eatest Part of them are not now prepar'd; and indeed they are
found of no Use, but to increase the Bulk of the Julep, with the hot and
compound Waters; the Milk Water is now order'd for that Design, and
because as much Money can be procur'd from it, as from all the vast
Variety of the other, this in the usual Practice almost supplies the
Place of all the rest. You may run over the vast Number of the _Galenical_
Preparations and Compositions, as they are improperly stiled; they are
almost seven hundred, to be kept till they be corrupt, and be viewed as
the old rusty and rotten Weapons of an ancient Armory; they are now
reduc'd to, and the Shop is supposed to be made up with about One hundred
and fifty: But if the insipid Simple Waters, and the fiery ungrateful
Compound Waters shall be thrown aside, and the Simple Milk Water, with
five or six Cordial Tinctures, shall be kept for Use, and the other
Tincture appointed by the Physician, with respect to the Circumstances of
the Patient: If only three or four Syrups and Conserves, and Powders, and
Pills, and Oils, and Ointments, and Plaisters in that Number, in
Imitation of the Prudence and Integrity of the Foreign Physicians who have
contracted their Dispensatories, shall be order'd, in the most rational,
and efficacious Forms, to receive the Addition of all the natural Powders,
Balsams, Gums, or the Chymical Medicines, the Apothecary will have his
Trouble very much lessened, and with less Expence; the Patient will have
his Disease much sooner cured, and his Life much better preserved.

By this time we presume the Reader is convinc'd, that private Interest too
often influences many of our Modern Physicians, and makes them prescribe
such Medicines as tend most to the Apothecaries Gain, because the People
give the Apothecary Power of appointing the Physician; we have shewn that
those costly pretended Medicines, which so much raise the Sum in the Bill,
have no real Virtue; that the greatest Part of the most senative grow in
our own Gardens; that if some few are fetch'd from foreign Parts, they are
used in so small Quantities, that the Doses are of the lowest Price: And
consequently you will very plainly see, that the long and high charg'd
Bill after a Fit of Sickness, is more the Effect of the Collusion betwixt
the Doctor and Apothecary, together with your own Folly of desiring of it,
than either the Prices of the Medicine, or the Necessity of so many Doses.

I dare say, my Reade