258 On the various Remedies recommended 



hydrophobia had acSlually been cured by the ufe of olive oil, 

 .we know not ; but the fa6l is worthy of the more notice, as 

 jthe fame remedy has lately been recommended by Dr. Fo- 

 thergill, of Bath*, without knowing the fa6l, but with a 

 force of reafoning that cannot fail to infure its receiving pro- 

 per attention. Speaking of oleaginous medicines, the Dotlor 

 fay? : " The ancient remedy againft the bite of the viper was 

 Jong confined to the fat of that reptile, till it was at length 

 difcovered that olive oil was equally efficacious ; a circum- 

 (lance fince well known to viper-catchers, and confirmed by 

 reiterated experiments. Whether it aft by a fpecific power, 

 or merely by invifcating the poifon, or otherwile deftroying 

 its aftivity, matters not; the faft: has always appeared to me 

 interefting, and the analogy obvious. Whatever Ihare of 

 fuccefs the mercurial ointment may have had iu countera6l- 

 ing the canine poifon, it has invariably been attributed to the 

 mercury ; but I have long fufpe6tcd it ought rather to have 

 been afcribed to the oilv quality of the lard, with which it is 

 compounded, and which conllitutes two-thirds of the com- 

 pofition. 



*' To form a juft eflimate of the cures attributed to mer- 

 cury, we muft take into the account the other means em- 

 ployed at the fame time. Thus M. Baudot, M. Bouteille, 

 and other French praftitioners of eminence, unwilling to 

 trufl to the above mercurial procefs alone, exprefsly order 

 the wound to be firft carefully anointed with warm olive oil. 



" M. Le Roux and his followers, who rejefted mercury, 

 and attributed their fuccefs to the antimonial cauftic alone, 

 employed neverthelefs an ointment, confiding chiefly of frefli 

 butter, to drefs the wound f. 



** In this and other obftinate difeafes of the convulfive 

 kind, the ancients anointed the body with warm oil ; a 

 practice too much negle6ted by modern praftitioners. 



*' Conformable to this idea appears to be Dr. Loof's ole- 

 aginous medicine, which now properly comes under confi- 

 <Jeration. The yolk of egg, though probably deftitute of any 



» See Letters and Papers of the Bath and IVeJl-of-En^lund Soeiety, 

 Vpl. IX. 



\ Mem. de VAcad.^ Vol. VI. 



ff)ecifio 



