Star.
London, England, 1824-09-28 00:00:00

•
who will thereby be prejudieu to the public detriment,
ventures to assert that there is no specific for Scrofula,
and that whdever professes to bare discovered one is
only attempting to gull mankind ; and when such as-
seasons get abroad under the influence of such a name,
it becomes, I think, the duty of those who know other-
wise, from trials which the profession will not make
nand set their faces against, to state what they do know,
and have proved, for the benefit of suffering humanity.
I shall be happy, therefore, if the statement here
given you, which I could not withhold on reading the
article referred to from the Lancet, should arrest 'heat-
tentton, and prove of interest to any sufferer under
Scrofula. - It will also afford me real pleasure to give
any further information or direction to any inquirers so
interested, as I h Ave had the privilege of such observation
and experience as enable are to speak with some confi-
dence, and of already satisfying several Ladies and
Gentlemen who have done me the honour of inspecting,
my poor patients, and in particular the Hon. Captain
Waldgrave, of Harptree Court, and other Gentlemen inl
the vicinity, that there is a specific fur Scrofula, simple,
and easy in its use, of general and ready application,
and perfectly safe, whilst effectual in its operation.
am, sir, ace. JOSIALI ALLPORT.

Chippenbam Vicarage, July 51, 1514.
To the Reverend and tespectable Author of the above
Letter, I beg leave to offer my sincere thanks, for his
honourable attempt to counteract the influence of preju-
dice and calumny ; but the subject appears to require a
few observations from myself, to prevent my opponents
from availing themselves of what may be considered ai
technical inaccuracy in Mr. Allpoit's statement.
When I first read the above Letter, I confess I some-
what doubted whether the language and epithets ascribed
to Sir Astley Cooper, in a publication called the
Lancet, were justly attributable to that iespectable prac-
titioner. Upon reference, however, to the pages of that
work, I find that in a lecture delivered at St. Thomas's
Hospital, on the 17th of May last, the lecturer (who is
there denominated the 44 Worthy Baronet," and must,
therefore,,l suppose, be considered Sir Astley Cooper)
is made to-use the following expressions :—" As to any
specifics for the cure of the complaint, (Scrofula) I need
not tell you that such do not exist." " Gentlemen, you
may lay it down as an axiom, that there is no specific
for the cure of Scrofula; and he who says there is, at-
tempts to gull mankind by the assertion of what is not
true."—Lancet, Vol. 4. No. 3, p. p. 69, 74.
Whether Sir Astley Cooper intended to include me
and my system in the above anathema I cannot tell, and
if he meant to restrict the term " specific" to its strict
technical import in medical phraseology, I shall not,,
perhaps, differ much from him ; nor could I entirely
justify all Mr. Allport's remarks in that Letter : viz. that
there is any one separate and distinct medicine which is,
in all cases and circumstances, to be relied upon, as a
certain and never-failing remedy for the Scrofula. How
many sbch specifics there may be in the whole circle of
medical science, if limited within this narrow definition,
the worthy Baronet will pet baps inform his admi, ing
pupils in some future lecture!
But if Sir Astley intended to assert, that there is no
mode of treatment, and no combination of medicines,
which may be safely and securely relied upon as ge-
nerally successful,—not merely for enabling a scro-
fulous patient to put on a summer appearance, or fair
weather dress, but such as will justify the medical
practitioner in holding out to the scrofulous patient,
a rational, scientific, and well-founded expectation,
that his disease will be constitutionally eradicated,
and that he will be restored to health and strength
(in which accommodated sense I frequently assert,
that my remedies amount to a specific for this af-
flictive malady, and I believe medical men do the
same in relation to other medicines and diseases), I pre:
some to give to Sir Astley Cooper the most positive
and unequivocal contradiction; and I vesture to assert,
that the statement attributed to the worthy Baronet
could never have been made if he had taken the trouble
to investigate the cases in the Asylum for the cure of
Scrofula, at Bayswater—those referred to by Mr. All-
pm t, in the vicinity of Chippenham—or the still more
numerous cases which are to be seen at my house every
Wednesday.
Nor does it seem very 'consistent a ith that spirit of
liberality for which the faculty so tehemeinly claim
credit, or with that candour by w hich a learned and en-
lightened profession ought always to be actuated, dog.
matically to assert that medicines, of the virtues and°
properties of which Sir Astley Cooper is wholly igno-
rant, may not be capable of producing a certain effect;
or that an individual must necessarily be an impostoi,
or propose to gull mankind, because he does not choose
to communicate gratuitously to every apothecary in the
kingdom, those discoveries which have been the result
of his own labour and anxious perseverance ; and the
benefit and advantage of which lie has, therefore, :he
most unquestionable right to reserve to himself as long
as he may think proper. Surely it argues no common I
portion of vanity, and a total want of humility, for
any practitioner, however exalted the eminence to
which he may have attained, to assume, that it is im-
possible for any other individual to have acquired the
knowledge of useful remedies, merely because they are
unknown to himself. Sir Astley Cooper must be well
aware, that the history of medicine furnishes a com-
plete refutation of so absurd an idea; nor will it be mat-
ter of great surprise to those who are acquainted with
Sir Astley Cooper's habit of life and line of practice, if
he, in particular, should not have absolutely exhausted
the whole arcane of the vegetable and mineral world.
It is not my intention to press this part of the
subject further at present, and still less to say any
thing offensive or disrespectful of Sir Astley Cooper,
who Justly occupies an eminent station in public opi-
nion, as an operating surgeon ; but it is my duty to
state, that I entirely differ from him as to the mode of
treating scrofulous patients, as laid down in the above
and subsequent lectures ; and that I consider it little
less than a miracle if a patient, under such a mode of
treatment as that ascribed to Sir Astley in these lectures
does not become much worse, rather than better.
I repeat, I wish to avoid every offensive intimation;
but I should not be honest. were I to conceal, that mul-
titudes of-cases pass under my eye every week, where
the very treatment, and the very medicines, recom-
mended by Sir Astley Cooper,* and others analogous
to them, have been practised and administered for years
without any effect decidedly beneficial, and, I wish I
could say, without any effect decidedly deleterious, but
which have yielded to my own system of treatment, and
to the medicines which I am enabled to administer.

Sir Astley Cooper facetiously remarks, " I remember
being once called on to subscribe to a charity instituted
for the cure of Scrofula, and I• said that I had no ob-

f Regular entries, conteleing Laid& demcdpsion *Leech cams-
and of the different proeddesits *lib bate- Vet& preViensir mid ink
oessively ooraokod, aro nisi Os books balm tff tindieyhilit•