170 



incuts for your truly friendly attention in sending 



mc cuttings of Willows. Some of the species, par- 

 ticularly the liusaelliana, a very valuable one, I did 

 not before possess. 



When you come to town, you will have the satis- 

 faction of seeing Sir Joseph Banks looking uncom- 

 monly well, and perfectly free from gout, which he 

 attributes to a French quack medicine he has been 

 induced to try, at the pressing solicitation of Lord 

 Spencer. From a single dose of a tea-spoonful 

 and half, he experienced almost immediate relief. 

 Mr. Home left him one afternoon in agony with 

 the gout in eight different places, and with a hard 

 and high-beating pulse at 94. The following day 

 he found him altogether without pain, tenderness 

 alone remaining, and with a pulse perfectly tran- 

 quil and reduced to 67. I am aware that a solitary 

 instance is by no means sufficient to convince you 

 or any medical man of its general utility ; but to 

 the above instance I may add those of Major 

 Rennell, and near twenty more who have tried it 

 with the same immediately beneficial consequences, 

 however inexplicable they may appear. It has been 

 prepared in France upwards of thirty years, under 

 the name of Eau medicinale cC Husson. Che- 

 mistry has proved it to be vegetable ; but from what 

 plant the very extraordinary powers of this medi- 

 cine are derived, remains at present unknown. 



You will have heard that we have lost Mr. Ca- 

 vendish, — a man of a wonderful mind, more nearly 

 approaching that of Newton than perhaps any indi- 

 vidual in this countrv since his time. Educated 



