D. P. an expert Physician and learned Mathematician This learned Man will needs have the knowledge of the Mathematicks necessary for Physicians not only as an Instrument to digg and prepare our Minds for the Seeds of all Arts as well as this of Medicine which is a Mistake many have fallen into more than he but as having an Affinity and peculiar Congruity with it and without which it can never be cultivat as it ought or bring forth Fruit Twenty Thirty or an Hundred fold no more than Corn can grow without the Dew of Heaven and benign Influence of the Sun But whatever be in this that Mathematicks are necessary for a Physician I am sure Physick is very necessary for some Mathematicians and that a good swinging Dose too But that you may not take this for a Romance as readily a wise Man will I shall cite you two or three Testimonies of the Dr's that in the Mouth of these Witnesses the truth of what I say may be established The First shall be that at the end of his Dissertation de circulatione sanguinis in Animalibus genitis non genitis Nunquam excoletur pro dignitate Medicâ—na quamdiu intra limites Rationalis illius â—â— ercetur aut quamdiu praeter vires hactenus â—â— Medicinam receptas aliae Philosophis praesertim Peripateticis huc usque ignotae a Mathâ—maticis inventae methodoque hisce not a inveniendae non recipientur I confess ingenuously I can hardly eitheâ— make good Sense or good English of thâ—â— Passage But if I be not mistaken the meaning of it is this That Medicine can never be polished as it ought to be or brought to that perfection it is capable of so long as it is confin'd within the narrow limits of that we call Rational Medicine or as long as beside these already received into Medicine other Powers or Properties call them as you please which the Philosophers have hitherto been ignorant of especially the Peripate ticks found out by the Mathematicians and that only can be found out by a Method known to them are not received The Second is in the Sect. 17. of his Dissert de motu sanguims per vasa minima Neque diffiteor non alio magis nomine arridere mihi Artem Medicam quam quod methodo geometricae possit morem gerere uti eae omnes testiquae corporum vires naturas exploâ—â—t i. e. I confess that nothing makes Medicine more acceptable to me than that can be subject to the Method of Geomeâ—â— as all these Arts that search out the â—irtues and Natures of Bodies The Third and last is at the end of his â—â—augural Oration where he tells us That â—â— does not wonder that the Physcians â—â—re ignorant of the physical Causes of ese Diseases Non tamen existimo says me non explicasse causas illarum seu Maâ—â—maticas seu Medicas nempe eas quarum â—â—nitio est Medicis utilissima i. e. Nevereless I think I have explained the Maâ—â—ematical or Medical Causes of them viz. â—â—lese Causes the knowledge of which is â—â—y useful and profitable for Physicians I doubt not but these Testimonies will â—ficiently convince you of the truth of â—â— Assertion and that this Mathematiâ—â— Medicine which is as great a Bull as â—â—y I know is none of my calving Is there any thing so absurd or ridicuâ—â—s that some Men will not maintain And which is more that will not get somâ— footing in the World if it be set off witâ— an Air of Impudence and Novelty Waâ— ever any thing more absurd and contrâ— dictory not only to it self but to the common Principles of humane Nature thaâ— the Epicurean Philosophy And yet hoâ— greedily it was suck'd in in the beginning and how that Herd has multiplied anâ— increased since every Body knows Bâ— the belief of Transubstantiation puts th Matter beyond all doubt Before I come to Examine this learnâ— Man's Scriblings in particular where th Picture of this Chimera is drawn to tâ— Life I shall consider the common I le and weigh in a just Ballance the Reasoâ— of these Pretenders some whereof I haâ— had occasion to discourse with Is not say they the Body of Man Machine or Automaton whose Nature aâ— Essence consists in the Form and Figuâ— Motion and Rest Symmetry and Propotion of the Parts c. which only can â— defined by the Mathematicians And no Man can pretend to mend a Watch we who does not understand its Nature and how it is formed and put together so no Man should take upon him to Cure Diseases without the knowledge of the Mathematicks Who can say this is not a just parallel since the Lines though drawn out infinitly will never meet to all Eternity Or who can refuse this for a Demonstration since I 'le warrand it for as good as any of the Doctor 's I am to examine afterwards Who doubts but the Body of Man in some sense may be called a Machine Yet it is of such a wonderful Structure and curious Contrivance for we are wonderfully made has so many small Parts and Springs such variety of Motions c. that none either knows or can know but the Great Artificer that first made it and set it a going All we can do is diligently to observe its natural Motions and take notice what disturbs their Regularity and endeavour to find out by Experience assisted with Reason what may put it right again And this I think may be done without the Mathematicks As for Example Men found that raw Meat troubled the Stomack and was of hard digestion and therefore they tryed it boyl'd and roasted c. and found it did a great deal better They found likewise that that which was agreeable to them and of easie Digestion while in Health would either not go down or increased their Disease if it did when Sick and this taught them the use of Broaths Ptisans c. And thus came in the Dietetick Part of Medicine Moreover when any intestine Commotion was raised by Surfeit or Drunkenness they found that upon the expelling the Enemy the War was at