CHAP. I.
Of the subdolous proceedings in Con­sultations: together with the recital of an eminent Case in Physick.

§ 1. THe spacious extent of the Art of Physick is by Hippocrates in this aphorism asserted, to exceed the narrow comprehension or [Page 2] capacity of the physical man, in that short interval he commonly abides in this Atmosphere; So that, unless the endeavours and studies of several ages be link'd together, it is not to be hoped, that any considerable pro­gress will be made therein, specially, when it must be observed, that the path we now adays wander in, is the old trodden way, and the new one we sometimes light into, (as that of curing Feavors, and Agues, with the Iesuitical or Devils-Bark) is oft attended with a success so diffe­rent from our expectation. Give me leave therefore, judicious Reader, to pay my Duty to that Profession I have from my younger years been train'd up in, by making remarks on some eminent cases in Physick, that within few years have presen­ted, with a sort of modesty and impartiality, that those who are the most Malevolent, and the sole Incorporators of Ph [...]sick, shall escape the occasion of [...] to the [Page 3] World, I have us'd them rudely or maliciously.

§ 2. Solomon, the greatest in wisdom, which implies him in all Natural and Supernatural subjects the most knowing, gives us this re­mark, ( Eccles. 2. 3.) There is a time to kill, and a time to heal; which my Mother-wit interprets, That a Phy­sician, at sometimes he kills, and at sometimes he cures. Now, if this Obser­vation doth still continue to square with vulgar Parisian Physicians, (whose education was but mean, though by Association are rendred very significant) I may infer, that the Art of Physick hath not received the least improvement in the practi­cal part, since the age of that wise King; for even in these days there is a time to kill, and a time to heal; and for this reason suffer me once more to tell you, that (according to my Hippocratical Text, Life is short, but the Art is long) it highly concerns the duty of every honest and consci­entious [Page 4] Physician, to contribute to his Faculty what may tend to the promoting and advancement of it; which, in my judgment, can best be performed, by making practical Observations, to the end the time of killing may be avoided. Furthermore, observe, that as Solomon sets down, that there is a time to kill before the time to heal: so generally, Phy­sicians (especially of pretended Societies) kill more than they cure.

§ 3. It is not with every trivial matter I must trouble your reading, but with what is most remarkable and eminent. Such is the case of Sr.—( Eschevin and Citizen of Paris) a person whose conversation, in his life-time, was so qualified with Vir­tue, as render'd his actions glorious, especially those that tended so tran­scendently to Charity and Piety, the marks whereof must survive him in many poor Widows and Orphans. This worthy Citizen was the Pa­tient, [Page 5] which in English signifies Sufferer. His Physicians were many, and those of the first Magnitude; who being all united into one Con­sult, we may well admire (if great Learning, vast Skill, Gravity, For­mality, conceited Caps, Volpony Gowns, Anatomical Theatre, Cir­culation Library, Coach and Horses, avail any thing) that there should any Disease be so great, or indeed so little, that should not be blown off with such Charms as are mark'd in their Recipe-scrowls. But you must suspend your curiosity of view­ing the Closet of their Arcana's, un­til you are acquainted with the state of the Sufferer's Distemper, his Con­stitution, Age, and other circumstan­ces, which you shall read by and by.

§ 5. In most Countreys, a Cri­minal who is to be put to the Rack, or any ways executed, is usually, from his suffering, called the Pa­tient, or Sufferer; and so is the sick man, that is to subject himself to the [Page 6] rigid sentence of some of the com­bined Physicians; which renders the word Patient or Sufferer truly synonymous to both; For, if it be well considered, a diseased Sufferer, whose quality being conspicuous, must in course be tryed by a Con­sult, or Jury of Physicians: the Quorum whereof consisting of three at least, the first called performs the Office of an Attorney-General; He, in making of his Process, ex­hibits his Charge against the Suffe­rer: declaring, that he hath been very intemperate in eating or drink­ing, or hath been negligent of his health, in exposing himself to the incertainty of the Air, by leaving off some Cloaths, (as, a pair of Garters, Cuff-strings) or by some violent motion, passion, or other extravagancy; or hath extremely injur'd himself, by over-waking, or over-sleeping, or by this, that, or t'other senseless occasional cause, (as he in his wonted dialect doth term it) [Page 7] whereby the Sufferer hath now cast himself into a Feaver, Dropsie, Consumption, or what other Disease he is (ignorantly enough) pleased to call it; and so, as they would make the world believe, is become felo de se, which is his capital Crime. Upon little or no examination of the Evidence, by this puny Con­siglio di sanita, (wherein an Ana­tomical killing Idol, a Tom Tattle, a School-master turn'd Physician, a Western Bumkin, that pretends to Limbo Children in the Small-Pox by a new method, or, more especially, a Sir Formal Flegmatick, must be Chair-man,) He is falsly convicted of this, or that Felony on himself; and, most commonly if his Crime or Disease be great, is sentenc'd to die, and to be executed by tying a Halter about his Arm, and afterward to be stabb'd in it with a Lancet, to draw off so much Bloud, until he be Herring-dead. Another way of execution they use, is to impale the [Page 8] Sufferer with a Machine of Box or Ivory, being in nothing different from a Clyster-pipe; and this to be used so oft, until it comes out at his mouth: or, if this fails, to order such la Voisine Drenches to be pour­ed down his throat, which may do them the good service to stifle the Sufferer's ( aura Vitalis) vital flame in a few days. The Sufferer, since it is for Treason he hath committed against himself, after he is dead, (it's well, if, to make sure work, it is not done before) is to be quar­ter'd, (which in their phrase, is called opening the Body,) and his Bowels taken out, under pretence of making inspection what Disease the Sufferer dyed of; but, in truth, it's more oft to be satisfied in the effects of their bleedings, and deleterious Draughts, and which of the Noble Parts were most injured. But, lest you should suspect this Paragraph a Burlesque of Partiality, which re vera is the greatest Truth, it shall [Page 9] be made plain to you from their undue way of Education, and con­firmed Ignorance, thus imposing upon the Vulgar, by the strength of a pretended Priviledge, and their mutual combination to defraud the unwary of their Lives. I shall leave this subject a while, and proceed on the fore-mentioned Sufferer's Case.

§ 5. He was surprized on Satur­day (preceding the Bills) upon drinking a large draught of bottl'd-Ale, to quench his droughth, (which his walking into a sweat in a very hot day had much augmented) with a coldness and shivering, sick­ness at his Stomach, pain in his Head, and weariness all over his Body, which in some few hours turn'd into a smart or violent heat, whereunto, upon some interval of time, a moderate Sweat was subse­quent. His Urin did not exceed the colour of Amber, and the Sediment thin and scattered; His Respiration answered his Pulse, which was [Page 10] some what swift, large and high, and not very unequal in motion; His Age was some few years be­yond Forty, which, together with the soundness of his Entrails, his carnous, plethorick, hail and vi­gorous Constitution, seem'd strong enough to have struggl'd with a far greater Disease, than this ordinary Autumnal Distemper.

It was named by his men of Physick, the new Disease: a name of ignorance, or their accustomed Asylum ignoran­tiae, to which they take their refuge, when they know not what the Di­sease is, or what to call it. One time they shall tell you, it is an Ague; ano­ther, it is a Feavor; a third, it's an Ague and Feavor; a fourth, it's Fea­vor and Ague; a fifth, it's the new Disease: a denomination so idle, that every Novice in Physick might well suspect they had never read Hippocrates or Galen; specially, upon observing, that every Autumnal or Epidemick Distemper is by them [Page 11] termed new: whereas, the gentle Pox excepted, there is not any a­mong all those they have nomina­ted new Diseases, but what is amply described in many ancient Authors.

§ 6. The consequence of mistakes in Diseases is so obvious, even to the most obtuse judgments, that it's received for a mathematical de­duction, If the Doctor hath mista­ken my Distemper, I am a dead man, or in danger of being so, And rather than the Doctor will espouse his errour in that point, or permit another (of more sense or expe­rience) to be called in upon him, whereby his Reputation may in the least punctilio be shock'd, or his Fees abated, Thou, and a Thousand more, shall be posted away to the Subterranean Mansions, where all things shall be forgotten, and thy evidence against the said Physician wholly cancell'd. Such is the Igno­rance, Avarice, and Barbarian per­versity of some Physicians, whom [Page 12] Authority and Law do shelter from all manner of Accusations, Scandal, or Reproach.

The matter of this Paragraph is not so intricate, but you may easily be induced to believe, that where so many Thousands do yield their last Breath to Diseases, in themselves not mortal, it must be imputed to errour in judgment of your Physi­cian; which, how frequent that is, an instance or two of some vogued Physicians will render a satisfaction more ample. It was Dr. B. Pr. of C—(a person sufficiently known) who gave me the recital of this following Case, at the house of Mr. I. M. Surg—. A Gentleman, mov'd through care for the recovery of his (neither sick nor well) Daughter, was l'aps'd into that stupidity of sense, as to believe it was in the capa­city of Dr.—to restore her: Upon notice given him, he appears at the Bed-side of the Sufferer, where feeling her Pulse large and quick, [Page 13] and discerning her Skin sprinkl'd with a numerous train of red Spots and Blotches, very gravely pronoun­ces his immature deliberation; (viz.) That the Sufferer's Life was in more than ordinary danger, through the almost Pestilential ma­lignity that her great Feavor mani­fested by those red Tokens: There­fore time was to be taken by the fore-top, and she immediately to take her recourse to strong Cordials, a great many Bed-cloaths, and a warm Room, to expel the malignity. So imminent a Danger, such great Remedies, offer'd by so eminent a Physician, ( oibo!) could not but be recompenced by a great Fee. The prevalence of these Physick­bulls acquired no other repute, than maintaining the Distemper in the same tone and tenour, or rather, adding to it what they most feared: which gave occasion to the sollici­tous Parent of the tender Matron, upon a fortuitous meeting of Dr. B. [Page 14] (the Relator of these) to exhibit his complaint of the rudeness of the Distemper, and the inefficacy of Medicines. The Doctor, upon a full hearing of the circumstances, found he had no cause for condo­ling, but rather congratulating him, in the secure estate his Daughter was in; insinuating, that the hazard of the Disease was much less, than of the Remedies prescribed by the dictates of a deceived opinion in the first Doctor, of the Disease, and its malignity; the Distemper proving no other than a diaria plu­rium dierum, or a f [...]bris Synocha imputris, (commonly so called among practical Authors) occasio­ned by the ebullition of a plethorick mass of humours, which being by frequent rapid motions and pulsa­tions too much rarified and subtilia­ted, overflowed the banks of its Vessels, and being diffused into the minute creeks of the ambient Cutis, (or Skin) appeared in the shap [...]s [Page 15] of the recited Spots and Blotches; deserving no other name than meer efflorescencies of the Skin. In con­sequence of this Theory, the practick was easily chalk'd out; ( viz.) That the kindling and inflaming Cordial-Spirits were to be abandoned, the great burthen of Coverlets taken off, and the temperature of the Air in the Room moderated; the success whereof was manifested in a sudden recovery of her former health, to the great disappointment of so contrary course as was ordered by the other.

§ 7. It is from hence I can be easily persuaded, that, how great an Idol soever a Fellow is set up by the Vulgar, from the false suggestion of Dog-fleying, he shall never arrive to a sagacity of distinguishing Di­seases, unless he hath from the beginning been train'd up to it, by the conduct of able Professors at home and abroad, and frequently visited Hospitals in several Coun­treys. Moreover, as in the Art of [Page 16] Writing, Painting▪ or Engraving, the well forming of the first Letters, Lin [...]ments or Figures, prepares an apt disposition in the young Scholar to receive the just impressions of the Habit or Art, whence he shall de­servedly be stiled a good Writer, Painter, or Engraver: So, unless the intended young Physician shall be endued with an apt disposition; 1. To attain the Languages, that render the recorded Rules and Theo­rems of the ancient and modern Physicians intelligible unto him; 2. To be gradually instructed in Philosophy, as well Machanick as Peripatetick; also, in the several parts of Theoretick Physick; as, in the Nature and Constitution of the Body of Man, where true Anatomy bears so great a part; in the signs, whereby to distinguish the natural and counternatural state of the Bo­dy, and to presage the event and issue of the latter; to know the faculties of all sorts of Food, Flesh, Fish, [Page 17] Herbs, Air, Water, Drinks, &c. 3. To have discover'd to him the means whereby Diseases, both in­ternal and external, may be remo­ved; and to that purpose, to be acquainted with the faces of Herbs, Drugs, Minerals, Animals, or, summarily, the whole materia Me­dica; their Choice, Prices, Prepa­rations; likewise, all Chyrurgical Instruments, and their uses; in fine, it's necessary be should be a perfect Theoretick and Practick Apotheca­ry, Chymist, and Chyrurgeon: And because he should not want that which puts almost the last hand to render him a Physician, (all others, tho' they have clamber'd up to a Degree, are little different from Mountebanks, or Man-slayers) he is to be very well grounded in the true method of Physick, or order of applying proper Remedies, in­ternal and external, to Diseases, in their just time and Doses.

§ 8. And now, after all this appara­tus [Page 18] we will suppose our Infant-Physi­cian so compleatly dress'd up with these fore-noted School and Acade­mick Ornaments, and his mind so gaudily painted and daub'd with the ancient, uncertain, and some new tic­kling notions in Medicine, that you may hear the clapper of his Tongue eccho from the East to the West-gate of your Town; Yet, introduce him to a Patient, and grant that he, by appuising or resting his Velvet-Body on his Iapan Crutch, and fixing his Intellect, by drawing the broad­brimm'd Beaver over his eyes, seem­eth to mimick a decrepid Gra­vity, and by that to weigh himself down to the bottom of your Belly, to rummage for the Disease; when he wakes (for he has only been in's dumps) out of this brown study, he shall no more know the Distem­per, or the cause of it, (though he hath read it in Authors twenty times) than the Skipper that never was toss'd on the Ocean before, pre­tends [Page 19] to find out Bermudas by his Waggenaer; Nevertheless doth he adventure to call for Paper and Ink, to figure down a Remedy he never saw before, being only acquainted with the bare Name of it. This you are to swallow, and to render your Body the subject, whereout he is to dig his experience, at the cost of your Health, Life, and Estate. When by his Book-applications he shall thus have brought your crazy Tenement (and, probably, of Hundreds more,) to the ground, the World that consists chiefly of the Vulgar, will then, from the calculation of his nume­rous experience, (though never so unfortunate) entitle him a most skilful Doctor, and in flocks volun­tarily surrender their Bodies to his torture. Likewise the Rich and No­ble, who take the measures of their sentiments of the Physicians capacity from the crowd of his business, (that profession being wholly out of the horizon of their judgment) shall [Page 20] accost him with the same temerity. If unto this you shall add, that he is a great Anatomist (which perhaps appears no other than a Dog-fleyer, or a Calfs-head-Dissector) and that he hath scribl'd a Treatise of the Heart, Lungs, Brains, Womb, or some I mean Treatise. other Entrail, (though of no use) that he is Member of a Herd of learned Q—ks, Renegado-Divines, School-masters, Apothecaries, and Barbers, (a rare hodge-potch of Physicians!) or that he is drawn about streets in his own Coach: these suggestions shall prove a far more alluring bait for the unwary sick people to be caught by.

§ 9 In conclusion, the foremen­tioned School and Academick In­stitutes (though absolutly necessary) without which none can arrive to the name of a Dogmatick or Rational Physician; yet thereby is little ad­vanced, beyond the Verge of a spe­culative man, and so notwithstand­ing [Page 21] must and doth fill Church-yards the best part of his life-time. There­fore that which is the Soul of a Physician, and animates those prae­vious Dispositions, (for Theory is no other) is Sagacity and Observa­tion. The former is in a great mea­sure Natural, though improved by Art, and whereby a Physician doth with great facility discover a Dis­ease, its Causes, and proper Re­medies. Observation is that, which confirms him in such discoveries, and the election of Method and Reme­dies, and particularly in his Prog­nosticks. Now, upon application of this Discourse to two or three hundred Physicians, you shall scarce find six, that can justly pretend to the Title of a good Physician, or whose Education doth hardly qualify them to be rendred such. Besides all this, suppose a Physician to be accom­plisht in all the parts of his Art, if he be covetous, negligent, disho­nest, or uncharitable, he is more [Page 22] capable of defrauding you of your Health, Life, and Money, without danger of being discovered, than one that is ignorant, and un-expe­rienced. These considerations do move a pity and compassion towards such, that being Persons of integrity and honesty do fall under the hands of covetous, ne­gligent, dishonest, or uncharitable Physitians; and adding thereunto, that they are insufficiently Educa­ted, ignorant, in-sagacious, and in-expert (as most are) in what a desperate case are their Patients? But the matter is not much; the greater part of humanity (I should say inhumanity) not deserving a good Medicine, Method, or Care of a good Physician.

CHAP. II.
Of the specious and false pretences of Anatomical Physicians; also of the Vse and Abuse of Anatomy.

§ 1. OBservation speaks this truth; He that dwelleth a long time upon any particular in­troductory part of Physick, seldom or never arrives to a considerable proficiency in his Art; so that He that shall (beyond the necessary and competent knowledge in Anatomy, Botany, &c.) Trifle away that season, wherein a young Students intellectuals are in their prime and vigour, upon mangling of Piggs, Cats, Dogs, and Plucks; or upon gazing and muzling seven years upon a Hedge, Ditch, or Banks­side, to enquire for new Faces of Plants and Herbs, which the petu­lancy of the Earth doth thrust forth, [Page 24] to consume its excrementitious moi­sture, and sulphurous Sweats, and thereout form such Herbs, which Nature never intended for the health of man, but probably for Garniture of the Fields, or to poison Worms, Moles, Flyes, and other Insects, that destroy Corn, Roots, Herbs and such Vegetables, which God hath provided for humane use. I say, that neither out of such an Anatomist, or such a Botanist, seldom or never grew a good Phy­sitian; no otherwise than one who has amused himself with the Phi­losophy of Colours, Lights, Opticks, Pensils, and Brushes, to an excessive waste of his time, and applyeth him­self to drawing of Figures, and afterwards to Painting; this Phanta­stique must necessarily miss his aim of ever being a Painter, or Limner; because the time, wherein his parts were most capable of improvement, was neglected, and diverted by a curiosity of attaining a knowledge, [Page 25] beyond what was necessary for his Art.

§ 2. But to speak in terms more plain; the necessary point of Ana­tomy consists chiefly in the tempe­rament, Figure, Situation, connexion, action, and use of the parts; and not in superfluous, incertain, and probably false, and indemonstrable niceties, practised by those, that flea Dogs and Cats, dry, roast, bake, parboil, steep in Vinegar, Lime-water, or aqua fortis, Livers, Lungs, Kidneys, Calves brains, or any other entrail, and afterwards gaze on little particles of them through a Microscope, and what­ever false appearances are glanced into their eyes, these to obtrude to the World in Print, to no other end, than to beget a belief in people, that they who have so profoundly dived into the bottomless pores of the parts, must undeniably be skilled in curing their distempers: where­as those pretended Anatomical Phy­sicians, [Page 26] who have so belabour'd, and tortur'd the particular parts, are ge­nerally the least knowing in the whole body of Anatomy; and the Situation, Connexion, and Action of the parts. On the other hand, there is scarce any Physician, who hath had a due education beyond Sea, but is abundantly more knowing (even beyond what is necessary) in the Anatomy of all the parts of the body of man, than any of these particular pretenders.

§ 3. I would enquire, what doth it signify to assert, that all Muscles have two bellies, or are biventered? Which is false, and the erroneous appearance proceeded, either from over-boyling the Dogs Muscles (and then many more Bellies might have appeared) or was occasioned by disse­cting an old withered Curr, whose Muscles are generally full of wrin­ckles, which might have been ta­ken for so many venters of Muscles by such an Anatomist.

[Page 27] And what doth it import, to lay claim to the invention of Transfusion of Sheeps bloud into the Veins of a Man (though discovered long be­fore) or to measure what propor­tion of bloud passed the Heart in a quarter of an hour? Which compu­tation must likewise prove false, in regard the blood doth not always pass equally, and some men abound [...]n blood much more than others.

My opinion is, that the Studying the Anatomy of all the parts of the body, as much as is necessary, the being well grounded in the Institutes of Physick, Surgery, Pharmacy, and Chymistry, and the frequenting Hospitals abroad under the conduct of experienced Professors, to manu­duct him as it were into Practice; this I say, would have been a way much more honest, and ingenuous, than by a specious pretence in Ana­tomy, (being very deficient in the other parts of Physick) to insnare and decoy the unwary vulgar, and [Page 28] others, to defraud them of their mo­ney, and too oft through unskilful­ness to ruine their Health, destroy their bodies, and at last whirl'em out of their lives. And yet to my great amazement, with satisfaction to their Friends and Visiters, imagi­ning that their death was inevitable, since the Anatomical Doctor was here concerned, (though) if at the same time, a real accomplisht Phy­sician had procured their Recovery, it would have been judged a Distem­per easily curable; so that you may hereby discern, some Physicians get a greater reputation by killing, than others by curing. But this shall be evidently proved to you, in the pro­gress of this discourse, where I shall particularly instance the dangerous and unwarrantable methods of Phy­sick now in use.

CHAP. III.
Of the fraudulent pretext of Ana­tomy by a most unskilful Surgeon, obtruded to the vulgar. Barbarous practice and errors in Surgery.

§ 1. ANd since the knack has pro­ved so successful to these Trap Physitians, or Pseudomedici, some Surgeons have taken the scent, and fallen into the same path, of which Herd, one who keeps his abode at a City called Paris, finding himself rankt in the Reer among the meanest of his faculty (and that deservedly, as deriving his chief Talent only from a Cubb in a Spittle, and not from Practice in Cam­panes or Naval services, as he ought to have done) by proclaiming him­self in all Companies an Anatomist of Rats, Mice, Dogs, and Cats, insinuated into the phancies of the [Page 30] senceless Rabble this erroneous con­sequence, that he can best dress wounds, set bones, take off Legs, cure Claps, and cut the Stone, than knows the Fabrick of the Joynts, Situation of the Entrails, and the ramifications of the Nerves, Ar­teries and Veins, so that now he is advanced to be the Bell-weather, I should have said, carries the Bell be­fore all the Fraternity; among whom a man must look with a Candle and Lanthorn to find one more ignorant and less skilful; for sure I am, there is not a Hangman in Foreign parts, but knows the structure of the Joints as perfectly as the Gallows; there is scarce a Butcher that deals in Hogs-flesh, but is most exquisite in the Situation of the Entrails; and for the Figure and position of the Muscles, and the dissemination of the Veins and Ar­teries, Painters are excellently skill'd in; now must it needs follow among these three Anatomists, that the [Page 31] Hangman is the best Bone-setter, the Butcher the best Wound-healer, and the Painter the best bleeder, and opener of Imposthumes?

§ 2. But since the Parisian vulgar from such erroneous premisses draws so false a conclusion, I do pretend to conduct them into a better sort of reasoning, thereby to divert them from following a Bell-weather Sur­geon to his Slaughter house.

Anatomy is no further necessary to a Surgeon, than the knowledge of the nature of wood to a Carpen­ter, or of Stone to a Stone-cutter; Therefore the Situation and Figure of the Bowels, the ramification of the Vessels, and the position of the Muscules, being well under­stood by a Surgeon, is of absolute necessity, and what further pro­gress he is pleased to make in that science, as it is to him ornamental only, so it cuts off from that time, which ought to be imploy'd; 1. In knowing the Nature, Kinds, Causes [Page 32] and Signs of Wounds, Ulcers, Tu­mors, Imposthumes, Fractures, Dislo­cations. &c. And 2. In reading the Practical Observations of the most Famed Surgeons, as those of Fabri­tius Hildanus, Felix Wurtz, Soul­tetus, and many others. 3. In knowing all or most Chyrurgical Instruments, and their uses, the numerous sorts of Bandages, Oyls, Unguents, Plasters, Cataplasms, the various dressings, &c. 4. And chiefly, in ha­bituating himself to a dexterity in making use of all the most necessary Chyrurgical Instruments, in the ap­plication of all external Medicines, Bandages, and Dressings, and in the reposing of Fractures, and Disloca­tions; and from this Fourth parti­ticular (intimating all the kinds of Manual Operations in reference to the external Diseases of Man) it is the name of a Chyrurgion ( [...], or manual operation) is properly derived, being the very summary of Chyrurgery, and whence [Page 33] he doth principally intitle him­self to his profession. To this last he is to arrive, by the instruction and example of his own, and several other good Masters; by serving in several Hospitals at home and abroad, where the rarest of cases may occur; and by his own practice in Armies, or Fleets at Sea. And after all, this cannot be attained without a natural Sagacity in his mind, and an aptness and natural dis­position in his Hands. How few good Surgeons there are to be found, may easily be judged by what is pre­mised; yet it is very probable, there are more in England, than else­where.

