desperatis affectibus liberari citius in integrum restitui queant omnia probanda quae bona observanda non autem omnia vetera promiscue rejicienda cum animi vehementia sceptice traducenda h. e. Medicines chymically prepared are undoubtedly more efficacious and powerful more grateful to the tast and may be given in a far less Dose then Galenical but yet if Patients will be obedient and not so nice and squeemish by the direction of an able Physician who understands the Disease and a right method of curing it they may more securely and certainly be helped by Galenick Medicines 't is convenient to experiment all things and retain what appears most rational however they err who promiscuously reject and passionately censure all the Remedies which the Ancients left us as the fruit of their experience The Galenick Compositions in respect of the vast and exorbitant number of Simples mixed together are likewise esteemed rather pompous then beneficial Medicines Treacle by some reckoned a confused mass of Ingredients the dream of waking Andromachus and Discordium a fermented heap much may be said on behalf of these grand Dispensations comparing them to a well disciplin'd Army wherein are some Field-officers able in respect of their skill in Martial affairs singly to conquer the Enemy but these commanding the body of the Army will more probably by their conjunct fortitude and courage become Victors I might also liken them to a well governed State in which every Member in his place and station acts uniformly to oppose all who endeavor to disturb the publick Peace what these at first view do think to be only a Farrago or hotch-potch of many things jumbled together when more strictly examined will appear most artificial and admirable compositions to encounter the several complications of Diseases I need say no more in their defence then that long experience hath given them a repute in the World which cannot be prejudiced by the Satyrical Invectives of such who like nothing but their own conceited preparations Physicians also in this Age may without any imputation of ignorance in the knowledg of Simples and their peculiar Vertues be allowed to form long Compositions not only because of complications which are more frequent and intricate then heretofore but that they may hereby conceal their skill for when the Medicine is disguised by putting in such Ingredients which obscure its intention but hinder not its vertue they are puzled who would make an indirect advantage of such a Prescript there will be no occasion for this Stratagem when Physicians to rescue their Profession from the abuses of unworthy and illiterate Practisers do dispense their own Medicaments who may then more securely use one Simple then now a perplexed composition and when they have occasion to add auxiliary forces to them in Complications prevent those inconveniencies which as the case now stands they cannot avoid But why should I insist longer on particulars when the whole method of Physick is rejected by our Pseudochymists as useless and if multitudes of words would prevail scurrilities were argumentative as their stiling it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Satans device and plot to destroy Man-kind and telling us of vast numbers being methodized into their graves If aenigmatical hypotheses had power to perswade or the novelty of their Notions to bewitch the old Galenistical method had long received its doom and its Adversaries had triumphed over its ruines but true and rational methods take deeper root by means of these boisterous agitations I cannot understand the meaning of some Stories which I meet with in our late Writers who give us an account that some Physicians were not sollicitous if their Patients died secundum Artem by the fairest method in the world I cannot excuse any personal miscarriages in Physicians but I should be unjust to the most faithful Physicians if I did not vindicate them from the failings of others these subtle Accusers of all Methodists would not approve of a retaliation and that I should affirm that one who professes himself to be a Philosopher by fire is not ashamed publickly to thank God that he is no Scholar If that good Law was observed Qui affectat ignorantiam est puniendus h. e. He who affects Ignorance ought to suffer severe punishment Our Pseudochymiaster would fall his Crest and cease to be proud of his blindness or did I relate the words of a famous Pseudochymist who when the Patient did suddenly die after a Dose of his Antimonial Pills commended the excellency of such Medicines which dispatched without much pain and procured an easie death It were no difficult matter to parallel any Stories they can produce to make the Methodists infamous but the meanest people can discern the Sophistry of such Argumentations and may suppose that they observe the same way in their curation of Diseases As for the Methodus medendi our Adversaries complain that by it the cause and nature of Diseases are not sufficiently discovered their Symptoms not rightly described and that the Remedies set down are impotent and rather encrease then cure Diseases Certainly they presume that their own bare negation or affirmation of what they dislike or approve is a perswasive Argument to others who expect satisfaction in particulars and are cautious to escape the cheat and delusion which lies in such universal conclusions nay to assert that because some errors may be found in it the whole hereupon ought to be proscribed and deserted were alike mad and impious practise as immediately to bury that man whose toes are sphacelated when an expert Chyrurgeon by a mature amputation of the joynts which are mortified may preserve the life of his Patient But I shall choose to deliver my sense in the words of a learned Author as I have throughout this Treatise done in matters of Controversie saith the experienced Seidelius Nullus unquam morbus qui curatus arte humana aliter curatus est quam juxta veteris verae medicinae fundamenta methodumque objicient hic statim nonne curavimus nos quamplurimos a vobis pro desperatis relictos quibus respondeo nescire me illud neque hactenus certo rem ita se habere comperisse praeter privatas enim praedicationes atque laudes domestica testimonia in conventiculis clandestinis ad libitum conficta levissime aliud fide dignum nihil auditu percepi quot vero homines diris modis jugulaverint de quo publicis quorundam scriptis sunt accusati id altissimo silentio obruunt interim de quintis atque arcanis essentiis immani precio Auri extractis nugantur ut imperitis fucum faciant c. h. e. There was never any Cure wrought by humane Art and skill which derived not its succesfulness from the sure foundations and method of the ancient and true way of Medicine but here they will object have not we recovered very many forsaken by you I answer that I know no such matter neither
