Having thus sketched the history of Perkinism in its days of prosperity;
having seen how it sprung into being, and by what means it maintained its
influence, it only remains to tell the brief story of its discomfiture
and final downfall. The vast majority of the sensible part of the
medical profession were contented, so far as we can judge, to let it die
out of itself. It was in vain that the advocates of this invaluable
discovery exclaimed over their perverse and interested obstinacy,--in
vain that they called up the injured ghosts of Harvey, Galileo, and
Copernicus to shame that unbelieving generation; the Baillies and the
Heberdens,--men whose names have come down to us as synonymous with honor
and wisdom,--bore their reproaches in meek silence, and left them
unanswered to their fate. There were some others, however, who, believing
the public to labor under a delusion, thought it worth while to see
whether the charm would be broken by an open trial of its virtue, as
compared with that of some less hallowed formula. It must be remembered
that a peculiar value was attached to the Metallic Tractors, as made and
patented by Mr. Perkins. Dr. Haygarth, of Bath, performed various
experiments upon patients afflicted with different complaints,--the
patients supposing that the real five-guinea Tractors were employed.
Strange to relate, he obtained equally wonderful effects with Tractors of
lead and of wood; with nails, pieces of bone, slate pencil, and
tobacco-pipe. Dr. Alderson employed sham Tractors made of wood, and
produced such effects upon five patients that they returned solemn thanks
in church for their cures. A single specimen of these cases may stand
for all of them. Ann Hill had suffered for some months from pain in the
right arm and shoulder. The Tractors (wooden ones) were applied, and in
the space of five minutes she expressed herself relieved in the following
apostrophe: "Bless me! why, who could have thought it, that them little
things could pull the pain from one. Well, to be sure, the longer one
lives, the more one sees; ah, dear!"