A great number of examples of the use of stercoraceous remedies has been inserted under the head of “Therapeutics,” for two excellent reasons: first, to show that the use of such remedies was most widely disseminated; and secondly, to demonstrate that this use had been handed down from century to century.
Had any other course been followed, objection might have been raised that unusual remedies, or those of eccentric practitioners only, had been sought for and quoted for the purpose of proving that Filth Pharmacy was a thoroughly consistent and fully developed school in the science of therapeutics, from the most primitive times down to and even overlapping our own days.
A perusal of this volume cannot fail to convince the most critical that it has been written in a spirit of fairness as much as is possible to human nature, and without prepossession or prejudice in any direction.
The fact that so many citations have been incorporated in this compilation without comment, may be claimed as an additional proof of the unbiassed character of the work.
No collection of facts constitutes a science. All that can properly be done with facts not positively known to be related, is to place them, as here placed, in juxtaposition, leaving the reader to frame his own conclusions; by no other method can an author escape the imputation of distorting or perverting evidence.
The great number of letters received from distinguished scholars in all parts of the world, from Edinburgh to New South Wales, attests the interest felt in this treatise, and at the same time places the author under obligations which words cannot express. Special acknowledgments are due to:—
Professor W. ROBERTSON SMITH, Editor of the Encyclopædia Britannica.
Major-General J. G. FORLONG, author of “The Rivers of Life,” Edinburgh.
HAVELOCK ELLIS, Esq., Editor of the Contemporary Science Series.
Prof. TYRRELL S. LEITH, of Bombay (since dead).
FRANK REDE FOWKE, Esq., South Kensington Museum, London.
JAMES G. FRAZER, Esq., M. A., author of “The Golden Bough,” Trinity College, Cambridge.
Prof. E. N. HORSFORD, Harvard University.
Prof. F. W. PUTNAM, Peabody Archæological Museum, Cambridge, Mass.
F. B. KYNGDON, Esq., Secretary Royal Society, Sydney, New South Wales.