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Title: Medicina Flagellata
Or, The Doctor Scarify'd
Author: Anonymous
Release Date: July 14, 2010 [EBook #33155]
Language: English
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_Medicina Flagellata_:
OR, THE DOCTOR SCARIFY'D.
----_Ægrescitque medendo._ Virg.
_Si tibi deficiant Medici, Medici, tibi fiant:
Hæc tria, Mens læta, requies, moderata dieta._
_LONDON:_
Printed for J. BATEMAN, at the _Hat_ and _Star_;
and J. NICKS, at the _Dolphin_ and _Crown_,
both in St. _Paul's Church-yard_. 1721.
_Medicina Flagellata_:
OR, THE Doctor Scarify'd.
Laying open the VICES of the Faculty, the
Insignificancy of a great Part of their
_Materia Medica_; with certain RULES to
discern the true Physician from the Emperick,
and the Useful Medicine from the Noxious and
Trading Physick.
WITH
An ESSAY on HEALTH,
Or the
POWER of a REGIMEN.
To which is added,
A Discovery of some Remarkable Errors in the
late Writings on the PLAGUE, by Dr. _Mead_,
_Quincey_, _Bradley_, &c. With some useful
and necessary RULES to be observed in the
Time of that Contagious Distemper.
_LONDON_:
Printed for J. BATEMAN, and J. NICKS.
M. DCC. XXI.
PREFACE.
_It being usual for Authors, in Prefaces, to render an Account of the
Occasion which gave Birth to their Writings, and to acquaint the Reader
with the Design and Scope of their Discourses; I thought it convenient to
continue a Custom approved by many illustrious Examples._
_The Motive of publishing this Tract, is not the Intercession of Friends,
for none had ever the View of any Part of it; and that it is not Design of
Applause that has engaged me in this Undertaking, the Care I have had to
conceal my Name will, I suppose, free me from such Suspicion: the chief
Inducement proceeds from an Inclination to Mankind, to instruct them to
preserve and prolong their Lives, thereby to prevent them from using
fraudulent Quack Medicines (which are now become so universally vendible
amongst them) or advising with such as are wholly ignorant; and I should
think my self sufficiently rewarded for my Pains, if I could arrive to
the Point of reforming the Abuses of the present, and restoring the
Simplicity of the ancient Practice, by laying open to the World my
Observations of the pretended and fallacious =Methodus Medendi=, and the
Insignificancy of a great Part of their =Materia Medica=._
_And here I will particularly address my self to all those Persons
concern'd with me, who are the People or Patients; and the Physicians with
their Followers, the Chirurgeons and Apothecaries: This Discourse is
chiefly intended for the first, it being they who are most highly injured
by the unwarrantable Practices of those we have therein accused; for
although many understanding Persons among the People are sufficiently
satisfied of the Abuses we have mentioned; and that it is of absolute
Necessity some Reformation should be made: Yet all are not thus perswaded;
for we may daily observe, that many who are less discerning, being
deceiv'd by an imaginary Good, covet their own Ruin; and unless they be
given to understand which is the Evil, and which is the Good, by Persons
they have Reason to confide in, they must necessarily run much Hazard._
_I have here endeavoured to undeceive them; which I should dispair of, did
I only foresee Inconveniencies afar off (the Vulgar being led by Sense,
and not by probable Conjectures); but since they do now actually labour
under many, and those obvious, Inconveniencies, how short sover their
sight be, the Senses of Feeling being no less acute in them than in
others, I persuade my self, they will readily assent to those Truths I
have largely discovered._
_And here must I venture through all the Barricadoes and the
Fortifications of popular Resentment; but Satires, like Incision, become
necessary when the Humour rankles, and the Wound threatens Mortification;
when Advice ceases to work; when Loss, Experience, and Disaster will not
convince, then Satire reforms, by making the Error we embrace ridiculous:
Shame works to make us forsake a Thing, which Instruction augments, or
Persuasion could have no Effect upon._
_Many and great Abuses, and of the last Importance to the People, have
urged my Duty and demanded my Assistance; and if in my Essay on Health, I
do persuade my Reader to the =Regimen= I have here laid down, he may assure
himself of that =Golden Panacea=, that =Elixir Salutis=, at no other Charge
but in =cura seipsum=._
_It would by many be expected, that I should make an Apology for the great
Liberties I have taken in my general Treatment of the whole Faculty; in
which I claim the allow'd Exception, that there are some few very Eminent,
and worthy of the first Honours and Dignity of Physick, and who by their
unwearied Labour of Body and Application of Mind, have run through the
Courses of =Anatomy, Botany, Chymistry=, and =Galenick Pharmacy=, and no
less acquainted with the Virtues, Faults, and Preparations, Compositions
and Doses of Vegetables, Animals, Minerals, and all the Shop Medicines._
_And yet nevertheless, the Profession of Physick (though arrived to much
greater Improvement than before) it's Dignity and Degrees are so
despicably fallen, that the very lowest of People, as well Women as Men,
usurp the Title; and how monstrous it is to see that Mob of Empericks, as
Barbers, Farriers, and Mountebanks, over-reach and bubble the People both
of their Lives and Money._
_As I would not arrogate to my self the Performance of another, I must not
here forget to acknowledge that I have borrowed from the judicious Author
of a late excellent Discourse concerning some few Passages of the State of
Physick, and the Regulation of it's Practice. I suppose it will be easily
imagined, that I could have spoken the same Things in other Words; but my
Respect to the Memory of that worthy Person, disposes me to believe, they
will sound better, and be more effectual in his own Language._
_The following Appendix receiv'd it's Birth in Answer to some the most
formidable of the many Pamphlets that were crowded upon the People at the
first Report we had of the miserable State of the =Marseillians= by the
Plague; which had not been but for the same plausible End, of being
serviceable to the Nation, by detecting their Errors, and setting aside
the clashing Opinions of those =Literati=, which has rather given Alarm,
than a Security to the People._
_To conclude: If in speaking the Truth there is no Blame, but rather
Commendation, I then need not Apologise for the Freedom I've used, in
exploding the great Varieties and Abuses in both the Theory and Practice
of Physick. And although the Attempt should not answer equal to the good
Intention I've had for the Publick; yet I shall demand that Justice of the
World, and with =Horace=,_
Quod Verum atque decens, curo, & rogo, & omnis in hoc sum.
_Medicina Flagellata_:
OR, The Doctor Scarify'd.
It is most certain that all Nations, even the most barbarous, have in all
Ages made use of Medicines, to ease their Pains, to regain or preserve
Health, the greatest among earthly Felicities; in the Absence whereof, we
cannot relish any of those numerous Enjoyments, which the bountiful
Creator hath plentifully bestow'd on us; so that the most sublime ancient
Philosophers who excluded all other external Good from being necessary, to
the well being of Man, placing Happiness only in the things whereof we
cannot be depriv'd; yet out of them they excepted Health, knowing there
was so near a Connexion between the Soul and Body, that the one could not
be disorder'd in its Functions, but the other would be disturb'd in its
Operations. Hence it is that no Part of human Knowledge can be of greater
Moment than what directs to Remedies, and Means of Relief under those
Infirmities to which the whole Race of Man is Heir to; so that even
amongst the wisest, that Science or Art whereby those Defects we call
Diseases were repair'd, was always accounted Divine; for that God is the
first and chief Physician, hath been the constant Faith of all Ages, and
that Physicians were accounted the Sons of Gods, was commendably asserted
by _Galen_, and therefore it was truly spoken, that Medicines were the
Hand of God, there meriting only such Names, as related to their divine
Original; thus a certain Antidote was called [Greek: Isytheo], equal to
God, another [Greek: Theodotos], given by God, another divine; several
Compositions had the Inscription [Greek: Iera], or Sacred; and 'twas the
common Belief among the Heathens, that so great a Knowledge in Physick
came by Inspiration: And St. _Austin_ is of the same Opinion in his _Civi.
Dei_, who saith, _Corporis Medicina (si altius rerum origines repetas) non
invenitur unde ad homines manare potuerit, nisi à Deo_. It cannot be
conceived whence Physick should come to Man but from God himself.
It is well known how great a Name _Hippocrates_ obtain'd, not only in
_Greece_ (which he deliver'd from the greatest Plague) but in remote
Parts; so that the greatest Monarchs of the _East_, and their Vice-Roys,
were Suitors to him, to free their Country from that devouring Disease,
which threatned to exhaust those populous Regions of their Inhabitants,
unless the same Person who freed _Greece_ interpos'd, whom they esteem'd
divine, and sent from the Gods, because successful in so great
Undertakings. Very certain it is, so Noble and Useful a Study were
encouraged, yea and practised by Kings, Princes, and Philosophers, by the
highest, wisest, and best of Men, whereof some were honour'd by Statues
erected to perpetuate their Memoirs, and by many other Instances of the
publick Gratitude. So that when I consider what Reverence has been paid to
this Profession, and the Professors thereof in all times whereof we have
any particular Account, I am amaz'd that in this latter Age wherein it
hath received greater Improvements than in Two thousand Years before, and
that nevertheless it should be by many neglected, by others slighted, and
by some even contemned. After a diligent Enquiry into the Causes of so
strange and sudden an Alteration, I could not, in my Opinion, so justly
ascribe it to Defects in the Profession, as to those of its Professors;
not that I deny that Physick may be capable of greater Improvements,
notwithstanding it might to this Day have been maintain'd at least in the
same Degree of Honour and Esteem which all Ages have justly had for it, if
the Avarice and Imprudence of the Real, the Ignorance and Baseness of the
pretended Artists had not interpos'd: Under the former I comprize the
Vulgar Physicians; under the latter, their Dependants the Apothecaries,
who, I am confident, have caused many of the great Inconveniences under
which the Practice of Physick now labours.
That the Sick are in all Cases oppressed with too many Medicines, and made
to loath, and complain of the very Cordials; that the Expence is made
greater, and more extravagant by the often Confederacy and Artifices
visible in the new Modes of prescribing: And the Deaths of the Patient I
would not say is frequently the Effect not of the Disease, but of the
numerous Doses obtruded in the same Proportions in every Sickness and Age,
pushing on declining, and even departing Life; which after its Exit makes
Pots and Glasses observed, with the same Passions and Concern, as the
bloody Sword is viewed as the Instrument of Death and Mischief. By whom,
or by what Means the Purity of Physick has sunk into this Degeneracy, let
us farther examine, and trace it from the first Steps of entring into this
great Abuse; let us then usher in the young Physician now come from the
University, and having spent a great Part of his Money (if not all) in his
Education, very wisely for himself considers, which are the most obvious
and practis'd Ways of making himself known, and by what Methods he may
more easily insinuate himself, and that he may recover the Fortune he has
lent the Publick in his Education, which he is resolved they shall now pay
him with Interest. He is inform'd, or presently observes, that most, or
all the Families are under the Directions of the Apothecary, who gives his
Physick 'till he fears the Patient will die, and then appoints a
Physician, who before is prepared to acquit him, by bearing the Reproach
with the most perfect Resignation. And to support this good Temper, he is
bid to cast his Eyes around the Kingdom, and consider how they flourish in
the common Fame, who had the good Luck to follow those Instructions at
their first Arrival.
Or if he has found out any more effectual Medicines, or more compendious
or grateful Methods of Cure, or would imitate the applauded Practice of
some few of the most eminent of that Profession, whose Prescriptions were
only to assist, not to overload, or suppress Nature; this is too bold a
Stroke, a too dangerous Reform in Physick; he must previously consider,
that the Number of Apothecaries are increas'd, and that their Dependance
lieth more on the Quantities of Medicines in suitable Proportions, and
notwithstanding a generous and liberal Education, by which he has learn'd
to explode the malevolent and useless Practice, from a great many
Prescriptions that are now in vogue; he must not dare to refute them, he
must obey that great Principle of Nature, to preserve himself; he must
conform to the Manners of the Age, and the general Practice; he must
dispence with his not knowing whether the Medicines are made up according
to his Prescription; he must wink at the Design, Ignorance, Carelessness,
or Unfaithfulness of the Apothecary; whom he must not any ways disgust,
tho' he in Revenge, as well in executing his own Interest, may make his
Dose up with worm-eaten superannuated Drugs, wherewith most of 'em are
well stor'd, which will not work according to the Physician's Promise, and
the Patient's Expectation: The Apothecary who here outwits the Doctor, and
assumes the Character, is here ready at hand to tell his Patient that this
was no ways accommodated to his Temper; nay, perhaps, he presages to him
that it will not work sufficiently, (as he may without Conjuring or
Astrology) by which he obtains a Reputation of a Person more judicious
than the Physician making way for his own Advantage, by telling the
Patient that he will prepare a Purge that shall work more effectually than
the former: This you need not doubt is the same the Physician before
prescrib'd, but assuredly made up of better Drugs, and so the Apothecary
executes his Design, which is to exclude the Physician, and prefer
himself.
The young Physician, tho' he has learn'd the Abuse, yet he has that Regard
to himself, to make use of that old Maxim, _Of the two Evils, to choose
the least_; and finding it best suiting his Interest, which otherwise
might be endanger'd by the clandestine and underhand Dealings of the
other, and now finds it necessary to close in with him, and such a one as
will join in a mutual Application and Advancement of each other: Now are
their Engines set at work, and the Doctor not to be behind-hand, gives a
new Form to his Bills, which he prescribes in Terms so obscure, that he
forces all chance Patients to repair to his own Apothecary, pretending a
particular Secret, which only they have a Key to unlock; whereas in effect
it is no other than the commonest of Medicines disguised under an unusual
Name, on design to direct you to that Apothecary, between whom and the
Physician there is a private Compact of going Snips out of the most
unreasonable Rates of the said Medicines; wherein if you seek a Redress,
by shewing the Bill to the Doctor, he shall most religiously aver it to be
the cheapest he ever read. The Consequence whereof, as to your Particular,
is a double Fraud; and as the Apothecaries in general, their Numbers
bearing the Proportion at least ten to one of noted Physicians; to whom
allowing his Covenant Apothecary, who constituting one Part of the ten,
the remaining nine Parts are compell'd either to sit still, or to quack
for a Livelihood, or at least eight of them, for we'll suppose one Part of
the nine a Possibility of acquiring competent Estates, in a Way more
honest than that of the Covenanters, by their wholsome Trade of fitting
out Chirurgeons Chests for Sea, and supplying Country Apothecaries with
Compositions: Lastly, all accomplish'd Physicians are likewise expos'd to
manifest Injuries from the Covenant Apothecaries, who being sent for by
Patients, after a short Essay of a Cordial, will overpower them by
Perswasions to call in a Doctor, who shall be no other than his Covenant
Physician; by which Means the former Physician, who by his extraordinary
Care and Skill had oblig'd the Family before, shall be passed by, and lose
the Practice of that Patient: And should it happen, the Sense of Gratitude
of the forementioned Patient, should engage him to continue the Use of his
former Physician, yet this Covenant Apothecary shall privately cavil at
every Bill, and impute the Appearance of every small Pain, or Symptom
(which necessarily in the Course of a Disease will happen) to his ill
Address in the Art of Physick, and shall not give over before he has
introduc'd his Covenanter, whose Authority in the Fraud of Physick he
supposes to be most necessary.
But least you should think me overbalanc'd with a Prejudice to those that
so much abuse that noble Profession, I'll conduct you into their usual
Road and Method of examining their Patients, and making Enquiry into their
Diseases, wherewith being acquainted, you may, without any farther
Conviction, pronounce a Verdict.
This Knack doth chiefly consist in three Notions; _viz._ _First_, That a
Patient's Grievance is either a discernible evident Disease, which his own
Confession makes known to you, what it is; or, _Secondly_, an inward Pain;
or, _Thirdly_, one of those two Endemic Diseases, a Scurvy, or
Consumption; or, a _Fourth_, the Pox. This is their Theory, which is so
deeply ingrafted on their _Dura Mater_, and may be acquired with less
Industry than fourteen Years Study at one of our Universities; for so
much Time is requir'd to make a Man grow up a Doctor, the Formality
whereof in most Places consists in this Elogy; _Accipiamus pecuniam, &
dimittamus asinùm_.
If a sick Man makes his Address to a vulgar Physician, he demands his
Complaint; t'other replies, he is troubled either with a Vomiting,
Looseness, want of Stomach, Cough, bad Digesture, difficulty of Breathing,
a Phtisick, Faintness, Jaundice, Green-Sickness, Dropsy, Gout,
Convulsion-Fits, Palsy, Diziness, or Swimming in the Brain, Spitting of
Blood, an Ague, a continual great Heat or Fever, _&c._ These are all
evident Diseases the Party himself expresses he is troubled with; but his
Sickness not being an evident Disease, which he himself can explain, the
Vulgar Doctor concludes, it must be either an inward Pain, or an Endemick
Disease: The Patient then making complaint of an inward Pain, to his old
way of guessing t'other goes, enquiring first in what Part? If he answers,
he feels a Pain in the right Side, or under the short Ribs, he tells him
it is an Obstruction, or Stoppage in the Liver; if in the left Side, in
the opposite Part, then 'tis a Stoppage of the Spleen; if in the Belly, he
it may be calls it a Cholick, or Wind in the Guts; if in the Back, or
Loins, he perswades him it's Gravel, Stone, or some other Obstruction in
the Kidneys; if a Stitch in the Breast, he terms it Wind, or other times a
Pleurisy: Lastly, if the Party be reduc'd to a very lean Carcass, by
reason of a long tedious Cough, Spitting of Blood, or want of Stomach, or
Feebleness, or almost any other Disease, or Pain, then besure he tells
him he's in a Consumption, or at least falling into one: But being
troubled with several Diseases and Pains at once, as running Pains,
Faintness, want of Stomach, change of Complexion, so as to look a little
yellowish, duskish, or greenish; then t'other whispers him, he is troubled
with the Scurvy. If diseased with Ulcers or running Sores, red, yellow,
blue, or dark Spots, Pimples, or Blotches in the Face, Arms, Legs, or any
other Part of the Body, that's determin'd to be the Scurvy likewise,
supposing the Party to be a sober discreet Person: But if appearing
inclined to Wantonness by reason of his Youth, or sly Countenance, then
the fore-mention'd Disease is to be call'd the Pox. In most Diseases of
Women, they accuse the Mother. In Children, their Guess seems far more
fallible; for a Child within the six Months being taken ill, restless, and
froward, if there appear no evident Disease, he ever affirms it's troubled
with Gripes; upon which he prognosticates, that if not speedily remedied,
the Child will fall into Convulsion-Fits; but this not happening according
to his Prediction, to prevent the Forfeiture of his Skill and Repute,
endeavours to possess the Mother, and rest of the Gossips, it had inward
Fits. The Child being past six Months, and falling indispos'd, then
instead of Gripes, it is discompos'd by breeding of Teeth; but having bred
all his Teeth, and being surpriz'd with any kind of Illness, the Doctor
then avouches it is troubled with Worms: In short, take away these three
Words, Obstruction, Consumption, and Scurvy, and there will remain three
dumb Doctors, the Hackney Physician, the Prescribing Surgeon, and the
Practicing Apothecary.
