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nary hectic. The remedy I allude to is the earth bath. The first account I met with of this practice was in the leaned Baron Van Swieten's Commentaries on Boerhaave, where he tells us, from the information of a perfon of credit, that in fome parts of Spain they have a method of curing the phthifis pulmonalis by the ufe of an earth bath; and he quotes the celebrated Solano de Luque in confirmation of this practice. Sotano fpeaks of the ban os de tierra, or earth baths, as a very old and common remedy in Grenada, and fome parts of Andalufia, in cafes of hectic fever and confump tion; and relates feveral instances of their good effects in his own practice. The method he adopted on these occafions was as follows: he chofe a spot of ground in which no plants had been fɔwn, and there he made a hole large and deep enough to admit the patient up to his chin. The interstices of the pit were then carefully filled up with the fresh mould, fo that the earth might every where come in contact with the patient's body. In this fituation the patient was fuffered to remain till he began to fhiver or felt himself uneafy; and during the whole procefs, Solano occafionally administered food, or fome cordial medicine. The patient was then taken out, and after being wrapped in a linen cloth, was placed upon a mattrafs, and two hours afterwards his whole body was rubbed with an ointment compofed of the leaves of the folanum nigrum and hog's lard. He oblerves, that a new pit must be made every time the operation is repeated, and advifes the use of thefe baths only from the end of May to the end of October. Dr. Fou quet, an ingenious French Phyfician, with whom I had the pleafure of being perfonally acquainted at Montpellier, where he has the care of the military hofpital, has tried this remedy in two cafes. In one, a confirmed phthiffs, he was unfuccessful; but the remedy had not a fair trial, The patient, a man thirty years of age, had been for feveral months afflicted with cough, hectic fever, and profule colliquative fweats. He was firft put into the earth in the month of June; but foon complained of an uneafy oppreffion at his ftomach, and was removed at the end of seven minutes. The fecond time he was able to remain in it half an hour, and when taken out was treated in the way prefcribed by Solano. In this manner the baths were repeated five times, and the patient was evidently relieved; but having conceived a diflike to the process, he refuled to fubmit to any further trials, and died fome months afterwards. In the fecond cafe he was more fortunate: the patient, a girl eleven years of age, had been for three months troubid with a cough brought on by the measles, which was at length attended with a purulent expectoration, hectic fever, and night fweats, She began the ufe of the earth bath in Auguft, and repeated it eight times in the fpace of twenty days. At the end of that time the fever and difpofition to fweat had entirely ceafed, and by the ufe of the common remedies the patient was perfectly

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Tom. IV.

restored.

restored. I have lately been informed that a phyfician at Warsaw has likewife preferibed the earth bath with good fuccefs in cafes of hectic fever. The Spaniards confine it entirely to such cases; but in fome other parts of the world we find a fimilar method employed a a remedy for other difeafes, and particularly for the fcurvy. Dr. Priestley obferves, that the Indians, he has been told, have a custom of burying their patients, labouring under putrid diseases, up to the chin in fresh mould, which is alfo known to take off the foetor from flesh meat beginning to putrify. The rancidity of a ham may likewife be corrected, by burying it for a few hours in the earth.

The efficacy of this remedy in the fea-fcurvy has frequently been experienced by the crews of our East India fhips. Mr. James Skene of Curfitor-ftreet, a man of experience in his profeffion, and who was for feveral years furgeon to an Eaft Indiaman, in a conversation I had with him lately on this fubject, informed me, that in the year 1761, when the fhip touched at St. Helena, feve ral of the feamen being afflicted with the fcurvy, and fome of them in a high degree, the captain recommended the digging of holes in the earth, so that the patients might fit with their legs and thighs furrounded with fresh mould; obferving at the fame time, that if they made the holes deep enough to take them in up to the chin, they would recover the faster. This remedy appeared new to Mr. Skene, but the captain and others of the fhip's officers fpoke of it as a very old practice. Several of the patients readily adopted it, and by persevering in it only a few days were perfectly recovered.

"The celebrated Dr. Lind, in his Treatife on the Scurvy, fpeaks of this remedy, and the two inftances he gives of its being adopted are very friking. In the annexed note † the reader will find

* Directions for impregnating water with fixed air.

