scandalous Pamphlet Add hereunto the many falsities alledged in these Papers agreeable to what I often accuse them elsewhere And lastly considering what power these Apothecaries my implacable Adversaries have over his Papers and what thereof they have used I leave to indifferent Readers whether the Apothecaries were the Contrivers or Makers of this Libel against me and if so then the credit of it will of it self fall to the ground but if it came purely from H. S. 't will find little repute from any learned pious or sober Person By all which it appears that the said Company is in perfect opposition to the R. S. As for my self I think no rational man will deny that the false news concerning my entituling Mr. Stubbe to Lex Talionis did give occasion to this Postcript and did proceed from an Apothecary for who else could be so malicious as to inform him of so great an untruth without sending him the Book And how honestly Mr. Stubbes deals in saying he never saw that Book since his Postcript wad dated from Ragley June the 14th several weeks after the publication of my Book in which time he might have been easily informed of the falsity of his information in this particular The next thing is the unfair wayes they have in publishing their Papers against me The Author of Lex Talionis was proved in my Answer to it to be a Libel without name of Author Printer or Licenser This great Goliah of the Apothecaries hath so Printed his that I can neither find Printer Licencer nor prove H. S. to be the Author of it though his Name be affixed to it nor will the prime disperser of it nor some of his correspondents acknowledge him to be so And thus having dealt with the Author as with Lex Talionis in first rehearsing his untruths and then briefly refuting him so having done with Mr. Stubbe as to the first part I shall come to what is remaining in the Postscript and I shall speak next to two heads the one wherein we agree the other wherein we seem to differ I agree with him in this clause writ to the Apothecaries in the following words his own That I could never invent or meet with any arguments that could induce me to allow of practicing Apothecaries and that I understood so well the extent and difficulty of my Profession that however they might in some cases prosper and page 21. But I protested against any encouragement for Apothecaries to practice And in this also we are of the same mind that there were many defaults needing regulation in them moreover that they the Apothecaries would not delude themselves that they could prosecute their Trades long if that famed Body of men the College of Physicians did resolve against them with whose determinations I did not doubt but all intelligent Practicioners in the Countrey and Counties would comply And elswhere he professeth He will write against the Divines Mountebanks Emperics and Apothecaries and such idle Experimentators that practice Physic As to the practice of Apothecaries the whole drift and all the arguments in my Book as also those other that have writ against them aime at that mark only but Mr. Stubbe saith farther He cannot invent nor meet with any arguments for it and doubtless would have written more bitterly then us all if he had rightly considered the interest of the Profession Besides I wish that the Apothecaries might thrive and prosper as long as they keep themselves within the Laws of reason and of the Land which are directly against their practice I assert also that the College have resolved against them in Voting it honourable for their Members to make their Medicines I say with him and prove that there are many faults in them needing regulation which defaults I have reduced to several heads and enumerated them and I think Mr. Stubbe will not countenance them in destroying and dishonouring that famed Body of Men the Corporation of Physicians which I have fully proved they have alwayes endeavoured to do by Overt Acts as also the intolerable affronts tricks and devices they use against them in their practice I have acted also for many years together for what he hopes for in page 21. That Physicians would consider their common interests in opposition to the Thompsons and Odowds c. and act with that moderation which became wise men and who were tender of continuing the renown of their Faculty which would suddenly else devolve into the hands of Emperics and demean themselves with that moderation which might end in an accord with the Apothecaries How I have acted in this Your hope I shall briefly relate and how I have prosecuted for many years together by the College Order All the Trigs Barkers Odowds c. and forced many Mountebanks from this City and have published in Print by their Order and for their Use all that relates to their Privileges and whatsoever hath been disputed in Law concerning their Rights since their first foundation so that things are now so well setled that Emperics may be prosecuted without miscarriages I have upon all occasions awaited the College Councel and spent much time with them upon their Charters and Law affairs I have also spent many hours with the best of the Apothecaries