• Think on the Meed, that tickles fweet your Hand, The glitt'ring Meed, no Doctor can withstand. ; Tho' Doctors differ for the human Tripe Tho' fome the Purge prefer, and fome the Pipe; Or in th' Inteftines raife the fharp Commotion, 70 Some with a Pill, and others with a Potion Tho', to apply the Flayer of the Skin, Some hold a Virtue, others hold a Sin; In Antimony fome their Truft repofe, And fome in Mercury-to fave a Nofe; In this one Point ye never difagree,Ye're all unanimous-about the Fee. 75 Come then, my Friends, (for now methinks I fpy • A mild Complacency in ev'ry Eye,) • Think on the Meed, that tickles fweet your Hand,80 The glitt'ring Meed, no Doctor can withstand. NOTE S. V. 72. The Flayer of the Skin. • Like A poetical Expreffion for Emplaftr. Epispastic.In plain English, a Blister. V. 76. In this one Point ye never difagree, Ye're all unanimous-about the Fee. About each Symptom how they difagree,- V. 80. Think on the Meed that tickles fweet your Hand, To corroborate the Truth of this Maxim, we fhall take the Liberty of fetting down the two following fhort Stories, by Way of Illuftration. The Circum Z 2 340 THE BATTLE OF THE WIGS. • Can Socio boast a greater Pow'r, or Skill? While ye difpute, and quarrel for a Word, • Behold! your Patients are to Health restor’d. NOTE S. Y Be H Each 85 And He Circumftances required the Stile of the Narration to be more familiar than would fuit with the Dignity of the Reft of the Poem, to have them interwoven in the Body of it. A Doctor once (no Matter whence I ween, Oh, very well:-'tis all the fame to me.? A Doctor once (O tell it not in Bath, Left Doctor Somebody be much in Wrath,) No Pulfe-no Breath-the Man in fhort was dead.- V. 87. Behold! your Patients are to Health reftor'd. It is very remarkable, that the Decrease of Burials within the Bills of Mortality for the Year 1767, is not lefs than 1299, owing (it may perhaps be fuppofed) to the Physicians having been fo much taken up with Squabbles among themselves. * See the General Bil of Mortality, fet forth by the Parish Clerks, from December 15, 1766, to December 15, 1767. • Ye A Car (Laid Leads Twel And w V.99 An One I And f V.94 V.95 Aig guage to the • Ye three-tail'd Sages, cease your Difputation, Be Friends, and focial join in Confultation; Each shake his loaded Noddle with the other, 90 • And Brother gravely smell his Cane with Brother.' He ended, and forthwith to Sight appears A Car triumphal in the Form of Hearse: Six coal-black Steeds drag'd its flow Length along,' From whence a Paffage, difmal, dark, and dank, And with lethiferous Nightfhade ftrew the Ground: NOTE S. 105 V. 9o. Each shake his loaded Noddle with the cther, And Brother gravely fmell his Cane with Brother. An Imitation of the following Lines; One Fool lolls his Tongue out at another, And shakes his empty Noddle at his Brother. V. 94. Six coal-black Steeds drag'd its flow Length along, A needlefs Alexandrine ends the Song, V. 95. Deaf to Aight, Aight, and heedlefs to the Thong. Aight, Aight-an Expreffion in the Huynhym Language, made Ufe of by Coachmen, &c. in speaking to the Horfes, fignifying, Go on. Z3 A ftrong A ftrong Perfume, as in his Car he rode, 106 Their Feuds forgot, the Doctors, with Amaze NOTE. V. 106. Aftrong Perfume, as in his Car he rode, Affa Foetida, vulgarly called Devil's Dung; Abun- SHAKE- SHAKESPEARE: A N EPISTLE TO D. GARRICK, Efq. Nil Admirari. HOR. Quod fi tam Graijs, Novitas invifa fuisset, HANKS to much Industry and Pains, No more fhall Tafte prefume to speak, Critic, I hear thy Torrent rage, In the firft Eflays of Man's Wit. Shall ancient Worth, or ancient Fame Preclude the Moderns from their Claim? Muft 74 |