4. It was objected to this purge, that it inflamed and lacerated the stomach and bowels. In support of this calumny, the inflamed and mortified appearances, which those viscera exhibited upon dissection in a patient who died at the hospital at Bush-hill, were spoken of with horror in some parts of the city. To refute this objection it will only be necessary to review the account formerly given of the state of the stomach and bowels after death from the yellow fever, in cases in which no mercury had been given. I have before taken notice that sir John Pringle and Dr. Cleghorn had prescribed mercurial purges with success in the dysentery, a disease in which the bowels are affected with more irritation and inflammation than in the yellow fever. Dr. Clark informs us that he had adopted this practice. I shall insert the eulogium of this excellent physician upon the use of mercury in the dysentery in his own words. "For several years past, when the dysentery has resisted the common mode of practice, I have administered mercury with the greatest success; and am thoroughly persuaded that it is possessed of powers to _remove inflammation_ and _ulceration_ of the intestines, which are the chief causes of death in this distemper[72]." [72] Vol. ii. p. 342. 5. It was urged against this powerful and efficacious medicine, that it was prescribed indiscriminately in all cases, and that it did harm in all weak habits. To this I answer, that there was no person so weak by constitution or a previous disease, as to be injured by a single dose of this medicine. Mrs. Meredith, the wife of the treasurer of the United States, a lady of uncommon delicacy of constitution, took two doses of the powder in the course of twelve hours, not only without any inconvenience, but with an evident increase of strength soon afterwards. Many similar cases might be mentioned. Even children took two or three doses of it with perfect safety. This will not surprise those physicians who have been in the practice of giving from ten to twenty grains of mercury, with an equal quantity of jalap as a worm purge, and from fifty to a hundred grains of calomel, in the course of four or five days, in the internal dropsy of the brain. But I am happy in being able to add further, that many women took it in every stage of pregnancy without suffering the least inconvenience from it. Out of a great number of pregnant women whom I attended in this fever I did not lose one to whom I gave this medicine, nor did any of them suffer an abortion. One of them had twice miscarried in the course of the two or three last years of her life. She bore a healthy child three months after her recovery from the yellow fever.