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A CHAIN of

PHILOSOPHICAL REFLEXIONS

AND

INQUIRIES

Concerning the VIRTUES of

TAR WATER,

And divers other Subjects connected together
and arifing one from another.

BY THE

Right Rev. Dr. GEORGE BERKELEY,
Lord Bishop of CLOYNE,

And Author of The Minute Philofopher.

As we have opportunity, let us do good unto all men. Gal. vi. 10.
Hoc opus, boc ftudium, parvi properemus et ampli.

A NEW EDITION,

Hor.

With ADDITIONS and EMENDATIONS.

DUBLIN Printed,

LONDON Re-printed,

For W. INNYS, and C. HITCH, in Pater-nofter-row
and C. DAVIS in Holbourn. MDCCXLIV.
[Price Two Shillings.]

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A Letter to T. P. Efq. from the Author of SIRIS.

MONG the great numbers who drink Tar-water in
Dublin, your letter informs me there are feveral, that make it
too weak or too ftrong, or use it in an undue manner.
To ob-
viate these inconveniences, and render this water as generally useful as pofli-
ble, you defire I would draw up fome rules, and remarks, in a small com-
pafs; which accordingly I here fend you.

Norwegian tar being the most liquid, mixeth best with water.
Put a gal
lon of cold water to a quart of this tar, ftir and work them very strongly to-
gether, with a flat stick, for about four minutes. Let the veffel stand cove-
red forty eight hours, that the tar may fubfide. Then pour off the clear wa-
ter, and keep it clofe covered, or rather bottled, and well ftopped, for Use.
This may do for a general rule; but as ftomachs and conftitutions are so vari-
ous, for particular perfons, their own experience is the beft rule. The ftron-
ger the better; provided the ftomach can bear it. Lefs water or more stirring
makes it ftronger; as more water, and less stirring makes it weaker. The fame
tar will not do quite fo well a fecond time, but may ferve for common uses.
Tar water, when right, is not higher than French, nor deeper coloured,
than Spanish white wine. If there be not a spirit very fenfibly perceived on
drinking, you may conclude, the tar water is not good. If you would have
it good, fee it made yourself. Those who begin with it, little and weak,
may, by habit, come to drink more and stronger. According to the season of
the year, or the humour of the patient, it may be taken, cold or warm.

As to the quantity, in chronical cafes, one pint of tar water a day may
fuffice, taken on an empty ftomach, at two, or four times; to wit, night
and morning; and about two hours after dinner and breakfast. Alteratives,
in general, taken little and often, mix best with the blood. How oft, or
how ftrong, each ftomach can bear, experiènce will fhew; nor is there any
danger in making the experiment. Thofe who labour under old habitual ill-
neffes, must have great patience and perfeverance in the use of this, as well as
in all other medicines; which, if fure and safe, nuft yet be flow in chronical
diforders; which, if grievous or inveterate, may require a full quart every day
to be taken, at fix dofes, one third of a pint in each, with a regular
diet. In acute cafes, as fevers, of all kinds, it must be drank warm in bed,
and in great quantity; perhaps a pint every hour, till the patient be relieved;
which I have known to work furprizing cures.

My experiments have indeed been made within a narrow compass; but as
this water is now grown into publick use (though it seems not without that
oppofition which is wont to attend novelty) I make no doubt, its virtues will be
more fully discovered. Mean while, I muft own myself perfuaded, from
what I have already seen and tryed, that tar water may be drank with great
fafety and fuccefs, in the cure or relief of moft if not all difeafes, in ulcers,
eruptions, and all foul cafes; fcurvies of all kinds, diforders of the lungs, fto-
mach, and bowels; in nervous cafes, in all imflammatory diftempers; in de-
cays, and other maladies: Nor is it of ufe only in the cure of fickness; it is
alfo useful to preserve health, and a guard against infection and old age; as it
gives lafting fpirts, and invigorates the blood. I am even induced, by the na-
ture and analogy of things, and its wonderful fuccefs in all kinds of fevers, to
think, that tar water may be very useful in the plague, both as a cure and pre-
fervative.

But, I doubt, no medicine can withstand that execrable plague of distilled
fpirits, which operate as a flow poison; preying on the vitals, and wafting the
health and strength of the body and foul; which peft of humane kind, is,
I am told, by the attempts of our Whisky patriots, gaining ground in this
wretched country, already too thin of inhabitants. I am,
*Whisky is a fpirit diftilled from malt, the making of which poifon, cheap and
plenty, as being of our growth, is esteemed, by fome unlucky patriots, a benefit to their
Country

&c.

