THat extravagant Curiosity, which so strongly inclined me to the perusal of new Books, (especially of Natural Philosophy, and the Art of Healing,) and hath heretofore given you the trouble to procure, and me the cost to purchase, all that come forth, is very much cooled and abated, by the disappointment I have lately met in some of them; not that I so much regret being deceived in my expectations, or of my mony and time; nor which is worse) the fruit­less trouble in hath occasioned my Friend, as I resent the indignity, and [Page] [...] [Page] [...] [Page] [...] [Page 1] [...] [Page 2] disparagement, they have begotten to a noble and very useful Art, of whose reputation and interest I am very tender and zealous.

I am moved with indignation to find, that while Ingenious, and Inqui­sitive men, are labouring to improve and advance it, and its esteem in the world, by their excellent Writings, laborious Experiments, and useful Discoveries; so many medling Fops busily interpose, and not only amuse, disturb, and discourage them by the gagling of their Goose-quils, but dis­parage the growing credit of the fa­culty, by their follys and falshoods, to see so many bold Ignorants thrust themselves through the Press, with swoln Titles, under their nauseous fantastical Pictures, with which (like Ballads) they front, and lead in their empty Books, which no more answer the pretence of their Title Pages, than the excrements of a few bad do the Marrow of many good Authors, and come so far short of what they would imitate, or oppose, as they who have attempted to Ape our inimitable Du­ty of Man, or adventured to confute our Immortal Harvey.

Who that's Loyal, or hath a due veneration for his Prince, can without abhorrence behold, the Sacred name of the King debas'd, and profanely mixed, with that of every Quack­salver, that dares assume it to make himself a Title, to see the August Il­lustrious Character of Majesty tramp­led on, and laid at the feet of every Empericks Effigies, who is but Au­dacious enough to style himself, His Majesties Physician, Chirurgion, Opera­tor, or Oculist; though perhaps the Coxcomb be not fit enough, for a Toad-eater to a Mountebank.

To observe men of our profession write, as if they design'd to engross to themselves the Character, which P. de Commines, and M ^o. Sorbier, ge­nerously bestowed on the whole Na­tion, what else meaneth the scurri­lous Conclavist, the nonsensical Galenopale, the verbose Polyrhizos, the filly Hilminthologer, the no-bone fashion Ala­mode man, the snarling Glow-worm, the churlish Topographer of B. and other clamorous Witlings, whose writings serve that odious end and design; men who discover their own igno­rance and ill natures, in attempting [Page 4]to manifest it in others, as far above their reach, as the Moon from the barking Animals; such are Culpepper, and his Successor Doron, Synopsis, Ser­mon, and a world of Cacata Charta men, who I could name, beside the Astrological Medicasters, and Whimsica [...] Chymists, (those Phanaticks in Physick, who throw dirt in the face of the Orthodox, fill the world with much noise to no purpose; men that puzzle mankind with mysterious nonsense, and are as unintelligible in Physick, and as Enthusiastical in Philosophy, as Jacob Behem, or the Rosie-crucians. These are men I say, who seem of this design or fate, strive to outvie [...] one another in Ignorance, as strenuous­ly as if the prize of an Olympick Game were at stake, for the most ob­streperous Blockhead, or clamorou [...] Fool in p [...]int.

Indeed we are not singular in such productions, all others have their Im­pertinents, their Trif [...]ers, their Plagia­ryes, their Bathyllus's, &c. the Press having in this Age of Mo [...]s [...]ers sp [...] Prodigies, and deformities in all kind [...] of writing, [...]ity [...] been abused by wran [...]ling [...] [...] [...]ors [Page 5]perverse Expositors, and the damnable Doctrines of Traytors, Hereticks, and Schismaticks. The Scripture hath been made a Nose of Wax, to serve the turn, and justifie the Opinions and Actions of the most adverse Parties in the World, hath been urged to justifie Parricide, Murther, Sacriledge, Rebellion, and the worst of Villanies by our Fanatical Covenanters, and other Divines of the Faction, both in See Ed­wards Gan­grena, Dissenters Savings. Long Parliament Sermons, &c. England and See Ravillack Redivivus, and the spirit of mouths of Fanaticks, &c. Scotland.

The Law hath been publickly, and in print mis-stated, and perversely urged in behalf of Treason and Se­dition, by the Hunts-Postscripts, and Liberty of the Subjects; a Book whose Contents are no less a contradiction than its Title; for Statutes, made a­gainst Dissenters, are there most im­pudently avowed not to concern them, and the very Act of Ʋniformi­ty alledged in behalf of Toleration and the Schism. Instances of this sort of prevarications are innume­rable, witness the many Pamphlets [Page 6]that have lately swarm'd from the Hive of

History hath had its Johnson, who, in the Life of his Brother Apostate Julian, hath not blushed to affirm, contrary to known truth, (as the Learned and Reverend Dr. Hicks, Dean of Worcester, hath more clear­ly proved in his Jovian,) that the Ro­man Empire was Hereditary; and prevaricated notoriously, to form a Topick, for an execrable design a­gainst the Succession, and like a Mi­nister of Peace, set us a cutting one anothers Throats.

Thus Truth hath suffered, in almost all ways of writing, by the folly and knavery of men, who like those na­med in our English Juvenal.

Of Nature, or their Stars will write. And almost all Arts contracted scan­dal, by the impotence, &c. of busie Scriblers.

But among them all, none so de­ceived my expectations, or gave such a Rude stop to my longing fancy, and [Page 7]incautelous humour of buying new Books at a venture, as did two Tracts published by John Brown, the one of Preternatural Tumors, the other of Wounds, the Title the Author bore, the many Encomiums and Imprimaturs, (a new French mode,) from men of learning, discernment, and conside­rable figure, which prefac't and ush­ered them in tempted me to beleive there was somewhat extraordinary in them, but I found it over the left shoulder, and the man (maugre their many Plaudits, by which he en­deavoured to anticipate, and delude his Readers Judgment,) to be like his Pictures, all forehead and flourish, face and feathers; so I laid him by, in a dark hole of my Study, to hoot and catch Mice, the natural Imploy­ment of such Animals.

This may seem a rude abusive Treatment, and bold Censure, to those who look no farther, than the sparkish Picture, and florid appea­rance of the man, and read not, be­yond the wheedlings, precarious in­vitation of his Approvers, but let any Impartial Artist pursue him, and with an ordinary heed survey his writings, [Page 8]if he find he deserves better usage, or do not discover him wretchedly Thievish, and notoriously defective, and ignorant, that he hath equall'd the most faulty Author, I will have that Imputation and Character, and suffer the chastisement due to him for abusing the world, and putting on them an indigested Fardle of other mens works, as his own.

Had he treated us as an Artist ought, written with the becomming qualifications of a useful good Au­thor, and given us somewhat new, as did Hippocrates, and the first Writers, and those who even in this Age, have found new subjects for their Pens, as Harvey, Malpighius, and many Colum­bus's in Physick, Chyrurgery, or Ana­tomy; or had he corrected the errours, evinced the mistakes, explained the meaning, or supplied the defects of other Writers, as did Galen, and the many Commentators on Hippocrates, (beside divers Neoterick Authors,) had he abridged the copious, like Dr. Read, Blasius, or Dr. Gibson; had he collected the choice of many Authors, as did Schenkius, Moronus, Burnet, Bonetus, Gualterus, &c. had [Page 9]he strengthened the Principles, and confirmed the Methods of Art, by new Theories, Experiments or Remedies, like Sanctorius, Willis, Quercetan, Scul­tetus, VViseman, Meckeren, Bartholine; &c. and many more; had he accom­modated constant Methods to new discoveries, or revived some obsolete, and worn-out way of cure, &c. grown undeservedly out of use, as hath Sen­nertus, Blasius, Dr Harris, and the Answerers of Medela Medicinae, he had been praise worthy; and merited those Impertinent Encomiums, he prefixeth so fondly to his Books.

But, Sr, we see nothing like this, on the contrary his works are twice sod­den Cabbage, nothing new, nothing his own, scarce a medicin, or an obser­vation, or a notion but is ecchoed; nay he is so ridiculous a Plagiary, that he doth not represent fairly to us the things he steales, nor hath he for want of skill to choose taken the best to be had, among the Authors from whom he filtcht,) which is to me an argument of his low parts, and mean abilities; to steal the crudities, and corruptions of Books, argues that things of an ingenious nature, are [Page 10]not agreeable to him, and is like Childrens stealing Rattles and Baw­bles, from among Jewels and things of worth, secundum modum recipientis. Thus I say, our Author is so unfit to write Books, that he gives us nothing new, all from others, and that gene­rally, either of it self Ill, or made so by his awkward way of representa­tion, impertinently and lamely used, not at all to the purpose. In short, things old, stoln, and borrowed; things absurd, jejune, and nugatory, collected in a very rude (though he call it a new) method, or rather confusion, in a broken style and way full of Rambles, and strange Transitions, as if his wits were ga­thering Wooll, is (with Tautologies, silly Metaphors, and unintelligible Phra­ses) the composition of his Book, and the man (notwithstanding the pre­tences, and opinion of himself and friends, an Ignorant Plagiary and most Ridiculous Scribler,

The Justice of this Censure, I will manifest to you very plainly without a rigid, or particular survey of all he hath written, and without squeezing or putting any thing to the Rack, and here I must profess copiousness of matter [Page 11]which is usually an advantage, is be­come to me an Impediment. I am choaked with plentitude. He is so all over vanity, that I know not where to begin; his Follies are so perplext, I know not how to unravel them, without being as Immethodical, and appearing as great a Bungler as him­self. I will begin as he doth, and attack his Compleat Treatise of Tu­mors, which being the first broaching of his Hog-s Head, his fresh, and un­tired, Effort may be presumed most nervy and strong, and give us the greatest difficulty to encounter and subdue.

This Book we find by the Authors Picture, was written in the 35th year of his age, which I suppose is pointed to us, that we may admire the pro­found Sagacity and great abilities of so young a man. His Title-Page calls it a Compleat discourse of Tumors. Compleat either to distinguish it from others who have written defectively on that Subject, or else a slye sugge­stion, as if he had said all that Subject was capable of, or perhaps because it hath discoursed of all the diseases, compellated under those Titles; how [Page 12]little it deserves that Character, on either of these accounts will be suffi­ciently demonstrated in the ensuing Pages, and that on the contrary its empty, defective, stoln for the most part from imperfect, erroneous, and obsolete Writings, abounding with vanities, errours, contradictions, non­sence, impertinences, and more faults, than any Book of its bigness, of a Subject so common and easy, and af­fording such plenitude of excellent precedents and guides.

Its scarce credible, that any man should be so blockish, as this, to ob­trude on the World under those Titles, things so little deserving them; nor less surprising is it, to see a Book so full of Palpable errours, and ma­nifest evidences of a silly Illiterate Author, containing nothing Ingeni­ous or valuable, full of the Scum, and Crudities of their Notions, Medi­cines, and Observations, who were long since exceeded, and exploded, to see such things proclaimed useful, commendable, ingenious, learned, elabo­rate, &c. by men that knew better, and from whose Sagacity, his egregi­ous errours, manifest faults, and ab­errations, [Page 13]could not escape, (had they perused what they praised) is to me matter of Astonishment, and should be to them occasion of shame, and repen­tance.

Its strange that neither the Stars, nor Skil in Physick, could undeceive this Hyberbolical, Poetical, Astrological, Physical, Applauder, and teach him better than to think, this dull, empty, Scrible, deserved the praise he gives it, or that Hippocrates could, or would borrow from one who stole from himself, and those that ecchoed his Doctrine.

He dedicates this praise-worthy Peice to his Ʋnckle, Crop, who ( by what Authority, and good manners I [Page 14]know not,) he calls the chief Chirur­geon in Norfolk, to whom, and to his Readers, he makes rambling im­pertinent Epistles, using the same Tropes and vain glorious Ostentati­ons, he hath over again in his Book of wounds, — Impudence plum'd with various coloured Feathers, of Ignorance and Boldness, — this tract well deserves the study and practice of a young Chirur­geon, who ought to read it soberly, and practise it constantly,— I have here acted the part of a faithful Chirurge­on — This is a Subject indeed not to be touched with every COMMON Pen, every Slip whereof, in some cases, may dislocate the Discourse, and cause a solu­tion of continuity, in the matter, — its leaves are not lined with froth, or Empe­rical Romance, but rather gathered, furnished, and delineated, with digested wholesom fruit, of LEARNING, ex­ample, history, most lively resembling the rose, — the Lading is well besiowed on our Vessel, having received your gentle Windes to blow on it, I question not its well sail­ing, and may be kept from the Shelves, and Rocks.—

Now after so many Encomiums, from such men as the President, and [Page 15] Censor of the Colledge, from Sr. T. B. Mr. Sarjent K. Mr. Daniel and the starry Doctor. Strengthened and confirmed by the Authors own kind approba­tion and applause of himself, and the Minerva of his Mercurial Brain, who but would have raised expectations, and look Sharp for some great and transcendent performance, but alas! Its a birth of the mountains, great Cry and litle Wool, nothing but the Husk or Shell of some seed, whose kernel by length of time is turned into Maggot, or other noxious Insect; and being here by our Novice, noysi­ly crackt, is exposed to Sale, as whol­som, good, new, fruit.

Although I am as great an admirer of the Antiquity, and usefulness of our Art, and would assert its Interest, and Reputation as much as any man; yet I am so much an Enemy to Arro­gance, and a Friend to Truth, that I must expose him, when he reasons at so ridiculous a rate to illustrate it, and screws his pretences too high, as he doth, page 1. where he unreasonably asserts, The Art of Healing, came into the world, almost as soon as man. For soon after his Birth was this found out, [Page 16]as both Reason and History make good. Page 2. And here also may we Epito­mize, that Healing and Medicine were invented before other Arts—Now all the Reason produced to make this good, is an uncertain supposition, that primitively they were subject to dis­eases, and consequently put upon in­venting Remedies; and the History is from Genesis 50.2. where it is said, Joseph commanded the Physicians to Embalm Jacob.

As to the first; How doth it ap­pear, they had ANY diseases in the first Ages of the world, one would think otherwise by their longevity; and I think Mr. Burnet hath rendred it more than probable, In his Theo­ry of the Earth, a Book of ex­traordinary thoughts, and uncom­mon inge­nuity. that before the Flood, they were very healthy, had a general Eucrasia, and temperamentum ad pondus. Dr. Brown in his Garden of Cyrus, page 1. gives an ingenious proof of the great Antiquity of Phy­sick, because Adam had a Dormitive, when he slept, while God performed all the parts of Chyrurgery, in ma­king Woman out of his side; but that's too Poetical. The Taylors will tread on our heels, with the same way of reasoning, and pretend near it [Page 17]if not equal Antiquity for their Craft, by the sewing of the Fig-leaves, and making Aprons. Others imagine, that after the fate of Abel, men bethought of Remedies for the accidents to which they saw themselves liable, but we have not the least footsteps, or co­lour of any such matter in History, sa­cred or prophane; we are told very early of Musicians, &c. but no where of Diseases, or Healing.

As to his Instance from History; viz. the Physicians Embalming Ja­cob, it's not at all to his purpose, being 2000 years after the Creation, as were the Diseases said to be among the Egyptians; as to his opinion, that Healing was invented before other Arts, it's not only destitute of proof but probability, at least where he re­fers, viz the holy Scripture, where it's plain, that Agriculture, making Tents, Musick, Artifice in Brass and Iron, were soon upon the Creation, as is recorded Gen. 11. but not one word of Diseases, Hurts, or Healers. Beside which, before the days of Hippocrates, it's probable there were only some Emperical Practisers, that all the skill lay in such hands, and me­thods, [Page 18]as our Quacks, old Women, &c. with whom our Author is too angry to allow them Artists.

In all this, I do not detract from this modest Assertion, That Medicine is a very ancient Art and practised by considerable men who were afterward Dei­fied, as Apollo, the two Aesculapiu's of Egypt, and Greece, as the most learned, Dr. Charleton discourseth in the Preface to his first Cutlerean Anato­mical Prelection.

Of such groundless Assertions, and Insignificant Harangues, pretending to shew the Origine, Antiquity, or Splendor of Inventions, &c. Of the Art of healing, (in which all, thats like sense or truth, is stoln, and corruptly transcribed from Parey, Read, Woo­dal, &c. He composeth his Chirurgi­cal Introduction to this Treatise, which equalls, if not exceeds that which prefac't his Book of Wounds. Of which pray accept a few Instances.

Page 10. He bestirs himself to shew the similitude and semblance, the little World, Man, hath with the great one, pray observe the wit and Ingenuity of it, for I assure you, ITS VERY EXTRA­ORDINARY [Page 19]— his outward Wall resembles the Element of Earth, its next covering made of Spermatick fibers Imitates WATER, that fine Web, Spun by the Almighty hand, which covers the brain, paints out Air, Did you ever hear of Foun­tains, and Rivulets of Fire, before now? the Body of the brain it self, represents fire, this foun­tain sends forth many Rivulets, —its outward Cap very prettily resembles a faire Wood, clustred with young. Trees. The SALT Tears which trickle from his Ey's carry a LIVELY RESEM­BLANCE of Dow; Vapours obscuring his sight resemble Clouds and Mists; the noyse in the Ears, Winds and Storms; frothy Spitle carryeth the lively portraiture of Snow, as well as Coagulat­edor Conglohated flegm the representative of hail, a Coryza in the nose carryes the si­militude of Rain, sneezing resembles Thun­der, and the redness of the eyes Lightning: is not the Sun seen in the native heat of the brain, as well as the Moon in its wa­try Element. Jupiter in its temper, as well as Saturn in its Melancholy, Mars in its choler as well as Venus in its flegm; into what extravagant Absur­dities, doth this liberty of compari­son, plunge a man? Is there any agree­ableness, or umbrage of it, in the things [Page 20]he parallels, at this rate he might have resembled a man to any thing in the World, his great toe to a wheel­barrow, his nose to a carthorse; it had been more Ingenious. to have pursu­ed the similitude, and made pissing in Bed the overflowing of Nile or a Nei­therland Inundation, claps the burning Islands of Stromboli, Vulcania, Aetna, Fu­ogo Sh.—his Breeches, the Sulphurious, evomitions of those mountains, might he not have made a more pertinent Comparison between Farting and Thunder, a string of shankers and the chain of mountains, which Kirche­rus saith binds, and hoops about the Earth or the Wind-Mill, and Vertigo in his own head, and the Coperni­can System of the Earths moti­on.

But trifling a part; let us seek some­what serious, Page 24. He comes to define Chirurgery and thus he doth it. A Parey telleth us, it is an Art which informeth with reason, how we may cure, prevent, and mitigat diseases, by help of the hand, but its more proper and essen­tial definition is taken from eradicating diseases by Art, and manual operation. Thus busily endeavouring to amend [Page 21] Pareys definition, he ridiculously gives you the same, in terms nearly alike, though less expressive.

Page 28. He saith a disease is incura­ble three wayes, first when its so in its own nature, as the Elephantaisis. 2dly, When the Patient useth no proper means. 3dly. When the CURING one distem­per threatens another. As to the first, that the Leprosy is incurable, is notoriously false. 2dly. The neglect of means cannot properly be said to render a disease incurable, unless there be no difference between the power, and the will, which is as egre­gious nonsense, as to say, a man can­not do that which he will not; and thirdly the CURING of one disease threatning another, is direct nonsence, contradiction, and begging the ques­tion. For in the very Assertion its sup­posed curable.

Page 31. He saith, a Chirurgion ought to be well Skil'd in Anatomy, for hinc discimus artem rectissime ope­randi & securitate inscidendi. It being as the chief Pillar, or Basis, on which Chirurgery planteth its foundation. Now I cannot but admire, why if Anato­my be so very necessary, the chief [Page 22]Basis of Chirurgery, and its greatest Magazine, he hath so overweening a conceit of the ancient way of practice, when Anatomy was in its Infancy, See the Ca­talogue of Authors, Page 55 56. Which he re­commends as the best Pi­lots. full of defects, and errours.

At what a Wild rate doth he talk of humors, in his second Chapter, which consists of ridiculous Assertions nonsence, and errours, and dis­covers both the great Folly and Theft of the publisher. I will only name some of them, presuming no Reader can want capacity to appre­hend them, nor sense to perceive, where their vanity lyeth, Page. 35. He saith they are more properly called humors, which are Juices made by the liver in the Sanguinary mass, for its nu­triment, and thinning of the bloud all over the Body, all those are choler, flegm, and Melancholy. Page. 36. As the four humours do, work man into a good hu­mor, so this Choler) burneth him into a passion, Page 39. He saith Choler hath but few Spirits somewhat of Sulphur, most of Salt and Earth, bred out of the thin­ner part of the Chyles, Page 42. He makes three sorts of Sapor, in flegm, and adds as a fourth, its Insipidness. Page 43. He reckons as a first Species of Me­lancholy, [Page 23] Bilis nigra and a second Black choler. Page 45. He gives a Schem of humours, stoln fron Pareus Lib. 1. Cap. 6. (one of the Crudest, and most erroneous things in that large Volum,) and asserts, that flegm serves the brain, the cold and moist parts, and in tast is either sweet, or Insipid. Is like Water, of a liquid consistence, and yet Choler attenuates it, Melancholy is painting Earth doth nourish the Spleen and prepares an acidness for PREVEN­TING the bloud. I profess I know not what he means by these last Assertions.

His general division of Tumors is not more rational and consistent. Page 47. He saith an Abscess oft followeth a Phlegmon, and yet cometh without an Inflamation premised. Page 51. He Computes malign Ʋlcers among Me­lancholy tumors, and Aneurisms among Schirrus's. He defines [...]nchymomata, and Metasmata, to be painful and dangerous effects of the Arteries, hapning by con­tusion of the Abdomen. Page 52. He lists Epiplocele, Entero-Epiplocle, &c. among Tumors bred out of humors. And defines a Polypus to be an excrescence growing out of the Nostrils, as if that were the [Page 24]only part, to which they were incident. Page 55. He defines a Tumor to be a pre­tern [...]tural disease, very difficult because it hindreth contraction, and for this quotes Fallopius, without telling where its deli­vered. I find in that Author, a multi­tude of Definitions examined, and non like this, Tom. 1. cap. 3. de tumor praeternat. that which he give as his own, is in these words. Definitis ergo vera tumoris erat ista: Tumor est morbus instrumentalis simplex, in magnitudine extensa constans. Why our Author calls it a disease preter­natural, I know not, I think Morbus had never any such Distinction, nor are there any diseases that are natural. What he means by calling it difficult, because it hindreth contraction, I cannot Fa­thom.

At this wise rate, he proceedes. And hence it may raise in us a diligent enquiry hereof, how this first hapned, what may be the best and safest way to sayl herein, what the best order to ob­serve, but before we launch too deep into the main Ocean, let us take and purchase such Pilots, as may safely bring us of from the Shelves, and Rocks, of fears and distrusts — Then after this nause­ous [Page 25]preamble, he recommends the sta [...]e writings as the best Guides. Hippocrates, Galen, Aegineta, Albucas, Rhasis, Haly Abbas, Avicen, &c. — In pursuing him, you will find him ploughing with Parey, Read, &c. and filching from their writings, but he so con­founds and disguiseth them, and makes such a rude disfigured Copy, that its not presently discern­ed, but if any thing be erroneous, and trifling in an Author, its so a­greeable to his Genius, that he is sure to have it, as I shall further de­monstrate anon.

