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
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
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
of pestilential or malignant diseases and if at that nick of time there should be any appearance of extravasated bloud 't is as improbable to believe that it should be again resorb'd for the reasons above-mention'd And for what he saith that if stagnant or coagulated bloud or other humors be found in any part by anatomizing it cannot be concluded it was so before death I judge it as difficult to imagine as all the rest for what should hinder my assent from believing that there was a great quantity of aqueous humors in the bodies of Hydropical persons whilest alive their bellies being so tense and swell'd though I do not actually see it till my knife discovers it And thus if we find the Cystick ductus wholly obstructed by any calculous concretion or viscid bile so that the gall being replete and turgid can receive no more of its felleous liquor from the blood which wanting its due separation and discharge doth gradually so load and saturate it that it doth not only pervert its constituent principles and the animal spirits originated from them but procure the patients death shall I question whether this obstruction of the ductus and distention of the gall were thus whilst the patient was living And thus suppose upon some sudden rupture or erosion of any of the vessels of the inward parts there should be a great discharge of blood into the brain thorax or abdomen and the patient immediately dy shall I question whether this breach was there or blood extravasated before death ensued Much more might be said to this purpose but I shall now proceed no farther in an Anatomical reply to this Author but only crave leave to tell him that he hath done his Chymical friends little service in this harangue against Anatomy for since the spagyrical Analysis of bodies is made by fire and menstrua 't is notoriously known that they are so much alter'd thereby that such divisions do not so much explicate parts as destroy them or at least to use Helmont's expression convert them in alia entia Whereas the Anatomist doth only by wary incisions still discover the more inward parts as whole and unchanged as may be and when he cometh to dissect any particular part as the Liver Spleen c. he first vieweth what he intendeth to dissect and still proceeds leisurely to observe the inward vessels c. upon their first appearance whilest they are yet whole he never injuring any thing with his knife till having sufficiently consider'd it he thinks fit to destroy it in order to some future discovery of what is beyond it And to conclude I appeal to any judicious man whether with a curious knife he may not discover more of an Animal than he can by Chymical preparation The second thing that I undertook to prove was this That the Moderns had very much improv'd the Anatomick part of physick by their late discoveries c. For the clearing of this assertion I need not take much pains seeing 't is well known to most of our Faculty that there hath been a more satisfactory and true account given to the world of the constitution structure and nutrition of humane bodies c. witness that excellent and full account which Doctor Harvey hath acquainted the world withal in his Treatise de generatione Animalium what service hath he done to the publick by that surprizing and admirable discovery of the circulation of the blood which hath since been universally embraced and given him so great a name throughout the world What service hath the incomparable Dr. Glisson done our Faculty in giving us a more faithful account of the nature of sanguification bilification separation of Urine and other humors from the mass of blood c. Doctor Willis of nutrition generation and separation of the succus nervosus and Animal spirits with their preternatural affections How lame and imperfect was our former knowledge of the nature of the saliva and other juices that are conveyed into the mouth together with their passages untill our famous countrey-man Doctor Wharton and of late the learned Steno have given so full an account of them Although I am credibly inform'd that the world is chiefly indebted to the industry of that great Anatomist Doctor Walter Needham for these later discoveries Who ever dreamt that the Lungs consisted only of vessels and bladders that the Liver Spleen and Reins were conglomerate glandules untill that expert Anatomist and great Naturalist Malpighius acquainted us therewith Who ever imagined that the Testicles of the male should only be a conglomeration of vessels and the female Testicles Ovaries until the industrious and learned de Graef discover'd it Who ever instructed us well as to the operation of Cathartick medicines in humane bodies or as to the reason of the different colours of the excrements that are observed to be evacuated by them untill that great Anatomical light Sir G. Ent the President and Ornament of the Colledge of Physicians whose learned Pen did likewise in those early times both defend and illustrate the Circulation of the blood in that excellent Apology he made for it against Parisanus and not only so but start many other novel doctrines to which we owe many of the more modern Hypotheses which notwithstanding had never been improved to that height they are now come to had not he by the foremention'd book and by his frequent communications to his Philosophical friends given many hints which occasion'd excellent discoveries of which that of the succus nervosus is not the least which how far it owneth him for the Author Doctor Glisson doth sufficiently witness in his learned