Sec. 547. The Stomach and Bowels are emptied either by Vomiting, or by

Stools, the latter Discharge being much more natural than the first,

which is not effected without a violent Motion, and one indeed to which

Nature is repugnant. Nevertheless, there are some Cases, which really

require this artificial Vomiting; but these excepted (some of which I

have already pointed out) we should rather prefer those Remedies, which

empty the Belly by Stool.

Sec. 548. The Signs, which indicate a Necessity for Purging, are, 1, a

disagreeable Tast or Savour of the Mouth in a Morning, and especially a

bitter Tast; a foul, furred Tongue and Teeth, disagreable Eructations or

Belchings, Windiness and Distension.

2, A Want of Appetite which increases very gradually, without any Fever,

which degenerates into a Disgust or total Aversion to Food; and

sometimes communicates a bad Tast to the very little such Persons do

eat.

3, Reachings to vomit in a Morning fasting, and sometimes throughout the

Day; supposing such not to depend on a Woman's Pregnancy, or some other

Disorder, in which Purges would be either useless or hurtful.

4, A vomiting up of bitter, or corrupted, Humours.

5, A manifest Sensation of a Weight, or Heaviness in the Stomach, the

Loins, or the Knees.

6, A Want of Strength sometimes attended with Restlessness, ill Humour,

or Peevishness, and Melancholy.

7, Pains of the Stomach, frequent Pains of the Head, or Vertigos;

sometimes a Drowsiness, which increases after Meals.

8, Some Species of Cholics; irregular Stools which are sometimes very

great in Quantity, and too liquid for many Days together; after which an

obstinate Costiveness ensues.

9, A Pulse less regular, and less strong, than what is natural to the

Patient, and which sometimes intermits.

Sec. 549. When these Symptoms, or some of them, ascertain the Necessity of

purging a Person, not then attacked by any manifest Disease (for I am

not speaking here of Purges in such Cases) a proper purging Medicine may

be given him. The bad Tast in his Mouth; the continual Belchings; the

frequent Reachings to vomit; the actual Vomitings and Melancholy

discover, that the Cause of his Disorder resides in the Stomach, and

shew that a Vomit will be of Service to him. But when such Signs or

Symptoms are not evident, the Patient should take such purging or

opening Remedies, as are particularly indicated by the Pains, whether of

the Loins; from the Cholic; or by a Sensation of Weight or Heaviness in

the Knees.

Sec. 550. But we should abstain from either vomiting or purging, 1,

Whenever the Complaints of the Patients are founded in their Weakness,

and their being already exhausted, 2, When there is a general Dryness of

the Habit, a very considerable Degree of Heat, some Inflammation, or a

strong Fever. 3, Whenever Nature is exerting herself in some other

salutary Evacuation; whence purging must never be attempted in critical

Sweats, during the monthly Discharges, nor during a Fit of the Gout. 4,

Nor in such inveterate Obstructions as Purges cannot remove, and really

do augment. 5, Neither when the nervous System is considerably weakened.

Sec. 551. There are other Cases again, in which it may be proper to purge,

but not to give a Vomit. These Cases are, 1, When the Patient abounds

too much with Blood, (See Sec. 540) since the Efforts which attend

vomiting, greatly augment the Force of the Circulation; whence the

Blood-vessels of the Head and of the Breast, being extremely distended

with Blood, might burst, which must prove fatal on the Spot, and has

repeatedly proved so. 2, For the same Reason they should not be given to

Persons, who are subject to frequent Bleeding from the Nose, or to

coughing up or vomiting of Blood; to Women who are subject to excessive

or unseasonable Discharges of Blood, _&c._ from the _Vagina_, the Neck

of the Womb; nor to those who are with Child. 3, Vomits are improper for

ruptured Persons.

Sec. 552. When any Person has taken too acrid, too sharp, a Vomit, or a

Purge, which operates with excessive Violence; whether this consists in

the most vehement Efforts and Agitations, the Pains, Convulsions, or

Swoonings, which are their frequent Consequences; or whether that

prodigious Evacuation and Emptiness their Operation causes, (which is

commonly termed a _Super-purgation_) and which may hurry the Patient

off; Instances of which are but too common among the lower Class of the

People, who much too frequently confide themselves to the Conduct of

ignorant Men-slayers: In all such unhappy Accidents, I say, we should

treat these unfortunate Persons, as if they had been actually poisoned,

by violent corroding Poisons, (See Sec. 533) that is, we should fill them,

as it were, with Draughts of warm Water, Milk, Oil, Barley-water, Almond

Milk, emollient Glysters with Milk, and the Yolks of Eggs; and also

bleed them plentifully, if their Pains are excessive, and their Pulses

strong and feverish.

The Super-purgation, the excessive Discharge, is to be stopt, after

having plied the Patient plentifully with diluting Drinks, by giving the

calming Anodyne Medicines directed in the Removal of acute Pains, Sec. 536,

No. 6.

Flanels dipt in hot Water, in which some _Venice_ Treacle is dissolved,

are very serviceable: and should the Evacuations by Stool be excessive,

and the Patient has not a high Fever, and a parching Kind of Heat, a

Morsel of the same Treacle, as large as a Nutmeg, may be dissolved in

his Glyster.

But should the Vomiting solely be excessive, without any Purging, the

Number of the emollient Glysters with Oil and the Yolk of an Egg must be

increased; and the Patient should be placed in a warm Bath.

Sec. 553. Purges frequently repeated, without just and necessary

Indications, are attended with much the same ill Effects as frequent

Bleedings. They destroy the Digestions; the Stomach no longer, or very

languidly, exerts its Functions; the Intestines prove inactive; the

Patient becomes liable to very severe Cholics; the Plight of the Body,

deprived of its salutary Nutrition, falls off; Perspiration is

disordered; Defluxions ensue; nervous Maladies come on, with a general

Languor; and the Patient proves old, long before the Number of his Years

have made him so.

Much irreparable Mischief has been done to the Health of Children, by

Purges injudiciously given and repeated. They prevent them from

attaining their utmost natural Strength, and frequently contract their

due Growth. They ruin their Teeth; dispose young Girls to future

Obstructions; and when they have been already affected by them, they

render them still more obstinate.

It is a Prejudice too generally received, that Persons who have little

or no Appetite need purging; since this is often very false, and most of

those Causes, which lessen or destroy the Appetite, cannot be removed by

purging; though many of them may be increased by it.

Persons whose Stomachs contain much glairy viscid Matter suppose, they

may be cured by Purges, which seem indeed at first to relieve them: but

this proves a very slight and deceitful Relief. These Humours are owing

to that Weakness and Laxity of the Stomach, which Purges augment; since

notwithstanding they carry off Part of these viscid Humours generated in

it, at the Expiration of a few Days there is a greater Accumulation of

them than before; and thus, by a Re-iteration of purging Medicines, the

Malady soon becomes incurable, and Health irrecoverably lost. The real

Cure of such Cases is effected by directly opposite Medicines. Those

referred to, or mentioned, Sec. 272, are highly conducive to it.

Sec. 554. The Custom of taking stomachic Medicines infused in Brandy,

Spirit of Wine, Cherry Water, _&c._ is always dangerous; for

notwithstanding the present immediate Relief such Infusions afford in

some Disorders of the Stomach, they really by slow Degrees impair and

ruin that Organ; and it may be observed, that as many as accustom

themselves to Drams, go off, just like excessive Drinkers, in

Consequence of their having no Digestion; whence they sink into a State

of Depression and Languor, and die dropsical.

Sec. 555. Either Vomits or Purges may be often beneficially omitted, even

when they have some Appearance of seeming necessary, by abating one Meal

a Day for some time; by abstaining from the most nourishing Sorts of

Food; and especially from those which are fat; by drinking freely of

cool Water, and taking extraordinary Exercise. The same Regimen also

serves to subdue, without the Use of Purges, the various Complaints

which often invade those, who omit taking purging Medicines, at those

Seasons and Intervals, in which they have made it a Custom to take them.

Sec. 556. The Medicines, No. 34 and 35, are the most certain Vomits. The

Powder, No. 21, is a good Purge, when the Patient is in no wise

feverish.

The Doses recommended in the Table of Remedies are those, which are

proper for a grown Man, of a vigorous Constitution. Nevertheless there

are some few, for whom they may be too weak: in such Circumstances they

may be increased by the Addition of a third or fourth Part of the Dose

prescribed. But should they not operate in that Quantity, we must be

careful not to double the Dose, much less to give a three-fold Quantity,

which has sometimes been done, and that even without its Operation, and

at the Risque of killing the Patient, which has not seldom been the

Consequence. In Case of such purging not ensuing, we should rather give

large Draughts of Whey sweetened with Honey, or of warm Water, in a Pot

of which an Ounce, or an Ounce and a half of common Salt must be

dissolved; and this Quantity is to be taken from time to time in small

Cups, moving about with it.

The Fibres of Country People who inhabit the Mountains, and live almost

solely on Milk, are so little susceptible of Sensation, that they must

take such large Doses to purge them, as would kill all the Peasantry in

the Vallies. In the Mountains of _Valais_ there are Men who take twenty,

and even twenty-four Grains of Glass of Antimony for a single Dose; a

Grain or two of which were sufficient to poison ordinary Men.

Sec. 557. Notwithstanding our Cautions on this important Head, whenever an

urgent Necessity commands it, Purging must be recurred to at all Times

and Seasons: but when the Season may be safely selected, it were right

to decline Purging in the Extremities of either Heat or Cold; and to

take the Purge early in the Morning, that the Medicines may find less

Obstruction or Embarrassment from the Contents of the Stomach. Every

other Consideration, with Relation to the Stars and the Moon, is

ridiculous, and void of any Foundation. The People are particularly

averse to purging in the Dog-days; and if this were only on Account of

the great Heat, it would be very pardonable: but it is from an

astrological Prejudice, which is so much the more absurd, as the real

Dog-days are at thirty-six Days Distance from those commonly reckoned

such; and it is a melancholy Reflection, that the Ignorance of the

People should be so gross, in this Respect, in our enlightened Age; and

that they should still imagine the Virtue and Efficacy of Medicines to

depend on what Sign of the Zodiac the Sun is in, or in any particular

Quarter of the Moon. Yet it is certain in this Point, they are so

inveterately attached to this Prejudice, that it is but too common to

see Country-People die, in waiting for the Sign or Quarter most

favourable to the Operation and Effect of a Medicine, which was truly

necessary five or six Days before either of them. Sometimes too that

particular Medicine is given, to which a certain Day is supposed to be

auspicious and favourable, in Preference to that which is most prevalent

against the Disease. And thus it is, than an ignorant Almanack Maker

determines on the Lives of the human Race; and contracts the Duration of

them with Impunity.