§ 3. I have here laid down a mea­sure, by which we may soon fathom this Bell-weather, and where in the conclusion he will scarce appear to be so much as the half quarter of a Surgeon; so that this Anatomical device can be termed nothing but decoy, Fraud, or cheat upon the [Page 34] deceptile vulgus: Who possibly may reply, Volenti non fit injuria; whereunto must be re-joyn'd, deci­piatur ergo vulgus.

§ 4. He that could never arrive to so much dexterity of hand, to manage a Lancet, or to a proportion of Judgment to direct him, how deep and how long the Orifice is to be in the opening a Vein, can never by men of sence be determined fit to use the Knife in cutting the Stone, amputating of Members, opening Impost humes in difficult places, and in performing many other subtiler operations; certainly such a one, who hath so often failed in a piece of the little Surgery, as Phlebotomy, practised with success by every Bar­bers Boy, and Surgery-woman, cannot pretend so much to the name of a Manual Operator, as a Farrier, a Cowleech, or a Sow-gelder.

§ 5. To say such a man is a very good Surgeon, but he cannot bleed well, is as much nonsence, as to tell [Page 35] me, such a one is a very good Pain­ter but draws his stroaks crooked; and indeed there be many crooked arms to be seen at this day, that were occasion'd by an ill stroak of this Bell-weathers Lancet; among the rest that were husht and stifled, two instances could not be kept from the ears and eyes of the publick; the one was a largely Tumefied Arm of a Gentleman of the Law, accompanied with inexpressible pain, Feaver, upon this several Imposthumations, a Gangrene, and Putrid sordid Ul­cers, which required deep Scarifi­cations, Cutting, Slashing, besides a vast expence of money distributed among those, that were called in as Assistants: the torture endured for three or four months, and a serious debate at last about cutting off his Arm; and all this occasion'd by the unskilful puncturing the Median Vein, together with the Tendon of the Biceps Muscul near it; which error he would not have escaped, [Page 36] had he used the ridiculous blunt­sided Lancet of an Anatomical Do­ctor, unless the point had been blunt likewise; and then how it is to be used, I know not. Sit ut sit; The Ulcers were incarn'd, and ci­catriz'd at last, but not without leaving so ill an impression, and so great weakness on the Bowels, by gleets suck'd into the circulating mass, that in some time after they were incapable of resisting a small Feaver, that gave him a traverse in­to the other Hemisphere; but it was after a year and a day. However that expression might very well have been forborn, since there ap­pear'd no premeditated malice in the Surgeon, unless you will sup­pose malice in prae-designing getting of money, by the cure of the for­mer: or in another case, by a for­cible persuasion of a Patient to be cut of the Stone, on purpose for the gaining of twenty Pistols or Gui­neys. The Operation was perfor­med [Page 37] upon the Staff, (that is, with the Apparatus major) the Knife forced into the membranous part of the Bladder, too high by an inch, the lower part, (which is inter­spersed with carnous Fibres, being the proper place;) but no Stone was to be found in this Quarry; however a Gangrene survenes upon the wound, and the party was bubbl'd out of his Life. The Carcass being open'd, a Callosity was disco­vered near the Sphincter, where the Catheter commonly stopped, which was one imaginary sign of the Stone, and the other a difficulty, and a partial suppression of Urin upon a violent Cold, throwing Hu­mours to the Bladder, too much weakned by frequent hurts, recei­ved from being Probed by the Ca­theter, whence also the callosity proceeded. This Narrative to me savours of ignorance in the Specu­lative, unskilfulness in the Practick, and Avarice in the Mind, ( viz.) [Page 38] of adding twenty Pistols to his Pa­trimony; which is Vivitur Ingenio.

§ 6. It was not a mischance, which is meerly fortuitous and ex­traordinary, but a continuation of his unskilfulness, that attended the dismal and barbarous Lithotomy, or cutting the Stone on a Child of the Steward belonging to the Duke of— who within few days with misera­ble out-cries and tortures left this World, without leaving any visible cause in his Bladder, for which he was thus mangled; however here was another addition of twenty Pistols more. Abundance of these examples can be produced; but what is this to the stabbing the Knife into the Perinaeon, and wholly missing the Bladder, and then by repeating his stroak once or twice, to cause a mortal wound?

§ 7. Can it be termed any thing but the most Butcherly unskilful­ness, to cut a young Nobleman, and that (if I am not misinformed, [Page 39] therefore will not be positive) upon the gripe too, and leave an Ulcer, that turn'd into a Fistuld, whence to this hour a constant dribbling doth follow him?

§ 8. Another part of this Ope­ration is the extracting the Stone, wherein his errour is as obvious, breaking the Stone in the Bladder, lacerating those tender membranous parts in the extraction, and leaving pieces behind, whence the pains have afterwards accrew'd greater than before, the Stone being become an­gular, and in a short interval aug­mented to its former bigness.

The total is, that I cannot ob­serve, but four in five do miscarry, and sometimes the whole number.

§ 9. The Venereal practice is another considerable branch of his Chyrurgical exercise, where if we track him, we shall find a great num­ber of Gentlemen, bestowing curses upon him, for running them into the Pox, from very insignificant [Page 40] Gonorrhea's, Buboes, and Shankers.

§ 10. The most manifest errour in the least of these accidents (though the consequence is no less than a tedious long Cure, a Fistula, Pox, or too oft loss of life) is committed in his opening a Veneral Bubo, when the one part is scarce soft, and suppurated, and the other hard and in digested; the reason is obious, and con­tained in this Maxime, Pus ge­nerat Pus, Matter begets Matter. Like unto an Apple, that's partly rotten, where, if the rotten is suffered to continue, in a short time converts the whole Apple into a rotten substance; but being sepa­rated, the remainder is much longer rotting: And by the same reason, or maxime above mentioned, it appears, that a Cataplasme of rotten Apples mixt with boil'd Onions, is a very excellent suppurative.

§ 11. This is not all, the Orifice he made so large, that it extended [Page 41] from one side of the Bubo, to the other, giving the Taylors reason for it, that he loved to see his work before him. But what follows? The cold nitrous Air entring, hard­neth the remaining immaturated part like to a Stone, putrefieth the soft moist substance of the Glanduls underneath, besides their being the Sink of the Bowels, and consequently subject to receive the putrid noxious humours, that are thrown down from them, no part of the body being more tender, and apt to pu­trefy than Glanduls. Of necessity this Ulcer was to be kept open, until the fore-mentioned hardness was converted into Matter, whilst in the interim, Cataracts of Hu­mours were thrown down, by which turning into a corrupt matter, and Sordes, all the tender flesh was de­vour'd, the little white Vessels of the Glanduls corroded, and the great Veins expos'd to view; which must prove very dangerous. In fine, [Page 42] in spight of all Purges, Vomits, Sa­livations, and other Revulsions, three quarters of a year scarce accomplisht a cicatrization, without leaving a Fistula, and a continual gleet. This and many more which I have seen, might in four days, or somewhat longer, after a compleat suppura­tion, have been brought to a safe and sound cicatrize. But then our Anatomical Spark would have failed an opportunity, of amplifying his Stock with Thirty or Forty Pistols or Guineys.

§ 12. The Objection is futil, im­plying in the case fore-mentioned, that where Matter is lockt up, it makes Caverns, Sinus, and Fistula's; For as Nature is most potent inwards, so likewise is intent upon her own Preservation, the thicker part of the Matter being better digested, consequently milder, less corosive, and glutinous or slymy, she converts into a membranous substance, by the heat which is most vigorous within [Page 43] next the flesh, to defend it; and the thinner part that is corroding, a crimonious and ichorous, she pro­trudes towards the ambient skin, where through its putrid acid Salts it gradually corrodes, and perforates the skin. Hence you may fur­nish your self with the true reason, why most external Tumours, when turn'd into Imposthumes, most com­monly break outwardly, and not one in a Million inwardly.

§ 13. To give you a further in­stance of Natures self preservation. Suppose some excrementitious hu­mours (almost homogeneous) col­lected in the breast, in a short time by its heat dryeth the circumference of those humours, into a Coat, or Tunic, (which among Surgeons is called a Cystis) to preserve other parts from further annoyance. Now the fore­said humours cannot be converted into Matter, because they are in a manner homogenous, and so Nature secures them from doing any further [Page 44] hurt, by locking them up in a Cystis: Thus a Steatoma, Meliceris, and Atheroma, are engendred.

§ 14. True it is, where the Air entring in at the Orifice of an Impo­sthume, or hollow Ulcer, shall have putrefy'd or corrupted the appelling humours in the most remote part of the said Ulcer, or Imposthume, into an acrimonious and corroding Pus, by keeping it open too long, or by applying Medicines, that are ineffectual, contrary, or putrefying and unctuous, or by negligence in dressing, or by unskilfulness in com­presses and bandage, there it's absolutely requisite, the Orifice should be enlarged, or another made, that's near the cavern, where Mat­ter may lurk, to the end that the said Matter may be deterged, and the vitiated temperament of that part corrected; unless he is skill'd in Injections, that are proper, or other Medicines, whose steem may reach, and penetrate to the most [Page 45] retired and abscond cunicle of an Ulcer; for such Medicines there are.

Another Observation of great importance is, that all Ulcers near Glanduls, by being kept open too long, turn Cancerous, and oft­times incurable.

Tumors collected in a cold part, as suppose about the Tonsils, or any other Glanduls, and tending to suppuration, if opened never so little too early, though they seem sufficiently absterged, and afterwards consolidated, yet they are very apt to be recollected, and appear again about the same season the year following, and this for several years successively; because there was some small part of the humour left indigested, and hardned (by the nitrous Air entring at the Orifice) which afterwards doth become a Seminary, or Ferment (as others will have it) by length of time converting the appelling humours [Page 46] into its own Nature, whereby at last a new Tumour is ingendred: Therefore except some great urgen­cy (as suffocation) doth indicate apertion by puncture, or incision, it's much more advisable, to give Nature her own time in breaking the said Imposthume, there being no fear, that by such delay any Cuniculi or caverns will be made, the reason whereof I have already given you in the foregoing Para­graphs.

§ 15. As I ushered in this dis­course with an animadversion of an errour in the little Surgery, viz. Phlebotomy, so I shall conclude it with another of the same kind, acted by the Idem Operator, who being sent for to a Gentleman of Quality, of the T— to open a Vein, pierced his Tool so deep, that the Neighbouring Ten­don received a considerable pun­cture, which caused it immediately to contract it self into the hardness [Page 47] and unevenness of a Cord, attended with a most unquiet jactitating Fever, and a pain almost impatible. I being called to advise, what was to be done in this Tragical case, was not of opinion, that as the Wound made by a Scorpion was to be remedied by applying the same Scorpion to it, so the same Surgeon ought to be con­tinued to heal his own Wounds; But another whose knowledge and skill were sufficiently known to me, was to be imployed, to whom I recom­mended what external Medicines his Pledgets were to be armed with, and what Emplaster to be super-im­posed, leaving the application and Bandage to himself, by which means the Patients Arm was per­fectly cured in Six or Eight days.

§ 16. The occasion of this un­toward bleeding, was the distor­ting of the Vein by the Bandage towards the Tendon, so that they lay as it were Perpendicular; whereas had the Vein here by the Li­gature [Page 48] been drawn a little from the Tendon, a Blind man could not have acted the least mischief. Now I hope you are convinced, that a pretence to Anatomy is a meer De­coy, Trap, Delusion, and Imposture, I shall supersede that Argument, and before I return to the place where I deviated, I will only take off the amaze, why I should fetch a pre­tending Anatomical Surgeon from Paris hither, and thus descant upon him, to whose Face and Speech I am wholly a Stranger, though not to his ill success, and male Practice; all which I do franckly tell you, proceeds only from an innate prin­ciple of discovering Falacies and Deceits put upon the vulgar, that have no rule or measure to distin­guish a Meteor in Physick or Chi­rurgery from such, that without mutuating from others, are indu'd with all the necessary accoutre­ments of Learning and Experience, that are required in an Artist.

CHAP. IV.
Of Subtilties used by those of the Con­clave, to promote their Interest.

§ 1. SOme Physicasters by reputing themselves Virtuoso's, Ma­thematicians, Philosophers, and witty Cracks, have insinuated this En­thymeme to the Commonalty, that therefore they must necessarily ar­rive to the top of their profession; for since their porous Brain was ca­pable to imbibe such knotty My­steries, it's not improbable, they might much easier suck up the quin­tessence of the Art of Medicine. To this Category belonged that famed Doctor of Norw. who being Posted away from his House with a Coach and Four to a Sick Gentleman in the Countrey, an unhappy gawdy Butterfly thwarted the Coach, upon [Page 50] which a halt was made, and the Doctor with the assistance of the Coach-driver, hunted so long, until they had him under the broad brimm'd Beaver. Here an harangue was to be made to his conducting Auditor upon the admirable Stru­cture, Shape, Organs, and colours of the Butterfly, particularly upon the transparent yellow, of which colour a Cap would better have fitted him than the black Velvet one. The But­ter-fly being cag'd up in a Box, and reserv'd to a further consideration, the Journey was pursu'd, at the end whereof the Doctor found the Pa­tient just expir'd of a Syncopal-fit, and the new Widow accosting him with the information, That her dear Hus­band had passed through many of them by the help of a Cordial, and so proba­bly might this, had she not, wretched Creature as she was! expected his coming to prescribe another. But whether the Doctor, besides, the Reprimend, and the want of his [Page 51] Sostrum, had the Justice done him, to be sent home on foot, I know not.

§ 2. But the industrious Craft most in use among the Pedantry of Phy­sicians, is the sending forth of Emissaries, that are in acquaintance with any of Note, whose misfortune it is to lie under a main course prescribed by others. To these is to be intimated that such a Do­ctor (meaning him from whom they have their Credentials) hath in a very short interval cur'd such and such of the same Distemper; and argumentum ad hominem to the Pati­ent, who thereupon with much impatience expects the new Doctor, by whom several slie Items are given of mistakes committed by his for­mer Physick-man. Now the new Broom is to sweep clean those chinks and corners, which the other never took notice of; and therefore, upon revolving in mind, what hath been hitherto exhibited by his Predecessor without effect, concludes, that re­medies [Page 52] contrary to the former must necessarily operate some alteration or other, and that sometimes with suc­cess. A sort of argumentation that carries subtilty in it. There is now nothing remaining but the charming the Patients sancy to a firm belief and confidence of the intended great work, in these terms; Sir, were I to take a Lease of an Estate upon Your Life, I would proceed so and so, and I should not question the enjoying it, to the full satisfaction of my purchase. What Answer can this pithy Ora­tion merit less from the Patient, than Good Mr. Doctor, I am sen­sible I have been abused too much by some, and have suffered both in Body and Purse; but now I am resolved to put my self wholly into your hands, and follow your Rules strictly: Do with me what you please, and pray accept of this small Fee, (viz. Five Pist [...]ls.) All this while here is [...] a syllable of God's assistance, [...] by Doctor or Patient.

[Page 53] § 3. An authentick Copy of a transaction of this nature we had four or five years since, in the sickness of a chief Magistrate of Paris, languishing under a slow Fea­ver, ( Febris lenta) arising from a Scorbutick Dyscrasy of the Bloud, and hypochondriack Obstructions, whence proceeded his frequent sowr Belchings and Vomitings. Fewer than four or five first rate Physi­cians could not be thought propor­tionable to answer the quality of his Person, or the danger of his Disease. In this Consult the Senior was the Demiculverin, that made most noise, and according to whose prick'd Song the rest were to tune their Fiddles, that being no other than the common Method of consultion. Aqua Epidemica, Poeoniae Composita, Spir. Cornu Cervi, and Salis Ar­moniaci, being some-what allay'd with Simple Waters, and sweetned with Syrup of Gillyflowers, were in this Council determined Salutife­rous, [Page 54] and to be repeated for two months, sometimes interjecting a Milk-Clyster, and a Diascordium Bolus, not forgetting the Pearl-Cordial. The Sufferer they found gave good Milk, and therefore these Heroes fail'd not coming for their Cream morning and evening. The Patient now grown dubious to what shoar his Argo­nautae designed him, did readily bend his ear to a she-visiter, that display'd the colours most admirably in favour of a Quidam Doctor, that cured most desperate Diseases by method and Remedies contrary to the opinion of all others. Dictum factum, a Coach brings him imme­diately, who (by the confederacy of the Female Legate) could, upon examining his Urine and Pulse, at sight give him a scheme of all his Pains, Symptoms, and Distempers, even to the surprise of the wealthy Seignior. The Remedies which were too much in vogue among the Gang of Physicians, he knew full well, [Page 55] could be no other than hot burning Cordials, such as plague-Water, Spirit of Harts-Horn, and that choaking, stinking Spirit of Piss. These had inflamed and sharpned his Bloud, tumbled and ruffled his Spirits, and nourisht his Distem­per; But be assured Sir, I will cure you in as short a time, as I did Mr. such, and such, who had been ill handled in the same Distemper; Therefore draw back your Curtains, throw off the Blanckets, and set open the Windows, you want Air, you are stifled; clear the Ta­ble of all those Viols and Galley­pots; your Bloud needs Ventila­tion, Contemperation, and Dulcifi­cation; your Spirits must be quieted, smoothed, and allayed. Here ob­serve, the course is steered dia­metrically contrary, heating Me­dicines are to be changed for coolers, Alcalies for Acides, and exalters of the Sulphur of the Bloud for Narcoticks

Instead of those fiery Comfor­ters, [Page 56] I do recommend Pippin or a Le­mon-Posset, and a delicious Tincture of Roses; take sometimes a draught of the one, and sometimes of the other; every second night drink two or three Spoonfuls of this ap­peasing Cordial upon going to Bed, it will compose you to rest, and allay the tumult of your Spirits. The issue proved successful. His Vomiting was repelled, his drought extinguisht, appetite restored, and strength so recovered, that in a Fortnight the dying Testator was congratula­ted in the Streets by those, that ac­cidently met him, of his wonderful retrieve out of the Jaws of Orcus. But it's to be remarqued, that this course was first intimated by one Major W. and privately carried to the Dr. who did not want craft to make it his own, and by some sly alteration wholly appropriate it to his particular invention, which occasioned the old Gentleman to deify him in his Calender, and not [Page 57] only forced him upon all his sick acquaintance, but would send some one or other of his Domesticks to any afflicted with Distempers, where he conceived the Authority of his name might prevail, though too many never survived the appoin­ted minute, to render his Worship their due acknowledgement for his over-officious care. So that it's evi­dent, that the rule of contraries in his case was only fortuitous and empirical to his Medico, which with­out all peradventure to a good Phy­sician would have been of choise and rational election; though such a tran­sition, as it is rarely to be used, so a more than ordinary caution and pru­dence is to be observed by such, that shall have occasion to imitate it.

§ 4. Those, who shall have listed themselves in the service of the great God, and by assuming Or­ders, distinguish themselves from the Laity, exercising that most ho­nourable Function, by Praying, [Page 58] Preaching, and their exemplary Life, and Conversation, to the glory of their great Master, and the saving of Souls from perdition; Those I say, that shall do this only for a time, until they have subdud the Hearts and Inclinations of all, or most of their Parishioners to their own Service and Devotion then out of I know not what pretended scru­pie of Conscience, shall out of ava­rice prove Renegadoes ( Scelus hor­rendum!) from the Divine Mi­nistry to the exercise of Physick, in expectation of having all their Au­ditors to be their Patients, are of all mankind to be abominated, as being wholy incapable to arrive to the least competency in that Art, where so long Study and Experience are required. And certainly those that make use of such a Renegado Phy­sician, upon a sentiment, that God Al­mighty will give a peculiar Blessing to the endeavours of his quondam Ser­vant, who in reality appears to be a [Page 59] meer Atheist, make a false conclu­sion, since Divine Justice cannot be supposed, to return any other than malediction, and confusion upon the undertakings of all such, that shall exchange his Eternal Celestial Re­ward for a Transitory Worldly Salary.

§ 5. If you look for a plain de­monstration of the preceding Pa­ragraph, behold here is one out of many. A Renegade Physician in the Patrowl of his officious Visits, drops into the House of a noted Painter, who upon the usual Com­plement of, how does your Husband? was thankfully answered by the Wife, he had been attacked by an Ague, but at present his Fits were so much abated by the benefit of Na­ture, (a gentle looseness of three or four Stools a day, carrying off the humour as she thought,) that they were scarce perceptible. Here in the declination of the Disease, thought the Renegade, was an op­portunity of getting Reputation, [Page 60] and therefore in imitation of the Ser­pent, tertia Genesis, seduces the wo­man into the opinion, that the Ague-fits would soon re-assume their former vigour, unless some proper Remedy was taken, wholly to ex­tirpate them, and that such a Se­cret he was Master of, which in the time of a Hixius Doxius, did infallibly cure all intermittent Fevers. These words falling with such a zeal from the counterfeit holyman, induced the woman (on whom as on all others, the Imperative Mood doth devolve, during the Inter-regnum of the Hus­bands sickness) to use her coercive power upon her sick Painter, who must and should take, whatever he prescribed. Six Doses of the Iesuits Powder formed into Pills, were mark'd down to be swallowed, Eight Pellets every four hours. The se­cond exhibition dammed up his Looseness, and consequently the Fits were raised to a higher pitch than ever. Notwithstanding the re­maining [Page 61] Doses were advised with a continuando, which stopping all the avenues of Nature, and forcing those excrementitious humours, that Nature before had separated, and thrown to the Guts, into the great Vessels, the intermittent was now turned into a continual Feaver, at­tended with a great drought, black Tongue, delirium, low Pulse, &c. This boistrous Hurricane threatning nothing but Shipwrack of the De­cumbents life, and the Reputation of the Revolted Divine: to save the latter, he calls in the great Warden of the Faculty, who to recompence the courtesie the Rene­gade had done him, in giving him the occasion of getting a Pistol-Fee, could do no less, then on the spot immediately to naturalize his spu­rious Practice into Legitimate, by declaring, that what had been di­rected by that worthy Physician, nothing could be better, nothing more proper. Now the Physick [Page 62] Doctor having received Pardon and Absolution from the Papa Me­dicorum, both agree in a consult to give the Patient the last Unction by their joynt-prescription of Cordials, and the Diasinapios gargle; (by this you know who was Pope) to disim­bogue his Throat, that was cram'd up with tough viscous humours, forced up by the Panacaean Bark; though with a non obstante, in two or three days the sufferer bids 'em both Buenas noches. This was a Scene so Tragical, that the poor Painter never yet had expressed upon Can­vas, and less dream'd, he should have been the principal Actor on the Physicians Theatre.

§ 6. Can it be imagined, that one who had for several years moun­ted the Pulpit, should to increase his Fame in Physick, be guilty of so palpable an Imposture, as to assert publickly, that by giving six grains of Salt of Amber, he had caused a Dropsical Patient to piss [Page 63] the measure of a Kilderkin? In short, libera nos from those, that practise Physick in Nomine Domini.

CHAP. V.
Of false Methods of Physick in malign Fevers, great and Small Pox.

§ 1. THe Answer Capivac made to his Polonian Scholar, demanding his secrets in Physick, that he should read his Method, and then he would have his secrets, is by many a Drone drawn into such con­sequence, that he conceives himself abundantly Doctorated, when he shall have muzzled some few months in the Institutes of Physick, wherein the Methodus Medendi is that part, which puffs him up, and makes his fingers itch to be doing with the unfortunate Sick, that shall become his first Patients. As then, so ever after he is strongly opinionated, that [Page 64] the Method of applying those incon­siderable stumps of Medicines and Remedies, decipher'd in his Fer­nelius or Sennertus, is the Crown of the work, which must, and will advance him to be the Archia­ter of the Town. It is in this, that one Fool doth value himself above the other, because his Method is different, and consequently in his opiniatreness better. Hereof I will give you a tast, that must necessarily dis [...]relish all ingenious Palates. The received Method of courting continu­al putrid Feavers, which pleads an antiquity of above two thousand years, was not long since not so little scorned by a Physician of the faculty, as his newly invented one much extolled, and the imitation recommended to all others, though by me no less admired, for not kil­ling the Patient, being attended with a continual Feaver in the third cli­macterick of his age, whose symp­toms, as a Delirium, very black [Page 65] Tongue, insatiable drought, and broyling heat, spoke it sufficiently malignant. The Morning after blee­ding, our Parisian Doctor empties him with a Purge of Decoct. senae. Ger. and Man. Next day after his Devotion at Mass, upon his visit finding him worse, interpreted by him to happen, because he was not sufficiently emptied, immediately caused him to swallow the same Potion with an addition; Still worse and worse, notwithstanding repeats the same Purgative six or eight Mor­nings successively; All his Symp­toms persisted in the same tenure of Malignity, until the Dr. had given over Purging, and then much ado abated, and at last the Sufferer recovered.

