heard several of the Apothecaries confidently not to say impudently affirm they were so throughly acquainted with such mens Practice naming some eminent Physicians that if they knew the Case they would lay a Wager they did exactly Predict before they took Pen in Hand what they would Prescribe when to my knowledge there is not so much difference between a shallow River and the profoundest Sea as between these empty light Fellows and those Grave admired Physicians whose depths such light Shittle-Cocks Cork and Feathers are so unlike to sound that it is not without much difficulty that they are made to penetrate the very Superficies In short to compare them with sober judicious Physicians is as preposterous as to parallel the faint glimmering of an expiring Candle with the beauty and luster of the Sun in its Noon-day Glory But we shall more clearly and distinctly perceive the vast difference between them by comparing them both with the Idea of Medicine and see which is the more likely to have it imprinted in their Minds and display it in their Actions The design of the Physician ought to be the preservation of Health and cure of Diseases The Preservation of Health is best effected by a regular Diet and the due use of those things which are called Non-naturals to which may be added some small matter of Physick when there is a slight propension to a disease rather than a Disease formed Now in this Part certainly the Physician is more understanding than the Apothecary being bred a Philosopher and must therefore probably or he is much to blame understand more of the Nature and properties of Meats and Drinks of Air Sleeping and Waking Exercises and Passions of the Mind than the Apothecary who never addicted himself to these enquiries Then as for the Cure of Diseases it seems highly probable that they who are best acquainted with the Causes and Symptomes of Diseases will apply Medicines more properly than others that cannot so well distinguish although possessed of the same Remedies But we will wave this although it would be very proper for our present purpose and examine which are best furnished with Methods and Medicines in order to the Cure of Diseases Diseases are removed either by Method Specificks Arcana chiefly Chymical or by a Practice mixed of Two or more of these That Cure by Method which doth not interfere with the other by specificks is when by Vertue of Medicines that have a Sensible Operation such are Vomits Purges Salivating Sweating Diuretick vesicating Cordial Anodyne and Narcotick Remedies with the helps of Phlebotomy c. used in such a Method as the Physician apprehends most proper the Diseases are removed And that most Distempers might be Radically or Perfectly Cured by these judiciously prescribed without either specificks or Chymical Arcana I am so far from Doubting that I could name some excellent Physicians who have eminently signalized themselves only by Method But then these and indeed whosoever insists in this way must be such were Men of most quick apprehensions Solid Judgements knew when what how much and in what order to prescribe a little mistake hazarding the Patients Life in acute Distempers either in over or under doing and how fit a Hair-brained Careless or Ignorant Apothecarie is for this Practice is easily discerned As for Specificks by which we mean such Simples as being appropriated to a Disease cure without any sensible Operation probably by changing the ill texture of the Morbous matter into another more innocent and less incongruous with those parts which before were extreamly disaffected thereby Now the great question is how Physicians come by the knowledge of these admirable Properties Surely they have it not by natural Instinct much less can any pretend to Divine inspiration I am not ignorant that some talk of a Medicina Adepta but the boldest and most talkative Apothecary I ever yet met with had not the slightest Pretensions to it and no wonder for till they leave off their fraudulent unworthy Practices of all men I know in the world they have the least Reason to expect revelations in this kind supposing there were such Well then since there are no other means besides Physicians must derive this knowledge from Communication either of living or dead Physicians or from their own Experience and Observations and indeed I believe they are not a little beholding to the writings of those that preceded them wherein yet this Knowledge is so scattered that great Labour Industry and Sagacity must be imployed before any Physician can arrive to an ability of Curing most Distempers by means of Specificks Now that the Apothecaries are like to be Possessors of this Treasure will appear very improbable If we consider that they do not trouble themselves to search any other Records than they themselves have made of Physicians Prescripts and besides they are great Enemies of Cures by Specificks because that notwithstanding they personate the Doctors yet their gain comes in by the Trade of an Apothecary which this way of Cure doth much impair And therefore by their good-will they would neither allow of it in others nor practice it themselves if they were able from which they are so remote that al the Physicians in England can hardly beat it into most of their heads that any thing should effect a Cure without Evacuating sensibly the Material Cause of the Disease and therefore they deal chiefly in Purges Vomits c. And how judiciously they manage these instruments we shall hereafter make inquirie A third course whereby Diseases are said to be cured are Chymical Arcana Such were the Mercurius Diaphoreticus of Helmont and Paracelfus the Ignis or Sulphur Veneris the highly exalted Tincture of Gold the Mineral Laudanum of Paracelsus and other great Medicines which those renowned Chymists B. Valentinus R. Lully R. Bacon Paracelsus Helmont and Others were said to have had in their Possession and to have used with incredible Success These noble Remedies curing without any Evacuation besides ordinary Diseases those that had then the Repute of being incurable such were the Gout Dropsie Stone Leprosie and other formidable Distempers It is not my intention at present to spend time in inquiring after the truth of this Tradition whether these Persons were actually possessed of these Remedies and whether by their means they effected such great Cures Or whether such Medicines may be procured I shall only insist on this that if any of them can be obtained by Labour Skill and Industry the Physicians are much more like to be possessed of them than Apothecaries triffling Chymists or mean Operators Many of them having been long conversant with Chymical Operations and having â—ot spared for any expence of Money Time or Trouble are now so throughly acquainted with the Principles of that Art and have rendred Nature so familiar that they design few things which they do not effect and I can say from my own Knowledge that the Productions of their Furnaces have been
