oftner concealing their Names whereas all that any way relates to Fevers which is the subject of his Book may be easily contained in Four I hope nothing herein is repugnant to Anatomy or Physiology in particular nor yet to any of the known Rules of Physick in general For smaller Matters wherein Men may have different Opinions without being in any great Errour I am not much concerned All who know me know also how far my Humour is from Boasting and I know my self how very good Reason I have so to be my Parts either Natural or Acquired being but very sober Yet I 'll boldly affirm that the Arguments here brought for Sudorificks are such as the Doctor shall never solve till Nature shall change her Course and as often Cure Fevers by Stool when left to her self as now she does by Sweating No doubt my Language will be Censured and I confess deservedly as Course and Barbarous I shall not labour to excuse it but shall only add some Three Things which may serve somewhat to Apologize for its Roughness First The Subject is such as altogether refuseth a handsome Dress For here I am not only obliged to adhere to and frequently use again the same Terms of Art which nevertheless found pretty harshly in our Mother Tongue but also I am necessitat to keep closs to the Author whom I endeavour to Refute so that I may say with the Poet Ornari res ipsa negat contenta doceri Secondly I resolved to Instruct not to Complement the Doctor therefore I was not scrupulous in choosing my Words providing they were proper and did express my meaning And Thirdly As I said before it was only the hasty product of some five or six idle Days while I was removed from that Assistance I might otherways have had both as to its Mater and Form Some perhaps may think it very unexcusable to obtrude upon the World a Book which I acknowledge to be so unpolished I readily confess that without any great Loss to Learning both the Vindicatory Schedule and this Defence might have been a wanting And had it not been for the one it should never have been troubled with the other But seing the Offence was given it was necessary to do somewhat to remove the Scandal And for as litle as this Answer may contain yet I hope by the Judicious and Learned it will be found a sufficient Refutation of the New Method As for the Vulgar I never esteemed their Applause however seing the very writing of a Book is enough to prevail with them otherways certainly the Vindicatory Schedule had never taken much who knows but this being the last may be thought the best Others may probably say Why do I now after the elapsing of near Three Years first give that Book an Answer To which I Reply That all along the V. S. displeased me and so much the more when I considered the Design upon which it was write which could be no other as to purchase a Name amongst the ignorant Vulgar and thereby to be the easilier twisted into the larger Imployment I was not a litle confirmed in this my Opinion when some short time after my Arival to the Kingdom in a Coffee-House the Vindicatory Schedule was shufled into my Hands I knew not the Author then neither do I yet but I instantly concluded him some empty Emperick who it not being the custom here as in London and elsewhere to affix their Libels and Advertisements to Posts and Corners did choose the next ordinary as well as effectual way of distributing it through Taverns and Coffee-houses I was heartily sorry that one who carried the Honourable Name of a Doctor in Physick should abase himself so far as to join Hands with the Scum of Mankind naughty Quacks who to cheat simple people of some Money do not care to rob them of their Lives This made me ever desirous that some person or other should Chastise the Author's Impudence as well as Ignorance And accordingly I am informed it was done I never having seen it my self in a very fit and the only deserved way in a Dialogue betwixt D. Brown and D. Black For a Book that contains neither Learning nor Reason should only be Answered with Mockry and Scorn Nevertheless the Doctor glorying in that which should have been his Shame insulted the more as if his Book were altogether unanswerable Therefore I thought it not amiss to give some Reasons why we imploy this Old and Reasonable Method Although the Authority and Experience of Physicians in all Ages might be proof enough against him who really for the Defence of his New Method brings no other Arguments as That he sayes it But farther that which engaged me at this time was this A Fortnight ago being in the Company of a Grave and Judicious Minister who as he is a near Relation of the Doctor 's so he is a great Admirer of his New Method Where among other things happening to speak of the Doctor and his Book and he observing me not much to value it did freely offer to lend me for it seems the Author is careful to disperse them the V. S. with the Two Letters I having told him that I had never seen only heared thereof thereby designing perhaps to proselite me And some few Days after I being obliged as I said before to attend a Week in an Honourable Family did for my Divertisement write this Answer and return the Books to their worthy Owner But now I think I may be at the Expence to Buy the Book which I have been at the pains to Confute for to this moment I do not possess it I have altogether shunned personal Reflections for I love to speak of things freely but of persons honourably And if any person either of the one party or other shall be herewith offended I shall be extremely grieved For all that I say is only for love of the Truth I noways inclining to engage in any Man 's privat Quarrel Only that Attestation annexed to the