444 ESSAYS and OBSERVATIONS 



withal what quantity of mercury they 

 contained : Pie at the fame time afked me, 

 What would be the effedl of over-do- 

 fing them ? I told him, I believed they 

 w^ould either caufe him vomit, or raife 

 a falivation. This he pocketed up, as 

 being figns fufficient to know when to 

 flop : In fhort, as he had accels to 

 get the pills renewed at my fliop when 

 he pleafed, without my knowing any 

 thing of the matter, he had taken 24 

 pills each day for the continued fpace 

 of fix weeks, without being attended 

 with the fmalleft inconvenience : And 

 in that time the erratic pains and node 

 had entirely vanilhed ; but he afterwards 

 made ufe of the pills, though in' fmal* 

 ler dofes. Having thus conquered his 

 difeafe by his rafhnefs j he triumphed 

 as having alfo conquered the too timo- 

 rous caution of his phyficians. Upon 

 a calculation, I find he had taken unc. 

 xiv. of the alterative pills, which may 

 contain about unc iii. of fweet mer- 

 cury, from the firft day of December 

 1719, t6 the firft of May immediately 



there- 