an end And thus they learned the usefulness of Vomiting Purging c. When in Fevers or violent Head-acks c. the Nose fell a Bleeding the Fever abated and the Pain evanished And thence they learned the use of Blooding And thus came in the Pharmacutick or Curative Part of Medicine And all this without so much as once dreaming of Mathematicks These were the First Lineaments and ruder Draught of that Noble and Excellent Art But something was still a wanting to finish the Picture and this was Reason without which bare Experience more frequently hurts than helps This is that which weighs all in an equal Ballance without the assistance of the Staticks considers all the Indications and Contreindications arising from the Nature of the Disease the Causes and urgent Symptoms the Age and Constitution of the Patient the Season Sympathies and Antipathies c. And there is
but now I am come up to the main Body where I must fight every foot of Ground and force the Camp which you need not doubt is very regularly fortified But whatever be the event one thing I am sure of That I shall either die in the Bed of Honour or ly in its Truckle-bed I proceed now to examine what the Dr. has said in particular on this Head whether in his Oration or Dissertations And I wish with all my Heart the Conrroversy were to be determined by these and he to be tried by his Works But I am perswaded no reasonable Man will decline such a Judge and therefore I go on The First that presents it self is the Inaugural Oration a piece of Work that all the Mathematicks in the World can never bring under the Laws of Rule and Compass either as to Matter or Form It is here where the Plan of this magniscent Structure is drawn so well that it may pass for an Original that can never be imitat I must confess ingenuously that I have viewed it on all Quarters and taken the prospect of it on every side and can find no uniformity in it but that of Nonsence in which all the Parts so wonderfully agree that one would almost swear that it had sprung from the fortuitous Concourse of Atoms I had once designed to put it into English Burlesque for me thinks such a Fool 's Coat would have fitted it very well For then be sure it would have been Rhime whereas now it is neither Rhime nor Reason A Digression here and there is the Embellishment and Beauty of a Discourse and sets it off as Patches do a fair Face and even Venus her self is drawn with a Mole But if in stead of a Patch one should apply a Plaster over the whole Face who would not â—ry out Monstrum horrendum informe Ingens cui lumen ademptum I have many times wondered with my self how any Man of common Sense could have the Confidence to pronounce such a piece of Gibberish before so learned an Auditory as the University of Leyden till at last I found out the Knack which is That Holland being a free State Men are allowed there to use their Tongues freely either in Sense or Nonsense without trouble or molestation providng they do not disturh the publick Peace The design of this Oration is High and Noble no less than establishing Medicine on a sure and lasting Foundation that cannot be shaken Quod nec Jovis ira nec ignis Nec poterit ferrum nec aevi abolere vetustas For hitherto it has been floting upon Water and been more like to an inchanted Island or Farie-land than terra firma Hitherto it has been a Conjectural Art and now it will prove a Certain Science But before the Professor lay the Foundation of this Babel he like a wise and skilful Architect removes the Rubbish out of the way he shows us what hither to has obstructed this great Work and frustrat the Endeavours of so many learned Men that aimed at the perfection o this Art so beneficial to Mankind I hope no Body expects that I should follow any regular or artificial Method in tracing this Oration but rather that I shall do as these who go a Hunting leave the beaten Road and follow the Chace through Hill and Dale Mountain and Valley Moss and Moor as the Beast shall chance to take its way I find then the Rock on which all the Physicians has split is Philosophy For whenever this got into Medicine it spoilled all and the Physicians divided into as many Sects as â—he Philosophers every one setting up a different Hypothesis according to the Philosophy he valued most whether the Platonick Peripatetick or Epicurean c. and now of late the Cartesian And so every one explained the first Principles of natural Bodies and their Actions and Operations according to his own Hypothesis Whence came in the Doctrine of Physical Causes about which these Philosophical Phyficians were at a perpetual seussle Hinc illae lachrymae Now here is the Disease but where is the Cure Many hitherro have attempted it but all in vain Till at last the Professor fairly undertook it which I wish prove not worse than rhe Disease Medicine must then be separat from Philosophy and emancipat from the Tyranny of all its Sects and broughr under the Dominion of the Mathematicks And therefore Physical Causes that disturb the Common-wealth of Medicine must be expelled its borders as Disturbers of the publick Peace and a new Colony of Mathematical Causes these Bulls or rather Monsters in Medicine must be planted in their place But that which crowns the Work is the Method of the Astronomers which we must imitat in building this Aetherial or Aereal Castle call it as you please The first thing then to be done is to part Medicine and Philosophy which is but just for they have been too long Brethren in Iniquity Therefore all ye who mind to excel in this Art shun Philosophy as ye would do the Pox and study Mathematicks if ever ye design to arrive at Perfection For nunquam excoletur pro dignitate Medicina quamdiu intra