The,Æ RæiE.Æ CrET

Whatever may be the merit, of, the A present. chyti^cal,remedies so, uni-versally- us dAm all diseases y\ it 'is . Qert&indtfyy.-fiœtve'in^dgr^at y measuKe,set afide the. use of matural bodies’. y v \T’hese the^ateft ages.save, therefor^been little easeful about \ add'the value\of ,manylof them less,known nowthan perhaps at any other time of the world. sTheanttents us : 'd them'witl\great success,■ as wefindAt^eternally* recorded, in their, writings-sbiswe are told thats those who have try'd their so much boused remedies'asterthem, have often ■ sound them, fail' Hence unjufi censures have fallenupon those fathers of , medicine, while he who accuses them probablynever knew the body they have celebrated the praises of but has beengiving*for it,. something os a, wholly different kind..- t v, v .hw

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If Galen cur d the plague with Bole Armenicf and we c'an ■ sws nofitch virtues in it ; let us cease to blame Galen, and accuse our own -blind-ness and the villainy of those who serve us ; the Bole Armenic describ dby Galen is > a native .earthsyielding on a chymical analyss severalaElive principles ; the Bole Armenic of his .accusers isa miserable mixtureos tobacco-pipe clay and red ochre : And where should the blame be laid,while the modern, physcian tries such different means to the fame purpose ¥

AThe antientSj howeverp are not to be'accus d in this ; they have' everdsckib’d the bodies mhich they A'sXd, :and given sufficient charaBers toknow them by ; and in the inf anc e under consideration^ ■ the physcianwho had read Galen srfl, would never have given a red Compos underthe name os what he describes to be a yellow native earth.

‘The commentators on the works of these fathers of medicine and of na-tural knowledge, are much to be blam d in that they have too boldlygiven their opinions as to the sense of their works, and as they have beenmen no way acquainted with the things described, they have too often .given sad interpretations of very good original descriptions.

The bodies 'themselves are thefame. \to th\s _. day, jhat \tpey were in thetimes of these writers ; and their descriptions of them so good, that they areeasily- sdfbk t kffbwn &sroni\ vi&tAAg andrcwnpdring r dhese -thiresore^Bheip"tvorkshreiolbeheff' under food \ -and the reader will not wonder.^ ifhe findhere some free criticisms, and bold deviations from the general opinion ofsuch commentators, when he finds that they are sounded on such principles.

From a certam knowledge thus obtain d of the simple medicines us'd. by the antients, we have the help of all their experience in the use ofthem, and may revive the most valuable parts of their knowledge inmedicine ; of this much is said occasionally in treating of the severalbodies but the whole enquiry belongs to the concltifion of the work, whenwe review the whole together.

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