Dr. Wedderburne, in his remarks on the national character of the English, published about the middle of the last century, says, "We condemn our fathers, and smile at their ignorance, "in placing confidence in the pretended miracles of the papal church, while we ourselves inherit "all their credulity, and apply it to a far worse purpose, in giving credit to the artful and mis"chievous empiric;" and we think when the most learned characters in the kingdom, which we suppose the heads of the church to be, suffer their names to appear in large letters, on the front of a quack-medicine shop, in the most public situation in London, as well as in the public papers, we have little reason to extol our own as an enlightened

age.

It is difficult to understand whether these learned characters, by sanctioning this nostrum, subscribe to the extravagant doctrines to which their names appear, or whether thereby they mean to recommend the medicines to be indiscriminately employed, as a remedy for the diseases specified in the advertisement. The person that lends his name in the recommendation of any nostrum, is, in our opinion, as culpable as the quack himself, inasmuch as the name of a respectable character has more influence than the puff of an impostor; and if a person lose his life in consequence of the false confidence he was thereby induced to place in the nostrum, he may be considered to have been in some degree accessary to his misfortune, and, in the eyes of his friends, must appear more repre hensible, because he should have known bet

ter.

On examining these pills, we do not find that the proprietor has any pretension to a patent, and we cannot but express our surprise, that such nos

M

trums should have even the semblance of a protection from government. They do not possess any advantage whatever over the compound colocynth pill, commonly called pill coccia; and we can venture to assert, that had those gentlemen who have publicly attested their virtues, taken that medicine, they would have derived the same benefit from it.

The proprietor declares there is no aloes in them. As an aperient medicine, they are no better on that account, particularly if its employment had excluded or diminished the quantity of the other ingredients. In the treatment of the complaints for which the pills are recommended, we consider aloes a more safe and efficacious medicine than either scammony or bittle apple. Such medicines, in different stages or varieties of gout, must be employed with great caution; for if they are proper in regular gout, we conceive they must be improper in the atonic gout, and in the retrocedent gout. They would very likely so reduce the patient as to destroy every hope of recovery. In bilious affections, particularly the cholera morbus, what would be the effect of a drastic purge, when the object of practice is to dilute the acrimony of the bile, and prevent inflammation of the stomach and intestines? By the imprudent use of even a gentle purge, the author of these remarks has known a very robust person, with this complaint, lose his life in two days. Those complaints of the stomach and bowels, which it has become the fashion to term bilious, absolutely arise from the deficiency of bile; and antibilious medicines of quacks prove serviceable in such sases, by emptying the intestines, and producing a proper secretion of this fluid, which, instead of being an "intestinal enemy," is the most friendly thing for the

formation of good chyle, and a regular action of the intestines. A person is never more healthy than when he has a proper quantity of bile poured into the intestines; and where one person in this country suffers from a redundancy, there are ten thousand who suffer more from a deficiency. A person, therefore, because he has been relieved of a stomach complaint, and other unpleasant symptoms, by taking the strong cathartic of a quack, is by no means justified in publicly recommending the medicine as a remedy for bilious complaints, which includes diseases of a very opposite

nature.

We lament much that the name of a clergyman of the Church of England should be ranked in the list of a set of medical impostors; we lament much more that the head of that church should publicly patronize such a practice. It appears to us no less than making a mock of religion, and a gross perversion of the holy word. We confess, on the first complexion of the business, it appeared to be a new mode of providing for a clergyman. If the archbishop and bishop received such benefit from this nostrum, instead of bringing forward their benefactor as an advertiser of specifics, they should have rewarded him with preferment in the church, which must have been in their power; and if they thought a good living was not sufficient compensation, they might have applied for parliamentary reward, which any man is entitled to, who may make so great a discovery as a specific for the gout, which, under their sanction, the Rev. Mr. Barclay dares to advertise.

We are happy to state, from undoubted authority, that the present Archbishop of Canterbury, on seeing the name still made use of in the Rev. Mr. Barclay's advertisements, peremptorily de

sired it to be omitted; and we are not without our hopes, that the Bishop of Bath and Wells will see the propriety of following so laudable an example.

to state.

We observe in the public advertisements, the proprietor is styled a Doctor, but whether of divinity, physic, or law, he does not think proper As a clergyman, we cannot doubt his having had a classical education, although, on enquiry, we do not find that he has obtained that academical honour at any of our English universities.

Mr. Richards's witty remarks on the proprietor's long residence and close application at an admirable school for checking the depravity of the hu man heart, approach too near to illiberality, for admission in this work. We rather pity misfortunes, than add pungency to sorrow. If he have no share in the profit of this medicine, we think the proprietor of them has taken too great a liberty with his name.

The charge of five shillings a box for these pills, we consider very exorbitant. One shilling, as affording cent. per cent. one would have supposed. might have satisfied the conscience of a di

vine.

The Rev. William Barclay is also a discoverer of an infallible solvent for the stone in the bladder!!!!!! and other invaluable remedies for nervous complaints, &c. which we consider unworthy of notice. We are sorry to deny a clergyman's assertion of a medicine capable of dissolving the stone in the bladder.

3

SPILSBURY'S ANTISCORBUTIC DROPS.

The following advertisement is copied from a Sunday paper

"Sarah Eckford, aged 35 years.--When first "this case of scrofula appeared, it was in the ab"sorbent glands of the neck, which became ra"ther thickened, and then advanced to a hard "tumour; she applied to a medical gentleman, "who brought it to suppuration; he then opened "it, and the neck became ulcerated from the ear to the shoulder; tumours soon formed in the

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salivary glands, under the chin, in the parotid, "by the side of the ear, and the absorbent glands "on the other side. She was admitted an out"patient of St. Bartholomew's hospital for eight "months, without receiving any relief. At this

time, by the advice of Mary Esdaile, who had "experienced relief at the dispensary, Soho"square, she began taking the Drops, and conti"nued them for the space of a twelvemonth, "when the ulcers healed, and she became per"fectly well.

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Crown-court, Fleet-street.

"SARAH ECKFORD."

"Be careful to ask for SPILSBURY'S Patent An"tiscorbutic Drops, having the words, "By the King's Patent expressed. at length on the bottle, bill of directions, and outside wrapper. "The stamp also, the King's duty, is printed in "black ink instead of red. Bottles, price 5s. 6d. 10s. and 11 2s. duty included."

Dispensary, No. 15, Soho-square.