FEVERS. 233 



qurry is so entirely lost in a variety of inap^ 

 plicable digressions and incoherent stories, 

 that not a single clue is left by which the 

 least rational and authentic information is to 

 be acquired, except ^' pleuUiui bkedhigs, the 

 ■^ unlimited use of salt-petre, and tiie inser- 

 '' tion of rowels," even to the number of six 

 or eight upon the same subject. 



Every intelligent observer must be well 

 convinced of the absurditv of such accunui- 

 lation as Gibson describes, and the impro- 

 bability (not>to say, what might be very well 

 justified, the impossibilify) of discovering, by 

 no other means than silent symptoms and 

 ocular inspection (amounting to no kind of 

 demonstration), the origin, cause, or indeed 

 distemper itself, to which there is no certain 

 distinction, or palpable proof of existence. 

 And when it is remembered there is no agency 

 in the animal by which the particulars of his 

 pain or distress can be communicated, every 

 judicious and candid reader will admit the 

 impracticability of discrmiinating between 

 the variety of symptoms, by which alone all 

 this FAMILY OF FEVERS are to be ascer- 

 tained. It niav also be taken into consider- 



