of such wofull examples A huge volume will not conteine all the tragicall histories of the sicke of this age manifestly killed by the ignorance of Empiriks being not able to discerne one disease from another or to distinguish of their causes or to proceed orderly in the cure The eye can not discerne colours but by the light nor Physitians diseases but by learning In the night not only indiui lua but species are mistaken as a man for a beast or a tree for either of them It is alwâ—â—es night with Empiriks ignorance is darknesse and knowledge is as the cleere light of the sun And doubtlesse the learned Physitian hath as great aduantage ouer Empiriks in discerning of diseases as they that iudge of the eyes obiect by the sunne ouer those that iudge of it by the starres They do the oftener fall into this errour because some diseases agree in two or three signes and yet are farre different The perfect examining and comparing of signes and referring of them to their seuerall causes can not be performed without Arte. But suppose they could distinguish of most diseases whereof they come farre short yet to know the disease is not one step to the cure vnlesse the method and maner of proceeding in it be as well knowen But to proceed in discouering their errours the two most effectuall and vsuall meanes for the cure of most diseases are opening a veine and purging The speciall obseruations that are required in both these are farre aboue the apprehension of vnlearned Empiriks therefore they can not vndertake any thing fitly and safely in either of them What a great regard is to be had in preseruing bloud in his naturall quantity and qualities is euident in that it giueth nourishment and strength to the whole body and it is as it were the meat whereby the natiue heat is fed as Galen sayth therefore it may not be drawen out of the body without mature deliberation The things that are to be obserued in opening a veine are reduced vnto ten heads these I must not mention because I labour to be short Many of these conteine such doubts and difficulties as require much reading and deepe knowledge Empiriks alwayes take away blood without due examination of these for how can they examine those that they know not therefore oft times they take away life also Experience their only mistresse can not teach the difference of diseases of complexions and of the rest What though they can iudge of them in a large latitude as to perceiue a difference betwixt a great disease and a light betwixt strength and weaknesse this euery ideot can do as when two plots of ground are obiect to the eye the one farre exceeding the other in greatnesse euery beholder perceiueth a great difference but the iust proportion of that difference can not be found out but by measuring them according to the rules of Geometry So Empiriks for want of learning can not iudge of these things in so strait a latitude as arte requireth But beside the foresayd ten heads other consultations are necessary whereof Empiriks are lesse capable than of the former as what veine is to be opened whether a large or small orifice be fitter what quantity of bloud should be taken whether it be safer to doe it at once or at sundry times whether emptying simply or reuelling or diuerting be required at what time of the disease it should be done how many things do inhibit opening of a veine or perswade delay The learned Physician is bound by the rules of his Arte to consult of all these and many other before he dare attempt so great a worke but the Empirike not foreseeing the perill of omitting these consultations runneth rashly into it and abuseth this excellent remedy to the losse of the life of many a patient as Galen plainly sheweth Errours in this kinde are obuious and common to them one openeth a veine vnder the tongue by following some English booke or imitating some learned Physician not knowing the obseruations necessary in that he attempteth in a squinsie the patient being full of blood and the disease in the beginning whereupon followeth present suffocation by drawing a greater flux to the place affected An other as ignorantly openeth a veine on the arme vpon the criticall day when there are signes of the crisis by bleeding at the nose by this action nature is crossed in her regular course and compelled to yeeld to the disease A third omitteth letting of blood in a sharpe disease sundry indications which he vnderstandeth not concurring to perswade it and none to disswade A fourth taketh away too little blood in a great disease or too much in a light All these Empiriks increase their credit out of these deadly errours by extolling their owne skill falsifying strange cures performed by them and affirming that if they had come in time they would not haue failed in the cure of these diseases now they had performed all that arte required the best Doctour in the land could haue taken no other course They that are eye and eare witnesses of these secret tragoedies can hardly suspect the ignorance of these confident and glorious Empiriks to haue beene the cause of them Thus you see Sir how infortunate or rather indiscreet they are that commit their bodies to the cure of an Empirike whose ignorance often bringeth death where the disease threateneth no danger at all It is a miserable thing when greater peril hangeth ouer the patient from the Physician than from the disease The countrey is full of such pitifull practise The Empiriks lance is oft times as deadly as the Butchers knife He that promiseth life with his tongue bringeth the instrument of death in his hand Therefore whosoeuer regardeth his life let him not suffer a veine to be opened without the aduice of a learned Physician In other cases where life is not presently indangered grâ—euous effects follow The taking away of blood from women and weake men casteth them into