cause whatever, than that he denied the immateriality of the fouls of brutes, he was just in fuch another hurry to proceed to his next confideration.' As we happen, however, to befomewhat more at leifure, we find ourfelves rather difpofed to make a halt at this place.

According to this propofed difpofition of the ranks and ftations of the different members of the medical tribe, the practice: of phyfic would be entirely confined, with regard to the deliberative or prescriptive part of it, to the Doctor and his brother graduates, on the one part; and the good and knowing housewives, and the provident families, who buy his book, on the other. The intermediate links of the medical chain would be annihilated, and no intermeddling advisers fuffered between himself and Lady Bountifull. As the Author has fhewn himself, in his former work, and in fome parts of this, a profound mathematician, we wish that he had favoured us with a rough calculation of the number of lives, which might be faved by their: united activity, and by the propofed total fufpenfion of the prefcribing or directing faculties of the furgeon and apothecary. What might be the fum total, or whether it might not turn. out on the minus fide of the account, we shall not enquire: but fhall juft ftop to express our admiration of the Author's notable confiftency. He affirms that phyfic has loft its reputation, and many subjects their lives, by irregular practice; and he puts forth a huge quarto, and incites every private family in the kingdom to purchase and study it, and fall a practifing upon them1elves and their neighbours. It is true, he profefles to truft them no farther than the fields and gardens: but even there, they may chance to ftumble upon fome of the edge tools of phyfic or, which may turn out as ill in the event, may throw away a great deal of precious, irrecoverable time, in fwallowing unavailing herbs and roots; while the diftemper is gaining ground fo faft, that even the Doctor himself may be called in too late to cope with it on tolerably equal terms. Befide, quacking is a feducing and encroaching vice.. The young finner in this way (we will suppose her a female) however timorous at her first fetting off, will not long be content with fimpling. She foon enlarges her plan, and pants to make excurfions to the shops: and though, at first, she may poffibly be scared even at the harmless bounce of a phyfical pop-gun, fhe will in time think herself qualified to manage and fire off the great artillery of medicine. In fhort, to leave this very formidable metaphor, it will not be long before the will be inclined to try the virtues of the Doctor's little formula, which may be fuppofed to contain all the powers of medicine, in their most concentrated state. It would take up too much of our time to give an example at large of this very natural progrefs of a young Tyro, through all the

ftages

tages of quacking, and of its poffible effects. To shorten matters, we will fuppofe a practifed dabbler in medicine confulting the doctor's book, on a particular cafe, and, through mere condefcenfion to us, fubmitting to begin her fearch with the fimples, and procceding to the more compound medicines in order. By fuch an example we fhall, at the fame time, have a fair opportunity of fhewing, though fomewhat out of place, what lights the Author holds forth to the perufers of this work, in which he profeffes to teach the whole art of phyfic.

Let us fuppofe then Lady Bountifull herself violently attacked" with a diforder, to which, from fome of the more obvious fymptoms, the gives the general name of the gravel: or, to do the Doctor all poffible juftice, let us fuppofe her daughter the. patient; that the good woman may be as much difengaged both in mind and body as poffible, and in a condition to ftudy the cafe, and confult the Doctor's book, at her eafe. She looks in the index for the word Gravel, where fhe finds only Vide NEPHRITIS. She looks for Stone, and there fhe is presented with Vide NEPHRITIS again. This Nephritis is a strange word; but it seems there is no getting any information without it. On turning to Nephritis, fhe finds no reference to the book, on turning over every leaf of which, fhe difcovers that no fuch diftemper as the gravel is treated of, in any part of this general fyftem. She must be content then with the information contained in the index, under this word; and, ftrange as it may appear, had the been looking for the Gout or the Palfy, the Afthma or the Cholic, or for fifty other capital diftempers, which flesh is heir to, fhe must have followed the very courfe which the is now going to take. She proceeds therefore regularly through this article of the index, which, for the benefit of our medical and nephritical Readers, we fhall transcribe at large.