So then it being the highest concern of a Physician to form his Medicaments as he sees occasion of what use can Receipts be which by ignorant undertakers cannot be accommodated to the most prevalent indications respecting the Cause These practising Apothecaries having another employment which ought to take up their thoughts pains and time may well be supposed uncapable of knowing and making a right judgment of the true Causes of diseases which not only alter frequently the same Disease as to its appearance and symptomes but much more in relation to its Cure I remember a story which I have read to this purpose A Patient by the faithful advise of his Physician recovered from a most dangerous Disease but it seems not long after was ill again the Apothecary visits him and apprehending that his condition was the same as in his former sickness immediatly repeats the Medicines which the Physician had prescribed but all to no purpose the Physician was then sent for and the Patient telling him of the Apothecaries ill success demands the reason why those remedies which before cured him had not the like operation again the Physician wittily reply'd Medicamenta illa non profuere quia ego non dedi h. e. Those Medicines were not succesful because I did not order the repetition of them insinuating that a Physician ought to judg as well of the Patients fitness for the Remedies as of the Remedies fitness for the Patients To say no more I cannot think that the Apothecaries strict noting and transcribing of Physicians Bills can more inable them to practise Physick then Stenography to profess Divinity the penning of a Sermon verbatim and committing it to memory being as infinitely short of the qualifications requisite to a Divines preaching and exercise of his Function as the imitation of these Prescripts of the accomplishments necessary to the Profession of Physick But these Apothecaries besides their unskilfulness to practise Physick are most injurious to Physicians upon several accounts who intrust them with their Bills for when those Prescripts express their particular use and as a weighty trust to that end only are committed to the Apothecaries care if he ever imploys them without the Physicians privity and direction he is unfaithful in that trust and if his practise succeeds not then doth the reputation of that Physician suffer whose Prescript originally it was As another considerable branch of trust the true dispensation of all Medicines directed by Physicians is left to the Apothecaries in whose integrity they place great confidence and therefore a good Author tells us Praestat Pharmacopaeum esse virum bonum quam Socratem h. e. 'T is better that an Apothecary be an honest men then Socrates both Physician and Patient depending on his uprightness and the punctual discharge of his office If then this Apothecary shall ingage in the practise of Physick he must necessarily spend much time abroad in visiting his Patients and leave his shop to the management of raw Apprentices who wanting instruction by reason of their Masters absence and not understanding the Physicians Bill make odd and too often dangerous substitutions neither are the Physicians secure that such practising Apothecaries do not out of design suffer their Patients to be neglected or abused that so miscarrying in their hands the repute of the others may seem thereby advanced as if their practise could not be more unsuccesful then the Doctors certainly these Apothecaries cannot give a satisfactory account of the trust reposed in them and therefore to me it is evident that they give timely warning by forsaking their Trade and practising Physick that none commit the breeding of their Children to them who have business of more concernment to mind then to spend their time in teaching according to their engagement their Servants the Art which they must be made free to exercise that the people be not hasty to imploy them in either way who incapacitate themselves for both and lastly That Physicians send not any Bills to them lest they be guilty of prejudicing both themselves and Patients If then these practising Apothecaries are so kind to Physicians as publikely to acquaint them what may be expected at their hands I hope no Member of that Worthy Faculty is so stupid but that he will leave them and their Patients to the same adventure which both run and not be either forward to help them out at a dead lift or take the miscarriage on him for the advantage of one or two Fees but it is observable that some of these conceiving that an open breach between Physicians and them may be prejudicial to their design do plead as an excuse to acquit themselves that the importunity of their Customers prevailed with them in such cases wherein was no appearance of Danger to direct what they thought most convenient but let Rondeletius give these an answer Pharmacopaeus inconsulto perito medico nihil cuiquam proponabit praesertim magnarum virium sed neque quantumvis parcarum cum vires nesciat auxilia haec quamvis ut videtur imbecilla tamen quantitate qualitate tempore insalubria magnorum saepe morborum sunt occasio legitimam curandi rationem pervertunt h. e. Apothecaries ought not to give any Medicines without the foreknowledg and direction of an allowed Physician neither those which are more or less operative because they being altogether ignorant of their vertues may err in those which seem weakest and most safe in respect of quantity quality or time so as they may prove the causes of most dangerous diseases the opportunity also of a methodical Cure is by this means lost Indeed such is the increase of the Apothecaries Company that all of them cannot reasonably expect imployment who therefore hunt abroad after Patients and prey one upon anothers business these inconveniencies would be remedied if the counsel of a grave Writer was observed who adviseth the Magistrate to be very careful not to tolerate more Apothecaries then are sufficient for the discharge of that Profession implying that if they superabounded they would most infallibly injure the publick and rather then their Medicines for want of timely use should decay and grow worthless choose to spend them by their own practise and think it a less Crime to harm the people then suffer any damage in their shops And when these practising Apothecaries have by their insinuations inveigled some to take Physick of them as it is not improbable but that these being ignorant of the direct way of curing diseases must necessarily hereupon spend more Medicines then Physicians who exactly knowing what is to be done will not multiply Prescripts to tire out their Patients and advance their charge so how can such Patients assure themselves that their Apothecary-physicians do not make use of that opportunity as much to rid their shop of physick as them of diseases however if the whole is cast up such Patients will find no cause to commend the cheapness of their Cure in
