It seems gradually to shrink from improper diet. And here let me ask, why has every member of the college of physicians contented himself with talking about this new theory? Why has not one of them attempted to answer these doctrines of their colleague? Dr. Lambe's opponents are called on to shew, either that classification in the natural sciences means nothing, or that the human teeth and intestines do not resemble those of the Orang Outang, so as to mark us the first link in the same chain of animals. This is a grievous truth, from which, tho' God himself be the author of it, man turns aside with shame or with scorn. What an habitual reluctance there is in the rogue to acknowledge his poor relations !→→→ Newton's Defence, 18.

When diseased matter has accumulated in the body to a certain degree whether by our own indiscretions, or those of our ancestors, or from both causes, our teeth decay, rheumatic and other pains and aliments ensue, and complaints are superadded until we are relieved by death, which may be considered premature at eighty. The perishing of the teeth is owing to the gums becoming charged with diseased matter, in consent with the general state of the body. The same tooth which decays rapidly in the mouth, requires ages to destroy it when exposed on the earth to all the inclemencies of the weather. From these premises there follows a conclusion of great importance to our sickly species; i. e. that where a certain degree of vigour yet remains in the constitution of the invalid, a total abandonment of the artificial exciting diet, or in other words, a strict perseverance in the use of such food as nature has clearly indicated to be proper for us by our anatomy, will enable the vital principle to make such efforts as shall finally

N

succeed in expelling from the body, by indispositions. gradually less violent, the morbific matter or principle, which is working it's destruction. But if dis

ease shall have already made great and serious ravages within, if the invalid should have permitted too many hours to elapse unheeded, there is little hope from any quarter. Strong medicines may be resorted to, and momentary effects produced, but nothing can save him. He is doomed to be numbered in the tombs of his fathers.-Newton, p. 139.

Dr. Lambe, in his Treatise on Cancers, has sufficiently proved the duty and necessity of distilling water. If this were not sufficient, numerous instances could be produced from the works of John Hunter, Dr. Percival, and others.

The springs of Malvern have proved an efficacious remedy for many obstinate and deplorable diseases, which have resisted the powers of the most useful and appropriate medicines. They have proved very useful in scrofulous cases, in inveterate ulcers, and sores, which have been called fistulous; in obstructed and scirrous glands, and some which approached to the state of cancer; in disorders of the eyes and eye-lids; in nephritic complaints and disorders of the urinary passages; in cutaneous diseases; in coughs from a scorbutic and scrofulous cause; in loss of appetite, and in immoderate evacuations of females. Such is the testimony of Dr. Wall, a physician of great celebrity and unquestionable veracity. See his Treatises on the Malvern Waters published in 1756, 1757, and 1763; or his Tracts republished by Dr. Martin Wall. His evidence has been confirmed by the successive experience of some of the first of the profession; and I know, that at this day, these springs are recommended as a dernier resort, in the most de

plorable cases, by Sir Francis Millman, an eminent physician in London.

The most careful analysis has not been able to detect in the Malvern Water, any active ingredient whatever to which medicinal powers can be ascribed. It is no more than the uncontaminated element, nearly approaching to the purity of distilled water. As it is, therefore, absolutely destitute of all proper and peculiar medicinal powers, the benefit derived from it's use can be attributed to no other cause, than to the cessation of the constant and habitual applica tion of noxious matter, contained in the water of common springs. When the morbific force is removed, the innate powers of the system are developed and become active, and thus is the body gradually restored to the actions and sensations of health. It is of consequence to observe, that the diseases, in which the pure waters of Malvern have proved beneficial, have no characteristic resemblance, and have not been in the least suspected to be the progeny of a common parent.

The medicinal powers of springs, remarkable only for their purity, have been observed also upon the continent. At Schleussingen, a town in Henningen, a principality of Franconia, are such waters, famed for their utility in chronic diseases, particularly in calculous complaints, in arthritic, rheumatic, and scorbutic affections, and in cases of muscular debility. Near Osterode, a mining town in the Hereynian forest, is a fountain of great celebrity, in which not a particle of mineral ingredients can be detected. Within two miles of Halle, at Lebeg, a spring rises out of the rocks, the water of which is pure and imputrescible. A beer is made of this water, which is used in medicine, of great efficacy in nephritic cases

NNNNN

and in inflammatory habits. Some springs, formed by the melting of the snow on the Rhætian Alps, have been found to possess similar virtues. At Pisa, Tettucci, and Nocera, in Italy, there are also medicinal springs, of great celebrity, which, like our Malvern wells, are destitute of all active ingredients. -Hoffmani Op. t. v, p.206. fol. Geneva, 1740.

We should not be surprised that physicians are governed by their prejudices and habits in favour of animal food; since Doctor Akenside has said, that "in despair of making medicine a science they have agreed to convert it into a trade." From a member of the faculty, this assersion is very extraordinary, because physicians have as much the power of acting uprightly as any other body of men; nor can there remain a doubt of the general utility of medicine, and of it's absolute necessity in the present state of society. Yet the writings of all medical practitioners should be read with caution, for each of them makes his practice bend to his own particular habits; what he deems good for himself he deems good for his patients, or he is warped by an unconquerable inclination to make every thing bend to a favourite hypothesis.

So decidedly do medical writers favour a vegetable diet that we can scarcely open the works of any celebrated physician, without being impressed in favour of Dr. Lambe's theory of diseases. Hippocrates, Galen, Sydenham, Haller, Arbuthnot, Cheyne, all furnish their portion of evidence in it's support.

"It has often been asserted, says Mr. Newton, that a vegetable diet is not so strengthening as a diet of flesh. It is granted that it imparts a temporary increase of strength; so does the rage of a madman. The man whom sir. Edward Berry prevailed upon to

live on partridges alone, and who was obliged after the first week to desist on account of the appearance of symptoms of putrefaction, might probably during that week, have been conscious of an accession of strength."

There is no animal so much disposed to disease as man, because no animal lives so contrary to nature.

The Orang Outang is the connecting link in the chain of animal life. This man of the woods, has a similar conformation to the man of towns and cities. Their teeth and intestines are alike. This animal lives on fruits and vegetables; yet he possesses so much vigour, that six civilized men are necessary to hold him when taken.

I have the authority of Mr. Newton in asserting that the superior salubrity of distilled water, as con contended for by Dr Lambe, in his "Reports on the Effects of a peculiar Regimen," is far from being a mere phantom, but rests on the firm basis of philosophical conclusions. "I know," says he, "twenty. five persons who are at this time living on a vegetable diet; and of these I have to state, that their health is so good, as to have no occasion for the use of medicine, and without an exception, their indispositions, where they happen, are so trifling as scarcely to deserve the name; altho' they have not yet relinquished flesh, fish, and common water long enough to derive all the advantages which may thence be expected. These persons are of various ages and constitutions; some of them previously in good health, some otherwise; yet with all of them the result has been uniformly favourable.-Newton's Return, 71.

It is well known, that the greater part of diseases are the offspring of civilization, and, in some unknown manner, connected with the arts, which are essential