Curiosities of Medical Experience — Text and Context

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In Category - Medicine

Authors: Millingen, J. G. (John Gideon), 1782-1862 Digital Source: Project Gutenberg Gutenberg Release Year: 2012 First Publication Year: Not confirmed

Key Word: Medicine Target Reader: Readers of public-domain and historical texts

Book Edition: Project Gutenberg digital edition Book Language: en

Edition facts

Words 234,500

Reading time 1020 min

Text sections 22

Curiosities of Medical Experience — Text and Context can be approached with a clearer sense of reading commitment from its source measurements: 234,500 words, 17 hr estimated reading time, and 22 detected text sections.

The text analysis averages about 28.0 words per sentence, while the detected sections provide another way to judge how the source is divided.

Project Gutenberg metadata also associates the work with “Medicine,” connecting these edition facts with the source record’s subject description.

Source: Project Gutenberg record #39074

Millingen's 1839 collection of medical anecdotes and historical curiosities, drawing on his experience as a surgeon and asylum physician, with a skeptical preface warning against blind faith in authority.

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Text length15 pts
Chapters / structure15 pts
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File: pg39074

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Horatius had two daughters with a similar deformity. Mr. Carlisle knew a family in which supernumerary toes and fingers were observed for four generations: they were introduced by a female who had six fingers on each hand, and as many toes on each foot. From her marriage with a man naturally formed, were produced ten children, with a supernumerary member on each limb; and an eleventh, in which the peculiarity existed in both feet and one hand, the other hand being naturally formed. The latter marrying a man of ordinary formation, they had four children, of which three had one or two limbs natural, and the rest with the supernumerary parts; while the fourth had six fingers on each hand, and as many toes on each foot. The latter married a woman naturally formed, and had issue by her eight children; four with the usual structure, and the same number with the additional fingers and toes: two of them were twins, of which one was naturally formed, and the other six-fingered and six-toed.--The well-known porcupine family, that were exhibited in London and elsewhere, is a remarkable example of hereditary transmission of organic peculiarities. They were all covered with dark-coloured horny excrescences, which they shed annually in the autumn or winter. Their names were Lambert. Two brothers, John and Richard, grandsons of the original porcupine men, were shown in Germany.--One of these unsightly individuals, who was exhibited some time ago in Bond-street, stated that he was descended from the fourth generation of a savage found in the woods of America; and he further asserted that the females of the family were exempted from this lucrative but uncomfortable peculiarity: all the males had them, and shed them regularly until the thirty-sixth year, when these species of quills grew to a considerable length. We have examples of bristly hair being shed in a whole family every autumn.

Amongst animals, gigantic races no longer inhabit the regions which bore them in ancient times. An extensive whale-fishery was once carried on at Biariz, in the Gulf of Gascony; and the hippopotamus is no longer to be seen on the banks of the Nile.

Gigantic bones having been occasionally discovered with the remains of men and horses and fragments of armour, it has been imagined that in ancient times armies were attended by terrific giants; but it is more than probable that these large fragments of departed warriors belonged to their war-elephants, which with their horses were not unfrequently immolated on their master's tomb.

Skeletons of giants were considered by the ancients as curious as in the present day; and those of Secondilla and Pusio were carefully preserved in the gardens of Sallust.

Some naturalists have maintained that giants had more numerous vertebrae than ordinary men; but this has not been confirmed by observation, nor has it been found that the spinal bones of dwarfs are in smaller number.

Schreber, who has collected the description of the principal modern giants, found few above seven feet and a half; although he mentions a Swedish peasant of eight feet Swedish measure, and one of the guards of the Duke of Brunswick eight feet six inches Dutch. Not so Hakewell, who informs us, from the testimony of Nannez, that the Emperor of China had archers and porters fifteen feet high. Howbeit, Ol. Magnus's account surpasses his; for he tells us of a "_puella--in capite vulnerata, mortua induta chlamyde purpurea, longitudinis cubitorum 50, latitudinis inter humeros quatuor_!"

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J. G. Millingen, a surgeon and resident physician of the Middlesex Pauper Lunatic Asylum at Hanwell, opens his second edition with a defensive preface: some readers had mistaken his compendium of strange medical tales for credulity. He insists he merely recorded these accounts to show 'the fallacy even of experience' and the dangers of plausible theories. The catalog subject is simply 'Medicine,' but the excerpts reveal a work more concerned with the history of medical rivalries, the absurdities of professional hierarchy, and the slow evolution of surgical practice from barbers to licensed practitioners.

A Skeptical Preface and the Author's Stated Purpose

Millingen's preface to the second edition (1839) is remarkably candid. He notes that the first edition sold rapidly, but he regrets that 'in some quarters it has been surmised that he yielded credence' to the strange relations he recorded. He clarifies that his aim was to demonstrate the dangers of trusting great names and plausible theories. He quotes Locke on not letting 'reverence or prejudice' give beauty or deformity to opinions, and cites Dr. Crichton on hypothesis. This framing is crucial: the book is not a credulous collection of marvels but a skeptical survey of medical errors and curiosities, intended for the 'pupil who commences the arduous study of medicine.' The preface thus establishes a critical lens that colors everything that follows.

Barbers, Surgeons, and the Politics of Medical Practice

The longest excerpt details the centuries-long struggle between barbers, surgeons, and physicians in France. Millingen traces the barbers' rise from servants of priests to ambitious practitioners who 'gradually attempted to glean in the footsteps of the regular chirurgeons.' He recounts how in 1372 barbers were only allowed to dress boils, bruises, and open wounds, and how master-surgeons obtained privileges to examine and license practitioners. The narrative is rich with specific details: in 1452, Cardinal Etoutville abolished celibacy for clerical physicians, leading many to abandon the priesthood for marriage and practice. Millingen describes the resulting jealousies, with physicians instructing barbers to undermine surgeons, and surgeons appealing to the medical faculty. The tone is wry and critical, highlighting 'mere motives of pecuniary interest' and 'the evident detriment of society.' This section exemplifies Millingen's method: using historical anecdotes to expose the fallibility and self-interest behind medical authority.

Personal Anecdotes and the Limits of the Excerpts

The excerpts include a brief personal recollection: in 1809, Millingen's assistant in the Portuguese army was offended when the author declined his offer to shave him. In 1801, British assistant-surgeons in the Swedish navy were ordered to shave the crew and dismissed for refusing. These small, concrete details ground the historical narrative in Millingen's own experience. However, the excerpts are limited—they cover only the preface and a portion of one chapter on barbers and surgeons. The full work, at 234,500 words, likely ranges widely over other medical curiosities, but the available text does not reveal the book's overall structure, the range of topics, or whether Millingen maintains his skeptical stance throughout. Readers should approach the book as a series of loosely connected essays, not a systematic treatise.

Millingen's Curiosities of Medical Experience rewards readers interested in the history of medicine as a social and professional arena, rather than as a progressive science. The author's preface warns against taking his anecdotes as evidence of his own beliefs, and the excerpts show a writer more concerned with exposing professional rivalries and the slow, often absurd evolution of medical practice than with cataloging wonders. Approach the book as a period piece of medical historiography, one that uses curiosity as a tool for skepticism.

I have often lingered over Millingen's wary preface, his gentle warning that even learned voices may err. It reminds me of another quiet companion, one that counsels similar caution in simpler terms: Observation on the Use and Abuse of Mercury, and on the Precautions Necessary in Its Employment — Story, Setting & Ideas. Both speak of healing’s frailties, side by side on my shelf.