I have been informed my Citations, or rather References, have puzzled some Readers. It was difficult to foresee this, but is easy to prevent it for the future. The Work contains Citations only of two Sorts; one, that points to the Remedies prescribed; and the other, which refers to some Passage in the Book itself, that serves to illustrate those Passages in which I cite. Neither of these References could have been omitted. The first is marked thus, Nº. with the proper Figure to it, as 1, 2, &c. This signifies, that the Medicine I direct is described in the Table of Remedies, according to the Number annexed to that Character. Thus when we find directed, in any Page of the Book, the warm Infusion [Nº. 1]; in some other, the Ptisan [Nº. 2]; or in a third, the Almond Milk, or Emulsion [Nº. 4], it signifies, that such Prescriptions will be found at the Numbers 1, 2, and 4; and this Table is printed at the End of the Book.
If, instead of forming this Table, and thus referring to the Prescriptions by their Numbers, I had repeated each Prescription as often as I directed it, this Treatise must have been doubled in Bulk, and insufferably tiresome to peruse. I must repeat here, what I have already said in the former Edition, that the [5] Prices of the Medicines, or of a great Number of them, are those at which the Apothecaries may afford them, without any Loss, to a Peasant in humble Circumstances. But it should be remembered, they are not set down at the full Prices which they may handily demand; since that would be unjust for some to insist on them at. Besides, there is no Kind of Tax in Swisserland, and I have no Right to impose one.
The Citations of the second Kind are very plain and simple. The whole Work is divided into numbered Paragraphs distinguished by the Mark §. And not to swell it with needless Repetitions, when in one Place I might have even pertinently repeated something already observed, instead of such Repetition at Length, I have only referred to the Paragraph, where it had been observed. Thus, for Example when we read Page [81], [§ 50] —When the Disease is so circumstanced as we have described, [§ 46],— this imports that, not to repeat the Description already given, I refer the Reader to that last § for it.
The Use of these Citations is not the least Innovation, and extremely commodious and easy: but were there only a single Reader likely to be puzzled by them, I ought not to omit this Explanation of them, as I can expect to be generally useful, only in Proportion as I am clear: and it must be obvious, that a Desire of being extensively useful is the sole Motive of this Work. I have long since had the Happiness of knowing, that some charitable and intelligent Persons have applied the Directions it contains, with extraordinary Success, even in violent Diseases: And I shall arrive at the Height of my Wishes, if I continue to be informed, that it contributes to alleviate the Sufferings, and to prolong the Days, of my rational Fellow Creatures.
N. B. A Small Blank occurring conveniently here in the Impression, the Translator of this Work has employed it to insert the following proper Remark, viz.
Whenever the Tea or Infusion of the Lime-tree is directed in the Body of the Book, which it often is, the Flowers are always meant, and not the Leaves; though by an Error of the Press, or perhaps rather by an Oversight of the Transcribers of this Version, it is printed Leaves instead of Flowers P. [392], as noted and corrected in the [Errata]. These Flowers are easily procurable here, meerly for gathering, in most Country Places in July, as few Walks, Vistas, &c. are without these Trees, planted for the pleasant Shade they afford, and to keep off the Dust in Summer, though the Leaf drops rather too early for this Purpose. Their Flowers have an agreeable Flavour, which is communicated to Water by Infusion, and rises with it in Distillation. They were, to the best of my Recollection, an Ingredient in the antiepileptic Water of Langius, omitted in our late Dispensatories of the College. They are an Ingredient in the antiepileptic Powder, in the List of Medicines in the present Practice of the Hotel Dieu at Paris: and we think were in a former Prescription of our Pulvis de Gutteta, or Powder against Convulsions. Indeed they are considered, by many medical Writers, as a Specific in all Kinds of Spasms and Pains; and Hoffman affirms, he knew a very tedious Epilepsy cured by the Use of an Infusion of these Flowers.
I also take this Opportunity of adding, that as this Translation is intended for the Attention and the Benefit of the Bulk of the Inhabitants of the British Empire, I have been careful not to admit any Gallicisms into it; as such might render it either less intelligible, or less agreeable to its Readers. If but a single one occurs, I either have printed it, or did intend it should be printed, distinguishably in Italics. K.