Tail of his Book I cannot away with For surely any knowing Man will think these Persons though otherways sensible and intelligent very unfit Judges in such a Case yea I say that both Doctor Brown and I ought to give Ear when such Eminent Men as Doctor Burnet and Doctor Bruce speak I have the Honour to be Acquaint with Sir Thomas Burnet and I remember he was pleased to inform me that it was not a Fever but an other Distemper which then afflicted the honourable Person And as his great Candor and Ingenuity will never suffer him to be capable of making a Lye so his great Learning and Knowledge in Physick do abundantly free him from the necessity of flying to any such base and mean Refuge And now to draw to a Close if the D. shall think this Defence worthy of any Reply I hope he will also grant me the following Requests otherways I 'le hardly think my self obliged to return him any Answer
A Brief Defence Of the Old and Succesful METHOD Of CURING Continual Fevers In Opposition to Doctor BROWN And his Vindicatory Schedule Quae ducere oportet quo maxime vergant eo ducenda per loca convenientia Hip. S1 A. 21. Concocta purgare movere oportet non cruda neque in principiis nisi turgeant Plurima vero non turgent Idem S1 A. 22. Quo magis adstrictam illi alvum prastitero tanto magis eum extra periculi aleam colloco Sydenham de Febr. Cont. P. 29. EDINBVRGH Printed by George Mosman and are to be Sold at his Shop in the Parliament Closs M. DC XCIV To the RIGHT HONOURABLE Sir Robert Sinclair OF STEVÈNSTOUN SHIRREFF of the Shire of Haddingtoun And One of the Members of Their Majesties most Honourable PRIVY COUNCIL Right Honourable MY Design in presenting to you this Small and Mean Essay is neither to keep it or my self from Censure nor yet to take occasion to divulge your Praises As for the former it is ordinarly spoke in a Complement without all Cause and passeth as such without any Effect For it neither preserveth the Author from Reproach nor the Book from an Answer when any of them are deserved And if I intended to do the latter I could hardly say that which would be thought too litle to such as know you but I must of necessity run the risk of being esteemed a Flaterer by them who are neither acquaint with you nor your excellent Enduements and great Desert My purpose is only to shew both to your self and others how sensible I am of the manifold Favours I have received at your Hands in a Countrey where I was a Stranger and you are amongst the Gentlemen the most eminent Yea further you may challenge some Right to it as a Domestick it being both Conceived and brought Forth within your Walls while I had the Honour to attend your incomparable Lady and some of your excellent Children Take it then Sir as an Evidence of my Gratitude Thankfulness and yet be pleased to Honour him with your Favour and Friendship whose great Ambition it is to Subscribe himself Right Honourable Your most Humble and much Obliged Servant James Forrest The Preface IT may be thought no small Presumption in me a Stripling to enter the Lists with this Man of Gath he being a seven Years older Physician as I am a Man For in the 36 page of Philander's Second Letter published two Years ago he boasteth himself to have been a Physician for near thirty Years whereas I as yet have never seen Twenty six Summers However I shall say no more for my Vindication in this But that if I chance to Over-come my Victory will be the more Glorious and if it be my ill Luck to be Foiled the Cause for which I Fight will suffer the less prejudice he being one of the Youngest as well as Meanest of its Patriots who hath undertaken the Defence I am more solicitous to satisfy my Reader why I whose young Years small Experience and weak Ability might have been a sufficient Disswasive from such an Attempt Do yet nevertheless undertake That which seems to have been declined by far abler Pens And my Reasons are the following Two First I thought it not unfit that so weak a Brother as I am should enter the Combat that so the World seeing what can be done against him by so mean and obscure an Author might thereby judge what would have been the Event if any of the more Learned had engaged in the Quarrel Yea I looked on the Book which I was to consider as altogether unworthy the spare Hours of an experienced Man And I was afraid lest it might give the Doctor too just cause of Boasting if any other as a young Physician had given him an Answer Secondly My Resentments for Learning in general and for Physick in particular are so great that I could hardly think to see any of them suffer so much as they both do by the Vindicatory Schedule without endeavouring my outmost to procure its Relief from his rapacious Hands who providing his own Interest may be advanced careth not suppose it be upon the Ruines of all others yea of Learning it self I am abundantly sensible with how much greater Advantage it could have been managed by any other Man whatsomever But I think when a House is on Fire it becometh the weakest therein to do what he can to extinguish the Flames It was no vain Conceit of my own Knowledge my Pretensions to Learning being as few as my Right can be small that prompt me to undertake this youthly Essay I had far rather had the satisfaction to have seen it well done by others as to have run the least hazard of either wronging it or exposing my self However albeit I have not the Happiness to be Learned my self yet I have the Equity both to value it and such as profess it Nor yet was it any contradicting Humour or prejudice at It or its Author that caused me prosecute the undertaken Design For I know no honest nor ingenuous Man who will not embrace a