambrosia and nectar. Gree k Mythol ogy , Mede a

The Ques t of Elixirs an d Foun ta ins of There are extant examples in Y OUTH Semitic, Baylonian and Oriental liter- ature, where the male organs or their If deathless life on earth was denied products are taken internally for in- to man and his efforts to be reinstated crease of vitality and general tonicity. in immortality were of no use, then In Greek mythology is preserved the second best choice was to attain the most perfect instance of rejuve- long, youthful life. nation that human heart craves for, The primitive and unscientific mind in which Medea with a miraculous * Callaway, H. Nursery Tales of the Zulus. master hand restores life and youth London, 1868, p. 175. to plants, trees, animals and finally man. What a comparative scale, of incense were burning, the victim similar to our experimental field of to be offered to the Gods awaited today! with gilded horns. But the most proud of all fathers lay in bed with very advanced old age, near death. Aeson, the father of Jason, could not leave his house to witness the reception of his son and his bride. The enthusiasm of the populace did not much move the heart of Jason while his aged father was abed. Jason’s feelings overflowed as he looked at the condition of his father. After all the help he had received from Medea he believed that she was the only person to satisfy his inner wish, of cutting off some of his own years and adding them to his father’s, that the latter might live longer. Almost with tears in his eyes he entreated Medea; “Mighty wonder worker, I believe that you can take a portion of years of my life and add them to my father’s.” “Your words are impious,” said Medea, “even Hekate herself cannot do this; yet I will give a greater gift. By my art I will try to renew the long life with the aid Aeson ’s Rejuv ena tio n of the three-faced Goddess and her The Argo triumphant appeared on grant.” the horizon and leisurely nosed into By the full moon at night, with the Pagasean Gulf, to proceed for only a few bright stars twinkling the home-port of Iolkos. She was above her, Medea invoked Mother safely bringing back the Argonauts Earth, Hekate, Black Night; kneeling with a double prize, instead of a she prayed fervidly: “The task now simple one for which she had gone at hand is to find juices, by whose forth; besides the Golden Fleece, aid the old man will be renewed and Medea was aboard, as the bride of return to the flower of his early the successful and adventurous cap- youthful years.” tain Jason. Her car, drawn by winged dragons, In the city of Iolkos the citizens, drove over the Tempe, Ossa, Pelion, the friends, relatives, mothers and Othrys, Pindus, Olympus surveying fathers of the audacious sailors were what root would serve her purpose, preparing a gala festival during which also many grasses from the banks thanks would be offered to the Gods; of Apidamus, Amphrysus, Enipeus, huge altars were erected and heaps Spercheius, Peneus and the banks of Boebe, Euboean Anthedon, and sand, which the deep Ocean laves the grass that gave long life, not yet with the ebbing tide; she further famous by the change produced in added hoar frost gathered under the Glaucus’ body. For nine days and full moon at night, wings and flesh nine nights she wandered, picking of the infamous horned owl and the the choicest ingredients. The dragons entrails of werewolf, which had the from the odor of the herbs sloughed off power of changing its wild beast their skins of many years. features into a man’s. Also she de- She returned with a valuable cargo. posited in the pot the scaly skin of She built of turf two altars, one on the slender Cynyphian water-snake, the right to Hckate and one on the the liver of a long-lived stag, to these left to Youth, and hard by she dug she added the head of a crow nine two ditches in the earth and performed centuries old and a thousand other her rites; with blood of black ram she things. drenched them. Next she poured She stirred the pot with a fruitful upon them tall bronze bowls of wine, branch of olive which had been dry and bowls of warm milk, while she for a long time; she stirred up and uttered her incantations, calling upon down and from side to side. the deities of the earth, and prayed And Io, the dry old stick when the King of shades not to be in haste moved about in the hot broth grew to rob the old man’s body of the green at first; shortly leaves appeared, breath of life. and then suddenly it was loaded with After she had appeased all these teeming olives. divinities in low-voiced prayers, she And wherever the froth bubbled bade her people bring old Aeson’s over from the hollow pot, the earth body out into the open air; having grew green and flowers and soft grass melted him down into complete sleep sprang up. When Medea saw this, by her verses of incantations, she she unsheathed her knife and cut the Iayed him in a bed of herbs breathless old man’s throat, then, letting the old like a dead body. She then bade blood all run out, she filled his veins Jason and all the attendants retire with her concoction. When Aeson to a far distance. had