Prepare the batteries of thy journal, among men, which, let me tell you, sir, reflects not very favourably on the virtue of the source whence the idea originated. With this set of tractors (holding them out to view) I have cured above thirty indigent poor, and not by the power of imagination, but by the power of the tractors. Dr. L. (in a tone of wonderful complacency and humility) Really, friend R. what thee says gives me great satisfaction. I always knew thee to be a very sensible man, and the information that thee approves of the metallick tractors entirely changes my opinion of them. Before thee took them out of thy pocket, I thought thee had no belief in them. They certainly must be a very pleasant remedy, and incapable of doing harm; and as for myself, I am such a friend to humanity, I shall ever be ready to stand forward in support of every thing which can benefit the publick. It really does my heart good to hear of the services the tractors are now doing my poor afflicted fellow creatures, for whom my bowels have so often yearned. I am sure I shall be one of the greatest friends of Perkinism in England: so farewell friend R. (Exit Dr. L. as pale as ashes.) In this dialogue I think there is great instruction. In case any of our Olivers chance to meet with a Rowland, and are involved in difficulties like those which threatened this champion, they may here learn the true way of becoming "all things to all men," and sneak out of the scrape to very little disadvantage: for though I would by no means advise a retreat, where there is the least chance of success in fighting (which chance did not exist in this In medical societies pour Forth all thy wonted learned lore: case, for Rowland was preparing himself to give Leatherhead a most terrible threshing, had he not yielded) still " He who fights and runs away, and the doctor escaping with a whole skin is now left alive and mighty to assail the supporters of Perkinism in a more cautious but not less decisive manner. • Prepare the batteries of thy journal. Here I can, with certainty, calculate on the most powerful cooperation. This, what shall I call it? This official Gazette of the profession-this Medico-ChymicoComico-Repository, for the effusions of self-puffers, prescribing rules and recipes, "How best to fill his purse, and thin the town," this powerful instrument of offensive and defensive warfare has ever, with becoming vigilance, guarded its post against Perkinean invaders, and suffered no occasion to pass, without a squirt of the Gallick acid of satire, when there was deemed a possibility of blackening the common enemy. I can never sufficiently express my approbation of the Carthaginian cunning with which this journal has been conducted. Dr. B. professing great impartiality, in an early number (see vol. ii. p. 85) invited communications on the subject of the tractors. Subsequent management evidently showed a slight omission in the doctor's notice, and that he meant communications on one side only; for he has omitted no pains to procure and publish whatsoever could be suggested against the tractors: but though re Tell the vile deeds by quackery done, ports of cases in their favour, and all the publications of the patentee have been before him, not a syllable of these was ever noticed by that gentleman; neither has it ever appeared by his journal that such facts ever existed ! 9 By every nostrum, save thine own. I appeal to any of my brethren who have been gratified, as I often have been, with the Demosthenes-like torrent which has been so frequently poured forth, in our medical societies, by this "child and champion" of the Galenical throng, against quackery and all its appurtenances, whether it were fair to surmise, as some unconscionable rogues have done, that Dr. B. has absolutely himself become the proprietor of a quack medicine. The fire of eloquence with which Perkinism, that most atrocious kind of quackery, has been so frequently, and so effectually assailed by the learned doctor at the medical society, at Guy's, the Lyceum Medico Londinensis, &c. &c. &c. ought to have ensured Dr. B. so much of the gratitude of the profession, that, although he should himself choose to become one of the most arrant quacks in the kingdom, he might depend on your support of his reputation, and your exertions to uphold him. No subsequent apostasy on his part, I maintain, will justify a dereliction of him. Recall to your recollection, gentlemen, the denunciations he has so often made against every medical practitioner who should presume, either directly or indirectly, to offer any patronage to remedies which bore even the most distant resemblance to a nostrum. How often have the walls of the medical theatres of Saint Thomas's hospital, and Windmill street, echoed loud responses to his declama Ff For thou didst play the hero rarely, tions against the varlets, who should dare to recommend means, in the profits of the consumption of which the whole profession could not participate? How often have you received his invitations to send him your effusions and declamations against quackery, to receive an efficient publication in his journal? and what number of that journal has appeared, without performing his promise, by honouring those effusions with a place in its immortal pages ? Lest even these most important considerations should still find you inexorable, I trust I can show, by examining his conduct in regard to the quack medicine in question, that, if it be not praise-worthy, it is, at least, defensible. The title of the mostrum which has had the assistance of Dr. B. in being introduced to the notice of a grateful publick is " A NEW MEDICINE FOR THE GOUT." The pretended discoverer of this specifick is, for very commendable, or, which is the same thing, very prudent reasons, kept behind the curtain. I wish, however, to express my utter disbelief that either Dr. Brodum or Dr. Solomon is the happy mortal, however similar the style of the pamphlet, announcing this new medicine, may be to their erudite writings, and the pretensions of the said medicine to "balms of Gilead" and to " nervous cordials." That neither of these gentlemen is the person at present incog. who invented Dr. B.'s new nostrum aforesaid, appears to me evident for three substantial reasons. 1. Drs. Brodum and Solomon have never shrunk from a free exposure of their names, or evinced an inclination to enjoy the emoluments of empiricism, without openly and boldly coming forward to endure the stigma which is ever its inseperable companion. Thy genius show'd such vast resources, 2. They have never declined the publick sale of their nostrums in the shops, nor pretended to offer it to the publick without a remuneration; whereas, in the present instance, the nostrum is not sold at all in the shops; but is most generously given away, even two or three spoonfulls at a time, by Dr. Bradley, to any person who will call on him for advice, and leave with him a guinea for that advice. 3. Those two gentlemen, also, have never, honourably and honestly, saved the commissioners of the stamp office the trouble of collecting a revenue for government from the consumption of their quack medicines, as none can be collected on that which is given away. But why do I labour to prove that which would be of no moment, were the reverse of my opinion found to be the fact, and that the medicine were in reality even the joint property of that powerful trio, Brodum, Bradley, and Solomon, when I have a most conclusive and honourable document in favour of Dr. Bradley's honourable and consistent conduct. This is no other than his letter to the unknown proprietor of this blessing to the human race. Unfortunately for the edification of your learned body, my limits will not allow of the insertion of the whole of that precious communication; you will, therefore, please to treasure up more eagerly the short extract I shall make. The letter begins with a " sir," which scarcely leaves a doubt that the happy mortal in question is not Mrs. Williams, the conjuress. 1 "As I approved of the manner in which you commenced your trials of the virtues and efficacy of your gout medi |