Lastly, it will be proper to inquire what diseases the patient has formerly been liable to, and what medicines were most beneficial to him; if he has a strong aversion to any particular drug, &c. As many of the indications of cure may be answered by diet alone, it is always the first thing to be attended to in the treatment of diseases. Those who know no better, imagine that every thing which goes by the name of a medicine possesses some wonderful power or secret charm, and think, if the patient swallows enough of drugs, that he must do well. This mistake has many ill consequences; it makes people trust to drugs, and neglect their own endeavours; besides, it discourages all attempts to relieve the sick where medicines cannot be obtained. Medicines are no doubt useful in their place; and, when administered with prudence, they may do much good; but when they are put in place of every thing else, or administered at random, which is not seldom the case, they must do mischief. We would therefore wish to call the attention of mankind from the pursuit of secret medicines, to such things as they are acquainted with. The proper regulation of these may often do much good, and there is little danger of their ever doing hurt. Every disease weakens the digestive powers. The diet ought therefore, in all diseases, to be light and of easy digestion. It would be as prudent for a person with a broken leg to attempt to walk, as for one in a fever to eat the same kind of food, and in the same quantity, as when he was in perfect health. Even abstinence alone will often cure a fever, especially when it has been occasioned by excess in eating or drinking. In all fevers attended with inflammation, as pleurisies, peripneumonies, &c. thin gruels, wheys, watery infusions of mucilaginous plants, roots, &c. are not only proper for the patients food, but they are likewise the best medicines which can be administered. In fevers of a slow, nervous, or putrid kind, where there are no symptoms of inflammation, and where the patient must be supported with cordials, that intention can always be more effectually answered by nourishing diet and generous wines, than by any medicines yet known. Nor is a proper attention to diet of less importance in chronic than in acute diseases. Persons afflicted with low spirits, wind, weak nerves, and other hypochondriacal affections, generally find more benefit from the use of solid food and generous liquors, than from all the cordial and carminitive medicines which can be administered to them. The scurvy, that most obstinate malady, will sooner yield to a proper vegetable diet, than to all the boasted antiscorbutic remedies of the shops.