AN ESSAY CONCERNING THE OUTWARD AND SALUTARY APPLICATION OF OILS
ON THE HUMAN BODY.
BY THE REV. WILLIAM MARTIN TRINDER, MD.
LONDON: PRINTED FOR THE AUTHOR,
By W. WILSON, St. Peter's Hill, Doctors' Commons:
AND SOLD BY T. N. LONGMAN, PATERNOSTER-ROW; J. COOKE, OXFORD; AND MESSRS. MERRILL, CAMBRIDGE.
M DCC XCVII.
TO THE UNIVERSITY OF OXFORD, HIS GRACE THE DUKE OF PORTLAND, CHANCELLOR, THE REVEREND DOCTOR BERDMORE, VICE-CHANCELLOR, THE HEADS OF COLLEGES AND HALLS, AND THE OTHER CONSTITUENT MEMBERS THEREOF,
This humble Attempt to be useful,
IS, IN ALL FILIAL DUTY AND RESPECT,
INSCRIBED BY
WILLIAM MARTIN TRINDER, A GRADUATE OF OXFORD, AND DOCTOR OF PHYSIC AT LEYDEN.
AN ESSAY.
WE read, in the Holy Scriptures, not only of wine that maketh glad the heart of man, but of oil to make his face to shine, or his outside, for so the word
frequently signifies, and it ought, in this place, Psalm civ. 15. so to be understood.
The ancients accustomed themselves to the outward application of oil, in order to heighten the comeliness of their persons—and they did well: for what constitutes beauty more than the natural diffusion of gelatinous juices extracted from the aliment, and brought forward, through the arteries, to all parts of the body? or, if these be wanting, what better substitute can there be than oils properly applied?
This practice of inunction was so general, and so frequent, that our Saviour gently reproved Simon, the Pharisee, for omitting this instance of civility. Luke vii. 46.—The rich and honourable were anointed with oils of the greatest fragrance.
—
. HOMER.
Thus due respect was shewn to our blessed Lord by having precious ointment poured upon his head. Mark xxvi. 7.
But the ancients used oil not only for the decoration and refreshment of their persons, but for the preservation of their health and strength. After bathing, they rubbed themselves over with ceromata to close the pores of the body,
.
and thus to give strength to the system. They also anointed their heads with ointments to prevent drunkenness.
. ANACREON.
(Athenaeus lib. xv. cap. 13.) Before engaging in violent and fatiguing exercises, they always used ceromata, or medicated oils, to prevent strains, to make their limbs supple, and, by hindering transpiration, to preclude any great waste of strength. Now although it must be confessed that the ancients were not the most improved anatomists, yet their general and frequent practice in the use of ointments and friction was excellent, being very preventative of disease, and conducive to health, as will appear from the following statement of facts.
1st. All over the human body are innumerable inhalants, which are the orifices and branches of the absorbent vessels that ultimately terminate in the great veins near the heart. These absorb and carry fluids
into
the body, but they cannot carry any
out.
2dly. There are also innumerable exhalants, which perforate the surface of the skin, that are the extremities of the arteries, and which carry fluids
out
of the body, but they cannot carry any
in.
According to Sanctorius, the transpiration from the skin far exceeds, in quantity, all the excretions by the other emunctories, and, comparatively to alvine discharges, the proportion is as one to four, so that if the skin ejects twenty-four, the intestines shall discharge only six ounces.
If by any means the exhalants be so closed, as to hinder the greater part of transpiration, it must be confessed that the
deliciae animalis vitae,
that is to say, good eating, may be rendered, for a time, unnecessary; for it appears in story, that wetting the body with salt water, prevented hunger in six people, who were on a raft in the sea for six days in the Gulph of Mexico; and Captain Bligh of the Bounty experienced the same effect after he had been turned adrift, in a boat, by his crew, in the Pacific Ocean.
3dly. Animal, or vital heat, which is most necessary to the nutrition and preservation of the body, is generated by the decomposition in the lungs of atmospheric air by animal gas
BOERHAAVE, MARTIN, and others, were of opinion, that the motion of the blood was the
cause
of animal heat. If so, how is it that the vital heat is nearly the same in all persons in health, although the circulation of the blood be very different? How is it that the vital heat shall be the same in a young lady, sitting at her sampler, as in a sawyer, in the violent exercise of his trade? The circulation shall be far above par in one, and below it in the other; but, nevertheless, the vital heat shall be the same in both!