blood a crude or an Acid Serum which are all one with him implies that the blood must be first seen and tasted before that Disease can be discovered wherefore I may well suppose that he undertaking practice before he understood Physick and meeting with difficulties and diseases not yielding to his opinionated Receipts fathered his failings on this universal disease thinking to excuse his ignorance of particulars thereby 2. 'T is urg'd that the spirituous part of the blood being but little and less in our Northern bodies then those of other Climates it must needs be a pernicious course to make it less p. 393. I very much wonder by what Staticks he measured the proportion to make our spirits fewer then others we have larger stronger and more active bodies why not then as many spirits 't is not good to be fond of an unreasonable Opinion and then dream absurdities to make it plausible I know not what reason this Author hath at this juncture of time to dispirit his Native Countrey But the main drift and Argument against Phlebotomy is That the letting out the spiritous part of the blood with the rest is a pernicious course which G. T. urges likewise with a subtle distinction of Sanguis and Cruor never to be found in any living mans veins as if hereby many vital spirits were lost good blood and bad put out together and the remainder left more liable unto diseases But what is all this by the same Arguments they might disswade procreation suckling of Infants least some vital spirits should be spent whereas Nature is not so penurious of her store but still furnishes the whole body plentifully to execute all necessary offices whereby life is prolonged and diseases conquered and after bleeding like a Lamp freed from its choaking snuff shines forth brighter the want of strength is reckoned amongst the Ancients as a contra-indication of Phlebotomy but the loss of a few vital spirits were never accounted a sufficient barr to the practice of Physicians who respect the inestimable benefit accruing to their Patients by it though perhaps it may not be approved by Empericks and Nurses from whom these gather their knowledg and instruction And I think that their dislike of Phlebotomy because they discern not when it is proper and useful is very commendable and if they would likewise refrain from other ways of curing Diseases upon the same account which are as dangerous if mistaken they would free themselves from much guilt not of shedding mens blood but of keeping it in their veins to their ruine and destruction and of giving Vomits and other Medicines unseasonably whereby not a few miscarry In his other Objections are recounted some Cases besides the true intention of Phlebotomy when the blood is depauperated who opens a vein His conjecture or supposition that our blood in this Climate is more inclinable to coagulation proves nothing neither hath he shewed that Sanguification succeeds not well after Phlebotomy judiciously directed every Physicians observation overthrows such imaginary prejudices by bleeding 't is well known that some aged persons have for the space of thirty or forty years opened a vein Spring and Fall if not oftner losing seven or eight Ounces each time by which evacuation chiefly they avoided the great inconveniences which otherwise they might justly fear much threatned their lives I might likewise instance the female Sex whose blood is not so spirituous as Mens and yet these suffer not by their Customary tribute to Nature but very much when this sanguinary expiation doth not succeed The Physicians by this Author termed Galenists are so rational as that they respect strictly the Indications of Phlebotomy and if these signifie a necessity of bleeding they stick not to order it even in the small Pox malignant Feavers nay in the Plague it self as knowing what service the Patient will reap by it and the danger of such a considerable omission but I am apt to believe that this Author and his brethren not understanding the Indications of bleeding may by some miscarriages be deterred from using it for my part I think that he deserves a severe censure who lays open the secrets of Medicine to such bold Practitioners had this Author been vers'd in the Writings of the ablest Spagyricks he might have taken notice that some of them being Germans commended bleeding in most Diseases to their Countreymen whose bodies as he suggests are most like ours in this Kingdom but perhaps he will answer that these wanted such Arcanums which he and his Associates pretend to as might prevent bleeding I shall be so charitable as to suppose that he was not ignorant of the practice of these Chymists but rather that he willingly passed them by least their authority should justifie the Galenists in this point To summ up all although this Author adventures to judg of the state of our blood without any good and warrantable foundation and thereupon disswades bleeding and at length plays the Mountebank by promising such Remedies as may allay the fermentation of the blood and cure Diseases without Phlebotomy yet cannot Physicians by such a weak plea be perswaded to forbear the use of this evacuation which Nature directs to by hemorrhages and constant experience confirms when there is a just cause and proper Indication When so much is said against Phlebotomy it may seem strange that Hippocrates should be blamed because he as some interpret the Aphorism dislikes it in teeming women I shall recite the Aphorism and then we shall see who is most culpable 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 'T is urged that Physicians being misguided by this Aphorism have suffered multitudes of female Patients to die under their hands who probably might have been rescued by a discreet Phlebotomy But had such Censurers of the Physicians practice heretofore apprehended the right sense and import of the words and the construction which hath bin continually put upon them by the ablest Commentators their charity would have preceded their zeal to carp at not only the Aphorisms of Hippocrates but the practice of skilful Physicians who admired and conformed to these succinct Aphoristical sentences I shall produce amongst many writing to the same purpose two Authors who explain the meaning of Hippocrates Christoph a Vega says Non putare oportet Hippocratem omnino denegare sanguinis missionem utero gerentibus sed eam esse vult de indicationibus quae dehortantur à sanguinis missione est scopus qui viribus correpugnat docet minori copia sanguinem esse mittendum quà m aliàs h. e. 'T is not to be imagined that Hippocrates did absolutely forbid the bleeding of women with Child but only when there happen Contra-indications to it and there is a sufficiency of strength and he cautions to take away a less quantity in such cases then otherwise might be allowed And the same Author after he hath declared the usefulness of bleeding such Patients ratifies his Opinion with an eminent example and tells us That
