Gazetteer and New Daily Advertiser 7 September 1776

WHEN people of credulity have once admitted the marvellous, impossibilities are as readily assented to as the most rational truths; the more unaccountable the story, the greater stamp of authority it wears; and it is not unusual to find the deluded person the most anxious to sanctify his delusion, by bringing the whole circle of his acquaintance into the same predicament. This disposition in the weaker and more numerous part of mankind, has proved an useful engine to miracle-mongers in all ages, and supplied empirics in divinity with their votaries, and empirics in physic with their dupes, whilst those who calmly stand forth on the side of reason have been held out as the common enemy, or the disappointed advocates of a party.

It is hence probable, that I may meet with the censure of some who have outlived their deception, and of many more who are unwilling to be undeceived respecting their weakness, in reposing their lives with a man, who at random ventures to prescribe remedies, without knowing the symptoms of the disease he boldly affirms he will cure. It is unnecessary to say, that I now allude to Dr. Myersbach, who was exhibited in the Gazetteer of Thursday the 29th of August, as deducing, and even the temper of a very healthy and chearful[sic] lady, from the urine of a coach-horse.

In early life I knew several water-conjurors, and recollect many wonderful stories of their detecting specious urine, sent with a view to impose upon them; I have often heard it repeated, that a person who aplied with this design to a water-doctor in the north of England, was told by him to feed the patient with hay and oats, and let him work less; the story was too well adopted for the support of delusion to escape the votaries of Dr. Myersbach; and this wonderful discovery, which to my own knowledge was talked of twenty years ago, has been recently applied to the German Doctor, and so frequently sounded in my ears, with a kind of exultation, that I determined to prove the falsity of the application, by an experiment which is decisive. - My coachman procured me the urine of a horse on Sunday the 26th of August, which was sent to Mr. B— of Aldgate, who furnished your paper of Thursday last with the Doctor’s curious remarks upon it: My coachman, who is sometimes witty, declares that the urine did not belong either to a horse, or a mare, but to a gelding. I shall not however avail myself of the distinction he has introduced, but speak of the urine as the product of a horse. Instead of recommending hay and oats to this animal, the Doctor wrote a prescription, which I have now in my possession; and after a few observations upon the symptoms of the horse, I shall examine how far the remedy was adapted to the disease.

From the inspection of the urine, Dr. Myersbach declared, he saw a disease of the womb; and as it is unaccountable how an English horse, or even a gelding, could have a disorder in the womb, we must on that consideration give it due credit; for it is too wonderful to be doubted, as is likewise the Doctor’s sagacity in finding out the children in this horse’s water, and the severe labour pains which accompanied their delivery.

To discover these disorders in a horse, was certainly possible, as the appears to have guessed as near the spot as he usually does, supposing a horse furnished with a womb, which is not quite so improbable as to suppose, that the Doctor saw by the water the temper of this quadruped, which, to use his own words, was very peevish, and soon put into a passion: This is a severe censure on the character of an innocent animal, who, to the best of my recollection, has not been peevish, or in a passion, during the last four months, and the coachman confirms this good character, by a more intimate acquaintance with him.

There are some other complaints enumerated by the Doctor, as a slime, he saw, upon the kidneys, sickness of the stomach, pains in the limbs, &c. For the first time, the Doctor seems to have guessed right, as the kidneys are never without slime or mucus; but as the horse has frequently run thirty miles a day, I should presume, that he is neither sick in the stomach, nor afflicted with pains in the limbs. He is now but four years old, though the Doctor declared he had had these complaints for three years.

To cure this disorder in the womb, and the peevish temper of the horse, the Doctor principally prescribed burnt oyster-shells powdered, and some opiate pills; the former, to be sure, was an excellent substitute for oats and hay, and the opiate was probably designed to keep the horse from being peevish, from kicking and breaking the harness, the consequence of treating him with oyster-shells instead of corn.

I am sorry to have occupied so much of your paper in proving, what almost every one now are convinced of, that Dr. Myersbach knows less of urine than a chamber-maid, and as little of medicine as most of his patients. I have just received a case of deception practised upon the Doctor by Mr. F— and Mr. N—, with the urine of a cow, which I shall lay before the public in a few days, and three other cases of deception; and at present conclude with begging pardon of the public for assisting to rouse them out of their delusion, such as Horace’s madman is described to have felt, when he cried “You have undone me, ill-judging friends, in robbing me of such pleasure; in depriving me, against my consent, of so delicious a deception*.”

London, Sept. 3, 1776.        L.

* — Pol me occidistis, amici:
Non servatits, ait; cui sic extorta voluptas,
Et demptus per vim mentis gratissimus error,²

Notes

Source:

British Library Newspaper Collection Colindale - Burney Collection 7 September 1776 (14,835) Page 2 Columns 2 and 3