Î Ïοφυλακτικὸν OR Some Consideration OF A Notable Expedient To root out the FRENCH POX From the English Nation With Excellent Defensive Remedies TO Preserve Mankind from the Infection of POCKY Women Also an Advertisement wherein is discover'd the dangerous Practices of Ignorant Pretenders to the Cure of this Disease By L. S. Dr. of Physick 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Demost ad Laidem London Printed in the Year 1673. The Printer to the Reader Gentlemen BE pleased to take notice that the Doctor has lately left his former Habitation and for the more private reception of his Patients lives now in Hyde-Street near Bloomsbury-Market the House he lives in is near the Sign of the Clock and has a Porch with Rails before the door AN ADVERTISEMENT To all Persons concern'd in the POX Gentlemen I Have spent some years in studying to help you in this important Affair And surely I may without any breach of Modesty pretend to some skill in this Business as well as my Neighbours For I have perus'd no less than three hundred sixty and eight Authors who have learnedly treated of this Disease I have travell'd also and consulted some prime Physicians abroad and carefully remarqu'd the Secrets of their Practice I have had plentiful Experience upon the worst of Patients i. e. those who have been spoyl'd by Mountebanks and unskilful Surgeons and also forlorn despair'd of and quite given over by learned Physicians Many of these unfortunÌ„ate Persons by my Care have been in a short time restor'd to perfect health but some have perished and indeed if Miracles are not to be expected how could it be otherwise the Natural parts were so corrupted the Bones so carious and rotten and the whole Compages of the Body so ruinous and desperate that none but an Apollo could promise either to himself or the Patient any real performance upon a Disease in those desperate Circumstances I have diligently compar'd what I read in Authors with what I daily observ'd in my own Patients and remarqu'd in the Practice of others out of all which I have compil'd a Treatise of the Pox fully shewing its Fssence Origin Causes Disserences Symptoms Signs and Prognosticks with all the several Wayes of Care now in Vse This Treatise I have finish'd and keep by me ready for the Press expecting only some spare time for the setting out a Work of that high Concern But as Suctonius relates of the furious Caligula who being weary'd in butchering Mankind by Parcels wish'd all the people of Rome had but one neck that he might dispatch them at a Blow So in my Treatise of the Pox my endeavours were against the Pox in particular persons only but in this ensuing Tractate I have laid the Ax to the root and given it such a fatal Blow that in a short time this Nation may be secur'd from any Attaques of that Filthy Disease Gentlemen I well fore-see that a Treatise of this Nature will not be well resented by All. For some formal Persons will endeavour to mis-represent the Charitable Design of this Work and alledge that the Pox is a beastly Disease which few or none have but such as well deserve it and that the Obscenity of it is the cause why Eminent Physicians meddle not with it but have hitherto left the business wholly to Surgeons Barbers Tooth-drawers and Mountebanks Answ 'T is confess'd that the Pox is a nasty Disease But does it therefore follow that the Cure is to be manag'd only by Tooth-drawers Mountebanks and Empiriques Or that 't is below the Concern of an Eminent Physician to meddle in this Case For my part I never yet understood that 't was any Crime in a Physician to help Mankind in filthy Diseases but rather that 't was an Vndertaking which ought to be cherish'd and countenanc'd by all good Men. The more loathsome the Disease the more Commiseration is requir'd and the Physician is oblig'd to a more tender Care I will assure you that my Intentions in compiling this Tractate were Modest and Good not to countenance Debauchery but to root out this Exotic Plant and defend Innocent Persons from the Fury of a Cruel Disease I will faithfully promise you that the ensuing Discourse shall be manag'd with all the Modesty and Civility of Expression imaginable so that the oculi emissitii as Plautus phrases it of Envy it self shall not be able to finde any Offence in that kind This foul Disease is a complicate Evil and as it were a Combination of the worst of Diseases advanc'd to a strange degree of Malignity And as its Effects are most dreadful and terrible so also is the Cure abstruse arduous and difficult and not to be attempted by that Illiterate Rabble of Mountebanks Tooth-drawers and Ignoramusses who in three dayes may do you more hurt than you shall ever claw off while you breath You are therefore carefully to avoid those Persons as Enemies to Mankind Men full of Words and Promises but without any Performance at