by the great Doctor Harvey yet the velocity of its motion and circulation was never so clearly and fully evinced as it hath been by Doctor Lower and how much this may tend to the clearing up of several of the dark and obscure phaenomena of nature as the speedy passage of liquors from the stomach to the reins c. I leave to the ingenious of our Faculty to determine And doubtless great service he hath done us in clearing out the nature origination conveyance and separation of milk in the breasts of women a doctrine so much controverted in former ages And no less service have the learned Doctor Walter Needham and Doctor Lower done us in their experimental demonstrations of the circulation of the Chyle with the mass of blood some hours before its assimilation which discovery with many if not all of the former are to be admired not only for the truth and excellency of their invention but for their great usefulness in physick as I have before mention'd Wherefore 't is apparent that these discoveries have not only tended to the better cure of diseases as I lately proved but have likewise been very advantageous in affording us more useful Hypotheses in physick for our principles having been more certain and demonstrative it were very unreasonable to conceive that our foundations should not be more firmly laid than the Ancients who were not acquainted with the distribution and natural motions of the nutritious humor blood nervous and Lymphatick liquors c. Since the investigation of which the world hath been made happy with the excellent writings both of foreigners and our own countrey-men One of which I mean the learned Doctor Willis hath satisfied the world so well with his excellent and surpassing abilities in that kind that his Name as well as his writings will be admired both in our own and succeedings ages And if as Noble Mr. Boyl hath acquainted us Pythagoras Democritus Plato and diverse others of those whose wisdom made after Ages reverence Antiquity did not only esteem the truths of Nature worth studying for but thought them too worth travelling for as far as those Eastern countreys whose wise men were then cryed up for the best Expositors of the obscure book of Nature How much reason then have we and the learned world to bewail our unhappiness in the loss of one of the greatest and clearest Commentators thereon Witness that ingenious explication of the phaenomena of those stupendous cases he acquaints us with in his book de morbis convulsivis c. and though he frankly confesseth that in his explication of the theory of diseases he doth not tread in the footsteps of the Ancients but his Hypotheses are altogether new yet saith that learned Author they are such quae super observatis Anatomicis fundatae ac firmiter stabilitae aegrotantium phaenomena quaeque melius solvunt symptomatum causas aptius declarant medendi rationes unicuique affectui magis accommodas suggerunt Which being more firmly founded and established upon Anatomical observations do better solve the phaenomena of the sick more aptly discover the causes of their symptoms and suggest more appropriate methods for the cure of every affection And though Sylvius his Hypothesis hath not been so universally embraced by our English Physicians yet in foreign parts it hath met with no less acceptance from the most learned and judicious of our Faculty than the foremention'd his Ternary of humors being question'd by none of the Anatomists of our dayes from the depravation and exorbitancy of which he would derive all the preternatural affections of humane bodies but however whether his Hypothesis be true or not 't is known very well to his friends and enemies too that his success in practice hath given him a reputation not only in the Low Countryes but amongst most of the learned men in Europe Which hath occasion'd your worthy friend M. N. to acknowledg that he hath done the world more service towards the promotion of the Art of Physick than ever any man did before him in the United Provinces and how kind and generous he hath formerly been to Doctor Willis in acquainting all the learned of our Faculty how much they were indebted to him for that excellent Treatise of his de febribus I shall have occasion ere long to acquaint them with But if all this will not satisfie Mr. H. of the improvements that our Moderns have made whereby they have done something more worth than a straw beyond what the Ancients have done I would advise him to read over what I have discours'd of in the precedent particular and what he may find in the latter part of that Section which treats of Chymistry and if he can spare so much time from his quacking avocations I would recommend to his serious perusal that excellent book of Doctor Lower's called Pyretologia Willisiana which was written against his countrey-man Meara upon this very matter of contest between my self and him which having been printed in the same year that his beloved friend's was printed in and received no answer to it from its most avowed Adversaries for eleven years methinks it should be own'd for a much more unanswerable book than M. N's which hath had four satisfactory answers already to it whereby I should be in some hopes that he might happily be reduc'd to his wits again which were unfortunately lost when he wrote this scandalous Pamphlet against the Colledge of Physicians though he spared not for pen ink nor paper And though Mr. H. and some others of his acquaintance would seem to commend the Ancients by this assertion that our late Anatomists have done nothing by Anatomy worth a straw beyond what was done by the Ancients I take it to be not out of judgment or skill in them of which they are generally ignorant much less out of love to them whom they contemn as oft as they are thwarted by them as witness the principal if not sole design of the foremention'd book Mr. H. so highly commends which tells us that we must proceed by other definitions of the nature of diseases and indagations of their causes and invent other remedies and reasons and rules of curation than what have been delivered by the Ancients and not confine our selves to their conceptions aphorisms and inventions c and chargeth the Aristotelians and Galenists for superstitious devotion to their old heathenish authors and their Sectators as drones of the old methodical Hive that practise in the ordinary dog-road of Physick and therefore calls them the herd of vulgar Methodists and the old way of practice lazy its principles dull and the bane of our profession c. which is a plain demonstration that Mr. H. in this assertion did only use the Ancients as an engine to pull down modern discoveries Whereas we profess our selves to have a great respect and veneration for them as having done great things in Physick in their times for which we and our posterity
