ief or murder him by way of
Charity. Do but you send him a Physician, Medicines and Necessaries
without Hope of Requital; and trust me, that will be an handsome
Assistance, most nobly becoming a generous Mind and a charitable Man.

Now that not one of our Apothecaries, or indeed very few of our modern
Traders in Physick, have these requisite Endowments, I shall leave it to
any considerate Person to judge of; and how far they stretch beyond their
Knowledge, we have a many miserable Objects in our daily View, woful
Instances of their great Rashness, Folly and Ignorance.

That the Profession has sunk into the Craft of deceiving, and amusing, and
making Profit by new Medicines, or useless Preparations brought into
fashion, and highly esteem'd, as long as the Mode of crying them up shall
last, and the Fallacy which imposes them can support it, the unhappy
People suffer themselves to be deluded, and cheated of their Lives, and
their Money. The Rich please themselves that they can purchase the
Alexipharmic, which has Power to controul the Disease, and have not any
Doubt within themselves, that by the often Use, their Lives become almost
immortal; they look down with some small Pity on the Vulgar, who they
think must die before them, being not able to pay the Ransom. They please
themselves, because Health and Life are of the highest Demands for these
Rarities peculiar to them. The Gentlemen of both the higher and lower
Faculty have not been wanting to make use of the Credulity and Weakness of
the richer Patients; and I shall now lay open to your great Surprize, that
the most despicable and useless Stuff have been brought into the highest
Esteem to be rely'd on in the most difficult and dangerous Distempers.

And _First_, of the _Bezoar_-Stone, an obvious Instance of our _English_
Practice, from whence you may concur with the Physicians abroad, with what
Skill, and Art, and Integrity the Profession continues to be practised
here.

_Bezoar_ (which has neither Smell nor Taste, and upon taking into the
Stomach gives no Sensation perceivable) has held its Name and Reputation
almost sacred with us, though exploded long since in almost all Parts of
_Europe_. The _French_ are well convinced that they have been impos'd upon
by the trading Physicians returning from the _Indies_, to take off the
pretty Trifle at a very great Price; they had made it to be admired, by
asserting that it was able to encounter Poisons, that no malignant
Dis