NEPHRITIS.] Balfam of Peru, Bates's balfam of amber, tartarifed fpirit of wine, chamomile, fennel root, decoction of marshmallows, mallows, mercury, maidenhair, &c. linfeed tea, burnet faxifrage, golden rod, wood forrel, celandine, St. John's wort, pinetops and nuts, peony, juniper berries, turpentine," cantharides, fumitory, broom, butcher's broom, figs, copaiba, opobalfamum, soap, elecampane, madder, parsley roots, burdock feeds and roots, fquills, nephritic wood, horferadifh root, Armenian convolvulus root, opium, nitre, oil of benzoin, vegetable and fixed falts, balfamic tincture, tincture of Tolu, horferadifh water, juniper water, lime water, paregoric elixir, decoction of burdock, decoction of fenecka, pectoral decoction with nitre, oil of turpentine, oil of juniper, falt of wormwood, foap lye, faponaceous lohoch, vitriolated nitre, lenitive electary, fal prunellæ, falt of many virtues, diuretic falt, falt of amber, Glauber's fpirit of nitre, faline draught, fpirit of mindererus, fpirit

and

and volatile falt of fal ammoniac, nitrous decoctions, nephritic decoction, tincture of cantharides, oily draught with manna, facred tincture with Glauber's purging falt, chamomile tea with nitre, decoction of marshmallow roots, turpentine glyfter, oil of palina Chrifti, elixir proprietatis with falt of wormwood and juniper water, common and Arabic emulfion, faponaceous plaitter, hot bricks, or bladders full of hot water applied to the kidneys, emollient and anodyne fomentations, hot bath, all the different preparations of squills, &c.'

She goes to work firft upon the fimples, and turns accordingly to the article, Chamomile. All the information the acques, elative to the prefent complaint, is contained in these wids: It is fometimes ufed in fcrophulous cafes, intermittent fevers, and nephritis.' Here is poor encouragement to use chamomile. She next tries Fennel. Here the Doctor tells her that the roots

are good against the ftone in the bladder, or kidneys, and that a dram of fennel feeds, and as much of daucus feeds, in a glass of juniper water, every morning, have done great good in the gravel and ftone.' But the prefent diforder is too preth 2, to fuffer her to depend on a medicine that must be taken every morning. What does the Doctor fay of Mallows? They a e good in-nephritics and calculous complaints: of the herb Marcury? Not a word, good or bad, to this purpofe of Mai enhair? It opens obftructions of the vifcera and kidneys.' Paffing over the &c. which fhe does not comprehend: fhe comes to Linfeed; and is told that it is good in pleurifies, &c. and obftructions of the urinary paffages.' This is tirefore work, and moft unedifying reading; and the poor girl is in torture all the while. She fhall pofitively take but one dip more among the fimples, and that at a venture. St. John's Wort: good against the stone, and in obftructions of the urinary paffages.' She now tries the fhop medicines, beginning with Balfam of Peru, the first in order, and finds that it too is good in obftructions of the vifcera, nephritics, &c. In fhort, the mects with juft fuch information as this, in every article which the confults.

The old lady, however, has not dabbled in phyfic fo long, without having a near guefs at fome of its technical phrases. Accordingly the confults the fection on Diuretics. We forgot to mention that he is referred to it, under the article, Gravel, This will furely do the bufinefs. She reads it from beginning to end but is not a whit more enlightened than when the fet out upon this fearch. Here is indeed a great deal of talk about the defcending aorta, and the inferior vena cava, and the byto flafis, encorema, and nebula, which appear in different kinds of urine, and how the kidneys are the best fuppuratory of the blood but not a fyllable concerning the main point; the cure of the gravel. Only one refource now remains; but that, a

capital

capital one we mean the formula extemporanea, or receipts, at the close of the fection. But here again fhe is distracted with variety for there are no less than fourfcore of them. Shall fhe take the first, or the laft, or one out of the middle of the heap? Perhaps the notable old gentlewoman may entertain a predilection for fome particular, lucky number. As we are unacquainted, however, with her fentiments or reafons on this head, we must choose for her. Suppofe the following;

R Pulv. cantharid. gr. 16, extract. thebaic. gr. 4, nitri zj. terebinth. venet. q. s. f. pil.'