writings of the learned Quercetan Zwelfer and other eminent Chymists who had never been capable of doing half that service in Pharmacy for which the world is so much endebted to them had they not been as great Philosophers as they were Operators And therefore that excellent Chymist Le Febure hath well observed the two following maxims 1. That Chymistry doth not meerly consist in the skill of preparing well a remedy as many do erroneously imagine but in the using of it with due circumstances and respect to the Theorems of Art which is properly the true Physick 2. That whosoever meddles with Chymical remedies without the previous grounds of Theory can deserve no other name than of an Empirick since he is altogether ignorant of the internal efficient causes of their effects and cannot give the physical reasons why he doth administer such a remedy for such and such disease And further I can acquaint Mr. H. with several of the members of the Colledge of Physicians now living who for their elegant and rational prescriptions and true knowledge of the materia medica do not only excel Mr. H. and all his Society but are highly honoured for their admirable and surpassing improvements therein by all of their own Faculty as witness the most accomplished Dr. Thomas Cox Dr. Wolf c. And though Mr. H. is pleased to tell us p. 20. that remedies well prepared by Chymical Art seem to be as the hands of God reached down from heaven in this latter age in exceeding mercy to poor man when his iniquities have so altered the whole scene of diseases c. which makes them exceedingly different from what they were in the dayes of Hippocrates and Galen and indeed from what they were a hundred years ago and less so that the old Art and remedies are insufficient to deal with them To this I answer that in my opinion Mr. H's Divinity is as heterodox as his Physick hath been for 't is a little odd to conceive that the iniquities of men should have been the procuring causes of exceeding mercy I do therefore very much fear that Mr. H. hath been as great a stranger to his Bible as he hath been to Philosophy else he might have observed and that without the help of Spectacles that all the judgments that God Almighty hath inflicted upon poor man have been procured by his sins amongst the number of which Judgments Mr. H. might well have ranked his Chymical remedies which have proved so indeed to some that have made use of them as I have lately mention'd and then I am sure they can procure but little commendation to his Art And as for his discourse of the great alteration of diseases since Hippocrates and Galens time from whence he would prove that the old Art and remedies are altogether insufficient let me tell him that there are so full and satisfactory Answers given to his friend upon that subject that I should injure those learned men should I now dwell or insist long upon that controversie and therefore I shall recommend to his perusal those four books which were written against his friend's Medela medicinae ten or eleven years agone only by the by let me tell him that 't is possible that the old Art and remedies may be sufficient to deal with the diseases of our dayes though much altered from those in former times but that 't is Mr. H's and the rest of his Companions misfortune that they understand not how to exhibite them being so great contemners of a rational methodical practise by which I must frankly own that I have seen far greater cures performed with Chicken-broth Whey Milk and Water c. than by all their applauded Chymical Arcana And further for that alteration of diseases they discourse of I could tell them of a Physician of the learned Colledge they so much decry who hath done more service to the publick in acquainting the world with a faithful History of the Acute diseases of our dayes with their specifical differences and happy cures by the old remedies they so much damn than they or any of their Predecessors have done by all their books that ever they printed or medicines they published And though we may allow that the Theories of Fevers and other distempers may possibly of late by the industry of Collegiate members have been built upon more solid foundations than formerly yet this is so far from occasioning us to reject the good old remedies and methods of practise that Doctor Willis hath well observed Quod indicationes quaedam antiquitus receptae adhuc ratae perstant erúntque in perpetuum observandae quia Experientiae primae hujus artis magistrae debentur that some indications that were of old received are yet approved and will for ever be observed because they owe their original to experience the first mistress of Art And to the same purpose he discourseth of the remedies that were used by the Ancients and no less valued by the Moderns And no less ingeniously did the learned Doctor Castle acquaint the world in the Epistle to his Chymical Galenist where he solidly and rationally asserts that the practical part of Physick being grounded upon experience doth not so much depend upon the notional that this being overthrown the other must necessarily fall to the ground the Fancies and reasonings of Philosophers and Physicians being built upon the practice and signifying not much more to the Fundamentals of the Art of Physick than pinnacles to the body and foundation of a building which though they be blown down may stand unshaken much of the Therapeutick part of Physick being as he hath well observed like