Hitherto we have only discovered to you the Ordinary Physicians
conjecturing Compass, whereby he steers his Course, to arrive to the
Knowledge of his Patients Diseases: There yet remains we should unlock the
other Ventricle of his Brain, to behold the Subtilty of his Fancy in
groaping at the Causes of Diseases, which, tho' the Poet declares (_Felix
qui potuit rerum cognoscere causas_) to be cloathed with the darkest
Clouds, yet by the Virtue of this following Principle, aims at this Mark
immediately, _viz._ That most Diseases are caus'd by Choler, Phlegm,
Melancholy, or abundance of Blood: Of these, two are suppos'd to be hot,
namely, Choler, and abundance of Blood, and the other two cold, to wit,
Phlegm, and Melancholy, and consequently Causes of hot and cold Diseases:
These four Universals being reduced to two general Categories; under the
Notion of hot and cold, any one having but the Sense of distinguishing
Winter from Summer, may, in the Time of an _Hixius Doxius_, instantly
appoint a Cause for almost every Disease: So that a Patient discovering
his Trouble, it may be a want of Stomach, bad Digesture, Fainting, Cough,
Difficulty of breathing, Giddiness, Palsy, _&c._ his Vulgar Physician has
no more to do, but take him by the Fist, to feel whether he be hot or
cold; if he finds him cold, then summons in his old Causes, Phlegm, and
Melancholy; which ready, and quick pronouncing of the Cause upon a meer
Touch, doth almost stupify your Patient, thro' Admiration of _Æsculapian_
Oracle, hitting him in the right Vein to a hair's breadth: For, quoth he,
indeed, Mr. Doctor, I think you understand my Distemper exceedingly well,
and have infallibly found out the Cause; for every Morning as soon as I
awake, I spit such a deal of Phlegm, and moreover, I must confess my self
extreamly given to Melancholy. This jumping in Opinions between them,
makes Mr. Doctor swell with Expectation of a large Fee, which the Patient
most freely forces on him, and so the Fool and his Monies are soon parted.
Now it's two to one but both are disappointed, the one in his
unexperienced Judgment, t'other in his fond Belief; for, state the Case,
the Disease takes its Growth from Choler, or abundance of Blood, or any
other internal Cause; there is scarce one in a hundred that are
indispos'd, who is not subject to hauk and spit in the Morning, and being
reduc'd to Weakness, by reason of his Trouble, must necessarily be heavy
in the Passions of the Mind, and incident to melancholy Thoughts, through
the Memory of his Mortality, occasion'd by this Infirmity: So that, seldom
Mirth and Cheerfulness are housed in indispos'd Bodies, because they are
deficient of that abundance of Light, and clear Spirits, required to
produce them. No Wonder the Vulgar is so opinionated in the Affair of
their Temperament, when belabour'd with a Disease; since in their
healthful State, it's impossible for a Physician to engage their Opinion
otherwise, than to believe themselves phlegmatick and melancholy.
To return to the Point of declaring how the Vulgar strives even with
Violence to be cheated, not in their Purses only, but in their Fancies and
Opinion; and in this Particular, our Women are so violent eager, that if
the Vulgar Physician can but make a true Sound upon the Treble of their
Fancy, will produce such a Harmony as shall sound his Praise through City
and Country; and without those Female-Instruments, or She-Trumpets, it's
almost impossible for a Vulgarist to arrive to a famous Report, who having
once by his Tongue-Harmony inchanted the Woman, doth by the same Cheat
subject the Opinion of Man to his Advantage, Women generally usurping, and
impropriating the Affair of their Husbands Health to their own
Management; for if a Man chance to be surpriz'd with Sickness, he
presently asks his Wife what Doctor he shall send to, who instantly gives
her Direction to him that had her by the Nose last. In this Piece of
Subtilty, the Doctor shews him self no less cunning than the Serpent in
_Genesis_, who, to cheat _Adam_, thought it expedient first to deceive
_Eve_.
Now without any further Preamble, I must tell you the Humour many a sick
Woman delights to be coaks'd in by the Ordinary Physician, _viz._ She
loves to be told she is very melancholy, tho' of never so merry a
Composure, and in that Part of the Litany, Mr. Doctor is a perfect Reader;
for a Woman making Complaint she is troubled with Drowsiness, want of
Stomach, Cough, or any other Distemper; he answers her, she is in an ill
State, and troubled with great and dangerous Diseases, and all engender'd
by Melancholy; and then tells her over again, she is very melancholy, and,
saith he, probably occasion'd by coarse Treats at Home, or some Unkindness
of Friends, which makes the poor Heart put Fingers in her Eye, and force a
deep Sigh or two; and all this possibly for being deny'd the extravagant
Charge of a Tea-Equipage, or a new Gown on a _May_-Day; which being
refresh'd in her Memory, doth certainly assure her, the Impression of that
Melancholy to be the Original of her Trouble, tho' some Months or Years
past, especially since her Physician discovers to her so much: And for so
doing, admires him no less, intending withal to give him an ample
Testimony to the World of the Doctor's great Skill: But this is not all,
he pursues his Business, looks into her Eyes, where 'spying a small
Wrinkle or two in the inward or lesser Angle, he tells her, she has had a
Child or two, namely, a Boy, or a Girl, according to the Place of the
aforesaid Wrinkle in the right or left inward Angle; thence perswades her,
that at her last lying in, her Midwife did not perform her Office
skilfully, or did not lay her well, whereby she receiv'd a great deal of
Prejudice, as Cold, Wrenching, displacing of the _Matrix_, &c. Which
Instance squaring with the premeditated Sense and Opinion of his
She-Patient, (most Women, though never so well accommodated in their
Labour, being prone to call the Behaviour of their Midwife in Question)
he hath now produced a far greater Confidence than before: And last of
all, to compleat his Work now at the going off of his gull'd Patient, of
rendring her Thoughts, Opinion, and Confidence, Vassals to his Service,
Fame, and Advantage, makes one Overture more, of a great Cause of some of
her Symptoms, declaring to her, she is much subject to Fits of the Mother,
occasioning a Choaking in her Throat, and herein they also jump in their
Sentiments; scarce one Woman in an hundred but one time or other is
assaulted by those Uterin Steams, especially upon a Tempest of any of the
Passions of Fright, Fret, Anger, Love, _&c._
If I have reproached the Vulgar Physician for executing his Employ with so
little Ingenuity, far greater Reason may move me to condemn the
Water-gazer, who by the Steams of the Urine, pretends to gratify his
Patient's nice Curiosity, of being resolv'd what was, what is, and what
Disease is to come; and what is more, some by their great Cunning aiming
to discover as much by the Urinal, as the Astrologer by the Globe. The
Fame unto which the _English_ Doctor, who some Years ago residing at
_Leyden_, promoted himself by his wonderful Sagacity in Urins, is not
unworthy of your Note, hundreds, or rather thousands repairing to this
stupendious Oracle, to have the State of their Bodies describ'd by Urine.
But when I relate to you the first Means that gave Birth to our
Countryman's Repute, I shall soon remove your Passion of admiring him.
Upon his Arrival at the Place aforemention'd, he had in his Company a
bold Fellow, that haunted the most noted Taverns and Tap-houses, who by
way of Discourse divulg'd the good Fortune that was happened to the Town,
by the Arrival of an _English_ Doctor, whose great Learning, and
particular Skill in Urins, would soon render him famous to all the
Inhabitants. This being pronounced with a Confidence suitable to the
Subject, occasion'd three sick Scholars (two Hecticks, one Hydropical)
then present, to make Trial of the Truth of his Words; the next Morning,
agreeing to mix all their Urins in one Urinal, and commit the Carriage of
it to him that was dropsical. In the Interim, the Doctor advertis'd of it
by his Companion, which made him so skilful, that when the Hydropical
Scholar presented him with the Urinal, to know the State of his diseased
Body, he soon gravely reply'd, that he observed three Urins in this one
Urinal, whereof the two lowermost Parts of the Urin, appear'd to him to be
consumptive, and the third that floated at top dropsical, and with all,
that their Conditions were desperate, and at the Expiration of six Months
they should be all lodg'd in their Graves. This admirable Dexterity of
discerning Diseases by the Urinal, was soon proclaim'd by the Scholars
themselves, who all having finish'd the Course of their Lives, within the
Time prefix'd, proved an undoubted Argument of his unparallel'd Parts in
the Art of Physick, which immediately procur'd him an incredible Concourse
of People for many Years together.
Another Instance of a Woman whose Husband had a Bruise by a Fall down
Stairs, carry'd his Urin to the Urin casting Doctor in _Moor-fields_, who
pretended likewise to be a Conjurer; he (after shaking) seeing little
Specks of Blood float in it, had so much Understanding to tell her, that
the Party had receiv'd some internal Hurt; the Woman agreed to this as
Truth, but demanding by what Means he came by it: Upon this he erected a
Scheme, and in the mean time asked her so many Questions, that by the
Drift of her Discourse, he gather'd that he had tumbled down Stairs: The
Woman not minding well what she had said, (in the Consternation she was in
at the hard Words he had utter'd) suppossing he was conjuring up the
Devil, to be resolv'd in the Matter, told her own Words in a different
Title; the Woman acknowledged it true, with some Admiration, but desir'd
to know how many Pair of Stairs he might fall down? She had told him
before where she liv'd (and he considering the Place chiefly consisted of
low Buildings) answer'd, two Pair. Nay, now said she, you are out in your
Art, he fell three Story I'll promise. This put our Doctor to his Trumps,
when having mused a while for an Excuse, he shook the Urinal again, and
asked her if there was all the Water her Husband had made? No, reply'd
she, I spilt a little in pouring it in. O ho, did you so? said he: Why
that, Woman, was the Business that made me mistake, for there went away
the other Pair of Stairs in the Urin you spilt.
I shall but trouble you with another Instance, which explodes this Cheat,
of what happened in the early Practice of the fam'd Dr. _Radcliff_ when at
_Oxford_; of a Country Woman that brought to him her Husband's Urin in a
Glass-Bottle, very carefully cork'd up; and after a low Courtesy,
presented the Bottle, desiring the Doctor to send a Remedy for her
Husband, who then lay very ill: The Doctor observing the Simplicity of
this Woman, put no other Question, but of what Profession or Trade her
Husband was of? Who reply'd, a Shoemaker: At which he pours forth the Urin
in a Basin then by him, and after he had supply'd it with a like Quantity
of his own, he gives it her, and says, Good Woman, carry this to your
Husband, and bid him fit me with a Pair of Boots: but she replying, Her
Husband must first take Measure; to which he return'd, The Shoemaker
might as well judge by the Urinal the fitting of his Leg, as he in that of
his Distemper. That the Effects of Confederacy in promoting a Physician to
a popular Vogue, are as powerful as sinister and disingenuous, may not
only be deduced from the aforesaid Naratives, but from the common Design
of vulgar Empericks, who to raise their Fame as high as a Pyramid, send
forth several prating Fellows into all publick Places, Taverns,
Coffee-houses, and Ale-houses, to publish their vast Abilities, expecting
with that Bait to hook in as many Patients as will swallow it. Others are
no less skill'd in counterfeiting their great Practice, by causing their
Apothecaries, or others, to call them out of the Church at an Afternoon
Sermon, to hasten Post to a suborn'd Patient, to the Intent the World be
advertis'd of the weighty Business this Doctor is concern'd in. Others by
their Equipage, eminent Houses, and occasioning one and the same Patient,
to repair needlesly to them twenty or thirty times, manifest a Decoy even
taken Notice of by the Vulgar. These few disingenuous Ways, do here
purposely bring on Board, omitting many others, to convince the Publick,
that the only Means for a Physician to advance himself honourably to
Practice, is by discovering his real Abilities in curing Diseases, by
quick, certain, and pleasant Medicines; and therefore nothing should
render his Parts more suspicious than by attempting their Discovery by
such fallacious and ignoble Devices; for certainly the Conclusion is most
sophistical, that because this Doctor is drawn in his Coach, t'other
rides on Horseback, or another hath his Lacquey at his Heels, therefore he
must be excellently qualify'd in his Profession, but _Vulgus vult decipi_.
If I now describe, by way of Advice to those that are entering upon the
Study of this divine Art, the Method of attaining to a Point of Excellency
in it, and that may serve our Vulgar for a better Rule to distinguish
their Qualifications by the Course they have passed through; for it is
most necessarily requisite, our young Student should be perfectly
instructed in the _Latin_ and _Greek_ Tongues, being the Universal Keys to
unlock all those Arts and Sciences, and no less a Grace to the future
Physicians. In this Particular, many of our Embryonated Physicians, that
have of late Years transported themselves to _Leyden_, and _Utrecht_, to
purchase a Degree, have been found very defective; insomuch, that I have
heard the Professors condemn several of them for their shameful
Imperfection in that which is so great an Ornament, and of so absolute an
Use in the Study of Physick: Neither can less be suspected of some of the
more aged Vulgar Physicians, making Choice to manage their Consultations
in the Vulgar Tongue. _Secondly_, Being thus qualify'd for a Student, he
ought to apply himself close to the Study of Phylosophy, for which,
_Oxford_ and _Cambridge_ may justly challenge a Pre-eminence above other
Universities: Here it is our Student learns to speak like a Scholar, and
is inform'd in the Principles of Nature, and the Constitutions of Natural
Bodies; and so receiving a rough Draught in his Mind, is to be
accomplish'd by that excellent Science of Human Bodies. But because,
according to the first Aphorism of the first Master _Hippocrates_, Art is
long, and Life short, he ought to engage his Diligence to absolve his
Philosophical Course in two Years at longest, and in the interim, for his
Recreation and Divertisement, enter himself Scholar to the Gardiner of the
Physick-Garden, to be acquainted with the Foetures of Plants, but
particularly with those that are familiarly prescrib'd by Practitioners,
to prevent being outwitted by Herb-women in the Markets, and to enable him
to give a better Answer, than is said once of a Physician, who having
prescrib'd _Maiden-hair_ in his Bill, the Apothecary asked which Sort he
meant; t'other reply'd, some of the Locks of a Virgin. _Thirdly_,
Supposing our Student having made sufficient Progress in Philosophy, may
now pass to _Leyden_, and may enter himself into a _Collegium Anatomicum_,
Anatomy being the Basis and Foundation whereon the weighty Structure of
Physick is to be raised; and unless he acquires more than ordinary
Knowledge and Dexterity in this, will certainly be deceiv'd in the
Expectation of ever arriving to the Honour of an accomplish'd Physician: A
Proficiency in that Part fits him for a _Collegium Medicum Institutionum_,
and afterward for a _Collegium Practicum_, and then 'tis requisite he
should embrace the Opportunity of visiting the Sick in the Hospital twice
a Week with the Physick-Professor, where he shall examine those Patients
with all the Exactness imaginable, and point at every Disease, its
Symptoms, as it were, with his Fingers, and afterward propose several
Cases upon those Distempers, demanding from every young Student his
Opinion, and his Grounds, and his Reasons for it; withal requiring of him
what Course of Physick is best to be prescrib'd: This is the only Way for
a young Physician to attain a Habit of knowing Diseases when he seeth
them; and a confident Method of curing those that may repair to him,
without running the Hazard of being censured by Apothecaries, or derided
by them for his Bills, as too many are, that at _Oxford_ or _Cambridge_
have only imbib'd a Part of _Senuert_'s Institutions, and overlook'd
_Riverius_'s Practice, and thence attaining an imperfect and unhappy
Skill, by enlarging the Church-yards in the City or Country; but what is
more, he shall escape the Danger a young Student I formerly knew at
_Oxford_ precipitated himself into, by imagining every Disease he read was
his own. I must likewise advise our Student to take his Lodgings there at
an able Apothecary's House, to contract the Knowledge of Drugs, and of
preparing, dispensing, and mixing them in Compositions, and then by Means
of his own Qualifications, may boldly pretend to inform, correct, and
improve those Apothecaries which the Chance of his Practice shall conduct
him to; for it would be judged ridiculous, should a Physician undertake to
reprehend, and afterwards bend his Force to suppress and decry
Apothecaries privately or publickly, without having first acquired a
particular Experience in their Art. Hence it is again the Vulgar Physician
is wrapped up in a Cloud, and the Apothecaries dance round about him; he
prescribes Medicines he never saw; they prepare them according to their
own Will and Pleasure.
Neither is it over these alone the Physician claims a Superintendance, but
over Chirurgeons likewise; and therefore in this his Course of Study,
would contribute to his future Qualifications, in sojourning a Year with
some experienc'd manual Operator, without a Hindrance to his other Affair,
and there by an ocular Inspection, and handling of his Instruments,
demanding their Names, Uses, and Manner of using, withal by Insinuations
to visit the Chirurgical Patients, and see him dress them, would render
his Study in Chirurgery, so plain and easy, which otherwise might be
thought difficult, that it should enable him to give Laws to Chirurgeons
also, especially to those that execute their Office with that Rashness,
Indiscretion and Dishonesty as I have sometime discover'd amongst them.
These two Years giving occasion to our Student to acquire a System, or a
brief Comprehension of the Theory of Physick, and of the Practice
likewise: Nothing now remains than to amplify his commenc'd Knowledge and
Experience by his farther Travels; to which End, takes his Journey to
_Paris_, to be acquainted with the most famous Physicians, and to be
inform'd of their Way of Practice, by surveying their Prescripts at the
most frequented Apothecaries, to visit for a Year every Day the Hospitals
of _l'Hostel Dieù_, and _la Charitè_; in which latter, it is customary,
for any three or four young Physicians to examine and overlook the new
enter'd Patients, to name the Distempers among themselves, and propose
their Cures, for to compare their Opinions afterwards with the Physicians
that are appointed for the Hospital, and where he may see most difficult
Operations perform'd in Chirurgery, as Trypaning, Amputating, Cutting for
the Stone, Tapping of the Belly and Breast with the greatest Dexterity.
Here he may also observe Wounds and Ulcers cured by Virtue of those famed
Waters, _viz._ the White Water, and the Yellow Water; the former being
_Aqua Calcis_, the latter the same, with an Addition of _Sublimate_.
The Art of preparing Medicines chymically, having merited a great Esteem
for its stupendious and admirable Effects in the most despair'd Diseases,
shews a Necessity of being instructed in it, in which he can not fail of
prying into, in the Course of his Travels.
Having attained his Scope in this Place, his Curiosity ought to direct him
to _Montpellier_, where he will meet with a Concourse of the greatest
Proficients in Physick in _Europe_, converse with the Professors and
Physicians of that Place, and out of 'em all, extract choice Observations,
Secrets, and most subtle Opinions upon several Diseases, which Design can
scarce be compassed in less than another Year. Now we must suppose our
Student to merit the Title of an experienc'd Physician, and raised far
above the Vulgar ones, that never felt the Cold beyond the Chimneys of
their own Homes: He is now render'd capable of understanding the greatest
Mysteries, and most acute Opinions in Physick, which he is chiefly to
expect from those reputed Professors of the _Albò_ at _Padua_, where he is
likewise to continue his Diligence in visiting the famed Hospital of _San
Lorenzo_, and observe the _Italian_ Method of curing Diseases by
alterative Broths, without purging or bleeding, that Climate seldom
suffering Plethories in those dry Bodies: He cannot but be wonderfully
pleased with the Variety and excellent Order of the Plants of their
Physick Garden, by them call'd _Horto di Sempleci_. Neither will he
receive less Satisfaction from the curious and most dextrous Dissections
perform'd by the artificial Hand of the Anatomy Professor. Having here
made his Abode for six Months, may justly aspire to a Degree of a Doctor
in Physick, which the Fame of the Place should persuade him to take here,
being the Imperial University for Physick of all others in the World, and
where Physicians do pass a very exact Scrutiny, and severe Test. Hence may
he transport himself to _Bologn_, and in three Months time add to his
Improvements what is possible by the Advantage of the Hospital, and the
Professors. Last of all, in the Imitation of the diligent Bee sucking
Honey out of all sweet Flowers, our Doctor must not neglect to extract
something that his Knowledge did not partake of before, out of the
eminentest Practitioners at _Rome_, examine the chief Apothecaries Files,
and still frequent those three renown'd Hospitals of _San Spirito_ in the
_Vatican_, _San Giovanni Laterano_ on the Mount _Celio_, and that of _San
Giacomo di Augusta_ in the Valley _Martia_, besides many others of less
Note.