Diseases and that may perhaps in some measure gratifie their petulant Fancy at a cheaper rate by spoiling a part than hazarding the whole which is now their daily practice 3. It is no inconsiderable part of a Physician 's Office to know when nothing is to be done but the whole matter committed to Nature the Physician supervising and taking care to correct all Nature's aberrations and if there be occasion to give her some little assistance For Diseases seize on many in whom Nature is so strong that after some conflicts the Aggressor is expelled without any assistance from Physick according to the Aphorism of Hippocrates Naturae sunt morborum Medicatrices Whereas should a Physician in these cases administer any active Medicines or make use of other pretended helps suppose Phlebotomy unless by his great Sagacity or the obviousness of the Distempers cause he applyes a Remedy very sutable for which there is yet little occasion We cannot imagine otherwise than that Nature being weakened by evacuations or diverted from her usual Methods by Medicines which if not appropriated will rather disorder or debilitate than bring relief in the interim the distempers will proceed by insensible degrees and at length may become so powerful that Nature with the help of the most generous Remedies cannot prevail where if She had not been unseasonably weakened or diverted She would have obtained an easy Victory As for Example there is a well-known Disease wherewith Children are as frequently afflicted as by Agues or the Rickets which soone deprives the poore Infants of their colour makes them lose their appetite they sleep little and that unquietly they will be exceeding Thirsty Froward or Peevish and seem to have greivous sick or fainting fits and after they have long laboured under this distemper they have usually great swellings or hardness of the Belly and are so emaciated that they seem not much unlike to little Skeletons and yet notwithstanding all these threatning Symptoms I have seldome if ever known Children miscarry who were forbidden the use of Physick till freed from most of them for they vanish of themselves and then gently purged for a few dayes successively they not only recovered their former health but have often given me occasion to dispute with my self whether they were not rather better than worse for the distemper thus managed Whereas on the contrary others that have been disordered and weakened by evacuations Cordials or fuges appointed by the Apothecaries or other unskilfull practicioners who are very ready to prescribe and Impose Physick on these occasions although to appearance they are freed from their troublesome companion yet withall soon after many exchange this life for a better and those that survive are usually weakly more subject to Rickets Convulsions and other Distempers than those in whom the Disease was permitted quietly to take its course without interruption The same hath also been observed in elder Persons labouring under Quartain Agues Neither is it without a great deal of trouble that Physicians observe so many miscary of acute simple Feavers who committing themselves to the care of Apothecaries and rather unskilful pretenders to Medicine often receive dispatches out of this World by Food or Physick preposterously administered rather than from their Distemper which will appear evident to them who consider that a Feaver is usually Natures Instrument or an Ebullition of the Blood caused by the Vital Principle in order to the expelling of some substance mixt with the Blood or other Humors in the Body whose presence perverts Natures regular actions and thereupon is opposed by those active parts through whose mediation She performes her operations Now in most of those conflicts Nature would be victorious subdue or expel her intestine Enemy if She were recruited sparingly with the liquid part of Her ordinary and daily supply and be not diverted by gross Food whose digestion while the Spirits attend the Morbous matter exceeding the remainder in quantity or energy may gain great advantages either by vitiating the Organs or by reducing the Humors to their own Nature by a depraved Ferment and the Stomach wanting Spirits copious enough to assist it in digesting the Food dismisses it crude or being it self disaffected imparts thereto some noxious qualities which are again communicated to the Blood whose impurities it thereby encreases extreamly hazarding and sometimes over-powring the Principle of Life The same happens by Medicines unsutable to the Distemper or unseasonably exhibited as if in the height of a Feaver one should advise to hot Medicines whereby more Fuel is added to the Fire and the Disease rendered more formidable and difficult of cure than ever or if in the declination of the same Distemper when the Patient should be supported by Cordials and relieved by Opiates whereby the Crisis or separation of the peccant matter is most certainly and easily affected if instead of these refrigerating Medicines Juleps Clysters or other Coolers which weaken the Blood depress the Spirits and disable Nature for her intended separation whereby the Distemper runs into a Diuturnity and if Life chance to be secured for the present