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I have read and heard many relations of men supposed to be dying of this malady (the scurvy) who were faid to have been per⚫fectly recovered by being carried on fhore to feed on the grass, to fmell the earth, and by fuch like means. Thefe relations are not altogether deftitute of truth; the following may be depended upon : In the year 1761, when the English flest lay at Belleifle, on the coaft of France, the men in his Majefty's fhips were preserved from the fcurvy by the feasonable fupplies of greens fent from England. But the feamen in the tranfports had not this benefit: hence they became in general very much afflicted with the fcurvy. Many of thofe unfortunate perfons, labouring under this fevere evil, and utterly deftitute of proper remedies, were carried on fhore, and after being stript of their cloaths, were buried in a pit dug in the earth (the head being left above the ground) their bodies were covered over with the earth, and permitted to remain thus interred for feveral hours, until a large and profuse sweat enfued. After undergoing this operation, many who had been carried on men's fhoulders to thefe pits, were of themfelves

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find the whole of what this refpectable writer has faid on the fubject. Thefe accounts corroborate the following one, which was related to Dr. Fouquet by the captain of a French East Indiaman. This gentleman having had a great number of his people affected with the fcurvy, touched at Afcenfion Island, with the hopes of finding the ufual relief from a turtle diet, but unfortunately they were, through fome accident, unable to procure the neceffary fupply. In this dilemma the captain, who had seen the good effects of earth baths in fcorbutie cafes, recommended a trial of them to his fick men. Fresh pits were accordingly dag every day for this purpofe, and the patients were fo foon made fenfible of the great relief afforded by this method, that they remained in the earth feveral hours at a time, and in the course of a very few days found themfelves well.

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"Solano, who is fond of philofophizing in his writings, is of opinion, that the earth applied in this way abforbs the morbid taint from the fyftem; but does it not feem more probable that the effluvia of the earth, by being absorbed and carried into the cir. culation, corrects the morbid ftate of the fluids, and thus are equally ufeful in the fea fcurvy and in the pulmonary hectic? That the earth when moistened does emit a grateful odour is a fact generally known; and Baglivi long ago gave his teftimony in favour of the grateful effects of the effluvia of fresh earth. He afcribes these good effects to the nitre it contains *.

Upon the whole, I cannot help expreffing my wishes, that a trial of this remedy may be made during the warm months in this country. It is a vulgar practice in fome parts of Britain to follow

⚫ themselves able to walk to their boats; and what was very extraor dinary, two of them who had been quite disabled by this disease, recovered fo perfect a state of health, that they soon after embarked for the Weft Indies, quite recovered and in good fpirits, without once < tafting any green vegetables.' The Doctor then adds the following by way of note to the above passage: This is faid to have been a common practice among the Buccaneers in the Weft Indies, when • their men were afflicted with the fcurvy; which brings to my re⚫membrance the following relation given me by a friend.

• One day hunting în Newfoundland, he discovered what appeared to him at a distance to be a number of graves, with a man's head fixed to each. Struck with the novelty of the fight he went to the place, ⚫ where he was farther furprized to find the men alive; they informed him they belonged to a fhip which lay in the road; and that having ⚫ been reduced to unspeakable mifery by the scurvy, they were thus in⚫ terred in order to obtain a cure. Was not the climate of Newfound land too cold for this operation!' Treatife on the Scurvy, 3'd edit. page 533.

* Certè terra vulgaris eft plena nitro, et recens effoffa ac odorata recreat fpiritus, & sedat effervefcentias morbofas noftrorum fluidorum, & ad longævitatem odorata juvat,'

the

the plough, and to place children in the newly-turned furrow as a remedy in confumptions; and it has been well obferved by a celebrated writer, that there is often fome good reafon for very old and long-continued practices; though it is frequently a long time before it is difcovered, and the rationale of them fatisfactorily explained."

We cannot conclude our account of this performance, without earnestly recommending it to the notice of the medi cal reader as a work replete with new and important practi cal obfervations, which muft certainly be of great use in the prevention and cure of pulmonary complaints.

CORRESPONDENCE.

Gentlemen,

To the London Reviewers.

Your continual avowed impartiality, will, I fuppofe, induce you to infert the following remonstrance.

There is no doubt, but you defire and intend to preserve a confifteney of principle and fentiment throughout your whole work; and therefore it may be reasonably expected, that you will folve any objection that may be apparently made against you, on account of a fuppofed inconfiftency.

