Page:The Works of the Rev. Jonathan Swift, Volume 12.djvu/379

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DR. SWIFT.
367


DEAR SIR,


THE passage in Mr. Pope's letter about your health does not alarm me: both of us have had the distemper these thirty years. I have found that steel, the warm gums, and the bark, all do good in it. Therefore, first take the vomit A; then, every day, the quantity of a nutmeg, in the morning, of the electuary, marked B; with five spoonfuls of the tincture marked D. Take the tincture, but not the electuary, in the afternoon. You may take one of the pills marked C, at any time when you are troubled with it, or thirty of the drops marked E, in any vehicle, even water. I had a servant of my own, that was cured merely with vomiting. There is another medicine not mentioned, which you may try; the pulvis rad. valerianæ sylvestris, about a scruple of it twice a day. How came you to take it in your head, that I was queen's physician? When I am so, you shall be a bishop, or any thing you have a mind to. Pope is now the great reigning poetical favourite. Your lord lieutenant[2] has a mind to be well with you. Lady Betty Germain complains you have not writ to her since she wrote to you. I have showed as much civility to Mrs. Barber as I could, and she likewise to me. I have no more

  1. Endorsed, "Received, Nov. 13, 1730."
  2. The duke of Dorset.
paper,