Plenck.
. And hence it is, that the more and quicker we inspire atmospheric ai
the warmer we become, as in running up hill, or in vehement reading and speaking.
Vegetables perspire from their leaves as animals from their lungs. This vegetable perspirable matter, when acted upon by the sun's light, produces the pure part of the atmospheric, or vital air; hence it is, that exercise in a garden,
caeteris paribus,
is far more salubrious than in the streets of a city.
That vital heat is generated by the aforesaid decomposition in the lungs, appears from considering that animals, destitute of lungs, are not hotter than the circumambient air, whereas the vital heat of animals possessed of lungs is by no means dependent on the temperature of the air. In the human body it is hardly ever less than 95 degrees, or more than 105 of
Fahrenheit's
tongue thermometer; but if the living body, in a healthy state, be placed in contact to much hotter bodies, it will not acquire their excess; nor, if in the midst of much colder bodies, will it acquire their coldness; thus, on the coast of Africa, where the heat of the climate shall rise to 140 degrees of
Fahrenheit's
thermometer, the human body will retain its natural heat of 96 degrees, because of the evaporation of sweat which generates coldness; hence it is, that the negroes in the West India Islands endure labour in the sun far better than white men, because, as it is said, of their quicker evaporation of perspirable matter from their skin and lungs. So again in the frozen regions of the North, the heat of the living body shall experience no material change; and this is providential, for if the living body had not the means to resist excessive heat,
The heat of the room in which Dr. Blagden, and others, entered, was raised, whilft they were in it, to 240o , and to 260o ; these excessive heats were borne for a considerable time, with little inconvenience, by the gentlemen who exposed themselves to them, both naked and with their clothes on; nor was the
heat
of Dr. Blagden's body at all
increased,
though the velocity of his pulse was, in one instance, more than doubled. A blast of the heated air from a pair of bellows was searcely to be endured, for the following obvious reason: When the same air remained for any time in contact with the body, part of its heat was destroyed, and, consequently, the body was surrounded with a colder medium than the air of the room; whereas, when fresh portions of the air were applied to the body in such a quick succession that no part of it could remain in contact a sufficient time to be cooled, the heat was seasibly greater.
Vide
CHAMBERS'S Dictionary, under the article HEAT.
the fluids would become too thin, run out, or putrify; and if it could not resist excessive cold, the fluids of the body could not circulate, and, of course, become coagulant.
This vital heat is the cause of that strong intestine action by which the solids of the body are expanded, the fluids broke down and divided, and superfluous and heterogeneous matter separated and discharged. When it is sufficiently strong, in a healthy state,
This vital heat may be in excess, as in hectic and inflammatory fevers, acute rheumatism, &c.
Que
e,
—Is not vitiated air, in jails, when combined with animal gas, productive of patrid miasma?
it forces the blood and juices into the extreme arteries, the skin becomes soft and glowing, and the flesh turgescent from that bland oleaginous aliment so well, and so universally diffused.
4thly. Friction, although far less preservative and restorative than bodily exercise in the open country air, especially if used to the point of fatigue, yet, in one particular, it is more serviceable, because of its topical application.
Friction, by obliging the veins to admit of distension, causes the arterial blood more abundantly to flow into them, hereby encreasing the velocity of the circulation, diffusing the vital heat, and augmenting vigour; moreover, the venal blood, by means of friction, runs quicker towards the heart, which it stimulates to a greater propulsion of the blood and juices over the whole body.
If cold coagulated blood be rubbed, in a glass mortar, it will again become a frothy liquid of a crimson colour. It is said, indeed, that this effect arises from fresh surfaces of blood being exposed to the atmospheric air, with the oxygen, of which it immediately combines, restoring it to the same floridity as when in the body; nevertheless, it is also true, that gentle friction so attenuates stagnant blood, in bruises, that it will enter into the mouths of the bibulous veins.
Friction moves and attenuates the otherwise immeable juices in the vessels that encumber and relax the nervous system; but if vehemently and immoderately used it excites inflammation, and, by too much, encreasing the contraction of the heat and arteries, the liquids exhale, and the body becomes parched and dry. Immoderate labour, in like manner, is prejudicial to the health, and it prevents longevity, for hard-working people soon look old; and it is observable, that women, in general, live longer than men.
