GRAND ATTACK. Page 168
TERRIBLE TRACTORATION,
AND OTHER
POEMS.
BY CHRISTOPHER CAUSTIC, M. D.
FELLOW OF THE ROYAL COLLEGE OF PHYSICIANS, ABERDEEN, ANDHONORARY MEMBER OF NO LESS THAN NINETEENVERY LEARNED SOCIETIES.
THIRD AMERICAN EDITION.
BOSTON:
RUSSELL, SHATTUCK & CO.
AND
TUTTLE, WEEKS AND DENNETT.
1836.
Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1836,
By Thomas Green Fessenden,
In the Clerk’s Office of the District Court of Massachusetts.
Tuttle, Weeks & Dennett, Printers....School Street.
PREFACE.
In submitting the present edition of the following poem, entitledTerrible Tractoration, to the American public, the author compliesnot only with solicitations of personal friends, but with expressedwishes of many gentlemen to whom he is personally a stranger. They saythat by stripping folly of some of its disguises, and plucking the maskof deception from that impudent charlatanry, which encumbers the “marchof improvement,” this burlesque production may be of service to mankind.
The origin of the poem entitled Tractoration, is as follows: In theyear 1801 the author, (who is a native of Walpole, New Hampshire,)was in London, on business as an agent for a Company in Vermont. Inthat Metropolis he became acquainted with Mr Benjamin Douglas Perkins,proprietor of a patent right for making and using certain implements,called Metallic Tractors. These were said to cure diseases in allor nearly all cases of topical inflammation, by conducting from thediseased part the surplus of electric fluid which in such cases, causesor accompanies the morbid affection. At the request of that gentleman,the author undertook to make the Tractors the theme of a satiricaleffusion in Hudibrastic verse. This was originally intended for thecorner of a newspaper, but subsequently in the first edition enlargedto a pamphlet of about fifty pages royal octavo. It was published inthe summer of 1803, well received, and a second edition called for inless than two months. A new and enlarged edition was[iv] put to press, andmet with a favorable reception both from the public and the reviewers.From the success which attended Tractoration, the author was induced topublish in London a small volume of Original Poems, which was wellreceived and favorably reviewed.
The author never would have written a syllable intended to giveMetallic Tractors favorable notoriety, had he not believed in theirefficacy. As conductors of what is called animal electricity, and inprinciple allied to Galvanic stimulants, even their modus operandi,he thought, might be in a great measure explained. Respectable EnglishReviews and other periodicals gave favorable notices of the Tractors,and Mr Perkins exhibited to the author testimonials in favor of thoseimplements from several professors of universities, many regularphysicians, surgeons, clergymen, and others, men of as high standingand influence as any in community.
But although the author was willing to aid the proprietor of the