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Show 698 MUGWORT. MUGWORT. 1 ily resolved re ”, with anysatisfaction was patience; and though} easily yet it was hard to be found in the circumstances of ny iness as well as of myhealth. this made me rave upon Dr. Zulichem’s new operation; he way of curing by fire, I found twenty things to give ion of it. L remembered what I had read of the of old, who used it in most diseases; and what I heard of that practice still continuing among the ave is seldom taken (as both Spa. niards and Portuguese who has not many seats of the hot iron upon his be which they use upon most distempers, but especially those of the head, and consequentlyin physic as well a in abet In the time of the Incas’ reign in Peru (which I take to have been oneof the greatest constitutions of absolute monarchy that has been in the world) no composition was allowed by; the laws to in point of medicine, but only simples proper to each di Burning was much inuse either by natural or artificial fires; particularly for all illness ofteeth, and soreness or swelling of the gums (which they were subject to from their nearness to the sea), they had an herb whichnever failed of curing it, and being laid to the gums, burnt awayall theflesh that was swelled or corrupted, and made way for new that came again as sound as that of a child. I rememberedto have had myself, in my youth, one cruel wound cured by scald. ing medicament, after it was grown so putrefied as to hare (in the surgeon’s opinion) endat gered the bone; and the violent swelling and bruise of another, taken awayas soon asI received t it, byJ scaldingg it with milk. I remembered the cure of chil; ara blanes, when I was a boy. (which maybe called the children’s g4 out,) by burning at the fire, or else byscalding brine, that has, ppose, the same effect. I had heard of curing J thestings ol a dders, and bites of mad dogs, by immediately burning the part with a hot iron, and of some strange cures of frenzies bycasual licatious of fire to the lower parts; which seems reasonable he . 7 . © he re IF f the violent revulsion it may make of humours from d agrees with the opinions and practice I mentioned fore of Aigypt and Africa. Pe rhaps blistering in the neck, ana t pidgeons, may be in use ame us upon the same grounds; and in our methods of surgery nothing is found of sach effect in the case of old ulcers as fire, which is certainly the greatest ‘ tl} } } poe ls car thatt ca can drawer and drier, and thereby the greatest cleanser be 699 found. I knewvery well that in diseases of cattle there is nothing more commonly used, nor with greater success, and concluded it was but a tenderness to mankind that made it less in use amongst us, and which had introduced corrosives and caus. tics to supply the place ofit, which are indeed but artificial fires. I mention all these reflections to show that the experiment I resolved to make was upon thought, and not rasbness or impa~ tience (as those called it that would have dissuaded me from ity but the chief reason was that I liked no other, because I knew they failed every day, audleft men in despair of being ever well cured of the gout. Next morning I looked over the book which Dr. Zulichem. had promised me, written by the minister at Batavia, ] pretended not to judge of the Indian philosophy or reasonings upon the cause of the gout; but yet thought them as probableas those of physicians here; and liked them so much the better, because it seems their opinion in the point is general among them, as well as their method of curing; whereas the differences among ours are almost as many in both as there are physicians that reason upon the causes or practice upon the cure of that disease. They hold that the cause ofthe gout isa malignant vapourthat falls upon the joint between the bone and the skin that covers it, which being the most sensible of all parts of the body, causes the violence of the pain: that the swelling is no part of thediscase, but only an effect of it, and of a kinduess in nature, that, ‘0 relieve the part aifected, calis down humours to damp the Malignity of the vapour, and thereby assuage the sharpness of the pain, which seldom fails whenever the part grows very much ed: that consequently the swellings and returns ofthe gout are chiefly occasioned by the ill metho ds of curing it at first : that this vapour falling upon joints which have not motion, and thereby heat enough to dispel it, canno t be cured otherwise than by burning, by which it immediately evaporates; andthat this is evident by thepresent ceasingof the pain uponthe second, third, or fourth application of the Moxa , which are performed ina few minutes time: and the autho raffirms it happens often there, that upon the last burning an extre me stench comes ont of the skin where the fire had opened it. Whatever the reasonings were, which yet seemed ingenious ehough ; the experiments alleged with so much confidence, and to be so gener alin those parts, and told by an authorthat writ |