necessity that a Corporation of Chymical Physicians should be instituted because no particular Society takes care to advance the Spagyrical Art I must plainly tell them that their information is notoriously false for all Academical Physicians especially Collegiates as said before have ever accounted Chymistry part of their Profession and if this should be taken from them and committed to the management of others by the same rule more Pretenders may request the like Priviledges of exercising distinctly all those Offices which joyntly appertain to the accomplishment of a Physician and then one Corporation might undertake to feel Patients pulses another to view the Water and a third visit the sick no more entrenching on the Physicians proper business then these in their presumption to claim the sole use and authority of Chymical preparations but it seems these Pseudochymists conceit that their challenge or appeal to the Magistracy is an unanswerable argument imitating herein their vain-glorious Leader Van Helmont to whom his Contemporary Henricus ab Heer affords no better a character then to call him Semi-virumque Asinum semi-Asinumque virum quo Arcadia non peperit Asiniorem And in another place rails against his Preparation of Euphorbium nay 't is well known that when he was in England where he learned most of his notions he generally failed in his Cures but yet his Disciples like those of Jacob Bhemen will presume to understand more then the Author and admire what is not intelligible The reasons which prevailed with the learned Physicians in that Age not to answer him in his folly hinder us from such unworthy encounters since that by other ways the impostures of these Pseudochymists may be discovered then by tolerating their desperate practice to experiment their unskilfulness their strange promises of curing certainly sixteen Patiens in twenty laboring of Feavers are intelligible evidences of their deceitful proceedings seeking only to gain employment by such presumptuous engagements if not by chance but according to a sober expectation two or three more die then they allot nay all the twenty as these cannot make satisfaction for one life much less for so many so will not they abate their confidence which stands them in such stead recommending them to the credulous multitude Furthermore that no manner of crafty insinuation may be omitted no stone left unturn'd these Pseudochymists print lists of their pretended Cures it is not worth any ones pains to examine the truth of them their expressions and language do sufficiently discover how little they understood the Diseases which they treat of and did not they conceal their Preparations there is no doubt but that the meanest capacity might censure their worthlesness or danger I having accidentally met with some of their performances content my self to judg of the rest thereby One of this select Society of Pseudochymists found a Patient entred on a course of Salivation to whom it seems by a Chyrurgeon without acquainting either the Patient or his friend an apposite Mercurial Medicine had been given This simple Quack looking into the Patients mouth and taking notice that his Gums were very much tumified forthwith pronounced that the Disease was the Scurvy which was arrived at the height and in order to the Cure he sends an Antimonial Medicine which not without much hazard both vomiting and purging the Patient inhibited the Flux by a speedy evacuation revulsion of the serous humor whereby it was maintained and this is reckon'd a wonderful Cure Another being called to see a large Tumour which by able Physicians and Chyrurgeons was known to be an Aneurisme and accordingly dealt with by them most readily undertakes the Patient and promises present help then he falls to work and foments the parts affected with hot Chymical Spirits and oyls till the Tumour blushed at his ignorance Another when his Patient complained that his Cough hindred him from sleep gave a Narcotick but alas expectoration being thereby suppress'd the Patient was suffocated and slept quietly These few Examples may suffice to warn others that they intrust not their lives in the hands of such unskilful Practitioners who are altogether ignorant of the Causes and Symptoms of Diseases right methods of curation and proper remedies The ill consequences are so many which would be manifest if such a Charter should be granted that they cannot be easily reckoned up for not only Physicians would be debarred the exercise of a considerable part as hath been shewed already of their Profession or two distinct Charters grant the same Priviledges but the Apothecaries Company will be prejudiced who are authorized to provide as well Chymical as other Preparations and can more skilfully execute both then these pretended Operators some of them having spent only three or four weeks with Mr. Johnson Operator to the Colledg others professing Chymistry by the assistance of a small Crucible or a Bal. Mariae and not a few being such titularly knowing as little in the Spagyrical Art as in other qualifications necessary to the practice of Physick It was a laudable custom expressing the honorable esteem heretofore had of the Profession of Medicine