highly injure themselves in hopes of doing good to others or any people be so deluded as to let the Devil practise upon them and even possess them with health The common plea of these Empericks in respect of the hazard of their fortuitous experimentings is altogether vain they perhaps thought the Medicaments by them thus used at random to be innocent and safe but I must rejoyn that not only time and opportunity is lost by the interposition of these Empericks with their supposedly harmless Medicines and Nature thereby suffers an interruption in her methodical course on both which Physicians most judiciously do lay great stress but granting that the things in respect of their nature are not deadly yet being indirectly given the event may possibly prove them such for when a little Saphron as a good Observator writes did immediatly kill a familiar Clyster presently occasioned death a little Oyl of Roses which I have seen threatned the same fate and an opiate Collyrium if we credit Avicenna straight-ways depriv'd of life I say when the safest Medicines are by these Empericks unduly and at all peradventure applied though contrary to the true and genuine indications of cure they are so far inexcusable upon the account of such hazards as that they deserve the severest censure who kill with reputedly safe Medicines Well then there is no reason why these Empericks should make a Lottery of mens healths and in hope of a prize or cure hazard Natures stock for in this business there is not only an extraordinary number of blanks meer negations of advantage and success but infinite positive evils destructive and poysonous to mens bodies and these are most frequently drawn by the unfortunate Empericks Ptolemeus therefore as a good Historian affirms not upon a much different occasion wisely answered 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 h. e. There ought not to be the same hazard of mens bodies as of Dice I shall conclude this Head with a weighty saying of a late Writer Fortuita nullo modo censenda sunt remedia Chance applications deserve not the very name of Remedies 2. They are also Empericks who make experiment of any Medicine or Receipt from an Opinion only of its sufficiency and fitness to cure as chance Periclitations prompted on the others so credulity spurs on these to practise Physick who have no other direction then what proceeds either from Fancy or History Geber gives us an apposite description of the first Qui animam habent opinantem phantasiam quamlibet quod credunt se verum invenisse fantasticum est totum à ratione devium errore plenum semotum à principiis naturalibus says he Such persons who are wholly guided by fancy when they please themselves with an Opinion of true discoveries they are meerly deluded and run into error wanting the safe conduct of Reason and natural principles to be the sure foundation on which they ought to build their knowledg But the Profession of Physick requires the most improved judgment to a right management and exercise of it and by no means is the proper business of Fancy which being uncapable of deliberation cannot weigh all necessary considerations in order to a regular cure 'T is true that the operations of Fancy have oftentimes appeared very powerful so that many wonderful effects owe their production chiefly to their energy but yet I deny that the strong conceit of any person can naturally impower any Medicine with new vertues to eradicate the Disease for which it is to this end directed the true Physicians endeavor to beget a good confidence in their Patiens of their Abilities the properness of the Medicaments prescribed by them but the design is only to compose the Spirits that they may act uniformly in promoting the efficacy of the Remedies whereas these Empericks possess the fancies of the sick by the prevalency of their imaginations and hope thereby to work something answerable to the impression made upon them and I question not but that the effect will resemble its cause and the presumed cure also prove phantastical and imaginary yet by all possible means do the Empericks strive to credit these Operations of fancy perswading people to obey the strange inspirations and secret impulses which at any time either they suggest or else happen to those who give themselves up to follow such delusions did these consider that their fancies are frequently as diseased as their own or Patients bodies admitting impressions according to the acuteness or greatness of the Morbifick invasion they would seek to physick for help rather then profess it by the tutorage of fancy or be matriculated in Bedlam before they attempt such kind of practices I shall produce a sad example to caution others a Revelation was communicated to one being indisposed that she must in order to her recovery drink the decoction of an Hearb growing in such a place but alas the hearb proved Hemlock and that impulse of fancy dispatched the Patient to another World I pass over the fond conceit of many who pretend familiarity with their Genii or good Angels from whom as they relate they learn effectual Secrets to remedy most Diseases for since that the events are not answerable to such extraordinary communications there is just cause of suspition that these Empericks either most pitifully cheat themselves by their easie perswasion or others by imposture By History I intend Medicines learn'd by reading and report for the Empericks do sometime study Receipt-books to stock themselves with Medicines against most Diseases and when they have proceeded so far they are impatient for an opportunity to give an account of their ripe abilities if also a Receipt or Medicine is well vouched many think that they may safely experiment its admirable vertues and as in some places the execution of the Prisoner precedes his Tryal so it is here for these being fully perswaded that such Secrets are not inferiour to the commendation of them make proof and afterwards oftentimes too late reason about their fitness for the Disease and Patient because so many employ themselves their friends and purses to procure or purchase Receipts or Secrets in Physick I shall enquire how far not only such as are ordinary but the extraordinary Arcana may enable to practice and if an ordinary measure of skill by the help of directions and cautions in the use of either may be sufficient for persons not indiscreet Were it not confessed that Receipts do little in acute Diseases I would easily prove it for almost every hour varies the case Nature being in a continual Agony to extricate her self by all possible means from the fury of the Distemper and solicitously finding out the most expeditious way respecting the peccant matter and parts chiefly affected to free her self from imminent danger in which sharp dispute sometimes she gains and sometimes loses altering accordingly all the concomitating Symptomes so that she must be traced in all her anomalous motions in which hurry what place