howsoever the Patient continues weak and without great regularity or exact observation of Diet Exercise and the other Non-Naturals will become subiect to some Chronical Distempers whether Consumption Scorbute Dropsie Jaundice Scyrrhus Tumors or Ulcers which frequently succeed acute diseases ill managed and are seldome perfectly removed at least not by the Apothecaries who were the occasion of these and are daily of many other Miscarriages when they are consulted about Persons who would recover without the use of any or with the help of little Physick But as it is above their skill to know what Persons are thus affected so it is contrary to their Interest to manage them aright and therefore they neither can nor will do it That they cannot the faithful Character or Description we have given of them will render sufficiently probable That they will not may be easily believed if we consider that this way of proceeding would diminish their Profit which they do by no means approve but will rather charitably obtrude store of Physick on all their Patients and that sometimes so much to their prejudice that they had better hire them at a dearer rate to be less officious 4. Oftentimes persons seem to labour under several Diseases when as really the whole Tragedy is acted by the same peccant matter which is either translated from one part to another and affecting them after different manners the Symptoms are various and their Denominations different or from differences in Age Sex previous habit of body Complexion or Constitution Strength of the Patient Season of the year and other circumstances Matter which hath the same Nature and Properties may diversly affect the Persons thus discriminated also according to Quantity and Degrees in the same Qualities it may diversly affect the body and thereby occasion different Symptoms which to the Unwary or Unskilful seem distinct Diseases when
as it is but one and the same matter variously displaying it self and which may be removed or otherwise disposed of by one and the same Method or Medicine Thus for instance a great number of Diseases are caused by the redundance of Acidities which acid noxious juyce being mortified all those troublesome effects of its presence cease Many Diseases there are which proceed from the obstruction of some part such are Apoplexy's Lethargy's Carus Catalepsia Gutta Serena Palsy's c. Now those Methods and Medicines which will cure the most obstinate and dangerous of these will seldom fail to remove the rest The same happens in Convulsions Epilepsy Madness Hysterical and Hypochondriacal Passions Vertiginous Affections and Melancholy c. We also daily observe that many violent Fluxes wherein the blood or other humours have the same cause and cure all which proceed mostly from sharpness thinness or heat of the blood are removed by Medicines answering the Indications of cooling dulcifying or incrassating Some of the Diseases thus cured are immoderate Fluxes in Women spitting and vomiting of blood Periodical or other copious Evacuations thereof at the Nose Haemorrhoids with the Urine or by Stool in the Flux commonly called Hepaticas and Dysenteries to which we may add several sorts of Diarrhea's fluor albus incontinentia Urinae much Spitting Weeping Coryza and Rheumes of divers kinds Further most simple continued and intermittent Feavours have very nearly the same way of Cure although the Body seems diversly affected by them an evident Argument that their causes are little different We might instance in Colical and Iliack pains and many other torments in the Stomach and Bowels which seem to have their rise from the same Causes and have almost the same Cure Nay to proceed still higher What Analogy doth there seem to be between the Palsie and the Colick yet this often degenerates into that which also many other Diseases do whereof I could give a large account but shall refer it to a more convenient Opportunity We might proceed to shew how great an affinity there is between many outward affections in their Causes and Cures But because the care of such Diseases is denied by some to belong to Physicians and because the Apothecaries do scarcely ever intermeddle with the Chyrurgeons imployment which yet it is much less intricate then the Physicians I shall pass over this Ponsideration Thus we have given a superficial account of those opportunities judicious Physicians have to discriminate themselves from ignorant pretenders by their discerning with great Celerity and Sagacity how to act where all these are allwayes grievously perplexed and often perfectly confounded as is manifest in their wayes of proceeding which are usually so ridiculous and Irrational that they would give intelligent Physicians a full and pleasant Divertisement if they could Indulge themselves therein which they can by no means do where their Errours and Miscarriages are so far from Innocent that they do often exceedingly hazard and sometimes occasion the Misery or Destruction of the unhappy credulous Patient Which sad accidents dispose those generous Physicians they neglected rather to Pitty and Compassion than to disport themselves or look with Malicious Smiles on misfortunes which they in some measure deserved for being guilty of so egregious a piece of folly as committing themselves to Ignorant and Unskilful Practiciooners altogether unfit for so great a trust And indeed it will excite Admiration in any judicious Person to observe what a Wild-Goose-Chase they go in most of the Cases we lately mentioned sometimes applying a Remedy they have learned is proper for the Head-ach then another for the Tooth Stomach or Heart-ach Gripes Flux heats in the Head and burning in the habit of the Body Vartigo Asthma and other semblances of Distempers which one and the same matter will often occasion Now the Sagacious Physician soon detests this Cheat and immediately by a stroke or two at the root intercepts the depraved Nourishment so that all the other ill effects cease with the removal of their cause whereas should he only attend to every particular symptome as the less discerning do there would