Dials and Almanacks which agree as well with that of Copernicus as Ptolomy's Hypothesis Therefore saith he as the Ancients made a true use of the light and heat of the Sun in distinguishing and measuring times and seasons and managing of their husbandry though probably they err'd in their notion of his motion round the earth so did the Physiâ—ians no less happily imploy Apollo's Art in the Curing of diseases though they were ignorant of the true motion of the bloud and of the Sun of the Microcosm the heart But to conclude this discourse about Chymistry I would gladly know of Mr. H. why the Chymical mineral medicaments set down in the London Pharmacopoeia are things but of the lowest form in Chymistry and neglected by knowing men in this Age of improvement And that because I find upon a serious perusal of them that the learned Quercetan and Sir Theodore Mayerne whom you will own I hope as most eminent Chymists have been the Authors Approvers and Defenders of some of them and have raised so great a reputation to their names by their successful administrations that they both became eminently famous in our own and foreign Courts and Cities but now it seems they are neglected by knowing men in this Age of improvement I confess I should be very thankful to Mr. H. to acquaint us
answer but silence and contempt whose writings are not worthy of a better and being contemned will vanish of themselves and be forgotten neither have I greater estimation for those men who do rather rage and rail like mad and drunken sotts than reason like Philosophers printing little else but ill language and revilings But it may be Mr. H. will not yet allow me notwithstanding this so clear demonstration which I have given of the surpassing abilities of this learned man that he was so great a Proficient in the Spagyrical Art as himself or some of his Companions would pretend to be But suppose Mr. H. that I should produce a greater and truer evidence for the confirmation of this assertion out of that unanswerable book of your friend's Doctor Marchamont Nedhams which you at large have told us p. 23. was written eleven years ago than you have produced out of the honourable Mr. Boyle against Anatomy and that without everting the design of the Author or a false quotation would this be a means to silence your confidence for the future and make you more wary in railing against Academick education and Collegiate members I confess one would think it should and therefore out of respect and kindness to you for some real favours that you have formerly done to some deserving persons I shall desire you to read over the beginning of p. 237. of that book called Medela Medicinae where you will find that your unanswerable friend having told the world in the latter part of the page preceeding that all along that Treatise he had said little but what was in the language of the best writers of this latter Age or agreeable to their sense he there craves leave to make use of one who is I may well say the Ornament of our Nation next to immortal Harvey by name Doctor Willis Professor of Natural Philosophy in the University of Oxon one that hath made himself a Physician indeed and Philosopher by Fire And in p. 336. he tells you that he thought it necessary to give the Reader a taste of Doctor Willis his new Doctrine about Urines which certainly saith he is much more agreeable to reason than any thing that was ever said before upon that subject and must needs be abundantly more conducible to the practise of Physick seeing it directs our judgment not by meer outward appearances and bare observations of old but by an accommodation of our understandings in the real principles which are in Urines the same as in mens bodies from whence doubtless a more certain way of judgment must needs arise than can be imagined by any other course that may be taken to judge by Urines concerning the state of the blood and its diseases I cannot therefore but recommend that Tract of Urines to ingenious Practisers as a more sure guide than any that they can meet with in former Authors And in p. 415. of the same book he owneth that this learned Doctor had the honour of opening the eyes of the world more than any before him his acute Helmont not excepted about the nature of Fevers Now pray Mr. H. let me perswade you to take the pains seriously to peruse and consider these passages faithfully quoted out of your unanswerable book and then let us understand the reason why you made so bold a challenge and that in the view of the world to the whole Colledge of Physicians as to nominate any one particular of improvement that their Society have made in the Art of Curing since their first incorporation c. seeing that your ingenious friend in that very book you quoted as unanswerable hath told the world that Dr. Willis did understand the nature of Fevers more than any before him and consequently the Cure nay further as I just before quoted he frankly owneth that the Doctors principles about Urines were the same as in mens bodies which must needs be abundantly more conducible to the practise of Physick and to judge of the state of the blood and its diseases than any that were formerly delivered Now certainly Mr. H. those doctrines which can acquaint us with the real constituent principles of the blood and other humors and recrements of humane bodies with their various preternatural affections must of necessity tend to one particular improvement and be abundantly conducible to the practise of Physick which you by no means will allow the Colledge since their first Incorporation but will undertake to prove the contrary as you have boldly asserted p. 15. But seeing Mr. H. by the account you have given of your travels and your quacking Avocations I may justly suspect that you have not had time to search into all that hath been written by the learned members of that Honourable Society I will be so ingenuous for the present as to acquaint you with another particular of improvement that was made in the Art of curing by the learned Doctor Glisson Dr. Bates and Doctor Regemorter and that was the Rickets a disease altogether unknown to the