5thly. Oil, whether contained in the celular membrane of the body, or externally applied, greatly, by its lubricity, facilitates muscular motion. It keeps off the coldness of the atmosphere; hence, fat persons are not so susceptible of cold as lean people, and it is the best preventive against chilblains. It gives whiteness to the tender skin; hence it is, that the fattest parts of the body are the whitest, as the breasts of young women.—It gives roundness and beauty to the human form; for the skin, when not distended by it, contracts itself into unsightly wrinkles. It gives nourishment to the body, for being absorbed by the inhalants, it is carried, with the chyle, into the blood. If it be said that oil, externally applied, stops the excretory pores, thereby preventing sweat and insensible perspiration, I answer, from my own experience, that it does not, but it rather promotes both, especially if applied by brisk friction, for it cleanses the exhalants of that ever encrusting luting sordes, which covers even the most delicate persons, and which the vapour bath soon discovers to every individual.
The cuticle, or upper skin, by time, wears rough, and decays, and a new one is generated; hence it is, that serpenes and shell-fish, every summer, become new coated. Vegetables and trees seem to have this property, according to the ingenious Mr. FORSYTH's experiments on this curious subject.
The ancients, who were in the frequent practice of inunction, never found plain oil to stop the pores; for when they wished to stop or hinder transpiration, they used wax with their oil; such were the precious ceromata, mentioned by Athenaeus, (Deipnosoph 5.) as of saffron, sweet marjoram, fenugreek, flower-de-luce, and of roses; and not thinking even these preparations sufficiently obstructive of the pores, they, before engaging in gymnastic exercises, and after anointing themselves with oil, rolled themselves in the sand.
From what I have written concerning the inhalants, the exhalants, vital heat, friction and oil, I think, that the following practice will be thought, by the public, reasonable, useful and important.
In incipient dropsy, particularly the leucophlegmatic, and anasarcous (arising from the debility of the vascular system), the chief cure is to strengthen the vessels by friction, and a stimulating oil; so that the absorbents shall take up the water from the cavities, and the perspiratory powers recover their wonted action. That the dropsy does not arise, as is commonly imagined, from an atony, or laxity of the whole body, and the viscera thereof, appears from this consideration, that many cachectic persons are not dropsical, and many who have cisted dropsy, are entirely free from any cachexy whatsoever.
In chronic rheumatism, owing to a serous colluvies of humours predominant about the moving fibres of the muscles; as also in stiffness, and rigidity of the joints and muscles, particularly in old military men, arising from frequent and long exposures to the injuries of the weather, and from old healed-up wounds and fractures; medicated oils, with a flesh-brush, together with electrical shocks on the stiffened parts, will be found very serviceable.
The fibres of old people are hard and rigid, their perspiration is little, and that bland vapour which formerly bedewed their bodies is no more; inunction, with friction to them, is most salutary, for the animal warmth and juices are hereby drawn into the skin, and the oil, by its nourishing powers, renovates and invigorates the whole system. The sagacious Sydenham had great success in the recovery of debilitated nature, by recommending healthy young men as bedfellows to the aged and infirm; he said, that heat alone was not the cause of restoration, for the application of warm napkins did no good, (sec. i. cap. iv. p. 79.) it was therefore only to be ascribed to the mild oleaginous effluvia. Now, if the human oleaginous effluvia be so penetrating and balsamic as to afford revivifying nourishment by absorption, why should not the oil of sweet-almonds, for instance, do the same thing, especially when broke down and pressed in, by heat and friction.
Soldiers that are exposed to excessive heats in hot countries, should frequently be ordered to rub their bodies with ceromata, to prevent too great a waste of strength by perspiration; and when in cold countries, they are exposed to rain, and sleep in damp camps, they should be enjoined to follow the practice of inunction; for being generally young men, such stimuli would quickly arouse their native heat, draw it to the surface, and keep it there, and also, by closing the inhalants, effectually shut out an otherwise too penetrating a humidity.
After hard labour, or excessive fatigue, the outward use of oil is wonderfully restorative and refreshing: this is not only testified by the practice of the ancient Athletae, but by some mowers at Hendon, this summer, who, before the application, were nearly exhausted by excessive labour at task work, but afterwards followed it up with ease and pleasure.
After warm bathing in the winter season, the application of a ceroma is very adviseable, for by rendering the inhalants impervious to the cold air, colds are prevented, and, by closing the orifices of exhalants, the dewy, nutritious juice, and vital heat (drawn towards the skin by the bath) is then retained, which must greatly warm and invigorate the system.
