ABSTRACT
Many curious anecdotes have been from time to time related of the medicinal powers of the Rod. Flagellation as a remedy was supposed by some physicians to re-animate the torpid condition of the capillary or cutaneous vessels, to increase muscular energy, promote absorption, and favour the necessary secretions of our nature. But an eccentric writer goes much further than this, and regards the Rod much in the same light as Dr. Sangrado looked upon cold water and blood letting: according to him there is nothing like the Rod; it is a universal specific—it stirs up the stagnating juices, it dissolves the precipitating salts, it purifies the coagulating humours of the body, it clears the brain, purges the belly, circulates the blood, braces the nerves; in short, there is nothing which the Rod will not accomplish when judiciously applied!
