392 



is frequently fudden, and the progrefs deftruc- 

 tively rapid, if the malady be negleded or 

 badly treated, in its incipient ftage, medicine 

 becomes inefficient, and, too often, the difeafe 

 cannot be fubdued by all the art of the wifeft 

 Phyfician.— How lamentable, then, is it that 

 fuch ignorant medicafters as pur Cort Peruv. 

 cptimum'* fliould be entrufted, and particu«^ 

 larlyin a tropical region, with the heahh and 

 lives of multitudes of their fellow-beings. 



When we refleft that the riches ancj 

 profperity of a country conned, moft inti- 

 mately, with its population, and that the 

 lives of men are of the higheft importance to 

 the ftate, it becomes matter of furprife an4 

 aftonifliment, that, even in the remoteft colony, 

 fuch pretenders fhould be permitted to difgrace 

 the healing art. If that wife principle " falus 

 populi fuprema lex," be corred:, and I fufped it 

 cannot be difputed, the health of the people 

 muft be a fubje£t of prime confideration in the 

 eye of every government ; — how then are we 

 to account for the apathy which permits 

 fuch dangerous doBors to wield the deftrudive 

 lance, or, how fliall we explain the mifcalcu- 

 lating policy which not only tolerates a tre- 