palsies gouts dropsies and such like diâ—eases Galen in many places doth inculcate the danger of opening a veine often it wasteth consumeth the spirits diminisheth naturall heat strength and hasteneth old age accompanied with many infirmities Yet the common people ignorant of this flocke together to Empiriks in the Spring to be let bloud as if it were a preseruatiue against all diseases Few or none are refused because they bring money few receiue good many hurt because the fornamed obseruations are neglected The blame of this publike hurt lieth iustly vpon the head of Empiriks who partly for their owne gaine and partly for want of iudgement haue led the multitude into this errour Touching purging as it is more common and vsuall than letting of bloud so the errours committed in it are as many and in many cases procure equall danger to the sicke It is called a great worke for it bringeth
multitude flocked to those that were boldest in the vse of this medicine for the fame of it for present remedy was spread abroad by them that gaue it and the danger concealed Thus the simple people greedy of the pleasant bait swallowed downe the killing hooke It was not easie for one to take warning by another the subtill Empiriks had so prouided for the credit both of the medicine and of themselues for when any died they gaue out that the medicine was not giuen soone enough whereas the sooner it commeth the more perill it bringeth or that the patient committed some fault which was the cause ofhis death for many had beene cured by this in other places Another pernicious error whereinto ignorance carrieth them is to seeke out medicines in the titles of diseases as in some English bookes in the title of an Ague they finde that Sorell is good for it and Carduus benâ—dictus also the one being very hot and the other colde Heere Arte is necessary to distinguish of the humour and the complexion for he that giueth that which is not fit for both these bringeth no light danger Galen vtterly condemneth medicines giuen without distinction and sheweth the danger of them by an example in the practise of an vnlearned Physitian who hauing cured many of patnes in the cares proceeding from a colde cause gaue the same medicine in a hot cause with vnhappy successe Also he reporteth a greater error in another Physician who in the beginning of a sweat brought his patient into a bath whereupon followed present death If all our learned Physitians should bring together all the pitifull examples that they haue obserued in the practise of Empiriks they would fill large volumes Galen sayth many die because they obey not their Physician But they that obâ—erue the practise of our Empiriks may as truly say many die because they obey their ignorant and vnlearned Physicians If their deadly errors could be perceiued by others as well as by those that professe the Arte some of them might be as famous as Themison of whom Iuuenal sayth Olde age is subiect to as many infirmities as Themison killed patients in one Autumne Galen setteâ—h forth their errors very liuely in these words As often as they visit their patients so often they erre by their inartificiall attempts But I will examine their errors no further The reasons brought in defence of Empiriks are now to be confuted The first and maine reason is their experience the very foundation of all their practise It is thus defined by Gaâ—en It is an obseruation and remembrance of that which hath fallen out often and after the same maner This definition vtterly maimeth the practise of our best Empiriks for by this it is cleere that experience reacheth not to the theorie and speculation of the Arte it teacheth not the knowledge of the difference of the constitutions of mens bodies nor of the causes of diseases nor method of curing them for none of theâ—e fall out after the same maner but it respecteth only some few things in the practise for in that also are many occurents that fall not out after the same maner and therefore can noâ— be learned by experience Diseases as they haue sundry causes so their symptomes and accidents are variable Heurnius speaking of one disease sayth it deludeth the Physician a thousand wayes What can experience learne in this great variety I confesse it is a necessary and effectuall meane to confirme the knowledge of a Physician The euent and successe of things past must be carefully obserued and layd vp in memory to be compared with things to come Many things also are found out by experience alone as the nature of simples wherein Galen commendeth it highly In finding out the vertue of medicines we must begin at exper ence sayth he To this agreeth that which he speaketh of the same argument in another place This first taught that Rubarbe purgeth choler and Agarike flegme Gesner amongst others was exceedingly industrious in this kinde found out many things in our Art by his experience as he affirmeth in his Epistles But this bringeth nothing to the credit of Empiriks for what are these few things in comparison of all those that are required in a Physician One reporteth that a yong man walking by the sea side and finding an old boat purposed to build a ship therewith neuer considering what a great number of other things were required to so great a worke Experience helpeth no more towards that great building of the Art of Physicke than that did towards a ship No learned man euer ascribed any commendation to experience in this Arte but when it was ioyned with learning Pliny speaketh thus of them that practise by experience without learning They learne by our perils and they trie experiments by our death Experience alone with a little helpe of nature maketh men skilfull in mechanicall trades in merchandize and in other kinds of buying and selling but the deepe knowledge conteined in the l berall sciences and in other learning