rOL. XLIV.] PHILOSOPHICAL TRANSACTIONS. 3§9 



A Letter from J. Wall* M. D. to Edward ffilmot, M. D., F. R. S. con- 

 cerning the Use of the Peruvian Bark in the Small Pox. N° 484, p. 583. 



In this communication Dr. W. gives an account of several cases of small-pox 

 accompanied with petechias, haemorrhages, and other malignant symptoms, for 

 which he prescribed the extract of the Peruvian bark, either in conjunction with 

 the vitriolic acid or with alum. He preferred the extract to the gross substance, 

 as being of equal efficacy, and less apt to load the patient's stomach. See the 

 detail of these cases in this author's works, collected and published after his 

 death by his son Dr. Wall of Oxford. 



* The following particulars concerning Dr. John Wall are, for the most part, extracted from the 

 2d vol. of Dr. Nash's History of Worcestershire. The additional information is due to the politeness 

 of his son, the present Dr. Martin Wall, of Oxford, to whom the medical world is indebted for the 

 republication of his father's separate tracts in a collective form, with some valuable notes and addi- 

 tions, and particularly for those additions which relate to the chemical examination of the Malvern 

 waters. 



Dr. John Wall was a native of Worcestershire, and was born in 1708. After passing some time 

 at another school, he was sent to the college school in Worcester, from whence he was elected 

 scholar of Worcester College, Oxford, in 1726. Nine years after he was elected fellow of Merton 

 College; soon after which he took the degree of m. d. and removed to Worcester to engage in the 

 exercise of his profession. In 1740 he married a daughter of Martin Sandys, Esq. uncle to the first 

 Lord Sandys. He died at Bath, whither he had gone for medicinal relief, in 1776, and was buried 

 there in the abbey church. 



Dr. J. W. was endowed with an unusual share of intellect, which he improved by early and close 

 application to science, and more particularly by the cultivation of those branches of natural philosophy 

 which have an immediate connection with the arts and with medicine. If he was much to be admired 

 for his acquirements as a scholar, for his extensive knowledge in the various kinds of scientific pursuits, 

 and for his superior skill and judgment as a physician, he was in an equal degree entitled to esteem for 

 his great liberality of sentiment, for a disposition truly philanthropic, for manners the most engaging. 

 Intent on measures of public utility, he was one of the earliest and warmest promoters of the Wor- 

 cester Infirmary; and to his exertions, joined to those of some other eminent chemists, the city of 

 Worcester owes the establishment of its porcelain manufacture. " Dr. W.'s amusement was the 

 study of the polite arts, and particularly landscape and historic painting, of which he has left many 

 very valuable specimens,* now in the possession of the different branches of his family. His emi- 

 nence in this art was so great, that it has been said of him, if he had not been one of the best phy- 

 sicians, he would have been the best painter of his age." 



Besides the treatise on the Malvern waters and the papers communicated to the Royal Society, Dr. 

 W. published various obser\ations in the Med. Trans, of the London College of Physicians, in the 

 Gentleman's Magazine, &c. These scattered papers were reprinted collectively by his son. Dr. 

 Martin Wall, in one vol. 8vo. 1780. The contents of this vol. are of great practical utility, (digna 

 utique, quae serae posteritali traderentur. vide Annales Liter. Helmstadt, 1784,) and exhibit incontest- 

 able proofs of the author's diligence and skill in his piofession. 



• Such as Brutus and his sons; Regulus in the senate; Edward and Eleanor: Seneca in the bath; Grajr'i bardj 

 Macbeth's witches, &c. 



VOL. IX. 3 B 