§ 2. The Moral this Methodist ab­stracts from the preceding manage­ment, was, that Quotidian Pur­ges are adequate Remedies of ma­lignant continual Feavers; though by me contrarywise constructed, [Page 66] viz. That those daily evacuations raised the ebullition of the Bloud, hindred the digestion of humours, prevented the transpiration of the fuliginous malignant Salts through the Pores, enraged the vital and animal Spirits, and were the sole cause that obstructed the Cure: a tendency whereunto did not appear before the Alexandrian Garthartick was omitted. This young man had more than Hercules in his Nature, that could at once thus struggle with two enemies, the Feaver, and those Purges; and if any thing is properly termed a Physicians trying of Skill, Experiments, tricks, or Impune ludere de corio humano, this was. And if this be Methodus meden­di, I desire to know of Mr. Dr. what is the Methodus occidendi? However not to rob him of the honour of the first Inventor, I must do him Justice, in Recording, that it was he, who was first Author of exhibiting Mer­cury in the Morning, and Diacodium [Page 67] at Night against Hysterick vapours; which Method did more than answer his expectation, by raising a Saliva­tion several days after.

§ 3. But I would have this No­ble Doctor not be so arrogant, as to engross all new Methods to him­self, since there are others of his Brethren of the faculty of Paris, who make much more noise than himself, particularly the Doctor of Contraries, who with Opium and Iesuits-Powder shall make more va­rious sorts of passes at Diseases, than ever any Roman Gladiator with his Weapon; and these shall be hits, and do execution. As for instance, if the Doctor is applyed unto, for his assistance against a continual Feaver, according to his last good or ill success in the like case, gives his direction for blee­ding, or omits it; then with an unparalell'd assurance makes at the Distemper with an ample Dose of the Iesuits-Powder, pursuing [Page 68] this fierce onset with a fresh sup­ply of the same Bark every fourth hour; And finding the fiery adver­sary provoked, produces his other Champion ( Opium) to encounter him: so between these two Bravo's, frail Nature doth too oft lie down, and yield, and the Patient is brought to his ultimum vale.

§ 4. The Small Pox, (a Di­stemper so unaccountable to most Physicians, and therefore Empiri­cally treated, whence Nurses do equally vie with their Worships in the Cure) is by this Generalissimo (contrary to all sence and expe­rience) countermined with Spirit of Vitriol and Opium, by which beyond all others he is infallible in procuring an Euthanasia. Good God, how the Universities do rob the Plough! But a propos, let me make an offer to this grand Mini­ster of Medicine, if his humour holds of making purchases upon the lives of his Patients, I will bona fide [Page 69] for one years purchase, sell him Annuities upon the lives of all (or none; for some Natures are so robust, that nothing can subdue, and therefore some few may escape) he shall treat with the Bark and Opium in continual Feavers, and with Spirit of Vitriol and Lauda­num liquidum in the Small Pox.

§ 5. Ships cannot be steered so many various and contrary courses by one Wind, as Physicians tumble and toss the same Diseases by this single part of Medicine, called Me­thod. So here we have another of a bouncing Fame, that ordered coo­ling Juleps for a young Lady his very near Neighbour, until the Small Pox budded forth, then bleeds her the day before she expi­red, and commands to be given 60 drops of Spirits of Harts-horn, one hour, and sixty drops of Spirits of Sal Armoniac the other hour, and so de hora in horam to be continued in a few spoonfuls of a very brisk [Page 70] Cordial. This Method was persi­sted in, until she died with some of the Cordial in her Mouth. In case of this Nature, I should prefer the counsel of Celsus, That it is better to let a Patient die, than to kill him.

§ 6. The attendant that exhi­bited the Drops, gave me this ac­count, and probably to make the number of Drops seem more pro­digious, might express ten or twelve Drops in a Dose more than what was given; however, it was a vast quantity. And the Catholick Apothecary, to hush the matter, kept the Receipts so close, that a view could not be purchased at any rate. The bleeding I presume was advised to stop the Haemorrhage at the Nose, and so two Taps set run­ning at once, must soon exhaust the tender Cask.

§ 7. It was an undaunted boldness of Method, that lately inspired another Physick Doctor, to give [Page 71] his Patient three or four Gobbets a day, each mixt with Sixty, some­times Seventy, sometimes Eighty, and sometimes Ninety Grains of Mercury Sublimate dulcis, and these reiterated, until eight or nine Oun­ces of Mercury was swallowed. It's remarkable, that here was an half ounce, five, and six Drams, that is three hundred and sixty Grains of Mercury Sublimate Dulcifyed, or pre­pared Quick-silver, taken each four and twenty hours.

But I believe, your ears itch to hear, for what it was the Sufferer was condemned to this Penance, and what became of him, being thus tortured by the Physick Inquisition. His crime was getting a small Shan­ker, which a Surgeons Boy had un­skilfully cicatrized, without Purging him more than once or twice. Four or five months were scarce elaps'd, but the malignity is mounted up Stairs, and daubs his eye-brows, and hairy scalp with crusty Scabs, being [Page 72] coverlids to little Ulcers underneath them; a while after the sinful Di­stemper takes a carreer downwards, and there on the lower part of the tibia, intrenches within a circum­vallation less than a Crown-piece, mining into the Bone night and day, and causing a most exquisite pain, e­specially nocturnal; then a Coach-keeping Apothecary takes him to task, and with Pill and Diet conti­nued for a month or six weeks, re­moves all but the shin-pain, where I should have told you, a Node was risen. After this, the Coach-keeper de­livers the Patient up into the hands of the fore mentioned Dottissimo & Ex­pertissimo medico delli incurabili, who leads him a dance of Mercury. What new steps and Coupees the Doctor made in this Courant laverole, I have already given you a Breviate. Nothing remains, but to acquaint you with the intended burden of the Song, and that was by raising a Salivation, to cast out the Beelz-bub. [Page 73] Know therefore, that the Mercury did not come out at his Bung-hole, for he seldom had more than one natural Stool, as they call it, and some days had none; neither did the Patient salivate. If you enquire then, what became of the Mercury, the Doctor tells you, it made its exit per poros cutis; this is quasi vero indeed. The truth is, he did not salivate a salivable Lympha, as most do, but instead thereof he he voided a pint, and a pint and half a day of coagulated or c [...]outed bloud, and sometimes long stinking ragged ropes of sincere Bloud; but as I said before, no Lymph, either thin, slymy, or ropy, so that a Gallon and half, or two Gallons of Bloud was forced out of his Throat, and his Jaws. The Surgeon who understood the affair much better, and in my opinion may deservedly be rank'd among the most expert and knowing of this a [...]e steps in between, and very modestly offers [Page 74] himself a Mediator between the Do­ctor and Patient, and by undeniable arguments reduces the Doctor to reason, and thereby to a Truce; of which the chief Article was, that for the space of a month or six weeks he would desist all acts of hostility, and for that time leave off his Mercurial Bombs. In the In­terim, the Sufferer was to gather his forces out of a nourishing Dyet, and then by mutual agreement the War was to commence again; But so it happened, that I was consulted before the expiration of the term limited, and upon a full rehearsal of all transactions, I found that the Coac-hkeeper had pusht on the point so far, that here was no Salivation necessary; which had it been continued ad infinitum, could never have scaled or scraped the Shinbone, and therefore a Caustick was agreed to be applyed, to arrive to the intention just before mentio­ned, and a Compound Sarsa Drink [Page 75] prescribed to be mixt with equal parts of boil'd Milk, to drink thrice a day, Horis Medicis. Brevity obli­ges me, not to tell you, how this Salivation, (had it been requisite) was to have been managed with less, than the twentieth part of Dulcis. This is not all, here is a sceleton indeed survived the Mercurial Wars, and I must allow, that so great an impression and weakness is left upon his Bowels, that their tone and strength will not be recovered, until the Resurrection. By this advice I am almost assured, I have Clenched the Nail on the other side. But the quantity of the Mercury given in a Venereal case, bears no proportion to those vast Doses of Iesuits-Powder, our Excellentissimo gives in continual Feavers, or numerous drops of Lau­danum Opianum Liquidum in those, and most other Distempers.

CHAP. VI.
Of the Bold and Fatal Practices of the Conclave.

§ 1. UPon those, that lay so weighty a stress on their Opiniator Methods, ought to be im­posed a Voyage to Russia, there to exercise their Galenicisms upon the Boyars, and others of their next subordinate quality, who receive Physick from the hands of their Me­dico's upon no other condition or terms, than if the Pills, Potions, Powders, and Bleedings, have not the pretended success, those that advised them, are to justifie the rationality and experience of them upon their own Bodies, in a double proportion: As thus; a Noble Pa­tient having by three or four Bleed­ings received a palpable prejudice, or possibly his untimely dispatches [Page 77] to the other World, the advising Physician for a punishment of his unwarrantable and unskilful rash­ness, is to be blooded six or eight times; or if by a plenary Purge he should happen to eradicate the Disease and abounding humours, together with the Life and Soul of the Patient, the Physician is obliged to swallow down double the quantity of the Purge, which if he survives, he expiates his crime, and justifies his practice at the cost of his own Body. I hope that you believe, that those Phy­sicians, upon return to their own Countrey, will appear well seaso­ned with caution, mature delibera­tion, and consciénce, much diffe­rent from those, whose Memoires I have so lately presented you.

§ 2. Had this Justice of Russia in any wise awed a Physician of the Conclave, he would with much more care and caution have ballan­ced the force of his Purge, with [Page 78] the strength of the Patient. A wealthy Merchant on P. H. unto whom he had prescribed Senna, Agaric, rad. Asari, Syr. Ros. Sol de Spin. Cern. &c. In a quadruple dose, to what I formerly did use to ordain for him, and whom I had twice recovered out of the hands of three of his Elder Physick Bre­thren, beyond the purport of their Prognosticks, or expectation of his Visiters. So it was, that the Ca­thartick fore-hinted operated by Vomit, and Stool, beyond the number of a hundred, and being no longer able to sustain the combat, sitting on the Bed-pan, yields his Ghost to him that gave it. Upon my return from the Country, where the concern of my own health had detained me a considerable time, I expostulated the matter with the Apothecary (that in my absence had preferred the Physician to this em­ploy) why he had not shewn my Bills, prescribed in a former fit of [Page 79] Sickness, to his Excellency, whence he might have taken just measures of the Idiosincrasia, and strength of the Sick person? He readily told me, he had so done, but the Doctor took little notice of them, replying by a particular Method he had done greater feats in Agues, than this seemed to require. However the case being irrevocable, it was de­sired, few words might be made of it, and therefore as you see, I have not made many. But did the publick good so much influence any honest judicious Physician, as to become an Observator of such Me­thodists, in the space of a year he might exeeed a Volume larger than the Septuagints; but then for that term it's necessary he should have a Sauve garde, to save his brains from being knockt out.

CHAP. VII.
Concerning the Description of the true Method of Physick, whereby a Physician is distinguish'd from a Quack.

§ 1. BY matter of fact it's made appear, what great deeds are pretended by Method; Next let's put to the scrutiny, what wonderful thing this is, and what may be ex­pected from it. The Method of Phy­sick is a rational order of Remedies to be applyed to the body of man, to cure Internal and External Di­seases; which consists, first in the knowledge of the Distemper, and cause thereof, the Election or Choice of proper sufficient Reme­dies, and then reasoning within him­self, which Remedy ought to be applyed first, when, and how, which Second, and Third, &c. [Page 81] How long each is to be continued, and when the First, Second, or Third is to be changed. So that here you see the Method of Physick im­plyes naturally two particulars; First, the knowing of the Distemper and Cause; Secondly, adequate Reme­dies, that shall remove those Di­stempers, and their Causes. Hence are made these deductions. 1st. That Distempers and Remedies are Rela­ta, in reference to the Method of Physick, the Disease being the Re­latum, and the Remedy its Correla­tum. 2ly. Since in Logick it is a trite axiome, that Relata do mutually constitute and abolish each other ( Relata sese mutuo ponunt & tollunt) there can be no Method of Physick, where at the same time there is not a Disease, and a proper adequate Re­medy, to cure that Disease; and therefore in respect of the Methodus are inseparable. 3dly. There is ne­cessary (according to what my des­cription of Methodaus doth express) [Page 82] a Ratiocination in the Physician within himself, the result whereof makes a practical Indication, or con­clusion: Thus, This Distemper is hot, therefore the Remedy must be cooling; it is caused by a Plethory, therefore Bleeding is the Remedy; or a Cacochymy, therefore purging is to be advised. So that the reaso­ning part is nothing else, but the apprehending rightly the nature of the Disease, and collecting thence, what Remedy it naturally doth point at, shew, or indicate; and therefore the Disease, Cause, ur­gent Symptoms, and strength of the Patient, are properly called Indi­cancia, or pointers at Remedies; the Remedies pointed at are termed In­dicata; and the collecting, conclu­ding, or summing them both up is named the Indication. 4ly. As then the Methodus Medendi doth imply the knowledge of all Diseases, Cau­ses, Symptoms, and what parts they are inherent in, and likewise the [Page 83] knowledge and experience of all Remedies, so it doth consequently comprehend the sum, and substance, or total of the whole Art of Phy­sick, and is the end and the ultimate point, whereto all the parts of Phy­sick do tend, and therein concenter; so that only he, that is Master and Doctor in the Method of Physick, doth alone deserve the Name and Title of a Real Physician; all others that pretend to Physick, being Em­piricks, Quacks, or Mountebanks.

§. 2. Having briefly and gene­rally thus described the true measure of distinguishing real from preten­ded Physicians, let us also descend to some Particular. I am not only of opinion, but possibly certain, that notwithstanding all the delusions of Anatomy, great Scholarship, won­derful parts, Vaunting and Boasting, the seat and causes of most Diseases are unknown and mistaken by the Commonalty of Physicians, as I shall make evident in another place [Page 84] of this Treatise. Wherefore those, which I have Entitled Methodists, are no other than, Pseudo-methodici, as neither understanding Diseases nor Remedies, and consequently neither the Indicantia, Indicata, nor Indication.

CHAP. VIII.
Of False Methods, and Methodists.

§ 1. THey are those False Me­thodists, who boast, that with Opium, and Iesuits Powder, they can cure all Diseases, though instead thereof they either Palliate for a time, or too oft send their Patients to their Ancestors. Neither are they advanced to much higher form, that imagine ordinary Dis­pensatories are sufficiently stock'd with Medicines adequate to the Cure of all Diseases, whereas they contain few others, than such as may serve for Vehicles for greater [Page 85] Medicines, or are only virtuated to remove slight superficial Distem­pers. Whence I may justly con­clude, among a hundred Physicians you shall find Ninery five Learned Mountebanks, and possibly five Real Physicians; which confirms that distinction to be truly Logical, that there are two sorts of Mounte­banks, the Learned, (though God knows, too many of them are very defective even in the School-Disci­pline) and the other Illiterated, who make their shew on their Banks or Stages they mount (whence issues their Name) or on the Cor­ners of Streets on Posts, obtruding a thousand Falsities to the Vulgar, to defraud them; whereas the Learn­ed Quacks appear on their Anato­mical Theatre, or Coaches, and privately in the Patients Houses Quack their Abilities, that the Di­stempers they find the sufferer is afflicted with, they have frequently met with in such and such, and [Page 86] do not question to cure him as well as others; though probably never saw the like before, and do as little perform their Promise in recovering him, as the others they hinted. Moreover, if one of these Learned Empiricks shall with a lump of Mo­ney be dismist, leaving him to another of the same Association, who shall be a most confident un­dertaker also, and at the same time blame and cast dirt on his prede­cessor (a Brotherly kindness) pic­king the Patients Pocket dextrously, and to prevent a third shall not be called upon, to succeed him, from whom he is conscious to be served, as he did the other, puts all to the push, by either Killing or Cu­ring. Now pray what is all this, but down right Mountebanking in a Learned way? Is their any of them, who doth not pretend, either a secret in his Method, or in the Remedies? which I have already Illustrated; is Non-sense▪ for there [Page 87] is no Method without Remedies, nor proper Remedies without Method. It is no other than Mountebanking, to advise Syrup of Steel to all Chronical Patients, and soput their whole stress upon one Medicine, making that his Panacaea, fac totum, Panchreston, and universal Remedy: what is be­come of Method here, whence a Practitioner is stiled Medicus Ratio­nalis, in opposition to an Empirick, that relies wholly upon Experi­ments, and Secrets, whence some­times he cures, but very oft kills, and that for applying his Remedies without Reason or Method.

§. 2. The courses and Remedies used by most of the Conclave of Phy­sicians of P. are chiefly these. 1. In acute Distempers, the Jesuits Bark, and Opium. 2. In Chronical Diseases, either the Milk Diet. 3. Or the Steal Course, or Purging Mineral, and Mineral Steel Waters. 4. Or Bath Waters. As for Purging, Glystering, Blistering, and Bleed­ing, [Page 88] they are fortuitously directed according to Mr. Doctors Capritio. 5. The Cordial course; to this Classis belongs the Spirit of Harts-horn, and the Spirit of Piss succinated. It is confessed, they do somewhat ex­ceed les Medecins de trois S. (son, seign & sena.) in their number of courses, but not a jot in their Methods. Now for Physicians who pretend to be Medici legales dogma­tici, rationales, and Veri Methodici, to tye their Hands and Pen to only five Spurious Remedies, because they are applyed by them without Method, as you shall read hereafter, is as much Mountebanking in their Coaches, as the vending Orvietan on a Stage.

CHAP. IX.
Of two sorts of Mountebanks, viz. The Anatomical Theatremounter, and the Bank mounter; together with the Tricks of the former.

WEre it put to debate, which of these two sorts of Sharlatans, viz. The Anatomical Theatre-mounter, or the Orvietan Bank-mounter, is the greater Impo­stor, would beyond all peradventure be determined by men of Brains, in favour of the latter, who openly confesses, what he is; a Vagabond, that rambles from one Town or Country to another, to divert the People by making Shows, and Sell Ovietan for six Pence the Tin-Box; if you believe you have over-bought your self, think the Rary-Show is allmost worth it, and so the fraud [Page 90] is not much: But on the other hand, the Anatomical-Quack, by false suggestion of great Learning, long Experience, and what not, secretly and methodically poisons your Body, and cuts your Purse, with a greater confidence than any Pick-Pocket, because he is war­ranted by Laws, and Priviledges of the Conclave. I mean the Chamber of Phys. of Par. Therefore there is no sort of men I look upon with greater contempt, than many Physick-Doctors, and do not only abandon such sort of acquaintance for their malé practice, but other sordid Actions; for certainly if you look for Avarice, Envy, Malice, Pride, Ignorance, Slandering, Back­biting, Flattery, Lying, and De­frauding, you may find it in a Con­clave Physician; Hypocrisie is an instrument he manages with incom­parable dexterity, the Church-door shall no sonner be opened, but Ecce Mr. Doctor, sitting in the most [Page 91] visible Seat, Grave, Deaf, Dumb, and immoveable, as if an Apoplexy of Devotion had seized him, out of which his Apothecary is to raise him, by knocking at half Sermon at his Pew-door, to fetch him away post to a dying Patient; by which means he draws the Eyes of the whole Congregation after him; but instead of going to the pretended House of Visitation, they both drop into a Cabaret, there to pass the fatigue of a Forenoon Sunday. This knack of confederacy is to be repea­ted several Dominical days, until it hath made an impression of the People, that he is a man of im­portance, and of great Physick-business.

Thus I remember two Physicians at Paris, grew famous; the one being called Le Sier de Tattle, had by fre­quenting the Convents of all Sects, made a vast inroad into the good opinion of the Zealots, and by that means halled in Shoals of Patients, [Page 92] whereof three fourths within his fourty years practice are not to be spoken with on this side the Moon. The other was the Sieur Phlegma­tique, known better to most men by that Name than any other; In his younger years the du [...]ness of his Apprehension, the imperfection of his Memory, and the natural slug­gardness of his Mind, (all contribu­ting to a very slender proficiency in his Latin Grammar) made a Diagnostick to his Parents, that he was gifted with too little Sense and Eloquence for a Lawyer, too shallow a Memory for a Preacher, and therefore what should they make of him but a Physician, ar­guing that his heavy dulness would grow up into Gravity, his minute Apprehension would be over-suffi­cient to understand a Disease, and his curtailed Memory would serve well enough to remember a Medi­cine. Into a Doctor by length of standing he was dubbed, and now [Page 93] to force a Trade of Pulse feeling and Piss-gazing, he lays his Plot in the Church, where his constant appearance with a broad-brim'd Hat, the little Band, an austere Gravity, and dull Countenance, soon gained him the Title of an Honest Conscientious knowing Phy­sician, which Character happily commends him to an Hospital, the reputation whereof, how undeser­vedly soever, brings any man into vogue, as it did also him, whom succession of time at least creates Father of the Family of Physicians, still indeavouring to mimick the part of an Honest Conscientious man, and how far in that he acted the Hypocrite, this subsequent narra­tive of his uncharitableness will attest, viz. a poor woman acco­sting him with an Urinal of her sick Husbands water, and lest that should puzzle him, doth express particularly all the grievances, com­plaints, and symptoms of the poor [Page 94] labourer, that in his condition was obliged to receive Alms from the Parish, being indeed incapable of getting his Bread by his Sickness. The Doctor having given the round thoss to the Urinal, instead of the courteous smile due to the Rich for their Fees, frowns on the poor Creature, and asks her, Whether her Husband had fourty Pound to spend on a Physician? she answers, Her Husband was a very poor man; to this the Doctor replys, Woman what do you come to me for then? Howe­ver she had a Groat, which was all she had left in the world, and of­fer'd it to the Doctor for casting the water which he had the Conscience to accept.

After so plain and full demon­stration of the insufficient Educa­tion, Ignorance, and perverse means of Conclave Physicians, who can blame the Babylonians for banishing them out of their City, as you may read, Heredot. lib. 1. and Bo­dinus [Page 95] de republ. p. 573. gives an account, that Rome for the space of six hundred years kept out all Phy­sicians, which caused her to flourish in numbers of Healthy Subjects, more than ever she did since their ad­mission. How little esteem the Ro­mans had for them Quintilian tells you, lib. 2. c. 2. for they would not grant them the priviledge of build­ing their Temple dedicated to Aes­culapius within the City, but assign'd them a mean place out of the Town, whither Slaves used to resort, Sue­ton. in Nerone. and Seneca. 3. de benef. cap. 24. Neither is it to be doubted, if all other Countries imi­tated Rome in the banishing Physi­cians, as is frequently practiced in Muscovy, they would enjoy the fruits of Health by the natural dictates of their reason, and experience of fa­miliar remedies, and Diet, to a higher degree, than now they do, in being imposed upon by Amethodici (as Galen terms them, and Pseudo­medici; [Page 96] as Montaigne in his Essayes well observes fol. 780. Of a Sick man being asked by his Physician, what operation he found from the Medicines he had given him, he answered, He Sweated Violently. That is well, quoth the Physician: At another time he asks him again, how he had done since? he said, He had felt an extream Coldness, and a great shaking: That is well, saith the Physician. The third time? he asketh him again, How he did, he answers, I find my self to swell and ready to burst, as if I had the Dropsie; That is well again, cryes the Physician. Upon this it hap­pened, one of his Domesticks came to inquire of him, how he did: Indeed my Friend (saith he) by being well I die. This recital doth resemble another, that happened in the next Climate, where an Apo­thecary conducting a Dropsical Pa­tient to a Physician, he advises to empty him. The Apothecary ha­ving [Page 97] given him a Dose of Ialap, and not finding the Dropsicalls Belly lessened, returns to the Physician, who directs to empty him more, which he did; but soon after the Doctor meeting the Apothecary, asks how his Patient did; the other told him, He was dead, then saith the Doctor, You have emtied him too much.

This trite Aporism ( viz. that there is nothing so hurtful or Poi­sonous, be it Spider or Toad, but hath its use) cannot be universal, unless it may comprehend the use of pretended Anatomical Physicians, which indeed is great and necessary in a populous Country, where nei­ther Famine, Pestilence, or War have had any footing for many years. In this Case men would devour one another, the place not being ex­tensive enough to feed all, were it not, that Physicians by their male practice prevented the Plethory of Inhabitants. Moreover, they help [Page 98] off with a great quantity of the Ma­nufacture of the Nation, as Mourn­ing-Cloath, Sack and Claret, Crape, Hannen, Drugs and a hun­dred Commodities more; and imploy thousands of hands, as Coffin and Grave-makers, Clerk, Sexton, Tai­lors, Shoo-makers, and what not.