Mr. W. in his criticism on Mr. Gurdon's Diftinguishing Graces of the Christian Character; whilst he feems by his expreffions, entirely to reject, and strongly to oppofe, any special influence of grace on the. mind or heart of man, fays, (in the September Review of this year, page 181.) What can be the merit, or demerit of an act, if such acts be influenced by any power?' and supposes, that this would rob the Creator of his Juftice.' But have the London ReReviewers forgot, that in the entrance upon their Work, they more than once openly professed to have admitted, nay, adopted, the fentiments of the late able Mr. Jonathan Edwards of New England, contained in his capital work of Free-Will; in which the merit and demerit of fuch actions are most clearly pointed out and proved, the juftice of the Almighty, in this cafe, evidently and ftrongly vindicated, and the free agency of man, notwithstanding a divine influence, accurately explained and folidly illuftrated? It must be obferved, I do not mean tơ infinuate, that the London Reviewers adopted all that great man's fentiments, but those contained in that volume.

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As to the influence of grace, have these gentlemen forgot, that their colleague, Mr. E. in his Review of the Reverend Mr. Abthorp's Letters on the Prevelance of Chriftianity (in the April Review of last year 1778, p. 280.) has most publickly maintained the doctrine of inspiration, influence, or grace? Permit me to recall his words to your mind. We are astonished, indeed, (fays he) at the forgetfulness of the clergy of the established church, who, at their ordination, fo lemnly acknowledge fuch infpiration, and even profefs to be under the actual influence of such grace,' yet so often set both entirely aside.to make a difplay of human learning? In that very page, Mr. Abthorp iş. particulary cenfured for this.

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With refpect to ordinary and extraordinary infpiration, the terms are only ufed, by thofe who really understand the subject on which they write, to diftinguish the actual influence of grace experienced in all ages by obedient believers, renewed in the fpirit of their mind,' from that higher and peculiar infpiration, which the prophets and the apostles received in their times to convey to mankind the immediate Revelation of Heaven. At the fame time, it must be confeffed, that that ordinary infpiration (the word being used only for diftinction's fake) is, in a found fenfe, an extraordinary influence on the mind of man. This implies no contradiction, when thus explained. Every good metaphyfician (and your late Editor was a moft eminent one) muft: inftantly fee this.

You will deem it proper, gentlemen, I apprehend, to clear up the fuppofed inconfiftency here alledged.

I am, with all proper regard, gentlemen,
your obedient humble fervant.

Cornwall, Nov. 15, 1779.

SIR,

The Anfwer.

S. F.

In confequence of your letter being fent me, I think myfelf called upon to make the following answer and for these reasons-to throw off the imputation of our prefent Editor's inconfiftency with which you have fo indirectly charged him; and to add some further reasons why I reject that ordinary, extraordinary influence on our minds, termed and allowed by fanatics not Metaphyficians-INSPIRATION.

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Inconfiftency is rather an harsh accufation, and what no one, who refpected himself, would voluntarily fall into. I, therefore, have to obferve, in an affair of fuch delicacy, fuch an imputation ought never to be hazarded on mere prefumption. That yours is prefumptive your own expreffion implies it- feeming inconsistency.",

But not to regard your own expreffion, I beg leave to caft entirely. afide the afperfion.

I never knew till now, that a man could be inconfiftent, unless it were with himself. Had our prefent Editor, been that of the Review you allude to, I should have joined in fome part-not the whole of your charge for, then, it would have admitted of great alleviation.

I think it an abuse of common fenfe to enter into a difcuffion of what is fo obviously inconteftible as what I advanced in my criticism on Mr. Gurdon's Diftinguishing Graces-that the doctrine of infpiration undermined the real effence of Chriftianity-Free agency, which conftituted the goodness or badnefs of every act, whether civil, political, or religious.

However, as you appear fo well acquainted with the fupporters of this incongruous doctrine, and may therefore, be defirous to cater the lifts of argument in its favour, as a preparative, I have to request you will answer all thofe queftions afked in my Obfervations on Gurdon. If they are answered to my fatisfaction, I will, without further .contention, yield you the palm if otherwife, you may be affured of Maving my reafons for the contrary.

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* See Review of last September, page 181.

W.

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