of all the most usefull Laborers in this Faculty but should I revolve and repeat the History of time past from the time of Paracelsus how he was abused by Erastus and by almost all the Academian Professors throughout Germany and how tyrannically that sort of men behaved themselves towards him and afterwards how they in most of the Universities and great Cities of Europe persecuted his very memory and all such as being enlightned by his Labors did follow his way for discovery of better Medicine down to the year 1603 at which time the laborious famous Quercetan and Sr. Tbeodore de Mayerne were both of them in two several publick Sentences of the Academian Professors and whole Colledge of Physicians in Paris printed by their Order condemned and in positive terms the whole Art it self of Chymistry as men not only unworthy to be consulted with by the Physicians of that Colledge especially Mayerne declaring him an unlearned impudent drunken mad fellow exhorting all Nations to abominate them both and banish them and the like practisers out of their Territories as Monsters of mankind And threatning all the fellows of that Colledge that if they consult with either of them about any Patient they shall be deprived of all priviledge belonging to their Colledge Which is also at this day one great mystery made use of by our London-Collegiates whereby they resolve to correspond only with each other in hope to ingross the Trade among themselves supposing the name of a Colledge must needs carry away the reputation from all other Physicians if they deny upon occasion to consult with them because they are none of the Colledge O fine Confederacy now good people look to your Purses But what I pray you became of Quercetan and Mayerne after this You may read their Sentences published at large in that unanswerable Book called Medela Medicinae which was written by Dr. Marchamont Nedham eleven years ago where he tells you that for all this the one of those Condemned persons became famous in France the Kings Chief Physician and lived to see that Colledge repent of their folly and their Successors become admirers of those Chymical Books and Remedies which they had so rashly damned The other viz. Mayerne became Physician to two Kings of England and two of France and left a name of great wealth and honour behind him Now by these things you may understand what a wondrous precious thing an All-wise Colledge may be in any Noble City and what Advancers of the Art of Curing if either damning and suppressing laborious Improvers or the inthroning of Arrogance and such a course of Study and sort of Learning as is impertinent to Physick can effect it 3. The third Pretence is because I am not one of or with their Colledge I confess I am not nor will I ever be There are good store of the best Physians about Town that are of the same mind and they have their Reasons for it which upon occasion they will produce I also have my Reasons part of which may be pickt out of what I have already said And to accept a License from them is to acknowledge a power which I am not satisfied they have or ought to have seeing that if as I said before we revolve the transactions of time past t is to be found upon Record that such Collegiate Establishments or Corporations of Physick have been the great hinderers of the progress of this Art throughout all Europe and still are which hath made the most ingenious Scholars which are Laborers and Inquirers in the Universities and Capital Cities of all the Countries where I have travelled sigh and swell with indignation to see how their most laudable endeavours are discountenanced and calumniated by that sort of Medicasters because they out-do and shame them by diligence and 't is to be lamented there hath been so little hope to see a through Reformation in this Faculty both as to the manner of men's education for it the full freedom of its Professors and the dismantling of those Societies the natural tendency of whose power hath ever been as I can prove in facto to tyrannie over their Brethren and monopoly of the Art It may be soberly inquired in Cicero's Language Cui Bono To what end are they continued now having been erected in the old time of ignorance when Physick and other Sciences were at a stand and all the world brutishly and tamely acquiesced in Notions received from the Greeks and Arabians and did set up their Hercules Pillars with a Nil ultra But hear what that most learned Lord Bacon said in the Book of Advancement of Learning I dare saith he confidently avouch that the wisdom we have extracted chiefly from the Grecians is but a Childhood of knowledge And he further saith thus Medicine therefore hath been such hitherto as hath been more professed than labored and yet more labored than advanced seeing the pains bestowed therein hath been more in Circle than in Progression for I find much Iteration but small addition in the writers of that Faculty And to the same purpose writes Dr. Mar. Nedham in Medela Medicinae in these words I may safely say that there hath been more of importance done for the advancement of Physick since my Lord Bacon wrote his Book than ever was done in the world before For in former time men contented themselves with the little skill that was left them by others making no progress but ran a round in commenting upon the Greeks and Arabs as the Oracles of Physick and usually one Commentator hath stolen out of another so that you have but the same dish of Crambe new cook't And if you have but one of the most voluminous you have all Therefore in the former Age it might be easie enough the Art it self being fixt and staked down to certain Points Maxims or Rules to set down Rules also how to judge the Professors and with some colour of Reason condemn that for Male practise which answered not to the Doctrine of their Rulers But in this Age when the faculty of Physick is so vastly diffused and fresh discoveries of Physical preparation and of Doctrine touching the nature of Diseases are daily made that any sort of Practisers should be Authorised as Judges to determine who is a good or a bad Practiser when they can have no certain Rules to judge them by or perhaps they understand not the nature of the Medicines used though they be told of the Preparation or perhaps they will out of envy or hatred to such Physicians decrie what is more excellent as they have done heretofore this seems to be against the very Reason Interest and end of Government And therefore without all question the abolishment of a nipping domination over the growth of the Art of Physick in the hands of a few Ingrossers in Collegiate Societies will in a short time be judged by the Princes and Estates of Europe to be most necessary the exercise of
