difficult matter to conceive, and alfo to demonftrate, that fome people cannot, by any means, have the finall- pox, while others have it and it is very eafy to fee the danger many are in of a fecond infection, who have been inoculated by Mr. S. and fome other of our modern quacks :' [who, we beg leave to add, are not, we muft fuppofe, fo intimately acquainted with the exact gage or bore of the abforbent lymphatics, or at what rate thefe pipes will receive and convey the variolous mya/ma, as our demonftrating Doctor] therefore I beg leave, seriously, to advise people, not too haftily and rafhly to run into the fashion of inoculation; and, when they do determine to be inoculated, let them look out for one who has judgment and learning enough to know his duty;' [we all know who this means-the Doctor is a fly-boots] and integrity enough to do it. I fhall conclude this fubject, at prefent, as I defign to handle it more at length in another part of this book; by afking those that are so fond of inoculation, and run into it as a blind horfe into a ditch, how they come to know whether they fhould ever have had the fmallpox, if they had not gone to the giver of that disease, Mr. S.? and if the perfon dies, is not that perfon guilty of suicide? Many have had the fmall-pox, by means of inoculation, that never would have had it in the natural way; even though they had frequented places, and vifited patients in the small-pox. If Mr. S. does not understand, and believe this, let him discover his ignorance, or infidelity; and if he has any fense, more than that of impofing upon the credulous, and thereby of getting more,' [what?]he fhall receive fatisfaction.'If Mr. Sutton be not abfolutely flupid, or incorrigible, furely he must profit by the forceable, clofe and confequential reasoning contained in this quotation, and which neither he, nor any man: elfe, will find it easy to answer.

The next, or fixth divifion of the work, in which the Author treats of Diuretics, is a very wholefome fection; as it has not a fingle difeafe annexed to it: but under the seventh, on Diaphoretics, (we know not why here, rather than any where

• For I, read, Dr. Huxham; if the Author means his fubfequent chapter on the fmall-pox: for almoft every paragraph in it, except the two or three firft, is properly his. And yet the Doctor fets off with great parade, declaring that when one confiders that the cure of this disease is undertaken by every illiterate mechanic, and igno rant boafting quack,-it is almost enough to difcourage a regular phyfician from treating of the natural fmall-pox:' and, after expreffing no great liking to inoculation, and giving poor Sutton a fecond drubbing, 'I fhall proceed,' fays he, to treat of the natural fmall-pox, as there are still many left who must and will wait God's time for having it.'-And then falls to his old trade of tranfcribing from Huxham, as fast as he can lay his pen to the paper.

elfe)

elfe) the distempers come, all at once, thick and threefold upon us-fevers, phrenfies, peripneumonies, fore throats, and various inflammations; with the fmall-pox bringing up the rear, which is clofed with no less than one hundred and twenty-five prefcriptions, of the diaphoretic clafs, following each other in one continued ftring, without any breaks, or other diftinctions, than of antiphlogiftics and antifeptics. A force fufficiently ample, to rout this mighty hoft of distempers, if it be in the power of diaphoretics to do the bufinefs.

This very diftempered fection is followed by another, on Emetics, which has not a fingle difeafe accompanying it, except that general and complicated diftemper under which the whole work labours. In the ninth fection, on Cathartics, the Author gives us a chapter on the Dyfentery, and another upon the Dropfy, which is the laft difeafe treated of in this work. We have named all the others as we went along. Speaking of the laft of thefe diflempers, he fays, that if a perfon, from living upon crude aliments, that are not eafily diffolved, is of a cold, pituitous, and fluggish conftitution, and threatens a dropfy, let him take every hour Venice foap, reduced into pills of gr. 2, and after each of thefe pills, nitre gr. 10, or Glauber's fixed falts, or fixed falt of tartar, or gum ammoniac, in white-wine or mint-water. After fome days,' [that is, we fuppofe, if the droply regards not his threats, but keeps poffeffion of the abdomen] let him take every evening one pill of aloes of gr. 3 to 4, and next morning a like pill with gr. fs. or one of euphorbium; by this method the patient will foon be recovered.'-Now Dr. Lewis, under the article Euphorbium, declares that fubftance, on account of its acrimony, is abfolutely unfit for any internal ufe;" and even fo fays Dr. Smith, literally copying him, in another part of this work. What an uncertain man is this! He threatens and routs a dropfy, in one page, by euphorbium adminiftered in pills, every morning; and treats that caustic subftance, as abfolutely inadmiffible into the human ftomach, in another. Surely the Doctor, and his boafted familiar, the fpirit of CERTAINTY, alias INTUITION, are at high variance on this point, and must have had many fquabbles on the subject of this and other staring contradictions and inconfiftencies contained in this work. But thus we fuppofe the matter to have been at laft compromised between them: the Doctor to fet down his opinion, in one page; and Certainty, her flat contradiction, in another; but at a decent distance, agreed upon between them. In the present inftance, they settled it, to be at the length of two chapters.