His sixth Chapter is of Phlebo­tomy, (how pertinent here, I need not say.) Where he talks as if he had never heard of Circulation, or did not understand it, (perhaps the Author, he was dealing with, wrote before Harvey) many of his positions and directions being contrary to that Doctrine; among the veines usually opened, he mentions not the Jugu­lars — Page 82, he makes no diffe­rence between Digestion, and Dis­cussion, and seems to understand neither, for he calls the Fire an Eva­cuation of a thin matter, gathered [Page 26]in a part, by insensible evaporation, and that Digestives are hot and dry in the third degree, and of thin Parts, and instanceth in Mallowes, Camomil, Ammoniacum, Lillies, Fenu­grick, Red-Roses, March-Mallows, Me­lilot, Meal of Beans, Barly, Lupines, Lin-Seed, Mucilage Plaister, Violets, Saffron, Goose-Fat, Butter, Milk, Night-Shade, & cujus contrarium, its scarce credible, a man could so grosly err from the most common Rules of his Art, and such as are known almost to every Apprentice, being one of the first things they are taught; its plain he understands not the true Chirurgical notion of Digestion, the way of procuring it, nor the temper of Ingredients in most Common use for that end, for though he had de­livered; that it must be procured by things hot and dry, in the third de­gree, he directs to many things of different, and some of the Contrary qualities; all that I have pickt out from him, being cold, moist, or tem­perate, and that this is no slip or oversight in him, but his firm and fixed opinion, consult Page 88. and 107. of this same Book.

Page 95. He saith, we must not bleed far distant from the Part affect­ed, by which I perceive he forgets or knows not that Phlebotomy is of­ten made near the Ancles, and that leeching the Hemorrhoids is frequent­ly and succesfully used for pain, and other diseases, of the Head. Page 88. He blunders, and runs into strange absurdities, and contradictory affir­mations, concerning that way of treating ripe Tumors, the signs of ripe suppuration he gives us in this distracted way — The Tumor offers it as a sign of its tending to suppuration, by its intenseness, and when pain, inflama­tion, &c. encrease, then use NO Di­gestives, but maturative Medicines, and if therefore we may procure the Tumor for this suppuration, and produce good laudable matter, we are to encrease the quantity of Native Heat, by such Me­dicines as be of a digesting faculty, the which ought to be of the Native Heat with the Part, these are to be applyed from the beginning of its Augment to the end of its Vigor. — Certainly I should correct a Boy, who had seen a plaister-Box but two years, if he talkt in no better sort, than he in this [Page 28]unintelligible ramble, wherein he so con­tradicts himself, and for want of a good memory, sense, understanding, and way of expression, doth run into the strangest and most absurd Directi­ons, I have met.

At no better rate doth he deliver himself, Chap. 19. Concerning Cho­ler, of which he saith there are three sorts, Natural, Preternatural, and Ʋn­natural, and talks so disagreeable, and contrary to what he had done out the same subject, Page 39. (though neither of them reconcileable to sense, or Philosophy;) as shews in him a very great disposition or strong fate to errour, for he cannot hit right in either Part of a Contradicti­on. Page 40. Choler is excrementitious, unfit for Nutriment, an enemy to the radical moisture, and yet Page 45. It nourisheth Parts of its own temper, Page 18. It perfects natures works, is a Vehicle for nourishment 41. Its proper use is to render the excrements Fluxil 45. Moveth the expulsive faculties. 109. He denyeth it to have any bitter­ness or sharpness, I mean (quoth he) that in the Bladder of Gall, for else it would soon fret the guts in peices, and [Page 29]beside this, dayly experience sheweth, it is free from any acidity, for it dayly passeth thro' the kidnies, into the bladder, and then maketh its exit. Page 39. It hath in it no great quantity of Sulphur. Page 109. That which his Preternatural, though it doth not nourish the Body, yet it doth not offer any mischief to it, this is both unprofitable, and unnatural, and Preternatural, alway hurting the Body — at this most incongruous, sensles rate he confounds the things he treats of. I am very sorry to find a man pretending to be acquainted with Books, and to understand Art, should write so much like a stranger to both, as well as to Common sense, and letters.

His Discourse of Flegm in the Chapter of Oedema in every whit was as wild and extravagant, Page 123. In one place he saith, those Tu­mors never suppurate, in another that they do, here he affirms they alway pos­sess remote Parts, and then gives an in­stance (stoln from Pareus) the only one he hath) of one on the lower Jaw, Page 132. He saith, a Schirrus is the only brat of Melancholy. If he mean as the words lye, to wit, that Melan­choly [Page 30]hath no other brat, he contra­dicts what he had said, Page 51. If (as I believe he intended,) a Schirrus be the effect of Melancholy only, (one of them it must be) he hath contradicted that also, Page 134. Where he delivers, that that Tumor may arise from Flegm only.

His Discourse concerning the Breasts, Page 154. and production of Milk, is of the same sort, and for the most part contradict­ed, Page 297. In the one its made of Bloud, in the other its pure chyle, and nervous Juice; Page 156. so he discourseth of Cancers, which first he resembles to a Sea-Crab, like whose clawes it sticketh, and adhe­reth to the part so close, as a Key to a Door, HAVING IN IT, by some REPORT­ED TO CARRY IN IT exalted veins,— and at last he confesseth, this is more fabulous than true, and justifies its non sense,— he tells us, Page. 159. We may never expect to cure a Cancer, we ought not to meddle with Ʋlcerat Can­cers, because by Galen held to be altoge­ther incurable, neither ought we to at­tempt the cure of any other, but by amputa­tion, which carryed with it great danger, & hazard as Celsus offereth, & yet im­mediately after all this positiveness, he [Page 31]not only spends many Pages in a Me­thod for cure, but subjoins two stories, the one from Hildanus, the other from Schenckius, of two that were healed; from this last named Author, I find him very often stealing the Observations, he quotes, to back and confirm his several Chapters, he was a laborious Learned German Physi­tion, lived at Friburg in Brisgow, above an hundred years since, and publish­ed a vast Collection of Observations, Physical and Chirurgical, taken from all the Authors of any note, then extant. I know our plagiary is stealing from other later Writers, as Hildanus, Mat Glandorp, and one or two more, but his greatest and vilest thefts are from Schenckius, though he seldom name him, but such Authors as he quotes from; This is manifest to me, because I find him take him errours and all, where he misnames the Author or Chapter, or falsly represents the story, (as he sometimes doth,) our plagiary swal­lowes it Verbatim, as I shall have oc­casion to prove by many Instances. I desire also that you would observe, wherever I say he steals, that then [Page 32]he names not the Author, where he doth fairly Cite the Book, I shall give it a more suitable Character.

Page 185. He saith an Herpes exe­dens not only erodes the skin, but depopu­lates the subject flesh, Page 187. He gives you the story of one, which corrup­ped the whole thigh so vehemently, that the Chirurgeon thought to have made Ampu­tation. — I believe it was such a Chi­rurgeon as himself, for where would he amputate, if all the member were infected, or to what end or benefit would it prove. When he distinguish­eth between a Gangreen and aSphacelus, Page 191. He saith, in the former the parts are alive, and that the later is a completion thereof.

I cannot pass by a novelty which he gives us in this Chapter, to wit, the History of a cure he performed on a gangrened leg, (as he calls it,) which because its his own, (an unu­sual thing in his writings,) I will take a particular regard to it. He ushers it in with this preamble— For bre­vities sake, because I do not desire to swell up my book with TAUTOLO­GIES, or commit to your reading, any thing you shall ELSEWHERE FIND [Page 33]PARALLEL,— who would think this should drop from the nodle of a man that had been so guilty of nu­merous Tautologies, and Impertinence, or had vended so many insipid stoln stories, but lets see this wonderful thing— a vertuous Gentle-woman, after a long sickness, had a very large great Infla­mation seised her foot, he which very spee­dily spread her Leg, & got into the Thigh, with pain, heat, discolouration, & fever, my never to be too much esteemed Ʋnckle, (he keeps much ado about this Nun­cle of his,) being sent for, could not go; when I came, I found all those Symptomes, and consulted with MY SELF, AND REASON (it seems they are two distinct things,) and with this method, I got her loosed from the fears, and per­plexities that threatned a Gangrene. I pray you, Sir, observe the manner how he relates this History, and the per­tinence of the case here, together with the method which Mr. Brown, and Mr. Reason, after consultation had determined. His expressi­ons are so palpably filly and weak, that I need not point to them, a pro­lix scribler affects brevity, a loquacious one disclaims Tautologie, and a most imparallel'd Plagiary affirms that he [Page 34]desires not to commit to our reading, any thing elsewhere to be matcht, is like a Rebels pretending to Loyalty, a whore to Chastity, or a Theif, and Rook to honesty. I do not deny the story to be unpa­rallel, because its his own, and scarce to be matcht in any Author but him­self, for impertinence, &c. What is there in it of a Gangreen, when on­ly her fears THREATNED one Its much to be wondred his awk­ward method had not made it such, the part was inflamed, had Pain, &c. And he anointes it with Oyles, which in Page 122. He had cautioned his Reader against, in such cases, by an instance, where a Phlegmon became a mortal Gangreen upon the use of them, now if a Gangreen was only threatned at he saith, and Oyles be apt to turn hot Tumors into that malady, he did not think this such, and if so, where is the extraordinariness of this imparallel'd history, or what doth it in this Chapter, and in a discourse on that subject. I confess considering his way of treating it, it was strange that accident had not betided the poor Pa­tient, for, as he said, Oyles add fewel to the flame, and an inflamed arm was [Page 35]gangreen'd on the use of them, and yet he not only directs them as a re­medy, and used them in embrocation, but mixed some with his Gallymaufry Cataplasm, composed of Ingredients, cold and hot, dry and humecting, ad­stringent and relaxing, repercussive and attractive, which would have served any intention as well as this, what effects it produced, seem very plain­ly confest, in the sequel of the story, and how much skill, the man and the reason that advised him had, is also manifest, by applying a repercussive Ointment, and Poultice, to the criti­cal metastasis of a disease, which ought rather to have been evacuated by Scarification and bathing, and expell'd by Cardiack, and Aleixphar­mac al sweats, according to that com­mon direction, ubi natura movet, ibi move. I pray you observe, that in most of my quotations from him, I give you his own words, (where I do otherwise, its not to his preju­dice,) and in many places leave them naked, without remark or animad­version, because they are obvious, and that I am unwilling to stretch my letter to an exorbitant length. Thus [Page 36]I beleive its enough barely to tell you, That he compares the Brain to Fire and the Sun for Heat, Page 10. And yet in many other places, talks of it at a rate, as would chill a man to hear him. Page 13. So also, That the wheels and In­struments of our motions, from first to last, 14. are lodged in our middle Region. That the Mediastinum keeps up the heart from falling. 16. That the Pancreas is tyed to the Guts, as a Pillow or Prop, to keep up the Veines, Arteries, and Nerves. 26. That cutting hare-lips belongs to the separative Part of Chi­rurgery, reducing Ruptures, and curing blindness, 28. to the supplying Part. That Album, or the Common white Ointment, doth Agglutinate, and Consloidate. That solution of continuity must be re­moved, 34. (as if it were a substance, and to be remedyed by Ablatrix. 39.) That Choler, is bred out of the thin, hot parts of the Chyle, and hath no Spirits. That insipidness is tastable. 42. Page 51. That Aneurisms are Schirrus's, and malignant Ʋlcers a Melancholy Tumor. That an Abscess is a substance converted into Pus, 57. & that when white Pus is mak­ing, a fever and pain occur, Page 84. And yet atchieved without inflamation. That [Page 37]HIPPOCRATES CHRISTIAN­NED all Tumors Oedema. Page 66. That Flegm is the proper Instrument of the joints. 67. That the great Artery is not descending untill it be as low as the Navel. 75. That Rue and Scordium are cold Anti­dotes. 119. That a hot intemperiety of the Liver breeds a plentiful quantity of bloud, and a flux of humors to the face, causing an Erysipelas there. 178. That there is a double humor in a Carbuncle, the one flowing, the other flowed. 191. That a Gangreen is a disease consequent to the effect, not the cause. That in an Unguis, 251. Paulus, adviseth to sprinckle a little salt in fine powder on it, mixed with the white of an egg, and so applyed on Cotton or Lint. That a pair of cold nippers or for­ceps, 256. induce a Cicatrix. 289. That a humor appearing outwardly is a most certain sign of an Empyema. These and a great many, more which I pretermit, are wise sayings of ours kilful Author, and need only be cited, and exposed. Some more concise phrases, and modes of expression, are Familiar to him, as running soars calling in their leakage, depopulating the flesh, a heathen Christen a disease, &c. But I wave them, chap. 29. He flourisheth in [Page 38]his discourse of Amputations, at a rate, that would tempt an un­wary Reader to beleive, he hath been a man of extraordinary practice in war's, and experience in foreign Countreys, beside a particular excel­lency in that operation, but when you come to inspect his Chapter, and compare it with other Authors, or the most Common and vulgar way, you will find it less considerable than the worst of them, and that they sig­nifie no more to instruct Youth, or direct an Artist, than the silly insig­nificant picture, which he saith doth give a lively portaicture of this ope­ration, which its so far from being, that scarce any thing can be less des­criptive, or more erroneous, for he paints the Chirurgeon sawing upon the undivided flesh of a leg, oblique­ly over the calf thereof, and instead of a griper, you have a fellow that looks (more than half scared,) in the operators face, and instead of griping, leans upon the upper part of the pa­tients knee, he makes a ligature above the Elbow, as if he were going to bleed him, and passeth his knife as far below it, no dress, or Instrument [Page 39]in the whole scene, save a knife, and a saw with the teeth wrong set, no dish of Ashes, Rolers, Fire, Irons, or other necessaries common in that work, but the whole draught seems made by one possest which the vulgar error, that Chirurgions, in taking off the limb, saw through flesh and all, his nuncupative Directions are such as no less tempt me to beleive him a a stranger to the expert way of Am­putation, for he saith, you must make strict bandage by a Roler, below the knee, and below that, divide the flesh, (is any men the wiser for these Di­rections) he calls a catling a dividing knife, and adviseth therewith to se­parate the membrane, (it should be the flesh) between the bones, but not one word of the periosteum on them, no other than a corrosive dress to the ends of the bone, then he directs to unctuous, and slabby dresses, ev'n to the end of the cure, which certain­ly can never cure the stump of a Leg, (of which he then discourseth,) for want of dryers and detergers, to suppress the fungus and exuberant flesh, and desiccate those stubborn difficult ulcers, which they alway result into. [Page 40]Moreover a man would expect from one of practice or skill, a better Testimony, than the dismembring a Child above the Elbow, which is the only one he doth (or perhaps then could,) produce de proprio, as which that of a mans great Toe had been as considerable an instance.

I find (him, as I have already hinted,) often mistaken in the Chirurgical notion of Digestion, and of the fa­culty of Digestive Medicine, viz. That they rarify and discharge mat­ter per poros cutis, which is properly discussion, dissipation, or dispelling. Digestion is by all Artists known to mean suppuration or maturation, ripening or turning into Pus or quittor extravasate bloud, lacerate fibres, or other matter cast out of the vessels This every Boy knows to be the first Intention in curing wounds, and he himself hath so said in the 69 Page of his Book of that Subject, how different it is from his sense thereof in this place, and elsewhere, and how fit he is to write Books, who hath so bad a memory, and so wrong a Judgment, I refer ev'n to himself.

An Hydrocephalus, he saith, Page 225. is to be cured by insensible evacuation, as being that which he much better approves of than sen­sible; BECAUSE its neither so safe, nor so secure — Jesu! He is so great an enemy to sense, that he will not endure it in his practice, how then can we expect it in his writings, I perceive now the reason for all the errours, non-sense, and falshhoods in his Books i. e. because things less safe, or secure, are with him most eligi­ble; was there ever such a reason gi­ven before, or any thing preferr'd on such a principle? Well, dear Squire, next Edition of Bakers Chronicle, thou shalt be recorded for one of the men of note, in Charles the Seconds time; should he endeavour to excuse his perverse passage, by pretending it a slip of his pen, or that he meant that the sensible was the less safe way, how came he to overlook it, when he corrected the Errata of the Press, or what makes him speak so kindly of a Paracentesis in the same Chapter, which he concludes with five stories, all stoln from Schenckins, Obs. med. Page 9. and mostly represented his wonted [Page 42]way, in that from Leonellus, puer, a young child. Scissurae apparebant a­pertae. You might see the sutures through the Scalp. Gausa jstius — prop­ter obstetricem, vel propter nutricem quae quandoque in extractione foetus, vel in nutriendo, vel in fasciendo caput, stringunt ultra modum, ‘The cause of which was occasioned by the Mid-wife, and the Nurse, the one in extracting the child from the womb while the other did second it by compressing its head, expri­mitur humidit as illa, quae est in Cerebr [...]; ad exterior a cranii inter acutum, et crani­um, & sic intumescit caput vehementer.’ The humidity it self, which was in the brain, came to the outward cover­ing of the head, and thither pressed out its humidities, and this was th [...] occasion of this tumified head.

After the same wise exact manne [...] he translates the fourth story, puerul [...] nuper natus, a Child nutrici imperavi­mus, ut victus ratione exsiccante uteretur; Illamque saepius purgavimus cum Pil. Hiera. ‘He commanded the Nurse that HE might have a drying Diet.’ It was often times purged with Pills of Hiera Picra. — Thus what was said [Page 43]by the Author to be given the Nurse, is by the plagiary said to be given to the Infant, which at once sheweth his skill in Latin and Physick, for none but an Ignorant in both, could so mistake, & think that Pills, & such a Pill, P. Forest. obs. med. lib. 8. obs. 29. could be swallowed by an Infant, for such in the Orignal Author, the patient is said to be. The Fifth History of this Chapter, which our filcher quotes from Mon­tanus de Infant. Page 8. is truly in Hieron. Montuus de Infant. Prag. Page 8. and thus translated. Vir qui furna­riam exercebat. A Smith cum tenuissi­ma victus ratione By keeping every kind of a thin Diet, but to put his Skill in Physick and Latin beyond all question; consider his Chapter of Cataracts Page 240. Where he af­firms, that they arise from thick and sumid vapours arising from the Stomach, and so getting into the substance of the Brain, are from thence sent and diffused into the Eye, and at length do there con­tract its concretion; and as Platerus doth observe, it groweth in length of time to the thickness and hardness of an Excocted Egg, (so he renders tandem albuminis ovi excocti instar diuturnitate [Page 44]albescat & induretur. Which words are in Schenckins, who (as doth our Author) quotes them from Forestus, in whose works I can find nothing like it,) and among other remedies, Page 243 he directs to this Pill as a purgative. So the like Page 324. ℞ Syrup. Pill. sine quibus, 1 sc. Pil. Cynoglo. half dr. ol. faeniculi. gr. iiij. Sy­rup. Beton q. s. F. Pil. — a Cataract in the Eye, as big and hard as a boyled Egg, generated by Fumes from the Stomach, carryed through the Brain, and to be purged off by an Opiat Pill, ( Narcotical enough to make a man sleep out his Eyes, rather than Purga­tive sufficient or proper to carry off a Cataract) are things which no Man of the least Skill, (if be he in his wits,) would assert, and too plainly disco [...] vers our Author doth not understan [...] the things he writes of, nor the Author he writes from, although h [...] pretend to both. In the same Page where he gives you this admirable Pill, he presents you with a Collyrium, made of Juice of Ground jvy, Caeln­dine, Daizies, Rose-water, and white Sugar Candied. Which in the Mar­gent he calls his own. I cannot judge it a proper Medicine, to dissolve a [Page 45]Cataract, nor to have the qualities he ascribes, viz. attenuating, and pene­trating. I take the ground-Jvy to be very binding, and for that faculty celebrated in Dysenteries, Haemoptysis, internal Wounds and Ʋlcers, the Rose-Water and Sugar, cannot pretend to it, and the Celandine (be it which sort it will,) and daizies, have it too weak to perform such a cure, by dis­solving a suffusion in the Eye, the Medicine is Common, and good in Ophthalmies, Epiphora, &c. And to be found in many Books; but by none that I know, commended in this case, wherefore I must leave the honour of that, to our skilful Author, he doth not shew how to discover a mature Cataract, or one thats fit for the In­strument, not the true or intelligi­ble way of couching, he calls this operation, the only piece to be ad­mired of all Chirurgery, he gives an Impertinent story of the mischeivous effects of a rotten Apple, and makes a false quotation from Riverius, as additional proofes of his skill and sincerity, and concludes with a silly uselless picture, page 245. Which he [Page 46] a lively portraict of the operation, with all the necessary Instruments belong­ing thereto. When there appears noth­ing, but one man poaching another between the Canthus of the left Eye, and the Temple, and not one Instru­ment delineated, nor the other Eye bound fast, nor any sign, that he who directed the Graver, understood the operation.

Page 236, he sets down, as from Hercules Saxonia, a Story stoln from Skenckius, wherein (according to his wonted way of nonsence) he delivers, that a Woman having the Disease called Tinea, by lotions recovered her health, but in the INTERIM, she endured con­tinual pain and Fever, of which she died. —Recover of a Disease, and in th [...] interim dye of its effects! recove [...] health, and in the interim endu [...] continual, and deadly pain, Fever, & [...]. Is no more agreeable to sence, tha [...] it is to the original. Vide obs. 3. de Cute Capitis lib. 1.

Page 256. Speaking of Polypus For­ceps, he declares, that they perform 4 Intentions of which Cicatrizing is one. Its the first-time I ever knew, tha [...] done by a cold Instrument. But mark [Page 47]his Explanation, it apprehends, and draws forth like forceps, and thirdly se­parates the Polypus, from the Bone, and for the 4th or last, (which was indu­cing a Cicatrice) we throw up a Powder, and thus, quoth he, I have shewn you all its 4 intentions. To this he adds a Fi­gure of the Instrument, (no way like that of the Inventor Tabula 3d. Fab. ab. Aq. Pendente, (though Mr. Cook says he gives none,) nor that in Tabula 9. Sculte­tus, which are the onely two, I know, extant of that sort. How unfit for this work, I shall have occasion to shew you by and by.

That heap of foul errors Page 258. concerning Glandules, I forbear to expose, till I see how he mends the matter, in his adenography, and tract of struma's.

Page 260. He tells us, a Woman had a Parotis, in which the matter was plainly prepared, but the tough Skin, kept it in longer than it should, at length it broke, the Patient falls into Swoonings, little or nothing comes from the Abscess, and she died: Hence may the Chirur­geon learn that they do not break Ab­scesses of the Emunctuaries, or their Neighbouring Parts, until they of their [Page 48]own accord do break —Bless me, what a Preachment is here! The Apostume break, nothing came out! The Skin, behind the Ears so thick, to suppress a Mature Abscess! And from all this to infer, that its not good to break such Tumors by Art! When in all probability, the want thereof de­stroyed the Patient, is strange History, a very absurd reasoning. Thus again Page 261, advising how to cure an Epulis, or Fungus of the Gums, he saith, that which is not painful may be revelled, the manner of which may be this way acted and perform'd, by ty­ing a double Thread about it, and bring the same every day streighter, until you have wholly eaten it away, the makes no difference between Revelling and Extirpation, nor Incision and Erosi­on.

By his Chapter of Struma's and Scro­phula, Page 265. I foresee how fit he is to write an entire Volum on that Disease, he saith Scrophula is a Wen, and Struma the Kings Evil, and immediately sub­joins, Scrophula is soft, and Wens are hard. As if they were two, which just before he had made one, so Page 281. How their Tumors are Translated [Page 49]from one place to another, attribute cheifly to the Nerves in their Operations, these being most proper Messengers, to carry to and fro. —This is not said like one that understood the Nerves, nor is the Chapter written, as if he knew either the causes, or remedies of the disease it treats of, for he saith nothing of what was most suitable to a Chirurgical discourse thereof, viz. manual operation, designedly omitted perhaps, to make it a COM­PLEAT Treatise. I take the less notice of this Chapter, because I ex­pect a greater occasion from his Trea­tise of that disease.

