alfo afferts, that it may be fafely given in fchirrufes of the abdomen. At the conclufion he inferts the following cautions.

"I have related many cafes, in which hemlock is proper: but I do not, nevertheless, infift, that it fhould always be confided in alone.

Other medicines ought, on fome occafions, to be joined to it.

It is requifite, that a physician judiciously follow thofe proper intentions of cure, which arife from the particular state of the cafe.

The furgeon fhould externally change, add and take away; as reafon, founded on experience, di

rects.

Many misunderstood my opinion of hemlock, from my firft effay; as they thought, that I had offered a remedy, which I believed to be univerfal, and fufficient, when given a lone, in all cases.

But I by no means meant fo. I affirmed only, that the hemlock performed fuch things, which other remedies, in high reputation, could

not.

It cures cancers, That, convinced by a great number of inftances, I was certain of.

But I do not, nevertheles, affert that it will cure every cancer.

Nor do I affert, that the whole is to be rested only on the fole use of bemlock.

If out of a hundred patients, whom other phyficians have difmiffed, and declared to be incurable, I give relief to, or cure one, it fuffices me; but the number of those, who may be cured, is much greater.

Mercury cures the venereal disease. But is it always found to have good effects? Does it always cure? How many thousands are there not cured, but deftroyed by this disease?

The Peruvian bark removes intermitting fevers and yet is not efficacious with all who have that dif cafe are there not many to whom it is even injurious?

Muft fuch medicines, therefore, be held as noxious or useless?

Skilful phyficians judge the fame of other remedies called specifick.

If there be fome, who from any idiofyncrafia, or from a complication of fymptoms, cannot bear the hemlock, let them avoid the use of it.

If the fymptoms, conjoined with the difeafe, require any other remedy, why fhould not that be adminiftered alone with the hemlock? Purges are often necessary.

Bleeding is likewife very requifite.

Hemorrhages fhould not, however, be ftopt by that means, in plethorick patients: for to fuch patients, they are of much greater benefit, than bleeding by venæfection.

But in fuch as are weak, they are quickly, and in the best manner, ftopt by the agarick of the oak.

The agarick fhould, nevertheless, be only applied to that place where the effufion of blood is made.

For if it be put over the whole ulcer, it is injurious to the wound; and often fatal.

Sometimes, befides the hemlock, antiphlogifticks, and refrigerants, are indicated.

This happens often in the gout and rheumatism.

Externally, fometimes emollients, fometimes digeftives, and fometimes aftringents, are required.

Sometimes a paffage ought to be opened to the matter, by means of the knife; as I have frequently obferved in the fpina ventofa

that the carious and corrupted parts might be separated from the found: and fometimes a fungus fhould be cut off.

The internal and external use of hemlock prevents, with fufficient effect, any relapse in such cases.

But fometimes the callous lips of cancers, or fungous cancers themfelves, are wafted away, by the following remedy only.

Take of the powder of hemlock two drams and a half; and of the honey of rofes

three ounces.

This medicament is fpread upon lint; and applied to the part affected, as often as the physician, or furgeon, judges neceffary.

A method of preventing and removing Epileptic Fits; with fome obfervations tending to prove the virtue of mufk in preventing the Apoplexy.

NY perfon fubject to the Epilepfy, may himself prevent a fit of it, if he has any the leaft previous notice of its coming, before he be altogether deprived of his fenfes, by the following fimple experiment. Let him have always ready in his pocket a piece of metal, as broad as he is able to contain between his teeth when his jaws are ftretched to the utmoft: as foon as he feels the firft fymptom of the fit, let him immediately take this piece of metal, and open his teeth as wide as he is able, put the piece of metal between them, that fo his jaws may be thereby kept at their utmoft ftretch for fome time: this in about half a minute will make him come entirely to himself again, and prevent the coming on of the fit for that time.

After the fit is come on, the fame experiment will also ferve to remove it in a very fhort time; for if any bye-stander will take the piece of metal before described, and put it between the patient's teeth, and thereby force them open till his jaws are at the utmost stretch, the fit will immediately go off, and the patient very foon recover.

The certainty of this experiment, the person from whom this account is taken fays, may be depended on. The manner (fays he) in which I came to the knowledge of it was from the information of a gentleman of undoubted veracity; and as what he then told me may ferve to fhew with what fuccefs the experiment had been made by others, I shall briefly relate it.