Here may he see the Rarities and Antiquities of this once renowned Empress
of the World, from whence he may visit the renowned City of _Naples_, and
take a Survey of the Antiquities of the Nature of _Pazzoli_.
Having thus in all Particulars satisfied his Curiosity, may consult about
the most advantageous Ways homeward, which is to embark for _Leghorn_, or
_Genoa_, where he cannot fail of _English_ Shipping.
Or else may take a Tour by Land to _Milan_, where he will see the finest
Hospital, and the strongest Citadel in _Europe_. Hence passes the _Alpes_,
and that stupendous Mount St. _Godart_, through _Altorph_, and _Lucern_,
and thence to _Bazil_, the chief of the Protestant _Cantons_, so by Boat
down the River _Rhine_ to _Strasburgh_, and _Heydelbergh_, _Manheim_, and
so down the _Rhine_ to _Coblentz_, _Audernach_ and _Collen_, then by Land
to _Brussels_, _Ghant_, _Ostend_, _Newport_, and _Dunkirk_, _Gravelin_,
and _Calais_: And thence to the Place of his Inclinations for his future
Settlement, where, by his vast Experience and Knowledge, being render'd
conspicuous in the secure and certain Method of his Cures, will soon give
Occasion to the People to discern the Difference between him and the
ordinary vulgar Physicians, who by their sordid Deports, and dangerous
Practice, make it their Business to ease the blind People of the Weight in
their Pockets, and plague them in worse Diseases.
How very few go through this Course of Improvement, we too readily
discover, and may be reproved by the first beginning of the Practice among
the Ancients, where we find the Method then in use, to train up Youth to
the Profession, was to place them Apprentices with able Physicians, who
adjudged it necessary to take their Beginning from Surgery, the Subject
whereof being external Diseases, as Wounds, Swellings, Members out of
joint, and others that were visible, proved more facile and easy to their
inmate Capacities, and wherein they might suddenly become serviceable to
their Masters, in easing them of the Trouble of dressing and cleansing
stinking Ulcers, and applying Ointments and Plaisters, a nauseous Employ,
which they ever endeavour'd to abandon to their Scholars with what
Expedition possible: This as it was the easiest, so it was the first, and
ancientest Part of Physick, and from which those that exercised it were
anciently not called Surgeons, but Physicians, tho' they attempted no
other Diseases but what were external; according to which Sense
_Æsculapius_ the first Physician, or Inventor of Physick, and his Sons
_Podalyrius_ and _Machaon_, are by History asserted to have undertaken
only those that wanted external Help; internal Diseases being in those
Days unknown, and by Temperance in their Diet, wholly debarr'd; and if
accidentally an internal Distemper did surprize them, they apply'd a
general Remedy (having no other) of poisoning or killing themselves with a
Dagger or Sword, thereby chusing rather to die once, and finish their
Misery, than to survive the Objects of Peoples Pity, or to endure the
Shocks of Death by every Pain or Languor, especially since the sage
Judgment of that Age did esteem it a signal Virtue to despise and scorn
the vain World, by hurrying out of it in a Fury, a Maxim most of the
Philosophers were very eminent in observing; and was likewise extended to
Children that brought any Diseases external or internal with them into the
World, their Cure being perform'd immediately by strangling, or drowning
them; neither was this Art of external Physick of short Continuance;
_Pliny_ writing that Six hundred Years after the building of _Rome_, the
_Romans_ entertain'd Chyrurgical Physicians from _Peloponesus_: Idleness
and Gluttony at last exchang'd their Ease into a Disease, which soon put
them into a Necessity of experimenting such Remedies as might re-establish
them into that healthful Condition, which Exercise in War, and Temperance
in Diet had for so many Ages preserved their Ancestors in.
Upon a competent Improvement of their Scholars in this external Practice
of Physick, and their deserving Deportment, they thought them worthy of
giving them Entrance into their Closets, to be instructed in such Matters
as the most retir'd Places of their Cabinets contained; which were their
Remedies and Medicines, and the Manner of preparing them: And then bending
his Endeavours to arrive to the Art of discerning the Disease by its
Signs, and making Observations upon the Prognosticks, all critical and
preternatural Changes: The Dose, Constitution, and all other Circumstances
of giving the Medicines which he did gradually accomplish, by his sedulous
Attendance on his Master, and his practical Discourses and Lectures from
him on every Patient he visited: Lastly, upon his Attainment to a Degree
of Perfection in the Art, discovered by his Master by his private
Examination, all the Physicians and Commonalty of the Place were summoned
to be present at the taking of his Oath in the publick Physick-School,
which served in lieu of making Free to Practise, or taking his Degree; the
Form of which, as remarkable as it is ancient, the Oath was as followeth.
"I Swear by [1]_Apollo_ the Physician, and [2]_Æsculapius_, and by
[3]_Hygea_, and [3]_Panacea_, and I do call to witness all the Gods,
and likewise all the Goddesses, that according to my Power and
Judgment I will entirely keep this Oath and this Covenant; That I
will esteem this Master that taught me this Art, give him his Diet,
and with a thankful Spirit, impart to him whatever he wants; and
those that are born of him I will esteem them as my Male Brethren,
and teach them this Art, if they will learn it, without Hire or
Agreement; I will make Partakers of the Teaching, Hearing, and of all
the whole Discipline, my own and my Master's Sons, and the rest of
the Disciples, if they were bound before by Writing, and were obliged
by the Physicians Oath, no other besides; I will, according to my
Capacity and Judgment, prescribe a Manner of Diet suitable to the
Sick, free from all Hurt or Injury; neither will I, through any
bodies Intercession, offer Poison to any, neither will I give Counsel
to any such Thing; neither will I give a Woman a Pessary to destroy
her Conception: Moreover, I will exercise my Art, and lead the rest
of my Life chastly and holily; neither will I cut those that are
troubled with the Stone, but give them over to Artists that profess
this Art; and whatever Houses I shall come into, I will enter for the
Benefit of the Sick; and I will abstain from doing any voluntary
Injury, from all Corruption, and chiefly from that which is venereal,
whether I should happen to have in Cure the Bodies either of Women or
of Men, or of free-born Men or Servants; and whatever I shall chance
to see or hear in curing, or to know in the common Life of Men; if
it be better not to utter it, I will conceal, and keep by me as
Secrets: That as I entirely keep and do not confound this Oath, it
may happen to me to enjoy my Life and my Art happily, and celebrate
my Glory among all Men to all Perpetuity; but if transgressing and
forswearing, that the contrary may happen."
Between those Bounds of Secresy, Veneration, Honesty and Gratitude, the
Art was for many hundred Years maintained; for in the Time of _Galen_, and
many Ages after him, Medicines for their greater Secresie were used to be
prepared and composed by Physicians, as you may read, _Libr. de Virt.
Centaur._ where is observable, their Men were wont to carry their Physick
ready prepar'd in Boxes after them, which they themselves, according to
the Exigency, did dispense. This Custom was continued until Wars ceasing,
People began to be as intent upon the Propagation of Mankind, as the
Cruelty of the former martial Ages had been upon its Destruction; where
the World growing numerous, and through Idelness and want of those
Diversions of their military Employ, addicting themselves to Gluttony,
Drunkenness, and Whoredom, did contract so great a Number of all inward
Diseases, that their Multiplicity imposed a Necessity upon Physicians
(being unable to attend them all as formerly) to dismember their Act into
three Parts, whereof two were servile, Chirurgery and Pharmacy; and the
other imperial and applicative or methodical.
The servile Part being now committed to such as are now called Surgeons
and Apothecaries, the former were employed in applying external Medicines
to external Diseases; the latter in preparing all ordinary internal and
external Medicines, according to the Prescription and Directions of the
Physicians, whose Servants were ordered to fetch the prescrib'd Medicines
at the Apothecaries, and thence to convey them to their Patients; by which
Means the Apothecary was kept in Ignorance: As to the Application and Use
of the said Medicines, not being suffered to be acquainted with the
Patients or their Diseases, to prevent their Insinuation into their
Acquaintance, which otherwise might endanger the diverting the said
Patients to other Physicians, or at least their presuming themselves to
venture at their Distempers. Neither were the Physicians Servants in the
least Probability of undermining or imitating their Masters in the
Practice, not knowing their Medicines or Prescriptions. Besides all this,
those Remedies from which the chief Efficacy and Operation against the
Disease was expected, still remain'd secret with the Physicians, who
thought it no Trouble to prepare them with their own Hands. Thus you may
remark the Physician's necessary Jealousy of their Underlings, and their
small Pains prov'd the sole Means of impropriating their Art to
themselves: And yet by the Advantage of their Chirurgeons and
Apothecaries, were capacitated to visit and cure ten times greater Numbers
of Sick than before; which in a short Time improved their Fame and Estate
to a vast Treasure, whence it was well rhimed,
----_dat Galenus Opes, dat Justinianus Honores_.
But at length, their Honour and vast Riches in the Eye of Apothecaries and
Surgeons, proved Seeds sown in their Minds, that budded into Ambition of
becoming Masters, and into Covetousness of Equality, and shareing with
them in their Wealth; both which they thought themselves capable of
aspiring to by an Emperical Skill the Neglect and Sloath of their Masters
had given them occasion to attain, since they did not begin to scruple to
make them Porters of their Medicines to their Patients, to intrust them
with the Preparation of their greatest Secrets. This Trust they soon
betray'd, for having insinuated into a familiar Acquaintance with their
Masters Patients, it was a Task not difficult to perswade them, that those
that had made and dispensed the Medicines, were as able to apply them to
the like Distempers, as they that had prescrib'd them, who had either
forgot, or were wholly ignorant how to prepare them; so that now they were
as good as arrived to a Copartnership with their Masters in Reputation and
Title, the best being call'd Doctors alike, and there being no other
Difference between them, than that the Master Doctor comes at the Heells
of his Man Doctor, to take in Hand the Work which he or his Brother Doctor
(the Chirurgeon) had either spoiled, or could not farther go on with; a
very fine Case the Art of Physick and its Professors are reduc'd to, and
that not only of late Days, but of almost Seven hundred Years, for before
that time Apothecaries had scarce a Being, only there were those they
call'd _Seplasiarij_ from their selling of Ointments on the Market of
_Capua_, call'd _Seplasia_, _Armatarij_, and _Speciarij_, or such as sold
Drugs and Spices; tho' I confess Apothecaries may offer a just Objection
in pretending to a far greater Antiquity, since the Original and Necessity
of their Employ was deriv'd from the _Egyptian_ Bird _Isis_, spouting
Water into its Breech for a Glyster: But 'tis no Matter, the Doctor must
truckle to this powerful Engineer, he must conform to the Manner of the
Age; and were I to enumerate the many Abuses that are practised by this
lower Profession, I mean the Generality of them, you would be more careful
in making Choice of your Apothecary, or making a better Choice in having
least to do with them; and how dangerous is their Ignorance in the _Latin_
Tongue, which is of very ill Consequence, as their Prescriptions sent 'em
by the Physicians are writ in _Latin_, and which not being rightly
understood, hath often occasioned not only innocent but fatal Mistakes.
_Homine semi docto quid iniquius?_ and that a great Part of the
Apothecaries are very illiterate! is so evident, that they themselves dare
not deny it; among many Instances of this Kind, that most unfortunate one
recorded by an eminent Physician is notorious, who instead of a Dose of
_Mercurius sublimatus dulcis_, exhibited so much common Sublimate, a
mortal Poison, which was scarce ever given inwardly, instead of an
innocent Medicine approved by all Physicians. Yet those worthy Sons of
Bombast must disgust your Palate with the Relation of the nauseous and
choaking Terms, their Ends of _Latin_ and stifling Phrases, driving to
confound and amaze the simple Vulgar. An Instance of this Kind may afford
you some little Diversion: A practical Apothecary coming to see his
Customer, a Cobler, that lay indisposed of the Cholick, observed him to
crack a Fart (for so it is express'd in the Original) upon which, said the
Apothecary, Sir, that's nothing but the Tonitruation of Flatuosities in
your Intestines; this was no sooner out of his Mouth, but the Cobler
crack'd another, and reply'd to his Doctor, Sir, that is nothing but your
Hobgoblin Notes thundring Wind out of my Guts; which literal Return of his
Terms of Art in plain _English_, though by chance, obliged the Apothecary
to this Expression; I beg your Pardon, Sir, I suppose you have study'd the
Art of Physick as well as my self, and want not my Help: So away went
Doctor Pestle, imagining the Cobler to be as great a Master in the Faculty
as himself.
Another Complaint against the Apothecaries is, That they are not well
acquainted with the _Materia Medica_; the Knowledge of which is an
essential Part of their Profession, but must take the Words of Druggists,
who themselves are sometimes mistaken, and differ about the Names of
several Drugs; and which is worse, their trusting to Herb-women, who
obtrude almost any thing upon the greatest Part of them; and that those
Women do often mistake one Thing for another, sometimes ignorantly,
sometimes designedly, is well known to many Physicians, who have seen them
sell the Apothecaries Herbs, Roots and Seeds, under other Names than those
they do really bear, for many among them cannot distinguish between
Ingredients noxious and salutary: So that we have not Patients daily
poisoned is rather from the Care of Herb-women than Apothecaries. Another
just Cause of Complaint against the Apothecaries are, their old Medicines;
for suppose them as faithfully prepared as they can pretend or we desire,
yet Length of Time will make some Changes in them, which are not often
Improvements: The Syrups grow acid, and Waters full of Mother, Electuaries
and Pills dry and deprived of their most active Parts, Powders themselves
are not free from this Fate, whose Virtues in Time we find marvelously
diminished. But were they to be told of this, you may with as good Success
preach to a Wall, for not a Dram of any other Medicine will the
Apothecaries part with but for Sale: So that many times they sell their
Preparations five or six Years after they were made, and whether their
Medicinal Properties are not much impaired, if they have any left, we
leave to others to determine. And indeed the Apothecary has many Things in
his Shop which are not called for in many Months, yet these must be vended
with the rest; all which, when they have lost their Virtues, should they
be rejected, it would be much to their Prejudice, and they have a
fundamental Practice that no such Thing should be allow'd of: For 'tis
much better the Patient should suffer somewhat in his Body than the
Apothecary in his Estate; and if he has injured by his bad Physick,
perhaps he will take Pity of him, and the next Prescription shall be
better prepared; whereby he makes him abundance of Recompence for the Hurt
he receiv'd by that which was bad: And he himself makes an Advantage of
both, although perhaps if he had consulted the Patient, he would rather
have chosen to keep his Head sound than have it broken, that a proper
Plaister might be applied for the Cure. This is so notorious a Truth, that
all the World, even their best Friends, exclaim against them for it, and
'till they amend this among many other Peccadillo's, it behoves the
Patient to take care how seldom he employs them. Another, that the
Apothecaries and their Servants are so careless, slovingly and slight in
preparing of dispensatory, or prescribed Medicines, that neither the
Physicians, or the Diseased, have Reason to repose that Trust in them
which they challeng'd as their Due. As for Slovenliness, they may, I
confess, plead the old Proverb, _That what the Eyes see not, the Heart
rues not_. Indeed of all the rest it may be dispensed with; but should
Patients but once behold how their Physick was prepared in some Shops,
they would nauseate it: But least I should offend some nice Stomachs, I
shall dismiss this Subject, and proceed to another, which is the
Carelessness of Apothecaries and their Apprentices; on which I can never
reflect without Fear and Indignation, to think what Numbers have been
destroy'd and injur'd by such Proceedings: That this is not a groundless
Apprehension many Families can witness, and you can converse with few
Persons who are not able to give an Account of some such Miscarriages.
Another thing of great Blame with the Apothecaries is, their enhancing the
Prices of Medicines so much above what they might in Reason expect; about
which the Physician must no ways concern himself, because it has a bad
Influence on him, as on the Account of his Patient; though certainly, if
the Apothecaries were more modest in the prising of their Physick, the
Patient would be more liberal to the Physician: Whereas on the contrary,
the Apothecary holds them at such unreasonable Rates, that in most Courses
of Physick he gains more than the Doctor, how deservedly let others
determine, though in my Opinion, were their Pay proportion'd to their
Care and Honesty, I doubt they would gain little besides Shame and
Reproaches: But their Bills must be paid without Abatement; and with how
much Regret they are discharg'd, I shall refer it to those who have
suffered by them. Now several Things contribute to, or are the occasional
Causes of this Universal Grievance. The Physician's Silence, and the
Number, Pride, or Covetousness of the Apothecaries, and that Prices are
not set upon their Medicines: the Apothecaries being reduc'd into a
Company, were at first few; and therefore having full Employment, could
afford their Medicines at moderate Prices; but being since that time
increased to a great Number, each Person bringing up two or three, or
more, that Imployment which was before in a few Hands, became more
dispers'd, so that very small Portion thereof falls to the Share of some,
and indeed very few of them have more than they can manage. Now the Sick
must maintain all these, for although there be no occasion for a sixth
Part, yet they must all live handsomely; to supply which Expence, they
have no other Way than to exalt the Prices of their Medicines, and still
the less they are employ'd, the higher they must prize them, otherwise
they could not possibly subsist, unless they became Physicians, and
prescribe as well as prepare; to which Practices they are not only
propense, but more arrogantly assume, which is no less fatal to their
Patients, than by the impudent Prescription of your common Quacksalver,
Emperic, or Mountebank.
Now would it not be much better, if it were with us as in some Parts of
_Europe_, where the Magistrates of many Cities agree upon a certain Number
of Apothecaries, so many as they can apprehend are necessary, all the rest
are excluded, and must either seek other Seats, or be content for a small
Salary to work under those that are allow'd; their Apothecaries not being
permitted to multiply by Apprentices, but one out of the Shop is by the
publick Authority appointed to succeed in the Employment. _Hamburgh_ has
but one, _Stockholm_ and _Copenhagen_ four or Five, _Paris_ (which rivals
_London_ in its Inhabitants) has but one or two and fifty; they are from
the due Regard to the Safety of the People exempted from Offices, either
troublesome or profitable, that they may always be inspecting the
Preparations, or compounding of the Doses, to prevent the deadly
Consequences of sophisticated Medicines, or the fatal Errors of one
Composition for another, not easily to be distinguished: They are not
permitted to visit the Sick, that they may not be wanting from the Duties
of the Shop, or be tempted to gratify themselves as they please for the
Trouble, by introducing the Custom of taking too often of the Bolus and
Cordials. The Physicians Fees are settled according to the various
Conditions and Abilities of the Patient; 'tis not allow'd them to make any
Advantage by the arbitrary Rates of Physick, when prepared by themselves,
that the Patient and the Bill may not be too much inflam'd by a Profit on
that side, not easily to be limited or confined. I would not be suspected
to design any Prejudice to the careful and industrious Apothecary, (if
such there be) his Business requires the greatest Diligence and Fidelity
in selecting the Drugs, and preparing them faithfully according to the
Appointment of the Faculty, and in making up the Doses with that just
Regard to the Life of the Sick, that all Suspicion of the least Mistake
may be prevented, in the Weight and Measure, or the Number of Drops, _&c._
But when the Apothecary deserts his Station, is always abroad, and leaves
the compounding Part to his unexperienc'd Apprentice, who cannot avoid
sometimes infusing one thing for another, by which Errors many are known
to have lost their Lives; when 'tis known that the Prescripts are made up
of Medicines bought by Wholesale of the Chymist, and not made up by the
Apothecary himself, as is too much the present Practice, and consequently
can't be known to be made of all, and best Ingredients, but are suspected,
because bought at low Prices; you will doubt whether the Character of an
Apothecary can be given to this new, and till lately unknown Employment:
When he neglects the Business of his Trade, neither prepares himself the
Compositions, nor forms the Doses for them, to be deliver'd at the most
urgent Occasions, but daringly undertakes to advise in all Distempers, he
becomes an Emperic, and invades a Profession which he cannot be supposed
to understand.
