THE PURE DROPS OF LIFE,

Extracted from Vegetables, and compounded with

THE ESSENCE OF HONEY !!!

Prepared only by T. M. LUCAS, V.D. M.

"For coughs, asthmas, dropsy, head-achs, &c. &c. "low or putrid fevers, flatulency, palpitation of "heart, cholera morbus, nervous complaints, consumptions, the peculiar disorders of females, indigestion, influenza, incubus or night-mare, rheumatism, &c. &c." !!!

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It is asserted in the advertisement of this "ele

gant and salubrious cordial," that it is " personally patronized" by gentlemen of the first respectability, eight of whom are mentioned in the list; and that thirteen hundred more names are regularly registered at the proprietor's elaboratory at Road!!!

Mr. Lucas commences his dissertation on the superior excellency of his nostrum, by stating, that "Sir Joseph Banks, K. B. on having examined "the proprietor (at his house in London) did him "the honor to take a glass of this vegetable ex"tract, agreeably to prescription, and immediately "pronounced it an excellent carminative,"

On

which Mr. Lucas makes the following shrewd remark: "If the pure drops of life are approved by "the first botanist in the world, what family would "be without them?" The reader is then referred

for a particular account of this valuable remedy to the Evangelical Magazine of March 1803; we presume he should have said to his puffing advertisement, stitched with many others of a similar decription at the end of that work.

This nostrum having warmed Sir Joseph's stomach, and manifested instantaneously a carminative effect on the stomach or bowels, (for he does not condescend to inform us, whether its operation was upwards or downwards, which we consider a great omission,) he draws the very sensible conclusion, that no family should be without it, because, we suppose, very few families are entirely exempt from flatulent affections. Such families however, afflicted with those truly unpleasant complaints, and have not the means of procuring the true drops of life, will find an excellent substitute in the tramaatic balsam or compound tincture of benzoin !!!

It has become lately fashionable for empirical advertisers to add to their names and titles a number of initials*, which have puzzled us exceedingly, and we are fearful, that through not being able to make out their meaning, we have plainly addressed them as Mr. when they are entitled to the rank of Doctor; if we have in this instance also erred, we beg the proprietor's pardon, as we could not in any sense apply to his name the initials of V.D.M. although to his medicine it is very applicable. The signification of these initials he no doubt explained to the worthy Baronet when he did him the honor of examining him. Was Sir Joseph as good a physician as he is a botanist, for

* A person who was a little time since a frame-maker, styles himself M. D. E. D. A. T. W. and D. A. which he explained to be a medical doctor, an electrical doctor, Author of a Treatise on Worms, and a donor of advice.

the very same reason he applauded its efficacy in flatulent complaints, he would have condemned its use in consumptions of the lungs, coughs, and cholera morbus. Indeed the diseases for the cure of which this nostrum is advertised, are so very opposite in their nature, and the title of the medicine so truly ridiculous, that we are persuaded that Sir Joseph never meant so far to patronize it, and we assure Mr. or Doctor Lucas, that had not Sir Joseph's name appeared in his address, we should have considered his medicine too insignificant to notice.

We have great pleasure in observing, that so far from Sir Joseph Banks countenancing empirical practices, he has lately given every encouragement in his power to a society, the object of which is to effect a medical reform, which, should it take place, will prove fatal to quackery.

THE REV. WILLIAM BARCLAY'S CELEBRATED ANTIBILIOUS PILLS,

AND

Specific for the Gout, &c.

As a specimen of this reverend empiric's anatomical and medical knowledge, we give the following quotation from an advertisement obtained at his elaboratory, in Bedford-street.

"The bile is the fruitful parent of the compli"cated bodily miseries to which human nature is heir, such as gout, rheumatism, nervous affec

"tions, &c. &c.; that we bring it into the world "with us; that the first pang the infant suffers proceeds from it; and that it haunts us more or "less during our continuance in it!!!"

We will venture to assert, that a more absurd doctrine, blended with impiety, could scarcely be uttered; nor could this clerical adventurer have given a greater proof of his total ignorance of anatomy and physic.

The patent ANTIBILIOUS PILLS are not only represented as an infallible remedy in expelling this great disturber of our repose, or, as he terms it, "intestinal enemy," but also an excellent family. medicine; that they infallibly cure the gout, rheumatism, gravelly complaints, nervous affections, and disorders of the stomach. They are of essential service to many of the female sex, and afford a specific for that most fatal disorder, the yellow fever!! He likewise exhorts the bons vivants occasionally to employ them. Thus diseases remote in their origin, and very opposite in their nature, are to be cured by this wonderful discovery!!!

But what is still more extraordinary and unaccountable, the late Archbishop of Canterbury, and the present Bishop of Bath and Wells, have permitted their names to appear in testimony of their efficacy; but whether the benefit they received was in case of gout, rheumatism, gravel, or as bons vivants, this conscientious divine does not condescend to inform us.

"One would, however, have supposed," observes a late author, "that such characters, from "their elevated situation in life, would have had

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a greater regard for their own reputation, than "to have lent their names for such purposes as "the countenancing of quackery. One would, indeed, have thought, that a regard for the cle

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"rical character would have sufficiently deterred them from tarnishing it by the odium it in

curs when involved in the most pernicious traf"fic existing in human nature. To tamper with "the lives of our fellow creatures, is traducing "the character of man alone; no motives of am"bition, of pecuniary aggrandizement, can pal"liate an evil so predominant at the present day: "but when we see a clergyman abandoning his "sacred character, by adverting to empiricism "from mere motives of lucre, it becomes an "incumbent duty to protest against his nos

Gout is a disease which appears in so many different forms, that it is impossible the same remedy can be applicable to all cases or stages. In robust subjects, a drastic purge, taken on the ap-` proach of a fit, will often keep off the paroxysm; but whether any real advantage be thus obtained, is much to be doubted. In an elderly or debilitated frame, the same medicine taken at the approach of a fit, would so much reduce the powers of the system, as to endanger the life of the patient; and very often, in such cases, notwithstanding the most powerful stimulating medicines to repel it to the extremities, the disease attacks the stomach and brain, and in a few hours proves fatal. Such is the nature of gout, that we have much doubt whether a specific will ever be discovered for it. At present, notwithstanding the investigations of the most able physicians, celebrated both for their chymical, pathological, and anatomical knowledge, the causes and nature of this disease remain involved in mystery; and we are fearful the Rev. William Barclay's doctrines will not tend the least to their development.