Treatise de Epate And for the true conveyance of the Chyle into the mass of blood which of the Ancients were acquainted there with 'T is true they own'd its discharge through the Meseraick veins into the Liver but were as ignorant of its true passage into the blood as they were of giving us any clear demonstration of the commixture of the air therewith which notwithstanding they taught in their Schools as an Ens rationis having no experimental proof for the truth of this assertion How much then is the world beholden to the great industry and indefatigable pains of that great Anatomist Doctor Lower who in that incomparable book of his de Corde one of the most fertile for clear satisfactory and experimental demonstration that ever yet hath been printed hath not only more plainly evinced the true passage of the Chyle through its lacteals receptacle and chyliferous ducts than formerly but as unanswerably demonstrated that there can be no other by which it should have its discharge into the mass of blood And if the Reader pleaseth to peruse those experiments of his whereby he hath as satisfactorily proved the commixture of the nitrous particles of the air with the mass of blood he may find them as clear and demonstrative as the former And though the circulation of the blood was happily discover'd
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
Author which they fancy may be made serviceable to their designs as they have been with their confutation of the learned Doctor Willis in the title pages of their books but I hope that none of our Faculty will ever give credit to any quotation of theirs without a due examination of the Authors design for 't is plain by this account that I have given of Mr. Boyles quotation that he hath been so far from discoursing against Anatomy that he hath spoken as much in the favour thereof as any of our Moderns would have done and therefore as if he had foreseen this vile sort of men that would abuse these excellent passages he wrote them with so much caution that one could have scarcely imagin'd that a man who pretends to cure the poor members of Jesus freely for his sake durst have been guilty of such apparent and malicious falsehoods and that to maintain so bad a cause I shall therefore for the prevention of these Empiricks for the future from quoting any passages out of Mr. Boyl against Anatomy acquaint the world out of this very book what a great honour and veneration he hath for this noble Art where you may find in the first part of it p. 5. that telling us that one would think that the conversing with dead and stinking carkases that are not only hideous objects in themselves but made more ghastly by putting us in mind that our selves must be such should be not only a very melancholy but a very hated employment And yet saith he there are Anatomists that dote upon it And I confess its instructiveness hath not only so reconciled me to it but so enamour'd me of it that I have often spent hours much less delightfully not only in Courts but even in Libraries than in tracing in those forsaken Mansions the inimitable workmanship of the Omniscient Architect And in p. 9. he tells us that were we not lull'd asleep by custom or sensuality it could not but trouble as well as it injures a reasonable soul to ignore the structure and contrivance of that admirably organiz'd body in which she lives and to whose intervention she owes the knowledge she hath of other Creatures And in the second part of the same book p. 9. he positively asserts that since diverse things in Anatomy as particularly the motion of the bloud and Chyle cannot be discovered in a dead dissected body where the cold hath shut up and obliterated many passages that may be seen in one opened alive it must be very advantageous to a Physicians Anatomical knowledge to see the dissections of Dogs Swine and other live creatures which puts me in mind of what a very learned Physician ingeniously observed that Dogs Pigs and Monkyes have contributed more to the advancement of Physick than this sort of men ever did or are like to do But to proceed in a further account of the great estimation that this noble Author had for Anatomy which you may find in p. 46. of the same book where he tells you that not only the dissections of sound beasts may assist the Physician to discover the like parts of a humane body but the dissection of morbid beasts may sometimes illustrate the doctrine of the causes and seats of diseases For that this part of Pathology has been very much improved by the diligence of modern Physicians by dissecting the bodies of men killed by diseases we might justly be accused of want of curiosity or gratitude if we did not thankfully acknowledge for indeed much of that improvement of Physick for which the Ancients were they now alive might envy our new Physicians may in my poor opinion be ascribed to our industrious scrutiny of the seat and effects of the peccant matter of diseases in the bodies of those that have been destroyed by them And in the same page he blames the acute Helmont for not having been a more diligent dissector of beasts And in the following page he tell us that here we may also consider that there are diverse explications of particular diseases or troublesome accidents proposed by Physicians especially since the discovery of the bloods circulation wherein the compression obstruction or irritation of some Nerve or distension of some Vein by too much blood or some hindrance of the free passage of the bloud through this or that particular Vessel is assigned for the cause of this or that disease or symptome Now in diverse of these cases the liberty lately mention'd that a skilful Dissector may