all We daily see and lament the signal Miscarriages of these Men how Thousands every Year lose their Lives and Ten thousands their Noses And whereas in one Month the Malignity might be carry'd off and the Disease perfectly cur'd these men by their preposterous handling the Disease do so affix it to the Patient and so root it in his bones that 't is afterwards impossible to be remov'd Be wary therefore and keep out of the Talons of these Harpyies who use many Artifices and Insinuations to draw you in You are to address to learned Physicians and expert Chirurg for help in this Case For let me tell you There 's scarce one among a hundred of those who profess this Cure that throughly understand the Nature of the Disease the Cause of its Symptoms or any ready or certain Way of Cure And this is the reason so many perish of the Pox who might easily have been cur'd had they fallen into the hands of skilful Physicians Gentlemen I have one thing more to acquaint you with and it is this several Doctors in this Town seeing the admirable Effects of my Antidotes and Bezoartiques upon the worst and most profound Poxes have with some importunity sollicited me to a Discovery But I have not as yet discover'd them to any Not that I should be backward in any thing which might in the least promote or advance the Publique Good but this Expedite way of Curing the Pox which was not wholly of my own Invention but in part communicated by those excellent Physicians Monsieur de Bodé and Monsieur Balon of Paris the most skilful not only of France but of all Christendome in the Expedite and happy Cure of this Disease I am unwilling to put into the hands of some few to be monopoliz'd and made use of for their Interest only because I have design'd a Discovery to all and to print them for the benefit of the whole Nation This little Tractate therefore is but a fore-runner of a greater and
more Elaborate Work For I do intend if God spare my Life and prosper my Endeavours very suddenly to acquaint the World with some remarkable Observations and Secrets in this Disease and also put the Physicians and Surgeons of this Age in a New Way of Curing the Pox far more Expedite Certain and Safe than any bitherto known to the World But in the mean time I conjure and charge you once again to beware of Mountebanks and the Illiterate Rabble of Pretenders to this Cure Farewell L. S. A Notable Expedient to root out the POX CHAP. I. A Summary Account of the Pox. Its Names Which most proper French Pox and Lues Venerea disallow'd Aloys Luisinas noted Anti-venereal Medicaments what The Pox not an Epidemic Disease against Leonicenus Fracastorius and Massa Not a New and Extraordinary Disease Shown to be Sporadic here and Endemial in the W. Indies THis Calamitous Disease has many Names some whereof we pass by as being phantastic and affected or barbarous and blasphemous The most apt Names are Morbus Indicus Hispanicus vel Neapolitanus but the most usual is the French Pox. For most Nations in Europe commonly use that Appellation And Leo Africanus Descrip Afric lib. 1. assures us 't is so called in many parts of Africa as at Tunis in Barbary and in Aegypt as also in Syria in Asia that the Mahometans usual Imprecation is Te Morbus malè perdat Gallicus But methinks 't is pity to affix the Title on the French and rob the Italians of that Honour because 't was first brought from the Indies by Columbus an Italian and at Naples first shew'd it self to Christendome and at this day is more common in Italy than in any other Country in Europe as is generally attested by Italian Physicians themselves But especially because some Italians seem to glory in it HierMercurialis an Italian Physician cap. 2. de Morbo Gallico sayes Ideo laus est Italorum ut abundent hoe morbo quia indulgent Veneri utuntur passim mulieribus infectis ut non mirum sit esse peculiarem morbum nostrarum plagarum And they tell us That since the Pox has been so familiar with them it has done them a double Kindness for 1. It has in good part freed them from the Plague for since the Pox came among them they are seldom troubled with the Test whereas in former Ages 't was far more fierce and frequent than it has been since 2. They observe that since they had the Pox the Leprosy has almost left them so that now every Lazaretto in Italy is filled with Neapolitans Some others in complement to the French forbear the Vulgar Name and call it Lues Venerea But though their Civility deserves Commendation yet this Denomination cannot be allow'd For Lues as Isidorus observes Orig. lib. 4. cap. 6. is the Plague or a Pestilential and Epidemic Disease And as Festus sayes Lues est diluens usque ad nihil tractum à Graeco 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 So in the judgment of all who understand the Propriety of Words Lues denotes an Epidemic or Pestilential Disease