that Spurius ad Medicinam non erat admittendus No bastard might be a Physician If this deserved observation then certainly no spurious brood of Pseudochymists ought to be admitted to practice being neither legitimate Physicians or Apothecaries But the Universities will mostly suffer if such a Corporation should be established for who will spend their time and pains in those places when a Society calling themselves Chymists shall not only scorn and vilifie their Book-learning but be impowred to take in an allotted number of Members as they shall think fit by which means in a few years the most excellent Science of Medicine will necessarily fall into the hands of ignorant and illiterate Practisers and as the University will then be deprived of one Faculty so the People ere long would be sensible of their loss when they must rely on such Assistants as Gun-smiths Heel-makers Taylors and the rest c. He who pretends not to the Spirit of Prophecy may foresee what will be the event for these already slight Anatomy which all true Physicians account a most useful and necessary Introduction to the knowledg of Medicine informing them concerning the admirable fabrick of Mans body its structure confoâ—mation and consent of parts the various liquors and juyces contained in several vessels their changes and alterations as also the causes and symptomes of Diseases and the right use and application of Medicaments We as much approve the Anatomy of Bodies by Pyrotechny as they but judg him an incompleat Practitioner who knows not what or where the defect is in the noble Engine of Mans body and what Remedies whether Chymical or others are most convenient to rectifie what is amiss and therefore true Physicians take especial care to conform their Medicaments to this exquisite Machine and when they observe as Bausnerus elegantly expresses In corpore humano nihil
other that by two different offices all opportunities of mischiefing the people might be prevented but Quercitans answer is very pertinent to the Authors of this Conceit saith he Quid aliud hi quam omnium Medicorum Pharmacopoeorum iras in se exacuant quos tam improbae fidei notant ut si seorsim operentur ac medicentur non saluti aegrotantium sed morti accelerandae de industria studeant h. e. Both Physicians and Apothecaries have just cause to quarrel with those who by suggesting that neither ought to be solely intrusted do thereby brand them with unfaithfulness as if they rather sought the death then life of Patients Another Plea is much insisted on by some of our Apothecaries whereby they endeavor to make a perfect separation between Physicians and themselves claiming a free exercise of their Trade as Members of the Grand Incorporation and fully enjoying all the priviledges of the common Charter whereby they are authorized as well to buy and sell as any other Company but although they accommodate Physicians in making up their Prescripts yet that is a voluntary undertaking which they may either accept or refuse at their pleasure it being their proper business to provide such Medicines as the Supreme Power shall allow for the peoples use and to furnish their Customers although there should not be any Physician to write Bills And thus under the pretext of selling their Medicines to all who come to their Shops they also take upon them to advise what they think most agreeable to their conditions who are sick by this slight ingratiating themselves with the people and as they conceive avoiding the just censure of practising Physick I reply that Physicians did never design to hinder the Apothecaries in their known and lawful Trade of vending Medicines but on the contrary have much promoted it by giving them daily opportunities to supply their Patients with Physick according to their Prescripts yet if these because of their settlement as free Traders shall hereupon destroy the relation between Physicians and them as if their interest did not much consist in the practise of Physicians they will have no cause of complaint if the Professors of Physick take their business again into their own hands and imitate the most succesful practise of their renowned Predecessors And the Apothecaries may as freely as ever attend their Trade in selling to those who will buy of them notwithstanding the Physicians preparation of their own Remedies But I observe that very many Apothecaries are so far from deviding between theirs and the Physicians Art that they endeavor to unite them in their undertakings as much professing to direct Physick as to prepare or sell it and these I call practising Apothecaries although some who would seem more modest and friendly to Physicians suppose that none of their Society ought to practice Physick yet these would not have any one debarred the giving of such Medicines as they should think fit when there is a special occasion but since that these Apothecaries so much favouring their own advantage must necesiarily be Judges of those exigencies I know not how to distinguish this more close and sly way from that which being acted above board is owned and justified by these Practitioners for by practising of Physick is understood any application to the sick in order to a cure comprehending