The works of George Berkeley, D.D. late Bishop of Cloyne in Ireland. To which is added, an account of his life [by J. Stock] and several of his letters to Thomas Prior, Esq., Dean Gervais, and Mr. Pope, etc

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LET TER

Wherein also it is considered,

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tar water might be useful in the plague, and destre to know the reasons whereon my opinion was grounded, and that I Would communicate mythoughis at large on the subject ; I am the more willing to satis0 you in this particular, as the plague noW raging in Barba hath in some mea-sure alarmed the public, and I think it may not be amisi to contribute my mite of advice to ards averting or tessening the present danger; and, as star hegeis caution, to pos se my countrymen with an apprehensionos this the greatest of ali temporal calamities, sussicient to put them ontheir guard, and prepare them against the worst that can happen. A learn ed physician os our own observes, that the plague does not visit these Britannic istands ostener than once in thirty or forty years, andit is now above twice that time since we seli the hand of the destroyinganget. Itis also the opinion os physicians, that the insection cannot 1pread, except there is a sui table disposition in the air to receive it, the signs os whicli are wet summers, leaves and fruits blasted, an unusual quantityof insects, epidemicat distempers among the catile, to Whicli I presumemay

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vered themselves pretiy plainly in the course of this present year. Beside these natural sorerun ners of a plague or pestilence in the air, it is worth observin g, that a prognostic may be also made fro in the morai and religio us disposition of the inhabitant s. Certa inly that the digitus dei sthe ἀ-os Hippocrates) doth manifest it self in the plague, Was notonly the opinion of manliind in generat, but also in particular of themost eminent physicians throughout ali ages down to our o n. Howfar we of the se issands have reason to expect this messenger of divineven geance, wili best appear is we take a view of the prevalling principies and practices of our times, whicli many thinii have long called aloud for punishment or amendment. Analogy and probability prevati in medicine: these are the propergui des where experience hath not gone besore. I knew that tar water was useful to prevent catching the small-pox, and consequently that iis nature was contrary to the laint or venom producing that distemper, and there re I concluded, that it might be u fully applied to cure the fame, though I never heard nor line AE that it had been applied to that purpose, and the succese an Mered my hopes. In like manner, having lino Nn the virtve of tar water in preservingsrom epide micat infection, I conceive in generat it may be useful for thecure os distem pers caused by such insection. Besides, being very wellassured that tar water was fovere ign in the cure os ali foris of severs, Ithinh it not un rea nable to infer, that it may prove a successsul medicine for the plague, although Ι have never known it u sed in that distemper, sorasmuch as the plagiae with ali iis symptoms may be considered asa species of sever, and hath been actualty considered as such both by Hippocrates and 8 inham, not to mention Others. Having

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Having observed surprising essests of tar water in the most deplorabie cases, sor instance, pleurisies, small-pox, spolied and erysipelato ussevers, I am induced to enteria in great hopes of iis success in pestilentiat severs or plagues; whicli are also confirmed, by iis operating aS a Powersul diaphoretic and sudorific, when gi ven warm and in great quantities. Add to this, that it frequently throws out postules and ul-Cers, and is apt to terminate the worsi os se vers by an irruption of bolis in various paris of the body; that it raises the spiriis, is a great alegi pharmacum and cordial, and must theresere be of the greatest use in

malignant Caseia.

In cachexy, scurvri goui, as wels as in the close of se vers I have osten known tar water cause trouble me eruptions or botis the very methodia hen by nature in casting sortii the venom of the plague) to breali out in the surisce of the hody, expelling the morbi fie humo urs, the causeand reliques of the distase, to the signat benefit of the patients ; exceptfuch who, being frightened at the symptoms, have supposed the tar Wa- ter to produce those humours whicli it only drives ovi, and in consequence of such their groundi est suspicion, laid it aside, or perhaps tookother medicines to hinder iis effeci, and thereby deprived them selves of the benefit they might otherisi se have received. In the plague are observed head-ach, drows ness, anxiety, vigils, sin king os spiriis, and weal ness, for ait which tar water hath been found an offectual remedy. Bloody urine and spitiing blood, whicli are also dan- gerous symptoms observed in the plague, have been osten removed by the fame medicine, whicli Dom numberlesi experiments Ι have found to

be peculiarly fitted sor puri 'ing and strengthening the blood, and sorti ving it a due consistence, as meli a S. R. proper motion. .

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siue 8 Leffer, Uc. In the plague, pleurisies are essee med mortat symptotas, and in thecure of these, I never knew tar water fati, is gi ven warm in bed, a pinior more an hour, though the patient Was neither bled nor blistered. The carbuncles and spois which shew them lues in the plagiae a re os a gangrenous nature, tending to mortification. And gangrenes I have linowneflectualty cured by copious drinking of tar Water. An erysipelas, whicli me eth a degree os maligni ty nearest to the plague, is easily cured by plenti l drinhing of tar water. I knew a person, who had been six weelis ill of an erysipelas under the care os a celebrated physician, during whicli time me struggled with many dangerous symptoms, and hardly escaped With liis. This person was a yearaster sei ged again in the same manner, and recoVered in a weeli, by the sole use of tar water. Costi venesi is reclioned a very hopesul prognosticin the plague; and it is also a symptom whicli osten attends the di in hingos tar Water, when it throws out the venom of a distemper thoroughthe 1kin. Di ases of the fame season generalty bear sonae assini ty to each Other in their nature and their cure; and it may not be improper on this occasion to observe, that the reigning distem per of the blach catile hath been osten cured by tar Water, and would I am persuaded) have done muchlesi mischiec is the practice had been generat, to have gi ven each distem pered beast three gallong the first, two the second, and one thc third day, in Warm doses, from a pini to a quart) and at equat intervals. Diemerbroeta recommends in the first appearance of a plague the use of sudorifics, pulting the patient to bed, and covering him warm, tili acopious s eat be rat sed, the very method I constantly follois in the be- ginning of severs, using no other medicine than tar water, Which, asternumberlesse experiments, Ι take to bo the best sudorific that is linown,inasmuch

