1. IF Antiquity be capable of conferring Validity, the Art of Expectation being contem­porary with that of Physick, may be termed equally valuable. In many cases they are synony­mous, where the Cure is attribu­buted [Page 2] to the Art of Medicine, which in reality was chiefly per­formed by the Art of Expectation; the Remidies, that were the Tools of the former, being of little or no efficacy, and consequently deluso­ry; whereas Time, Delays, and doing nothing, are the principal media of the latter. Hence may easily be apprehended, what is meant by curing Diseases by Ex­pectation, viz. The applying of Re­medies, that do little hurt, and less good, from which the Patient day by day frustraneously epect­ing relief, and benefit, is at last de­ferred so long, that Nature, and Time have partially, or entirely, cured the Disease, which notwith­standing the Physician by subtlety, cunning, and officiousness, doth commonly with success insinuate, that the Petient is Debitor for his Life, and recovery, to the Doctor's Skill, Judgment, Method, and Re­medies; and in this particular, the wisest of men do become half Fools, [Page 3] by intrusting their Lives, and yield­ing obedience to most Physicians, of whom, or their Art, they are incapable of judging, by reason of their being unacquainted with the inside of their Persons, and the va­nities of their Profession.

2. Suppose your self cured of an Ague, Catarrh, Sickness of Sto­mach, or twenty other Distem­pers, by taking twice or thrice a day, horis medicis, for ten days to­gether, five grains of Tobacco-pipe powder, (which by a reputed ho­nest, and most Learned Physician, shall be hinted to be Magistery of Pearl) or by swallowing down, in the same Medicinal Method, five grains of Terra damnata Vitrioli, or powder of a well-burnt Earthen Pipkin, intimated to be prepared Gold. This probably hath cost you six or eight pounds. You are now certainly restored (tuto, cito, & ju­cunde) to your health, and all is well. Be you never so rich, so great, or so wise a man, will not [Page 4] your own judgment convince you of folly beyond Idiotism, in ha­ving made in the preceding case a Physician your Trustee, and giving credit to his pretended Cure, which is no other, than was effected by the Art of Expectation, in manner following? From the first Dose of Powder you perceived no benefit, though you were willing to be per­suaded, that what advancement was made towards recovery, was insensible, and therefore you were contented, to expect five or six days for a sensible abatement, and so de die in diem, until in good truth it was your abstinence from Flesh, and strong Liqours, gave your Spi­rits leisure and opportunity, to di­gest, separate, and expell those morbifick Humours.

3. That this is so, is apparent in poor men, whose straightness of Fortune not permitting, to make application to Doctors or Apothe­caries, by fasting, and keeping themselves from the injuries of the [Page 5] Air, are cured of slight Distem­pers, that are curable by Nature, and the Art of Expectation, in the same space of time the Doctors do require, to set up the rich. As for great Diseases, where a true me­thod, and effectual Remedies be­come necessary, more owe their Deaths to Physicians, than are pre­tendedly cured by them, as I have more clearly, and faithfully shew­ed in the Conclave of Physicians. However, it is to the Art of Expe­ctation Physicians are indebted for their Reputation, that occasions the ignorant World to continue the use of them. By the way, I have in the preceding Paragraph only proposed a supposal of Pip­kin, and Tobacco-pipe powder, which I now tell you, is not a merum suppositum non supponendum, but hath been knavishly practised by some Physicians, with a suc­cess equal to what could have been expected from a Magistery of Pearl, or an Aurum diaphoreticum.

[Page 6] 4. As for those particulars, where­in I shall instance the Exercise of the Art of Expectation, though they are not Pipkin powders, they are very analogal unto 'em. In con­clusion, if the Art of Expectation was not more universal than Me­dicine, whence doth it happen, that many Illiterates, as Gun-smiths, Heel-makers, regenerate high-way­men, some Apothecaries, and some Surgeons, do cure a far greater number than the chiefest of Phy­sicians, were it not, that they are equally skill'd in the Art of Expe­ctation. These Expectation-Doctors are the safe men, the good Chil­drens Doctors, much in request among some wise Women. They are such, as in difficult Diseases kill by omission, and cure easie Distem­pers, by seeming to do something of no importance.

1. FRom their Subjects many Trades are observed to mu­tuate their distinction; from Brass the Brazier; from Steel or Iron, in French Fer, the Farrier, or ra­ther Ferrier; and from Pysick the Physician; and from the contra­ction of all the three a very proper Nomenclature may be adapted to the plurality of conclave-Doctors, viz. a Brazen-Ferrier-Physician. To this universal distinction a more specifick sub-distinction, abstracted from the particular matter they operate upon, seems necessary. Some wholly dedicating themselves to Iron or Steel, and Syrup of Steel, make use of its efforts against all Diseases, and do justly deserve the Title of Farrier-Doctors; others ap­plying [Page 8] the Milk Diet, or Asses Milk to all their Patients, may be dig­nified with the Name of Ass-Doctors. A third sort, giving themselves over to the Jesuits Powder, will be called Iesuitical-Doctors, sourbs from the top to the bottom. A fourth, seldom miss recommend­ing their Clients to Tunbridg or Dul­ledg Waters, as if they pretended to be Dull-head Physicians. Bleed­ing is prefered by some in all cases, that are Butcher-Doctors. The last, who are the most numerous, aver all Distempers are to be expell'd at the Fundament, and these are the T—rd Doctors. Here the Art of Physick, Monster like, appears to walk upon six Legs, though every Physician stands but upon one, yet not so firmly, but is apt to be totter'd by every slight Distem­per, and a difficult one throws him down to the Ground, whence he easily, like a Jugler, starts up again, and recovering his one Leg, claps his Wings, and crows himself Con­queror [Page 9] of the Disease, though with an usurp'd Title.

2. For the good of the common Cause, these Physicians, though debauch'd into different Methods of Practice, all make a consort in one Cant, that by their sedulous disco­veries in Anatomy, (as Circulati­on, Milkie Vessels, Waterducts, nervous Liquor, nutricious and pancreatick Juyces, ferments in the Throat, Stomach, Liver, Heart, Brain, Spleen, Kidnies, and in eve­ry part, as far as the little Toe, besides a hundred little particula­ries, of no other use than the Theo­ry of the Spots in the Moon) they have so far out-started all the An­cients, that they have exalted their Art to the highest Pinacle or [...], which before was scarce an Embryo; and all this to enchant you into a firm faith of their Abilities, to bait and allure you into their Physick Nets. But to speak the truth, they are much short of the Candor, Ho­nesty, Modesty, Learning, and In­dustry, [Page 10] the Ancients used, in ma­king their Observation on Disea­ses, and Remedies, which was such, that they found, that abstinence, and lying still (that is, doing no­thing, and being Spectators of Na­ture) cured more Distempers, than all their Interruption by Physick; which rule you find very oft en­joyned by Hippocras, Galen, and Cel­sus, throughout all their Works; so that where these modern Adven­turers pretend to cure one Disease, they, by being Spectators only, cu­red an hundred, which in effect was nothing, but being Actors of the Art of curing Diseases by Ex­pectation.

1. THE Ferrier-Doctors are ran­ged in the front by vulgar Opinions, and the transmutation of Iron into Gold is in nothing more apparent, than in the exchange of their Steel Medicines into golden Fees. The effects derived from the various principles of Iron, opera­ting according to the disposition of subjects they meet with in the bo­dy, prove as oft fatal and perni­cious, as seldom happy and hoped for; a powerful detersive, and diu­retick, is observed in the Sulphur of Steel, when it encounters with an acid in the humors, proper to in­cite it to combat, otherwise it unites with the vitriolick Salt, and both run into a cement, which adding [Page 12] a stronger fastness to Obstructions, doth frequently bung up the Vessels entirely. Judgment and Experi­ence are in no case useful, as in adapting this Mineral to proper Constitutions. It is more bruited for the killing, then curative part; if you hit the mark right in the choice of it, you may perform a cure very wonderful; if you miss, the event is deplorable. Instances of the first kind are by far exceeded in number by the latter.

By three or four large bleedings (as I remember) advised by a Coach-butcher-Doctor to Sir R. Bovy, labouring under a Quartan, and by as many Purges (whereof the least operated between forty and fifty times) prescribed by a subse­quent T—rd-Doctor, the Patient was thrown into all the kinds of Drop­sie, with a continuation of the Ague, notwithstanding the use of the Jesuits Powder in all its forms and quantities. From the Head to the Toe a more monstrous oede­matous [Page 13] protuberance was scarce pos­sible, his Belly so extreamly fill'd with Water, and Wind especial­ly, that would have supported him from sinking in any River; his Age was almost decrepid, his Ap­petite little or nothing, and his feebleness answerable to all Cir­cumstances. Those cathartick Re­medies, which the whole band of Physick-men have, and do hitherto erroneously depend on, would take no place in a distemper they had caused. Tapping must have pro­ved speedily terminative.

2. Through the use of Chaly­beats variously mixt with Diure­ticks and Detersives, he was in few Weeks reduced to his former pro­portion of Body, which was lean, thin, and lank, his strength return­ed, with his appetite, and good di­gestion; nothing remained, but the swelling of his Legs, though consi­derably lessened, which was discus­sed by a lixivial Fomentation. His burden of Serosities I observed was [Page 14] daily lessened by large quantities of Urine, and insensible Perspira­tions. The greatest trouble I found at the beginning, in the cure of his Ague, which was effected by a Pow­der not unusual. What could be here successfully expected from Steel, was attained in all its parts, the sulphurous particles, in their abstersis and diuretick offices, kept even pace with the salin in the cor­roboratif and restrictive, whereby the Bowels were restored to their pristin firmness, and compact tex­ture, and the Humors reduced to a mediocrity in substance, temper­ament, and fluidity. But in a hun­dred occasions Steel is observed to be retrograde, through ignorance of proper application to Bodies and Diseases.

3. Some few years past, a Lady brought her Daughter from Read­ing side to London, accompanied with her Doctor in ordinary, who justified his Steel course by a sensless recital of Authors, and other of his [Page 15] Physick Companions, in endea­vouring thereby to procure her Menstrua, to whose non-appearance at their due times and seasons, he imputed a Cachexia, and pale co­lour, that injured her Complexion. Three Weeks or a Months pro­gress in that method had entirely extinguish'd her Appetit, thrown her into an Hectick Fever, and a Cough so importune, that would not suffer her scarce to breathe or speak.

4. The salts of her Humours closing with the vitriolique of the Steel, without loosning and unty­ing the sulphurous particles from them, united their force of bind­ing, drying, and damning up all the Humours, that by regurgitati­on were impelled into the Lungs and Bowels, which being now choak'd up by such a cementing Remedy, what was here to be done? Nothing that I could think more certain than a prognostic, that a few days would put a period to her [Page 16] Life, and to the Steel course also. This Ferrier-Doctor would needs turn Ass-Doctor, and abandon his Patient to Asses Milk, at Chelsey▪ where in less than a week her hour-glass was run out.

5. Another case I remember of a Merchant in London, whom a Ferrier Physician pretending to cure of a Chronical cough, that had ac­companied him twelve or fourteen years, pressed a solution of Steel upon him thirty days or longer, which indeed had much abated the Cough, but also had render'd him so hoarse, that a Mouse could not have heard him speak, at a yards distance, besides the loss of Appe­tite and Strength. I advis'd the Pa­tient to take leave of his Ferrier and his Steel, [...]nless he intended to stop up his Lungs, and desist from breathing. Much ado he regain'd his old Cough, which being so an­tiquated, a Cure ought never to be attempted beyond palliation, and upon a deterioration through a [Page 17] new Cold, or addition of a recent defluxion, beyond some lenifying or smoothing pectorals, an old Cough bearing the Office of a Pump, or an Issue, which with the superfluities of the Lungs, throws out the Crudities of the whole mass, the retention whereof would other­wise swell and choak these pulmo­nick Bellows.

So true it is, as some certain pe­ctorals are the life of the Lungs, that Steel, and all chalybeat Medi­cines are a certain bain unto them, the roughness and adstringent fa­culties of its vitriolick Salt, which they contain in a superlative de­gree, straitning and contracting in process of time the whole pneuma­tick Engine to a total suppression.

6. From the preceding Para­graph flows naturally this obser­vation, that where Lungs are he­reditarily asthmatick, or adventi­tiously so, by universally inspi­ring, a thick smoaky foggy Air about London, which from the drip­ping [Page 18] fits of the Climate in the Winter, proves no other all En­gland over; Steel Remedies either in a dry or moist form, as Iron-waters, and Syrup of Steel ought to be regarded with a very squint suspicious Eye, and never called in use where the greatest necessity is not the chiefest indicant.

1. NOW, if you will suppose a Man or Woman afflicted with any hypochondriac spleeny Distemper, or inveterated obstru­ctions of the Bowels, either being easily incident into a Couch, and being never so little imbecillitated in their Lungs, a Steel Medicine exhibited, where the acid within [Page 19] the Body is uncapable to divide the Sulphur from the Salt, they run no small risque of puiking their gross slimy Humors into their Lungs, that will in time coagulate to an Asthma, ulcerous disposition of the Lungs, and probably a Con­sumption, and Hectic Fever; or if peradventure the Humours do not sublime, they will be compact­ed into immedicable Obstructions, and most obstinate Infarctions. Where such Medicines encounter with Youth, their Vigour possi­bly may subjugate their roughness, and menaced Mischiefs, which in those that are turned of forty, do very frequently ensue, either soon after, or upon a delay of a few years, and may easily be tract back­wards to the Steel Original, whence they will evidently be found to take their source; neither are you here to expect an enumeration of all such like cases, which I can give you, unless you are ar­med with Patience of reading a [Page 20] Treatise six times bigger, than this will amount unto; neither can I without astonishment behold, how gredily Syrup of Steel is swallowed down at Paris, by most of the Patients of a noised Farrier-Doctor, who in the failure of this, doth immediately turn to Ass-Doctor, by his milkie Diets; so that I cannot tell, whether I ought properly to say, the Farrier upon the Ass, or the Ass upon the Farrier.

2. Beyond all peradventure the Sulphur of Steel being entirely stript (as very few have hitherto yet dis­covered) of its saline particles, and their restringent faculties, (which in most preparations will in a great measure cleave to it (must become a most admirable deobstruent; nei­ther did I ever yet arrive to any one process, that came near it, except one, which by bringing it over the Alembick, renders it solu­ble. The same process hath the same effect upon Antimony, and some few other Minerals, which [Page 21] since not appertaining to the Art of Expectation, will be improper to de­scribe at present.

3. It is not on the Bowels only, but on the Brain and Nerves, a long or oft repeated Steel course manifests its immedicable Injuries. Palsies, Convulsions, and extream weakness of the Joynts, I have more than once observed the con­sequences of it, which I can de­duce from no other preceding cau­sality, then by cementing and binding vicious humours in deep latent recesses, where by a long stagnation for some months, and sometimes years, they acquire a levain so pernicious, as to deprave and subvert the animal Faculty, enervating the whole systeme of channels, that proceed from the Brain, and impressing a virulen­cy on the Juyces of the Nerves; in which manner, and through the same means, it bears a very near affinity to the Jesuits bark, that hath so oft some years after [Page 22] caused Convulsions, and Syncopees; though never Apoplectic-fits, a de­nomination that makes Physicians that used it, to appear the greatest Block-heads; for Fits denote a type, and a circuit of beginning, ending, and returning, which an Apoplexy never did. Either it is a strong one, (Apoplexia fortis) which ac­cording to Hippocrates, and all other experienced Physicians since, doth infallibly kill; or slight, (Apoplexia levis) which for the most part turns to a Palsie. See Hippocr. Apho. lib. 2. Aph. 42.

4. Imagine half a quier of Phy­sicians of the same stampt treating a Patient, decumbent of Leipothy­mick, or rather Syncopal fits, in­terchanging reciprocally with vio­lent Convulsions, or (if you please) spasmodic Paroxysms, which some­times prove periodical. These sym­ptoms, which are evident to all the World, what they are, being by them termed Apoplectic-fits, (a de­nomination never mentioned by [Page 23] any Author since the Creation) exposes them either to be grosly ignorant, (as appears by what is manifest before concerning an Apo­plexy) or very sinisterly design­ing, if not in all, at least in the Babylonian Leaders, whom the rest easily will follow for large com­pensations, or to prevent being by them kick'd out of so honourable an Employ. It is probable, the whole Chorus not arriving toge­ther, the first come, upon the sight of such an effroyable symptom, either being not sufficiently skilful, or not taking time to examine in­to the case, might mistake it for an Apoplexy, and too precipitant­ly advise bleeding, to make room in the Vessels for the Blood to move, and consequently to pre­vent stagnation, and coagulation. Now I would put the question, a Man, or Woman, being fallen in­to a swooning fit, Is there one thoughtful Physician among five hundred, that would have the [Page 24] courage, or so little sense, as to open a Vein? Did ever any authen­tick Author in Physick prefer Phle­botomy as a proper Remedy in this case? If you reply, there may be a Plethory; still not in one in a thousand will consent to it in the fit.

5. To go on upon the foremen­tioned supposition. I very well know, that a Physician, to free himself from the censure of a mi­stake, or erroneous application of a Remedy, will endeavour to ju­stifie himself, by inculcation, and hammering his Sentiment into eve­ry one of the Physicians called in, upon their first arrival; who either out of a Complement, or false con­ception of the case communicated unto them, or untrue relation of the thing, or their proper igno­rance and unskilfulness, being de­coyed or fallen into the same opi­nion, are bound to justifie the first Physician and themselves, and one another, singly and joyntly; more­over, [Page 25] being blinded by the first appearance, they dare not, nor will not hereafter see plain, lest the standers by should accuse them of hallucination. The Disease be­ing at first christned an Apoplexy, they were obliged to hold to that word; but going soon off, and returning with interchanges of Convulsions, they perceived plain enough, that it was no Apoplexy; but to conceal their mistake, they judged it necessary to keep to the first Notion, and slide it of [...] to Apo­plectic fits, a species of impudence uncommon to any but themselves; as if the Art of Physick and Phy­sicians were circumscribed by the walls of their Conclave, though any man might with the least glimps detect their error, gross be­yond what could proceed from Nurses, or meer Novices in Phy­sick.

6. I have more than ten times seen men otherwise very robust, fall into deep swooning fits, lying [Page 26] a considerable time, as to outward appearance, like unto dead, who by frictio [...]s of their Temples, vel­lications of their Nostrils, dolorous contortions of the Extremities, and pouring down their throats strong alexipharmacs, have usually reco­vered out of that fit, though soon after, by translation of the subtil matter to the Brain and Nerves, have been tortured with a Spas­modic fit, of no longer continu­ance, than the foresaid matter could be discussed by volatil Neu­riticks, or Cephalicks. These sorts of Alternative fits, from their du­ration for several years, possibly for seven, ten, or twenty, more or less, import no imminent danger, unless attempted to be cured by unseasonable bleedings, and mul­tiplied purges, by raising a mud of dormant Humours, which either a long chalybeat, or Jesuitical course, had dammed up, and cemented.

7. Besides the fore-mentioned causes that are the most frequent, [Page 27] it's indubitable, that the like Fits may owe their growth to reitera­ted debauches, inveterate obstructi­ons, (whereby Humors may as­sume a virulency) and poisonous Minerals and Vegetables, which exert their activity in much shor­ter dimension of time.

8. In the fore-mentioned imagi­nary Patient, the first bleeding not being exempted from a just cen­sure, may plead a pardon from the possiblity of a mistake of the Disease, by the surprize, and from the force of the Argument alledg­ed, that a bleeding, by making room in the Vessels, and accelera­ting circulation, doth prevent the Blood in stagnating. But that In­dication being answered by a first larger bleeding, or a first and se­cond mediocre depletion, to what end o [...] purpose is in the former a second, third, and fourth (where­of one or two may be in the Ju­gulars, which is never performed without a great risque) advised in [Page 28] large proportions, and some of them in the Syncopal fit? from matter of fact is desumed an Argu­mentum ad hominem, Bleeding very oft, though administred for pre­vention only in robust, and health­ful Bodies, doth upon the stopping of the Blood throw them into a long and deep swooning, or Lei­pothymick fit, whence it has been observed some never returned. So that nothing is more naturally conclusive, if bleeding out of the Arm, or Jugulars, doth frequent­ly precipitate an healthy strong man into a Swooning, or Leipo­thymy, it must necessarily force a weak Patient, who already doth labour under a strong Leipothy my or (which is worse) Syncopal fit, many degrees nearer to his End. Waving the Experimental, I pro­ceed to the Rational, granting the first bleeding, especially it large, doth by making room, promote and fa­cilitate the motion of the blood universally, whereby a stagnation [Page 29] is repell'd, and a free perspiration procured. The second bleeding ex­hausting the vital, and mediately the animal Spirits, the third more, and the fourth yet more, the cir­culation must necessarily more and more be lessened, and impeded, through want of Spirits (for it is the Spirits, that are the impetum sa­cientes, and impulsors of motion within the Vessels) and warmth. Moreover, through the subsiding, and paucity of the Spirits, the pores are constricted, Perspiration im [...] ­ded, and the virulent Steems, that occasion all the mischief, remain­ing unsubdued, by their minutely accessions, must inevitably become conquerours of Life, as sundry ob­servations do exhibit unquestiona­ble testimonies, and against matter of Fact all argumentations will be found sophistical. Upon a replique may be pretended, that the scope, intentions, or indications for bleed­ing, besides the abating of Pletho­ry, are revulsion, and derivation; [Page 30] and secundarily or per accidens cool­ing, removing of pain, &c. You must apprehend, that the indica­tions for bleeding have their re­spect chiefly to the antecedent cause, and seldom have any influence up­on the conjunct, unless per accidens and secundarily; but in reference to virulent Steems, or venomous Humors, whereunto those that oc­casion the oft fore-mentioned Sym­ptoms, are analogal, if not really such, bleeding upon any supposi­tion can never be put into use more than once, and scarce that. For instance, will you dare to bleed in a malign Fever after the beginning, or in the Plague? Suppose a man hath swallowed Arsenic, sublimate, or any other sort of Poyson, or is fallen into Convulsions by a poysonous steem, can you pretend to bleed in this case? I could heartily wish Physi­cians did abstract such Theorems, or Maxims from observation, (the highest Form in the School of Phy­sick) [Page 31] that would serve as Rules, whence to take true measures for the necessity, season, number and quantity of bleeding, and not to advise Phlebotomy at random, as most of 'em do.