limites rationalis illius coercetur c. ipse dixit And lest you call in question his Authority let us hear his powerful and weighty Reasons for this Divorce When Men first began says our Oratour to follow the study of Medicine and Philosophy for the good of the Body or benefit of the Mind never theless the occasions for Medicine were very frequent but for Philosophy only casual For our Predecessors of old fed on Corn and Catle and led a poor mean Life exposed to all the inconveniences of the Weather and felt the hurt of Heat and Cold that is they fell sick before they thought of providing themselves with Cloaths or Houses Those were the first beginnings of Diseases and these the first Remedies But their Catle also being of a short Life and subject to Diseases then as well as now brought them under a necessity of following Medicine and these that Cured them were said to help or assist Men. For he that keeps one from starving seems to save his Life But Men began to study Philosophy after they had found out by Experience the Virtues of Remedies and might safely and at their own leisure examine the Faculties of things Is not this a very learned Discourse to prove that Medicine is older than Philosophy because the occasions for the one were more frequent than the other When Men first began to Hear and See the occasions of Seeing were more frequent For turn your Eyes what way you please some Object always presents it self But the occasions of Hearing were less frequent and casual for you may turn your Ear twenty way and hear nothing at all Therefore Seeing is older than Hearing I grant Necessity is the Mother of Arts and that which is most necessary probably was before that which is less so But if I be
of the Starrs and who should he choose but Pâ—olomy and Copernicus both Physicians in Ordinary to the Moon He designed also to have Tycho Brahe the Dane present but he had been drunk over Night and was taking a Nap He carries them to see the Patient Now let us hear the Consultation Copernicus being the younger spoke first thus By all the Signs and concurrent Symptoms it seems to be beyond doubt that this Ladys Disease is nothing else but deliquium animi proceeding from Vapours occasioned by the Earth from which noxious Steams arise because of the Sun's absence by whose benign Influence all Creatures enjoy Life and Health Strength and Vigour especially this worthy Lady who can no more be without â—t than we without Air. That this is the immediat Cause of the Disease seems â—o me certain But this is not enough but the procatartick Cause must be enquiâ—ed into from which if I be not mistaken â—he principal Indication both for curing this Disease and preventing a Relapse must be â—aken We must find out then the Reaâ—on why the Moon falls so frequently inâ—o the shaddow of the Earth which causes these â—ainting Fits and see whether the Cause be Internal in the Moon herself or External in the Sun or Earth I am of Opinion that it is not in the Sun who being fixed in the Center as a Sentinel to his Post can never do amiss so long as he holds his Station And therefore if there be any broken Heads abroad no body can blame him who is as innocent as the Child unborn For the Earth it is but a dull senseless unactive Mass and tho it be always a Rambling yet it has neither so much Wit or Malice to put such a Trick on a fair Lady her kind Neighbour The Cause then must be Internal and ly in the Lady her self who has been a long time over Head and Ears in love with Endymioâ— as every Body knows and for the mosâ— part she goes down every Night to kisâ— the Shepherd as he lyes asleep upon thâ— tender Grass and frequently missing thâ— way for Love is blind she falls into thâ— shaddow of the Earth And this I judgâ— to be the true Cause which being founâ— out the Cure is easie For love beinâ— nothing but a kind of Madness I thinâ— nothing can be more proper than great Evacuations by Purging Blooding c. and puting her under a strict Regimen for sine Cerere Bacho friget Venus Then spake Ptolomey thus You have spoke very well said he both as to the Disease and its immediat Cause the knowledge of which is not sufficient as you very well remarked But if I be not mistaken you have miss'd the Procatartick Cause altogether by reason of your wrong Hypothesis Here it is that you and I differ in the Cause and I am affraid we disagree also in the Cure My Opinion is then that neither the Moon nor the Earth is to blame For the Lady Moon is not in Love as you alledge and what she did to Endymion proceeded not from an amourous Wantoness which I confess is a kind of Madness but from meer Generosity or rather Charity which is a Virtue and can never lead any Body out of the way For Jupiter having condemned him to a perpetual Sleep because he had been a litle too homely with Junâ— she stole him away from him and hid him in a Cave under a Mountain and stept down sometimes at Night to see how his Head lay without any sinistruous design And for the Earth I maintain she is fixed to her Post and her Ear nail'd to the Center and cannot in the least budge thence and therefore she cannot be the Cause For your Hypothesis that makes the Earth turn round is false for it is only the reeling and turning of your own Heads makes you imagine so as these who have a Vertigo imagine all things turn round The Cause then must undoubtedly ly in the Sun who is a precise kind of Gentleman and will not step out of his Road to please any Body but will needs make Visits both to the Head and Tail of the Dragon according to his old custom by which means his poor Sister who cannot live without his presence one Moment falls into fainting Fits in some of which she may chance to die one