be no end either of Physick or the Disease which 't is very probable will receive a great aggravation by so many improper Remedies For Physick is or ought to be active and if not appropriated to the distemper it must necessarily work an effect contrary to that for which it was designed so that if it do not abate of the Disease 't is more than likely to exasperate it if it do not strengthen Nature actually or consequentially I mean by removing Impediments it will certainly weaken Her V. It seems most evident That many Diseases may be Cured by a convenient Diet. AND if this be so great a truth as Physitians have hitherto generally esteemed it to be then he that is acquainted with the Nature of Aliments and the Process of Nutrition will probably cure Diseases with greater certainty and less trouble to the Patient than him that is utterly ignorant of both these And who is more like to be a Possessor of this knowledge than a judicious learned Physitian For 1. He understands the Nature of Aliments whether Animal or Vegetable he knows that such among them as are most temperate and have no sensible Operation are more agreeable to the body and nourish more than others which abound with active parts whose Purging Vomitive Sweating Diuretick or other Qualities render them unfit for Nutrition As also that most if not all things that are used for food although they be not active in so high a degree as others which come commonly in use for Medicine that yet they often cause great alterations in the body according to the quantity quality right or unsutable application thereof and find that the Cause and Cure of many if not most Diseases have their dependance on a good and regular or a bad inordinate Diet. But this will be made more evident by descending to particulars I think nothing can be more plain and evident than that Onions Shalutes Horse-radish Capers Olives Broom-buds Pepper Cinnamon Nutmegs Salt Sugar Butter Vinegar Wine and Oyl are active alterative substances and yet they are often taken alone or variously compounded to make savory picquant Sauces which are supposed to promote digestion by rendring the food more grateful and by strengthning the ferment of the stomach But besides these there are many Vegetables which come frequently in use among all people and in some Countres with Bread Cheese and Milk are almost their only food such are Melons Pompions Cucumbers as also Turneps Carrots Parsnips Skirrets Radishes Pease Beans Artichocks and other Thistles Asparagus Hop-tops Cabbages Coleworts Cauleflowers Comfry Lettuce Purslain Parsly Sage Leeks c. not to mention various kinds of fruits These are either boyled or eaten crude alone or variously compounded according to pleasure being rendred more grateful or as is thought wholesome by the addition of Butter Vineger Pepper or other of
the virtues of Simples or Compositions which is this The ingredients are to be hung in fermenting liquors whether Wine Ale Beer or Cider c. and that their medicating properties are extracted by this method dayly experience doth attest many who either will not or cannot use other Physick being recovered by ingredients thus prepared For the fermenting liquors being in a brisk motion and abounding with active parts chiefly spirituous insinuate themselves into the most private recesses of the Simples or other materials give motion enough to their active parts to loosen them from the more gross and drive them into the liquor and these freed associate with their deliverers to unloose the rest And that the Crasis or chief parts and properties of Simples are by this method obtained is evidenced by the effects and tasts of the drinks exactly emulating those of the materials which were thus fermented As for what refers to Cures effected by these means I dare boldly affirm That there is scarcely any Chronical Disease that is cured by the Shop Medicines which may not be cured with more certainty ease and pleasure by Drinks thus ordered joyned with a regular Diet. Thus have we shewed of how great advantage a convenient Diet is in order to the cure of Diseases I have spoken more largly to this particular not that I design to learn Physicians any new notion they having many of them better digested thoughts on this subject then these which are the Product of two hours Meditation But I mention these things partly on the account of the Vulgar that they may have other apprehensions of understanding Physicians then they have hitherto entertained as also that I might learn the Apothecaries to know themselves and their own insufficiency or if they will not acknowledge it to expose them so nakedly to others that unless they will shut their eyes they cannot but behold unpardonable weakness and great defects in most of those confident blind Bayards the Quacking Apothecaries who before I have dismissed them will appear lean and scrannel though now they seem plump and juycy I shall therefore proceed to polish the mirror wherein if impartial Spectators do view and compare them with Learned honest Physicians they will find without any delusive Catoptrical trick no less difference between them then there is betwixt admired beauty and hated deformity Therefore lastly A Physitian will appear to be Superior to other pretenders if we reflect on those many advantages he hath whereof they are wholly destitute He is accounted to to enjoy a great Piviledge who hath been Educated by an Eminent Practicioner of Physick who hath been free in his communications to him and this is by the Vulgar accounted sufficient to constitute a person who hath been in such circumstances an able Physitian And the best plea the Apothecaries have is that they have collected the Practice of some worthy Physitian for most Diseases now there is no Physitian but injoys the benefit of the writings of many hundred excellent persons that were eminent in the same faculty before him These have faithfully communicated their experiements and observations of the causes and symptoms of diseases and of their cures what methods and Medicines they found most beneficial what things are injurious