9. Suppose besides the third and fourth bleeding of the imaginary Patient, there is by a party Jury of Butcher-Doctors, and T—rd-Phy­sicians, a smart Vomit given, and without computing of Clysters, a solution of the species of Hiera [...]i [...]ra in Brandy, (vulgarly called Tin­ctura sacra) forced down every Morning, for several days together, in a body by such repeated losses of Blood reduced to a low ebb of strength, and the Spirits harassed and tortured by the return of de­teriorated Syncope's and Convul­sions, Vomits, and chiefly sharp fermentative Aloetics so oft repeat­ed, all these must rake up the last remainder of the virulent Mud, and stir up with a violence the most latent Impurities, which [Page 32] without those disturbances might have continued their quiet for ma­ny years. Such outragious Assaults, battering the Spirits and Humors continually, could not fail to press them to their last effort of a Fe­ver, (which must be termed Febris moribundorum) to the suppression whereof, to exhibite the Jesuits Powder, is to give le coup de grace, or the rising blow to one, that has been so oft knock'd down, and now upon the point of expiring. The day doth not more certainly follow the night, than that the ordinary little Medicines and Re­medies that are used to Hysteric women, without purging or Bleed­ing, would have infalsibly reco­vered such an imaginary Patient; and nothing will more certainly kill an Hypochondriac man, or Hysteric woman, in the violence of their returning fits, than the course of bleeding, vomiting, pur­ging, and Jesuiting before supposed or imagined.

[Page 33] 10. Without Candle and Lan­thorn one may clearly discern, that nothing is more resembling Steel in pernicious Effects, than Jesuits Bark, and nothing more like the Jesuits Bark than Steel; moreo­ver, that either is capable to engen­der the worst of Diseases some Months, and sometimes Years af­ter the use of them.

1. IF nevertheless your confidence is so unically fixed on the Virtues of Steel, against opiniatre Obstructions, let your choice be determined in the Salphur of Steel, being a preparation in point of ef­ficacy and security, over-topping all the rest; but withal let me re­commend these [...] bene's to your [Page 34] consideration, 1. That Steel in its best shape is the greatest Enemy to some particular Constitutions. 2. That tincture of Tartar is a Medi­cine universally agreeing with all Temperaments, where resera­ting Oppilations is the indication. 3. That the want of Success of this Medicine, and others of the great­est efficacy, is to be attributed to the underdosing of it, in the quan­tity of six, eight, or ten drops, whereas I seldom give less than half a spoonful, and sometimes more, diluted with a sufficient mea­sure of a temperate Vehicle, in the imitation of which you shall seldom or never miss of your aim, or be frustrated of your Exspe­ctance. 4. That the common Tin­cture of Tartar is an exaltation of the Sulphur of Spirits of Wine re­ctified, through the adurent par­ticles of a most forcibly calci­nated Salt of Tartar, imbibing but very little of the Salin parti­cles, through want of phleme in [Page 35] the Spirit. 5. That the Preparati­on next subscribed, being partly a Tincture, and partly a Solution of Salt of Tartar, is virtuated with an abstersif quality, derived from lixivial, slippery, or soapy parti­cles of the Salt, whereby it's ren­der'd a most excelling deobstruent, and ought to be preferred before the other, by as much, as it is of a far easier preparation, that may be finish'd with less toil, and in shorter time, which processes I have ever aimed at upon all other materials, well knowing, that la­borious and multiplied changes of the form of things by distillation, sublimation, calcination, and other various fiery tortures, doth very oft destroy the nature of the thing, intended to be thereby exalted in Vertues, or corrected in Qualities. 2. Take two or three Ounces of well calcin'd Salt of Tartar, pour on it as much good Cognack Bran­dy, or spirit of Wine not rectified, as will over-cover it six [...]ngers [Page 36] breadth, digest it four days in Sand, in a bolt-head, to a yellow Tin­cture, then decant it, this is all; hereof give a Spoonful, and some­times more in an apt Vehicle, Mornings and Evenings. 3. The nauseous tast of the Salt, though by this simple is much abated, yet is not entirely taken off, which may be easily performed in the Calcination of the Salt; but it doth somewhat impoverish its Vertue. By such a clean sort of Medicine joyn'd with an Equipollent, can be attained in a very short interval of Time, what can scarce be per­formed by half yard long Apozems of the opening Roots, capillar Herbs, Flowers, Fruits, Seeds, Spi­ces, and Syrups, as disgustful, as ineffectual, laborious, and charge­able, prescribed more for Pomp, than Use, by the famed T-rd-Doctors.

1. IT is not the least craft in the Ass-Doctors, where they spy a wasting of the Flesh, to term it a Consumption, which hapning to be an attendant almost to every Disease, hastens Patients to flock in numbers to such Physicians; and that direful word carrying a dread in its signification, doth not a little multiply their Ass Practice, espe­cially when they so highly ad­vance the Credit of a milk Diet, by noising it to be the sole grand sweetner of the Blood.

2. Sure I am, the Death of hun­dreds may be justly attributed to their Confidence in Asses Milk, in contempt of all such Remedies, or [Page 38] Medicines, that were proper for the Cure of their Diseases. These Dietetick Fourbs, or Bonny-Clabber Physicians, are deservedly censu­red Criminal, for not rightly con­sidering the nature of Milk, it be­ing a food the most convertible into any vicious Humor, that's most abounding. In hot cholerick Di­seases, it's readily assimilated to Choler, renders the heat of Fevers more burning, a Head-ach less sup­portable, a drought more difficult to be quench'd; in hot Stomachs waxes nidorulent, and in many its very corruptible, coagulable, or curdly. Phlegmatick Diseases re­ceive from it an addition of slime, the Stone and Gravel derive their nourishment and increase from it. Palsies, Drowsiness, Blindness, Ca­tarhs and Rhumes have oft follow­ed a Milk Diet. With a tempe­rate Constitution it harmonies best. To cure so many various Distem­pers, as is pretended by a milkie Diet, is as impossible, as by it to [Page 39] reinstall a dis-joynted Limb, or to cement broken Bones. An Ulcer in the Lungs, with a contemporary Hectick Fever, and Consumption, can no more be cured by an Ass-milkie Diet, than a Capon be roasted in the bottom of the Thames. This may be credited, that many emaciated Persons, in­commoded with a Cough, have been restored to a plump habit of Body by Asses Milk, diluting the Salts of their blood, that prey'd upon the carnous parts, through the abounding Serum of the Milk, and smoothing the roughness of the said Salts by its butyrous or oyly Particles; and in regard of its soft tender caseous parts, it is easier assimilated, than the stringy or fibrous Juyces of Flesh-meat. In conclusion, he that cannot cure an Ulcer of the Lungs, with an He­ctick, and Consumption attending, without Asses Milk, in less than two Months, doth not deserve the Name of a Physician. As for the [Page 40] Hectick Fever, what they general­ly assert incurable, it certainly goeth off with the consolidation of the Ulcer, without making use of any Anti-Hectick. Whether the Ass-Patient, or the Ass-Doctor be the greater Ass, is easily decided by those, that have met with Athenaeus's Saying, a Graecian Philosopher, translated by Scìopius, exceptis Me­dicis nihil est Grammaticis stultius, that is, Grammarians are the great­est Fools of all men, but Physici­ans are yet greater Fools than Grammarians.

3. The Livery-men of the pre­numerated five Physick Guilds, are obliged to veil their Bonnets to the sixth of the Bonny-Glabbers, in the milkie Treatment of Consumpti­ons and Hecticks, that ensue Ul­cers of the Lungs, also such as are putrid, [...] apostemated. The Butchers, to avoid an evident proof of down right Murder, are forced to obrtain from their wonted course of [...], in a Distemper where [Page 41] there is the greatest want of Blood, the substracting of which would probably abbreviate a Months Life, more or less, to a week or a few hours. The T-rd-men, except those that are very far advanc'd in Impudence, do exulate in the use of their Purges, which would extreamly promote a loosness, a Symptom they are commonly in­cident into; and hapning, soon destroys, by stopping the Cough, and suppressing expectoration, the immediate fore-runner of an in­stantancous Suffocation. Steel Me­dicines, and the Jesuits Bark, put­ting a stop also to Expectoration, as hath been objected before, are a bar to Ferriers, and Jesuitical Do­ctors. Neither can the Dull-head Physicians come into play, with their Aquarius, being contrary to all Expectoration. So that, as there is an Art of curing by Expectati­on, there is also an Art of killing by Expectation; for he that is ren­dered Consumptive through an [Page 42] Ulcer in his Lungs, by daily and weekly Expectation in vain, of amendment from a Milkie Diet, neglects such means as might other­wise conduce to his Cure, where­by at last makes forfeiture of his Life to the Art of Expectation. Syrups, Lohochs, Lozenges, and the like, do under no other noti­on fallaciously deserve the name of Pectorals, than by their imme­diate smoothing of the roughness of the oesophagus or Gullet, where­in by nearness or affinity of parts it doth sympathise with the Wind­pipe, or aspera arteria. This seem­ing ease lasteth no longer, than a fresh emanation of saline Rheum, or Slyme out of the Glanduls wipes off the clammy Syrup; where, and in the Stomach the Rheum by its sharp­ness and a vicious ferment (as they term it) converts that, or any such Saccharaceous Medicine, into a cor­roding Acid, which is so far from being auxiliary against the Ulcer upon its arrival to the Lungs, that it [Page 43] excavates the Ulcer, and by sti­mulation duplicates the Cough. It cannot be contradicted, but that Honey in any pectoral Medicine used instead of Sugar, especially Narbon Honey, may contain a pro­perty answerable in some small measure the Indications of an Ul­cer in the Lungs; because it seems to be an extract of the Balsamick Particles of fragrant oleous Flow­ers, that probably may arrive to the Lungs, without being intirely broken in their Vertues.

4. I am not ignorant, that vul­nerary Herbs, as ground Ivy, La­dies Mantle, Bugle, and many others, used in Decoctions, are in high esteem among several Phy­sick-men, who do very confident­ly attribute to them the cure of divers Consumptions. But I am also very well assured, that those Vegetables, though supposed to be sufficiently impowred for the cure of Ulcers, must in their passage through the Stomach and Bowels, [Page 44] and mixture with the Humors, receive such impressions and chan­ges, as strip them of their facul­ties, and energy, before they can traverse to the Vessels of the Lungs. What can be most fa­vourably construed on their be­half, is, that some who have been much emaciated, and at the same time accompanied with a Cough of an old date, whence they have been erroneously pronounced Con­sumptives, did receive amend­ment, or a Cure from them; but then it is to be conceived, here was no Ulcer of the Lungs, nor Hectick Fever, nor little Impo­sthumes, nor putrid affection of the Lungs, which in a proper fense specifie a Consumption strict­ly so called. In a putrid affecti­on of the Lungs, its not to be doubted, but what is expectorated, is slyme mixt with purulent Parti­cles, generated in the retired Pores of that Entrail, through a long Stagnation, which occasions an [Page 45] Hectick Fever, and a Consump­tion, that is so universal to this Island, and which neither Milk Diet, nor vulnerary Decoction, though sufficiently saccharated, or mellified; nor pectoral Syrups, Loho [...]hs, nor Lozenges, did ever cure, but inevitably kill by Ex­pectation, there being but one Medicine, far different from the forementioned, that is impowered to answer all the Indications of a proper pulmonick Consumption. From the tonsure Remedy, by cut­ing off the Hair of the Head, or from Issues in the Arm, no more help can be expected, than from pairing the Nails of the Fingers and Toes in an Ulcerous Consump­tion; though in some few cases, three or four Cansticks applyed to sutable parts of the Breast, in or­der to so many sontanels, may prove very advantageous; and it is beyond all objection, that the change of Air is most conducing to recovery, and a causa s [...]ne qua non.

1. HYpochondriack Affections, some sorts of Scurveys, Obstructions of the Bowels, steri­lity and infoecundities of Women, Ulcers within the lower Belly, and especially, Gravel and Stone, come under the Jurisdiction of Tankerd Physicians, though their usurp'd dominion over these Di­seases doth not extend beyond the Summer Months (according to the trite saying, mensibus in quibus R. non bonum bibere water) and the coming into Season of Oysters, which is its utmost bounds and li­mits. Notwithstanding the avidity of their perquisites over-poysing, the greatest prejudice their Hypo­chondriac, and Nephritick Patients [Page 47] can receive, they do not stick to impose on them drinking of Dul­ledg, or Tunbridg Waters in the hardest Frost, with a Condition of boyling them half away, or converting of 'em into Posset, or rather a curdy sort of Soupe. What ever ease and solace the crazy are sensible of from the washing and rensing of their Sto­mach, urinary Passages, and Guts, of floaty Humors for the present, the continuance by a potent Re­striction, wedges and impacts (as I said before) the slymy feculen­cies into very stubborn Clogs, which can no otherwise be avoid­ed, then by interposing alternate­ly Purges, respondent to the Indi­cations of the Disease, morbifick Causes, and other Circumstances.

2. Gravel and Stone are to be considered either in their fits of pain, diminution, and suppression of Urine; or when unmoved, the the Patient is free of those Symp­toms. To exhibite Waters of the [Page 48] one kind or other in the times of misery, is to irritate and press those disturbant Causes to a greater fu­ry, and increase of Pains, and sometimes of total suppression of Urine. Pains thus augmented, and continued, invite Inflammations and Fevers, which in very many prove Quarter-masters of Death. The Urine suppressed for six or seven days, turns to a fatal Drow­siness and Coma, or Lethargy, to which always a Fever is annext. Purges are equally obnoxious to the same Evils, and therefore ought very carefully to be avoided. A course of Waters slabber [...]d down out of the fit, by carrying off a loose mucus, detruding floating thin Impurities, and by locking up and compacting the grosser Humors, do undoubtedly very much pro­long the interval of fits, tye up Pains, and prevent the quick re­turn of the Symptoms forementi­oned; but by this means, the clog of those gross saline humors is de­teriorated [Page 49] into immedicable, and the Stone so aggrandized, that throwing the Patient into a worse fit than ever, kills him. So that the sum of all is, that waters are impowred to grant an easie Life, and a short one; and so contrary to the cure of the Stone, that they do not so much as prevent the growth of it, unless it be during the time of the course they drink them; which appears by this, that the next fit a man falls into after his course of waters, is ordinarily worse, than any he felt before.

3. That the dissolving and break­ing of the Stone in the Bladder, or Kidneys, is within the sphere of Activity of Medicines, is a belief, that in improbability equals the highest fiction of Poetry. To break a Diamont, supposed to lye upon the ball of the Eye, by force of hammer, expresses a modus faciendi, or manner how it may be done imaginatively; but to reduce into crumbs, gritt, and powder, a hard [Page 50] Stone contained in so sensible a part, as the Bladder, by Goats blood, and testateous Powders, by Stones and Glass grinded to the smallest proportion, and by Ashes, whereof there is an Example in the Electuarium Iustinum, Nephroca­tharticum Arnol. Villan. de cineribus avicennae, diureticum Montagn; and by decoctions or distillations of such blunt materials, as the five opening Roots, Saxifrage, Strawberries, Winter Cherries, Daucus Seeds, and the like, doth for manner of acting, exceed the Phansie or Con­ception of the acutest Phylosopher; and yet the powers of the Stone­breaking Medicines meet with such Credit in Physicians, that beyond possibility they most impudently assert matter of fact, performed by them daily upon those, that are troubled with the Stone. Well may it be said, Exceptis Medicis, nihil stultius, audacius, & mendacius Grammaticis. But farther, to pre­tend to dissolve a Stone in the [Page 51] Bladder, by might of cutting Me­dicines, after their first edge must needs, have been blunted in the Stomach, and other Bowels, thro' which they are obliged to pass with a tedious circuit, before they can arrive to the field of Action, the Bladder, is a Rotomodate ma­ny degrees higher, out-doing the worst of Gipsies. If my Memory informs me right, I have met, with a Narration in Duretus's A [...]notat. up­on Hollerius, where he recites a Phy­sician was presented to a Prince of Conde, to cure his Son of the Stone, by dissolving it in the Bladder in a few days. The prudent caution of the Prince or his Brother re­quired the Experiment of his Me­dicine to be first made upon ano­ther Boy of a meaner Extracti­on, and troubled with the same Disease; a day or two after the taking of his dissolving Elixir, the [...] having been miserably tortn­ned, Ghosted, whose Stomach, up­on diffection of the dead body, [Page 52] was discerned corroded and ulcer'd in several parts of it.

4. The Millepedes or Sows (next to their Wives and Daughters) hold the highest rank among the Physicians their Stone-grinders, though hitherto it has not appear­ed in what particles of 'em those cutting acuities have been latent. If to their diuretick impulse they are pleased to affix that power, Rhenish Wine will plead for the Prerogative, which notwithstand­ing is accounted a general parent of the Stone and Gravel to the Germans. But these stupid Fools in Physick are possest of a super­stitious Faith of a T-rd, and such like Compounds, beyond the Po­pish credenda of a rotten worm­caten Relick. If they meet, in Mesues Avenzoar or Averroes, with a Character of an Elks hoof, or testicle of a Bever against Convul­sions, though a Mouse hath oft­ner carried a Mountain on his back, than those Simples ever cu­red [Page 53] any such Distemper; yet do they continue in the use of them with that opiniatreness and brazen Confidence, that they conclude a man beyond his Senses, that will not yoke with them in their Phy­sick bigottry. That a Spider, Toad, or Mercury tyed about a mans Neck is a certain defence against the Plague; or that a Bezoar Pepple, the Goa Stone, Pearl, and the like, are infallible curatives of that, and all other malignant Fe­vers; or an Eel-skin fastned to a womans Thigh, doth dispel hyste­rick fits, are part of the foolish credenda of Physicians. From be­ing a little versed in the silly Me­thodus medendi, and now and then ripping up the body of a Male­factor in publick, and in their Capacity of prating of monstrous Pretences, and vain Discoveries in Phylosophy and Physick, they infer themselves absolute Profes­sors of their Art; whereas a Sea-horse in the bleeding himself, a [Page 54] Dog in eating Grass, a Crane in squirting Salt-water into his Fun­dament for a Clyster, must by them be acknowledg'd for their Masters, to whom, as their Scho­lars, they are indebted for part of their practical Physick.