time or another And therefore in my humble Opinion the Sun ought to be soundly putged with Hellebore and Blooded ad animi deliquium according to the Method of the Ancients for his Disease is certainly a downright Madness For who but a Mad-man would make any Body run the hazard of their Lâ—fe for a meer Visit of Ceremony And lest you may think it strange that I apply the Cure to the External Cause and not to the Patient I have for a President the Great Hippocrates who cured a great Pestilence by kindling great Fires and thus correcting the Malignity of the Air. Beside there is nothing more ordinary than to apply Sympathetick Powder to the Weapon that made the Wound And this is my Opinion grounded on my Hypothesis and to which you ought to submit you being but a young Man and I your Senior That will I never do said the other for my Hypothesis according to which I proceed in the Cure is as good as yours and large better And so they ended without concluding any thing though both great Mathematicians Wherefore we see the Moon subject to these Fits to this Day From all which you may understand how safe it is for Earthly Physicians to imitate these Heavenly or rather Lunatick ones And in such an Art as Medicine is to follow the Method of the Astronomers Now the Doctor having demonstrat the Excellency and Usefulness of this Method crys out Et nos dubitamus c. And do we doubt that Physick is not to be brought to perfection the same way We must doubt till we have better Grounds to believe Are not all Bodies says he of the same Nature and may be changed into one another c. as above Well reasoned all Bodies can be changed into one another as Elephants into Oysters Sun Moon and Stars into Dunghils Watches into Woodcocks Here is a strange Metamorphosis Would it not be pretty to hear one cry Who will buy a Goose and when you come to buy it you find it a Pigg at least you may perswade the Seller so by this Reason That every thing may be changed into another of what kind soever But as universal as the Professor thinks this Transmutation to be yet there are some things altogether incapable of this Change As for Example these that are crack't from their Cradle can never be made sound for their Disease is vitium organi a privatione ad habitum non datur regressus I confess they may be Cured by a Miracle as the Man was that was born blind But these that believe no Miracles have no reason to expect that one will be wrought in
their Favours But that you may not take this for a piece of Counter-banter I 'll show you that this Reasoning is every whit as ridiculous and absurd as I represent it For though all Bodies may be said to be of the same Nature in respect of their common Essence and Properties as Extension Divisibility Mobility c. yet it will not follow that they ever can be changed into one another or come under the same Laws except the Doctor mean that for ought we know the thing implies no Contradiction from which nothing at all can be concluded The Laws of Nature are established by the Author of Nature But how far their Limits extend we know not Yet we have reason to believe that He has set them their Bounds that they cannot pass For we find that every thing propogates after its kind and some Transmutations are very hard For we can hardly make a good Fire of Ice though a certain Author affirms That in Island it is become so dry with Age that the Inhabitants make very good Fewel of it But granting all this how will it follow that the Laws and Affections of the Fluids and Canals in the Body of Man may be defined Very well for all Bodies being of the same Nature and subject to the same common Laws of Motion the Terrestial as well as the Celestial these we see not as well as these we see And the Astronomers by a Method familiar to themselves and useful to all having found out and defined the Laws and Affections of the latter whose Motions and Regularity is obvious to our Eyes Therefore the Physicians by the like Method may find out the Laws and Affections of the Fluids in the Body of Man whose Order Figure or Motion they cannot see though inlightned with the Mathematicks as we shall see when we come to examine the Professor's Demonstration of the Uniformity of the Pores The Argument is just such another as this One that sees well may be a good Painter Erg One that is stone blind may be so too If the Professor would be so kind as to assist us with Mathematical Spectacles to see the Animal Spirits the Form Figure and Contexture of their Parts and all the small Filaments and Pores by which all the Secretions are made we would thank him for the Favour and then think of following these Star-gazers But though he could make our Bodies as transparent as Crystal of the Rock so that we could see with the naked Eye all the order and harmony of the Microcosm as well as we do the Motions of a Clock we should by this means have a more curious and useless Speculation but never a whit more useful or successful Practice Physick would still be a Conjectural Art and Physicians still Guessers and Men dye after the old fashion and Mathematicians be mistaken and Fools speak Nonsense If indeed the Professor would teach us how to take down the Machine and set it up again to take out a crack't Spring and put in one that is sound and whole and when the Pendule runs too fast to add some weight to the Ballance and make the Vibrations more regular and equal and slow then there would be some hopes of seeing some Mens Clocks go better and strike more regularly Yet after all I must confess there would still be some Watches that all the World would never make go right The Professor has hitherto only shew'd us in general the Usefulness and Advantage of this New Method But now he comes closs to the Point and makes Application to a particular Case to show us the Power of his infallible Principles and the heroick Exploits of his new knight Errants the Mathematical Causes Than which nothing can be more just for all the Proof of the Pudding is in the eating But if ever the Doctor make a good Pudding with this Seasoning I 'll eat the P Because says he Parag. 