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ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A33546	The uncertainty of the art of physick together with an account of the innumerable abuses practised by the professors of that art, clearly manifested by a particular relation of the original and progress thereof : also divers contests between the Greeks and Arabians concerning its authors / written in Italian by the famous Lionardo di Capoa ; and made English by J.L., Gent.; Ragionamenti intorno alla incertezza de' medicamenti. English	Di Capua, Lionardo, 1617-1695.; J. L. (John Lancaster)	1684 (1684)	Wing C481; ESTC R12934	42,783	114

less sublime a Poet than Philosopher doubting that he should not otherwise be able to infuse into Acron his Scholar evident and indisputable Arguments for the Mutations of Nature wholly forsook the Rational and with his utmost Endeavours applied himself solely to advance the most ancient Empirical Physick which was afterwards brought to perfection by Philinus Serapion and other most famous Physicians whose Followers always strove to ruine and reduce to nothing all the other Sects Nor must I conceal that some are of Opinion That Acron gave the first Beginning to Empirical Physick whilst others say That Philinus the Son of Erophilus and some yet That Serapion was indeed the Inventor and Founder thereof Thus by degrees were the different Companies of Physicians multiplied every one with all his force contending to defend his own Party and overthrow the rest when in the time of Pompey the Great there sprang up with Asclepiades another most famous and most illustrious Faction This not only ascended to a sublime degree of Eloquence as some vainly think but prevailed much also both in Philosophy and Physick as may well be gathered from the Writings of Celius Aurelianus and others who report some of their Sentences But I my self am at last grown weary of turning over so great a variety of Factions and Schools which since I have purposed to recount passing over at present the less Famous I shall only touch upon the more considerable as I have hitherto done and in the mean time I must beg your excuse if to bring my intent I shall be somewhat long in my Discourse I say then following my begun Harangue That not far from or even in the very time of Pompey the Great against both the Empirical and Rational Physick started up Themison with his new Inventions who as he rejected the Sentiments of all others so would also give his School a different Name calling it from his brief clear and well-ordered Discourse Methodical But this also did the most Eloquent Antonius Musa the Scholar of Themison no less by his own Learning and Industry than by the Authority of Octavius Caesar cause Proteus-like to change its Form Yet was it not long for all this ere the Methodical Sect got up again by the assistance of Vectius Valens Physician to the Emperor Claudius and Gallant to his Wife the Empress Messalina Afterwards it mounted to an exceeding height being in a great measure restored by Thessalus Physician to Nero who would therefore have arrogated to himself all the Glory of inventing it as may be seen in that Epistle which he writes to the same Emperor wherein he begins to say thus I having now established a new Sect which alone has first discovered all Truth forasmuch as all those who have heretofore practised Physick could not find out any thing that was available either for the curing of Diseases or the preserving of Health And in fine this Sect was not long after compleated and brought to perfection by Soranus of Ephesus But of how happy a wit and of what profound Knowledg the Inventors of this sort of Physick were with the whole Company of innumerable Followers we may partly perceive by what is related in those Books of Celius Aurelianus that are come to our hands and also by what Galen and other Authors have written of them tho' sparingly enough And certainly Themison was sufficiently commended by Pliny and his Name adorned with the glorious Adjunct of Chief Physician And Thessalus by his Sagacity and Advisedness wrought himself so far into the good Grace and Favor of the Emperor Nero a Prince tho' extream cruel yet very intelligent that he became his intimate and familiar Friend and got so much the better of the Physicians his Contemporaries that he deserved to have engraven on his Sepulchre that famous Inscription 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 And a famous Physician of our time altho' a Rational and Galenist could not as it is related by Prosper Alpinus forbear in speaking of him to say thus much to his Commendation I could wish the Books he wrote de Communitatibus Synchreticis were now extant for by the Fragments which some have cited he appears to be a most acute and learned Author But whither I do find my self transported without having made mention of the most famous Clinias of Marseilles who in despite of Thessalus and all other Methodists gave beginning to another sort of new Physick never before heard of And why amongst such an heap of Physicians do I let pass the most wary Charmis who was also of Marseilles and Founder of another new and strange way of Curing This man was endowed with such high and noble parts that he introduced his new and marvellous Doctrine into Rome with most happy Presages and to such an height arrived the Belief of his rigorous and strange Inventions that in a small time the chief of the Senate were at his disposal They governed Fate saith Pliny of the said Physicians Into which City suddenly Charmis got coming from Massilia and not only condemned the former Physicians but also perswaded his Patients to bathe in cold water in the midst of winter O the Efficacy of the Art of Medicinal Perswasion to which all other force of Eloquence must of necessity give place He plunged his sick Patients into Lakes of cold water and we have seen ancient persons of Consular dignity shivering and chattering with their teeth even to ostentation Thus sprang up and continued Physick until the time of the most curious Claudius Galen of Pergamus whose Fame is known to every one He joyning to his natural disposition Geometry Astronomy Logick and all other Sciences which he judged either useful or necessary to a Physician and being encouraged by the perswasions of his Father who as he himself tells us was stimulated thereunto by various Dreams and Visions from the Gods underwent most grievous fatigues by reason of his continual Labours and Watchings undertaking long and difficult Voyages subject to many and those not ordinary Dangers that he might attain to a more than usual Eminence in that Art wherein he caused himself to be instructed by the most famous Masters of those times if we will give credit to his own Relation about it But he indeed was not crafty and malicious as some other Greek Physicians but sincere and of very great Morality In matters of Philosophy he would never tye himself to the opinions of any other always declaiming against that Custom as blameable and unworthy a Philosopher and protested That in following the documents of Hippocrates whom he always regarded as the chief and principal Master of the Art that he did not look upon his words as proceeding from a credible Evidence but from a Demonstrator only that is That he did not give any Credit to the sayings of Hippocrates but to the Reasons brought by him And therefore where he could conveniently do it he failed not now and then maliciously to discover some of his