from the Clergie by which and my other Advantages in Law I question not to be abundantly able to justifie my self self and my practice against my malicious persecutors A Fourth Circumstance that may lead a man to believe it no Statute ariseth by the success of the late grand attempt which the Colledge-men made in the year 1663. when they presented an Address unto this Parliament now in being to pass a Bill they had prepared not only for confirmation of the Powers contained in their former supposed Statute but for enlargement of them also to such a monstrous magnitude as is almost incredible insomuch that the honourable Committee to whom the house of Commons had referred the Bill and thereupon to report to the house their Opinion after a full hearing of the Counsel that appeared for all parties both Physicians and others were so well satisfied of the monstrosity of their demands that they dismissed the Colledge-men re infecta who retuned home with a flea in their ears and have ever since been wondrous quiet till of late upon pretence of I know not what new Chimaeraes they begin again to be troublesome yea I have been informed that after the Committee had had many daies patience to admit a full Scrutiny into the nature of their Cause there appeared on the last day none on the Colledge side but two of their own fellows who had on this occasion acted as Sollicitors so that one of the Lawyers employed by the defendants had the pleasure to observe how ill a Cause it was seeing their own Lawyers declined to appear any more in the Business So there was an end of it all being dismissed by the honourable Committee Yet the men do boast and would give the Parliament as I hear new trouble But 't is possible others may be beforehand with them there with Reasons to desire a Reformation and to remonstrate the miserable estate into which Physicians and the Art it self have in all times been reduced and would be in the future for want of improvement if those men might have their way of domination I can here challenge them and do in the view of the world to nominate any one particular of improvement that their Society hath made in the Art of curing since their first Incorporation and I will prove the contrary As for their pretensions of discoveries in Anatomie if they insist upon them I am readie to prove they have done nothing in all their Anatomick Theatres which may conduce to better Cure and no more than what may serve the Salta-di-Banco's upon a Stage it being the last part they have to play or trick to shew to entertain Spectators and amuse the world to uphold some Repute among such as are ignorant and draw on Customers so that it is wonderfull to see how many even of the Nobility and Gentry as well as the Citizens are taken by this sort of trick the Mock-shews of pretended discovery by Anatomy But how little is to be expected from such Actors that honourable Gentleman Mr. Boyle tells you in his Book of Experimental Philosophy where he saith he doth not see wherein by any of those new discoveries any thing hath been done to better the Cure of Diseases You may take his word And if the Masters of the stage please to justifie themselves I will in publick evidence they have done nothing by it worth a straw beyond what was done by the Antients Yet know withal I reverence so much of Anatomie as is necessary and half a years time spent in it is enough to fit any Physician or Chirurgian for practice The new Nicities serve for nought but ostentation and discourse But as for noble Medicaments the Rulers and Leaders among them have I will make it evident by almost forty years observation made it their business to stifle or else discredit them and discourage the Practisers or downright abuse and vex them under pretence of law though these are the sort of men to whom the world have in this Age been obliged as I can by instances make appear for the delicacie easiness and improvement of Medicine But I would not be too large to tire the Reader therefore I proceed 2. Their Second pretence of Suit against me is that I am a Chymist This some persons have told me that had it from some of their own mouths Upon this Point I answer that it is my glory to be a Chymist though among some ignorant of all Science and others not skilled in this it is hardly thought of and the only reason is this because the other sort of Physicians and their Agents being either wholly ignorant or at best but dablers in it do count it their interest to cry out and clamor against it to fright the weaker persons lest the experience of its excellency should detect their own ignorance and insufficiency and thereby annihilate their reputation and profit among the People But they may do well to remember that in the beginning of the year 1665 when some worthy Physicians endeavoured and had countenance from many of the chiefest of the Nobility who gave their approbation to an instrument in writing under their hands for the erecting of a new Society of Physicians for the advancement of Physick by Chymical Medicaments and Practice as easiest safest and most effectual for Cure of his Majesties Subjects one of the Arts then used by the Collegiates to prevent the setting up of this Society was immediately to put on a pretence that they also are Chymists and make and use those Remedies as much as any and this pretence they sometimes take up when they happen to be conversant among any ingenious persons that are knowing in this Art But on the other hand if they chance to light into Practice among people ignorant of the Art and who also are either religiously or naturally melancholy and consequently timerous suspitious and apt to entertain their Suggestions then they work on the dark side secretly whisper and blaspheme this noble way of Medicine as dangerous and as such that though it cure one disease at present yet it leaves a root of ill behind which after long time if not shortly springs up into the same or some worse disease so that by such little Arts as these they and their Agents do play on both sides to uphold a tottering Reputation which is now almost down and will be quite ere long the eyes of the world being opened every day more and more to discover them and the Mystery of their Craft In this matter know I do not include all of that Society but 't is the usual practice of a prevailing party among those few fellows thereof who rule all And now seeing I so often mention that Society know that the Government of it is not managed by the ablest and the most learned But by such as grow up in Seniority of entrance as Fellows be they wise or unwise And to shew the world how much a few do