5. This may be received for great Truth, that the procatarc­tick, internal antecedent, effici­ent, material, and adjuvant Cau­ses, being substracted and redres­sed, and that course continued to a great length of time, by defect of sabulous nourishment, and not being cherish'd, Nature by help of its Spirits and restored ferment (as they term it) will convert the hardest and biggest Stone into a mouldering, (provided by Age, and decay of the Bowels the Pati­ent be not reduced too low) which perceived, the excretory passages require to be well relax'd, and rendred slippery by mucilaginous Emollients, and afterwards to be stimulated gently and gradually [Page 55] by some diureticks, to throw off the gritt. And this is the only certain, and secure method of cu­ring that hitherto incurable Di­sease. The Earl of C. now deceas­ed, some years since was extream­ly tormented with a sharp pain about a hand breadth above the groin, his easiest posture was ly­ing on his Bed. To his Quality and great pain were mostly suta­ble five or six great Physicians; one might as congruously say six great Magots, or six great Mites, people very improperly attributing the word Great to a thing so little and mean as an Expectation C. Physician; scarce one in twenty knowing the tithe of what he has forgotten, and what he still re­members is scarce worth knowing. The little success that attended their Prescriptions, convinced his Lordship of their scauty Judgment, which proved as various as un­true, the one insinuating the pain to be a Cholick from Wind, the [Page 56] other an Ulcer; the other this, and another that. At last I had the Honour of having the cure of his Lordship committed to my care; upon no long examination of the matter, I assured his Lord­ship the pain in that part of his Belly was occasioned by an an­gular small Stone, that stuck in the Vreter, whereunto, being a long time prepossest with the false Sen­timents of his late chashier'd phy­sick Doctors, he was very unwil­ling to give Credit, expressing that none of his Predecessors had ever been troubled with a Disease, that proves so commonly Heredi­tary, nor himself had ever dis­cerned the least sign of Gravel; moreover that a Kinsman of his had lately been afflicted with a pain in the same part, that was evidenced to be caused by Wind, from the carminative (wind-break­ing) Remedies, that entirely dis­cussed it. I replyed Artifici in sua Arte Credendum, and that the event [Page 57] would infallibly demonstrate the truth of the thing. I kept this Noble Patient to a very thin Di­et a long time, and used Medi­cines answerable to the Method, and Indications above mentioned, which in conclusion discharged five or six Stones, about the big­ness of a Pea, sometimes one, othertimes two in a day; from their colour and rough outside, they notified to be affalls and large crumblings of a greater Stone, formed in the Kidneys, and thro' substracting from its growth, de­fect of cherishment, and through correcting of its causes was divi­ded into large parts.

1. THE rash and too frequent sounding by Catheter and Itinerary, to clear the doubt, whether a Stone be residing in the Bladder or not, proceeds more from the In­treague of the gain-thirsty Surgeon, tho' to the greatest prejudice and pain of the Patient, than any abso­lute necessity; for unless his Reso­lution is entirely to submit himself to the hands of the Lithotomist, in case such a quarry be discovered, the certification of the conception and growth of the Stone must inevitably intail upon him a con­tinual fear and anguish, whereof he is not like to be freed, before despair has thrown him upon so dubious a Remedy as the Knife and Forceps. But if his Mind [Page 59] wants firmness of Courage to en­dure the cruelty of such an Ope­ration, let him by no perswasion yield to the search of any crafty Stone-cutter, whose business is more, to dive into his Pocket than his Bladder, witness that silly ignorant Fellow of the Town, whose Ma­sters Reputation was his sole Court­card, whereby to gain so extraor­dinary a point.

2. Since length of time, with the assistance of assured Remedies, pointed at by those demonstrable Indications above written, will cure a Patient of the Stone, and that any other Disease, that may be mistaken for it, be curable by the same means, to what end shall a search by Catheter be made; espe­cially when that sort of explora­tion by the stop of the Instrument at the narrowness of the Sphincter, so render'd by swelling, a callosi­ty, or a small carnosity, hath pro­ved so oft fallacious to that de­gree, that men have been per­swaded [Page 60] to be cut, where no Stone was, or ever had been; and ha­ving passed the dread and tor­ture of the Operation, were for­ced to run the risque of a trou­blesome Cure of the Wound, that seldom is performed without a remainder▪ of a perpetual leaking, and difficulty of miction, and very oft with the loss of Life. Moreover, where probing hath detected no Disease in the Blad­der, it frequently hath caused one, viz. Inflammation of the Sphincter, bloody Urine, Excoriations, Ul­cers, continual gleets by injuring the prostates, and involuntary micti­on, strangury, dysury, total sup­pression of Urine, and almost all Diseases incident to the Bladder and Yard, not omitting those that Death hath ensued. On the other hand, the uncertainty of the Catheter and Itinerary is no less evi­dent in those that really having a Stone fixt in a part, where that Tool not reaching, or having pene­trated [Page 61] thro' a Stone, whose softness made no resistance, hath imposed on the Surgeon a fallacy of Opini­on, that the Patients were free.

3. There is no case wherein the use of the Catheter can rationally be justified, except in a total sup­pression of Urine, occasioned ei­ther by Mucus, crumbs of blood, or Stone being loosned and fallen to the neck of the Bladder, and the like occasions, to let out that liquid Excrement by removing▪ the obstacle.

4. The Stone grown moveable by being forced from its fastness by probings (as too oft has hap­ned) violent motions, vomiting, purging, potent diureticks, and by its own weight or bigness, is the only argument, that ought to pre­vail with the Patient, to surren­der himself to the doubtful suc­cess of Stone-cutting; for the pe­santure of a Stone of compass, will ever incline it to return to the same place of declination, [Page 62] where it occasioned the former suppression, unless by lying still in bed so long, as by peradventure is required to be reattached to the side of the Bladder, from which it was torn off, it be prevented; so that the pretences of Gravel-Surgeons, in removing the Stone from the mouth of the Bladder by Catheter, to give passage to the Urine that stops by fits, where there is a long interval of time between, is a most ignorant and impudent cheat, the Stone in those cases being always firmly fixt to the side of the Bladder, and a suppression of that kind is ever occasioned by Mucus, Gravel, and the like causes. True, the Ope­rator may notwithstanding some­times perceive a Stone, which the posture or manner of decumbiture in the Patient, or swelling of that side of the Bladder, may bring nea­rer to the entrance of the Sphincter, the touching of which with his Tool, (the Catheter and the Itine­rary [Page 63] within it) gives him that false apprehension, that he moved the Stone, (which in that case is the greatest nonsense and stupidi­ty imaginable) for in all persons the Stone is ever fixt in the begin­ning, and its growth, and never becomes loose or moveable, but where the [...]its of suppression return almost every moment; and the attachment of the Stone to the side of the Bladder is so univer­sal, that by reason thereof, many have been discovered to have lodged a Stone many years, and probably all their Life-time, upon the dissection of their bodies after death, who whilst living were ne­ver sensible, or suspicious of such a preternatural growth. Though Ignorance and Knavery are so he­reditary to most, that are appur­tenances and giblets of the Art of Physick; yet these Operators for the Stone (who commonly by reason of their desperate misfor­tunes are forced to be Renegades [Page 64] and Mountebancks) contain those qualities in the highest abstract.

5. A strangury; and difficulty of Urine, proceding in a lesser stream than usual, have frequently driven several into erroneous apprehen­sions of the Stone, being occasion­ed by a glutinous Mucus, through stagnation and adhesion, contract­ing a smart stimulating acrimony, that has drawn humors towards the Sphincter, whereby from an intumescence both a narrowness of the passage, or weakness of the discharging faculty, and an irri­tation to Urine, have ensued; the latter specifying a strangury, and the two former symptoms a dif­ficulty. In neither of these purg­ing, or diureticks have been found advantageous, but detrimental, so that these Pispot-Doctors to this hour have continued disarmed of proper Remedies to oppose them.

1. THE Injuries of bleeding or bloodshed, indifferently ad­vised by Butcher-Doctors, do by far supernumerate the benefits re­ceived by it, where necessarily it hath been administred. In the de­clination of Age it ought not, without great consideration and scruple to be admitted; for the present ease can scarce make a ba­lance with the decay, and weak­ness of Bowels, it doth occasion hereafter.

2. In Consumptions, Hysterick Fits, inveterate Hypochondriacks, Fluxes of the Belly, and particu­larly towards the middle of Chro­nic Diseases, it loseth reputation, when ever put into practice. Af­ter the abatement of a continual [Page 66] Fever by two bleedings in my Lord B. the Spirits being disin­gaged, had thrown the morbifick matter into his Legs, where it ex­cited pains night and day, violent beyond Imagination. Beyond twice taking of half an ounce of Diaco­dium, at ten days interval one from another, no hypnotic could be wrested from me. The No­ble men that were his Visitors, expressed their Condolance, by sending Physicians in esteem with them. The Ferrier-Doctor durst not adventure his specific in ordi­nary S. of Steel, which necessari­ly Tortures to the highest extrea­mity would have ensued, but le [...]t him with a prognostic of death. A little after a Butcher-Doctor, whom the vogue reported to be in his usual exaltations every Morn­ing before Nine of the Clock, by drinking his Masters Health, would needs have introduced a bleeding, which inevitably would have ve­rified the Farrier's prediction. [Page 67] However, his pains were intirely removed in eight days, in a frosty snowy Season, by a Medicine the most uncommon, and the Patient restored to Health, protracted to this hour. This observation is on­ly adduced to expose the bestiali­ty of Physicians in their bleeding and bloodshed in Chronic Distem­pers, in Persons advanced in years, beyond forty and fifty, the error whereof I can attest to have been the sole cause of the death of se­veral in such cases. The reasons are obvious to those, whom ob­servation hath taught the good and evil effects of bleeding. I con­clude with this general remark, where bleeding and purging have no prevalance, the Conclave Phy­sician is less valuable, than an old Shoo. To return to the Art of Expectation.

1. THE attainment of the End through proper Means, is no more peculiar to Medicine, or any other Art, than to that of Expecta­tion. It is Health, real or pretend­ed, both these Sisters (though the one be legitimate, and the other spurious) drive at. To palliate, meliorate, preserve, and restore, is the principal and ultimate finis, or end of the medical Art; but Lucre, a Purse, Gold, Silver, is that of the Artist. So far in point of honesty the one excells the other. The Ancient Greek, and Arabian Physicians, are now so much despised by the supposed accession, and advancement of a new Theory, and a Cortex-Steel practice, that in my Opinion one [Page 69] certain part of Europe would in some tract of Time want Inhabi­tants, were not a robust Constitu­tion, and Expectation the Guaran­ty's of Health.

2. That the Small-pox, Plague, malignant Fevers, and many other Diseases have invaded sound bo­dies, by figuring morbific Idea's on the imaginative Spirits, is a concession the vulgar of Physicians do acquiesce in. So that, if the Maxim holds, that Contraria con­trariis curantur, it points at the rea­dy means (or media) by altering, and reducing the figure of the materia subtilissima, or primi Elementi of the Brain (the animal Spirits) to their pristin form, and order of motion, through which those counternatural vortices are appea­sed, and consequently Health re­stored; all which is so aptly per­formed by Expectation Physicians, in their confident and bold asser­tion, that the Patient shall be cu­red, by vertue of what he writes [Page 70] down in his Recipe's. This ma­king a strong impression on the sick mans Phansie, and inordinate motions, the fury of the animal Spirits (which are frequently cau­ses of Diseases) are allayed and appeased; which being daily pur­sued, is the undoubted means, the Art of Expectation uses; whereas, as shall hereafter be rendred plain in various instances, what is mark'd down in his Serowls, or Recipe's, can conduce no more to recovery of health, than a Laplanders charm to procure a fair Wind: and that which adds extreamly to the fore­mentioned strong impression, is the gravity, port, pretended Learning, and vogue of this bold assuring Physician, and Undertaker.

3. To know the probability, or capacity of the pretensions, and performances of an Artist, by the dimension; number, and quality of his Tools, is a matter of no great difficulty; and considering the nature of a Razor, you may [Page 71] easily believe it probable, that a Barber is capable of shaving you. My next business therefore is, to examine the box of Tools of the Physician, which is the Dispensa­tory, or Pharmacopoea, that for num­ber and quality exceeds the tools of an hundred Artists, I may well say, of all that are in Europe, Asia, and Africa, there being nothing under the Earth, on it, or above it, or what is contained in all the Elements, even the Elements, and what is consistent of them, but what is registred there, or at least belongs to it. There is Iapan Earth, Armenia, Lemnia, Tripoli, Strigonia Earth, &c. all sorts of Water, that Heaven and Earth afford; all Mi­nerals, all sorts of Dung and Piss; Serpents, Toads, Spiders; in fine, there is nothing in the Universe, but what is the Gibblets of the Pharmacopoea, or Physick Ware­house.

4. Every Remedy ought to re­late to a Disease; wherefore as the [Page 72] number of Remedies are indefinite, so Diseases should be proportiona­ble in number; and what strange Creature would a man appear, were he to be subject to more thousands of Diseases, than a Phy­sicians head can be stuft with? A Monkey having caught a Louce, should he bring a Chain to tye his Legs, a Hatchet, a Saw, a Knife, a Mallet, and twenty Instruments more to cut off his Head, it would seem a very unusual farce; but far more ridiculous is it, to see a Phy­sician muster up all, what Heaven and Earth contains, to resist and expell those few morbific causes, that occasion all the Diseases of man. And the Apothecary should he in obedience to the Physicians order, or in complaisance to his immensurable folly, provide him­self with all the materials, his most elaborate Dispensatory directs, his Shop would no more be capable to contain them, than a Pill-box could an Elephant.

1. THE rambling mode among many Cities, that are ho­noured with a combined fardle of Physicians, to compile and divulge a Dispensatory, is also imitated by one, that if from the number of Simples and Compounds, wet and dry, hard and soft, boil'd and roasted, preposterous and incon­gruous, superfluous, loathsom, and inconsistent mixtures, measure is to be taken of its Excellency and Preheminence beyond others, you are to concede the Laurel to that Pharmacopoea (or rather deformed Copy of Medicines) which I once in a Discourse, out of meer Com­pliment and Raillery, did aver to be the best: but if to a necessary [Page 74] only, and select number of Sim­ples, and their agreeable and ra­tional Compositions, a reference must be had of their worth and validity, it is to be esteemed the worst of the worst Pharmacopoea's extant. And if the folly of men, that would appear to the World Viri graves, docti, and wonderfully experienced, will make you laugh, you may burst with the History of their Physick Cookery.

2. These Velvet Flatcaps being squatted down within their Magick Circle, the Vrsus Major spews an harangue to the Cubs about him. Since the Supreme Authority over the Lives and Deaths of men is devolved upon us from all Antiquity, and that by Custom and Example of their Fa­thers their Children do grow up to the same subjection to our power, and un­doubted Faith of our infallible Abilities, it's our duty to express our care, in chalking down such simplicities, and compound Medicines, and immutable Laws of their Preparations, that may [Page 75] give a sufficient employ to Apothecaries, by the multiplicity and numbers of Wa­ters, Earths, Stones, and other Mine­rals, Vegetables, and Animals, to amuse their Vnderstandings; and by their my­sterious mortarisations, siftations, and most sensless jumblations of them toge­ther, may astonish and amaze these our Servitors, who lapsing into an admiring trance of our indefatigable Studies of Infinities, will discourage them from undertaking upon our Profession, and detain them in a most ignorant slavery to us. This propagated by them among the Commonalty, and thence descending to all subsequent Generations, exalts us above the Heathen Deities, and esta­blishes unto us a perpetual Empire over the Beings of Mankind. Let then our first decree impower eight Commissioners under the Age of one hundred, who by their long Travels through all the Saxon Angles, and Norman Coun­ties, and great forgetful Readings of Arabian Authors, shall accumulate, [...]hat ever can be heard of, thought, or understood of all Physical Bodies, s [...] ­ple [Page 76] or compound, having vertue to kill, to cure, to mend, to destroy, to heat, to cool, to wet and to dry all sorts of Tem­peraments.

3. The octogenerary Legats bring­ing into the Conclave their Laps full of Materials, extracted out of Me­sues, Avenzoar, and what could be pick'd out of the rest of those Bar­barian, unpolish'd, superstitious, and incredibly ignorant Arabian (or ra­ther mad rabious) Impostors, are approved and ordained to be di­gested into those orders and forms you see in their Dispens. with a Pro­clamation made, that if any body has any thing more to be added to this indigested mole, he may be heard, and accommodated to his Satisfaction. There were very few but thought, that he that did not contribute some Medicine or other, it would derogate from his Experience, or Capacity; there­fore every man brought in his Grannum's Medicine. One would be admitted for his Oyntment, [Page 77] wherewith his Grandsire of blessed Fame infallibly cured Corns, the other for an Ague-frighter, the third for a Powder of the Coun­tess of K. brought out of Gascony; a fourth, for a Powder to cure the bite of a mad Dog, the fifth for an unaccountable Electuary, where­with a great King in the days of old cured all Poisons; another too much addicted to the water of Life, thought the whole work would be imperfect, if that incomparable Lille Bolera Spirit (Vs (que)) were left out. In fine, here is a rude ill shaped big-bellied mass moulded together, and to add lustre to it, it's declared to be communi opera ador­nata; to their eternal shame be it spoken. These Circulators Alcho­ran being thus couch'd, and put into a Parchmin frame, Allegiance and Supremacy is to be conjured to it by their dextra, to be kept sa­cred, and not to be deviated from neither by themselves, nor, their Servitors; so help them Mimm [...]. [Page 78] This is the original of their great Fabrick in gross, which hereafter I will give you in retail.

1. THE Octogenerary Spaniels ap­ply themselves to the lapping of all sorts of Waters, and by their Palat surprisingly discerning, are capable to distinguish an hundred sorts of Waters, which are to be alphabetically ranged in the front, to be reserved until any of these Lap-landers shall have occasion, to prescribe this, or the like Julep.

R Aq. Endiv. Cichor. Borrag. a. ℥iij. Aq. Nymph. Lactuc. a. ℥ij. Syr. Vio­lar. ℥ij. vel ℥ijss. m. f. Iulap.

[Page 79] 2. This Julep consisting of six simple Waters, and prescribed pos­siby by six silly Conclave-Doctors, in consult (for every one will put in his water) to contemperate the heat of a Fever, is exactly parallel with the following prescript of Cookery.

3. Suppose a Conference of six Cooks for making a good Soupe, whose order is, to take of Thames­water fetch'd from Hammersmith, of Lambs-Conduit-water, of New-River-water, and of Hide-park-wa­ter, of each one quart; of Well-water, and Rain-water from Ham­steed, (where the Air is clear, and not smoaky) of each one pint, &c. one might very well imagine these Cooks broke loose out of Bedlam, to meet about their Soupe, or at least, their Superstitious Criticism exceeded the greatest folly of men in their choice of Hammersmith-wa­ter, lest being too near the disim­bogue of the Thames, it might conceal some brackishness, derived [Page 80] from the nearness of commerce with the Sea. And that from the com­pound of many various waters might result such an occult Excel­lency as should contribute an agree­ableness extraordinary, is a noti­on so exactly square with our Physick-men, expecting from the jumble of those waters, what was not in the power of any one of them being single; though in re­ality the difference, if any may be conceived, is less between them, than between Thames—water and Hide-park-water.

4. The distilling those Waters from Herbs, growing in a good soil and healthful Air, and gather­ed at the New of the Moon, mo­ving through a good Sign, two or three hours, precisely after Sun rising, is perhaps a piece of Non­sense, surpassing the crazie Con­ceptions of those Water-Cooks.

Nothing is more commonly and daily prescribed by most Physicians in Fevers, than such sorts of Ju­leps, [Page 81] interchanging those Waters as variously, as Ringers do Bo [...]-Bells; and yet nothing is more cer­tain, then that River-water being once distilled, doth equallize, if not surmount any of them, either for a Vehicle, or Contemperation; even thin Grewel (to avoid the trouble of distillation) made of Oat-meal or Perl-barley, may make an equal poize with either of them. And here may be moved a questi­on, a rich Patient rewarding six Physicians with six G [...]neas, for consulting about six simple Wa­ters, whether he be the greater fool, according to the old saying, A Fool and his Money, &c. or the Doctors the greater Knaves?

5. Pusillanimity, and fear of Death, being oft the effects of a Diminution, and Subversion of the Animal Spirits in great Diseases, may influence the wisest of men, to reach out their hands to a Sha­dow of any thing, that bears the resemblance of help, and for that [Page 82] reason his surpassing profusion to a Physician, may be censured ra­ther a surprize upon his Under­standing. A Physician on the other hand, excuses his acceptance of immoderate Fees, by the vulgar Saying, That nothing is freer than Gift; however it's left to your Judgment, whether his slighting of a Patient by negligent Prescrip­tions, short and seldom Atten­dance, doth not put an Extorsion upon him in the exchange of his reasonable Gratuites into extrava­gant Rewards.