Page 281. the second quotations here, are stoln from Obs. med. Page 210. Schenkius, Pract. lib. 6. cap. 7. or Riverius, that of Aetius falsly said to be the 5 cap. lib. 6. Instead of lib. 15. cap. 6. Truely I have sought in Aetius both in his Chapter de Angina, and where he relates the vertues of Agarick and can no where find what these men say, as from him. Agaricum occultos Abscessus absorbere, vel for as materiam evocare, which our plagiary thus renders, Agarick doth suck up hid­den Abscesses, AND draw them out­ward; monuiquene Illam statim deglutiret. [Page 50]he was ordered not to swallow it, he other waies spoyles the story, by adding water to the gargle, and di­vers omissions, that made it conside­rable.

The Tonsils or Amigdals, Page 283. he saith, are made, or framed, out of a cold con­creted, oleaginous, and malleous substance, save only that its thicker, and more firm, and this he saith is allowed by Dr. Whar­ton, Adenographia, that he understood not (though he would Ape,) that excellent and Learned Author, pray consider his description of those Glands cap. 22. Substantia similaris tonsillarum friabilis, & quasi granulata est, instar From hence he saith they are mal­leous. mellis, aut olei frigore concreti, nisi quod firmius cohaereat, & veluti mem­branea connexione. Est similiter colori [...] subflavi, tactui mollis, coctione tamer induratur, quippe dum cruda est, spon­giosa, & porosa conspicitur, eam vero po­rositatem coctione amittit. This he pro­ceeds to translate. They are of a yellow colour, soft in touch, but in being boyled hard, spongious, and porous.

Page 289. He delivers as a most cer­tain sign in a Empyema, that some hu­mor appears outwardly, lodging betwixt the Ribs, and the exterior parts, or its [Page 51]discerned by its Tumor, and after he hath very weakly treated of the di­sease, omitting the best through common Remedies, and exact way of apertion, he gives us a curtaild story from Riverius, in most parts of it falsly represented and abridged, it being no where in the Original, That the Patient was able only to walk upward, or that the Abscess after it did break inward, did also break outward.

Page 294. He saith, Tumors of the Diaphragma are made of hot matters, and in the next Page saith, Phlebotomy is no way proper, because the Peccant matter is cold, in the end of the same Chapter, he saith, HE once saw in a Gentleman, a Tumor bred in the Dia­phragm, out of crude and thin bloud, in which pain and difficulty of breathing, a [...]hard and small pulse, were present, the mat­ter & humor was cold, & tough and crude. —This he relates, as if it were is own, when its manifestly stoln from Schen­kius Page 277, bating the contra­diction and nonsence, viz. That the humor was thin and yet tough, the pulse hard and small, and that for the per­formance of this disease, there is requi­red pain, difficulty of breathing, a hard, small pulse, little or nothing [Page 52]changing it self, his account of a Go­norrhea, and its causes, is as full of absurdity, and mistake, as is that of Ruptures, Page 300. viz. That they dwell in the Hypogastrick Region. Page 310. — Have their lively formes and shapes, in the Tu­mors of the Testicles — other humors have allowed them three Causes, as being bred out of an influx of humors, decumbency of parts, or congestion — the Testicles being the chief causes, and effects, of most of those Ruptures. — Af­ter many such wild assertions, he falls into that common errour, con­cerning the Testicles, that they are Glandulous, and for it quotes Celsus, lib. 7. cap. 28. Where is no such thing, its an unhappy quality, that (as in this case) where every Ana­tomist might have been cited as an evidence, he chooseth one, that comes not up to his case, and can give him no help; the place he meaneth, must be the 18th not 28 chap. for that only treateth de testiculorum natura, &c. And therein he hath these words. Igitur testiculi simile quiddam medullis habent, nam sanguinem non emittunt, & omni sensu carent. This is all the Des­cription he gives of them, and no [Page 53]where he saith they are Glandules, or Glandulous, I know Dr. Wharton lately so describes them, as did Galen, Fal­lopius, Riolan, Spigelius, Veslingius, Adenogr. c. 28. Highmore, &c. But A. D. 1667. Rey­nerus de Graef, an inquisitive Ana­tomist, of Delph in Holland, in his most Exact and Ingenious Treatise, De virorum Organis generationi inser­vientibus, as also in his defensio, and Letter to the. Royal Society, Philos. Transact. Numero, 52. (where you have the Experiments of Dr. King, confirming that of Mr. Graeff,) hath most unanswerably confuted that Opi­nion, proved it a mistake, and demon­strated, that the Testicles devested of the tunica Albuginea, are only a con­geries of Vessels, and their Liquors, without any parenchyma — congeries minutissimorum vasculorum semen con­ficientium, quae siabsque Ruptione disso­luta sibi invicem adnecterentur, facile viginti ulnarum longitudinem excede­rent — illa enim, qui testas corpora Glandulosa pronunciant, vehementer errant, quando quidem in toto teste ne­minima quidem pars glandulae conspi­cicatur.

How he swerves from the right [Page 54]notion of Hemorrhoidal Fluxes, and the Anatomy of that part, will be ve­ry plain to him that will compare it with the very just and ingenious ac­count Mr. Wiseman gives thereof, page 212. And although our Spark impudently affirmeth, that Modern, as well as Ancient Anatomists, allow of his Description of their Origina­tion, let him shew one, since the Cir­culation, that doth so; or that saith, the Hemorrhoid Veins pour forth their blood, or that the blood which is there spewed out, cometh from the Porta to the Anus; and I will confess there hath been one beside him in the world, that hath talkt at Random, and without Book, as he doth in this Chapter, p. 374. And therefore it is ne­cessary, that the melancholy blood should this way be discussed; for by this passage only is Melancholy best discussed, and the Schirrus of the Spleen cured. So page 311. The Testicles have a VERNACƲLA­TIVE FACƲLTY, of attracting and educing the spermatick matter, from all parts of the body, page 315. If you per­ceive a soft Tumor in the Inguen, suspect a DILATION, being made by the In­testines; a Bubo in the beginning BE­ING [Page 55]hard, especially BEING venereal, it being a Rupture — page 324. he calls a decoction of Osmond Royal, Rupture­wort, Comfry-Roots, Bistort, Aniseed, flor. Hyperici, made in Red Wine (all which are Adstringent) sweetned with Syrup of Comfry, a PƲRGING APO­ZEM. Page 327. He directs to melt Olibanum, sang. Draconis, bolus Arm. Mastick, Aloes, Mummy, and Thus, over a gentle fire, into an Emplaister, which it will as soon do, as Brick­bats. Page 329. He calls, Half an ounce of Syrup, mixed with nine onnces of a Liquor, an excellent Syrup; er­rours that an Apothecarys Boy of one years standing to the Pestel and Mortar, would have more sense, than to be guilty of.

Page 333. He directs to put the Pa­tient to bed, with his head supinely or downward; his whole Chapter of Sar­cocele, is defective and erroneous, both in the notion of the disease, its cause, remedy, &c. as also that of an Hernia Humoralis, page 258. so he contra­dicts and blunders, page 365. defining a pestilential Bubo, to be a tumor long, and moveable, sharp, with a mucronated turbination IMMOVEABLE, and [Page 56]deeply fixed in the Glandules, concomi­tant with a putrid Fever, wherefore bleeding is very requisite, and in purging be sure you mix, &c speaking of vesi­cating in the Plague, he saith, they may be used, if your Patient lives to use them, but its very rare, for they seldom are cured, they dying the first day. Page 384. Revulsive MEDICINES are hot and ATTRACTING, viz. Sca­rification, and Friction, and Nodes are bred from a hard Flegmatick Flegm. If the perusal of this sort of nonsence, be pleasant to you, the end of the 390 page, the beginning and middle of the 391. will afford you delight.

I am already weary with raking in this heap or confused mass of errour and absurdity, and almost tired with the unpleasant Employ of exposing and chastizing this wanton Ignorant. It's of no more credit than to correct a Boy, and not a whit more difficult than to castigate a Cripple, nor in­deed more pleasant than to pore in a Dunghill; I will therefore end with this Book, after I have given you one or two remarks more, out of ma­ny under my Eye. Page 317. he saith, Women for the most part are troubled [Page 57]with a Bubonocele, because the Womb falleth down from the Ʋterus, and so doth produce an Hernia Ʋterina. What he meaneth by that nonsense, that the Womb falleth from the Womb, is to me, and perhaps to himself, unknown; but by it, and his way of reporting the Observation from Fabritius (tho' he says not which) of a prolapsed Ʋterus; it's manifest, he doth not un­derstand the true History of that Dis­ease, but with the Ancients, and ma­ny Moderns, thinks the Real Matrix appears in the pudenda, and is the esse of that protuberance, called (though very corruptly, and improper) proci­cidentia Ʋteri.

There was scarce any over-sight, or mistake the Ancients were guilty of, that is more strange, and to be admi­red than this, that so many intuitive men should see the number of Ves­sels, that terminate, and are fastned to the Womb, and must be unavoid­ably broken in its proper prolapsion, and consequently great extravasations of Lympha, Blood, &c. be thrown in­to the Abdomen, that men knowing the number and strength of the liga­ments, &c. which fasten that bowel, [Page 58]and frequently seeing the utmost force of a man, used to extract a Child, mola, secondine, &c. without beget­ting the exitus; nay, (which is more strange,) that they should write not only that they have seen Women, cui uterus plurin [...]um prociderat, gerentem in utero, lib. 11. cap. 27. as doth Prax. lib. 15. cap. 14. Trincavella, Sennertus Platerus Zacutus Benevenius. Wierus Avenzoar vide de Graef mulier. org. cap. 10. Job. meckeren obs. chir. 54. Riverius, &c. but that after part, sometimes the whole Womb, hath fallen out, and been extirpated, the Women have not only recovered, but concei­ved, (as is to be seen in some of their * Observations,) and yet be so blind, not to see the absurdity, or discover the mistake, is to me a very great wonder.

Ambros Pary, a man intuitive, saga­cious, learned and bold, a good Ana­tomist, and excellent Chyrurgion in his time, giveth the History of the Dissection of a Woman, from whom the whole Womb (as they thought,) had been extirpated; and finding un­expectedly in the Abdomen, a sub­stance like it, (though indeed it was the same) he is content, and pleased with calling it the effect of natural Industry, to supply the want of that which they had cut away thus; (such [Page 59]is the power of Opinion, and force of Edu­ution, even over wise men,) by a slight piece of fancy, and groundless con­ceit, he conquered and solv'd the many difficulties, that attended those Phoenomena; particularly how the Te­sticles should appear in a Womb pro­lapsed, since the Ʋterus, if it fall out, must be inverted, and consequently all the Oviaryes, Fallopian Tuba, &c. be buried and lie hidden.

But that after the mistake hath been long discovered, the truth for some years found out, and published by men of note; nay when Sckenchius (our Authors great Intimate) had published the History of a Woman, quae cum uteri procidentia laborans, con­cepisset, our Writer of compleat Dis­courses, should be ignorant thereof, would be yet more strange, if such incorrigible Ignorance were not com­mon to him, and took off the wonder. Procidentia Ʋteri, est Relaxatio tunicae internae Vaginae, qua per pudendum pro­labitur, is the definition of lex, medi­cam. Blancard, and the sense of obs. med. chir. 3. Rhoonhuyse, Prax lib. 4 cap 10. Barbet, mul. organ. cap. 10. De Graeff, in vesling. anat. cap. 7. Blasius, obs. chir. 54. Meckeren, Spigel anat. o [...]s. 20.53. Kirkringius, &c. which last save one, and Rhoonhuyse, have put the thing [Page 60]beyond dispute by divers Observa­tions; particularly one of a Woman, from whom was cut off a prolapsion of a monstrous bigness, and a liga­ture left above the incision, the Wo­man dying in four daies, divers, who saw the operation, were at the dissecti­on, and though men of the errone­ous opinion were convinced by seeing the entire Ʋterus, the Ovari's &c. remain in due place, and in the midst of the Vagina, the unhealed place of extirpation, with the liga­ture about it.

The Women of Holland being generally of a large size, Phlegma­tick and full of moysture, their bowels more lubricous, and slippe­ry, and (according to Common Fame) their Vulva's higher, and low­er than others, none may be presumed more incident, than they, to a pro­lapsion of the real Ʋterus, (if such could be) and consequently those Authors, being all of them of that Country, and eminent Practizers, could not be Ignorant thereof, or deceived into a wrong opinion. I once dissected a Woman, who dyed of an Ascitis, which had vexed her [Page 61]two years, and had for ten months a very large prolapsion, two Physici­ans were present, and saw the womb entire, and that the Tumor was a Sarcoma, or excrescence of the inner coat of the Vagina. I have been cal­led to a Woman with Child, who hath had this accident very largely, and I know another, Mother of di­vers Children, that alway since her first bringing forth, had a small pro­lapsion in her last month, after Con­ception.

But to return to our Author. Page 378. Begins his Chapter of Aneurisms, in treating of which, he omits divers necessary things, and commits many extravagant ones, and that not only in the manner but matter of his discourse, which I shall have occasion more at large to canvas, when I come to consider his Notions thereof, Page 280. In his Book of wounds, there he tells us, that some allow inward Causes, and reckons as such CONTUSION, CONCUSSI­ON, Intenseness, and Obstruction, these being accounted the chief inward Causes. An Absurdity and Tautology that would make a School-Boy Blush — [Page 62] Contusion, Concussion, the chief inward Causes, and not one word of Erosion, Impetus, Plethora, &c. Which are common, and very considerable ones. — Some (quoth he) also add melan­choly bloud as a Cause, but the most usual sign of its Causes, is drawn from the Ignorant Chirurgions prick­ing too deep — the two scopes of cure, are Pharmacy and Chirurgery, the first are convenient Ligature, (excel­lent Pharmacy) and Lead, strictly bound over the part. If it be large, and in the INGUEN, expect no cure, Page 378. Large Aneurisms NOT hapning in the GROYN, or head, are accounted mortal. 380. Ligature of the Arterie in an Aneurism, is dan­gerous, troublesome, painful, and seldom brings any benefit to the patient, I would rather have Amputation —at this per­verse rate, he amuseth them that can­not understand him, and misguides those who think they do, and this not only by his pen, but his pencil; his pictures may please youths, pro­fit them they cannot. Page 166. He pretends to shew by Sculpture, the manner of Amputating a Cancerate Breast, but gives you nothing like it, [Page 63]save a Woman drest very modish, sitting in a chair, and a man with a Pencil, as it were marking, or writ­ing on her Breast, which is half co­vered with her cloaths, not in any posture, or is there any Instrument fit for the operation. Just so he gives a lively portraicture, (as he calls the picture Page 245.) of couching a Ca­taract, that looks nothing like it, but as if one were going to bleed another in the Temple; his lively picture expressing the manner of Amputating large Limbs, Page 205. I have already examined. Page 256. He shews himself as unable to draw after anothers figure, or depaint pictures, or stories, (especially La­tin ones,) this is manifest in that of Aqua Pendents Polypus For­ceps, which are not at all like the Original, or that in Scultetus, nor his own Description, for the edge of the curved end, which should cut through the Pedunculus of a Polypus, and ought to be sharp for that pur­pose, is delineated thicker than the edge of a mill-crown.

Thus, Sir, in defence of my cen­sure, and Apologie for my caution, [Page 64]in buying books at all adventures. I have freely imparted to you those observeable faulty passages, which I found in Mr. Browns first Book, that bawlkt me; There remaines only that I shew, how little it deserves the title of being Compleat; what Im­pertinent, and superfluous Chapters it contains, and how far from having those many excellent, modern Obser­vatio [...]s, said, in the Title Page, to conclude most Chapters.

It cannot be a compleat Treatise of Tumors, because it treats not of all the diseases properly so called, and very defectively and erroneously of those it doth, the later I have suffi­ciently evinced; as to the former, he omits Priapismus, Polypus Cordis, Arthritis nodosa, Anchylops, and some Tumors about the eyes. Spina Ventosa, Variola, Hypersarcosis, Testudo, Phymosis, Paraphymosis, Gangleon, Thy­mi, Crystae, Condyloma, Exitus ani, Procidentia Vaginae & Ʋteri, gutta Ro­sacea, Elephantiasis, Impetigo, Ecchy­mosis, Varex, Pernio, Furuncle, Epy­nyctis, Terminthus, Tympany, Gibbosi­ties of the joints in the Rickets and Gowt, Tumors Symptomatical to wounds, [Page 65]and Contusions, Tumors of the Collumellae, or Ʋvula, abscesses of the womb and vagina in Child-Bed, Warts, Corns, Scorbutick Tumors, intumescency of the Spleen, and many more, to be found in other Writers on this Sub­ject.

His Impertinent Chapters, treat­ing of Subjects not properly compre­hended among Tumors, are that of Phlebotomy, Ʋlcerate Cancers, Herpes exedens, Tinea, Cataract, Gangreen, and Spacelus, because they are often without swellings, and use not to be computed among them.

His Observations, are some of them quoted (though stoln at second hand) from Galen, Hippocrates, Pau­lus, Albucasis, Aetius, Celsus, Haly­abbas, Rhasis, &c. and such as were very ancient; the rest are either from Vigo, Schenkius, Aqua pendente, Bau­hinus, Benivenius, Fallopius, Hildan us, Forestus, Guido, Laurentius, Lusitanus, Placentinus, Tagaultius, Pareus, Vigie­rius. Who, (and their contempo­raries,) he calls the Ancients. Page 216. of his Book of wounds, many of them wrote above 200, most of above one hundred years since, all of [Page 66]them before this age, there then remaines, as truly modern, of all his Catalogue, only Bannister, Crook, Read, Wharton, and Barbet, the two former are accounted old, and long since dead, so is Dr. Wharton, and Dr. Read, but allowing them mo­dern, and add Barbet, they have not yeilded him one in ten of his Ob­servations, and Schenckius more than altogether, so that contrary to his Mounte-Banck Title-Page, instead of most of the observations being mo­dern, they are almost all old, yea very Ancient.

His Book of Wounds, we find writ­ten when he was a year older, tho' not a jot wiser, than when he hatcht that of Tumors, one years experi­ence hath not strengthned his reason, added Nerves to his Judgment, or bettered his acquisitions; we find some alteration in his face by the picture, but not a whit in his abili­ties by the discourse, although with his wonted vanity, he calls it also Compleat. Indeed he runs his Chap­ters into as great a number, and the Treatise into as many divisions, as I have met in any Book, mincing them [Page 67]so, that he gives us one Chapter con­cerning wounds of Arteries and veins, and another for wounds of the veins and Arteries, viz. cap. 60.61. and hath scarce avoided giving one for the cure of this thigh, another for that; one for the first, another for the second toe, of this or that foot. Who they are that divide the art, into so many parts, he tells them, Page 136. I know some others have been very nice and particular, I wish our Author had out-don them in other things, that he might justly claim the Epithite, he hath given his Book, surely we have had in our own age, and Mother-Tongue, Books of wounds, less incompleat, (unless unnecessary division, be a perfecti­on,) and our presumptuous Ignorant, venturing to appear on the Stage (like a farce, following an excellent Come­dy) after those, whom he was not able to imitate, much less excel, de­serves to be hist off again.

How fit he was to perform the promise of his Title-Page, and write Books, he gives you an early demon­stration, in that Farrago, which he begins with, and calls Chirurgical In­stitutions as touching wounds, than [Page 68]which perhaps there never was so confused and impertinent a thing; words jumbled together like lots, and thrown out by chance, would cohere as pertinently, and as much to the purpose, as this gally mawfry, a pretty teacher of young Chirurgeons, that had need be taught himself the first Principles of the Art, of which he undertakes to Write Compleat Books.

He weakly attempts to set forth the usefulness of Chirurgery, but doth it as slovenly, as when he un­dertook it in the beginning of his Book of Tumors: Ligature he makes to be of two sorts, See Galen, Fallopius, &c. and you will find near 100. † straight and slack, Incision and Cautery, he saith, must be so performed, that it bring NO pain to the patient. Cupping-Glasses, he saith, are generally used for Revulsion, and yet draw from the remotest parts. He then only names three or four Instruments, most in use, to extract extraneous bodies, and in using them adviseth the young Chirurgion not to be too hasty, because sometimes na­ture will lend her assisting hand to his work, an excellent reason, confirmed by three as Idle and Impertinent Ex­periments, [Page 69]two of which might have served any purpose as well as this for which he designs them, one is from Albucas, of a Woman shot into the Belly with an arrow, and reco­vered of the wound; another from Gilbertus Anglicus, of a man shot in­to the guts with an Arrow also, which was DRAWN FORTH with the excrements, can any mortal un­riddle the use of these stories here, and make them any way pertinent, in a dehortation from a speedy ex­tracting of Bullets, or extraneous body from out of a wound; the third from Alsaharavius, he quotes false Tract. 6. instead of the 16. and all of them (according to his wonted sin­cerity) stoln from Schenkius.

At the same rate he treats, of the difference of weapons, some (quoth he,) are taken from their figure, round, &c. having SHARP points. — Some from their habits, some of which are SHARP pointed, — is not this pure Logick, to make an Identity, a Diver­sity; he then only names the pocket-Instruments, and over again the great ones, together with the names, and a concise account of the natures of [Page 70]some Plaisters, in which its pleasant to behold his skill, Empl. Mucila­ginibus (quoth he,) partly mollifies, and partly digests, and in some measure doth suppurate, it is generally reckoned among the emollients and suppurative. Surely I need not tell you, where the Impertinence and Tautologie of this passage lyeth, I know I write to an Artist, and a man of sense, to whom a bare representation of his faulty passages, without comment or re­mark, is sufficient.

But if you will behold the most superlative Nonsense and Imperti­nence, that perhaps ever issued from the pen of any Writer, read that train of hard words, which he calls, the Appropriation of Medicine. I should undoubtedly believe them stoln from some Lexicon, or Physical Dictionary, if I had ever seen one so absurd, for here are Medical and Chirurgical Termes, and Remedies promiscuously, without respect to parts, or Alphabet, obtruded among Chyrurgical Institutions as touching wounds, and many of them so falsly explained as sheweth the prodigious Ignorance of the Publisher. What in the name of dulness & non­sense, [Page 71]have Oreticks, Hepaticks, Spleneticks, Hystericks, Nephreticks, Arthriticks, Aperitives, Carminatives, Diaphoreticks, Catharticks, Emeticks, Diureticks, Su­dorifiques (again) and Salivaticks, to do among Chirurgical Institutions of wounds, except to shew the weakness, of the artless, unthinking, Illator, what can discover his unskilfulness more than his Impertinence, for be­side his saying Cephalicks are Medi­cines APPLYED to the head, as if there were no internals; Oreticks, APPYED to the stomach, do by their delicate tast delight, and please it; as if a mans palate, or gusto were without him, Anodines by a gentle heat, ease pain, as if they were not, most of them, of the contrary tem­perament, Carminatives, expel wind by an anodine quality, as if they did not asswage pain, by expelling wind; Incarnatives, OR Epuloticks, as if there were no difference betwixt a Sarcotick, and Desiccative, he there (as if none of the abovementioned had been Internals) begins to reckon such, as are (quoth he,) inward Medicines, bringing sweaters, under the name of Sudorifiques, which he had ac­counted, [Page 72]under that of Diaphoreticks among his pretended externals! Go, dear scribler, read Woodal, Lowe, Vade mecum, and such A. B. C. Authors, & consult Castellus, Blancard, or one of Culpeppers or Salmons explanation of hard terms of Art, before you set up again for an Author or adventure to write more Books.

He finisheth those his Institutions, (as he calls them) with old fulsom distinctions of wounds, (which he pretends he had from Galen, Avicen, Guido, &c. When in all probability, he went no further for them than Pa­ry,) which shews him a stranger to the more concise and polite fashi­on of the age, which rejects all such impertinent and unnecessary dis­tinctions, because they (for the most part) consist of accidental not essen­tial differences, and are of themselves not really useful in cure, or enable an Artist a whit the better, to serve his Patient, but are the In­ventions of Ancient Writers, in the compliance with the rules and nici­ties of their other studies and ways of erudition, this he might have found suggested by two of the latest, (and [Page 73]perhaps the best) Chirurgions, that have written in these daies. viz. Wise­man, and Barbet, the former in divers places, especially his Book of wounds, and diseases of the anus, the other in the Preface to his Chirurgical, Anato­mical. works.

