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But the most absurd and preposterous hypothesis that has disgraced the annals of medicine, and bestowed medicinal reputation upon substances of no intrinsic worth, is that of the Doctrine of Signatures, as it has been called, which is no less than a belief that every natural substance which possesses any medicinal virtue, indicates by an obvious and well-marked external character, the disease for which it is a remedy, or the object for which it should be employed!^[47] This extraordinary monster of the fancy has been principally adopted and cherished by Paracelsus, Baptista Porta, and Crollius, although traces of its existence may be certainly discovered in very ancient authors. The root of the Mandrake, from its supposed resemblance to the human form, was esteemed as a remedy for Sterility: thus did Rachael demand from her sister the Mandrakes (Dudaim) which Reuben had gathered in the field; impressed, as it would appear, with a belief in the efficacy of that plant against barrenness.^[48] There would moreover appear in this case to have been some idea of additional virtue arising from the person who gathered it, for great stress was laid upon this circumstance, “my son’s Mandrakes:” such a notion is by no means uncommon in the history of charms. The supposed virtues of the Lapis Ætites, or Eagle stone,^[49] described by Dioscorides, Ætius and Pliny, who assert that if tied to the arm it will prevent abortion, and if fixed to the thigh forward delivery, were, as we learn from ancient authority, solely suggested by the manner in which the nodule contained within the stone moves and rattles, whenever it is shaken. “Ætites lapis agitatus, sonitum edit, velut ex altero lapide prægnans.” The conceit however did not assume the importance of a theory until the end of the fourteenth century, at which period we find several authors engaged in the support of its truth, and it will not be unamusing to offer a specimen of their sophistry; they affirm, that since man is the lord of the creation, all other creatures are designed for his use, and therefore, that their beneficial qualities and excellencies must be expressed by such characters as can be seen and understood by every one; and as man discovers his reason by speech, and brutes their sensations by various sounds, motions, and gestures, so the vast variety and diversity of figures, colours, and consistencies, observable in inanimate creatures, is certainly designed for some wise purpose. It must be, in order to manifest these peculiar qualities and excellencies, which could not be so effectually done in any other way, not even by speech, since no language is universal. Thus, the lungs of a fox must be a specific for asthma, because that animal is remarkable for its strong powers of respiration. Turmerick has a brilliant yellow colour, which indicates that it has the power of curing the jaundice; by the same rule, Poppies must relieve diseases of the head; Agaricus those of the bladder; Cassia fistula the affections of the intestines, and Aristolochia the disorders of the uterus: the polished surface and stony hardness which so eminently characterise the seeds of the Lithospermum Officinale (Common Gromwell) were deemed a certain indication of their efficacy in calculous and gravelly disorders; for a similar reason the roots of the Saxifraga Granulata (White Saxifrage) gained reputation in the cure of the same disease; and the Euphrasia (Eye-bright) acquired fame, as an application in complaints of the eye, because it exhibits a black spot in its corolla resembling the pupil.