possessed the power, which he seems to doubt :

By others we are told that King Charles the Second cured by his touch in five years 23,621 cases of scrofula! But in George the First the power was lost-or rather, we should say, in his reign it was transferred from the king to the finger of an executed felon! And even to this day, many of the lower classes in England, afflicted with this malady, resort to the gallows for the purpose of being cured!

"CHAP. I.-OF THE CURE OF THE EVIL BY THE KING'S TOUCH.

"What great difficulty we meet with in the cure of the king's-evil, the daily experience both of physicians and chirurgeons doth show. I thought it therefore worth my while to spend a whole treatise upon the subject, and very particularly to go through the description of it, informing thereby the young chirurgeon whatever is requisite to the cure, at least as far as it cometh within the compass of our art. But when upon trial he shall find the contumaciousness of that disease, which frequently deludeth his best care and industry, he will find reason of acknowledging the goodness of God; who hath

dealt so bountifully with this nation, in giving the kings of it, at least from the Confessor downwards (if not for a longer time), an extraordinary power in the miraculous cure thereof. This our chronicles have all along testified, and the personal experience of many thousands uow living can witness for His Majesty that now reigneth, and his royal father and grandfather: His Majesty that now is having exercised that faculty with wonderful success, not only here, but beyond the seas in Flanders, Holland and France itself."

"But it is not my business to enter into divinity-controversies: all that I pretend to is, first, the attestation of the miracles; and, secondly, a direction for such as have not opportunity of receiving the benefit of that stupendous power. The former of these, one would think, should need no other proof than the great concourse of strumous persons to Whitehall, and the success they find in it. I myself have been a frequent eye-witness of many hundreds of cures performed by His Majesty's touch alone; without any assistance of chirurgery; and those many of them, such as had tired out the endeavors of able chirurgeons before they came thither. It were end

less to recite what I myself have seen, and what I have received acknowledgments of by letter, not only from the several parts of this nation, but also from Ireland, Scotland, Jersey, and Guernsey. It is needless also to remember what miracles of this nature were performed by the very blood of his late Majesty of blessed memory, after whose decollation by the inhumane barbarity of the regicides, the reliques of that were gathered on chips, and in handkerchiefs, by the pious devotees, who could not but think so great a suffering in so honorable and pious a cause would be attended by an extraordinary assistance of God, and some more than ordinary miracle; nor did their faith deceive them in this point, there being so many hundred that found the benefit of it. If his dead blood were accompanied with so much of virtue, what shall we say of his living image, the inheritor of his cause and kingdom? whom though it hath pleased God to deliver out of those dangers that overwhelmed his royal father; yet it was with so long an exercise of afflictions, that though (God be thanked), he be not now like to increase the catalogue of martyrs, yet he may well be added to the number of confessors. This we are sure, the miracle has not ceased." Yours truly, WARREN.

SIXTH CONVERSATION.

American Empiricisms-Is it our Duty to Assist the Charlatan in making a Diagnosis?—The Duty of an Engineer.

Dr. Putnam. I have read your letter, containing copious references to foreign medical delusions; which I value the more because your notes are enriched by your own personal experience, obtained in your extensive travels abroad.

Dr. Warren. I trust you will see that the closing proposition made by me in our last interview is sustained.

Dr. Putnam. It may seem ungracious in me to say so, but, Doctor, I must declare to you frankly that you have by your superior learning furnished me with new weapons of defence for my own opinions, and given an edge to those which I had intended to use.

Dr. Warren. I shall not regret it, if only we are enabled thereby to reach the truth.

Dr. Putnam. The medical delusions of other

countries, so far as they have been cited by you, and so far as my own reading has informed me, have been, with few exceptions, associated with religious beliefs or in some other way they belong to the supernatural. The believers in them attribute their cures to a divine or superhuman agency. No one derives any pecuniary profit from them, not even the priests, although a fee is sometimes accepted by them; but it has never been charged against these priests that they put the fees into their own pockets. They accept the money, or other presents voluntarily offered them, and put them into the common treasury of the church. They do not make a trade or a profession of curing disease, and they never become personally enriched by it. Observe, Dr. Warren, that while I recognize the medical superstitions to which you have referred as gross errors, I hold them to be only representations of religious faith. In this country medical delusions of this class rarely secure even a temporary footing, and they never spread widely, or indeed beyond very narrow circles. To take root here and to propagate successfully the medical belief must be human in its source, and be able to present a theory for its existence.