594 JAMAICA, 



which is more generally the cafe in Jamaica, we may difpenfe with 

 many of thefe attainments, fo rcquifite in an accompliflied phyfician, 

 provided fuch a praflitioner is well acquainted with the Iciences of 

 anatomy, botany, and chemiftry ; for, without a competent knowledge 

 in thefe, he cannot underftand properly the principles of any drug or 

 medicine, nor In what manner to apply it to a difeafed body. The 

 animal machine will be, in his hands, like a watch in the hands of an. 

 Indian; he will fee it move without knowing the caufe ; and when it 

 is difordered, he may break it to pieces by his unikilful attempts to rec- 

 tify it. Perhaps, no fchcme might be apter to enablifh the praAice 

 on a proper footing in Jamaica, than the eredion of a college, endow- 

 ed with a library, le(51:urers on phyfiology, pathology, anatomy, bo- 

 tany, and the materia medica ; with licenfed infpe£tors of apothecaries 

 fhops and drugs. Teftlmonials of a regular apprenticeflilp (hould be 

 required from every apothecary, furgeon, or man-midwife, and an 

 oath for the honeft and confcientious difcharge of his refpedive func- 

 tion, before he could be admitted to open fliop, or pradife In the 

 ifland. 



From fuch an inftitutlon might be hoped the heft effeds. In refped 

 to the health of the inhabitants, the triumph of ability and learning 

 over impudent empiricifm, and a large fund of information to guide fu- 

 ture praditioners; here is the nobleft field for botanical enquiries, and 

 the readlefl helps to anatomical knowledge. In procefs of time, the 

 commerce of the ifland might cxped to participate the advantages re- 

 fultlng. The fpices of the Eaft, the bark tree of Peru, the balfam trees 

 of Mexico, and many other valuable plants and produdions, might be 

 introduced under the aufpices of a learned fociety, and propagated in 

 this fertile foil. 



Providence has accommodated every region with fpecific remedies 

 for its endemial diftempers : but the medicinal virtues of the Jamaica 

 plants are as yet but little known to any of its praditioners. It is 

 attended with lefs trouble to find a medicine in the next drawer, or 

 gallipot, than ramble into woods tor it, or enter upon a laborious 

 courfe of experiments. And, in trulh, very few here underftand any 

 thing of botany, or chemiftry. Yet as the American difeafes differ in 

 many rcfpeds from thofe of Europe, fo they feem to require a differ- 

 tuit materia medica; and none can be fo appropriated, as the native 



produdions 



