the prefent cafe. For if we confider this male Patient was but thirty years of age, which may be termed the ftrongest stage of life; that no fymptom of any gouty attack on the head, ftomach, or any noble part, is mentioned; and that he was bedrid above nine months; if nature was to furmount this fit at all (after fo great a depofition of the gouty caufe on all or moft of the joints) it was probably about this very time, the might have been able to fet about, and to effect it. Had the fummer, particularly, commenced about the tenth month, it might have greatly conduced to this cure, by augmenting perspiration, which is generally the most favourable difcharge for this disease. But we have no information in what month or feason of the year this Patient was brought to the hospital; nor is there any mention of the powders fweating him, which was its moft ufual operation. Now, by our calculation, fuppofing him to take this medicine ten weeks, out of his three months ftay in the hospital, he took about 3255 grains of the powder; fixty one grains of which contained but one grain of the extract; fo that he took in all but fifty-three grains and one third of a grain of the real medicine in all that time; which it is very difficult to conceive as adequate to fo extraordinary an effect. Indeed, the whole cure reminds us a little of Dr. Gideon Harvey's fhrewd and humourous treatise of the ufe of the Art of Expectation in curing Difeafes. For, as Hippocrates talks of Crifes in fome chronical difeafes, fupervening fometimes at the end of a hundred, and, if we recollect rightly, fometimes as late as the end of two hundred days, if this medicine happened to co-incide, very luckily for its own reputation, with fuch a chronical crifis, it is not impoffible that the very fugar, the vehicle, if given alone, might have been dignified with the cure; which, in fuch chroni cal cafes, as human art is unable to abridge, is often afcribed to the last thing taken. Neither, in fact, will fugar be deemed a very inert falt, if we may credit the account of its proving the only antidote against the poifon of thofe arrows ufed by fome Savages in South-America. After all, we really intend no unfair depreciation of a medicine, however new or ticklish, which poffibly might concur much in this deplorable cafe, and certainly did no harm: though we have thought itbut equitable, on the other hand, (till the efficacy of it is confirmed by more inftances of the fame kind) to offer thefe few reflections on the fubject. Neither may be it unfair to propose the query of, What might probably have been the effects of the medicine, if administered in the firft, or the fecond, month of this Decumbiture? The next cafe was a terrible medley of nodes, tophi, and pains of a year's ftanding. The Patient was cured folely by this powder, at the end of three months. The dofe is not mention REY. June, 1763. Hh ed, ed. Another, of a very fimilar kind, was not compleatly cured in the third month, the Patient ftill taking the powder. The thirteenth cafe is the cure of a true Anchylofts of the elbow, in feven weeks, folely by the extract in powder, nothing elfe agreeing with it; the dote is not mentioned. The fourteenth and laft cafe, is the cure of exquifite pains in the leg and foot, without any tumour or difcolouration: it was perfected in three weeks; no dofe mentioned. The pamphlet ends with fome Corollaries, admitting, however, as a falvo, that the Blue Wolffbane is fometimes taken without effect, when Hemlock often fucceeds; and vice versa, fucceeds fometimes, when Hemlock fails: our Author affirming, they have male many new and fine experiments with the laft, fince the pub ication of his Supplement, which experiments will be defcribed by the learned Dr. Colin. We have extended this article, on a small pamphlet, the more, from confidering, that all thefe plants are natives here, (tho' the Wolfsbane is chiefly found in gardens) and that undoubtedly fome of our own Practitioners will be inclined to make trials of that efficacy, which Dr. Storck afcribes to them. For this reafon we have never omitted the important circumftance of the dofe, no more than of the difeafe, in which our Author difpenf ed their extracts, whenever he has not omitted the dofes himfelf. And we fhall rejoice to find their fuccefs lefs partial here, than the Hemlock has proved among us; which, however, has pretty generally been fafe, and in fome fcirrhous cafes alfo fuccefsful. We may properly remark here too, that the common