"Ode to Health;

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[page 17]
General Washington's Last Illness.
By J. Reid M.D. Physician to the Finsbury Dispen-
sary, and Prof. of Theory and Practice of Physic.
I can only find place for a brief extract, in which
he says, "Think of a man being within the brief space
of little more than twelve hours, deprived of 80 or 90
ounces of blood: afterwards swallowing two moderate American doses of calomel and five or six grains of
emetic tartar: vapors of vinegar and water worse frequently inhaled; the doses of calomel were accompanied by
an injection; blister plasters applied to the extremities:
a cataplasim of bran and vinegar applied to his throat,
on which a blister had already been fixed; is it surprising
that when thus treated, the afflicted General after various ineffectual struggles for utterance, at length articulated
a desire that he might be allowed to die without inter-
ruption! To have resisted the fatal opperation of such herculean remedies, one should imagine, this venerable
old man ought, at least to have retained the vigor of his
earliest youth."
How sad, to replect, that after all the dangers and difficult-
ties through which that great man had passed he
should at least fall a victim to such terrible butchery.

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