MISTLETOE 213 



The Article of Convulsions in the Bills of Mortality of 

 this great City, is by much the largest of any, very 

 commonly amounting to about a fifth Part of the whole, 

 from whence it seems plain that a General Anti-Convulsion 

 Remedy is wanting. I have publish'd the Noble Qualities 

 of this Wonderful Medicine in the most plain and familiar 

 manner, that thereby it may be rendered of more publick 

 Vse ; and I am not without the greatest Hopes that 

 People of all Ranks will receive Benefit from it. I hope 

 I shall not be blamed for the Earnestness of my Recom- 

 mendation of this Neglected but Extraordinary Plant, 

 because my only Aim in so doing is to press People to the 

 Vse of that, which every Family may one time or other 

 receive Advantage from. The Performance is rough and 

 unpolish'd, but I have chosen rather to suffer Reproach 

 upon that account than let another Season slip, which 

 I am satisfied would be to the Detriment of many." 



The good old Doctor tells us how a terrible case of 

 epilepsy in " one that was most near and dear," and that 

 for five years had baffled very attempt at alleviation, set 

 him on the alert for every possibility of remedy. " Being 

 one day," he tells us, " on a Journey I saw some Hazle Trees 

 plentifully stock'd with Mistletoe. It immediately enter'd 

 into my Mind that there must be something extraordinary 

 in that uncommon beautiful Plant : that the Almighty 

 had design'd it for further and more noble Vses than 

 barely to feed Thrushes, or to be hung up superstitiously 

 in Houses to drive away evil Spirits. 



" In reading the scatter'd and imperfect Accounts of the 

 Druids, formerly Priests and Philosophers in this Island 

 and other neighbouring Countries, who were held in the 



