30 INTRODUCTORY CHAPTER. 



of his mind, when he quotes that fublime and 

 inimitable defcription of the Horfe from the 

 book of Job, and from the partiality which he fo 

 frequently expreffes for fome of the mod 

 polifhed writers. 



Bracken was a pupil of that great medical 

 luminary, ProfelTor Boerhaave, and afterwards 

 went through regular courfes of anatomy and 

 midwifery at Paris. On return to his own 

 country, he acled in the double capacity of 

 phylician and practitioner in midwifery. His 

 principle works were — Notes on Captain Bur- 

 don's Pocket Farrier, publifhed in 1735. — The 

 Midwife's Companion, 1737. — A Treatife on 

 Farriery, 2 vol. 1731. — Lithiafis Anglicana, 

 a pamphlet ; and a tranflation from the French 

 of Maitre-jan, on the eye. 



This author lived at a period of time when 

 the true principles of phyfic had already been 

 difcovered, and the modus operande of medi- 

 cines was well known ; and he feems to have 

 obtained a very ample fhare of fuch knowledge, 

 both from theory and experience. It is agreed, 

 I underftand, that, fince that time, no new dif- 

 coveries have been made in fundamentals at 

 leaft ; unlefs we are to reckon as fuch the 

 chymical principles of M. Lavoifier ; the me- 

 dicinal ufe of factitious airs, being by no 

 means as yet fully eflablifhed. He was very 

 fevere upon pretenders of all kinds ; and his 



judgment 



