 proportion. I have since
been informed, that the person, whom my uncle so generously relieved, is the
widow of an ensign, who has nothing to depend upon but the pension of fifteen
pounds a year. The people of the Well-house give her an excellent character. She
lodges in a garret, and works very hard at plain-work, to support her daughter,
who is dying of a consumption. I must own, to my shame, I feel a strong
inclination to follow my uncle's example, in relieving this poor widow; but,
betwixt friends, I am afraid of being detected in a weakness, that might entail
the ridicule of the company upon,
Dear Phillips,
yours always,
                                                                      J. MELFORD
 
Direct your next to me at Bath; and remember me to all our fellow-jesuits.
 

                                  To Dr. Lewis

                                                              Hot Well, April 20
I understand your hint. There are mysteries in physick, as well as in religion;
which we of the profane have no right to investigate - A man must not presume to
use his reason, unless he has studied the categories, and can chop logic by mode
and figure - Between friends, I think, every man of tolerable parts ought, at my
time of day, to be both physician and lawyer, as far as his own constitution and
property are concerned. For my own part, I have had an hospital these fourteen
years within myself, and studied my own case with the most painful attention;
consequently may be supposed to know something of the matter, although I have
not taken regular courses of physiology et cetera et cetera. - In short, I have
for some time been of opinion, (no offence, dear Doctor) that the sum of all
your medical discoveries amounts to this, that the more you study the less you
know. - I have read all that has been written on the Hot Wells, and what I can
collect from the whole, is, that the water contains nothing but a little salt,
and calcarious earth, mixed in such inconsiderable proportion, as can have very
little, if any, effect on the animal oeconomy. This being the case, I think, the
man deserves to be fitted with a cap and bells, who, for such a paltry advantage
as this spring affords, sacrifices his precious time, which might be employed in
taking more effectual remedies, and exposes himself to the dirt, the stench, the
chilling blasts, and perpetual rains, that render this place to me intolerable.
If these waters, from a small degree of astringency, are of
