(seq. 31)

So in the exhibition of drugs, I am convinced people will often
be disappointed, who think to exchange a large quantity of a
weak infusion, or decoction, for a smaller quantity of one that
is stronger. For the cure of cutaneous diseases a great variety
of diet, drinks, and almost every species of mineral water, has
been celebrated; and I cannot doubt but the quantity of watery
fluid, the only circumstance in which they all agree, is of
itself greatly instrumental in the removal of these affections.
It may not be unreasonable then to caution practitioners
against a blind adoption of the principle, beginning to be ex-
tended even to these cases, of substituting extracts, & salts eva-
-porated to dryness, in the place of the large draughts which
were formerly recommended. Let the following quotation from
Baglivi claim the attention of those, who might be disposed in
this manner to concentrate the virtues of the Bath Water-"vinum,
"venus, otium, & crapula sunt primi parentes calculorum et
"podagra. Aqua potis, lactis usus, sobrietas, et exercitium, eis-
"-dem medentur. Exinde prodiit secretum illud Zechii, relatum
"in suis consultationibus, nempe, haustus aquæ tepida ad libram
"circiter statim ante prandium factus."