To put a conclusion to this sub­ject, I shall only add; three fourth parts of the World spin the thread of their Lives to a greater length, without the help of these imposing Physicians, meerly by observation of Remedies their Country affords, and applying them according to their natural sense, therein exceeding all other European pretenders, the proof whereof India manifestly gives, in their not only Curing them­selves to a Miracle, but also others, that came out of Europe, who oft when Physicians have left off, are recovered by the Indians in a mo­ment. The [...] Passion being there an Epidemick Disease, but much [Page 99] fiercer, and infinitely more painful, than what it is here, when a Patient hath been Clyster'd, and Drench'd by a Batavia Physician for several days to no purpose, his last refuge is to some Skilful Indian, who makes no more ado, but scrapes some of the Pitch of the Ceco-nut in water, boils it an hour or two, which is no sooner swallowed by the Mis­creant, but his pains are removed, as if with a Charm, and taking it once or twice more, Cures him In­fallibly,

So likewise in a continual Fevour, where Bleeding, Clystering, and Juleping have been ineffectual, the scorch'd Patient sends for an Indian, who by besmearing him with a pe­culiar Ointment, (made of some of their Juices, and a sort of fat Clay) puts him immediately into a great Sweat, which is no sooner off, but the man feels himself perfectly well. By this, and many other instances, I would press my former argument [Page 100] over again, that without good effe­ctual Remedies, Method signifieth not a straw. And what concerns their five Courses, mentioned fol. 105. I dare undertake in a weeks time, to inform the most Illiterate capacity, having only a memory equal to the Sieur Phlegmatick, how to mannage those five Courses with a better method, and far greater success, than any of these Anato­mical Pretenders ever were fortuned with. And since the faculty, as it is used, savours so much of Cheats, Frauds, and Chance slaughters, I can easily make it appear, that it is possible, to comprehend as many plain and necessary Instructions, Rules, and Remedies in one single Sheet, that by observing of them, any man without other advice may in most cases Cure himself, with far greater safety, speed, and success, then the best of the pretenders to Anatomy could ever yet challenge, or lay claim unto; by which means [Page 101] a man would live out his determi­nate time, which otherwise by Mal [...] Practice is dockt, and inter­rupted. The Tryal of this last pro­posal is feasible by assigning two Towns (suppose in the Hundreds of Essex,) that shall lie parallel in respect of unhealthy Air, and Di­seases; now if the Town following the Rules and Instructions set down in the Sheet fore-mentioned, shall by three fourths out live the other, that shall make use of pretended Physi­cians, as beyond all dispute they will, then it must necessarily appear a clear case.

CHAP. X.
Containing the chief Subject of this Treatise.

HAving taken the Reader aside for mine and his diversion into a by-path, I am now to reconduct [Page 102] him to the Stile, where we made our deviation; and he is no sooner passed over there, but is arrived into this rugged Field, where he imme­diately finds exposed to his view the Method, and Remedies ranged in Battalia, that are to Encounter the new Disease of the Sieur, &c. Which in plain Physical terms is to be called a Semitertian, as most of those Epidemic Diseases were, which at that time reigned. Since that, they have given the foresaid Distemper, and all like to it, the name of a Remitting Feavor, whose Paroxysins or Fits do only come to a Remission, and not an inter­mission.

[Page 103] A pretty sort of Posset; here is mealy, four, sweet, wine, water, and Barley Broth. A compost I asure you not common, for I do not find it in Le Cuisinier Francois.

On the two and twentieth Phle­botomy was celebrated on his right Arm to Nine or Ten Ounces.

§. 2. Here I preceive two Iacks joyned, the one turning the Spit one way, the other another. The latter is to take a lease of the Pa­tients Life, and therefore by all means let the Iesuits Bark he used, or else it's no bargain. Observe the two last words of their ordonnance, per biduum, and for no longer, o­therwise [Page 104] there will be loss of Fees; however so it happened, that the Sufferer had no sooner taken it, but grew worse (especially continuing it for his ordinary Drink) and there­fore the Doctors are Summoned to meet next day, where Morb. gets his Disciple in to make a Party for the Iesuit, in opposition to Phl. his Posset.

§. 3. Two to one is odds, and therefore the poor old Father of the Family must Submit to the pleasure of his Sons; which is hard, consi­dering how much a good strenghth­ning nourishing Cordial Posset is to be valued before a bitter Hellish Je­suitical Drink, which now begins to threaten Damnation to the Pa­tient, [Page 105] who is surprized of a sudden with a difficulty of breathing, and for that reason there must be another convention of these three Physick States-men at night.

§. 4. Isop was too hot, and there­fore is left out, but why Scabios a temperate and pectoral Al [...]xiph [...]rm is omitted, I cannot unriddle. But pray tell me, do you think three pints of Pectoral decoction with those little & Caetera's is worth three Guineys?

[Page 106] §. 5. This Repetatur at three Guineys more is somewhat dearer than Neck-Beef. And here I find the Dutch Proverb true, He that is Shipt with the Devil, most go over with him. If once you begin to freight your Patient with Iesuits Bark, you must Load him with the same cargo; for there is no break­ing Bulk, either he Sinks, or Swims, and arrives to a Port, or goeth to the bottom.

§. 6. What's here? No body signs the Bill! Despair, Despair, all is like to be lost. The Vessel is overloaden with Bark, and the mischief is, there is no opening the hatches by a Purge, to let out the Iesuit. O la madonna de'l tempio d' A­polline, miserere tuorum Pauperum [Page 107] Medicorum! O Sant' Aesculapio, Santo Podalirio miserere filiorum artis! The return of the Saints answer to the Supplicants was only; Alla for­ca, Alla forca.

§. 7. Ha, ha! Farewel Method. The Iesuit is deceitful, he Saves one, and Damns a hundred. We will turn Empiricks, rather than lose Reputation; if the West-Indies cannot afford us a Remedy, we will for the East, and fetch the Goa-Stone, and though we know not what it is, or what it will do, we have heard wonders of it. Flectere si n [...]qu [...]o Superos, Acheronta movebo. He can but die, and therefore we may take the opportunity of trying Experiments, it will save us a trou­ble another time. Who can que­stion us? We have the Supream [Page 108] Authority of Physic, all other Do­ctors are our Vassals, who dare not open their mouths; if they should, we would soon have them into our Physick Inquisition.

Every word in this Prescription costs the Patient half a Guiney, but it's no great matter, he will not want money whither he is going.

§. 8. Iubile, fresh hopes, our Reputation will be saved, let it go how it will with the Patient; here is a 4th. man come in, a just num­ber of [...]spillones to carry him to his Grave; let each bear the burthen of a Leg or an Arm, and the weight will be in aequilibrio upon our Shoul­ders. Sa, Sa, Messieurs allons, Cou­rage, let's set our hands to the Bill, and pass these three Ordonnances; and let the Senior of us give satis­faction to the Lady: ‘Madam, the great hopes we gave you three days since, would ere now have had the happy effect of your Hus­bands recovery, had the indul­gence of his Nurss in giving him that draught of small beer with a Toast in it been forborn, and the putting on a clean Night-cap; [Page 110] which together with the keeping his hands out of Bed, have brought so great a mischief upon him, by stopping all the pores of his body, that it is not in the power of our Art to make him sweat, spit, make water, or go to Stool, such are the dangerous effects of taking cold, and in this case not retriva­ble. It is a great satisfaction to me, (and the same I hope it is to you) to see three of the greatest Physi­cians of France met here, and concurring with me in the opinion of this Distemper, Method, and Remedies, that have been applied. We have left no Stone unturn'd, had he been my nearest Relation, more could not have been done. But the days of Man are numbered, and the appointed time no Man can pass. The publick will have a great loss, and in that I bear a share, which makes me truly condole with you, whose loss is infinitely greater, of so dear and tender a [Page 111] Husband. But let this be your comfort, he is going to a place of Rest and Happiness; and therefore we must submit to Providence. Madam, if at any time I can serve your Ladyship, either by day, or by night, or any of your Family, I will come, go, or run.’ The Lady being corroborated with this strong Cordial of words, received the sad message, with sutable moderation, and in Testimony of the good senti­ment she had of them, desired they would be pleased to continue their attendance, to see the event. With all their hearts you may be assured, though it had lasted seven and seven years. Was not this a cleaver one? I confess I have not in my life time known a Storm of deserved reproach fended off with greater dexterity of words, which proceeding from such Gravities, might easily in­fluence the world to believe, all things had been very well done.

§. 9. Some hours after the Suffe­rer had swallowed down this Vio­lent Purgative, not being able longer to resist the efforts of the Di­stemper, and the Medicines, sub­mits and departs, though not quietly, being perfectly strangled in his Throat, and leaving the Pills in his Belly, for a Legacy to the Drs. Quantum mutatus ab illo. So strong and lusty a man reduced to dust and ashes! The Names subscribed to these foregoing Re­cipe's, are the quondam Sieur Phleg. [Page 113] the Docteur Foetus, Doctuer Mor­billi, and Monsieur le Docteur Mus­culus: All good men and true; so help them God.

CHAP. XI.
Of Semitertians, scarce under-stood by Conclave Physicians

RAillerie a part, let us seriously examine and consider the whole state of this Affair; Ludere de corio humano, being no trival matter. The true and only Test of the pra­ctice of Physick is the Methodus Me­dendi, according to whose Canons and Precepts the Legality of pre­scriptions is best determined. That which is first and chiefly required by this Part of Medicine, is the true knowledge, and right distinguish­ing of the Disease; so that the cal­ling a Distemper by the Name of a New Disease is Empirical, and not [Page 114] becoming the Learning of a Doctor of Physick, who styles himself Rationalis & Dogmaticus. The term of a Remitting Fever, though it ex­presses some small Idea of this, and the like Distempers, yet not being found among the Records of Hip­pocrates, Trallianus, Actuarius, Ga­len, Cornelius Celsus, Avicen, and the rest of those Ancient Physicians, who in knowledge and distinction of Diseases exceeded us cent per cent, it is either their ignorance of Au­thors, or sloathful observation of its Symptoms, that wrested this Name from them. We must therefore search for another Nomenclature among those Ancients, who of all Diseases were the most knowing in the whole Theory of Feavers, their Causes only excepted, wherein they were extreamly mistaken. Now ob­serving, that this Distemper com­menced with a Lassitude, a Cold­ness, Shivering, and Shaking, en­sued by a scorching Heat, insatiable [Page 115] Drought; and Sweats at the close of the Paroxysm, with an abatement of heat, that still continued vigo­rous enough, to denote there was a continual putrid Feavor, which the next day towards the Afternoon was attended with another Pa­roxysm. In the night towards Mor­ning, and the third day another Pa­roxysm returned, which doth ma­nifestly detect this was a Semitertia­na, being a continual Fevor com­plicated with an intermittent, either double, or single. Thus you are also to remark, there is a Semiquar­tana, though very rarely hapening, being a Febris Synocha complicated with an intermittent quartane, single or double. I know very well, that Celsus by an Hemitritaeus, meant a Tertian protracted in its Fits to half as much longer then the usual length, without coming to an in­termission, but only to a remission: And Galen expresses it a continual quotidian, complicated with an in­termittent [Page 116] Tertian, proposing that only as an instance of a complication of a continual with an intermittent Fevor [...]; though by that likewise you are to apprehend, that a com­plication of a continent Fevor with an intermittent Tertian is also to be called an hemitritaeus, the Etymology of the Word being as applicable to this as to the other. This is that sort of Fevor, which some ignorants call a Fevor, that will tend into an in­termittent, wherein the Iesuits-bark has been given with success, namely at the time when the con­tinent Fevor was in its declination, and at that season has done no great mischief to the continent Fevor being going off, and likewise has preven­ted or stopt the paroxysms of the Intermittent. In such a case the Do­ctor of contraries might luckily enough venture upon a Lease of his Patients Life, for many have been in this manner Cured, if you call it Curing.

[Page 117] §. 2. He that presumes to impose a Name upon a thing, is chiefly to aim, that it may thereby be di­stinguish'd from all others; but this caution is neglected in denominating the forecited Distemper, a Re­mitting Fevor, which is more ap­plication to a Paracmastick continent, or a continual Tertian double or sin­gle▪ in which remissions and exacer­bations may be perceived every day, or every other day. Likewise take this observation with you, that about the same time a Fevor reign­ed, that occasion'd the Patient to be Hot and Cold, or sometimes a little Chil, and immediately after Hot, then Cold again, presently Hot again, and so he had several Fits in a day; this Distemper was also by them called a remitting Fevor, though erroneously, for it was a Febris Epiala. vid. Galen, 2. de Diff. Febr. c. 6.

CHAP. XII.
Proving, that the Jesuits Powder never yet Cured any Remitting Fevor.

WHereas the distinction of these Epidemick Fevors is of so great moment, that upon hit or mis thereof, the Physician either Kills or Cures; I will, not of purpose of serving an ingrateful and most perverse sort of men (such the profession generally Fosters) but their Patients, take the Pains of illu­strating this matter. That many No­blemen, and hundreds of others, with­in these few years, being seized with this popular FEVOR, and mana­ged with the Iesuits Powder, have died, or more properly been Man-slaughter'd by their Physicians, needs no confirmation, which error in practice sourceth from this Argu­mentation: [Page 119] Because the Iesuits Powder has Cured such and such, as D. N. A. S. P. and a hundred more of a Remitting Fevor (igno­rantly by them so termed,) which is continual, therefore the same Re­medy must be proper in all conti­nual burning, or Malignant Fevors, whereby they have Killed thousands, and never yet Cured any one man, excepting possibly three or four a­mong a million, whose robust na­tures neither Disease nor Remedy could destroy.

§. 2. The error then lies in the salsity of the antecedent proposi­tion, in regard the Jesuits Bark ne­ver yet Cured any Remitting Fevor, qua talis, that is quatenus continua, but quatenus intermittent, by stop­ing its Paroxysms, leaving the continual Putrid Fevor unto which it was complicated, either lurking under the species of a febris lenta, or of a milder sort of continual Pu­tried Fevor; or 3dly. of a Burning [Page 120] Fevor or Causos, or 4ly. of a Ma­lignant Fevor.

§. 3. Of these, instances shall be particularly produced, viz. Of the first, in the Remitting Fevor of an Eschevin of Paris the Sieur P. W. whose Paroxysms being stopt by the Bark of Peru; not withstanding a febris lenta was left, which detained him under a great weakness and lan­guishing, not without immode­rate Thirst, want of Appetite, and a preternatural heat though not pungent; a while after the Tertian returns, and it was judged necessary by the Physicians, he should take the Bitter Drink purging, and that to be repeated once or twice, and upon that the Iesuit should enter him in the form of a black lump, every fourth hour, and this Bolus without a Superbibendo to be conti­nued some considerable time after the Fits were dammed up. But still the febris lenta persevering, though invisible to some of them. Another [Page 121] Doctor must be called in, to open the Windows, draw the Curtains, and help him out of Bed to give him Air to Breathe; but this show lasted not many hours, before they were posting him to Bed with all speed, so the opportunity was lost in taking of a Lease. Then the old Lesson of Decoctum amarum cum sena, sine sena, & aliquando cum additione sa­lium, must be conned over again, and so to and fro, backwards and forwards; Monsieur Patient at the end of many Months was at last re­coverd, the Fits being close bung'd up, the febris lenta worn off, and he by many Pounds lighter in Body and Purse.

§. 4. The Fevor of Monseigneur ^GO. makes proof of the second par­ticular, upon whom the Chinchina Powder, alias, Jesuits Bark given with a liberal hand, had the in­fluence to Cloister up his Fits so, that he was capable to walk up and down his Chamber six or seven days, the [Page 122] strength and vigour of his Youth bearing the commencement of the mild putrid continual Fevor, that was left, with almost a countenance of one, that is in a state of recon­valescence, which for that time beguiled an Anatomical Doctor of the glory he thought his due for so speedy a Cure upon a person of his high Birth and Quality. But the Fevor advancing in its increment, soon reduced this young Nobleman to his Decumbiture, to whom the Jesuit being again recommended from joynt advices of the Anatomi­cal and other Doctors, by rendring this continual Fevor Malignant, (as it never fails to do otherwise▪) soon machinates the death of this great man, whose life, as it would one day have answered the hopes the World had of his great endowments, so must certainly have prevented a link of certain fatal and Tragical events ensuing a few years after, which probably for their unpra­cticableness [Page 123] in that Kingdom, Tradition will hand to the next Ages.

§. 5. A President relating to the third instance, we have in the Re­mitting Fevor of Monseigneur ^SO. of most illustrious extraction, whose life expressed a true Portrait of the Valour of the Macedonian, and Prudence of Augustus in Martial Affairs, no less at Sea than at Land. By as much as the Chinchina abated the Paroxysms of his Tertian, in an equal scantling it augmented his continual Fevor, into a burning, and at last by its frequent exhibition Je­suited him out of his Being.

§. 6. The Pewt. near the Ca­thedral in the West of Paris, having swallowed down Chinchina Pills and Bolusses, in the usual dose and method of quarta quavis h [...]ra, at the instance of his next Physician; found his remissions and exacerba­tions converted into a constant te­nour of violent heart, and other [Page 124] Symptoms, that express a Fevor Malignant, and therefore an Ana­tomical Doctor was to be in con­junction with the other: But these two Saturnine Planets being seated in the sixth House, pointing directly towards the eighth ( Domus Mor­tis) could not do otherwise, than advise the Jesuits Powder to be gi­ven in the quantity of a Dram, every two hours, which in 24. amounts to twelve Drams, or an Ounce and half, and in six days to nine Oun­ces, so that it may be presum'd throughout the course a whole Pound was ram'd down, which about the eighth or ninth day ful­fill'd the prediction. It would very well have countervailed the pains, to have opened his Body, and scoop­ed out the Jesuits Powder, which at a Crown an Ounce, comes to four Pound, and probably having been thus digested in simo humano, might perform miracles. In fine, that the Jesuits Powder is pernicious, [Page 125] and killing in all continual Fevers, if any thing smart and Putrid, I could demonstrate by matter of Fact out of a hundred examples more, with the same clearness the Sun appears at noon day, did I imagine those already produced not convincing, and therefore superseding that, it's necessary we should make a Transit to the reason of the thing, without resting satisfied, like Empiricks, in experiment only.

CHAP. XIII.
Of the Jesuits Bark, what it is, and whether Artificial or Natural.

§. 1. THat none hath yet gi­ven himself the trouble of inquiry further, whence this Drug is sent us, than from Peru in the Spanish West-Indies, and by whom, but the Fathers Jesuits, whose name therefore is put upon [Page 126] the Parcel, is strange, most Physi­cians contenting themselves with an Empirical use thereof, without exa­mining, what Tree or Shrub it's excoriated from, what Fruit or Flower it bears; whether it be transmitted to us Natural, as it appears, or Artificially prepared by imbibing it with some other bitter Juyces, or Decoctions, specially since several pieces in the best of the Parcels differ from one another in Colour, Taste, Weight, Resin, and Grain, and much more doth one Parcel disagree with the other, some containing twenty sorts of Barks, all by Imbibition, or Decoction re­sembling the same in Taste, though in several degrees of more or less Bitterness, by which Sophistication the men of Art have been frustrated in their Cure of Agues.

Many will have this celebrated Drug the rind of dwarf bitter Al­mond-like-tree, twice a year putting forth Yellow Flowers of very un­pleasant [Page 127] Gusto. Others will fancy it scraps of the trunk of a Bastard-Indian-Berbery-Tree; others of an Ash-tree. The Flowers and the Nuts are reputed Vomitive. That this Tree is kept undiscovered by the foresaid Fathers from the Merchants, to whom they negotiate it, is upon no other account, than to entail the Commodity upon their Society, who make great profit by it. Whe­ther it is only growing in the King­dom of Peru, and no where else, is not commonly known; but cer­tain it is, that every year a Cargo comes thence to Calis in the Spanish Galeons. Neither Ioseph Acosta, Linshot, nor Delaet make any men­tion of this Bark, that I can re­member.

§. 2. However I am of opinion, the foresaid Drug is Artificially pre­pared, and that none of it (though the best) arrives to us in its puris naturalibus, the Tree spoken of, or some other like it, affording no­thing [Page 128] but the Wood, into which the bitter Tast is immitted, by ma­cerating it a convenient time in the Juyce of a certain Indian Plant, to which that penetrating bitterness is peculiar. This having sufficiently insinuated into the pores of the Bark; it is exposed to the Sun, which knits it together into a solider tex­ture. Hence it is, that the Bark being reduced to Powder, and stee­ped in any Liquor, doth so easily part with its bitterness, as being adventitious to it, and not connate to its essential Principles.

But a further confirmation of this I could make by undeniable Argu­ments, had I not determined to forbear putting more sense into my Friends of Paris, than Nature, or their School Learning hath planted into them. After all, I could wish these Fathers had kept their Indian Bark to themselves, and sure I am, hundreds would be on this side the Grave, whose Bones are now [Page 129] turned into their first Element.

§. 3. But the great thing to be inquired into, is its qualities, effects, and virtues, and this will afford us matter enough for debate. To pro­pose, whether it be hot or cold, is entring into the Chicane of the Schools, to prevent which, we had best state the question, whether doth it heat or cool us primarily and per se. The Decoction, or Infusion of the Bark doth manifestly heat any that shall take it in the state of Health; moreover all bitter things ( quatenus bitter) are hot; bitter­ness being occasioned by adustion, or by igneous Particles, or igniculi congregated in a terrestrial sub­stance; thus by destillation being too long continued is brought over a bitter substance, being nothing but the faeces and terrestrial part, adust, or burnt in the bottom of the Still by a violent heat, that brings it over: But I would not have you disprove me by tasting a red hot [Page 130] Iron, where those Igniculi are po­tently congregated in a terrestrious body; Though if you please to burn Leather, Bread, or almost any thing else, that contains a gross Sul­phur (to which the igniculi may adhere,) in its terrestrial part, and it will prove manifestly bitter. Now if any thing be burn'd so long, until this gross Sulphur is consumed, then you will not meet with a bitter, but a lixivial taste, as appears when a body is burnt to ashes.

§. 4. Whether the Chinchina Bark be drying or moistning, is easily resolved by the premisses; so great bitterness derived from adustion, or Empyreum, chacing all moisture, must necessarily be advanced to the highest degree of drying per se, as all those that have taken it, can sufficiently attest, ensuing imme­diately after its admission into their Stomachs; though by allaying of ebullitions in the first region of the body, or by precipitating of hot [Page 131] drying humours, it may per accidens expel Agues, and Droughts atten­ding them, provided the taking thereof be not continued to too long a time; for then it will not only dry, and shrink the body and hu­mours, but at last reduce it into a perfect Marcor, or total withering, wasting, and Consumption, by causing an incurable Hectick Fevor, which in this particular exceeds all other Hecticks, in that it impels the Patient with far greater speed into extinction. Many I could instance about this Town, that by protra­cting the use of the Jesuits Powder too long, have been thrown into Hectick Fevors and Consumptions.

§. 5. My self not many weeks since was called to a Patient lying sick of an intermittent Tertian, whom I found almost totally macerated through frequent Doses of the Je­suits Powder, directed by a Phy­sician of Note, who being unwilling to appear coram, after a days delay [Page 132] I threw off his course, and advised another, by which the Patient amending; upon the news thereof the Physician of Note thrusts him­self in again, and two more Physi­cians of his Cabal. There being now four of us to sit in Judgment, I was to bandy with three, whom finding very refractory out of respect to their good old Cause, viz. the Coll. and telling them positively, I would meet them no more, I ap­plyed my self to the Patient and Relations in these terms. Madam, You are now in a hopeful way, I live at a great distance, there are three Physicians besides, and you are at a great Charge, I will there­fore desire to be excused from fur­ther attendance. Upon this the Pa­tient and all her Relations did most earnestly importune me to continue; but the Shagrin, the Doctor of Note, by some little indignities (by me not thought fit to be resented on the Bench of consultation) put [Page 133] me in, rendred me inflexible, and so took leave. At the expiration of three weeks, I heard she Ghosted, and then one of the Physicians did confess, I was guided by a right sentiment, which if I would have waved, and (what most others do,) subscribed to him, that leads the major part in Consults by the Nose, I should have got very well by it; but it is not a thousand Fees, that ought to prevail with any man to act against the tenures of Honesty and Conscience, as by some it hath several times appeared in consulta­tions, and other occasions; Haec obiter.

Those that are pleased to observe these few rules following, shall have reason to think well of me, for preventing them falling into worse Diseases than their present Agues, or preserving them from Consumptions, and Hectick Fevors.

1. If possible, and that your Strength and Disease will admit of it, [Page 134] Bleed and Purge more than once, or Vomit, before you submit to your Phy­sicians advice of the Iesuits Bark: Or in case evacuations are counterindi­cated by too short intervals between the Paroxysins, want of strength, or other circumstances, exhibit proper Antifebril Medicines that upon cer­tain experience do oppugne the ma­teria Febrilis, which being partly sub­dued, and partly spent or diminish'd by a few Fits, namely, as many as nature can very well bear without manifest danger, then probably you may choak up the remainder with good success by the Bark. This Pre­cept may be of use also in a Semi­tertian, provided that the Bark be not given before the continual Fe­vor comes to a declination, and then it ought to be seconded also with proper Antifebrils. But if you offer the Bark in the beginning, augment, or state, you certainly kill the Pa­tient. Let me present you here with another observation; of late years [Page 135] there have been several simple ter­tians, whose fits were short, and intervals long, and so manifest, that the Pulse has beaten much slower than usual; their Urine well dige­sted, with a laudable white sedi­ment. To these tertianarians, the Bark has been advised with all the necessary premisses, the Fits have been stop'd, and notwithstanding the Patients have died. What was the cause? a Malignant continual Fevor, complicated with the in­termittent; for you are to appre­hend, that a quick uneven Pulse, and a high Urine, are not necessary or Pathognomonick Signs of a Fe­vor.