We have furely ftumbled on No. 45: this is fo very inflammatory a mess! However, we fhall not ftop to reckon, but shall fuppofe it tranfcribed, fent off to the apothecary, and the pills arrived but without any direction, as to dofe, &c. for, according to cuftom, none is given; though certainly there never could be more occafion for one, than in this very ticklish compofition. Perhaps the good woman has knowledge enough to regulate the dofe of the mafs, by the opiate contained in it: and finding that the Doctor, in his fection on narcotics, orders from one grain to four of the extra&tum thebaicum for a dose, fhe judiciously, and fafely, as the thinks, gives a quantity of this internal bliftering plaifter, containing one grain, or the lowest mentioned dose of the opiate (which the judges to be the most dangerous ingredient), and confequently four grains of the cantharides joined to it-But here we must take our leave of the poor girl. It would be painful, nay it would be indecent in us to wait and fee the event; which, to use the words, if we miftake not, of Celfus, must turn out to be non morbi finis, fed mutatio; or fomething worfe.

Thefe, or fuch as thefe, may be the bleffed effects of putting fuch a book as this into the hands of all the world, and tempting the pofleflors of it to try experiments on their own perfons, either in tampering with inefficacious medicines, or poisoning themselves with the more active. Indeed among the numerous fyftems and practices of phyfic, with which the fhops abound, we are fcarce acquainted with one which does not much more compleatly and lefs erroneoufly inftruct the reader in the knowledge and cure of difeafes. In the inftance above given, were the words, Gravel, Stone, Nephritics (as the Author chooses to exprefs it) to be expunged from this performance, wherever they occur, it would then contain nearly as much ufeful information concerning the nature, the diftinguishing symptoms, and the method of cure of these diftempers, as if they were fuffered to ftand where they are. This obfervation may be extended to numberless other diftempers, whofe history and method of cure are 1.0 where given in this work, and whofe very names are not to be met with, except in the index, or in the company of other

0 4

and

and very different diftempers, ranged to the right and left of them, in the body of the work. Would the Reader wish, for inftance, to be informed concerning the caufes, fymptoms, &c, of the gout, he will, under the article Radix China, for example, be told, that it is good in rheumati(m, gout, palfy, venereal and nervous diseases; and fo of the reft.

We cannot quit this subject without paffing fome censure on the formula above quoted. Although we do not disapprove the union of opium and cantharides, yet, in the firft place, we cannot look upon giving the latter in fubftance as a judicious way of adminiftering it, though it was, we believe, practited by Groenvelt nor can we avoid condemning the relative proportions of these two capital ingredients of this composition; in which an appropriate dofe of the opium carries along with it a dangerous quantity of the cantharides, and, on the other hand, a fafe dofe of the latter is combined with an uneffective portion of the opium. The inftance above given will prove the juftice of the first part of this obfervation; and with regard to the latter part of it, we would ask the Doctor whether much, or any, good is to be expected from the 8th part of a grain of opium taken along with half a grain of cantharides; which quantity of the latter is the greatest in which a prudent phyfician would begin to adminifter it as even a lefs dofe has been known, in fome cafes, to produce very troublesome, and even alarming fymptoms?

Notwithstanding thefe ftrictures, we are very ready to own that the Author's formula extemporanea are, in general, fimple and elegant, and the most unexceptiouable part of the work; but here we muft obferve that the Doctor, as we have already hinted, is very remifs in afcertaining the dofes; which procedure is not ftrictly confonant to his declarations of univerfal utility, as he profeffes to write for the inftruction of all kinds of practitioners. We must likewife obferve, that forms of medicine conftitute the leaft important part of a fyftem of phyfic, The phyfician, who may be truffled to direct their exhibition, is likewife qualified to compose them. The meteria medica lies • alļ before him, where to chocfe;' and if he is acquainted with the pharmaceutical and medical properties of the different articles, he will find very little difficulty in combining them, with a due regard to a luminous fimplicity. We acknowledge, at the fame time, that a collection of formule, ready drawn up, may be of fome use even to him: but fuch a collection might be contained in the compass of a manual. It is not a little hard upon him that he cannot have the Doctor's, under a fmaller form than that of a quarto of 580 pages.

We have fhewn above what kind and degree of information the ignorant or irregular practitioner may acquire from the per

ufal