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inasmuch as it throws o ut the morbific mia a, without cither hea tingthe patient or weahening him, the common essedis of other sudorifics, whereas this, at the fame time that it allays the severisti heat, proves amost salutary cordial, giving great and lasting spiriis. Upon the whole, I am sincerely persuaded, that for cure of the plagiaethere cannot be a better method followed, more generat for use, more easy in practice, and more sure in essedi, than to cover the patient warmin hed, and to malie hina drin k e very hour one quart of warm tar water,

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66o A Leiter, GC. And I am the rather moved to this by the great uncertainty and di δε-greement among physicians, in thcir methods of treating the plague. Diemerbroech, for instance, a physici an os great experience in the Dutcbplague, that raged a bout eighty years ago, dissuades by ali means Domhlee ling in that distemper. On the other hand, Syriniam recommendsWhat the other dilapproves. Is we belle ve Dr. Θdenham, the free use of wine, as a preservative, halli thrown many into the plague, Who other-wi se might have escaped. Dr. Willis on the contrary avers, that he kne many, who being weli forti fied by Wine, Deely ente red amongst the insected, without catching the insection. Bleeding coois, but at the fame time wealiens nature. Wine gives spiriis, hut heats withai They a re both there re to be suspected, whereastar water cools without wealiening, and gives spiriis Without heatin g, alare indication of iis severe ign virtve in ali inflammatory and malignanteases, which is confirmed by such numbers of instances, that matter offact hceps pace at least) With reason and argument in recommendingiliis medicine. Plagues as weli as se vers are observed to be of disserent Linds , and itis observed os sevors, that, as they change their genius in disserent sea- sons, so they must be trealed differently, that very method that succeed-ed in one season osten proving hurimi in another. ΝON it is very re-

derialty adapt itself to the particular Case of the patient, a thing I frequently have experien cessi. Last spring t o child ren, a boy and a girI, the former ten years old, the lalter eight years old, were sei ged with se vers ; the bo h ad an inflammation in his breast. In te si than two hours they drank each about fuequaris of warm tar Water, Which Wrought them very disserently, the

gii l

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tar water made in the Common way contains noxious olis or particles of

tar, whicli render it clangerous to those who drin k it, a thing contrary toail my experience. This was the old objection made by those who op- posed it fio m the begintaing. But I am convinced by innumerable triais, that tar water is se far stom doing hurt by any caustic or fiery quali ty, that it is on the contrary a most potent medicine sor the allaying of heat, and curing of ali inflammatory distem pers. The perpetuat returning to

the sanae objection malles it necessary to repeat the same ans er. And yet, some who a re not afraid to argue against experience, Would stili persuade us that the common tar water is a clangerous medicine, and that the acid Deed Dom the volatile oti is much more sese and efficaci ous rbut I am os opinion, that be ing robbed of iis fine volatile oti which nei-ther sitialis to the bottom nor fioats at the top, but is throughout and intimate ly uni ted with it, and appears to the cye only in the colour oflar Water); being robbed, I say, of this oti, it is my opinion it cata heno cordial, whicli opinion not to mention the reason of the thing) Iground On my own experie iace, having observed that the most ac id water is the least cordial, so far ani I froni impia ting the whole virtve to theacid, as me stem to th in h. It seems not very rea sonable to suppose, that the caustic quali ty of tar

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-662A Leiter, Uc. or that a stili mould furnim a coster and beller medicine than that whicli is commonly prepared by the simple astasion and stirring of colit Water. Howe ver the ends of chymists or distillers may be served there-by, yet it by no means seemeth calculated for the benefit of man kind in generat, to attempt to malle peopte suspest, and frighten them fio m theu se of a medicine, se east ly and se readily made, and every where athaiad, of such approved and known sesely, and at the fame time recommended by cures the most extraordinary, on persons of ali seges and ages, in such variety of distem pers, and in se many distant paris of christendom. By most men, I belleue, it will be judged, at best, a needlesi under-taking, instead of an ea sy tried medicine to introduce one more operose and expensive, un supported by experimen is, and recommended by wrongsuppositions, that ali the virtve is in the acid, and that the tar water be-ing impregna ted with volatile oti is caustic, whicli are both notorious mistakeS. Though it be the character of resin not to dissolve and mix with water as salts do, yet these attracts se me sine particles of essentiat oti, whichserves as a vehicle for such acid salis; and the colour of the tar watersheweth the sine oti, in whicli the vegetable salts are lodged, to he dissolved and mixed therein. The combination of two suci, disserent substances as oti and sali, constitutes. a very subtile and active medicine, sit- ted to mix with ait humours, and resolve ali obstructions, and which may properly be called an acid soap. Τar water operates more gently and sesely, as the acid salts are mea th-ed in oti, and thereby losing their acrimony, approach the nature of neu tral salis, and so heco me more friendiyito the animal system. By the help of a smooth insinuating oli, these acid salts are more east ly and