' -- The ladies made wry faces at this
declaration, and my uncle, changing colour, told him he did not
desire any such proof of his philosophy: 'But I should he glad to
know (said he) what makes you think I am of a dropsical habit?'
'Sir, I beg pardon (replied the Doctor) I perceive your ancles
are swelled, and you seem to have the facies leucophlegmatica.
Perhaps, indeed, your disorder may be oedematous, or gouty, or it
may be the lues venerea: If you have any reason to flatter
yourself it is this last, sir, I will undertake to cure you with
three small pills, even if the disease should have attained its
utmost inveteracy. Sir, it is an arcanum, which I have
discovered, and prepared with infinite labour. -- Sir, I have
lately cured a woman in Bristol -- a common prostitute, sir, who
had got all the worst symptoms of the disorder; such as nodi,
tophi, and gummata, verruca, cristoe Galli, and a serpiginous
eruption, or rather a pocky itch all over her body. By the time
she had taken the second pill, sir, by Heaven! she was as smooth
as my hand, and the third made her sound and as fresh as a new
born infant.' 'Sir (cried my uncle peevishly) I have no reason to
flatter myself that my disorder comes within the efficacy of your
nostrum.
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