25. I said that it was not necessary for Physicians to search out Physical Causes and that this may seem a hard Saying to the Philosophers Therefore I 'll illustrat and confirm the whole Matter by an Example that none can except against This is the first time that ever I heard that the knowledge of Physical or Natural Causes was altogether useless to a Physician And therefore no wonder that not only Philosophers but all pretenders to common Sense think this a saucy and senseless Saying Are not all evident Causes natural ones But if the Doctor understands the first Principles of natural Bodies the springs of their Actions and the way and manner of their workings I know none but some light nodled Mountebanks that follow this ignis fatuus or false Light or pretend to take any practical Indications thence no more than from Mathematical Causes For as I told you before neither Hippocrat nor Galen thought any such knowledge necessary But that this is not the Doctor 's Meaning I will shew you by and by for he himself alledgeth the knowledge of such Causes as the Physicians call Physical or Natural very useful in the practice of Medicine But let us hear him out The Physicians says he that wrote before us of the Diseases of the Eyes in which a kind of Images or Semblances appear before them and trouble the Sight confidently affirmed that the physical Cause of this was some litle Corpuscules or Motes sweeming in the watry Humor of the Eye which moving hither and thither up and down imprint on the Retina as it were the resemblance of Flies or such like things which we think we see before us And in this the Doctor alledgeth they wete very much mistaken Here is a sad and lamentable Story that poor Mortals should have been so long haunted with those Spectres or Ghosts for so our Orator calls them which are of a quite different Nature from all others of that kind which for the most part haunt Men most in the Night but those are most troublesome in the Morning especially after a rousing Cup. Is it not sad to think that no Body appeared for so long a time that had skill enough to conjure these Spectres But I see not what the Professor can say for himself since he knew how to have sent them a packing with his Mathematical Rod 8 or 9 Yeaâ—s ago For you must know that the design of building this Castle in the Air is not so late as one would imagine the Materials has been a long time a preparing for it Tantae molis er at Medicinam condere gentem For the Doctor had a learned Discourse on this Subject out of which this is extracted in the Year 1685 about which time it was prophecied that the Labd would begin to Thrive The Prophecy is this For who survives the Eighty-five Shall see Land begin to thtive By which it appears that it was to thrive in Medicine as well as other things And this seems in some measure to illustrat the former Prophecy Pray
has said to the contrary But he goes on Every Body knows that the Retina is a kind of Net knit or woven of the Filaments of the optick Nerves That 's true good Doctor but no Body knew it was a Net to catch Flies till you told them This Flie-trap is invironed with the sanguiferous Vessels that creep along the bottom of the Eye especially in that part where the entry to the optick Nerve is Therefore if the Eye be so placed that the Rays must needs fall upon that point of the Retina there will be no representation of the Object This will easily be found to be true if two Objects be exposed to our view in the same Line paralel to the Horizon a litle higher than the Eye and about a Foot and a half distant from one another Then shuting the left Eye and directing the right towards the Object on the left Hand as the nature of the Eye requires First we shall see both Objects distinctly then coming to such a point the Object on the right Hand will evanish while in the mean time we see all round distinctly Here one would almost swear that the Professor was playing at Cross-purposes with this long winded Story of the Net in the bottom of the Eye with which he designed to catch his Adversaries the Old Physicians as Spiders catch Flies but these Foxes are too cunning for him and in stead of catching them he has spread a Net for his own Feet For the Doctor proposes a question that no Physician hitherto could Answer and no wonder since they were ignorant of this new Method and never dreamed of Mathematical Causes The Question is What is the Cause of a kind of litle Images of different Colours but for the most part black that appear before some Folks Eyes like Flies or Midges The Old Physicians Answer that it is Motes that sweem in the aqueous Humor of the Eye that makes this Impression and Appearance But the Professor rejects this and nauseats it as musty with Age The Reason then says he of the appearing of these Images is because no Image at all appears For the Rays of Light says he falling on these Points of the Retina where the the Filaments of the optick Nerves are covered with the sanguiferous Vessels there will be no Image of the Object at all And to convince you the more of the truth of this he illustrates the Matter wonderfully by a very apposite Similitude of two Objects placed as abovementioned whereof one disappears at such a distance For the Question being What is the Reason we come to see