to compose all differences betwixt them and us I have answered all their Objections consulted and endeavoured to secure them from their petty fears and all pretended inconveniencies which might arise from our Charter to their Company told them The College would grant them whatsoever they could in reason desire if they would confine themselves to their Trades and not usurp on our Faculty and I think none of them but will say how civilly I have entertained them at my House and with what moderation I have endeavoured to make an accord between them and us but what prevarications inconstant resolutions they used with me in this affair I hope I shall have no occasion farther to declare and that my Book tended to the continuing the renown of my Faculty I frequently say and I think no rational man can doubt thereof Since therefore I have really and publickly acted what Mr. Stubbe owns as is before recited I wonder with what face he can say He hath answered all in my Book or this which followeth As for Dr. Goddard who hath writ more warily and with greater prudence I onely dissented from him in the Antiquity of Apothecaries and treated him as a Physician whom I pittyed for being mixt with so illiterate a company which words imply Dr. Merret writ warily and prudently for sure every comparative must have its positive besides the same reasons and almost all the same arguments are urged by us both against the Practicing Apothecaries and we concurr also in most of our arguments for the necessity and usefulness of Physicians making their own Medicines onely my Learned Collegue recites Hypothetically the abuses of Apothecaries which every rational man may easily make affirmative and
been accustomed to the puny stratagems of the Virtuosi I should have wondered much to understand that I was intituled to the Lex Talionis or that Apology for Apothecaries to practice Physick But the Comedians finding their anger insignificant against me by reason the advantages their ignorance had given me over them have ascribed unto me a Book which admits of an easie reply and which interferes with the College of Physitians that so they might seem to baffle and inodiate me at once in the judgment of that profession for which I seemed concerned I cannot make any defence not having seen his Book Whereupon observe another false accusation of the R. S. in his making them Authors of it whereas none of them before the Publication saw line of it Secondly what honest and fair intelligence this Physician at Warwick hath for in that Book I clearly absolve him of being the Author of it for in page the first I onely say that I was informed and say so still that the Apothecaries gave out Mr. Stubbe was the Author of Lex Talionis and though common fame long since said that he intended somewhat to that purpose against Dr. Goddard and my self and though this report was strong yet it could never enter into my thoughts he had the least finger in a piece so illogical and absur'd both as to Matter and Language whereby the Reader may plainly see how clearly and too honourably I vindicate him from being the Author of that Book and upon what grounds and informations Mr. Stubbes raiseth his reviling discourses and this I writ contrary to the opinion of some persons of quality and parts Because said they he cares not what he writes against the R. S. and each member of it and that the reviling Language well suited his usual writing In the next place I shall take notice of some mistakes to speak more gently in his Pamphlet and whereon he intends to rear his Fabrick In his Preface In Opposition to Dr. Merret I deduce the Original of the Apothecaries from the times of Hippocrates and Aristotle through the Roman and Greek Empires c. which he repeats in his Postscript In my view p. 27. I only speak negatively of the Apothecaries antiquity in England and p. 28. I prove out of my Lord Cooke that K. Henry the sixth had none How impertinent then will his discourse be and quite besides the purpose a practice much used by him in his writings However I will be content he shall shew that he is well verst in Lexicons and Indices c. but shall mind him in that impertinent discourse that he fetcheth not their antiquity as the Apothecaries ridiculously do from the Holy Scripture wherein indeed the name of an Apothecary is four times found but those texts being examined will carry no other sense than of perfumers and makers of sweet Ointments trades to this day familiar in the Luxurious Eastern parts of the World Secondly Whether amongst the Greeks 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 doth not primiraly signifie Poyson and secondarily Spices dying things c. and whether the word simply used was not taken in an ill sense and consequently whether Pharmacopaeus doth not properly signifie a Maker of Poysons Thirdly In what good company and for what good acts they are recorded in Authors because in Horace I find them ranked with the basest of men Ambubeiarum Collegia Pharmacopolae I find also in Cicero pro A. Cluentio mention made of a Pharmacopola Circumforaneus who in one night poysoned a Citizens Wife of