if. INTRODUCTION. 



ladies who give medicines to their sick neigh- 

 bours, for a great deal of their business; for out 

 of little disorders they make great ones. This 

 may be the case where their shops supply the 

 means ; for chemical medicines, and some of the 

 drugs brought from abroad, are not io be trusted 

 with those who have not great experience ; but 

 there will be no danger of this kind, when the 

 fields arc the supply. This is the medicine of na- 

 ture, and as it is more eJBicacious in most cases, 

 it is more safe in all. If opium may be danger- 

 ous in an unexperienced hand, the lady who will 

 give in its place a syrup of the wild lettuce, 

 (a plant not known in common practice at this 

 time, but recommended from experience in this 

 treaiise) will find that it will ease pain, and that 

 it will cause sleep, in the manner of that foreign 

 drug, but she will never find any ill consequen- 

 ces from it : and the iame might be said in many 

 other instances. 



A«> the descriptions in this work, very readily 

 distinguish what are the real plants that should be 

 used, the great care will remain, in what man* 

 ner to gather and preserve, and in what man- 

 ner to give them ; it will be useful to add a chap- 

 ter or two on those heads. As to the former, I 

 would have it perfectly understood, because a 

 great deal depends upon it ; the latter cannot easi- 

 ly be mistaken. 



Having displaced the drugs brought from 

 abroad in a great measure from this charitable 

 practice, I would have every lady, who has the 

 spirit of this true benevolence, keep a kind of 

 druggist's shop of her own : this should be sup- 

 plied from the neighbouring fields, and from her 

 garden. There is no reason the drugs should not 

 be as well preserved, and as carefully laid up. 



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