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fequcntly have fuffered by fome damp and mouldinefs. He 

 brings for your infpedion fome pieces of mine, five or fix 

 years old, and fome of laft year's drying, and fome which 

 the Society of Arts in London returned of mine, trimmed 

 by their order, and approved of. 



I ever am, yours, 



ALEXANDER DICK, 

 Prestonfield, July 20, 1784. 



E E T T E R IV. 



[From Dr. Cuming, Dorchefter, to the Secretary.] 



Sir, 



ABOUT the 26th of March laft, I was favoured with 

 your letter of the loth of the fame month, ac- 

 companying two fpecimens of rhubarb root of Britifti 

 growth, and requefting my opinion, upon trial, of its qualities 

 and efficacy, compared with that imported from Turkey. 



That I might be able to give the Society fome informa- 

 tion, and likewife to fatisfy myfelf as to its comparative 

 merit, I immediately diftributed fmall parcels of what you 

 fent me to fome apothecaries in this place, difiinguifhing 

 them by No. I. and No. II. as you had done; I alfo fent 

 a piece of each fort to an eminent phyfician in this county. 

 The accounts from the apothecaries are too vague and un- 

 certain to be repeated, as the trials were not made with fuf- 

 ficient accuracy: but I am informed by my friend the phy- 

 fician, that he gave a piece of No. I, to a lady, who was in 



the 



