Mankind Therefore before I return the Papers give me leave to kiss some passages of yours as when you profess you have not taken up this way of Physick but after a strict though fruitless search for satisfaction in the other That having found the vulgar Medicines so composed that the nobler part in them being clogg'd with foeculential Impurities is made ineffectual there appears a necessity of freeing Materials Medicinal from them and of exalting those to a more Active and Spirituous nature That after a due consideration of Vegetables and Animals you found greater Virtues are contained in the later yet after these considering the Mineral and Metalline Subjects you found by experience as well as reason that they are indued with far greater Virtues and that if rightly prepared they are of all Medicines the most safe and efficacious And that after long inquiry and diligence into the way or method how to purifie and exalt the restaurative Powers of all the three sorts of Subjects having attained it then at length you fully resolved to leave the old Galenical Road and betake your self for the main in your practice to the use of Chymical Remedies This judicious proceeding of yours is most highly to be commended and he who hath tried or shall try the Excellency of your Medicines shall find you have said the Truth Alas these few that you intend to publish are but a small part of those noble Preparations which I know you to be Master of and of which the World is not worthy and how great a Master of Reason as well as a Work-man you are may be seen by your Philosophising upon the nature of Vomits and the causes of Agues and Fevers as also by your profound Discourse touching the grand Mercurial Liquor or Essence a Menstruum that will dissolve and radically reduce all Metals to their first moist and unctuous form by which wonders may be effected in Physick and otherwise and if ever our Nation come to see those great Things which others but cloudily talk of I that have seen you in your Way and daily Labours have cause to tell Men that I believe you are the Man we must be beholden to for the discovery Thus much to you my dear Friend without Flattery for you know I abhor it and have in my Nature like you too much of a Satyr to be a Flatterer I shall now only add a few words concerning some Intimations that you have given me The first is of a Book in Answer to my Medela Medicinae which the Author very unknown unless it be at some certain Coffee-Houses is pleased to entitle Medela Ignorantiae and in his Title-page he thinks fit to tell the World I am Illiterate but who or what he is scarce any body can tell and so 't is imagined he hath taken this course to provoke me to make him known therefore I suppose the only way to be revenged on him is to spoile his design by not vouchsafing to name him And in Letters at length he stiles himself Doctor of Physick as perhaps he may be for there are too many slight fellows about this Town that bring no credit to Universities yet have the confidence to wear the Title the Generality of the Gang being meer Insects and Imperfect Animals in the Faculty to say nothing of their Idleness I remember in Scaliger's Epistles he having been told that an obscure Fellow had written malepartly against him expresseth himself thus Mihi relatum fuit Scarabeum quendam contra me scribere cui respondere neque dignitatis est nec otii I have been told saith he that a certain Scarabee writes against me to whom I have neither leisure nor doth it become me to give an Answer Indeed the Fellow is as unfortunate in his Attempt as one can be by pretending to answer me yet I perceive he hath not so much as touched any main string of my Book onely he endeavours by railing and with whole Pages of Greek for edification of the English Reader to justifie the Aphorisms of Hippocrates and other things of his and Galen's which I said and still say are grown out of date as most is that they have written which I can and will make good against all the Galenick Societies in Europe and though he hardly allows me more than English yet I can find Greek enough and had at fourteen years of Age to serve him and twenty more of the same Tribe But alas Sir hard words cure no Diseases unless they be Characteristick Charms and without such as these not a man of the old Faction knows how to conjure down a poor Ague whilst the old Women and Mountebanks every where do shame them even quite out of City and Country In the mean time as Illiterate as I am I am content to share in the Imputation with other Brethren of our Society the whole Business of the old Brotherhood is now to brand us with no Letters but they shall find we have and this vir Trium Literarum may in time come to understand it as well as the rest I hear also that there are other small Beagles at the Press ready to open against me but those little Doctoral Fellows are to know neither I nor the Book-buyers shall take notice of them in a Contest which it rather concerns their grave and formal Leaders to clear if they can and the World hath reason to expect it from them But if what I have done will not serve to settle their minds I promise you they shall have enough for as my manifold diversions give leave I am collecting for them As to the Reports sown up and down by some of the Grave Sirs as also by their Pedees of the Faculty as for example That I was chidden rather than countenanced at our Audience at the King's Council-Table you know the contrary and with what Princely Grace an ear was given to every man of us so that things are like to thrive with our Adversaries when