APPENDIX. 269 



chapter on the treatment of gout, he gives a prescription 

 for the well-known powder which has made his name 

 more famous than any of his other achievements. It reads 

 as follows : ' Take opium one ounce, saltpeter and tartar 

 vitriolated each four ounces, ipecac one ounce. Put the 

 saltpeter and tartar in a red-hot mortar, stirring with a 

 spoon until they have done flaming. Then powder them 

 very fine ; after that slice in your opium, grind them to a 

 powder, and then mix the other powder with these. Dose, 

 from forty to sixty grains in a glass of white wine posset, 

 going to bed, covering up warm and drinking a quart or 

 three pints of the posset. Drink while sweating.' 



" Unfortunately, the Qxact formula for making the 

 posset has not been handed down, but it was probably a 

 hot punch made of white wine fortified with brandy or 

 rum. 



'* The publication of the book made a great commotion, 

 and caused the other London doctors to call Dr. Dover a 

 quack and a charlatan, but his powder is still used. Rob- 

 inson Crusoe, founded on the Juan Fernandez episode, is 

 still read, as every one knows, and the names of the Lon- 

 don doctors who objected to Dr. Dover are all forgotten." 



SELKIRK'S ISLAND. 



" As we neared the island the sight was very fine. I 

 think I have seldom seen a more remarkable and pic- 

 turesque view than the approach to the anchorage pre- 

 sented, composed as it was of great mountains, torn and 

 broken into every conceivable fantastic shape, with deep 

 ravines by which, during the winter months, the torrents 

 swept down from the precipitous peaks and pinnacles, ris- 

 ing one above the other, and culminating in a great mass 

 three thousand feet high, named the Anvil. This is 

 wooded from the summit to the base, where are indica- 

 tions of its having been at one time cleared for cultivation, 



