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I

CAUTIONS.

PREFACE.

Have perfuaded myself, that I should perform a work, neither entirely void of ufe, nor foreign to the duties of my profeffion, if I made the public partakers of the principal helps against most diseases, which I had either learned by long experience, or deduced from rational principles. But my purpose is to lay down precepts of the art, and methods of cure, rather than definitions and defcriptions of diseases; and to propofe medicines confirmed by practice, not mere conjectures. And as it is not my intention to write a complete fyftem of medicine, I shall not strictly confine myself to the ufual order obferved in medical treatifes; for at my leifure-hours I have perufed my loofe papers, and from them have extracted fuch things as VOL. III.

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I thought might prove useful hereafter; at the fame time calling in my memory to my affiftance for whatfoever I had obferved to be ferviceable, or prejudicial, in cach particular diftemper. For fuch was the rife

of medicine, by the recovery of fome patients, and the lofs of others, gradually diftinguishing pernicious from falutary things. Wherefore I fhall not inquire into the very conftitution (if the expreffion may be allowed) of the medical art; nor enter into the difpute, bow far it is either rational or empirical: on which topics I refer my readers to Celfus, who has ftated the arguments of physicians for their respective fects with great candour, and fums up the whole by delivering his own opinion with equal judgment and perfpicuity +. Nor is this little work, which has been often interrupted by, and partly compofed amidst the hurry of business, thrown out as a bait to catch fame. For it has long fince been obferved by the great parent of medicine, that our art has acquired more blame than honour ‡. And indeed it is the general temper of mankind, to be exceffively profufe of their reproofs, of their commendations extremely parfimonious. But this complaint made in behalf of medicine, will probably appear flight, if compared with the following, which he makes in another place: That the phyfician has dreadful objects before his eyes, very difagreeable fubjects in his hands, and takes great!

*Sic medicinam ortam, fubinde aliorum falute, aliorum interitu, perniciofa difcernentem a falutaribus. Celfus in præfat. + Ibidem. † Έγωγε δοκέω πλέο ενα μεμψιμοιρίαν, ἡ τιμὴν κεκληρώσθαι τὴν τέχνην. Hippocrates in epift. ad Democritum.

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uneafinefs to himself, from the calamities of others *. Now, what can be more humane, or more worthy even of a Chriftian, than to declare, that he feels the calamities of others as fenfibly, as if they were his own?

However, the very nature of my defign compelled me to take notice of the errours of other phyficians; but I have been very careful, throughout the work, to do it with the fame equity, with which I would defire to have my own faults corrected. Our art is frequently obliged to rely on conjectures; nor is it to be expected that any one perfon will constantly hit the mark. And therefore I have not been afhamed to acknowledge, and put my readers in mind of fome errours, which I have committed either through ignorance, or want of due attention. For, as Celfus fays, a plain confeffion of a real errour is commendable, and more especially in that performance which is published for the benefit of posterity †. The reader will easily perceive, that I have endeavoured not only to express the fenfe of Celfus, but to employ his very words and phrafes, or clofe imitations of them at least, whenever the fubject would allow it; and I heartily wish I could have done it more frequently. For what author could I chufe to follow rather than him, who felected the beft things out of the writings of the Greek phyficians and furgeons, and rendered the whole into most pure and elegant Latin ?

To conclude, the reader is defired to take notice, * Ὁ μὲν γὰς ἰπρὸς ὁρέει τα δεινὰ, θι[γάνει τε ἀδέων, καὶ ἐπ' ἀλλοτρίησι ξυμπρῆσιν ἰδίας καρπεται λύπας. Lib. de flati+ Lib. viii. cap. 4.

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that by the compofitions of medicines, which I make ufe of in this treatise, I mean those of the late edition of the London Difpenfatory *, unless otherwise fignified.

* Pharmacopoeia collegii regalis medicorum Londinenfis. Lond. 1746. 4to. And the translator of this work has taken the English names of the above-mentioned compofitions from Dr Pemberton's tranflation of the faid pharmacopoeia. Lond. 1746. 8°.

ME,

MEDICAL PRECEPTS and

CAUTIONS.

INTRODUCTION.

Of the human Body.

Efore I begin to treat of the diseases of the hu

Before

man body, it may not be improper to give the reader a fuccinct idea of its nature in a state of health. Wherefore, in order to form a juft notion of the body of man, it ought to be confidered as a hydrau lic machine contrived with the moft exquifite art, in which there are numberlefs tubes properly adjufted and disposed for the conveyance of fluids of different kinds. Of these the principal is the blood, from which are derived the feveral humours fubfervient to the various ufes and purposes of life; and in particular that fubtile and remarkably elastic fluid, generated in the brain, and known by the name of animal fpirits, the inftrument of fenfe and motion: which functions it never could be capable of executing, were it not contained in proper organs. For this purpose the almighty Creator has formed two forts of fibres, the fleshy and the nervous, as receptacles for this active principle; and each fort of thefe is partly interwoven in the membranes of the body, and partly collected into bundles or cords, and attached to the limbs, for performing their motions with the affistance of the bones.

But this wonderful machine, incapable of putting itself into motion, was ftill in want of a first mover : wherefore the mind is placed over it, as a ruler and moderator, and is the efficient caufe of all fense

and

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