Sec. 558. When a Vomit or a Purge is to be taken, the Patient's Body should

be prepared for the Reception of it twenty-four Hours beforehand; by

taking very little Food, and drinking some Glasses of warm Water, or of

a light Tea of some Herbs.

He should not drink after a Vomit, until it begins to work; but then he

should drink very plentifully of warm Water, or a light Infusion of

Chamomile Flowers, which is preferable.

It is usual, after Purges, to take some thin Broth or Soup during their

Operation; but warm Water sweetened with Sugar or Honey, or an Infusion

of Succory Flowers, would sometimes be more suitable.

Sec. 559. As the Stomach suffers, in some Degree, as often as either a

Vomit, or a Purge, is taken, the Patient should be careful how he lives

and orders himself for some Days after taking them, as well in Regard to

the Quantity as Quality of his Food.

Sec. 560. I shall say nothing of other Articles taken by Way of Precaution,

such as Soups, Whey, Waters, _&c._ which are but little used among the

People; but confine myself to this general Remark, that when they take

any of these precautionary Things, they should enter on a Regimen or Way

of living, that may co-operate with them, and contribute to the same

Purpose. Whey is commonly taken to refresh and cool the Body; and while

they drink it, they deny themselves Pulse, Fruits, and Sallads. They eat

nothing then, but the best and heartiest Flesh-meats they can come at;

such Vegetables as are used in good Soups, Eggs, and good Wine;

notwithstanding this is to destroy, by high and heating Aliments, all

the attemperating cooling Effects expected from the Whey.

Some Persons propose to cool and attemperate their Blood by Soups and a

thin Diet, into which they cram Craw-fish, that heat considerably, or

_Nasturtium_, Cresses which also heat, and thus defeat their own

Purpose. Happily, in such a Case, the Error in one Respect often cures

that in the other; and these Kinds of Soup, which are in no wise

cooling, prove very serviceable, in Consequence of the Cause of the

Symptoms, which they were intended to remove, not requiring any Coolers

at all.

The general physical Practice of the Community, which unhappily is but

too much in Fashion, abounds with similar Errors. I will just cite one,

because I have seen its dismal Effects. Many People suppose Pepper

cooling, though their Smell, Taste, and common Sense concur to inform

them of the contrary. It is the very hottest of Spices.

Sec. 561. The most certain Preservative, and the most attainable too by

every Man, is to avoid all Excess, and especially Excess in eating and

in drinking. People generally eat more than thoroughly consists with

Health, or permits them to attain the utmost Vigour, of which their

natural Constitutions are capable. The Custom is established, and it is

difficult to eradicate it: notwithstanding we should at least resolve

not to eat, but through Hunger, and always under a Subjection to Reason;

because, except in a very few Cases, Reason constantly suggests to us

not to eat, when the Stomach has an Aversion to Food. A sober moderate

Person is capable of Labour, I may say, even of excessive Labour of some

Kinds; of which greater Eaters are absolutely incapable. Sobriety of

itself cures such Maladies as are otherwise incurable, and may recover

the most shattered and unhealthy Persons.

__Chapter XXXIII.__

_Of Mountebanks, Quacks, and Conjurers._

__Sect.__ 562.

One dreadful Scourge still remains to be treated of, which occasions a

greater Mortality, than all the Distempers I have hitherto described;

and which, as long as it continues, will defeat our utmost Precautions

to preserve the Healths and Lives of the common People. This, or rather,

these Scourges, for they are very numerous, are Quacks; of which there

are two Species: The Mountebanks or travelling Quacks, and those

pretended Physicians in Villages and Country-Places, both male and

female, known in _Swisserland_ by the Name of Conjurers, and who very

effectually unpeople it.

The first of these, the Mountebanks, without visiting the Sick, or

thinking of their Distempers, sell different Medicines, some of which

are for external Use, and these often do little or no Mischief; but

their internal ones are much oftener pernicious. I have been a Witness

of their dreadful Effects, and we are not visited by one of these

wandering Caitiffs, whose Admission into our Country is not mortally

fatal to some of its Inhabitants. They are injurious also in another

Respect, as they carry off great Sums of Money with them, and levy

annually some thousands of Livres, amongst that Order of the People, who

have the least to spare. I have seen, and with a very painful Concern,

the poor Labourer and the Artisan, who have scarcely possessed the

common Necessaries of Life, borrow wherewithal to purchase, and at a

dear Price, the Poison that was to compleat their Misery, by increasing

their Maladies; and which, where they escaped with their Lives, has left

them in such a languid and inactive State, as has reduced their whole

Family to Beggary.

Sec. 563. An ignorant, knavish, lying and impudent Fellow will always

seduce the gross and credulous Mass of People, incapable to judge of and

estimate any thing rightly; and adapted to be the eternal Dupes of such,

as are base enough to endeavour to dazzle their weak Understandings; by

which Method these vile Quacks will certainly defraud them, as long as

they are tolerated. But ought not the Magistrates, the Guardians, the

Protectors, the political Fathers of the People interpose, and defend

them from this Danger, by severely prohibiting the Entrance of such

pernicious Fellows into a Country, where Mens' Lives are very estimable,

and where Money is scarce; since they extinguish the first, and carry

off the last, without the least Possibility of their being in anywise

useful to it. Can such forcible Motives as these suffer our Magistrates

to delay _their_ Expulsion any longer, _whom_ there never was the least

Reason for admitting?

Sec. 564. It is acknowledged the Conjurers, the residing Conjurers, do not

carry out the current Money of the Country, like the itinerant Quacks;

but the Havock they make among their Fellow Subjects is without

Intermission, whence it must be very great, as every Day in the Year is

marked with many of their Victims. Without the least Knowledge or

Experience, and offensively armed with three or four Medicines, whose

Nature they are as thoroughly ignorant of, as of their unhappy Patients

Diseases; and which Medicines, being almost all violent ones, are very

certainly so many Swords in the Hands of raging Madmen. Thus armed and

qualified, I say, they aggravate the slightest Disorders, and make those

that are a little more considerable, mortal; but from which the Patients

would have recovered, if left solely to the Conduct of Nature; and, for

a still stronger Reason, if they had confided to the Guidance of her

experienced Observers and Assistants.

Sec. 565. The Robber who assassinates on the High-way, leaves the Traveller

the Resource of defending himself, and the Chance of being aided by the

Arrival of other Travellers: But the Poisoner, who forces himself into

the Confidence of a sick Person, is a hundred times more dangerous, and

as just an Object of Punishment.

The Bands of Highwaymen, and their Individuals, that enter into any

Country or District, are described as particularly as possible to the

Publick. It were equally to be wished, we had also a List of these

physical Impostors and Ignorants male and female; and that a most exact

Description of them, with the Number, and a brief Summary of their

murderous Exploits, were faithfully published. By this Means the

Populace might probably be inspired with such a wholesome Dread of them,

that they would no longer expose their Lives to the Mercy of such

Executioners.

Sec. 566. But their Blindness, with Respect to these two Sorts of

maleficent Beings, is inconceivable. That indeed in Favour of the

Mountebank is somewhat less gross, because as they are not personally

acquainted with him, they may the more easily credit him with some Part

of the Talents and the Knowledge he arrogates. I shall therefore inform

them, and it cannot be repeated too often, that whatever ostentatious

Dress and Figure some of these Impostors make, they are constantly vile

Wretches, who, incapable of earning a Livelyhood in any honest Way, have

laid the Foundation of their Subsistence on their own amazing Stock of

Impudence, and that of the weak Credulity of the People; that they have

no scientific Knowledge; that their Titles and Patents are so many

Impositions, and inauthentic; since by a shameful Abuse, such Patents

and Titles are become Articles of Commerce, which are to be obtained at

very low Prices; just like the second-hand laced Cloaks which they

purchase at the Brokers. That their Certificates of Cures are so many

Chimeras or Forgeries; and that in short, if among the prodigious

Multitudes of People who take their Medicines, some of them should

recover, which it is almost physically impossible must not sometimes be

the Case, yet it would not be the less certain, that they are a

pernicious destructive Set of Men. A Thrust of a Rapier into the Breast

has saved a Man's Life by seasonably opening an Imposthume in it, which

might otherwise have killed him: and yet internal penetrating Wounds,

with a small Sword, are not the less mortal for one such extraordinary

Consequence. Nor is it even surprizing that these Mountebanks, which is

equally applicable to Conjurers, who kill thousands of People, whom

Nature alone, or assisted by a Physician, would have saved, should now

and then cure a Patient, who had been treated before by the ablest

Physicians. Frequently Patients of that Class, who apply to these

Mountebanks and Conjurers (whether it has been, that they would not

submit to the Treatment proper for their Distempers; or whether the real

Physician tired of the intractable Creatures has discontinued his Advice

and Attendance) look out for such Doctors, as assure them of a speedy

Cure, and venture to give them such Medicines as kill many, and cure one

(who has had Constitution enough to overcome them) a little sooner than

a justly reputable Physician would have done. It is but too easy to

procure, in every Parish, such Lists of their Patients, and of their

Feats, as would clearly evince the Truth of whatever has been said here

relating to them.

Sec. 567. The Credit of this Market, this Fair-hunting Doctor, surrounded

by five or six hundred Peasants, staring and gaping at him, and counting

themselves happy in his condescending to cheat them of their very scarce

and necessary Cash, by selling them, for twenty times more than its real

Worth, a Medicine whose best Quality were to be only a useless one; the

Credit, I say, of this vile yet tolerated Cheat, would quickly vanish,

could each of his Auditors be persuaded, of what is strictly true, that

except a little more Tenderness and Agility of Hand, he knows full as

much as his Doctor; and that if he could assume as much Impudence, he

would immediately have as much Ability, would equally deserve the same

Reputation, and to have the same Confidence reposed in him.

Sec. 568. Were the Populace capable of reasoning, it were easy to disabuse

them in these Respects; but as it is, their Guardians and Conductors

should reason for them. I have already proved the Absurdity of reposing

any Confidence in Mountebanks, properly so called; and that Reliance

some have on the Conjurers is still more stupid and ridiculous.

