He endeavoured to moderate the acridity of the bile by opiates and other narcotics. It will scarcely be believed, though it was a natural consequence of his opinions, when we state that he recommended ammoniacal preparations, particularly his oleaginous volatile salt, and spirit of hartshorn, &c., as cures for almost all diseases. Sometimes they were employed to correct the acidity of the lymph, sometimes to destroy the acid acridity of the pancreatic juice, sometimes to correct the inertness of the vital spirits, sometimes to promote the secretions, and to induce a flow of the menses. Volatile spirit of amber and opium were prescribed by him in intermittent fevers; and volatile salts in almost all acute diseases. He united them with antivenomous potions, angelica, contrayerva, bezoard, crabs’ eyes, and other similar substances. These absorbents seemed to him very necessary to correct the acidity of the pancreatic juice, and the acridity of the bile. In administering them he paid no attention to the regular course which acute diseases usually run; he neither inquired into the remote nor proximate causes of disease, nor to the symptoms: every thing was neglected connected with induction, and his whole proceedings regulated by wild speculations and absurd theories, quite inconsistent with the phenomena of nature. To attempt to refute these wild notions of Sylvius would be loss of time. It is extraordinary, and almost incredible, that he could have regulated his practice by them: and it is a still more incredible thing, and exhibits a very humiliating view of human nature, that these crudities and absurdities were swallowed with avidity by crowds of students, who placed a blind reliance on the dogmas of their master, and were initiated by him into a method of treating their patients, better calculated than any other that could easily have been devised, to aggravate all their diseases, and put an end to their lives. If any of the patients of the iatro-chemists ever recovered their health, well might it be said that their recovery was not the consequence of the prescriptions of their physicians, but that it took place in spite of them.[168] [168] As an example of the prescriptions of Sylvius, we give the following for malignant fever: _R._ Theriac. veter. ᴣij Antim. diaphor. ᴣj Syrup. Card. Benedic. ℥ij Aq. prophylact. ℥j -- Cinnam. ℥ss -- Scabios. ℥ij M. D.