proceeding from a Common Cause and killing the greater part of those who receive Infection But the Pox is not an Epidemic but Sporadic Disease 't is not received from any common Infection in the Air but by Contact of infected Bodies Again Lues or the Pest destroyes the greater part of the Infected but most of those who have the Pox live and may be cur'd And lastly Lues is an Acute Disease but the Pox is Chronic 2. Nor can it properly be term'd Venerea For that signifies a Disease received by the use of Venery But this Disease is not alwayes got by Venus for Children get it by sucking Infectious Nurses and Nurses often receive it from infected Infants And most Physicians tell us 't is to be got by profuse kissing of women who have Pockie Vlcers in their Mouths as also by lying in the sheets wherein Neapolitans have sweat That therefore 's an unsufferable Caprichio in Aloysius Luisinus who calls his Collection of Authors who have writ of the Pox 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as if 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or Venus and the Pox were one and the same Identic thing I wish Dr. H. would consider the Title of his Book Venus unmaskt Those also fall into the same Errour who call their Medicines against the Pox Anti-venereal Remedies For an Antivenereal Medicine according to the true import of the word is that which is given to luxurious persons to repress the furious desires of Venus as those Aque Castitatis so often mentioned in Authors but especially when they treat of Furor Vterinus Also Anti-venereal may signify those Magic Compositions used by Sorcerers to disable marry'd Persons from Venus Physicians differ about the Origin of the Pox for 1. Some hold it to be an Epidemic Disease and by consequence to proceed from a Common cause and of this Opinion is Leonicenus Fracastorius Nic. Massa and some others But yet these men differ about this Common Cause for some hold it to be a malign Influence deriv'd from a Conjunction of Saturn Mars and Venus c. And this is the Opinion of Massa in his Book of the Pox. But Leonicenus will have it to be a great Inundation of Tyber in P. Alexanders time which drowned the greatest part of Rome and corrupted the Air from whence he imagines the Pox to have had its first Beginning And this he endeavours to confirm by telling us that in P. Pelagius's time Tyber overflow'd his banks and upon that Inundation presently ensu'd the Pest and a strange ill-natur'd Scab or Manginess which the Physicians of that age could not cure And he sayes the like happen'd in P. Bonif 4th's dayes also Here two things are to be remarqu'd 1. That 't is probable the Favourers of this Opinion first called the Pox Lues Ven. supposing it a General Epidemic Disease proceeding from a Common Cause 2. That these men were of opinion it would in time senescere decay and be quite antiquated as other Epidemic Distempers are But the Reasons offered by Fracast and his Partizans have not at all satisfy'd the world or convinced us that 't is Epidemic or that it will in future Ages abandon these parts of the World For 1. We have no Reason to believe it Epidemic or to proceed from a Common Cause as the pernicious Influence of Stars or Corruption of Air because Diseases proceeding from such Causes never continue long but when the bad Influence is at an End and the Air freed from that adventitious venemous quality they end also But the Pox has continued some Ages and with as much fierceness as ever Nor 2. have we any Grounds to believe as some endeavour to perswade us that the Pox does decline and by degrees abate of its former Fury for our daily Observation tells us the contrary and that 't is to the full as fierce and formidable as
ever 2. Some others affirm the Pox to be a New and Extraordinary Disease sent by Heaven as a punishment to the extravagant Lusts of Mankind And these men are so far from believing as the others viz. That it does decline and abate of its former fury and will in time abandon these parts that on the contrary they think it advanced to a higher Degree of Malignity and attended with crueller Symptoms than 't was in the beginning Rudius not only thinks it will continue to the end of the world but fears that in a matter of 80 years 't will infect all Mankind Et forsitan quod Deus avertat 80. aut paulo plurium annorum spacio omnem humanam progeniem invasura de Morb. occ ven lib. 5. cap. 11. And a certain London Physician has asserted that all this Nation has a Touch of the Pox and Scurvy 3. The Third Opinion is of those wo affirm the Pox with us to be a Sporadic Disease receiv'd only by contact of infectious bodies but in some part of the West Indies 't is Topic and Endemial engender'd by bad diet bad water and unwholesom Air as the Leprosy in Egypt Great Spleens and the Scurvy in Holland This Opinion of all others seems