He told me, "That when he was at Amfterdam fome years ago, he happened one evening to be in company with feveral gentlemen, when one of the company happened to be feized with a fit of the Epilepfy; the other gentlemen prefent could not help being concerned at the accident; but an old officer of the army, who alfo made one of the company, without any concern, defired them to make themselves eafy, for he should fhortly cure him; and then taking a piece of metal out of his pocket, he went to the perfon then lying in the Epilepfy, and putting the piece of metal between his teeth, he forced them open with it, whereupon the perfon forthwith recovered. After they were again fet down, they began to enquire of the officer how he could fo quickly recover the gentleman from the Epilepfy? He told them, that he was often obliged to go out at the head of a party, when the ene

my

my happened to be but a small diftance from their camp; and that as feveral of their men were liable to the Epilepfy, if any of them happened to be feized with it when they were thus out upon a party, they were obliged to leave them behind, where they often fell into the enemy's hands before they recovered: That for this reason, he had been long in fearch of fomething which might inftantly recover them. and that he had at laft fallen upon this method of forcing open their jaws with a piece of metal, which he had often tried fince, and had never yet known it to fail."

As it is undoubtedly the forcing open of the jaws, and not any virtue in the metal itself, which produces this effect, there can be no difference of whatever kind the metal is of. A crown piece, I believe, might do; but if made of iron or fteel for the purpose, I think it would be more convenient if made of a fquare or oblong form, of about the thickness of a crown, and of fuch a breadth as to be exactly equal to the wideft opening of the jaws. It may be proper alfo to observe, that one of the edges ought to be thin, that it may the more eafily enter between the teeth, when they are to be forced open by fome other perfon; for the fame reason it may be convenient to put a handle to it, like the handle of a key.

I have reafon to believe that this experiment will not only remove the fit of the Epilepfy for that time, but alfo until the next time of its ordinary periodical rerurn, without

there are few liable to the Epilepfy, who may not, by means of this experiment, prevent its coming on in the day-time: I think there are fcarce any but who have as long warning of its approach, as might be fufficient for taking out a piece of metal out of their pocket, and putting it between their teeth.

PHILANTHROPOS,

According to letters received this year (1761) by the Dutch fhips from the Indies, feveral perfons, and fome of diftinction, have died last year at Batavia, of the apoplexy, which is thought extraordinay: for though that diftemper is as common in Holland as any where, yet formerly it was never heard of at Batavia; and this circumftance has been urged by very great physicians, as a strong argument in favour of mufk, which was as much in ufe at Batavia, as difregarded in Holland and other parts of Europe, fince the the reign of Lewis XIV. whose queen had an averfion to that and all other perfumes, which circumstance gradually drove them out of all the courts of Europe.

An account of a Hydrophobia cured by an accidental bleeding by the temporal artery; communicated by Mr. Baldwin, Surgeon, at Farringdon, in Berks. With an account of a remedy, recommended as a most effectual cure against the bite of a mad dog; in the tranfactions of the Berne Society of Agriculture, Arts, and Commerce.

I have only to add, that I fuppofe

perfon in company related this fact. A woman, bit by a mad dog, and

who

who had the dreadful hydrophobia upon her, was doomed, according to the old cuftom, to be fmothered; but at the time her executioners appeared, fhe happened to have a fmall interval of reason, and made fuch efforts to escape, that she got out of their hands to the stairs-head; when, her foot flipping, the fell, and cut through the temporal artery, which bleeding freely, her friends did not attempt to ftop it, concluding it would fave them their painful office, as in the end it did; for the woman, almost exhaufted, gave evident figns of a recovery from the dreadful distemper, and actually furvived it.

The remedy recommended in the Berne Tranfactions is no other than the herb Anagallis or Pimpernel gathered in July, fuffered to dry, and pulverized; it may be given in the quantity of half a dram to that of a dram, in a fimple diftilled water of the fame plant, or in tea. After which the patient is to faft for two hours. One dofe is generally fufficient; however, it may be repeated in eight or ten hours after with fafety.

without falt, and, fkimming off the curdy part when melted over a clear fire, to give two spoonfuls of the clarified remainder, twice or thrice within the day. And this hath never failed to make an almost inftant cure in many (I am fure at leaft a hundred) cafes. I have had myfelf the pleasure to relieve officioufly by its effects; and who were perfons, for the most part, at the point of death, and folemnly refigned to that laft cure of every malady, by their phyfician's farewell fentence.

A long time after Mr. Boyle had published his experience of this noble medicine, from his frequent proofs of it in Ireland, where dyfenteries were too common accidents, there happened, at the fiege of Londonderry, fuch a general demonftration of its efficacy, as leaves a fubfequent neglect of it no way to be accounted for, but from the reafon I have juft affigned it to. For when by the fatigues and wants of that brave garrifon, they found themselves in greater danger, from the havock of the terrible difeafe, than from the efforts of the enemy, we are informed, by the defcribers of that memorable fiege, that the diftemper flopt at once, upon the foldiers finding a concealed referve of casks of tallow in a merchant's warehouse, and dividing it among the companies, to melt with, and lengthen out, their short remainder of bad oatmeal.

An acquaintance of my own, a gentleman of the prescribing faculty, complained to me fome years ago, of the mortality of this dif temper, then an epidemic one, in London. I advised him to make trial of the mentioned help to which he first objected, that he

could