and to be avoided And there are others who have left us their writings concerning the virtues of most Simple and Compounded Medicines in what cases they have been found effectual and many which is perhaps the most profitable way of writing have left us intire books of Medical Observations to which Physitians who have a Scheme of them in their memories have recourse in difficult cases and by Analogy know how to proceed as do the Lawyers on other occasions Now let us suppose with some that Physick is altogether Empyrical being rather a Mass of Experiments then a Science perfectly formed established on sound unquestionable verities which is the most plausible plea Apothecaries or other pretenders can use yet still it must needs follow that he ought to be esteemed most able and sufficient who is furnished with most and best experiments either from his own observation or by reading of books which afford him the experiments of all the rest of the world and can best conclude and argue from the Analogy Correspondence and Harmony they have one to another So that a studied Physitian must in all consideration of reason have far the advantage of any other Indeed it hath been objected by some that the diseases of one country age are so vastly different from those of others that what is profitable to those thar live in one age or to the inhabitants of one Country is not so to another Which is not only a great mistake as I have else where demonstrated but of bad consequence leading us to the neglect of the writings of many Excellent Persons from which we do dayly derive great assistance For although I will not deny but that there may be some uncertainty and the Analogy may not be altogether so exact as we could desire yet it is no otherwise then the variation of the Needle touched by the Load-stone which although it doth not always directly point to the Poles but in some places considerably varies so that the most skilful Mariners cannot certainly though they can neerly determine where and in what degree of Longitude they are yet it is such a help that they cannot without great hazard ingage in long and dangerous voyages without it and by it's direction if no other ill accidents intervene they usually arrive at the desired ports though very remote from the place whence they set forth So a Physitian by the help of his own and others observations for which he makes allowance or abatements as he sees occasion Pilots most of his Patients almost as surely as if his course were chalked out for him or directed by a line So that patients who venture themselves in dangerous cases with Physitians and Apothecaries do it only with this difference the one as it were Imbarks for a long Voyage in a Leaking Skiff with an Ignorant Pilot without Sayls Compass and other due Provisions the other in a stanch fair Ship well Riggid provided with a skilful Pilot good Compasses and all other requisites for Navigation And which is like to make the most short and fortunate Voyage which is most secure from storms foundring or holding uncertain courses is I suppose easily determined 'T is true we read of some that in a little Boat set out from New-England and made a quick and safe Voyage to Ireland and of others who no better accommodated Sailed from the Bermudas to Virginia yet these Accidents are not frequent and if they are registered it is under the notion of extarordinary events And besides none of these were so mad as to have neglected any helps they could have procured it not being choice but necessity that put them on such strange adventures and to run so great a risque to escape
than an open Enemy of which the Italians are sufficiently fensible when they desire to be delivered from their friends they being always upon their Guard against their professed Adversaries And indeed it is much more easie for any one who is acquainted with the thoughts designs and affairs of him to whom he pretends friendship to injure him in his Person Estate or blemish his Reputation than for another who is not privy to his intentions nor intrusted with the management of his affairs Hence it is that Physicians cannot sustain much dammage from common Quacksalvers or Mountebanks and that they cannot promise themselves the same security from Apothecaries will appear so evident in the ensuing discourse that every unprejudiced Reader will readily conclude Physicians were either very facile credulous or else extremely improvident when they committed so great a trust to the Apothecaries in whom they reposed such confidence that the short-sighted Vulgar were sensible of their danger before they themselves could imagine that those whom they had so highly obliged would prove unfaithfull to Physick and Physicians But now they are forced though late to acknowledge that the great Indulgence they shewed to them and their notorious abuse of privileges wherewith had Physicians been circumspect or suspitious they had never been acquainted have occasioned those inconveniences to which they now endeavour to bring a timely remedy It is not without a great deal of regret that they are necessitated to proclaim the Crimes of those whom they have too much too long countenanced too often vindicated and they still retain to much kindness for them that if a private opposition could have reclaimed them the Physicians would never have used so severe and violent a remedy as is the exposing their unworthy Principles and Practices to the view of the World but since they are both so mischievous that to conceal would be to permit and allow them and thereby to betray their Patients themselves their Profession and Successors they are therefore forced to declare how much themselves their Profession and the Sick are injured by those vile arts of the Apothecaries which we shall here display It is well known they have great pretences how fair we shall soon examine to the practice of Physick and are now arrived at that degree of confidence not to say worse that they are not ashamed to publish this before all men whom by most unworthy and illegitimate Artifices they endeavour to alienate