The very meanest Trade requires some Instruction: A Man does not

commence even a Cobler, a Botcher of old Leather, without serving an

Apprenticeship to it; and yet no Time has been served, no Instruction

has been attended to, by these Pretenders to the most necessary, useful

and elegant Profession. We do not confide the mending, the cleaning of a

Watch to any, who have not spent several Years in considering how a

Watch is made; what are the Requisites and Causes of its going right;

and the Defects or Impediments that make it go wrong: and yet the

preserving and rectifying the Movements of the most complex, the most

delicate and exquisite, and the most estimable Machine upon Earth, is

entrusted to People who have not the least Notion of its Structure; of

the Causes of its Motions; nor of the Instruments proper to rectify

their Deviations.

Let a Soldier discarded from his Regiment for his roguish Tricks, or who

is a Deserter from it, a Bankrupt, a disreputable Ecclesiastic, a

drunken Barber, or a Multitude of such other worthless People, advertize

that they mount, set and fit up all Kinds of Jewels and Trinkets in

Perfection; if any of these are not known; if no Person in the Place has

ever seen any of their Work; or if they cannot produce authentic

Testimonials of their Honesty, and their Ability in their Business, not

a single Individual will trust them with two Pennyworth of false Stones

to work upon; in short they must be famished. But if instead of

professing themselves Jewellers, they post themselves up as Physicians,

the Croud purchase, at a high Rate, the Pleasure of trusting them with

the Care of their Lives, the remaining Part of which they rarely fail to

empoison.

Sec. 569. The most genuine and excellent Physicians, these extraordinary

Men, who, born with the happiest Talents, have began to inform their

Understandings from their earliest Youth; who have afterwards carefully

qualified themselves by cultivating every Branch of Physic; who have

sacrificed the best and most pleasurable Days of their Lives, to a

regular and assiduous Investigation of the human Body; of its various

Functions; of the Causes that may impair or embarrass them, and informed

themselves of the Qualities and Virtues of every simple and compound

Medicine; who have surmounted the Difficulty and Loathsomness of living

in Hospitals among thousands of Patients; and who have added the medical

Observations of all Ages and Places to their own; these few and

extraordinary Men, I say, still consider themselves as short of that

perfect Ability and consummate Knowledge, which they contemplate and

wish for, as necessary to guarding the precious _Depositum_ of human

Life and Health, confided to their Charge. Nevertheless we see the same

inestimable Treasures, intrusted to gross and stupid Men, born without

Talents; brought up without Education or Culture; who frequently can

scarcely read; who are as profoundly ignorant of every Subject that has

any Relation to Physic, as the Savages of _Asia_; who awake only to

drink away; who often exercise their horrid Trade merely to find

themselves in strong Liquor, and execute it chiefly when they are drunk:

who, in short, became Physicians, only from their Incapacity to arrive

at any Trade or Attainment! Certainly such a Conduct in Creatures of the

human Species must appear very astonishing, and even melancholy, to

every sensible thinking Man; and constitute the highest Degree of

Absurdity and Extravagance.

Should any Person duly qualified enter into an Examination of the

Medicines they use, and compare them with the Situation and Symptoms of

the Patients to whom they give them, he must be struck with Horror; and

heartily deplore the Fate of that unfortunate Part of the human Race,

whose Lives, so important to the Community, are committed to the Charge

of the most murderous Set of Beings.

Sec. 570. Some of these Caitiffs however, apprehending the Force and Danger

of that Objection, founded on their Want of Study and Education, have

endeavoured to elude it, by infusing and spreading a false, and indeed,

an impudent impious Prejudice among the People, which prevails too much

at present; and this is, that their Talents for Physic are a

supernatural Gift, and, of Course, greatly superior to all human

Knowledge. It were going out of my Province to expatiate on the

Indecency, the Sin, and the Irreligion of such Knavery, and incroaching

upon the Rights and perhaps the Duty of the Clergy; but I intreat the

Liberty of observing to this respectable Order of Men, that this

Superstition, which is attended with dreadful Consequences, seems to

call for their utmost Attention: and in general the Expulsion of

Superstition is the more to be wished, as a Mind, imbued with false

Prejudices, is less adapted to imbibe a true and valuable Doctrine.

There are some very callous hardened Villains among this murdering Band,

who, with a View to establish their Influence and Revenue as well upon

Fear as upon Hope, have horridly ventured so far as to incline the

Populace to doubt, whether they received their boasted Gift and Power

from Heaven or from Hell! And yet these are the Men who are trusted with

the Health and the Lives of many others.

Sec. 571. One Fact which I have already mentioned, and which it seems

impossible to account for is, that great Earnestness of the Peasant to

procure the best Assistance he can for his sick Cattle. At whatever

Distance the Farrier lives, or some Person who is supposed qualified to

be one (for unfortunately there is not one in _Swisserland_) if he has

considerable Reputation in this Way, the Country-man goes to consult

him, or purchases his Visit at any Price. However expensive the

Medicines are, which the Horse-doctor directs, if they are accounted the

best, he procures them for his poor Beast. But if himself, his Wife or

Children fall sick, he either calls in no Assistance nor Medicines; or

contents himself with such as are next at Hand, however pernicious they

may be, though nothing the cheaper on that account: for certainly the

Money, extorted by some of these physical Conjurers from their Patients,

but oftner from their Heirs, is a very shameful Injustice, and calls

loudly for Reformation.

Sec. 572. In an excellent Memoir or Tract, which will shortly be published,

on the Population of _Swisserland_, we shall find an important and very

affecting Remark, which strictly demonstrates the Havock made by these

immedical Magicians or Conjurers; and which is this: That in the common

Course of Years, the Proportion between the Numbers and Deaths of the

Inhabitants of any one Place, is not extremely different in City and

Country: but when the very same epidemical Disease attacks the City and

the Villages, the Difference is enormous; and the Number of Deaths of

the former compared with that of the Inhabitants of the Villages, where

the Conjurer exercises his bloody Dominion, is infinitely more than the

Deaths in the City.

I find in the second Volume of the Memoirs of the oeconomical Society of

_Berne_, for the Year 1762, another Fact equally interesting, which is

related by one of the most intelligent and sagacious Observers,

concerned in that Work. "Pleurisies and Peripneumonies (he says)

prevailed at _Cottens a la Cote_; and some Peasants died under them, who

had consulted the Conjurers and taken their heating Medicines; while of

those, who pursued a directly opposite Method, almost every one

recovered."

Sec. 573. But I shall employ myself no longer on this Topic, on which the

Love of my Species alone has prompted me to say thus much; though it

deserves to be considered more in Detail, and is, in Reality, of the

greatest Consequence. None methinks could make themselves easy with

Respect to it so much as Physicians, if they were conducted only by

lucrative Views; since these Conjurers diminish the Number of those poor

People, who sometimes consult the real Physicians, and with some Care

and Trouble, but without the least Profit, to those Gentlemen. But what

good Physician is mean and vile enough to purchase a few Hours of Ease

and Tranquillity at so high, so very odious a Price?

Sec. 574. Having thus clearly shewn the Evils attending this crying

Nusance, I wish I were able to prescribe an effectual Remedy against it,

which I acknowledge is far from being easy to do.

The first necessary Point probably was to have demonstrated the great

and public Danger, and to dispose the State to employ their Attention on

this fatal, this mortal Abuse; which, joined to the other Causes of

Depopulation, has a manifest Tendency to render _Swisserland_ a Desert.

Sec. 575. The second, and doubtless the most effectual Means, which I had

already mentioned is, not to admit any travelling Mountebank to enter

this Country; and to set a Mark on all the Conjurers: It may probably

also be found convenient, to inflict corporal Punishment on them; as it

has been already adjudged in different Countries by sovereign Edicts. At

the very least they should be marked with public Infamy, according to

the following Custom practised in a great City in _France_. "When any

Mountebanks appeared in _Montpellier_, the Magistrates had a Power to

mount each of them upon a meagre miserable Ass, with his Head to the

Ass's Tail. In this Condition they were led throughout the whole City,

attended with the Shouts and Hooting of the Children and the Mob,

beating them, throwing Filth and Ordure at them, reviling them, and

dragging them all about."

Sec. 576. A third conducive Means would be the Instructions and Admonition

of the Clergy on this Subject, to the Peasants in their several

Parishes. For this Conduct of the common People amounting, in Effect, to

Suicide, to Self-murder, it must be important to convince them of it.

But the little Efficacy of the strongest and repeated Exhortations on so

many other Articles, may cause us to entertain a very reasonable Doubt

of their Success on this. Custom seems to have determined, that there is

nothing in our Day, which excludes a Person from the Title and

Appellation of an honest or honourable Man, except it be meer and

convicted Theft; and that for this simple and obvious Reason, that we

attach ourselves more strongly to our Property, than to any Thing else.

Even Homicide is esteemed and reputed honourable in many Cases. Can we

reasonably then expect to convince the Multitude, that it is criminal to

confide the Care of their Health to these Poisoners, in Hopes of a Cure

of their Disorders? A much likelier Method of succeding on this Point

would certainly be, to convince the deluded People, that it will cost

them less to be honestly and judiciously treated, than to suffer under

the Hands of these Executioners. The Expectation of a good and cheap

Health-market will be apt to influence them more, than their Dread of a

Crime would.

Sec. 577. A fourth Means of removing or restraining this Nusance would be

to expunge, from the Almanacs, all the astrological Rules relating to

Physick; as they continually conduce to preserve and increase some

dangerous Prejudices and Notions in a Science, the smallest Errors in

which are sometimes fatal. I had already reflected on the Multitude of

Peasants that have been lost, from postponing, or mistiming a Bleeding,

only because the sovereign Decision of an Almanac had directed it at

some other Time. May it not also be dreaded, to mention it by the Way,

that the same Cause, the Almanacs, may prove injurious to their rural

Oeconomy and Management; and that by advising with the Moon, who has no

Influence, and is of no Consequence in Vegetation or other Country

Business, they may be wanting in a due Attention to such other

Circumstances and Regulations, as are of real Importance in them?

Sec. 578. A fifth concurring Remedy against this popular Evil would be the

Establishment of Hospitals, for the Reception of poor Patients, in the

different Cities and Towns of _Swisserland_.

There may be a great many easy and concurring Means of erecting and

endowing such, with very little new Expence; and immense Advantages

might result from them: besides, however considerable the Expenses might

prove, is not the Object of them of the most interesting, the most

important Nature? It is incontestably our serious Duty; and it would

soon be manifest, that the Performance of it would be attended with more

essential intrinsic Benefit to the Community, than any other Application

of Money could produce. We must either admit, that the Multitude, the

Body of the People is useless to the State, or agree, that Care should

be taken to preserve and continue them. A very respectable _English_

Man, who, after a previous and thorough Consideration of this Subject,

had applied himself very assiduously and usefully on the Means of

increasing the Riches and the Happiness of his Country-men, complains

that in _England_, the very Country in which there are the most

Hospitals, the Poor who are sick are not sufficiently assisted. What a

deplorable Deficience of the necessary Assistance for such must then be

in a Country, that is not provided with a single Hospital? That Aid from

Surgery and Physic, which abounds in Cities, is not sufficiently

diffused into Country-places: and the Peasants are liable to some simple

and moderate Diseases, which, for Want of proper Care, degenerate into a

State of Infirmity, that sinks them into premature Death.

