Neither can I, tho’ an occasion be fairly offer’d, by any means be induced to intermeddle in the Controversie of those Gentlemen, who by the help of Two Words are made Masters both of Philosophy and Physick; I mean, the Violent Assertors of _Acid_ and _Alkali_. These scanty Principles fall infinitely short of that vast Variety there is in the Works of Nature; However, for Their Sakes who are as yet Advanc’d no farther, I will advise the Contending Parties, (because little good is got by Quarrelling) to Think of an Union, and if They can find no Remedies but out of these Two Tribes, to make Use of such as result from a prudent Mixture of some out of Each. If this _Project_ does not take, to Resolve however on both sides, To Distinguish the differing Times of the same Disease, and know, that _as_, on the one Hand, _Acid_ Medicines are oftentimes as certainly hurtful in the latter End, as they do service in the Beginning of the Fever; _so_, on the other, those which are _Alcalious_ must necessarily for the same Reason do mischief in the first Periods, for which they are profitable in the last Days of the Distemper. By what Mechanism this comes to pass, They will easily understand, when they have learn’d what Alteration such things as these are do make in the humane Body; nor will it then be a difficult Matter to convince Them, That He is equally a fond Slave to an _Hypothesis_, who because _Acids_ are sometimes of great Service in Fevers, concludes that their Origine is _Alcalious_; as He who knowing that Stagnating and Fermenting Juices do easily turn to _Acidity_, from thence Argues that _Alcalies_ are the only Cure of this Stagnation and Ferment. But Dr. _Pitcarne_ (172) has abundantly demonstrated the Weakness of These Men’s Reasonings, and the Vanity of such Immechanical Theories. And here I would put a Period to this Part of the Discourse, were it not that these Distempers being sometimes _Contagious_, and _Contagion_ being justly reputed a real _Poison_, it may be worth the while to examine a little what This is, and wherein it consists; more especially, because some may perhaps be apt to think This to be an Argument of an _Occult Venom_’s being the First and Original Cause.