And here give me Leave to be serious, in examining their general Practice
in all Diseases. Suppose your self to be troubled with any Distemper, it
matters not which, for all is one to him you send to; upon his Arrival he
feels your Pulse, and with a fix'd Eye upon your Countenance, tells you
your Spirits are low, and therefore it's high time for a Cordial; the next
Interogatory he puts gravely to you is, When was you at Stool, Sir? if not
to Day, he promises to send you a laxative Clyster by and by; and if you
complain you have a Looseness, then instead of one laxative, he will send
you two healing Clysters: If besides you intimate a Pain in your Stomach,
Back and Sides, then, responding to each Pain, you shall have a Stomach
Plaister, another for the right Side, another for the left, and one for
the Back, and so you are like to have a large Patch and well fortified
round the Middle. Now before we go farther, let's compute the Charge of
the first Day. There is the Cordial, composed by the Direction of some old
dusty Bill on his File, out of two or three musty Waters (especially if it
be towards the latter End of the Year, and that his Glasses have been
stopt with Corks) _viz._ it may be a Citron, a Borrage and a Baum Water,
all very full of Spirits, if River Water may be so accounted; to these is
to be added one Ounce of that miraculous Treakle Water, then to be
dissolved a Dram of _Confectio Alkermes_, and one Ounce of nauseous Syrup
of July-Flowers; this being well shaked in the Vial, you shall spy a great
Quantity of Gold swimming in Leaves up and down, for which your Conscience
would be burthened should you give him less than Five Shillings; for from
the meanest Tradesman he expects, without Abatement, Three and Six pence,
the ordinary and general Price of all Cordials, tho' consisting only of
Baum Water and half an Ounce of Syrup of July-Flowers. Your Clyster shall
be prepared out of two or three Handsful of Mallow Leaves and one Ounce of
common Fennil Seeds, boiled in Water to a Pint, which strained, shall be
thickned with the common Electuary lenitive, Rape Oil and brown Sugar, and
so seasoned with Salt; this shall be convey'd into your Guts by the young
Doctor, his Man, through an Engine he commonly carries about with him, and
makes him smell so wholsome; for which Piece of Service if you present
your Engineer with less than Half a Crown, he will think himself worse
dealt with than those who empty your necessary Closets in the Night; the
Master places to Account for the Gut-Medicine (though it were no more than
Water and Salt) and for the Use of his Man, which he calls Porteridge,
Eight Groats. _Item_, For a Stomatick, Hepatick, Splenetick, and a
Nephretick Plaister, for each Half a Crown: What the Total of this Day's
Physick does amount to you may reckon. The next Afternoon or Evening the
Apothecary returns himself to give you a Visit, (for should he appear in
the Morning, it would argue he had little to do) and finding, upon
Examination, you are rather worse than better, by Reason those Plaisters
caused a melting of the gross Humours about the Bowels, and dissolved them
into Winds and Vapours, which fuming to the Head, occasion a great
Head-ach, Dulness and Drowsiness, and Part of 'em being dispersed through
the Guts and Belly, discompose you with a Cholick, a Swelling of your
Belly, and an universal Pain or Lassitude over all your Limbs. Thus you
see one Day makes Work for another; however, he hath the Wit to assure
you, they are Signs of the Operations of Yesterday's Means, beginning to
move and dissolve the Humours; which successful Work is to be promoted by
a Cordial Apozem, the Repetition of a carminative Clyster, another Cordial
to take by Spoonfuls, and because your Sleep has been interrupted by the
Unquietness of swelling Humours, he will endeavour to procure you for this
next Night a Truce with your Disease, by an Hypnotick Potion that shall
occasion Rest: Neither will he give you any other Cause than to imagine
him a most careful Man, and so circumspect, that scarce a Symptom shall
pass his particular Regard; and therefore to remove your Head-ach by
retracting the Humours, or rather, as you are like to discern best, by
attracting Humours and Vapours, he will order his young Mercury to apply a
Vesicatory to the Nape of your Neck, and with a warm Hand to besmear your
Belly and all your Joints with a good comfortable Ointment for to appease
your Pains: The Cordial Apozem is a Decoction that shall derive its Virtue
from two or three unsavoury Roots, and as many Herbs and Seeds, with a
little Syrup of July-Flowers, for three or four Times taking; which
because you shall not undervalue by having it brought to you all in one
Glass, you shall have it sent you in so many Vials and Draughts, and for
every one of them shall be placed Three Shillings to your own Account,
which is five Parts more than the Whole stands him in; for the Cordial
Potion as much; for the Hypnotick Potion the same Price; for your
Carminative Clyster no less; and for the Epispastick Plaister a Shilling:
Thus with the Increase of your Disease you may perceive the Increase of
your Bill; and therefore it's no improper Observation, That the
Apothecaries Practice follow the Course of the Moon. The third Day
produces an Addition of new Symptoms, and an Augmentation of the old ones;
the Patient stands in need of new Comfort from his Apothecary, who tells
him, that Nature begins now to work more strong, and therefore all Things
go well (and never ill;) but because Nature requires all possible
Assistance from Cordials and small Evacuations, he must expect to have the
same Cordials over again, but with the Addition of greater Ingredients, it
may be Magistery of Pearl, or Oriental Bezoar in Powder, besides the
Repetition of a Clyster, and the renewing of your Plaisters, for the
Profit of your Physician, you must be persuaded to accept of a comfortable
Electuary for the Stomach, to promote Digestion; of a Collution to wash
your Gums to secure you from the Scurvy, serving at the same Time to wash
the Slime and Filth from your Tongue; of a Melilot Plaister to apply to
the Blister that was drawn the Night fore; of some Spirits of Salt to drop
into your Beer at Meals; of three Pills of Ruffi to be swallowed down that
Night, and three next Morning, which possibly may pleasure you with three
Stools, but are to be computed at two Doses, each at a Shilling; the
Spirit of Salt a Crown the Ounce; for the Stomach Electuary as much, for
the Clysters as before; for your Cordial in relation to the Pearl and
Bezoar, their Weight in Gold, which is Two-pence a Grain, the greatest
Cheat of my whole Discourse; for dressing your Blister a Shilling; for the
Plaister as formerly. Here I presume that Candour in you, as not to
believe me so disingenuous, as to take the Advantage of Apothecaries in
producing any other than the best Methods of their Practice, and that
which favours the least of their Frauds, for in Comparison with others
(though these are very palpable, in regard there is not a valuable
Consideration regarded as a _quid pro quo_) they are such as may be
judged passable; yet when you are to reflect upon the Total that shall
arise on the Arithmetical Progression of Charge of a Fortnights Physick,
modestly computed at about Fifteen Shillings a Day, without the Inclusion
of what you please to present him for his Care, Trouble, and Attendance, I
will not harbour so ill an Opinion of him, or give so rigid a Censure as
your self shall upon the following Oration your Clysterpipe Doctor
delivers to you with a melancholy Accent, in these Terms: Sir, I have made
use of my best Skill and Endeavours, I have been an Apothecary these
twenty Years, and upwards, and have seen the best Practice of our best
_London_ Physicians; my Master was such a one, Mr. ------ one of the
ablest Apothecaries of the City; I have given you the best Cordials that
can be prescrib'd; 'tis at your Instance I did it, I can do no more, and
indeed it is more properly the Work of a Physician; your Case is
dangerous, and I think, if you sent for such a one, Dr. ---- he is a very
pretty Man; if you please I will get him to come down. Now, Sir, how beats
your Pulse? The Loss of your Monies your Bills import, give Addition to
your Pain, through the Remembrance it is due to one that hath fool'd you
out of it, and deserv'd it no other way, than by adding Wings to your
gross Humours that before lay dormant, and now fly rampant up and down,
raking, and raging; which had you not been Penny wise and Pound foolish,
you would have prevented by sending for a Physician, who for the small
Merit of a City-Fee (for which you might also have expected two Visits)
would have struck at the Root of the Distemper, without tampering at its
Symptoms, or Branches, and by Virtue of one Medicine, restor'd you to your
former Condition of Health from which you are now so remote, being
necessitated, considering your doubtful State, to be at the Charge of a
Physician or two, to whom, upon Examination of what hath been done before,
the Apothecary shall humbly declare, he hath given you nothing but
Cordials; which Word Cordial, he supposes to be a sufficient Protection
for his erroneous Practice; and I must tell you, that had his Cordial
Method been continu'd in a Fever, or any other acute Distemper, for eight
or ten Days, your Heirs would have been particularly obliged to him for
giving you a Cordial Remove out of your Possession, and that through
Omission of those two great Remedies, Purging and Bleeding, the exact Use
whereof, in respect of Time and Quantity, and other Circumstances, can
only be determined by accomplish'd Physicians.
I cannot better describe their Unaptness for so great a Work, nor express
the great Difficulties that must be conquer'd to deserve the first
Character of a compleat Physician, than in the Words of that eminent and
learned Physician Dr. _Fuller_; 'It requires (says he) to understand the
learned Languages, Natural Philosophy, all the Parts of the Body, and the
Animal Oeconomy, the Nature, Causes, Times, Tendencies, Symptoms,
Diognosticks, and Prognosticks of Diseases, the Indications of Cure, and
contra Indications, the Rules of Errors of living as to the Six
Non-naturals; we must have the Skill to judge to whom, for what, when, how
much, how often to prescribe Bleeding, Vomiting, Purging, Sweating, and
other Evacuations; as also to Opiates, Calybiates, Cortex, and the
numberless other Alteratives: We must be very well acquainted with the
Virtues, Faults, Preparations, Compositions, and Doses of Vegetables,
Animals, Minerals, and all Shop Medicines; and lastly, to compleat all,
must be able, upon every emergent Occasion, to write a Bill for a Patient,
readily, pertinently, and in Form according to Art. Now to accomplish all
this, a Man had need be rightly born, and set out by Nature, with a
peculiar Genius, and particular Fitness, and with a strong prevailing
Inclination to this Study and Practice above all others.
'He must endeavour with Diligence, Sagacity and Gravity, Integrity, and
such a convenient Briskness and Courage as will bear him up, and carry him
through Difficulties, without presumptuous Rashness or barbarous
Hard-heartedness; and then 'tis necessary he should be a Man of a
competent Estate, to answer the great Expence of Education and
Expectation; for he must be brought up directly in it from the Beginning
of his Studies in the University; he must lay out all his Time and Talents
upon Reading, Advising, Observing, Experimenting, Reasoning, Remembering,
with an unwearied Labour of Body and Application of Mind; he must run
through Courses of Anatomy, Botany, Chymistry and _Galenick_ Pharmacy: And
when he hath done all this, cannot handsomely compleat himself, except he
see good Variety of others practise, which (by the by) it's probable he
will have more Time for than he could wish, before he can get any of his
own.'
Now each of those singly will require a great deal of Pains, Expence and
Time to be attained; and yet all these and much more that can be in short
summed up, ought to be done and in some measure accomplished, before a Man
can be rightly and duly qualified even to begin Practice.
And as to Matter of Fact, few (very few, God knows) there have been, or
now are, who tho' they spared not for Education or Diligence, ever work
themselves up to a tolerable Sufficiency: Nay, _Hippocrates_ himself,
that great Genius, is not ashamed to confess, in an Epistle to
_Democritus_, That though he was now got to Old Age and to the End of
Life, yet he was not got to the End of Physick; no, nor was _Æsculapius_
neither, the Inventor of it.
By all which, it's undeniably evident, that the Science and Practice of
Physick is one of the largest Studies, and most difficult Undertakings in
the World; and consequently, not any the best Collection of Prescripts
that ever was, will, or can be writ or printed, can alone make a compleat
Physician, any more than good Colours and Pencils alone can make a fine
Painter. And yet every illiterate Fellow and paltry Gossip that can make
shift to patch up a Parcel of pitiful Receipts, have the Impudence and
Villainy to venture at it; and in hopes of a good Pig, Goose or Basket of
Chickens, shall boldly stake their Skill (forsooth) against Mens Lives,
and lose them; and at the same Time scandalize and keep out true
Physicians, that might probably save them.
And this leads me to the third Consideration, The great Danger and Damage
occasioned by the rash tampering of such as are not educated rightly and
qualified for it.
You that enter not by the Door into the Profession, but climb up some
other Way, ought to take it into your most serious Thoughts, that Mistakes
and Mismanagement in so difficult a Business easily happen; often the
Mischiefs occasioned thereby are impossible to be retrieved; and being
upon the Body, perhaps Mind of Man, sometimes produce such undoing
Misery, such deplorable Ruin, as would make even an Heart of Stone break
and bleed, and Death to think of it. Suppose one should lose his Limbs or
Health, and live unhappily in Pain, Sick or Bedrid all his Days through
your improper Applications or ignorant Omissions; Would it not turn your
very Bowels within you, and make you wish a thousand times you had never
been that unadvis'd Busie-body to act thus foolishly and unfortunately?
But put the Case again: You behold a dead Man (which to me is the most
lamentable of all lamentable Spectacles Upon Earth) I say, put Case a poor
dead Man were laid before your Eyes, that your Heart tells you might
probably have lived many a fair Year, had it not been for your physicking
of him: Such a Sight, such a Thought, (if you have the least Humanity
left) cannot fail to pierce your very Soul; and ever after the
Remembrance, yea, the evil Conscience of it must haunt you and give you
Horror and Terror, and a sort of Hell to your dying Hour.
Perhaps it may be an only and hopeful Son, in whose Life his aged Parents
Lives were bound up; and they die too, or linger out a miserable Life in
Sorrow and Anguish worse than Death.
Perhaps the good Father of a many little Orphans, who being poor and now
helpless, must pitiously perish, or being fallen into bad Hands, and
cheated of what was left them, may suffer Poverty, Contempt, Injury and
Misery all their Life long.
Perhaps a Wife, who might have brought forth an useful eminent Man, a Hero
of his Generation, and the Head of splendid Families; and so the Mischief
you do may fall upon not only the present but future Ages.
But Possibilities and putting of Cases are endless, the Upshot of all
this, if you take upon you to cure the Sick, and be not licensed and
otherwise qualified for it, if you presumptuously thrust in your self, and
bar out another that is authorized and able, though no ill Event chance
thereupon, yet well it might, and was likely to do so for all you; and
therefore good Providence that protected your Patient, and fenced off the
Evils, is alone to be thanked, and you nevertheless to be blamed.
But if Death ensue your arrogant Intermeddling and pernicious Quackery,
be assured of it, 'tis a sort of Murder in the Court of Conscience, and
probably will be adjudged so in the last Great Court.
This is not my private Opinion only, but the Judgment and Decision of the
Legislature of our Land; for the _Present State of_ England tells us, That
by the Law of _England_, if one who is no Physician or Surgeon, and not
expresly allow'd to practise, shall take upon him a Cure, and his Patient
die under his Hands, this is Felony in the Person presuming so to do.
'Tis not enough for you to say, If I can do no Good, I'll do no Hurt,
(which you may as well invert, and say, If I do no Hurt I'll do no Good)
no, you interlope, you injure the Faculty, you discourage Education, you
keep out better Advice, you trifle with Mens Lives, you lose the golden
Opportunity, you prolong the Case 'till it gets head, and grows incurable
and mortal, or else extremely hazardous and almost helpless; and this is
doing Hurt with a Vengeance.
To bring this home to you, and make it more plain. If an House be on Fire,
and you come and pretend to put it out your self, and absolutely keep off
others, and then fling in Dust instead of Water, and so the Flame gets
Mastery; in this Case, though you did not directly intend any positive
Hurt, though you did not actually pour in Oil, nor stir and blow up the
Coals; yet forasmuch as you would needs be an Undertaker, and could not
extinguish it your self, and suffered not others, used to and skill'd in
the Business, who coming with Water and proper Engines, might have done
it, you are really and truly the Cause of it being burnt.
Think not to excuse your self by pretending you did it out of Charity, and
meant well, though it fell out ill; no, no, be it known to you, such a
Charity as did not appertain to you, and proved murderous, was
unpardonable Presumption, and therefore will not cover the multitude of
Sins.
If you are not sufficient for those Things, you'll do well and wisely to
desist from this difficult and dangerous Practice, and fall into such a
Trade of Life as you well understand and rightly can manage. And then like
the Men who used curious Arts (_Acts_ xix. 19.) you may burn all your
Receipt-Books; so shall you keep your Innocence, save your Conscience,
secure your Quiet, and yet reserve Room enough to exercise your Charity.
For if at any Time your Heart move you to pity and succour a poor sick
Neighbour that can't pay for Advice, there will be no Necessity that you
should try your Skill upon him, 'till you mischief or murder him by way of
Charity. Do but you send him a Physician, Medicines and Necessaries
without Hope of Requital; and trust me, that will be an handsome
Assistance, most nobly becoming a generous Mind and a charitable Man.
Now that not one of our Apothecaries, or indeed very few of our modern
Traders in Physick, have these requisite Endowments, I shall leave it to
any considerate Person to judge of; and how far they stretch beyond their
Knowledge, we have a many miserable Objects in our daily View, woful
Instances of their great Rashness, Folly and Ignorance.
That the Profession has sunk into the Craft of deceiving, and amusing, and
making Profit by new Medicines, or useless Preparations brought into
fashion, and highly esteem'd, as long as the Mode of crying them up shall
last, and the Fallacy which imposes them can support it, the unhappy
People suffer themselves to be deluded, and cheated of their Lives, and
their Money. The Rich please themselves that they can purchase the
Alexipharmic, which has Power to controul the Disease, and have not any
Doubt within themselves, that by the often Use, their Lives become almost
immortal; they look down with some small Pity on the Vulgar, who they
think must die before them, being not able to pay the Ransom. They please
themselves, because Health and Life are of the highest Demands for these
Rarities peculiar to them. The Gentlemen of both the higher and lower
Faculty have not been wanting to make use of the Credulity and Weakness of
the richer Patients; and I shall now lay open to your great Surprize, that
the most despicable and useless Stuff have been brought into the highest
Esteem to be rely'd on in the most difficult and dangerous Distempers.
And _First_, of the _Bezoar_-Stone, an obvious Instance of our _English_
Practice, from whence you may concur with the Physicians abroad, with what
Skill, and Art, and Integrity the Profession continues to be practised
here.
_Bezoar_ (which has neither Smell nor Taste, and upon taking into the
Stomach gives no Sensation perceivable) has held its Name and Reputation
almost sacred with us, though exploded long since in almost all Parts of
_Europe_. The _French_ are well convinced that they have been impos'd upon
by the trading Physicians returning from the _Indies_, to take off the
pretty Trifle at a very great Price; they had made it to be admired, by
asserting that it was able to encounter Poisons, that no malignant
Distempers were able to resist its soveraign Virtues; but their overdoing,
spoilt their Market, the more curious and wiser Part of the Nation
discerning the Abuse, had the Opportunity of promoting the Experiment,
which they procured by the King's Command, two Criminals who had Poison
given them, with Promise of Life, if _Bezoar_ could procure their Pardon.
They lost their Lives, and the Physicians and the Stone their Reputations.
The greatest and most learned abroad have freely own'd that they have been
deceiv'd by it, but their Patients much more, who had used it without
Success, and any observable Effect.