Rome and ran away but he was no Roman But whereas you say that you will prove that there were in these elder times such Apothecaries as now there are I do not mean Incorporated which by your promise you are obliged to do You will do somewhat though little to the purpose as I have said if you can prove that they made and sold Medicines in Shops before the time of Avicen and were not perfectly Servants and subordinate to Physicians The second thing proposed was that the Apothecaries have a hand in all things written against the R. S. and in this Poscript As to the former I am informed by one that is of the Apothecaries Club that all the Papers against the R. S. were sent by Mr. Stubbe to this Club to have them Printed and disperst abroad and that they sent him intelligence Besides his bitter expressions against the R. S. in the Poscript most whereof is a Letter written to some of that company where he saith I advised them to reflect on our common Enemies the R. S. and see if they were not the principal Incendiaries and that I lookt upon it as a design of theirs to aggrandize themselves upon the ruine of the College a thing they have alwayes endeavoured and the Apothecaries And p. 22. The Writings of the Virtuosi have been the principal cause of all those Controversies and which if they be not refuted 't is in vain to attack Medela Medicina Manwaring c. I have been informed also by several other persons of Credit and worth beyond any of this Junto that F. B. an Apothecary and active against the R. S. and who long since vapoured he would answer my Book shewed them H S. Manuscripts against the R. S. and he with his Brethren the Apothecaries derided the R. S. talked over what Mr. Stubbe hath since published and much more in a ridiculous manner to the great dishonour of the Society in their Clubs and Coffee Houses places where men talk any thing and belye and bespatter whom they please and surprise with falsities and ridicule the ignorant and unwary Now whether those Apothecaries were not the learned Persons he mentions in his Preface to the Legend he sent to to experiment their judgment that his several parcels and fragments were joyned together with some alterations and new connexions without any review of his at London in fine had not some publick spirited Gentlemen there undertook to transtate the Italian pieces and to see the work transcribed and the insertions made and the connexion in some measure supplyed I could never had leasure to finish my intendments to which I add from the same Persons that several passages in H. S. Papers were blotted out some added other where interlinings and alterations made I say upon this passage that 't is very evident that this Club of Apothecaries convey false Intelligence to H. S. and have correspondence with him and further that they misinformed him of my entituling H. S. to be Author of Lex Talionis and were the cause of publishing this present Postcript at this unreasonable time Since he saith in the forecited place The passages now Printed out of Campanella were to follow his Vindication of Aristotle c. which hath not yet been made publick and the breach that Piece hath made in some other Papers as he affirms in this Postcript By which it appears the Apothecaries were the Authors or Adjutors in this
Tradesman to be wholy ignorant in his whole Trade and every part thereof because he mistakes in putting one case in his Art But I trifle as well as he Fourthly His inference seems by himself to be far fetched and unknown to me as indeed it was or else why should he say to his correspondent if he meaning my self please to know the ground of the supposition ' it s the case c. Fifthly I answer the nature of my Book required not the putting down the case and all the circumstances thereunto belonging And 't would have been judged absur'd in a treatise of that nature to have put a case of practice understood only by Physicians If the Apothecary complain'd of had found himself aggreived and had urged it then indeed to have put the case fully might have been expected but not otherwise But if H. S. will arraign every Physician as he doth me for accusing Apothecaries who are Empirics of ill practice without putting the case home few Physicians would avoid this censure of intollerable ignorance Nay if Mr. Stubbes or any other had desired to have had the case put I should not have refused to have done it Sixthly whereas H. S. requires an account of many things I say when I put that case to a Physician I shall add several material things whereof he seems ignorant to put it full and as it ought to be Seventhly I say Physicians daily do and lawfully may speak in general that such a man was kil'd by such an Apothecary by not letting him blood giving an Opiat Vomit or Purge in such a disease without relating all the circumstances of it and though some ignorant people may judge him malitious for saying so yet neither Physician nor these ignorants will traduce him for ignorance in that case much less in his whole Art Eighthly H. S. concludes Dr. Merrett would have us condemn the Apothecary for doing that which whatever the