he
contrary, a most zealous defence of Perkinism, and a fierce attack upon
its opponents, most especially upon such of the medical profession
as treated the subject with neglect or ridicule. The Royal College of
Physicians was the more peculiar object of the attack, but with this
body, the editors of some of the leading periodicals, and several
physicians distinguished at that time, and even now remembered for
their services to science and humanity, were involved in unsparing
denunciations. The work is by no means of the simply humorous character
it might be supposed, but is overloaded with notes of the most seriously
polemical nature. Much of the history of the subject, indeed, is to be
looked for in this volume.

It appears from this work that the principal members of the medical
profession, so far from hailing Mr. Benjamin Douglass Perkins as another
Harvey or Jenner, looked very coldly upon him and his Tractors; and it
is now evident that, though they were much abused for so doing, they
knew very well what they had to deal with, and were altogether in the
right. The delusion at last attracted such an amount of attention as to
induce Dr. Haygarth and some others of respectable standing to institute
some experiments which I shall mention in their proper place, the result
of which might have seemed sufficient to show the emptiness of the whole
contrivance.

The Royal Society, that learned body which for ages has constituted
the best tribunal to which Britain can appeal in questions of science,
accepted Mr. Perkins's Tractors and the book written about them, passed
the customary vote of thanks, and never thought of troubling itself
further in the investigation of pretensions of such an aspect. It is
not to be denied that a considerable number of physicians did avow
themselves advocates of the new practice; but out of the whole catalogue
of those who were publicly proclaimed as such, no one has ever been
known, so far as I am aware, to the scientific world, except in
connection with the short-lived notoriety of Perkinism. Who were
the people, then, to whose activity, influence, or standing with
the community was owing all the temporary excitement produced by the
Metallic Tractors?

First, those persons who had been induced to purchase a pair of
Tractors. These little bits of brass and iron, the intrinsic value of
which might, perhaps, amount to ninepence, were sold at five guineas a
pair! A man who has paid twenty-fi