At length after many hard words, he lets his Reader pass on to the Book it self, where he entertains us with a rant against such as you make no difference between a simple and com­pound wound, but tells us not where the man is to be found that hath been guilty of this foul error. I believe he never knew it asserted by any mortal, but suggests it. Here, per­haps to shew his Reader betimes, how satyrically he could Harangue, or bestow his own elegant Character on an Ʋmbrage, for I profess I know not where else to find the Quack he is so angry with, a man would suspect his own dear Worship to be the Igno­rant plum'd with impudence, that doth but consider the blunder of his first step, and at what an incoherent, though very confident, rate he talks in his first Chapters; but I intend no account of all his failures, and in­numerable [Page 74]aberrations, that were to make a Book bigger than all his own, but resolve to point at some, the most considerable of them in series as they lye in his first Chapters, and digest the rest into Classes, for your more easy apprehending, and my suc­cinct and methodical displaying of them.

Page 21. Its (quoth he) the Chy­rurgions greatest reason and prudence, not to undertake such wounds, as he hath no Authority or incouragement from Art to be concerned with, were these much practised, the art of Chyrurgery would not fall to that low degree, as it appears non in.—A very odd advise the which if persued will bar all future im­provements of art; A Principle that hath done much mischeif, and been the loss not only of innumerable lives, but ruined the credit of that Art, he saith is mischieved the other way. These noble courages, and bold Artisans, who have acted contrary to this per­nicious admonition, have been Au­thors of the best inventions, the no­blest discoveries, and bravest per­formances of Chyrurgery. Where are those rules, that are so infallible, [Page 75]and on which a man may so rely, as to be assured of his prognostick. Look we to the Ancients, there's scarce a prediction among them, which this last age hath not found fallible; en­quire of the Moderns, they will tell you. Nunquam derelinquatis aegros, semper sperate salutem. How many wounds, &c. which according to the rules of art, laid down by the An­cients, were mortal are now fre­quently cured, which had never been, had they regarded such an un­reasonable direction, nor would there be any possibility of future encrease of skill. Nay, so far is the conse­quence he suggests, from being true or reasonable, that art hath not been more elevated, or its reputation in­haunced, by any thing comparable to the succesful attempts of such brave ingenu [...]ties, where aphorisms and standing prognosticks have discou­raged them by contrary denounce­ments. I. de. Vigo, is the only Author I remember, to have matcht our Idle scribler, in this pernicious dehortati­on, non oportet desperatos attingere, but the contrary is directed, by almost all rational Writers, and the artist perswa­ded [Page 76]to pursue, by all likely methods, let the case seem never so desperate, & dicant antiqui & moderni medici, quicquid sibi placuerit, saith one, quos (Chyrurgos) adhortor, ne unquam de sanitate aegri, quantumvis morbus mag­nus fuerit ac prima fronte incurabilis videatur, desperent, saith another, and our own most agreeable inconsistent, scribler forgetting what he had here and elsewhere written, doth in divers places of this same Book, Eccho from the Authors before him, the contra­ry, as may be seen Page 100.163. &c.

I pass by that nonsensical passage in the same Page; Page 21. For in this doth the life of man very often consist, and de­pend, as a way of expression very pe­culiar to him, as is also that cunning prognostick, that large and great wounds bring of tentimes much danger with them, as if any man were so injudici­ous or Ignorant, not to know it be­fore he wrote; or so incredulous, not to beleive it, unless Galen were pe­dantically brought in for a voucher, as Aristotle is by one, to prove sheep were cloven footed. Apolloneus Tya­neus by another, that men common­ly [Page 77]were greedy of Life; and a train of Fathers, and multitude of Texts, from Scripture, by a third, to evince that all men are mortal.

At this rate he triflles in divers of his presages, and errs in most of the rest, having borrowed them from the first Writers, who were in the dust, long before the mistakes of their prognosticks were discovered by the happy experimentators of after ages, or the admirable explorations of their posterity came into the World, nay that less exceptionable one concern­ing wounds of the heart, (which (allowing the faulty transcript) is to be found (the lively coal not ex­cepted,) in observ. chir. Page 449. P. Forestus, hath been discovered to the fortunate practicers of their posterity, sometimes to fail, as the Authors Skenki Glandor [...] &c. to whom I find him mostly indebted, could have told him, and he himself confesseth Page 275. I know he had this prognostick from a wrirer before Circulation was discovered, by our Harvey, and because of the agreeableness in words, presume it Forestus, the whole train of bloud (quoth he) makes its speedy ad­dress thither, from the veins, and AR­TERIES, [Page 78] as SMALL RIVULETS, to the Ocean, Well said silly Corpus­culum. this could not be assert­ed by one that understood, or consi­dered the noble exploration, the history of the Valves, or that the Ar­teries in all dead persons are empty.

That he transcribes abruptly, and represents confusedly, see the firit paragraph. Page 24. That he trades in Old Authors, and steals obsolete no­tions, observe the second, where he calls the parenchyma of the liver grumous coagulated bloud, and suggests, that the heart is nourisheth thereby, and Sang­nification performed therein. Page 25. If any wounds of the lungs be cured (quoth he) they commonly do prove. so mischeivous, as to turn into a fistula, and so in length of time, do spin a mans life out, by a Marasm, and do run him into a Consumption. These are is own elegant words, containing a position notoriously false, by almost all new Authors, and experienced Hildan cent. 2. obs. 32. &c. Sennert pract. med. lib. 2. cap. 11. & lib. 5. p. 4. c 3. Forest. obs. chir. 4. lib. 6. Falop cap. 4. de vuln. gen. Skenkius, Page 253. Horstius obs. 11. lib. 6. Miscellan. Curios. Vol. 3. lib. 190. Vol. 2. decur. 2. obs. 37. who all speak of great wounds, (sometimts with loss of large peices) of the lungs, cured. practi­cers confuted. I my self have cured two shot through the Lungs, the one with Musket, the other a Pistol-Bullet, the former a man above fifty years old, who had not been drest in nine daies before he came into my hands, [Page 79]and but once upon his being wound­ed. I mention not the frequency of curing those wounds when made by rapiers, &c. But our Author is so destitute of skill, and experience in the profession he pretends to, so unacquainted with Neoterick writers and discoveries, and so stupidly guid­ed by the Ancient, and imperfect Authors, that its no wonder if he appear as ridiculous as a man discour­sing of Geography, out of Pliny, or Strabo, in a dress that was in mode, when King James the first came into England.

That recent wounds, are soonest heal­ed, was a saying among the Ancients, and revived by our artless Ape; as if it ceased not to be recent, beforre it was cured, or that the nearer a man were to his Journeys end, the farther he had to go. Page 28. He saith wounds do ONLY then inflame, when they do not suppurate, which is ano­ther proof of his skill, and reading, it being manifest in Books, and practice, (as himself Page 49. confes­seth,) that as digestion is procured by things, more or less hot, so while Nature or Art are on that work, there occurreth heat, pain, pulsation, [Page 80]&c. dum pus conficitur, dolores ac febres magis accidunt, saith Aph. 17. lib. 2. Hypocrates, Pul­sus, dolor, & color aucti signant pus fieri, saith instil. chir. lib. 1. c. 3. Tagaultius; see Galen in his com­ment on the aforesaid Aphorism, and on Hypocrates Predict. lib. 1. c. 13. Dr. Read Lect. 5. Of Tumors. Mr. Woodal Page 141. with many more.

As wisely doth he assert. Page 29. That the main spring of the bloud is given the heart from the Arteries, which is quite contrary to truth, the spring of the bloud being from the heart to them, all that comes into that noble entral being by the veins, especially the Cave, as every boy that under­stood the common notion of Harvey's discovery, can inform him, but he cannot forget the tone of his great Grand-Fathers, the Authors he trades with, nor forbear that Shiboleth, by which he discovers from what maga­zine he furnisheth himself; thus he insinuates, as if the pulsifying wheels of the heart do give life and motion, which is a corrupt and exploded opinion of Aristotle so far from truth, that its now discovered, Th. Barth. Anat. Re­form lib. 2. cap. 6. not only that all the Organs of motion, are from the brain, but that this inspontaneous one of [Page 81]the heart, is made by particular Nerves from the Cerebel, as Dr. Willis hath hath evinced, and that some palpitations, and all the unequal mo­tions of that noble Bowel, (as in Ma­lignant Fevers, &c.) are from the impediment of the Spirits convey­ed, in those Nerves.

His eight waies of restraining the Hemorrhagies of wounds are taken ex­actly from Dr. Read. lect. 3. of wounds, a little dishapen, and sullyed by passing through his hands.

Page 32. Begins his Chapter of re­moving extraneous bodies, which he affirms to be the next duty or In­tention of a Chyrurgeon, if he mean next in order of practice, he is wrechedly out, and makes work for Penelopes Loom, as experienced wri­ters and rational practisers will tell him, I know some have led him into this way of writing, and he leads on as he is led, to use restrictives, while extraneous bodies are in a wound, (unless in very unusual, and extra­ordinary cases,) will by hardning the flesh, contracting the wound, and exasperating the sense of the part, make the extraction more difficult, and [Page 82]when atchieved, leave a flux more impetuous, than what its intrusion provoked.

The first, and second paragraph of this his sixth Chapter, is litle other than a vain repetition of what he had faultily enough said, Page 6.21. His insignificant picture of a wounded Gladiator, the few (and not all the best) Instruments for extracting shot, &c. abundantly exceeded by Fab. ab. aq. pendente, Scultetus, Pareus, Clowes, Lowe, Woodal, &c. His absolute di­rections to purge in great wounds, and three insipid reasons for it, his irrespective dehorting from unctuous Medicines, and saying that they make wounds sordid and rotten, his affirming that Ichor issueth either from the veins, or wounded part, without mentioning the Nerves, Lym­pha-ducts, Arteries, Tendons, Muscular fibres, articulations, &c. his calling the skin, the Instrument of touching, (as Doctor Read doth,) together with other such phrases and positions in the seventh Chapter; are additional evidence of the skill of our Author, who concludes as he began, saying over again in his last Paragraph, what [Page 83]he had from Guido delivered con­cerning Sutures, in the end of the next proceeding Page.

In his eighth Chapter, he deliver­eth, that Sarcoticks should be of a cold quality, giveth a Catalogue of them, very little varyed from those in Pary, Barbet, &c. as is his lift of ep [...]loticks, he directeth to have TENTS, &c. armed with such medicines, as have an AGGLUTINATIVE quality in them, which can stop pain, asswage inflamation, and repel the humors, of which sort (saith he) may be reck­oned this, ℞. terebinth. lot. in aq. plan­tag. one Ounce & a half mel. optim depurati one Ounce ung. Basilic two Ounces. Vitel. ovor. no. 2. M. ad. ignem fine ad­dendo pulv. Myrrhae, Aloes, ana one Dram, croci, a scrup. M. pro linimento, or this ℞ ol. hyperic. c. 9. ol. Catellorum ana two Ounces, G. Etemni half an Ounce pulv. Veronicae, Salviae, Myrrhae, ana one Dram. tereb. ven. one Ounce and a half and these in the margent, are called Digestives of our Authors, a whole sheet of Paper cannot afford Room enough, to display the faults of this passage. Agglutinative, Ano­dine asswage inflamation, repel humors, [Page 84]and yet be a Digestive, is to assert a great contradiction, all Digestives heating, and so far from being agglu­tinative and repellent, that they perform the contrary by relaxing and attracting, and maturation when do­ing by unassisted nature, is alway ac­companyed with pain, perturbation, &c. as I have shewn.

Page 43. Begins his ninth Chap­ter, of removing Symptomes and acci­dents, which he accounts to be pain, Inflammation, Hemorrhage (again) fainting, delirium, Fever, Palsey, and Convulsion, but to make his discourse compleat, leaves out Erysipelas, Gan­green, [...]nd some others reckoned by Fallopius, and divers Authentick wri­ters.

Pain he defines from Galen to be, a sad and heavy sense of change, following a disease, as a shadow doth a substance, so he interprets Tristis sensatio, and had as good have said pain is pain. Algema, sive dolor, aut tristis sensatio, a molest a nervosarum partium irritatione cerebro impressa, oritur ex continui solu­tione sensibili, vel insensibili, saith Blan­card. — Fibras convellens & cor­rugans, Spiritus ab invicem distrabit ac dissipat, Anim. Brut. p. 1. c. 11. saith Wallis.

Inflammation, saith our Author Page 44. hapning by a puncture of a nerve, divide it wholy, because its better let a member lose its use, than the whole body its life. He is in the right, were it an unavoidable dilemma, in such acci­dents, (though perhaps our novice never saw it,) there are innumera­ble instances of severer Symptomes than Inflammations, attending punctu­red Nerves, which yet have been cuted without the ultimate, pernici­ous refuge of our skilless Author, who takes his measures from the first writ­ter in this and most things else, so much hath Mr. Gadburies Astrology mistaken, in affirming that if Hypo­crates were alive, he would borrow from our Plagiary.

With his usual Ingenuity in repre­senting things from other hands, he defines from Galen a Syncope to be a principal lapse of all the Spirits, (for so he understands praeceps omnium virium lap­sus, which are the words of that Au­thor, de morb. cur. lib. 12. (as our Country-man Linacrus interprets them,) and for this quotes the 15th Book of Galens Methodus Medendi, which contains in all but 14.

At the same rate he talks of a De­lirium, which he affirms is nothing else, but a deprivation of motion, and an alienation of sense. (I doubt the man speaks feelingly) contained in the wound­ed brain, by essence or consent — and from deprivation of the principle faculties of motion, is this delivered like one that understood plain Latin? was it ever so mistaken by the most Igno­rant and erroneous scribler is not the man possest with the disease that talks thus out of the way. Delirium, is derived from de & lira, going crooked, or out of the way, & is common­ly english­ed, doating or, talking beside ones self, as our Author now doth. Let us compare it with other descriptions. Galen lib. 5. de sympt. causis, omne de­lirium depravatus est principis Faculta­tis motus, apravis succis, aut cerebri in­temperie ortum habens, with this defi­nition lib. b. obs. chir. 22. Forestus Instit. Chy­rurg. lib. 2. cap. 4. Tagaultius, Fr. de delirio in vuln. lib. 2. cap. 28. Peccettus and some others acquiesce, and without doubt our Ingenious Au­thor aimed, and intended to express himself in this sort too, but wanting sense and Latin enough to do it, hath failed and most egregiously erred, not understanding the difference between deprivation, and depravation, and that depravatus est principis facultatis motus, is in plain English, a depraved motion of a principal faculty, not a depri­vation [Page 87]of motion, as he saith in one place, or a deprivation of the principle faculty of motion, as he mistakes it in another, of this Chapter.

Hypocrates calls it levem desipientiam, but tetrah serm. 1. cap. 22. Aetius gives a very strange Character thereof and fatuity, oriun­tur ambae affectiones frigidorum cerebro facto — aliquando vero, modica pituita ad cerebrum illapsa Alex, Benedictus differs not much from him lib. 1. cap. 28. Avicen delirium est mentis alienation — est symp­toma actionis animalis depravatae —with this P. M. cap. tract. 2. B. Bauderon I. M. lib. 1. cap. 3. F. Planterus, canon 3. and lib. 1. p. 11th cap. 6. Sennertus sit down. As to other mo­derns [...]. M. lib. 1. cap. [...]1. Riverius saith, per delirium Ratiocinationis errorem prcecipue intelli­gimus. cap. 15. lib 9. A. Pareus calls it a perturbati­on of the faculties, and functions of the mind from pain, feverishness, venemous myasma, or expence of Spirits. lib. 2. cap. 34. Vigierus, Pary, Willis, and almost all Authors, although they write of it in distinct Chapters, do carefully note that its a Symptom. Anim. Brutor. Willis calls it a hurt of the animal function, such as ariseth in the parox­sms of fevers, drunkenness, hyste­rick, &c. making men speak, think, and do foolish and absurd things, for [Page 88]some time caused by an irritation, or confusion — verum in delirio spiritus simul omnes exiliunt, & sibi invicem tumultuose occursantes, aut se varie pro­ripientes, velut choreas Bacchantium agunt: Agreeable to which, are the definitions of nov. Idea. lib. 2. c. 14.15. &c. Sltvius de Boe. lexic. me­dicum. Blan­cardus, &c. now consider how much our Author is beside the Cushion, not only in his most scandalous, notorious mistranslation of Galens definitions, and the Impertinent method he di­rects for deliriums arising from wounds, but the notion of the thing it self, which is no more like his, he would imitate, nor any other extant (that I know) than it is to sense, for inquietude, perturbation, garrulity, &c. are the common Smyptoms, and diagnosticks of the disease, which he quite contrarily calls nothing else but a deprivation of motion, and an alie­nation of sense, a description that hath no foundation in Authority, experience, or reason, if he can prove the contrary, he shall be to me a great Apollo, thus he delivers himself like a man that understood not what he was doing, and (although a most ridiculous Plagiary,) talks without [Page 89]Book, when he attempts to give us any thing his own, he bewrayeth his most scandalous inability, and ev'n where he copyeth, either through misapprehension, or a vain endea­vour to disguise what he steals, he not only murthers and confounds the Subject, but most illiteratly al­ters the words so as they become unintelligible and nonsence, as are those two short and plain definiti­ons from Galen, of a Syncope, and De­lirium.

A Sixth Symptome to which wounds are incident, he accounts a Fever, which he very civilly refers to the Physicians, as if most of the other accidents were not as much their province, but manger this great regard and deference, inevita­ble maggot will work, his humor of interloping is irresistible, he must in despight of fate, (or rather in obe­dience to it, for he was born under some strange ascendent) come in with some old musty definition, though as greyheaded as Avicen, whom he introduceth calling a Fever, an extra­neous, adventitious, accensive heat in our heart, by which the veines and Arteries [Page 90]therewith sharing, its conveyed through the circuit of our whole body, and hurt­eth its actions, certainly, absurdity is at natural to him as milk to a calf, he hath neither truely given you Avi­cens definition, (though he call it so,) nor is it like, either sense, or the novel sound description of that dis­ease, Febris est inordinatus sanguinis motus, ejusque nimia effer vescentia.

Page 47. He injudicially directs to Phlebotomy, if a fever arise from the biting of a venemous creature, his dis­course of the causes, and remedies of Crudity, are stoln from Dr. Rea [...] Lect. 12. and treats of all those acci­dents, as if they were not Symptoma­tical, or dependent on wounds, but essential and primary diseases.

Pags 48. The three causes of th [...] Palsy our Author borroweth from Dr. Willis omitting a fourth, not im­properly added by Dr. Read, beside [...] others intimated by Galen, Sennertus, Riverius, &c. his enquiring what hu­mor causeth a Palsey, is very odd at this time of day, but his attributing it (especially here) to flegm, is not only contrary to the opinion of the humo­rists themselves, but to Aetiology, [Page 91]and right reason, it most commonly proceeding from defect, sometimes redundancy, and violent explosion of the Spirits, distortion of the nerves, plethora, acidity, Spasmes, &c. But in the case before him, none other ought to have been considered, but that of Contusions, or wounds is me­thod for cure is stoln from Dr. Willis, how he alters the words, and inverts the method, you may discern by com­paring them together, as I here ver­batim transcribe from both, to our your hand, as another pattern of his learning, sincerity, &c. Ʋt plurimum illius haec tria erunt genera, seu potius tres erunt medendi rationes, quarum mo­do haec, modo illa, vel altera, circa morbi hujus. Therapiam jniri debet, nimirum quatenus resolutio, (qualiscunque & quo­cunque in loco fuerit) vel primo ab ex­terno accidenti, scil. plaga, casu ab alto, vulnere, frigoris excessu, aut similibus subito infertur, vel secundo, affectui cui­dam alteri, sc. Apoplexiae, caro, colicae, aut febri diuturnae succedit, vel tertio illa primarius & per se morbus a procatarxi, sive apparatu praevio dependens, sensim ex­citatur. — ‘And as there are generally allowed three kinds or sort hereof, [Page 92]so should there be proposed three kinds of cure, first for Resolution, this being the main agent, this is to be cured. Secondly, if it hap­pen by a wound, incision, excessive cold, or fall from au high place, this also must have allowed, its way of cure. Thirdly, as it is a procatarcktick, or primary disease of it self. —’

What a kind of Trinity hath he made, the Doctor saith, Resolution (which is the esse of the disease,) is caused three wayes, and the dunce in at­tempting to translate him reckons Re­solution, which is a general, to be the first particular, and doth so unhap­pily express himself, as if he conspi­red to his own shame; first (quoth he) Resolution this being the main agent, is to be cured, resolution an agent! An agent is always a cause, resolution in the sense here illated, must be an effect. —But why do I criticize with so dull and inchoherent a Dorido, I ought rather to direct him for better understanding, (if it be possible to him,) of this matter, to Platerus, Pic­cettus, Vesalius, Mercuriales, Holerius, Heurnius, Sylvius, Willis, &c. not Bar­row, Bruel, &c,

He begins and ends the Prog­nosticks of this disease, with one, and the same presage, to wit, that a Palsy is hard to cure in aged People, the remedies he directs to, viz. pul. ad ca­sum, and decoction, are stoln from Dr. Willis; only he was scared at the Antimony, and left it out, the pills are in Bauderon, Sennertus, and divers Antidotaries, as are the rest of his medicines: He recommends Coffee as a remedy for this disease, which by very many learned Physicians, is con­demned as a cause.

He concludes this Chapter with one only history, and that borrowed (I had almost said stoln, the quotation is so coucht,) from Willis, An. Brut. cap. 9. I should commend his giving us a bit now and than, from a fresh Author, if he did not so harsh, and tincture them with the ill savour of the stale ones, and dress them in the old modes; for in the few places where we have this rarity, its so mishapen and deform­ed, that a man of no uncommon in­tuition would be apt to be imposed on. In the story before us, he shews himself scandalously impertinent, in treating of a Palsy proceeding from [Page 94]an outward accident, to serve us with an instance as wide from the purpose, as his translation is from the original. What relation hath a Palsy, Convulsion, delirium, &c. From Ebri­ety, to do what a Palsy Symptomatical to a wound, that his skill in Latin, is as little as in writing Books, so his translating this impertinent story. Iuvenis, a young Gentleman, post lau­tiorem coenam, & vini potum immode­ratiorem, after eating a large supper, DID drink very plentifully of wine, ut chicotheca quam forte tenebat, in vo­luntarie exciderit; So that the glove, which did COVER his hand, did involuntarily fall off, medico peritissi­mo, a worthy Physician, modo in deli­rium, modo in convulsiones, aliasque Spi­ritum Animalium distractiones subin [...] incidens, falling into a delirium, an [...] AFTERWARD into a Convulsion▪ he was within a short while, force [...] to shut up his last minute, his Spirit [...] being dissolved. Capite Aperto, his dead CORPS being opened, Corpus unu [...] Straitum Comprimente, comprssing one straited body.

Hss eleventh Chapter is of Con­vulsions, the two first Paragraphs of [Page 95]which are of the old leven, what there is like notion, or distinction, is stoln from the same Authors, on­ly one from Celsus (but where, he doth not say,) is falsly delivered, at first by Doctor Read, and from him by our Plagiary, who doth bring him in for the ninth Convulsion, viz Spa­smus Cynicus, whereas lib. 4. cap. 3. Celsus when he treats of those diseases, reckons only the three usual distinctions, viz. Emprosthotonos, Opisthotonos and Teta­nos. What he saith of Spasmus Cynicus is in another Chapter. I beg you to consider by comparing our scriblers quotation, and Celsus his discourse, how well he understands the Books he quotes, whether Read rather than Celsus, ought not to have been called the Author of the causes and me­ [...]hod of cure, which he there sets [...]own, the former being plainly also [...] lib. 9. cap. 9. Pareus, and with the following Theory, confuted by our most excel­lent morb. Con­vuls. cap. 1. Willis.