want were for ought I can see no understanding Physician can condemn as I shall demonstrate out of a multitude of Physicians To this I reply that all civil men of the faculty would have thought a Fellow of the College of Physicians affirmation had been sufficient enough against a practising Apothecary without putting the case at all and examples enough may be shown Physicians so doing And though I rest not wholy on the event with the vulgar which I have sufficiently confuted elsewhere yet to make a judgment on ill success from bad practice is rational H. S. proceeds for ought I can see modestly said Why he confesseth he knows nothing of the Case neither the habit of the Patient c. and therefore he is to demonstrate out of a multitude of Eminent Physicians that 't is lawful to give strong purging Pills on the fit day of a gentle quartan let the circumstances and symptoms of the disease and the condition of the Patient be what they will or else H. S. opposeth not at all what the view affirmeth and he here puts himself on as wild a task as Lex Talionis who would prove out of Hippocr that the old Medicines were better then mine The Reader may plainly fee that H. S. undertakes to confute a Story he knows nothing of and to demonstrate out of Authors he knows not what himself And so let H. S. pass with his third impertinence not yet Printed for I am weary with this pitiful stuff H. S. in the said note appeals to some of our College and permits me to chose whom I please to be as judges in the case Bravely said were H. S. in London he would soon find the Censors of the College and the whole body severe judges against him and that this young Physician at Warwic were impudent to appeal to them in so notorious a scandal besides the accused not the accuser appeals and too be sure their sentence would be against him not only for so bruitishly traducing one of their members their statute of civil conversation where of H. S. hath none requiring the contrary to what he acts but also for maintaining so their fellows and his promised Support of them would make them as it doth very good sport H. S. concludes his letter to the Apothecaries thus p. 22. This was the subject of that Book which I doubt not but will be approved by all judicious persons and the College will see I can write against Dr. Merret without derogating from them or rather that my intendments were to SUPPORT them and not disserve the APOTHECARIES in the least I intend to make it public in Michaelmass term I shall make a short commentary on this Epiphonema of H. S. setting out his confidence of judicious persons approving this Book which sober men would have left to the Censure and opinion of the Readers and not have so long before hand triumphed and sung the praises on his own undertakings Of which I shall say in general what the most learned and indifferent persons judge of his writings that they are wholy void of judgment reason and Logic and consist only of railings impertinent readings and contain little but Pedantic learning Antiquity and Grammar of little use to such as write of things But to the particulars This was the subject of that Book And was this all The Title page mentions a Postscript concerning the quarrel depending betwixt H. S. and Dr. Merret and yet the Postscript its self hath the least part of this quarrel The greater part whereof directly opposeth the R. S. onely much of it relates to the College and Apothecaries something to Dr. Goddard and not much to my self besides the falsity in the beginning so that the whole Postscript seems to be written onely to defame me so well doth the Title and Postscript answer one another Besides this you will doubtless run an impertinent Risco for the old Medicines and against the new discoveries in your Pedantic way and no man knowes whether H. S. goes on I doubt not this Book will be approved by all judicious persons Surely scarcely by any not by the learned persons the Apothecaries you sent your Papers to to experiment them c. For you restrain them from practise tell them many things needed regulation in them that the College resolving against them would destroy their trade that you in your intendments were to Support the College you rank them in the lowest place of Emperics and Quacksalvers Certainly none of these things will the Apothecaries approve nor Physicians neither you oppose their vote that 't is honourable for their members to make their own Medicines you suppose that indignities and heats had passed from the College toward the Apothecaries you recommend to the Apothecaries an union with the College and as they apply it to make them our Peers you say of 20 of their Society members also of the R. S. that they are Coxcombs Impertinents c. as before You here proudly take upon you to be their support as if they were not