Truth especially in Physick Vbi luditur de corio humano albeit presented by a mean Hand Seing the ordinary Proverb tells us and Reason with daily Experience confirms it That a Fool may give a Wise-man Counsel at a time So that if either Reason or Experience could perswade us of the Advantage the New Method hath to the Old nothing should deterr us at least me from its thankful Acceptance and constant Practice I ever having and I hope with God's Assistance still shall preferred the Safety of my Patient and the quiet of my Conscience not only to my Gain and Advantage but even to my Credit and Reputation I am so far from promising either Advantage or Esteem to my self by this small and abortive Essay That had it not been my design to leave the Countrey in a short time it had never seen Light And were it not to take all occasion of Glorying from my Antagonist as if I durst not discover his Adversary I had concealed my Name I know there is so litle either of Learning or Experience therein that perhaps I may only hereby discover my Weakness to some who had conceived a better Opinion of my Studies as ever they deserved Nay it cannot otherways be it being begun and ended in some Five or Six Days when I was obliged to attend in an Honourable Family and so was denied that help I might otherways have expected from my Books Neither could I afterwards have the time or be at the pains to lick my own Bleeding and untimous Birth but suffered it to creep into the World in the same dress in which it had slipped from my negligent Pen. If it be not good I have given as litle of it as possibly I could noways imitating Doctor Brown who hath transcribed a large Book consisting of 14 Sheets besides Dedication and Prefaces from Authors sometimes expressing but
ordinary and which he in his Treatise de Curand Febr Con. had both practised himself and commended to others And by this time I think it is clear how little reason D. Brown hath to boast of Sydenhams Authority No it is a meer Fiction of D. Browns to apply to all occasions what D. Sydenham meaned only of particular Constitutions How can D. Brown think to impose upon us at this rate he must thinke us all very negligent and so we do not read or else very ignorant and so cannot understand what we do Read Truly it seems we must be both according to his Calculation But grant D. Sydenham were of this mind as it is clear he is not what then does follow For we all know and believe that no honest nor ingegenuous Man will wittingly and wilingly cheat or deceive yet we count it no Heresy to think and say both that out of ignorance and uncircumspectness he may What concerns the unparalelled danger he was saved from I fear least in using that as a cogent Argument the Doctor prove himself as ill a Divine as all along in his Book he he appears to be a Physician There being no doubt but that Gods good Providence is still Exercised about all things good as well as bad permiting and suffering them to his own wise and good ends and small as well as great Yet that special acts of preservation will either prove the person himself or the end for which he is preserved to be good in its self for I know and believe that God does nothing but what some way or other tends to his own Glory as also to His Peoples Good eventually as the permitting of an Impostor c. and intentionally is a thing which I very much doubt For we know they are the Wicked who prosper in their way while the Righteous are chastened every Morning And suppose he and all the Episcopal Clergy in the Kingdom should Swear that the French King's Deliverance from his Fistula was for some good end and great benefit to Mankind yet I shall ever look on him as the Scourge of the True Reformed Religion which God at length will I hope cast into the Fire And by this way of Reasoning the Doctor will answer Epicmus his Objection against Providence Cur males benè bonis malè by granting the whole It is no small Evidence of the Doctor 's desperate Cause when he flies to such Arguments for the maintenance thereof as the Commendations bestowed by Learned Men upon the person whom he would perswade us though falsely to be the Author thereof But especially considering that these Encomiums were given before the Hypothesis was known For Etmuller died at Lypsick Anno 1683. Sponius write his Epistle An 1681. Dalaeus his Encyclopaedia An 1685. Whereas the Schedula Monitoria never saw Light till the Year 1687. If then there be any strength in that Argument as I think there is none it militates intirely against the New Method Their Commendations being given upon account of the old professed and practised in his Book de Meth Curand Febr the Schedula Monitoria not being at that time published Doctor Morton is indeed a Great Man and deservedly esteemed by our Author for his excellent Treatise written formerly de Pihisi as also for his late Book de Febribus wherein as I am informed I not having indeed perused it as yet which I am almost ashamed to profess he does noways follow our Doctor 's New Method which is no great proof of his overvaluing it Nevertheless upon other Scores he might and that deservedly too applaude D. Sydenhame Concerning these Excellent Men Goodall Harris c. I have nothing to say but perhaps it might be that in some Epidemick and Anomalous Fever they did find that Method successful and so did imploy it But surely therefore it must not be applyed to all And now I think I have sufficiently Answered our Doctor 's Arguments as also confirmed the contrary Hypothesis Yet there remains one which both in his Books but especially among his Admirers and Patients he principally insists on viz. His great and