other that by two different offices all opportunities of mischiefing the people might be prevented but Quercitans answer is very pertinent to the Authors of this Conceit saith he Quid aliud hi quam omnium Medicorum Pharmacopoeorum iras in se exacuant quos tam improbae fidei notant ut si seorsim operentur ac medicentur non saluti aegrotantium sed morti accelerandae de industria studeant h. e. Both Physicians and Apothecaries have just cause to quarrel with those who by suggesting that neither ought to be solely intrusted do thereby brand them with unfaithfulness as if they rather sought the death then life of Patients Another Plea is much insisted on by some of our Apothecaries whereby they endeavor to make a perfect separation between Physicians and themselves claiming a free exercise of their Trade as Members of the Grand Incorporation and fully enjoying all the priviledges of the common Charter whereby they are authorized as well to buy and sell as any other Company but although they accommodate Physicians in making up their Prescripts yet that is a voluntary undertaking which they may either accept or refuse at their pleasure it being their proper business to provide such Medicines as the Supreme Power shall allow for the peoples use and to furnish their Customers although there should not be any Physician to write Bills And thus under the pretext of selling their Medicines to all who come to their Shops they also take upon them to advise what they think most agreeable to their conditions who are sick by this slight ingratiating themselves with the people and as they conceive avoiding the just censure of practising Physick I reply that Physicians did never design to hinder the Apothecaries in their known and lawful Trade of vending Medicines but on the contrary have much promoted it by giving them daily opportunities to supply their Patients with Physick according to their Prescripts yet if these because of their settlement as free Traders shall hereupon destroy the relation between Physicians and them as if their interest did not much consist in the practise of Physicians they will have no cause of complaint if the Professors of Physick take their business again into their own hands and imitate the most succesful practise of their renowned Predecessors And the Apothecaries may as freely as ever attend their Trade in selling to those who will buy of them notwithstanding the Physicians preparation of their own Remedies But I observe that very many Apothecaries are so far from deviding between theirs and the Physicians Art that they endeavor to unite them in their undertakings as much professing to direct Physick as to prepare or sell it and these I call practising Apothecaries although some who would seem more modest and friendly to Physicians suppose that none of their Society ought to practice Physick yet these would not have any one debarred the giving of such Medicines as they should think fit when there is a special occasion but since that these Apothecaries so much favouring their own advantage must necesiarily be Judges of those exigencies I know not how to distinguish this more close and sly way from that which being acted above board is owned and justified by these Practitioners for by practising of Physick is understood any application to the sick in order to a cure comprehending not only long methodical courses in Chronical Diseases but sudden directions in those which are acute respecting as well their beginning as their subsequent alterations The ordinary account we have out of the best Authors describing the Apothecaries office mentions not a word of their Practising Physick omitting what occurs in others I shall only recite the opinion of Renodaeus Officium solummodo Pharmacopaei est medicamentum tractare ad usum salutarem medici probati jussu adhibere quod ut faeliciter consequatur debet cognoscere seligere praeparare componere c. h. e. It is the Apothecaries business to meddle with Medicaments only and in relation to their use to follow the Physicians Prescript and that he may be fitted to execute his office he must be instructed to know Simples to select the choicest to prepare and compound his Medicines And if this be the utmost intent of the Apothecaries Trade wherein they are educated whence should these gain sufficient accomplishments enabling them to practise Physick as for their knowledg of Simples and skill in Compositions although these are necessary qualifications capacitating them to be able Apothecaries yet I understand not how these should upon this account any more become Physicians then Cutlers and Gun-smiths by their judgment of the Mettals goodness on which they work and their making and fitting Instruments of War be thereby rendred most expert Commanders but these practising Apothecaries pretend sufficient helps for their instruction in the vertues of Simples and the true use of Compositions from Physicians Bills which they constantly book and by this means as they inform the people having seen the practice of many Physicians they may be as good Doctors as any I shall enquire whether the Prescripts of Physicians can so far improve an Apothecary as that by their assistance he may be able to practice Physick Indeed the Lord Bacon's opinion That there ought to be a religious observance of approved Medicines as well to retain the benefit of Tradition as to direct a more steady way of curing Diseases Seems to favour very much these Apothecaries who are well stock'd with such Receipts which they without any alteration transcribe for their Patients but I shall oppose what the learned Alsarius relates Medicinae leges non ad Polycleti immutabilem regulam referendae sed ad Lesbian normam quam pro factorum personarum ac temporum conditionibus magistratus aequitas commutare solet h. e. The Laws of Medicine are not like Polycletus's unalterable rules but the Lesbian precepts which the Magistrates might change and vary according to the nature of the Crime the condition of the Offender and the circumstance of time c. That such Receipts without any alterations or substitutions may very much conduce to the cure of Diseases is by that Noble and Learned Person rather presumed then proved To omit what I mentioned in the precedent Chapter concerning the insufficiency of those Medicines in respect of the vast difference of mens bodies and a greater variation of diseases incident to them I assert that there is no Medicine rationally prescribed but what particularly relates to the principal Indication which ought chiefly to be taken from the Cause and not from the Disease according to the usual design of those Prescripts which is confirmed by Galen saith he If Diseases indicated their proper Remedies the Patients best understanding what is to be done might be most helpful to themselves moreover the Medicines shew that not Diseases but their Causes do indicate their use as being not primarily adverse to Effects but Efficients