their Refuge is in Lies But they go further yet and whisper up and down that I proclaim all people to have the Pox and I know not what whereas 't is plain I maintain in my Book no more than this that since the prevalencie of that disease in the Nations of Europe it hath exceedingly alter'd their Nature and the Nature of all diseases so that the old definitions of the Galenists and their dull Remedies do not reach any considerable Maladies but if you and I and others that I know be Masters of such Specifick Medicines as will do the Work when theirs cannot I suppose 't is easie to conclude from the Nature of our Medicines the Truth of my Position That even those who never were formally infected may yet by Contagion at a distance Inheritance and divers other ways come under a Fermental Change in the Frame and Constitution of their Bodies Others there are of the Faculty that would fain seem to be more wise than their Brethren and
Passport and this I hope you will do as soon as we have setled the Affairs of our Society or College which we hope in as conspicuous a manner as the Galenists suddenly so to manage as that it may conduce effectually to the end we aim at which is the honour of Physick by Men of sound Chymical principles Labourers and Learned If any Persons among us chance to be Defective in the common Literature we ought not to value them the less as long as they have so much of a better sort of Learning as inableth them to the inventing excellent Remedies such as the vulgar Letter-men never had the honour to be acquainted with by any Endeavour or Operation of their own Forgive me my noble Friend all this tedious Discourse for I could say a thousand times more and think you never the worse of me because I am zealous in this Matter but let me prevail with you to print your Papers as soon as you can for the true Sons of Art will be exceedingly pleased with it and among the meanest of them I that honour you who am SIR Your faithful Friend and Servant Mar. Nedham From my House in Thomas Apostles 10 May 1665. Some Errata's have Slipt the Press which those that are not Malicious will Correct as they Read Licensed 20th April 1665. MEDICINA INSTAVRATA OR A brief Account of the true Grounds and Principles of the Art of PHYSICK FInding by a daily experience the small virtue efficacy and power of the generality of Medicines and the great uncertainty of performing any notable and worthy Cure by their means and operation I resolved upon a more diligent search and inquiry after such Medicines as with confidence of some good effect I might more fully rely upon after a serious consideration therefore of the cause why vulgar Remedies or Medicines so rarely or seldom performed the promised and expected Effects I at last found the true and onely cause to be the great quantity of dross and impurity by Nature in their production and growth strongly united with the Medicinal or Restaurative Essence choaking and over-powering the true Physical part of them so that it cannot as it should perform its Office and produce the desired Effects it was administred for for the body of Man being already clogged and stuffed up with Obstructions and Nature's royal course and prerogative being by that means hindred and opposed the Body by little and little feels the approaching decays of Nature and accordingly calls for a powerful and able assistance to free her if possible from those Enemies of Life that so Nature Spiritus innatus custos corporiâ—oeconomus the enlivening Inhabitant of the Body being by some timely sympathetical and friendly aid and assistance before her too great Debilitation again impowred and re-inforced may be able to eject and cast out her potent and destructive Antagonist and again re-assume her wonted and desired course and so restore the pining pale and decayed Body to its pristine blith healthful and flourishing condition Being by these considerations and other most strong and undeniable Reasons sufficiently confirmed what kind of Medicines Nature required as most absolutely necessary and needful as also that the true cause of the weak effect of common or vulgar Medicines was the Physical parts being so much over-ballanced and debilitated and as it were extinguished by the multiplicity of Dreggs and foeculential Impurities closely joyned and mixed with it in its Creation and progressive Growth I at last of necessity concluded that the freeing of Medicinal Subjects or those things we would use in a Physical way from some part if not all of those their foeculencies drossy and terrene parts must undoubtedly in reason render the Medicine of much more Efficacy and Power of more power because of more purity and consequently more spiritual and penetrating and because more spiritual therefore more fitting to assist the decayed and fainting Spirits of the infirm and languishing Body and so as being of her own condition or quality re-inforce inable and assist Nature the Body's preserver to expel and drive out her prevalent and health-destroying Opposers And this certainly was the intent and meaning of Hippocrates where he tells us Contraria contrariis curari debent Contraries must be driven away and cured by contraries viz. Corruptibilia per incorruptibilia immunda enim per munda non per immunda mundantur purificantur Pure things only are fit to purifie and not dirty and impure Diseases are the beginnings of the corruption of the Body and to remove corruption by corruption or corrupting and corruptible things the way and means rather to promote and hasten it to me seems in reason impossible as doubtless it is and