Doctor _Pauli_ tells you, he has left the Use of it many Years, and had
given to better Purpose, the more powerful and certain Cordials taken from
Plants; and supports his Opinion with the Suffrages of _Casper_,
_Bauhinus_, _Casp. Hofmanus_, _Rectius_, _Fabriciùs_; The learned and
judicious _Deemoebreck_ in his Treatise of the Pestilence, declares he had
no Regard to it, that he gave it often _absque ullo fructu, movebat aliquo
modo exiguum duntaxit sudorem_. It did, says he, no good to those who
used it; scarcely mov'd so much as a little Sweat: It was of the best
Parcel chosen of any coming from the _Indies_, or ever was sent to
_Europe_, but gave them not the least Relief, though they had promised
themselves the greatest from it: To confirm his Opinion that it is worth
nothing, he produces the Opinion of _Hercules Saxonias_, and _Crato_
Physician to three Emperors, and refers you to many others. Doctor
_Patin_, late Royal Professor of Physick in _Paris_, decides the Pretences
to its being of any kind of Use: He says it neither stirs the Blood, nor
puts the Spirits in any Motion; besides, some of the above-nam'd
Physicians, he appeals to the Judgment of many others, and his own
Experience of more than thirty Years. The lately corrected _Leewarden_'s
Dispensatory leaves it out of their _Gascoins Powder_, condemning it as a
useless and frivolous Ingredient.
_Bontius_ tells you, that if we must give Stones, we ought to put a
greater Value upon those cut out of the Bladders of Man, a more noble
Creature, fed with Meat of the highest Nourishment, and his Spirits warm'd
with Wine, than that of a Goat starving upon the Mountains. He assures you
that he has given the _Bezoar_, from the Gall or the Bladder, with better
Effect than he ever observ'd of those from the _Indies_. The Physicians
who first began the Amusement and Cheat, made themselves ridiculous by
dreading to give for a Dose more than five, or six, or seven Grains: You
may take forty or fifty with no other Advantage or Alteration than your
Imagination shall raise; and with the same Effect, ten times as much
more. It may, with modern Observers, pass for a Sweater, and a Cordial,
when they have given it with good Cordials, and Sweaters, but the most
visible Operation it has, is seen when the Bill is paid. Our Physicians in
their private Conversations, talk of it as a thing altogether worthless;
but because the People are willing to be cheated with _Bezoar_ and
_Pearl_, they dare not entertain a Thought of undeceiving them, fearing
the Consequence to their own Disadvantage: And I pray with what Art can
the high Rate of Medicines be maintain'd, if the World could not be amused
with the Imagination of being kept alive in all the Distempers, by the
Force of these two?
_Pearl_ is a Disease in a Shell-Fish, as _Bezoar_ is in the _Quadruped_:
They are very different in Shape and Bulk, the whitest and most glittering
are most in Esteem; the sickly Fancy conceits it will revive the Blood as
it pleases the Eye; and that it will brisk up the Spirits and Mind, when
it reflects on its being dear and fashionable. But this has been despis'd
by the honest Physicians, who prescribe for the Cure of their Patients.
The famous _Plater_, after the Experience of a many Years Practice,
rejects the pretended Virtues of Pearl, or Metals, which have no Taste or
Smell, to give the least Pretence to rank them with the Vegetable
Alexipharmicks.
Most of our Writers are of his Sentiment, and give it only a common Place
with the others usually prescrib'd in the Heart-burning, or windy sour
Humour offending the upper Orifice of the Stomach: But the Shell of the
Fish that breeds them, pretends to, and is allow'd by all our best Authors
to have the same Virtues. Nature has been very liberal in this Sort of
_Alkali_; all the Shell-fish, all the Claws of Crabs, or the Tips, if you
please to value them most, the two Stones of the Craw-fish, and the Shells
of Eggs are directed frequently with the Pearl: The two Corals, _&c._ and
the numerous Earths of the absorbing Kind, the Chalk, the Marles, are
judged by many preferable to it, or are used with the same Success: So
that we have the greatest Reason to believe, that the debauched Practice
of the _English_ Preservers of Health have made use of it, with Design to
extract Sums out of the Purse, rather than of making the Crasis of the
Blood better, or the Spirits more vivacious; and if you have Oyster-Shells
or Crabs-Eyes in its Stead, which are generally made use of under that
Name, they will have the same, if not a better Effect.
Gold is by our Chymical Writers stil'd the Sun, and the King of Metals.
The Kings and Princes of the last Age were amus'd and defrauded, their
Lives made less durable than their Subjects, who were beneath the Use of
Gold; the Chicken they eat had the Happiness to be fed with it, that they
might extract the Sulphur and prepare it by their Circulation, and
volatize it for their Use. But the Physicians were contented to collect
all the Gold which past unaltered and undiminished thro' the Poultry, into
their Pockets. This, with many other Artifices of this Stamp, are by many
laid aside, because the Publick begin to be sensible that the Gold, as the
_Bezoar_ and the Pearl, were of more Cordial Virtue to the Adviser and
Confederates than to the Subject of their Care and Attendance.
The _Aurum potabile_ is sometime the Entertainment of Conversation, when
the poor Alcymists or their vain Pretensions are considered; there being
no Humour in any Animal which can alter or dissolve it, no Effect or
Operation can be expected from it, it deludes the Eye and Fancy in the
Cordial Waters, and on the Bolus and Electuaries, but must pass away
sooner or later as it adheres more or less to the Stomach or Bowels,
without acting or being acted on in any Part of the Body; the Pills,
either purgative or cordial, are as often dismist entire, having been
covered with Leaf-Gold, which is able, though thin, to dismiss the most
subtil and penetrating Parts of all Humours. The Value of the Leaf is not
worth your Enquiry, the Book being sold at a low Price. The Fulminating
Powder is a rough violent Medicine, and has been lately neglected, and
given Place to others more useful and less dangerous.
Silver and Lunar Pills are as vile and disregardless as Gold, when they
are considered with relation to the Cure of Diseases.
The precious Stones have constantly been put into the old Receipts by that
Sort of Writers who prescribe every Medicine very faithfully, and design
to please and amuse the Readers with the Bulk and Length of the
Prescription; but they have been neglected by the practical Authors, who
had the Trouble of considering, that no Manner of Vertue could be expected
from so hard and therefore impenetrable Bodies; as the Diamond, Ruby,
Hyacinth, the Sapphire, the Smargad and Topaz, _&c._ who are not capable
of a Dissolution, and of altering or acting upon the Fluids, and as it is
most certain that many very cheap Medicines have greater and more
observable Effects, it's ridiculous to give a hard gritty Powder, which
may for many Reasons corrode and offend the Stomach and Bowels in their
Passage.
Among the many Foreign Vegetables imported here, I must take Notice of
Sarsaparilla, as it has had the Preference before many others, especially
of our own Growth, in many difficult and chronical Cases, will have
obtain'd its Credit and Reputation by being in good Company, and by being
prescrib'd with the cheapest Drugs, but of the greatest Virtues, _viz._
Guiacum, Sasaphras, China, and the Seeds of many most useful Plants. If it
has been by it self beneficial, in the Practice of the _West-Indies_, it
has lost its Qualities in the Passage into the colder Climates, being a
soft and thin Root, it may evaporate and exhale its most active Parts;
many of the late Writers have given this Judgment of it, that it is
_nullius Saporis vel Odoris_, of no Smell or Taste.
The Physicians have not yet done, but contrive to thrust into the Stomachs
of their Patients, not only the most loathsome, but the Parts of Animals,
which after their Death, are void of all Spirits or Oils, and are a dry
and unactive Earth.
Of the first Sort, Mummy claims the Precedence; this has had the Honour to
be worn in the Bosom next to the Heart, by the Kings and Princes, and all
those who could then bear the Price the last Age in all the Courts of
_Europe_; 'twas presented with the greatest Assurance, that it was able to
preserve from the most deadly Infections, and that the Heart was secured
by it from all the Kinds of Malignity: They expected long Life from the
decay'd, or dead, Spices, and Balsams, and Gums, and the Piece of the dead
Body of an _Egyptian_ Prince, or of a Slave preferred by him: If taken
inwardly, it was avow'd to be able to dissolve the Blood coagulated, to
give new Life and Motion to all the Spirits. The dry'd Hearts of many
Animals, the Livers, the Spleens burnt to a Powder; the Skins of the
Stomachs, or Guts of Cocks, and Worms, and the dry'd Lungs of Foxes, ought
to be rejected as loathsome and offensive without any Qualities to amend,
by the Expectation of any Advantage.
The Powder of Vipers by it self, and in the Troches, will deserve a more
strict Examination, because it is not only depended on in many Chronical
Diseases, but the Life of the Patient in the Acute and Pestilential is
betray'd and lost, if it has no alexiterial Powers to expel the Malignity,
or support the natural Vigour. But as the Flesh of all Animals, and Fish,
when dry'd, have exhal'd the Volatile Spirits with the Moisture, and
nothing remains but the Skins and Fibres, and are capable of giving very
little Nourishment to the Blood, and are very difficult to be dissolv'd,
or digested in the Stomach: You may conclude, by trying when in Health, if
Vipers will support your Strength, or if eating of the Flesh in all the
Kinds of Cookery, will please the Palate more than the common Food, what
you may hope from the dry Powder, or the Cake of it with Salt and Meal,
(and the Troches of Vipers are no more) when your Fever calls for the best
Alexipharmick. You may to this compare the Skulls of dead Men, now
presum'd to command the Epilepsies, and other violent Diseases, if the
Skull has been long in Powder, or has long surviv'd the Criminal, the
Spirits distill'd from it, are not stronger than those from the Horn of a
Stag, or the Spirits of Urin by it self, or from Sal Armoniack: the Shell
of the Head preserves the Brains, and the Powder shall not fail to
preserve the Spirits of all the Brains which can be perswaded to use it.
What can you think will be the Success, from the Use of the Nest of the
Swallow, or the Cast off Skin of a Serpent; your Thoughts will naturally
reflect on the perfidious Fourbery of making great Gain from the Bubbles
put on the Sick, or the vile Negligence of the rest who have suffer'd the
fatal Amusements to be at last confirm'd by Custom.
After these it may seem needless to speak of the gainful Industry, which
has brought the Horns of the Elk, the Bufalo, Rhinoceros, and of the
Unicorn's Horn, which is no other than the Bone of a Fish, and has been
thought sufficient alone to expel all Poisons; or the Hoofs of the Elk
and the Ounce, or the Bone of the Hart of a Stag, the Effect of his old
Age; or the Jaw-bones of the Pyke, _&c._ or the Ancle-bones of the Hares
and Boars, _&c._ with the Eagle-Stone, and those for the Cramp, and
Convulsions, and Cholicks, the great Assistance from your Amulets, and
abounding Nostrums, cannot sufficiently be derided.
Of the simple distill'd Waters, one hundred and fifty are appointed to be
made, the greatest Part of them are not now prepar'd; and indeed they are
found of no Use, but to increase the Bulk of the Julep, with the hot and
compound Waters; the Milk Water is now order'd for that Design, and
because as much Money can be procur'd from it, as from all the vast
Variety of the other, this in the usual Practice almost supplies the
Place of all the rest. You may run over the vast Number of the _Galenical_
Preparations and Compositions, as they are improperly stiled; they are
almost seven hundred, to be kept till they be corrupt, and be viewed as
the old rusty and rotten Weapons of an ancient Armory; they are now
reduc'd to, and the Shop is supposed to be made up with about One hundred
and fifty: But if the insipid Simple Waters, and the fiery ungrateful
Compound Waters shall be thrown aside, and the Simple Milk Water, with
five or six Cordial Tinctures, shall be kept for Use, and the other
Tincture appointed by the Physician, with respect to the Circumstances of
the Patient: If only three or four Syrups and Conserves, and Powders, and
Pills, and Oils, and Ointments, and Plaisters in that Number, in
Imitation of the Prudence and Integrity of the Foreign Physicians who have
contracted their Dispensatories, shall be order'd, in the most rational,
and efficacious Forms, to receive the Addition of all the natural Powders,
Balsams, Gums, or the Chymical Medicines, the Apothecary will have his
Trouble very much lessened, and with less Expence; the Patient will have
his Disease much sooner cured, and his Life much better preserved.
By this time we presume the Reader is convinc'd, that private Interest too
often influences many of our Modern Physicians, and makes them prescribe
such Medicines as tend most to the Apothecaries Gain, because the People
give the Apothecary Power of appointing the Physician; we have shewn that
those costly pretended Medicines, which so much raise the Sum in the Bill,
have no real Virtue; that the greatest Part of the most senative grow in
our own Gardens; that if some few are fetch'd from foreign Parts, they are
used in so small Quantities, that the Doses are of the lowest Price: And
consequently you will very plainly see, that the long and high charg'd
Bill after a Fit of Sickness, is more the Effect of the Collusion betwixt
the Doctor and Apothecary, together with your own Folly of desiring of it,
than either the Prices of the Medicine, or the Necessity of so many Doses.
I dare say, my Reader now thinks it high time to take Care of himself, to
believe that the seldomer the Physician or Apothecary are employ'd, the
less Risque he runs in his Health or Fortune, that he is not upon every
slight Indisposition, or ordinary Sickness to call upon their Help,
whereby very often the Remedy proves worse than the Disease; that your
Constitution will endeavour to preserve it self, and will effect it in
most of the common Distempers, but with ill Medicines those will become
dangerous, and will be made every Day more malignant. Take the Counsel of
your most observing and experienced Friend, who has no Byass to divert him
from the only Care of your Health; but avoid the Emperick, who will,
instead of procuring the Ease of your Thoughts and Repose, and prescribing
the Rules of your Diet, and permitting Nature to subdue the Disease,
affright you with the greatest Danger, disturb you, and fill your Chamber,
or both, with the inflaming and pernicious Cordials, the Bolus's and
Draughts, till he has cured his own Distemper by the Number of Articles he
shall enter into the Bill.
That it is in the Power of every Man to become his own Physician, who
needs no other Helps of supporting a good, and correcting a bad
Constitution, than by observing a sober and regular Life; there is nothing
more certain, than that Custom becomes a second Nature, and has a great
Influence upon our Bodies, and has too often more Power over the Mind than
Reason it self?
The honestest Man alive, in keeping Company with Libertines, by degrees
forgets the Maxims of Probity he before was used to, and naturally falls
into those Vices with his Companions; and if he be so happy as to acquit
himself, and to meet with better Company, then Virtue reassumes its first
Lustre, and will triumph in its Turn, and he insensibly regains the Wisdom
that he had abandoned.
In a Word, all the Alterations that we perceive in the Temper, Carriage,
and Manners of most Men, have scarce any other Foundation, but the Force
and Prevalency of Custom.
'Tis an Unhappiness in which the Men of this Age are fall'n, that Variety
of Dishes is now the Fashion, and become so far preferable to Frugality;
and yet the one is the Product of Temperance, whilst Pride and
unrestrain'd Appetite is the Parent of the other.
Notwithstanding the Difference of their Origin, yet Prodigality is at
present stiled Magnificence, Generosity and Grandeur, and is commonly
esteem'd of in the World, whilst Frugality passes for Avarice and
Sordidness in the Eyes and Acceptation of most Men: Here is a visible
Error which Custom and Habit have established.
The Error has so far seduc'd us, that it has prevail'd upon us, to
renounce a frugal Way of living, though taught us by Nature, even from the
first Age of the World, as being that which would prolong our Days, and
has cast us into those Excesses, which serve only to abridge the Number of
them. We become old before we have been able to taste the Pleasures of
being young; and the time which ought to be the Summer of our Lives, is
often the beginning of their Winter, we soon perceive our Strength to
fail, and Weakness to come on apace, and decline even before we come to
Perfection.
On the contrary, Sobriety maintains us in the natural State wherein we
ought to be. Our Youth is lasting, our Manhood attended with a Vigour that
does not begin to decay 'till after a many Years. A whole Century must be
run out before Wrinkles can be form'd on the Face, or Grey-hairs grow on
the Head: This is so true, that when Men were not addicted to
Voluptuousness, they had more Strength and Vivacity at Fourscore, than we
have at present at Forty.
It cannot indeed be expected, that every Man should tie himself strictly
to the Observations of the same Rules in his Diet, since the Variety of
Climates, Constitution, Age, and other Circumstances may admit of
Variations. But this we may assert as a reasonable, general, and
undeniable Maxim, founded upon Reason and the Nature of Things; that for
the Preservation of Health and prolonging a Man's Life, it is necessary
that he eat and drink no more than is sufficient to support his natural
Constitution; and on the contrary, whatsoever he eats and drinks beyond,
that is superfluous, and tends to the feeding of the corrupt and vicious
Humours, which will at last, though they may be stifled for a Time, break
out into a Flame and burn the Man quite down, or else leave him like a
ruinated or shattered Building.
This general Maxim which we have laid down, will hold good with respect to
Men of all Ages and Constitutions, and under whatsoever Climate they
live, if they have but the Courage to make a due Application of it, and to
lay a Restraint upon their unreasonable Appetites.
After all, we will not, we dare not warrant, that the most strict and
sober Life will secure a Man from all Diseases, or prolong his Days to the
greatest old Age. Natural Infirmities and Weaknesses, which a Man brings
along with him into the World, which he deriv'd from his Parents and could
not avoid, may make him sickly and unhealthful, notwithstanding all his
Care and Precaution: And outward Accidents (from which no Man is free) may
cut off the Thread of Life before it is half spun out. There is no fencing
against the latter of those, but as to the former, a Man may in some
Measure correct and amend them by a sober and regular Life. In fine, let
a Man's Life be longer or shorter, yet Sobriety and Temperance renders it
pleasant and delightful. One that is sober, though he lives but thirty or
forty Years, yet lives long, and enjoys all his Days, having a free and
clear Use of all his Faculties; whilst the Man that gives himself to
Excess, and lays no Restraint to his Appetites, though he prolongs his
Life to Threescore or Fourscore Years (which is next to a Miracle) yet is
his Life but one continu'd doseing Slumber, his Head being always full of
Fumes, the Pores of his Soul cloudy and dark, the Organs of his Body weak
and worn out, and very unfit to discharge the proper Offices of a rational
Creature. And indeed Reason, if we hearken to it, will tell us, that a
good Regimen is necessary for the prolonging our Days, and that it
consists in two Things, first in takeing Care of the Quality, and secondly
of the Quantity, so as to eat and drink nothing that offends the Stomach,
nor any more than we can easily digest.
And in this, Experience ought to be our Guide in those two Principles,
when we arrive to Forty, Fifty, or Sixty Years of Age. He who puts in
Practice that Knowledge which he has of what is good for him, and goes on
in a frugal Way of Living, keeps the Humours in a just Temperature, and
prevents them from being altered, though he suffer Heat and Cold, though
he be fatigued, though his Sleep be broke, provided there be no Excess in
any of them. This being so, what an Obligation does Man lie under of
living soberly, and ought he not to free himself from the Fears of sinking
under the least Intemperature of the Air, and under the least Fatigue,
which makes us sick upon every slight Occasion?
'Tis true, the most sober Man may sometimes be indisposed, when they are
unavoidably obliged to transgress the Rule which they have been used to
observe; but then they are certain, their Indisposition will not last
above two or three Days at most, nor can they fall into a Fever: Weariness
and Faintness are easily remedied by Rest and good Diet.
There are some who feed high, and maintain, that whatsoever they eat is so
little a Disturbance to them, that they cannot perceive in what Part of
the Body the Stomach lies; but I averr, they do not speak as they think,
nor is it natural? 'Tis impossible that any created Being should be of so
perfect a Composition, as that neither Heat nor Cold, Dry nor Moist should
have any Influence over it, and that the Variety of Food which they make
use of, of different Qualities, should be equally agreeable to them. Those
Men cannot but acknowledge, that they are sometimes out of Order; if it is
not owing to a sensible Indigestion, yet they are troubled with Head-achs,
Want of Sleep, and Fevers, of which they are cured by a Diet, and taking
such Medicines as are proper for Evacuations. It is therefore certain,
that their Distempers proceed from Repletion, or from their having eat or
drank something which did not agree with their Stomachs.
