ace upon the stairs of the
Academy[1100]. If I were, however, of a humour to see, or to shew the
state of my body, on the dark side, I might say,

_"Quid te exempta juvat spinis de pluribus una[1101]?"_

The nights are still sleepless, and the water rises, though it does not
rise very fast. Let us, however, rejoice in all the good that we have.
The remission of one disease will enable nature to combat the rest. The
squills I have not neglected; for I have taken more than a hundred drops
a day, and one day took two hundred and fifty, which, according to the
popular equivalence of a drop to a grain, is more than half an ounce. I
thank you, dear Sir, for your attention in ordering the medicines; your
attention to me has never failed. If the virtue of medicines could be
enforced by the benevolence of the prescriber, how soon should I
be well.'

August 19. 'The relaxation of the asthma still continues, yet I do not
trust it wholly to itself, but soothe it now and then with an opiate. I
not only perform the perpetual act of respiration with less labour, but
I can walk with fewer intervals of rest, and with greater freedom of
motion. I never thought well of Dr. James's compounded medicines[1102];
his ingredients appeared to me sometimes inefficacious and trifling, and
sometimes heterogeneous and destructive of each other. This prescription
exhibits a composition of about three hundred and thirty grains, in
which there are four grains of emetick tartar, and six drops [of]
thebaick tincture. He that writes thus, surely writes for show. The
basis of his medicine is the gum ammoniacum, which dear Dr. Lawrence
used to give, but of which I never saw any effect. We will, if you
please, let this medicine alone. The squills have every suffrage, and in
the squills we will rest for the present.'

August 21. 'The kindness which you shew by having me in your thoughts
upon all occasions, will, I hope, always fill my heart with gratitude.
Be pleased to return my thanks to Sir George Baker[1103], for the
consideration which he has bestowed upon me. Is this the balloon that
has been so long expected, this balloon to which I subscribed, but
without payment[1104]? It is pity that philosophers have been
disappointed, and shame that they have been cheated; but I know not well
how to prevent either. Of this experiment I have read nothing; where was
it exhibited? and who was the man that ran away with so much money?
Continue, dear Sir, to w