MEMOIR OF DR WRIGHT. # . 1 V5 



young children who laboured under lienteria, and an immo- 

 derate flow of urine. In either case, my mixture of citric 

 acid and marine salt answered the purpose completely. That 

 such disorders are occasioned first by a morbid secretion in the 

 jyrimec v'm is little doubted, and that such secretion has an as_ 

 similating power is evident from the effects. Has the medi- 

 cine the power of changing the nature of this morbid fer- 

 ment ? Or does it give the parts another action ? Be that as 

 it may, I have relieved many by this medicine ; and, had I 

 restricted my patients entirely to animal food, I might have 

 succeeded also in diabetic cases of long standing. I think I 

 have done good with infusions of Lignum Quassia*, which is 

 quite the opposite to honey or sugar. 1 "' 



On the 21st of February 1799, Dr Wright thus 

 commences his correspondence with Dr Currie : 



" My Dear Doctor, — From the time I left you in June, 

 I was detained four months in England before it was deter- 

 mined to put me on the half pay. For that space I lived 

 sometimes in London, sometimes in Hampshire. 



Our friend Dr Garthshore told me he had read your 

 book several times over, and always with new pleasure and 

 information. Till very lately, I could not sit down to exa- 

 mine it with the attention which it merits. From the progress 

 I have made, I see how little you have left me to correct or 

 to add. Any remarks which occur will be speedily forward- 

 ed. 



" While I staid in London, my friend Mr Weir, Inspec- 

 tor-General of Hospitals in San Domingo, gave me an origi- 

 nal letter from Dr John Mitchell, physician in Virginia, 

 to Dr Fothergill, London, 1741, referring to a letter he 

 had some time before sent to the Medical Society of Edin- 

 burgh, for the Medical Essays. This last I suppose is the 



H 2 



