could produce such wonderful Effects? But since those Benefits are to be procur’d another way, how difficult is it to bring People to conceive it? To build up such a Belief in the Minds of Men, is to raise a Structure, the Foundations of which, can be laid with no less Difficulty, than the removing of the Rubbish of a Vulgar Error._ _As for what I have said, relating to the Balsamick Method in the Cure of Consumptions, tho’ I may perhaps give Offence to many, yet I am sure I speak the Thoughts of some of the greatest of the Profession, if not of the generality of Physicians, who have for a great while, had a secret Regret, at the ill Success of those Means, which nothing could have stifl’d and suppress’d, but the Difficulty of agreeing to substitute better. This I do not pretend to do neither, this would be too daring an Enterprize for me; I only point out some few Mistakes, which one of my little Consideration, may sometimes discern in the Actions of those of greater Condition. And perhaps when these Mistakes are rectified, the Business is done, as well as if I had discovered to the World, some wondrous Medicine, dignifi’d with as many and as swelling Titles, as an Eastern Monarch; for it seems to me to be a great Mistake, to wait for some Medicine of a great Character, to be the Specifick, or Certain or Adequate Remedy of this Disease. I am inclin’d to think, that the Cure must result as much from some Circumstances of Management, as from any Medicine. ~I~ believe we have the best of Medicines for this Case, in our Hands, if we did but take Pains to obviate some minute Circumstances, that make those Medicines often prove deficient; if the Success did not vary by Reason of such small Emergencies, ~I~ don’t know how we should account for what we find to be true, ~viz.~ that some common and despicable Medicines shall in one Person produce a wonderful Cure, and in another do nothing at all, tho’ as far as Humane Wisdom can discern, the Case is exactly the same in both; and why should it seem strange, if this should happen in Cases, so fine as those of the Lungs, when we see in several Manufactures the Accuracy and Perfection of an Operation shall depend upon a certain ~Finesse~, the ~Criterion~ of which is scarce to be describ’d, but to be learn’d only by Numerous Repetitions. A Man may be told the Ingredients of a Composition, and the way of working ’em up; may see it done, and not be able to distinguish the Nicety of the Circumstances, which conspire to make the Work consummate. Do not we know, that in the ~Dyers~ Trade, (to give but one Instance) their Mixtures shall sometimes miscarry, and the best Artist not be able to shew a Reason for it; now if it is thus in matters of Artifice, I think we may with great reason suspect something of a like Nature, in some few Cases of the Humane Body; in these Maladies of the Breath, there is a ~Finesse~ peculiarly distinguish’d from the Circumstances of any other