take in beasts to open the body or limbs to make Ligatures strong or weak on their Vessels or other inward parts as occasion shall require to leave them there as long as he pleaseth to prick or apply sharp liquors to any Nervous or Membranous part and whenever he thinks convenient to dissect the Animal again to observe what change his experiment hath produced there Such a liberty I say which is not to be taken in humane bodies may in some case either confirm or confute the Theories proposed and so put an end to diverse Pathological controversies and perhaps too occasion the discovery of the true and genuine causes of the phaenomena disputed of or of others really as abstruse Now pray Mr. H. can any unprejudic'd or impartial person read this account Mr. Boyle hath given of his estimation for Anatomy and yet believe that little is to be expected from it and that he doth not see wherein by any of those new discoveries any thing hath been done to better the cure of diseases I am apt to think he cannot and if so what reason hath Mr. H. to peruse these passages with blushing Cheeks if he hath either ingenuity or modesty left him and come and supplicate pardon of that Noble person for that injury he hath done him in publick print The third Assertion was this That the greatest Anatomists and Practisers of our Age have been the greatest Chymists For the proof of this I need not take any great pains seeing two of our latest Anatomists and greatest Practisers may afford us so clear a testimony to the truth of this Assertion I mean the eminently learned Doctor Willis and Sylvius both which excellent Physicians have obtained an universal reputation throughout the world for their admirable accomplishments in the Anatomick and practick part of Physick and how highly they did esteem of Anatomy their great industry and pains therein with their learned writings drawn from that fountain will sufficiently testifie to all posterity witness that incomparable book of Doctor Willis de Cerebro with what he hath wrote de ventriculo intestinis pulmonibus and Sylvius his disputationes Medicae and though a friend of Mr. H. would perswade us that Sylvius his doctrines had not their rise from Academies but from his own and others Laboratories yet I believe he will scarcely be credited by any ingenious Physician that hath been conversant in his writings for 't is plain that Anatomy not Chymistry laid the
against by you and your companions hath born its share in that kind witness that excellent story of Democritus who was esteemed no better than a mad man by the Senate and people where he lived for secluding himself from company to investigate the nature and use of the bilis which occasioned the great Hippocrates by request of the Senate c. to come a perilous troublesome voyage by Sea to undertake his cure who finding him diligently employed in the dissection of Animals he commended his industry admired his wisdom and accused his friends of madness in their censures which madness how much it hath possessed Mr. H. and the Pseudo-Chymists of our Age I will leave to the judgment of any judicious person who hath been conversant in their writings And lest this they should think the only case we can produce I could tell them of the unkind usage and ill treatment that our immortal Doctor Harvey met with for that great invention of his the circulation of the bloud for which posterity will both admire and bless him And if there were need I might tell him of many more but though I should I fear it would be to little purpose for his and his Brethrens ignorance and confidence do make them more irreconcileable to Anatomy than the Colledge of Paris ever was to the learned Quercetan and famous Mayern But to proceed in giving Mr. H. a closer answer I now would gladly know of him how much this story is quoted to his purpose and what it is that he hath so wisely collected from it For let any judicious man read it and he may plainly observe that the persons that were thus severely damned as he terms it were not Empiricks but Doctors of Physick men of Academick education great Philosophers and Naturalists which in Mr. H. and our Adversaries opinions could make them no better than idle and formal Speculators Academian Thinkers Medicasters and talking Book-Doctors only they lived in an age wherein other Physicians education and practise had too much prejudiced them against the noble Art of Chymistry which prejudice it seems by Mr. H's own confession was not so great but they lived to repent of their folly and their successors became admirers of those Chymical books and remedies 'T is well then Mr. H. I perceive the Colledge of Paris is now in your favour for by your own quotation and confession they are become admirers of those books and medicines they formerly damned This passage I must own did so much please me when I read it that I was in some hopes to have found the Colledge of London received into favour in the next page but no such matter the man forgetful of what he had quoted but in the page before about the Colledge of Paris tells us quite another tale viz. that Corporations of Physick have been the great hinderers of the progress of this Art throughout Europe and still are well observed Mr. H but what testimony have we for this so bold and confident an assertion the chief that I can find is this that the Colledge of Paris did damn two learned men and soundly repented for their pains which repentance was so serious that it left such an impression upon their posterity that they admired as I before mentioned both the men and their remedies which their Predecessors so rashly condemned and yet they must be quoted upon every occasion as enemies