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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 antecedent cause, 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 shall 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 cause; which was performed on a fervant of my own, by prefcribing the copious and constant ufe of tar-water for a few weeks. From my representing 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 nevertheless 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 prospect of fo great a public benefit fhould ftir up men to fearch for it.

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It's wonderful fuccefs, in preventing and mitigating that distemper, (a) would incline one to fufpect that tar-water is fuch a fpecific, efpecially fince I have found it of fovereign ufe as well during the fmall pox as before it. Some think an Eryfipelas 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 cleanfing, healing, and balfamic, is good in all diforders of the urinary pafsages, whether obstructed 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 reasonably fuppofed.

86. As the body is faid to clothe the foul, fo the nerves may be faid to conftitute her inner garment. And 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 shake 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 intenfe applica

tion of mind.

87. In difeafes fometimes accidents happen from without by mifmanagement, fometimes latent causes operate within, jointly with the specific 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

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and general efficacy in all thofe numerous illneffer, which take their rife from foul or vapid blood, or from a bad digeftion. The ánimal fpirits are elaborated from the blood. Such therefore as the blood is, fuch will be the animal fpirit, more or lefs, weaker or stronger. This fheweth the usefulness of tar-water in all hyfteric and hypochondriac cafes; which together with the maladies from indigeftion comprife almost the whole tribe of chronical diseases.

88. The fcurvy may be reckoned in these cli mates an univerfal malady, as people in general are fubject to it, and as it mixes more or lefs in almost all diseases. Whether this proceeds from want of elafticity in our air, upon which the tone of the veffels depends, and upon that the feveral fecretions; or whether it proceeds from the moisture of our climate, or the groffness of our food, or the falts in our atmosphere, or from all. thefe together; thus much at least feems not abfurd to fuppofe, that, as physicians in Spain and Italy are apt to fufpect the venereal taint to be a latent principle, and bear a part in every illness, fo for as good reafon the fcurvy fhould be confidered by our phyficians, as having fome share in moft diforders and conftitutions that fall in their way. It is certain our perfpiration is not fo free as in clearer air and warmer climates. Perfpirable humours not discharged will ftagnate and putrify, A diet of animal food will be apt to render the juices of our bodies alcalefcent. Hence ichorous and corrofive humours and many diforders, Moift air makes vifcid blood; and faline air inflames this vifcid blood. Hence broken capillaries, extrava fated blood, fpots, and ulcers, and other fcorbutic fymptoms. The body of a man attracts and imbibes the moisture and falts of the air, and what

ever floats in the atmosphere, which, as it is common to all, fo it affects all more or lefs.

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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 less 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, especially in fuch a situation 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 condenfe 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, dyfen. teries, faintings, anxieties, dropfies, confumptions, convulfions, palfies, fluxes of blood. In a word, it may be faid to contain the feeds and origin of almost all distempers. 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

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