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