to this Art of Chymistry But not withstanding these contradictions which ought to be allowed to a man that makes so little of Academick learning pray what is all this Harangue to the Colledge of Physicians in London especially seeing 't is so well known that the famous Sir Theodore de Mayerne was so far from being an Adversary to Corporations of Physick that he was a member of this learned Society But to proceed I shall further endeavour to clear the truth of my assertion and seeing Mr. H. discovers so much anger against the Colledge of Paris I will acquaint him out of one of their own Countrey mens writings and an eminent Chymist too Le Febure lately Royal Professor to His Majesty of England and Apothecary in Ordinary to his Honourable Houshold and Fellow of the Royal Society what improvements have been made in this Art by men of Academick education in France and those whom I presume might be of their Colledge too And in the first place he tells us that Physicians are the fountains from whence all first receive the noble knowledge of true Natural things and the manner of preparing them well And that Mr. H. may be assured that he intended not by the name Physicians any of his Tribe that like not as he terms it that Feather in the Cap he doth particularly and ingenuously acknowledge his obligations to those learned men to whom he was so much endebted for his attainmens in Chymical pharmacy The one was Dr. Duhan Doctor of Physick and Professor of Philosophy who promoted him much in his diligent searching into physical verities yea so eminent was this Doctor in his knowledge in Chymistry that he tells you that France suffered much by his untimely death he designing to publish some writings that would have much illustrated the knowledge of things natural Medicine and Pharmacy The second was M. du Clos Doctor of Physick who did him the favour as he frankly and ingenuously acknowledgeth to correct his defaults and lead him by the hand of his judgment and experience through all that which he had undertaken in his endeavours to advance the dignity of Pharmacy which now saith he lies bending towards its ruines if it be not upheld by its true Arches and pillars the faithful learned experienced and curious Physicians nay farther he confesseth that he was endebted to this Doctor for the well-being he had acquired in his Profession The third was Mons Vallot chief Physician to the present King of France from whose unfathomed depths of learning and experience he yet obtained farther light and knowledge in this Art So that he owns him for the true Father and Restorer of Medicine and Chymistry and tells us that he could not do less than to let posterity know how much he stood endebted to the bounty learning and sole generosity of this great and illustrious Mecaenas And to conclude he frankly tells the world in that excellent Book of his called his Complete Body of Chymistry that he hath given nothing therein but what hath been received from Physicians so that 't is to them only to whom you owe the obligation But to come nearer home let me tell Mr. H. that this is not all the evidence that I can produce for the proof of my assertion for 't is very well known that the lately mentioned Sir Theodore Mayerne and old Doctor Rugeley were members of the Colledge of Physicians and persons so eminently skilled in this Art we contest about that I doubt not but our Adversaries themselves will allow us their suffrage to the
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
employed to prevent the too high ebullition of the blood lest whilst these pustles are in their state of crudity any of their morbifick parts should be resorbed as he is that the blood should not grow too languid or weak lest Nature should be unable to perform what is required at her hands Now seeing 't is manifest by this short account I have given of this distemper what care and judgment ought to be used by every prudent Physician for the Cure hereof how unfit yea dangerous must Empirical prescriptions of necessity be in cases of this nature where too great an exaltation or depression of the mass of blood is alike dangerous and where there may be indications for cooling remedies or at least for those that are very temperate as well as for Cordials But to proceed we will now discourse of a Chronical distemper viz. the Scurvy which some of Mr. H's fraternity do pretend to cure by their golden purging spirits Spirits of Scurvey-grass Elixir Salutis c. not making any observation as to the different constitutions of the Patients to whom they are exhibited whereas t is undoubtedly true that many Patients who are afflicted with the forementioned distemper have the constituent principles of their blood so much differing from others either from an hereditary indisposition or some irregularities in the non-naturals or the like that some of them shall have their blood chiefly constituted of dull and torpid parts and others of hot adust and bilious insomuch that 't is clear and evident that the remedies which are indicated in one constitution ought not to be used in the other for where the dyscrasie of the blood doth chiefly consist in a saline-sulphureous or impoverished mass there remedies that are not impregnated with hot vinous and volatile parts may be highly serviceable by reason they do as it were afresh actuate and enliven this flat and depraved blood inspiring it with additional ferments But then if this sort of remedies should be exhibited to those scorbutick bodies whose diathesis of blood spirits and other humors consist in too hot and nitro-sulphureous parts how soon would they upon every light occasion be hurried into Fevers violent tumults heat and