2. Do not throw down great Doses at once, but small, though the oftner; yet not too often.

3. Refuse to take it above a day or two longer, than the stopping of your Fits.

4. About three weeks after your Fits have been stop'd, cleanse by a [Page 136] Purge, and for two days after, take a few small Doses of the Jesuit again.

5. About six Weeks after that, repeat Purging, and the next day after, take a Dose or two of the Bark.

6. If you shall meet with a Phy­sician, that can safely, and not over speedily Cure you, without giving the Jesuits Powder, never meddle with the Jesuit, with whom the less a man has to do either sick or well, it's the better.

7. At the change of the Season of the year, enter into some small Purgative, Aperitive, or De-ob­struent course; but by no manner of perswasion be misled into a Steel course, for that will certainly prove more fatal to you, than the Jesuit well managed. For the present I crave but your belief, these are ab­stracted from experience, and mat­ter of Fact, hereafter you shall be satisfi'd with the reasoning part of them.

[Page 137] 8. If the Jesuit will not stay with you, but runs through at the bung, it's frequently a sign, your Body was not swept clean enough to en­tertain his Worship.

9. Where the Body is fluid, the most Learned Physick-Doctors pre­scribe Opium, or Laudanum Opiatum, or Liquidum, mix'd with Jesuits Powder, to detain it from leaking through; this to me seems joyning a puller to, with a thruster from; but that is Empirical, and therefore, if they design putting a stop to the loosness, before they exhibit the Jesuit, they ought rather to re­move the cause of the Looseness, which is either Thin, Acrimonious, Stimulating Humours Boiling, and afterwards precipitated downwards; or thick Viscous Salin humours, adhering to the tunicks of the Guts, irritating the excretive faculty: In these Cases either gentle Purgati­ves, or detergents, the one, or the other, or both, mixt with Lauda­num [Page 138] Opiatum, or without Laudamus Opium, is most proper; but which of them ought to be used, is to be left to the discretion of your Physician.

10. Though this Jesuits Powder is not a Medicine nowly found, (the vertues for stopping of quartan Agues, having been experienced above a hundred years since) but revived by a debauch'd Apothecaries Apprentice of Cambridge, in the ap­plication to all intermittent Fevors, and he in this empirical practice most diligently imitated by our most famous Physick-Doctors, as their Aes­culapius, and first master (a hopeful tribe in the mean time, that shall leave their Sense, reason and Dog­mata, to follow a Quack or Empi­rick) yet I have more than once observ'd it as little effectual, as a Chip in some Quartains, and Ter­tians, which I have in a very short interval put a more secure and la­sting stop unto by other applications.

The Conclave of PHYSICIANS: Detecting their Intrigues, Frauds and Plots Against their Patients.
PART II.
CHAP. I.
Of the second qualities of the Jesuits Bark.

§. 1. FOr the present we will supersede these prece­ding Rules, and proceed upon a further inquiry into the se­cond [Page 2] qualities of the Chinchina Bark, which are chiesly controverted, viz. whether it be condensing and in­crassating, or rarefying and attenua­ting; detergent or emplastick; re­laxing or adstringent; deobstruent and aperitive, or obstructing and stopping. The Ducklings of the So­ciety of Paris have declared it, At­tenuating, Detergent, De-obstruent and Aperitive; because Bitterness (which this Drug contains in the highest degree) is a necessary cause, source, or spring, whence these qualities and effects do flow and de­rive. The implication then is, that it is not Styptick, adstringent, con­densing and incrassating. But Aloes, Colocynthis, Rhubarb, Wormwood, Semina Santonici, Soot, &c. may contend with it in Bitterness, and consequently in attenuating, deter­ging, and de obstructing, yet in­stead of giving a check or stop to Ague Fits, they incense and increase them; whence then issues this ver­tue [Page 3] of stopping of Ague Fits? To this Query they stand with their finger in their Mouths; though at last (not daring to own it to be binding and obstructing; for they are jealous, very pernicious effects would ensue upon three weeks or a months use thereof,) they tell you, it is the most wonderful, and strangest Medicine nature ever pro­duced; for in some it occasions a loosness, in others a costiveness; in many it stops Ague Fits after the taking frequent Doses; in a few it doth its work immediately. Some it raises their Appetite, to others, dejects it; many it Nauseates, some few it Vomits. On great numbers it Engenders Hypochondriack va­pours, Scurvy, Obstructions, and tumours of the Spleen and Liver, ill habits of Body, Dropsies, Swelled Legs, Head aches, suppression of Menstrua in Women, difficulties of breathing, Phtysicks, Palsies, and other great Distempers of the [Page 4] Brain, which possibly are never afterwards to be removed: But most of these I confess are oft occasioned by Male application of the Bark. Notwithstanding some Physick Ducklings are so fond of this mon­strous Powder, that they prescribe it Panacaea like in all Diseases, mixing it even with Glysters, and Syrups. A certain Physick-Doctor lately ad­vised it to a Gentlewoman trou­bled with an Inflammation, and Ul­cers in her Throat, in a great mea­sure rendred worse by a Guaiacum Decoction premised by him; whom I afterwards Cured in somewhat longer than a Fortnight. Another I knew directed it to an Infant bree­ding its Teeth. In fine, the effects appear so miraculous to many of 'em, that they imagine the Jesuits by Imprecations, Exorcisms, and Charms on their Bark, have made use of their Cloven-footed Master. But to take off that aspersion from these poor Holy Fathers, I am of [Page 5] opinion, it is stupidity and ignorance in School-learning, Philosophy, and the true Art of Physick, that impels these pretended Doctors to take their refuge to such occult causes, which to men of more serene capacity may be rendred sufficiently manifest; wherefore in Answer to the Query before men­tioned I assert, 1. That bitter things ( amara quatenus amara) as far as they are bitter, are in some measure to be allowed: deobstruent and ape­ritive per se. 2. That many bitter Medicines are Emplastick, and others Adstringent; such is Aloes outwardly applyed, and therefore Galen makes it a principal Ingredient of his Pul­vis Adstringens, so much decanted in Ancient and Modern times; for dissolving it in Water, or any other Liquor, and dipping your finger therein, you shall imme­diately perceive it to be sticking, glewy, and somewhat contracting, Emplastick and Balsamic, for which [Page 6] reason also its a frequent Basis of external Balsams; though internally taken, its effects prove quite con­trary, by raising a smart ebullition in the Blood; which doth not only give it a quick motion, but a te­nuity so extream, that its very apt to penetrate through the Pores, and Mouths of the Veins, and Arteries Red Roses, Galls, torrefyed Rhu­barb, and many more, are Bitte [...] and Adstringent. 3. Medicines that are Bitter and Astringent are most potently Styptick; the reason is obvious; the Bitterness insinuating, and piercing into the most retired Pores of the Humours, and Fibers of the Bowels, doth thereby make way, and crowd along with it the Adstringent Particles to the deepest cellulae, or Pores of the Partes con­tinentes & contentae, so that con­sequently, no Medicine can be pa­rallel in a Styptick quality to that, which hath a Bitterness united to the Adstringent; whereas other Re­medies, [Page 7] that are only Astringent, the Particles upon their first appulse to the surface of the Parts they are to exercise adstrinction or contra­ction upon, do shut up the external superficial Pores, and by so doing they lock or shut up themselves in the surface, and do as it were prae­cludere sibi viam; so that they cannot in any proportion be accounted so potently Styptick, as Bitter Adstrin­gents.

§. 2. The manner of Adstriction may be thus explained, viz. You must suppose the Minimal particles of an Adstringent simple to obtain a long slender figure, most subtilly pointed at both ends, which renders them capable of insinuating into the Pores of that Part, or Body, which they are to operate upon. The slen­der Minimal particles being at one end fixed in a Pore, by the Heat of the body, or part, wherein they are fix'd, are bent or turned round like unto a Staple, (not unlike [Page 8] the heat of fire bending Pipe-staves, for to fit them for making cask) by which means the other pointed end happens to be fixed into another Pore, and the heat still continuing to bend, both these points must ne­cessarily then contract and draw the two Pores, wherein they are fixed nearer together, which causes that pursing or contracting sense we per­ceive, when we tast any thing that is Adstringent; and so long as these hooked Particles continue bent, so long the sense of Adstriction lasteth, and no longer; for upon their slack­ing, that disappears. Likewise the asperity and ruggedness, which ever concomitates the part that is thus adstricted, is nothing but those minute Elevations or Monticuli, oc­casioned by the contracting the Pores nearer towards one another. But in regard Adstringents do not operate all after one manner, some do it by stifning the Pores, and rendring them rigid, and possibly upon re­sistance [Page 9] of the part Adstricted, by reaction may also be incurvated and bent. Thus most Adstringent Salts and Salin Bodies, as Allom, Vitriol, &c. do perform their Action, name­ly their acuated thin slender rigid Particles, fixing themselves into the Pores like so many stiffe minute stakes, crowd and run them up together, and continue so long in that posture, until the heat of the part shall have relaxed, or softned them, and then nature doth easily thrust them out again. Moreover it may so happen, that these rigid Particles do not only enter the Pores in a descending strait figure, and so stake themselves, but may also lye transverse and oblique, by which means the Adstriction must ensue more violent, and be of a longer du­ration. Hence it may easily be made out, how our Ambient Skin hap­pens to be Adstricted, and rendred rugged, in Cold Frosty Weather, viz. By the slender acuated nitrous [Page 10] Particles in the Air, staking or fix­ing in our Pores, and crowding themselves on another; and here it is to be observed, that these nitrous Particles continue their Adstriction (perceived by us in Cold Frosty Weather, more or less, according to the number of these rigid nitrous Particles, precipitated down upon us) until our heat within, or ex­ternal warmth of Fire shall have slackned and expelled them. It is those rigid Frosty Minims filling the Pores of the water, and expelling the Air thence, that cause Ice. We must then suppose, that in Warm Weather the foresaid nitrous corpus­cles floating in the Air are slack, and swim, or Iye parallel with the surface of the Earth; but then as soon as the Moon by her motion shall have turned their Figure down­wards, and by defect of the Warmth of the Air (occasioned by Sulphurous Effluvia's exhaled out of the Earth, and actuated by the motion of the [Page 11] Sun, whence the Warmth of the Air arises) assuming their natural rigid structure, they are precipita­ted downward in great Showres, at the return of the Frost. Though I have here indeavoured to accomo­date this sort of Mechanick Philo­sophy to the present occasion, I must tell you, that to me some other Phylosophical Principles Printed Anno 63. renders the thing much more evident, and therefore where I am to satisfy my self in subjects of that nature, I do chuse to take my recourse to them; however the other being most in Vogue, I shall spare the pains of obtruding mine.

§. 3. The application of the pre­ceding Discourse to the Iesuits Bark, is our next affair. 1. That it is Bitter, Sense convinces us. 2. That it is Resinous, the Eye manifests in breaking it. 3. That it is Restrin­gent, the Tast doth attest by the perception of Contraction, and roughness upon the Tongue, espe­cially [Page 12] in the simple Powder, after the Bitterness is extracted by mace­ration, or decoction in any Liquor.

§. 4. The Bark being extreamly Bitter, Resinous, Viscous, and con­sequently Emplastick, and Adstrin­gent, declares it a most potent Styptick; for by its extraordinary Bitterness the minute slender acua­ted Particles (being partly Nitrosa­lin, and partly others) are readily and deeply fixed, into the remotest Pores, and thereunto are fast ce­mented by its Emplastick Viscous resin. And in regard all these qua­lifications, figures, positions, and principles do so rarely concur in one body, it's no wonder not many Barks besides it, are found so effectual for stopping Ague fits.

§. 5. Before we inquire further into the manner of its activity in in­termittent Fevors; we will demon­strate, that the Chinchina Bark is neither Purgative, nor Laxative per se. The former appears, in that [Page 13] in most bodies it doth not raise any Ebullition; the latter, in that all do agree, it is not moistning, nor much stimulating, unless taken in too great a Dose, or where the Stomach is charged with a mass of Humours. Neither is it Diuretick or Diaphoretick per se, which needs no other proof, than the general attestation of all those, that have experienced it on the occasion of their Distempers. Wherefore since per se it neither operates by Vo­mit, Stool, Urin, or Sweat, being the usual way of carrying off the Causes of Agues, which properly ought to be termed Curing, I judge we may safely conclude, its chief Energy consists only in stopping of Ague fits; for in as much as one, that is troubled with a virulent Go­norrhee, cannot be said to be Cured by stopping it up with Adstringents, the malignity together with the putrefied Humours being dam'd up within the Body, and therefore is [Page 14] so apt to return, and be converted into a worse Disease, the Pox, unless Cured by removing the cause, viz. by extinguishing the malignity, and carrying off the Putrid Humours by detersives or Purgatives; so Agues can no otherwise be termed Cured by the Iesuits Bark, but only stop'd, and the vitious Humours retained and mured up, whereby either the Fits upon some short interval do re­turn, or through failure thereof, worse Diseases are engendred (by the vitious Humours so retained and bound up) as Dropsies, Con­sumptions, Scurvy, or twenty other Distempers, that either render the Party his whole life-time ex­treamly Crasie, or kill him out-right. Your objection I can as soon answer as conjecture, viz. A Diarrhaea or loosness is oft cured by Adstringents; but the nature throws off the cause by frequent Stools, which in a Go­norhaea, though it be possible to run off, and so afterwards remedied [Page 15] by Adstringents, it is rarely obser­ved, unless in those that are very mild and little malignant, though even in those, and in the foremen­tioned Diarrhaeaes, its far the safer way to carry off the cause. In like manner, where slight Agues by Symptomatick Vomits before the Fit, and Sweats at the termination of them, have lessened the Cause, the Iesuits Bark may sometimes put the last hand to the suppressing of the Distemper, and yet I should ra­ther choose to be cured another way.

§. 6. That in some the Bark proves Purgative, in others Vomi­tive, is only per accidens, by en­countring with floating bilious, or corrupt Pituitous humors about the Stomach, Guts, precipitating the for­mer, and giving a shock to the latter; so that according to what I observed in my ninth Rule, where it chances to operate by Vomit or Purge, it indicates necessity of exhibiting a Purgative, or Emi­tick. [Page 16] Therefore in many cases I esteem it male practice to mix opiates with the Iesuits Powder, to keep in or stay it in the body, unless the Patient be reduced to a very low ebb of strength, and even then, it ought not to be continued long, except some other urgent Symp­toms should co-indicate it.

§. 7. Now we are advanced to the chief point and knot of the diffi­culty (the untying of which will manifestly detect the killing errors, committed not only in intermittent, but principally in continual Fevors) How, in what manner, and by what means the Iesuits Bark doth stop Ague Fits. Wherefore let us proceed by method, first assert the theory of Agues, and afterwards by way of Indication describe, how the Bark by being so potently and peculiarly Adstringent and Styptick, as I have before illustrated (where­in its sole faculty and energy con­sists) doth answer our Intention.

CHAP. II.
Willis his Hypothesis of Agues is ridiculously Erroneous.

THat Excrementious Humours extra vasa put into an high ebullition, and accended into a prae­ternatural igneous heat, are the cause of intermittent Fevors, the old Hypothesis intimates, which in some particulars doth nearer ap­proach the Truth, and expresses the curative indication beyond the Fictitious modern one of Thomas Willis, who for couching Physical Romances, and Romantick notions, smoothly, elegantly, and to Phy­sicians of Par. only resembling Truth, doth exceed Monsieur Scu­dery in his Historical Fictions, could it but be believed, the stile and the Latine were as much his own as the matter. Had the said Willis from [Page 18] observation abstracted his Novels, a happier success would have attended his practice, than which nothing ever proved more pernicious and fatal to most of those Patients, that subjected themselves to his, and the followers of him, Their debauch'd advice, which the Bills of Morta­lity of his time, and since, did amply testify. His Caprices being ever formed before experimental ob­servation, he was obliged to strain the latter, to render them agreea­ble to the former, which was the cause of that great number of Caytifs failing under his management; whereas had he made experience the foundation of his Inventions, a rule that swayed with the Ancients, his endeavours might have been in some measures serviceable. His judg­ment was most palpably depraved, in concluding excrementious hu­mours could be lodged no where, but in the common receptacles, as the Gall-Bladder, Guts, &c. There [Page 19] being according to his assertion no other visible repositories; as if the Pores of the Parenchyma (con­spicuous through a Microscope) of the Entrails, Musculs, Glanduls, &c. were not sufficiently nume­rous, to contain a centuple pro­portion of humours, more than those cavities he mentions, for the proof of which, you need only con­sider, in what places the humours are contained in an Anasarca, Asci­tes, pedes aedematosi, all internal tumours of the Bowels, and those of the external parts. But he con­ceived these not to be Excrementi­tious, as the bilis in cysti fellea, & stercora in intestinis, allowing them only to be humores crudi, that may be concocted, wherein his error is discovered, by misapprehending the intendment of the Ancients in the word Excrementitius, signifying omne id quod excerni debet, and therefore crude blood that has stag­nated a considerable time in the [Page 20] Pores, having thereby acquired a preternatural crasis, disposition, or quality, is as much excrementitious, as the Urine, or alvi faeces, and thence being incapable of assimila­tion to the universal Mass, must be substracted by Bleeding, Purging, Transpiration, Urine, Expectoration, Sputation, Vomit, Excretion at the Nose, Eyes, Ears, &c. For certainly none can deny, but that Snot, Humours running at the Ears in Infants, Fleam expectorated by Cough, or Spit up from the Glanduls of the Throat, are Excre­mentitious Humours, contained in no visible Cavities, or Cells. Nei­ther doth the conceding (as he urges) of stagnation of Excremen­titious humours in the Pores ex­clude, or impede the circulation of the Mass in any other part, than where the stagnation is, and finding a resistance or exclusion, the circu­lating Blood doth preter-flow to the next passages, that are patent. The [Page 21] Argument most inforcing his ob­jection, is grounded upon the trite maxime of Physick, viz. That humours extra vasa Putrefy. This is granted, but how, and when? Post long am moram, not immediately, as appears in most AEdematous, Skirrous, or Aqueous Tumours, and many Ecchymoses not tending to Putrefaction before a long interval of time; though in some Cases, where the external and internal Pores are quite stop'd and choak'd up and the Bood consisting of Hete­rogeneous Particles, is Sulphurous, and full of Spirits, a Putrefaction doth ensue immediately extra vasa, and so it may intra vasa, mani­fest in Putrid Continual Fevors. Moreover conceding this Physick Romancers position, that the Blood, or excrementitious Humours, cannot stagnate extra vasa, the whole structure of the Art of Physick, rai­sed by the sedulous observation and experience of so many Agues, is [Page 22] thrown to the ground at once; for then obstructions of the Bowels, all internal Tumours, Dropsies, Infarcti­ons of the Stomach, and Lungs, with many other evident distempers, must all be expunged, Purging set aside, Bleeding rendred useless, and no o­ther Remedies continue in force, be­sides Alteratives, Diaphoreticks, and Diureticks. A fine sort of Emperical and destructive practice, whereunto the man being glued by such like false Opiniater notions, was driven to a most unreasonable use of Spirit of Hartshorn, posting thereby Le­gions of Patients to untimely ends, and still continued by his unhappy successors, who in imitation of their master, aim at nothing more than getting of Fees, by defrauding people of their lives.

That this I [...]trosophist had given himself over to Physick Tales, and invention of Cases, that never hap­pened, producing them in Evidence, to maintain his false positions, this [Page 23] instance of a Cure performed at Oxford on a young Gentlewoman, now the Wife of an Attorney of the Lord Mayors Court, may con­vince you; whence, and from the course he directed her Mother, both decumbent of an intermit­tent Fevor, he abstracted his The­orems of Agues. To the former he had exhibited such a proporti­on of Mercurius Dulcis, as raised a Salivation so plentiful, that it had almost Embark'd her in Cha­rons Boat, and put himself into the humour of attending her to the end of her Voyage, to anticipate the reproach and scandal, which then was likely would unevitably ensue, though through mercy she narrow­ly escap'd his hands scarce Cur'd, as likewise did her Mother, which afterwards he draws into conse­quence, as I hinted before, for in­stalling his erroneous Principles of Agues: This being related to me, did ever after excite an aversion to [Page 24] the Author, and a diffidence in his Writings.

The ground-work of the Theo­ry and Practice of Intermittent Fe­vers, rests on this Hypothesis, that the Original of Agues must be pla­ced in the Mass of Blood preternatu­rally affected, rais'd into a fermen­tation by the appulse and commix­ture of the nutritious juyce, which though indued with a good natural Diathesis, or constitution, yet upon its commixture with the distemper­ed Blood, through its too great a contrariety excites an high ebul­lition, which he calls an Intermit­tent Fevor. You are to apprehend, he makes mention of two succi nu­tritii, the one fol. 119. de febr. Succus nutritius ex esculentorum ma­teriae suppeditatus; and fol. 120. à pabulo quotidiano suppeditatus; and why would not this Phantastique continue the old name Chylus? though in another place he impro­perly terms it Chymus, by which [Page 25] Hippocrates only intended the Blood, and Plato and Aristotle Sapor, or Tast. The other he recites fol. 109. a sucus nutritius e sanguine suppedita­tus, and is (as he says) a Vehicle of the Animal Spirits, a bratt of the brain of Glisson and Wharton, and by Willis highly approved and Christ­en'd the Liquor Nervosus, an opi­nion so absurd and ridiculous, that all Europe have with contempt re­jected the nursing of it, the Fools of Paris only excepted. Well, it is the former of these Nutritii or ali­biles succi he purposes, for the first source and causa movens of an in­termittent, and typical fermenta­tion; but what, if the Patient for several days, by reason of a deje­cted Appetite, assumes no nutriment, whence must the Causa movens, Fo­vens, Adjuvens, commaterialis, or what not, be fetch'd? and if upon the prava diathesis of the Blood, the first concoction in the Stomach is immediately depraved, [Page 26] and perverted (as questionless it is) how will the pot be set on Boiling through want of sufficient contra­riety in the Juices? If by removing and correcting the humours abo [...]t the Stomach, the Ague is forth with chaced and expelled, what becomes of the Hypothesis? if the Iuvantia and laedentia are only relative and applicable to the Stomach, and the first original and immediate ( sympto­mata proxime emanantia) symptoms do only appear about the ventricle, I judge we need not give credit to Romantick notions, that like Will with a Whisp shall lead us out of the way to kill people.

That the Chyle for being well and naturally confected, should be impeach'd a cause of a Feavorish Disease ( risum teneatis amici) is an absurdity before unheard of, and to elude the Truth by asserting, that Vomitives Cure an Ague no otherwise, than by throwing up Choler (how he is forced to strain [Page 27] himself) is false, since I have oft observed intermittent Tertians era­dicated, where the Emetick hath cast up an heap of Putrid slime, without the admixture of a grain of Choler. On the other hand I have seen Bleedings, and such Pur­gatives, or Laxatives, which he so highly commends, only to make his marks to bear, a hundred times continued in use, and repeated in eight, ten, or twelve interval days, and exhibited before the Fit, with no more success than commonly attended his first practice at Oxford, which I particularly took notice of (being my self then a Student in Exeter Colledge) was so inconside­rable, that he was forced to block at his Pen, and so by forging of Novelties, thereby removing the bushel from over his Candle, allured a number of poor Country Patients, though at that time very raw in all manner of experience, nor ad­vanced in the least in practical ob­servations; [Page 28] so that at last Iustice for his having so long impunitely injur'd mankind, made him his own Execu­tioner, dying under the same mis­applications, so many hundreds had miscarried by. Though after he had thus practised many years, I have met with him in consultation, then whom I never observed a man less Sagacious in finding out a Dis­ease, and therefore he would ever submit to any that should disco­ver it, being wholly unfurnish'd with the Diagnostick part, whereby he might oppose or approve ano­thers judgment. Indeed it were to be wished most of my Friends of Paris would return to their Insti­tutes, and perfect themselves in the Semeiotica; for they are so apt to mistake Diseases, that in five, four are commonly misnamed by them, and not long since an Anatomical Belweather, (a Doctor) managed a person of considerable Quality, living within two Miles of Paris, for [Page 29] a Gout, who being Dissected, was found to die of an Ulcerous Con­sumption, his Lungs appearing in a great measure putrefied; but what do I mention this single example, when I could produce a hundred, whom Syrup of Steel (his general quack Medicine) had brought to the ground, upon applying it to Diseases by him mistaken.