Hemlock is very probably the leaft violent of thefe four poisonous plants. Galen informs us, an Athenian woman had gradually accustomed herself fo much to the internal ufe of it, as to take a confiderable quantity without any ill confequence: and Fontanus knew a perfon, who, wanting fleep after the plague, eat Hemlock for fome time to good purpofe; but needing reft in a fubfequent fever, when he had left off that plant, and finding repeated doses of opium infufficient to procure it, he recurred again to the Cicuta, with its former fuccefs. As we fuppreffed, in a former article on this laft plant, fome pertinent reflections on the fubject of curing with poifons, we fhall indulge them a little on this occafion of Dr. Storck's extending his researches to thefe venomous fimples. Philanthropy was certainly one confiderable incentive to the attempt; nor can it be thought wholly irrational, after the preced nt of ufing corrofive Sublimate internally, and with that great fuccefs of it which has been published. Were we to fuppofe with a modern phyfical phyfical Writer, that all fubftances we take internally, which are indigeftible and unaffimilable by us, were poifons, in fome degree, and proved remedies only by accident, or from circumftance; it would follow, that many of the known deleterious fimples were fuch, but in a farther degree; and needed only a very judicious reftriction in quantity, and in timing of them, to be exhibited advantageously in difeafes, eluding the most celebrated remedies. Whence, in fuch circumftances, we might extend Celfus' preference of a doubtful remedy to none, into that of a dangerous one; but fo conducted as not to prove deadly. Neither is it very inconceivable, that in fome enormous and inveterate cafes, fuch a preternatural ftate of the fluids and folids may exift, as should render the operations, even of fome poisons, lefs violent than they would have proved to' perfons in health. This opinion is not a little countenanced by the great doses of ftrong purges, or of opiates, that are neceffary to affect maniacal Patients, and might prove fatal to others. Even twenty grains of the White Ellebore powdered, are affirmed to have been -fuccessfully given in madness, when antimonials have failed to operate; which quantity muft probably have killed a Patient in a different disease, or a perfon in health. The republic of Medicine, therefore, muft think themselves obliged to Dr. Storck for the extraordinary researches which he makes, not without fome rifque of his own health; and fhould confider them with all due candour: fince the most judicious Phyficians will chufe to hear much of their efficacy, and of their fafety too, before they hazard the prefcription of them. On the other hand, this humour of inveftigating remedies, chiefly in poisons, may poffibly be indulged to an extreme; and be attended with fome unhappy confequences, as it is impoffible to prevent any Practitioner's making the fame experiments with thefe dangerous tools; and the leaft capable have not always the leaft temerity. It is conceivable, that fome very bold and whimfical perfon, on the inefficacy of any one of thefe extracts, might be for combining two of them, to fee what a tertium quid they might produce; or prove curious enough to try what Quinteffence might refult from the combination of all the four. To prevent any ill effects from the rafhnefs of people but indifferently qualified, to preferibe or exhibit fuch violent extracts, we had already inculcated fome neceffary precautions with regard to Hemlock, which become ftill more indifpenfible in reIpect to thefe more deleterious plants. We fhould have thought it had not been improper, if Dr. Storck, with the medicinal ufe of them, had alfo obliged his Readers with their antidotes, where they happened to act only as poifons; which might hap Hh 2 pen, pen, either from an accidental error in the dofe, or from an unforefeen peculiarity in the constitution of a Patient: fince merely discontinuing the ufe of them, may not conftantly be fufficient to efface their pernicious effects. As it is alfo acknowleged, page 44,"that the Blue Wolfsbane is fometimes exhibited without any effect, [but we are neither told how often, nor in what dif eafes] it would be but a natural conclufion, for persons long habituated and attached to thefe investigations, to hope for a lefs fallible remedy in fome more virulent poifon, whofe fecure, dofe might not be a tenth or twentieth part of a grain: fince the antimonial