Objects we saw not before which trouble our sight It is Answered by this Similitude because we loose the sight of these we saw before Is not this well answered Can any thing be more just than he that looses at one hand should gain at another Thus many hard Questions may be answered that are both curious and useful As wherefore hath a Horse four Feet Because a Man hath two Wherefore do you see the Steeple of Edinburgh Because you see not the Castle of Dumbartoun Why do you scratch your Head Because I do not scratch my Breech But there is another part of the Question that remains still to be answered by this Similitude viz. What is the Reason that where ever we go these Spectres haunt us and we see them distinctly It is Answered because in the paralel Case an Object we saw before disappears at a certain distance but stepping either forewards or backwards it presently appears again Here is one of the most excellent Discoveries that ever the World was blessed with for curing Suffusions Pearls on the Eye and Obstructions of the optick Nerves that are not total By which the Doctor may become more famous for Curing the Diseases of the Eyes than ever Sancta Lucia was For that which was done formerly by the old dogged Method of Purging Blooding Cupping Blistering c. is now performed in the twinkling of an Eye for advance or retire to the right hand about or to the left change the posture of your Eye but a hair breadth and by the virtue of Hocus pocus presto be gone the work is done In the Conclusion the Doctor tells us that though the Physicians hitherto have been ignorant of the physical Causes of these Diseases yet he thinks that he has explained their Mathematical or Medical Causes the knowledge whereof is very useful and profitable for Physicians Who can doubt of the truth of this after the Doctor has given so pregnant a Proof of this in the above-mentioned Case Wherefore I exhort all Physicians who are ignorant of the Mathematicks to betake themselves seriously to that study whatever their Age or Experience be for it is never too late to learn if ever they design to Cure Diseases Cito tuto jucunde which they can never pretend to without the knowledge of their Mathematical Causes Which was the thing to be demonstrat Now the Doctor having done his work closes all with an Utinam as with a Grace after Meat which was very well minded for he forgot to say one before it I wish says he that I could as easily and clearly explain all the Diseases of the Body of Man and their Cures I have done this And I wish I could as easily refute all Errors as I have demonstrat this Oration to be stark Nonsense and down-right Gibberish And thus I have done with the Inaugural Oration which is the ground work of all I proceed next to examine the Doctor 's Dissertations or Discourses and to take a view of the statly and magnificent Fabrick he has reared upon this Foundation Here you shall have the Solution of many great and weighty Problems not Triffles or matters of Moon-shine in which Mankind is as highly concerned as to know whether Balaam's Ass had a short Tail or a long or in what Language she reproved her Master But such as they are no Body hitherto could solve them because says the Doctor they begged a great many things that were doubtful obscure and uncertain which I think none but a Knave would ask and none but a Fool grant whereas by Principles plain and easie to be understood the Matter may be expeded This plain and easie Geometrical Method the Doctor follows all along in imitation of his great Master Archimedes who beg'd but as much Ground as to set his Foot on and he would remove the whole Earth and toss it like a Tennis-ball up and down the Air. This was but a poor Demand yet poor as it was no Body would give him his asking being affraid the Experiment might cost them too dear for though their persons might be secure no Body could be found that would ensure their Glasses and China Dishes But in this I think they were a little too peevish and nice Had I been in those Days and had had but one Foot of Ground bordering upon the terrestial Glob he should have had
he Parag. 24. that upon the taking of Opium there follows a warm Sweat and that the Blood in the beginning is rarified If therefore such a quantity of Opium be taken as may rarifie the Blood in the Brain to such a degree that the litle Arteries that are mixed with the Nerves there may press them more than ordinary and so hinder the free passage of the nervous Liquor the Creature will seem to sleep and all these things will fall out which we observe in sleep and sleepy Diseases proceeding from a Cause within the Vessels Whence it follows saith he Par. 25. that Wine and Spirit of Wine and all Liquors that are rarified easily and suddenly by heat or any other way may occasion Sleep and sleepy Diseases Yea Liquors that are not apt to rarifie if they be taken in a sufficient quantity and carried in such abundance to the Brain as is requisite for dilating the Arteries sufficiently and consequently for pressing the Nerves Therefore we need not wonder that some are drunk with Water One would think that while the Doctor is speaking of sleepy Diseases and the Qualities of Opium that he were asleep himself or had taken a Grain or two of the Juice of the Poppie this Discourse looks so like Raving For if the Cause of Sleep and sleepy Diseases be the Rarifaction of the Blood then every thing that rarifies the Mass of the Blood would occasion these Diseases that is every thing that is proper for Curing the Apoplexy c. would likwise occasion it As Spirit of Hart-horn salt Armoniack Oyl of Amber Rosemary Tincture of Câ—ftot c. which are Remedies used with good success in those Diseases