You rather mifconceive my meaning, in one part of a former letter; Homer most assuredly never heard of the eighth pair of nerves, or perhaps of any other nerves, in the fense we now understand them: he knew from obfervation and experience, that any confiderable wound in the throat would occafion speedy death. It is my belief, that Homer attributed this to the effufion of blood entirely, though unacquainted with its circulation-he knew facts, and that was fufficient. You know much better than myself, that it is poffible for an anatomical furgeon to puncture, with a sharp instrument, some of the nerves that pass along the throat, and occasion speedy death, with very little effufion of blood. I introduced the mention of the nerves, therefore, as a collateral proof that a wound in the throat would make, in Homer's phrase, "a speedy paffage for the foul;" but never meant to infinuate, that he knew thofe nerves or their office.

LETTER VII.

MEDICAL KNOWLEDGE

HOME R.

SIR,

A Propos! Of grief-alleviating medicines! —I must

now, however, in one respect, use the liberty that Shakespeare does in the drama-break all the unities of time and place, and carry you in imagination to the court of Menelaus and the far-famed Helena, (turn to the 4th book of the Odyffey); you will find her employed in infufing a certain drug in wine fhe gives to her guests; the fon of Neftor and the fon of Ulyffes. This pleasant beverage has been called in the Latin and in the English language nepenthé; though Homer ftiles it paguanov vnwerdes, * the grief-affuaging medicine, using the word Eves as an

* Derived from ev, fignifying privation, and waveos, grief.

adjective

adjective only. What this medicine might be, has puzzled the commentators. Read Homer's beautiful, defcription of his powers, and confider its temporary effect, (for he confines its operation to the space of a day) and your penetration will fuggeft, that the medicine could be nothing but opium, or fome infufion of the poppy; a plant, whose juice is even now imported from Turkey, and abounds in Egypt. In this paffage, I catch Homer deriving his knowledge from that most antient people the Ægyptians. He tells us, that the beautiful Helena, while The was in Egypt with her husband, learned the ufe of this potion from Polydamna, the wife of Thón, an Egyptian king.

Now the fact is, Homer learned it himself from some of the Egyptian physicians. Herodotus fays, that Egypt abounded with phyficians of all forts, and records a fact worthy of attention; that the fame phyficians then, did not, as they now do, attempt to cure all disorders indiscriminately; but that there was a particular phyfician for almost every disease ; and that there were particular physicians or surgeons for the diseases of the ears, eyes, and teeth, (fo that the tribe of our modern dentists has a very antient origin.

origin). It appears further, that opium was used in the days of Homer, (at least in the court of Sparta,) as it is now by the Turks, neither as a medicine nor as a poison, but as an article of luxury; by means of its exhilirating quality.

Homer bestows the greatest encomiums in all parts of his works on poets and practitioners of the healing art—a collateral proof that he himself was both -read the following, and reverence yourself.

Ιητρος δε έκαςΘ. επιςάμενΘ περί πάντων

Ανθρώπων

This question admits of a two-fold construction. Either-each intelligent physician is to be esteemed above all men,—or, each physician is skilful beyond all men; adopt which sense you please.

LETTER VIII.

REMARKS

ON THE

GREEK LANGUAGE.

SIR,

IAM

AM by no means fo good a judge of the Greek tongue as you suppose me to be: but the word "," a muscle, is generally derived from the primitive noun "us," a moufe; but I could almost wish to be authorized to derive it from the verb "" to contract; for though the firft etymology expreffes its form, the latter most happily expresses its action; indeed, the language of Attica aptly expreffes every idea of the human mind. The rays of genius feem to have shone on that happy spot, like the rays of the fun concentrated in the burning glass; and her natives seem to have formed their language on the fame principles of taste as they formed their ftatues let us pursue the comparison a little.

The