b15966410_0072_117_2

THE METALLIC CURE.

TWENTY FIVE years ago DR. BURCK, of Paris, made a discovery,
It is only at the present moment that the world—medical and other
—is penetrated with its importance. A Paris daily calls it “a new
physiological law.” It is more, inasmuch as it does not supplement,
but contradicts, received axioms. This is “Metallo-therapia,” or by 
treatment of diseases metallic applications, varying according to the temperaments of the
subject operated
on.
In all the pathies
the choice of the
remedy is ruled
chiefly by the malady
little by the patient. In Metallo-therapy it is found
to be different. Not
only will external
applications of metallic disks restore,
in a few minutes,
sensation to a subject completely insensible to the knife
or the needle; not
only will a copper
stewpan pressed on
the forehead cure
the most violent
headache; but what
these gold pieces,
this copper pan have
done for you, may-
hap they will not do
for me. Not only
hysteria, aniesthesia, St. Vitus’s
Dance, &c. ownthis
law, but it
even hoped that it
may be found to en-
tend to paralysis it
self.
Each human being
his metal par
excellence, and if
you want to see him
at his best you must
put him on his metal. Let us consider briefly a few
of the social changes
that may spring
from this new know-
ledge :—
1. Pleadings will
be modified. The
conveyancer of a
gold watch, of a lot
silver plate, will
be defended as haying, by his constitution an irresistible
need of this or that
metal.
2. When the sovereign metal for each
child has been discovered, as the child
grows up, the fact
may be registered like birth, vaccination, or the fourth standard.
3. The metal may even be added, by choice or by law, before
the surname. This would be useful for distinguishing homonyms.
“JOHN GOLD SMITH,” and “JOHN CADMIUM SMITH,” for instance,
To avoid confusion, one would write “JOHN AURUM SMITH,” no
doubt.
4. Marriages will be influenced by consideration of the alloy-
Abilitty of the contracting parties’ metals. When a menage has
come to grief, friends will say, “What could one expect? Each required gold indispensably!” or “My dear, who on earth could
fancy tin and palladium would run well together!”
5. We shall not make any obvious remarks about the well
TWENTY-FivE
known effect of gold as a medicine, or hint that the doctor who
suspecting a tightness in his patient’s chest, wrote, “Prenez chez
mon ban quier 50,000 francs,” was the true discoverer of the
system.
6. Once a man’s metal is discovered, its name may be tattooed upon him. (The che
by
mieal symbols for the
metals would afford
suggestions for ab—
breviation: thusiron
would be Fe., gold
Au.,’&c.
7. In noble families, the successive
inheritors of the
honours may be distinguished in the
Archives by their
metals. Thus we
may not only see an
Iron Duke in a new
sense, but read of
the “ Bismuth
Earl,” the “Manganese Marquis,”
&e.
(En passant—Can
manganese be the
cure for humour?
Oats take up iron as
they grow, and manganese. But where
oats grow there is
generally no manganese, save in Scot-
land; and it is said
that Scots have this
manganese in their
blood. This may
account for certain
Scottish different in.
Everybody takes
iron for the blood;
but everybody does
not thrive upon it.
Du. EURCK de
has
dares that where
iron fails, he has
found copper, silver,
or gold work like a
charm.
PARACELSU5 cured
toothache by plates
of magnetise& iron
applied to the head.
It is suggested that
the plates and brace-
lets worn by the ancients had a similar
object. Perhaps the
nose-rings of savages may be a dim and
darkling effort at the
cure of influenza—a
survival of ancient
knowledge.
Exact correlation
between the metals
and the temperaments is suspected.
It is difficult to see
how this can be,
since the number of the metals is very much more than double that of the temperaments, even when crossed and compounded.
If all these flowers fruit, we shall be laughed at now—winch,
after all, is our vocation—but perhaps held as a prophet in another
quarter of a century, for saying that there would be nothing strange
in finding a Perfect Cure, winch would put effectual extinguishers
on all the wicked moulds of Mania, in its seven chief branches, of
Homicidal, Suicidal, Erotic, Klepto, Biblo, Dipso—which spring
from the central stem, Mono—Mania.