truest as I have fully demonstrated in my Treatise of the Pox. The first Opinion is already confuted the Second is also false for the Pox is not a New and Extraordinary Disease sent by Divine Justice for 't was brought into Christendome from the West Indies by Columbus and the Spaniards and propagated by Contagion and Infection as is notoriously known and attested by all Nor is it now more fierce than 't was in the beginning but continues still the very same The Ground of this Mistake I conceive to be this These men did not take a full and comprehensive view of the Pox as 't is in the several parts of the World but only consider'd it as it now shows it self in some Northern cold Country For the Pox does notably differ according to the temper and quality of the Country In the Torrid Zone 't is mild and gentle so also in Barbary Egypt and among the Asiatique Turks 't is not outragious But in Spain and Italy 't is more cruel So the farther Northward you go the more fierce you 'l find it for in Germany Holland and Great-Britain it handles the Patient more roughly than in Italy Spain or France And the Danes the Swedes and the Russians will inform you that it deals more rudely with them than with us or the Hollander The Disease in it self without doubt is just as it was in the beginnnig but if the Hollander finds his Pox not accompanied with such mild Symptoms as the Spanish or Italian Physicians mention let him not think there 's any Alteration made in the Disease but let him impute it wholly to the difference of Climates and to the cold foggy Air of that humid Region In like manner those who embrace the first opinion viz. that it does decline and abate of its former fury ought to consider that now Physicians have found out an Expedite Way to cure it and abate its Symptoms but at first they had no certain Remedies but let it run on to its height And besides the French Army before Naples feeding upon unwholesome diet the Infection met with Bodies full of ill humours and strangely disorder'd All which might encrease the Disease and raise its malignity to an higher degree in that Army at that time than 't was in other places where their Bodies were not so dispos'd So that still the Disease is the same and as furious as ever but now 't is checkt and kept under and formerly 't was not CHAP. II. The Author commiserates the condition of Incontinent Persons and resolves to help them to the utmost He declares his modest Intentions his Charity and the Causes of publishing this Treatise THE very name POX sounds terrible to English Ears and makes an Impression of Horrour upon us For this aggregative Evil is like 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 's Box out of which all other Diseases and Mischiefs issue When a man is attaqu'd with the Pox he has not one single Disease alone but a Legion of Maladies presently after seize his miserable Body viz. Gonorrhoeas Buboes Chancres Caruncles Stranguries stoppages of Vrine Chironian and Telephian Vlcers Fistulas ill-natur'd Scabs Tetters Erosion and Rottenness of Bones Loss of hair Falling of Noses consuming of the Palat of the Mouth Loss of Speech Deafness Blindness terrible racking Night-pains Invincible Head-ach loss of Sculls Falling-sicknesses Convulsions Apoplexies dangerous Catarrhs and Defluxions of Rheum whence ensue perillous Asthmas spitting of Bloud Consumptions Hectick Feavers wonderful Extenuation of Body Gummosities Nodes and Tophaceous Excrescencies These and an hundred more are the dire Companions of the Pox. And who can but wonder that miserable man should be so desperately hardy and so absorpt in Sensuality as for one moment of vanishing pleasure to involve himself in such an Abyss of lasting Miseries But when I consider the Imperious and charming Power of a Good Face the bewitching Artifices of Women and Man's natural Propension to Venus the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and rapid violence of his Passion it draws me from Admiration to Commiseration For we are all 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 subject to the same Passions to the same Propensions and Inclinations of Nature That man said excellent well in the Comedy Homo sum humani à me nihil alienum puto For though some have that Fortitude not to be hurri'd along with this brutish Passion yet are they not to insult over others who have more of Passion and less of Prudence than themselves For Greenness of years and Vehemency of the Temptation though before God they avail the Delinquent nothing at all yet ought they to merit Compassion from us who have been our selves too often assaulted by these impetuous Motions tumultuantis Nature It was therefore Commiseration that caus'd me to spend so many good hours and years in studying to holp these miserable Persons Formerly I did believe that all those who had once