- If, For Example, There
Was No Vomica In The Lungs; And The Business Was To Attenuate The
Lymph, What Could Be More Preposterous Than To Advise The Chalk
Of Briancon, Coral, Antihecticum Poterii, And The Balm Of Canada?
As for the turtle-soupe, it is a good restorative and balsamic;
but, I apprehend, will tend to thicken rather than attenuate the
phlegm.
He mentions not a syllable of the air, though it is
universally allowed, that the climate of Montpellier is
pernicious to ulcerated lungs; and here I cannot help recounting
a small adventure which our doctor had with a son of Mr. O - d,
merchant in the city of London. I had it from Mrs. St - e who was
on the spot. The young gentleman, being consumptive, consulted
Mr. F - , who continued visiting and prescribing for him a whole
month. At length, perceiving that he grew daily worse, "Doctor
(said he) I take your prescriptions punctually; but, instead of
being the better for them, I have now not an hour's remission
from the fever in the four-and-twenty. - I cannot conceive the
meaning of it." F - , who perceived he had not long to live, told
him the reason was very plain: the air of Montpellier was too
sharp for his lungs, which required a softer climate. "Then
you're a sordid villain (cried the young man) for allowing me to
stay here till my constitution is irretrievable." He set out
immediately for Tholouse, and in a few weeks died in the
neighbourhood of that city.
I observe that the physicians in this country pay no regard to
the state of the solids in chronical disorders, that exercise and
the cold bath are never prescribed, that they seem to think the
scurvy is entirely an English disease; and that, in all
appearance, they often confound the symptoms of it, with those of
the venereal distemper. Perhaps I may be more particular on this
subject in a subsequent letter. In the mean time, I am ever, -
Dear Sir, Yours sincerely.
LETTER XII
NICE, December 6, 1763.
DEAR SIR, - The inhabitants of Montpellier are sociable, gay, and
good-tempered. They have a spirit of commerce, and have erected
several considerable manufactures, in the neighbourhood of the
city. People assemble every day to take the air on the esplanade,
where there is a very good walk, just without the gate of the
citadel: but, on the other side of the town, there is another
still more agreeable, called the peirou, from whence there is a
prospect of the Mediterranean on one side, and of the Cevennes on
the other. Here is a good equestrian statue of Louis XIV,
fronting one gate of the city, which is built in form of a
triumphal arch, in honour of the same monarch. Immediately under
the pierou is the physic garden, and near it an arcade just
finished for an aqueduct, to convey a stream of water to the
upper parts of the city. Perhaps I should have thought this a
neat piece of work, if I had not seen the Pont du Garde:
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