( 1*2 ) 



" Moxa for two days, the pain not being violent ; till at laft my foot began 



" to fwell, and I could fet it no longer to the ground. Then I fell to my 



" Moxa again, and burnt it four times before the pain went clear away, as 



" it did upon the laft ; and I walked at eafe as I had done the firft time, 



" and, within fix days after, about a league, without the leaft return of 



" my pain. 



" I continued well till this fpring, when, about the end of Marcli, feel- 

 " ing again the fame pain, and in the fame joint, but of the firft foot ; 

 " and finding it grow violent, I immediately burnt it, and felt no more 

 " after the third time ; was never off my legs, nor kept my chamber a 

 " day. Upon both thefe laft experiments I omitted the application of gar- 

 " lie, and contented myfelf with a plaifter only of diapalma upon the 

 " place that was burnt, which crufted and healed in a very few days, and 

 " without any trouble. 



" I have fince continued perfeflly well to this prefent June, and with fo 

 " much confidence of the cure, that I have been content to trouble myfelf 

 " fome hours with telling the ftory, which, it is poffible, may'at One time or 

 " other be thought worth making public, if I am further confirmed 

 " by more time and experiments of my own or of others. But this cure, I 

 " fuppofe, cannot pretend to deal with inveterate Gouts, grown habitual 

 " by long and frequent returns, by difpofitions of the ftomach to convert 

 " even the beft nourilhment into thofe humours, and the vefTels to receive 

 " them " 



Thus far Sir William Temple : to which may be added, a remark made 

 by Dr. Henry Bracken, an eminent phyfician in his time : he obferves, that 

 the averfion men have to endure pain prevents their experiencing many 

 great cures which might be performed by fire ; and adds, that he knew an 

 inftance of an obftinate fciatica, or hip gout, cured by a refolute ufe of 

 caufticks : this application approaches the neareft to a£tual fire, and perhaps 

 the fire of Moxa may be of fo mild a nature as to be next in degree to » 

 rauftick. 