therefore could no ways be imagined to be the meaning of so Learned a Physitian his meaning therefore must consequently follow that the Cure of Diseases the destruction and corruption of the Body must needs be performed by something of a contrary nature viz. Incorruptible and pure If therefore we would either preserve from or drive out Diseases and Corruption it must surely be by something that is of a pure and incorruptible Balsamick nature and property which the generality of Medicines as prepared are so far from that few or none of them except some few Chymical or having some of their Ingredients in some measure purified are able to preserve themselves from a total Corruption or at most a great diminution of their Virtues the space of one poor Year though with much care and vigilancy secured and fortified by a close stoppage from the ingression of Air the Introducer of Corruption into all Porous and corruptible things The more pure the Medicine the more potent its Virtue and consequently the better able to assist and strengthen our continually exhausted and spent Spirits especially when assaulted by a too powerful distemper the effect of some corruption their professed Enemy And this Galen that pretended Oraculum Medicinae did we as we ought as much mind his Precepts as make use of his Name for a cavilling superficial unprofitable Discourse most plainly tells us Lib. undec de simpl med facult cap. undec His words are these Quae tenuium sunt partium medicamenta iis quae sunt crassarum partium plâ—s habent efficaciae etiamsi parem sortita fuerint facultatem nimirum quia melius penetrant All which in brief tells us thus much That those Medicines which are of thin or subtile parts are of greater Efficacy and Virtue than those which are of a gross quality and the Reason he also gives because by their thinness and subtilty they are the more apt and able to penetrate Thus this once great and experienced Physician he also much desired to have the Aethereal and hot pure Substance or Spirit of Wine and also the Secret of Extracting and Separating it from its more gross earthy and watery parts an Artifice not known unto the Physicians of that Age for considering how excellent
seldom and rarely cured by Physicians and therefore their shame and scandal as well as the Gout Dropsie Leprosie c. Divels or Witches or I know not what of the like Nature nor do they as the Scholes do generally tell us proceed from their four Humours Phlegm Choler Melancholy and putrefaction of Blood as Quotidian from Phlegm Tertian from Choler and Quartane from Melancholy nor as some particular Physicians do affirm ab effervescentiâ Sanguinis viz. from a Boyling of the Blood ab inflammato Sulphure from an Inflammation of the Sulphur in it in which last they as much mistake the effect for the cause as in the first one cause for another true it is the Blood is inflamed and that sometimes even to an extreme heighth by which the Body in which it runs is as it were almost burned up but yet this effervescentia Sanguinis is not the cause effervescentiae Sanguinis but indeed an effect of the true cause viz. an Obstruction of Nature by the Excrements of Digestion left by the debilitated Bowels and other particular Parts in their several Offices of Digestion accelerated perhaps by a stoppage of the Pores by some excessive Cold or other ways from which ariseth Obstruction of Nature and her Archeus in her Prerogative Royal and free passage and progress through the Body for its preservation and conservation in its due equation of Elements which obstructions and excrements Nature to free her self from after a Concentration or Collection of her Forces according to her abilities doth by a suddain Excursion or Sally from her Fortress the most Inward parts voluntarily and with premeditation may I so say cause this violent effervescentia Sanguinis or Passion or produceth it by her powerfully issuing forth with her Recollected forces to free her self from those incroaching Obstructions which began to diminish her Royal course and consequently to corrupt and putrefie her Mansion and the passage of her Progress Wonder not that Nature by Nature I here mean the Life Spirit Spiritus innatus custos corporis oeconomus wonder or marvail not I say that Nature should be of such power to cause so great an inflammation scorching heat or combustion in the Body for consider she is Life and Life is Fire and Fire the most pure powerful and strong of all the Elements consider seriously her Power and how she can otherways also both cure and cause even the greatest of Diseases and this by the sole power and strength of her own fancy without any previous matter in the Body for the cause or production nor doth here end the extent of her Power for it can perform even Miracles If you believe not me believe yet Christ himself who tells us that if we have Faith but as a Grain of Mustard-seed what we may do by it if you will say that this is not meant of the Spirit but of the Soul which medleth not with the curing of Bodily diseases hear yet our Saviour himself Go saith he thy Faith hath healed or made thee whole and again Be it unto thee according to thy Faith You see here that Faith is no other than the strong power of the Soul or Spirit This the most knowing and as Religious as knowing Paracelsus whatever his ignorant Antagonists report of him branding him with the Name of Atheist from which also as their due reward themselves in the general Opinion scape not free doth most plainly tell us De fide Christus haud frustra tanta nobis inculcat viz. adeo efficacem esse ut nos