1. BUT to come nearer home, I must represent a Scheme to you of the Candor and physical Conscience, Honesty or Generosi­ty, or what else it may be termed of six Physicians, who they are, and of what quality, where and when to be found; you may be informed by the perusal of their printed Advertisement, very in­dustriously distributed among most Coffee-houses, and Street-walkers, by some of themselves, and Por­ters thereunto authorized. Behold then the true Copy. viz. Advertise­ment. The Physicians of the Colledge, that us'd to consult twice a Week, for the benefit of the sick, at the Consulta­tion-house, at the Carv. A [...]g. and Cr. in Kingst. near Gld-hall, meet now [Page 84] four times a Week; and therefore give publick notice, That on Mondays, Wednesdays, Thursdays, and Fri­days, from two in the Afternoon till Six, they may be advised with by the known poor, and meaner Families for nothing; and that the Expectations and Demands from the middle Rank; shall be moderate: but as for the Rich, and Noble, Liberality is inseparable from their Quality and Breeding. Have you any work for a Cooper? Here lives a Wyer-drawer. To the best of my remembrance, I have met with some Doctors Bills, viz. Trigs, Tetramagogons, Fletchers, Nendicks, &c. which have been more ample and significant, giving a Catalogue, of what Diseases they pretend to cure, as principaliter, Pox not always got by Women, Meagrim, Gout, Stone, principaliter, Scurvey, &c. Further they advertise you, they are to be spoken with every day, from se­ven in the Morning, until six at Night, a sign they are much more industrious, than those worthy [Page 85] Gentlemen, who seem to keep ho­ly the Saturday, and not to labour, neither they, nor their Ass, nor their Ox; but what shall the known poor, and meaner Fami­lies do, or where shall they apply themselves, that fall sick on Satur­days? And what will the Doctors do for Money to buy a Sheeps-head for the Sunday? though notwith­standing I presume, the Rich and the Noble shall be very welcome on Saturdays, and Tuesdays too. And suppose, a man is Noble, and not Rich, there I humbly con­ceive, Liberality is separable from his Quality and Breeding; whi­ther will you send him, ad Infer­num? But set the case, a man is both Rich and Noble, he will possibly chose too send for a Noble Doctor, or a rich Coach-Doctor, and not give himself the trouble to hunt for a Peripatetick Doctor seven miles off; neither are there many Noble men within the Pre­cincts of their Diocess. They say [Page 86] the known poor, How shall they know any man to be poor? There is none poor, but the poor Devil, he shall have advice Gratis. For nothing! a very proportionable Reward, for nothing but Advice, ex nihilo nihil fit; but I hope the meaner Families, and the poor, shall pay for their Medicines, wherein it's presumed, Mr. Doctors will find their Account. After all, here is a plain Contradiction, to pretend to give Advice for nothing, and to set up the sign of an Angel and Crown, ho [...] est, an Angel is ex­pected from the meaner Families, a Crown from the poor, and what you please above a Guinea, from the Rich and Noble, besides pay­ing the reckoning; Item, for Cor­dial Powders, for Juleps, for Can­vas, Galloon, Thred and Silk, bel­ly pieces, and sewing of your Sleeves. Indeed, I think, these Gentlemen Doctors are outdone by the Car-men-Doctors, who ge­nerally are to be found at the sign of the blew Ball.

[Page 87] 2. But in plain terms, these sort of Physick Bills, both of the on [...] and the other, are termini converti­biles of M—bancking. Well, but there must be some extraordinary Witchcraft, or alluring bait, in proclaiming themselves Physicians of the Colledge, as if Hippocrates, Galen, Celsus, and a thousand more eminent men, (that would scorn to be of a Colledge) had been no Physicians. But what Colledge do they pretend to be of; of Paris, of Amsterdam, of Sion Colledge, or of Obediah's Colledges, no, they stile themselves Physicians of the Col­ledge [...], as if there were no other Innuendo, or Colledge, but that of Nova Porta. But who are the Members? Imprimis, a French Doctor, a Low-dutch Doctor, a High-dutch Doctor, and few high and low English Doctors, a pretty parcel of Collegues, and a very worthy Combination. Methinks I could fansie six Doctors in a Con­sultation Room, each sentinel'd at [Page 88] a Window, to look out sharp for [...] Patient; by Gar, cries the French Doctor, me see a Patient coming, whereunto in a Chorus, they joy­fully eccho. Roast meat. But what is he? He be a very sin Gentliman, but he hath a blew Apron on replys Monsieur; he may be an Alder­mans fellow for all that, saith another. The Patient enters with a low Reverance, and a Tres humbel serviture Monsure; the French Doctor embraces him with a Repar [...]ee, Monsieur je suis ravi de l'hou neur [...] d' estre capable de vous servir, What's you▪ Complaint, you can speak French? P. Parbleu, my Disease do's. Dr. You got de Franche Pock then? pouvre homme! P. I forgot to say my Prayers on a Saturday Morning, at Night I was pick'd up by a Gentlewoman, dressed much A la-mode, I conducted her to a Tavern, she made me drunk, gave me the Pox, and pick'd my Pocket of all my weeks Wages. Dr. Ho! Pauvre Enfant, we cure you in a [Page 89] little time, you pay us ten pound. P. Good Sir, I am a poor Wea­ver, I have a Wife and six Chil­dren, I never wrought at a French Loom before, a cursed Trammel, I am an Object of Charity, such as your Bills point at, and I hum­bly beg your Misericorde. Dr. Iere­nie, perdons les miserables, you can get de Money to be drunk in Sack, de half Crown for de Whore, and no largent for de Physician. Peste! point d' argent, point de Suisse; no Money, no Cure. P. I will turn my Wife and Children to the Parish, and sell my Looms to sa­tisfie the Charity of Physicians, I perceive none but Fools and Beg­gars dye of my Distemper. Dr. Cou­rage then, our French Galen Doctor Moliere in his non pareil Treatise of le malade imaginaire gives most ad­mirable Directions, dat are much a propos in dis case. He say dus; mais si maladia opiniatria, non vult se garire, quid illi facere? In English, but if the Disease prove stubborn, [Page 90] (as the Pox usually) and will not cure it self, what is to be done? He resolves Clisterium donare, postea segnare, ensuita purgare; that is, give a Glister, afterwards bleed, and then next purge. Dis is our Me­thod of Physick in France for all Diseases, and especially for dis pocky one; and you know, my most worthy Collegues, de French Physicians be reputed de best in de Vorld for de Franche Pock, it is our Country Disease, and much more common with us than de Scurvy in England. Now Messieurs I beg de pardon for speaking first and last, from de begin of de Consult to de end, it is de Prerogative of French Physicians, who can speak, and not tinck, (savii in bocca, pazzi in testa) others can only think and not speak. The Low-dutch-doctor, Com hier Shentilman, laet me sien; Sacr—t dat is de Spaenish pocken, daer in [...]et you vor betalen one honderd Richs daelders min heer. The High-dutch-doctor, Das dich der thonder sleet, der [Page 91] Barnheyter hat das Napels zeer, der theivel, las er bezalen. The Low-English Doctor, Clarissimi Domini, This is a true Object of Charity, a known poor man by his Apron, he shall pay nothing for Advice; let him pay seven pound to the Apothecary for his Medicines. So here will come to each Doctor twenty Shillings, and twenty Shil­lings to the Apothecary, for his mercurius dulcis and Guaiacum; for House-rent, firing, and other de­crements; in conclusion, the Apo­thecary has the most Charity. P. Miserable Wretch that I am, to be struck at once with the Di­seases of all Nations, the French and the Spanish Pox, and the Evil of Naples; cursed petty-coat, worse than Pandoras Box, steeming a poy­son enough to infect a whole Na­tion. A pox upon all your Ban­ter, I will throw my self on the publick Charity of the Lock, and present the Surgeon with forty. Shillings, the remainder of my [Page 92] Looms: and from the Charity of Doctors, and the p [...]upers of Procters, good Lord deliver us.

3. A Shoomaker, one of the meaner Families these Mounser Doctors seem to point at, being de­sirous to be conducted by a Friend to an honest and charitable Phy­sician, arrived at the door of one, against whom he immediately made this Objection; that t [...]other day upon a visit made to his Wife, the Doctor had after a moments retard prescribed a Glyster of Milk and Suggar, and at his exit he had presented him with an half Guinea Fee, with an humble be­seech, that his Worship would have the goodness to return next Morning, which he did not; and therefore imagining, that when he gave him his Fee the day be­fore, the Doctors Eye was fixt upon his Coach and Horses; it was a plain Innuendo, that the ten Shillings and nine pence did not answer his Grandeur, he was re­solved [Page 93] to fetch him again with a promise of a stronger Reward, which at their parting was two half Guineas, the one being in­tended for the Doctor, and the other for the Horses; but he found, that the Horse-doctor had plunged his Patient into a worse state, and for that reason would be handed to another, that was no Horse-doctor, where the door being open, they entred into the Parlor, and there perceived the Doctor dead, and nail'd up in his Coffin. How­ever his friend would needs by sa­luting the Physician with a knock or two at his Coffin, ask his re­solves aloud upon two queries. What shall the Shoomakers Wife take? The Doctor said nothing. What will your Doctorship have for your Advice? The Doctor said nothing. Then nothing she shall take replys the Shoomaker, and I thank you for nothing; and there is no C—Doctor honest and cha­ritable, but when he is dead. I [Page 94] will not aver the truth of this Re­lation, but I will avow, there is nothing more true than the Moral Wolves charitably helping Sheep out of a Ditch, or Cats releasing Rats out of a Trap, ought to be recorded among the Legends of Wonders.

3. Treves de raillerie. The affini­ty of the Subject, revives my Me­mory with a noted Coach-Doctors Avarice, extorting five Guineas from a Noble Patient (whose Li­berality was inseparable, &c. terms tackt not long since to some print­ed Mandatory Letters) for five grains of Hues's Powder; a pre­tended correction of a Turbith Mi­neral, or at best an ordinary solar precipitate; but an ill hour scratch't him, when upon a surprise in the formation of an adulterine foetus, he was obliged with his Breeches at's heels to blind the Eyes of a Mer­cers Nurse with three Jacobusses.

[Page 95] 5. It was Charity in another Coach-physician, and quondam School-master, at an Assise Court of Judicature, testimonially to clear a Gentlewoman of the disman­tling her Husband; but he pro­ved a very suspicious Evidence afterwards in marrying of her: In my Opinion the Credit of such a Witness ought to be exactly poized in another affair of the greatest Im­portance.

6. He that entrusts a Banker with his Estate, if he endeavours a fraud, the Law puts the Cre­ditor in a Condition to retrieve it; but in making a Physician a Feoffee in trust of your Life, as all People by Custom and Example usually do; if he cheats you of it clande­stinly, both you and your Heirs are deseated of all juridical Satis­faction, as Moliere doth between jest and carnest intimate in his Iargon Description of the Power, Authority, and Priviledges grant­ed to a Physician in his Diploma, [Page 96] in the comical Tract above men­tioned, viz. Ego cum isto boneto vene­ral [...]ili & docto, dono tibi & concedo virtutem & puissantiam, medicandi, purgandi, seignandi, pereandi, taillan­di, coupandi, & occidendi impune per totam Terram. In effect, a Physici­an is as much Master of your Life, as any Prince in the Universe of the Estate of his Subjects. The hotter Climates are sufficiently pregnant of Examples, where the Medico is made the chief machine by his occult Medicines, to trans­fer great Personages into another Orb; he best knows how to lacker and lay a Vernish over those dire­ful survening Convulsions, Synco­pees, Dysenteries, and lingring Fe­vers, by charging them on Fer­mentations of dormant Humors, malicious Lunations, and Intem­peratures of the Seasons. Instances of this sort of Practice are nume­rous, of Ancient, and fresher date. In the Life of Luis the Eleventh, Meseray record, the King of Arra­gon's [Page 97] eldest Son posted to his Tomb by a Bolus, given him by his Phy­sician, whom his Mother-in-Law, upon some difference between them, had by a very tempting Fee im­bark'd in that design. Caesar Bor­gia owed the Execution of his chiefest Exploits of this Nature to a Physician, that was his Confident; but History Consult the Minutes of the Court for Poy­soners of Paris. doth furnish such an abundance of poisonous Atchieve­ments by Physicians, that it's need­less to charge this small Tract with their recital.

1. IN the preceding Discourse it's avowed, that the fond con­cern for Life, and senseless credu­lity of an umbragious assistance, throw a man oft into a Precipice of a certain Death, attended with scorn and contempt of his Judg­ment, by fastning his hopes upon some brazen Physician or other, an instance whereof we have the more remarkable, as verified in a Person the most Rusé and tres-advisé Prince of his time, Luis the Ele­venth King of France; and the read­ing of that passage not being less astonishing, than it is common in [Page 99] Persons of the highest degree, and consummated Accomplishments, puts an obligation upon me to trans­fer it hither. The continuated em­baras of mind in reducing a most disordered People to tranquillity, had at length by sympathy rendred his Body very crazy, which gave his Physicians frequent occasions for Consultation.

2. Iaques Cottier a Burgundian, to make his marks to bear in the ab­sence of the other two (whereof the one was a Scots Physician, taken after the battel of Nancy, wherein the Duke of Burgundy was killed, and was retained by Louys for his famed Honesty and Learning; the other was Draconi [...] [...], Pro­fessor and Chancellor of the Uni­versity of Montpelier) perceiving the Kings fear of death, and his sollicitousness for recovery, had ex­torted this question from him, whether he could cure him? Cot­tier, a man of little Learning, and elevated to this high post in Phy­sick, [Page 100] by the Favour and Recom­mendation of the Duke of Savoy, answered him yes, provided he would solely intrust him; and in doing so he would do much better, in regard the other Physicians did not know his temperament so well as he; for as to him, ever since he had been in his Service, he had studied nothing, but to know his Constitution, and that the others did not much regard that, and did not acquit themselves of their du­ty; minding nothing but to enrich themselves, desiring the King not to reveal to the others the advice which he gave him. But as to him­self, that he would be constantly near his Person, searching by in­dustrious Readings, at the hours of his leisure, among the Ancient Au­thors, Remedies for his Sickness. And the more he thought on his Disease, the more difficulty he found to cure it. Also that he had successfully served the King several times, and that without him he [Page 101] had not been alive, for as much as the other Physicians had oft or­der'd him Purges, and other strong and violent Medicines, and that he alone had privately corrected their Prescriptions. He did further per­suade him, to command that no body should come into his Cham­ber hence forward, without the leave of the foresaid Cottier, and by this means did secure the Govern­ment of the Kings Person to him­self.

3. And to insinuate better thence forward into the Kings Favour, he did confederate himself with Olivier Ie Dain his Barber, but a man very ignorant, though the King was much advised by him. This Barber confirmed the King in what the Physician had told him, and by the same means he put the Apothecary in ordinary in disfa­vour, having reported to the King, that he never had good Drugs, whereby he was cashier'd with a great deal of disgrace. Saith Luis [Page 102] Guion (from whom, and Iean de Serres this Relation is extracted) one may easily see how Princes very often are subject to be deceived by false Reports.

4. The King grew so shagrin, that when they had brought little Lyons from Africa, which he had expresly sent for, he would never see them. One day among the rest the King was peevish, and took a fansie to discharge one that waited upon him in his Chamber, because he had given him warm Ptisan to drink, and said angerly, that he did not only discharge him, but all the Officers of his House. And [...]aques Cottier, who was there pre­sent, told him, I know very well [...], that you understand I shall be comprehended among them, but I do assure you, swearing a great Oath, that after I am gone, you will not live eight days, and this will be found true. The King was so frightned with the words of this man, that from thence forward he [Page 103] put all, both his Person, and his Kingdom, and all that he had, into the Power of the said Physici­an, and would no more see, nei­ther his Children, nor Wife, to which his Physician had contribu­ted very much.

5. A great Gentleman of Cam­paigne, who was called Cortenay, had committed two Murders, com­ing to Court to procure a Pardon, obtained it by the Intercessions this Physician made to the King. The Chancellor then having refused to feal this Pardon, being granted against all Equity; which being come to the Kings knowledge, cau­sed the Seals to be brought to him, and made the Physician Cottier Lord Keeper of the Seals, and the Chan­cellor was sent home with a great deal of disgrace.

6. It hapned, that for ten or twelve days this new Chancellor received but little money by the Seals, whereof he made his Com­plaint to the King, who was sick, [Page 104] that he got nothing, in regard he never stir'd from him, and that he used to get a great deal of mo­ney by Consultations and Visits he made to the sick, before he was confined to be always near him, and that he pray'd him to take no­tice of that, and of his Merits. This King who believed that his Life did entirely depend upon this Physician, fearing that he would abandon him, made his Privy Purse (Thresorier de l'espargne) give him in ready money fifty four thousand Crowns, (which in those days was as much as six or seven hundred thousand Crowns now) and should have had much more, if more had been found in his Coffers, for looking after him on­ly five Months. Mezeray, as I re­member, agrees in the same Sum of Money. Moreover, he caused to be given unto his Nephew the Bishoprick of Amiens, and all his Friends and Relations were pro­vided with brave and great Estates, [Page 105] such as he liked best. The King being sick, let him do what he would, and durst not contradict him in any wise.

7. The King grew so thin and dried up, that he seemed to be rather a Skeleton, than a man, and all through the ignorance of this Physician; for his dry Melancho­ly Body ought to have been moist­ned, and moderately warmed by Nourishment, as well as Medicines; and whereas he usually ask'd for Wine, and boild Capon, this wretched Physician would never allow him any, though neverthe­less very proper for his Health. Mezeray tells you, that by his Phy­sicians advice, he used to be bathed in Childrens Blood to sweeten his Humors. Cottier at last prescribed him strong Presumes to smoak his Cloaths and Hair, which being used very often, threw the King into Convulsions and Swoonings. But somethime before, his fears of Death increasing, moved him to [Page 106] take hold of another Remedy as deceitful and vain as his using (as De Serres stiles him) an odi­ous impudent audacious Physician, much like most other pretended Doctors. One Sieur Lavardin per­ceiving the King was gulled out of his Life, was resolved at any rate to see him, and told the Phy­sician, the King ought to be con­fessed, and to receive the Holy Sa­crament, and that he knew him to be near his end. But the Physici­an told him, that he knew that as well as another, and that there was danger to speak to him of it, in regard he had been afraid of Death this half year, and that if he were spoken to about those mat­ters, he would certainly dye of fear. Nevertheless Lavardin spoke aloud to the King, that if he would be cured, he ought to make his Confession every week, and receive the Holy Sacrament of the Altar, and that his Father being an hun­dred years old, and sickly, had re­ceived [Page 107] his Health by that means. The King being perswaded, said, that he did agree to it, provided it was through a certain religious Frier, named brother Philip, anci­ent, and of a good Life, and who was noised to be Learned, and was Monk of the Abby of Saint Martin. He being arrived, in confessing of him did remonstrate to him, he ought to ask pardon for all the Murders and Ravages which he had caused to be committed during his Life; and advised him, as far as was possible, to make recom­pence, where it could be done. Among other things, that those of the Franche conté complained, tho' they were almost all reduced to his Obedience, nevertheless his Soul­diers committed the most detesta­ble Insolencies, that could be ima­gined; remonstrating unto him, that if God had spoken to his good Servant David, that he should ne­ver inhabit that glorious Temple, which he would build to his Dedi­cation, [Page 108] because he had shed so much human blood by his Wars, and caused innumerable Acts of Hosti­lity to be done; that God would therefore in this manner withdraw himself from the Holy Sacrament, which he would administer unto him, and condemn him to Dam­nation; wherefore he ought to cause his men to cease using any more such ways, and to restore the Taxes of the Kingdom to the same state he found them, for the People were extreamly impover­ish'd, and the most part of them dead through want. He answer'd, he was so far from repenting of those Ravagements and Saccages done in Burgundy, that he was ex­treamly sorry, all the Land of the Duke of Burgundy was not in the same Estate; and as for the Taxes and Subsidies which he had impo­posed on the People, as soon as he was cured of his Distemper (not else) that he would take them off; nothing else could be [Page 109] got from him. Wherefore seeing his Obstinacy, for fear he should dye without Confession, and with­out having taken the Holy Sacra­ment, they prayed the good reli­gious Frier to give him Absolution, and the Communion, which he did. (But I do not read, that he greased his Temples to make him slip easily through Purgatory.) Afterwards they gave him some small matter to eat, but he could not, by reason of a great stink, he said, which rose from his Body to his Brain; therefore he com­manded they should smoak him with Perfumes, which they did a great while, and he gave up the Ghost in receiving of them; and behold (saith Guion) how he dyed smoakt all over like an old Fox.

8. His Physician Iaques Cottier, after the death of the King, retired to his House, enrich'd with a year­ly Revenue of five and twenty thousand Livers, the value of which was more at that time, [Page 110] than now thirteen or fourteen thousand pounds Sterling. It was certified by the return of the ac­counts of the Treasurers de l' Espar­gne, that he had received from them fourscore and eighteen thou­sand Crowns.

9. Charles the Eighth, the sup­posed Son of the forementioned King, (for saith Mezeray, most People did suspect that he was suppositious) caused him to be prosecuted, to make Restitution of his Estate, as arising from Gifts excessive, and passing all Reason. But the King being busied in ma­king ready for his Journey to Na­ples, and in raising of Money, Cottier gave him fifty thousand Crowns as Money lent, and so they let fall the Prosecution against him. His Consort the Barber, Olivier above spoken of, was hanged for Mur­ther.

