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[Page 3]

iron Sand of Barbadoes; & therefore, reasoning from analogy, we may expect also to find it in ours. A specimen furnished by Mr Tobin of [indecipherable] St. Bristol a few years since was examined by Mr Clayfield who obtained a button of metal from it, in the proportion of 48 per Cent.  This button is in the collection of Mr Tobin. It is more than probable that Mr Clayfield's experiments were conducted in the dry way, & that the metallic button is obtained may consequently contain a portion of undiluted Platina, the attraction between which & Iron we know to be so very powerful. were it possible to reduce the price of Platina so as to allow of its introduction into common use, the advantages derived to society would be almost incalculable - in the single article of [Beams?] for Apothecarie's scales, the benefit would be immense - indeed in this climate steel beams very quickly become totally useless, to the great injury of the sick, &  mortification of the Physician - Every attempt therefore at multiplying the sources from whence this invaluable metal may be procured appears to me to merit serious consideration. 
I believe I took some notion in my former letter, of the experiments I had instituted for the purpose of ascertaining the medical effects of the Piscidea Erythrina or Jamaica Dogwood, whose root yields a bark long in use among the inhabitants here for intoxicating, or, as it is more usually termed, poisoning Fish: previous to my experiments its use as a medicine was wholly confined to the brute Creation with whom a rudely prepared tincture was often externally employed in cases of mange: The tincture prepared by macerating [indecipherable] of the bush of ye bark  of ye root in [indecipherable] fl. oz of rectified Spirit, or High Wines, for 24 hours appears to  me to possess many highly valuable properties as an anodyne, diaphoretic, & hypnotic: when however the Diaphontic operation is checked, the hypnotic operation fails, for which reason the dose should be taken in bed. In odontalgia from a [indecipherable] & hollow tooth, a few drops introduced on lint or cotton gives present & permanent relief. My friend Mr Tobin has made frequent

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