Most old People excuse their high Feeding by saying, that it is necessary
to eat a great deal, to keep up their natural Heat, which diminishes
proportionably as they grow into Years; and to create an Appetite, 'tis
necessary to find out proper Sauces, and to eat whatsoever they have a
Fancy for, and that without thus humouring their Palates, they would be
soon in their Graves.
To this I reply: That Nature, for the Preservation of a Man in Years, has
so composed him, that he may live with a little Food; that his Stomach
cannot digest a great Quantity, and that he has no need of being afraid of
dying for want of eating; since when he is sick, he is forced to have
recourse to a regular Sort of Diet, which is the first and main Thing
prescrib'd him by his Physician, that if this Remedy is of such Efficacy
to snatch us out of the Arms of Death, 'tis a Mistake to suppose that a
Man may not by eating a little more than he does when he is sick, live a
long Time without ever being sick.
Others had rather be disturb'd twice or thrice a Year with the Gout, the
Sciatica, and their Epidemical Distempers, than to be always put to the
Torment and Mortification of laying a Restraint upon their Appetites,
being sure, that when they are indisposed, a regular Diet will be an
infallible Remedy and Cure. But let them be informed by me, that as they
grow up in Years their natural Heat abates; that as regular Diet, despised
as a Precaution, and only look'd upon as Physick, cannot always have the
same Effect nor Force, to draw off the Crudities, nor repair the Disorders
that are caused by Repletion; and lastly, that they run the Hazard of
being cheated by their Hope and by their Intemperance.
Others say, That it is more eligible to feed high and enjoy themselves,
though a Man live the less while. It is no surprizing Matter that Fools
and Mad-men should contemn and despise Life; the World will be no Loser
whenever they go out of it; but 'tis a considerable Loss, when wise,
virtuous, and holy Men drop into the Grave, who might have done more
Honour to their Country and to themselves.
In Youth this Excess is more frequent; necessary therefore it is to
moderate his Apetite; for if the Stomach be stretch'd beyond its due
Extent, it will require to be fill'd, but never well digest what it
receives. Besides, it is much better to prevent Diseases, by Temperance,
Sobriety, Chastity, and Exercise, than cure them by Physick.
_Quid enim se Medicis dederit, seipsum sibi eripit. Summa Medicinarum ad
sanitatem corporis & animæ, abstinentiæ est._ He that lives abstemiously,
or but temperately, need not study the Wholesomeness of his Meat, nor the
Pleasantness of that Sawce, the Moments and Punctillio's of Air, Heat,
Cold, Exercise, Lodging, Diet; nor is critical in Cookery or in his
Liquors, but takes thankfully what God gives him. Especially, let all
young Men forbear Wines and Strong Drinks, as well as spiced and hot
Meats; for they introduce a preternatural Heat in the Body, and at least
hinder and obstruct, if not at length exhaust the natural.
But if overtaken by Excess, (it's difficult to be always upon our Guard)
the last Remedy is vomiting, or fasting it out, neither go to bed on a
full Stomach; let Physick be always the last Remedy, that Nature may not
trust to it; for though a sick Man leaves all for Nature to do, he hazards
much; but when he leaves all for the Doctor to do, he hazards more: And
since there is a Hazard both ways, I would sooner rely upon Nature; for
this at least we may be sure of, that she is as honest as she can, and
that she does not find the Account in prolonging the Disease.
Others there are, who perceiving themselves to grow old, tho' their
Stomach be less capable of digesting well every day less than another, yet
will not upon that Account abate any thing of their Diet; they only
abridge themselves in the Number of their Meals; and because they find two
or three Meals a Day is troublesome, they think their Health is
sufficiently provided for, by making only one Meal; that so the time
between one Repast and another, may (as they say) facilitate the Digestion
of those Aliments which they might have taken at twice: For this Reason
they eat as much at one Meal, that their Stomach is over-charged and out
of Order, and converts the Superfluities of its Nourishment into bad
Humours, which engender Diseases and Death.
I never knew a Man live long by this Conduct. These Men would doubtless
have prolong'd their Days, had they abridg'd the Quantity of their
ordinary Food proportionally as they grew in Years; and had they eat a
great deal less a little oftner.
Some again are of Opinion, that Sobriety may indeed preserve a Man in
Health, but does not prolong his Life. To this we say, that there have
been Persons in past Ages, who have prolong'd their Lives by this Means;
and some there are at present who still do it; for as Infirmities
contracted by Repletion shorten our Days, a Man of an ordinary Reach may
perceive, that if he desires to live long, it is better to be well than
sick, and that consequently Temperance contributes more to long Life, than
excessive Feeding.
Whatsoever Sensualists may say, Temperance is of infinite Benefit to
Mankind: To it he owes his Preservation; it banishes from his Mind the
dismal Apprehensions of dying; 'tis by its Means he becomes wise, and
arrives to an Age wherein Reason and Experience furnish him with
Assistance to free himself from the Tyranny of his Passions, which have
lorded it over him for almost the whole Course of his Life.
A very notable Instance of this we have in the Life of _Lewis Cornaro_, a
noble _Venetian_, who though of a weakly Constitution, increas'd by a
voluptuous Life, yet at the Age of thirty five or forty Years, he was
resolv'd to practice in all the Rules of Sobriety and Temperance, and to
withdraw from those Excesses that had brought upon him those usual Ills
the Gout and the Cholick, fatal Attendants to an indolent and luxurious
Life, and which reduc'd him to so low a State, that his Recovery was
despair'd of by the wisest Physician: And here he tells you that he was
born very cholerick and hasty, and flew out into a Passion for the least
Trifle, that he huffed all Mankind, and was so intolerable, that a great
many Persons of Repute avoided his Company: He apprehended the Injury
which he did to himself, he knew that Anger is a real Frenzy, that it
disturbs our Judgment, that it transports us beyond our selves, and that
the Difference between a passionate and a mad Man is only this, that the
latter has lost his Reason, and the former is only depriv'd of it by fits.
A sober Life cured him of his Frenzy; by its Assistance he became so
moderate, and so much a Master of his Passions, that no body could
perceive it was born with him.
How great and valuable must Temperance then be, which carries that
soveraign Aid, and can relieve the Passions of the Mind, and not only to
expel the bad Humours of the Body, but also to restore it to a due Tone,
and a full State of Health.
Now let any one upon a serious Reflection consider which is most eligible,
a sober and regular, or an intemperate, and disorderly Course of Life:
This is certain, that if all Men would live regularly and frugally, there
would be so few sick Persons, that there would hardly be any Occasion for
Remedies,
_Si tibi deficiant Medici, Medici tibi fiant.
Hæc tria, Mens læta, requies moderata dieta._
_The best and safest Physician is Doctor Diet,
Doctor Merryman, and Doctor Quiet._
every one would become his own Physician, and would be convinced that he
never met with a better.
It would be to little Purpose to study the Constitution of other Men;
every one, if he would but apply himself to it, would always be better
acquainted with his own than that of another; every one would be capable
of making those Experiments for himself which another could not do for
him, and would be the best Judge of the Strength of his own Stomach, and
of the Food which is agreeable thereto; for in one Word, 'tis next to
impossible to know exactly the Constitution of another, their
Constitutions being as different as their Complexions.
Since no Man therefore can have a better Physician than himself, nor a
more soveraign Antidote than a Regimen, that is to study his own
Constitution, and to regulate his Life according to the Rules of right
Reason.
I own, indeed, the disinterested Physician may be some time necessary,
since there are some Distempers, which all human Prudence cannot provide
against, there happen some unavoidable Accidents which seize us after such
a Manner, as to deprive our Judgment of the Liberty it ought to have to be
a Comfort to us; it may then be a Mistake wholly to rely upon Nature, it
must be assisted, and Recourse must be had to some one or another for it;
and in this we have much the Advantage of the irregular Man, his Vices
having heaped Fewel to the Distemper; but on the contrary, by a regular
Course of Life, the very Cause is not to be found, and the Disease
retreats from you.
And here the fam'd _Cornaro_, who being at Seventy Years of Age, had
another Experiment of the Usefulness of a Regimen, and 'twas this; A
Business of extraordinary Consequence drawing him into the Country, and
being in the Coach, the Horses ran away with him, and was overthrown, and
dragg'd a long away before they could stay the Horses; they took him out
of the Coach with his Head broke, a Leg and Arm out of joint, and in a
Word, in a very lamentable Condition. As soon as they brought him Home
again, they sent for the Physicians, who did not expect he should live
three Days to an end: However, they resolv'd upon letting of him Blood, to
prevent the coming of a Fever, which usually happens upon such Cases. He
was so confident that the regular Life which he had led, had prevented
the contracting of any ill Humours, of which he might be afraid, that he
rejected their Prescription, and ordered them to dress his Head, to set
his Leg and Arm, and to rub him with some Specifick Oils proper for
Bruises, and without any other Remedies he was soon cured, to the
Amazement of the Physicians and of all those that knew him. From hence he
did infer, that a regular Life is an excellent Preservative against all
natural Ills; and that Intemperance produces quite contrary Effects.
What a Difference then between a sober and an intemperate Life? the one
shortens and the other prolongs our Days, and makes us enjoy a perfect
Health, and with _Juvenal_, _Mens sana in Corpore sano_. I cannot
understand how it comes to pass, that so many People, otherwise prudent
and rational, cannot resolve upon laying a Restraint upon their insatiable
Appetites at fifty or sixty Years of Age, or at least when they begin to
feel the Infirmities of old Age coming upon them they might rid themselves
of them by a strict Diet and a due Regimen.
I do not wonder so much that young People are so hardly brought to such a
Resolution; they are not capable enough of reflecting; and their Judgment
is not solid enough to resist the Charms of Sense: But at Fifty a Man
ought to be govern'd by his Reason, which would convince us if we would
hearken to it, that to gratify all our Appetites without any Rule or
Measure, is the Way to become infirm and die young. Nor does the Pleasure
of Taste last long, it hardly begins but 'tis gone and past; the more one
eats, the more one may, and the Distempers which it brings along with it,
last us to our Graves.
Now should not a sober Man be very well satisfied when he is at Table,
upon the Assurance, that as often as he rises from it, what he eats will
do him no harm: Who then would not perfectly enjoy the Pleasures of this
mortal Life so perfectly? Who will not court and win Sobriety, which is so
grateful to God, as being the Guardian to Virtue, and irreconcileable
Enemy to Vice.
Surely the Example of this wise and good Man deserves our Imitation, that
since old Age may be made so useful and pleasant to Men, I should have
fail'd in Point of Charity to inform Mankind by what Methods they might
prolong their Days.
A great Assistant to that of Sobriety, and which is highly conducive to
the Preservation of the whole Man, is to renew with us that habitual and
beneficial Custom of the Antients in promoting _Exercise_, as one great
Instrument to the Conservation of Health, and which no one can deny who
has given himself the Experience of a Trial.
That it promotes the Digestion, raises the Spirits, refreshes the Mind,
and that it strengthens and relieves the whole Man, is scarce disputed by
any; but that it should prove curative in some particular Distempers, and
that too when scarce any thing else will prevail, seems to obtain little
Credit with most People, who though they will give the Physician the
hearing when he recommends the Use of Rideing, or any other Sort of
Exercise, yet at the Bottom, look upon it as a forlorn Method, and rather
the Effects of his Inability to relieve them, than a Belief that there is
any great Matter in what he advises: Thus by a negligent Diffidence they
deceive themselves and let slip the golden Opportunities of recovering by
a diligent Struggle what could not be cur'd by the Use of Medicine alone.
But to give you a just and rational Idea of its Power of moving and
actuating upon the Body, let us consider the whole human System as a
Compound of Tubes and Glands, or to use a more rustick Phrase, a Bundle of
Pipes and Strainers, fitted to one another after so wonderful a Manner as
to make a proper Engine for the Soul to work with. This Description does
not only comprehend the Bowels, Bones, Tendons, Veins, Nerves, and
Arteries, but every Muscle and every Ligature, which is a Composition of
Fibres, that are so many imperceptable Tubes or Pipes interwoven on all
Sides with invisible Glands and Strainers.
This general Idea of a human Body, without considering it in the Niceties
of Anatomy; let us see how absolutely necessary Labour is for the right
Preservation of it. There must be frequent Motions and Agitations to mix,
digest, and separate the Juices contained in it, as well as to clear and
cleanse that Infinitude of Pipes and Strainers of which it is composed,
and to give their solid Parts a more firm and lasting Tone; Exercise
ferments the Humours, casts them into their proper Channels, throws off
Redundancies, and helps Nature in those secret Distributions, without
which the Body cannot subsist in Vigour, nor act with Chearfulness. I
might here mention the Effects which this has upon the Soul, upon all the
Faculties of the Mind, by keeping the Understanding clear, the Imagination
untroubled, and refining those Spirits that are necessary for the proper
Execution of our intellectual Faculties, during the present Laws of Union
between Soul and Body.
It is a Neglect in this Particular, that we must ascribe the Spleen, which
is so frequent in Men of studious and sedentary Tempers; as well as the
Vapours, to which those of the other Sex are so often subject.
Had not Exercise been absolutely necessary for our Well-being, Nature
would not have made the Body so proper for it, by giving such an Activity
to the Limbs, and such a Pliancy to every Part, as necessarily produce
those Compressions, Extensions, Contortions, Dilatations, and all other
Kind of Motions that are necessary for the Preservation of such a System
of Tubes and Glands as has been before mentioned.
And that we might not want Inducements to engage us in such an Exercise of
the Body as is proper for its Welfare, it is so ordered, that nothing
valuable can be procur'd without it. Not to mention Riches and Honour,
even Food and Raiment are not to be come at without the Toil of the Hands,
and Sweat of the Brows.
Providence furnishes us with Materials, but expects we should work them up
ourselves. The Earth must be labour'd before it gives Encrease; and when
it is forced into its several Products, how many Hands must they pass
thro' before they are fit for Use? Manufactures, Trade, and Agriculture
naturally employ more than nineteen Parts of the Species in twenty; and as
for those who are not obliged to labour, by the Condition in which they
are born, they are more miserable than the rest of Mankind, unless they
indulge themselves in that voluntary Labour call'd Exercise, of which
there is no Kind I would so recommend to both Sexes, as that of Rideing;
as there is none that conduces so much to Health, and is every Way
accommodated to the Body. Dr. _Sydenham_ is very lavish in its Praises,
and if you would learn the mechanical Effects of it described at length,
you may find it learnedly treated of by Dr. _Fuller_, in a late Treatise,
intituled, _Medicina Gymnastica_, or, _The Power of Exercise_. And here
Mr. _Dryden_:
_The first Physicians by Debauch were made;
Excess began, and Sloth sustain'd the Trade.
By Chase our long-liv'd Fathers earn'd their Food,
Toil strung the Nerves, and purified the Blood;
But we their Sons, a pamper'd Race of Men,
Are dwindled down to threescore Years and ten.
Better to hunt in Fields for Health unbought,
Than fee the Doctor for a nauseous Draught.
The Wise for Cure on Exercise depend;
God never made his Work for Man to mend._
General MAXIMS FOR HEALTH:
OR, _RULES to preserve the Body to a good old Age_.
I.
It is not good to eat too much, or fast too long, or do any thing else
that is preternatural.
II.
Whoever eats or drinks too much, will be sick.
III.
If thou art dull and heavy after Meat, it's a Sign thou hast exceeded the
due Measure, for Meat and Drink ought to refresh the Body, and make it
chearful, not to dull and oppress it.
IV.
If thou findest those ill Symptoms, consider whether too much Meat or
Drink occasions it, or both, and abate by little and little, 'till thou
findest the Inconveniency remov'd.
V.
Pass not immediately from a disorder'd Life, to a strict and precise Life,
but by degrees abate the Excess, for ill Customs arrive by degrees, and so
must be wore off.
VI.
As to the Quality of the Food, if the Body be of a healthful Constitution,
and the Meat does thee no Harm, it matters little what it is; but all
Sorts must be avoided that does Prejudice, though it please the Taste
never so much.
VII.
After Diet is obtain'd, the Appetite will require no more than Nature hath
need of, it will desire as Nature desires.
VIII.
Old Men can fast easily; Men of ripe Age can fast almost as much, but
young People and Children can hardly fast at all.
IX.
Let ancient People eat Panada, made of Bread, and Flesh Broth, which is of
light Digestion; an Egg now and then will do well.
X.
Growing Persons have a great deal of Natural Heat, which requires a great
deal of Nourishment, else the Body will pine.
XI.
It must be examin'd what Sort of Persons ought to feed once or twice a
Day, more or less; Allowance being always made to the Person, to the
Season of the Year, to the Place where one lives, and to Custom.
XII.
The more you feed foul Bodies, the more you hurt your selves.
XIII.
He that studies much, ought not to eat so much as those that work hard,
his Digestion being not so good.
XIV.
The near Quantity and Quality being found out, it is safest to be kept to.
XV.
Excess in all other things whatever, as well as in Meat and drink, are to
be avoided; excessive Heats and Colds, violent Exercises, late Hours, and
Women, unwholsome Air, violent Winds, the Passions, _&c._
XVI.
Youth, Age, and Sick require a different Quantity.
XVII.
And so do those of different Complexions, for that which is too much for a
Phlegmatick Man, is not sufficient for the Cholerick.
XVIII.
The Measure of the Food ought to be proportionable to the Quality and
Condition of the Stomach, because the Stomach is to digest it.
XIX.
The Quantity that is sufficient, the Stomach can perfectly concoct, and
answers to the due Nourishment of the Body.
XX.
Hence it appears we may eat a greater Quantity of some Viands than of
others of a more hard Digestion.
XXI.
The Difficulty lies in finding out an exact Measure; but eat for Necessity
not Pleasure; for Lust knows not where Necessity ends.
XXII.
Wouldst thou enjoy a long Life, a healthy Body, and a vigorous Mind, and
be acquainted also with the wonderful Works of God, labour in the first
Place to bring thy Appetite to Reason.
XXIII.
Beware of Variety of Meats, and such as are curiously and daintily drest,
which destroy a multitude of People; they prolong Appetite four times
beyond what Nature requires, and different Meats are of different Natures,
some are sooner digested than others, whence Crudities proceed, and the
whole Digestion depraved.
XXIV.
Keep out of the Sight of Feasts and Banquets as much as may be, for it is
more difficult to retain good Cheer, when in Presence, than from the
Desire of it when it is away; the like you may observe in all the other
Senses.
XXV.
Fancy that Gluttony is not good and pleasant, but filthy, evil, and
detestable; as it really is.
XXVI.
The richest Food, when concocted, yields the most noisom Smells; and he
that works and fares hard, hath a sweeter and pleasanter Body than the
other.
XXVII.
Winter requires somewhat a larger Quantity than Summer; hot and dry Meats
agree best with Winter, cold and moist with Summer; in Summer abate a
little of your Meat and add to your Drink, and in Winter substract from
your Drink and add to your Meat.
XXVIII.
If a Man casually exceeds, let him fast the next Meal and all may be well
again, provided it be not often done; or if he exceed at Dinner, let him
rest from, or make a slight Supper.
XXIX.
Use now and then a little Exercise a Quarter of an Hour before Meals, or
swing your Arms about with a small Weight in each Hand, to leap, and the
like, for that stirs the Muscles of the Breast.
XXX.
Shooting in the long Bow, for the Breast and Arms.
XXXI.
Bowling, for the Reins, Stone and Gravel, _&c._
XXXII.
Walking, for the Stomach: And the great _Drusus_ having weak and small
Thighs and Legs, strengthened them by Riding, and especially after Dinner.
XXXIII.
Squinting and a dull Sight are amended by Shooting.
XXXIV.
Crookedness, by Swinging and hanging upon the Arms.
XXXV.
A temperate Diet frees from Diseases; such are seldom ill, but if they are
surprized with Sickness, they bear it better, and recover it sooner, for
all Distempers have their Original from Repletion.
