170 BRITISH PHYSICIANS. assigned an inflammatory cause to the greater part of fevers ; or, in other words, on his having ap- proximated in principle to the school of Broussais. The German historian of medicine, Sprengel, more temperately ranks his work as the best which appeared on that subject during the first half of the eighteenth century. His discrimination and description of the slow nervous fever form one of its most remarkable features. A singular distinc- tion befel Huxham in consequence of this pro- duction. The Queen of Portugal was attacked with fever and was reduced to the last extremity, in spite of the exertions of the physicians of her country. The king at length summoned the physi- cian attached to the British factory. This gentle- man declared that he entertained some hope of her recovery, but stipulated on her being resigned to his sole discretion. Under his treatment the dis- order soon took a favourable turn, and her majesty rapidly convalesced. On being complimented at this successful issue, the physician replied that his only merit consisted in the application of doctrines which he had learned from the work of Huxham. The king immediately procured a translation of it to be made into the Portuguese language, which was published in a handsome quarto, and was transmitted by him to Huxham in a rich form. Huxham was also the author of Observations on Antimony^ in 1756. An antimonial wine was formerly sold under his name, and a tincture of bark still bears it. His theory and practice were considerably influenced by the old humoral pathology, but he was not a blind partisan. He differs from many practitioners of his age in the