it having hitherto been the great Impediment of the Progress of Medicine But if things be thus what then shall be next Is it fit all should be at liberty I answer yes for the present but not without Government Let such as do amiss answer for it at the Laws A Government ought to be But seeing men as Physicians for the foregoing Reasons cannot make certain Laws or Rules whereby to judge one another the Government of this Profession till the King and Parliament be at leisure to reform the matter may be left in general to the Laws of the Land It seems to be one of the most unreasonable things in the world and nothing I think can be more destructive to the Liberty of the Subject or make a man more miserable than that if he be sick he should not with freedom use what Physician he believes can best cure him but he must be limited to an accepting of such or such a one of such a Company or else can have none that he phansies but the man shall be molested perhaps undone for doing the sick service and all under a supposal of avoiding thereby the use of bad Physick among the people The vanity of which Supposal and the security of mankind thereby hath already here in part been discover'd and will be much more before the end of this Discourse in shewing of how pernicious a consequence it hath been to Physick to inthrone a few Physicians to Lord it over all the rest Wherefore if the whole Body of Physicians here in this City be really the Physicians of London Why may they not being part of the City be taken hereafter under the City Government Be obliged to take Apprentices such young men as have taken degrees in other Arts at some University who when they have served their time at work under a City-Physician may then be made a free Practiser of London Such a populous City is the only place being a Theatre of all Diseases wherein to breed up men Physicians indeed such as may practise with real knowledge not fill the world with Cobwebs of idle speculations and notions as men of the old way of Education are wont to do and which may furnish his Majesties Armies and Fleets Royal with Physicians as the Society of Chirurgerie do with Chirurgians and be content to submit to a Law that if they run away from the City in the time of Plague or depart without special License of Authority to forfeit their freedom of Practise therein any more This alteration may seem uncouth at the first mention but should it be established by publick Authority the consequence would be that the City would not be so basely deserted in the time of its necessity and few could incurr having been thus bred any suspicion of ignorance in the Art which is now made the pretence of a great Clamor by the Collegiates against many ingenious men whose first Education in the world was not in this Art but afterwards betook themselves to learn it in the most proper way of learning which is by labor and have soon out-strip't the Scholasticks in right knowledge of the Materia Medica to the comfort of many thousands of his Majesties poor Subjects many of which have been left by the collegiates who might else have perisht for want of a purse to run through the tedious methods and means of that Adverse party But to avoid Calumnie because they seek every occasion to sow it know that in this I plead not on the behalf of any Impostors or real ignorants I only point out a way of better Education for Practice which may prevent all Ignorants in the future as far as by the wit of man they may possibly be prevented in this Profession In the mean time till this which I here humbly mention or some better establishment be thought of by others more able it would be happy for the Art if Certificates of a Physician 's having lived in good reputation for his manners and Practice may be accepted as a sufficient evidence of his ability and fitness to be licensed either by the reverend Clergie according as is directed in the first Statute of the 3d year of Henry 8th which never was yet repealed or else by some other persons not Physicians as by Authority shall be thought meet Ratione Legis cessante cessat ipsa Lex If in former time a King and his Parliament had reason to enact such a Statute the very being of which as a Statute hath yet been a question among some eminent Lawyers nevertheless the condition of the very Art and all the affairs of Physick being so altered as is before declared and so many Reasons lying now against the continuation it is not in the least doubted by the ingenious and laborious improvers of Medicine that when the same Authority shall be rightly inform'd of these things in a full and clear Remonstrance which may be presented to them they will see reason abundant for the repealing of that Statute of the 14th of Henry the 8th if it be one and enact such a form of Government as may conduce to the improvement of the Art and the general comfort of the people 4. Their Fourth pretence of Suit against me is that I have refused to leave off Practising as a Doctor There is such adoe about this Feather in the Cap call'd Doctor of Physick that I often wish it might be despised by the People If they knew so well as I do of how slight esteem it is beyond Sea and how easie to be gained so many would not dote as they have done upon many that run loose from being Schoolmasters or Preachers in England to be made Doctors at Leyden and the like places beyond-Sea and by reading a few Books and prating intrude into a Calling which is not to be acquired but by years of labour and studie of Experimental not School-philosophy Such talking Book-Doctors the world is too full of and too many of them have crept in from time to time to be Principal Fellows of the Colledge here of whose names you may ere long have a Catalogue to which they have been and are admitted upon producing a Diploma which is a Parchment and publick Seal of some forein University and the answering of a few questions about Doctrine and Method and because Leyden in Holland hath been a fruitful Mother of such English Brats too many of which are now dominering among us they are by our own University-men in scorn called Leaden Doctors But the fittest name for all Physicians that thus slightly by the Book enter upon the Stage of the World from our own or forein Universities to Practice is the due word of distinction Book-Doctors For it is Galen's own Expression Duobus Cruribus innitimur quotidiana inspectione experientia c. we Physitians saith he do stand upon two Legs viz. daily Inspection and Experience But of the Book-practitioners he saith they are like those that take upon them