in the Troches, will deserve a more
strict Examination, because it is not only depended on in many Chronical
Diseases, but the Life of the Patient in the Acute and Pestilential is
betray'd and lost, if it has no alexiterial Powers to expel the Malignity,
or support the natural Vigour. But as the Flesh of all Animals, and Fish,
when dry'd, have exhal'd the Volatile Spirits with the Moisture, and
nothing remains but the Skins and Fibres, and are capable of giving very
little Nourishment to the Blood, and are very difficult to be dissolv'd,
or digested in the Stomach: You may conclude, by trying when in Health, if
Vipers will support your Strength, or if eating of the Flesh in all the
Kinds of Cookery, will please the Palate more than the common Food, what
you may hope from the dry Powder, or the Cake of it with Salt and Meal,
(and the Troches of Vipers are no more) when your Fever calls for the best
Alexipharmick. You may to this compare the Skulls of dead Men, now
presum'd to command the Epilepsies, and other violent Diseases, if the
Skull has been long in Powder, or has long surviv'd the Criminal, the
Spirits distill'd from it, are not stronger than those from the Horn of a
Stag, or the Spirits of Urin by it self, or from Sal Armoniack: the Shell
of the Head preserves the Brains, and the Powder shall not fail to
preserve the Spirits of all the Brains which can be perswaded to use it.

What can you think will be the Success, from the Use of the Nest of the
Swallow, or the Cast off Skin of a Serpent; your Thoughts will naturally
reflect on the perfidious Fourbery of making great Gain from the Bubbles
put on the Sick, or the vile Negligence of the rest who have suffer'd the
fatal Amusements to be at last confirm'd by Custom.

After these it may seem needless to speak of the gainful Industry, which
has brought the Horns of the Elk, the Bufalo, Rhinoceros, and of the
Unicorn's Horn, which is no other than the Bone of a Fish, and has been
thought sufficient alone to expel all Poisons; or the Hoofs of the Elk
and the Ounce, or the Bone of the Hart of a Stag, the Effect of his old
Age; or the Jaw-bones of the Pyke, _&c._ or the Ancle-bones of the Hares
and Boars, _&c._ with the Eagle-Stone, and those for the Cramp, and
Convulsions, and Cholicks, the great Assistance from your Amulets, and
abounding Nostrums, cannot sufficiently be derided.

Of the simple distill'd Waters, one hundred and fifty are appointed to be
made, the gr