Sec. 579. In fine, if it be found impossible to extinguish these Abuses

(for those arising from Quacks are not the only ones, nor is that Title

applied to as many as really deserve it) beyond all Doubt it would be

for the Benefit and Safety of the Public, upon the whole, entirely to

prohibit the Art, the Practice of Physic itself. When real and good

Physicians cannot effect as much Good, as ignorant ones and Impostors

can do Mischief, some real Advantage must accrue to the State, and to

the whole Species, from employing none of either. I affirm it, after

much Reflection, and from thorough Conviction, that Anarchy in Medicine

is the most dangerous Anarchy. For this Profession, when loosed from

every Restraint, and subjected to no Regulations, no Laws, is the more

cruel Scourge and Affliction, from the incessant Exercise of it; and

should its Anarchy, its Disorders prove irremediable, the Practice of an

Art, become so very noxious, should be prohibited under the severest

Penalties: Or, if the Constitution of any Government was inconsistent

with the Application of so violent a Remedy, they should order public

Prayers against the Mortality of it, to be offered up in all the

Churches; as the Custom has been in other great and general Calamities.

Sec. 580. Another Abuse, less fatal indeed than those already mentioned

(but which, however, has real ill Consequences, and at the best, carries

out a great deal of Money from us, though less at the Expense of the

common People, than of those of easy Circumstances) is that Blindness

and Facility, with which many suffer themselves to be imposed upon, by

the pompous Advertisements of some _Catholicon_, some universal Remedy,

which they purchase at a high Rate, from some foreign Pretender to a

mighty Secret or _Nostrum_. Persons of a Class or two above the Populace

do not care to run after a Mountebank, from supposing they should

depretiate themselves by mixing with the Herd. Yet if that very Quack,

instead of coming among us, were to reside in some foreign City; if,

instead of posting up his lying Puffs and Pretentions at the Corners of

the Streets, he would get them inserted in the Gazettes, and

News-papers; if, instead of selling his boasted Remedies in Person, he

should establish Shops or Offices for that Purpose in every City; and

finally, if instead of selling them twenty times above their real Value,

he would still double that Price; instead of having the common People

for his Customers, he would take in the wealthy Citizen, Persons of all

Ranks, and from almost every Country. For strange as it seems, it is

certain, that a Person of such a Condition, who is sensible in every

other Respect; and who will scruple to confide his Health to the Conduct

of such Physicians as would be the justest Subjects of his Confidence,

will venture to take, through a very unaccountable Infatuation, the most

dangerous Medicine, upon the Credit of an imposing Advertisement,

published by as worthless and ignorant a Fellow as the Mountebank whom

he despises, because the latter blows a Horn under his Window; and yet

who differs from the former in no other Respects except those I have

just pointed out.

Sec. 581. Scarcely a Year passes, without one or another such advertized

and vaunted Medicine's getting into high Credit; the Ravages of which

are more or less, in Proportion to its being more or less in Vogue.

Fortunately, for the human Species, but few of these _Nostrums_ have

attained an equal Reputation with _Ailbaud_'s Powders, an Inhabitant of

_Aix_ in _Provence_, and unworthy the Name of a Physician; who has

over-run _Europe_ for some Years, with a violent Purge, the Remembrance

of which will not be effaced before the Extinction of all its Victims. I

attend now, and for a long time past, several Patients, whose Disorders

I palliate without Hopes of ever curing them; and who owe their present

melancholy State of Body to nothing but the manifest Consequences of

these Powders; and I have actually seen, very lately, two Persons who

have been cruelly poisoned by this boasted Remedy of his. A French

Physician, as eminent for his Talents and his Science, as estimable from

his personal Character in other Respects, has published some of the

unhappy and tragical Consequences which the Use of them has occasioned;

and were a Collection published of the same Events from them, in every

Place where they have been introduced, the Size and the Contents of the

Volume would make a very terrible one.

Sec. 582. It is some Comfort however, that all the other Medicines thus

puffed and vended have not been altogether so fashionable, nor yet quite

so dangerous: but all posted and advertized Medicines should be judged

of upon this Principle (and I do not know a more infallible one in

Physics, nor in the Practice of Physic), that whoever advertises any

Medicine, as a universal Remedy for all Diseases, is an absolute

Impostor, such a Remedy being impossible and contradictory. I shall not

here offer to detail such Proofs as may be given of the Verity of this

Proposition: but I freely appeal for it to every sensible Man, who will

reflect a little on the different Causes of Diseases; on the Opposition

of these Causes; and on the Absurdity of attempting to oppose such

various Diseases, and their Causes, by one and the same Remedy.

As many as shall settle their Judgments properly on this Principle, will

never be imposed upon by the superficial Gloss of these Sophisms

contrived to prove, that all Diseases proceed from one Cause; and that

this Cause is so very tractable, as to yield to one boasted Remedy. They

will perceive at once, that such an Assertion must be founded in the

utmost Knavery or Ignorance; and they will readily discover where the

Fallacy lies. Can any one expect to cure a Dropsy, which arises from too

great a Laxity of the Fibres, and too great an Attenuation or Thinness

of the Blood, by the same Medicines that are used to cure an

inflammatory Disease, in which the Fibres are too stiff and tense, and

the Blood too thick and dense? Yet consult the News-papers and the

Posts, and you will see published in and on all of them, Virtues just as

contradictory; and certainly the Authors of such poisonous

Contradictions ought to be legally punished for them.

Sec. 583. I heartily wish the Publick would attend here to a very natural

and obvious Reflection. I have treated in this Book, but of a small

Number of Diseases, most of them acute ones; and I am positive that no

competent well qualified Physician has ever employed fewer Medicines, in

the Treatment of the Diseases themselves. Nevertheless I have prescribed

seventy-one, and I do not see which of them I could retrench, or

dispense with the Want of, if I were obliged to use one less. Can it be

supposed then, that any one single Medicine, compound or simple, shall

cure thirty times as many Diseases as those I have treated of?

Sec. 584. I shall add another very important Observation, which doubtless

may have occurred to many of my Readers; and it is this, that the

different Causes of Diseases, their different Characters; the

Differences which arise from the necessary Alterations that happen

throughout their Progress and Duration; the Complications of which they

are susceptible; the Varieties which result from the State of different

Epidemics, of Seasons, of Sexes, and of many other Circumstances; that

these Diversities, I say, oblige us very often to vary and change the

Medicines; which proves how very ticklish and dangerous it is to have

them directed by Persons, who have such an imperfect Knowledge of them,

as those who are not Physicians must be supposed to have. And the

Circumspection to be used in such Cases ought to be proportioned to the

Interest the Assistant takes in the Preservation of the Patient; and

that Love of his Neighbour with which he is animated.

Sec. 585. Must not the same Arguments and Reflections unavoidably suggest

the Necessity of an entire Tractability on the Part of the Patient, and

his Friends and Assistants? The History of Diseases which have their

stated Times of Beginning, of manifesting and displaying themselves; of

arriving at, and continuing in their Height, and of decreasing; do not

all these demonstrate the Necessity of continuing the same Medicines, as

long as the Character of the Distemper is the same; and the Danger of

changing them often, only because what has been given has not afforded

immediate Relief? Nothing can injure the Patient more than this

Instability and Caprice. After the Indication which his Distemper

suggests, appears to be well deduced, the Medicine must be chosen that

is likeliest to resist the Cause of it; and it must be continued as long

as no new Symptom or Circumstance supervenes, which requires an

Alteration of it; except it should be evident, that an Error had been

incurred in giving it. But to conclude that a Medicine is useless or

insignificant, because it does not remove or abate the Distemper as

speedily, as the Impatience of the Sick would naturally desire it; and

to change it for another, is as unreasonable, as it would be for a Man

to break his Watch, because the Hand takes twelve Hours, to make a

Revolution round the Dial-plate.

Sec. 586. Physicians have some Regard to the State of the Urine of sick

Persons, especially in inflammatory Fevers; as the Alterations occurring

in it help them to judge of the Changes that may have been made in the

Character and Consistence of the Humours in the Mass of Blood; and

thence may conduce to determine the Time, in which it will be proper to

dispose them to some Evacuation. But it is gross Ignorance to imagine,

and utter Knavery and Imposture to persuade the Sick, that the meer

Inspection of their Urine solely, sufficiently enables others to judge

of the Symptoms and Cause of the Disease, and to direct the best

Remedies for it. This Inspection of the Urine can only be of Use when it

is duly inspected; when we consider at the same time the exact State and

the very Looks of the Patient; when these are compared with the Degree

of the Symptoms of the Malady; with the other Evacuations; and when the

Physician is strictly informed of all external Circumstances, which may

be considered as foreign to the Malady; which may alter or affect the

Evacuations, such as particular Articles of Food, particular Drinks,

different Medicines, or the very Quantity of Drink. Where a Person is

not furnished with an exact Account of these Circumstances, the meer

Inspection of the Urine is of no Service, it suggests no Indication, nor

any Expedient; and meer common Sense sufficiently proves, and it may be

boldly affirmed, that whoever orders any Medicine, without any other

Knowledge of the Disease, than what an Inspection of the Urine affords,

is a rank Knave, and the Patient who takes them is a Dupe.

Sec. 587. And here now any Reader may very naturally ask, whence can such a

ridiculous Credulity proceed, upon a Subject so essentially interesting

to us as our own Health?

In Answer to this it should be observed, that some Sources, some Causes

of it seem appropriated merely to the People, the Multitude. The first

of these is, the mechanical Impression of Parade and Shew upon the

Senses. 2, The Prejudice they have conceived, as I said before, of the

Conjurers curing by a supernatural Gift. 3, The Notion the Country

People entertain, that their Distemper and Disorders are of a Character

and Species peculiar to themselves, and that the Physicians, attending

the Rich, know nothing concerning them. 4, The general Mistake that

their employing the Conjurer is much cheaper. 5, Perhaps a sheepish

shame-faced Timidity may be one Motive, at least with some of them. 6, A

Kind of Fear too, that Physicians will consider their Cases with less

Care and Concern, and be likely to treat them more cavalierly; a Fear

which increases that Confidence which the Peasant, and which indeed

every Man has in his Equal, being sounded in Equality itself. And 7, the

Discourse and Conversation of such illiterate Empirics being more to

their Tast, and more adapted to their Apprehension.