not only long methodical courses in Chronical Diseases but sudden directions in those which are acute respecting as well their beginning as their subsequent alterations The ordinary account we have out of the best Authors describing the Apothecaries office mentions not a word of their Practising Physick omitting what occurs in others I shall only recite the opinion of Renodaeus Officium solummodo Pharmacopaei est medicamentum tractare ad usum salutarem medici probati jussu adhibere quod ut faeliciter consequatur debet cognoscere seligere praeparare componere c. h. e. It is the Apothecaries business to meddle with Medicaments only and in relation to their use to follow the Physicians Prescript and that he may be fitted to execute his office he must be instructed to know Simples to select the choicest to prepare and compound his Medicines And if this be the utmost intent of the Apothecaries Trade wherein they are educated whence should these gain sufficient accomplishments enabling them to practise Physick as for their knowledg of Simples and skill in Compositions although these are necessary qualifications capacitating them to be able Apothecaries yet I understand not how these should upon this account any more become Physicians then Cutlers and Gun-smiths by their judgment of the Mettals goodness on which they work and their making and fitting Instruments of War be thereby rendred most expert Commanders but these practising Apothecaries pretend sufficient helps for their instruction in the vertues of Simples and the true use of Compositions from Physicians Bills which they constantly book and by this means as they inform the people having seen the practice of many Physicians they may be as good Doctors as any I shall enquire whether the Prescripts of Physicians can so far improve an Apothecary as that by their assistance he may be able to practice Physick Indeed the Lord Bacon's opinion That there ought to be a religious observance of approved Medicines as well to retain the benefit of Tradition as to direct a more steady way of curing Diseases Seems to favour very much these Apothecaries who are well stock'd with such Receipts which they without any alteration transcribe for their Patients but I shall oppose what the learned Alsarius relates Medicinae leges non ad Polycleti immutabilem regulam referendae sed ad Lesbian normam quam pro factorum personarum ac temporum conditionibus magistratus aequitas commutare solet h. e. The Laws of Medicine are not like Polycletus's unalterable rules but the Lesbian precepts which the Magistrates might change and vary according to the nature of the Crime the condition of the Offender and the circumstance of time c. That such Receipts without any alterations or substitutions may very much conduce to the cure of Diseases is by that Noble and Learned Person rather presumed then proved To omit what I mentioned in the precedent Chapter concerning the insufficiency of those Medicines in respect of the vast difference of mens bodies and a greater variation of diseases incident to them I assert that there is no Medicine rationally prescribed but what particularly relates to the principal Indication which ought chiefly to be taken from the Cause and not from the Disease according to the usual design of those Prescripts which is confirmed by Galen saith he If Diseases indicated their proper Remedies the Patients best understanding what is to be done might be most helpful to themselves moreover the Medicines shew that not Diseases but their Causes do indicate their use as being not primarily adverse to Effects but Efficients
So then it being the highest concern of a Physician to form his Medicaments as he sees occasion of what use can Receipts be which by ignorant undertakers cannot be accommodated to the most prevalent indications respecting the Cause These practising Apothecaries having another employment which ought to take up their thoughts pains and time may well be supposed uncapable of knowing and making a right judgment of the true Causes of diseases which not only alter frequently the same Disease as to its appearance and symptomes but much more in relation to its Cure I remember a story which I have read to this purpose A Patient by the faithful advise of his Physician recovered from a most dangerous Disease but it seems not long after was ill again the Apothecary visits him and apprehending that his condition was the same as in his former sickness immediatly repeats the Medicines which the Physician had prescribed but all to no purpose the Physician was then sent for and the Patient telling him of the Apothecaries ill success demands the reason why those remedies which before cured him had not the like operation again the Physician wittily reply'd Medicamenta illa non profuere quia ego non dedi h. e. Those Medicines were not succesful because I did not order the repetition of them insinuating that a Physician ought to judg as well of the Patients fitness for the Remedies as of the Remedies fitness for the Patients To say no more I cannot think that the Apothecaries strict noting and transcribing of Physicians Bills can more inable them to practise Physick then Stenography to profess Divinity