drunk this in part through his Now Medea with her flowing hair lips and part through the wound, his as the Bacchantes moved around beard and hair lost their hoary grey the flaming altars; she dipped multi- and quickly became black again; branched torches in the dark pools his leanness vanished, away went of blood, she lit the gory sticks at the pallor and the indifferent look, the flames of the altars. Thrice she the deep wrinkles were filled with purified the old man with fire, thrice new flesh, his limbs had the strength with water, thrice with sulphur. of youth. Aeson was filled with won- In the meantime the powerful me- der, and he remembered this was as dicament in the pot of bronze boiled he had been forty years ago. and bubbled with white frothy top. Bacchus had witnessed this marvel Here she boiled the roots gathered from the sky and learning from in Thessaly, with seeds, flowers and this that his own nurses might be strong juices; to these she added restored to their youthful years, he pebbles from the farthest Orient and obtained this favor from the Colchian woman. (The foregoing account is Pelias by treachery resulted in his freely adapted from reference 7.) death.7

Medea ’s Rejuv enat ion Bet ra ys Pelias to Edw in Smith Pap yrus Deat h The Edwin Smith papyrus supplies Medea feigned a quarrel with her us with the oldest prescriptions in the husband, and fled as a suppliant to “Book for transforming an old man the house of Pelias. There, since the into a youth of twenty.” The echo king himself was heavy with years, his of this is met with in the leaflet of daughters gave her hospitable recep- a quack of London in 1680, which tion. These girls the crafty Colchian claims the virtues of his “Great in a short time won over by a false Restorer, that it has the miraculous show of friendliness. Medea related operation that renders old men and the rejuvenation of Aeson, and by women by three or four scores as her dwelling particularly on that the youthful as those of twenty or thirty daughters of Pelias were induced to years of age.” hope that by her skill their own father The Egyptian document recom- might be made young. And they mends a preparation for external use begged this boon. She made no reply to banish traces of age from the face; for a little while and seemed to it is a facial paste, and is kept in hesitate, keeping the minds of her precious or semiprecious vases or suppliants in suspense by feigned flasks. It is written by two different deep meditation. When she had at hands. The directions for preparing it length given her promise, she said to are given: Hemayet-fruit, @ 2 khar, them, “That thou may have greater bruise, place in sun; when dry, husk, confidence in this boon, the oldest winnow, till the fruit remains. Meas- leader of the flock among your sheep ure, sift, measure, divide into two shall become a Iamb again by my parts. Two processes are followed: drugs.” Straightway a woolly ram, (1) Water to soft mass, cook, boil, worn out with untold years, was evaporate, wash, spread on linen, brought forward, his great horns curv- dry grind; (2) water to soft mass, in ing round his hollow temples. When jar, cook, boil; clay consistency, thick, Medea cut his scrawny throat with on linen, put in vase. Directions her Thessalian knife, barely staining (xxii, 7-10): Anoint. It is a remover the weapon with his scanty blood, of (wrinkles) from the head. When she plunged his carcass into a kettle the flesh is smeared therewith, it of bronze, throwing in at the same becomes a beautifier of the skin, a time juices of great potency. These remover of (blemishes) of all (dis- made his body shrink, burnt away figurements) of all sign of age, of all his horns, and with his horns his years. (weakness) which are in the flesh. And now a thin bleating was heard Found effective in myriads of cases from within the pot; and, even while (xxi, 9; xxii, 10). they were wondering at the sound, out The contents of this papyrus prob- jumped a Iamb and ran away to find ably have been drawn from sources some udder to give him milk. reaching as far back as 3000 b .c . But the promised rejuvenation of or more.12 use of the sources of the Saracenic The Saty ric on of Greek s and Roman s schools, which enabled him to com- Satyricon is a male gland prepa- pound his elixirs and other prepara- ration which during the classic times tions whose main ingredient was of Greece gained a great reputation the secretions of the sex organs of man as an aphrodisiac and general stimu- and mammals. Salmon’s “Dispensa- lant. In Rome at the time of the tory” (London, 1684) gives: “Spcrma Empire the same composition made hominis, semen, sperm. Of this Para- of the testes of goat and wolf enjoyed celsus makes his homunculus. Experi- esteem of being an upbuilder of ence has proved it good against the strength and supporter of life, having imbecility of the instruments of as a result the delay of fatigue and generation.” exhaustion. It was extensively em- ployed in all nervous disorders, as Mes ue ’s Diasa tyri con well as for the exhaustion from sexual excess. This and similar preparations In “Summula Jacobi de