10 



INTRODUCTORY ESSAY 



The clay, which is plentifully distributed through 

 the hilly district, is not very pure, being generally 

 charged with iron, bituminous, or calcareous mat- 

 ter; but in most places it answers sufficiently well 

 for the manufacture of coarse ware and bricks, 

 and accordingly there are several pot-kilns in the 

 parishes of St. John, St. Joseph, and St. Andrew. 

 Furnaces are here frequently constructed of un- 

 burnt bricks, the cement on such occasions being a 



r 



the oil of amber. Of its powers, admioistercd internally, I 

 can say nothing decisive; for in an affedion so frequently, and 

 so quickly fatal, I have never been induced, for the purpose of an 

 experiment, to trust to a remedy, the powers of which are not 

 fully ascertained ; and as the means, with which it was associated, 

 were of the most active kind, and employed with the boldness 

 called for by the danger of the patient, it would be quite pro- 

 blematical to conjecture how much of the benefit was to be 

 attributed to the oil, in those cases which have recovered, and 

 in which it was used. The medicinal qualities of the mineral 

 oil, or Green Tar, are externally stimulant, internally aperient, 

 diaphoretic, and diuretic. It might be employed, with much 

 promise of advantage, in several diseases of a chronic nature, 

 both internally and externally, particularly in conjunction with 

 medicated baths. Its disagreeable appearance has, however, 

 kept it out of general use ; but this may, in a great degree, bo 

 surmounted by pliarmaccutical preparation; and it is certainly 

 desirable that it should be submitted to the test of unprejudiced 

 experiment, that its medicinal virtues may be fully, and accu- 

 rately ascertained. Its sensible qualities are conspicuous, and 

 it deserves a trial in those cases, to which it seems applicable ; 

 the more especially, as some of them do not readily yield to 

 ihc means at present in general use. 