10. The consequence of the pre­ceding Relation will incline any sound Judgment to these Concessi­ons. [Page 111] 1. That Princes, and other great Persons are not seldom served with the worst of Physicians, and that excessive Liberalities do not add so much vigour to their Care or Diligence, as growth to their Avarice; and its insatiability doth commonly draw a Disease into its greatest length; and so a string too far extended frequently breaking, unawares Death may be ushered in, and prove the purchase of tran­scendent Fees. 2. That the mon­strous fame of the greatest Physici­ans is a chain of favourable, though erroneous Reports, link'd from the Beggar to the Gentleman, and thence to the Prince. 3. That Priests or Jesuits, and Physicians uniting, have a most puissant as­cendent on the faculties of the Soul and Body of the sick (whether they be the most illustrious, most noble, honourable, or ignoble) and thence deriving a despotick command over their Estates, Secrets, and Lives, are formed into most exquisite [Page 112] Tools, to acquire, propagate, and establish unto his Popish Holiness an universal Empire over Chri­stendom; who, to add a greater energy to these Organs, has mar­shall'd both the one and the other, throughout all Italy, into separate Colledges of Jesuits and Physici­ans, knowing that vis unita est for­tior. Behold then an instance of those two influences, how admira­bly they conspire into one effect. The Emperor Charles the Fifth, for over-matching Francis the First, was by the pious Arguments of a Frenchefied Jesuit, authorized thereunto by his balancing Holi­ness, perswaded to quit his Throne for to enter into a Monastery, whence the Rays of his declining Glory still continuing a warmth in the Affections of his Spanish Sub­jects, had kindled a most fervent desire of having their Prince re­stored; but in prevention of this, to accelerate his course below their Horizon, the Jesuit Confessor re­doubles [Page 113] his macerating penance of Vigilies, Ave Mary Lectures, and other Castigations. The Convent Physician substracts from his Diet, and depauperates his dryed Limbs by Purgations; so that by the Harmony of these two State In­struments the most potent Mo­narch, and wisest Prince of that Century was very cursorily redu­ced to a materia prima. This was un trait achevi de la politique. Adri­an the Emperor, as relateth Peter Messias, was by his Physicians, whereof he had many, advised not to eat or drink, and being fa­mish'd to death, dyed with the Expression of a common saying in his Mouth, Turba Medicorum inter­fecit [...]egem, that is, a crowd of Phy­sicians have kill [...]d the King.

MOre are the ways that lead to the Gibbet, than to the Church; the antiquated venefick Methods are render'd obsolete, by the refined Invention of Circulati­on, through which bare-fac'd, and by the light of the Sun, the same end is attained, as justifiable by innocency of the Medicines, as si­nisterly imposed on the inadverti­zed populace. Suppose an elder Brother decumbent of a continual Fever; a dose or two of Extractum Rudū, (a Medicine in repute among Doctors and Patients) ad­vised under the Hand and Seal of a gray-bearded Physician, smart­ly encouraged by Aurum portabile, in very few days answers the Ex­pectation [Page 115] of the younger Brother, maliciously aspiring to the Succes­sion of the first born. What pre­tence hath the Law, the Kindred, or clamor of the World against the Physician, or his Medicine, which in this case, and several others, doth as seldom miss, as the most celebrated Poyson? Bleed­ings administred long after the first kindling of a Fever of the same kind, do as commonly give the fatal blow to the succumbing Spi­rits, without danger of a repartee from the Standers by. A Wo­man reduced to long weakness through continuance of opiniatre hysterick Fits, by the swallowing down of a strong purgative, though in a very small dose, especially if with Repetitions, is infallibly ha­stened to her Tomb; in which particular it is in the power of the Medico, to oblige the Husband, or Father in lesning his charge, without hazard of Reputation, or a necessity of giving an account to [Page 116] his Collegues, or the World, of such Practice: for what in the Physician through ignorance, or error in Judgment, and in the Pa­tients and Nurses, or Attendants, by reason of neglect, may extenu­ate the Crime, or hide the misfor­tune, is in the power of the Do­ctor to act intentionally, and wil­fully, (when sufficiently gratified) and yet remain secure under the Pretences forementioned. To in­stance all the modes of giving Pa­tients their dispatches, would be compiling a great Volume, and therefore conclude it sufficient to have given you just before that general caution, to which Parti­culars may easily be reduced.

THE distill'd Waters of Borrage, Bugloss, Endive, Cichory, Den­delion, Porslain, Lettuce, and the like, in taste, smell, and their other sup­posed qualities, do little or nothing exceed those of River water distil­led, and operate less in cooling, moistning, and other requisites, than this last Element. And a Physician is in nothing more de­ceived, [Page 118] or imposes more grosly on his Patients, than in prescribing the distilled Waters of Oaken buds, Horstails, Plantain, Shepherds purse, Milfoil, knot Grass, &c. for adstricti­on and repulsion, that quality be­ing chiefly resident in their terre­strial parts, which never ascend­ing so high as the Alembic head, cannot be thought to pass by di­stillation; wherefore the Prescri­ber is extreamly blameable for his error of Judgment, in not prefer­ring the decoction of those simples, whereby their astringent qualities are apparently to the taste, com­municated to the Liquor, in a de­gree as high or low as answers the proportion of the Ingredients. The same error is committed in the distillation of Comfrey, Mallows, Marshmallows, Snails, Muscels, Earth­worms, and of all others, whose chief effects are performed by a lenifying smoothing mucilage, that can no other way be extracted, than by expression, or decoction; [Page 119] whereas the weight of these mu­cous Particles is an undoubted ob­stacle to their rising so high as the Alembic. Can any thing be more ridiculous, than to distill Nettles, ground Ivy, Fumitory, Agrimony, or Speedwel, whose superfluous insipid Phlegm is only collected in drops, to serve for no other use, than to fill up glasses, that are to be empti­ed at the next return of the spring into the Canels? One ounce of the Juyce of Nettles will in vertue over­power a gallon of the distilled wa­ter; a decoction or expression of ground Ivy, or Fumitory, in the quan­tity of a spoonful, contains more of the specific, than a Rundlet of their distilled moisture. Poppy wa­ter may justly be rejected, where one drop of Syrup of Poppy is en­rich'd with more vertue, than a pint of the distill'd Liquor. The deobstruent endowments of all bit­ter Herbs, as Wormwood, Succory, Elicampane, Hoarhound, and German­der, remain in the bottom of the [Page 120] Still, whilst the Liquor that's se­parated from them, is scarce good enough to wash hands. Sorrel, Le­mon, Citron, Oranges, and other soure materials, will sooner be burnt, or affected with an empyreum in the bottom of the distilling Vessels, than throw up their acidity to the Alembic. The distillation of Oxe dung doth better sute with the Im­ploy of a Tom-t- d, than with the Profession of such noble Doctors, that have particularly inserted it in their grave Dispensatory. Can there be so much madness fixt in the belief of any Physick Doctor, or decrepid Nurse, that Water drawn by distillation from Swal­lows, or Magpyes, ever cured the falling Sickness, or any sort of Convulsions? The number of wa­ters to be distilled, ought to be li­mited to such Vegetables, as par­take of volatile Particles, and others, whose fragrant scent is transmigra­ble with their humidity; and the most necessary of these are so few, [Page 121] that ten, or a dozen, may for rea­dy Vehicles, and other uses, over-suffise. To what purpose then do the Augustan Doctors in their Phar­macopoea, and in imitation of them others in theirs, command near a hundred simple Waters to be di­stilled, unless to make a Well of the Apothecaries Shop, to their needless trouble and charge, and yet grudge them to reimburs their dammage in pouring of them into the sinck every ensuing year, by charging their losses on the higher prizes of such Medicines, which they shall have opportunity of sel­ling? so that in this sense it is not eleven pence in the Shilling profit, but rather twelve pence in the Shil­ling loss; for which the poor Apo­thecary that pays House-rent, scot and lot, is singularly obliged to their Doctorships.

In the framing of the Pharma­copoea Hagiensis, I had my suffrage as fellow of that Colledge of Phy­sicians, and where it hath been my [Page 122] turn to be twice Dean or President of the said Society, as you may read by Name in the printed Co­pies, which are sold among the Booksellers in London, as well as at the Hague. It was not in any sin­gle power to prevail against all the rest of the Collegues, to reduce the twenty two only distilled simple Waters there inserted, to ten or eleven, which in my sentiment seemed abundance for all necessary Intentions; notwithstanding that Dispensatory, comparatively with others before, for smalness of num­ber, election and correction of re­quisite Medicines, may challenge the first place with any other of ancienter edition, though it hath not escaped many of those errors, that all others are culpable of, as will be particularly instanced here­after.

The simple Waters drawn from the flowers of Rosemary, Lime-trees; Lavendel, Lillies of the Valley, Piony, and from other cephalick simples, [Page 123] forasmuch as their simple vertues do in no proportion balance the charge and trouble of their distil­lation, deserve no rank in a Dis­pensatory, especially in regard they are all contained in several com­pound Epileptick, and Apoplectick Spirits, where their faculties and powers are exalted, and copiously extracted by the means of Wine or Brandy, and may be allayed by the admixture of any temperate simple Water, to any degree you please.

As for Spirits of spirituous Wa­ters of Wormwood, Angelica, Iuniper, Orange-peel, Mint, Lemon-peel, and twenty more of the same class, are rather to be esteem'd appurtenances of a Brandy shop, prepared to gra­tifie the Palates of debauch'd Bran­dy drinkers, whereas Spirits drawn from two or three choice Epilep­ticks and Apoplecticks, shall an­swer all indications more powerful­ly and agreeably to Nature, with­out such frustraneous Multiplicati­ons, [Page 124] according to the two memo­rable Edicts of Philosophers, E [...] ­tia non sunt multiplicanda praeter neces­sitate [...]. Frustra fit per plura, quod fie­ri potest p [...]r pauciora. To leave in the bottom of the distilling Vesse [...] the most powerful Particles of the Ingredients of Aqua Hysterica, after a faint stinking water has been ab­stracted from them, is the greatest Indiscretion; whereas the infusing or digesting in Spirits of Wine four or five of the most Energick Simples by way of Tincture, a [...] Aristoloch. Rot. Bac. Sambuc. Puleg. Myrrh. and Cort. Aurant. would par­take more Vertues in half an ounce, than doth the distilled water in a pint. Neither can I well perceive the pretence of Bryony to the discus­sing of hypochondriac, or as they fasly term them, hysteric Vapors; being a nauseous violent Emetic and Cathartic, which rather seems ap­pointed with qualities to excite and irritate such offensive Ebullitions and Exufflations.

[Page 125] What wonder the Juyce of Ce­londine, and one or two very un­grateful Spices among the rest, can produce in Aqua Mirabilis, is not so great a wonder to me, as the folly of those that composed it.

The Aqua Coelestis, Imperialis, Theriacalis, frigida Saxoniae, Gilbert [...], and other compound Waters are most of [...]em tautalogical the one with the other, and abounding with all the absurdities you will read hereafter in the just censure of Ve­nice Treacle, and other Remarks up­on composites.

Whatever laudable effects hath been performed by the Aqua Quer­cetani, are only imputable to the Therebinthin; the other Ingredi­ents, as Sem. Lactucae and agni Ca­sti, &c. (as will appear in the dis­probation of the Syrup of Chastity) being idle and of no signification.

Nothing argues greater Stupidi­ty, than not to believe, there is more vertue in a spoonful of Ca­pons broath, than in a gallon of [Page 126] Aqua Caponis; wherefore, exceptis Medicis nihil stultius Grammaticis.

What can come nearer to madness, than the commending Aqua scordii composita, being a meet Phlegm attended with a fainty nauseous smell, more noisom to the Spirits than the steem of a Dunghil.

Epidemic water requires several Animadversions. 1. Scorzonera roots retaining little that is volatile, yields less of an Alexipharmac and antifebril in distillation, than Bar­ley flower or Oatmel. 2. The Py­ony root possessing the total of its prime vertues in weighty terrestrial parts, continues its residence in the bottom of the gourge, without parting with more than an invalid steem. 3. Besides scents of an ill hew, and some strong heating oyly Particles of the Cephalicks, I can­not discern any thing material in the Composition for the purpose. 4. The Fountain water mixt with the best Spirits of Wine, is labour [Page 127] and cost lost, in not exchanging it for good Nantes Brandy, or Spirit of Wine not rectified. So that this empirical medley is much resem­bling all the rest, described in vul­gar Dispensatories. 5. The faeces or Residence of this and Treacle-water is left possessed of what can be supposed excellent in those Com­positions. Distilled Spirits of Worm­wood retain only what's the most of­fensive and nauseous part of that Herb, leaving what is most useful, as all other bitters, in the bottom of the Still.

1. WHether for use of the Kitchin, or the Apothe­caries Shop, so many sorts of Vi­negars are introduced, is but a ci­vil question. Elder Vineger the Cooks impropriate to their share, leaving Rosemary Vineger, Gillistow­er, Marigold, Rose, S [...]il, Treacle-Vineger, and the rest to the Phy­sick Doctors, among whom there is scarce one in a hundred, that in the whole course of his Practice ever prescribed a drop, unless to smell unto, or apply [...] par­ticular inflamed part, in form of an Oxycrat, which of late years hath been wholly rejected. To what end then is the Shop burden­ed with them? If any young Phy­sickster has an itch to experiment [Page 129] once in his life time, whether Squil Vineger deserves those lying Mar­vels Galen adscribes to it, the Me­dicine may (pro re nata) be well enough prepared without an Inso­lation of forty days. And when he shall be fully satisfied of its Subli­mities, he will have no great ap­petite to essay Vinun S [...]illiticum, es­pecially in those that are amorous, who desire to avoid a stinking Breath, and a loathsome Medicine, and wherefore then foisted into the Dispensatory?

2. Any man of sense will be contented with the sole and safe use of Vinum benedictum, without running the risque of a Vinum Helle­boratum, Rubellum, or Antimoniale, which too oft have thrown Pati­ents into dreadful Convulsions; and let me be their Remembrancer of Hippocrates his Aphor. 1. Lib. 5. [...]. Death that so oft has been an attendant of white Hellebore, is not so much the consequent of an Hypercatharisis, and [Page 130] an extream Inanition or Siccity, as of a venemous quality, that con­torts the whole Systeme of the Nerves, and poysons the Brain; Why then must this poysonous Medicine take its place in the Di­spensatory?

3. I cannot without laughter take notice of the Mace, that's ad­ded to the Infusion of Crocus Metal­lorum, and the Cloves to the Vitrum Antimonii, and yet the Regulus An­timonii, which is as great a Devil as either of them, is accompanied with neither Mace, Cloves, Nut­megs, nor Cinamon in the Vinum Antimoniale. As for the Cloves and Mace, either their office is intend­ed to be a corrector of the Antimo­ny, or a corroborator of the Sto­mach; if the first, they are under a mistake, for ten drams of Mace is not so much a corrector to an ounce of Antimony, as one grain of Salt-peter. If they pretend to strengthen the Stomach, then they hinder the Operation of the Me­dicine, [Page 131] which is to weaken, irri­tate, and provoke the Stomach, to let go its hold of those slimy or choleric Humors that oppress it; whereas to strengthen the Sto­mach is to contract moderately its Fibres, by the adstringent quality of those Spices, whereby at the same time the humors are bound up, and pack'd in close, all which is contrary to the intention of vo­miting. If you are fearful, that the Stomach is very weak, give less of the Medicine, and then my most worthy Kindred, after the operation of throwing up the load of vitious Humors, approach with a good burnt Claret, wherein your Mace, Cloves, or Cinamon, will do you Service. Pray consider; Suppose you thought fit in your Wisdoms to advise a vomit of warm water and Sallade Oyl, should you order Cinamon or Mace to be boiled in it, the very Nur­ses, and all the Boys of the Parish would laugh at you. What, Cloves [Page 132] and Mace in a Vomitory? This is thrusting from you, and pulling to you, all at once. This is a Maxim the Rusticks will oppose, without the help of Logick. Wherefore I do offer to take the blame upon me, if henceforward the Apothe­caries leave those Indian Aroma­ticks out of these or the like Medi­cines. Moreover know, that Mi­nerals are to be disrobed of their Venom, smoothed of immoderate roughness, and corrected, before they enter into the Body, by To­nitruation, Sublimation, Precipi­tation, or Digestion.

4. Have these Physicksters ever had the good fortune to recover sight in a blind man by Eye-bright Wine, or to strengthen a weak Brain by Rosemary Wine? Vul­gar Experience asserts Wine hurt­ful to the Eyes and Brain, both which have too oft been drunk out by that Liquor. Away with them for shame out of all Dispen­satories.

[Page 133] I had almost forgot to mention the Inconveniency of the Infusion of Crocus Metallorum, that after long keeping it looseth its vertue, and oft misseth in its vomitive Opera­tion, which is endeavoured to be prevented by letting the Wine stand upon the Antimony, and now and then giving it a gentle shake. This not restoring it to its former vertue, an Oxymel Vomitivum will not only obviate that desect, but by means of the Vineger cor­rect the exorbitant faculty of that Mineral, quicken it in Operation, and attenuate the gross slimy Hu­mors. So that in my Opinion all the recited Vomitories ought to be expunged, and this remain the only substitute. As for the simple Waters, all ought to be discarded to eight or nine, these medicated Vinegers exterminated, except the acetum destillatum, and the physical Wines abandoned to those, whose Palats will judge them grateful.

1. WAter vyeth with the Earth for the lower most Seat, but in the Physick-shop it possesseth the highest next the Cieling, and the Region immediate to this is the Dominion of the Wasps and Flies, haunting the Syrup-pots, the chief Ornament and Note of Distinction of the Trade. Next give me leave to inquire into their inside and contents; not of all of them, for that would more fit an Atlas; but of such as are most in use, and equally senseless. The intent of converting Simples into Syrups, is to preserve them the Winter over, when they are not to be had green; or to render them more grateful; or for the sake of their ready form to be dissolved in [Page 135] any Potion, Decoction, or Julep. In relation to the first, most useful Herbs or Roots may be had in the hardest Season, if not in their great­est vigor, yet in their greatest decay they do yield more powerful ver­tues to a Decoction, than what can be supposed in a Syrup, which is nothing but a decoction or expressi­on of Juyces, whose most energic Particles are boil'd or evaporated away to a sediment and slyme, which then is to be inspissated by a further Ebullition, through the addition of a sufficient proportion of Sugar, into a Syrup. Herewith the Stomach is to be clog'd, inju­red, and diseased, by its turning foure and corrosive, as all Sugars and sugar'd Medicines, be they Syrups, Lohochs, Lozenges, or the like, generally do. Moreover, many Vegetables being preserved dry, some are thereby exalted in vertue, and others not much de­based. As to the matter of grate­fulness, such as retain a fragran [...]y [Page 136] in their scent, seem most proper for Syrups, to be prepared without Ebullition; namely, Roses, Gilli­flowers, Violets, &c. The last in­timating the readiness for Solution, a sufficient reason for asserting the necessity of Syrups, may be admit­ted in Syrupus de meconio or diaco­dium, some Purgative Syrups, (appropriated to Children, and such whose Palats must be courted by the sweetness of Sugar) and a smoothing lenifying Syrup, as of Mashmallows; in fine, eight or ten Syrups may be sufficiently capable to satisfie all necessary intents and purposes. Moreover, that in ma­ny Syrups, Honey being indued with healing, balsamic, gently de­tersive, and diuretic Faculties, ought to be preferred before Sugar, needs no further Arguments to pro­cure the ascent of any rational Physician.

2. Leaving generals, I ought to descend to the examination of Par­ticulars, where beginning with the letter A seems most methodical. [Page 137] Syrupus de Agno ca [...]o, or Syrup of Chastity, intended questionless in disfavour of Nuns and Fryers, to abate the carreer of their galoping Lust; but as by wonderful Provi­dence we are delivered of their vitious Company, so the descrip­tion of this Syrup ought to be razed by their Physickships out of their Pharmaceutic Records. How­ever, I may be positive, though the Ephesian Doctor had used pounds of it in his Porridg, it would have as little hinder [...]d the operation of his sympathetick purge, in some Constitutions, as a few grains of Cantharides in others, which is quite contrary. That Endive, Lettuce and Porcelain should be Co-partners with agnu [...] castus in the mischief of suppressing the propagation of mankind, is oppositely attested by most Germans and French, who throughout the whole year graze abundantly upon it, and neverthe­less attain to a numerous Issue. Hempseed, another ingredient, by [Page 138] affording a copious strong juyce to Pidgeons, occasions them to breed more frequently than otherwise. The broaths of Lentils and Cori­ander-seeds, the basis of all the rest, is beyond all dispute a strong pro­vocative. Since their attempt in this kind proves so ridiculous, I will offer to 'em a most infallible Remedy against Petulancy. Let the Patient exercise at the Spade in a tough piece of ground from mor­ning untill night, then give him a half pint of thin Water-gruel with a few crumbs of bread for Supper, this Method continued for eight of ten days, I do warrant will per­form an absolute cure, without the least drop of their Syrup of Chasti­ty.

3. Syrups are very frustraneously multiplyed, that are filled almost with the same Ingredients, and yet intended for divers purposes; as Syrup of Mugwood, and Syrup of ground Pine, the former offering at the provoking of the Menstrua in [Page 139] Women, the latter at the curing the Gout, and all other Arthritick Distempers in Men; as if the cause of the suppression of the Catemenia were the same, that causes the Gout; can any thing be more senseless? But these Syrups consist of a strong brigade of simples as ill rank'd and fil'd as ever I yet beheld. If no­thing will satisfie besides a Syrup, one made of Elicampane roots, Pennyroyal and Myrrh, shall ex­ceed the former a thousand degrees, with the twentieth part only of the trouble and charge.