felt the fury of this Disease would afterwards be more wary but I was deceiv'd and my constant Observations have now satisfied me to the contrary For many do so indulge this brutish Passion that as soon as they are out of the Physician 's Hands they run presently into the Arms and Embraces of infected Courtizans Nay too frequently we find that whilst they are under Cure they secretly continue the same Courses Deum contestor I call the Eternal and Immortal God to witness whem I dore and serve and who is conscious to all my Thoughts and Secrets that I have not publish'd this Treatise with any design or desire to indulge or countenance incontinent persons in their Lusts and detestable Lives but merely for the Good of their Persons for the Safety and Security of the Sober part of Mankind and for
the Honour of the English Nation 1. I have publish'd this Defensive Method for the Good of the Debanchée himself His Vices his Incontinency I hate but his Person I pity and love Nor can this Expedient justly be thought any Encouragement to him to go on in his Debauchery for we see with our eyes that notwithstanding the Pox is such a fierce and formidable Evil and the very Endemial and Topique disease of Bawdy-Houses yet the Greatness of the Danger and the Commonness of the Disease do not at all deter men from such Courses and Company but still they rush into most manifest danger brutishly preferring one hours Contentment before Health Life and Heaven it self Moreover if we reflect upon former Ages before Columbus's Voyages to the Indies when this Discase was unknown to these parts of the world we shall find that men were then far more continent than now then Debauchery was not at such height But since the Pox has invaded Europe and attaqu'd Bawdy-Houses and been the familiar Companion of Courtizans they are wonderfully increas'd and far more frequented than formerly Nitimur in vetitum The more we are restrain'd the more impetuously we rush on This Hurricane by its rapid violence drives miserable Mortals into these Fornices Cryptae where they are sure to be stung by these 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 i. e. Courtizans ten times more venemous than the Serpents of Lybia What shall we do in this case you 'l say Let 'em go on and perish in their wickedness This is indeed a most compendious way of reforming Mankind to cut off the Offenders But we find not that God or any good Prince ever made use of this rough way Apage Carnifices Away with these uncharitable Persons and let us discharge our Duty and endeavour to preserve their Bodies from the Fury of this Pest leaving their better part to the Care and Prudence of Good Divines 2. This Treatise is design'd for the Safety and Security of the Sober Part of Mankind How many chast Matrous tender Infants innocent Nurses are ruin'd by this Disease When I sadly reflect upon the miserable Condition of some virtuous Women how profoundly debauch'd some Husbands are and how frequently the Pox is made use of as a ready Expedient to dispatch Wives and send 'em to another World I lament the Misery of those Women and detest the execrable Villany of those Husbands It is therefore for the Safezy of these sober Persons and to prevent those Hellish Practices that I have set forth this 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 These innocent Matrons conversing only with sober company are utterly unacquainted with the Signs and Symptoms of the Pox. Hence when unkind Husbands give them the Running of the Reins they innocently believe it nothing but the Whites and so let the Disease run on So also they imagine those racking Night-pains of the Pox to be the Effects of the Scurvy only so apt is this Nation and Age to reduce all Diseases to the Scurvy This Ignorance of the Disease as also the ingenit and natural Modesty of that Sex are too often the Causes why the business is deferr'd and the Disease conceal'd untill 't is so rooted in the Body beyond a possibility of Cure And so these miserable persons are hurri'd out or this World by a filthy Disease I dare confidently avouch it that one half of Infected Persints are Innoceâ—…tâ— and further that where one debauch'd person dies of the Pox five of the sober part of Mankind die of the some Disease the Reason is because the Debanchéé is confident and discovers his Disease and in time gets help But the other not being skill'd in the business let it run to its height before they understand what it is and when they do understand it such is their invincible Shamefae ' dness that they choose rather to endure its utmost Fury than to discover themselves attainted with so scandalous a Malady Add also those miserable Infants who bring a Congenit or Connatural Pox into the World with them and also those Innocent Babes who get it from wicked Nurses whose Cryes Tears and piteous Moans