XXXVI.
A temperate Diet arms the Body against all external Accidents, so that
they are not so easily hurt by Heat, Cold, or Labour; if they at any Time
should be prejudiced, they are more easily cured, either of Wounds,
Dislocations, or Bruises; it also resists Epidemical Diseases.
XXXVII.
It makes Mens Bodies fitter for any Employments; it makes Men to live
long; _Galen_, with many others, lived by it a Hundred Years.
XXXVIII.
_Galen_ saith, That those that are weak-complexioned from their Mothers
Womb, may (by the Help of this Art, which prescribes the coarse Diet)
attain to extreme old Age, and that without Diminution of Senses or
Sickness of Body; and he saith, that though he never had a healthful
Constitution of Body from his Birth, yet by using a good Diet after the
Twenty-seventh Year of his Age, he never fell into Sickness, unless now
and then into a One Days Fever, taken by One Days Weariness.
XXXIX.
A sober Diet makes a Man die without Pain; it maintains the Senses in
Vigour; it mitigates the Violence of Passions and Affections.
XL.
It preserves the Memory; it helps the Understanding; it allays the Heat of
Lust; it brings a Man to that weighty Consideration of his latter End.
A DISCOVERY Of some Remarkable ERRORS
In the late WRITINGS of Dr. _Mead_,
_Quincey_, _Bradley_, &c. on the Plague.
The great Apprehensions that all _Europe_ has received from the dreadful
and raging Plague which has lately destroyed the greatest Part of the
Inhabitants of _Marseilles_, has given that just Alarm to our Ministry,
who under the Direction of His Majesty, by their wise and prudent
Management, to the Duty of Publick Prayers, with that of a General and
Solemn Fast throughout the Kingdom, have not been wanting, as much as
possible, to prevent that direful Contagion which now threatens, and might
be brought amongst us by the Sailors, or by Merchandize comeing from
Places that are infected; and have ordered a strict Quarentine to be
observed by all Ships in all the Maritime Ports liable to that Invasion.
And to be Assistant to so great a Work, the Neglect of which the Lives of
the Nation being at stake, we have some the most eminent of the Physicians
now in Vogue, who from that Duty to their Profession, and their Zeal to
the Publick Good, have publish'd some Essays, not only of the Nature,
Cause, Symptoms, Prognosticks, and Affections of this fatal Distemper; but
likewise of the proper Means to be used in preventing, and fortifying
against, with the proper Applications of recovering those that are seiz'd
by this fatal Enemy to Mankind. Books of this kind lately published are, a
short Discourse concerning Pestilential Contagion, by Dr. _Mead_. The
Plague of _Marseilles_ consider'd by Dr. _Bradley_. Dr. _Hodges_'s
Loimologia of the Plague in _London_, _Anno_ 1665; reprinted by Dr.
_Quincy_: To which is added, an Essay of his own, with Remarks of the
Infection now in _France_. To those worthy Gentlemen are we indebted for
their ready Help, to their philosophical Enquiries, their learned and
analytical Explanations in all the Stages of this raging Ill; and
farther, by what physical Power it corrupts the Blood, destroys the
Spirits, and is follow'd by Death at the last.
The Apologies that are made in their Preface, _viz._ of a short Warning,
of their little Leisure, the Uncorrectness of Style, and the Typographical
Errors should be favourably construed from so great an Aim of doing the
Publick so great a Good; and it would be esteemed a base Ingratitude,
meerly for the sake of Contradiction, to quarrel with the Hand that
directs, and may support us in the greatest Extremity.
But where there may be a sufficient Reason to undeceive, or amend such
Errors, as might otherwise be prejudicial to their intended Purpose of
preserving the Common Weal, or advancing some other necessary
Instructions which they have omitted; I can't but perswade myself that I
shall have their Approbation, if not their Thanks in prosecuting the
Advancement of that good End they so greatly have desired in their
Publications.
It is very certain, that Essay of Doctor _Hodges de Peste_, is the best of
any hitherto publish'd of that Kind; and if the Gentleman who has annex'd
his Treatise to that of his own, has taken Care to remove the most
affected Peculiarities, and Luxuriances of his Enthusiastick Strain, he
should have avoided that Contagion himself, which are discover'd in his
crabbed and dogmatical Terms of _Formulæ_, _Miasms_, _Miasmata_, _Nexus_,
_Moleculæ_, _Spicula_, _Pabulum_, &c. Such Terms being too abstruse and
difficult to be understood by the People in general, for whose
Instruction and Benefit we have the Charity to believe he undertook his
Publication. Nay, it cannot be doubted, and will need no Confirmation by
those that carefully peruse Dr. _Hodges_, but will find that there is
scarcely any advanced Method in what they have writ, or but what may be
found in his Treatise, unless in this one Hint of _Quincy_, from the Use
of _Pulvis Fluminans_ in dispersing the stagnate Air instead of the fucing
of great Guns, _&c._ And he is no ways out in his Policy by tacking his
own Remarks with those of the good old Doctors, which are the best
Recommendations of their passing to his own Advantage.
_Hodges_ in his Introduction tells you, "That the first Discoveries of the
late Plague began in _Westminster_, about the Close of the Year 1664, for
at that Season two or three Persons died there, attended with like
Symptoms as manifestly declar'd their Origin; that in the Months of
_August_ and _September_, the Contagion chang'd its former slow and
languid Pace, having, as it were, got Master of all, made a most terrible
Slaughter, so that three, four or five thousand died in a Week, and once
eight thousand: Who can express the Calamities of those Times! None surely
in more pathetick and bewailing Accents than himself, who gives us so
melancholly a Description of their dismal Misery, as affects the Mind with
the same Passions and despairing Sorrow they were then overloaded with;
and as _Virgil_ has it,
_Horror ubique Animos, simul ipsa silentia terrent.
Hærent in fixi pectore Vultus._
The _British_ Nation wept for the Miseries of her Metropolis. In some
Houses Carcases lay waiting for Burial; and in others, Persons in their
last Agonies; in one Room might be heard dying Groans, in another the
Raveings of a Delirium, and not far off Relations and Friends bewailing
both their Loss and the dismal Prospect of their own sudden Departure;
Death was the sure Midwife to all Children, and Infants passed immediately
from the Womb to the Grave; Who would not burst with Grief to see the
Stock of a future Generation hang upon the Breasts of a dead Mother? or
the Marriage-Bed changed the first Night into a Sepulchre, and the unhappy
Pair meet with Death in the first Embraces? Some of the Infected run about
staggering like drunken Men, and fall and expire in the Streets; while
others lie half dead and comatous, but never to be waked but by the last
Trumpet; some lie vomiting, as if they had drank Poison; and others fall
dead in the Market while they are buying Necessaries for the Support of
Life.
Not much unlike was it in the following Conflagration; where the Altars
themselves became so many Victims, and the finest Churches in the whole
World carried up to Heaven Supplications in Flames, while their marble
Pillars, wet with Tears, melted like Wax; nor were Monuments secure from
the inexorable Flames, where many of their venerable Remains passed a
second Martyrdom; the most august Palaces were soon laid waste, and the
Flames seem'd to be in a fatal Engagement to destroy the great Ornament
of Commerce; and the burning of all the Commodities of the World together,
seem'd a proper Epitome of this Conflagration: Neither confederate Crowns,
nor the drawn Swords of Kings could restrain its phanatick and rebellious
Rage; large Halls, stately Houses, and the Sheds of the Poor, were
together reduced to Ashes; the Sun blush'd to see himself set, and envied
those Flames the Government of the Night which had rivall'd him so many
Days: As the City, I say, was afterwards burnt without any Distinction, in
like Manner did this Plague spare no Order, Age, or Sex; the Divine was
taken in the very Exercise of his priestly Office, to be inroll'd amongst
the Saints above; and some Physicians, as before intimated, could not find
Assistance in their own Antidotes, but died in the Administration of them
to others; and although the Soldiery retreated from the Field of Death,
and encamped out of the City, the Contagion followed and vanquished them;
many in their old Age, others in their Prime, sunk under its Cruelties; of
the female Sex, most died; and hardly any Children escaped; and it was not
uncommon to see an Inheritance pass successively to three or four Heirs in
as many Days; the Number of Sextons were not sufficient to bury the Dead;
the Bells seem'd hoarse with continual tolling, until at last they quite
ceased; the Burying-places would not hold the Dead, but they were thrown
into large Pits dug in waste Grounds in Heaps, thirty or forty together;
and it often happened, that those who attended the Funerals of their
Friends one Evening, were carried the next to their own long Home."
------_Quis talia fundo
temperet à lacrymis?_----
About the Beginning of _September_ the Disease was at the Height, in the
Course of which Month more than Twelve thousand died in a Week[4] but from
this Time its Force began to relax; and about the Close of the Year, that
is, at the Beginning of _November_, People grew more healthful, and such a
different Face was put upon the Publick, that although the Funerals were
yet frequent, yet many who had made most haste in retiring, made the most
to return, and came into the City without Fear; insomuch that in
_December_ they crowded back as thick as they fled; and although the
Contagion had carried off, as some computed, about One hundred thousand
People; after a few Months this Loss was hardly discernable.
The Doctor himself comes to no determinate Number of those that died of
this Distemper, but in the Table that he has writ of the Funerals in the
several Parishes within the Bills of Mortality of the Cities of _London_
and _Westminster_ for the Year 1665, he tells you, 68596 died of the
Plague. Dr. _Mead_ in the same Year 1665, that it continued in this City
about ten Months, and swept away 97306 Persons. Dr. _Bradley_, in his
Table from the 27th of _December_, 1664/5, takes no notice of any buried
of that Distemper, but of one on the 14th of _February_ following, and two
on _April_ the 25th, and in all, to the 7th of _June_, 89. The next
following Months, to _October_ the 3d, there were buried 49932, in all
50021. Why he should here break up from giving any further Account may be
from the Weakness of his Intelligence, which so widely differs from all
other Accounts; and in this one, with Dr. _Hodges_, who tells you, that
about the Beginning of _September_, at which Time the Disease was at the
Height, in the Course of which Month, more than 12000 Persons died in a
Week: Whereas in _Bradley_, the most that were buried in one Week, _i. e._
from the 12th of _September_ to the 19th, amounted to no more than 7165.
But computing after the Manner of Dr. _Hodges_, we find (taking one Week
with another, from _August_ the 29th to the 27th of _September_, the Time
of its greatest Fury) the exact Number of 6555; which falls short very
near to one half of the Number accounted to be buried of that Distemper by
Dr. _Hodges_; and we have abundant Reason to believe, that the greatest
Account hitherto mentioned, may be short of the Number dying of that
Distemper. If we do but observe the strict Order then published to shut up
all infected Houses, to keep a Guard upon them Day and Night, to withhold
from them all Manner of Correspondence from without; and that after their
Recovery, to perform a Quarentine of 40 Days, in which Space if anyone
else of the Family should be taken with that Distemper, the Work to be
renewed again; by which tedious Confinement of the Sick and Well together,
it often proved the Cause of the Loss of the Whole.
These, besides many other great Inconveniencies, were sufficient to
affright the People from making the Discovery, and we may be certain, that
many died of the Plague which were returned to the Magistracy under
another Denomination, which might easily be obtained from the Nurses and
Searchers, whether from their Ignorance, Respect, Love of Money, _&c._
And if they vary so much in their Computation of those that died; we shall
find them as widely different in the Time when 'tis said the Plague first
began.
The great Dr. _Mead_ on this important Subject, may establish by his Name
whatever he lays down, with the same Force and Authority as the Ancients
held of that _ipse dixit_ of Aristotle; but as that great Master of Nature
was not exempt from slipping into some Errors, _& humanum est errare_, it
can be no Shock to the Reputation of this Gentleman, if we shall find him
no less fallible than of some others of the Faculty who has treated on
this Subject; and to this part of the time when 'tis said the Plague first
began. Doctor _Mead_, by what Information he has not thought fit to tell
us, does affirm, That its Beginning was in _Autumn_ before the Year
1664/5; whereas Dr. _Hodges_ says, in the very first Page of his
_Liomologia_, that it was not till the Close of the Year 1664; at that
Season two or three Persons died suddenly in one Family at _Westminster_,
of which he gives a further Light from his visiting the first Patient in
the _Christmas_ Holidays, and fully confirmed by the Weekly Bills of
Mortality, whose first Account of those who died of the Plague were from
_December_ the 27th, 1664/5.
As those Gentlemen have forfeited their Infallibility by what I have
proved hitherto against them, we have further Reason to suspect, whether
or not the late Plague in 1665 was occasioned by that Bale of Cotton
imported from _Turkey_ to _Holland_, and thence to _England_, as Dr.
_Hodges_ makes irrefregable, and Dr. _Mead_'s Authority indisputable;
which is no less a Subject of Wonder and Admiration how many Years we have
escaped from the Plagues that have happened and are frequent in so many
Parts of _Turkey_; as at _Grand Cairo_, which is seldome or never free
from that Distemper, at _Alexandria_, _Rosetta_, _Constantinople_,
_Smyrna_, _Scanderoon_, and _Aleppo_, from which Places we have the most
considerable Import of any of our Neighbours, and of such Goods as are
most receptive of those infectious Seeds, such as Cotton, Raw Silk,
Mohair, _&c._ And though Coffee may seem less dangerous, from its Quality
of being more able to resist its pestilential Effluvia, yet from the many
Coverings the Bales are wrapped in, it is not hard to conceive the
contagious Power might be latent in some Part of the Packidge; which
Escape is the more surprising and to be wondred at from the great Encrease
of our Trade and Shipping which yearly arrive from those Countries; and
yet to be preserved from the like Misfortune near to this 60 Years.
_Gockelius_ informs us, [5]"That the Contagion in the same Year 1665 was
brought into _Germany_ by a Body of Soldiers returning from the Wars in
_Hungary_ against the _Turks_, spread the Infection about _Ulm_ and
_Ausburgh_, where he then lived, and besides the Plague, they brought
along with them the _Hungarian_ and other malignant Fevers, which diffused
themselves about the Neighbourhood, whereof many died.[6]
And with Submission to the wise Judgment and Opinion of these learned
_Triumviri_, who have cited no fuller Authority for this Assertion than a
bare Relation of it from _Hodges de Peste_; it may be no unreasonable
Conjecture to have its first Progress from _Hungary_, _Germany_, and to
_Holland_, from which last Place they all have agreed we certainly
received the Contagion; and that we have had the Plague convey'd to us by
the like Means may be found in the _Bibliotheca Anotomica_, being brought
to us by some Troops from _Hungary_ sent thither against the _Turks_ by
_Henry_ VI. King of _England_.
Dr. _Mead_, who thinks it necessary to premise somewhat in general
concerning the Propagation of the Plague, might, to the three Causes he
has laid down, of a bad Air, diseased Persons, and Goods transported from
Abroad, have added the Aliment or Diet, because affording Matter to the
Juices it does not less contribute to the Generation of Diseases: And it
may be observed, that in the Year before the pestilential Sickness, there
was a great Mortality amongst the Cattel from a very wet Autumn, and their
Carcasses being sold amongst the ordinary People at a very mean Price, a
great many putred Humours might proceed from thence; and this, in the
Opinion of many, was the Source of our late Calamities, when it was
observed this fatal Destroyer raged with greater Triumph over the common
People: And the feeding on unripened and unsound Fruits are frequently
charged with a Share in Mischiefs of this Kind. _Galen_[7] is very
positive in this Matter, and in one Place accuses[8] his great Master to
_Hippocrates_ with neglecting the Consequence of too mean a Diet: From
this 'tis generally observed, that a Dearth or Famine is the Harbinger to
a following Plague. And we have an Account from our Merchants trading to
_Surat_, _Bencoli_, and some other Parts of the _East-Indies_, that the
Natives are never free from that Distemper, which is imputed to their low
and pitiful Fare. The _Europeans_, especially the _English_, escaping by
their better Diet, by feeding on good Flesh, and drinking of strong
generous Wine, which secures them from the Power of that Malignancy.
Their Hypotheses as widely differ in the very Substance or Nature of the
Pestilence; and Dr. [9]_Hodges_, [10]_Mead_, and [11]_Quincey_, have
asserted, that it proceeds from a Corruption of the Volatile Salts, or the
Nitrous Spirit in the Air.
Dr. [12]_Bradley_, from the Number of poisonous Animals, Insects, or
Maggots which at that Time are swimming or driving in the circumambient
Air; and being sucked into our Bodies along with our Breath, are
sufficiently capable of causing those direful Depredations on Mankind
called the Plague. Both these Opinions are supported by the Authorities of
Learned Men.
And if _Hodges_, _&c._ have the Suffrages of the greatest of the ancient
Physicians, with those of _Wolfius_, _Agricola_, _Forestus_, _Fernelius_,
_Belini_, _Carolus de là Font_, _&c._ _Bradley_ may challenge to him the
famed _Kirchir_, _Malhigius_, _Leeuwenhooch_, _Morgagni_, _Redi_, and
_Mangetus_.
It is almost endless as well as altogether needless, to cite all the
Authorities for the different Opinions, that might be collected from the
most remote Antiquity down to the present Age.
And although it is yet to be contested, and might be held an occult
Quality with those learned Gentlemen, we shall find, each Doctor passes
his favourite Opinion upon the World with as much Infallibility as a
Demonstration in _Euclid_.
[13]And for that Opinion of the famous _Kirchir_, about animated Worms,
(says _Hodges_) 'I must confess I could never come at any such Discovery
with the Help of the best Glasses, nor ever found the same discovered by
any other; but perhaps in our cloudy Island we are not so sharp-sighted as
in the serene Air of _Italy_; and with Submission to so great a Name, it
seems to me very disconsonant to Reason, that such a pestilential
Seminium, which is both of a nitrous and poisonous Nature, should produce
a living Creature.' And he is well assured, that he is in the right, when
he says, '[14]Every one of those Particulars are as clear as the Light at
Noon-Day; and those Explications are so obvious to be met with in the
Writings of the Learned, that it would be lost Labour to insist upon any
such Thing here.'
[15]Dr. _Mead_ chimes in here very tuneably with _Hodges_, and is pleased
to say, 'That some Authors have imagined Infection to be performed by the
Means of Insects, the Eggs of which may be conveyed from Place to Place,
and make the Disease when it comes to be hatch'd. As this is a Supposition
grounded upon no Manner of Observation, so I think there is no need to
have Recourse to it.'
Dr. _Bradley_, who hatches this Distemper by the smaller Kind of Insects
floating in the Air, is greatly jealous of his favourite Egg, from which
that fatal Cockatrice breaks forth and disperses Death in every Quarter:
He may be seen to promote this Hypothesis in that Discourse of his new
Improvement of Planting, _&c._ and with no less Pursuit in his late
Pamphlet on the Plague at _Marseilles_; where in his Preface, _p._ 13, he
tells you, 'That to suppose this malignant Distemper is occasioned by
Vapours only arising from the Earth, is to lay aside our Reason, _&c._'
And it may be farther observed, That they are as remote from their Consent
to one another, as in the distant Place from whence they would trace its
Origin.
[16]Dr. _Mead_, from a bare Transcription of _Matthæus Villanus_, does
affirm, That the Plague in the Year 1346, had its first Rise in _China_,
advancing through the _East-Indies_, _Syria_, _Turkey_, _&c._ and by
Shipping from the _Levant_, brought into _Europe_, which in the Year 1349.
seized _England_. This is directly against Dr. _Bradley_,[17] who suggests
the Plague is no where to be found in _India_, _China_, the South Parts of
_Africa_ and _America_, and has taken the Pains in filling up three Pages
in the Defence of this Assertion.