rising out of them requireth much read ng long study great meditation and after the theoric or speculation of them is obteined then practise and experience confirmeth and establisheth them but without the former the latter is weake lame and maimed Galen in sundry places expresseth the danger of experience without learning and sheweth into what grieuous errouâ—s Empiriks fall for want of knowledge They runne rashly and without reason from one medicine to another hoping at the last to finde out that which shall helpe A dangerous and desperate kind of practise when for want of the light of Arte they are compelled to wander groâ—ing in the darke dungeon of ignorance not knowing wh ch way to turne And yet in Galens time there were no such Empirâ—ks as in this age it was not then heard of that a man vtterly ignorant in the foundation of all learning durst presume to intrude himselfe into the practise of that deepe and intricate science The difference betwixt an Artist and him that worketh by experience is set â—oorth by Aristotle an Artist knoweth the causes and reasons of things subiect to his Arte an Empirike knoweth many things also but he is ignorant of the causes of them What thought he can in some things satisfie the ignorant vulgar with some shew of reason euery simple man can doe this in his trade yet in the great and maine points of the Arte Empiriks can yeeld no sound reason being vo d of the knowledge of Philosophy from wh ch the causes of such things are drawen Galen setteth Physicke as a perfect man vpon two legges Learning and Experience therefore the best Empirike is but a lame and left-legged Physician It is a full consent of all learned in Physicke or Philosophy That nothing can be happily done in the Art of Physicke without method and order
trades supposing it to be as soone and easily learned as the plaine craft of a tailer or carpenter This foolish and senseles opinion increaseth the reputation of Empirikes and procureth them many patients for heereby their light and superficiall skill is esteemed equall to the complete and sound knowledge that is in the most iudiciall professors of that Arte. Euen as a plaine countrie fidler is thought by his neighbours not to be inferiour to cunning Musicians Another reason that moueth the vulgar to vse them is the hope they haue to be cured by them with lesse charge But this deceiueth them on both sides for oft times their diseases are left vncured and commonly the subtill Empirike draweth more money from them than a learned Physician would doe Their practise is also further inlarged by the ignorance of the common sort who when they are sicke vse to inquire after one that hath cured the like disease Heere is worke for these popular fellowes who haue filled many credulous eares with a false report of their cures I confesse it was an ancient custome amongst the Egyptians to lay their sicke in open places and to inquire of them that passed by what they had heard or tried to haue holpen in the like case But this was before the Arte of Physicke was perfected and brought into a methode Now the case is farre altered there is a learned and iudiciall course confirmed and established for the cure of all diseases Therefore now the patient is to enquire after him that hath greatest knowledge and soundest iudgement in the Art and not after him that is reported to haue cured the like sicknesse for many cures are falsely attributed to Empirikes and besides that some diseases are healed by chance and some by nature as is before shewed There is yet another errour in the multitude that profiteth these ignorant men much For many binde themselues to that Physician whom they haue vsed before be he neuer so ignorant supposing that he knoweth the state of their bodie better than a stranger But in this they are also vtterly deceiued for no Empirike can know the state of any mans body Philosophy teacheth that and not experience All that he can know is but whether the body be easie or hard to purge and what is that in respect of all other things before mentioned which are necessarie in euerie Physician Therefore let euery man of iudgement vse him that can by Art find out the complexion and constitution of his body that knoweth how to distinguish one disease from another and prosecute the course fit for the cure turning and altering it to euery occurrent And let him that hath recouered out of the hands of an Empirike rest satisfied in his happy fortune and euer after commit his body to the best learned These are the weake and lame reasons whereupon the fame and great practise of these ignorant men is built If in this tractate I had imitated Galen and others that haue written of them it should haue beene farre sharper and much more pearcing For Galen compareth them to theeues these â—aith he lay waite for men in mountaines and woods those in townes and cities Langius and Oberndorf two learned Germanes lay griâ—uous accusations vpon them The former speaking of their patients saith whole armies of them are killed but verie few cured And in the same Epistle he addeth I dare sweare that thousands of their patients perish euery yeere by their deadly errors And doubtlesse many of our Empirikes in England are not inferiour to those of Germany in boldnesse and ignorance The other forenamed Germane imposeth many base tearmes vpon them as coseners mountibankes murderers and such like There is much odious matter heaped vp against some of them by Guinâ—er Erastus Libauius Cardan and many others all which I omit leonem ex vngue The Physicians of the colledge of London take an oath at their admittance to pursue vnlearned Empirikes and impostors confounding the names as if all Empirikes were coseners One calleth the baser sort of them analphabetos nebulones not hauing learned their crissecrosse No man can heere obiect with iudgement