the penning of a Sermon verbatim and committing it to memory being as infinitely short of the qualifications requisite to a Divines preaching and exercise of his Function as the imitation of these Prescripts of the accomplishments necessary to the Profession of Physick But these Apothecaries besides their unskilfulness to practise Physick are most injurious to Physicians upon several accounts who intrust them with their Bills for when those Prescripts express their particular use and as a weighty trust to that end only are committed to the Apothecaries care if he ever imploys them without the Physicians privity and direction he is unfaithful in that trust and if his practise succeeds not then doth the reputation of that Physician suffer whose Prescript originally it was As another considerable branch of trust the true dispensation of all Medicines directed by Physicians is left to the Apothecaries in whose integrity they place great confidence and therefore a good Author tells us Praestat Pharmacopaeum esse virum bonum quam Socratem h. e. 'T is better that an Apothecary be an honest men then Socrates both Physician and Patient depending on his uprightness and the punctual discharge of his office If then this Apothecary shall ingage in the practise of Physick he must necessarily spend much time abroad in visiting his Patients and leave his shop to the management of raw Apprentices who wanting instruction by reason of their Masters absence and not understanding the Physicians Bill make odd and too often dangerous substitutions neither are the Physicians secure that such practising Apothecaries do not out of design suffer their Patients to be neglected or abused that so miscarrying in their hands the repute of the others may seem thereby advanced as if their practise could not be more unsuccesful then the Doctors certainly these Apothecaries cannot give a satisfactory account of the trust reposed in them and therefore to me it is evident that they give timely warning by forsaking their Trade and practising Physick that none commit the breeding of their Children to them who have business of more concernment to mind then to spend their time in teaching according to their engagement their Servants the Art which they must be made free to exercise that the people be not hasty to imploy them in either way who incapacitate themselves for both and lastly That Physicians send not any Bills to them lest they be guilty of prejudicing both themselves and Patients If then these practising Apothecaries are so kind to Physicians as publikely to acquaint them what may be expected at their hands I hope no Member of that Worthy Faculty is so stupid but that he will leave them and their Patients to the same adventure which both run and not be either forward to help them out at a dead lift or take the miscarriage on him for the advantage of one or two Fees but it is observable that some of these conceiving that an open breach between Physicians and them may be prejudicial to their design do plead as an excuse to acquit themselves that the importunity of their Customers prevailed with them in such cases wherein was no appearance of Danger to direct what they thought most convenient but let Rondeletius give these an answer Pharmacopaeus inconsulto perito medico nihil cuiquam proponabit praesertim magnarum virium sed neque quantumvis parcarum cum vires nesciat auxilia haec quamvis ut videtur imbecilla tamen quantitate qualitate tempore insalubria magnorum saepe morborum sunt occasio legitimam curandi rationem pervertunt h. e. Apothecaries ought not to give any Medicines without the foreknowledg and direction of an allowed Physician neither those which are more or less operative because they being altogether ignorant of their vertues may err in those which seem weakest and most safe in respect of quantity quality or time so as they may prove the causes of most dangerous diseases the opportunity also of a methodical Cure is by this means lost Indeed such is the increase of the Apothecaries Company that all of them cannot reasonably expect imployment who therefore hunt abroad after Patients and prey one upon anothers business these inconveniencies would be remedied if the counsel of a grave Writer was observed who adviseth the Magistrate to be very careful not to tolerate more Apothecaries then are sufficient for the discharge of that Profession implying that if they superabounded they would most infallibly injure the publick and rather then their Medicines for want of timely use should decay and grow worthless choose to spend them by their own practise and think it a less Crime to harm the people then suffer any damage in their shops And when these practising Apothecaries have by their insinuations inveigled some to take Physick of them as it is not improbable but that these being ignorant of the direct way of curing diseases must necessarily hereupon spend more Medicines then Physicians who exactly knowing what is to be done will not multiply Prescripts to tire out their Patients and advance their charge so how can such Patients assure themselves that their Apothecary-physicians do not make use of that opportunity as much to rid their shop of physick as them of diseases however if the whole is cast up such Patients will find no cause to commend the cheapness of their Cure in