necessity that a Corporation of Chymical Physicians should be instituted because no particular Society takes care to advance the Spagyrical Art I must plainly tell them that their information is notoriously false for all Academical Physicians especially Collegiates as said before have ever accounted Chymistry part of their Profession and if this should be taken from them and committed to the management of others by the same rule more Pretenders may request the like Priviledges of exercising distinctly all those Offices which joyntly appertain to the accomplishment of a Physician and then one Corporation might undertake to feel Patients pulses another to view the Water and a third visit the sick no more entrenching on the Physicians proper business then these in their presumption to claim the sole use and authority of Chymical preparations but it seems these Pseudochymists conceit that their challenge or appeal to the Magistracy is an unanswerable argument imitating herein their vain-glorious Leader Van Helmont to whom his Contemporary Henricus ab Heer affords no better a character then to call him Semi-virumque Asinum semi-Asinumque virum quo Arcadia non peperit Asiniorem And in another place rails against his Preparation of Euphorbium nay 't is well known that when he was in England where he learned most of his notions he generally failed in his Cures but yet his Disciples like those of Jacob Bhemen will presume to understand more then the Author and admire what is not intelligible The reasons which prevailed with the learned Physicians in that Age not to answer him in his folly hinder us from such unworthy encounters since that by other ways the impostures of these Pseudochymists may be discovered then by tolerating their desperate practice to experiment their unskilfulness their strange promises of curing certainly sixteen Patiens in twenty laboring of Feavers are intelligible evidences of their deceitful proceedings seeking only to gain employment by such presumptuous engagements if not by chance but according to a sober expectation two or three more die then they allot nay all the twenty as these cannot make satisfaction for one life much less for so many so will not they abate their confidence which stands them in such stead recommending them to the credulous multitude Furthermore that no manner of crafty insinuation may be omitted no stone left unturn'd these Pseudochymists print lists of their pretended Cures it is not worth any ones pains to examine the truth of them their expressions and language do sufficiently discover how little they understood the Diseases which they treat of and did not they conceal their Preparations there is no doubt but that the meanest capacity might censure their worthlesness or danger I having accidentally met with some of their performances content my self to judg of the rest thereby One of this select Society of Pseudochymists found a Patient entred on a course of Salivation to whom it seems by a Chyrurgeon without acquainting either the Patient or his friend an apposite Mercurial Medicine had been given This simple Quack looking into the Patients mouth and taking notice that his Gums were very much tumified forthwith pronounced that the Disease was the Scurvy which was arrived at the height and in order to the Cure he sends an Antimonial Medicine which not without much hazard both vomiting and purging the Patient inhibited the Flux by a speedy evacuation revulsion of the serous humor whereby it was maintained and this is reckon'd a wonderful Cure Another being called to see a large Tumour which by able Physicians and Chyrurgeons was known to be an Aneurisme and accordingly dealt with by them most readily undertakes the Patient and promises present help then he falls to work and foments the parts affected with hot Chymical Spirits and oyls till the Tumour blushed at his ignorance Another when his Patient complained that his Cough hindred him from sleep gave a Narcotick but alas expectoration being thereby suppress'd the Patient was suffocated and slept quietly These few Examples may suffice to warn others that they intrust not their lives in the hands of such unskilful Practitioners who are altogether ignorant of the Causes and Symptoms of Diseases right methods of curation and proper remedies The ill consequences are so many which would be manifest if such a Charter should be granted that they cannot be easily reckoned up for not only Physicians would be debarred the exercise of a considerable part as hath been shewed already of their Profession or two distinct Charters grant the same Priviledges but the Apothecaries Company will be prejudiced who are authorized to provide as well Chymical as other Preparations and can more skilfully execute both then these pretended Operators some of them having spent only three or four weeks with Mr. Johnson Operator to the Colledg others professing Chymistry by the assistance of a small Crucible or a Bal. Mariae and not a few being such titularly knowing as little in the Spagyrical Art as in other qualifications necessary to the practice of Physick It was a laudable custom expressing the honorable esteem heretofore had of the Profession of Medicine that Spurius ad Medicinam non erat admittendus No bastard might be a Physician If this deserved observation then certainly no spurious brood of Pseudochymists ought to be admitted to practice being neither legitimate Physicians or Apothecaries But the Universities will mostly suffer if such a Corporation should be established for who will spend their time and pains in those places when a Society calling themselves Chymists shall not only scorn and vilifie their Book-learning but be impowred to take in an allotted number of Members as they shall think fit by which means in a few years the most excellent Science of Medicine will necessarily fall into the hands of ignorant and illiterate Practisers and as the University will then be deprived of one Faculty so the People ere long would be sensible of their loss when they must rely on such Assistants as Gun-smiths Heel-makers Taylors and the rest c. He who pretends not to the Spirit of Prophecy may foresee what will be the event for these already slight Anatomy which all true Physicians account a most useful and necessary Introduction to the knowledg of Medicine informing them concerning the admirable fabrick of Mans body its structure confoâ—mation and consent of parts the various liquors and juyces contained in several vessels their changes and alterations as also the causes and symptomes of Diseases and the right use and application of Medicaments We as much approve the Anatomy of Bodies by Pyrotechny as they but judg him an incompleat Practitioner who knows not what or where the defect is in the noble Engine of Mans body and what Remedies whether Chymical or others are most convenient to rectifie what is amiss and therefore true Physicians take especial care to conform their Medicaments to this exquisite Machine and when they observe as Bausnerus elegantly expresses In corpore humano nihil