4. To what purpose shall the decoction in the preparation of Syrup of Mashmallows be clog'd with Pellitory, Mallows, Plantain, Maidenhair, Sparagus, Grass roots, Raisins, and all the eight sorts of cold Seeds, that shall choak and hinder the main operation of the Mashmallow roots and Cicers, which is to widen, relax, render slippery, and gently throw off. In lieu of all this Garbage make a [Page 140] strong decoction of Mashmallow roots, red Cicers, and English Li­quorish, boyl them into a Syrup with the best Honey. But if you add to the Liquor in the boiling a hundred or two of Sows or Mille­ [...]edes tyed up in a rag, you will have a Syrup, that in a fresh Scent, Tast, and Vertues shall surpass all the Syrups of that kind, that ever were invented. And having this Syrup, what occasion is there for Syrup of Liquorish, Isop, Jujubees, Mucilages, or other pectoral Sy­rups, when it is in your power to advise ex tempore and pro re nata a pulmonic decoction of inciding, and abstersive Vegetables, or such as answer your Indication, and edulcorate it with the foresaid Sy­rup, if necessary. Likewise all Loho [...]hs are needless, since they can easily be otherwise supplyed. To insert Syrups de Rosis Si [...]is, Myrti­nus, and de consolida is super vaca­neous, where one of them will suffice in a decoction, that you shall [Page 141] order for your purpose; unless his Physick Hogship by a tautology of Compounds intends to puzzle the Apothecary, and impose on his Opinion, there is a mystery in com­position, which shall limit his at­tempt of imitating the Physician, and so secure the Practice of Phy­sick to himself.

5. If Syrup of Rhubarb is design­ed for nice Palats, and Children, the Rhubarb ought to be left out, than which nothing is more un­grateful, especially where the Sto­mach is foul. Is it not a superero­gatory folly to add Violet Flow­ers, as if that in clogging the Men­struum were not detrimental? But to command the infusion to be made in Betony, Cichory, and Bugloss Waters, where good spring Water acuated with Salt of Tartar is infinitely more proper, and less chargeable, is want of Judgment. Here Cinamon may well be omit­ted, where the Ginger will much better supply its place.

[Page 142] 6. Touching Conserves, and Candids, the twentieth part of those set down in the Augustan Dispens. will overdo, the Reasons are the same I have already gi­ven you, in the Discourse touch­ing Syrups and Sugar.

1. THE Aromaticum Caryophylla­tum, Pulvis Elect. Rosat. Novel. M [...]suae, and Rosatum Gabrielis are without all doubt very excel­lent to dry the Hair, and may be more serviceable for Barbers than Physicians, they scarce using them in weakness of the Stomach once in seven years. The second con­taining about half a hundred In­gredients, [Page 143] and very ill put toge­ther, may easily be out-done by Zedoary, Cinamon, and red Roses.

Crabs Eyes, or Pearl prepared and used singly and joyntly, I have ever found to equal the Vertues of all the Ingredients in the mixture of Pulvis è chelis cancrorum compo­su [...]s. But the addition of tosted raw Silk, the fragments of Sapphir, and Emeralds, and of the bone of a Stags Heart, to the Species Cor­diales, is a most senseless Super­stition, never received into the belief of the least rational, except Physicians.

2. The greater and lesser cold Seeds contracting a rancor in a short time, and the subtil smell of the Flowers of Buglos, Water Lillies, and Violets, soon evapo­rating being powdered, and thence consequently resolved into powder of Post; what folly can be greater, than to expect from them a Cor­dial vertue in the Pulvis Diamarga­ritôn frigidus,? Even the white and [Page 144] yellow Saunders, also Myrtle-ber­ries in the same Composition, con­tribute nothing cordial besides bulk. So that these and a hundred more such like jumbles can take place in a Dispens. no otherwise, than Ex­pectation Medicines.

3. What Sympathy to the Heart can be breath'd from an Elcks hoof, the most abject excrement of that Animal; or from a Stags Heart­bone, not much differing from any other bone of the same Beast, ex­cept in the singularity of number; or from an Unicorns horn, a sort of an Ass, which the horn of an Oxe, or Goat may contend with in Vertue, though not in rarity; or from leaf Gold (much less from leaf Silver) which undigested pas­seth without casting the least ray of its lustre; or from bole armene, ter­ra lemnia, precious stone Fragments, or Amber, whose weight or sticky­ness doth impower them to clog and oppress the Stomach; or from Sorrel Seeds, that usually escape the [Page 145] force of the Pestil, and therefore as they enter whole into any Compo­sition, so they slide whole through the body when inwardly taken; or from Endive Seeds, and twenty more like the forementioned, and yet all of them in greater or lesser numbers, are added to some Cor­dial Powder or other in Pharmaco­p [...]a's; as in the Pulvis Bezoarticus, Pulvis confectionis liberantis Augustan. Pulvis pannonicus ruber, species Cardiac. M. Species Card. temp. Augustanorum Diamarg. frig. and several others. Moreover any one of these fore­named compound supposedly Cor­dial Powders containing the Vir­tues and Faculties of all the rest, to what end is the Apothecary needlesly to be charged with the preparation of four or five of them, and his Shop burthen'd with so many Species Glasses? A Cordial properly and per se is that, which hath power suddenly to increase the dissipated and vanquish'd Spi­rits, or to corroborate the relaxt [Page 146] languishing texture of the Heart; and can any one, except a Phy­sician, have so depraved a Phan­sie, as not to think, there is more of Cordial in a Spoonful of good Broath, or a few drops of Spirits of Wine, than in an ounce of such unproportioned [...]op Cordial Pow­ders? I cannot but repeat, Excepti [...] medicis, Grammaticis nihil stultius. That the pretended subduing of malignant or pestilential Steems, and febril Matter, whereby the Heart is singularly reliev'd by these precited Powders, whence they merit the Title of Cordial, is urged as a reply, may be fore­seen, though easily obviated, by asserting those effects per accidens; and consequently Vomitories and Purgatives may justly be listed in the Roll of Cordials, forasmuch as they remove vitious Humors, which per protopatheiam or deuteropa­theiam affect and disease the Heart; all which is meer Physick Cant.

[Page 147] 4. As for Pulvis diamosc. d. and A [...]ar. Dianthos Nicholai, and diambra Mesuae do rather weaken, and de­ject the animal faculty much more than a compound Saxifrage, or a hodg pot mashmallow Powder can be experienced to fail in their ef­forts against Stone or Gravel; or the Pulvis Antilyssos Palmarii against the bite of a mad Dog, and an Hydrophobia.

5. Among all the rest of those Empirical Dispens. Powders re­commended me to the Species Diar­rbodon Abbatis Nicholai Mirepsi for an idle and incongruous Composition; and if you will deduce the vertues of it from its contrary Ingredients, it shall prevail against abundance of Diseases. The Pearl and Stags heart bone do appropriate it to Di­seases of the Heart, Camphir to the Plague, and the greater cold Seeds to the Kidnies. The Rhapontic speaks its excellency against the Scurvy, Juyce of Liquorish against a Cough, red Roses, Mastick, and the Saun­ders [Page 148] against all bleedings, and all sorts of loosnesses, and the Spices against Winds, Faintnesses, Drop­sies, stoppage of Urine, &c. I dare be bold to say, that a Mountebanck cannot set up with a more cheating Medicine against all Diseases, were not the trouble and extraordinary charge a main impediment to such an undertaking. Great was the Fool that invented it, and far greater Fools are they, that caused it to be recording in their Dispensatories some hundred of years after.

Moibanus upon Dioscorides puts a great cheat on the succeding Ages in recommending pulvis Saxonicus against the Plague, which of all others by the mezereon shall cause a most burning Plagu [...] in the Throat; Stomach, and Guts.

1. WHat means such a Troop of Electuaries in Dis. against Winds, weaknesses of the Heart, Stomach, Lungs, Spleen, Kidneys, and Testicles, when under other heads and forms such a train of Physick Artillery hath already been provided against them? Actum agere, entia multiplicare, and per plu­ra facere must certainly be the de­light of Physicians. I shall pass most of 'em, the same Reasons and Remarks set down before, serving to confute their necessity, and de­monstrate their grossest Absurdities. The Autid. Haemagog. is such a one; [Page 150] that Gog nor Magog can never un­riddle the Mystery of its Compo­sition. I perfectly know, that it performs least, what it is intend­ed for. The Alom, Ginger, Pel­litory of Spain, Capers bark, Eli­campane, Pyony, Liquorish, Pep­per, Lupin flower, and thirty more varieties in it will compound a mash fitter for Infernals, than for Horses, much less for sick men.

2. I do aver, that Diatessaron is a Compos. a million of degrees be­yond Venice Treacle, or Mithridate, both which Physicians will have to ride Admiral and Vice-Admi­ral over all their wretched Squa­drons of Compounds. One mon­strous Thunder-bolt of a Medicine will not serve turn, there must be a pair. And that they shall be ex­actly prepared at Paris, their Wis­doms have thought fit to depute a brace or two of Censorious Cox­combs to visit the Treacle and Mithridate Pots in the Shops. And doth one Paris Physician in a hun­dred [Page 151] know all the Simples when he seeth them? I dare be confident not one in forty is acquainted with the faces of the tenth art of them. But what if the Agaric, Gum Ara­bic, and seven or eight more, should be left out by the Artist, can you believe, the sight, scent, and tast of those Physicksters could discover it? No more than an Apothecary can tell, what young Doctor made the last addresses to his Wife in her Bed-chamber. The Venetian Magistrates and Phy­sicians well knowing, that nothing can prevent Fallacies or Counter­feits of such thrice noble Medicines, unless they see all the Ingredients prepared singly, and renged in se­veral Classes, they never fail being present at the jumbling of them to­gether, and affixing their Seal to their true mixture, to serve for a Traffick all Europe over.

3. A Lyon, a Bear, Tyger, Wolf, Cat, Dog, and a hundred wild Beasts more being put toge­ther, [Page 152] could not make a greater howling in the Air, than all those untamed Simples in Mithridate and Treacle would do in the Stomach, if the Opium that's among them did not quiet their Fury, and bridle their Enormity. The Experiment of this observe is evident in Ma­thews's Pill, where the poysonous effort of the white Hellebore upon the Stomach is by the Opium bound up, by clowding the vital and ani­mal Spirits, until it's passed into the Guts, when and where the Nar­cotick Vertue being spent, that malignant vegetable is at liberty, to vent the remainder of its force upon the Intestins, in moving of Stools.

4. Give me leave to examine into the merits of these so highly blazon'd Composts, and begin with the greater worthy of the twine, Venice Treacle, preferred above all others, either because prepared with an exactness extra­ordinary, attested by the Venetian [Page 153] Seal, as I have observed before, or by reason that the Italian Vipers are reputed of greater force, than those brought hither from New England. The Name of Treacle, or Theriaca it desumes from [...], a wild Beast, either because Vipers are the chief Ingredients, or be­cause its vertue is most signal in­curing the bites of wild Beasts. It oweth its Invention to Andromachus, Physician to Nero, whence you may compute its very old Age, and re­mark how the Tradition of so many hundred years is arrived to Physicians in the most assured re­port of its infallible prevalence (according to Galen) against the greatest Diseases, particularly a­gainst the falling Sickness, Stone, Dropsie, Coughs, Phtisick, spitting of Blood, Swooning, Leprosie, Gout, Madness from the bite of a mad Dog, all Poysons, Plague, Colick, plague of the Guts, many Diseases peculiar to Women, and a hundred more. No wonder, if [Page 154] this mixture was called the Queen regent over all Medicines, and on­ly worthy to reign in the Closets of Emperors, by whom it was caused to be prepared with the greatest cost and trouble. How little those Vertues can be expected from it, and how so vast a charge of those Emperors in sending for some of the Ingredients over all Asia is expended in vain; and how senseless and empirical the Composition is, will easily appear from the following Considerations. 1. That consisting of very many, if not all, contrary Ingredients, the one must necessarily destroy the other. 2. That Treacle being a Composition within a Compo­sition of several of the same Ma­terials, many of them are very foolishly repeated, as in the Tro­chisci Hedychroi are received Rad. Phu. Pontic. costi, Cinamom. Shaenanth. Opobalsam. Cassia Lign. Malabathrum, Nardus indicus, Myrrh. Crocus, and Amomum; all which are also again [Page 155] mentioned in the body of the De­scription. 3. Observe the mixture of Purgatives, as Rhubarb, Agaric, Sem. Thlaspios Sagapenum, Opopanax, Chalcanthum Rubefactum, a vomi­tive and purgative, &c. with Ad­stringents, as red Roses, Hypocistis, Acacia, Pentaphyllon; consider fur­ther these Adstringents joaked with their opposites, Alexipharmacks, Diaphoreticks, and Diureticks; as Vipers, dictamnum cretieum, Petrose­linum Macedonicum, Sem. dauci cret, Foenic. ses. Ammeos: Therebinth, &c. next here must be Detergers, Ce­phalicks, Pectorals, Hystericks, Stomachicks and Spleneticks, Gums, Resins, Earths, all sorts of Spices, &c. The Basis is a Spa­nish Sea Onion, or Squil baked in a crust of Wheat, and consequent­ly exceding in weight all the other Ingredients singly. But take no­tice also, that Pepper and Opium together make an equal poize with the forementioned Scallion. Is not Venice Treacle standing on such a [Page 156] Basis likely to be framed into an incomparable Gallimophory, es­pecially where old decayed Viper Cakes, and long Pepper are equal­ly supporters of the mighty Electu­ary. The ill order, weight, dis­proportion, and dissonance of such a multiplicity of Ingredients can­not be parallel'd with any thing but it self, and its Sister Mithridate. Take a mad man out of Bethlehm, who hath the humor of mixing upon him, open all the Drawers, Pots, and Glasses of the Physick Shop unto him, it will not be pos­sible for him to make a more irra­tional jumble, and which shall not equal all the Virtues of Venice Trea­cle, provided a proportionable weight of Opium be added by any of a little more sense than the Bethlemite.

5. Suppose half a score Ingredi­ents more, as Nut-shells powder'd, Asses bones calcin'd, scraping of Trenchers, and the like, be added to the mixture; or that the same [Page 157] number of Simples be substracted, be they Pentaphyllon, Calaminth, Vi­per Cakes, or almost which you please, conditionally, that the Opi­um be proportioned according to the substraction or addition, will you not believe, the Composition shall be gifted with the same En­dowments and Qualities; or that it is not possible, for you or any man else not present at the jumble, to know, or conjecture, what is wanting, or what is thrown in?

6. Next examine the nature of the Ingredients. That the Stomach from the corrosive burning and cutting Qualities of the Squils is apt to be ulcerated, is attested by Dioscorides, whereunto the pretend­ed corrective of Orobus, or bitter vetch flower gives a helping hand, whose violence, according to the same Dioscorides and Galen, consists in an extream bitterness, and a fa­culty of causing a bloody Urin, and a bloody Flux, with the attendance of Convulsive gripes. These are [Page 158] the prime Jewels to bedeck the Queen of Medicines, among which the calcined Copperas is not the least, a Mineral fitter for a gall'd horse's back, or the Farsie, a demi-poison promoting suffocating Vomits, and torminous stools. The Rhubarb is asserted by the Vouchers of Treacle to be added to strengthen the Li­ver, and Agarick to comfort the Brain; an absurdity condemned by the experience of all mankind, that ever purgatives should be cor­roboratives. But they pretend to excuse the injuries of those perni­cious Simples by their small pro­portion, which they insinuate can­not signifie much to so great a mass as the whole Composition amounts to. The same reason may as just­ly indemnifie the addition of a dram or two of Arsenic or Rats­bane, Wolf-bane, and the like. To blow your nose into a man's Por­ridg can do no hurt, because the quantity is little, is a parallel way of reasoning, and of all men only [Page 159] peculiar to Physicians. But let me tell you, the proportion is great, if you joyn them together, thus: of Agaric an ounce and half, Rhu­barb six drams, burn'd Copperas half an ounce, Sagapenum, Opopanax, Gal­banum &c. all which being purga­tives, make a strong party. Ima­gine, that a patient in a malignant Fever had by advice taken a dose of Venice Treacle, to expel the ma­lignity, which failing in the in­tended effect, he happens to dye; The Physician, should he by acci­dent come to the knowledge, that the Treacle wanted an Ingredient or two, as juyce of Liquorish, Or­rice, or any other of less moment, the Hog would most certainly im­pute the death of the Patient to the defective Composition. In conclusion, Treacle is no other, than a most confuse, absurd and senseless Opiat, which in all its pretences would be out-done be­yond comparison, by a mixture of of three or four, as Virg. Serpentary [Page 160] roots, Scordium, Bole armene, and Opium, reduced with Honey into an Electuary; or Angelica r. Terra sigil. Gentian, and Opium mix'd with Honey. The Extract of Harts­horn, Dictamnum Cret. and Opium is also an equivalent. Great is the su­perstition of the Indians in the wor­ship of their Pagode Devils, defor­med with monstrous horns, but a million greater is the superstition of Physick Idolaters, that believe it the greatest Sacrilege to diminish the least tittle from a Composition, as Sorrel-seeds, Pepper, and Gin­ger from Diascordium, or Pellitory of Spain from the Philonia; the pre­cious fragments and Stags-bone out of Confectio de Hyacintho; the neg­lect of rejecting of all these parti­culars doth demonstrate Physicians to have longer Ears then Asses. To roast Saffron in an Egg-shell to im­prove its virtues, is another Argu­ment of their Sagess in the descrip­tion of Elect. de Ovo. The Addita­ments of Pellitory of Spain, and [Page 161] Pepper to correct the extream cold­ness of Opium in the Philonia, is an­other foolish notion, they cannot be driven from.

7. To what purpose is the de­scription of so many idle Opiats; as Philonium Persicum, Romanum, Re­quies Nicholai, Nepenthes, Pil. de Cy­noglosso &c. when Opium dissolved and digested with Spirit of Wine, with or without Saffron, and used in drops, or evaporated to a Pill, is beyond all the imaginary cor­rectives, which it doth not stand in need of, since the onely danger it can threaten is oversleeping into a Coma, Lethargy, Carus, or death; and that is no other way to be pre­vented, than in omitting giving of it to those, that are not judged proper to take it, or to exhibite it to others in less quantity, than it can be presumed to exceed in operation; for tho' you surround Opium with all the spices of the In­dies, to guard nature from its vio­lence, if you give too much, it [Page 162] will not fail to kill, or extreamly to frighten the standers by with a posture of the patient very like un­to death; and if you judge, that advising very little of it in Phthi­sicks, or great Weaknesses, be a sufficient warrant, you will find your selves deceived, as those have been, which I mentioned in the Conclave of Physicians. I pass by ta­king notice of the purgative Electu­aries, whose Absurdities in Com­position we shall sufficiently detect in the Pill Boxes.

1. IF for those unaccountably er­roneous Compositions of Trea­cle, Methridate, Pil. Aloephanginae, Foetidae, and the rest, the Inven­tors ought to be censured great Ideots seventeen hundred years ago, the Approvers and Confirmers of 'em a thousand years after may be inferred greater Fools, but those that subscribe to the continuance of 'em at this day, must be concluded the greatest Fools; as if the excel­lency of Remedies consisted in Compofition, and the more of Composition there is, the greater Virtues it contributes to the Me­dicine.

[Page 164] 2. That this is the rule, where­by to measure the Capacity of the Artist, appears in the endeavours of Physicians to prescribe long Bills, filled with Composition, and by how much the more it is com­pounded, by so much the more the Apothecary judges the Prescri­ber the best Physician. On the contrary, the fewer Ingredients the better Medicine, which occasions less trouble and charge in the Pre­paration, and more certainty in the Effect; for where a Remedy consisteth of an hundred Ingredi­ents, to which of 'em can you at­tribute the effect if successful, or the fault and dammage if the Di­sease be thereby render'd worse? But such hath been the fallacia non causae pro cause in Physicians, that having prescribed to Patients a­gainst Diseases of the Eyes, Pil. Cochiae maj. and finding Success, and a laudable Event, infer thence ve­ry deceitfully, that their particular Composition doth arrogate speci­fically [Page 165] an Eye or Sight restoring power beyond all others; whereas its to the vertue of the Purgatives, chosen according to the strength and other circumstances of the Pa­tient, and without any correctives or Conductors, those good effects are to be imputed.