from the Physicians and assure to themselves And besides they are not more fraudulent in their Practice than unfaithfull in their preparations few Physicians having the satisfaction they desire and it is fit they should receive that the Medicines they prescribe are prepared after their direction nothing being more frequent than for the Apothecary to employ bad Druggs add substract or substitute at pleasure one Ingredient instead of another Now how consistent these Actions are with the ends of their Institution we desire not to be judges our selves but appeal to all that have the exercise of Reason and if after such unpardonable abuses the Physicians do not desert them and make better provision for themselves and their Patients they would be unworthy of the trust reposed in them betray their Profession to the scorn of the World and themselves soon become contemptible But yet although the Physicians might with justice wholly reject the Apothecaries and are highly censured by many for their forbearance and though the Apothecaries themselves have little regarded their frequent Admonitions yet such is the tenderness of those generous persons that they are determined once more to invite them to entertain a sense of their Duty and to return to that state from which they are degenerated It s true we have little hopes of their Reformation an almost infallible Symptom of incorrigibleness seeing their scandalous reflections on Physicians in most Companies their entring into competition with them nay sometimes preferring themselves before them their Associations not to endeavour the improving their Trade otherwise than by the decay of Physicians their resolution to stand by each other and keep the Ground they have got by Treachery resolving with united Counsels and Purses to withstand any Reformation the Physicians shall attempt among them These are their ordinary discourses and they do not scruple to give them forth even in the presence of sober Physicians who cannot certainly be blamed if they do ill resent such unhandsome and so ingratefull a Carriage But Charity obliges them to endeavour their amendment rather than their inevitable ruin which they can when they please effect by dispensing of their own Physick the conveniences of which will be found so great by the people as we shall manifest that they would soon utterly desert the Apothecaries and leave them in solitude to bewail their wretched improvidence who when they might have had a comfortable and honest subsistence neglected it that they might obtain a greater though thereby many lives were hazarded most of their Benefactors disobliged and how could they expect that building should be lasting whose foundation was laid in blood and ingratitude Yet how notorious soever matters of Fact are least they should pretend innocence and thence promise themselves impunity we shall first declare their enormous abuses of Physicians and their Patients Secondly lay down certain Propositions wherewith if they comply we will oblige our selves yet to retain them Thirdly if they refuse to submit to such reasonable terms we shall acquaint the World with some Methods whereby the Practice of Physick can be more successfully managed by Physicians without the Apothecaries than it can possibly be with them as they are now constituted The grounds of our Complaint against the Apothecaries are these That no Physicians can be certain Medicines are made up according to their prescription So that after they have taken much pains to inform themselves of the symptoms of the disease to understand the causes of the distempers and have duely deliberated what are likely to prove the most proper remedies which being judiciously prescribed they promise themselves that success which usually attends solid Counsel but after all this trouble either from the design Ignorance Carelessness or unfaithfulness of the Apothecaries they are often frustrated not so much to their own prejudice which yet is not inconsiderable as to the Patients which shall be here demonstrated 1. Physicians are subject to suffer from the malice or Design of Apothecaries Now although Charity obliges us to think well of all men till their actions discover them to be bad yet such hath been the demeanour of the Apothecaries towards the Physicians that they have reason to stand upon their guard and hazard as little with them as they can For some Apothecaries having been as they pretend highly disobliged by Physicians I suppose because for their own advantage they would not permit them to injure their Patients by bad Physick what assurance can the Physician have that they do not meditate
noble Faculty with such success that notwithstanding what some few in their mistaken Zeal urge to the contrary it is well known that most acknowledge themselves highly obliged to him for what he hath already published and wait not without some Impatience for what he hath promised in the same kind And how great advantages a Physician skilled in Philosophy hath over others He hath so clearly and copiously evinced in many parts of those excellent Discourses concerning the usefulness of Experimental Philosophy to which I refer the Reader that he hath saved me a Labour of saying more on that Subject which would be only a Recapitulation of what he hath there at large delivered and which will be better understood in his own words and probably make a deeper impression than any thing I can add So that now nothing remains for me to do but to draw this Corollary That till Apothecaries become better Philosophers its very probable that there will be better Physicians but to proceed 2. It is not unlikely that they who in their cures attend to the Age Sex strength of the Patient time of the Year their Constitution or Complexion Antipathies or Aversions Diseases preceding in them or their Parents and the present Complication of Diseases for they are not frequently solitary that they I say who attend to those Circumstances should be more succesful in their Cures than those that have little regard of them for whatsoever the Apothecaries think the Physicians