deserve some regard All which I say being duely consider'd are enough to move any heart unless flinty to commiseration and pity This Treatise therefore is chiefly design'd for the benefit of sober Mankind viz. chast Matrons tender Infants and innocent Nurses and not for Bawds and Courtizans For I heartily wish such damn'd Prostitutes who make Leachery a Trade may either perish of the Pox or be so just to themselves and kind to Mankind to end their cursed lives with an Halter The End therefore and Scope of this present Undertaking is not to remove the Pox from Bawdy-houses and Courtizans but from Marriage-beds and Cradies from innocent and undeserving Persons 3. I have publish'd this Defensive Method for the Good and Hontour of this Nation The Pox is a Reproach to Mankind it self and infected Persons may justly be rank'd among the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or Venemous Animals For what Serpents in the Desarts of Africa ejaculate more filthy Venom than Pocky Men and Women This dire Venom of the Pox transcends that of Vipers and Adders and is far more extensive of its malice That kills Creatures of a different kind only this poysons those of its own species and when Men and Women by the Impulse of Venus come together they poyson one another In some hot Countries almost the moyety of Mankind is infected with this disgraceful Malady And who can but be mightily concern'd to see one half of Mankind come in the number of pernicious Animals and Creatures that ejaculate poyson If you enter into a serious I am sure 't will be a sad Consideration and attentively remarque what footing the French Pox has got upon English Ground what huge Multitudes of Pocky Patients come every year under Healing Hands you 'l quickly grant that this Expedient is very seasonable and that there 's an absolute Necessity of proposing some Defensives to repress the Fury and farther spreading of this diffusive Evil. A multitude of Lawyers is an Argument of many Law-suits And if we argue from this Topic we may easily conclude the Pox to be prodigiously spread in this City For setting learned Physicians aside you 'l find an incredible multitude of Persons who live and some very splendidly too chiefly upon the Cure of this Disease The numerous multitudes of Surgeons Chymists Practising Apothecaries Mountebancks Empiriques Tooth-drawers and Ignoramusses who deal in the Pox upon a sober Inquiry have been found to amount to near one thousand and five hundred And if so many Persons live upon the Pox judge how many thousands suffer by the contagion of that spreading Disease It will therefore be a generous and Heroio Vndertaking to endeavour by some bealing Advice to help this Nation and repress and check the enormous spreading of this popular Distemper And that person who shall well perform it will truely merit
to be esteem'd a Benefactor to Mankind I have broken the Ice and made a good Ouverture let others follow my Example facile est inventis addere CHAP. III. A Search into the Causes why Physicians bitherto have not endeavoured the Prevention and Extinction of the Pox. Three Reasons assign'd viz. Pride Covetousness and Ignorance The Author remonstrates the great Inconveniencies and Hazards he voluntarily thrusts himself upon for the publique Good and for the Honour and Safety of the English Nation IT 's now almost two Hundred years since the French Army at Naples was first infected with the Pox. I cannot but greatly admire that all the Physitians in the world have sate still and let it run on thus long and done nothing in the Defensive Way towards its Prevention or Extinction They have indeed writ whole Volums and Treatises how to cure it but they have not set forth in Vulgar Languages any Defensive Methods to prevent the Infection or farther spreading of that abominable Disease They have not propos'd any Expedient to root it out from the Européan part of Mankind Certainly it is a far more excellent piece of skill to preserve Mankind from Diseases than to cure him when infected And surely all Christian Physicians ought to have joyn'd their Forces and bent their best Endeavours to have quell'd so formidable and furious an Enemy and which so insolently menaces Mankind with Ruine and Destruction But 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 not one word of this None have yet instructed Mankind in this weighty Affair There is I confess a matter of a dozen among the many Authours who have writ of this Disease that have laid down Defensive Methods against the Pox but their Discourses are in Latin and add rest to Physicians onely so that the generality can receive no benefit by them unless translated and adapted to their Capacities But what is the Cause of this Silence in a matter of such important Concern I have made search into the Business and I find the Reasons chiefly to be