An imperfect paralysis in the aged, not only arises from a deficiency of vigour, and a relaxation of nerves, strained and worn by various destroying causes, as gluttony, ebriety, &c. but often it is owing to a supineness of the vital principle, or the Anima-Medica,
See the curious and elegant oration of the late learned Dr. Nicholls, (Physician to George the IId.) on the Powers of the Anima Medica, before the College of Physicians in London.
for terror, or imminent danger, has often been the means of restoring those limbs (during the paroxysm of fear) that were before useless. Here then it seems, that impotency is not the cause, but sloth; surely then the natural and best cure must be obtained from exercise, friction, and stimulating oil.
Chilly, sedentary persons who ill endure the winter's cold, should frequently use friction, and a stimulating oil, for it is, through debility from want of exertion, that the arteries do not propel the fluids with such force as would prove sufficient to distend the exhalants in the skin.
A nervous unhappiness, with susceptibility of cold is often occasioned by a thick cacochymy of humours, not at all inflammatory; in this case, after proper evacuation, it is proper to draw the juices to the surface of the body by light frictions with the aromata, so indeed as to promote the due circulation of the blood, but not by violent application, to encumber the heart and lungs by the reflux of these thick and foul humours. The mind of man may be considered figuratively as the axle-tree, round which the wheel of life can best turn, for although it may be unconscious of its power, yet it works wonders on the solids and fluids of the body, rectifying their irregularity, and reducing them to moderation, or else rendering them inordinate and destructive. But if the mind have power over the body, so also has the body a wonder-working power over the mind, for it is the blood that constitutes the
temperament
of different persons. The red part abounds in the
sanguineous,
whose veins are large and cerulean, the head thin of hair, the flesh soft and abundant, and the cheeks of a rosy colour. Persons of this temperament are fond of pleasure, they are soon but not long angry, easily persuaded and inconstant.
The albumenous part of the blood abounds in the petuitous, whose veins are small and almost imperceptible; the face pale, the flesh abundant, but cold and flaccid. The mind is usually placid and serene, regardful of decorum, and of the honestum, and of what it ought to do, but generally too lazy to exert its powers.
When the blood is too concrete, having lost its proper fluidity, it forms the melancholic temperament. The flesh and hair are of a very dark colour, as among the Jews, (who are commonly of this temperament) the head frequently bald. The body is very lean and dry, the blood vessels dense and thin. The mind is constant to its purpose, not hasty, mindful of injuries, and remarkable for earnestness in thinking.
From these temperaments are made up the rest, as the bilious, where the body is thin, the colour brown, the hair black, crisp and bushy, the veins large, the mind intelligent and resolute.
The phlegmatic are cold, not hairy, subject to baldness, fat and unweildly, liable to tumours, the mind sometimes timid, generally inoffensive. The warm temperament is in body agile and robust, well covered with yellow, thick, and copious pile, as the head with hair; the angles of the eyes, and also the face and lips are of a very red colour, the pulse full and frequent, the mind capable, but impetuous.
But nevertheless, to vindicate the supremacy of the mind over the body, it is to be observed that, by the medicinal and dietetic art, one temperament may be altered, in some degree into another, so that the pituitous may become sanguineous, the sanguineous melancholic
et vice versa.
St. Paul saith,
"I keep my body under, and bring it into subjection: lest that by any means, when I have preached to others, I myself should be a cast away."
1 Cor. ix. 27.
Undoubtedly the mind can, and often does reduce the body to reason, by the means of diet and the forbearing virtues; hence the use of fasting and religious meditation: but here observe, that what would stimulate one person, say of a hot temperament, into passion, might only lift up another who is pituitous into reasonable comfort.