A SHORT REPLY TO THE Postscript c. of H. S. Shewing his many Falsities in matters of Fact the impertinencies of his promised Answers to some Physicians that have written against the Apothecaries his conspiracy with Apothecaries to defame them the R. S. and many Learned men of our Nation Made by Christopher Merrett Dr. of Physic and Fellow of the College of Physicians LONDON Printed by T. R. for James Allestry and are to be Sold at his Shop in St. Paul's Church-yard 1670. TO THE READER THere coming to my hands a Pamphlet intituled Campanella revived with a Postscript concerning the quarrel depending betwixt H. S. and Dr Merret and wondring there should be a quarrel depending betwixt my self and any other person having never wrote or said any thing against any single person I soon run over his Epistle to the Reader and found Henry Stubbs subscribed to it who in other Papers stiles himself a Physician at Warwick A person whom I never saw but have seen Books of his writing against very learned and worthy persons and whose best parts have been imploied in wrangling with men far better then himself and therefore amongst all knowing persons his Pen is no slander Wherefore my resolution was not to return any answer at all But upon second thoughts and by the advice of some other learned Friends and Colleagues I soon dispatched these Papers which had come abroad three weeks ago had our Presses bin at leasure Before I come to speak particularly to his Postscript I shall mention several falsities and untruths delivered in this Pamphlet against the R. S. and my self and Secondly shall offer my reasons to impartial men to make it plain that the Apothecaries are the Authors Fomentors or adjutors in it Thirdly I shall detect their cunning contrivances in defending themselves from having their Books especially this Pamphlet made Libels As for the Falsities in matter of Fact in his preface to the reader he saith the Royal Society would have incorporated the Colledge of Phisicians into their Society but that the prudent and grave did decline a thing never dreamt on 't is true Mr. Colwell my Countrey-man a very noble Benefactor to the R. S. and my self considering the College of Physitians was consumed by Fire and that the R. S. also wanted a convenience for their meetings we both judged it meet to propose to each Society that a common place of meeting might be erected at the common charges of them both which design none of our College but judged to be much for their advantage and most of the Council of the R. S. approved at first but upon second thoughts rejected urging that both the name of the place and honour would be wholy the Physitians and therefore never endeavoured to incorporate the Physicians into their Society a thing very incongruous and absur'd in it self because his Majesty had established them as two Corporations with distinct Lawes and Government When this conjunction of purses onely was first proposed at a College meeting one onely prudent and grave person did not decline as Mr. Stubs saith but thought fit we should consider on it but since upon more mature deliberation the same prudent person would have brought it on again A second falsity is that the R. S. promoted the Anti-College of Pseudo-Chymists incouraging Odowde and his adherents in opposition to the Physicians This I confess is news to Physicians here who are sure never any thing was proposed or indeavoured by the Society to that purpose Who have been observant enough of whatsoever they have seemed at least to intrench on our Faculty Thirdly H. S. hath four falsities complicated together in these words Nor would I have any man to believe that there are so many eminent Physicians of the R. S. for neither is the number of those admitted considerable few of note but have deserted it again the rest approve not of it so that all they talk of will not amount to three understanding Persons To which I reply that in the List of the last year 1669 I find 34 Physicians to be members of the R. S. and that the number of them is considerable will appear by having yearly four or five or more of the Council the whole number amounting but to 21. And that none of the Physicians have deserted them is manifest because they have not signified in writing their mind to the President as their statutes require But that those that remain approve not of it is most false and will be so 'till the Physicians find them invadors of their Faculty prejudicial to the Arts Church or State and if there be but two understanding Physicians as you deny there are more You may be sure the rest of the Faculty perswaded by the reasons of these two and their own interest will soon leave them Fourthly In the Poscript H. S. affirms That all the books written on that subject the Apothecaries proceeded from them the Royal Society I perceive Mr. Stubbe hath not read all Books a great accusation against the R. S. all along his papers or else extreamly prevaricates I am sure Bartholinus who published in Latin two treatises written by two several Physicians intituled the frauds and abuses of Apothecaries nor Dr. Hodges nor Dr. Manwaring nor a very late writer who is Anonymus were ever members of the R. S. And for my self I do affirm that not one member of the R. S. but those that were of the College of Physitians also joyned with some others that were never of the R. S. did know any thing concerning the Publication of my View so far are they from