t^l FEVERS. 



matter a farther inveftigation. For inflance, he 

 urofes the adminiftration of it to attenuate and 

 thin the denfe fizy blood, during the eiFedt of 

 inflammatory fevers; this property of attenua- 

 tion being allov/ed, what muft be the natural 

 conclufion or confequence of giving iiich large 

 quantites ^'^ as three or four ounces three times a 

 ^' dayV Why;, tv try prof e/jional?72an, knov/ing 

 the mode by which it mujt inevitably affc(5t the 

 fyilem of circulatton, would naturally exped: 

 it to difiblve the very craffamentum of the 

 blood, and reduce it to an abfolute ferum or 

 aqueous vapour. 



That nitre has its peculiar good qualities and 

 falutary effe6ls, when prudently adminiftered, 

 no rational practitioner will ever deny; but 

 the variety of experiments repeatedly made 

 upon its efncacy, by the moft eminent prcfefTors 

 fince the pradlice of Gibson, Bracken, and 

 Bartlet, has undoubtedly deprived it of a 

 corijiderable portion of its former eftimation, and 

 it is now reduced to that rank of merit only 

 experimentally found to fall to itsfliare. Tak- 

 vci'y it therefore v/ith the properties it is pof- 

 fefled of and entitled to, not looking up to it 

 as the grand arcanum of infallibility or medical 



idolization^ 