disorders of the whole body the proper indications for medicines in this case being only for such as we call mild or temperate which gradually do calm and quiet the forementioned disorders of the blood sedate its too frequent and preternatural fermentations and in process of time so purifie and alter it that it shall recover its pristine and native temper And that I might more fully and satisfactorily clear the truth of this assertion I will acquaint Mr. H. what his unanswerable friend hath observed to this purpose viz. in p. 92. of his Medela Medicinae where he tells you that Scurvy-grass Water-cress common Wormwood Water-mint Horse-radish c. do a world of mischief and are eminently destructive in the Scurvey where the disease is lodged in a blood and humors full of acidity or acrimony and abounding with a vitious volatile salt by reason they render the salient particles of all sorts the more capering turgid and unruly within the veins and send them a gadding thence about the habit of the body by which means a foundation is laid for Agues of all sorts Fevers Vertigoes running pains stitches Head-aches Cramps Convulsions Griping of the guts short Breathings straitness of the Chest Fluxes of all sorts Gouts Hypochondriack and Hysterical passions Inflammations Pleurisies and all diseases of the Lungs Nay so full is he in the defence of what I have discoursed of in a disease which he would perswade the world is no less common than the Scurvy it having as he saith so corrupted the frame of Nature that even in Countrey-Cottages 't is a hard matter to find a woman in puris naturalibus that he tells us p. 80. of the forementioned book that the common sort of Receipt-mongers should undertake the management of this Cure and that the wealthier sort of men should so readily venture their bodies in their hands shews the blind boldness of the one and the marvellous indiscretion of the other I will grant saith he that 't is possible an ordinary man may be acquainted with a method very good and sufficient in general against this disease and he may do some Cures with it c. but that such a man should think himself fit with such a traditional method and the credit of having cured some by it to undertake the cure in all cases is terrible to consider since every rational Practiser knows there is so great a variety in the Pox it self respecting the nature of the venome and other qualifications of the body in which 't is seated that in a thousand bodies infected you shall not find two that are alike circumstantiated or that yield concurrents so alike as that there will arise thence the like indication for cure in the one as in the other or that the same method and medicines may be used to one as to another without prejudice and damage which frequently happens to be so great that instead of curing this disease they exasperate it and do often precipitate mens bodies into other destroying distempers I might saith he be copious in instances to confirm this from my own observation but that being not fit to be done you may see enough in the observations of Horstius Zacutus Riverius c. in whom you will find as we say in our English Proverb what is one man's meat may be another man's poyson what cured one of the Pox was destructive to another those wise men ever varying the way and means of curing according to the nature of the person and disease they were to deal with Now good Mr. H. do you and the rest of your friends seriously peruse these passages faithfully quoted out of your unanswerable book and then tell me what fair defence you can make in telling the world that your Coelestial liquor will suit all palates and constitutions that your Spirit of Scurvy-grass incorporated with its fixed salt with your Golden purging Spirits will prevent the Scurvy and cure it also if not of too long continuance and if so the later will certainly effect the cure if the disease be curable and therefore 't is commended as beneficial to all persons that travel by land or sea and that your pills are the most approved remedy for relief of mankind against all medicable or curable distempers yea one of your gang hath been so bold and impudent as in publick print to tell the world that his Pills are the true tincture of the Sun and hath dominion from the same light for as the Sun at its appearance giveth nourishment to all creatures so do his pills give present relief comfort and nourishment to all mankind nay he tells us that they are the greatest temporal blessing that ever God bestowed upon the sons and daughters of men and yet his Antagonist hath published to the
truth thereof And so far was that learned Colledge from discouraging Chymistry in those early dayes that 't is very well known they had a constant Operator employed by them And for our own time who is ignorant of the great abilities of several of the members of that worthy Society witness the excellent Dr. Rugely Dr. Jonathan Goddard who lately dyed Dr. Merret c. the first of which eminent Physicians is not only a Gentleman of universal learning and accomplishments both of body and mind but of that profound insight into the Art of Chymistry that were Mr. H's beloved Helmont now alive he could give him no less character than I have done I might farther mention several other members of that worthy Society and University Physicians too whose private Laboratories and continued pains that have been spent in them for the publick good and particular benefit of their Patients might make these men ashamed if they had any ingenuity left them to pretend that they are and have been the great hinderers of the progress of this Art throughout Europe which is so notoriously false that I shall crave