W

•HOFB

A CHAIN of

PHILOSOPHICAL REFLEXIONS

AND

INQUIRIES, &c.

F

OR INTRODUCTION to the following piece I affure the reader, that nothing could, in my present fituation, have induced me to be at the pains of writing it, but a firm belief that it would prove a valuable present to the public. What entertainment foever the reasoning or notional part may afford the mind, I will venture to fay, the other part feemeth fo furely calculated to do good to the body, that both must be gainers. For if the lute be not well tuned, the musician fails of his harmony. And in our present state, the operations of the mind, fo far depend on the right tone or good condition of it's inftrument, that any thing which greatly contributes to preserve or recover the health of the body, is well worth the attention of the mind. Thefe confiderations have moved me to communicate to the public the falutary virtues of tar-water; to which I thought myself indispensably obliged, by the duty every man owes to mankind. And, as effects are linked with their caufes, my thoughts on this low, but ufeful theme led to farther inquiries, and those on to others remote, perhaps, and fpeculative, but, I hope, not altogether ufelefs or unentertaining.

A 2

1. In

ENIGLICHE

-EN

BLIOTHER

"IN

1. N certain parts of America, tar-water is made by putting a quart of cold water to a quart of tar, and ftirring them well together in a veffel, which is left ftanding till the tar finks to the bottom. A glass of clear water being poured off for a draught is replaced by the fame quantity. of fresh water, the veffel being fhaken and left to ftand as before. And this is repeated for every glafs, fo long as the tar continues to impregnate the water fufficiently, which will appear by the fmell and tafte. But as this method produceth tarwater of different degrees of ftrength, I chufe to make it in the following manner: Pour a gallon of cold water on a quart of tar, and ftir and mix them thoroughly with a ladle or flat ftick for the fpace of three or four minutes, after which the veffel must stand eight and forty hours that the tar 'may have time to fubfide, when the clear water is to be poured off and kept covered for ufe, no more being made from the fame tar, which may still serve for common purposes.

2 This cold infufion of tar hath been used in fome of our colonies, as a prefervative or preparative against the small-pox, which foreign practice induced me to try it in my own neighbourhood, when the small-pox raged with great violence. And the trial fully answered my expectation: all thofe, within my knowledge, who took the tar-water having either escaped that diftemper, or had it very favourably. In one family there was a remarkable inftance of feven children, who came all. very well through the fmall-pox, except one young child which could not be brought to drink tar-water as the reft had done.

3. Several were preserved from taking the smallpox by the use of this liquor: others had it in the

mildest

A

mildest manner, and others that they might be able to take the infection, were obliged to intermit drinking the tar-water. I have found it may be drunk with great fafety and fuccefs for any length of time, and this not only before, but also during the diftemper. The general rule for taking it is, about half a pint night and morning on an empty ftomach, which quantity may be varied, according to the cafe and age of the patient, provided it be always taken on an empty ftomach, and about two hours before or after a meal. For children and fqueamish perfons it may be made weaker, and given little and often. More cold water, or lefs ftirring, makes it weaker; as lefs water, or more ftirring, makes it ftronger. It should not be lighter than French, nor deeper coloured than Spanish white wine. If a fpirit be not very fenfibly perceiv'd on drinking, either the tar muft have been bad, or already us'd, or the tar-water carelessly made.

4. It feemed probable, that a medicine of fuch efficacy in a diftemper attended with fo many purulent ulcers, might be alfo useful in other foulneffes of the blood; accordingly I tried it on feveral perfons infected with cutaneous eruptions and ulcers, who were foon relieved, and foon after cured. Encouraged by thefe fucceffes I ventured to advise it in the fouleft diftempers, wherein it proved much more fuccessful than falivations and wood-drinks had done.

5. Having tried it in a great variety of cafes, I found it fucceed beyond my hopes; in a tedious and painful ulceration of the bowels, in a confumptive cough and (as appeared by expectorated pus) an ulcer in the lungs; in a pleurify and peripneumony. And when a perfon, who for fome years had been fubject to erysipelatous fevers, perceived the ufual fore-running fymptoms to come on, I advised her

to

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