successful Experience This is a thing the greatest Empericks boast most of yea they will hardly grant a Patient ever to have died in their Hands I have nothing to say against Experience it self it being with Reason the Foundation of Physick Neither will I here in an English Book discover the Fraud of some Mens Experience but I will offer to the Reader 's and the Doctor 's Consideration the Five following Things 1. I wish the Doctor were as ingenuous to tell us how many Died as he is careful to publish how many Recovered by this his New Method 2. To one I can oppose a hundred not only of such as were Cured by Old and Antiquated Physicians but of such as live and practise in this very Age. 3. As blessed be God all our Patients do not Die so neither I suppose do all the Doctor 's Recover And surely if any of these two were it would be a far more effectual mean to gain the Doctor Imployment as his writing of the Vindicatory Schedule No Thanks be to the Physician of Souls we have no reason to complain 4 How many persons Recover not only when no Mean is used but even when that which is certainly Evil is applyed So that a litle success in a few Patients deserves not the Name of sound Experience in Physick Especially when 5. we are sometimes right uncertain whether the Apothecary hath rightly dispensed or the Patient rightly used that which the Physician prescribed None of which Doubts are without all ground as too frequent Experience tells us and I could easily evince But I have no Inclination to discover my Father's Nakedness As for what he brings in the 14 Sect. for corroborating his Theory of Fevers from the Helpers and Hurters c. as things of small Moment and savouring nothing save Ignorance in Anatomy and Physiology I pass them As also the Solutions he gives of Difficulties moved against it are of the same Mettal as hath clearly been shewn in his Account of Sanguification Chylification c. Only it deserves the Reader 's Attentation that Page 77. where he proposeth that true and most probable Method as he is pleased to call it I find mention and only mention of Paregoricks without any Advertisement how and when they ought to be used albeit of all Medicaments whatsomever they should be advised with the greatest Cautions I shall neither insist on them nor their use They be these unto which both he and we are forced to flie when other Refuges fail And they be of two sorts First Such as either by obtunding the Acrimony of the Humours or laxing the Tone of the Fibers do really mitigate the Pain by removing somewhat the Cause and they are commonly called Auodyns And the others are these who do not remove the Cause but lay it a sleep and renders it quiet by stupefying the Senses and they go under the Name of Narcoticks Concerning the first or Anodyns there is here no question they being frequently applied outwardly But for Narcoticks I cannot conceive upon what account he adviseth them in Fevers except when Symptoms grievously urge unless it be to stop critical Evacuations there being hardly any thing which does it more happily And if this be a good Design whatever the Doctor may pretend let the World judge Now to shut up all I shall lay down a brief Scheme of that Method which we dayly and Blessed be God with good Success practise and I have been here labouring to defend I say a brief one for I noways pretend to play the Dictator but only to shew in few words what it is I have been wrestling for Yea there are so many Circumstances and Accidents which both may and frequently do occurr and fall out about feverish Persons that they make it absolutly impossible to commit all to Paper what a skilled and judicious Physician will find expedient When then called to a Patient in the First Second or Third Day after he hath found a Coldness and Grewing through his whole Body which is ordinarly accompanied with or at least is shortly after followed with a Pain in the Head and Lassitude of the whole together with a frequent Pulse red and thick Urine great Thirst dejection of Appetite Watching Heat c. By which we easily conjecture a Fever to infest I say when called to such a Patient immediatly if his Age Sex Evacuations suppressed kind of Life c. do allow we advise Bleeding more or less as the several Circumstances permit however if need so require we think it still safer to evacuate at different times as all at once But the Prohibents exceeding the Permittents it ought to be totally neglected After that if the Patient hath been or is yet troubled with Nauseating Rifting c. a Vomiter providing nothing disswading the same be present is next advised And then through the whole Course of the Cure our principal aim is levelled at the Continent or Conjunct Cause of the Disease which by giving Inciders and Aperients ever till we observe the Signs of Coction in the Urine we labour to Incide and Digest Which Signs appearing with stronger Sudorificks we assist Nature endeavouring its own Liberation and so we bring the Malady to a Crisis or rather Lysis In the mean time we neither neglect the consideration of the Strength according to the second Axiom Nor yet do we forget the Antecedent Cause as is in the first but partly by Clysters partly by Laxants given at the Mouth we absorbe and cleanse the first Ways and so prevent the further accumulating of Crudities which by running into the Mass of the Blood might increase the Fever And while these are a doing with proper and fit Medicaments we provide yet even sometimes as it is in the fifth Axiom with the neglect of the primary Disease against the urgent Symptoms such as Thirst Watching c. After this Method God assisting we Cure Tutò Citò Jucunde FINIS