That which induced this Innova­tor to state the Focus, Sedes, and Fomes of intermittent Fevors in the Vessels, was the observing, that many Autumnal and Epidemick Tertians attack'd Bodies of all Tem­peraments, Ages, and Sexes, (in some of whom no foul Stomach, or ill feeding could be discovered by him) likewise such as should live in Foggy marshy places, as the hundreds of Essex, and lower Kent. Unto this instance, carrying the force of an Objection, I must make a repartie of those sporadick Agues, that appear plainly engendred by [Page 30] irregular Diet, where the Air can­not in the least be suspected to bear a part in a most healthful season, and the best of Climats, on which oc­casions the Stomach by the original and immediate symptoms, doth shew it self principally and primarily affected, and other parts only per deuteropatheiam; as also it doth even in those intermittent Feavorish Di­stempers of the Autumn, and of Marshy places, where though the Nitropyretick Particles of the Air do seem to introduce a dyscrasie in the Blood, through the Pores and inspiration; yet this cannot happen, unless soon after the Stomach doth receive the same ill impression from the Spirits of the Arterial Liquor, and Lympha, considering that through heat of the former, and Salin particles of the latter, it doth in a great measure perform the first concoction, or Chylification, whence afterwards through infarctions of its own, and circumjacent parts, by [Page 31] putrid slymy variegated humours, variously constituted, and boiling up, those several sorts of Agues receive their production. Should I charge my self with the trouble of copying out the Theory of inter­mittent, and continual Fevors, ab­stracted from experience and expe­rimental Observations, the sole ori­ginal and fundamental of true know­ledge, you would at the same mo­ment be furnish'd with a guide easily to conduct you to Remedies equal to Riverius his Febrifugue, Iesuits Bark, or any other, in Intermittents, and to Medicines in continual, putrid or malignant, beyond any yet dis­covered, that shall manifestly abate the Distemper, and extinguish ma­lignity; but it is foreign to my intention ever to gratify that in­grateful and malicious tribe of Par. further then present them with a looking glass of their errors, and to inform the Vulgar, that following the Dictates of their own sense, and [Page 32] common experience, will in slight Distempers more safely cure them, and in dangerous ones prove less hurtful, than they, or the preposte­rous management of their Art.

CHAP. III.
By what vertue, manner or quality, the Jesuits Bark doth stop Ague Fits.

TO avoid Chicaneries, & School-wranglings, we will only suppose Ague Fits to be occasioned by an high ebullition, Orgasmus, or fermentation (as others choose to call it) of contrary humours, and Juices about the Stomach, their Par­ticles being rarefied, attenuated, and of various figures, do vibrate, and shock one another impetuously, and by their violent local motion against each other, a great heat is at length raised and an high ebullition, whence Effluvia's being gradually dispersed, and impelled into the Mass, do ac­cording [Page 33] to their number and quality excite a greater or lesser, longer or shorter, milder or malignant heat and ebullition, depending also upon the disposition, and susceptibility of the Blood. The indication drawn hence concludes, that a Medicine, which is drying, condensing, incras­sating, and Adstringent, so as to be penetrating also, must be singularly energick, and effectual (though not always proper to be used) to allay the Febril ebullition before-menti­oned, by interposing its minute slen­der acuated corpuscles between the combattant Particles, and as it were parting them, by staking themselves like so many Pallisadoes between them, and so by crowding them up close, fetter and imprison them, whence consequently the ebullition must necessarily cease, and a truce put to the combat for so long time, as the interposing corpuscles shall there continue, which being worn out, or by long repulsion of the im­prisoned [Page 34] particles expelled, the battle commences anew, and the fits return, which then are to be stop'd again by the same Medicine.

That this indication is answered in all its particulars by the Iesuits Bark, the frequent and common experiment, together with the reason thereof, given in the ma­nifest dissection of its parts, and explication of its qualities, and effects before recited, do clearly demon­strate: For consisting of such staking or pallisading particles, and endu­ed with a penetrating bitterness ad­strictive, and emplastick qualities, it obtains a specifick vertue to stop febril Paroxysms. Why other Ad­stringents, as Allom, Tormentil, Berbery Bark, and such like are not equally Febrifugues with the Chin­china, is because they are not suf­ficiently bitter, and penetrative nor emplastick; or were they bitter, penetrative, and emplastick, yet not consisting of particles, whose [Page 35] figure fit the Pores of the Febril matter about the Stomach, so as to enter them, would fail of the vertue the Jesuit is endowed with, wherein all these requisita meeting, do therefore render it specifick.

CHAP. IV.
Giving the reasons for the Method and Rules (heretofore set down) of exhibiting the Jesuits Bark.

MY next task is, from this Theory to give you the rea­son of the rules, set down fol. 160. In the first Bleeding, Vomiting, or Purging are directed: The first to diminish the Plethora ad vires, or ad vasa, to make room for the Spirits to move, the Bood to cir­culate, cool and ventilate the Hu­mours, open Obstructions, and re­move the constipation of the Pores: The second, to evacuate the whole Body, and Bowels; but particularly [Page 36] to averruncate those Viscous Putrid Humours about the Stomach, where the focus, and minera mali lyes absconded: The third, in case Vomiting is counter-indicated by weakness, tenderness of Sex or Age, indisposition of Parts, or mildness of the Distemper, not requiring a Medicine of that efficacy. These depletions and evacuations being in sufficient measure and proportion premised, the Relique of putrid hu­mours ought to be precipitated to the Guts, or Bladder, or the Fer­ment (as they term it,) bound up by a specifick styptick, as the Iesuits Bark, and several others; which done, the Spirits return to their several functions, and the Concoctions are restored to their Vigour, whereby new humours and juices are engendred, which gra­dually diluting and qualifying the foremention'd remaining ferment, the Ague is totally cured without danger of relapse. But in case the [Page 37] Iesuits Bark shall be exhibited im­mediately, before the body is deple­ted, and evacuated, as of late years hath been the practice, the Febril ferment is by longer detention aug­mented, and much deteriorated, or rather those putrid Ebullititious humours do not only receive an ad­dition in quantity, but quality, which sometimes amounts to ma­lignity. This is not all, obstructions are inveterated, the Bowels ex­treamly weakned, and subverted in their temperament, whence more dangerous and obstinate Diseases are to be expected, than the Ague it self. So that when ever the Fits shall return again, they shall appear at­tended with far worse symptoms than formerly, and continue much longer, and oft times be converted to double tertians and quartans, be­ing only single before. I have more than once known, that a single tertian, by applying the Bark too early, before proportionable eva­cuations [Page 38] or depletions, hath been forced into a continual mortal Fe­ver, the violent styptick Medicine having impell'd the ferment, or those Putrid febril humours into the great vessels. Neither will the purge Willis mentions fol. 142. the infu­sion of Sena and Rhubarb (pur­posely adduced to avoid thwarting of his Hypothesis) signify any thing in a stubborn, or inveterated tertian; it must be a Cathartick of another nature, and greater energy, among which I could discover one to the Physicians of P. that at once or twice purges off those Viscous pu­trid humours in a great part, the other it precipitates to the Bladder, and the remainder it fixes, which three properties ought to concur in any Medicine, that deserves to be named a Febrifugue, or specifick Antipyretick; but that would be ca­sting Pearls to Sw.

In the second precept great doses of the Iesuits Powder are forbidden, [Page 39] lest by too sudden a cohibition you crowd the ferment into the great Vessels, or by too great a dose, or weight, it precipitate it self downwards into the Guts, and purge, and so carry it self off, not unlike Mercurius Dulcis given in a Dose to raise a Salivation, instead whereof, by its weight and ser­mentative quality, as they call it, it purges, whereas by small Doses it answers the intention; though I am not ignorant, that sometimes small Doses may by its adstriction precipitate, and detrude loose floa­ting humours downwards, and so become per accidens laxative, (as medlers are said laxative, prima mensa comesta) and by that it sig­nifies the body requires a purgative.

The fourth Cannon enjoyns a­nother Purge after some interval, to attempt the carrying off some part of the humours, that have been bound up, (before the ebullition revives, the vertue of the Iesuit [Page 40] being almost worn out) and to cement the remninder by a few Doses of the Bark.

If upon conjectural computation the relique of morbifique matter shall be deemed considerable, a­nother Cathartique must be in­terposed after six weeks, to which duration the adstriction of the Bark may well extend, since after several previous subductions of humours, the styptick is suppos'd to continue its prerogative over a small heap, to a longer interval, which being some­what reinforced, doth abide in prevalence, until the last small re­mainder of febril matter is by the strength of nature dispersed.

The occasion of the sixth injunction is this; though many have been brought off from their Agues by the method predict, yet conside­ring the nauseous doses of the Iesuit, the long protracted regimen of Diet, frequent danger of relapses, which in some hath happened twen­ty [Page 41] times in the time of a year or two, and after all there has been a tran­slation into an incurable Disease; in my opinion, other methods ought to be preferr'd, where the case can bear it. And grant the Bark is used with all the caution, and suc­cess imaginable, still Experience awards necessity of an aperitive or deobstruent course at the next sea­son, or at least the subsequent spring, to delete the vestiges of the Bark, and the ultimate impressions of the Febril lees, or sediment; but a caveat is put in against Chalybeats, they in point of adstriction being Sisters to the Iesuit, as hereafter shall be more plainly made out, viz. That all Chalybeat preparations, and particularly such as are called erro­neously Aperitive, are highly ad­stringent, styptick, obstructive, and binding per se. Also that most of those preparations of Steel, which are termed adstringent, are rather, Epulotick and Emplastick. In my [Page 42] Treatise of the Scurvy, I have partly proved the assertion, and given in­stances, how extreamly dangerous the use of Steel is, if misapplyed, hundreds, I may say thousands, owing the irrecoverable loss of their Health to it, and not a few the loss of their lives: Yet notwithstanding these convincing proofs, not only Steel, but the Iesuits Powder, and Laudanum, are become the three Quack-Medicines of this Age.

That Steel is the bane of the Lungs, doth not only appear by its suppressing expectoration, but also by crowding and forcing gross Phlegmatique and Salin humours up to the Lungs, whence inevitably Consumptions and Hectick Fevers do ensue, whereof I have seen frequent instances in young and old: And notwithstanding it is so highly cryed up for opening obstructions, I have more then once observed some Women, that have made use of Crocus Martis Aperitivus (falsly [Page 43] so called) for the procuring their Menstrua, have fallen into an incura­ble suppression. Per accidens it doth sometime prove de-obstruent, by crowding Humours and Spirits up into a heap, until at last they burst through, and then by Explosion, violence of motion, and a forcible stream, they carry all before them, and so become aperitive, not unlike to a rivulet, that is dammed up with a bank of mud, which stop­ping the water until it is swelled, and gathered into a great heap, is at length thereby burst through, which happening, moves impe­tuously, scours and clears all before it. Moreover, the material princi­ple of Steel being Vitriol, which is allowed adstringent, and obstru­ctive in the highest degree, doth strongly confirm what before is asserted.

CHAP. V
Containing Animadversions on the grand course of Physick, described in Chap. 11.

§. 1. MY affairs preventing me, I must suspend my in­tention of discoursing particularly upon the five courses formerly men­tioned; and therefore shall only set down a few Animadversions upon the grand course of Physick prescri­bed to the Sieur, &c. which you have already read in Chap. 11. The first Medicine set down by the Sieur Phlegm. he knew not what to make of it, and therefore at the close writes only M. for Misce, it being neither Apozem, because it wants Syrup, nor Julep, because it is a Decoction. By the Scorzonere and Liquorish he designs to smooth the Blood, but then by the Spirit of [Page 45] Sulphur, that is likewise added, he renders it rough again. The Claret-Wine, (which he ignorantly calls Vinum Claretum, signifying spiced Wine, and rendred clear, by passing it through an Hyppocras bag) is poured to it, because the Patient having been a Claret drinker, is not to be taken suddenly from the use of it, for fear through want thereof his Stomach should be palled; the Cinamon water is to keep up his Spirits: The whole is the most idle prescription I ever yet beheld, con­sisting of contrary Ingredients, and consequently Heterogeneous, which necessarily must ferment in his body, and therefore instead of allaying the Febril fermentation (erroneously so termed) he doth considerably aug­ment it; whereupon the Patient growing worse, he thought it not safe to trust himself to him alone, though a Patriarch, but must have another joyn'd with him, to render the case worse, who agree in the [Page 46] next prescription, which is a De­coction of bitter, and sweet, viz. Liquorish, Gentian, Jesuits Bark, Centaury, &c. A Medicine as idle, but more pernicious than the former, being wholly Empirical without sense or reason. I perceive these two Gentlemen ascrib'd the chief energy of the Ies. Bark in suppres­sing of preternatural fermentations, to the bitterness of it, and therefore to exalt the virtue thereof, the other bitter Simples are added; if so, why is Liquorish put to it?

2dly. It is universally observed, that all things that do ( movere alvum) cause Stools, not only infringe, but destroy the Virtue of the Jesuits Bark: Wherefore it is very senseless, to add Centaury, Carduus, and Gentian, which by a smart stimulation and potent de­tersion do all occasion Stools, and consequently precipitate and throw off the Jesuit in a great measure. The manifest truth hereof you shall [Page 47] find by giving the Jesuits Bark to two Ague Patients, whose Diseases are indifferently equal in their Symptoms: He that takes the Bark without the bitter Decoction, shall be rescued from his Fits six or eight days before the other. Furthermore, I have known the aforesaid Bark given in substance three weeks suc­cessively with a superbibendo of the Decoctum amarum, without the ex­pected effect; but on the other hand, after the same Patient had swal­lowed down three Bolusses of the Peruvian Bark upon the omission of the Decoct. Amar. his Fits were stop'd immediately. So by this you are to understand, amara are not all of the same nature, witness Aloes, Colochynth, &c.

3dly. These Signiors were very addle-headed, in directing a Deco­ction of the Bark, which only ex­tracts the bitter from the adstrin­gent particules, which being Ter­restrial, were left in the bottom of [Page 48] the Pipkin, whereby the Medicine is partly destroy'd.

4thly. Considering, that most continual Fevers after digestion, and the aequation of the Heterogenous humours are carried off by Sweat, Urine, or Stool, can any thing be more contrary and Lethiferous, than the Jesuits Bark, that stops all the Avenues of the Body, crowds and forces up humours out of the lower venter into the middle, and supream venters, as appears by their pre­scription of the 24th. where Pecto­rals are advised to relieve his diffi­culty of breathing, caused by the Jesuits Bark; for this Symptom did not attend his Disease at first, but was an Epiginomenon. And now his humours are thus thrown up to his Lungs and Throat, the Vital Spirits must needs be extremely oppressed, and stifled; to whose relief a num­ber of insipid faint musty Cordials are prescribed. These sages obser­ving, instead of having done little [Page 49] good, they had done a great deal of hurt by an unknown Medicine, they push on by trying one experi­ment upon another, to whose com­position they were much more Strangers, viz. the Goa Stone; to little purpose. But still the difficulty of Breathing increased, of which he complained so vehemently, as if a house had stood upon his breast; thus the poor Gentleman was night-mared by the Jesuits Bark; to remove which, here is a lick-pot (prescribed on the 18th.) of nasty Linseed Oyl, taught them by the Boars of Germany; which though very moistening and relaxing, could not abate the adstriction the Bark had caused. Hitherto they have continued the use of Acids; now Empirick-like they pass over to Re­medies quite opposite, viz. Volatile Alcalies, and therefore they recom­mend Spirit of Sal Armoniack to be taken in every draught of drink and broath, instead of Spirit of Sul­phur; [Page 50] likewise he is oft to gorge down Spirit of Harts-horn in Briony-water. By these prescripts, I find they are receded from their former opinion, importing the difficulty of Breathing depended on a tran­slation of humours to his Lungs, as beyond all peradventure it did: And now they humbly conceive, it was occasioned by Hypochondriack va­pours. But since those Volatile Al­calies caused no abatement of that Symptom, they e'en turn to their old deserted opinion, of a translation of humours to the Lungs, and there­fore on the 29th. they endeavour to purge them off by a violent Purge, the strongest that ever was pres­cribed to the strongest man, and in the greatest dose, viz. Twenty grains of Pil è duobus, consisting of colocynthis, and scammany. This was an error unpardonable, for these reasons; first for directing the strong­est Purge, in the greatest dose, to the weakest man that lay dying. [Page 51] 2dly. For ordering a valiant Purge, when a continaul Fever (not without suspition of malignity) was near the state, whereas it is accounted a great èrrour to advise a gentle purge in the beginning and augment of a mild continual Fever. Now, had any other that was not of their Conclave, been guilty of an errour a thousand parts less, they would in that Country have prose­cuted him not for male practice only, but Murder. At last the sufferer fell into Ratling in his Throat (the nearest Symptom to death) which they ignorantly believed, was occa­sion'd by the humours mounting, and therefore they appoint him a Mustard gargle, which stifles him immediately, instead of halling Flame out of his Throat by roaps. In conclusion, may I never be guil­ty of so much Knavery, and Igno­rance, as to become a Conclave Physician.

CHAP. VI.

WHat sort of Animal a Con­clave-Physician is like to prove in curing a Dropsy, Consump­tion, or any other Malady, is with­out difficulty conjectured, from his ignorant management of Fevers and Agues, the most popular and most common of all Distempers; for up­on tracking him 50 years backward, you find him varying, diffident, and most incertain in his method, a plain evidence his Theory appear'd to him­self dubious and false, which impels him so oft into various different cour­ses. For a considerable time continual Fevers were endeavoured to be re­mov'd by bleedings, and acid Juleps, but many more dying than recov'r­ing, put the Physick Doctors upon [Page 53] a contrary method; namely, upon the use of Volatil Alcalies, as Spirit of Harts-horn, Spirituous Sudorific-waters, &c. throwing off Treacle-water, because consisting of one or two acid Ingredients a­mong many alcalies. This manner of cure prevailing less than the for­mer, they fall into an Empirical course, as exhibiting Iesuits Bark against all continual and intermit­tent Fevers, which now by all men is judged to be more fatal then any of the former. Whither they will apply next, who knows? tho' some already have cast off the Bark, and began again with Acids, others with Alcalies, as being according to their sentiments less lethiferous. By these contrary courses a Conclave-Physi­cian betrays his Ignorance in Theory, and unskilfulness in Pra­ctice. After all, I must tell you, Fevers are curable by methods dif­ferent from these, and Remedies, which they never yet have found [Page 54] out, nor ever will, as long as they continue in their Associations and Confederacies; for all following one Bell-weather, must like Sheep go astray, whom if any of a Genius more inquisitive should endeavour to conduct into a true path, would for his pains be rewarded with ill language, reproach, and all manner of ingratitude; and therefore no more shall be said at present.

CHAP. VII.
Concerning the Apothecaries and Sur­geons Capacity and Pretension to practise Physick, equal with the Doctors.

1. TO make a Superscription to a Physician, be his Name what it will, viz. to such, or such, Doctor of Physick, would now adays appear very foppish and idle; where­as the Direction ought to be, to such, or such, Doctor of the Iesuits Bark; for all Diseases, that require to be cu­red tuto, cito, & jucunde, are wholly and solely to be managed by this Panacaea, the mode or method of Application, just Dose, Time, Pre­paration, Repetition, Substraction, Addition, Division, Multiplication, and innumerable other Circumstan­ces, being so extreamly intricate and difficult, that they cannot be [Page 56] felt, heard, or understood in less time, than 10 or 14 years study in an University; though the first Founder of this Order, Dr. Tabor, of immortal Fame, conceived all this great Mystery in one nights Drunkenness.

2. But besides these Savii, there is another sort of Doctors, that live at the Sign of the Pestil and Mortar, and who are of the true Race of the great Prophet above-mentioned, and consequently by descent are gifted with the knowledge of discern­ing good from evil Bark; they know how to bruise, pouder, and sift it, infuse, extract, impast it into an Electuary, or Pills, and weigh it into Doses, of all which the Pen and Ink Doctors being ignorant, they are incapable of curing one single Patient, without the indispensable aid and assistance of the Pestil and Mortar Doctors, who for that Rea­son attain ten Patients to the others one; for if a man repairs to a supe­rior [Page 57] Doctor, for a Licence for the Iesuits Bark, paying therefore a Tribute of five or ten Livers, and then is remanded down to an inferi­our Knight of the Pestil, who also for his Commodity and Attendance, expects in the end, by reason of se­veral Repetaturs, to be trebly satis­fied; what is this, but purchasing Health at the second hand? So that generally throughout all Paris, the Apothecaries having 50 or a 100 Patients to the Physicians one, it's an infallible Conclusion, that the Company of Apothecaries get 50 or a 100 times more than the Band of Physicians; for an Apothecary is continued to the end of the Distem­per, the Physician oft-times makes but one Visit or two, and then is dismissed: besides the Apotheca­ries oft have hundreds of Patients, whom the Physicians are never cal­led unto, either because they pre­tend, and oft really do cure them as well as the Doctors, or because the [Page 58] Patients are unwilling to be at a dou­ble charge. Hence you may easily extract the Reason, why five sixths of the Physicians go with their hands in their Pockets all day, the greatest part of Business passing only through few mens hands, (though some of 'em are much more ignorant than the others) whereas there is scarce any little Apothecary, but one time or other in the day, there is Life perceived in his Mortar. Now this scarceness of Business being by Phy­sicians (who probably wish all the World sick at once) imputed to too great a share one hath before ano­ther, (though falsly, for it's equal­ly enough divided amongst most of 'em, some few only excepted) makes them growl and snarl at one another, like so many barking Ani­mals at a Bone in the Water, they can't come at; whereas all this while, were the number of Physici­ans ten times greater than it is, there would be too much Business for [Page 59] them, had they not imparted their Knowledge, Skill, Method, and Re­medies, to these inferior Doctors, at whose discretion it is now, whether any Physician shall partake with them in their Employ, and when­ever they do, it is oft-times to the Physicians own Disadvantage, as I shall make appear to you.

3. If the superior Doctors will bid high for the Stock, the inferior do not want confidence to out-bid them, as the subsequent Test will plainly decide. Suppose a good ho­nest Parisian, of an indifferent For­tune, to find himself Feverish, he will have a care not to be so pro­fuse, as to throw away (in his opi­nion at least) a Fee upon the Ma­ster Doctor, but sends to the next Pestle and Mortar, who has skill enough to discover by his Pulse, he has a Fever, and upon the instant (if the Patient wants one) to re­commend a Lavement, or Glyster to him, and within a few hours after [Page 60] to cause him to be blooded; he is not ignorant, that he ought to pro­vide him a cooling Julep, a Cordial, Diaphoretick Powders, and in a few days to clap on his blistering Plai­sters: now what could the Master Doctor have done more? However, if the impatience of his Relations, suspecting danger by the Apothe­caries Countenance, will needs im­pose a Physician upon him, who may make a better Figure in case of miscarriage, he doth with all his heart accept of one, provided he be of his own choosing; or if he must be the Belweather, the Apothecary stands upon his Guard, having possi­bly left him room to crowd in Spir. corn. cerv. or a Pearl Cordial, and possibly not. But if the Apothecary should happen to prove dishonest, in preferring his Reputation before the Life of the Patient, whom there­fore the Physician shall not cure, whereby he may acquire a Fame a­bove him; for prescribe what he [Page 61] will or can, it is in the Apothecaries power to make up the Medicine as he pleases; and suppose a few grains of Cer. should be added to your Pearl Cordial, not unlike it in colour and mixture, this shall so oppress and stifle the Patients Spirits, that with­out the least sign of being poisoned, he shall certainly die, without the least danger of being discovered for his foul play.

4. Allow a Physician commits to the preparation of the Apothecary a long Bill, perhaps a purgative Apo­zem of half a Sheet, containing an hundred or more of alterative Sim­ples, besides the Purgatives, can any man be so idle, as to believe, he will send to all the Herb-women, Physick-gardens, and Druggists, possibly at ten a Clock at night, when the Prescription arrived at his Shop? No, he is wiser; and dis­cerning the Doctor intends only to exercise his Patient for two or three days on the Close-stool, laughs at [Page 62] the Vanity of the man, and puts in only three or four Roots or Herbs, a few Seeds, and the same Purga­tives, dosing it according to his own Estimate, and conveys it next morning early to the Patient. You may believe, it's not one Bill in twen­ty is exactly made up according to the Doctor's Order; neither is it fitting it should; for oft his Prescrip­tions are so idle and incongruous, did not the Experience of the Apo­thecary correct, alter, and substi­tute what he pleases, there would be mad work in the sick man's Guts. Or imagine the Bill is prescribed as it ought, the Apothecary may not be pleased, the Patient should be re­stored to his Health in too short a time; or at least is pleas'd that the Phy­sician shall miss of his Reputation in curing of him. Therefore grant the Doctor prescribes over-night a sudo­rifick Cordial Julep; the other pre­pares it, with the addition of a few grains of Resin of Gialap, or Scammo­ny, [Page 63] without the least hazard of dis­covery; the next morning the Sick gives an account, that instead of sweating, he was on the Pot all night. The Doctor, less jealous, good man, of the Apothecary, than of his own Wife, tells the Patient, this is a critical Evacuation, occasio­ned by Nature's being strengthned by the Cordial, and consequently proves better than he intended; and so shams it off; and if the Party di­eth, lays the blame on the malignity of the Distemper, without the least mistrust of his man Doctor, who privately having much more the Ear of the Patient, throws all on the Do­ctor, expecting hereafter he alone shall be made use of in the Family. Another Knack he is dexterous in; if the Doctor do not stand well in his Books, he impeaches the Physi­cian secretly of erroneous Prescrip­tions, and tacitly turns off the Medi­co, introducing another that will serve his purpose, and submit to him [Page 64] in all things. In fine, there are a hundred Tricks, by which he eludes the Physician, do what he can; and why not? It is to his advantage so to do, knowing to cure Diseases as well as the other, and sometimes better, having been intrusted with the Method and Bills of many Do­ctors. As to my particular opinion, I do verily believe, the Apothecary is rather fitter for Practice than the other; for where the latter cures one Disease, the former cures twen­ty; and where there dies one under an Apothecaries Hand, there die twenty under the Physician.

