after the toad died. The hole was about three inches long, and almost as deep. I strictly viewed the stone, and could not perceive any flaw or crack in it; the inside of the hole was smooth, and looked as if it had been polished. Witness my hand this five and twentieth day of July, 1716. JOHN MALPAS.

I was present, and saw the toad alive. Witness my hand, 1756, May. PETER HURFORD, Mason.

XXI. The Effect of Musk in curing the Gout in the Stomach, by
Mr. James Pringle, late Surgeon to the Third
Regiment of Foot Guards.

ON the third of November, 1745, a gentlewoman, aged 43, was violently seized with the gout in the stomach, so that she could by no means lie down, but was forced to sit night and day in an easy chair, in an erect posture. She did nothing all this while but keep herself warm, now and then drinking a little of some generous wine, (as she said, to keep it out of her stomach) and once or twice took a little of the Tinct. Sacra. On the 21st of November about 9 o'clock at night, a lady of her acquaintance, who had seen her in this condition, desired me to visit her, though she doubted if I should find her alive. Accordingly I went, and as I had seen such extraordinary effects of the Tonquin medicine in the Singultus, and had heard from Mr. Reid of its efficacy in other nervous cases, I imagined it might be of some service here; and therefore I sent her the following bolus:

Cinnab, nativ. Antimon, aa. gr. xv. Mosch. opt. gr. xvi. Syr. bals. q. s. f. bolus.

But although this is Mr. Reid's common dose, yet as she was very weak, I ordered her to take the one half of it immediately, drinking after it a cup of brandy, and the other half in six hours after. Next morning I found her much better, having from the first dose no more convulsions in her stomach. I then ventured to give her a bolus at nine o'clock in the morning, and repeated it every four hours

till she should sleep or sweat. Notwithstanding the coldness of the weather, and her being obliged to sit in a chair, yet by the time she had taken four boluses, a plentiful sweat and sleep ensued, and then she was able to lie in a hori zontal posture on her couch, without the return of her former symptoms. This sweat continued from the afternoon of the 92d, till the 24th at night, with very little intermission. 1 gave over the boluses and ordered her a julep, to 8 ounces of which I put 12 grains of musk, to be taken ad libitum. In this method she continued to the 27th, quite easy and free from all her former symptoms; but as on this day she fancied the gout in her stomach was returning, I gave her another bolás. She complained at this time of the intolerable heat of the brandy, which was the first thing she found warm in her stomach during her illness. On the 29th she was apprehensive of another attack, and took another bolus, after which she found herself very well, and walked about the room, the swelling of her feet being quite gone; and on the 4th of December went out in a chair to thank the lady who sent me to her, and continues to be well to this day. 1756, May.

XXII. Boerhaave's Recipe for the Gout.

MR. URBAN,

IT has lately been asserted in some of the public papers, that Dr. Boerhaave, having in 1722, obtained some remission from the severity of the gout, with which he had been tormented without intermission for more than five months, determined to try whether the juices of fumitory, endive, and succory, taken thrice a day in large quantities, (namely, about half a pint each dose,) might not contribute to his relief; and that by perseverance in this method, he was wonderfully recovered."

This is partly the truth, though not the whole truth; for I conversed with him daily at that very time. He took indeed the juices above-mentioned for a fortnight, or thereabouts, as near as I can remember; yet "it was not by the perseverance in this method alone he was so wonderfully recovered;" for when he found that his stomach would bear the juices of these three herbs, and he seemed to receive some benefit from them, he told me he would add to them, and accordingly directed the juices of two more herbs, namely, water-cresses

and male speedwell; and that he would likewise take every day half an ounce of four gums, well beat up together in equal quantities, namely, gum sagapenum, gum opoponax, gum ammoniacum, and gum galbanum.-He swallowed a drachm of these made into 12 pills four times in a day, drinking after them half a pint of the expressed juices of the five above-mentioned herbs; and this he continued to do for three months or more, after which I never heard that he had any return of the gout, though he lived 16 years longer. The Doctor was a very large man, and his case peculiarly bad; therefore I suppose he judged it necessary to take these medicines in larger quantities, and to continue them longer than he would have directed to the generality of his patients.

I thought it my duty to acquaint the public of this im portant fact, as I happened to have the copy of Boerhaave's original prescription by me; and the more so, as what I have here mentioned may probably be of use to some of my fellow-creatures, after I am dead and gone, and when all other medicines have been found ineffectual,

I am, Sir,

1758, Suppl.

Yours, &c.

SENEX.