Ancients it being the Endemial distemper of our own Nation And if there were need I could mention several other improvements in this Art which have been made by this learned Society but that Mr. H's desiring an instance but of one hath prevented my discoursing any further at present on this subject But to proceed Mr. H. tells us p. 28. of ingenious men that were not educated in a Collegiate way who afterwards betaking themselves to learn the Art of Physick in the most proper way which is by labour have soon outstript the Scholasticks in right knowledge of the materia medica To this I answer that Mr. H. had done well if he had acquainted us with those ingenious men who by their labour have outstript the Scholasticks in right knowledge of the materia medica for we know very well that dolus versatur in universalibus and farther give me leave to tell him that I am not of his belief that manual operation alone will fit any man much less those of his mechanical Tribe for any great improvement in the materia medica it being very well known that no person is truly capable of performing any thing great in Chymical pharmacy who is ignorant of the constituent principles of those bodies he operates upon or of those to whom his remedies are to be exhibited and therefore it was one of the chief designs of that noble Author Mr. Boyle in that Treatise of his so often mentioned the usefulness of Experimental Natural Philosophy to shew how much the Naturalists knowledge might be serviceable to him in the improvement of all the parts of Physick and more especially the Pharmaceutical and surely if labour be the most proper way to advance this Art the Smiths Brewers and Colliers may be greater Proficients therein than Mr. H. or the most learned of his companions for 't is certain they are much more able by labour and pains to obtain it but the contrary is manifest by the
and the Printer or one at least of them must needs be impos'd upon as he terms it But how improbable this is let any one consider seeing the apparent danger that must needs ensue it being the custom of Parliament to print all their Acts after every Session that so all the subjects might understand their duty and the rule they have to steer their actions by and no doubt but there were some Judges in that Session in the House of Lords and Lawyers in the House of Commons who had the Copies of those Acts when printed by them and would soon have taken notice of an affront of so high a nature as this put upon the King and both Houses of Parliament and though I must confess that a Printer may commit an Erratum in the printing of an Act which occasions the Judges many times to search the Records of the Tower as being their only authentick evidence to decide a disputable case yet surely no president can ever be produc'd of a Bill that was printed for an Act and own'd for such by a Parliament in the same Kings Reign and confirmed by another about 28. years after and allowed as such in several Trials by the Judges of both Benches when in truth it was but a cheat impos'd upon them especially seeing it was an Act of that nature which was both publick and penal and might probably have trials upon it the Term after it was passed there being at that time so many Aggressors thereof And as for what Mr. H. tells us as to the state of Physick in those dayes that it was but in few hands and those inconsiderable persons 'T is manifestly false for 't is evident that there was then a great number of the predecessors of Mr. H's society swarming in the Nation which occasioned that Act to be made in 3 H. 8. as the preamble tells you but then we will grant him that they were persons as inconsiderable as the Coblers Weavers and Trumpeters of our own dayes that practise physick to as good purpose as the old Women Smiths and other Mechanicks then did who as that Act specifieth had no insight into physick nor into any other kind of learning some of them being so ignorant as they could not read a fair description of great part of the Empiricks of our time But if Mr. H. intended by this expression those that were the true Professors of physick in that age they were far from inconsiderable persons as witness Doctor Linacre Chambre de Victoria Halsewell Frances Yaxeley c. the first of which is particularly mention'd in the Chronicle of that Kings Reign amongst the great men of note of that time And as for what he saith of Mr. Pultons reprinting this Statute without further enquiry 'T is such a rude and uncharitable reflexion upon so industrious and worthy a person that 't is necessary to acquaint the world with what account that excellent Author hath given of his great faithfulness and industry in this undertaking his words are these with as great care and industry as I could use so many of the old Statutes heretofore printed in the English tongue and which are the foundation of proceedings both legal and judicial have been by me truly and sincerely examin'd by the original Records thereof and the residue with the Register of Writs being the most ancient book of the Law the old and new Natura Brevium the books of Entries the books of Years and Terms in the Law the best approved and printed books and by all such other circumstances as might best give probability of truth to the learned Now certainly Mr. H. if Mr. Pulton was willing to take such vast pains to examine the old Statutes by the Records of the Tower and the variety of books he here mentions that full satisfaction might be given to all inquisitive men he would not without further inquiry print a Bill for a Statute especially seeing that he might with much more ease satisfie himself and others of the truth of this Statute than of those old Satutes he mentions And though Mr. H. tells us that after this Bill as he calls it had been once printed for a Statute it was an easie matter for the Lawyers unawares to accept it To this I answer that if it were so easie for the Lawyers unawares to accept of a Bill for a Statute yet methinks the Parliaments of England should not so readily accept it nor yet the grave Judges and Serjeants of the Law whose proper study and employment is to