But it is less easy to account for this blind Confidence, which Persons

of a superior Class (whole Education being considered as much better are

regarded as better Reasoners) repose in these boasted Remedies; and even

for some Conjurer in Vogue. Nevertheless even some of their Motives may

be probably assigned.

The first is that great Principle of _Seity_, or _Selfness_, as it may

be called, innate to Man, which attaching him to the Prolongation of his

own Existence more than to any other thing in the Universe, keeps his

Eyes, his utmost Attention, continually fixed upon this Object; and

compels him to make it the very Point, the Purpose of all his Advances

and Proceedings; notwithstanding it does not permit him to distinguish

the safest Paths to it from the dangerous ones. This is the surest and

shortest Way says some Collector at the Turnpike, he pays, passes, and

perishes from the Precipices that occur in his Route.

This very Principle is the Source of another Error, which consists in

reposing, involuntarily, a greater Degree of Confidence in those, who

flatter and fall in the most with us in our favourite Opinions. The well

apprised Physician, who foresees the Length and the Danger of a Disease;

and who is a Man of too much Integrity to affirm what he does not think,

must, from a necessary Construction of the human Frame and Mind, be

listened to less favourably, than he who flatters us by saying what we

wish. We endeavour to elongate, to absent ourselves, from the

Sentiments, the Judgment of the first; we smile, from Self-complacency,

at those of the last, which in a very little time are sure of obtaining

our Preference.

A third Cause, which results from the same Principle is, that we give

ourselves up the most readily to his Conduct, whose Method seems the

least disagreeable, and flatters our Inclinations the most. The

Physician who enjoins a strict Regimen; who insists upon some Restraints

and Self-denials; who intimates the Necessity of Time and Patience for

the Accomplishment of the Cure, and who expects a thorough Regularity

through the Course of it, disgusts a Patient who has been accustomed to

indulge his own Tast and Humour; the Quack, who never hesitates at

complying with it, charms him. The Idea of a long and somewhat distant

Cure, to be obtained at the End of an unpleasant and unrelaxing Regimen,

supposes a very perilous Disease; this Idea disposes the Patient to

Disgust and Melancholy, he cannot submit to it without Pain; and he

embraces, almost unconsciously, merely to avoid this, an opposite System

which presents him only with the Idea of such a Distemper, as will give

Way to a few Doses of Simples.

That Propensity to the New and Marvellous, which tyrannizes over so

large a Proportion of our Species, and which has advanced so many absurd

Persons and Things into Reputation, is a fourth and a very powerful

Motive. An irksome Satiety, and a Tiresomeness, as it were, from the

same Objects, is what our Nature is apt to be very apprehensive of;

though we are incessantly conducted towards it, by a Perception of some

Void, some Emptiness in ourselves, and even in Society too: But new and

extraordinary Sensations rousing us from this disagreeable State, more

effectually than any Thing else, we unthinkingly abandon ourselves to

them, without foreseeing their Consequences.

A fifth Cause arises from seven Eighths of Mankind being managed by, or

following, the other Eighth; and, generally speaking, the Eighth that is

so very forward to manage them, are the least fit and worthy to do it;

whence all must go amiss, and absurd and embarrassing Consequences ensue

from the Condition of Society. A Man of excellent Sense frequently sees

only through the Eyes of a Fool, of an intriguing Fellow, or of a Cheat;

in this he judges wrong, and his Conduct must be so too. A man of real

Merit cannot connect himself with those who are addicted to caballing;

and yet such are the Persons, who frequently conduct others.

Some other Causes might be annexed to these, but I shall mention only

one of them, which I have already hinted, and the Truth of which I am

confirmed in from several Years Experience; which is, that we generally

love those who reason more absurdly than ourselves, better than those

who convince us of our own weak Reasoning.

I hope the Reflexions every Reader will make on these Causes of our ill

Conduct on this important Head, may contribute to correct or diminish

it; and to destroy those Prejudices whose fatal Effects we may

continually observe.

[N. B. _The Multitude of_ all _the Objects of this excellent Chapter in

this Metropolis, and doubtless throughout_ England, _were strong

Inducements to have taken a little wholesome Notice of the Impostures of

a few of the most pernicious. But on a second Perusal of this Part of

the Original and its Translation, I thought it impossible (without

descending to personal, nominal Anecdotes about the Vermin) to add any

Thing material upon a Subject, which the Author has with such Energy

exhausted. He even seems, by some of his Descriptions, to have taken

Cognizance of a few of our most self-dignified itinerant Empirics; as

these Genius's find it necessary sometimes to treat themselves with a

little Transportation. In reality Dr._ _Tissot_ _has, in a very masterly

Way, thoroughly dissected and displayed the whole_ Genus, _every Species

of Quacks. And when he comes to account for that Facility, with which

Persons of very different Principles from them, and of better

Intellects, first listen to, and finally countenance such Caitiffs, he

penetrates into some of the most latent Weaknesses of the human Mind;

even such as are often Secrets to their Owners. It is difficult,

throughout this Disquisition, not to admire the Writer; but impossible

not to love the Man, the ardent Philanthropist. His Sentiment that--"A

Man of real Merit cannot connect himself with those who are addicted to

caballing,"--is exquisitely just, and so liberal, that it never entered

into the Mind of any disingenuous Man, however dignified, in any

Profession. Persons of the simplest Hearts and purest Reflections must

shrink at every Consciousness of Artifice; and secretly reproach

themselves for each Success, that has redounded to them at the Expence

of Truth._] K.

__Chapter XXXIV.__

_Containing Questions absolutely necessary to be answered

exactly by the Patient, who consults a Physician._

__Sect.__ 588.

Great Consideration and Experience are necessary to form a right

Judgment of the State of a Patient, whom the Physician has not

personally seen; even though he should receive the best Information it

is possible to give him, at a Distance from the Patient. But this

Difficulty is greatly augmented, or rather changed into an

Impossibility, when his Information is not exact and sufficient. It has

frequently happened to myself, that after having examined Peasants who

came to get Advice for others, I did not venture to prescribe, because

they were not able to give me a sufficient Information, in order to my

being certain of the Distemper. To prevent this great Inconvenience, I

subjoin a List of such Questions, as indispensably require clear and

direct Answers.

_General Questions._

What is the Patient's Age?

Is he generally a healthy Person?

What is his general Course of Life?

How long has he been sick?

In what Manner did his present Sickness begin, or appear?

Has he any Fever?

Is his Pulse hard or soft?

Has he still tolerable Strength, or is he weak?

Does he keep his Bed in the Day Time, or quit it?

Is he in the same Condition throughout the whole Day?

Is he still, or restless?

Is he hot, or cold?

Has he Pains in the Head, the Throat, the Breast, the Stomach, the

Belly, the Loins, or in the Limbs, the Extremities of the Body?

Is his Tongue dry? does he complain of Thirst? of an ill Tast in his

Mouth? of Reachings to vomit, or of an Aversion to Food?

Does he go to stool often or seldom?

What Appearance have his Stools, and what is their usual quantity?

Does he make much Urine? What Appearance has his Urine, as to Colour and

Contents? Are they generally much alike, or do they change often?

Does he sweat?

Does he expectorate, or cough up?

Does he get Sleep?

Does he draw his Breath easily?

What Regimen does he observe in his Sickness?

What Medicines has he taken?

What Effects have they produced?

Has he never had the same Distemper before?

Sec. 589. The Diseases of Women and Children are attended with peculiar

Circumstances; so that when Advice is asked for them, Answers must be

given, not only to the preceding Questions, which relate to sick Persons

in general; but also to the following, which regard these particularly.

_Questions with Respect to Women._

Have they arrived at their monthly Discharges, and are these regular?

Are they pregnant? Is so, how long since?

Are they in Child-bed?

Has their Delivery been happily accomplished?

Has the Mother cleansed sufficiently?

Has her Milk come in due Time and Quantity?

Does she suckle the Infant herself?

Is she subject to the Whites?

_Questions relating to Children._

What is the Child's exact Age?

How many Teeth has he cut?

Does he cut them painfully?

Is he any-wise ricketty, or subject to Knots or Kernels?

Has he had the Small Pocks?

Does the Child void Worms, upwards or downwards?

Is his Belly large, swelled, or hard?

Is his Sleep quiet, or otherwise?

Sec. 590. Besides these general Questions, common in all the Diseases of

the different Sexes and Ages, the Person consulting must also answer to

those, which have a close and direct Relation to the Disease, at that

very Time affecting the Sick.

For Example, in the Quinsey, the Condition of the Throat must be exactly

inquired into. In Diseases of the Breast, an Account must be given of

the Patient's Pains; of his Cough; of the Oppression, and of his

Breathing, and Expectoration. I shall not enter upon a more particular

Detail; common Sense will sufficiently extend this Plan or Specimen to

other Diseases; and though these Questions may seem numerous, it will

always be easy to write down their Answers in as little Room, as the

Questions take up here. It were even to be wished that Persons of every

Rank, who occasionally write for medical Advice and Directions, would

observe such a Plan or Succession, in the Body of their Letters. By this

Means they would frequently procure the most satisfactory Answers; and

save themselves the Trouble of writing second Letters, to give a

necessary Explanation of the first.

The Success of Remedies depends, in a very great Measure, on a very

exact Knowledge of the Disease; and that Knowledge on the precise

Information of it, which is laid before the Physician.

__FINIS.__

_TABLE_

_Of the Prescriptions and Medicines, referred to in the

foregoing Treatise: Which, with the Notes beneath them, are to

be read before the taking, or Application, of any of the said

Medicines._

As in Order to ascertain the Doses of Medicines, I have generally done

it by Pounds, Ounces, Half-Ounces, _&c. &c._ and as this Method,

especially to the common People, might prove a little too obscure and

embarrassing, I have specified here the exact Weight of Water, contained

in such Vessels or liquid Measures, as are most commonly used in the

Country.

The Pound which I mean, throughout all these Prescriptions, is that

consisting of sixteen Ounces. These Ounces contain eight Drachms, each

Drachm consisting of three Scruples, and each Scruple of twenty Grains;

the medical Scruple of _Paris_ solely containing twenty-four Grains.