It would be well if their Opposition ended here; but when it affects us
more near, when their Difference becomes more wide in the very Means of
our Preservation, and what by one is laid down as a soveraign and real
Good, to be returned by another as the most fatal and destructive, is a
Weight of no small Consequence, nor a less melancholly Reflection, if it
should please God to inflict us with the same Calamities.
And as to those preservative Means which the Government have only a Power
to direct, the making of large Fires in the Streets, as has been practised
in the Times of Contagion, is a Point largely contested.
Dr. _Hodges_[18] seems inveterate against this Custom, and tells us, 'That
before three Days were expired after the Fires made in 1665, the most
fatal Night ensued, wherein more than 4000 expired; the Heavens both
mourn'd so many Funerals, and wept for the fatal Mistake, so as to
extinguish even the Fires with their Showers. May Posterity, (says he) be
warned by this Mistake, and not like Empericks, apply a Remedy where they
are ignorant of the Cause.'
And Dr. _Mead_[19] has an Eye to this Remark, when he tells us, 'The fatal
Success of the Trials in the last Plague is more than sufficient to
discourage any farther Attempts of this Nature.' Whereas on the contrary,
the making of Fires in the Streets were practised from the greatest
Antiquity, and supported by _Mayerne_, _Butler_, and _Harvey_ in the two
great Plagues before the Year 1665, and recommended by Dr. _Quincey_[20]
for the Dissipation of Pestilential Vapours, _&c._ And without all manner
of Dispute, Dr. _Bradley_[21] must be wholly on his Side, when he tells
us, 'That the Year 1665, was the last that we can say raged in _London_,
which might happen from the Destruction of the City by Fire the following
Year 1666, and besides the destroying of the Eggs or Seeds of those
poisonous Animals that were then in the stagnating Air, might likewise
purifie the Air in such a Manner as to make it unfit for the Nourishment
of others of the same kind, which were swimming or driving in the
circumambient Air.'
What has been said of Fires is likewise to be understood of firing of
Guns, which some have too rashly advised. Says Dr. _Mead_[22], 'The
proper Correction of the Air would be to make it fresh and cool.' And here
quotes from the Practice of the _Arabians_ out of _Rhazes de re Medica_,
&c. Dr. _Quincey_[23] 'That as the Air being still and as it were stagnate
at such Times, and as it favours the Collection of poisonous Effluvia, and
aggravates Infection, thinks it more effectual to let off small Parcels of
the common _Pulvis Fulminans_, which must afford a greater Shock to the
Air by its Explosion than by the largest Pieces of Ordnance.' In favour of
which last Assertion, the Experience both of Soldiers, will justifie the
firing of great Guns and Ordnance, which is frequently used in Camps, for
the Dissipation of the collected pestilential Atoms, which by Concussion
as well as its constituent Parts of Nitre and Sulphur, tend greatly to the
Purification of the grosser Atmosphere within the Compass of their
Activity; and by the Seamen in their Voyages in the Southern Parts of the
World, when sometimes the Air is so gross, and hangs so low upon them, as
to be almost suffocated. And in the late Plague at _Marseilles_ the
constant firing of great Guns at Morning and Evening, by the Appointment
of _Monsieur le Marquis de Langeron_ their Governour, was esteemed of
great Relief to the Inhabitants.
Nay, their Contest will not end in a Pipe of Tobacco, against which Dr.
_Hodges_[24] declares himself a profess'd Enemy: 'But whether (says he)
we regard the narcotick Quality of this _American_ Henbane; or the
poisonous Oil which exhales from it in Smoaking, or that prodigious
Discharge of Spittle which it occasions, and which Nature wants for many
other important Occasions, besides the Aptitude of the pestilential Poison
to be taken down along with it; he chose rather to supply its Place with
Sack.'
Dr. _Bradley_[25] redeems it from this low Character, and represents it as
a great Antidote in the last Plague _Anno_ 1665. 'The Distemper did not
reach those who smoak'd Tobacco every Day, but particularly it was judged
best to smoak in a Morning: He farther gives you an Account of a famous
Physician, who in the pestilential Time took every Morning a Cordial to
guard his Stomach, and after that a Pipe or two, before he went to visit
his Patients; at the same time he had an Issue in his Arm, by which, when
it begun to smart, he knew he had received some Infection (as he says) and
then had recourse to his Cordial and his Pipe.' By this Means only he
preserved himself, as several others did at that Time by the same Method.
I could heartily wish those worthy Gentlemen had struck in with greater
Harmony to the Satisfaction and Security of the People, whose Expectations
were greatly raised by the Hopes of their Assistance, by gaining a greater
Light into the Nature, Quality, Symptoms, and Affections of this
definitive Ill, to have promoted their Safety, by giving the necessary
Indications relating to the Cure, as well as the necessary Precautions in
order to guard us from that secret Attack which may approach us by very
minute and unheeded Causes; the which, from their different Notions and
positive Contradictions, lay too deep from the narrow Re-searches of those
Philosophizing and Learned Gentlemen, and for the Manner whereby it kills,
its Approaches are generally so secret, that Persons seiz'd with it seem
to be fallen into an Ambuscade or a Snare, of which there was no Manner of
Suspicion. And there are very few Discourses relating to the Pestilence
but what abound in many Instances of this kind: And the Learned _Boccace_,
in his Admirable Description of the Plague at _Florence_ (quoted by Dr.
_Mead_[26] _Anno_ 1348) relates what himself saw, 'That two Hogs finding
in the Streets some Rags which had been thrown off from a poor Man dead of
the Disease, after snuffling upon them, and tearing them with their Teeth,
fell into Convulsions, and died in less than an Hour.'
The Misfortune which happened in the Island of _Bermudas_ about 25 Years
since, which Account is from Dr. _Halley_; A Sack of Cotton put ashore by
Stealth, lay above a Month without any Prejudice to the People of the
House where it was hid; but when it came to be distributed among the
Inhabitants, it carried such a Contagion along with it, that the Living
scarce sufficed to bury the Dead.
And Dr. _Quincey_[27] has somewhere read a strange Story in _Baker_'s
Chronicle, 'of a great Rot amongst Sheep, which was not quite rooted out
until about Fourteen Years time, that was brought into _England_ by a
Sheep bought for its uncommon Largeness, in a Country then infected with
the same Distemper.'
_Fracastorius_[28], an eminent _Italian_ Physician, tells us, 'That in the
Year 1511, when the _Germans_ were in Possession of _Verona_, there arose
a deadly Disease amongst the Soldiers, from the wearing only of a Coat
purchased for a small Value; for it was observed, that every Owner of it
soon sickned and died; until at last the Cause of it was so manifestly
known from some Infection in the Coat, that it was ordered to be burned.'
Ten thousand Persons, he says, were computed to fall by this Plague before
it ceased.
And _Kephale_, in his _Medela Pestilentiæ_, printed _Anno_ 1665, acquaints
us, That the following Plagues were produced from the following Causes.
That in the Year 1603, the contagious Seeds were brought to _England_
amongst Seamens Clothes in _White-Chappel_; and in that Year there died of
the Plague 30561.
That in the Year 1625, was bred and produced by rotten Mutton at
_Stepney_; of which died 35403 Persons.
That in the Year 1630, was brought to us by a Bale of Carpets from
_Turkey_, of which died 1317 Persons.
That in the Year 1636, was brought over to us by a Dog from _Amsterdam_;
of which died 10400 Persons.
That in the Year 1665, was brought from _Turkey_ in a Bale of Cotton to
_Holland_, thence to _England_; in this great Plague died no less than
100,000 People.
And at _Marseilles_, in this present Year 1720, the Plague has swept away
more than 70000 Persons, which was brought in Goods from _Sidon_, a fam'd
and ancient City and Sea-port in _Phoenicia_, and the same which
sometimes is mentioned in Holy Writ.
From the Neighbourhood of this last Contagion, the frightful Apprehensions
of the People are rais'd to the greatest Height; and when every one is
consulting his own Security, how to guard and preserve himself from that
dreadful Enemy, nothing can come more seasonably to their Relief, than to
lay before them a _Compendium_ of the best and approved Rules for their
Conduct; to which End I have carefully collected, from the successful
Practice of Dr. _Glisson_, Sir _Thomas Millington_, Dr. _Charlton_, and
other Learned Physicians in the last Plague, with what only may be of Use
from the abounding Prescripts of those who have lately published, and as
this Evil is supported throughout the general Practice, it appears to be
the Result of the Reasoning of some of the Learned Sons of _Æsculapius_,
to marshal into the Field as many Compositions as if only by their Number
they might be able to pull down the Tyranny of this fatal Destroyer.
It would be a Work insuperable, and altogether foreign to the Method I
have gone by, to extract all the Medicines which some Writers abound with
for this End; it is our Business here chiefly to take Notice of that
saving _Regimen_, that Rule of Self-governing, which proved more
successful in the Preservation of the People in the late Plague, than all
the abounding _Nostrums_ that have been crouded into the Practice, the
which has become a due Reproach to the Faculty.
_Turpe est Doctori, quem culpa redarguit ipsum._
And it is here worthy of our first Remark, That the last Plague, in the
Year 1665, as well from the late Accounts we have of that at _Marseilles_,
the poorer Sort of People were those that mostly suffered, which can only
be attributed to their mean and low Fare, whereas the most nutritive and
generous Diet should be promoted, and such as generate a warm and rich
Blood, Plenty of Spirits, and what easily perspires, which otherwise would
be apt to ferment and generate Corruption.
Your greatest Care is, to have your Meat sweet and good, neither too moist
nor flashy, having a certain Regard to such as may create an easy
Digestion, and observing that roasted Meats on those Occasions should be
preferred; as Beef, Mutton, Lamb, Venison, Turkey, Capon, Pullet,
Chicken, Pheasant, and Partridge: But Pidgeon, and most Sort of Wild and
Sea Fowl to be rejected: Salt Meats to be cautiously used; all hot, dry,
and spicey Seasonings to be avoided; most Pickles and rich Sauces to be
encouraged, with the often Use of Garlick, Onion, and Shallot; the cool,
acid, and acrid Herbs and Roots, as Lettuce, Spinnage, Cresses, Sorrel,
Endive, and Sellery; all windy Things, which are subject to Putrefaction,
to be refrained, as all kind of Pulse, Cabbage, Colliflower, Sprouts,
Melons, Cucumbers, _&c._ as also most Summer Fruits, excepting Mulberries,
Quinces, Pomegranates, Raspers, Cherries, Currants, and Strawberries,
which are of Service when moderately eat of.
All light and viscid Substances to be avoided, as Pork, most Sorts of
Fish, of the latter that may be eat, are Soles, Plaise, Flounder, Trout,
Gudgeon, Lobster, Cray-fish, and Shrimps, no Sort of Pond-Fish being good;
and for your Sauce, fresh melted Butter, or Oil mixed with Vinegar or
Verjuice, the Juice of Sorrel, Pomegranates, Barberries, of Lemon or
_Seville_ Orange, which two last are to be preferred, from their Power of
resisting all Manner of Putrefaction, as well to cool the violent Heat of
the Stomach, Liver, _&c._
For your Bread, to be light, and rather stale than new, not to drink much
of Malt Liquors, avoiding that which is greatly Hopped, or too much on the
ferment, Mead and Metheglin are of excellent Use, and good Wines taken
moderately are a strong Preservative, Sack especially being accounted the
most Soveraign and the greatest Alexipharmick: Excess is dangerous to the
most healthy Constitution, which may beget Inflammations of fatal
Consequence in pestilential Cases.
Let none go Home fasting, every one, as they can procure, to take
something as may resist Putrefaction; some may take Garlick with Bread and
Butter, a Clove two or three, or with Rue, Sage, Sorrel, dipt in Vinegar,
the Spirit of Oil of Turpentine frequently drank in small Doses is of
great Use; as also to lay in steep over-Night, of Sage well bruis'd two
Handfuls, of Wormwood one Handful, of Rue half a Handful, put to them in
an Earthen Vessel four Quarts of Mild Beer; which in the Morning to be
drank fasting.
The Custom that prevails now of drinking Coffee, Bohea-Tea, or Chocolate,
with Bread and Butter, is very good; at their going abroad 'tis proper to
carry Rue, Angelica, Masterwort, Myrtle, _Scordianum_ or Water-Germander,
Wormwood, Valerian or Setwal-Root, _Virginian_ Snake-Root, or Zedoary in
their Hands to smell to, or of Rue one Handful stampt in a Mortar, put
thereto Vinegar enough to moisten it, mix them well, then strain out the
Juice, wet a Piece of Sponge or a Toast of brown Bread therein, tie it in
a Bit of thin Cloth to smell to.
But there is nothing more grateful and efficacious than the volatile _Sal
Armoniac_, well impregnated with the essential Oils of aromatick
Ingredients, which may be procured dry, and kept in small Bottles, from a
careful Distillation of the common _Sal Volatile Oleosum_.
Sometimes more foetid Substances agree better with some Persons than the
more grateful Scents, of which the most useful Compositions may be made of
Rue, Featherfew, _Galbanum_, _Assafoetida_, and the like, with the Oil
of Wormwood, the Spirit or Oil drawn and dropt upon Cotton, so kept in a
close Ivory Box, though with Caution to be used, the often smelling to,
dilating the Pores of the Olfactory Organs, which may give greater Liberty
for the pestilential Air to go along with it. A Piece of Orris Root kept
in the Mouth in passing along the Streets, or of Garlick, Orange or Lemon
Peel, or Clove, are of very great Service. As also Lozenges of the
following Composition, which are always profitable to be used fasting; of
Citron Peel two Drams, Zedoary, Angelica, of each, prepar'd in Rose
Vinegar, half a Dram, Citron Seeds, Wood of Aloes, Orris, of each two
Scruples, Saffron, Cloves, Nutmeg, one Scruple, Myrrh, Ambergrease, of
each six Grains, Sugarcandy one Ounce; make into Lozenges with Gum
Traganth and Rose-water.
I know not indeed a greater Neglect than not keeping the Body clean, and
the keeping at a distance any thing superfluous and offensive, to keep the
House airy and fresh, and moderately cool, and to strew it with Herbs,
Rushes, and Boughs, which yield refreshing Scents, and contribute much to
the purifying of the Air, and resisting the Infection; of this kind all
Sorts of Rushes and Water Flags, Mint, Balm, Camomil Grass, Hyssop, Thyme,
Pennyroyal, Rue, Wormwood, Southernwood, Tansy, Costmary, Lime-tree, Oak,
Beech, Walnut, Poplar, Ash, Willow, _&c._ A frequent Change of Clothes,
and a careful drying or airing them abroad, with whisking and cleaning of
them from all Manner of Filth and Dust, which may harbour Infection, as it
is likewise to keep the Windows open at Sun-Rise till the Setting,
especially to the North and East, for the cold Blasts from those Quarters
temper the Malignity of pestilential Airs.
Preservative Fumigations are largely talked of by all on those Occasions,
and they with good Reason deserve to be practised. And of the great Number
of Aromatick Roots and Woods, I should chiefly prefer Storax, Benjamin,
Frankinsense, Myrrh, and Amber, the Wood of Juniper, Cypress and Cedar,
the Leaves of Bays and Rosemary, and the Smell of Tarr and Pitch is no
ways inferior to any of the rest, where its Scent is not particularly
offensive, observing the burning of any or more of those Ingredients at
such proper Distances of Time from each other, that the Air may always be
sensibly impregnated therewith.
Amongst the Simples of the Vegitable Kind, _Virginian_ Snake-Root cannot
be too much admired, and is deservedly accounted the most Diaphoretick and
Alexipharmick for expelling the pestilential Poison; its Dose, finely
powder'd, is from four or six Grains to two Scruples, in a proper
Vehicle; due Regard being had to the Strength and Age of the Patient.
The next is generally given to the Contrayerva Root, (from which also a
Compound Medicine is admirably contrived, and made famous by its Success
in the last Plague;) the Dose of this in fine Powder is from one Scruple
to a Dram, in Angelica or Scordium Water, or in Wine, _&c._
There are other Roots likewise of which many valuable Compounds are form'd
in order to effect that with an united Force which they could not do
singly; in this Class are the Roots of Angelica, Scorzonera, Butterbur,
Masterwort, Tormentil, Zedoary, Garlick, Elicampane, Valerian, Birthwort,
Gentian, Bitany, and many others, which may be found in other Writings.
Ginger, whether in the Root, powder'd, and candy'd deserve our Regard; for
it is very powerful both to raise a breathing Sweat and defend the
Spirits against the pestilential Impression.
From these Roots may be made Extracts, either with Spirit of Wine or
Vinegar, for it is agreed by all, that the most subtil Particles collected
together, and divested of their grosser and unprofitable Parts, become
more efficacious in Medicinal Cases.
The Leaves of Vegetables most us'd in Practice are Scordiam, Rue, Sage,
Veronica, the lesser Cataury, Scabious, Pimpinel, Marygolds, and Baum,
from which, on Occasion, several _Formulæ_ are contrived.
Good Vehicles to wash down and to facilitate the taking of many other
Medicines, should be made of the Waters distilled from those Herbs while
they are fresh and fragrant (having not yet lost their volatile Salt) for
those which are commonly kept in the Shop, are insipid and of little Use.
_FINIS._
Footnotes:
[1] _An_ Ægyptian, _and the first Inventor of Physick_;
[2] _The Son of_ Apollo, _begotten upon_ Coronis, _the Daughter of_
Phlegia.
[3] _The two eldest Daughters of_ Æsculapius.
[4] _See_ _Hodges of the Plague_, _reprinted_ per Qincey, p. 19.
[5] _Vid._ Gockelius de peste, p. 25.
[6] _Vid._ Gockelius de peste, p. 25.
[7] Lib. 1. de differ. Feb. Cap. 3. & de cibis mali & boni succi.
[8] Lib. 6. Obser. 9. 26.
[9] _Liomologia_, p. 32, 33, 34, 35, 37, 42, 44, 52, 53, 54, 75.
[10] _Short Discourse_, p. 11, 17.
[11] _Different Causes_, p. 266.
[12] _Plague_, Marseilles, p. 17, 30, 31, 36, 41.
[13] Hodges'_s Limologia_, p. 64.
[14] Hodges'_s Limilogia_, p. 32.
[15] _Short Discourse_, p. 16.
[16] _Short Discourse_, p. 10.
[17] _Plague_, Marseilles, p. 31, 32, 33.
[18] _Loimologia_, p. 20.
[19] _Short Discourse_, p. 46.
[20] _Liomologia Causes and Cures_, p. 281.
[21] _Plague_, Marseilles, p. 9.
[22] _Short Discourse_, p, 46.
[23] _Loimologia_, p. 283.
[24] _Loimologia_, p. 218.
[25] _Plague_, Marseilles, p. 40.
[26] _Short Discourse_, p. 24.
[27] _Loimologia, Causes and Cures_, p. 255.
[28] De Morbis Contag. Lib. II. Cap. 7.
Transcriber's Notes:
Passages in italics are indicated by _italics_.
In the Preface, non-italicized words are indicated by =not italics=.
The original text includes Greek characters. For this text version these
letters have been replaced with transliterations.
The following misprints have been corrected:
"Gratiude" corrected to "Gratitude" (page 5)
"togegether" corrected to "together" (page 31)
"Phsick" corrected to "Physick" (page 63)
"Apothecacaries" corrected to "Apothecaries" (page 64)
"Medicince" corrected to "Medicine" (page 65)
"Strengh" corrected to "Strength" (page 120)
"Humous" corrected to "Humours" (page 131)
"snch" corrected to "such" (page 157)
"nnless" corrected to "unless" (page 158)
"Weeek" corrected to "Week" (page 187)
"Aristole" corrected to "Aristotle" (page 189)
Other than the corrections listed above, printing is retained from the
original.
End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Medicina Flagellata, by Anonymous
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