me: i. Pi A Ce. Rh xi 
with difeafe, and the period of human life lefs contraéted. ‘The labo- 
ratory of nature, were it but confulted, furnifhes ample remedies for 
every curable diforder incident to mankind ; for, notwithftanding the 
parade of compound medicines, the art of healing confifts not fo much 
in the preparation as in the due application of the remedy. Hence it 
happens that old women, without education or abilities, by the help of 
a fimple herb gathered in the planetary hour, in which hour it imbibes 
its greateft ftrength and efculent virtue, will fometimes perform very 
extraordinary cures, in cafes where the regular-bred Phyfician is abfo- 
lutely at a lofs how to treat them. 
I would not here be underftood to caft any unworthy reflections upon 
thofe exalted charaéters, who have made Phyfic, and the alleviation of 
human infirmity, the principal ftudy of their lives. The many invaluable 
difcoveries lately added to the Pharmacopeeia, both from the vegetable 
and mineral worlds, are ftrong arguments of the neceflity of regular prac= 
tice, and of profeftional education, in forming the Phyfician. But were 
the bulk of thefe gentlemen to confult a little more the planetary in- 
fluences, and the effects of Saturn and the Moon in each crifis and critical 
day, and regulate their prefcriptions accordingly, I am perfuaded more 
immediate relief would in moft cafes be afforded to the fick and languith- 
ing patient. Surgery too, which, like a guardian Angel, fteps forward 
to alleviate the perilous accidents of the unfortunate, would gain much 
improvement by the like confiderations. It is not the humane and liberal 
profeflors of phyfic or furgery, whofe practice deferves cenfure, but 
that mercenary tribe of pretenders to phyfic who now pervade the king- 
dom, and, like a fwarm of locufts from the eaft, prey upon the vitals 
of mankind. Thefe monfters in the fhape of men, with hearts callous 
to every fentiment of compaffion, have only fees in view. Governed by 
this fordid principle, they fport with life, unmoved amidft the bitter ; 
anguith and piercing groans of the tortured patient, whom, when too far 
-gone for human aid to reftore, they abandon to defpair and death. a 