partibus known under the name aquae amatrices per Alphabctum super plurimis rc- are of similar composition, and were mediis ix ipsius Mesue Iibris exerptis” peddled on the streets of Rome and (1540): “Spcrma multiplicant con- in the public markets of the time. fectis testiculorum vulpes, oleum It also had a prominent part in the amygdalorum dulcium, oleum de nuce make up of witches’ potions, which Indica, oleum de granis sisamis. oleum were lavishly indulged in by the elite de semine line.1 The Diasatyricon is Roman youth to replenish wasted more fully prescribed in the “Cordie vitality and inducing satyriasis. This Dispensatory” of 1546. It is com- bears to its credit the suicides of pounded from a long list of ingredients, Lucretius, the author of “de Rerum of vegetable oils, roots, sweet butter, Naturae,” and LucuIIus “The Epi- ginger, bird’s tongue, pepper, cin- curian”; further it is accredited with namon, and others among which are enabling Caligula and Nero to sustain testes of wolf (testiculorum vulpis their prolonged sensual debauches. unc. viii). These potions were the basis of the Baric elli , Blaz e daily regimen of the notorious Mes- salina, the wife of Emperor Claudius, In “Hortulis Gcnialis, Julii Cae- and she also administered them to sarius Baricelli, a sancto Maris doc- her legion of lovers, that she might toris mcdici, Genoa,” is found a increase their orgies.9 prescription for sexual rejuvenescence, of which the main ingredient is the Parace ls us testis of wild boar. The medieval alchemists were led A similar prescription is in a work to include with their search for the by Elzear Blaze (1740): “If you be philosopher’s stone the quest for the advanced in years, these glands (testi- elixir of life. Alchemical writings are cles of the wild boar) dried and re- full of references to such an elixir. duced to powder, stirred into broth Philippus Aureolus Theophrastus made from a virile cock, taken by man von Hohenheim, usually called Para- and wife when failing, will insure celsus (1493-1541), made extensive virility and love of lust returned.” been also used to excite virility and The London Pharmac opoe ia of 1676 increase mounts in domestic animals. During the seventeenth century the Mode rn Times products of reproductive organs as The rejuvenation wave that was obtained from mammals, birds, and initiated by the work of Brown- fishes were still in vogue and had great Sequard in 1889 and swept the whole reputation as a sort of panacea for medical world for a while at least several ailments among which we finally went the same way as the may note epilepsy, chorea and neuras- foregoing. thenia. Their chief use, however, was The very recent rerippling of the as restorers and maintainers of sexual same subject had its usual fancy potency. Their repute was so great that captivation, without any definite they found their way into the London results. Pharmacopoeia edited by the Fellows Concerning the rejuvenescence of the Royal College of Physicians in elixirs we stand just where our pre- 1676; also into the Dispensatory of decessors were thousands of years ago. Salmon of 1684. From these we may extract the following: Refe renc es 1. Dawson , W. R. Magician and Leech. Aper, the boar, . . . the stones and London, Methuen, 1929, p. 3. pizzle dried, and given in powder 3i at a 2. Gaisf ord , T. Poetae Minores Graeci. time, help weakness and barenness. Canis, Lipsiae, 1829. the dog, . . . the testicles and secretion 3. Harr ison , J. E. Prolegomena to the provoke lust. Cervus, the deer, . . . dried study of Greek religion. Cambridge and drank in wine provoke lust. Equs, the Univ. Press, 1903, p. 173. 4. Harv ey , W. Works. London, Sydenham horse, . . . excite venery and expel the Society, 1847, p. 587. afterbirth. Panthera, Leopardus, panther 5. Lucianus Samosatensis. Parisiis, Didot, or leopard, . . . the testicle being drunk 1842, p. 639 (Ixii). by a woman provokes the terms. Taxus, 6. Onisicritus (Strabo, xv, 1.34 = C 701). the badger, . . . eaten with honey, stirs 7. Ovid . Metamorphoses. Eng. trans, by up lust and causes conception. Aquila, F. J. Miller. Loeb Class. Lib., 1926, the eagle, . . . the testicles cause venery. vii, 155 seq., 235-349. Buteo, the buzzard, the testicles help the 8. Ramu s , C. Outwitting Middle Age. weakness of generation. Gallus, the cock, N. Y., Century, 1926. . . . the testicles stir up lust. Sturio, the 9. Sto ckw el l , A. Historical, Critical and Scientific Aspects of Brown-Sequard’s sturgeon, . . . their spawn increases Discovery—the so-called “Elixir.” seed and provokes lust. Therap. Gaz., pp. 812-819, 1889; pp. 14-19, 1890. Later difficulty of procuring these 10. Thomps on , C. J. S. The Quacks of Old items, the unsuitability of the prep- London. 1928, p. 199. arations and the long unsupported 11. Craw t ley , A. E. Article: Life and Death, claims caused the gradual elimina- in Encyclopaedia of Religion and Ethics, ed. by James Hastings. Edinb., tion of all such materia from the 1915, 8: 9; 4: 411 seq. Pharmacopoeia. 12. Edwin Smith Surgical Papyrus. Univ. Reproductive organ products have Chicago Press, 1930, xxi, c>; xxii, 10.