vel sanos vel aegros facere possit imo quod majus est per eam vel salvi vel damnati fieri possumus prout ea utimur legimus ipsum sanatis omnibus dixisse crede sanus eris aut fiat tibi secundùm fidem c. Paracel lib. Principiorum Cap. 10. c. Thus this most Conscientious and Christian Physitian Yet some of his idle Enemies viz. such as from others reports and mouths only hear but falsly what he was have in my hearing affirmed that in his whole works from one end to the other He never so much as mentioned the name of God or Christ which how false a thing it is who ever shall please to peruse his works must of necessity conclude them either very Envious or very Ignorant of him and what he wrote for there is hardly a Page in some part of his Works in which he doth not and that more than once or twice with a true Christian regard and reverence name and mention both the Name of God and also of our Saviour himself But to return to this most excellent Physician 's delivery in the aforesaid words He tells us thus that Faith is most powerful and can both cause and cure Diseases nay more it will both Save and Damn it was not therefore saith he in vain that Christ spake so much of the power of Faith who when ever he cured any of Diseases said Believe and thou shalt be made whole or Be it unto thee according unto thy Faith c. Wonderful certainly is the secret power of the Spirit But of this enough I could even with the greatest of truth be here Voluminous as to the stupendious effects of Faith or strong persuasion and imagination and what power we have by it not only upon our own Bodies but also on the Bodies and not only the Bodies but also the Spirits of others for it is said of Christ himself that he did no great Miracles there because of their Unbelief at Cynthius aurem vellit neque omnia in vulgus ratio suadet And returning to the power of Nature and to confirm it by some familiar example consider as I said before the hot and cold Fit as we call them in Agues c. Nature finding her power begin to decay by some Obstructing matter or other in her passages of Circulation Perambulation or Progress calls in all her Forces to the Centre Her forces the Spirits being called and with-drawn from their several stations or parts of the Body of which they are the Life and only Preservers those Outward parts are oh a suddain over-taken with a Chilness or as we call it a cold Ague fit the true effect of Nature's calling in her Forces there to Concentrate and Muster them up together that by her suddain Sally or Return with those her united Forces and utmost Strength she may expel and drive out either in part or wholly her Incroaching and Death-threatning opposite the Body is now again by this means viz. Nature's Return with her united Strength to expel her Enemy by degrees overspread with a fiery and flushing heat viz. the hot Fit a most certain effect and sign of the Spirits again re-entring and assuming their former Stations and with all the power and force she is possibly able to make against her powerful Adversary This Contest or Duel lasts as long as Nature is able to maintain and bear it out and having
time perfectly Cures and radically takes away the Cause A most noble and effectual Antidote it is in keeping out all ill Airs and that most swift and poysonous Infection the Plague and if taken a most potent Medicine to expel and drive it out again provided it have not wholly seised and over-powred the Vitals To Women a more safe and powerful Medicine cannot be given it being almost an universal Remedy for those many Distempers that usually attend their weak unhealthy cold and moist Bodies all which I out of respect to their modesty do here purposely forbear and omit the reciting A most admirable virtue and faculty hath God given it to render and make fruitful even the most barren of Women provided the cause be in themselves and accidental as in most that is by some remediable indisposition of Body and not natural or by the will of Almighty God and being used after Conception but taken in the small or insensibly Operating proportion it wonderfully availeth in strengthning those that are apt to miscarry and makes them bring a most sound healthful and thriving Child into the World though the Parents be of an infirm and a most sickly constitution and disposition of Body c. And this I have often to my own and others great satisfaction and content Experienced by many of my Friends Acquaintance and Patients to whom I have in this point most successfully administred them In Virgins it speedily eradicates and takes away the cause and fountain of the Green-sickness ill habit and constitution of Body caused by Obstructions of the Bowels and Nature's due and wonted course and causeth in them a lively fresh and chearful countenance with a most sound and healthful condition c. To Children it is a most potent preservative against the Convulsion Falling-sickness Worms Measles Small-pox together with those other too numerous Distempers usually afflicting and snatching them suddenly from their sorrowful Parents This Medicine is so truly safe and excellent that without any the least danger it may be given to the most Aged most Weak and also to Infants though but new Born one half or the fourth part of one of the Pills for Children if weak in a little of the Mother's milk as most fit and proper for it which then taking it shall never after be troubled with Epileptical or Convulsion-fits if they are taken with those Fits it shall being rightly administred to them by degrees gently and safely mitigate and at last quite take them away most