If any of our Readers have had the patience to accompany us thus far in our progrefs through this work, we invite them to jog on with us yet a little longer, while we prefent them with a

few

few more of the many choice things contained in it; which we fhall give without any particular felection, but juft as they prefented themselves to us: beginning with the wonderful virtues afcribed by the Author to certain fubftances, which we fhould not have fufpected to have been pofleffed of them, and ending with a specimen or two of the Author's philofophy.

In the worst fcurvies,' fays the Doctor, page 27, and when the blood abounds with acrid particles, if the patient, though never fo languid, takes cream, fresh butter, or marrow of animals, for fome time fafting, he will find himself wonderfully

cured.'-WONDERFULLY indeed!

Speaking of alcohol, or tartarifed fpirit of wine, at p. 69, he fays, that it is good in gout, rheumatifm, fcurvy, dropfy, jaundice, colic, green-ficknefs, and calculous cafes; dofe from gutt. 50 to 32, in wine and water.'-Who could have imagined that brandy, firft, deprived of its phlegm or water, by being diftilled from falt of tartar, and retaining a fearce perceptible portion of this falt, fhould, on being mixed with water again, (in fhort, with the addition of a little fugar, made into bumbo) become poffeffed of all thefe extraordinary virtues! On the contrary, we are acquainted with many fubjects, who, by a too affiduous application to this powerful medicine, have, we apprehend, got fome of the very diftempers above enumerated. Either the Doctor is wrong, or they muft furely have overdofed themfelves.

We have a wondrous account too of the virtues of the balfamic fyrup, at page 210, where we are told that it is good in the gout, and proves of wonderful fervice in all decays from age, as it keeps the fhrinking fibres yet moift, warm, and elaftic. And will a little fugar and water, flavoured with balfam of Tolu, do all this? We question whether even Dr. Hill's tincture of fage can do more. But enough of these wonders; though perhaps the following paragraph contains as great matter of wonderment as any of them.

Under the article, Lapathum, or Dock, we are prefented with a curious receipt for the cure of the lues venerea, in the following words: Diofcorides fays, that the lues venerea will yield to an infufion of 6 ounces of water-dock root, and 2 ounces of faffron, of mace, cinnamon, gentian root, liquorice root, and black pepper, each 3 drachms, (where the pepper is improper, 6 drachms of liquorice may be used')-[begging Diofcorides pardon, we think the pepper rather deplace on this occafion-] reduced into a coarfe powder, and put into a mixture of 2 gallons of wine, and the yolks of three eggs; the whole digefted with a moderate warmth for three days in a glazed veffel, well ftopped up: the dofe from 3 ounces to 6, every morning,.

upon

upon an empty ftomach, for fourteen or twenty days together, or longer.'

If the Doctor were not so very much addicted to mistake, we should now conclude that the long contested question, concerning the antiquity of the venereal disease, was abfolutely fettled. But after all, it may be afked, by others as well as ourfelves, who is this fame Diofcorides? We have all, it is true, heard of an ancient Greek of that name; but never suspected that he had left a prefcription behind him for the pox. These fame Greeks were, to be fure, a fet of furprifing, long-fighted mortals. It has been affirmed, that, with the mind's eye, they fpied the fatellites, without the use of telescopes; and that they became acquainted with the animalcula in femine, without the help of a microscope: but had they fuch a reach of fight as to discover a disease in fieri, 1200 years before the time of its probable conception and developement in these eastern parts of the earth? or, if they really peeped fo far into the womb of time, as to fpy the germen or feed of this villainous diftemper lurking at the farther end of it, were they so very hafty as to prescribe at it, at fuch a diftance?-Be it Grecian, or be it modern, the Doctor feems very fond of this curious receipt: for he has given it us again, (and it is the only one which he has thus honoured) in the very index, under the article, Gonorrhea; kindly cautioning us once more about the black pepper. But woe be to the fhins and noses of those who put their truft in this dietdrink a la Grecque!