search the Records of the Tower and Statutes of Parliament I confess I am therefore so charitable to think that he could not entertain such dishonourable thoughts of those so grave and judicious of that Faculty but must rather intend by that saucy expression the younger and less experienc'd Wits of the Law but then one would admire that they should not have been so happy in their discoveries for near 150 years as the Castle-Cole Philosophers of our age pretend to be and truly of all the discoveries they have made since they obtain'd Certificates of their abilities to practise physick and have converted that noble Art into a contemptible trade this may bear away the Bell it being indeed their true Corner-stone for erecting a new Colledge of Mountebanks and petty-Chapmen but when all is done I am apt to believe that this Gentleman and the rest of his society will find the Lawyers more wary men than they are aware of and truly it behoves them to be so when they are to deal with men of such reaching heads beyond all of their own faculty and have made greater discoveries in the Lawyers profession than any of them can pretend to though they could have studied the Law from the 15 of H. 8. to the 27 of C. 2. The third circumstance that gives Mr. H. cause to believe the forementioned Act to be no Statute is this that in 3 H. 8. there was a Statute that lodged the power of licensing persons in the hands of the Bishop of London or Dean of Pauls which as he saith p. 13. was never repealed by any succeeding Law To this I need return little other answer but only desire M. H. to peruse the abrogation of that Statute in 14 15 H. 8. compar'd with the latter part of the Letters Patent granted by King Henry in the 10 of his Reign and the First of Queen Mary 9. with those four circumstances mention'd p. 8 10 to which give me leave to add a fifth it being very pertinent to our present purpose and that is the Statute made in 32 H. 8. where the Chirurgeons of London were likewise made a Body Corporate and had the search oversight punishment and correction of offences committed against Barbery and Surgery Now let this Statute be compar'd with that made in 3 H. 8. and you will find that all Chirurgeons as well as Physicians were exempted by one and the same Statute from exercising their
bestowed upon the Reader to acquaint him with a suit at Law commenc'd against him by the Colledge of Physicians Now whether this was Oppression on the Colledges part or stubbornness and refractoriness on Mr. H. I will leave it to the judgment of all indifferent persons who understand the nature of Oppression which I take to be as it hath relation to this present controversie an unlawful seizing upon the possessions of others owning and avowing the doing so and this by pretending a claim to them corrupting justice by bribes and gifts or else over-ruling it by Authority But how little the Colledge can be charg'd with this so heinous a crime and how much Mr. H. with refractoriness will be very evident to any person that pleaseth to peruse the former part of this book where he may find that the power which they exercise towards Mr. H. and the rest of his companions is established in them by Act of Parliament and this not by one single Act but by three successively in which are declared the penalties that would necessarily ensue upon the violation of them which Mr. H. so little regards that he tells you that he will be in the seent of the Colledge and his house shall be open to receive Patients and furnish them with Medicines and as if this was not sufficient to discover his resolved opposition to the Laws of the Kingdom and Statutes of the Colledge he breaks out into opprobrious and vilifying terms calling them tipling Committees book Doctors masters of the stage c. and chargeth them for managing their Art under a great mystery of iniquity which mystery I have faithfully acquainted the world with in this Chapter where their most just excellent and equitable Government is faithfully represented to the view and judgment of all impartial Readers and though these men do so often Cant upon their monopolizing of Physick 't is so far from truth that they frankly offer to receive all to the practice of that Art who upon examination appear to be sober and learned and if their accomplishments will not arrive to so mean a character as this yet if it appears that they may any wayes be serviceable to the Common-wealth or promote the welfare of mankind although but in some cures as is expressed in their Statutes relating to Licentiates they do readily admit them to practise which I hope doth sufficiently prove that this worthy Society is so tender of the lives and health of the Kings subjects that they would discourage none from doing them service who by a fair examination appear any wayes qualified for such an undertaking and without this approbation how any man is able to satisfie others of his own Faculty of his abilities for that employment wherein the precious lives of so many men women and children are concern'd I do not yet understand SECT 2. Physick no Conjectural Art BUt Mr. H. being wiser than my self yea than all men but those of his own tribe hath found out a better and surer test of Physicians abilities viz. Certificates of their good success in practice which he saith is the surest evidence of a mans learning and knowledge proper for his Faculty and therefore he strenuously endeavours to discharge Physicians of that employment because Physick is conjectural having no certain rules to judge by c. and therefore Physicians no competent Judges therein To this I answer 1. That success in practice is a more uncertain evidence of a mans learning and knowledge in our Faculty than examination unless this success appear by sufficient circumstance to be the effect of judgment and knowledge and if so why should any person accomplished with those abilities refuse to give a satisfactory account of his proficiency in the Medical Science to those learned Physicians that are by Law deputed for that purpose And surely less reason we have of questioning the success of that mans endeavours who prescribes