excellent things therefore for Women Mothers of Children to have still by them in their Houses And for my own part I seldom either for my Self or any other of my Family or Friends really depending upon my care upon any Distemper which by God's blessing upon a convenient use of this Pill or Medicine doth rarely happen though I have many other excellent ones still in readiness by me do use any other than this one as a true cleanser of the whole Body with two other pleasant refreshing Cordials hereafter mentioned which I once in a quarter of a year with much freedom do give unto the least Child I have and in the highest proportion but suitable to their Strength and Age besides an oftner taking of the Pills in the ordinary insensibly operating Dose and quantity according also to their Age and Disposition and truly I think there is not either in the City or within twenty Miles of it more healthy lusty and thriving Children than they are all which next to God Almighty's providence and blessing I cannot attribute to any thing more than to the Virtues of this Medicine and a due and moderate use of it It exceedingly cleanseth and consequently strengthneth all the principal Bowels and Members and by that means easeth and cureth all afflictions of the Head Stomach Ventricle Liver Spleen c. It extremely promoteth and pleasantly helpeth forward the Cure of all internal and external wounds in short time bringing them to perfect Cure and that by its Balsamic and cleansing Quality and to most outward wounds or hurts with the daily use of these Pills in the insensibly operating Dose you need only defend the hurt or wound from the Air and Dust with a plaister of pure Bees-wax fresh Butter Turpentine and some Mineral or Metallin flowers or calx and so you will see a very quick and sure Cure c. It miraculously accelerateth the Cure of all Ulcers Cancers Fistulaes Noli me tangere Wolf Scrophulous humors or Kings-evil and the like troublesome or filthy Maladies totally consuming and drying up as the Sun doth the Earth's superfluous moisture the very root cause and corrosive fountain from whence they spring In short this most noble Medicine is so potent a purifier of the whole Body of Man and that by its true cleansing and searching Quality that no Distemper God Almighty's determined and appointed time being not yet come is able long to withstand and resist the effect of its power and virtue but time to this as to all others though never so good must be given for the manifestation of its effects and a course and continuance answerable to the Distemper allowed and observed in the taking of it especially in Chronic Diseases or Distempers of deep radication and habit The simple rash and inconsiderate hearing the admirable Virtues of this Medicine will without doubt as much desire it as any but imagine that as soon as they have taken it into their Bodies or at farthest within three or four days that their Infirmity Distemper or Disease of what kind degree and nature soever and of what continuance soever must of necessity presently vanish and be gone without any the least sign symptom or relict of it remaining which no ingenious or discreet person must or will expect but according to the nature radication habit and continuance of the Malady or Distemper Age Strength and Constitution of their Bodies to bear its operation in a greater or smaller Dose expect the desired effects in the restauration of their health which by God's blessing and an orderly use of this Medicine a due time they will most assuredly find I have already exceeded my intentions in this discourse and should be too tedious indeed should I give a relation of the many notable Cures which by my self and others that have had it of me have been performed by it which truly have been such and so great that I though well acquainted with the strangeness of its effects have many times extremely wondred at them that it should in such small Doses as it usually was given in produce so great and extraordinary effects c. If perhaps the Pills do in the time of their Operation or Working cause any small Griping either in the Stomach or other Bowels as possibly in some they may sometimes do let them not therefore presently unadvisedly slight reject and dislike them as supposing them from thence an unsafe dangerous and ill-prepared Medicine and a too harsh
successfully be made use of and administred and this both to Old and Young in some appropriate Vehicle c. V. Balsamus Vitae THe Virtues of this pure Quintessential and Balsamick Liquor are also so numerous and large that enough cannot be said of it being such a one as would were it possible restore even the Dying to Life Of how great benefit therefore it may be to the Living languishing under painful tedious and lingering Infirmities which otherwise by the help of good Medicines might soon recover I leave to the Judicious to consider In short it exceedingly restoreth the Aged Ptisical Hectical Consumptive c. and beyond expression strengthneth comforteth and raiseth those that are spent and almost quite wasted by a tedious and long fit of Sickness In short time respect being had to their low condition reviving their low and decayed Spirits and restoring the Body to its former desired and healthful condition In brief it is so excellent a Balsamick and Cordial Liquor and of so pleasant and fragrant a Smell sweet and grateful a Taste that it far excelleth the most famous Syrian Aegyptian or Mechaan Balsam which is of so high worth that three or four pound of it is Yearly a Present for the great Turkish Emperour Yet as pretious