Your most obliged and obedient humble Servant,
_Some Gentlemen of very great Worth, whose Desires I could not resist, engaged me in the Translation of the following Treatise of ~Dolaeus~; they thought it might be of Use to Persons afflicted with the Gout, to have an easier Way of coming at the Facts contained therein, by naturalizing it into our Language; to which I can only add my good Wishes, as I have done my Endeavours in this Publication; for its Usefulness must be judged of by the Event._
_In Examining ~Dolaeus~ his Work, Many Things occurred to me not so agreeable to my Way of thinking about these Matters, as I could have wished consistent with my publishing thereof, without taking Notice of them; some necessary Things I apprehended to be omitted, some Appearances very odly accounted for, some Directions and Medicines too loosely and too generally recommended; and indeed, through the whole, too little Care taken of nicely distinguishing Constitutions and Habits, to which Directions of this Kind should be specifically adapted, and never applied but upon the most skillful and mature Advice that can be had. The too much Encouragement that hath been given to valetudinary People, by publishing such loose and undetermined Directions, have made them think themselves judges of many Things of great Consequence to their Lives and Health, for which they are in no Sort qualified, and is generally attended with many great and often fatal Inconveniencies: And because they don’t always find Relief by applying to Physicians, from such Mischiefs as their own Errors, and the Neglect of timely Advice have brought upon them, they are apt to conceive a bad Opinion both of the Profession and its Professors._
_The History of Cures, recited by ~Dolaeus~, I take to be the most valuable Part of his Book; the Appearances that happen therein, may, I think, be accounted for upon other and more philosophical Principles, than the Author hath adapted thereto; upon this, and the foregoing Accounts, I had determined to have added Notes at such particular Places as were proper for me to animadvert upon; but I found they swelled to too great a Bulk, and would have too much interrupted the Author in his own Way of telling his own Story; which occasioned the changing thereof into the Form they now appear in, of a preliminary Essay._