An Account of Remarkable Cures, Performed by the Use of Maredant's Antiscorbutic Drops/Letter from Robert Shields

by John Norton

To Mr. NORTON, Surgeon, Golden-Square.
SIR,	Pill, near Bristol March 18, 1772.

I Think I should be undeserving the Benefit I have received and greatly dificient in Point of Gratitude to you, did I not lay before the Public my late deplorable Situation, and the Benefit I have received by your Maredant’s Drops. My Case was this. About a Year and a Half since, I got a Cold, (by riding to Bath in a rainy Day) succeeded by a malignant Fever, which, with Difficulty, I survived: Some Months after this, I perceived an Eruption on my Arms and Legs, and afterwards on my Face, to such a violent Degree, that it was one entire Scab, and smelt intolerably; my Eyes, Nose, and Mouth, were almost closed up, which obliged me, for some Time, to live on Spoon-Meat only: I had also three inveterate Ulcers on my left Leg, and was reduced to a mere Skeleton. I had the Advice of the most eminent of the Faculty at Bristol, to no Purpose. In this deplorable Situation was I, when I heard of the almost incredible Cures performed hy your Drops: By taking them the Ulcers in my Leg are healed, the Eruption has disappeared, and I enjoy a better state of Health than I have for these several Years past. I desire you will make this public, for the Benefit of my Fellow-Sufferers.

I am, with Gratitude,
Your much obliged humble Servant,
ROBERT SHIELDS.

Witnesses,

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Thomas Rawlins, Wiliam Hodds.