590 JAMAICA. 



ajiplled, every fifteen minutes, night and day; none of which, we may 

 he lure, were unnoticed in Mr. Apozem's nianufcript, commonly call- 

 ed a Journal. 



To conclude my narrative; fince the beO: precautions cannot at all 

 times guard the moil temperate and careful; fince all flefh is fuhjeft to 

 pay the debt of nature, and even do£lors themfelves are not exempted 

 from the common lot of mortality ; fo it fell out, that Mr. Apozem 

 was taken, by furprize, with a malignant diftemper, which laid hold 

 of him with lb much violence, that he was very near calling out for 

 help of the faculty, if he had not been retrained by a riveted opinion, 

 that iiK-h auxiliaries were like the Saxons and Normans, who (upon 

 invitation) firft drove out the inteftine enemy, and then fell upon the 

 inteftines themfelves: configning himfelf therefore to delpair, he Iboii 

 fell a victim to his own drugs, which had inflicted the fame fate on 

 many a worthier man. Such were the life and opinions of Mr. 

 Apozem, who might boaft of having fent more fouls to the banks of 

 Styx in one year, than the yellow fever ever did in ten. 



The fcience of phyfic, when taken out of the hands of fuch poifon- 

 mongers, is truly noble. We find the Saviour of mankind employed 

 himfelf in this godlike office.; his miracles were medicinal, he " went 

 ** about doing good," and his divine power was exerted in healing the 

 fick, refl:oring fight to the blind, and vigour to the infirm. It certainly 

 merits the greatell encouragement in all inhabited countries, but more 

 especially in colonies and new fettlements, where unufual difeafes are 

 obferved. This exalted art, if duly cultivated, is capable of producing 

 very unportant efFefts in fuch places. If nothing more was to be ex- 

 pelled from it, than the augmentation of commerce, this alone is a fuf- 

 ficient motive for a trading people to give it the moft honourable dif- 

 tinftions among them ; fince commerce ftands fo largely indebted to 

 phyfic, and its filler botany, not only for materials of import and ex- 

 port, but the abilities of men employed in colleding thofe materials. 



Nor muft we pafs over the happy confequence accruing to a new 

 fettlement, from having its endemial difeafes thoroughly underilood, 

 and the lives of the fettlers prefcrved or prolonged, by medical Ikjll 

 ^nd fagacity. 



The number of hands in fuch a place is generally fo inconfiderable, 

 that a fudden mortality, and the lofs of a very few inhabitants, may nip 



the 