His discourse endeavouring to shew, how Plethora begets Convulsi­ons is very inartificial, and ridicu­lous, for he saith, the nervs being filled with purulent matter, or other excre­ments, [Page 96]generated either in the wounded part, or sent thither from others, and so sucked up by the nerves, as it happens. —I want patience to pursue this most absurd way of talk, its certainly his own, for though the Ancients had very odd notions of those things, I never met any so void of sense as this. Fr. Sylvius was inraged at the more agreeable reasoning of A. Pary, Nov. Idea. lib. 2. c. 3. and cryed out! quid hoc est dicere! itane! exsudatne expuncti nervi substantiâ hu­mor serosus ac virnlentus, sed quis ama­bo [...] unquam serosum aut virulentum in nervorum substantiâ deprehendit humo­rem. —Surely he would be stark mad at those reasonings of our Ig­norant, a man pretend to read the Neurologia of Willis and talk in this fashion! Old Snarl in the vertuoso would laugh at him for an old fashion­ed Idiot.

The Prognosticks he stole from Doctor Read, and his medicines from him, Page 63. Pary, Riverius, Willis, &c. The first history he stole from Skenkius Page 49 Being of a man overfilled with wine, so that by a general opinion, he was reputed in toxicated, (pray mark the elegancy, and Tautologie,) who [Page 97]lying on his back in a Coach, never spake more, but dyed of a Convulsion. This story is originally in P. Forestus Schol. obs. chir. 27. lib. 9. but as much dis­figured by the translation, as the Pa­tient was by the disease, or death, and not less impertinent here.

Discoursing of Convulsion by inani­tion, he sets down amethod stoln from Pareus and Read. His quotation from Dovinaetus of a man 50 years old, who falling into a Convulsion and SYN­COPE, occasioned by a GREAT EFFUSION OF BLOUD, was per­fectly cured, by cupping Glasses and PHLEBOTOMY, is very strange, and (if truth) looks as little like it, as any story I have met with so positively affirmed, That from Plate­rus, of a Maid shot into the Back-bone, (which I cannot find in the place the points to, Obs. lib. 1. fol. 120. nor any where else in that Book, though mine be of the best Edition,) having no Convulsive Symptom, but a plain Paresis, had been proper in the foregoing Chapter, is not at all so here, the others, to wit, from H. Saxonia, Fernelius, Came­rarius, Jason, &c. He had from Sken­kius, Page 118.113.120, commit­ing [Page 98]a mistake in the last, by naming Vesalius, instead of Vallesius, who was a learned Spaniard, wrote a Book de Sacra Philosophia, and large Com­ments on Hippocrates Epidemicks, and a Preface to Holerius, he quotes Hollerius to prove that men seldom die of a Convulsion by an He­morrhage: But names not the Chap­ter nor Page, and I am sure talks without Book, for that Author de Morbis Internis its in the Scholia of that Chapter. lib. 1. cap. 12. reck­ons a Convulsion to be deadly, when it followeth a large Flux of Blood, and no where speaks of it, as our Au­thor feigns, it being contrary to the Doctrine of the most Famous Wri­ters, Read. Page 199. Hildanus de gangr. c. 26. Sylvius de Boe, lib. 2. Cap. 23. Paragr. 64. who reckon, as he doth, that Convulsions following a plenary loss of Blood are mortal, and always ve­ry dangerous, when from any other inanitions. He refers to an Observation of Hildanus concerning Spasmus Cyni­cus, fol. 37. cant. 5. whereas that Century begins fol. 379. And the case which I suppose he means, is in Observ. 9. fol. 392.

Thus far, my worthy Friend, I have gone in order, and remarked, on some faults, as they lye in a Series I [Page 99]will ease my self, and relieve you by quitting this rigid and critical me­thod, (though all that followeth be ejusdem farinae,) and digest the rest of the objectible or faulty passages of this Book, into the following Common-places, and refer you to the Pages wherein he discovers himself GROSLY ERRONEOUS, AND MISTAKEN, ABSURD AND VOID OF SENSE, CONTRA­DICTORY AND INCONSIS­TENT WITH HIMSELF, PLA­GIARY AND THIEVISH, ILLI­TERATE AND SILLY, IMPER­TINENT AND TRIFLING, AND UNSKILFULLY IGNO­RANT AND UNEXPERIEN­CED. And then shall conclude this Letter, and refer it to the judgment of any man of common sense, whe­ther he be not the man I say, culpa­ble under all those Topiques, guilty of all that can be ill in an Author, and deserve as severer reprimand & Casti­gations, than I have inflicted on him.

As to his errors and mistakes, they are innumerable, not a Page wherein he appears not so, he affirms in the 70th, that new Flesh in Wounds is ge­nerated [Page 100]of the Blood lodged in the Mus­cles, neither considering that Intenti­on is often performed where no Mus­cles are, nor knowing that Blood is not the immediat nutritious juice. Vide Dr. Charleton Exercit. 5. [...] his nat. H [...]ory, an [...] [...] his five Anat. Pre­lect. Page 79 treating of Gunshot-wounds, he saith, he is wholly conducted by the hand of Hippocrates, Master of the Cere­mony, so dull and incogitant doth this pedantick humour of quoting the Ancients make him, that he for­gets his guide was dead, above a thousand year before Swarts, the in­ventor of Gunpowder and Cannon, was born. Page 98. he saith Nitre is made out of a fatty substance, forcing it self through the walls, of old, and cold Cellars, whereas Nitre doth not only sweat out of Walls and cold Cellars, but is on them and other places, where the air stagnats con­densed from that Element, which is supposed greatly Vid. P. Sardi. and our Dr. Ma­vow, de sal. Nitro. cap. 1. replenished therewith, at is also the earth of vaults, subterraneous caverns, and places, where sheep, &c. have urined.

Page 116. and 120 he affirms the sutures vent Fumes and excrements, not from the brain only, but the kichin of the whole body, which is an exploded [Page 101]opinion of some former Writers, Spi­gelius, Laurentius, &c. From whom he stole all the Anatomy of this chap­ter. The Doctrines of Fumes and Va­pours, so much embraced in the for­mer Ages, being rejected in this, render it needless to say any thing to him on that particular, but if he un­derstand the imperviousness of those seams, I admire how he becomes guilty of so foul an error. Sculls, when dry, (when one would think the su­tures should open,) are still tight and close, and will contain (without leaking,) Water, Oil, &c. Do we not see in Fractures of the Cranium, be they never so inconspicuous, that the serosities of the Blood, under it, doth glees through them, but not any appears from their natural seams Add to this, that the sutures are not only cover'd with a strong double Mem­brane Externally, (beside the opa­que Calvaria) but the like Internally, and both glewed as it were to the Bone, by which it seems impossible, that any steams or exudations should be that way discharged. He hath al­way talkt of the Brain, as if it were made of Groenland Ice, how comes [Page 102]it now again to yield warm steams. Dere Me­dica, lib. 8. cap. 1. Celsus, a Writer of as great reputa­tion and ability, as any of the Anci­ents, ( Hippocrates excepted) affirms, that they who have no sutures are ve­ry healthy, live without pain of the Head, and that this was most obser­vable in hot Countries, where cer­tainly those supposed Vapours and E­manations must be most plentiful, and apt; but that the Smoke of the KITCHIN OF THE WHOLE BO­DY vents it self at this Chimney, is such a wild conceit, as peculiarly (for ought I know) belongs to our wise Author.

He errs much in the Figures he gives us of Humane Sculls, as is easily disco­verable, by comparing them with the Life, or those given us by Spigelius, Bauhinus, Laurentius, Veslingius, Rio­lanus, or Bartholine, from whom al­so he might have copied more useful, and greater variety than those he hath obliged us with, for we have neither the open Face, the Basis, Occi­put, nor Vertex, so far is his Book from being compleat.

Page 129. Children being of a hot and moist Constitution, (he saith) are not [Page 103]so apt for the admittance of Putrifaction, which is not only contrary to com­mon Observation in their Wounds, foetid Sores, Lice, &c. (to which they are so naturally incident,) and to what himself delivers in another place, but to Reason and Philosophy, Warmth, and Humidity most aptly occasioning Putrifaction, as is evident in Wounds, Cadavers, &c. When the Air is of that temperament.

Page 32 and 131, he erroneously prefers (and quotes Hippocrates for it,) the Diagnostick part of Art to the Curative, or Therapeutick. Calling it the laudable part of Practice, certain­ly that which is a causa sine qua non is the most Eligible, let all the Authors in the World say the contrary, the most useful is the most necessary, and the Curative part, (to whichall the rest subserve and tend,) most lauda­ble. In short, the best skill in Dia­gnosticks alone never can, and never did cure a Wound, but a very slender judgment in the Therapeuticks, with­out any at all in the other, hath done it a thousand times.

Page 134 If the Cranium be fractured (quoth he) the parts above it must suf­fer [Page 104]a solution of Ʋnity, except in contra­fissure. To which Experience frequent­ly gives the Lie. A Patient hath not been long out of my hands, who had a large Rima, reaching from the Sagi­tal suture to the Squamosa, by a fall from a very high place, and the Skin not broken, nor any Tumor appear­ed.

Page 157. He gives us another in­stance of his Falshood, in a misrepre­senting what he steals, or borrows from others, for altho' that be his Trade (his own Stock being beggar­ly and empty, affording nothing,) yet the constancy of the practice hath not made him a Proficient therein. the story is from A. Pary, Lib. 10. c. 7. who saith the os coronale was cut off the length and bredth of three Fingers. The Plagiary saith, the bredth only of three Fingers, in the original it is said, to be done by a sharp Sword, in the transcript, by along and a strong Sword, the Author doth not say, as the Bathyllus, that he fell with his Face to the ground, that the Dura mater was hurt, or out of its place, upon the cutis of his Face, that he was compelled by necessity to take away any of the pericranie, or Scull, [Page 105]used Tents, or Dossils, nor that the Body was stab'd through in divers pla­ces. Thus he shews himself so great a stranger to truth and sense, that he is no less able to copy them fairly, and truly relate them from o­thers, than produce any of his own, to say the Dura mater fell on the cutis of a mans Face, was never spoke like a man of truth or Surgery.

He fetcheth almost all his Prognos­ticks from the Ancient Writers, who were Strangers to the cure of those Wounds and diseases that are now frequent, this is one cause why he falls into so many errors, when he comes to Presages, as I shall have occa­sion elsewhere to observe. At present I will single out only one, and that the most likely to be true, as having much reason, and agreeing with the common Phaenomna, the sense of for­mer Ages, and opinion of most men in this, viz. That Wounds of the Heart are absolutely mortal, and incurable. This noble Intral seems the only part of the Body, which being hurt brings inevitable death, for reasons which our Author hath stolen from Fallo­pius, and Read; its in his 60th Chap­ter, [Page 106]that he treats on this subject, and he doth it with his wonted preface of Anatomy, and usual absurd, incohe­rent way of expression, the errors of the former are too manifest and ob­vious, the fantastical chimera's and whimseys, which nor he or any o­ther man can make intelligible, the false notions and descriptions are no less plain, having been long since re­felled by many accurate Anatomists, the Position (how strong soever backt) which I shall refute, stands thus. Page 273 The Heart being once hurt brings present death. I will not take hurt in the largest sense, but strictly, as I believe he meant, viz. Wounded; the same Prognostick is almost in the same words and with the like assurance, delivered by Hippocrates, Aristotle, Pliny, Aegineta, and the many Ancient Writers both of Phy­sick and Philosophy, Cor nullam fert continuitatis separationem. Or for the sake of a little Poetry take it in verse.

Galen, Fallo [...]ius, Forestus, and some others express themselves less confi­dently, but divers do affirm, that Peo­ple have survived such Wounds, (though large) many days, and some say such harts have been cured.

That Wounds of the Heart do not al­way bring sudden death. Many of the Commentators on Hippocrates's Apho­risms have reported. Galen. lib. 5. loc. Aff. cap. 1. and in other places, writeth, that Beasts have bellowed, cryed and walkt after their Hearts have been cut out, Hist. c [...]t. [...]. 1. obs. 77. Tho. Bartholine saith a youth was deeply wounded in the Heart, with a Knife, that he walkt alone afterward into the City, and lived five daies; that he saw a Stagg shot through both Ventricles, and walkt fifty paces before he fell Lib. 9. [...]. 30.. Pareus reports, that one in a Duel was wounded so deeply, that his fin­ger could lodge therein▪ and yet he not only fought afterward, but pur­sued his Enemy two hundred paces. M [...] Zodia [...]. Med. V [...]l. 2. pag. 97.132. Nic. Blegny saith, he knew one so wounded, who lived five daies, and another seven. Obs. 39. [...]. cent. 2. J. Rhodius faith, one wounded into the Cavity of the heart, lived nine daies, and another [Page 108]six. N. Lib. 2. obs. 18. Tulpius, of one who was wounded into the Liver, Stomach, Lungs, Midriff, Mediastinum and Heart, that lived two daies, D. P. Med. lib. 5. part. 2. cap 3. Sennertus, of one deeply wounded in the heart, who lived sixteen daies. See more in the second Book, part 4. cap. 3. and the like in Schenkius, page. 254, 262. Bartholini Anat. Reform. Ed. ult. c. 6. Gualterus, Sylva Medica, page 406. Moronus Index, page 85. Amat. Lusi­tanus, cent. 6. obs. 38. Crook Anatom. page 420. Fennelius Observ. Chiro 38. Meckeren, who knew one survive the wound of his heart six daies. We have frequent Instance of hearts Fab. Hil­danus, cent. 2. obser [...]. 27. saith, he found a heart prodigiously rotten. rotten, ulcerate, aposthumate, tumified, having sordid sores, of long continuance Theod. Kir­kring▪ Spicil. Anatom. obs. 78, 3., stones, excrescencies, tabid, torrified, and some have been found without any heart at all. Vide Tillesias rerum nat. lib. 5. cap. 28. Schenkius, and Bartho­line, ubi supra Li b. 1. obs. 31., Dominic. Panarolus, and Schenkius, from Jordan, write of a Torrified heart Obs. Med. 87.. Riverius, of an Ul­cer eroding a great part thereof, which was spit up, the Patient endu­ring it forty daies Prax ad­mir. b. 1. obs. 14. & lib. 20bs. 41.. Zacutus, of a Rotten heart, and another Schirrust. Obs. Chiro Job Meckeren, of an Ulcer under one [Page 109]of the Auricles of long continuance. Sennertus ubi supra, writes of one who wanted the left Ventricle, another was indurated. And. Anat. q. 18 lib. 9. Laurentius, of one whose heart was half rotted away, of a Deer, in whose heart an old piece of a Dart was found, of many Stones, and Aposthumes in the heart of a Woman, and that a Florentine Ambassador at the Court of France, being dissected— inventum You have the like in Theod. Kir­kring, Spic. Anat. obs. 16. miscel. curios. vol. 1. obs. 70. cor pro­digii instar in eam molem excrevisse, ut Thoracem fere totum contineret, and that in its Ventricles was near four pounds of blood. See more Barthol. Hist. cent. obs. 32, 45, 54, 50.

That wounds of the heart are curable, is the Opinion and dixit of Job Meckeren, cap. 36. Blogny Zod. Med. Vol. 2. page 139. Gualterus Sylva M. page 106. Caspar Schottus Physica Medi­ca cur. lib. 3. mirab. Hom. cap. 34. Mo­ronus, Index page 86. Beniven. cap. 65. Zacut. Lusitan. P. Mirand. obs. 9. fol. 251. saith, that Leeches stuck to the heart of a person, that survived it. Matth. Glandorp, Spec. Chirurg. cap. 33. relates that Rabbits lived many months after they were run through the heart. Page 254, 261. Sken [...]kius saith the [Page 110]like of a Stagg, and of one in whose heart a piece of an Arrow was found, that had long stuck there; that a Boy was cured, cui os pectoris excisum, & cor aliquandiu nudum apparuit, nam involucrum ejus computruerit; the Hi­story, page 254. which he calls a wound of the Tunicle of the heart, was un­doubtedly (as his Author first thought) of the heart it self. Page 256. He reports, that some have been found without Miscell. curios. Vol. 5. obs. 25. hearts, as doth also Hilda­nus, cent. 4. obs. 51. Moronus, Index page 85. Tillesius rer. nat. ubi supra, my Lord Bacon. Mr. Boyle, vide Bart ho­lin. Lib. 2. cap. 6. Anat. Reform. Editio ultima. Rhodius, obs. 39. cent. 2. relates the cure of a large wound of the Pericar­dium; he supposeth that wounds of the heart it self are incurable, and saith, there was a Stagg, who had a small piece of Dart sticking in his heart, sine vitae noxa, that a Boy was dissected without a Pericardium— But what need I say any more, when our most agreeable Scribler, is his own Confuter; for after all his po­sitive Prognosticks, page 23, 273, &c. he very fairly confesseth, that superficial wounds here hapning may be c [...]red.

I have taken unusual pains, and been very particular on this point, partly to refute our Confident, part­ly to shew the incertainty and falla­cy of many presages delivered by the first Writers, and the vanity of rely­ing on them, but cheifly to perswade my Brethren of the Plaister-box, that no wound is incurable, and beat them out of the contrary discouraging and mischeivous opinion.

The vital flame in the heart, and the airs ingress then, and mixing its nitrous particle with the bloud, are things much controverted among learned men, though positively affirmed by our Author, I will say only this, that I am sure he under­stands not that controversy, and that many very eminent Anatomists, are against the later Hypothesis, vide Dr. Harveys Proem to his book de Corde, & circulatione▪ Dr. Walter Needham, format. foetu. cap. 6. (where he de­clares it the Opinion of Dr. High­more also,) Dr. Henshaw Aero chalinos, page 62. beside Demerbrook, Corne­lius, &c.

Page 281. He defines with most of the Ancients, an Aneurisma to be a [Page 112]breach of the inner coat of an Artery, the blood distending the outer, which I know hath been the common Opi­nion, but the absurdity thereof you will find well discovered by Van Horn, Microtecne sect. 1. paragr. 15. page 215. Wiseman, lib. 1. cap. 16. Pareus calls it the Rupture of an Ar­tery, the Blood extravasating among the Muscles, and he himself varieth from his definition, in the Histories he gives, page 380. of his Book of Tumors, (where he hath a particular Chapter of this Disease,) which is of an Aneurism from a wound, and saith in that Chapter, that the common cause is puncturing an Artery.

But to be short in this Topick, be­cause in all the rest I shall have occa­sion to evince abundance of his Er­rours, take those brief Instances, which I shall but name, page 23, 29, 44, 45, 273: and many other places, he makes the heart the fountain of mo­tion, page 309. he calls the stomach a cold Intral, and (in reckoning the coats) omits the crusta See willis Pharm. Rat. part. 1. cap. 2. sect. 1. villosa, page 287. & 297. he affirms, the meseraick Veins convey the Aliment to the gate of the Liver, and suck up the nourishment [Page 113]from the small guts, page 227. he reckons the ascent and descent of the Cava from the Liver, page 194. he suggests, that the Heart and Liver are not only the Original of the Veins and Arteries, but the Oceans from whence they fetch both their vital, and natural blood and spi­rits, page 179. that the Brain is made of sperm and maternal blood, that it's of a cold and moist temper, page 198. the chief seat of cold and glutinous moisture, that the Nerves are cold in nature, and cold in substance. Thus, as I have said, by his Ignorance in the improvement of our Art, and injudicious sucking the fallible Principles and Opinions of the Ancients, (men to whom we are infinitely indebted, and from whom it's no detraction to say, they knew not as much as is now known,) he runs him­self into many gross errours and mi­stakes, chiefly in Anatomy, Progno­sticks and Dogma's, of which I shall superadd a few instances more, and conclude this Head.

Page 316. He pronounceth Wounds of the Kidneys in general Mortal, and inevitably so, if the Pelvis be hurt, though Pareus relates the story of an Archer condemned to be hanged, and [Page 114]upon Solicitation by some great men, who had been troubled with the Stone, he submitted to have those Parts opened, survived the operation, was cured and pardoned. We have also a Tradition, that our Famous Harvey cut out a Stone from a mans Kidney. But his old Friend, and con­stant supplier, Schenkius tells him, Page 451. Three stories of Wounds of that Part cured, and himself, not­withstanding his Prognostick, sub­joins to this Chapter, the History of another, stoln from Glandorp. See also P. Foresius obs. Chir. 5. lib. 6.

He discovers many errors in his discourse Page 266. of the Lungs, and respiration, positively presumes to determine the dispute, as yet unde­cided among the best Philosophers, and Thruston Diatribe. Mayow de respicar. Willis Phar. Ration. F. Burtis Epist. Bar­thol. Swammar­dam de Re spir. Malpig­hius. Casp. Bar­thoy Dinphr. struct. Dr. Gib­sons Epitom. Dr. Need­ham de foe tu, &c. Anatomists of the Age, viz. What [...] the cause, and use of Pulmonary respir [...] ­tion. He saith Page 255 from Gale [...] that matter heaped up in the Breast, pa [...] ­ing into the vena sine pari, is through t [...] vena ava carryed to the right Ventricl [...] of the Heart, and passing thence DOWNWARD by the descending Trunk of the Cava to the Liver, [pr [...] ­mark how he contradicts, what [...] [Page 115]said Page 277, that the ascent and de­scent of this Vein, was from the Li­ver.] Its carryed to the Emulgents, Page 254. He delivers, that Wounds penetrating the Breast, are known by Wind, coming through the Orifice. Which is a fallible Diagnostick, espe­cially when the Wound is made by a small Rapier, and the Body deflex­ed when its received, so that upon re­turning to a right posture, the parts alter, and cover one another; in dis­coursing concerning Wounds of the Gullet, he commits many mistakes. Page 244, he saith, that Pipe marcheth on the right side of the Spondyls, that Deglutition is helped by the Muscles of the Larinx, Willis Pharm. Rat. part 1. cap. 2. attributes nothing thereof to the Gullet, (whose Ana­tomy he doth not understand,) and accounts the Muscles of the Phariax, among those of the Larinx. He di­rects to Nutritive Glisters. Page 246. Which I doubt do signifie little, or nothing, since Bauhinus discovered the valve in the Colon, unless Dr. Antidia­tribe. Ents, and Dr. Anat. prae­lectio. Charltons notions of Percolative Nutrition, help him.

Page 240. Treating of Wounds of the Throat, he delivereth as signs, [Page 116] that the upper part of the Neck, loss of voice, and Air happen, (who knows what he means hereby,) and when it reaceth the Wind-pipe, its dangerous, because the Oesophagus hereupon tumify­ing, Deglutition is hindred. I never knew such a Tumor accompanying Wounds of the Trachea, altho' I have cured many very large ones, nor do I know where its accounted among the Symp­toms by any other Writer.

But to our Second Topick, AB­SURDITY AND NONSENSE, which are so common with him, as if they had got (as Hudibras saith of the Presbyterians) the advowson of his Conscience, of this I have already given you divers instances, and pre­termitted a great many more, for in­deed the whole strain of his Pen [...] and way of writing hath that Byas­nay though he have a f [...]ir Copy befor [...] him, written in good sense, and cohe­rent enough, its against his nature t [...] represent it, without marring it i [...] the Transcript, and Tincturing it with his own absurdities. So that in the whole course of his writings, where he plays the Thief for Histories, (ea­sy enough to transcribe,) he employ [...] [Page 117]this Talent, adding Forgery to Robbe­ry, and making his Author say more or less than indeed he doth, by which a good Tale is often spoiled, of this you have had many instances already, I shall shew you more in due place.