nothing to his Patients but what is consonant to the rules of reason and Art than an Empirick's that observes neither though life and health be not thereby obtain'd which is not to be attributed to the ignorance or mistake of the Physician but to divine providence interposing therein whilst the fortuitous prescription of Medicines though attended with success is no wayes to be allowed nor the person to be better esteem'd that directed them and that because they prescribed those remedies without understanding the nature of the disease or the proper time of their exhibition which though advantageous to some may prove ruinous to others as I have fully satisfied the world in the latter part of this Book relating to the methodus medendi and though sometimes we will allow that Patients hereby have recover'd yet seeing it hath been by accident and not by Art we might probably have seen the same if the Patients had solely committed themselves to Natures regimen which is usually attended with far greater success than their high applauded Chymical preparations especially if managed by the diligent attendance and judicious observation which were the great Arcana of divine Hippocrates of a prudent Physician who is as cautious of discomposing or tumultuating the bloud with Cordials and Elixirs as of weakning and impoverishing it with too cooling and refrigerating Julips and therefore rather waits her motions remembring that golden rule cunctando res agitur 2. If success in practice be the surest evidence of a mans learning and knowledge proper for his Faculty as Mr. H. asserts pag. 9. how comes it to pass that the event of diseases is ever an unequal Judicature as he tells us out of my Lord Bacon the very page after who farther saith as he quotes him that who can tell if a Patient die or recover whether it be by accident or by Art now pray Mr. H. what becomes of your Certificates in this case But to proceed to that part of Mr. H's assertion viz. the conjecturalness of our Art from whence he would perswade us that Physicians are no competent Judges because their Art is conjectural having no certain rules to judge by To this I Answer 1. If the Art of Physick be Conjectural why may not Physicians be as good if not better Conjecturers in their own Art than any other sort of men especially seeing they so well understand both the Theoretick and Practick part thereof for surely he that is the best Conjecturer is the best able to judge what conjectures are most rational and founded upon the fairest probabilities 2. If there can be no Judges in Physick how comes it to pass that Mr. H. so fiercely contends for the Reverend Bishops being so fit for that employment seeing that according to his own assertion they have no certain rules to judge by 3. I would gladly know of Mr. H. how Physicians in former Ages were so fit for that employment but in ours must by no means be allowed the reason he gives is this because the Art was then fixed and staked down
Degrees in our own Universities and that all of them are ready to pay no small respect and veneration to the Colledge and were so far from thinking them uncapable Judges of their own Art that they readily profer'd the examination by Collegiate Statutes expected from them and never had they proposed entring themselves as Honorary Fellows had not a precedent Act of that Society and encouragement from several of the Members invited them to it but after they perceived it ill resented by some and not fairly reported by others they were so far from encouraging Empiricks in their undue illegal and destructive practises that nothing could have proved a greater motive with some of them to incorporate themselves with that honourable and learned Society CHAP. III. SECT 1. The third Question was Whether Physicians educated in Universities and particularly the Colledge of Physicians in London have been the great hinderers of the Art of Physick and more especially that of Chymistry THat I may the more fully and satisfactorily clear this Question which I esteem to be of the greatest moment betwixt the Colledge of Physicians and these boasting Empiricks I will treat particularly of our Art as it hath reference to these three main Pillars Anatomy Chymistry and the Methodus medendi and shew that the Colledge with those learned and eminent Physicians who have had their Education in Academies and are so rudely treated by Mr. H. and his Mercurial Crew have been so far from being the hinderers of the Art of Physick in the foremention'd respects that they have been the principal if not sole promoters of it And as to the first viz. Anatomy Our Adversaries themselves will allow us in this the preheminence not out of any good nature or modesty but purely from the too great palpableness of their ignorance herein which since it hath fallen to their lot not to be vers'd in they do what ignorant men use to do with matters of knowledg viz. take all occasions of contemning and slighting it whereas it is notoriously known to all men of skill that the learned and great Physicians of all Ages who have been the great Improvers of the Faculty have principally built on this Foundation This it were easie to prove historically from Aesculapius downwards to Herophilus Hippocrates Polybus Aristotle Galen Avicen c. which having fully been done by that great ornament of our University of Cambridge the learned Doctor Walter Needham in the prefatory speech to his last Reading at Chirurgeons-Hall where he did likewise prove that all the diagnosticks of physick and methods of cure in all Ages have been derived out of Anatomy and although he allowed Chymistry its due value yet he did sufficiently evince that Pharmacy it self of which Chymistry is but a part made up but one of the pillars by which Physick was supported Anatomy being the other I need not insist any longer upon the proof of that but proceed to acquaint you what hath been done in later Ages and especially in this whose happiness in many excellent discoveries hath kindled so ardent a zeal to the compleating of that study that several eminent Physicians have spent years in the consideration and diligent