320 ON CATARRH. 



I have too long known the vanity of reafon- 

 ing in oppofition to prejudice, fuppofed interefl, 

 and prefent convenience, to hope even for a 

 hearing againft the praftice of waQiing poft- 

 horfes, when in a high ftate of perfpiration, 

 with cold water. I (hall he immediately (lop- 

 ped (Iiort with the old argument of experience. 

 Thus the ftatefman, who upholds a fi6litious 

 and unnatural order of fociety, by the help of 

 the gibbet and the fword, tells you with the ut- 

 moft gravity, that although poflibly, fuch a 

 fyftem may not be juftifiable upon the prin- 

 ciples of abftraft right and theoretic truth ; yet 

 that it is praftically right and true, he is ready 

 to prove from experience. But human expe- 

 rience is equivocal and fallacious, whilfl: truth 

 and principle never change. It is a truth, that 

 ail fudden and violent extremes are againfl: na- 

 ture, and the univerfal reafon of things, and 

 therefore of improper ufe, and ultimate ill fuc- 

 ccis ; but the few exceptions are laid hold of 

 by prefent intereft or whim, and upon thefe is 

 erefted a deceitful experience. A man tells 

 me, he has been in the conllant habit for many 

 years of wafhing his horfes with cold water, or 

 even of plunging them into a river, when in 

 the highell degree of heat from labour, and 

 that fuch practice has with him been fuccefsful. 

 I anfwer, he is much more liable to commit an 



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