Page 113. And as a Wound doth chiefly require drying Medicines, BLACK-WINE is for this purpose, a most excellent RECEIPT; for it dry­eth both of it SELF, and per acci­dens, and of its own natural quality doth dry up by repulsion. Perhaps there is not more absurdity and nonsense, in so few words in any Book extant. First, that Wounds chiefly require drying Medicines, is false in general, (all digestives and balmes being moist) and of the Head, (his present Sub­ject,) in particular, because Arcaus's Liniment, (the most celebrated Balm for those Wounds,) is of the same temperament also. Black-wine (a li­quid) recommended as a dryer per se, a simple called a ℞ the repetition of dry; and per accidens of its own natu­ral quality, is a Tantology or two ex­pressions for the same thing. The odd Phrase, dry up by Repulsion, is absurd, and this is the Composition of this sil­ly [Page 118]sensless passage, the like of which are plentiful, page 135 and 136. Oe­dipus is not able to unriddle what he means in his presages. 17, 18, and 19. It seems written near a full Moon, for none, but a Lunatick, could write at so distracted and con­founded a rate; words dropt by chance, or the garrulity of a delirious Patient, are equal sense, and not less Rhetori­cal, than this Chaos of Syllables, ex­cepting the Learned (or rather Pe­dantick,) bringing in Hippocrates, saying, that the name, with the name, is no false Heraldry, but this, like the rest, I suppose was said at Ra [...] ­dorn.

Page 128. He most absurdly calls his twenty third Chapter general sig [...] of wounds of the head; when in abo [...] twenty Paragraphs that compose [...] there are but three properly such, [...] the rest being Prognosticks, for t [...] most part taken from Hippocrates, a [...] repeated in the next Chapter, und [...] the right denomination; and as [...] fate, as nature, conspired to h [...] shame, he gives several signs, as pre­sages, and in the preceding Chapt [...] delivers Prognosticks, under the ti [...] [Page 119]of signs. The whole second period, page 138. which takes up almost two pages, is a most extravagant and de­lirious fardle of nonsense, calling Symptoms sentences, reckons the igno­rance and neglect of the Chirurgion a­mong the pernicious signs of wounds, re­flects upon the narrow genius of some Ar­tists, who, he saith, BY ordering their Patients thin Broths, Ptisans, and the like, DO give way for their Patients (again) to drink Wine, eat at pleasure, use Venery, &c. who can conjure up the meaning of this Paradox, or ex­plain how by ORDERING a slender Diet, a Patient is PERMITTED to use excess, which is as rational as to say, by binding a man you let him loose, and by tying him neck and heels you suffer him to run away.

Page 99. Speaking of the signs of gun-shot wounds, he is no less in the clouds, and talks as if the wind of that shot, which contused and broke his arm in the foregoing page, had turned his brains upside down in this. I will transcribe all that he saith un­der that head, and pose you and all mankind, to fathom or reconcile it to sense and common understanding, [Page 120] the signs of these, ( viz. gun-shot) wounds are taken from their figure, or colour, for they are generally round, and of a livid colour; from the sense there inflicted, making or causing an obtuse sense in the part, or contusion, the part chiefly suffer­an ECCHYMOSIS by reason of the Bullet; if these appear, they declare a gun-shot wound. I give you his own elegant words, and pointings.

Pago 146. Children and Infants, be­cause of their weak heads, and legs, are often subject to fall from high places; but tells not how those Infants and weak leggs got into those Altitudes. I pray you consider the rest of that Paragraph, and tell me if they be not of a piece. So page 150. speaking of Fissures, he saith, If any man neglect to rase them at first, although there seem to be no need of his dilatation, he may for a few days find the cure succeed accord­ing to expectation, but shall as readily meet, that to take heed and beware hereof, is the master event of fools; pray, Sir tell me what he means by this re­flection.

Page 156. The story from Fallo­pius, stoln from Sckenckius, page 32. is most falsly translated, and absurdly [Page 121]represented. I will tell you his words, those of the Original, you will find among the Examples of his wisdom and learning, the outward part being contused, this Contusion was communi­cated to the second Table; and whereas the outer could not fall into itself, nor the inward into itself, hereby it suffered this Fissure; can you understand the Philosophy hereof, and what there is in this story, agreeable to a Sedes, which was the subject of this Chapter?

Page 200. Next indeed in respect of the nervous substance being cold and dry, we are authorized to use hot and dry Me­dicines; dry, that they may keep up and maintain the proper temper of the Nerves; & hot, that they may take off all cold from them. Although most of the nonsense in this passage be evident enough, I will presume to point at one singular [...]nd most coherent piece of it. The Nerves, he saith, are cold and dry, and [...]o preserve the later part of its [...]emper, we have warrant to use dry Medicines; but why then hot things, to take off all the cold from them, which is also one part of their tem­ [...]er; how doth that which ruins it, preserve it? or how can the intention [Page 122]of preserving its temper, which is cold, be pursued by things hot, and taking away all cold? Oh preposte­rous Hysteron & Proteron!&punctured Nerves can endure the hottest Oils, which the finger cannot; whence I collect, that a Nerve hath not the most exquisite sense; thus you see, erranti nullus ter­minus.

Page 273. The heart cannot long be corrupted with injuries, neither doth it spin out its grievous punishments This absurd passage was stoln from Crook. Anat. page 419. where he saith of the heart, onely this of all the bowels is not wearied with Diseases, neither endureth it the grie­vous punishments of this life. Crook was as great a Plagiary as this his Ape. and some­times as unhappy at a Translation; this is a quotation from Pliny, in Laurentius, Anat. page 368. to which re­fer. of life. Page 234. he bids his Reader take these one or two Histories, and then re­lates only one blind story, which he fathers on Glan­dorp, of a Scholar, who FAL­LING upon a Door Perhaps it was a stone Door. FELL upon a Stone, which broke two of his Teeth, which were af­terward reduced. This mus [...] be a new and extraordinar [...] Art to reduce broken teet [...] I hope when it is public [...] the Bone-setters will no usurp upon us, and claim i [...] as their Province. Page 270 he saith, Fallopius writes, that he hat [...] seen Inflations of the Lungs cured, an [...] [Page 123]others to have died of the same. This piece of nonsense Sckenkius led him to, by misquoting and misciting that Author, as I shall shew anon, till when I reserve my reflections on this passage.

For more concise and succinct Pat­terns of his absurdity and nonsense, see cap. 18. where he calls gun-shot wounds WHOLLY the employ of the Sea-Chirurgion, and yet adviseth Milk in the first dresses, (perhaps he thought the Chirurgion General allowed a barrel, or two among the necessaries.) Page 141. The head-saw is used to remove away the distance of the Cranium left after the use of a Trepan. Page 246. Vinegar wonderfully dissolves, and discusseth con­crete Blood. 251. The heart is circum­scribed by the Clavicles, Sternon, &c. 246. Boiling Honey makes it more ran­cid. 240. Cartilages of the Wind-pipe are in continual motion. 213. The Spleen [...]s an Organical Bowel. 234. In Wounds of the Spinal Marrow, although all sense and motion is destroyed, yet Seed, Ʋrine and Excrements, are VOLUNTA­RILY avoided. 216. Spigell. Lauren­tius, and Bauhine, although they wrote in this Century, he calls Antient [Page 124]Writers; the Eye is framed of six Muscles. 214. The Eye-lids are ap­pointed as Draw-bridges, to lift the Eye up and down. 231. The Ears (he must mean the outward flap, for he pro­fesseth not to meddle with the in­ward Organ,) are created for under­standing. If it were true, a great deal of that faculty would come to his share. 257. Blood in the Cavity of the Thorax must necessarily and speedily be suppurated, being consentaneous in a cutt, where the great Veins or Arteries are untoucht. 266. The Lungs are the In­struments of Voice, made as it were of frothy Blood. 271. The Pericardium is so much softer than a Bone, as it is softer than the Lungs. 274. The Heart, in its passive qualities, is more moist than the Cutis. 255. It distributes to, but receives not from, any part, giving MO­TION to others, diffusing its proper ver­tues, as it pleaseth it self, disposing its sorrows as it thinks fit. 277. Is the Chapter of Wounds of the Arteries and Veins; and next page, Wounds of the Veins and Arteries. 278. A Wound of the great Artery is followed with a Fea­ver, Inflamation, &c. [put out the fire, and the house will scorch.] [Page 125]287. Wounds of the Abdomen may be seen to penetrate with, or without hurt. 290. An Incarnative Fomentation to expel Wind. 299. He directs to sup­plemental Noses, the Phantastical Ridi­culous way of Taliacotus. These, and abundance more of self-evident pie­ces of nonsense & absurdity, you have scattered here and there in this Com­pleat Book of Wounds; sometimes single passages, otherwhiles whole pages, often entire periods, that may justly come under this censure, which I will only point at, to save the trou­ble of numerous Recitals. See 2, 3, Paragraph of the 33th Chapter, p. 172. from the 18th to the 22th line, p. 176. the first seven lines; page 222. almost all the first Paragraph, especially the later end, concerning the excellency of the Skin of the Face; page 227. 1 Parag. See also f. 240, 251, 257, 266, 275, 277, 303, 308, &c. beside many absurd Phrases and Allusions, without sense, which are frequent in this Book, of a new Method, as steering by a Micro­scope, page 111. alluding a Caution, page 5. Instruments are Figures, page 143. and regulating non-naturals; En­gines to work with; every thing that pu­trifieth [Page 126]is affected with a hot and moist humour; 72. storming by Catharticks; 199. sailing on the Coast of Wounds; 210. steering a course on the Bloody Main; 349. dismantling the parts of the body; 285. swimming on the bottom of the Stomach; 293. small Rivulets, 23. with many more.

As to his Contradictions and Incon­sistencies, they are thicker than I have met in ten times the number of pa­ges, demonstrating his Memory to be as shallow as his Judgment; for he often opposeth himself in the same page, sometimes in the same or next line; his Method and Observations frequently confute, and contradict his Prognosticks; for what in the one he affirms to be absolutely mortal, and incurable, in the other he not only directs to a Method for Cure, but re­lates Proofs and Examples that they have been healed. I know little Con­tradictions, and small Inconsistencies may insensibly and unawares slip from the Pen of any man that write [...] much, but it's very unusual to have so many, so palpable, & obvious, so thick, and numerous, and opposite aver­ments, so near one another, as they [Page 127]are in so small a Book as this before us.

Page 77. He positively and with­out exception saith, an Ecchymosis must be suppurated, and soon after directs to a method for resolving them. Page 21, 169, 245, 304. and elsewhere, he dehorts the Chirurgion from medling with such cures, as he hath no Authority or encouragement from Art to be con­cerned with. But Page 100, 132, 138, 163, 305, &c. being in a better hu­mor, adviseth to the contrary, and persuades him not to forsake any Pa­tient, or be discouraged, in the most desperate cases. Page 113. He forbids the use of moist things to parts without the Scull. And soon upon it, directs to Wine, (which is actually such,) and Oil of St. Johns Wort, Yelks of Eggs, which are both actually and potentially such. Page 129. Hot and moist Constitutions are not so apt for admittance of Putrifaction. Yet, Page 72, 73. he affirms, that those Medi­cines, which procure it, are all of that temper. Page 28. When the Skin is broken, he decryeth the use of Oiles. And yet in many places directs the use of them in Wounds, so Page 36. [Page 128]He is at it again, dissuading from the use of unctuous Salves, especially where Consolidation is to be performed, because Page 40. Oils do hinder Agglutination. Yet in Page 42. He directs ℞. ol. Hy­peric. catellor. ana ℥ ij. G. elemni. pulv. veronicae; salviae, ana ℥ i. Tereb. Venet. ℥ iss. as a Salve Agglutinative, and repelling humors. Page 28. He saith, wounds do only then inflame, when they do not suppurate, yet Page 49. He saith pain and heat do attend the part, while digestion is performing; and inflammation encreaseth, while matter is making. Page 136. He re­flects on those who divide the Art into many parts. When he himself is not only guilty of all the superfluous min­cing extant, but exceeded them, in giving two Chapters for one subject, tho' the Title be somewhat diversify­ed. See Chap. 60, 61. Page 134. He saith, if a Feaver happen on Wounds of the Head, before the fourteenth day, its a deadly sign. And in the very next period makes the like danger to at­tend such, to which a Feaver supervenes after that time. Page 129. He saith, Childrens Heads wounded are not so apt [Page 129]for Putrifaction; and Page 137. A more speedy purulency of matter happens in them, than in Persons of age; and to strengthen the contra­diction beyond all excuse, he gives the same reason for the one, that he doth for the other, viz. Heat and moisture, making it in the one the cause, why Putrifaction and digesti­on is tedious, and in the other, more speedy and quick. Page 160. His Doctrine, and advise in the first para­graph, is not only very inartificial and absurd, but contradicted in the next, and the subsequent story. Page 273, 275, &c. He calls the Heart, the prin­ciple of Life, the Prince of the Bowels, the chief Engine, and yet Page 178. He saith, that the Brain is the princi­pal Part. Page 186. He absurdly af­firms. That Putrifaction, and Sphace­lus of the Brain are deadly Symptomes, not to be found out by the opening of the Scull, after the Party be dead, and im­mediately gainsaith it by an instance from Volch Coiterus, (stoln from Skenckius. Page 24,) of many dissecti­ons, where more than half the Brain was putrifyed, the Ventricles full of foetid green matter, and in the cere­bellum, [Page 130]very putrid Aposthumes. Page 188. He forbids the use of cooling a­stringent things to the Head, in concus­sions of the Brain. Not only contrary to almost all Authors, but his imme­diate direction of a Cataplasm of that temper and quality, he saith, (the same Page) restringents are not to be used, because they hinder the exhalation of the fuliginous Vapors, through the su­tures. And in the very Page, not only directs to the use of Repulsives, and to have them continued the first four days, but a Fomentation and a Plais­ter, (stoln from A Pary, lib. 10, cap. 22.) which are both of them binding or restrictive, as you may see by the Ingredients, Orris, Lalam. A­romaticus, Red-Roses, Frankincense, Mastick Red Wine, Myrtils, Cypres­nuts. &c. Page 200. He Apologizeth for the use of Oil in wounds of the Nerves, because a moist Medicine. And immediately urgeth with the same Zeal and heat of Argument, that use of dry things for the same pur­pose. Page 254. He reckons (very erroneously) extrusion of the air­through wounds of the Breast, as a con­stant sign of Penetration. And in the [Page 131]same Chapter, gives a story to the contrary. Page 256. He directs to the use of Vinegar to discuss and dissolve Blood, cast into the Breast from a Wound, so as it may be expectorated. And yet in the next Page saith, such Blood must necessarily and speedily be suppurated. Page 257, 258. Af­ter he had discoursed of three wayes (compleatly omitting a See Fallo­pius cap. 13. de vuln. po­cul. fourth, viz. Paracentesis,) to fetch off the Blood extravasate, in Wounds in the Breast, of which two were Expecto­ration, and pissung, he persists in the use of Tents, to discharge it that way. Page 25, 266, 267. He de­nounceth lingring death at least to Wounds of the Lungs. And yet not on­ly directs to their cure, but reports two stories from Glandorp, and seve­ral stoln from Skenckius of prodigious Wounds there cured. Page 271. He makes Wounds of the Pericardium easily curable, and in the same Chap­ter, saith, that they generally bring Con­sumptions, hectick Fever, ard death. Page 273. He Prognosticates present death to Wounds of the Heart. And confesseth in the same Chapter, not only that a man may survive such a [Page 132]Wound, two or three days, but that superficial ones may be cured. Page 278. The great Arterie wounded, the Body grows chill. Although in that very Chapter he delivers, that a Feaver and Inflammation are symp­toms of that Wound. He saith, page 279. The Veins carry Blood to the Heart; and page 275 he affirms, that it doth not receive from any part, that its disputable, whether the Veins have their Original from the Heart or Liver; and on the contrary affirms in divers places, that they have their Original in the Liver. Page 297. he saith, The Gut Jejunum is exsanguial, and in the same breath saith; page 298. they are full of Vessels, and that the ple­nitude of Meseraick Veins doth con­tradistinguish it from the great Guts. Pagr 304. He denounceth absolute death to large Wounds of the Liver; and in the same Chapter relates from Glan­dorp, the Cure of one, who lost great part thereof; and another from Forestus, of one who lost a less piece and was cured. Page 309. Death (quoth he) soon followeth if the Stomach be cut; although in the same Chapter he not only confesseth such Wounds [Page 133]are curable, but gives a borrowed story from Glandorp, and two stoln from Sckenkius, of most prodigious ones healed. Page 24. He represents the substance of the Liver, as grumous, coa­gulated Blood; and yet page 302. he saith once and again, that the same whole substance is a composition of Glandules and Ramifications. Again, in the same page he suggests (as he doth in many other places,) Sanguification is performed by the Liver, and again saith the contrary. Page 237. He saith, If the Tongue be wounded trans­versly, it's altogether incurable, and de­livers in the same page, that it's to be accounted curable, if it be not wholly cut off; as he exemplifieth by a borrowed (though falsly quoted) story from Hildanus. Page 233. He relates the story of a Souldier shot through the middle of the Ear, but presently forgetting himself, saith, the Cartilage was not hurt. Page 140. He saith, Incision cannot, ought not, to be made through the temporal Muscle; and page 225. directs to it, as a thing necessa­ry and feasible. To conclude this Topick, look into his 215 page, and you will find a sufficient proof of his [Page 134]skill, agreeableness, sense, &c. which I will give you verbatim. To CON­CLUDE this Chapter, I shall END with THIS observable History; the FIRST whereof shall be of a young man, who looking upward had a small Stone fall down upon the upper Eye-lid, the which did both hurt it, and its CAR­TILAGE— suture being made, and the parts enclosed by a Needle, the Cartilage remaining unhurt, &c. is not this a most excellent account? is not the man fitter for a bawble, or a sucking­bottle, than to be an Author, that writes at this rate? Do not the sens­less wretches in Bedlam talk more rational, and ageeeable? Do not men in their sleep, and in their drink, ex­press themselves wiser, and more co­herent, than this vain-glorious Scrib­ler, although he had a Copy before him, which would have guided him to more sense? — To conclude, I shall end, —the first of one single History— the Cartilage of the Eye-lid was hurt, and was not hurt—separate parts enclo­sed by a Needle. I have not patience to trace this vain naughty Scriblers doublings, contradictions, and per­plext notions; let us shift the Scene, [Page 135]and go in quest of his Thefts, with a Hue and Cry after Mr. Plagiary Brown.

His Robberies, as to History, are mostly from Sckenkius; and to be thought of plenary and various Read­ing, he quotes not the Book whence he had them, but the quotations, as he finds them in the Collector. I know this were very uncertain to me, (be­cause divers men may quote original­ly one and the same Author,) if I did not find all the Errours, misci­tations, &c. that are in Schenkius, ex­actly transcribed by our Plagiary, of which hereafter you shall have seve­ral Instances. The greatest Part of that Anatomy which he gives us, is stoln from Laurentius, Bauhinus, Spi­gelius, Veslingus, Read, and (as great a Thief as himself,) Crook; this begets in him so many Errours, and Contra­dictions, his Medicines, and Notions are promiscuously collected from se­veral Authors, though (as I have al­ready said,) he had not the wit, and judgment to take the best of either. Parey, Read, Glandorp, and a few more, seem his Magazines for this sort of furniture.

What is more wicked, absurd, dis­honest, and vain, what more ridicu­lous and hateful to men of Sense and Letters, than this sort of Pickerooning? Sometimes he delivers his stoln Sto­ries and Medicines, as if they were his own; sometimes names his Au­thor plainly enough, out of a cunning crafty design, that those which are Anonymous may pass more probably as his; sometimes he coucheth his Author, and covertly quotes him, that an unwary Reader may think so, of them also; but frequently, and for the most part, (especially when he steals from Sckenkius,) he names those, which that Author quotes from. I shall take no notice of those he truly owns. My intention is to discover to you, whence he stole those which he thrusts upon us, without an honest confession where he had them; of which sort I have already in Series given you divers Instances, I will now shew you many more in the fol­lowing part of the Book.

Perhaps he thinks to acquit him­self from this imputation, by the List of Authors, he proudly Catalogues in the beginning, but that will not [Page 137]excuse him. Many of them being no where concerned in the Book, and divers in the Book not named in these; nor half of either of them ever known to him. So little doth he de­serve the name of an Author, that wants skill to give us any new thing, wit to choose the best from others, ability to express them legibly, and deliver them truly, or ingenuity to produce any thing de proprio, for in the whole Book, I find not one Me­dicine truly so, and but two that he pretends to, the one of which is a digestive. Page 42. known almost to every Boy, the other a Cataplasm for concussions of the Brain. Page 189. The like of which are in many com­mon Vigierus, lib. 2. cap. 7. Sckenkius, page 34. Forest. obs-Chir. 43. l. 6. Scultetus, obs. 3. Wiseman, lib. 5. cap. 9. Aq. Peadent. lib. 2. cap. 20. Hildan. obs. 10. cent. 8. —obs. 5. cent. 2. A. à Cruce, lib. 1. cap. 14. Cook, Mel. Chir. cap. 13. sect. 3. Writers, and the compositi­on word for word, (excepting one ingredient) in John de Vigo. 3. lib. 1 Tract. chapt. 5.

The Observations ending his thir­teenth Chapter, are from Forestus obs. Chir. lib. 6. Which he con­cludes with a great falshood, to wit, that the cure was performed by the method of that Chapter. The lini­ment he directs, he stole from old Mr. Clowes. obs. 2. Who had it [Page 138]from the Florentine Physicians, our plagiary sets down but half the com­position, the first Inventors appoint­ed Nitre, not Vitriol, and commend­ed it chiefly against burning and scald­ings, for which it was used by Mr. Clowes. His discourse chap. 14. of an Ecchymosis, is a lame Transcript from Guido, and Tagaultius &c. and his method of cure, tho' like Mr. Wise­mans, is much short thereof, the two stories concluding it are both stoln from Forestus, and falsly related; his theory of a wound by the bite of a mad Dog, chap. 15. is stoln almost verbatim from Dr. Read, who wrote defectively enough of the nature of Poysons, and their contagions; and to make it worse, our padder gives no Prognostick or uncommon Remedies; the first History in this Chapter is in Morb. Con. tag. lib. 2. cap. 10. Fra [...] ­castorus, the other three in Sckenkius, in transcribing which, he omits con­tradict. between Cardanus an [...] The first observation of his 16. cha [...] concerning Boccatius, and his Wi [...] is Memorabil. cent. 1. de venenis. in Mialdus, and Ramsey, though i [...] all likelyhood stoln from Sckenki [...] Page 834. His second is from Cap. 24. de venen. Pare [...] but miserably butcherd, as is also th [...] [Page 139]first, in his 1. chap. Which, though he pretend to have from Ctesias, was stoln from Sckenkius, where the story is related from Mercurialis.

His discourse of Gunpowder is stoln from Lib. 11. Pareus, and Sect. 15. Dr. Read. This first story of his eighteenth chap­ter is stoln from Obs. 4. Clowes, but very ill transcribed. For he not only omits much of what the Author delivers, as to median, and manual operation, (which are most material) but adds what is not in the original, viz. That the Patient was much tormented with pain, and other evil accidents. Pray compare the two Relations, and ob­serve the care, sincerity, and ho­nesty of our compleat Author All the stories. Page 107. Are stoln from Sckenkius. Page 697, 698. His Ana­tomical discourse of the Head, from Spigelius, Bauhine, Crooke, &c. His 23, 24, 25. Chapters are most of them taken from Hippocrates de vul­ [...]er. cap. errors and all, without regard to the correction of Fallopius his Com­ments thereon, and delivered in so [...]awkard and slovenly a manner, with mixture of silly metaphors, and odd phrases, that it's almost wholly dis­guised.