Phlegmatic persons of irritable habits of body (whose circulation is weak, the blood not being sent in sufficient force to the surface, so as in a due degree, to promote perspiration, and who by their inhalants, absorb more moisture from the atmosphere than stronger people), should perseveringly use friction, if not oil; they should also pay particular attention to diet. They should avoid sugar and butter, which, by thickening the juices, impedes the circulation. Instead of eating glary food, as pig-meat and fatted calf, they should be contented with a more drying and attenuating diet, which would prevent alarming portions of lymph from collecting in the lungs, or in the joints. True indeed it is, that although a person be charged with too much lymph he may continue in health, but how long these defluxions may remain benign and unhurtful, no one can say, for also true it is, that, by the adverse diameters of a very few vessels, the juices may soon become stagnant and banefully acrimonious. The too abundant lymph should be discharged by drastic purges, at long intervals, and for diet, such as strengthens the elasticity of the fibres, should be recommended. Roast meat
Roasting, except the little that flies off by vapour, concentrates the juices of the meat within it, giving the meat an empyreumatic and stimulating flavour; whereas, boiling discharges the gelatinous part and essential oil of the meat into the water, rendering it insapid; therefore, it will not. I believe, be too much to say, that half a pound of roast will afford as much nourishment with a greater stimulus, as three quarters of a pound of boiled meat; moreover, the organs of digestion require fibrous matter to work upon, as will appear from the following experiment, which, I heard, was tried by an eminent surgeon in London: He confined one large dog to the broth of meat boiled down, as we say, to rags, and another large dog to the ragged meat so boiled down, allowing him, I suppose, a little water to quench his thirst. The dog that drank the broth soon became emaciated, and died; but he that eat the fibres of the meat remained in health, and grew fat.
The old French way of dressing meat with little or no water, but with a few vegetables, as potatoes, in a pan so closely covered or luted, as to confine all the vapour or essential oil within, is,
me judice,
the most palatable, and the best mode of cookery.
and game are proper; fruits, if any, should be somewhat austere, and also the wine; say good rough port, but ever let this dietetic rule be carefully observed,
"ne quid nemis."
Wine, if medically taken, augments the strength of the animal fibres and rarifies the juices of the body; but if immoderately drank, it excites a universal spasm that ends in weakness and relaxation, as the trembling hands and staggering gate of bacchanalians sufficiently evince. Wine after much use loses its stimulating power; hence it is that hard-drinkers proceed from bad to worse, from wine to the drinking of pure spirit; thus destroying their health, their reputation, and their life, for a very transient and miserable satisfaction.
In general debility brought on by drinking spirituous liquors, with loss of appetite, it is, first, advisable for the patient to leave off drinking one fourth of his usual quantity: if, in a fortnight, his appetite somewhat returns, let him leave off another fourth part, and so every fortnight continue the decrease, 'till the burning potation be totally exchanged for a daily, but small quantity of red port wine. If indeed, the natural powers of digestion be quite destroyed, by the means of spirituous liquors, then there is but little hope of restoration.
But wine, if moderately taken, enables the vessels of the body with encreased alacrity to take up and disperse nourishment over the system. It is of excellent use after fatigue; also in the cure of mental languors, and in urgent fears, for it not only braces the fibres, but it tonifies the mind; and therefore it is that soldiers and sailors after a dram of spirituous liquor, despise danger, and joyously enter into a battle.
Again, pituitous persons who use but little exercise, are particularly susceptible of the ill effects of a damp air, which although, by the thermometer, may not be colder than a dry one, is more penetrating because
it conducts
better, filling the inhalants with crude noxious vapour; hence swellings of the great joints of the limbs are frequent, which are mistaken for the gout. Certainly the best preservatives are strong daily exercise to the point of fatigue, so as to sweat; a dry cardiac diet; frequent friction with ceromata of essential oil, to counteract the baneful effects of the atmosphere; and such cloathing as of wool close to the skin, which, being a bad conductor, will prevent the inhalants from improper absorption.
By warm cloathing, we may indeed avoid in part, a cold humidity, but if we would do so entirely, the face and the hands must be also cloathed; whereas, by counteracting the humidity of the air by stimulants and essential oils, every good effect will be answered, without acquiring the bad habit of too warm cloathing.
It is also not uncommon for such persons to be troubled with an aqueous, not a chyliferous, diabetes, for by checked exhalation, what is not discharged by perspiration and sweat, passes through the bladder; and their too copious absorption of circumambient fluids doubtless encreases the quantity of urine.
Perspiratio ad urinam in aestate est in ratione, 5. 3; in hyeme vero ut, 2. 3.