and rarify exceedingly the Mass of the Blood wouldâ— inevitably either bring on or increase the Malady This is one of the most wonderful and useful Discoveries that ever the World was blest with and will make any Body a Physician in a triee For when you come to a Patient you have no more to do but ask him what was the occasion of his Sickness Was it a surfiet of a Veniâ—â— son pastie Then be sure to eat as much the next day and you shall be Fish-whole Was it a furfiet of Drink Then take a Hair of the Dog that bit you For Si tibi nocuerit hesterna potatio vini Cras iterum bibes erit tibi medicina If Sickness caused by Drink you mind to Cure To drink just as much the next day be sure So much of the nature of sleepy Diseases and their Cure both Mathematically explained I come next to examine the somniferous quality of Opium I will not trouble you at present with the different Opinions either of the Ancients or Moderns concerning the Nature and Virtues of Opium especially where its somniferous quality lies Some maintained it was Heat others Cold some a Viscosity others a Narcotick Sulphur c. But most were of Opinion that it is an occult Quality that is to say they knew not what it was And this no doubt is the only right Opinion and is excellently well expressed by Thomas Diaphorus in the Malade Imaginare Quare facit Opium dormire Thoma Quia habet virtutem dormitivam No doubt the Professor thinks this a very ridiculous Answer otherwise he had never given himself the trouble to seek out another which nevertheless upon trial will be found to bear the same Image and Superscription But the Professor must say something He is obliged to it by his place For one that has a publick Salary for Talking or Writing is obliged to chat tho he should speak Nonsense as well as a Town-piper is bound to play through the Streets Morning and Evening though he should play quite out of Tune For a dumb Professor is as useless a thing as a Piper that wants the nether Chops or a Fiddle without Strings Opium then according to the Doctor makes one sleep because it rarifies the Blood which is evident says he because it provokes a warm Sweat Whence it follows clearly that every thing that rarifies the Blood i. e. every thing that makes one sweat will provoke Sleep and have all the other Virtues of Opium i. e. all Sudorificks will be Opiats i. e. this is all stark Nonsense But Nonsense as it is many Advantages attend it We shall not need to go far to find Laudanum for almost every thing will afford it in plenty Sometimes you know what may supply its place for the very sight of it much more the smell or taste will make one sweat Yea the most troublesome and uneasie Passions we are subject to even those that disturb our Rest and hinder Sleep will furnish us with a Quieting Draught For Anger and Vexation c. which make Men sweat to purpose by their Sudorifick i. e. their Somniferous Quality will quickly allay our Passions and lull us asleep even as Dolor est Medicina doloris By this you may clearly see that Thomas Diaforus and the Professor give the same Answer in different Terms And no wonder since great Wits for the most part agree Thomas says that Opium makes one sleep because it has a sleeping Quality in it And the Professor tells us it is because it has a rarifying Quality But since every thing that rarifies the Mass of the Blood that is every thing that makes us sweat does not provoke Sleep this rarifying Quality of Opium must have some speciality or specifick Virtue in it that no Body knows i. e. an occult Quality a sleepy Virtue Virtutem dormitivam Which was the thing to be demonstrat Now since the Professor has answered every whit as well as Thomas no Body in Justice can refuse him the same Complement Bene respondere dignus est intrare in nostro docto corpore and to be a Professor in any University of Christendom But I must ask the Professor one Question about Opium before I have done which is That since Sleep and sleepy Diseases are occasioned by the Dilatation of the small Arteries in the Brain which press the Nerves how it comes to pass that the Arteries that are intermixed with the Nerves that serve for Respiration and the motion of the Heart are not pressed as well as those which serve for voluntary motion and sensation and consequently why Sleep does not alway occasion a difficulty of Breathing To this the Professor answers very wittily That the Heart which is a Muscle and the Muscles or the Breast have no Antagonists and therefore 〈◊〉 Animal Spirits will do their turn And therefore though it cannot be denied that the Nerves that go to the Heart and Breast must be pressed by the Arteries as well as the rest yet neither the Pulse nor Breath get any sensible hurt by it when the Dose is moderat or the Sleep natural Because a very few Spirits is sufficient for this great Work there being no Antagonist Muscles in hiâ—der it And very litle will do a great deal where there is no opposition in