leave to acquaint them with what improvements have been made in Chymistry by one more of the late Fellows of that learned Colledge and that was the excellent Doctor Willis who was likewise Professor of Natural Philosophy in the famous University of Oxford and Fellow of the Royal Society in London who hath not only ingenuously communicated many good medicines which are scattered up and down his works but was master of greater Arcana in Chymistry than any our Adversaries can reasonably pretend to which any rational man will grant me that seriously and consideratively readeth over that incomparable book of his de Febribus and especially the first part of it de fermentatione Where he hath most judiciously and learnedly acquainted all ingenious Physicians and Naturalists with the reasons that prevailed with him to imbrace the Spagyrical principles for the explication of all the difficult phaenomena in Nature as well as in humane bodies and very learnedly demonstrated their true existence which having done he gives us an admirable account of the great alterations that are made in the works of Nature and Art viz. in the Animal Vegetable and Mineral kingdoms from the intestine combination and motion separation and dissolution of these active principles And in the ninth Chapter of that Tract he hath furnished us with such a learned and satisfactory account of the several menstrua that are most proper for the solution of all natural bodies whose vinculum doth chiefly consist in Sulphureous Saline or Terrestrial parts that none who readeth him but must admire him for an acute Philosopher as well as a profound Chymist for the knowledge of these doth indeed accomplish a Physician for the improvement of Chymical Pharmacy especially if we add hereto a full understanding of the true nature of Fermentation Digestion and Circulation which our Author was no stranger to And truly I may be bold to say that we may expect far greater attainments in this Art from him that throughly understands the forementioned operations than from the whole Club of our London Empiricks who generally are ignorant not only of the constitutive principles of those Bodies they would pretend to analyse but likewise of their proper Solvents And therefore the learned Doctor Willis just before mentioned hath well acquainted us in his Epistle to that admirable book of his which he calls his Pharmaceutice rationalis what we may expect from this sort of men where he tells us Dum mineralia inscitè tractant eventum quendam incertum expectantes potius quà m aliquid seriò designantes si forsan productum insolitum apparuerit cum novo hoc Pharmaco cujus virtutes prorsus ignotae saepe aut nullae aut maleficae existunt morbos statim omnes sanaturos pollicentur ipsúmque in quovis casu ad magnam aegrotantis noxam non rarò perniciem audacter exhibent adeò securè temerariè solent carnifices isti de corio humano ludere dum ad medicamenta ista in quibus aculeus semper latet venenosus aut paranda aut exhibenda nullo consilio nulliúsque methodi filo sed mero casu caeco quodam impetu ducuntur i. e. Whilst they unskilfully handle minerals rather expecting an uncertain event than prosecuting any serious design if by chance any unusual product doth appear they straightway promise the cure of all diseases from that new Medicine whose vertues are altogether unknown or it may be pernicious or none at all and this they boldly exhibite in any case to the great injury of the Patient nay it may be to his utter ruine so rashly and confidently do these Butchers of mankind sport away the precious lives of men whilst they adventure upon the preparation and exhibition of such medicines as these in which there is constantly latent some venemous sting not being directed thereto by any advice or method but meerly driven on by chance and blind rashness But to proceed in a farther account of our excellent Authors attainments in Chymistry which we may find if we will take the pains to peruse the second part of the forementioned book which treateth de febribus and the third de urinis where he hath given us an incomparable account of the constituent principles both of humane blood and urine from whence he hath rationally and ingeniously deduced such useful Hypotheses for the explication of the phaenomena of both in a natural and preternatural state that no Age can parallel And though some boasting Empiricks have pretended a confutation of his learned writings in the title pages of their scurrilous books yet to how little purpose any ingenious person may be satisfied who is willing for his curiosity to lose so much precious time as to read them over And therefore our learned Author did very prudently return them no other answer but the following the most proper that could be contrived for those Adversaries of his whose writings were stuffed with little else but Billingsgate language Quandoquidem Empirici nonnulli arreptâ tam quidlibet impune scribendi quà m ludendi de corio humano licentiâ placita mea quae non satis intelligunt passim dilacerant convellunt quò speciosiùs merces suas venditent libellorum titulis me Triumphatum praedicant hos non aliter quà m silentio contemptu redarguam utpote quorum scripta responso indigna sunt spreta exolescent nec majoris illos aestimo qui argumentorum loco tantùm opprobria convitia ingerentes debacchari potius quà m Philosophari videntur Whereas some Empiricks having taken the liberty of writing any thing as well as dallying with the lives of men do rudely treat those opinions of mine which they do not well understand and that their books might more speciously sell they carry me in Triumph in their title pages But to these men I shall return no other