that all these learned men wrot out of a weake perturbation that it was as the Poet saith one enuying another and that these are contentions amongst Physicians rising from varietie of opinions as in other professions For all these men oppugned are vtterly ignorant and vnlearned and dare neuer attempt to speake one word of their profession in the presence of a learned Physician It is therefore knowledge against ignorance naturall and christian compassion mouing these learned ingenious men to protect the liues of their brethren by opposing themselues to the blind practise of Empirikes who fight with their eies shut against sickenesse the great enemy to nature as the men called Andibatae did against their enemies I remember a story of a blind woman famous for her skill in Physicke by whose dore a porter passing with a heauy burthen vpon his back fell downe and cried out for helpe the compassionate woman came speedily with aqua vitae and feeling for his mouth offered to powre in some whereas halfe an eie would haue serued her to haue eased him of his burthen It is vsuall with Empirikes for want of the eie of learning to bring as ridiculous and senseles meanes of helpe to their patients for when they see not the cause of the disease as they do very seldome see it fully they cannot fit a medicine to it They may fondly purpose foolishly consult and largely promise to performe great matters in Physicke but in execution they will be found like to Hermogenes his apes who assembled themselues together to take counsell how they might be secured from the violent incursions and assaults of greater beastes they concluded to builde a strong for t they agreed vpon the matter and forme thereof Euery onè was assigned to his seuerall worke some to cut downe timber some to make bricke other for other offices But when they met to begin this great building they had not one instrument or toole to worke withall so their counsell was ouerthrowen So Empirikes may attempt to build vp health in a sicke body they may promise the cure of diseases but what can be expected at their hands sith they want all the tooles of Galen and Hippocrates necessarie for so great a worke The consideration of all these things hath often moued me to compare their patients to them that crosse the seas in a smal leaking boate with an vnskilful pilot they may arriue safe at the wished hauen but wisedome trusteth to the strongest meanes which alwaies promise and commonly performe greatest securitie One thing I will adde more of this odious generation the multitude of them in this country is incredible Out of one rotten and maligne stocke spring many riotous branches One master sendeth foorth many iourneymen
groweth thicke and grosse the minde is dull and sad This is too apparent in many though it be obscured by discretion in some I see not therfore how Tabacco can be acquited from procuring the ouerthrow of the perfect state both of body and minde and that not onlie in Tabacconists themselues but in their posterity also for the temperament and constitution of the father is ordinarily transfused into the children and the affections of the minde also depending vpon the other This is verified likewise in distempered and sicke bodies Fernelius saith what disease so euer the father hath that goeth into the childe The father giueth the forme nature and essence to the child as Galen affirmeth Therefore where the humours of the body haue contracted a sharpe heat and drinesse by drinking of Tabacco there the father getteth a childe like to himselfe wanting that kinde moisture that should protract his life vnto olde age and incline him to an ingenuous courteous and kinde carriage But many take it imagining that it doth inable them in some actions I confesse that it putteth a sharpe and fretting heat into the blood which doth incitare but they shall the sooner faile in their course for heat can not be preserued without moisture and Tabacco consumeth that by infusing a drie qualitie into the body by excesse of heat and by drawing out of moisture Therefore Tabacco though neuer so sparingly taken can not be good for you nor for yoong and sound bodies and the often vse of it in such bodies driueth them lentis gradibus into their graue long before that time that nature had assigned them Hippocrates sayth that which is done by little and little is done safely and in diet as well as in other things he commandeth all to be vsed with moderation Galen speaking of gentle opening medicines affirmeth that the often vse of them drieth vp the solid parts of the body and maketh the blood thicke and grosse which being burnt in the kidnies breedeth the stone This may as well be verified of Tabacco for many take it oftener than euer such opening medicines were taken and it hath also more heat and drinesse than those had and therefore greater power to hurt sound bodies There may peradueÌ„ture be a profitable vse of it in cold moist bodies but it must be taken very seldome and with great regard of sundry other circumstances To conclude sith it is so hurtfull and dangerous to youth I wish in compassion of them that it might haue the pernitious nature expressed in the name and that it were as well knowen by the name of Youths-bane as by the name of Tabacco The second thing is meat and drinke Our bodies as Galen affirmeth are in assiduo fluore in a continuall wasting the inward heat alwayes consuming part of the very substance of them The vse of meat and drinke is necessarie for the restauration of this dayly losse These rightly vsed according to the rules of physicke haue great power to preserue the body from diseases This is verified by Galen in the same booke To him Fernelius assenteth in these words He shall be troubled with no disease that layeth temperance for the foundation of his life And in the same chapter he addeth That