being principal incendiaries in this affair as H. S. most falsely alledgeth they were Fifthly He affirms that there wanted not some of them the R. S. who purposed to erect a Laboratory and Shop whence all should be furnished cheaper and better than now as to general Medicines c. This also is wholy false and will be believed so till he names the persons that thus act Sixthly H. S. makes me confess that this quarrel betwixt the Physicians and Apothecaries was of no longer continuance than that of the R. S. Whereas in my View p. 21. I affirm the Apothecaries have continually traduced the College troubled them at the Council board Parliaments c. and that Anno 1639. a Quo Warranto was granted against them besides I now say this open Contest had its rise some years before and not long after their Corporation was erected in the 15th year of K. James by the procurement of some of our College and whosoever shall read over our Annals as I have done twice will find the Apothecaries to have been constant underminers and enemies to our Profession and Corporation Seventhly His Postcript falsely affirms that I made him the Author of Lex Talionis For thus he begins his Postscript Sir the news you writ me about Dr. Merrett did at first a little surprize me and had I not during this last year
able or willing to support themselves but an extraneous person ignorant of their affairs so infamous and notorious must do it for them you would deprive all Physicians of their Essential privilege nay which is common for all persons to do viz. making their own Medicaments you call some of the Fellows of the College principal incendaries And therefore you may very well doubt whether Physicians really so and who are the most proper judges of this matter will approve your Book at all I am sure none I have conversed with will in the least you profess your self an implacable adversary to the R. S. threaten each Virtuosi there and surely not one member of that illustrious body will approve your Book As for Divines you have written against them in general and endeavoured to distroy their very order and particularly against the learned Dr. Wallis Dr. Sprat and Mr. Glanvil and say of the two latter 't were folly to expect much from them where they profess and if they displease you you will say of all of them as you do of the two latter that their abilities in matters relating to their profession are contemptible As for Gentlemen of the long Robe and all persons Loyal to the King few of them either read or value your writings and several of these are members of the R. S. also And on good grounds think you would act over again your former disloyalties And if none of the three professions will approve of your Book then certainly neither will either of the Universities as neither do they disapprove of Dr. Merretts view I am sure many forreigners Dutch and French besides judicious persons of all orders have given the Author thanks for it and more especially such as have found double advantage by it as well to their healths as purses Besides 't is strange this Physician at Warwic should conceive so well of his Book founded wholy either on falsities or impertinencies as hath been proved and also on defamations so gross and deductions so absurd and ridiculous as hath been said H. S. proceeds And the College will see that I can write against Dr. Merrett without derogating from them or rather that my intendments were to SVPPORT them and not disserve the Apothecaries in the least Here you sind H. S. performing some wonders first he can write against Dr. Merrett and not derogate from the College if he means he can rail at and misrepresent Dr. Merrett and not in express terms the College perhaps H. S. can out of his rich magazine of both perform his promise But doubtless the College cannot conceive but that the writing against one or more of their members will derogate from them especially acting but their duties according to their faith given and asserting their Honours Rights Privileges Statutes and Votes and speaking their own private Language and Discourses And surely no man can judge otherwise then that Dr. Merrett in his Book intended the good and wellfare of the College and hath industriously prosecuted that end before his own profit and undergone all tasks though never so ungratefull in order thereunto How then H. S. can write against Dr. Merrett and not derogate from the College I think none of them can see And farther H. S. will be hard put to it to bring one instance to prove any Corporation ever thought themselves not derogated from when one of their members hath been traduced for asserting their rights And H. S. if displeased will then call them the College of insensaty for so doing as he doth the R. S. and consequently a consequently a considerable number of them allready But here he not only professeth he will not derogate from them a great kindness in him towards learned men though in many places he hath diminished and decried many of them but rather saith he that my intendments were to support them the College and not disserve the Apothecaries in the least Behold here the