no person can be ignorant of the Experiments made on Gold because it as many think contains in it all necessary conditions to the universal Medicine which I need not recount but unless something is performed by the Diaphoretical vertue of the Menstruum no wonders have been wrought by it so that Billichius calls Aurum potabile aurum putabile since that all true Philosophers in their Preparation of their Medicinal stone did not mean the common Gold but that of the Philosophers as they mispent their pains who sought out dissolvents to make our Gold potable in expectation of making thereby the Elixir so it would be to as little purpose to discourse the possibility of gaining a Dissolvent not corrosive to elicite its medicinal tincture which at length will satisfie only a particular intention The hyperbolical Encomiums which have been given to the essences of Individuals might easily delude those who approve all things according to their commendations and doubtless in many respects such noble preparations might deserve a just esteem but the more prudent and wary of the Hermetical Philosophers observing the absurdity to expect an universal operation from a limited Agent did busie and employ themselves to find out the universal matter which is so enygmatically discoursed in the Writings of Chymical Authors as if they rather designed to encourage Humane Industry in the search after that which for no other cause they would seem to have known then give them any hopes of interpreting and unriddling their most obscure perplexed and mysterious descriptions of it saith one Fove fodeam usque ad genua accipe terram nostram in qua est rivulus unda viva scilicet universale menstruum aquam nostram ponticam in qua habitat sal armoniacum nostrum spiritus vivus universi qui omnia in se continet h. e. Dig a Pit knee deep and take our earth in which is a living stream viz. our universal Menstruum and take our Pontike water in which is found our Sal Armoniack and the universal spirit which contains all things in it and saith Bacon Elegant rem supra quam Naturae tantum primas operationes incepit h. e. Such a matter must be chosen on which Nature hath only done her first work He who is acquainted with the parabolical expressions of the Ancients relating to this Subject will be convinced that although they who write best hint a necessity of some universal matter which may yield by a Philosophical Preparation a most noble Medicine to cure Diseases may yet apprehend their dissentions about this matter and the improbabilities of others finding it out by their direction but if I should grant that the true Sons of Art might rightly understand the Ancients and gain the knowledg of the universal matter yet in regard that there is not an universal intention in the cure of Diseases I cannot see of what use it can be in Medicine to comfort the Archaeus and to garrison the heart which is the Royal Fort with invincible vertues answers only a particular intention That all Diseases do spring from one root is only the supposition of some who would patronize this Panacaea whereas others more rationally inform us that Sanity consists not in indivisibili but that different members in the body enjoy a different Sanity and having a divers complexion conformation and operation stand in need of a variety of Medicines to cure their distinct and sometimes contrary Diseases What though there sometimes happens a Metastasis of the Morbifick matter which varying its seat alters the symptomes according to the parts in which it fixeth it is not proved that hereupon what opposed it in one part is as proper and applicable notwithstanding the remove as before and that in curation no particular respect ought to be had to the parts constitution which is affected it may be that before the Metastasis 't was convenient to use Diaphoreticks and afterwards if the matter lodgeth in the breast what may evacuate it by promoting expectoration if in the lowest Ventricle Catharticks or Diureticks which may discharge he certainly knows little of the causes of Diseases who discerns not their difference in respect of the vessels or parts which they seize or most afflict whereupon the Methodus medendi is to be altered I need not enumerate the several causes of Diseases which the Galenists reckon but content my self with an observation that the best Chymists do account two grand Causes of the constant alteration in mans body disposing it to Diseases and death which are the consumption of radical moisture and the putrefaction of humors it is therefore incumbent on the Pretenders to a Panacaea to prove that by the same Medicine they can prevent this putrefaction of humors and hinder the consumption of radical moisture The Universalists have been very sollicitous to appropriate to their Medicine such vertues as might answer the indication both of a drying vertue to withstand and resist putrefaction and of moisture or unctuosity to supply the decaies and spendings of natural heat and therefore they assert that their Panacaea in respect of its activity and solar heat doth brighten fortifie and encrease our innate heat and hereby evaporates and dissipates all Morbifick Meteors which otherwise would stagnate and putrifie in respect of its substance is oleagenous fix'd and incombustible aptly recruiting any loss or spending of the radical moisture It this Panacaea can certainly do what is pretended it may seem strange that they who were esteemed Possessors of such a Medicine did not defend themselves and their Patients from the disease of Old Age and from Death for Old Age creeping on gradually may more probably be opposed then violent Diseases but when its apparant that neither in themselves nor others they were able to stop the course of old age and disappoint the stroke of death they would excuse their Art and Medicine by blaming some great neglects whilest they were young and tell us that if they had then taken such a Medicine it might have effected much in the prolongation of life but others well pondering the Vertues attributed to it Unde fit restauratio corporum per morbos debilitatorum prompte perfecte ea curans postea juventutem primumque vigorem diminutum per frigidum annorum acconitum fere extinctum restituens h. e. It is sufficient to restore the decaies of mens bodies most expeditiously and perfectly helping all Diseases changing the ruines of old age into youthfulness These I say being convinced by experience that such empty vaunts of the Panacaea are ridiculous do otherwise state the business and make little difference between the Polychresta of the Galenists and these more noble Medicines and if the Panacaeas which have been or at present are pretended to in the World are duly examined they undoubtedly will be found to answer some more general intention and by no means deserve the appellation of universal Medicines in the common and known sense and