3. The same reason confutes the specific relation of Pil. de Aga­rico to the Lungs; Aggregativae, de Tribus, and Imperiales to all the Bowels; Aureae and Lucis to the Eyes; de Eupatorio to the Liver; Diambrae, Macri, and de Succino to the Brain; Tartareae Q. to the Spleen; de aloe lota, Aloephanginae, Stomachicae, and Ruffi to the Sto­mach; Stomachicae cum gummi to the Stomach and Spleen; de hiera cum Agarico, and Mastichinae to the Stomach, Lungs and Brain; foetidae, de Opopanace, and de Hermodactylis to the Joynts, and other gouty Di­seases; Mechoacannae and de Gutta Gamandra to Dropsies; de Styrace to sharp thin Distillations on the Lungs.

[Page 166] 4. Pause a while, and with me consider the depth of folly of Man­kind, the more astonishing, for as much as it is signally remarkable in those, who by the study of their whole Life-time, and the pretend­ed Learning derived from the Ex­perience of thousands of years, are advan'd no further, than by giving Credit to lying Antiquity, to re­ceive such idle absur'd superfluous and pernicious Compositions into the Pharmacopoea, and what is worse, to impose the use of 'em upon the Physicians of a whole Nation, is a perfect Physick Popery, and In­quisition, damning all those, that are gifted with too much Know­ledge and Honesty to submit to their Fopperies, as Popery anathe­matizes such, whose light of reason­ing, of conviction of Conscience will not be subjected to their im­pious Indulgences, ridiculous Pur­gatory, and blind idolatrous Wor­ship. And as Luther was the first▪ that succeded in the detecting the [Page 167] antiquated follies of whole centu­ries of Ages, the chief scope where­of was no other, than by an usurpt Dominion over the Consciences of Men, and detaining of them in that blind slavery to triumph over the Liberties of their Persons, and enrich themselves by the high pri­zes of their Indulgencies, Pardons, and other most wicked Devices, whereunto their fulminatory Bulls, and cursed Excommunications, es­pecially at the hour of Death, are so greatly instrumental. And why is't not equally probable, that any honest and discerning Judgment may with the same Success, and Perspicuity of Argument expose, and detect the grossest of Errors and Absurdities in Physick, conti­nued by the unreasonable and ty­rannizing power assumed by Con­claves of Physicians, to no other end than to domineer over the Lives of Men, and to enrich them­selves out of their Estates, by en­slaving their Opinions to their [Page 168] mischievous Compositions, and most senseless Prescriptions?

5. The minute courge, that some few years ago incited me to correct Extractum Rudii, by throw­ing off the Pulvis Diarrhodon Abba­tis, that idle non-corrective, and substitute an aromatic or two, as you may read in my House Apo­thecary, was an attempt, that ne­ver durst enter the thought of any Physician before me, though soon after was imitated by a whole So­ciety in their Pharmacopoea.

6. What means the addition of Mastick, Hore-hound, Sarcocol, and Myrrh to the Purgatives in Pil. de Agarico, since the former in their virtues are over-ruled and drowned by the latter, and their mutual reaction not only breaks the force of each other, but clogs the Composition into too large a bulk. The same reason is much more prevalent against the inspissa­ted Juyces of Agrimony, Mother­weed, Polypody, Mastich, red Ro­ses, [Page 169] Epithymum, Anis Seeds, and Ginger in de description of Pilu­lae Aggregativae. The Myrobalans be­ing so weak a Purgative, are rather used for their adstringent faculty, and therefore ought to be rejected hence, as also the red Roses and Ma­stich, which by their adstriction do hinder, and retard the purgative Faculties of the chief Ingredients. The Office of Anis-seeds, and Gin­ger is to discuss the Winds or Flatu­osities, which the Cathartic Ebul­lition causes; or rather those en­suing Gripes owe their original to sharp vellicating Humors, thrown off by the Purgatives upon the Guts, which the hot fiery Particles of the Ginger, and Anis-seeds do extream­ly provoke, and increase, and there­fore ought be shut out.

7. To speak plain, the proper Assistent to Nature upon the ta­king a Purge, which in effect is the true corrective of Purgatives, is some time after the Cathartic hath been swallowed down, to take a [Page 170] Bouillon Maigre, or lean Broath made of Mashmallow-roots, or young Mallow-leaves, Endive, and Bor­rage or Bugloss, with a little fresh Butter, and three or four grains of Salt dissolved in it; or Posset-drink with a little Butter and Salt may also be used instead of the Bouillon. The Butter by its oyly parts ren­dring the Stomach and Guts smooth and slippery, and lineing the Guts to defend them from the acrimo­nie of the preterfluent incensed Hu­mors, the mucilaginous and [...]mol­li [...]nt parts of the Herbs assisting in the precipitating the Purgative, to­gether with the Humors out of the Stomach and Guts, and conspiring with the Butter in the defence of the membranous parts, the Salt by gentle Stimulation spurring the Fi­bres of the Stomach and Guts to Expulsion, these are the proper Defensives and Correctives of a purgative Medicine, though pro­ving so violent as to be suspected of a malignant faculty, as Scammony, [Page 171] Colocynthis, Hellebore, Gialap, Gum. Gut. &c.

8. The uniting of Purgatives supplying reciprocally each others defects, and the additament of one out of three or four sorts of Salt for a corrective, is the only right and sutable way of cathartic Com­position, whereby the forecited In­convenients are precluded. Thus the flowness of Aloes is quickned by the prompt Operation of Scammony and Colocynthis, the roughness and emetic quality of which latter, and of all others is smoothed and pre­cipitated by some sort or other of fixt Salt, which to Turbith, Hermo­dactyls, Gum. Gut. &c. doth impart the same advantage.

9. Most sorts of Dispens. com­pounded cathartic Pills exhibited in a just dose, do nevertheless in many Constitutions cause most dreadful Oppressions on their Sto­machs, because they are empiri­cally mixt, and clogged with Ingre­dients forreign to the Intention, [Page 172] and with adstringent Spices, that forcibly detain them in the Sto­mach.

10. Turbith, Hermodactyls, My­ [...]obalans, Sem. Carthami, Epithym. Gum Ammoniac, Opopanax, Sagapen. and the like, mixt only with Aloes and its supposed Correctives, is most certainly against the right reasoning of Composition, and thwarts all successful Experience, so that it may justly be concluded, that Pil. de Aloe lota, de Eupatorio Maslichinae, de Tribus, and indeed all the compounded Pills of most Dispensatories, are most irrational and empirical, adapted more for the use of Mountebancks, than dogmatic Physicians.

11. Of all others, Pil. Tartareae Q. may be judg'd the most ridicu­lous and senseless, for reasons men­tioned before in several Chapters. More than three or four sorts of compounded purgative Pills in an Apothecaries Shop is a number suf­ficient to answer all, or most usual [Page 173] Intentions of that form, without the needless increase of Pill-pots, or the rendring the place more loathsome in stinck, than a Hog­sty. Is your Intention to prefer Turbith or Hermodactyls to draw off tartarous Humors from gouty Joynts, or with Ialap, Gum. Gut. &c. to drain the water from an Hydro­pic; mix any of them in a just proportion with a good Extractum Rudii or Catholicon, far differently prepared and corrected from the common, and you will avoid be­ing burden'd with Elect. Cary [...]ost. Pulv. Diaturb. cum Rhab. Pil. de Her­modact. and many others. Next, it is necessary to substitute an excel­lent compound Pill of milder Pur­gatives, to answer the ends of Pil. Stom. cum gum. which by the extem­poraneous addition of several other purgative Ingredients will supply the superfluous numbers of many other compound Dispensatory Pills. Besides, one composition or two more, which is not material to [Page 174] insert here, will accompish all.

12. These instances of the vari­ous forms of internal composite Medicines are premised as short proofs, whose intersperst Arguments may easily by any moderately ra­tional be applicable to most of those mentioned in vulgar Dispensato­ries, whereby my labor being epi­tomized doth excuse me from dis­secting every particular, which otherways would necessarily swell into the bulk of a large Folio. As for the external Medicines, though their Compositions do equally abound with Absurdities, and most senseless Incongruities, their use importing less danger, I will wave giving my self any further trouble.

13. In conclusion, since it so plainly appears, that most Dispen­satory Medicines are not other than Expectation Remedies; Nothing seems more incumbent upon combined Physicians, than framing a suc­cinct neat Pharmacopoea, consisting of necessary, select, and experienced· [Page 175] cines, which cannot be hoped for in this Century from the preposte­rous and crude Education of most of 'em, scarce one in twenty being acquainted with the tenth part of the faces and vertues of the Simples, and much less of the Composites. Touching Chymical Medicines, most of their Preparations may rather be termed destructions of those materials, they are conver­sant about, and the blazoning of their vertues are so grandiloquious, and notoriously false, that the cor­rection and improvement of that part of Pharmacy requires a man of greater reason and skill, then I ever yet knew a Conclave Phy­sician.

OF all those pernicious Doctrines, never any proved more rui­nous to the Art of Physick, than that which beyond others was so emphatically introduced by Capi­vac. viz. Read my Method and you know all my Secrets, importing the Method of Physick the only chief and necessary part, and ultimate end of the Art. This false positi­on being imbibed and suck'd in by Infant Physicians, is the great cause of their neglect of Pharmacy, which in my Opinion is the most necessary of all, supposing it to [Page 177] comprehend not only the just and due Preperations of Medicines, but also their certain [...], and throwly experienced Effects and Vertues. Touching the Thera­peutic or Method of Physick, it is no more than a way, manner, or order of applying of Remedies ac­cording to Place, Time, Age, Sex, Temperament, and other circum­standing, all which the only bare knowing and understanding the nature of the Remedy, which it self with a little ocular experience of themselves or others, doth na­turally shew and point at, and therefore doth so evidently render the knowledge thereof the most ne­cessary and important of all others, notwithstanding the stupid neglect of it hitherto. This Discourse doth not exclude the necessary study and knowledge of all the other parts of Physick [...]urther, than to arrive to a competency, and not to trifle away the best part of their time in needless Curiosities, and too fine [Page 178] spun Speculations of Anatomy. A Brick-layer or Stone-cutter, beyond the knowledge of the brickleness and fissility of a Stone, which rather a little Experience will in­form him in, than a long Theory, should he dwell eight or ten years upon the study of the Phylosophy of Stones, their material, external, and internal efficient and adjuvant causes, their Species and differences, in contempt and neglect of his Trowel and Mortar, the use where­of experience doth soon inform him in, without being much instructed in the Method of daubing and smearing, you would certainly con­clude him a mad man, and make a Prediction, that it was almost impossible, he should ever make a good Workman, as little as he, that has consumed the gross of his time in Anatomy, or any other part of Physick, in neglect of Phar­macy, should ever come to be a good Physician; an instance where­of I will give you in one, that was [Page 179] the greatest Anatomist of his time, and no extraordinary Physician, namely Dr. William Harvey, whose erroneous Judgment was very re­markable in the prescription of a Purge for Esq Rainton of Enfield, where the Apothecary refraining to prepare more than half the pro­portion, notwithstanding gave him fourscore stools, which otherwise according to the Doctors measures, must unavoidably have scower'd him from the close Stool into the other World. The Consult made a great noise, when Dr. Wright, Prudgean, Bates, and others, toge­ther with the famed Dr. Harvey were Principals; and one Mr. Farwel, Barrister of the Temple, was Pa­tient and Complainent of a pain­ful Disease in his Belly, that de­prived him of the use of his Limbs, Strength, Appetite, and Digestion, &c. the forementioned Dr. Harvey ingrossed to himself the speaking part, by reason of his extraordinary claim to Anato­my, [Page 180] and which here, if any where, seemed to be of use; after a long contrectation of all the abdomen, did very magisterially and positive­ly assert all his Symptoms to arise from an Aneurism of an Artery, and therefore incurable, as being too remote to come at, wherein all, except Dr. Bates, very readily concur'd, though it was a most absur'd offer in Opinion, as ever I yet heard. The Patient being un­willing to give up his cause so; removed his Corpus cum causa to Chelsie, where Sir Theodore Majerne lay Bed-ridden at his Country-house, who upon no long examen of the matter told him, he was the second, or third Patient he had met with diseased in the same kind, and very boldly expressed, he would cure him, but with this inconveni­ence, that he could throw the cause of the Disease either into his Arms or Legs, according to the choice he would make of those Limbs, which he could best spare, or which of [Page 181] 'em might be more or less useful to him, without consulting the Will and Pleasure of God Almigh­ty, an Arrogancy unheard of, and favouring more of the Atheist (as too many of 'em are) than a pious Physician, as then especially he ought to have been, being not ma­ny stages from his Journeys end. Mr. Farwel in respect of his Profes­sion, where writing is so necessary, replyed, that his business being se­dentary, he could best yield to the captivity of his Legs, though even they upon the Doctors assurance should be released by a Month or six Weeks diligence at the Bath. You are to apprehend, that the cause of this great Disease was an obstinate obstruction of the Glanduls of the Mesentery immensely swelled up, and hardned by coagulation of tartarous and slimy Humors, ma­king a strong pressure upon the Arteria magna, which by a potent renixe did duplicate its force of Pulsation, that imposed on Dr. Har­vey [Page 182] the false notion of an Aneuris, which ought rather to have been termed a Vibration. The conglo­bated tumor by compression causing [...] coarctation upon the Nerves, milkie, and other Vessels, occasi­oned the great Weakness of his Limbs, an Atrophy, &c. and by hussing up the Bowels against the Diaphragm, rendred his respirati­on extraordinary difficult. The grand empirical Medicine (from which his Father Turquetus, usually by the French nicknamed the Turc, had got great Reputation by selling it publickly on the Stage, whom Sir Theodore in his younger years had attended in that Employ, if common Vogue may be credited) be­ing in a proportionable Dose mixt with some gentle Purgatives, had the success to dissolve those gross glutinous Humors, and through their weight and tendency down­ward, throw them down into his Legs, as being parts much weak­ned, and consequently more rea­dily [Page 183] suscipient. Nature by being disburdened of that load, that had hitherto obstructed the free course of his nutritive and animal Juyces, was vigorous enough to restore the Bowels to their former Functions, as afterwards the Bath proved no less effectual in retrieving the use of his Legs. The following case of a Taylor in Fleet-street, whose Name has escaped my Memory, though I can with little difficulty recover the knowledge of it, was not or­dinary. His complaint to the Do­ctor was a Sciatica, that render'd him lame and cripple, besides fre­quent returns of very sharp pains. The Dr. would not ingage in the cure of so great and hazardous a Disease, without a considerate and distinct answer to three Points: 1. Whether he could sequester him­self from his Trade for three Months. 2. Whether he valued the expence of fifty pounds beyond the recovery of his health. 3. Whe­ther he could contemperate his pas­sion, [Page 184] in enduring the Part to be laid open to the bone, by cutting or burning. The Patient very rea­dily consented to the two former conditions, Time and Money; but to the third being entirely averse, took his leave with the ceremony due to so famed a Physician, and applyed himself to another of a much lower form, who with little preamble advised him to the Bath, where he received a perfect cure in six weeks. No doubt but Dr. Harvey in Anatomy, and happiness of theoretic discoveries might just­ly pretend the precedency of all his Contemporaries; and others before and since have also arrived to a great proficiency in Cat and Dog [...]cutting, also Calf-head and Sheeps-pluck dissecting; yet few of 'em when concerned in Practice, were gifted with sagacity to know Diseases when offer'd to their view, much less capable to curing them; in which curative particular the Thinking Physician has the ad­vantage, [Page 185] though the Prating Physici­an by his pretended Anatomy in­grosses the opinion of Mankind.

1. THE tricks of Malpighi's Di­optrical Anatomy are as subject to a deceptio visus, as the Fo­rests, Seas, and Rivers discerned in the Moon by the glass-eye of an optick tube. However, the Metho­dus Medendi can as little boast of the least alteration to the better, assistence, or use it has mutuated from the light of those, Circulati­on, watery and milky chanals, and the rest of the novel appear­ances, as a Water-man of his easier passage to Gravesend, by spying new Cuts and Creeks, that disembogue into: the Thames. The Remedies [Page 186] and the materia medica are much the same they were one hundred or two years last past, though the suc­cess issuing from their application is rather less now, than in prece­ding Centuries, which cannot be imputed to any thing, besides the blind [...]aith we give to their idle compound medicines, and the neg­lect of examining the vertues of every Simple in particular.

2. So true it is, that Observation drawn from experience of the ef­fects of single Remedies upon par­ticular Diseases, allowing for va­riation, as to dose, time, strength, and other circumstances of the Pa­tient and Distemper, is the sole In­venter and Improver of the Art of Physick, as that Non-Observation is the sole cause, that modern Physi­cians in happy Cures are scarce comparable with the Ancients; so that, the Art is so far from advan­cing, that it is wholly upon the re­trograde, and for want of due Edu­cation in young Students, it will in [Page 187] time return again to Machao [...] and Podalyrius.

Per varios usus artem experientia fecit, Exemplo monstante viam.

3. The Sun at Noon-day is not more clear, than the evidence of that assertion, and others premised in former Paragraphs, yet their re­ception among the vulgar, that is so much debauch'd by the false Im­pressions of Physicians, can as little be hoped for, as the Gospel among Mahometans, that are so deeply pre­judiced by impious Doctrines infu­sed into them by their Priests in their Infancy, and cherish'd until their Deaths.

4. The Tools, and the materia medica us'd by the Art of curing Di­seases by Expectation, are sufficient­ly discoursed on; the practick part consists in the Methodus of applying those insignificant Remedies. As the Doctrine of other Arts depends on certain Theorems, and Postula­ta, so doth this famous one. 1. Most curable Diseases are cured by Nature and [Page 188] Time. 2. Many Diseases become incura­ble and consequently mortal, where Na­ture is too weak, and time too short. 3. Nature being strong, and the Disease weak, or not very violent, time is the grand Remedy, and the principal Indi­catum. It follows then, that the chief scope and intention of the Expectation Physician is the gaining of Time, and to clude the Patient from time to time, until Nature hath conquered the Disease. The way he deludes the Patient in time is, 1. Confidently he assures him from this time to that of relief and abatement of his Distemper; in or­der thereunto presents him with a Narrative of several of his Patients diseased in the same manner, how at this hour and that, this day and that day they received most sensible abatements; but be sure he hath a good Memory, for fear the Patient entraps him, for sick-men are won­derfully ruminating, and oportet Mendacem esse Memorem. This part being acted with a good meen, as a [Page 189] soure face, a black yerking, broad Bever, a huge weighty Cane (that adds much) and a pretended Con­science will extreamly (as Rheto­ricians say) incline the hearing, and gain the assent of his sick Au­ditor, insomuch that his Spirits will be roused thereby, that he may plainly see them walk and jump all over his Phys▪ in a blithe Coun­tenance; this fourbery repeated once or twice a day (if the Pati­ent feeth well, not else) will make him patiently expect from one day to another, from one week to ano­ther, and from one Month to ano­ther (not from one year to ano­ther, unless he be mad) until at last Nature hath vanquish'd the Di­sease, the Patient is cured by Ex­pectation, and the Physician steals the Title of triumphant from Na­ture, with a Purse of Guinea's.

5. If the Patient prove resty to all good admonitions for gaining of time, the Expectation Physici­an changing his Dialect, threatens [Page 190] to desert him, as Cottier did the King of France, with a Prognostic, if any other (honester) Physician takes him in hand, he infallibly dyes; moreover gives him very negligent visits, makes the Patient send twice or thrice, before he comes once, and then tarries so little, that he pretends, this Duke, that Earl, a third and a fourth Noble man are in a most wonder­ful hot pursuit for his advice, who all are sick of his Distemper. This argument is so prevailing, that it will tye the Patient to his Bed, or his Chamber, as long as the Do­ctor pleases, and makes him a slave to any time he thinks fit.

6. Besides this Chamber Conver­sation and Tongue Practice, there must be some Remedies prescribed, that do no good, the best of which are such as do no hurt, and conse­quently must be very safe. And since all Remedies tend to this scope, that they may assist the Pa­tient in passing over of his time, [Page 191] they ought to be prescribed to va­rious set hours, which in waiting for he always passeth so much time; and therefore he ought to have a different Medicine prescribed for him to take every hour, or at least every two hours; for as I said, the expecting such and such hours is a great means to pass away time. Those Expectation medicines should be of different tast and scent, but chiefly pleasant, so however that they may not be hurtful; these are to entertain the Patient's Palat, and to a sick man are what the smoke of Tobacco is to one that's well. External medicines are also of great use here, in regard they will take up the Patient so much time in apply­ing, renewing, and shifting. As for example, to a great pain in the head, or any other part, a friendly po [...]ltis of three or four insignificant herbs, a little Bran, &c. but ought to be prepared in the Patient's Chamber, that he may pass away so much time in seeing them sent [Page 192] [...]or, brought to him, and boyl'd in his presence, and then applied, and knowing likewise what the Ingredi­ents are, he will give the more credit to such things, which his Grannum used to tell him, were very good and soverain. In the Gout likewise, if the Expectation-Physician pre­sents his Patient gratis with this fol­lowing nostrum, it will not only be well taken, but much more vene­ration will be given to it, than if it came from the Apothecaries shop, and to the Physician will redound a very lasting diffusive glory and reputation; viz. ten links of thred, half yard long, dipt in Wax of ten different colours; each is to be tyed by the Patient, if possible, or by his Nurse, to each distinct Toe of the Feet, and to be untied every hour or two, and changed to other toes, namely, the red wax't thred where the green was, the blue where the yellow, &c. By this means a great deal of time will be passed, and if the Patient continues [Page 193] tying and untying, until a good long fit is expired; it will have also another good effect of rendring his back very flexible, and being tired at Night prove a means to make him sleep without the charge of a dose of Opium.

