Magazine of Magazines

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the unreasonable Farrago oS medicines
in prescriptions, yet 1 would earnestly
exhort all physicians to beware of falling
into the opposite fault of prescribing,
when they have only learned the
general name of the disease, without
having exactly and carefully examined
all the circumstances both os the patients,
and of their diseases ; Sor 1 am
convinced there is so little hope of obtaining
any universal medicine to cure
all diseases, that there is not any medicine
proper Sor any one disease in all
stages of it, and toall patients, except
hcrhaps in preventing the effects of
fome poyfons, of which we know
no more than that Some particular antidotes
have done Service ; thereSore
except the patient's age, Sex, constitution,
&c. and the symptoms and circumstances
oS a disease are related,
there can benojustjudgmenc formed,
and practising by rote has no fairer
chance for curing, than a blind man
has to strike a dog, who stands barking
at a distance. And this is that
which must principally distinguish between
a rational physician and a pretending
emperick. To prove which
I shall mention a sew examples where
a particular form of practice generally
prevails, and shall chose out such as
may serve to illustrate the premises.
Suppose two persons Seized with
an Apople.ry, one is a foll-bndied vigorous
young man aster a debauch, the
other is an old feeble person, long subject
to Catarrhes, l presume, blooding very
plentifully must be the principal thing
depended on for the cure of the first,
and that this method would very effectually
destroy the other, who must be
treated with every thing that stimulates.
A rigid old man, and a healthy young
boy, are both seized with an inflammation
tending to a gangrene in their
extremities; evacuations and topical
emollient applications are proper for
the boy, cordials and topical antiseptic
ks for the mas^.
A man and a woman of middle age,
healthy and vigorous, ate without any
previous remarkable fymptom, taken
with a Small Ildmoptoe; the man is let
blood PleratiSully, is kept cool with a
low diet, and has astringents given
him ; the woman being near the time
oS her menstrua, is to have this natural
evacuation Sorwarded, which proves her
cure.
Two persons oS the Same Sex and
equal age, but one brought low by a
diSeule, the other plethoric k, catch an
ague at the Same time. The plethorick
person requires to be blooded, and
by other evacuations to have his vessels
emptied ; the other must be Supported
by a nourishing diet aid cardiac medicines.
Two men oS equal age and strength,
one oS whom has lived temperately aid
Soberly, the other has every day drank
two or three buttles of wsr.e at least,
are buth seized W ith a sever ; the first is
kept suecessfully at c cooling emulhons,
the other must have an allowance of
wine ; for ufe them in the reverse way,
the temperate man will have his fete.unSufferably
railed, the other will become
e^uite dispirited.
A child has complained of pains in
bis belly, shrieks frequently, grinds his
teeth in his sleep, and has formerly
pasted worms by stool , a man has been
seized Some hours with a Sever. Both
fall into epilepttck fits, which ate to be
cured in each by removing their causes,
and therefore require very different
treatment.
Two persons brought low, one with
a Sever, the other with a pally os Short
standing, take each a quotidian or tertian
ague ; the first is to have his ague
Soon stropped ; the other is to bear the
ague as long as possible.
One man hath been nigh exhausted
with loss os blood, another has lived
•.on Sully Sor Some time ; both aster exercise
complain of great anxieties and
difficulty oS breathing, with a Saintnth
and inability in their limbs, and trembling
all over their body ; their pulses
do nuot beat strong, and all the perceptible
difference is, that the arteries ot
the latter seel hard and firm like a cord,