Difficulty promotes the Birth of your happy Products is the onely argument I shall use inviting you to this task be pleased also to acquaint me in your next what is become of them who assume liberty to qualifie themselves Chymical Doctors in opposition to the KINGS COLLEDGE of PHYSITIANS in LONDON I crave pardon for this interruption of your more weighty business and shall earnestly expect your answer which will be most acceptable unto Sir Your humble Servant C. W. The Authors Answer SIR YOur candid acceptance of the Observations which I have made on this Pâ—st is a most prevalent argument to incourage the communication of them in answer to your desire But before I ingage in this task I must crave your pardon if I proceed not in that method which is requisite in an exact Treatise for in this brief answer I can onely point out cursorily some discoveries which doubtless will be improved by your most sagacious judgment To omit therefore all those most obvious notions of the Pest in general occuring in every Author writing on that Subject I shall confine my self to a particular disquisition of the peculiar nature of this Plague as severe as any recorded in our Annals That LONDON or other Populous places are seldom free from Malignant and Pestilential diseases is confirmed by the long experience of able Physitions who find that Humors upon several occasions acquire a venenate Quality and hereupon prove most pernicious it is not pertinent to my business in hand to state the Question Whether such Ferments are sometimes generated in mans body which may be exalted to a condition aemulous of the most exquisite poysons or of the PEST it self hence is it that some term such putrified humors Arsenical aconital c. as they seem to correspond in operation with such Poysons I may without all dispute affirm that where the Pest meets with matter so prepared it more inevitably destroys The highest degree of malignity flowing from the putrefaction of congested humours however it may be most fatal to the body wherein it was produced being yet but the effect of a private cause is limited at most to an hereditary propagation and cannot be imagined the Original of Epidemical diseases especially of the Pest whose original is adaequate to its effects but in regard the cause of the Plague is most mysterious and not yet hitherto plainly discovered most Writers after a disappointment in there scrutining the Series of natural causes do betake themselves to supernatural and acknowledg a 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in this disease I cannot think that because God doth frequently send out the Plague as his severe judgment to punish mankind we ought wholly to desist from all manner of search into natural causes on the knowledg of which depends the Cure procured both by our devotion and the commanded use of natural means Amongst Natural Causes the Conjunctions of some Planets Eclypses Comets and such like appearances in the Heavens are by many accused as the Authors of the Plague and upon this account some addicted to Astrology observing such appearances the forgoing year have confidently asserted that our Pest was the issue of those malevolent influences I shall not at present determine how far these have contributed to the spreading if not the Original of our Plague but passing by all other opinions deliver my thoughts touching its rise After a most strict and serious inquiry by undoubted testimonies I find that this Pest was communicated to us from the Netherlands by way of Contagion and if most probable relations deceive me not it came from Smirna to Holland in a parcel of infected goods whether it began there or in any other place being unresolved I shall not intangle my self in a conjectural discussion of its Cause or give a tedious narrative of the nature and effects of Pests in those hot Countreys give me leave to hint that the same Pest grassant in divers Regions of a different temperature may so much vary in its Phaenonema that it may seem totally changed which I premise least our Plague should be judged of another nature from that in Smirna or Holland because its Symtomes are not exactly the same in all these places Before I proceed I must advertise that the Pest doth complicate with most maladies which happen during its grassancy especially such as are Contagious every little disorder at such times which I might confirm by many examples turning to the Plague and infectious diseases more neerly combining and symbolizing with it hence I collect that the Scorbute being popular and Epidemical in Holland the Pest when it fell in with it did very much partake of its nature which afterwards invading this Kingdom gave ample testimony by its Symptomes of this Association in which condition I shall throughout this discourse consider it if then the Pest by reason of its most subtile and excessive venenate nature is most feral and destructive when it conforts with another Ferment most powerfully though not so suddenly corrupting the juyces of our bodies how Prodigious must be the issue As I have designedly wav'd at present to deliver my Theory concerning this PEST so I upon the same account do forbear to intermeddle with the Hypotheses of others but because the Learned Kirchers late experiments have put most inquisitive searchers into sensible truths upon the quest to discover that animated matter in the Air mentioned in his treatise of the Pest I shall transiently deliver my observations touching this particular I must ingeniously confess that notwithstanding my most careful and industrious attempts by all means likely to promote the discovery of such matter and that I have had as good oppertunities for this purpose as any Physitian it hath not yet been my happiness if such minute insects caused this Pest to discern them neither have I hitherto by the information of credible testimonies received satisfaction in this point whereupon I infer that in regard Pests are of a different nature though I allow that famous Authors experiments in that Plague at Rome yet it follows not that ours was caused by the like production of Worms or Insects as some have rather fancied then demonstrated The consequences of putrifaction are so well known by an ordinary inspection into the transactions of Nature that the production of Worms and various Insects upon this account may not be rightly judged a new discovery considering especially that malignant diseases do not less then the Plague evidence putrefaction by such products indeed amongst all that vast number I conversed with during the Visitation I noted very few to have either vomited Worms or by unerring symptomes to have given an indication of verminous matter lodged in any part of their bodies I onely had a relation of one who in vomiting threw up a strange figured insect which appeared very fierce and even assaulted such as were busie to observe it whereupon it was crushed by a rude hand so that its shape is not very