desperatis affectibus liberari citius in integrum restitui queant omnia probanda quae bona observanda non autem omnia vetera promiscue rejicienda cum animi vehementia sceptice traducenda h. e. Medicines chymically prepared are undoubtedly more efficacious and powerful more grateful to the tast and may be given in a far less Dose then Galenical but yet if Patients will be obedient and not so nice and squeemish by the direction of an able Physician who understands the Disease and a right method of curing it they may more securely and certainly be helped by Galenick Medicines 't is convenient to experiment all things and retain what appears most rational however they err who promiscuously reject and passionately censure all the Remedies which the Ancients left us as the fruit of their experience The Galenick Compositions in respect of the vast and exorbitant number of Simples mixed together are likewise esteemed rather pompous then beneficial Medicines Treacle by some reckoned a confused mass of Ingredients the dream of waking Andromachus and Discordium a fermented heap much may be said on behalf of these grand Dispensations comparing them to a well disciplin'd Army wherein are some Field-officers able in respect of their skill in Martial affairs singly to conquer the Enemy but these commanding the body of the Army will more probably by their conjunct fortitude and courage become Victors I might also liken them to a well governed State in which every Member in his place and station acts uniformly to oppose all who endeavor to disturb the publick Peace what these at first view do think to be only a Farrago or hotch-potch of many things jumbled together when more strictly examined will appear most artificial and admirable compositions to encounter the several complications of Diseases I need say no more in their defence then that long experience hath given them a repute in the World which cannot be prejudiced by the Satyrical Invectives of such who like nothing but their own conceited preparations Physicians also in this Age may without any imputation of ignorance in the knowledg of Simples and their peculiar Vertues be allowed to form long Compositions not only because of complications which are more frequent and intricate then heretofore but that they may hereby conceal their skill for when the Medicine is disguised by putting in such Ingredients which obscure its intention but hinder not its vertue they are puzled who would make an indirect advantage of such a Prescript there will be no occasion for this Stratagem when Physicians to rescue their Profession from the abuses of unworthy and illiterate Practisers do dispense their own Medicaments who may then more securely use one Simple then now a perplexed composition and when they have occasion to add auxiliary forces to them in Complications prevent those inconveniencies which as the case now stands they cannot avoid But why should I insist longer on particulars when the whole method of Physick is rejected by our Pseudochymists as useless and if multitudes of words would prevail scurrilities were argumentative as their stiling it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Satans device and plot to destroy Man-kind and telling us of vast numbers being methodized into their graves If aenigmatical hypotheses had power to perswade or the novelty of their Notions to bewitch the old Galenistical method had long received its doom and its Adversaries had triumphed over its ruines but true and rational methods take deeper root by means of these boisterous agitations I cannot understand the meaning of some Stories which I meet with in our late Writers who give us an account that some Physicians were not sollicitous if their Patients died secundum Artem by the fairest method in the world I cannot excuse any personal miscarriages in Physicians but I should be unjust to the most faithful Physicians if I did not vindicate them from the failings of others these subtle Accusers of all Methodists would not approve of a retaliation and that I should affirm that one who professes himself to be a Philosopher by fire is not ashamed publickly to thank God that he is no Scholar If that good Law was observed Qui affectat ignorantiam est puniendus h. e. He who affects Ignorance ought to suffer severe punishment Our Pseudochymiaster would fall his Crest and cease to be proud of his blindness or did I relate the words of a famous Pseudochymist who when the Patient did suddenly die after a Dose of his Antimonial Pills commended the excellency of such Medicines which dispatched without much pain and procured an easie death It were no difficult matter to parallel any Stories they can produce to make the Methodists infamous but the meanest people can discern the Sophistry of such Argumentations and may suppose that they observe the same way in their curation of Diseases As for the Methodus medendi our Adversaries complain that by it the cause and nature of Diseases are not sufficiently discovered their Symptoms not rightly described and that the Remedies set down are impotent