f all others to be
misunderstood at first, and thence neglected; till the physician shakes
his head at a few first questions. None steals so fatally upon the
sufferer: its advances are by very slow degrees; but every day it grows
more difficult of cure.

That this obstruction in the spleen is the true malady, the cases
related by the antients, present observation, and the unerring
testimonies of dissections leave no room to doubt. Being understood, the
path is open where to seek a remedy: and our best guides in this, as in
the former instance, will be those venerable Greeks; who saw a thousand
of these cases, where we see one; and with less than half our theory,
cured twice as many patients.

One established doctrine holds place in all these writers; that whatever
by a hasty fermentation dissolves the impacted matter of the
obstruction, and sends it in that state into the blood, does incredible
mischief: but that whatever medicine softens it by slow degrees, and, as
it melts, delivers it to the bowels without disturbance; will cure with
equal certainty and safety.

For this good purpose, they knew and tried a multitude of herbs; but in
the end they fixed on one: and on their repeated trials of this, they
banished all the rest. This stood alone for the cure of the disease; and
from its virtue received the name of SPLEEN-WORT[21]. O wise and happy
Greeks! authors of knowledge and perpetuators of it! With them the very
name they gave a plant declared its virtues: with us, a writer calls a
plant from some friend; that the good gardener who receives the honour,
may call another by his name who gave it. We now add the term _smooth_
to this herb, to distinguish it from another, called by the same general
term, though not much resembling it.

The virtues of this smooth Spleen-wort have flood the test of ages; and
the plant every where retained its name and credit: and one of our good
herbalists, who had seen a wonderful case of a swoln spleen, so big, and
hard as to be felt with terror, brought back to a state of nature by it;
and all the miserable symptoms vanish; thought Spleen-wort not enough
expressive of its excellence; but stamp'd on it the name of MILT-WASTE.

In the Greek Islands now, the use of it is known to every one; and even
the lazy monks who take it, are no longer splenetic. In the west of
England, the rocks are stripped of it with diligence; and every old woman
tells you how charming that leaf is for bookis