XXIII. History of Frauds and Cheating, by Mr. Justice Fielding, A PICK-POCKET, though a felon, seems to be in the lowest class of gamblers; but his success rather arises from the dexterity of his hands, than the contrivance of his head; and like rats and other such vermin, appears rather to take the advantage of your negligence and inattention, than to contend with your understanding. The first and lowest class of gamblers, then, who would cheat you with your eyes open, are those who invite you to prick in the belt or garter, for a wager; and the certainty of winning at this sort of diversion appears so clear to the novice, that he never fails to bite if he be a proper object. And here I must premise that these gamblers are such exquisite judges of their prey, that they seldom fail of success.

The next class are those who find a paper full of gold rings, which they take care to pick up in the sight of a proper object, whose opinion they ask. The gambler of this class appears very mean; which gives him an opportunity of

saying he had rather have found a good piece of bread and cheese, for that he had not broke his fast for a whole day; then wishes the gentleman would give him something for them, that he might buy him a pair of shoes, a coat, &c. The cull immediately bites, and, thinking to make a cheap purchase of an ignorant fellow, gives him perhaps twenty shillings, for four or five brass rings washed over.

The next set attend at inns, and as porters sometimes éntrust their servants to carry boxes or parcels that come from the country, the gambler takes notice of the directions, and sends his comrade immediately to the house, where he waits for the arrival of the porter, meets him within a few doors of the house; or if the door be shut he stands on the steps, and begins immediately to abuse the porter for his delay; damns him and tells him he was just coming for it; that he had a great mind to give him nothing; the porter asks pardon, the gambler pays him and takes possession of the goods, with which he decamps the instant the porter's back is turned. And as tradesmen generally employ country fellows for porters in their houses, two or three of these gamblers are generally waiting at the corner of the streets, near some of the great inns, and if they hear one of the porters loaded with a box or bundle, ask his way to the inn, one of them steps up to him, very civilly tells him that he is going that way, and will shew him the house. The countryman implicitly follows his guide, whilst the gambler's comrade takes the hint, marches before, and plants himself at some convenient passage, puts his hat in his pocket, and sticks a pen in his wig to represent a bookkeeper; the guide acquaints the countryman that that is the book-keeper of the inn, who immediately lays down his burden, and the book-keeper desires him to go over the way to his wife for the key of the warehouse, and in the mean time the two gamblers march off with the goods.

The next class use the following stratagem: one of them goes in the dress of a footman, and desires some tradesman to carry goods to his master, which are generally sent by the journeyman, who is carried into a parlour hired for that purpose, by the footman, who tells him he will carry the goods up to his master, and will bring down the account of what he chuses; but the moment he has got possession of the goods, he shuts the parlour door, and marches out of the passage; or if the master has a mind to assist the servant, he sends the tradesman back for other sorts; but before he returns, makes off with what he has got. Servants who have lived with tailors, mantua-makers, milliners, and other trades

that send frequently to the shops, have, when they have been discharged, gone in the name of the masters and mistresses to the said shops, and taken up great quantities of goods; in which they have succeeded the easier, from their being known to the shopkeeper. Might it not then be useful to give notice to the shopkeepers used by the said tradespeople, of their discharge of such servants?

There is another set who defraud tradesmen, by taking on themselves false names, and by pretending to be related to, or connected with, some persons of credit and fashion, and produce false letters to prove this intimacy. Some of these gamblers attend most of the fairs in the country, where they make it their business to inquire at inns, who serve them with their wines and brandies from London; and fish out of shopkeepers the names of the tradesmen here who supply them with goods: furnished with this knowledge they come to London, and one day appearing in the character of a country inn-keeper, they go to the distiller, whose name they have learned, telling him he has taken an inn in such a country; that he was recommended to him by one of his customers, whose name he tells him, and describes his house and family: the distiller's suspicion being lulled asleep by this stratagem, he cheerfully supplies his new customer with some of his best goods, and sends them to some appointed inn in town, from whence they are conveyed by the gambler, and converted into cash by selling them as run goods for half price. The very same scheme is practised on grocers and other shopkeepers, only by changing their character into that of a country shopkeeper: it is immaterial to them what goods they purchase. A gambler the other day bought of a farmer ten ton of potatoes, to be delivered one ton at a time, and when two ton were delivered they were to be paid for; but when the second ton came, the gambler disappeared; and had not the farmer been a man of spirit he would have lost his property, but finding himself defrauded, he took possession of the gambler's warehouse, and rescued his goods out of his hands.

There is another set of gamblers, commonly called duffers, who attend at Charing-cross, at St. Clement's Church, and Ludgate-hill, and invite you to go down some alley, and buy some cheap India handkerchiefs and waistcoats; but this cheat being grown stale, they use another method, which of late has been very successful. They apply themselves to some young publican to borrow 20 or 30 pounds to make up a sum, and to shew they do not want money in general, they produce a large purse well crammed with