THROUGH SWEDEN. 
*7 
have all of them, at fome period or other, been thofe alfo of the 
higher orders of fociety. At great and formal dinners in Sweden, 
it is ufual to drink healths out of large filver cups filled with 
rhenifh or champaign. The cup goes round, and every one tallies 
of it, fimilar to the old cuftom of pledging * {till pra&ifed at 
fome Englifh corporation-feafls. There are certain rules to be 
obferved, with which the guefts are previoufly made acquainted. 
If thefe be not duly attended to, the delinquent, by way of pu- 
nifhment, is obliged to drink off a wTole cup. 
It has been very generally remarked, and I believe juftly, that 
the apothecaries of Gothenburg are not fo ignorant as the fame 
clafs of men in Paris, Amfterdam, and many other great cities. 
Men’s prefumption and difregard to confequences being always 
in proportion to the narrowmefs of their education and under- 
fianding ; we may juflly fear that dreadful havoc is made, by thefe 
triers of experiments, among the blind and credulous multitude. 
At Gothenburg the apothecaries have the advantage of a liberal 
education; fo that if the inhabitants have the fame propenfity as 
thofe of other places, to fly to thefe underlings of the medical art 
rather than to a phyfician, they may indulge it at lead: with lefs 
danger. 
* This cuftom is obvioufly derived from the fecurity found neceflary to be 
given in Gothic ages, that an individual fhould not be {tabbed while he was 
taking his draught. 
VOL. I. 
D 
CHAPTER 