cup or bullet has been affirmed to operate, without the least discoverable abatement of its weight. When all the poifons, however, of the fhops, or of German growth, were thoroughly experienced, and found to be as fallible in fome cales as thefe four have confeffedly been, our Experimenters, or their Succeffors, muft have recourfe to the many poifons of the Torrid Zone for ftill ftronger ones; and then figh for others, as Alexander did for other worlds to conquer. But there remains, for their comfort, a large catalogue; befides thofe of which Wepfer and others have treated. The villainy of the Negroes in America, has convinced the inhabitants of feveral mortal poisons there. The bulbous root of a low, wild, white lilly, has deftroyed many people. Cattle avoid it fufficiently when in bloom; but its narrow gramineous leaves in the fpring, confused with the young grafs, have killed horfes and kine, and greatly fwelled others for a time, who have furvived them. The root of the fingle flowering Oleander, or Rofe-bay, has been found so poifonous, as to be eradicated from their gardens: and the hard woody feeds of the Mirabilis Peruviana, or Four o'clock flower, have proved a very mortal poifon. It will certainly be a long time before the inhabitants recur to these materials for health, being reasonably more anxious to discover their antidotes; that of the lilly at leaft having been effectually found. The new world is rather too young for the refinement of extracting such exquifite remedies and panaceas from them, as the Hemlock was predicated to be. Nevertheless thefe practical researches and applications of our Authors, under the restrictions with which they have been regulated, certainly deferve the acknowlegement of Phyficians, and of their Patients, labouring under fuch inveterate difeafes, as are affirmed by fome competent witneffes to have eluded the force of other celebrated remedies; and to have been entirely cured, or greatly palliated, by the ufe of these plants. Letters Letters of the Right Hon. Lady M-y Wy M- T HAT men of fenfe are all of the fame religion, wherever born, or wherever fituated, is commonly faid, and admitted, among men of fenfe. Of this truth our ingenious and entertaining Lady M-y gives us a ftriking inftance in her character of the Turks; which we shall extract from Letter XXVIL being the first Letter of her fecond volume, dated Adrianople, April 1, 1717, and addreffed to the Abbot "An intimate daily conversation with the Effendi Achmet-beg, gave me an opportunity of knowing their religion and morals in a more particular manner than, perhaps, any Christian ever did. I explained to him the difference between the religion of England and Rome; and he was pleafed to hear there were Chriftians that did not worship images, or adore the Virgin Mary. The ridicule of Tranfubftantiation appeared very strong to him. Upon comparing our creeds together, I am convinced that if our friend Dr. had free liberty of preach ing here, it would be very easy to perfuade the generality to Christianity, whofe notions are very little different from his. Mr. Whifton would make a very good Apofle here. I don't doubt his zeal will be much fired, if you communicate this account to him; but tell him, he must firft have the gift of tongues, before he can poffibly be of any ufe. The "Mahometifm is divided into as many fects as Chriftianity; and the first institution as much neglected, and obfcured by interpretations. I cannot here forbear reflecting on the natural inclination of mankind to make mysteries and novelties. Zeidi, Kudi, Jabari, &c. puts me in mind of the Catholics, Lutherans, and Calvinifts, and are equally zealous against one another. But the most prevailing opinion, if you search into the fecret of the Effendis, is plain Deifm. This is, indeed, kept from the people, who are amafed with a thoufand different notions, according to the different interefts of their Preachers.There are very few among them (Achmet-beg denied there were any) fo abfurd as to fet up for wit, by declaring they believe no God at all. And Sir Paul Rycaut is mistaken (as he commonly is) in calling the fect Muterin (i. e. the fecret with us) Atheists, they being Deifts, whofe impiety confifts in making a jet of their Prophet. Achmet-beg did not own to me, that he was of this opinion, but made no fcruple of deviating from fome part of Mahomet's law, by drinking wine with the fame freedom we did. When I asked him, how he came to allow himself that Hh 3 liberty, |