7. Since it cannot well be expect­ed, that I shall exemplify the Me­thodus medendi together with the Remedies of this rich and noble Art in all Diseases, I will only in­stance it in some few, that are most universal. A continual Fever after once or twice bleeding, which be­yond all dispute is of use, and truly preparative to a Cure, requires a good thin water Gruel, or a Barley water with its appurtenances for an ordinary drink. Next two or three sorts of Cordials to be taken at dif­ferent hours, for reasons before mentioned. Also some few testa­ceous Powders for other times of Physick Devotion. If the Belly hath forgot its Office, that may be minded of its duty by a Milk [Page 194] and Sugar Glyster every other day. The Spirits of Harts-horn well re­ctified, and the blistering Plaister may be put in use in the declinati­on of the Distemper, for then they will prove the least hurtful. The Cordials usually consist of two or three simple Waters, as of Carduus ben. Scabious, &c. with a fourth part, or rather sixth part of Epidemic wa­ter, and the Julep to be sweetned with Syrup of Gilliflowers. Such sort of simple waters mixt with a fourth or sixth part of small Cinamon­water, Pearl grinded into an impal­pable Powder, which Crabs Eyes will equal in all its pretended Ex­cellencies, and sweetned with fine white [...]ugar; all this makes up the Pearl Cordial. For your dyet avoid flesh meat, and content your self with Grewel, Panada, &c. No­thing is more certain then that this whole course is perfectly Expectati­on, there being nothing in it that makes the least step towards a real true cure, so that all those, that [Page 195] are recovered by such a Method and Remedies, owe the restitution of their health to strenght of Na­ture and Time. Desume your cu­rative indications from any pre­tended Theory of Fevers; as sup­pose they are caused by a fermenti­on of the Blood, the precited▪ Re­medies participate of nothing, that can or doth diminish and extinguish the fermentation, or (if you please) gently help it on so, as it may ter­minate, the sooner. Suppose a Fe­ver is caused by a putrefactive Ebul­lition, those preternatural Particles in the Blood, that move it into that violent passion, are opposed by no­thing▪ that [...] contained in those Me­dicines and most certainly did not Physicians assent to that Opinion, they would not so universally have re [...]ected them, and make the Je­suits bark the sole Anchor of their [...] in that case. What I have more to obiect, you may read in another Treatise.

[Page 196] 8. Can any one without scorn behold such drones of Physicians, (I speak generally, and therefore desire no false Innuendo may be made) that after the space of so many hundred years Experience and Practice of their Predecessors, not one single Medicine hath been [...]et detected by them, that hath the least force directly and per se to op­pose, resist, or expel a continual Fever, which by their erroneous Applications is too oft provected to malignity? Should any by a more sedulous Observation pretend, or make the least step towards the dis­covery of such Remedies, their ha­tred and envy would swell against him, as a Legion of Devils against Vertue; whole Societies would dart their Malice at him, and torture him with all the Calumnies ima­ginable, without sticking at any thing, that should destroy and rain him root and branch, (or which I could give you a very memora­ble Example, were it convenient) [Page 197] for he that professes a reformation of the Art of Physick, in exposing its Impostures, and advancing such Methods and Remedies, that are beyond those of the Art of Expecta­tion, must resolve to run the ha­zard of the Martyrdom of his Re­putation, Life, and Estate, especi­ally when its considered, that the greatest and best part of Mankind is prepossest with a Judgment, that's imus [...]d into them by Expectation Physicians, to some or other of whom almost every man is linck [...]d by Acquaintance, Kindred, Know­ledge, or Drunkenness.

9. Nothing hath ever proved more fatal than this universal No­tion, that in the small Pox you must always be driving out, in gi­ving strong Diaphoreticks or sweat­ing Medicines, which in kindling the Fever- [...]igher, that's usually a concomitant, or rather preceding, doth convert it into malignant, and continuing as such, its impossible the virulent Eruptions should ever [Page 198] appear, considering the small Pox is a Crisis, or critical propulsion of virulent Pustles, (very commonly) of a Febris continua imputris, or Diaria plurium dierum, ordinarily so termed by Physicians, and oft-times of a Febris continua putrida. A Crisis is never to be expected but after di­gestion and separation, and then ensues Expulsion; so that if you endeavour to expel by sweating, before Nature is ready by finishing the digestion and separation, you do most certainly anger the Spirits, and put them into an high fury, and as long as you continue thus, you may sooner expect Death, than the breaking forth of the small Pox. In this particular it is, that Nurses, and the careful old Wo­men by their common Expectation Remedies, as Harts-horn or plain Posset-drink, or a small Fig-deco­ction in Water or small Beer, do oft excel the best of Physicians in their erroneous Methods of driving out.

[Page 199] 10. Considering further, that in many Children and others, there is proceding only a small simmer­ing of the Blood, which may pro­perly enough be termed a Fermen­tation, an Ebullition being a more violent and impetuous motion, which if abated or intirely quieted by cooling aqueous, and acid Ju­leps, the virulency is suppressed in the Eruption, or repelled upon the Brain and Nerves, whence succeed mortal Convulsions; or upon the Vitals, viz. the Heart and Lungs, occasioning an immediate Suffoca­tion, or terminative Syncope. On the other hand, where there is an high Fever or putrefactive Ebulli­tion, until that be reduced to a gentle Fermentation (for in the most laxe sense an Ebullition and Fermentation differ only secundum magis & minus, and in the end) the small Pox or Meazels will never break forth, though using the strongest expulsives, which most certainly failing in their intended [Page 200] effect, never fail in the raising the Fever to the highest acuteness and malignity; and therefore I have ever observed, that most of those that are grown up, who dye under the Hands of Physicians, owe their death to the Fever, and killing Medicines, and not to the deficien­cy of expulsion, which cannot be expected, as long as the putrid Fe­ver is not reduced to a Fermentati­on, as they call it. When the Erup­tion appears, if too slow, it is to be quickned; if too violent, it will be moderated by such proper Medi­cines, as resist that Malignity. Moreover, this remark hath been constant, that the great proflux of virulent matter to the skin in a flux't Pox, proceeds from not re­sisting the putrid Fever in a foul Body (and in others also) by pecu­liar Medicines unknown to most of them, before it came to too great an height. If any part of their ex­ternal matter of steems return into the internal parts in a fluxt Pox, [Page 201] where the external Pores are very oft stopt, it doth not seldom prove mortal, the principal parts being too much weakned to repel it back to the circumference. The truth of these Observations may seem probable from my own good For­tune, who never to my remem­brance was concern'd with Man, Woman, or Child, that dyed un­der my Hands of the small Pox or Meazels in thirty years, except one, a Boy aged seven or eight years, to whom I was sent one day before he dyed, to consult with one Mr. Barmick, a Physick Doctor, and the Families then ordinary Physi­cian. The Childs Skin being speck­led with black Spots like Pestilen­tial Exanthemata or Tokens, the Pox appearing of an Olive colour, and attended with a bloody Urine, it was told the Parents, it was too late; we agreed upon two or three Expectation Remedies, and so end­ed our grave Consult.

[Page 202] 11. Coughs, as I mentioned be­fore, are through Expectation cured by Syrups, and other sugar'd com­posts, which sometimes prove the worst of Expectation Remedies, in regard they clog and oppress the Stomach, though by a present smoothing of the Gullet, and gi­ving ease, they readily perswade the coughing Patient he receives benefit, and therefore is very wil­ling to stay from one time to ano­ther, until by the help of absti­nence Nature hath thrown up the abounding slyme.

12. For the better understanding of this matter, know there are more Coughs of the Stomach, than of the Lungs; and that most Coughs in the beginning are Stomach-Coughs, though afterwards by long continuance some turn into Lung-Coughs, and then they threa­ten danger. The Diaphragm with the help of the Musculs of the Breast and Belly, or abdomen, do as readily discharge or displode [Page 203] and throw-up humors out of the Gullet, and by succession out of the Stomach, as out of the Wind-pipe or Lungs. These humors are lodged in the glanduls of the Gul­let, discoursed of at large in my Treatise of the Scurvy, which be­ing swelled up, and irritated by Acrimony, contracted from the admixture of the vitiated dissolvent or ferment of the Stomach, and long Stagnation, by consent of parts and vellication of the Nerves of the sixth pair, incite and spur the diaphragm to an Explosion. The Argumentum à Iuvantibus & laedentibus plainly proves the asser­tion. 1. Smoothing Medicines have a present influence upon those Coughs, which must necessarily be from their immediate acting upon the Gullet, for their property and vertue without all contradiction must be changed into a different Operation, before they can be sup­posed to arrive to the Lungs. 2. Its vulgarly known, that Vomitives, [Page 204] or Purgatives have cured thousands of these sort of Coughs, by empty­ing the Stomach, and drawing from the Glanduls of the Gullet. 3. Sharp foure drinks, Salts, and Spices do oft immediately force violent Coughs. 4. The sense of the Patient doth testifie a weight and oppression at the Stomach, loathing of Victuals, and impair of digestion. 5. Fasting by diminishing those humors in the Stomach is another affirmative proof. 6. Long and deep coughing oft moving to nauseousness and Vomits, plainly demonstrates the Stomach chiefly affected in this sort of Cough. 7. The slime that's thrown up being oft yellow, green, and of other variegated colours, re­ceives that tincture in many cases from the different qualities and nature of the dissolvent or ferment of the Stomach, varying according to the nature of the food ingested a day or two before. 8. The same slime hath sometimes been obser­ved to be mixt with an indigested [Page 205] chyle. 9. Syrup of Violets hath oft been return [...]d by Cough and Ex­pectoration with Phleme tinctured blue, a Proof, it came from the Stomach or Gullet. Besides these, I must omit many other Arguments too prolix to be here inserted.

13. Those Coughs that have fol­lowed some ten, twenty, or thirty years, and others I have known to continue forty years, are undoubt­edly Stomach Coughs; and assu­ming rather the office of an Issue or drain, are scarce to be termed Diseases, but necessary Evacuations, and are to be treated very cauti­ously; for being violently turned downward by repeated strong Pur­gatives, nature having lost its ac­customed roads, must in some in­terval of time extreamly suffer by it. Very frequently a long Cough doth turn either to a Consumption with an Hectic Fever, or to a putrid continual Fever. In Consumptions attended with an Hectic Fever, the slime that's expectorated is inter­mixt [Page 206] for the most part with puru­lent Particles.

My design not being a Treatise of Coughs, further than to give you an instance of its expectative mode of curing, which in this and the preceding Diseases is a sufficient pattern for many others, I proceed to the next.

THE Term of College of Physi­cians making such an obstre­perous noise, it may be of use to inform the Reader with the right sense of the matter.

A College of Physicians is a volunta­ry friendly Club, Society, or Associati­on of Doctors of Physick, mutually con­sented, and agreed unto, under certain just and equal Conditions, Rules, Laws, [Page 207] Covenants and Promises corroborated, made binding and valid by the Allow­ance, Concession, or Approbation of the Magistrate, to the end a mutual friend­ly Correspondence, Behaviour, and Re­spect he had to each other, a just Regu­lation be made in the Practice of Phy­sick, the Art improved by their joynt Endeavours and amicable Conserences, and most chiesly that all may be intended and designed for the publick good in ge­neral, and of every one under their Care in particular, also for the Honour of the Art. Whatever is not exactly square and sutable with every indi­vidual branch of this description, infers usual and set meetings of Physicians, rather a Pseudo-Collegi­um, Combination, Physick-Riot, or bundle of Physicians unjustly tyed together for the attaining of their particular ends, to the prejudice of the Publick; so that, a threat or force put upon Physicians by un­lawful arrests, imprisonment, a magisterial arrogant Citation by Writ and Bedel, Calumnies, and [Page 208] Scandals, to compel or drive them into a College of Phys. is neither voluntary nor friendly, nor can ever conspire into a Society, which implyes a real and vertuous Friend­ship between the Members or Col­legues. On the contrary, Persons so driven in must very probably retain a resentment, which shall ever after occasion jarrings, con­tests, abuses, and affronts. Where­fore, in all Protestant Colleges of Physicians abroad, it is a Custom flowing from their Humanity and good Manners,

upon the knowledge of the arrival of any Doctor of Physick to their City, and his intent of setling there, to depute two Collegue Physicians out of their body, to congratulate him at his House or Lodgings, and give him an Invitation in obliging Language, that he will please to give them the honour of his Com­pany at their College meeting, [Page 209] where shewing unto him their Sta­tutes, they very civily request him to be a Member of their Society by subscribing to their Laws. After their Physick Affairs an Confe­rences are finish'd, they are enter­tained with a Glass of Wine, inter­posed with familiar Discourses one with the other. This indeed looks like a Society, or friendly Conver­sation; but to hurry a Stranger, thought a most learned Doctor of Physick, like a Rascal or Crimi­nal by their Bedel to their College Tribunal, and there read to him this Sentence; Thou shalt go to the place from whence thou camest, and thence attend all our Members at each their individual dwelling place, (which sometimes is a Garret) your Flat in your Right-hand, your Left-hand on your Breast, your Knees bending, and your Head hanging down, with an humble Petition, that they will please to condes­cend to your adm [...]tance into their Col­lege; and having obtained all their Suf­frages, thou-shalt return hither, and yet [Page 210] at the lower end of that Table with thy Hat on thy Knees, thy Hands on thy Hat, thy Eyes modestly looking on thy said Hat, and in that Posture make an­swer to all such Questions as shall be proposed unto you. After thou hast like a good School Boy merited our Favour, we do require of thee, to pay unto our Treasurer thirty, forty, fifty, threescore, fourscore, or a hundred pounds. This is the Custom of most Popish Colleges in France, Italy, and elsewhere, with­out an Innuendo. At Paris the Mule-Doctors demand either three or six thousand Livres; at Angers six hun­dred Livres; and in another place one hundred pounds. Whether this arbitrary Extortion supported by a pretended Law, be not worse than a Decimation, Fine, or Tax set upon the head of a Prisoner by the Banditi of Calabria, I leave to your Judgment. Whether a legal Doctor of Physick of twenty, thir­ty, or forty years Practice, of known Learning and Experience, [Page 211] shall be basely summoned by a Pseu [...]lo-Collegium, or a false pretend­ed illegal forlitten College, as ma­ny in France, Italy, &c. (whereof some are Papists, Atheist, Impo­stors, Barbers, and Apothecaries, graduated by the French King's Mandate, or gratuitously doctorated by crowding in among the Atten­dants of Princes upon their visiting an University; others may be gro­fly ignorant, originally blew-Coat Boys, and unduly educated, in committing of Murthers exceeding Italian Bravo's) and by them with­out being upon their Oath (for da­re fidem is no more, but to promise) be examined and demanded the most puerile idle insignificant que­stions, which though answer'd with the greatest exactness imaginable, he shall maliciously be returned by them as ignoramus, on purpose to make a monopoly of Physick; by excluding all Physicians legally promoted to degrees, by that sort of barbarous usage, and binding of [Page 212] them to Statutes, that no man in conscience, honesty, justice, or ho­nour can submit unto; I ask whe­ther all this be not more agreeable with the Spirit of Devils, than of Men? Should a pious learned and legal Doctor of Divinity upon his application to his Bishop, before he will admit him to a Living, be re­quired by him to be examined by his Chaplain, who shall put him to the reading of his Greek Alpha­bet, do you not think, this would be an affront to Universities, and a very unchristian way of dealing? The case is much the same.

The true description of a Col­lege asserts the regulation of pra­ctice to be one of the true ends; that is to agree to such rules or or­ders, as may direct and guide them in Consultations; as that the elder Physician shall give his Opinion first, on last; that the suffrages or Opinions shall be collected and de­termined by the Physician in ordi­nary of the Patient. That no Phy­sician [Page 213] shall insinuate into the Pati­ents favour to put out the Physici­ [...]n in ordinary, and such like or­ders: But these are not to relate to any Physician, that is not of their College, who in all Protestant Countries have an equal priviledge of Practice, which is derived from the Universities. For a College of Physicians to pretend to examine, and give Licenses to practice, is a down right affront and injury to the Universities. It is most natu­ral, that they that teach a Professi­on ought to be Judges to know, when the Scholar is sufficiently taught to exercise that Profession. Shall an University be at the trou­ble and charge to maintain Profes­sors to instruct and teach Scholars, and not have the honor and recom­pence to endow them with the pri­viledge to exercise what they taught them. It is a cheat in all Univer­sities to grant a power and privi­ledge of practising Physick, if they cannot maintain it; this is non­sense [Page 214] all over. If a College of Phy­sicians will presume to give Licen­ses, they ought to entertain Profes­sors to read and teach Physick, and confer degrees; and then they must come under the notion of an Uni­versity. Neither can or ought any Popish College of Physicians (abroad) be so impudently arrogant, as to as­sume a power to judge of Male-pra­ctice, and thereupon arbitrarily to set a mulct, or imprison; for that would infer them to be judge and party, which is most absurd. Besides it implyes, they take a Regal Power upon them; for a Prince is the su­preme Judge, there being none above him; and so a College pretends to be the supreme Judge of Mase-pra­ctice, there being none above them to judge of their Male-practice, as oft as they shall commit it, unless you will presume a College cannot err, no more than a Prince▪ More­over to judge, determine, fine, and imprison, is to undertake upon the power of the Civil Magistrate, to [Page 215] abridge their Authority, and to affront their respect and dignity, which is the greatest piece of Im­pudence, that can be alledged. No more than the Guild of Goldsmiths can punish and imprison any of their own Members, or Foreigners, for counterfeiting or abasing the Standart of Gold or Silver in a piece of Plate, can a College punish any Physician for Male-practice, or Murder, neither can they arbi­trarily extort sums of Money from Apothecaries or Mountebancks, for vending of good or bad Medicines. These are matters the Civil Magi­strate takes cognisance of, and the Corpus Iuris civilis is provided with Laws under several heads for pu­nishing Physicians, Apothecaries, Surgeons, Mountebancks, and all others for Male and illegal Practice; and every offence or crime being only punishable by one sole proper Court, shall a man be punish'd by a College of Physicians, and after­ward be punishable by the common [Page 216] Laws of a Country? this certainly is an absurdity; for no man can or ought to be twice punish'd for the same offence. In a College of Physicians all ought to be Doctors of Physick, that is, of an equal rank and dignity, without pretend­ing to any other precedency, than what for orders sake Seniority al­lows; or how can they else be termed a Society or a meeting for sociable Conversation, which na­turally includes a parity and equa­lity of Members? In conclusion, to verifie this whole Discourse, give me leave to present to your view, as an Example, and Pattern, a Translation of the printed Statutes (annex't to the Pharmacopoea Hagien­si [...]) of one of justest, and most learn­ed Colleges of Physicians of Europe, viz. that of the Hague, whereof my self for thirty years past have been, and am the meanest of their Mem­bers.

[Page 222]I am to give you a farther ac­count, that all those Conversati­ons at their College meeting are managed in the Latin Tongue, and so are all Consultations, which makes me presume, that many Physicians that are Collegues in some other place, would not pass muster with us, not only for be­ing imperfect Scholars, but for be­ing unduly educated, and proba­bly but half Physicians, and little Physicksters. Moreover as to the small sum of Money, that is re­quired for the defraying of neces­sary charges only, any Doctor of Physick whose streightness of for­tune will not bear so small an Expence, is not only admitted Gratis, but they are also very in­clinable to recommend him to bu­siness. Doctor Whitaker, who was Physician to his Majesties Family King Charles the Second in his Ex­ile, and one Doctor Magdowel a Scots-man, were both very sensi­ble of their Civilities in that kind.

[Page 223] As to the Educating a young Student to the Art of Physick, which I have cursorily hinted at before, there is no University in the World comparable to that of Leyden in Holland, which doth so far excel Padua, Bolongne, Montpe­lier, or Paris, that they ought not to be named in one Paragraph, though I judge it necessary for a Physician to visit them, and some others, but for different purposes, which I have exactly described in a Treati [...]e without my Name to it, called the Accomplish'd Physician and Honest Apothecary, Fol. 17. Print­ed for W. Thackery in Duck-lane. That Tract, The Noble Mans Case, The Conclave of Physicians, and this do all variously express the Mistakes, Errors, Frauds, and un­worthy Practices of Physicians, whereof every day gives new Matter, and will do to the Worlds End.

The Education there described I have to a tittle observed my self, [Page 224] and have also a Son beyond Sea passing the same Track, which I dare presume not [...]ix in this whole Kingdom have done.