52 INTRODUCTORY CHAPTER. 



of long (landing to the rational fyftem of mo- 

 dern composition ; and the little chance of 

 exploding intirely the heterogeneous and in- 

 confiftent farrago fo long in ufe, univerfal 

 fatisfaction is not to be expected ; or approba- 

 tion obtained. But when a clear, open, and 

 candid comparifon is drawn by the more en- 

 lightened, between the accumulation of contra- 

 rieties, in the laboured prefcriptions of Gibfon 

 and Bracken, with the indigcjled obfervations 

 of the more intelligent, though lefs prolix and 

 digreftive Bartlet ; the leaft doubt is not enter- 

 tained, but every degree of favour will be 

 (hewn to a fyftem of practice founded on 

 reafon, fupported by experience, and juftified 

 by a general knowledge of medicines, their 

 principles, properties, preparations and effects." 

 Again (and to this quotation I mud defire 

 the reader's particular attention) in the chapter 

 of obfervations, page 5, he farther proceeds, 

 " To produce a cafe exactly fimilar in the 

 world of farriery, let us take a furvey of the 

 medical abilities of Gibfon, who certainly 

 w T rote much better on the fubjecl than Brack- 

 en ; where we (hall find ordered, in n fingle 

 prefcription for a purging ball, two ounces of 

 aloes, with the addition of the other ufual 

 purging articles ; though modern practice and 

 experience fixes the cftablifhed proportion at 

 exactly half, or at moft five eighths, to the 



flroncreft 