The liquid Measure, the _Pot_ used at _Berne_, being that I always speak

of, may be estimated, without any material Error, to contain three

Pounds and a Quarter, which is equal to three Pints, and eight common

Spoonfuls English Measure. But the exact Weight of the Water, contained

in the Pot of _Berne_, being fifty-one Ounces and a Quarter only, it is

strictly equal but to three Pints and six common Spoonfuls _English_.

This however is a Difference of no Importance, in the usual Drinks or

Aliments of the Sick.

The small drinking Glass we talk of, filled so as not to run over,

contains three Ounces and three Quarters. But filled, as we propose it

should for the Sick, it is to be estimated only at three Ounces.

The common middle sized Cup, though rather large than little, contains

three Ounces and a Quarter. But as dealt out to the Sick, it should not

be estimated, at the utmost, above three Ounces.

The small Glass contains seven common Spoonfuls; so that a Spoonful is

supposed to contain half an Ounce.

The small Spoon, or Coffee Spoon, when of its usual Size and Cavity, may

contain thirty Drops, or a few more; but, in the Exhibition of

Medicines, it may be reckoned at thirty Drops. Five or six of these are

deemed equal in Measure, to a common Soup-Spoon.

The Bason or Porrenger, mentioned in the present Treatise, holds,

without running over, the Quantity of five Glasses, which is equivalent

to eighteen Ounces and three Quarters. It may be estimated however,

without a Fraction, at eighteen Ounces: and a sick Person should never

be allowed to take more than a third Part of this Quantity of

Nourishment, at any one Time.

The Doses in all the following Prescriptions are adjusted to the Age of

an Adult or grown Man, from the Age of eighteen to that of sixty Years.

From the Age of twelve to eighteen, two thirds of that Dose will

generally be sufficient: and from twelve down to seven Years one half,

diminishing this still lower, in Proportion to the greater Youth of the

Patient: so that not more than one eighth of the Dose prescribed should

be given to an infant of some Months old, or under one Year. But it must

also be considered, that their different Constitutions will make a

considerable Difference in adjusting their different Doses. It were to

be wished, on this Account, that every Person would carefully observe

whether a strong Dose is necessary to purge him, or if a small one is

sufficient; as Exactness is most important in adjusting the Doses of

such Medicines, as are intended to purge, or to evacuate in any other

Manner.

No. 1.

Take a Pugil or large Pinch between the Thumb and Fingers of Elder

Flowers; put them into an earthen-ware Mug or Porrenger, with two Ounces

of Honey, and an Ounce and a half of good Vinegar. Pour upon them three

Pints and one Quarter of boiling Water. Stir it about a little with a

Spoon to mix and dissolve the Honey; then cover up the Mug; and, when

the Liquor is cold, strain it through a Linen Cloth.

No. 2.

Take two Ounces of whole Barley, cleanse and wash it well in hot Water,

throwing away this Water afterwards. Then boil it in five Chopins or

_English_ Pints of Water, till the Barley bursts and opens. Towards the

End of the boiling, throw in one Drachm and a half of Nitre [Salt Petre]

strain it through a Linen Cloth, and then add to it one Ounce and a half

of Honey, and one Ounce of Vinegar. [113]

[113] This makes an agreeable Drink; and the Notion of its being windy is

idle; since it is so only to those, with whom Barley does not

agree. It may, where Barley is not procurable, be made from Oats.

No. 3.

Take the same Quantity of Barley as before, and instead of Nitre, boil

in it, as soon as the Barley is put in to boil, a Quarter of an Ounce of

Cream of Tartar. Strain it, and add nothing else [114] to it.

[114] In those Cases mentioned Sec. 241, 262, 280, instead of the Barley,

four Ounces of Grass Roots may be boiled in the same Quantity of

Water for half an Hour, with the Cream of Tartar.

No. 4.

Take three Ounces of the freshest sweet Almonds, and one Ounce of Gourd

or Melon Seed; bruise them in a Mortar, adding to them by a little at a

time, one Pint of Water, then strain it through Linen. Bruise what

remains again, adding gradually to it another Pint of Water, then

straining; and adding Water to the Residue, till full three Pints at

least of Water are thus used: after which it may again be poured upon

the bruised Mass, stirred well about, and then be finally strained off.

Half an Ounce of Sugar may safely be bruised with the Almonds and Seeds

at first, though some weakly imagine it too heating; and delicate

Persons may be allowed a little Orange Flower Water with it.

No. 5.

Take two Pugils of Mallow Leaves and Flowers, cut them small, and pour a

Pint of boiling Water upon them. After standing some time strain it,

adding one Ounce of Honey to it. For Want of Mallows, which is

preferable, a similar Glyster may be made of the Leaves of Mercury,

Pellitory of the Wall, the Marsh-Mallows, the greater Mallows, from

Lettuce, or from Spinage. A few very particular Consititutions are not

to be purged by any Glyster but warm Water alone; such should receive no

other, and the Water should not be very hot.

No. 6.

Boil a Pugil of Mallow Flowers, in a Pint of Barley Water for a Glyster.

No. 7.

Take three Pints of simple Barley Water, add to it three Ounces of the

Juice of Sow-thistle, or of Groundsel, or of the greater Houseleek, or

of Borage. [115]

[115] These Juices are to be procured from the Herbs when fresh and very

young, if possible, by beating them in a Marble Mortar, or for Want

of such [or a wooden Mortar] in an Iron one, and then squeezing out

the Juice through a Linen Bag. It must be left to settle a little

in an earthen Vessel, after which the clear Juice must be decanted

gently off, and the Sediment be left behind.

No. 8.

To one Ounce of Oxymel of Squills, add five Ounces of a strong Infusion

of Elder Flowers.

No. 9.

There are many different emollient Applications, which have very nearly

the same Virtues. The following are the most efficacious.

1, Flanels wrung out of a hot Decoction of Mallow Flowers.

2, Small Bags filled with Mallow Flowers, or with those of Mullein, of

Elder, of Camomile, of wild Corn Poppy, and boiled either in Milk or

Water.

3, Pultices of the same Flowers boiled in Milk and Water.

4, Bladders half filled with hot Milk and Water, or with some emollient

Decoction.

5, A Pultice of boiled Bread and Milk, or of Barley or Rice boiled till

thoroughly soft and tender.

6, In the Pleurisy (See Sec. 89) the affected Part may be rubbed sometimes

with Ointment of Marsh-mallows.

No. 10.

To one Ounce of Spirit of Sulphur, add six Ounces of Syrup of Violets,

or for want of the latter, as much Barley Water, of a thicker

Consistence than ordinary. [116]

[116] Some Friends, says Dr. _Tissot_, whose judgment I greatly respect,

have thought the Doses of acid Spirit which I direct extremely

strong; and doubtless they are so, if compared with the Doses

generally prescribed, and to which I should have limited myself, if

I had not frequently seen their Insufficience. Experience has

taught me to increase them considerably; and, augmenting the Dose

gradually, I now venture to give larger Doses of them than have

ever been done before, and always with much Success; the same Doses

which I have advised in this Work not being so large as those I

frequently prescribe. For this Reason I intreat those Physicians,

who have thought them excessive, to try the acid Spirits in larger

Doses than those commonly ordered; and I am persuaded they will see

Reason to congratulate themselves upon the Effect. [117]

[117] Our Author's _French_ Annotator has a Note against this Acid, which

I have omitted; for though I have given his Note Page 84 [with the

Substance of the immediately preceding one] to which I have also

added some Doubts of my own, from Facts, concerning the Benefit of

Acids in inflammatory Disorders of the Breast; yet with Regard to

the ardent, the putrid, the malignant Fever, and _Erisipelas_, in

which Dr. _Tissot_ directs this, I have no Doubt of its Propriety

(supposing no insuperable Disagreement to Acids in the

Constitution) and with Respect to their Doses, I think we may

safely rely on our honest Author's Veracity. Dr. _Fuller_ assures

us, a Gentleman's Coachman was recovered from the Bleeding Small

Pocks, by large and repeated Doses of the Oil of Vitriol, in

considerable Draughts of cold Water. _K._

No. 11.

Take two Ounces of Manna, and half an Ounce of Sedlitz Salt, or for want

of it, as much Epsom Salt; dissolving them in four Ounces of hot Water,

and straining them.

No. 12.

Take of Elder Flowers one Pugil, of Hyssop Leaves half as much. Pour

three Pints of boiling Water upon them. After infusing some time,

strain, and dissolve three Ounces of Honey in the Infusion.

No. 13.

Is only the same Kind of Drink made by omitting the Hyssop, and adding

instead of it as much more Elder Flowers.

No. 14.

Let one Ounce of the best Jesuits Bark in fine Powder be divided into

sixteen equal Portions.

No. 15.

Take of the Flowers of St. _John's_ Wort, of Elder, and of Melilot, of

each a few Pinches; put them into the Bottom of an Ewer or Vessel

containing five or six _English_ Pints, with half an Ounce of Oil of

Turpentine, and fill it up with boiling Water.

No. 16.

Is only the Syrup of the Flowers of the wild red Corn Poppy.

No. 17.

Is only very clear sweet Whey, in every Pint of which one Ounce of Honey

is to be dissolved.

No. 18.

Take of Castile or hard white Soap six Drachms; of Extract of Dandelion

one Drachm and a half; of Gum Ammoniacum half a Drachm, and with Syrup

of Maidenhair make a Mass of Pills, to be formed into Pills, weighing

three Grains each.

No. 19.

Gargarisms may be prepared from a Decoction, or rather an Infusion, of

the Leaves of Periwinkle, or of Red Rose-Leaves, or of Mallows. Two

Ounces of Vinegar and as much Honey must be added to every Pint of it,

and the Patient should gargle with it pretty hot. The deterging,

cleansing Gargarisin referred to Sec. 112, is a light Infusion of the Tops

of Sage, adding two Ounces of Honey to each Pint of it.

No. 20.

Is only one Ounce of powdered Nitre, divided into sixteen equal Doses.

No. 21.

Take of Jalap, of Senna, and of Cream of Tartar of each thirty Grains

finely powdered; and let them be very well mixed. [118]

[118] This, our Author observes, will work a strong Country-man very

well: by which however he does not seem to mean an Inhabitant of

the Mountains in _Valais_. See P. 547.

No. 22.

Take of _China_ Root, and of Sarsaparilla of each one Ounce and a half,

of Sassafras Root, and of the Shavings of Guiacum, otherwise called

_Lignum vitae_, of each one Ounce. Let the whole be cut very fine. Then

put them into a glazed earthen Vessel; pouring upon them about five

pints of boiling Water. Let them boil gently for an Hour; then take it

from the Fire, and strain it off through Linen. This is called the

Decoction of the Woods, and is often of different Proportions of these

Ingredients, or with the Addition of a few others. More Water may, after

the first boiling, be poured on the same Ingredients, and be boiled up

into a small Decoction for common Drink.