intendments of this man of might doing wonders if not impossibilities He intends to do more then the established Lawes and Charters orders of the Council board proclamations of the King judgments of Courts the understanding labour industry and expences of the College and all their interest ever could effect Behold here this Hoghen Moghen PATRON and SUPPORT of the College nay which is more for all this hee will not disserve the Apothecaries in the least He can blow in one breath hot and cold he can support the College and reserve to them alone the practice of Physic which is all the support they crave and yet not disserve the Apothecaries in the least whose onely aim and indeavour is and hath been to supplant and depreciate the Physicians whereby to gain all the practice into their own hands and without which they say they cannot gain a lively-hood So that if H. S. take from them the practice of Physic which he twice doth in this Postscript he doth them the greatest disservice imaginable but if he means to support the College he must take out of their hands the practical part of our faculty and so consequently as the Apothecaries confess themselves undo them and certainly this is not to disserve them in the least but in the whole So that as matters now stand 't is impossible to support the one but he must disserve the other And if his project he saith is not difficult can secure the Physicians in their practice from the usurpation of the Apothecaries and not do the latter disservice the sole intendment and end of our Books we shall confess him the only seeing person and that he seeth more at a distance then we do upon the place and shall for working this admirable and incredible wonder both admire and thank him Lastly the support of Physicians implies the securing them from the frauds and abuses committed in remedies and the chargeableness of their Bills the removing whereof a thing impossible must needs be disservice at least to the Apothecaries and he is bound to make good and justifie or deny all those complaints mentioned in my view or else he doth disserve them But perhaps he means by not disserve them he will do them no harm in the least though positively he will not serve them in the least and then they are but a little beholding to him unless he will say that two negatives not and dis make an affirmative and so reserve to himself by this ambiguous expression a power of doing them no prejudice or doing them real service if occasion and his advantage prompt him to it Now here I shall make a very short Apology for speaking and treating so harshly and personally contrary to my genius and reply to LexTalionis the Author of this Postscript had he not malitiously conspiringly and upon no provocation given nor upon any grounds raised such a defamation upon me in my own profession I should not have made the least reflection upon him Secondly because many ignorant and vain persons
understand not or at least take little or no notice of what is substantial 't was but just to take off by this way the scandal designedly cast upon me and to invalidate his conclusion as Lawyers do the testimonies of their adversaries by a lawfull recrimination Neither have I said more then was necessary for my own defence The rest and what I have said will shortly be made publick concerning his life and more fully and if I am not misinformed will render him the most notoriously ill natured as well as ill mannered man in this Nation especially in one that pretends to learning and who hath had University education He hath his hand against every man and therefore cannot in reason but expect that every mans hand will be against him And did I not confine my self to his Postscript I could shew multitude of absurdities impertinences falsities weak inferences wanton expressions and mistakes of his in some other writings of his I have read since the publication of his Campanella and this Postscript All which I doubt not but Mr. Glanvil will effectually and shortly perform And now I leave him to make publick what he pleaseth at Michaelmas Term when he is like to have other Irons in the fire Besides he may now perceive by a third Author a worthy member of our College and of the R. S. also who this day published some papers writ in the year 1664. at the request of several Fellows of the College of Physicians that many of us now have and have had the same thoughts touching the practice of Physic in England and invasion of our Art by Apothecaries and that they are more dangerous Enemies to our practice then all the others you mention Divines Quacks and Mountebanks c. I have seen several other treatises on the same subject which in time may come abroad too writ long since by those which are not members of the R. S. but of our College onely so that he will have work enough to derogate from the College and that this writing against me is written at least against many of the College and those not the meanest of that Corporation or famed body of men Whereas H S. doth in his last page so confound things and persons that I cannot tell to whom some passages relate Yet 't is manifest what