5. Cannot the Apothecary advise a Diascord. bolus cum Rhab. the white Decoction, Laudanum liquid. and ano­dyne Glysters in a Looseness? Can­not he make up Syrups in a Cough, Consumption, and Ptysick; purge in any Fulness of the Stomach, hy­pochondriack Crudities, or any o­ther slight Cacochymy, with Pil. stom. c. g. or prepare Chalybeates in [Page 65] Womens Obstructions, or in fine, mimick his Masters in almost every Distemper? And will they or can they hinder Apothecaries, who have so diligently learn'd their skill of them, from practising among their poor Neighbours, who besides pay­ing for the Physick, (which per­haps is dear enough) are not able to bestow Fees on Physicians? Well, but suppose these inferior Doctors grow sullen, and leave their Superi­ors the Field, what will they do with their Patients? Can they pre­pare Medicines? Are they skilful in practical Pharmacy, or Chymistry? If not, what will become of the Sick? Neither is that part of the Art, viz. Pharmacy, so soon attained. Per­haps they will pick a Quarrel with the Surgeons too, for practising Phy­sick; whose Art doth entitle them to Bleeding, opening Imposthumes, reducing of Fractures and Dislocati­ons, Amputations, Trepanations, and dressing of Ulcers and Wounds, that [Page 66] oft cannot be performed without gi­ving internal Medicines; which Pri­viledge, if the Physicians deny them, can they perform all those Chyrur­gical Operations themselves? If not, who shall do it? So that it's plain, the Man-Doctor ought to practise, because the Master-Doctor is igno­rant, and insufficiently educated. Wherefore I say, he doth not de­serve the Title of Doctor of Physick, that is not very well versed in Phar­macy, Chymistry, and Surgery.

6. I confess, I have not always been of this opinion, touching the equal capacity of practising Physick, between the Master and Man-Doctors of Paris, because it was some years afterwards, before I was thorowly informed of the Insufficiency of the former; though I must likewise ac­knowledge, that I know some Do­ctors of Physick, that have only some honourable Relation to their Society, who by their due Education are arrived to as high a point of [Page 67] Learning and Skill, as any in the whole Universe.

7. Moreover in regard many slight Distempers are carried off by purg­ing, it is found, that many Medicine-mongers do vend a vast proportion of Purgatives under several Forms, at a very low rate, and to a great relief of the Poor, and benefit to the Rich: so that computing these, the Practice of Apothecaries, Surgeons, Mid­wives, Nurses, and skilful Women, the hundredth part of the Practice of Physick is not left to Physicians; wherefore they ought not thus to envy, backbite, slander, and hate one another, since it is not they that take the Practice from one another, but their receiving into Copartner­ship all those fore-mentioned Disci­ples, through their own ill manage­ment of the Faculty of Physick, which notwithstanding all this, I could without much difficulty, put them into a way of retrieving their Rights and Priviledges; but my best [Page 68] way is to let it alone. Before I go further; since the distributing of the first Impression of this Treatise, I perceive many will not be convin­ced of my right meaning of the Phy­sicians, mentioned in the whole pro­cess of this Tract; and therefore I do once again expresly affirm to you, I never declared to any, nor ever in­tend to declare otherwise, than my meaning to be only the Physicians of Paris the Metropolis.

8. And now with great grief I cannot but condole the fatal Stroke, that's given to the Reputation of the Faculty, by the Life and Death of a main Pillar of a certain Gran­dissime, and topping Society of Phy­sicians; also by the reproachful withdrawing of another great prop from their laudable Company. A man of Letters was Don Diego, and wonderfully versed in the Waters, but much more in Wine, insomuch that Hats temper'd with the Liquor leaking from his Tub, did exceed [Page 69] the best Codebecks. The splendid mode of his Living was supported by the great mortgage of the Athene­um, made to his most intimate Friend, for repayment of whom, he drew on his Death-bed a Bill of Exchange payable by Pope Ioan; but the Bill (I should have said his Testament) was protested, the Corps seized, and put into a Deal Box, slightly nail'd up, without so much as a penny Cord about it, and was tumbled into a Hole close by, for it was not packt up for a longer Journey: thus turn­ed this blazing Light into a Snuff. The other was also a main piece of Timber, suddenly crackt by the great weight of his hypocrisie & knavery: strange! a new house built but t'other day, to have so many pieces of rotten timber in it. Let hence his sober credi­tors, as they call themselves, draw this Moral, There is no Trust to be put in Religio Medici, many of whom, I verily dare affirm, believe, there is neither God, Heaven, Devil nor Hell.

[Page 70] 9. If some for a Fee take a Pot or two of Ale, or a Bottle of Wine, (which possibly is all day evapora­ting through their Pericranium) or a quarter of a hundred of red Herrings, a Sundays Dinner, a pair of Shoos, Stockings, a Campane Coat, a shoulder of Mutton, or the like; I think this can be no Reflection on the whole Society: however, Me­liora speramus; crescit sub pondere vir­tus. I hope to live the Time, to see every society-Physician again in his Velvet Jacket, which the Apothe­caries and Surgeons, yea the very Mountebanks, have so unjustly pul­led over their Heads, and put on their own Shoulders. Is this the Year that Nostredame prognosticated Phy­sick should flourish, and be Dame Paramount over all the Arts and Sciences? O Tempora, O Mores! The Man is turn'd Master, and the Master the Man; the Apothecary if he has too much Business, or has a Chesnut to pull out of the Fire, the Patient [Page 71] being in danger of dying, he sends his Man, the Physician, (which he must take for a Favour too) to the poor Patient, who dying next day, the Apothecary privately to the Exe­cutors layeth all the blame upon his Man, the Physician, for prescribing so impertinently, by which he secures the future Practice of that Family to himself. This is true Politicks, Pra­ctica est multiplex; it's no wonder if half the Physicians cannot get so much, as will buy Water to wash their Hands; and glad is the Physi­cian, if he can but get his quondam Man the Apothecary's Daughter into Matrimony, tho' her Lips be smeared with Pomatum, and her Stink-Pot with Verdigrease. Thus much of Pantagruel and Gargantua; Simon and Iudas; or Apuleius and's Ass.

CHAP. VIII.
Containing some eminent Cases; and new Principles in Physick.

1. I Have told you, who are the Betrayers of the Liberties of Physick; for provided the Apothe­caries will but call upon them, when their Chesnuts are ready to be pull'd out of the Fire, they care not a Far­thing if the whole Faculty be destroy­ed, and the rest of their junior Asso­ciates beat their Heels against the Ground: even as it is in some Hogen Mogen Commonwealths, where a few growing rich by Treachery, they value not if all their Compani­ons and Commonalty become Slaves to le grand Seigneur. However this toucheth not my Copyhold, never intending to herd with any Society of Physicians, unless there should happen a wonderful Reformation; [Page 73] though I cannot deny, but I have formerly been a Fellow of a Colledge of Physicians, where they always spoke Latin, and consulted in Latin, (observe well) but I sufficiently spied the Inconvenience of colleguing of it: I know very well, their Bulls in no Place goes beyond seven miles, therefore a Remove so far, or at least assuming to be Man-Doctor and Master-Doctor in one, eludes all: but it's time enough to think of that at my return to Paris.

2. To leave all this Ribauldry, I pass over to the discovery of a new Principle, or rather Theorem in Phy­sick, the use whereof is infinitely greater, than any thing yet discours­ed of by Anatomical Fops, namely, whence such plain and advantagious Indications for bleeding, purging, alterative, sudorifick, diuretick, and corroborative Remedies may be de­duced, as shall with much more cer­tainty cure Diseases, whereas hi­therto they have been handled by [Page 74] conjectural means, and most of 'em not without imminent danger.

3. It hath been observed, that In­quisitors for estimable Novelties have most oft with great facility, discern­ed them in the very surface of their enquiry, to the reproach of those who apprehend, that nothing of moment or rarity is attainable, un­less long and diligent search be made in the most abstruse and profound Corners. Children would have puzzled Archimedes, in their easie in­vention of setting an Egg upright. The Mines of Potozzi were discover­ed by Silver, found on the surface among the Shrubs, though by their digging to a great depth in many Places, they got nothing but their labour for their pains. The Mari­ners observing, that the Sea out of the Ocean did always flow through the Streights of Gibraltar into the Mediterranean, and so it did out of the Hellespont, yet without any pro­portionable Intumescence, notwith­standing [Page 75] the Water had no passage to be disimbogued, soon concluded, that it must run out again under­neath, as fast as it run in atop, which by their Plummet they found to be true. That this unpolisht sort of People without any Philosophy, should so easily detect so considerable a Truth, is no great wonder; where­as the Chain of Physicians, linkt to­gether for so many Ages, could ne­ver by all their Philosophy, Traditi­ons, Study, and their pretended ana­tomical Industry, discover the circu­lation of the Blood, until lately; a thing much more easie, than the cir­culation of the Sea in the Mediterra­nean: for had they like the Sea-men only reasoned thus; the Heart through the Arteries doth constant­ly throw Blood into the Extreams, and so did also the Veins, according to the Dictates of all Physicians, from the beginning of the World, until forty or fifty years last past. Were this true, in less than an hours [Page 76] time all the Blood of the Body must be thrown into the Extremities; and then what monstrously swell'd, red, bloody Hands and Fingers, Feet and Toes, Nose, Lips, or in short, Face and Head, must a man have had? For according to their Maxims, it is most absurd, that two contrary Motions should be granted to Hu­mors, flowing in the Vessels; nei­ther is it possible, for the Heart by Pulsation doth always throw from it, and what must then become of all that Blood? Here the very Sea­men would have told you, the Blood must take up some other course, and return through other Channels; and what could these be, but the Veins, that throughout the whole Body do for that purpose accompany the Ar­teries, through which the Blood is conveyed again into the Heart: and this is the Circulation, which any man would have thought might ea­sier have been defected, than the setting an Egg upright, or the circu­ation [Page 77] of the Mediterranean. Here you may see, what a dull stupid sort of People Physicians have ever been, as if their hard studying and poring on the Elements, Temperaments, Humours, Faculties, and such like Trifles, had benumm'd their Brains, which makes 'em look with their Eyes fixt and immoveable, their Bo­dies stiff, like automatick Statues walking up and down. Had the Apothecaries, who have their Sen­ses and Tongues voluble enough, (if not too much) applied themselves to the Invention of the Circulation, they would have found it out with less labour and time, than the making up of a Composition of Mithridate, or Treacle. For all this, though the Invention did not partake half the subtilty it seemed, yet such was the Envy and Detraction of Physici­ans, they rather chose to ascribe it to Varandaeus, Caesalpinus, Padre Paulo Sarpa, and others, than to the real Author; and Lindanus, the Profes­sor [Page 78] of Leyden, (under whom I be­gun my Course of Physick) pre­tended to prove the Circulation out of sacred Writ. And now it is set on broach, Cui bono is it beyond Spe­culation, or what use or advantage do they make of it in curing Disea­ses, or desuming curative Indicati­ons, which if any where, should be most apparent in Fevers? Yet not­withstanding, the same sensless Me­thod, and frustraneous Remedies, are still continued, without any conside­rable Alterations, the poor broil'd Patient by their confident and de­ceitful Insinuations gull'd of his Mo­ney, and Life in the Bargain; for in no Distemper doth the false Art of Physick adduce less Benefit, and greater Detriment, than in this; and since the first Impression of this Conclave, they are generally so plain­ly convinced of their killing Errors, in giving the Iesuits Bark in continu­al and remitting Fevers, as they term them, that the same men do now [Page 79] openly assert it to be destructive in all such Fevers; but who shall expi­ate their past Crimes, in murthering so many Persons of all Ranks and Qualities by it? Let's also put their other Methods to the Test, where commonly the first great Remedy ad­vised is Bleeding, which they say is to abate Plenitude, ( Plethora ad vi­res at least) but what Plenitude can there be supposed a day or two be­fore the Patient dies, at which time I have known 'em to prescribe Phle­botomy, even on the same day the Sick expired? Others affirm, they bleed to cool the Body, which with­out dispute it doth, but how, they know not; though Riolan, with the rest of his French Physicians, asserts Bleeding to refrigerate in Fevers, by quickning the Circulation, which running ofter about, doth expel those hot Steems and Evaporations in greater abundance; but then this being too frequently repeated, drives out the vital Spirits, drawing Death [Page 80] at their heels, especially in Cases of Malignity; whence it appears, though moderate Bleeding is very proper and advantagious, yet they have not sense enough to tell you how. The next Design is to prescribe Diaphore­tick Juleps, Bolus's, Drops, and Pow­ders, to expel the Cause of the Fe­ver by Sweat. How pernicious this is, you shall understand by the se­quel. Observe then, that Nature seldom throws off any morbifique Matter by beneficial (or critical) Sweats, unless it be first digested or subdued, and afterwards separated, at which time Sweats are proper, and Nature being debilitated, requires assistance from suitable Sudorificks; on the other hand, while Humors are in an high Ebullition and Com­bustion, to exhibit hot inflaming Sudorificks, (which go under the Name of Cordials) is to make an ad­dition to the Inflammation, absorb that little mositure that's mixt with the Blood, and augment all the fe­bril [Page 81] Symptoms; for it's more easie to force Water out of a Flint, than to promote Sweat in some burning feverish Patients; and if you should, it must be with vast detriment, for no febril Matter (as I hinted before) is carried off before Digestion and Separation. Thus you may behold the Ignorance of Physicians. The last Remedy is Blistering, by which is intended the attracting the Malig­nity to the Circumference, which al­so doth seldom succeed, unless the Ebullition be somewhat abated, and that is usually towards the latter end; so that if applied in the beginning, as I have known some have done, it doth occasion the same Mischiefs, the fore mentioned Sudorificks caused. Among a multitude, I will give you one Instance of a Person of Quality, labouring under a mild sort of remit­ting Fever, against which I advised bleeding in the Arm, an antifebril Decoction for ordinary Drink, and specifick Draughts against the Pa­roxysms. [Page 82] These answered expecta­tion, in reducing the Distemper to a considerable abatement, insomuch that on the third or fourth day, the Lady was about her Chamber, and had her Menstrua come down upon her, flowing after their usual man­ner; all very good Signs: but it hapned, that a Person of Honour re­lated to the Patient, out of care and tenderness towards her, was desirous her own Physician should be sent for next morning early, who appearing there, thought it necessary to do something, and therefore caused E­pispastick or blistering Plaisters to be applied to the Arms and Neck; I coming two hours after, found the Plaisters on, and was told, I must meet in the evening to consult with the other Doctor, in vogue a very great Physician I assure you; but I replied, The Consultation ought to have been before the Application of the Blisterers, and therefore it was too late, for they had already given [Page 83] the fatal Blow, for which Reason I desired to be excused, leaving withal a very ill Prognostick. By night her Menses were totally suppressed, and a Metastasis humorum was occasioned to the Brain, whence a very enor­mous Delirium, or Raving, was caused; for the Cantharides had al­tered the figure of the particles of the Blood, whereby the motion of Nature was inverted. Next morn­ing I was sent for again very early, but then I positively refused coming. In the afternoon, to retrieve the Er­ror, she was ordered to bleed out of the Foot, but to little purpose; for Nature once become irregular in Motion, is not easily reduced. The Medicines prescribed by the Doctor above-mentioned, were these fol­lowing.

Aug. 2. Persistat in usu pulveris Car­diaci, Iulapii, & Emulsionis, ad­dendo aquae Scord. comp. ℥iii. su­mantur ut prius.

[Page 84] Applicentur Empl. vesicat. satis larga & acria internis brachiis & nuchae.

℞. Aq. paralys ℥iiss. Epidem. ʒii. Syr. e mecon. ʒvi. misce, sumat hac nocte hora somni post pul. Card. praescriptum.

℞. Spir. sal. dulc. ʒiii. sumat gut. x. vel plures in singul. haust. potus ordinarii.

Aug. 3. ℞. Decoct. com. pro Clystere lb i. syr. Violar. ℥iii. Elect. lenit. ℥i. Injiciatur hora quarta pomeri­diana.

℞. Tamarind. ℥i. ras. c. cer. ʒii. fol.—m. ii. coq. in Aq. hord. s. q. ad lb iss. Colaturae per subsidenti­am depuratae adde aq. Scord. comp. ℥ii. syr. rub. idaei ℥i. syr. Garyoph. ℥iss. Bibat ℥iv. hora qua (que) tertia vel quarta.

Repetatur haust us hyppot. heri prae­scriptus, sumat hac nocte.

℞. Spir. c. cer. ℥ss. sumat gut. xv. bis in die vel saepius in cochl. iv. Iu­lap. cardiaci.

[Page 85] Aug. 4. The above-meant Doctor finding he had lost a great deal of ground, since his entring in­to Commission of Oyer & Ter­miner, for so indeed it proved, humbly prayed one of his Bre­thren might be called in, not so much for assistance, as con­firming and ratifying of all what had been acted by him, that so he might make his Ex­it off this tragical Stage, with­out stain of Blood or Reputati­on: Wherefore these un­der-written Prescriptions were coucht by both their Head-pieces.

Applicetur Empl. vesicat. satis lar­gum & acre nuchae.

℞. Aq. ceras. nigr. ℥vi. aq. Prothe­riacal. ℥ii. poeon. comp. Bryon. comp. Tinct. succin. an. ℥i. syr. Garyoph. e succo citri an. ℥i. m. f. Iulapium, sumat cochl. vi. alter­nis horis.

[Page 86] ℞. Aq. Rutae, paralys. an. ℥iv. Ci­nam. hord. ℥iss. marg. pr. ʒii. Sacch. chryst. ʒvi. m. sumat cochl. vi. alternis horis.

℞. Spir. sal. armoniac. succinat. ℥ss. sumat gut. xx. hora qua (que) quarta in cochl. iii. Iulapii praescripti.

Abscindatur capillitium, & applic. Cataplasm. e fermento panis & succi­no praep. Ad. s. q. aceti & tinctur. Succini.

Aug. 4. Applicentur statim cucurbitu­lae amplae, umbilico una, & duae regioni diaphragm. & postea fe­moribus.

℞. Aq. Ceras. nigr. ℥vi. Epidem. ci­nam. hord. an. ℥i. marg. pr. ʒiss. sacch. Chryst. ʒii. f. Iulapium. Sumat cochl. iv. singulis vel alter­nis horis.

℞. Aq. epidem. ℥vi. syr. caryoph. e suc. citr. an. ℥ss. misce. Sumat cochl. ii. vel iii. alternis vicibus cum priori.

℞. Decoct. com. pro Clyst. lb i. mel. mercur. sacchar. rubr. an. ℥ii. tin­ctur. [Page 87] succin. ℥ss. spec. hier. ʒi. f. Enema injiciatur quam primum. Mortua est; or a pro nobis.

3. The cordial Powder, Julep, and Emulsion, prescribed by me, were on Aug. 2. thought fit by the Doctor to be continued, though the day before I had countermanded the use of them, and advised only the continuation of my first Apozem, and the Draughts, to which I imputed the chief part of my success. But then I had a cramp Question put to me; What, will you let her die for want of a Cordial? To which was replied, There was no occasion for one, and where Nature was imployed in any beneficial Eva­cuation, (as in our case of Menstrua­tion) she was not to be molested by multiplicity of Medicines, lest she might be irritated, or impeded by something in them, which might be contrary, and cannot always be discerned by a Physician; for in all [Page 88] Persons there is an Idiosynorasia. But as I said before, the great mischief was perpetrated by the Blisters, in which they were signally seconded by the two Hypnoticks, taken the same night, and the night follow­ing; for it's a Maxim, That Nar­coticks do suppress all Evacuations, excepting Sweating, which throw­ing out through the Pores, doth ne­cessarily make a revulsion of the Men­strua, as it doth the Urine; for he that sweats much, makes little Wa­ter.

Aug. 3. A purgative Glyster must needs be forced upon the unfortu­nate Patient, which I should have most strenuously opposed, nothing adding more to a febril Ebullition than a Purgative, raking up a Mud also, which otherwise might have continued dormant. Monsieur le Medecin. finding no great Feats by his acid spirit of Salt, imitates the Doctor of Contraries, in experiment­ing the stinking alcalious Spirits of [Page 89] Harts-horn, with no better success. Therefore perceiving, that Nature was grown sullen, and would not be pulled or halled, neither one way nor other, concluded it to be high time, to provide for his Reputation, and call in one of his own choosing, that should hide his errors, as pro­bably he had done reciprocally for t'other. Now let's see, how both pull at the Bell-rope. The Vesica­tories are commanded to be applied, which operated no more, than if they had been stuck to one of the Bed-posts, for the Reasons I have al­ready given you before; so that consequently by them the Ebullition was raised yet higher; and now the grim Gentleman with his Sythe doth begin to appear at the Door, for there was a very great oppression of Respiration, and the Breath fetcht thick and panting, (an infallible sign of Death in Fevers) which symp­tom is endeavour'd to be resisted by the Spir. salis armoniac. and the An­tihysterick [Page 90] Julep, supposing the cause to be uterin Vapours, that in their erroneous opinion was judged not only to infest the Lungs, but the Brain also, whence proceeded that vacillation of Mind, little Cramps all over, and (which is a species also of Convulsion) a subsultus tendinum. Wherefore in respect of the affectus Cerebri & totius generis Nervosi, there was Aq. Poeon. comp. and Tinct. Succini added to the Julep; and to second this great Work, the Hair was to be cut off, to give vent to those uterin Evaporations; also an attractive Cataplasm to draw 'em out by force. Notwithstanding all this Clutter, those symptoms in­creased, which spurr'd on our two associated Physicians in applying Cupping glasses, hoping to inter­cept the Vapours, and to pull 'em out by the middle, before they mounted up higher. That which encouraged 'em to this hair-brain'd Advice, was, that the assistant Phy­sician [Page 91] had oft been present with me, where I advised the application of Cupping-glasses to a Person of Ho­nour, who being sometimes surpri­zed with stifling, syncopal and con­vulsive Fits, as if he had been upon the moment of Departure, was ever instantly relieved, as if by Miracle, through the use of Cupping-glasses; but then it's to be conceived, these Fits were certainly occasioned, by venomous Steems flying up; where­as in the Case fore-mentioned, those symptoms were erroneously appre­hended only for symptoms of the Di­sease, which in effect were also symptoms of Death, occasioned by Blood copiously thrown into the Lungs, and now beginning to cor­rupt and stagnate. Moreoever, to apply Cupping-glasses to the region of the Diaphragm, which is the chief Instrument of Respiration, what was this, but wholly to put a stop to its motion, and stifle the Pa­tient upon the Spot? And how could [Page 92] these Cups have been applied to the Navil and Thighs of a Lady, with­out the greatest breach of Modesty. Certainly most Physicians as they are meer Brutes, so they are the most ignorant of Mankind. Lastly, To give the Patient Le coup de grace, they cause a smart irritating Glyster to be infused into her Guts, and what's most sensless, mixing there­with Tincture of Amber; as if the Fundament with a Medicine applied to it, were a proper place to cure the Brain; or the Forehead, to cure Corns of the Toes. And since a Pa­tient is at the last gasp, and on the point expiring, were it not better to suffer her to depart quietly, than to kill her? But that too oft happens through want of judgement to dis­cern, whether the symptoms be symptoms of the Disease, or symp­toms of Death.

CHAP IX.
Fevers and other Distempers explain ed, and cured by new Principles

1. IT has been hitherto the opinion of Physicians, that a preterna­tural Heat dispersed throughout the whole Body, and continued to some space of time, is a Fever, and the cause of all the Symptoms attending; as quick Pulse, high Urine, immode­rate Thirst, &c. and thence their cu­rative Indication is cooling by Bleed­ing, cooling Juleps, Purging, and Diaphoreticks, and these very sel­dom answering expectation. Now let us but change, or transfer the Notion, and State, that violent Pul­sation is the cause (mediate or im­mediate) of all Symptoms, that ac­company a Fever, we shall soon dis­cover many Truths, and be capable to give a clear Resolve of the great [Page 94] number of Doubts and Difficulties, that arise in Fevers; also be furnisht with curative Indications, whence greater success may be expected, than commonly attends the vain Endea­vours of Conclave Associates.

