300 F 
proof, would induce me to fuppofe that 
they have been conveyed as fome people 
think the plague is ufually conveyed, in 
bales of goods, and afterwards became 
epidemic. It has likewife, and fomewhat 
in corroboration of this, been fuggefted to 
me, that they came from China in clefts 
of tea: but as a commodity can only come 
drom the place where itis, and never from 
a place where it is not, I am doubtful of 
this faét. © Our information refpecting 
China is till incomplete. On confulting 
Du Halde, Grofier, and Sir G. Staunton, 
i cannet find that nerves are peculiar to 
China. } 
Sometimes FE have been inclined to think- 
that they may have come from France, a 
country with which we had formerly very 
clofe connextons in trade: but they are 
not fpecified in Lord Aukland’s celebrated 
commercial treaty, and I queftion whether 
the exiftence of nerves in that quarter can 
be proved. If the French had nerves, 1t 
muf have been their intereft of late years 
to get rid.of them. In Holland ene can- 
not look forany thing of the kind; aad in 
Germany, although they are mentioned 
in thofe wonderful moral plays which we 
import and wend to the great edification of 
ali chriftian play-goers, yet I prefume 
they exift principally wpon paper. 
Such are fome of the cafual conjectures 
which have prefented themfelves to my 
mind. while meditating upon this fubject. 
I fet no ftore by them, I] draw no cenclu- 
fion from them. Valeant quantum wvalere 
pofiat. I will now proceed to facts, or to 
fuch obfervations as [ have drawn trom 
appearances under my own eye. 
It is certain that they have not been the 
fubjest of converfation in this country 
until within thefe few, years. I cannot 
ftate the exact period. ‘Fhat is precilely 
what I want to Jearn from your correfpon- 
dents. I am not old enough myfelf to be 
confidered as of fuficient authority; but 
“my mother, in her feventieth year, atiures 
‘me that there was no fuch thing as nerves 
in her young days; and my aunt Deborah, 
a fpinfter in her fixty-feventh year, con- 
firms the fame, although fhe has lately 
contrived to procure a fet of nerves for her 
private ufe, the only confequence of which 
is that the gives more frequent orders than 
-ufual to an Italian fiqueur * merchant in the 

* I moft earneftly entreat, Mr. Editor, 
that you will give exprefs orders to your 
printer to fpell this word Jigueurs, as I have 
written it, and in Italics, to diftinguith it from 
Origen of Nerves enquired after. 
[March 1, 
neizhbourhoed, and is fo alarmed about 
the fteadinefs of her hand, that fhe is 
perpetually trying whether it will carry to 
her head. Other perfons in advanced life, 
indeed all I have confuited, agree that 
nerves were not known in ‘their juvenile 
days, and their opinion is that they muft 
have crept in within the laft thirty or forty 
years. 
It would, therefore, be a preat objeé 
for curious perfons to learn the precife 
time of their appearance, and, if peffible, 
the zzventor’s name. I have no doubt 
that he would, whether dead or alive, be 
highly honoured for his ingenuity, as it 
has tended more to the confumption of me- 
dicinal and other cordials than all the reft 
of the contents of Pandora’s box. I have 
no doubt, therefore, that the perfons mof 
obliged by the difcovery, fuch as the apo- 
thecaries and diftillers, would ereé& a 
grand ffomachic pillar, with fuitable de- 
vices, as delicate fibres, the fenfitive plant, 
afpen leaves, &c. &c. and, like the Mo- 
nument, a flaming fire at the top. - 
Itis feldom, as hath been well obferved 
by philofophers, that the firft inventor 
forefees all the confequences of his inven- 
tion. ‘This ingenious man, for example, 
whoever he was, did not forefee that a time 
would come when nerves fhould fupply 
converfation with the mett charming anec- 
dotes, when every pretty fpeaker fhould 
not only be extremely nervous, but delight 
in the enumeration of the many tremors, 
palpitations, and feclings fhe was afflicted 
with. Even the war and the ‘taxes are 
nothing oppoted to a budget of /fa/ms, and 
the moit ferious 4ifcufiion of the affairs of 
Europe hath often been interrupted by a 
vigorous attack on the pit of the ftomach, 
or a fudden fomething in the head, which 
can be feen in the higheft perfection through ° 
the medium of a gia/s! It was this which 
made a wicked fellow fay of my aunt De- 
borah, ‘¢ That old lady’s converlation is 
an odd compofition. It is all region and 
cherry-bouace !” 
Thefe are matters of obligation which 
the inventor of nerves may be aflured will 
be gratefully acknowledged, as foon as he 
avows himlelf, or his relations will make 
known the place where his hallowed re- 
mains are in {weet repofe. ‘The benefits 


liguors, an attachment to which isa thing of a 
very different defcription. Taking a quantity. 
of diguors is downright drinking; but three or 
four glailes of diguewrs, in the courte ofa day, 
is, as 1 am confidently ailured, wo jucd thing ! 
he | 