This is the fecond fingular medicine for this diftemper, which we have met with in the courfe of our critical labours within a few months paft. The Abbé Chappe, in the Travels into Siberia, of which we gave an account in our last Appendix, informs us that the Calmuck Zongore Tartars ufe in this distemper, with great confidence in its efficacy, a powder rasped from a baked idol, made of earth taken from one of their facred mountains, and representing one of their divinities. What if we were to pit this Tartarian powder against the Grecian diet-drink? Our medical Readers will, we believe, be ftrangely puzzled to which of the two medicines to give the preference. For our own parts, we rather incline to the powder; as it is fimpler, has no mace, cinnamon, black pepper, or other fpice in it, and will not make the patient tipfey; as a gill and a half of wine, made into a cawdle, and toffed off in a morning, fafting, might be apt to do, in fome conftitutions.

The preceding inftances appear ftrange with regard to the fubftance or matter of them. There are many of the fame kind. in this work; and a still greater number whofe ftrangeness confrits, we apprehend, in the manner, or the Author's uncouth, mode of expreffing his meaning. To give but two inftances.

We

We were greatly staggered with a very odd expreffion of the Author, which occurs at page 316, where mentioning his difapprobation of the exhibition of hot diaphoretics, he says, that

there is feldom occafion for them, except to kill the patient.'-But when can fuch occafion ever occur? Whatever opinion we may entertain of the Doctor, as a writer, we hope he is a good man: though, by the bye, this is ftrange talking!

As the Author, in the preceding paffage, advifes us not to give hot diaphoretics, unless there fhould be occafion to kill the patient, at page 436 he appears to us, by his manner of expreffion, to diffuade us from throwing away a purge on a man that is dying, and, least we should commit this needlefs piece Hence, we fee,' fays of extravagance, he gives his reafons. he, fpeaking of the action of the muscles of the thorax and abdomen in the exclufion of the faces, it is in vain to give purges to dying perfons, for the refpiration alfo fails at the fame time; therefore in vain do we expect them to operate.'-But, it may be faid, why give purges at all to the dead, or (which amounts to the fame thing) the dying, if they would even operate ever fo plentifully? Would any body think of giving a cathartic, as a viaticum, in articulo mortis? Will the foul fare the better for it?-for the body is out of the queftion. No, Mr. Critic but you are either dull by defign, or have no knack at fishing out a meaning. The Doctor means-but it is fcarce worth while to fay what.

In behalf of the fair fex, we cannot pass over, without animadverfion, the Author's reviving a cruel practice propofed by Celfus, in the tympany, which he adopts by mentioning it without difapprobation. Celfus advifes,' fays he, to make ulcers in feveral parts of the belly with red hot iron, and keep them running a good while.' We have formerly taken notice of a propofal of making a prolapfed uterus retreat into its place, by prefenting a red-hot poker, at a distance, before it: but that is mere playful dalliance, compared with this clofe rencounter. Our imaginations are fhocked by the idea of Celfus's irons, after having been cooling for many centuries paft, brought again to a red heat, and hiffing against the tender abdomen of a tympanitic girl. Nay, the Author himself feems to relent, immediately adding, if this operation appears cruel, then ufe blifters, which ought to be often repeated.' Agreed: apply any thing you please to it, except these horrid irons.

But we promifed a fpecimen or two of the very high-flown. philofophy contained in this treatife, which we could fwear to be the Author's own, with as much confidence as if Author loquitur had been printed in the margin. The Doctor nowhere envellopes himself in a thicker and more impenetrable coat of myftery, than where he speaks of the air. I fhall beg leave,' fays

he,