they

had

firm, flammeans le ufe fafelt

; for

's exof it when e little

ar and there recom.

f a fe heart's pillaries. es thofe

and fo e difor

crimony is dilut ened by

anfwer

e. Berile heat

too far

which we falts are

c quali

wn expe

one thou

ing had

twenty

twenty-five fevers in my own family cured by this medicinal water, drunk copioufly. The fame method was practifed on feveral of my poor neighbours with equal fuccefs. It fuddenly calmed the feverish anxieties, and feemed every glass to refresh, and infuse life and fpirit into the patient. At first fome of thofe patients had been vomited but afterwards I found that without vomiting, bleeding, bliftering, or any other evacuation or medicine whatever, very bad fevers could be cured by the fole drinking of tar-water milk warm, and in good quantity, perhaps a large glafs every hour taken in bed, And it was remarkable, that fuch as were cured by this comfortable cordial, recovered health and fpirits at once, while those who had been cured by evacuations often languished long, even after the fever had left them, before they could recover of their medicines and regain their ftrength.

78. In peripneumonies and pleurifies I have observed tar-water to be excellent, having known fome pleuritic perfons cured without bleeding, by a blifter early applied to the ftitch, and the copious drinking of tar-water, four or five quarts, or even more in four and twenty hours. And I do recommend it to farther trial, whether in all cafes of a pleurify, one moderate bleeding, a blifter on the fpot, and plenty of tepid tar-water may not fuffice, without thofe repeated and immoderate bleedings, the bad effects of which are perhaps never got over. I do even fufpect, that a pleuritic patient betaking himfelf to bed betimes, and drinking very copiously of tar-water, may be cured by that alone without bleeding, bliftering, or any other medicine whatever: certainly I have found this fucceed at a glafs every half hour.

79. I

79. I have known a bloody flux of nuance, after divers medicines had been tri cured by tar-water. But that which I the molt fpeedy and effectual remedy in flux, is a clyfter of an ounce of comm rofin diffolved over a fire in two ounces added to a pint of broth, which not l had frequent occafion of trying, when t per was epidemical. Nor can I fay that an I advised it mifcarried. This experimen to make by the opinion I had of tar as a and rofin is only tar infpiffated.

80. Nothing that I know corroborat mach fo much as tar-water (a). Wh lows, that it must be of fingular use to flicted with the gout. And from what I hav in five or fix inftances, I do verily beli beft and fafeft medicine either to preven or fo to ftrengthen nature against the drive it from the vitals; or, at other times a worfe illness into the gout, and to get Doctor Sydenham, in his treatife of the go that whoever finds a medicine the moft effi ftrengthening digeftion, will do more fer cure of that and other chronical diftemper can even form a notion of. And I leave whether tar-water be not that medicine, a am perfuaded it is, by all the experimen make. But in all trials I would recomme on; for instance, a man with the gout mach ought not to drink cold tar-water. leaves room for future experiment in every not pretending to be a complete treatise.

81. It is evident to fenfe, that blo and other animal juices, being let to f (a) Sect. 68.

ti

n,

be

-dy

wn

and

ce I

emnom

= led

nic:

fto

fol

s af

rved

t the

gout, as to

ange

of it;

clares

us for

in the

an he o trial, nyfelf

could

fcreti

is fto

s effay

t of it,

urine,

foon

contract

contract a great acrimony. Juices, therefore, from a bad digeftion retained and ftagnating in the body, grow fharp and putrid. Hence a fermenting heat, the immediate caufe of the gout. The curing this by cooling medicines, as they would increase the antecedent caufe, must be a vain attempt. On the other hand, fpices and fpirituous liquors, while they contribute to remove the ante. cedent caufe, or bad digeftion, would by inflaming the blood increase the proximate or immediate caufe of the gout, to wit, the fermenting heat. The scope therefore muft be, to find a medicine that fhall corroborate, but not inflame. Bitter herbs are recommended; but they are weak in comparison of tar-water.

82. The great force of tar-water, to correct the acrimony of the blood, appears in nothing more than in the cure of a gangrene, from an internal caufe; which was performed on a fervant of my own, by prefcribing the copious and conftant ufe of tar-water for a few weeks. From my reprefenting tar-water as good for fo many things, fome perhaps may conclude it is good for nothing. But charity obligeth me to fay what I know, and what I think, how foever it may be taken. Men may cenfure and object as they pleafe, but I appeal to time and experiment. Effects mifimputed, cafes wrong told, circumftances overlooked, perhaps too, prejudices and partialities against truth, may for a time prevail and keep her at the bottom of her well, from whence neverthelefs fhe emergeth fooner or later, and ftrikes the eyes of all who do not keep them fhut.

83. Boerhaave thinks a fpecific may be found, for that peculiar venom, which infects the blood in the fmall pox, and that the profpect of fo great a public benefit fhould ftir up men to fearch for it.

It's

It's wonderful fuccefs, in preventing and that diftemper, (a) would incline one to 1 tar-water is fuch a fpecific, efpecially fi found it of fovereign ufe as well during pox as before it. Some think an Ery! the Plague differ only in degree. If fo fhould be useful in the Plague, for I hav cure an Eryfipelas.

84. Tar-water, as cleanfing, healing famic, is good in all disorders of the uri ges, whether obftructed or ulcerated. Lifter fuppofeth, indeed, that turpenti a cauftic quality, which irritates the co urinary ducts to expel fand or gravel, fhould feem, this expelling diuretic virtu rather in the falts than the refin, and confe fides in the tar-water, gently ftimulating b without the dangerous force of a cauftic. lent operation of Ipecacuanha lies in it's the faline extract is a gentle purge and d the ftimulus of it's falts.

85. That which acts as a mild cordial, hurting the capillary veffels as a caustic, ing the nerves, nor coagulating the juice all cafes be a friend to nature, and affift th in it's ftruggle against all kinds of contag from what I have obferved, tar-water me an useful preservative in all epidemica and against all other infection whatsoeve as that of the fmall-pox. What effects pathemata have in human maladies, is we and confequently the general benefit of fu ac may be reasonably fuppofed.

86. As the body is faid to clothe t the nerves may be faid to conftitute her ment. And as the foul animates the w (b) 66.

(a) 2, 3.

nearly touches the foul relates to all. Therefore the afperity of tartarous falts, and the fiery acri mony 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 livers, 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 intense application of mind.

87. In diseases fometimes accidents happen from without, by mifmanagement, fometimes latent caufes operate within, jointly with the fpecific taint or peculiar caufe 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