enquiry into particular parts as witness the most ingenious de Graef who tells you in his Epistle to that excellent piece of his de succo pancreat that he was in the search and study of that from 63 to 66 and since there would be found saith he some carping fellows quorum genius rixis ac compotationibus magis quam cadaverum dissectionibus indulget a fair and full description of Mr. H's society qui me ridebunt quòd tantum temporis hujus investigationi impendam whose genius more prompting them to scolding and drinking than to the dissecting of dead bodies will scorn me for spending so much time in the investigation of the pancreatick juice therefore he resolved to comfort himself with the story of Democritus and the Abderitae as it is reported in Hippocrates which the Reader may there find very fully and pertinently quoted And surely he that considers the time that our immortal Doctor Harvey spent upon his books de circulatione sanguinis generatione animalium our incomparable Professor Doctor Glisson de Epate Dr. Wharton de glandulis Dr. Willis de cerebro Dr. Needham de formato foetu Dr. Lower de corde Bellinus de structurâ renum c. cannot imagine that half a years time spent in Anatomy is enough to fit any Physician for practice as Mr. H. asserts p. 15. Which occasions me to think that if the good man had taken his Degree in some foreign University the Professors might much more likely have dismiss'd him with that proverbial encomium than any man I know accipimus pecuniam dimittimus asinum for I can tell him that those learned Professors are so far from embracing that Notion that they not only have spent great part of their time in acquainting the world with what new Anatomical discoveries they or others have made but have also resolved as one of them frankly tells us quousque vita mihi supererit è tenebris eruere conabor â—um vita defecerit inquirenda relinquam posteris And whereas Mr. H. is pleased to tell us in the very same page that he is ready to prove that the Physicians of the Colledge have done nothing in all their Anatomick Theaters which may conduce to better cure Let me tell him that this assertion of his did put me to a stand to consider whether his impudence or ignorance were greatest and truly had not this expression proceeded from a man that is much better acquainted with Stages and more aptly fitted to act the Mountebank with his Coelestial liquor than those he would advance to that employment I think he could not have been so rude to treat learned men in their Profession in so sordid and scurrilous a manner But however I shall undertake to prove for his better information these following assertions 1. That something hath been done in Anatomy both by the Ancients and Moderns which hath conduc'd to the better cure of diseases and then answer their so much cry'd up objection borrowed out of Celsus with some reasons mention'd by a late Author in confirmation thereof 2. That the Moderns have very much improved the Anatomick part of Physick by their late discoveries though Mr. H. proffers in publick to evidence that they have done nothing by it worth a straw beyond what was done by the Ancients and then vindicate that Noble person M. Boyl whom he hath so much abused by a false quotation upon this subject and perverting the sense of that excellent Author 3. That the greatest Anatomists and Practisers of our Age are and have been the greatest Chymists SECT 2. As to the first Anatomy hath conduc'd to the better Cure of Diseases ANatomy in general hath so far conduced to the Cure of diseases that it hath laid the foundations of that noble Art by teaching
stubbornness and contumaciousness of our late diseases with their great and main alterations than the Chimerical Ternary of your unanswerable friends viz. the Pox Scurvy and Worms whereby many of his Majesties subjects have not only been deprived of the Cure of their distempers but sacrificed their lives to the forementioned detestable prescriptions 'T is therefore likewise to be hoped that our Soveraign Lord the King who hath been so great an Encourager of all liberal Arts and Sciences will imitate his Royal Predecessor King Henry the Eighth in confirming that Charter by Act of Parliament which out of his Royal bounty he hath lately bestowed upon his Colledge of Physicians whereby the mechanical successors of those old Empiricks exactly described and characterized in 3 H. 8. may be prevented for the future from trying experiments upon his Majesty's Subjects to the high displeasure of God great infamy of the Faculty and the grievous hurt damage and destruction of the Kings liege people c. Nay further 't is to be hoped that the Chancellors of our Universities with the grave Judges of our Land and all other persons of ingenuous or Academick educations will be exemplary in the encouragement of this no less famous than worthy Colledge that so the Laws already made and established by the Parliaments of England being diligently prosecuted by them may give some check to their Empirical pride and insolency as well as their bold invasion of this noble Art of Medicine whereby so many of the worthy Professors of it have met with no small discouragement I shall therefore crave leave to conclude this subject with what hath been no less ingeniously than judiciously observed by a very curious and inquisitive person viz. That if Physicians who are men of so clear judgments so unparallel'd for industry have no more respect or consideration than mean empty shallow pretenders we may have reason to fear that hereafter persons of so great abilities and liberal education will scorn to look towards a Faculty which though honourable in its own nature is so low and mean in the esteem of the world that every person who hath confidence to affirm he is a Physician although perfectly ignorant of the Rudiments of Physick shall yet have no less countenance from the publick than those gallant persons who after a long courtship have rendred Nature familiar are acquainted with the causes and Cure of diseases and who have so deserved of mankind that I cannot but marshal them next to those divine persons who also as