as it is it is far exceeded by this most excellent Cordial and pleasant purified Quintessential Liquor c. VI. Specificum Anodynum Nobilissimum THis most noble specifick and benign Medicine is so truly friendly unto distressed Nature and her oppressed and debilitated Forces that even in the moment almost that it is taken unless Nature be irrecoverably spent and no way again to be re-inforced for a longer continuance in her clayie Mansion it doth not only afford a present succour and relief and that by a most Sympathetical and not cold Stupefactive means as some may happily imagine but proceeds and that by its most truly genuine Specifick quality to an utter Extirpation and Eradication of the Disease by its powerful opening unto Nature her Obstructed passages Royal walks and Circulations and this through all parts of the Body by which Nature 's frequent voluntary unusual and preternatural Passions are presently allayed and Nature most quietly again assumes her wonted course and undisturbed progress I can with much confidence give the same Character of it that Quercetan once did of another preparation of the same Subject Hoc praestantissimum medicamentum omnes ardores extinguit arcet omnes defluxiones sistit omnesque dolores mirum in modum sedat atque hoc totum ut calorem nativum non extinguat quin potius conservat tuetur imo multiplicat Spiritus innatos corroborando tantum abest quod ipsos stupefaciat vel quod dictu ridiculum est partibus adimat sed mira qua pollet facultate vires juvando c. Quercet in Respons ad Aubert c. This opportune and friendly Operation by some to render it more taking and facile to ordinary apprehensions hath been called a laying of the Disease to Sleep or a mitigation of the Disease which indeed it is but how Not by Stupefaction but only by its prevalent assistance and inabling Nature to do that which with her own feeble and over-powered Forces she was no way able to perform and so she ceaseth or leaveth off her further furious assaults and struglings called a Disease with her now vanquish'd and departing Antagonist hence it is most useful in all Diseases Distempers and Maladies attended with extremity of Pain and want of Rest as Fevers Agues Phrensie Deliriums c. where Nature by her continued Duel and Combat hath so infeebled both her Self and Residence that no other remedy almost will give her that present succour relief and assistance that her deplorable Condition of necessity calls for and requires I shall say no more of it than this that it is a truly noble Specifick Anodyne safely assistant and friendly unto spent Nature and her wearied and languishing Archeus being such a one as may without the least doubt or fear be made use of in any Condition whatever A word touching the State of Physick and Physicians HE was never yet Born that could please all it is therefore but Folly to expect it nor indeed ought a wise Physician so much to study ways for the satisfying every Nurse old Gossip and the indiscreet Patient as truly good Medicines together with his Care for the performance and discharge of the Duty that lies upon him and whereas the Antient Physicians were had in great esteem and respect for the worthiness of their Calling it is now altogether contrary and this through the great Folly of even Physicians themselves each one seeking to Ingratiate himself and this by Insinuation by mean and pleasing Concessions in plain English a servile Sycophancy though not at all profitable to their Patients rather than really to perform that Duty that a true Physician ought to discharge seeking more to please the Fancy than Cure the Diseases of their Patients thereby Curing in a short time instead of their Patients their own sickly and almost expiring Purses and he that doth otherways is not now esteemed such is the Folly and so much doth Custom prevail with the generality of people And if any Physician be so honest and careful as industriously to seek for and prepare good Medicines he is presently as it were excluded out of the number of the putatitious Doctors more honoured for their Name and some formal outward Accoutrements than any thing in them that may in the least render them worthy that Honourable Name they assume and usurp or is otherways without their Desert put upon them many other are the reasons of that great Dis-respect and Cloud that this most worthy Profession doth now lye under but doubtless there are many both industrious and ingenious Persons now of it which are and will as Pillars uphold and maintain the Life of it and the time I hope is now approaching wherein it will recover its due Esteem and Splendor for many of the most Learned Sober and Discreet Junior Doctors or Physicians of this Age well observing the great Dis-esteem it now suffers under and considering the Cause of it do find that it is partly from the small benefit their Patients receive from their chargeable Visits or more truly from their most ineffectual though most chargeable prescribed Medicines observing I say this Defect to arise and that most undoubtedly from the great inefficacy of their prescribed Medicines they do now begin though but privately as being partly ashamed to quit their former obstinacy refusal and contempt of the only pure Chymical and well prepared Medicines and partly for fear of being Esteemed by others Deserters of the Old and as they have strongly pretended the only safe though indeed most ineffectual and rotten foundation and method of Physick They begin I say though but secretly to consider open and ransack the Treasuries and rich Caskets and Cabinets of Nature thence