Discursory thoughts, &c : disputing the constructions of His Majesty's hon. commissioners and crown lawyers, relative to the medicine and horse acts : to which are added, the opinions and resolutions of the farmers in Scotland ... with remarks on the late trials concerning the Medicine Act / by Francis Spilsbury.

  • Spilsbury, Francis.
Date:
1785
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Discursory thoughts, &c : disputing the constructions of His Majesty's hon. commissioners and crown lawyers, relative to the medicine and horse acts : to which are added, the opinions and resolutions of the farmers in Scotland ... with remarks on the late trials concerning the Medicine Act / by Francis Spilsbury. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by The University of Glasgow Library. The original may be consulted at The University of Glasgow Library.

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    medicine tax, though the bookfeller has fubmit- ted to place a ftamp on his medicines, he is re- imburfed that value again. From whom, then, is this tax expected to be paid by, or rather extorted from ? for it cannot be confidered as matter of choice, in the wifhing for a medicine as in a bottle of wine. Luxury often prompts the call of one, whilfl Neceffity demands the other, whofe tyrannical fway holds no parley. Endure your pains—fufFer death— or pay the King's duty. Therefore, although the act: does not exprefs in words the identical fuffere'rs againffc whom the act militates, yet in effect it is plain, under what denomination we can rank them with propriety from general cuf- tom, viz. A fervant maid, whofe imbecility of nature re- quires peculiar medicines * at certain times. An apprentice lad, whofe paffion tempted him to tafte the fruit of Eden, and was flung by the ferpent. A perfon bit by a mad dog—another with a fprained or fore leg, or troubled with the itch, or weak eyes, or the Stone—Dropsy—Scurvy'— Evil—-Cancer Scald Head-—Leprosy— Gout—Consumption—Fever—Convul- sions—Pains in the Bowels, &c. &c. and all the train of woes mankind are liable to, either through accident, inadvertency, or habitual in- firmities, each paying on every bottle, packet, &c. 3d. 6d. or is. regulated by the ftandard of * It has of late been frequently mentioned as a mark of deri- fion againft Sir Cecil Wray, that he wimed to tax maid-fervants; but he has a juft right to retort on Lord John Cavendifh and hi& party. B 2 the