No. 23.

Take one Ounce of the Pulp of Tamarinds, half a Drachm of Nitre, and

four Ounces of Water; let them boil not more than one Minute, then add

two Ounces of Manna, and when dissolved strain the Mixture off.

No. 24.

Is only an Ounce of Cream of Tartar, divided into eight equal Parts.

No. 25.

This Prescription is only the Preparation of Kermes mineral, otherwise

called the Chartreusian Powder. Dr. _Tissot_ orders but one Grain for a

Dose. It has been directed from one to three.

No. 26.

Take three Ounces of the common Burdock Root; boil it for half an Hour,

with half a Drachm of Nitre, in three full Pints of Water.

No. 27.

Take half a Pinch of the Herbs prescribed No. 9, Article 2, and half an

Ounce of hard white Soap shaved thin. Pour on these one Pint and a half

of boiling Water, and one Glass of Wine. Strain the Liquor and squeeze

it strongly out.

No. 28.

Take of the purest Quicksilver one Ounce; of Venice Turpentine half a

Drachm, of the freshest Hog's Lard two Ounces, and let the whole be very

well rubbed together into an Ointment. [119]

[119] This Ointment should be prepared at the Apothecaries; the Receipt

of it being given here, only because the Proportions of the

Quicksilver and the Lard are not always the same in different

Places.

No. 29.

This Prescription is nothing but the yellow Basilicon.

No. 30.

Take of natural and factitious, or artificial Cinnabar, twenty-four

Grains each; of Musk sixteen Grains, and let the whole be reduced into

fine Powder, and very well mixed. [120]

[120] This Medicine is known by the Name of _Cob's_ Powder; and as its

Reputation is very considerable, I did not chuse to omit it; though

I must repeat here what I have said Sec. 195--That the Cinnabar is

probably of little or no Efficacy; and there are other Medicines

that have also much more than the Musk; which besides is extremely

dear for poor People, as the requisite Doses of it, in very

dangerous Cases, would cost ten or twelve Shillings daily. The

Prescription, No. 31, is more effectual than the Musk; and instead

of the useless Cinnabar, the powerful Quicksilver may be given to

the Quantity of forty-five Grains. I have said nothing hitherto in

this Work of the red blossomed Mulberry Tree, which passes for a

real Specific, among some Persons, in this dreadful Malady. An

Account of it may be seen in the first Volume of the Oeconomical

Journal of _Berne_. It is my Opinion however, that none of the

Instances related there are satisfactory and decisive; its Efficacy

still appearing to me very doubtful.

No. 31.

Take one Drachm of _Virginia_ Snake Root in Powder; of Camphor and of

Assa-foetida ten Grains each; of Opium one Grain, and with a sufficient

Quantity of Conserve, or Rob of Elder, make a Bolus. [121]

[121] When this is preferred to No. 30, of which Musk is an Ingredient,

the Grain of Opium should be omitted, except once or at most twice

in the twenty-four Hours. Two Doses of Quicksilver, of fifteen

Grains each, should be given daily in the Morning, in the Interval

between the other Bolus's.

No. 32.

Take three Ounces of Tamarinds. Pour on them one Pint of boiling Water,

and after letting them boil a Minute or two, strain the Liquor through a

Linen Cloth.

No. 33.

Take seven Grains of Turbith Mineral; and make it into a Pill or Bolus

with a little Crumb of Bread. [122]

[122] This Medicine makes the Dogs vomit and slaver abundantly. It has

effected many Cures after the _Hydrophobia_, the Dread of Water,

was manifest. It must be given three Days successively, and

afterwards twice a Week, for fifteen Days.

No. 34.

This is nothing but a Prescription of six Grains of Tartar [123] emetic.

[123] When People are ignorant of the Strength of the Tartar emetic

(which is often various) or of the Patient's being easy or hard to

vomit, a Dose and a half may be dissolved in a Quart of warm Water,

of which he may take a Glass every Quarter of an Hour, whence the

Operation may be forwarded, or otherwise regulated, according to

the Number of Vomits or Stools. This Method, much used in _Paris_,

seems a safe and eligible one.

No. 35.

Take thirty-five Grains of Ipecacuanna, which, in the very strongest

Constitutions, may be augmented to forty-five, or even to fifty Grains.

No. 36.

Prescribes only the common blistering Plaister; and the Note observes

that very young Infants who have delicate Skins may have Sinapisms

applied instead of Blisters; and made of a little old Leaven, kneaded up

with a few Drops of sharp Vinegar.

No. 37.

Take of the Tops of _Chamaedrys_ or Ground Oak, of the lesser Centaury,

of Wormwood and of Camomile, of each one Pugil. Pour on them three Pints

of boiling Water; and suffering them to infuse until it is cold, strain

the Liquor through a Linen Cloth, pressing it out strongly.

No. 38.

Take forty Grains of Rhubarb, and as much Cream of Tartar in Powder,

mixing them well together.

No. 39.

Take three Drachms of Cream of Tartar, and one Drachm of Ipecacuanna

finely powdered. Rub them well together, and divide them into six equal

Parts.

No. 40.

Take of the simple Mixture one Ounce, of Spirit of Vitriol half an

Ounce, and mix them. The Dose is one or two Tea Spoonfuls in a Cup of

the Patient's common Drink. The simple Mixture is composed of five

Ounces of Treacle Water camphorated, of three Ounces of Spirit of Tartar

rectified, and one Ounce of Spirit of Vitriol. If the Patient has an

insuperable Aversion to the Camphor, it must be omitted, though the

Medicine is less efficacious without it. And if his Thirst is not very

considerable, the simple Mixture may be given alone, without any further

Addition of Spirit of Vitriol.

No. 41.

Take half a Drachm of _Virginia_ Snake-root, ten Grains of Camphor, and

make them into a Bolus with Rob of Elder-Berries. If the Patient's

Stomach cannot bear so large a Dose of Camphor, he may take it in

smaller Doses and oftner, _viz._ three Grains, every two Hours. If there

is a violent Looseness, Diascordium must be substituted instead of the

Rob of Elder-berries.

No. 42.

Prescribes only the _Theriaca pauperum_, or poor Man's Treacle, in the

Dose of a Quarter of an Ounce. The following Composition of it is that

chiefly preferred by our Author. Take equal Parts of round Birthwort

Roots, of Elecampane, of Myrrh, and of Rob or Conserve of

Juniper-berries, and make them into an Electuary of a rather thin, than

very stiff Consistence, with Syrup of Orange-peel.

No. 43.

The first of the three Medicines referred to in this Number, is that

already directed, No. 37. The second is as follows.

Take equal Parts of the lesser Centaury, of Wormwood, of Myrrh, all

powdered, and of Conserve of Juniper-berries, making them up into a

pretty thick Consistence with Syrup of Wormwood. The Dose is a Quarter

of an Ounce; to be taken at the same Intervals as the Bark.

For the third Composition--Take of the Roots of Calamus Aromaticus and

Elecampane well bruised, two Ounces; of the Tops of the lesser Centaury

cut small, a Pugil; of Filings of unrusted Iron two Ounces, of old white

Wine, three Pints. Put them all into a wide necked Bottle, and set it

upon Embers, or on a Stove, or by the Chimney, that it may be always

kept hot. Let them infuse twenty-four Hours, shaking them well five or

six Times; then let the Infusion settle, and strain it. The Dose is a

common Cup every four Hours, four Times daily, and timing it one Hour

before Dinner.

No. 44.

Take a Quarter of an Ounce of Cream of Tartar, a Pugil of common

Camomile; boil them in twelve Ounces of Water for half an Hour, and

strain it off.

No. 45.

Directs only the common Sal Ammoniac, from two Scruples to one Drachm

for a Dose. The Note to it adds, that it may be made into a Bolus with

Rob of Elder; and observes, that those feverish Patients, who have a

weak delicate Stomach, do not well admit of this Salt; no more than of

several others, which affect them with great Disorder and Anxiety.

No. 46.

The Powder. Take one Pugil of Camomile Flowers, and as much Elder

Flowers, bruising them well; of fine Flour or Starch three Ounces; of

Ceruss and of blue Smalt each half an Ounce. Rub the whole, and mix them

well. This Powder may be applied immediately to the Part.

The Plaister. Take of the Ointment called _Nutritum_, made with the

newest sweet Oil, two Ounces; of white Wax three Quarters of an Ounce,

and one Quarter of an Ounce of blue Smalt. Melt the Wax, then add the

_Nutritum_ to it, after the Smalt finely powdered has been exactly

incorporated with it; stirring it about with an Iron Spatula or Rod,

till the whole is well mixed and cold. This is to be smoothly spread on

Linen Cloth.

A Quarter of an Ounce of Smalt may also be mixed exactly with two Ounces

of Butter or Ointment of Lead, to be used occasionally instead of the

Plaister.

No. 47.

Take one Ounce of Sedlitz, or for want of that, as much Epsom Salt, and

two Ounces of Tamarinds: pour upon them eight Ounces of boiling Water,

stirring them about to dissolve the Tamarinds. Strain it off; and divide

it into two equal Draughts, to be given at the Interval of Half an Hour

between the first and last.

No. 48.

Take of _Sydenham_'s Liquid Laudanum eighty Drops; of Bawm Water two

Ounces and a half. If the first, or the second, Dose stops or

considerably lessens the Vomiting, this [124] Medicine should not be

further repeated.

[124] The medical Editor at _Lyons_ justly notes here, that these eighty

Drops are a very strong Dose of liquid Laudanum; adding that it is

scarcely ever given at _Lyons_ in a greater Dose than thirty Drops;

and recommending a Spoonful of Syrup of Lemon-peel to be given with

it--But we must observe here in answer to this Note, that when Dr.

_Tissot_ directs this Mixture in the Iliac Passion Sec. 318, to

appease the Vomitings, Art. 3, he orders but one spoonful of this

Mixture to be taken at once, and an Interval of two Hours to be

observed between the first and second Repetition, which reduces

each Dose to sixteen Drops, and which is not to be repeated without

Necessity.

No. 49.

Dissolve three Ounces of Manna and twenty Grains of Nitre in twenty

Ounces, or six Glasses, of sweet Whey.

No. 50.

To two Ounces of Syrup of Diacodium, or white Poppy Heads, add an equal

Weight of Elder Flower Water, or, for want of it, of Spring Water.

No. 51.