In his twenty third Chapter, you may discover him in Dr. Read, al­though he doubles and inverts the method, omits many things, alters the way of writing out of a vain de­sign to conceal his stealing, or a pre­sumption that he could express it better than that learned man hath done; for what he calleth Progno­sticks, sect. 17 the Plagiary calls Signs, cap. 23. The Doctor saith, Wounds of the Heads of Children prove sometimes rebellious, partly because they are of a hot and moist constitution, which IS MOST APT to admit pu­trifaction; partly because the habit of their bodies is thin, and so ministreth oc­casion to the breathing out of the spirits. —in deadly Wounds of the Head, the Patient lives longer in the Winter, than in the Summer, for in it the natural heat is not so easily raised as in th [...] Summer.—This I know was take [...] from Hippocrates by the Doctor, Parey and some others; but see now, ho [...] our Bathyllus hath mangled an [...] grimac't it. Page 129. Wounds in th [...] Heads of Children oftentimes prove un [...] happy, they being of a hot and moist com­stitution, and this NOT SO APT▪ fo [...] [Page 141]the admittance of putrefaction—in Sum­mer time, the Patient lives a shorter time than in the Winter, for in this time the unnatural heat is not procured for putri­faction.

I know not a more absurd or un­intelligible passage in all that learned mans Works, (excepting his Anato­my, which is nothing but Errours,) than in the 20th Lecture of Wounds, where speaking of the use of the Head-saw, he saith, It will serve to cut asunder the distance of the Cranium left after the application of the Trepan in di­vers parts. At this our Filcher would be nibbling, supposing there was some extraordinary meaning in it, (fools naturally admiring most, what they un­derstand least,) and resolved to have it; but to make it more like his own, varieth it thus, page 141. used also to remove away the distance of the Cranium, left after the application of the Trepan.

His whole discourse of Trepanning cap. 25. hath nothing in it, which is [...]ott o be found more fully, methodi­cally, and intelligibly exprest, in abun­dance of Authors, which I need not name. The two Stories ending them [Page 142]are from Hildanus, obs. 19, 21. cent. 1. in whom there is no mention of the Venereal act with a common Strum­pet, which, our Author saith, was the occasion of that Relapse; so that here he adds to this Story, and omits a considerable part of the next, viz. an account of what was observable upon dis­section, within the Skull of that unfortu­nate Lady. The Cataplasm which he gives, page 147. is stoln from Doctor Read, sect. 10. The Story, page 148. from Blotius concerning the Son of Philip King of Spain, (which our Au­thor (for Alterations sake) falsly calls Nephew to Charles the Fifth, So he translates Ne­pos, which in Classick Writers is used for Grandson, but perhaps it's not agreeable to our Authors way of Pedi­gree, nor skill in La­tine, who finds it more credit to be accounted the Nephew of Mr. Cropp, Chief Chirurgeon of Norfolk, (as he calls him) than the Son of — Brown a Taylor in Norwic [...]. is in Sckenkius, page 15. and Bonnetus, In­dex, page 95. but transcri­bed according to his wont­ed exactness and integrity. The other Story of the same page, concerning a [...] Boy fifteen years old, i [...] stoln from Hildanus, wh [...] (saith he) fell into the Fe [...] ­ver the 14th day from th [...] hurt, and our exact Plagia [...] ­ry saith the 11th. The two Observa­tions, page 162. are stoln from Scke [...] ­kius, [Page 143]Page 18. And placed here very unsuitably, the second, third, and fourth stories Page 170. are also stoln from Sckenkius. Page 31, 32. The first quotation quite spoiled in the Copy.

The unguent Matrisylva. Page 174. is from Forestus, though he points not where its to be found; the Au­thor gives two Receits thereof, the one simple, the other compound; Obs. chir. 42.44. lib. 6. of the Mastick, and thus, the Author pre­scribes, an ounce, the plagiary ʒ i. the last ℞. Page 175. is stoln from Dr. Read, Page 137. The History of Dodoneus is a defac't transcript, from his usual Magaine Sckenkius, Page 27. And here most impertinently illated; the Chapter treating of Wounds, of the two Meninges, and in the obser­vation, not so much as the cranium broken, or hurted. Page 181, 182. The several Medicines there direct­ed, are from A. a cruce, and to be found in Sckenkius, 23. Page. The Docoction. Page 182. is from Dr. Read. Page 141. The History 184. from Sckenkius. Page 19. The De­coction and Plaister. 188. from Pareus lib. 10. cap. 22.

Page 189. He promiseth as a rari­ty, viz. Something HIS OWN, which he prepares our expectations to receive, as a great boon, giving it the Character Bromfield, and other Quacks, do their Pills, viz. A true and happy composition, of which I have with admirable success, had the advantage to speak the truth of it. (pray mark the Grammar and Elegancy,) This great Arcanum, in the margent he calls his own, and in the Column, Nunckle Cropps. Now is he not a most despica­ble and odious plagiary, abandoned to impudence and ignorance, if it appear that he puts upon us, and that the invention of this (not extraor­dinary) Cataplasm was neither the ones, nor the others. I have already shewed you where there are many like it, and in John de Vigo the very same, Lib. 3. tract. 1. cap. 5. save only that Nuncle Cropp, or his wise Nephew, put in Motherwort, in­stead of Woodbine. Behold now the skill, the honesty of the confident Assumer, I find but this, and one more directly titled his own, and both of them as common, in many Books, as nonsence and impertinence are in his own, and the later on which he [Page 145]plumes, and brags, to have been invented before either of the preten­ders to it were in their swadling clouts.

The fomentation and powder, Page 193. are stoln from Doctor Read, Page 14. and Cornarius observation, from Schenckius, Page 26. His method for one of punctured Nerves, Page 201. is stoln from Fallopius; so are his medicines viz. the two un­guents, only where the original de vul­nerib. parti­cul. Page 231. Ed. Francf. saith common oyl, the eccho translates ol. ant. scrip. Page 189. The observation of Dodoneus was nothing at all to the purpose, and stoln from Schenkius, Page 27. as was that of the jvy leaves, Page 190. from Page 28. and im­pertinently here inserted. Page 204. he gives us an history from Forestus, which he saith is in obs. 20. fol. 183. but is in 38 obs. cent. 6.1. much wronged in the translation. That from Horatus Augenius, is Verbatim in Schenckius, Page 636. that of Amat. Lusitanus is in Forestus loc. cit. most impertinently placed in this Chap­ter, and the patient, though a Countess, veryrudely called old Gentlewoman an [Page 146]Epithit most detestable to that Sex.

The three stories Page 265. of Hollerius, and Alexand. Bened. are stoln from Schenckius. Page 280. So are those Page 270. of Gemma, and Fallopius. (see Schenckius Page 253.) The later containing an absurd as­sertion, not to be found in the Au­thor, whence Schenckius borrowed, and our Author stole them. The Histories of Benivonius, Cardanus, P. Salius, are stoln from the same Book, as is also that of Cyriacus Lu­cius, for which he quotes de suis ob­servat. when it was but a private Letter sent to Schenckius. Page 262. The Histories of Galen. Beniverius, &c. in the 285. page of our Scribler, is stoln from the same hand. Page 270. That of Albucas. page 292. from him. page 367. Those of Jaco­tius, Hollerius, Pareus, &c. in his 300 Page, are in the of 368. if Schenc­kius.

The Observations. Page 317. a [...] stoln from Schenckius and Glandor [...] How he hath butcherd the two last [...] [Page 147]I shall shew anon. Those in his 312. page, from Fallopius and Oethaeus, (whom our heedless Transcriber calls Ortheus) are in the 332. page of the same Author. That in page 320. is in the 484. of Schenkius, so are the two stories of Dodoneus. page 313. From him also page 150. that of Arceus 223. is from the said hand. Page 177. That concerning the Prince of Orange. page 243. from him also, page 201. So that in all, he hath stoln in this single Treatise, from that one Book, above six­ty Histories of observations.

My next work was, to prove our Spark (notwithstanding his vain pretences to the contrary, by nume­rous quotations, much Greek, &c. pre­tence to learning) to be an Illiterate, and silly scribler, and that ev'n in the easiest, and most inferiour parts of writing, this the whole tenor of his language, and strain of expressi­ons, together with most of his tran­slations, plainly enough demonstrates, as I have already exemplified, and shall further prove. He cannot excuse himself, by the common pre­tence, viz. That any of those faulty [Page 148]words or passages were the errors of the press, because he corrected them, and that I have no where fix­ed my reflexions on any of them, nor have I taken any notice of little common slips of the pen, or faults in Orthography, such are Procataretick, Paracenthesis, Epolonticks, Raninae, &c. those being incident from the best Writers. But I shall attempt my point by substantial and inexcusable ab­errations, and of them give you but a few (and those cogent) instances, it being needless as well as endless, to pro­duce all this book affords.

Page 94. treating of venemous wounds, he most impertinently brings in the famous story of Parysatis poy­soning of Statira, for which he quotes Ctesias, (an Author never seen by him,) its delivered to us by Plutarch in the life of Artaxerxes: From him Hieron Mercurialis had it (as I con­jecture,) and from him Schenkius quotes it, Page 811 and thence ou [...] Illiterate, according to the best of him skill in Latin, translated it. Plutarch Mercurialis, and Schenckius agree i [...] the story thus. Ctesias Author antiquis­simus, [Page 149]in libro de Rebus Persicis scribit, quandam mulierem Statyram vocatam, maxime semper timuisse venenum, & omni diligentia usam, ut illud evitaret; factum tamen, ut quaedam alia mulier eam hoc modo venenaret; Cultelli partem alteram tantum veneno infecit, & deinde coram Statyra, divisit aviculam parvam coctam, & qua parte avis tacta fuer at a veneno cultelli, oblata Statyrae, illico eam extinxit; cum interim qua parte avis non fuerat tacta a veneno, nullum detri­mentum ipsi ministranti intulerit. This strange story (the truth of which is much question'd) is by our man of let­ters, Sr. Tho. Brown pseu­ded. ep. thus rendered into English. Page 94. Ctesias an old author in lib. de rebus persicis writes of a Woman, who through her whole life time dreaded poyson, and made it her greatest care to escape it, she invited another Woman to Dinner, who seeing her Knife lye on the Table, that which for many years before, never parted from I believe so he Tran slates, cul­telli partem alteram tan­tum Venen [...] infecit &c. her side, but at Dinner time, took up this Knife, and poysoned it at the end, she cutting her victuals therewith, was soon dispatched of her life, and the other parts of the meat, which were untoucht with the [Page 150]Knife, were void of all Poyson. —

Page 148. He gives us a story of Blotius, but stoln out of Schenkius. Page 15. And by him thus delivered from the original. Carolus Philippi Hispaniarum Regis Filius, Caroli V Ne­pos, ex quartana aerem mutare jussus, in arce quadam nobilem puellam corol­las nectentem intuitus, cum ludendi causa ad illam properaret: Illa vim metuens, in cubiculum fugit, pessulumque ostio ob­didit, Juvenis eo magis irritatus, in cu­biculum praeceps pergradus effracta violen­ter janua delapsus, gravissimum vulnus in capite accepit. — This we find thus translated by our artless Author, — ‘ Charles, Nephew to Charles the Fifth of Spain. Who after having been troubled with a quartan Ague, was by his Physicians directed to walk, and refresh himself in the Air, as he was going out of his Chamber-Door, and seeing a Maid of Ho­nour making of Garlands, made hast to her; she hereupon being surprised, making hast away, fell against the Bar of her Chamber-Door, the young Gentleman being herewith vexed, that he should be the occasion of this mischief, in a fu­ry, [Page 151] going to his Chamber, meets with an unhappy fall, which caused a Wound in his Head, coming from his’ Chamber. — This is neither agreeable with the original, or sense, going to his Chamber meets with a unhappy fall, coming from her Chamber. — Who can reconcile this contradiction, and non­sense.

Page 156. He quotes Fallopius, ex­pos. in lib. Hippoc de vulner. cap. 16. for a story that's in the 13. chap. and stoln from Schenckius. Page 32. Who thus delivereth it, verbatim from the Author. — Ratio autem est, quia pars exterior patitur contusionem, qua communicatur interiori laminae, quae durior est, et ideo superficies interna ejus vitrea dicitur, quare externa in eodem ictis potest cedere in seipsam, et interior cum non possit cedere in seipsam contrahit rimam. — Now observe the nonsense, and falshood of the Translation Page 156. of our illiterate — ‘The rea­son of his proceedings, after this manner, was, the outer part being contused, the contusion was com­municated to the second Table, and whereas the outward, could not [Page 152]fall into it self, nor the inward Table into it self, hereby it suffered this fissure.’

Once more he is at Fallopius, page 270. quoting him as the Author of this nonsensical passage, Pulmonibus vidi inflatos sanatos; inflatos etiam mortuos, quare vulnera pulmonis ex aequo se habent; by him thus transla­ted, ‘I have seen Inflations of the Lungs cured, and others to have died of the same, Fallop. de Vuln. cap. 12. that he stole this from Schen­kius, is most certain, for there the words are thus falsly transcribed, and the reference mistaken, the place to which he points, (if he mean lib. de vuln. pecul.) doth indeed discourse of Wounds of the parts contained in the Breast, but hath not a syllable in it like this.’ But in the fourth Chap­ter of his Book de vuln. in gen. Tom. 2. He hath something like it, de pul­monibus autem hoc scio, quod vidi pluri­mos sanatos, imò infinitos, infinitos etiam mortuos, quare vulnera hujus partis ex aequo se habenct. Its excusable in Schen­kius to mistake, because he did it but seldom, and among so many thousand [Page 153]Transcriptions, to err sometimes, is scarcely evitable, but for our Scrib­ler to take upon trust, and swallow nonsense, misquotation and all, and pretend he had it from the original, there remains no excuse, but an un­answerable proof, that he quotes at second hand, and understands not what he delivers to us, is unacquain­ted with Latin, and the Books he pretends to know and understand.

If there be not enough to prove this part of my undertaking against him, I must refer you to cap. 10. And see how he comes off with Dr. Willis's notion, and History there deli­vered, to chap. 29. for the History from Pareus to his 16. chap. for ano­ther from the same Author, to his 25. chap. for the two stories from Hildanus, to his 33. chap. for the two stories from Nicholas Florentinus, (vide Schenkius p. 31.) to his 34th. chap. for a story from Hollerius, stoln from Schenkius page 27. to his 39th. chap. for an History from Peter Fo­restus, obs. chir. 38. lib. 6. (not the 20th as he misquotes) to his 14. chap. for a story from the same Au­thor, [Page 154]to cap 44 for an observation from Solenander, Sect. 5. cons 15. which you will find to be the 32. story in that Consal, and all these with almost all the rest of the observa­tions in his Book, translated after such sort, as shews plainly he doth not understand Latine, duorum canum mag­norum from P. Forestus, two little Dogs, Page 78. in ditione, from Schen­kius page 332. in the City Deprava­tus, page 46. Deprived; praeceps, Prin­ciple, depravatusmotus, deprivation of motion, tenebat, did cover, capita, dead Corps, &c. Nay I undertake to assure you, that there is not one story in ten, of those his Books con­tain, but are falsly translated, and would have been more truly rendred by a School-Boy, of a years stand­ing.

To conclude this Topick, take two Evidences more of this nature, they are both in his 317 page, and stoln from Schenkius Page 461. The first from Dodoneus, speaking of a Woman stab'd in one of her Kidneys, quem Vulneratum fuisse particula ejus è vulne­re exempta ostendit, he wholly neg­lects [Page 155]the other from Fallopius, (whom by this and other citations, I find he never read, for he quotes him usually de vulneribus, not distinguishing (be­cause not knowing,) whether it be his Book de vulner, capitis, an exposition on Hippocrates, in his first Tom. or that de vulneribus in genere, or that de vulneribus peculiaribus, both which are in his second Tom.) in the place be­fore us he quotes him, lib. de Vuln. cap. 12. Schenkius saith, de vulneribus capitis, cap. 12. But there is no such matter in that place, nor is that sort of hurt mentioned any where, in those three Books of Wounds, save in his 22. chap. de vuln. pecul. and cap. de vuln. in genere, in the former there is no such passage, as this our Author mentions, in the later there is some­what like it, viz. et ego vidi post ic­tum pugionis concrevisse carnem illam laxam et sanasse.—Schenkius thus ren­ders it. Vidi renem sinistrum pugione vulneratum sanari: Quia parenchyma, scilicet sanguis ille crassus, concrevit in carnem.—And our unletter'd plagiary, I have seen the left Kidney pricked and wounded, because the Parenchyma like thick Blood, concreted into Flesh.—O [Page 156]most egregious ignorant! With what Face canst thou appear in the Front of such impudent falshoods, and heaps of nonsense, blush for shame, and do penance for this most Criminal way of abusing the World, and misguid­ing young Tiro's in an Art of so much use to Mankind, draw a Cur­tain before all thy Pictures, thy Faces (like the Brass that stampt them,) hide in some gloomy place, never to see light, till thou hast expiated the discredit thou hast done our Art, and learnt more modesty, knowledge, &c. And then appear in print again, and Title thy Book the Retractation or Index expurgatorius of John Brown, who now sensible and ashamed of his own ignorance and vanity, doth make this publique confession thereof to the World, whom he hath shame­lesly abused, by his empty insigni­ficant writings.

Sir, I pray you pardon this little transport, and suffer me to make good my charge against him, by pointing to you a few passages out of an abundance wherein he expresseth himself as weakly, and silly, as any [Page 157]Writer you can have seen. page 137 he makes no differences between Symptomes and Sentences. page 187. Contusions of the brain proceed from some outward cause invading the brain, hapning by a fall from an high place upon a hard part, being either stony or rocky. page 199. Puncture of Nerves is an accident that doth happen most COMMONLY, by the Ignorance of the Chirurgion SOMETIMES. page 200. And here also as to the affected part, we are here to consider both the breadth and nar­rowness of the affected part, page 271. The pericardium is a membrane en­wrapping the heart, swimming in it, (this to a man that knows Anatomy must seem such sense, as to say, the purse swims in the mony,) abundance of the like instances of his wit, and learning in Orthography, Syntax, and other parts of common sense, and lite­rature are intersperst in his writing, and cannot escape the intuition of any man, tho but indifferently skill'd in either.

I must not pass by a very great example of his way of reasoning, &c. [Page 158]in his 185 page. where he wisely endeavours to prove, the possibili­ty of an Abscess in the brain, by urging this Aphorism of Hippocrates. If matter, water or bloud, issue from the Nostrils, Mouth or Ears, of any trou­bled with the head-ache, it doth dis­charge it, as if what thus floweth thence, must certainly be from an Abscess from within the meninges, and not rather extravasations, or con­gestions without them, as is usual, as wise, and as much to the purpose, is his calling on Galen, Avicen, Rhasis, to prove that nature found out ( con­trived had been better said,) these as proper Chanels for that purpose, if a man would argue at this rate, and reason from such Topicks, how easy is it to prove the Moon made of a green Cheese.

I had almost forgot to entertain you, with some pleasant instance of his skill in Etymologie, which he shews very often, and not seldome appears a ridiculous fop, whether it be more silly than illiterate thus to force derivations, as is commonly practiced, we will not dispute page [Page 159]211 Frons à ferendo, because it car­ryeth in it the LIVELY resemblance of heavyness, sadness, moroseness, &c. a very pretty comparison, the lively resemblance of dead, dullthings. I know by others its said so to be derived. Quod indicia animi prae se fa­rat. But why not more likely from Frondis, the branch of a tree, be­cause it lively resembles the invisi­ble dilemma's, and divarications, some mens Wives place there Page 222. Vultus a voluntatis in­dicio, why not from volvendo, as some have derived it, or rather from Vulva, because of their lively resem­blance, in mouth, beard, &c. Facies, a faciendo because it maketh the difference between a man, and a beast I am sure that doth not alway hold, for I have seen some mens faces not exceed a beautiful Baboons, and have constantly learned, and al­way understood, that Religion and reason, not complexion or counte­nance, had made this discrimination. The face (quoth he) sur [...]sseth all other parts for beauty FOR in it may be easily seen, [...]e storms and tempests of anger [...] passion, the at­tempts [Page 160]of death, sadness, melancholy, &c. Very beautiful objects indeed, an angry or melancholy countenance is without doubt as pleasant to be­hold, as the society of men in those passions, is to enjoy. page 231. auris ab hauriendo, the air being drawn in thereby. page 302. jecur quasi juxta cor. page 222. oculus ab occulendo, at this rate some men, force Etymons, from consonations, or semblance in sound as proper and pertinent, as to say Brown, a Brumosus, filthy, stinck­ing, or a Brundus a fool.

Altho it be needless after all this, to say any more concerning this vain man, to demonstrate him a very naughty scribler, I resolve while my hand is in, to pursue my blow, and prove more particularly that he is an IMPERTINENT TRIFLER, and that shall be the business of this head. His many mincings and divisions, (against which he himself rants. page 136.) unnecessary distinctions, insignifi­cant parti [...]larities, justly deserve to be censured under those Cha­racters, for to what end or advantage [Page 161]its done, appears by the little or no difference, (except in needless words,) there is in the substance, and reali­ty of the things, as I have once and again observed, and reflected on.

Most of the observations are im­pertinent to the subject of those Chapters to which they are annexed, & might as properly serve any other, for instance what hath the story of one, poysoned by eating inveno­med sage, or flesh, to do in a Chap­ter of wounds, made by the bite of poysonous animals, as little to the purpose, is his Theory and dis­course of Palseys, Convulsions, &c. because they contain nothing in them ad rem, but are absolute, and general notions (erroneous enough) of those diseases, not as Symptoma­tical (which is the province of a Chirurgion, but as primary and In­dependent, this I have again and again pointed to, in divers places. chap. 16: Discoursing of wounds made by the bitings of venemous beasts, he brings in that of a Toad [...]s one, I know he is not the only [...]mpertinent of his kind, but that [...]imal having no teeth (as Gesner, [Page 162]Johnson, Parey, &c. all Naturalists, could have told him,) cannot make a breach in the Continuum, and consequently (be the venom insi­nuated how it will,) its imperti­nent to reckon his bitings among poysoned wounds.

His 18. chap. is an heap of imperti­nent, trifling, rambling fancies, with­out sense, coherence, or ought else like a man.—I will give you a tast. — Such Masters of Art, who have dwelt many years in the wars, and have hazarded their lives as well as fortunes, with their experience therein, — that they may make their speedy address to their entrance, form, and shape, — what can be the meaning of this Rhodo­montado way of talk, and (to make short) referring us to an insignificant picture, page 37. as a most elegant representation, how a man may be wounded,) to supply the defects of his Theory, and bringing in head and ears, the story of his arm being contused, and broken by the wind of a Cannon-Bullet, what was i [...] to the purpose of that part of hi [...] Chapter, which was to explain [Page 163]how Eskars were produced in gun­shot wounds, perhaps there might be some Ambition in it, and the occasion forced to shew his Reader, that he had been Chirurgeon of one of His Majesties It was not the Kings, but a Merchant Ship, hired into his Ma­jesties service, which in time of war, is an employ of the least cre­dit comparatively. Ships. Though he wisely con­ceal her name and rank, as well knowing it would have then stampt no more real credit on him, among knowing men, than his late bare title, of one of his Majesties Chirurgions in ordinary.

Can any man be the wiser for the Toyish Impertinent picture, page 104. that of a Carpenter bor­ing an Auger-hole, would as well direct to the use of the Terebellum, or other extracting Instrument, what a ludicrous harangue and silly com­parison doth he run upon, in the first period of his 19 chapter. — The head is such an admirable Syntax, &c. page III. being already assured of having our sails filled with the gentle gale of our friends, and all kind artists, we intend to STEER the Vessel of our present Discourse, by the MICROS­COPE [Page 164] of Anatomy — and then shall we arrive at the cranium it self. Chap. 26. discoursing of contusions, (most absurdly numbred among fractures,) he defines it to be an inward bent, or swelling of the Scull, and adds a story, no more pertinent to the discourse, than the discourse is to the subject of the book; his second history of the same Chapter is not less incongruous, being of a fracture with a wound, which was no way suitable to the occasion. page 151. He saith for rasping out chinks, and small fractures, the Trepan is not so fit or proper an Instrument as the Rasper, its a most silly assertion, though as true, as if he had said a thimble is not so fit to cut cloath as a pair of sheers. page 112. He gives us three heads worthy of note, the first and second of which tantamount, viz. If the membrane, covering the Scull, be broken or divided, the bone is to be sus­pected, saith he in one place, suffer detriment and be deraded, in another. page 159. he pedantickly quotes Hippocrates, for an observation he confesseth we dayly see, viz. That hard things do rather break than bend, [Page 165]whereas soft things WE SEE do rather bend than break. So page 255. he quotes Galen, to prove that diure­ticks work by urine, as silly and trifling, as going backto Euclid, to demonstrate, that three and two make five, or that two parallel lines are equidistant; away Trifler, study more sense, and cast off this Idle ostentatious way of naming Authors to no purpose, but to gratify an Itch, and shew your own vanity.

