登陆注册
15444900000007

第7章 I(4)

He would have done much better to have laid his impressions before some experienced physicians and surgeons, such as Dr. Mead and Mr. Cheselden, to have asked them to try his experiment over again, and have been guided by their answers. But the good bishop got excited; he pleased himself with the thought that he had discovered a great panacea; and having once tasted the bewitching cup of self-quackery, like many before and since his time, he was so infatuated with the draught that he would insist on pouring it down the throats of his neighbors and all mankind.

The precious fluid was made by stirring a gallon of water with a quart of tar, leaving it forty-eight hours, and pouring off the clear water. Such was the specific which the great metaphysician recommended for averting and curing all manner of diseases. It was, if he might be believed, a preventive of the small-pox, and of great use in the course of the disease. It was a cure for impurities of the blood, coughs, pleurisy, peripneumony, erysipelas, asthma, indigestion, carchexia, hysterics, dropsy, mortification, scurvy, and hypochondria. It was of great use in gout and fevers, and was an excellent preservative of the teeth and gums; answered all the purpose of Elixir Proprietatis, Stoughton's drops, diet drinks, and mineral waters; was particularly to be recommended to sea-faring persons, ladies, and men of studious and sedentary lives; could never be taken too long, but, on the contrary, produced advantages which sometimes did not begin to show themselves for two or three months.

"From my representing Tar Water as good for so many things," says Berkeley, "some perhaps may conclude it is good for nothing. But charity obligeth me to say what I know, and what I think, however it may be taken. Men may censure and object as they please, but I appeal to time and experiment. Effects misimputed, cases wrong told, circumstances overlooked, perhaps, too, prejudices and partialities against truth, may for a time prevail and keep her at the bottom of her well, from whence nevertheless she emergeth sooner or later, and strikes the eyes of all who do not keep them shut." I cannot resist the temptation of illustrating the bishop's belief in the wonderful powers of his remedy, by a few sentences from different parts of his essay. "The hardness of stubbed vulgar constitutions renders them insensible of a thousand things that fret and gall those delicate people, who, as if their skin was peeled off, feel to the quick everything that touches them. The tender nerves and low spirits of such poor creatures would be much relieved by the use of Tar Water, which might prolong and cheer their lives." "It [the Tar Water] may be made stronger for brute beasts, as horses, in whose disorders I have found it very useful." " This same water will also give charitable relief to the ladies, who often want it more than the parish poor; being many of them never able to make a good meal, and sitting pale, puny, and forbidden, like ghosts, at their own table, victims of vapors and indigestion." It does not appear among the virtues of Tar Water that "children cried for it," as for some of our modern remedies, but the bishop says, "I have known children take it for above six months together with great benefit, and without any inconvenience; and after long and repeated experience I do esteem it a most excellent diet drink, fitted to all seasons and ages." After mentioning its usefulness in febrile complaints, he says: "I have had all this confirmed by my own experience in the late sickly season of the year one thousand seven hundred and forty-one, having had twenty- five fevers in my own family cured by this medicinal water, drunk copiously." And to finish these extracts with a most important suggestion for the improvement of the British nation: "It is much to be lamented that our Insulars who act and think so much for themselves, should yet, from grossness of air and diet, grow stupid or doat sooner than other people, who, by virtue of elastic air, water-drinking, and light food, preserve their faculties to extreme old age; an advantage which may perhaps be approached, if not equaled, even in these regions, by Tar Water, temperance, and early hours."

Berkeley died at the age of about seventy; he might have lived longer, but his fatal illness was so sudden that there was not time enough to stir up a quart of the panacea. He was an illustrious man, but he held two very odd opinions; that tar water was everything, and that the whole material universe was nothing.