2. To pass by all profounder Phi­losophy than Sense, let us only sup­pose, violent local Motion is the cause of Heat and Burning, witness the rubbing of two hard Sticks one against another, so long until they take Fire, as the Indians do for want of a Tinder-box, when they intend to make a Roast; likewise a Wheel by its violent motion about the Axel­tree, doth easily take Fire, unless prevented by greasing.

The Heart then being stimulated by heterogeneous Particles, and acu­leous Salts of various Figures, is in­cited to quicker and more forcible Motion or Pulsation, whereby the Blood being wheeled quicker and stronger round than naturally, doth soon beget a greater proportion of [Page 95] Heat, which by continuation, and a stronger motion, is suddenly advan­ced to a higher degree of heat, that inflaming the bituminous and sulphu­rous parts of the Blood, doth easily kindle them into violent Flames, which then is to be called a Fe­ver.

3. That which advances the Blood and Spirits to a higher degree of Heat, is the sluggish or slow motion of the Blood in the Veins▪ caused by too great a plenitude, whereby the Veins being crammed up, must necessarily impede it in its motion. Now the Heart upon those smart Irritations moves faster and violenter, throw­ing the arterial Blood with a fuller stream into the Veins, than they can possibly carry it back to the Heart, which causeth the Heart and Arte­ries to beat stronger, or rather vio­lenter than before; because it meets with resistance, namely, the cram­med Blood, that will not, or cannot move so easily forward as formerly, [Page 96] from which violenter local motion, the Heat must necessarily be ex­treamly intended, like unto a Ham­mer, that striking on a Nail, or any thing that's hard enough to make resistance, grows hot upon a few strokes, whereas striking a twelve-month together on a Feather-bed, shall not contract the least warmth. Whence observe, that the thumping or strong Pulsations sick People per­ceive in their Heads in Fevers, are only occasioned by the carotidal Ar­teries, raised to a higher and more forcible Pulsation, by the resistance it finds in striking forward the Blood, that is thrown into the Sinus's of the Dura mater.

4. Besides the plenitude, or cram­ming up of the Veins with Blood, there is another cause of the retarda­tion and unaptness for motion in the Blood, which is its separation into grosser and thinner, heavier and lighter, bituminous and salin-mer­curial parts, occasioned by the con­tinual [Page 97] quick and violent motion of the Blood, in manner not unlike Milk, separating into Butter and thin Milk, by being violently moved in a Chairn. Hence it is, that Blood let out by Phlebotomy in a Fever, appears of various Colours and Con­sistencies, which heretofore and still is by most Physicians called putrefied Blood.

5. The Blood being thus separa­ted into various parts, the bitumi­nous Particles being very inflamable, become a Fewel to the febril Fire, and the salin-mercurial parts turn acid, which in passing the Heart, do yet more forcibly stimulate it to violent motion. Besides this uni­versal motion caused by the pulsati­on of the Heart, there is another in the Blood it self, which may very aptly be termed an Ebullition, or ra­ther Orgasmus, caused by the com­bat of its alcalious and acid Salts; for none but a Mad-man would call this a Fermentation: neither are you to [Page 98] judge two motions improper to the Blood, since the one is as it were ab extra, the other ab intra.

6. As the Circulation of the Blood was the most easie to be found out, so might the manner and ways of it, which notwithstanding hitherto have layn asleep, though this could scarce have happen'd, unless among such, as are greater Blockheads than common Sea-men.

7. How have they strained to make their Marks to bear, by decla­ring that the Blood passeth out of the Arteries into the Veins, by their A­nastomosis, or Inosculation into each other, which is impossible; for were it so, the constant pulsation of the Arteries would by the continual for­cible motion so widen the mouths of the Veins, whereinto they are inos­culated, that they would either burst, or cause a Varix. Moreover, where they have pretended an Inosculation, from the nearness of the Arteries to the Vein, upon a narrower search [Page 99] and enquiry, they have been found divisible. And if an Anastomosis were allowable, they must be found in all parts of the Body, where the Blood circulates. Besides, in the Dura mater, where there is so great a Cir­culation, there ought to be Anasto­moses beyond any other parts, and yet there is not a Vein to be seen near the Sinus's, but at some considerable distance.

8. Since this manner of passage could not well be squared, to answer all Objections, they take their refuge to the Pores, which are insensible passages, that are supposed to be throughout the whole Body. This indeed is explaining the Circulation per coecos ductus, and qualitates conul­tas, their old asylus ignor antiae. But that being granted, the Blood being extra vasa, why doth it not putrefie, according to the Dictates of Galen? Here they seem to boggle and stum­ble, being willing to pass over the Matter in silence.

[Page 100] 9. Not to detain you longer with these Impertinencies, you may sup­pose the Musculs, Veins, Arteries, Nerves, Membranes, the Cutis (which is no other than a Membrane) Bow­els, Glanduls, and most, if not all the parts of the Body, to be fibrous, or to be made up, and consist wholly of a complication of Fibers, of various fi­gures, and variously disposed or pla­ced, whence the whole Body may well be termed a Texture. These fore-mentioned parts being dried in the Sun, upon laceration, or other separation of them, or being inspe­cted through a Microscope, their Fi­bres do plainly appear, which by the Eye are also manifestly perceived, like the Hairs of the Head, to be hol­low, and perforated with a Trunk in the middle, whence minute bran­ches are dispersed to the Circumfe­rence. So that it is not to be doubt­ed, but the Blood circulates, and passes out of Arteries, through those small Trunks of the Fibres, to the [Page 101] Veins, having a capillar Artery and Vein inserted, or rather inosculated into them, the Trunks being desti­ned for transmission of the Blood, and the minute Branches for convey­ing nutriment to their minimal Par­ticles. All Tumours, Pustles, and Discolorations, are occasioned by Blood, stagnating in the hollow of the Fibres, which being become gross and thick, is uncapable of passing in­to the capillar Veins, yet notwith­standing the pulsation of the Arte­ries propelling it forward, must ne­cessarily then elevate the Blood stag­nating in the Fibres into a Tumour, Pustle, or Discoloration, according to the proportion of what doth stag­nate. The Heat that accompanieth some Tumours before, and in Matu­ration, is caused by violent pulsati­on of the Arteries, meeting with re­sistance, as I have already told you. The external Pores of the Skin are the terminations of the Fibres of the Cutis, through which the vertue of [Page 102] Medicines externally applied pass in­to the capillar Veins, and so into the Body; for as I have instanced before, there is a communication between all the Fibres, Veins, and Arteries.

10, Though from these Notions I could desume Matter enough to ex­patiate into a large Volume, (by de­riving thence the various kinds of continual and intermittent Fevers) I judge it at present unnecessary, lea­ving the further Search to those ig­norant lazy Drones that are called Conclave-Physicians.

The practical use of these Theo­rems is such, that the greatest Diffi­culties in Physick may be thereby ea­sily resolved, which hitherto have only been controverted without any satisfactory Decision. As first; Whether Phlebotomy (or Bleeding) in continual, and in some intermit­tent Fevers, ought to be celebrated? The whole Herd of Conclave-Physici­ans unanimously declare, it is the great Remedy for Cooling, and no [Page 103] doubt it is; for being oft repeated, it will infallibly render the Patient as cold as Marble, as I can testifie by several of their unhappy Practices; but how? certainly by tapping off he Spirits together with the Blood, which are the efficient cause of Heat: consequently bleed a man too oft or too much, and you will kill him. It's replied, In Fevers there is a preternatural Heat, occasioned by the too great abundance of vi­tal Spirits, or at least by the great fury they are in, and therefore they are to be tamed and diminisht. I answer, The same Reason will hold, to indicate Bleeding, until the Pati­ent be dead; for being always in a feverish Heat, until he expires, you should by the same standard bleed, until the last hour: but the Conse­quence is false; for no man ought to be murthered by Bleeding; There­fore. Another false Position encou­rages these Ideots to Bleeding, viz. That in all Fevers there is a Plethora [Page 104] ad vires, that is to say, there are more Humours than Nature can ma­nage, insomuch that they are be­come a burthen, wherof she ought to be alleviated by Bleeding. This Argument resembles the other; be­cause almost in all Diseases there are more Humours than Nature can ma­nage, even in pulmonick Consump­tions, and at the moment of death in Fevers; for a pound weight of Skin is too much for a dying Patient to bear, and would you therefore flea him?

11. Being a Physician to a Noble­man, that had laboured two months under a chronical Distemper, some­times complicated with a symptoma­tick Fever, that would continue a day or two; another Physician of great Note was by a Stranger impo­sed upon me, to consult with. He had no sooner examined the Patient, and felt his Pulse, but comes to me with a Question in his mouth, Why did I not bleed my Lord? I answer­ed, [Page 105] in the beginning of the Distem­per I had caused him to be blooded several times; but at present his Lordship having by a thin spare Diet been kept very low for several weeks, I saw no occasion there was for it. He cryed out again, Bleed him, bleed him; I demanded, for what? T' other replied, To take off his Fever, it will cool him; but being askt how, it gravell'd him. In short, I con­cluded with an hypothetick Assent, If you please to kill the Patient, you may bleed him, and I will leave him to you. After him several other Physicians were introduced, who re­ported publickly, the Patient would die; and some, that he was dead: yet after all this, the Noble-man was cured by me, and continues in a good state of Health. By the way you are to understand, this happened at Paris.

Thus you see, what Measures Conclave-Physicians take for Bleeding, whereas an Empirick, that doth not [Page 106] pretend to rational Indications, would have given me much better satisfa­ction.

12. To return to my Theam: We are not to call that a Plethora ad vires, where a Patient hath been blooded once or twice, and has ab­stained from all Food, but thin Spoon­meat; certainly it would be a mad­ness to say, a macerated Carcass has too much Blood in his Veins, that are fallen flat, and scarce to be seen; neither can they always pre­tend Revulsion, or Derivation, where there is no urgent Symptom.

13. It is in Fevers, and in all o­ther Distempers where Bleeding is necessary, you may be safely directed and guided by the Theorems I have proposed to you: for supposing a man at [...]ked by a continual Fever, (which being an universal Distem­per, whereby more are brought to their untimely end, than by any other Disease, I do the rather make choice of for an Instance) the Blood mo­ving [Page 107] too slow in the Veins in the begin­ing, occasions a violent pulsation in the Arteries, whence arises a preternatural Heat; here Bleeding is necessarily indi­cated, upon which immediately follows a more free Circulation, and conse­quently an abatement of the preter­natural Heat, and other Symptoms; also a freer Transpiration, by the de­pletion of the Fibres. But in some space of time, the Pulsation being spurred on again, by the motion of the Blood ab intra, (as I have said before) the violent Heat and other Symptoms return, and therefore in many a second Bleedieg is indicated, and sometimes a third, though in most once or twice opening a Vein doth suffice in cold Climats, accor­ding to the fulness of the Vessels. Having answered the first Indicati­on, taken from the violent motion ab extra, the next is to be desumed from the preternatural motion of in­tra, which is to be quieted, by sub­duing the foreign and heterogeneous [Page 108] Salts in the Blood; but not by a non­sensical Aqua epidemica, or a stinking Spiritus cornu cervi, or earthly Pow­ders; as Crabs eyes, Bezoar, Harts­horn, &c. among all which Muscle­shells challenge the pre-eminence. Some little good they may contri­bute; but towards the curing of a vi­olent or malignant Fever, they bear no more proportion, than a Mouse towards the removing a Mountain: and if a man doth sometimes conquer such a violent Distemper, impute the Victory rather to the strength of Nature in the Patient, than such feeble Medicines. I know your Cu­riosity will demand, what Remedies they are, that are virtuated with a power to effect so great a Work. I answer, That the Materia medica, whereout they are to be prepared; you see one sort every day, if you look but a little beyond your Nose, you need not grub for it in the depth; another you tread upon; and a third is as common in your Mouth, as the [Page 109] Bread you eat: what they are fur­ther, I shall never discover publick­ly, nor commit their Preparation to any Apothecary; for it's not fit such Medicines should be abused by every Conclave-Physician.

14. The Delirium, that so oft sur­venes on Fevers, has its source from Blood, that's too copiously thrown out of the carotidal Arteries into the Sinus's of the Crassa meninx, and the veins of the Brain, which by exci­ting a preternatural Heat, subverts the temperament of the Brain. The truth hereof appears, by the Reme­dies I have used on such occasions, which in half an hours time have re­duced the Patients to their right Reason, by no other manner of ope­rating, than by causing a free Circu­lation in the Brain.

Why a sudden Fright, or other violent Passion, doth sometimes in Bodies predisposed produce a Fever, is not explicable by the common Principles; whereas the application [Page 110] of this easie Notion, I have now de­livered, renders it most evident, viz. by causing a quick Pulsation.

15. It is also most manifest, that those who exhibit strong Sudorificks, and hot burning Cordials, as Aq. epidem. spir. corn. cerv. &c. in the beginning of Fevers, are culpable of male practice, in regard they accele­rate Pulsation, before the Veins are discharged by Phlebotomy, to give the arterial Blood a free passage.

In many other Diseases we shall find the use of those Theorems great, though in some you must be furnisht with another of greater importance than the former; particularly in a pulmonick Consumption, and in an internal Rheumatism, a Distemper first so named and discovered by me in my Treatise of the Scurvey, where you may read its Symptoms; to which I will only add this Observa­tion, That I have known it to sur­prize Women, upon a suppression or stopping of their Fluor albus by im­proper Medicines.

[Page 111] This Fluor albus is either thin, sa­line, and limpid, or thick, cloudy, and mucous; and either is putrid and fetid, or imputrid. It is the suppression of the former, and by a Metastasis thrown upon the Bowels, causes most dismal shrieking pains in the Guts, Stomach, or other Entrails, and oft accompanied with Vomit­ings. If at any time palliated, it's very apt vpon some Interval to re­turn. Whence is to be remarkt, of how dangerous a consequence an im­proper Cure may prove, not seldom costing the Patient her life; especi­ally since Conclave-Physicians are whol­ly ignorant of Remedies against such internal Rheumatisms.

CHAP. X.
Of a most Tragical Case.

1. FRom the most brutal Barbarian, compassion doth emanate to­wards Infants and Children, but not the least Spark from the Tartar, a Physician so charactered by some Phanaticks, from an imaginary re­semblance to an [...]. They term'd him all Castiliano, Sotos & Devotos, the Stars being oft still re­maining in the Hemisphere, when he without intermission of the cold­est morning never fails to shew him­self in a most humble prostration, in the Basilica, to all those, whom by that Argument he hopes to convince to be his Patients, whether sick or well; and how some are like to be managed, this subsequent Narrative will inform us. It was a continual Fever, had seized on the Daughter [Page 113] of a Chevalier, who kept his ordinary Residence at a certain Village, distant from Paris few miles, though the De­cumbiture of the tender Patient hap­ned to be, at a Relations House at Charenton, up the River Seyne four miles, or two by Land. She had li­ved ten Octobers, but could not pass the eleventh of the year, &c. If you consider the liveliness of her Features, or pregnancy of Wit, from which her Parents could not but be extreamly happy in their future expectation, you must imagine, their chiefest care did center in the choice of a grave, pious, experienced, and learned Phy­sician, who by his most diligent and watchful Attendance, might be ca­pable to encounter the feverish Di­stemper, which in plain Terms did not appear in the least fierce, or ma­lignant, unless an ordinary Headach could render it such. The Herculean Remedy was Iesuits Bark, steept in small Beer, (such hellish bitter stuff, as they brew about Paris) and this [Page 114] to be used ( pro Potu ordinario) as oft as she was a dry. For a revulsion of those velli [...]ating Steams, that moun­ted up to the Brain, a potent Attract­ive of some dry resiny Powder, one degree above Saw-dust, was applied to the Soals of her Feet; but how the notion of this kind of Attraction ac­cords with Pulsion, now wholly in fa­shion, I am to seek. The success of these Administrations was great; for the Distemper did not accrew in the least grain, though the continuance did throw Monsieur le Docteur on ano­ther Phaenomenon, representing it might probably be a verminous Fever, and therein the Doctor and the Lady, Mo­ther of the Patient, both jumpt in o­pinion; for I never knew a Woman contradict Worms in Children, though they complained only of Corns on their Toes. This was a sufficient war­rant, to animate the Medico, to a Pre­scription of eight grains of Mercurius dulcis, and six of Diagryd, which was confessed, though possibly it might [Page 115] be ten or twelve grains of Mercury; for the Bill was either taken off the File, or Direction given verbally. Up­on two or three days Interval, a Re­petatur of Mercury was order'd, to inforce the former, and produce those potent efects, for which a single Dose was incapable, And to the intent the poor little Sufferer might arrive with greater speed, to the happy Port of Health, the Iesuits Bark was still to be continued for her ordinary Drink. Now who would have thought, but that swift Mercury, agitating the Pe­ruvian Bark, would soon have wafted this deplorable Passenger, to the Cape of Good hope? The truth is, Mercury was too boistrous, linking the Indi­an Bark, before she was got half Seas over; for soon after the last Dose, the Sufferer's Mouth and Face began to swell, her Throat to be sore, her Breath to stink, Teeth to loosen, Spittle to ouse plentifully from her Lips, Drought, Heat, difficulty of Respiration, furring of the Tongue, [Page 116] and all other Symptoms to duplicate; for here was a great Drought and Heat occasioned by the Fever, and a far greater Drought and Heat added and caused by the Mercurial salivation, which daily (as is usual) increased, insomuch that here was fifteen or six­teen Cloaths wetted in four an twen­ty hours. This duplication of Cau­ses and Symptoms, concentrating chief­ly about the Throat and Mouth, made such eating and painful Ulcers, that a Gangrene ensued. Consider what a miserable spectacle this was for the worthy Parents and Friends to be­hold; she being passionately beloved by all that knew her. The Groans, Shrieks, Outcries, and Signs, were inexpressibly piercing. It was high time to expel Sotos and Devotos, and call for one that should bring Help from the Stars, (she being past all sublunary Assistance) who proved to be an Apothecary Doctorated, and honorated, an immense Astrolo­ger, and wonderfully well acquaint­ed [Page 117] with the Celestial Inhabitants. But alas good Man! as the Scheam represented here, his chiefest Aid consisted in pitying the Patient, bring­ing tidings of Death, and recom­mending an excellent Surgeon, whose Inspection immediately discovered a Gangrene in the Mouth, which by him being cut out, the Bone appeared bare to view. En fin, God Almighty out of his infinite mercy and good­ness, was pleased to release her Innocent Soul, from her macerated, tortured, and lacerated Body, and take her to himself. I do not question, but in the Scheam erected by the forementi­oned Astrologue, Mercury was the Ascendent and Horoscope, looking with a jealous eye on Dame Luna, in Copulation with old Saturn in the eighth House, and Mars the fiery Stal­lion (the cause of the Fever no doubt) embracing the other Whore Venus in the sixth; a very Bawdy-house, no less than the eighth. Mercury being in Ca­pricorn, the House of Saturn, a most [Page 118] malevolent Planet, and spying this old doating Fornicator, cour [...]ing of his Mistress, was resolved at that moment in revenge of the inconstant she-Pla­net, to destroy all Women-kind, that, was under the power of his Influence; so that the Astro-Doctor might very well say, Mercury kill'd the Patient, and it was impossibe, the face of Hea­vens appearing so full of Frowns, for any Female to escape, and consequent­ly that his Brother Doctor was not to blame.

Leaving remote Causes, it's not im­material to calculate such as are near­er and immediate; but before I enter further into the Merits of this Cause, give me leave to ask a question in ear­nest; Did Quick-silver or the Fever kill the Patient? you may possibly answer the Question, by asking another, viz. supposing a man in an high Fever, and on the ninth day, his Wife to quit scores, gives him a gentle Pat with a Mallet, on the side of his Head; did the Fever kill him, for it was on the [Page 119] ninth day; or the Mallet? The Learn­ed in the Law will unanimously an­swer you, It was the Mallet; Ergo, it was the Quick-silver. But how.? upon that I will serve you by and by. Would not the Jesuits Bark alone, with­out the Mercury, have given the Pati­ent her last Dispatches, being exhibited in a continual Fever? The first Part of the Conclave doth plainly demon­strate the Affirmative. Lastly, The Je­suits Bark, and Mercury sublimate dul­cifyed, being both killing Medicines in the precedent Case, which of 'em did the last execution? I told you already, the Mallet; though beyond all peradven­ture had only the Bark or Mercury singly be offer'd, the error of either of 'em might have been retrievable. I confess of the two, the prescribing of the Bark was the most preposterous; for had Mercury been directed with a gentle Purgative, to carry it off, in a verminous Fever, ( caeteris indicanti­bus) it would have been very practica­ble; but this had only the appearance [Page 120] of an ordinary autumnal Fever, con­tracted by living in a Waterish Air▪ near a great River, upon the prece­dence of a hot Sulphurous Summer, the Cure whereof ought to have been performed by Method and Remedies, not yet arrived to Sotos, or his Bre­threns knowledge.

Next, let's enumerate the Errors committed in this case; First, the ex­hibition of the Bark in a continual Fe­ver. Secondly, Advising a violent scam­moniat Purgative, in a continual Fe­ver, which must necessarily hinder the digestion of Humours, rake up a Mud, that lay dormant, occasion a new In­flammation and Orgasmus, and reduce the Blood to a greater Crudity, than at the first kindling of the Fever. Thirdly, The mixing of Mercurius dulcis with Scammony, instead of some gentle laxative Electuary, that would have entangled the Mercury, and slipt easily through the Guts, carrying the Mercury clear off with it; whereas Scammony before it comes to purge, [Page 121] raiseth an high Ebullition, whereby the Mercurial Particles are dispersed throughout the Body, and lodged in the Glanduls and Pores of the tenaci­ous Lympha, which the Stools after­ward provoked by the Scammony, do not carry off; so that Sotos was extreamly mistaken, if for his excuse he pleads, he gave Mercury with a strong Purgative, to throw it off. Fourthly. The Capital error of all is, the exhibiting of Mercury upon, and with the Iesuits Bark, a most potent Adstringent retaining and binding the Mercury within the Body, stopping all its Avenues and Outlets, so as there can be no discharge or vent by Stool, Urine or Sweat: but Mercury, a fly­ing Dragon, or mineral Mastif, being thus pent, lockt in, and provoked, will not stick to take a Patient by the Throat, tearing and worrying those parts, until he is strangled; and what is more, the Humours by being lockt up by the Iesuits Bark, were be­come extreamly inflamed, acrimonious, [Page 122] and malignant. No wonder, if be­ing forced up to the Throat by Mer­cury, they thus lacerated, devoured, and gangrened those most tender Glanduls. After all, as a Merchant upon a great loss at Sea, or otherwise, doth next day appear more gay and in greater gallantry than ever, to con­vince his Dealers, that the Report is false, or at least that his loss is less to him than a Flea bite; though it breaks his Back within a week after, that is, as soon as he has taken up of his Cre­ditors to the full proportion of his Credit: even so this great Doctor, without the least resentment of the Misfortune, assumed a brisker hu­mour, and made a greater appearance among his Brethren of the Faculty, and in all publick Places, than before, as if he accused the Friends of the deceased of Ingratitude, for throwing him off, that had so faithfully per­formed his Devoirs, conceiving with­al, that time wears off Black into inno­cent white. Certainit is, his good fortune [Page 123] exceeds that of Vesalius, the great Ana­ [...]omist, who having sent a Spanish Don to his Ancestors, to testifie to his Relations, that an incurable Distem­per was Causa mortis, lost no time in dissecting of him; for upon the open­ing of the Breast, his heart was per­ceived to palpitate and move; inso­much that the Standers by immediate­ly applied themselves for Justice to the Inquisition, with an Accusation, that Vesalius had barbarously murther'd their Kinsman. His Catholick Maje­sty, by using his utmost Interest with the Inquisitors, at length prevailed to exchange their sentence of Death into penance of a Pilgrimage to Ierusa­lem; in which expedition he dyed. To return to my Narrative; though I cannot offer the least Argument in ex­tenuation of so erroneous a Practice; yet it's possible, the Doctors Apothe­caries Apprentice, (to whose negligent care the making up of Medicines is ordinarily committed) might aggra­vate the Mischief; either by mistaking [Page 124] the weight, wherewith the Mercurius Dulcis was weighed; or by adding three or four grains more than was pre­scribed; or by making use of Mercury ill prepared; or that which was kept too long, and that probably (as most of 'em do) in a Paper, through the Pores whereof a subtil nitrous Salt is attracted out of the Air, which open­ing the Body of the Mercury, doth render it again corrosive; insomuch, that ten grains of such shall raise a Sa­livation sooner, than three or four­score grains of Mercurius Dulcis new­ly, and well prepared.