0?t Plaister of Paris, 101 



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In fine, I continue, after long and various experience, 

 in the free and extensive use of plaister. I have been 

 often disappointed, in the expected results of my numer- 

 ous applications of this generally powerful, sometimes 

 fugacious, and frequently ungovernable ?X\m\i\d\\\.fuJ 

 But I have been successful in the far greater proportion, 

 of my practice and experiments. 



Richard Peters. 

 Belmont 30th May 1796. 



fu) I can with a tolerable degree of certainty, from 

 the appearance of an over luxuriant crop of clover, tell 

 when it is about to quit me. When the plaister ceases its ope- 

 ration, the clover departs with it, being overcome by twitch or 

 other noxious grasses or weeds. It perishes in consequence 

 of too violent efforts. Its fate is similar to that ol an indi- 

 vidual, who by living too fast accelerates death. I account for 

 the phenomenon, of the sudden exit o\ the operative powers 

 of the gyps, by its having prematurely decomposed the sub- 

 stances containing the principles of vegetation ; and having 

 exhausted those principles in too short a time. In the vio- 

 lence of these operations it excites a vigorous, but fatal 

 vegetation ; which, like the exertions of one in the parox- 

 isms of fever, puts on the semblance of strength, but, in 

 fact, is only a prelude to dissolution. There is no guard 

 against this misfortune, but the practice oi sowing small 

 quantities, and frequent repetition. This mode I like the 

 better, the more I experience it. 