同类推荐
热门推荐
  • 天空睡着了

    天空睡着了

    我养的猫长大了那棵你栽的盆栽也开花了所以我的安羽啊你什么时候才明白我喜欢你
  • 穗穗平安

    穗穗平安

    我叫苏静,唔~也可以叫我秦穗,人生二十年,作为一个万年潜水宅女,向来都是我看别人天雷滚滚,从来没想过自己也会有这么一天。人生何处不意外?谁能想到有一天我可以摇身一变成为秦家正正经经的大小姐!!!!没有奇葩的七大姑八大姨,没有高冷神秘的未婚夫,总之,狗血似乎从我进了秦家的门就停止了。嘛~这种日子就该晒晒太阳,养养花,打打游戏,做点喜欢的事,把宅文化彻底贯彻下去啊!!!游戏最好还是当个小透明,笑看各路年度大戏啊!啧。。这日子真是快活似神仙呐,要不我取个法号?
  • 人生大道

    人生大道

    人生领悟,关于学习,生活的感受我的小学过得有些滇沛,坎坷。多少来自农村的学生去城市创造。我也是其中的一员,我从未上过幼儿园——
  • 界位无敌

    界位无敌

    他是修真者,却渡极九天劫,炼惩戒雷霆,吸万尺寒冰。终成极灵之火,驻极灵之冰。于灵界成仙元之力,无敌于灵界。飞升成仙。成神之极境。
  • 无限之超越梦想

    无限之超越梦想

    迄今多少不平事,且抒郁气共我行!主角的名字叫孔宣,既然叫这个名字,自然是跟圣人之下战力第一的佛母脱不开关系。本故事讲的是身为一普通地球人的孔宣在得到了主神空间的胚胎后如何一步步发展,最终将整个宇宙纳入无限空间的故事!主角说:在这茫茫人海我们不曾孤单,只因一路上有兄弟相伴!他们的收藏,推荐,都是他们无声的呐喊!
  • EXO之浅涩

    EXO之浅涩

    李菲雨,EXO你们给我等着,我墨梓惜总有一天会回来的。两年后黄子韬:哟,这不是墨梓惜吗。鹿晗:惜惜,你回来了(你知道这两年我有多想你吗)张艺兴:惜惜我相信你没有伤害李菲雨。朴灿烈:你回来干嘛,我是不会让你伤害菲雨的。李菲雨:惜姐姐,你回来了(这个贱女人怎么回来了)边伯贤:小雨我们走,不要理这个贱女人。
  • 无价雇佣

    无价雇佣

    十年一剑,冰瀚者首发作品无价雇佣将给大家带来不一样的体验
  • 火澜

    火澜

    当一个现代杀手之王穿越到这个世界。是隐匿,还是崛起。一场血雨腥风的传奇被她改写。一条无上的强者之路被她踏破。修斗气,炼元丹,收兽宠,化神器,大闹皇宫,炸毁学院,打死院长,秒杀狗男女,震惊大陆。无止尽的契约能力,上古神兽,千年魔兽,纷纷前来抱大腿,惊傻世人。她说:在我眼里没有好坏之分,只有强弱之分,只要你能打败我,这世间所有都是你的,打不败我,就从这世间永远消失。她狂,她傲,她的目标只有一个,就是凌驾这世间一切之上。三国皇帝,魔界妖王,冥界之主,仙界至尊。到底谁才是陪着她走到最后的那个?他说:上天入地,我会陪着你,你活着,有我,你死,也一定有我。本文一对一,男强女强,强强联手,不喜勿入。
  • 雪隐外传——天使劫

    雪隐外传——天使劫

    他——是雪隐大陆上的杀手,仇家满天下她——是来自明界天使城中的天使,任性又可爱她——来自中州,原本只是深山中修仙的一只小蓝狐,却被他变成了人他们之间,说不清是谁救了谁,一番生死轮回二十五年,几朝梦里花开花落,一切开始终归于结束之后。
  • 灵异学校

    灵异学校

    在这个世界上,鬼怪之类的东西很多。虽然大部分人看不见,因而并不把它们当成一回事,但是无论如何,存在的东西始终也是存在的。就跟人类一样,鬼怪也有好有坏,他们本来并不是这个世界的居民,但是因为重重原因而滞留在这里。如果他们不捣乱倒也罢了,偏偏大多数的鬼怪都是很喜欢开玩笑的,而他们开的玩笑,很多都让人类无法忍受--比如说,早上一起床,你要上厕所,厕所的里蹲着一只鬼。