BOOK III. CHAP. VI. , 5,5 



There may be other reafons fuggefted for the difference ob- 

 fcrved between the EnghHi men, and thole of other countries. 

 Firft, their excefiive indulgence in a promifcuous commerce on 

 their firft arrival, with the bhick and mulatto women ; and tliis, with 

 fo little prudence ;u)d caution in their amours, that they are 

 almofl: morally furc (^f being very fpeedily infected. The facility 

 with which the milder fymptoms of the virus arc removed, in this 

 warm atmofphere, lerves only as an incentive to thele perfons, and 

 renders them indifterent and carelels about confequences ; for a go- 

 norrhceajiinplex yields in a very few days to gentle medicines. En- 

 couraged, therefore, to perlevere in this unheeding courie, chey in. 

 due time attain to the higlK-fr honours this impure contadl: is qua- 

 lified to confer, as a reward tor their temerity; the confequence of 

 which is, their being laid under abfolute neceflity of praying to - 

 th^ir god Mercury for relief. Not a few alfo arrive here, who 

 have already pafled through many of thefe fiery trials in London, 

 and other feats of debauchery. It has been remarked by feveral 

 of the mod eminent phyficians, and flands confirmed by repeated 

 experience, that mercurial medicines are attended with the mod: 

 pernicious effedls upon Icorbutic habits, and on fuch as aredilpofed, 

 Xo putrid fevers. Thefe gentlemen all agree in opinion, that the 

 power of mercurials chietly confifls invveakening and, relaxing the 

 folids, and in attenuating and difiblving the fluids ; a human body 

 therefore, which has recently undergone a mercurial regimen, is. 

 already on the very brink of putrefadtion, and very ill prepared 

 to reilft the affault of a putrid fever. Thus in the fcurvy, a very 

 fmali quantity of mercury is fufficient to bring on a ialivation.. 

 When this diforder raged among the imperial troops in Hungary, , 

 four-hundred foldiers, who took mercury contrary to the advice of 

 their phyfician, all died to a man in a falivation. Pringle obferves, , 

 that perfons who have lately undergone a falivation, and whofc 

 blood is confequently in a ftate of diflblution, are much fooner iri- 

 fedled by noxious <?2/?«i;/<7 than others; and, that malignant fevers, 

 and the fcurvy alfo, are rendered more fevere and dangerous in 

 fuch circumftances. To the fame effedt is the remark of De 

 Monchy, who found, that, after ufing mercury in venereal dilor- 

 7" der*}. 