and rather encrease then cure Diseases Certainly they presume that their own bare negation or affirmation of what they dislike or approve is a perswasive Argument to others who expect satisfaction in particulars and are cautious to escape the cheat and delusion which lies in such universal conclusions nay to assert that because some errors may be found in it the whole hereupon ought to be proscribed and deserted were alike mad and impious practise as immediately to bury that man whose toes are sphacelated when an expert Chyrurgeon by a mature amputation of the joynts which are mortified may preserve the life of his Patient But I shall choose to deliver my sense in the words of a learned Author as I have throughout this Treatise done in matters of Controversie saith the experienced Seidelius Nullus unquam morbus qui curatus arte humana aliter curatus est quam juxta veteris verae medicinae fundamenta methodumque objicient hic statim nonne curavimus nos quamplurimos a vobis pro desperatis relictos quibus respondeo nescire me illud neque hactenus certo rem ita se habere comperisse praeter privatas enim praedicationes atque laudes domestica testimonia in conventiculis clandestinis ad libitum conficta levissime aliud fide dignum nihil auditu percepi quot vero homines diris modis jugulaverint de quo publicis quorundam scriptis sunt accusati id altissimo silentio obruunt interim de quintis atque arcanis essentiis immani precio Auri extractis nugantur ut imperitis fucum faciant c. h. e. There was never any Cure wrought by humane Art and skill which derived not its succesfulness from the sure foundations and method of the ancient and true way of Medicine but here they will object have not we recovered very many forsaken by you I answer that I know no such matter neither
Difficulty promotes the Birth of your happy Products is the onely argument I shall use inviting you to this task be pleased also to acquaint me in your next what is become of them who assume liberty to qualifie themselves Chymical Doctors in opposition to the KINGS COLLEDGE of PHYSITIANS in LONDON I crave pardon for this interruption of your more weighty business and shall earnestly expect your answer which will be most acceptable unto Sir Your humble Servant C. W. The Authors Answer SIR YOur candid acceptance of the Observations which I have made on this Pâ—st is a most prevalent argument to incourage the communication of them in answer to your desire But before I ingage in this task I must crave your pardon if I proceed not in that method which is requisite in an exact Treatise for in this brief answer I can onely point out cursorily some discoveries which doubtless will be improved by your most sagacious judgment To omit therefore all those most obvious notions of the Pest in general occuring in every Author writing on that Subject I shall confine my self to a particular disquisition of the peculiar nature of this Plague as severe as any recorded in our Annals That LONDON or other Populous places are seldom free from Malignant and Pestilential diseases is confirmed by the long experience of able Physitions who find that Humors upon several occasions acquire a venenate Quality and hereupon prove most pernicious it is not pertinent to my business in hand to state the Question Whether such Ferments are sometimes generated in mans body which may be exalted to a condition aemulous of the most exquisite poysons or of the PEST it self hence is it that some term such putrified humors Arsenical aconital c. as they seem to correspond in operation with such Poysons I may without all dispute affirm that where the Pest meets with matter so prepared it more inevitably destroys The highest degree of malignity flowing from the putrefaction of congested humours however it may be most fatal to the body wherein it was produced being yet but the effect of a private cause is limited at most to an hereditary propagation and cannot be imagined the Original of Epidemical diseases especially of the Pest whose original is adaequate to its effects but in regard the cause of the Plague is most mysterious and not yet hitherto plainly discovered most Writers after a disappointment in there scrutining the Series of natural causes do betake themselves to supernatural and acknowledg a 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in this disease I cannot think that because God doth frequently send out the Plague as his severe judgment to punish mankind we ought wholly to desist from all manner of search into natural causes on the knowledg of which depends the Cure procured both by our devotion and the commanded use of natural means Amongst Natural Causes the Conjunctions of some Planets Eclypses Comets and such like appearances in the Heavens are by many accused as the Authors of the Plague and upon this account some addicted to Astrology observing such appearances the forgoing year have confidently asserted that our Pest was the issue of those malevolent influences I shall not at present determine how far these have contributed to the spreading if not the Original of our Plague but passing by all other opinions deliver my thoughts touching its rise After a most strict and serious inquiry