these 1. Most of the Eminent Physicians of this City and Nation have always look'd upon this Difease as a thing below them and so not at all concern'd themselves either with its Cure or Prevention but wholly remitted the business to others of an inferior Class 2. Those others who have studied the Disease have been so great Gainers by it that in stead of endeavouring its Prevention or Extinction they have with'd its increase and farther Propagation ' so greedy is Mankind of Profit These men have carri'd it fair to the World and craftily difguiz'd their Avarice with the specious pretence of Conscience alledging that the Discovery of ways of Prevention might be an Incentive to Lust Whereas they have been Eye-witnesses of the contrary and have daily seen that the Greatness of the Dunger and Commonness of the Disease have not at all deterr'd men or kept them within the Bounds of Continency 3. Illiterate Surgeons Empiriques Mountebanks who pretend to this Cure being persons ignorant in the very Rudiments of Physick conceive the thing to be impostible and so never attempt any thing in the Prophylactique Way These poor Hearts consult Vulcan more than Apollo they spend their time in Laboratories among Furnaces and Crucibles where they piteously torture themselves and the poor Minerals to extort and draw forth Elixirs Quintessences Spirits c. and vainly promise to themselves and others the effecting of Wonders But they are so far from performing any solid Cure and especially in the Pox that they either murther the poor Patient with their malignant Medicines of Antimony and Quick-silver or so affix the disease to him that 't is afterwards impossible to be remov'd That was a notable Saying of a Gentleman who had been guilty of this Imprudence in addressing to Illiterate Surgeons for help in this Case I carried sayes he a Clap to the Surgeon and he gave me the Box for it For these men have an Excellent Faculty that way for in driving in Buboes and unwary suppressing Gonorrhoeas they usually bring a slight superficiary Clap to a Grand Pox. And when they meet with a Confirm'd Pox by their dangerous Medicines and preposterous handling the Patient they commonly exasperate the Malady weaken the sick person and in the end make his Disease desperate and incurable These therefore I conceive to be the Causes why none have stood up to vindicate Mankind from this reproachful Disease why none have made it their business to endeavour the Prevention and Extinction of this pernicious Evil. The Physicians of prime Note have been too fine-finger'd to meddle with this foul Disease The others who have studied the Case have forborn to set forth any Prophylactique Method because they have not studied the Publique Good but their own private Interest And lastly the rabble of ignorant Surgeons Empiriques and Mountebanks have not help't Mankind in this important Affair because the Enterprise is too heavy for their weak shoulders I alone am the Singular Person that stand up to help the unfortunate Debauchée to defend and secure the Sober part of Mankind Venerable Matrons Innocent Nurses and tender Infants from the fury of the Pox to vindicate the Honour of this Nation and draw a considerable part thereof from among the venemons and pernicious Beasts Neither am I ignorant of the grand Inconveniencies and dangers which by this Charitable Design I shall voluntarily draw upon my own head For 1. Some peevish and restless Spirits will open their venemous mouths and endeavour to misrepresent the Causes and Ends of this present Undertaking 2. In discovering this Prophylactique Method I shall draw upon my self the Envy of some Physicians the high displeasure of Surgeous and the Hatred of Emperiques and Mountebanks And indeed not without some Cause for in taking the Pox away from this Nation I shall rob these men of the best Flower in their Garden Hine ille lachrymae 3. The setting forth this Expedient to root out the Pox is such a strange piece of Sulf-denyal and so infinitely repugnant to my own Profit and Interest that many will condemn me for it as much wanting to my own Good For I who for almost this twenty years have had considerable Practice in the Cure of this Disease now to issue out a Treatise to prevent and root out the Pox what is it but to lay the Ax to the root of the Tree and cut off all hopes of any further Profit It is so I confess but herein I have had regard only to the publique Good to the honour and fifety of Mankind and not at all to my own Interest Gentlemen I have ever look'd upon the Practice of Physick not as a Sordid but Sacred thing and have always hated those base Spirits who prefer the heaping up of Riches before the welfare of Mankind Those pedantique Reservs and Concealments of Knowledge become Empiriques and not rational Physicians who ought generously to mind the publique Concern of