neither the aire nor the affections of the minde nor any other cause doth breed diseases vnlesse there be a disposition in the body proceeding from some errour in diet There are fiue things to be obserued in the vse of meat The substance the quantity the qualities the times of eating and the order Touching the substance Galen sayth In victu salubri c. In healthfull diet the two chiefe things are meats of good iuice and not stopping Here to auoid tediousnesse I passe ouer meats of good nourishment most of them being well knowen to you and I will speake only of some few that are badde Meats of ill iuice fill the body with grosse humours subiect to putrifafaction which is one of the principall causes of most diseases Galen reporteth that when there was great scarsitie of corne thorowout the Romane Empire the people being compelled to eat roots and hearbs of bad nourishment fell into diseases of sundry kindes This he doth further confirme by the example of his owne body for during the time of his eating of ordinary fruits he was troubled with agues almost euery yeere but after that he left them and fed only on good meats he protracted his life vntill extreame olde age without any sicknesse The worst meats that are in vse with vs are of flesh Bulles beefe the blood whereof being accounted poison amongst Physicians may iustly make the flesh suspected specially for colde and weake stomacks All olde beefe is of hard digestion and breedeth grosse and melancholike blood Bores flesh is much of the same nature and the older and greater the worse There is the like reason of Bucks Male-goats and Rammes in their kinde their ill iuice increaseth with their yeeres and those vngelt are of harder and grosser nourishment Blood howsoeuer it be prepared is vtterly condemned by Galen so are the inwards of beasts and the feet also specially of the greater sort of them Of fishes the greater and older are the worst and bring most labour to the stomacke those that liue in muddy or standing waters are farre worse than those of the same kinde that keepe in grauelly or cleere riuers Ecles are iustly excluded from the number of holsome meats because they breed of putrifaction Most English fruits are forbidden in diet Many of them are profitable in medicines therefore Galen sayth Apples Peares and Medlers are not to be vsed as meats but as medicines The sooner ripe and the sooner subiect to corruption are most condemned because they are easily turned into putrifaction in the body Cucumbers are too vsuall with vs being vtterly reiected by Galen for their ill iuice and if they be not well concocted as they are neuer in a colde stomacke they are almost like to deadly poison Our common raw salads are full of danger Lettice is one of the best of their vsuall ingredients which though it be good in a hot stomacke yet being taken in a great quantity it pierceth to the heart and killeth as Galen affirmeth It is not safe for any man in the vse of these bad meats to presume vpon his strong stomacke for though naughty meats be well concocted yet Galen telleth vs that when the iuice of them is caried into the veines it reteineth the old nature This point is more largely handled by Ludouicus Mercaâ—us a learned Italian But I conclude with Galen in the foresayd place we must abstaine from all meats of bad iuice though they be easie of concoction for by the vse of them our bodies will be filled with matter ready to putrifie vpon euery light occasion whereupon maligne and dangerous
this affection how profitable soeuer it be ifit exceedeth the limits bounds of moderation it is sometimes deadly therefore Fernel sayth it disperseth the spirits like lightning that they can not returne to mainteine life There is a lamentable example of one Diâ—goras who had three sonnes crowned Victors in one day at the solemne games of Olymâ—us and whiles he embraced them and they put their garlands vpon his head and the people reioycing with them cast flowers vpon him the olde man ouerfilled with ioy yeelded vp his life suddenly in the middes of the assembly But examples of this kinde are rare and therefore not to be feared Sorow Sorow and griefe hath great power to weaken the ablest state of body it doth as Plato speaketh exercise cruell tyranny Tuscul quest Cum omnis perturbatio mâ—sera est tum carniâ—icina est agritu do c. Tully discoursing of the affections of the mind hath these words Euery perturbation is miserable but griefe is a cruell torment lust hath with it heat mirth lightnesse feare basenesse but griefe bringeth farre greater things wasting torment vexation deformity it teareth it eateth and vtterly consumeth the mind and body also Histories affoord many examples of those that haue beene brought into consumptions and to death by sorrow and griefe Feare Feare is an expectation of ill it is commonly the forerunner of griefe it calleth the bloud suddenly from the outward parts to the heart and leaueth them destitute of their naturall heat for want whereof they tremble and shake the heart then suffereth violence also as appeareth by the weake and slow pulse and it is sometimes suddenly ouercome and suffocated by the violent recourse of bloud Feare killeth many Thus Publius Rutilius and Marcus Lepidus ended their liues as Pliny reporteth There are sundry examples in histories of those that through extreame feare haue had their haire changed into a whitish hoarenesse in one night Skenk obseruat This opinion is confirmed by Scaliger contra Cardan and the reason annexed Anger Anger may adde somewhat to health in colde and moist bodies for it is an increase of the heat of bloud about the heart Gal. de sanit tu enda lib. 2 ex Aristot This bringeth much hurt to cholericke bodies it is comprehended vnder the first of the fiue generall causes of agues it is also sometime the cause of an epilepsie or the