are of the mind that all these are material if not necessary to the Cure of Diseases And although the Apothecary not hearing the Physician enquire after all those particulars himself also neglects them Yet nevertheless the Physician considers them having such a habit that he doth it intuitively rather than discursively especially if he were formerly with the Patient but the Apothecary looks on this as work of Supererogation and thinks 't is only to please and humour the Sick and perswade them of their care But that this surmise is grounded rather on Ignorance than Sagacity we shall now manifest To avoid Prolixity I shall instance only in one particular and that is the Complication of Diseases about which the Physician is not without just cause marvellously solicitous And indeed this is so nice a Speculation that it sometimes almost puzzles the most perspicacious Physicians and is far out of the Apothecarie's Ken who yet presumes he can see into a Milstone as far as another man and so he may but in this case it is with the Physician and Apothecary as 't is said to be with two persons diversly qualified looking into a Magical Glass where the one sees a great variety of objects and the other nothing but a transparent Glass and will not believe but what the other sees is by the help of Imagination's Spectacles which objection how true soever it may be in that case is not in this Or to make a comparison less liable to be censured It is with Apothecaries and Physicians as with two Persons that contemplate the Galaxy or milky way the one with his naked Eye the other by the assistance of a Telescope That to the former seems only a confused white cloud which to him who veiws it through his Tube appears to be a great company of Stars which he perceives little less distinctly than he doth by his Unarmed Eye those that are most conspicuous among that innumerable Company wherewith the Heavens aremost gloriously bespangled But that I may render this more manifest I will descend to particulars and shew first that there is frequently if not usually a Complication of Distempers in the Diseased Secondly That the Apothecaries are not often sensible thereof It hath been judiciously observed by Piso Bontius and others that in Brasile c. where their way of living is most simple the Temper of their Air constant their exercise much and their hereditary Distempers few That their Diseases also are few and short for the most part simple being scarcely ever complicated seldom dangerous the Crisis certain and visible so that they rarely dye except of Accident or old age wheras on the contrary in these Northern Regions our Diseases are many and various Crisis uncertain and oft-times scarcely sensible and which I chiefly aim at Diseases are variously complicated And indeed how can it possibly be otherwise when we are generally very irregular in our Diet so that I know not whether we are more injured by the great quantities or ill Qualities of the food we live on When we sometimes too much indulge our selves in sleep at other times allow our selves too little and that at unseasonable times when we lead for the most part sedentary lives exercising either too little or immoderately not to say how intemperate some are in their Passions and insatiate in their Lusts besides the Air in which we breath is as uncertain as the Winds that blow which suddenly changes from heat to cold moisture to dryness and on the contrary cannot but leave ill Impressions behind them to which we may add Hereditary Distempers For what is more frequent than for weakly diseased Parents to be further tormented by seeing their Children labour under the same Infirmities which are either rivitted into the Principles of their Constitution or sucked in with their milk from which dispositions they are hardly if ever freed Now any one of all these is sufficient to change the nature of a Disease which in their absence would have appeared in a much different form So that there being in most of those who are surprized with any distemper especially Acute a previous ill Diathesis or Constitution of the Blood a depraved ferment in the Stomach and these very various we must apply our selves after different methods to cure Diseases which spring from different causes Thus for instance in Feavers Agues and many other Distempers it is not sufficient to remove their occasional Cause and to allay the inordinate commotion of the Blood but he that will approve himself a true Physician must in a great measure at least free the Patient from that ill habit of Body which exasperated the former Distemper and disposes still to the same or worse For when the Blood is depauperated or the spirits oppressed by more numerous Saline or Earthy parts on every light occasion the whole Body is disordered and indeed the great skill of a Physician is seen in the cure of Chronical Diseases which is too far out of an Apothecaries reach that although I have made strict enquiry I solemnly profess I never heard of any one cured by them If then they are unable to cure Chronical Diseases which are those that chiefly reign in England and if they are absolutely unfit to deal with any acute Distempers where there is any Complication Why are they allowed to practice Physick With which if they must be conversant let them addict themselves to the cutting of Corns and drawing of Teeth which do resemble the cure of