by undoubted testimonies I find that this Pest was communicated to us from the Netherlands by way of Contagion and if most probable relations deceive me not it came from Smirna to Holland in a parcel of infected goods whether it began there or in any other place being unresolved I shall not intangle my self in a conjectural discussion of its Cause or give a tedious narrative of the nature and effects of Pests in those hot Countreys give me leave to hint that the same Pest grassant in divers Regions of a different temperature may so much vary in its Phaenonema that it may seem totally changed which I premise least our Plague should be judged of another nature from that in Smirna or Holland because its Symtomes are not exactly the same in all these places Before I proceed I must advertise that the Pest doth complicate with most maladies which happen during its grassancy especially such as are Contagious every little disorder at such times which I might confirm by many examples turning to the Plague and infectious diseases more neerly combining and symbolizing with it hence I collect that the Scorbute being popular and Epidemical in Holland the Pest when it fell in with it did very much partake of its nature which afterwards invading this Kingdom gave ample testimony by its Symptomes of this Association in which condition I shall throughout this discourse consider it if then the Pest by reason of its most subtile and excessive venenate nature is most feral and destructive when it conforts with another Ferment most powerfully though not so suddenly corrupting the juyces of our bodies how Prodigious must be the issue As I have designedly wav'd at present to deliver my Theory concerning this PEST so I upon the same account do forbear to intermeddle with the Hypotheses of others but because the Learned Kirchers late experiments have put most inquisitive searchers into sensible truths upon the quest to discover that animated matter in the Air mentioned in his treatise of the Pest I shall transiently deliver my observations touching this particular I must ingeniously confess that notwithstanding my most careful and industrious attempts by all means likely to promote the discovery of such matter and that I have had as good oppertunities for this purpose as any Physitian it hath not yet been my happiness if such minute insects caused this Pest to discern them neither have I hitherto by the information of credible testimonies received satisfaction in this point whereupon I infer that in regard Pests are of a different nature though I allow that famous Authors experiments in that Plague at Rome yet it follows not that ours was caused by the like production of Worms or Insects as some have rather fancied then demonstrated The consequences of putrifaction are so well known by an ordinary inspection into the transactions of Nature that the production of Worms and various Insects upon this account may not be rightly judged a new discovery considering especially that malignant diseases do not less then the Plague evidence putrefaction by such products indeed amongst all that vast number I conversed with during the Visitation I noted very few to have either vomited Worms or by unerring symptomes to have given an indication of verminous matter lodged in any part of their bodies I onely had a relation of one who in vomiting threw up a strange figured insect which appeared very fierce and even assaulted such as were busie to observe it whereupon it was crushed by a rude hand so that its shape is not very
this intention was chiefly to be observed all other directions having respect unto it Physicians were hereupon very cautelous least they should by any means either divert nature from this course or prejudice her in such designments hence was it that Phlebotomy was justly censured as a matter of dangerous consequence in the Pest by which the fermentation of the blood was abated the spirits took flight and Nature became so debilitated that she could no longer combate with her implacable Adversary I am not ignorant that in some Plagues bleeding hath proved very successful but in this complicated with the Scorbute it was upon every account inconvenient the confirmation of which truth two many have sealed with their lives who being easily perswaded by ignorant practisers did prodigally wast Natures treasure and soon were imprisoned in their Graves It was also matter of great deliberation to determine Whether in some urgent cases Glisters might safely be administred least the poyson of the distemper shall take downwards and the Diaphoreses be thereby interrupted of such high concernment it was to maintain a constant and free transpiration which every fifth or sixth hour oftner or later as there was just cause was to be forced by repetitions of remedies mightily promoting its expected success and benefit and here another grand difficulty arises Whether during these sweats it is convenient to nourish the Patient Which I shall thus resolve if by reason of such sweats the Patient finds his condition to be bettered his appetite not much dejected his thirst abated and the paroxisme in declination as also his strength neer spent in such a case it is most