thereof as it may when kept within the limits of experience and our although weak Reason be perhaps of some help to the publick So on the contrary whenever it happens to decline to a sinister path it proves more dangerous and destructive to Mankind than Diseases themselves And no sooner were the unhappy Accidents that had befaln some sick persons and for which the Chimical Medicines were accused made known to his Excellency but he immediately ordered That we should with the greatest diligence imaginable apply our selves to search out a Remedy for such Misfortunes and also to prescribe unto Physicians where there is need certain secure and solid Rules to be observed in their Practice But whenever ruminating with my self I reflect upon the Numerosity and Quality of the Difficulties there are in such an Attempt finding likewise as many in my self I remain confused and at a stand either because it so happens in all other affairs of great Consideration or that the nature of this Art not bearing it it seems exceeding hard and difficult to give Laws to the things appertaining thereunto I should therefore rather chuse without any more ado by my silence to free my self from trouble did I not know that I should thereby contravene his Commands whose not only Requests but even Signs I ought without any Reply and with awful Reverence to obey By which as also by the Benefit that may perhaps thence redound to my Country being incited I willingly enter the Lists Now to the end every Deliberation or Resolution that is to be taken in this matter may not prove altogether vain and unprofitable I shall employ all the strength of my weak Understanding Discoursing in the first place of the Difficulties whereinto not only Princes and Magistrates but also the wisest and most intelligent Physicians have oftentimes fallen in giving permanent and certain Laws to Medicine an Art of its own nature in the highest degree uncertain dubious and inconstant Then afterwards gradually and with sober advice penetrating more inwardly we will purpose as far as the Nature of the thing will suffer the way to make a good Physician and a better Chimist Nor do I at present remember any other Remedy that may be able and fit to repair the perpetual and almost fatal Calamities of Physick And to begin with the most ancient Memoirs setting aside how short a time continued in India Babylonia and Assyria their device of lodging the Sick on the most frequented Roads of the Country to have them cured by Travellers In Egypt where all the Arts and more Noble Studies first came to light and flourished only the Kings Priests and some few of the chief Nobility were permitted to give Physick to the sick whence by Manethon were reckoned amongst the Physicians of most profound Judgment Antotides the second King of the first Dynasty of the Tinites who wrote some Books of Anatomy and Tosoretrus of the third Dynasty which was that of the Memphitians But afterwards in process of time this Profession grew common also with the Multitude and so much was the Number of Physicians increased that for every Distemper there was appointed a particular Physician who was permitted to cure no other as is testified by Herodotus Father of the Greek History in these words Medicine with them was divided every particular Disease and no more having its Physician whence all the Country is pestered with Physicians For some are appointed to cure the Eyes others the Head others the Teeth others the parts of the Belly and others internal and hidden Distempers The Egyptian Physick remaining only amongst private persons it is not easie to believe how falling from its ancient Splendor it changed through the Laziness and Ignorance of the new Physicians who were of such small parts that as the but-now-mentioned Herodotus saies The chiefest of them at the Court of the great King of Persia when he had dislocated his Foot knew not how to cure it but with their Arguments reduced him to a very bad condition Therefore we ought without doubt to believe That in Egypt the Physicians were as Diodorus relates prohibited to depart from the Precepts of the ancient Masters from which if any one happened to swerve and his Patient thereby grew worse he was severely punished for it For saies he if after they had directly followed the acknowledged Laws of the sacred Book they sail'd of curing the Patient no Charge could be laid against them But if they went contrary to the written Rules they underwent the Judgment of Death And really it was no small good Fortune of Galens to say nothing at present of Hippocrates and others that he was not born in those times and in that Countrey For he would not so easily have escaped Punishment if contemning as it were the reverend Authority of the Law he should have had the boldness to utter these words I observe this not only in the writings of Hippocrates but in all the Books of the Ancients that I am not easily drawn to believe what any one of them has left written until I have first well examined by the Test of Experience and Reason whether what they have delivered be true or false And that he was well versed in Logick is seen by such Weapons as he used to defend himself withal as Commenting upon the Ancients and reporting their Opinions intangled and obumbrated to the end they might not contradict his own A Custom which those Physicians that tread in the same steps have followed and still do follow and which does in such a manner deform his sayings and also those of Hippocrates that they oftentimes clearly appear to have written quite contrary to their first Determinations And perhaps the Egyptians deriding their own Law acted maliciously in the same manner according to the Proverb Fatta la legge pensata la Malizia No sooner is the Law made but ways are found out to evade it And to such a pitch peradventure did their neglected Boldness arrive that their usual falling presently to Purgations and for the most part with ill success forced them their first Law being antiquated to remedy it by publishing a new one as Aristotle relates in these Words The Physicians may after the fourth day stir the humors but if they will do it sooner at their own peril be it Which Simplicity I believe found not many Abettors if they considered how often Diseases happen that on the very first day need violent Remedies But what a Fool would that Physician have been that should have procured anothers Life with his own death The Grecians who out-went all other Nations as in Arts and Sciences so likewise in Civil Prudence having regard perhaps to such inconveniences would not impose any positive Laws upon Physick or those that professed it chusing rather that Infamy should be the punishment of those Physicians by whose fault the Sick should miscarry For saies Hippocrates There is no penalty set upon the Practisers of Physick only in