Physitians send bills to be made up by Apothecaries as now they are provided only that the Time and Manner of using them be not set down nor the name of the Patient That it be not sent by the Patient but by their own servants That it be returned to the Physitians again with the Physick it self to be filed up by them or entred into a book with the Patients name and the time the Physick so made and provided by the Physitians order to be fetcht at their own houses as it is now at the Apothecaries shops or from thence sent home by their own servants to the Patient And because we cannot safely trust to Apothecaries for Chymical Remedies they usually buying them of common Chymists or Operators It is desired that the Colledge would erect a publick Laboratory where all Chymical Medicines fit to be used shall be well and faithfully made upon the Faith and Authority of the Colledge and that they shall expressly appoint those whose Physick they shall think fit to buy to provide all their Chymical Preparations from thence nor to permit the use of any other Chymical Preparations to any of their number except he himself make and prepare them or have them from such Apothecaries as the Colledge being satisfied with their abilities and honesty shall approve of And lastly That the Colledge of Physicians who herein will be soon imitated by others Enact That none of their number send bills to or buy Physick of any Apothecary who takes on him the practice of Physick till they are fully satisfied he is sensible of the injury done to them and cease to do the like for the future Now how severe and unjust soever these Limitations may seem to the Apothecaries yet in reality this is but a fair and moderate course between them and Physicians for it hinders not the Apothecaries making and selling of Physick to any that shall please to buy of them which thing only belongs to their Trade To visit the Patient feel his Pulse and consider his Urine discourse of the state of the Disease and prescribe proper Remedies for it is the business and care of the Physician So that by this method the Interest of both will be preserved and all causes of jealousie between the Physicians and them will for ever cease The Physicians practice and profession will be so absolutely and intirely secured to himself that the Apothecary cannot invade it for he will never see a Physicians bill from which they alwayes take direction nor the Patient himself and so be utterly ignorant of that case for which the Physick was prepared and used nor will he hear the Physicians reason and discourse of the due times and manner of Administring it or explain the nature and cause of the distemper nor have occasions of officious intervening between the Physician and Patient nor dispence the Physick with praise of his own great care and pains in preparing it as he is wont to do all this the Physician obtains by only concealing his bills the writing of a bill being as it were the Mystery of his trade in which therefore he doth nothing but what is held reasonable among all men Besides This will insensibly lessen that exorbitant number of Apothecaries which makes the trade scarce a competent subsistence For as things are now while the Master or their Servants are imployed by the Physitian to visit his Patients and carry Physick about they will be under a necessity of taking several Apprentices else they cannot perform such attendances abroad and the business of their shop too and this hath made so vast in increase of the trade within few years as has rendred it but a mean way of livelihood to a great many and very dangerous to the sick Now as their number will by little and little grow less so the trade will become better and they who are of it both for skill and estate much more considerable and which is of much greater consequence Physick will be better prepared for the Apothecaries will be more in their shops and not leave things to raw negligent Servants as is now often done they not being sent about by Physitians to their Patients or with Physick noâ— engaged in any Quacking practice of their own will have more leisure to attend making good Medicines which is their proper business This in short is the Summary of what we expect from them and if it be not granted us nothing remains but that Physitians take Pharmacy into their own hands supervise the making of their own Medicines and dispense them themselves And we have reason to apprehend that Physitians will be put on a necessity of acting thus it being highly improbable that the generality of Apothecaries should be reduced to a sense and practice of their duty having been so long accustomed to such bad courses For Custom we know is a second nature and where bad they are not easily subdued by those that heartily desire and design it how much less by Immoral men who if they amend 't is from a principle of fear and therefore they will redeem every opportunity of infranchising themselves and getting loose from a restraint so troublesome and contrary to their inclinations Besides how unwilling will they be to moderate their gain lessen their number which must necessarily be done unless we will allow the mentioned Inconveniencies which cannot otherwise admit of a remedy Besides 't is natural for some to be ambitious of practice not only as it is gainful but because it adds to their credit and repute conciliates them more respect than people think ordinarily due to simple Apothecaries and therefore to part with their imployment in this kind will not be without unspeakable regret and vexation And besides supposing which is yet very improbable that they should promise to keep within due limits reform abuses what other security can they give us besides their bare word or promise which is so much the more unlikely to be valid because as I before intimated it is not free but extorted and 't is absolutely impossible for any besides their own consciences to detect all their fraudulent practices For though Physicians see and allow of their Ingredients behold them mixed what should hinder them if any of the old Ferment remain from increasing the quantity with bad Materials And indeed neither Laws of God nor Man good Instructions excellent Examples or strict Observance of their actions can hinder those that are ill disposed from acting that secretly which sinister respects keeps them from doing in publick Therefore such a constitution of Pharmacy is desirable where bad men shall be made good and faithful rather that where those that are innocent meet with daily temptations to be dishonest This will be accomplished by Physicians taking it into their own hands for then suppose them as bad as malice or the Apothecaries can render them how little sense soever they retain of their duty that of interest will strongly oblige them