He is so affected with his new way of backing Chapters with obser­vations, or experiments, that ra­than let one go without it, he doth often produce stories, nothing to the purpose, thus those two in his 31 chap. of concameration (stoln from Schenkius) no way concern that case, and might serve any other fracture, or wound of the head, as pertinently. In his 32. cap. treating of Collision, he doth not (for compleatness sake) define it, nor is the story subjoin'd any way suitable. page 107. are eight impertinent useless pictures, which he calls figures of the several species of a broken Scull, for which one [Page 166]can be no more the wiser, than by his discourse, A. shews and indeed signifieth nothing. C. and F. differ not, nor doth B. E. and H. what doth H. demonstrate of a contusion. E. of depression. F. of cancameration. H. of contrafissure. They cannot possi­bly advantage the understanding, they may indeed make the Book ven­dible to Boys, but no way useful to them.

His 36 Chap, is concerning Absces­ses of the Brain, how fit to be place in a Treatise of Wounds, let the World judge, or what the stoln story of Arceus is to the purpose, he might have had more pertinent proof of the possiblity of such Apostumations, and instances more suitable to the case in hand, than those he produceth, if he had consulted Sennertus, Zacu­tus, Tulpius, and divers others, who relate, that the whole Brain hath been rotten and become matter.

Under the Imputation of this To­pick, may be reckoned these dar­ling words and phrases, which he so sillily affects, and impertinently [Page 167]drags in by the ears, such are, ALLOWED, AS TOUCHING, AND HERE ALSO, HERE MAY WE SEE PROPER ENGINES, LIVELY REPRESENTATIONS, CORREPTED, ABRADED, SHELVES AND ROCKS OF FEAR, &c. some of which he useth above ten times in a page. the Brain and its substance dryeth of its self, and of its own natural quality dryeth. page 287. A probe or wax-Candle going directly a great way into the Belly, in wounds thereof, is a sign the wound penetrates. Thus he trifles, and by Tautologies, and Impertinent Verbosity, spends his Pages, abu­seth his Reader, and exposeth him­self.

To conclude, the later part of his Book (the Chapter of Joint­wounds only excepted) is nothing but impertinence and trifling, giving superfluous Chapters, for Wounds of the Shoulders, Elbow, Wrists, Armes, Hands, Fingers, Thighs, Legs and Feet, I call them superfluous and need­less, because that for Wounds of the Joints was enough for the first [Page 168]three, and where he discourseth of the rest, is constrained to repeat, or refer to the same Method and Me­dicaments he had directed before in general, and after all those many distinctions and divisions, beyond any I have met, he not only omits many more needful to be taken no­tice of, than some of which he hath written, such are Wounds of the Womb, Meseentry; Buttocks, Knees, Ancles, &c. And neglected some of the usual accidents of great Wounds, viz. Erisypelas, Gangrene, &c. But hath plainly shewn himself, to be the Fool he rails at, for dividing the Art into more parts than God intended, and that his compleat discourse of Wounds is not only erroneous, ab­surd, trifling and contradictory, but defective and incompleat, and written by a man of LITTLE EXPERI­ENCE or SKILL in the Art he pre­tends to, to evince which was the last part of my undertaking, and al [...] tho' it hath been abundantly mani­fested already, under the foregoin [...] Topicks, I will superadd a few mor [...] to make it a charge indisputably tru [...] and to prove that none but a ver [...] [Page 169]unskilful Person, could write as he doth in ANATOMY AND CHI­RURGERY in general, and particu­larly of definitions, Diagnosticks, Prognosticks, curatory method, and me­dicaments, observations, and some o­ther things promiscuously occurring in this Book.

That he is ignorant in the impro­ved modern Anatomy, is manifest to e­very Boy, that hath read Blasius ana­tomia contracta. P. Barbet, or Dr. Gibsons Epitomy. The cause whereof is his taking upon trust, and for want of skill, blindly delivering what he hath stoln from Bauhinus, Crooke, Read, and men that writ egregiously wrong, in most parts of that Art, in his discourse of Nerves, &c. though he hath mixed a little of Dr. Willis, and other Novel Authors, (perhaps as much as he could understand,) with the old notions and opinions, yet he cites few or none of them, but [...]eems fond of calling on Galen, Hip­ [...]ocrates, Avicen, Aetius, AEginata, [...]verhois, and Albucasis. As if there [...]ere some glory, or charm in the [...]ames. Though he understands not, [Page 170]nor probably ever saw their Books but from Crook, and other common Plagiaries in English, furnisheth him­self with those smatterings he hath of their Doctrines. Hence is it that he falls into so many errours, and e­videnceth so great weakness, and want of skill, he might as cheaply have furnished himself, and his Rea­der with the truest, and most accu­rate accounts, from Willis, Bartholine, Blasius, Diemerbrook, Malpighius, &c. With whom in some places, (especi­ally in his Catalogue) he pretends acquaintance.

Sometimes he writes as if he had never heard, or were unacquainted with the circulation, the Valves, &c. For he delivers (contrary to those Doctrines) from Galen. lib. 5. de loc. Affect. That matte [...] lodged in the Thorax, is carried off b [...] Ʋrine, being first carried to the Bran­ches of the Vena Azygos, thence into th [...] vena cava, Page 255. to the right ventricle of th [...] Heart, passing thence DOWN WARD from the descending Trun [...] of the cava, to the Liver to come [...] the emulgents—again, page 275. Th [...] Heart is the Radix, or Ocean both [...] [Page 171]Veins and Arteries, the best of all Bowels, distributing to, but not receiving from any part, giving life and motion unto others.—

As ignorant doth he appear, in the Doctrine of Aliture, and the Lacteal Vessels, when he affirms page 297. and 287. that the Meseraick Veins, suck up the chyle, and convey the Alimen­tary Juice to the gate of the Liver, his ignorance in the true Anatomy of the Brain (which he calls a Glandules substance,) Heart, Liver, Lungs, Gul­let, Stomach, Spleen, (which he calls an Organical Bowel,) will be ve­ry manifest to any man, that can compare his accounts of them with those of Malpighius, Glisson, Willis, Lower, Tilingius, and other modern Anatomists, as to smaller parts, he [...]s not a whit wiser, when he affirms the Eye is made of six Muscles. Page 214. And that the Eye-lids draw [...]hem up and down, that the Piama­ [...]er, is made of the first scatterings of the Sperm, and composed chiefly of Veins and Arteries. Page 174.

Page 124. He giveth imperfect and [Page 172]false Figures of the Scull, the easiest part of Anatomy, and affirmeth Page 118. that the outer Lamina, is thicker and harder than the innermost Page 233. That the Ear was shot thorough in the middle, and the Cartilage not hurt. He seems ignorant of the valve in the Colon, by directing to Nutri­tious Glysters, and knows not the true Anatomy of the Oesephagus, when he gives that odd description thereof. Page 244. And attributes Diglution to the Muscles of the La­rynx. He saith, Page 198 The Nerves are cold and dry, replenisht with a thick and viscous humor, and altho' he hath written two large: Books of Muscles, I doubt he will come off as Lame and defectively there, as in other parts of Anatomy, unless he have learnt better, than he hath here delivered, for cap 71. in­reckoning the Muscles of the Scapula, he mentions not the Serratus major Anticus, cap. 72. in the Muscles of the Arm, which he accounts to be but eight, he leaves out the Coracoi­dens, and chap. 76. computes the gluteous minimus, among the extend­ers of the Thigh. Some other mis­takes [Page 173]in Anatomy, arguing his igno­rance therein, being too many to re­fute in this place, I pass over, only must tell you, that he calls the Sto­mach a cold Entral, Page. 309. and saith, that the Air is drawn in by the Ears.

Instances of his great Skill in Chi­rurgery, are too obvious to need so much as to be pointed at, much less remarked on. In definitions he alway follows the Antients, or marrieth those of the Moderns, bewraying his ignorance in the improvements and discoveries of latter ingenuities, In­diagnosticks, which he accounts the chief part of Chirurgery, he is the same skilful man, affirming that a solution of continuity, must be over fractures of the Scull, only contrafis­sures excepted Page 274. That Wounds of the Heart, are made un­der the Breasts, that in penetrat­ing Wounds, the Air rusheth out. 254. That wounds of the liver happen alway on the right side, ( page 304) and under the short Ribs, and that blood and purulent matter is voided by stool; that [Page 174]Wounds of the Stomach are made under the sternon. 309. without considering that those parts may be wounded other waies, as backward, upward, downward, from within, &c. So that a Chirurgion confiding in those signs that he gives, may be many times deceiv­ed.

In Prognosticks, he not only errs most notoriously, but contradicts himself, and so confounds them, and signs together, as if he were as Ig­norant in their distinctions, as he is of their natures. Page 55.266. He pronounceth wounds of the Lungs mortal, if not suddenly, or speedi­ly, yet after a tedious marasm or Tabes, so he seems absolutely to presage of the liver page 304. Sto­mach. page 309. Heart, Bladder, Small-Guts, Diaphragma, &c. though examples to the contrary, are fre­quently annexed, and very common in the Authors he pretends to Write by, Fallopius Writes of [...] Woman shot through the Stomac [...] and cured, and that he hath see [...] abundance of the Lungs, of whic [...] [Page 175] Schenkius also page 253. giveth a prodigious See miscel. curios. de­cur. 2. vol. 2. obs. 37. Idem, vol. 3. obs. 189. Horstius, obs. 11. lib. 3. instance. So of the Li­ver there are many wonderful Histories from the same Author. page 397. Hildanus. page 108.109. Sennertus, pract. lib. 5. part. 4. cap. 3. And himself quotes a monstrous one, from P. Forestus, where he doubles the quantity of Rhubarb prescribed by that Author.

Page 132. He repeats what he had delivered in the preceding Chap­ter, that wounds in the hinder part of the head, are less dangerous than those in the forepart; Its what Fal­lopius makes a very doubtful questi­on, its true, the Temporal muscles are seated forward, and hurts of them are very dangerous, but within the Scull, the occiput hath no advantage, if it be true, as some affirm, that all meerly natural actions, or motions, as that of the Heart, Lungs, &c. be performed by Nerves proceeding from the Cerebellum, and what Bapt. Hamel hath written, that upon dis­secting living animals, he found the motion not to cease, upon cutting the brain, but as soon as he hurted [Page 176]the Cerebellum, all motion, and life, immediately vanished.

Page 180. He avoweth Hippo­crates to be his cheifest guide, and recommends him to his reader as the safest, a great argument of his little experience, ev'n in the case then before him, for immediately he saith from him, that in wounds of the brain, there is a fever, vomit­ing of choler, loss of speech, foaming at the mouth, cloudiness in the sight, delirium, Convulsion, Feaver, vomiting of choler, (twice) Palsey, and lastly, he correpted with an Apoplexy. Mr. S. Wiseman relates that sometimes in those wounds, the persons have remained long, free from any such Symptom. I had once a patient that was wounded a considerable depth into the brain, and yet rowed above two Miles afterward in a Boat, and was divers daies under cure, before any of those accidents did appear. But Sennertus gives an account of a Carpenter, that by a wound lost as much brain as a walnut shell would contain, and yet — Toto morbi decursu, nec de dolore capitis, nec de ullo Symp­tomate [Page 177]conquestus est, & ambulare sine ullo impedimento potuit, this is an aditio­nal instance, of our Authors skill in Diagnosticks, as of his implicit, and blind adhering to the opinions, and Doctrines of the Ancients, and the mistakes they lead him into, as also of his being a stranger to this sort of practice. I do not wonder at either of those, but that he could not find this in any of the Authors he quotes, nor ever heard of it, is to me very strange, since this, and the like, are in several of the Books, listed in the beginning of his.

Can he be supposed a man of skill, or experience, that in so large a Book, and a subject of such common practice, is not able to produce one medicine, or notion that's his own, or thats uncommon, nor the best or choice of those that are in every mans hand, neither an observation (put­ting aside that ridculous one of his arm, for which he was allowed from the Chest at Catham,) that he hath not stoln, or borrowed, his Judg­ment and skill, in Therapenticks, and application of remedies, you [Page 178]have already seen in his directing to an opiate pill for a purge, and to melt sanguis draconis, and other dry gumes for a plaister; here he multi­plyeth instances of the like nature, directing to suppurate Ecchymosis speedily, Page 75. 77. and giving a strange fomentation for that pur­pose, made of Wormwood, Sage, Rhue, Scordium, Century, Hypericon, Scabios, Speedwell, Chammamel, Cum­min, &c. Boyled in Wine, which are far from suppuratives, and hinder that intention, all of them re­sisting maturation, rarify and discuss the homor, or bloud extravasate, which are faculties contrary to di­gestives, or suppuratives. Page 70. 103. And in many other places, he mix­eth large quantities of Myrrh, Thus, (which resist maturation, sang. draco­nis, myrtils, and things which bind, with digestives for a Wound, page 73. he calls Chamamel Flowers, hot and moist, page 36. 101. he gives a very defective parcel of Instruments, as the needful to extract extraneous bodies, infinitely short, not only of the variety many former Authors had given, but are now used, and in [Page 179]the hand of every understanding Artist, page 112. the Scull being bare, must be scaled, or Raspt. 113. moist things must not be used to Wounds of the Scull.

Page 142. He directs the teeth of the Trepan to be oyled when used, which I know where he stole, but I cannot omit to note it as a sign of his unskilfulness; for the Scull in liv­ing persons, is softer than they Ima­gine, and apt to make that disturbing noise, they would prevent thereby. Moreover oyl is an enemy to the bones, especially where revently divided, begets caries, fungus, and the operation is made more tedious by rendring the teeth of the Instru­ment apt to slip over, and make less, and superficial Rasures of the Scull. In his discourse of opening the Calvaria, he makes no mention of excision, so much better than Cruciats, or any other manner, and become the common way of laying [...]are, fractures of the Cranium.

Page 147. He frequently directs Vormwood, in Fomentations, and Cata­plasms [Page 180]for the head, as several have done before him, but its no proper Cephalick, offending the head which way soever used thereto, or conveyd into the Stomach, page 26. he saith the Jugulars wounded, are seldom cured, but doth not say which Jugular; if he mean the external, every Farryer can confute him from dayly expe­rience, page 188. he forbids the use of cool repellent things to the head in concussions, contrary to constant and commonly approved practice, and to his own foregoing advise, and directs to Phlebotomy, under the Tongue, in the Arm, by Cupps, &c. but saith nothing of the Jugu­lars, which in such cases, is better than they all; he directs irrespec­tively to the use of Tents, in pene­trating Wounds of the Breast, be­ing (I perceive) Ignorant, that many such are cured without them.

In other matters not strictly Chirurgical, he appears the sam [...] man, his Ignorance in the Philosophy and nature of poysons, he bewrays in his 17 chap. calling the [...] [Page 181] compound substances, not natural, &c. page 135. in giving the reason why Wounds of the temporal muscle, are so very dangerous, he omits the chiefest, his Ignorance in any of the new Hypothesis, of Generation of Animals is very notorious in those places, where he calls the brain a com­position of sperm, and maternal bloud, Page 173.179. that the Piamater is made of the first scattering of the sperm, &c. but these things are ecchoed from him, out of the anci­ents, who like our novice, were strangers to those new, clear, and most agreeable opinions, de generatione animalium, first started by Fallopius, Harvey, and others, and since pro­digiously improved, confirmed, and explained, by Theod. Kirkringius, Regn. de Graeff. Casp. Bartholin. Tho. Filius, and almost all modern Anato­mists, and Philosophers to say nothing of the more subtil, and new sprang Hy­pothesis of Mr. Levenhooks Animal­cula.—

He seems not to know the Piama­ter to be a thin, and almost imper­ceptible membrane, when he saith [Page 182] its placed for a defence of the brain, from injury by the dura mater, which membrane, though so called, is not on the inside, hard enough, to beget any such hurt as he Imagines, nor is the brain capable of it, because it hath no sense of feeling, the pia­mater also being most exquisitly ten­der as well as very thin is altogether unfit for the use he assigns it, what followeth in this page 173. as from Plato (to whose writings our pre­tender is a stranger,) is another effort of his sense, which I need but re­peat. And as Plato Writes, ev'n as a medium between fire and earth; these being of a contrary quality, the Al­mighty hath interposed water, and aire; ev'n thus the brain, and the cranium, being of a different nature, mould, and substance, nature hath put these two membranes between. Oh! admira­ble sense, and most ingenious com­parison!

At length I have brought the man to his end, where he looks back on his mighty performance, and not a little elevated with a conceit of its excellency; he falls into this nota­ble, [Page 183]whimsical encomium of himself, and his elaborate writings. ‘ Thus (quoth he) have I sailed through the bloudy Ocean of Wounds, wherein I have like a faithful Pilot, shewn how the young Chirurgion may steer his course, in the wounded main, and how he may keep himself and the Ship of his Art, from the Rocks, and shelves of ignomi­ny, and slander; my method is good, and capable enough, of teaching young Artists, how to procure health, to the wounded Patient.’

He is so ridiculously fond of ma­rine allusion, and affected with com­parisons from the Sea, and forceth them to Tally, with what is no way suitable. That I doubt the same Pla­net which rules that Element, guides and influenceth his head, how well he merits the praise he gives his doughty work, and what an excellent guide, he is to young Tyro's in Chi­rurgery and Anatomy, I have suffici­ently demonstrated, and dare appeal to the censure of all rational men, Whether he be not a most unfit man for an Author, and his works the most erroneous extant, of this day. I avow that I have not exposed the fifth part [Page 184]of his faults particularly, but in gene­ral, do Challenge him, to produce that page, in these two Books, where­in I will not shew him culpable▪ un­der one of those Topicks, or heads of Censure, and reflection, which I have last proceeded with, there being not one Folio, scarce a period, and but few sentences, or lines but justly de­merit it, and he above any man, in dan­ger of coming under Squire Ketches Ope­rations, if Ignorance and Impudence were High Treason.

But I am not so much displeased, or deceived by his first sallies, as asto­nisht at his renewed efforts, and the repeated instances he gives of his ig­norance, and boldness. I know no­thing more prolifique, and fruitful than Vermine and noxious Animals, accordingly it seems the Mountain hath again conceived, the long ear'd▪ Creature hath engendered anew by the wind, and teemed more Books, no less than Twins having at once their Birth, and thundrings, names, (able to cramp a mans mouth) pro­claimed by the Mercury of the Press, Adenochoiradalogia, Myotomia, Myo­graphia.

What hath the man no more shame, or modesty, than wit or learn­ing, or are the Fraternity as sunk in ignorance, or blindly mistaken, to encourage his Pen, by giving sale, and reputation to his writings, like him who lately listed him an Author of the best credit, to prove Wounds of the Brain curable, he might as well have produced a broken eccho for a Compurgator, but I perceive the hu­mor of ranking the vilest evidence, a­mong the most Authentick, and those of the greatest probity, (when it will serve a cause,) is got among the Plaister box-men, as well as the Whiggs.

I wonder some Friends (for some I will presume he hath) do not kill the Worm in his head, (a sign there's no Mercury in it) by repre­senting to him how unskilful he ma­nageth his Goose Quill, and dehort him from so profuse a dispensation of his little Talent, or that some of his Enemies (of which I hear he hath contracted great store,) do not ex­pose the folly, and chastize the wick­edness of his Pen, and by one of those wayes, prevent him from troubling [Page 186]the World with his impertinencies. I am told one of the approvers of his last Books, is Doctor Allen of Bedlam, I believe a course of Physick from the same hand, would do him more ser­vice, for he appears not only trou­bled with the simples, but as distract­ed, and out of his wits as much as any Patient the Doctor hath, in that fine Hospital in Morefields, so indigested, and incoherent, so full of Absurd Transitions, Ridiculous Assertions, Silly Metaphors, and Allusions, Crude Notions, Notorious Thefts, Errors, and effects of Ignorance, so Whisling and Extravagant, so Imme­thodical, Trifling, Empty and Void of all Sense, so contrary to common literature, is all that's his own in his first two Books, (as I have evinced) that it manifests him crackt in the head, unsound in his intellect, wants Phlebotomy, Hellebor, a dark Room, and a Keeper, to which I wonder none of those many skilful Gentlemen, whose names (how obtained, I ad­mire and wonder,) are prefixt, did not advise him, one I am told, from whom he begg'd an approbation to his Book of Wounds, having good re­gard [Page 187]to both their credits, refused to subscribe, and honestly exhorted him to learn to write English, before he set up for an Author.

Tracts of Tumors, Wounds and Mus­cles, are innumerable, and ev'n this age hath produced extraordinary dis­courses on those subjects, so that the path is well beaten and plain, the road full of guides, (among whom I find him playing) and yet since our scrib­ler hath wandred, and gone lame in so easie a way, what then can be hop­ed, if he Travel in one more intri­cate, and less trodden, as is that of the Kings Evil, a growing disease, with new phaenomena, become almost Epidemical, and of which few have written large Theoryes: He is certain­ly a bold man, to venture at such a knotty and difficult subject, (I smile to think on the Ass chewing This­tles,) and a very ingenious one if he have exceeded Mr. Serjeant Wiseman, whose discourse, (composed by the owned assistance, of the most wor­thy and learned Dr. W. Needham,) on that Protean, Rampent Malady, I cannot forbare, to praise and cele­brate, and to pay my grateful ac­knowledgments, [Page 188]to the memory of that judicious, and experienced Artist, who writ so much like a man, on ma­ny other subjects, to the great advan­tage of mankind in general, and we of the healing faculty in particular, I wish our Author could as justly claim the Bay's but ex quovis ligno.—

Sir, the business of this Letter is not to tell you, how free you are like to be from future importunity for more Books, but to let you know your trouble will be enhanced, by the addition of a more tedious employ­ment, for I must now beseech you, (who I know to be a very competent judge) to examine before you buy, and become both Censurer and Factor; particularly I desire from you, an ac­count of this Author, and his other writings, whether they be of the same meal, or (which I can by no means persuade my self to hope,) hath ac­quitted himself better like an Arcist, than he hath done in the more facil, and presidented subjects of his for­mer Books. A Physician is like a Friend in re incerta cernitur, (you see I am for a scrap now and then, as well as he, but my hopes hereof are dis­couraged [Page 189]not only by his 2 first Books, in general, but an unlucky passage in the 31 page of that concerning Tu­mors. — and as we seldom see a wiseman gain knowledge from a Fool, so is it as rare to gain a wise Medicine from an ig­norant Block.—I would also know his Education, what esteem his Person, and Books have among the worthy Brotherhood in the Town, what right he had to be called one of his late Ma­jesties Chirurgions in Ordinary, whe­ther it were real, and he in salary, and attendance or it be only a Fea­ther, obtained by the power of Gui­nia's, and become a Fashion for every emperical pretender, to wear in his Cap, formerly used by them of little mony, to keep them from the men of Gath, now by them of little wit, and skill to delude the People into an opi­nion of their merit, on account of both your answer to those particulars, and what else you know of the like nature concerning this busy Squire, will gratifie an impertinent curiosity, of your true Friend and Servant.

Sutton Tuesday after Easter Week, 1685.