It's wonderful fuccefs, in preventing and mitigating that diftemper, (a) would incline one to fufpect that tar-water is fuch a fpecific, especially fince I have found it of fovereign ufe as well during the fmall pox as before it. Some think an Erysipelas and the Plague differ only in degree. If fo, tar-water fhould be useful in the Plague, for I have known it cure an Erysipelas. 84. Tar-water, as cleaning, healing, and balfamic, is good in all diforders of the urinary paffages, whether obftructed or ulcerated. Doctor Lifter fuppofeth, indeed, that turpentines act by a cauftic quality, which irritates the coats of the urinary ducts to expel fand or gravel. But, it fhould feem, this expelling diuretic virtue confifted rather in the falts than the refin, and confequently refides in the tar-water, gently ftimulating by it's falts, without the dangerous force of a cauftic. The violent operation of Ipecacuanha lies in it's refin, but the faline extract is a gentle purge and diuretic, by the ftimulus of it's falts. 85. That which acts as a mild cordial, (b) neither hurting the capillary veffels as a cauftic, nor affecting the nerves, nor coagulating the juices, must in all cafes be a friend to nature, and affift the vis vitæ in it's ftruggle against all kinds of contagion. And from what I have obferved, tar-water appears to me an useful preservative in all epidemical disorders, and against all other infection whatfoever, as well as that of the small-pox. What effects the animi pathemata have in human maladies, is well known, and confequently the general benefit of fuch a cardiac may be reafonably fuppofed. 86. As the body is faid to clothe the foul, fo the nerves may be faid to conftitute her inner garAnd as the foul animates the whole, what (a) 2, 3. (b) 66. nearly nearly touches the foul relates to all. Therefore the afperity of tartarous falts, and the fiery acrimony of alcaline falts, irritating and wounding the nerves, produce nafcent paffions and anxieties in the foul; which both aggravate diftempers, and render mens lives reftlefs and wretched, even when they are afflicted with no apparent diftemper. This is the latent fpring of much woe, fpleen, and tædium vitæ. Small imperceptible irritations of the minuteft fibres or filaments, caufed by the pungent falts of wines and fauces, do fo fhake and difturb the microcofms of high liv ers, as often to raise tempefts in courts and fenates. Whereas the gentle vibrations that are raised in the nerves, by a fine fubtile acid, fheathed in a fmooth volatile oil (a), foftly ftimulating and bracing the nervous veffels and fibres, promotes a due circulation and fecretion of the animal juices, and creates a calm fatisfied fenfe of health. And accordingly I have often known tar-water procure fleep and compose the spirits in cruel vigils, occafioned either by fickness or by too intenfe application of mind. 87. In difeafes fometimes accidents happen from without by mifmanagement, fometimes latent caufes operate within, jointly with the fpecific taint or peculiar cause of the malady. The caufes of diftempers are often complicated, and there may be fomething in the idiofyncrafy of the patient that puzzles the phyfician. It may therefore be prefumed that no medicine is infallible, not even in any one diforder. But as tar-water poffeffeth the virtues of fortifying the ftomach, as well as purifying and invigorating the blood, beyond any medicine that I know, it may be prefumed of great and general efficacy in all thofe numerous illneffes, blood is, fuch will be the animal fpirit, more or 88. The fcurvy may be reckoned in these cli- ever floats in the atmosphere, which, as it is common to all, fo it affects all more or less. 89. Doctor Mufgrave thinks the Devonshire fcurvy a relique of the leprofy, and that it is not owing to the qualities of the air. But as thefe infulars in general live in a grofs faline air, and their veffels being lefs elaftic, are confequently less able to fubdue and caft off what their bodies as fponges draw in, one would be tempted to fufpect the air not a little concerned, efpecially in fuch a fituation as that of Devonshire. In all thefe British islands we enjoy a great mediocrity of climate, the effect whereof is, that we have neither heat enough to exalt and diffipate the grofs vapours, as in Italy, nor cold enough to condense and precipitate them, as in Sweden. So they are left floating in the air, which we conftantly breath, and imbibe through the whole furface of our bodies. And this together with exhalations from coal fires, and the various foffils wherein we abound, doth greatly contribute to render us fcorbutic and hypochondriac. 90. There are fome who derive all diseases from the fcurvy, which indeed must be allowed to create or mimic moft other maladies. Boerhaave tells us, it produceth pleuritic, colic, nephritic, hepatic pains, various fevers, hot, malignant, intermitting, dyfenteries, faintings, anxieties, dropfies, confumptions, convulfions, palfies, fluxes of blood. In a word, it may be faid to contain the feeds and origin of almoft all diftempers. Infomuch that a medicine which cures all forts of fcurvy, may be prefumed good for moft other maladies. 91. The fcurvy doth not only in variety of fymptoms imitate moft diftempers, but also when come to a height, in degree of virulence equal the moft malignant. Of this we have a remarkable proof, in that horrible defcription of the fcorbutic patients in the hofpitals of Paris, given by monhieur Poupart, in the Memoirs of the royal academy of fciences, for the year one thousand fix hundred and ninety-nine. That author thinks he faw some resemblance in it to the plague of Athens, It is hard to imagine any thing more dreadful than the cafe of thofe men, rotting alive by the fcurvy in it's fupreme degree. To obviate fuch putrefaction, I believe the most effectual method would be, to embalm (if one may so say) the living body with tar-water copiously drunk; and this belief is not without experience. 92. It is the received opinion that the animal falts of a found body are of a neutral, bland and benign nature: that is, the falts in the juices paft the primæ viæ, are neither acid nor alcaline, having been fubdued by the conftitution, and changed into a third nature. Where the conftitution wants force to do this, the aliment is not duly affimulated; and fo far as the falts retain their priftine qualities, fickly fymptoms enfue, acids and alkalies not perfectly fubdued, producing weak ferments in the juices. Hence fcurvy, cachexy, and a long train of ills, 93. A cachexy or ill habit is much of the fame kind with the fcurvy, proceeds from the fame caufes and is attended with like fymptoms, which are fo manifold and various, that the fcurvy may well be looked on as a general cachexy, infecting the whole habit and vitiating all the digeftions, Some have reckoned as many forts of the fcurvy, as there are different taints of the blood. Others have fuppofed it a collection of all illneffes together. Some fuppofe it an accumulation of feveral difeafes in fieri. Others take it for an affemblage of the reliques of old diftempers. 94. But |