no Mathematicks in all this Moreover this Machine is of a quite different nature from artificial Ones which can be taken down and set up again at One's pleasure and by this means soon mended when any thing is amiss But such an Experiment as this I doubt would prove a litle too dangerous on the the Body of Man For tho' it is easie to take it down all the matter is to put it together again and set it a going I would advise these Mechanists to try the Experiment first on some of themselves For there is reason to suspect that something is wrong in their Clock-work that reason thus and if it succeed well they need not doubt of Practice And for their incouragement I propose to them the Example of that famous Witch Medea who also tried it first on a Sheep which she dismembred and boyled with certain Herbs that were under the influence and dominion of such and such Planets whose nature and motions are only known to the Mathematicians Did ever any thing more wild or extravagant enter into the Mind of Man than to imagine that this speculative Science that goes all by Demonstration shall be of use in a practical Art founded on Experience In which there are no infallible Conclusions either as to the Event or Cure of Diseases but only high Probabilities and rational Conjectures as in other practical Arts such as War Agriculture Politicks c. and which without Revelation are capable of no more Which Kerkringius in the Preface to his Specimen Anatomicum has expressed very well thus Nam eas qui sibi it a placent in Juâ—â— Mathematica ut etiam Medicinam velint ad ejus leges revocare nihilque tentari a Medico antequ am illud faciendum esse aliter fieri non posse demonstraverint tanquam ineptos homines a medicandi Arte praestantissima rejiciendos censeo Ego certe citius eos insanire Mathematice demonstrevero quam illi probaverint artem hanc practicam quae non exigua est ejus laus divinatoriam ad Mathematicoruâ— leges revocandam esse Non potest revocari omnium Regina Artium Politica non debet Medicina agendum in utraque est ex prudenti judicio servanda respublica aegerque sanandus est antequam pereant dum illi suos quaerunt quos nunquam invenient calculos quosque quoerendos esse gratis assumunt prudentium omnium in gratiis But since the thing is so ridiculous and absurd what can be the ground of such a Belief You know that the Sectaries that break off from the Church since they have no pretence to Reason are forced to have recourse to pretended Inspirations and Revelations So here I see nothing can support this tottering Sect but this old Prophesy of Sybilla Tempus enim veniet quo si non fallit Apollo Clara Caledoniis fulgebit stella pruinis Quae rectum monstrabit iter qua ad templa Minervae Ire licet tenebras istisque fugabit ab oris Artis Apoloneae nec non arcana recludet Tunc homo Nestoreos sanus durabit in annos Arte Mathematicae nam sic cecinere Sybillae The time will come if great Apollo Prove not an idle lying Fellow As he has done many a time In Scotland a bright Star shall shine That shall thence Darkness drive away And to true Wisdom shew the way And Physick's Secrets all display Then Men shall live as long as Nestor By Purging Vomiting and Clyster Prescrib'd by Mathematick Art Thus Sybil sung then let a F Here is a Prophesy that fortells clearly that such a thing will come to pass and that he by whom this great Blessing shall be conveyed to Mankind shall be Born in this Countrey without giving notice who the Person is or when the time of his appearance will be For this lyes still wrap'd up in the depth of Destiny which only time will discover and bring to light But I pretend no great skill in Prophesies You may consult at your leisure these that have commented on Merlin Thomas the Rymer Mother Shipton and Mother Gregg who may be able to give you some light in the matter I wish with all my Heart it might be fulfilled in my time What satisfaction would it be to me to see some old Physicians go to School again and come under the Ferula I should even be ready to split my Lungs with laughing to meet them with Apolonius Conicks and Des Cartes Analyticks under their Arm going to get a Lesson from the Professor But that which would compleat the Farce would be to see Messieurs les Apothecaires trying their Intrants in reading Receipts by Euclid's Elements the Mathematicians Dispensatory And ordain that no Clysters should be administred but by Syringe which is a Cylinder as every Mathematician knows I confess you may think this but a very weak Foundation to support such a Fabrick But weak as it is it is sufficient For Castles in the Air need no Foundation at all I hope you will not mistake me and think that I have any quarrel with the Mathematicks For that were both unjust and unreasonable in me as having never got Good or Hurt by them in all my Life And if I had received any Injury I am sure you are so charitable as to think I would have forgiven it It is not the Use but the Abuse of the thing I complain of For which I ought no more to be blamed than he that condemns Drunkenness tho' the Wine were never so good For it is one thing to take a litle Wine for your Stomack 's sake and another to sweem in the blood of the Grape the one will refresh and the other may chance to choak you What greater abuse than to intrude this upon other Arts to which it has no more relation or affinity than Musick has to Painting or Colours to Sounds The Mathematicks deserve their room in the World and Common-wealth of Learning and are very good Neighbours while they keep within the bounds prescribed them by Nature and do not wander beyond the limits of their own Orb But if they come to make Incursions on the Territories of anorher Vortex they may chance to share with the Comets in their fate Oportet vivere couvenienter Naturae says the wise Stoick Every thing has its Limits fixed by Nature which it should not pass Property is that which makes Kingdoms States flourish in Wealth Peace and Honour And if that be taken away all goes to ruine And the Paralel holds exactly well in the Common-wealth of Learning For Divinity Medicine Law and Mathematicks have all their distinct Provinces and may live very well in Confederacy together but can never be subject to one anothers Laws But if any Man will needs join what Nature has divided I wish him Joy and conclude with the Poet. Atque idem jungat vulpes mnlgeat hircos Hitherto I have been but skirmishing and beating some of the advanced Guards