Directs nothing but a Drachm of Rhubarb in Powder.

No. 52.

Take of _Sulphur vivum_, or of Flower of Brimstone, one Ounce; of Sal

Ammoniac, one Drachm; of fresh Hogs Lard, two Ounces; and mix the whole

very well in a Mortar.

No. 53.

Take two Drachms of crude Antimony and as much Nitre, both finely

powdered and very well mixed; dividing the whole into eight equal

Doses. [125]

[125] This Medicine, which often occasions Cholics in some Persons of a

weakly Stomach, is attended with no such Inconvenience in strong

Country People; and has been effectual in some Disorders of the

Skin, which have baffled other Medicines--The Remainder of this

Note observes the great Efficacy of Antimony in promoting

Perspiration, and the extraordinary Benefit it is of to Horses in

different Cases.

No. 54.

Take of Filings of Iron, not the least rusty, and of Sugar, each one

Ounce; of Aniseeds Powdered, half an Ounce. After rubbing then very well

together, divide the Powder into twenty-four equal Portions; one of

which is to be taken three times a Day an Hour before eating. [126]

[126] The Prescriptions No. 54, 55, 56, are calculated against Distempers

which arise from Obstructions, and a Stoppage of the monthly

Discharges; which No. 55 is more particularly intended to remove;

those of 54 and 56 are most convenient, either when the Suppression

does not exist, or is not to be much regarded, if it does. This

Medicine may be rendered less unpalatable for Persons in easy

Circumstances, by adding as much Cinamon instead of Aniseeds; and

though the Quantity of Iron be small, it may be sufficient, if

given early in the Complaint; one, or at the most, two of these

Doses daily, being sufficient for a very young Maiden.

No. 55.

Take of Filings of sound Iron two Ounces; of Leaves of Rue, and of white

Hoar-hound one Pugil each; of black Hellebore Root, one Quarter of an

Ounce, and infuse the whole in three Pints of Wine in the Manner already

directed, No. 43. The Dose of this is one small Cup three times a Day,

an Hour before eating. [127]

[127] I chuse to repeat here, the more strongly to inculcate so important

a Point, that in Women who have long been ill and languid, our

Endeavours must be directed towards the restoring of the Patient's

Health and Strength, and not to forcing down the monthly

Discharges, which is a very pernicious Practice. These will return

of Course, if the Patient is of a proper Age, as she grows better.

Their Return succeeds the Return of her Health, and should not,

very often cannot, precede it.

No. 56.

Take two Ounces of Filings of Iron; of Rue Leaves and Aniseed powdered,

each half an Ounce. Add to them a sufficient Quantity of Honey to make

an Electuary of a good Consistence. The Dose is a Quarter of an Ounce

three times daily.

No. 57.

Take of the Extract of the stinking Hemlock, with the purple spotted

Stalk, one Ounce. Form it into Pills weighing two Grains each; adding as

much of the Powder of dry Hemlock Leaves, as the Pills will easily take

up. Begin the Use of this Medicine by giving one Pill Night and Morning.

Some Patients have been so familiarized to it, as to take at length Half

an Ounce daily. [128]

[128] Our learned and candid Author has a very long Note in this Place,

strongly in Favour of _Storck's_ Extract of Hemlock, in which it is

evident he credits the greater Part of the Cures affirmed by Dr.

_Storck_ to have been effected by it. He says he made some himself,

but not of the right Hemlock, which we think it very difficult to

mistake, from its peculiar rank fetid Smell, and its purple spotted

Stalk. After first taking this himself, he found it mitigated the

Pain of Cancers, but did not cure them. But then addressing himself

to Dr. _Storck_, and exactly following his Directions in making it,

he took of Dr. _Storck's_ Extract, and of his own, which exactly

resembled each other, to the Quantity of a Drachm and a half daily;

and finding his Health not in the least impaired by it, he then

gave it to several Patients, curing many scrophulous and cancerous

Cases, and mitigating others, which he supposes were incurable. So

that he seems fully persuaded Dr. _Storck's_ Extract is always

innocent [which in Fact, except in a very few Instances, none of

which were fatal, it has been] and he thinks it a Specific in many

Cases, to which nothing can be substituted as an equivalent Remedy;

that it should be taken with entire Confidence, and that it would

be absurd to neglect its Continuance.

The Translator of this Work of Dr. _Tissot's_ has thought it but

fair to give all the Force of this Note here, which must be his

own, as his Editor at _Lyons_ seems to entertain a very different

Opinion of the Efficacy of this Medicine; for which Opinion we

refer back to his Note, Sec. 375, of this Treatise, which the Reader

may compare with this of our Author's. _K._

No. 58.

Take of the Roots of Grass and of Succory well washed, each one Ounce.

Boil them a Quarter of an Hour in a Pint of Water. Then dissolve in it

Half an Ounce of Sedlitz, or of _Epsom_ Salt, and two Ounces of Manna;

and strain it off to drink one Glass of it from Half Hour, to Half Hour,

till its Effects are sufficient. It is to be repeated at the Interval of

two or three Days.

No. 59.

Is a Cataplasm or Pultice made of Crumb of Bread, with Camomile Flowers

boiled in Milk, with the Addition of some Soap, so that each Pultice may

contain half a Quarter of an Ounce of this last Ingredient. And when the

Circumstances of female Patients have not afforded them that regular

Attendance, which the Repetition of the Pultice requires, as it should

be renewed every three Hours, I have successfully directed the Hemlock

Plaister of the Shops.

No. 60.

Take a sufficient Quantity of dry Hemlock Leaves. Secure them properly

between two Pieces of thin Linen Cloth, so as to make a very flexible

Sort of small Matrass, letting it boil a few Moments in Water, then

squeeze it out and apply it to the affected Part. It must thus be

moistened and heated afresh, and re-applied every two Hours.

No. 61.

Take of the Eyes of the Craw-fish, or of the true white Magnesia, two

Drachms; of Cinnamon powdered four Grains. Rub them very well together,

and divide the whole into eight Doses. One of these is to be given in a

Spoonful of Milk, or of Water, before the Infant sucks.

No. 62.

Take of an Extract of Walnuts, made in Water, two Drachms; and dissolve

it in half an Ounce of Cinnamon Water. Fifty Drops a Day of this

Solution is to be given to a Child of two Years old; and after the whole

has been taken, the Child should be purged. This Extract is to be made

of the unripe Nuts, when they are of a proper Growth and Consistence for

pickling.

No. 63.

Take of Rezin of Jalap two Grains. Rub it a considerable time with

twelve or fifteen Grains of Sugar, and afterwards with three or four

sweet Almonds; adding, very gradually, two common Spoonfuls of Water.

Then strain it through clear thin Linen, as the Emulsion of Almonds was

ordered to be. Lastly, add a Tea Spoonful of Syrup of Capillaire to it.

This is no disagreable Draught, and may be given to a Child of two Years

old: and if they are older, a Grain or two more of the Rezin may be

allowed. But under two Years old, it is prudent to purge Children rather

with Syrup of Succory, or with Manna.

No. 64.

Take of the Ointment called _Nutritum_ one Ounce; the entire Yolk of one

small Egg, or the Half of a large one, and mix them well together. This

_Nutritum_ may be readily made by rubbing very well together, and for

some time, two Drachms of Ceruss [white Lead] half an Ounce of Vinegar,

and three Ounces of common Oil.

No. 65.

Melt four Ounces of white Wax; add to it, if made in Winter two

Spoonfuls of Oil; if in Summer none at all, or at most, not above a

Spoonful. Dip in this Slips of Linen Cloth not worn too thin, and let

them dry: or spread it thin and evenly over them.

No. 66.

Take of Oil of Roses one Pound; of red Lead half a Pound; of Vinegar

four Ounces. Boil them together nearly to the Consistence of a Plaister;

then dissolve in the liquid Mass an Ounce and a Half of yellow Wax, and

two Drachms of Camphor, stirring the whole about well. Remove it then

from the Fire, and spread it on Sheets or Slips of Paper, of what Size

you think most convenient. The Ointment of _Chambauderie_, so famous in

many Families on the Continent, is made of a Quarter of a Pound of

yellow Wax, of the Plaister of three Ingredients (very nearly the same

with No. 66) of compound Diachylon and of common Oil, of each the same

Quantity, all melted together, and then stirred about well, after it is

removed from the Fire, till it grows cold. To make a Sparadrap, or Oil

Cloth, which is Linen, covered with, or dipt in an emplastic Substance

or Ointment, it must be melted over again with the Addition of a little

Oil, and applied to the Linen as directed at No. 65.

No. 67.

Gather in Autumn, while the fine Weather lasts, the Agaric of the Oak,

which is a Kind of _Fungus_ or Excrescence, issuing from the Wood of

that Tree.

It consists at first of four Parts, which present themselves

successively, 1, The outward Rind or Skin, which may be thrown away. 2,

That Part immediately under this Rind, which is the best of all. This is

to be beat well with a Hammer, till it becomes soft and very pliable.

This is the only Preparation it requires, and a Slice of it of a proper

Size is to be applied directly over the bursting, open Blood-vessels. It

constringes and brings them close together; stops the Bleedings; and

generally falls off at the End of two Days. 3, The third Part, adhering

to the second may serve to stop the Bleeding from the smaller Vessels;

and the fourth and last Part may be reduced to Powder, as conducing to

the same Purpose. [129]

[129] Our Author attests his seeing the happiest Consequences from this

Application, which M. _Brossard_, a very eminent _French_ Surgeon,

first published; and declared his Preference of that Agaric which

sprung from those Parts of the Tree, from whence large Boughs had

been lopped.

No. 68.

Take four Ounces of Crumbs of Bread, a Pugil of Elder Flowers, and the

same Quantity of those of Camomile, and of St. _John's_ Wort. Boil them

into a Pultice in equal Quantities of Vinegar and Water.

If Fomentations should be thought preferable, take the same Herbs, or

some Pugils of the Ingredients for _Faltrank_: throw them into a Pint

and a Half of boiling Water: and let them infuse some Minutes. Then a

Pint of Vinegar is to be added, and Flanels or other woollen Cloths dipt

in the Fomentation, and wrung out, are to be applied to the Part

affected.

For the aromatic Fomentations recommended Sec. 449, take Leaves of Betony

and of Rue, Flowers of Rosemary or Lavender, and red Roses, of each a

Pugil and a Half. Boil them for a Quarter of an Hour in a Pot with a

Cover, with three Pints of old white Wine. Then strain off, squeezing

the Liquor strongly from the Herbs, and apply it as already directed.

No. 69.