ever he faith throughout hath reference to the Virtuosi and that therefore I may give full answer to all his Postscript I shall take notice of two things in the one he saith their Medicines are delusory and their new discoveries we very well knew before But this is said most insensibly and blindly in his own Language for how can any man know or judge of those Medicines made privately by a single person that they are delusory or were known before When 't is scarcely possible any man can know any of the ingredients themselves much less of the preparing and compounding them And how can H. S. tell who have or have not been conversant with the practice of the most eminent Physicians or read their Books when they intend not to tell him what their new discoveries are As to the second where he affirms Ordinary prudence would have foreseen the issue of those kinds of writings I speak thus in my view knowing that hereby a whole Company of men who by their number noice and tricks may be able to decry and Physician will become my implacable adversaries c. but not fearing the utmost their malice can invent or proclaim c. This I expresly foresaw that the Apothecaries were not able to answer the Book unless by the railing pen of a Lex Talionis which H. S. himself dislikes and 't was easy also for me to see that the Apothecaries would procure some mercinary pen to act their part of falsities and railings and that you were the onely person likely to perform this task for them all this I say I foresaw and foretold and much more concerning these writings as well as I did foretel in print the Fall of your Patron under the name of Hen. Vanus when he was in the prime of his prosperity a considerable time before the Kings return You conclude with a performance too great for the Merretts and the Sydenhams and never say what this performance is what you mean by the Sydenhams I know not but this I may modestly say that the Merretts can perform as much as the H S' ss or the Talion asses Observe Reader I will not any more be diverted by the Pens of either of them or their accomplices all whose notorious and illiterate malice their forgeries and falsities or impertinent answers I shall here after pass over without any other reply then that of a scornful silence as H. S. phraiseth it permitting him or them to ramble up and down in their impertinencies and pretended answers as he doth to the Plus Vltra and the History of the R. S. cavelling onely at some few passages in a large Book and sometimes setting up himfelf a man of clouts and so fighting with it and that is all you are to expect of him at Michaelmas Term against Dr. Goddard and my self One thing I had almost forgot to mention wherein perhaps he might assault my Book not spoken of in his Postscript but in his plus ultra viz. his commendation of the antient Medicines for this time let the Learned Zwelfer often commended by himself answer for me and when he hath answered him which is impossible to be done I shall in few sheets of paper make some Additions to what Zwelfer hath said on that Argument and for the future shall think it no disiepute to be detracted from by this Physician at Warwic who hath endeavoured to diminish my most honoured friends the ever renowned Dr. Harvey Mr. Boyl Dr. Willis Dr. Lower and the inquisitive sober and discreet persons Mr. Henshaw Mr. Evelyn c. and many other Famous men of our Nation And shall conclude with an admonition to the Apothecaries that 't is convenient for them to vindicate their reputation from the base titles of Wittals and Cuckolds cast upon their Company and to vindicate the College also from the slanders of their Lex Talionis and to give him just punishment and that they may have some ground for their search I shall give them some directions to find him out my information was by a person of Quality well acquainted with his hand writing who saw his directions for the Printing of it and hath often heard him speak the same Language comprised in that Book together with the merry and feigned stories in it if this be sufficient light for them to ground their discovery on he is a Brother Apothecary and shall be named unto them if the Company desire it by their Master and Wardens POSTSCRIPT DESIRETH the Reader to read in my view pag. 48. l. 17. Silver-smith and acquaints him that since there 's no end of Libelling he is to expect from me no more on this subject unless the Company of the Apothecaries or any other person or persons for them shall write upon the whole or any part of the view and transmit in writing under his or their hands objections or answers to some third person of known integrity who shall soon receive Dr. Merretts answer thereunto and shall publish all together and both parties conform to his instructions in the managery of this controversie so that some end may be put thereunto Which is the only fair way can in my opinion be taken in this affair July 14th 1670. FINIS ERRATA PAg. 20. l. 28. r. propositions p. 26. l. 13. r. importunings p. 29. l. 11. r. understands not and p. 31. l. 12. r. the event p. 33. l. 27. â— whither H. S. p. 36. l. 22. r. insensati