adviseable that the Patient be often indulged Chicken-broath or what ever may recruit all losses of spirits in the incounter and by this means that person being refreshed will be enabled to undergo cheerfully the succeeding paroxisme and to continue his breathings but if all requisites shewing the necessity of allowing nourishment do not concur t is far better to abstain from this course then adventure its inconveniencies which are so many that I may not at present recite them such Patients may by taking of Cordidials fit themselves for a more opportune season of nourishment The continuance and length of such sweats were rightly measured by the Patients relief and sufficiency of strength to bear them but unless I should state the several cases which happened in the Pest it is impossible that full directions can be given especially considering that applications in Medicine altogether relate to individuals and therefore as there is a difference in the same disease seizing many persons so likewise not onely various methods of cure but diverse Medicines are subservient to that end upon which account I forbear to set down the remedies vegetable animal and mineral which were used in the curation of this distemper Sir it is now high time that I should make my Apology for this rude entertainment of your with a most imperfect and confused discourse on this subject the truth is I have intentionally omitted very much which may seem pertinent to this business as to assign the reason why the poor were mostly infected which I might have adscribed to the rotten mutton they fed on the preceding Autume preparing their bodies for the Contagion their being crowded in little roomes and close alleys as also their unrestrainable mixing and converse with the infected and their great want and poverty notwithstanding the Magistrates industrious provision for them I have likewise forborn to express the cause why children were most subject to the Plague and so many dyed of it that it may be fitly called the childrens Pest neither have I touched upon the business of Amulets though many suffered by such as were Arsenical and other things very significant are passed by as nassalls issues fumes c. nor have I particularly related any medicines or their designment or delivered the several waies to treat Patients in different conditions relating to the several complications with the Pox Scurvy c. But all these pretermissions may fitly serve to inform you of a design in hand to publish a compleat History of this PEST in Latin which I hope will recompense the many defaults in this account to the end therefore that there may be no deficiency in so great an undertaking if legitimate Physitians who have made observations specially our learned friends in your Country would do me the favour to communicate their notes I shall own their kindness and faithfully insert both their names and such observations I am so well assured of your candor that you will not measure that work by this loose and hasty Essay pen'd in an hurry and tumult of other businesses in which great care is taken not to prevent the novelty of those Histories and notions which will then be produced I shall not detain you with any more excuses least I be forced to supplicate for them also As to that part of your letter wherein you desire satisfaction concerning our pretended Chymists I can onely make you this return that the people are now convinced of their designs their most admired preparations proving altogether unsuccesful and their contrivances being chiefly bent upon more secret waies and a shorter cut to gain estates their intituling Medicines by strange names as the Quintessence animae mundi oil of the heathen gods c and requiring three pounds for a Dose is a trifling and slow way to grow rich by when as an estate may be gained by giving one little but most effectual draught now the vulgar perceive the practise of the Philosophers by fire who can soon upon advantageous accounts sublime mens souls you will doubtless ere long have a better and more particular information of their transactions which I at present forbear to recite These scandalous opposers of the Colledg are now for ever silenced since that so many members of that most honourable Society have ventured their lives in such hot service their memory will doubtless survive time who dyed in the discharge of their Duty and their reputation florish who by Gods Providence escaped certainly the Magistrate will protect and suitably encourage all legitimate Physitians who have appeared most ready to serve their Countrey in the greatest exigency Worthy Sir I am Your most faithful Servant N. H. MAY 8. 1666. From my house in Red Lion Court in Watlinstreet FINIS * Omnes homines viri aequè ac foeminoe anus aequè ac virgo omnes inquam medici videri pruriunt ut si omnes qui medicae artis cognitionem atque scientiam falso nomine sibi adscribunt numero comprendere velis prius quot fluctibus mare à condito aevo agitatum sit sermone atque oratione expedias Seidel in praefat lib. de morb incurab * Multum egerunt qui ante nos fuerunt sed non peregerunt multum adhuc restat operis multumque restabit nec ulii nato post mille saecula praecludetur occasio aliquid