falling sicknesse as a De locis affectis lib. 5 cap. 5. Galen affirmeth in the history of Diodorus the Grammarian but this affection be it neuer so violent taketh not away the life suddenly as b De sympt caus lib 2. Galen and most other Physitians affirme for in cold and weake constitutions it can not be vehement Magnaniâ—s ob nullam animi aegritud moriuntur Gal. de locis affect lib. 5. and the strength of hot bodies wherein it is alwayes most violent will not yeeld vnto it I know that some c Cardan consil 1. are of contrary opinion but I may not enter into controuersies hauing beene already so long Other affections I omit as being neere the nature of some of these and hauing lesse power to hurt the body You see sir with what efficacy the affections of the minde worke into the body therefore it is as necessary for health to holde a meane and moderation in them as in the fiue other forenamed things For though we liue in a sweet and pure aire obserue a strict diet vse sleepe and exercise according to the rules of Physicke and keepe fit times and measure in expelling superfluities out of our bodies yet if we haue not quiet calme and placable mindes we shall subiect ourselues to those diseases that the minde yeelding to these passions commonly inflicteth vpon the body these are many in number grieuous to suffer and dangerous to life Thus I haue briefly run ouer these six things which being rightly vsed with speciall care and regard will preserue all strong bodies in continuall health and preuent all diseases vntill the radicall moisture be consumed and no oile left to maintaine the light of the lampe A Discourse of Empiricks or vnlearned Physicians A Preface to the Reader THe life of man is so precious as that all which a man hath he will giue for the ransome thereof Neither is this care of preseruing his owne life alone naturally implanted in the heart of man but that he may saue the life of others also how dangerously will he aduenture somtimes casting himselfe into deepe waters to saue one from danger of drowning sometimes breaking into an house flaming on euery side to deliuer one from perishing in the fire And this naturall instinct hath beene the cause also that publike persons haue by holesome lawes prouided for the safety thereof and priuate men haue spent their thoughts in discouering those stratagems whereby the life of man is oppugned Now because none are more pernicious enemies to the same than are these Empericks who vnder colour of drawing out the threed of mans life doe most cruelly cut the same in sunder before the time there haue beene some in all ages that haue vehemently inueighed â—gaâ—â—st them and laboured with all diligence to suppresse them as it were to quench some griâ—uous fire But hitherto all labour hath beene lost that was spent that way for like the Lernean monster against which Hercules fought in the roome of one seuen others haue arisen and haue by opposition growen both in number and estimation also with many and that partly by their owne diuellish and detestable practises and partly by the folly of others And first for themselues they will falsly vaunt what admirable cures haue beene performed by them that No mottall man is able to doe more than they can doe They will promise confidently to cure any disease though neuer so desperate as to breake a confirmed stone in the bladder or els To lodge it in some part of the bladder that it shall neuer paine them after And vnto such as are therefore left by the iudicious Physician because sentence of death hath already passed against them on an Indicatory day they will warrant life and that to the end they may be imployed after their betters which is no small credit vnto them Now if they be found to haue missed the cushion and the party dies as was foretold then will they pawne their liues that the disease was mistaken by the first Physitian and that if they had beene called to the cure but one day sooner it had beene a matter of nothing to haue saued his life for the partie died because he was let bloud if that were aduised by the other with good discretion or because he was not let blood if that were omitted vpon iust cause On the contrary the learned Physitian though he haue no religion will not for his credit sake be found to vtter any vntrueth is very sparing in reporting
thine acceptance of the first fruits of his endeuors and so mayst thou reape greater fruit of his labours in time to come Farewell A Discourse of Empiriks or vnlearned Physicians THe second thing which you require of me is to set downe at large my opinion concerning Empiriks This I know if it should be knowen would be a worke subiect to much enuy and hatred For whether I mitate such authors as I haue read or speake out of my selfe I shal be compelled to lay a grieuous accusation vpon them And although Tully sayth it is a bondage not to speake against whom we lâ—st yet he seemeth to speake that as an Oratour in pleading and not from hâ—s owne iudgement for in sundry other places he inclineth to the contrary He came alwayes ioyfully to the defence and acquit ng of the suspected but heauily and as it were drawen to the accusing of any as plainly appeareth in the first inuectiue that he made One reason hereof he rendreth in these words I haue often scene those that haue ript vp other mens faults openly to haue more grieuously offended the minds of the hearers than those which coÌ„mitted them And another he giueth in these The life of them which accuse no man is much freer Therefore hauing duely examined mine owne strength I would gladly haue eased my weake shoulders of this heauy burthen did not the continuall flow of your manifold kindnesse towards me prouoke me to the performance of any office that may seeme acceptable vnto you I am further encouraged vnto this first by the nature of the accusation that