these are often slighted and neglected although of them the world is not worthy FINIS POSTSCRIPT SInce the writing of the first part of my Book which relates to the establishment of the Colledge of Physicians by Law I understood that the Records of the Parliament in 14 and 15 H. 8. were to be seen at the Rolls Chappel which ingaged me to make a very diligent search into that Act and the rest which concerned the Colledge of Physicians where I found upon that Parliament Roll 36 Acts publick and private whereof 26 were signed at the bottom with Respons Regis le Roy le veult and ten others stitched to these on the same Roll without le Roy le veult But at the end of the Roll there is affixed a Commission granted by the King to Cardinal Woolsey to Prorogue and Adjourn the Parliament from Blackfryers to Westminster and there to continue and hold it immediately after which Commission we may find that upon the 13 day of August about six in the evening the King being present the House of Commons was sent for and Sir Thomas Moore their Speaker having made a very elegant and learned Speech he presented the King with a very large Subsidy given by the Commons as a Testimony of their great devotion to their Prince which being done and the Lord Chancellor having according to the usual custom privately conferr'd with his Majesty he commanded that all those Acts which were made in that present Parliament for the publick good should be recited and published Quibus ex ordine per initia recitatis lectis singulis publicavit Parliamento respons secundum Annotationes Regiae voluntatis Declarativas à dors script fact dictus reverendissimus dominus Legatus Cancellar exhortando admonendo nomine Regis omnes Dominos Communes supradictos ut diligenter ordinata Statuta pro bono publico in hoc Parliamento observarent ab aliis observari procurarent c. Now 't is evident that the Titles of all Bills that were agreed upon by both Houses were read in the Kings presence and received the Royal Assent though it was not ingrossed by the Clerk of the Parliament upon Ten of those Acts which are to be seen in the forementioned Roll which are but Transcripts of the Original Records and therefore as far as can be proved Roy le veult might be ingross'd at the top or bottom of these Ten as well as the other 26. in the Original Records But however 't is plain that the Form and Essence of a Statute Law doth not consist in the Clerk of the Parliaments engrossing the Royal Assent at the top or bottom of an Act that not being done until the Session is over but in the Clerk of the Crown 's pronouncing of it after he hath read the Title of each Act according to certain instructions given from the King Now the Clerk having in the audience of Lords and Commons pronounced aloud to every publick Bill le Roy le veult to every private Bill soit fait comme il est desire and to every publick Bill the King refuseth to pass le Roy se avisera 't was no difficulty for the Judges and Lawyers Lords and Commoners to know what Acts passed that Session and that this Act relating to Physicians did then pass by this Royal Assent seems very clear because as I before intimated in page 8. of my book a Parliament within 17 years after in the same Kings Reign owned the Colledge as a Body Corporate and gave them several priviledges which they maintain and enjoy to this day and about 28 or 30 years after another Parliament confirmed the 14 and 15 H. 8. with every Article and Clause therein contained as you may see more at large page 9 10. And that the giving the Royal Assent to these two Acts last mentioned in 32 H. 8. and 1 Q. M. might not be questioned you may see it thus ingross'd upon the top of the first Item alia quaedam Billa formam cujusdam Actus in se continens exhibita est suae Regiae Majestati in Parliamento praedicto cujus tenor sequitur in haec verba And then the whole Statute is recited And at the bottom you will find it thus engrossed Cui quidem Billae perlectae ad plenum intellectae per dictum Dominum nostrum Regem ex authoritate assensu Parliamenti praedicti sic respons est Soit fait comme il est desire And at the bottom of the second of the two last mentioned Statutes you will find it thus engross'd Cui quidem Billae perlectae ad plenum intellectae per dictam Dominam Reginam ex authoritate Parliamenti praedicti sic respons est le Reigne le veult Now 't is plain that these Sessions of Parliament were not so long distant from the former but that some that were in both Houses of Parliament in these two Sessions might be in that and therefore would not have own'd the forementioned for an Act if they had not heard the Royal Assent given to it But besides this Act of Parliament with some others of the Ten were ever owned as Acts of Parliament As for instance an Act that the Sir Clerks of Chancery might marry an Act concerning Cordwayners an Act of Tracing Hares an Act for the Clothiers in Suffolk an Act for the payment of Custome an Act for the Haven or Port of Southhampton all which with two or three private ones were passed by the same authority that the Physicians was and if that be invalid all the former are much more Nay further these Acts were publickly printed and bound up after that Session which hath been in use ever since Printing hath been common in England so that they may be found not only in the Rolls Chappel but in Mr. Pulton's Statute-book and in old Books that are bound up with Acts of Parliament that were made in particular Princes Reigns which may be seen at Mr. Millers in St. Paul's Church-yard But suppose that this Testimony were not sufficient I would desire Mr. H. to resolve me whether the forementioned Parliaments owning and declaring it as an Act and the Judges upon several Tryals giving their opinions for it and the receiving it as a Record into the Rolls Chappel be not evidence enough to prove this very Statute an Act of Parliament for I am credibly informed that a Record being brought into the Rolls Chappel and received as such by the Master of that Court who is termed sacrorum scriniorum Magister is so far from being question'd that it is a full and sufficient evidence in any Court