50 SPLENTS. 



'' sublimate, arsenic, or oil of vitriol.'' You- 

 are then told '^ these may produce an ulcer, a 

 '' 7^ottenness oi the bone, and, when cured, an 

 ^^ ugly scar r Aonther says, ^' it is to be 

 '' soundly rubbed with the handle of a ham- 

 '^ mer, till it is so much bruised as to bring 

 ^ *' on an imposthume, and consequent sup- 

 'vpuration or discharge of matter!" And 

 there can be no doubt but this is rubbing' it 

 soundly with the imposthume for a witness ! 



Another tells you ^^ they are to be destroy- 

 '' ed with actual cauteries, or flat instru- 

 ^' ments of iron, made red hot, and applied to 

 ^' the sfflents, placing a piece of the rind of 

 ^' bacon between, with the fat side outward ; 

 '^ and having a second iron heating alter- 

 ^' nately with the first, the operation is to be 

 *^ repeated till the splent is dissolved/' To 

 these, in case of failure, they acknowledge 

 the necessary aid of '^ blistering, firing/' &c. 

 &c. Now, upon a candid investigation of 

 this accumulated variet)^ of opinions, we 

 shall find them amount to a verification of an 

 observation not long since made ; a paltry 

 practice of swelling their writings at the ex- 

 pense of a reader's understanding as well 

 as his PURSE. From circumstances the most 



