The modern pharmacopeia
does not possess any substance having a similar virtue, although
quinin has been noticed to diminish the size of the spleen when
engorged in malarial fevers. Strictly speaking, however, the
facts are not analogous. Hippocrates advises a moxa of mushrooms
applied over the spleen for melting or dissolving it. Godefroy
Moebius is said to have seen in the village of Halberstadt a
courier whose spleen had been cauterized after incision; and
about the same epoch (seventeenth century) some men pretended to
be able to successfully extirpate the spleen for those who
desired to be couriers. This operation we know to be one of the
most delicate in modern surgery, and as we are progressing with
our physiologic knowledge of the spleen we see nothing to justify
the old theory in regard to its relations to agility and
coursing.
Swimming.--The instances of endurance that we see in the aquatic
sports are equally as remarkable as those that we find among the
runners and walkers. In the ancient days the Greeks, living on
their various islands and being in a mild climate, were
celebrated for their prowess as swimmers. Socrates relates the
feats of swimming among the inhabitants of Delos.
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