This very common, and too unnoticed, yet dangerous disease, may, I think, be abated if not entirely cured, by the following practice: — If it arise from hectic fever, mucilages (perhaps with acids to correct the hectic) are serviceable; but if from hysteric, or any transitory relaxing causes, mucilages and diffusible stimuli are more proper. In either case the
primae viae
should be cleansed first by ipecacuanha, then by rhubarb; strengtheners, and mild astringents should be used; a dry binding diet, and morning and evening friction in a warm room, with a defensive oil against damp weather,
Cold gives additional strength to persons already strong in health, because of the re-action of the vital power, and because the air may be nearly uncharged with vapour, and therefore more of it, in a given time, is inhaled; but cold debilitates very weak and sedentary people, because of the want of re-action. Damp and cold air, or damp and hot air, is hurtful to all persons, because less pure air, and too much humidity is inhaled by the skin and lungs. Certainly the healthiest is the warm and dry atmosphere, which ought to be a consideration of some weight to valetudinarians who can afford either to change their residence, or to make it comfortable.
should be earnestly recommended.
Sometimes cold and damp air shall so relax the nervous system, as to deprive the patient of the use of his limbs; then a brisk vomit and the application, by friction, of warm medicated oil on the back bone, or on the inert limbs, will be of great service.
The disease of children, called the rickets, after discharging the redundant lymph by vomits and detergent doses of rhubarb, is to be cured by friction, and with woollen cloths properly fumigated.
It is not uncommon to see, in young sedentary people, the skin discoloured, the muscles lank, the face pale and variously disfigured with pustules; the spirits generally in a low state, and the body sluggish. The cure is to excite the perspiratory powers by bodily labour, friction, roast meat, and wine; and to heal the face by lenient innoxious liniment.
Old strains, and stubborn pains in the back, loins, and elsewhere, are, for the most part, curable by friction and medicated oil, and even incipient white swellings, that would otherwise cripple or render the limb useless, are thus to be dispersed and destroyed.
Dry white scaly eruptions on the elbows and knees, even of long standing, may be cured by friction and medicated oil;
When, through neglect, the hair of the head in children becomes matted and stuck together, by a viscid humour that the exhalants cast upon the skin, the safest and speediest cure, after cutting off the hair, is, daily to spunge the head with hot water, always taking care, after spunging, to dry the head well with hot cloths.
and here I must remark, that although the cure of the sea scurvy may be obtained by the vegetable acid of oranges and lemons, yet I submit to the consideration of the surgeons of the navy, whether or not, rubbing the oil of the rinds on the diseased parts, would not accelerate the cure.
After fevers, and some chronical diseases, the hair of the head falls off, either because the skin shrinks and becomes dry, through want of nutritious juices, or because through diseased relaxation, the stabulum of the hair becomes too weak. In the first case, baldness may be cured by oily liniments. In the second, good strengtheners of the system will be found most useful.
If this publication should serve as a hint to a more enlarged mode of medical practice than the present, I shall, as a Clergyman of the Church of England, most heartily rejoice as having been the humble means of doing some good to my fellow-creatures.
It may be necessary here to observe, that I had been seven years in holy orders, before I became doctor of physic, at Leyden, never thinking it at all improper to blend two very useful professions together, and more especially, as our blessed Lord himself healed the diseases of the body as well as of the soul.
Indeed, I am strongly of opinion, as I have elsewhere observed in my Philanthropic Monitor, that the public and private good resulting from such a union of professions, would be great and incalculable. The unbeneficed clergy (being physicians) would enlarge the sphere of their usefulness, especially amongst the poor people, and by accepting moderate fees
A visit near the practitioner's residence might be rated at half-a-guinea. If two miles off, one guinea, and so on,
in modo.
Journeys in the night, and in bad weather, when carriages must be hired, deserve a larger consideration.
from the yeomanry and gentry, they would soon disentangle themselves from that poverty and distress, which is as subversive of their respectability in civilized life, as of their deserved comfort.
To the public at large, the advantages would be very great, having able practitioners always near at hand, and the present enormous expence of cure so properly cut down as to exclude none from the benefit of good medical advice.
If it be said, that the clergy would not be so competent in the healing art as the faculty, I will ask why not? They have the same advantages of learning at Oxford and Cambridge, where there are hospitals, as other medical students, and if degrees in physic are thought to be particularly honourable from Oxford and Cambridge, surely the competency ought not to be disputed. By this union of professions in the clergy, as physicians, no injury would be done to surgeons, apothecaries, and chymists, nor no injustice to physicians of established fame and practice; for, if successful, they would still retain their patients, and even encrease the number, though, possibly, they might receive fees more suitable to their respective merit.
"He that is wise will ponder these things!"
☞ The Author will attend patients at home and abroad.
MILL HILL, HENDON, MIDDLESEX,
AUGUST 31, 1797.
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