ON DISEASES OF THE KIDNEYS. 461 



filence concerning him ; for he was generally 

 treated with contempt by the falhionable phyfi- 

 cians of the day, as a vulgar provincial doftor^ 

 infinitely beneath their notice. I have feen 

 in fome medical work, a catalogue of veteri- 

 nary writers, with the names of Gibfon and 

 Bartlet, without any mention of Bracken, to 

 whom the two former were fo much obliged ; 

 but Bracken was an honeft, and good phyfi- 

 cian, and a ufeful and folid writer, although 

 he poflTeffed neither the genius, nor the imagi- 

 nation of " our Jock." 



I have formerly laboured under the horrors 

 of the ifchury nearly three weeks myfelf; at the 

 fame period a poor man in my neighbourhood 

 (a flony diflrid, where nephritic complaints 

 were frequent) died of a fuppreflion of urine: 

 at the conclufion. of the Zoonomia, Dr. Dar- 

 win adverts to the danger and ill fuccefs of 

 various efforts to difcharge the water, in inabi- 

 lity to empty the bladder, and recommends 

 the injection of crude mercury into the ure- 

 thra, which might by its weight open a paf- 

 fage ; now granting the facility and fafety of 

 the operation defcribed by Bracken, it furely 

 deferves the reconfideration of the faculty : I 

 faw no reafon at the time to doubt, that the 

 poor man above-mentioned might have been 

 faved by it. 



It 