standeth vpon a manifest and infallible truth next by the hamous facts of the accused which tend not to the losse of credit or goods but of the pretious life of man in regard whereof I might rather to be iudged as carried with a desire of the publike good than with an humot of any piruate or personall respect The name of an Empirike is deriued froÌ„ the Greeke word which signifieth experience and by an Empirike is as you know vnderstood a Practitioner in Physicke that hath no knowledge in Philosophy Logicke or Grammar but fetcheth all his skill from bare and naked experience Ignorance then is the difference whereby these men are distinguished from other Physitians But because ignorance is sometime clothed with the outward garments of knowledge and men are commonly iudged of by that which is most apparent I will set downe some outward marks whereby they may easily be discerned The first shall be their loquacity or much speaking Langius brandeth them with this marke in his Epistles and compareth them to geese that are alwayes gagling The second their hasty rash and vnaduised iudging of diseases and promising the cure of them before they know the causes The th rd their forwardnesse in disgracing and slandering other Physicians whom they know to be many degrees before them in the knowledge of the Arte. The fourth the magnifying of their owne sk ll the extolling their practise and amplifying their strange and admirable cures These I only mention hauing a fitter place to speake more largely of them I am not ignorant that there was a sect of Physicians amongst the ancients called Empirici Rome was full of these when Galen came thither they had more than a superficiall knowledge in the ground of Physicke and wrot many learned books I purpose not to speake of any such but only of those that haue no taste of learning but spent their youth either in mechanicall trades or in some other course of life that barreth them from the knowledge of any of the liberall sciences Neither shall my words extend only to the baser sort of them whom I holde not worth the naming but vnto all whosoeuer they be that hauing not applied their tender yeres to study in the Grammar schoole and Vniuersity are notwithstanding sometimes fortunate by multitude of patients and famous by popular applause And to auoid confusion first I wâ—ll lay downe the difficulty of the Arte of Physicke the ample and large lim t s of it with the necessity of other kinds of learning that must goe before it whereby all Empiriks must needs be disabled Secondly my intent is to discouer part of the manifolde errours and incuitable dangers of their practise Thirdly I will take away the obiections which are vsually brought in defence of them Last of all I will make knowen vnto you the true causes of their popular fame so falsly ascribed vnto them All which being duely considered it will plainly appeare that Empiriks are as farre behinde rationall Physicians as they are called in the knowledge of our Art as Thersites was behinde Achilles in fortitude or as farre as an ordinary man commeth short of the strength of that mighty Sampson Neither is it my purpose to vouchsafe them that credâ—t as to compare them with such a Physician as Tully faineth his Orator to be or Castilio his Courtier one complete absolute perfect as Hippocrates was of whom a learned man of this age speaketh thus Qui in hominibus excessisse mihi humanum fastigium videtur but the contention shall stand betwâ—xt the best Empirâ—ks that can be and the ordinary and middle ranke of scholars that pract se Physicke And yet you shall finde I doubt not that of the Poet to be heere true Great things are compared with small Touching the first the deepe and profound knowledge conteined in this Arte the long time of study that it requ reth the ambigu ty and hardnesse of iudgement and the perill of experiments are all expressed in the first aphorisme of the renowmed father of our Arte The life of man is short c. as if he should say After that a man hath spent almost his whole life in the painfull and diligent study of Physicke he shall not then be able to see into the depth of it his experiments shall be subiect to danger and his iudgement shall meet with many ambiguous scruples And in another place speaking of Physicke he sayth it bringeth great labour and trouble to him that professeth it Furthermore he appointeth sixe guides or leaders to the study of this Arte. This is confirmed by Galen with some difference of words but they agree in substance He that will attaine to the knowledge of Physicke must first be apt and fit for it by nature then he is to apply his minde to study in his youth and of continue with labour and diligence this is to be done in a fit place that is in schooles of learning there he must heare the best learned men and reade the most approued authours there he must learne the method of the Art and then he shal be fit to begin to practise The necessity of this timely beginning of hearing many learned masters and of long perseuerance in diligent study is prooued by that which Galen speaketh of one
the matter of the disease is discussed by outward medicines and requireth neither of these two helps Sometimes there is a fit vse of fomentations and after them of bleeding as Hippoc. did when the disease could not be mitigated by these outward meanes he opened a veine the eighth day In many other cases it is necessary to take away a great quantity of bloud in the beginning therefore Heurnius sayth Blood can not be taken away too soone nor in too great a quantity if the patient be strong but in weaknesse it must be done often by small quantities In some bodies Arte forbiddeth taking away of any bloud though the patient be strong and inioyneth purging In some cases the passages are to be stopped and the humor to be made thicke after bleeding lest new matter should flow to the place affected After the flux is stayed then the weake parts are to be strengthened and the matter impact in the side to be prepared or tempered that it may be cast vp by coughing with greater facility Heere is a broad gate opened to a large field of medicines of sundry sorts as ointments plaisters syrups potions c. Some of these are very hot and much opening some very cold and binding In the vse of these and also of all the former things the Empirike is plunged into many doubts and the patient into as many dangers if he take away too little blood he taketh not away the disease if too much he taketh away life if he purgeth when he should open a veine or doth this when that is required he committeth a pernicious errour if he iudgeth not rightly of the humor abounding of the complexion c. of which only Arte is the competent iudge he can attempt nothing in the cure safely nor so much as appoint a fit diet If he prescribeth locall or outward medicines of too hot operation the heart is thereby inflamed the ague exasperated and life indangered If there be in them any defect of heat the matter of the disease is bound faster into the side and chest with as great perill If inward medicines be not proportioned to euery vnnaturall affect in the body and to euery offensiue quality as now heating then cooling now moistening then drying sometimes extenuating or making the humor thinne sometimes incrassating or making it thicke sometimes opening somtimes stopping c. the patient doth neuer receiue any good but commonly much hurt by them Neither is the Pleurisie only to be respected but there must be a vigilant eye vpon the Ague also which alwayes accompanieth the other and may kill the patient as well as the Pleurisie Moreouer there may be great malignity in the humor as Gesner reporteth in an epidemiall Pleurisie all died in whom a veine was opened and all liued that receiued cordials In the great variety of these doubts difficulties and distinctions there is a necessary vse of sound iudgement confirmed by long study and profound knowledge both in Philosophy and Physicke It is therefore cleere that the practise of Empiriks being destitute of these helps must needs be vnfit and full of perill It may well be compared to his that Forestus mentioneth who wrot out sundry receits ouer night and put them confusedly into a bagge in the morning when patients came to him after he had looked on the vrine he put his hand into the bagge saying to the party Pray that you may haue a happy lot and plucking out that which came first to hand he gaue it as a remedy for the disease Though our Empiriks haue a farre better colour for their practise than this was yet in effect they often agree But I proceed to lay open some few of their grosse and palpable errors in their practise for to speake of all requireth a whole volume I will begin with their mistaking of diseases a common errour with them exceeding dangerous to their patients Diseases are knowen and distinguished by their signes The knowledge of this is comprehended vnder the second part of Physicke before mentioned whereof because they are ignorant they must needs fall often into this fault This is seldome discouered but when rationall Physicians haue opportunity to looke into their practise then they see the disease taken to be in the liuer when it is in the lungs or kidneis to be in the heart when it is in the head or mouth of the stomacke to be in the brest when it is winde in the stomacke extending that region and many such What though they can iudge of the gout the palsie and the dropsie so can simple women doe but to iudge rightly of the causes and differences of these diseases of the manifold differences of Agues of simple and compound sicknesses and of sundry diseases of the head that requireth Arte which is not in any Empirike Hippoc. sheweth the misery that fel vpon many of the Scythians by mistaking their disease and the causes of it and thereupon by taking a wrong course in the cure of strong and able men they became as effeminate as weake women and spent all the remainder of their wretched life in the offices of that sex Heurnius reporteth that an vnlearned Physician by mistaking the cause of the disease put his patient into a bath wherein he died presently and the Empirike was iustly accused for killing of him Guanerius setteth forth the deadly error of another in the cure of a sicke man who after extreme intolerable paines ended his life A learned Physician hauing a melancholike patient depriued of the right vse of his inward senses amongst other things in the cure appointed his head to be shauen and then to be anointed and bathed according to arte an Empirike hearing of this cure gat the receit of the outward medicines vsed in it and not long after lighting vpon one sicke of a phrensic or inflammation of the braine thought it to be the same disease with the former because both the patients were madde therefore he followed the steps of the other with great confidence of the cure this grieuous error in mistaking both the disease and the cause of it brought the miserable man to a speedy and of his life farre more cruell to himselfe and more terrible to the beholders than the sicknesse could haue done The reason of this is plaine and euident to euery meane Physician The cause of rauing in the former was a cold humor in the latter a hot therefore hot medicines which were fit to cure the one were as fit to kill the other But admit the Empirike had beene called to the cure of the same disease proceeding from the same cause yet he could not haue obserued the circumstances which arte required and therefore his receit was vaine and vnprofitable If the course of these blinde practisioners could be obserued it would be found to be like to this in euery disease Our books are full