yet such as are past these Advantages are not to be so dealt withal An Aged person is scarcely to be let Blood upon any conditions if at all surely much rather at the coming on than the declination of a Distemper And therefore that Physitian who upon the Bleeding such an one shall perceive him to fall into an apparent sinking condition and yet persevere in the repetition of the self-same course again discovers himself to be a man of a most perverse and obstinate Spirit who so he can but satisfie his own ambitious humour of being willing to be thought never to be in the wrong cares not what Mischief he does to poor innocent Creatures who put their Lives into his hands and resign up themselves by an implicit Belief to the guidance of his Opinion Methinks it should be an Argument to ingenuous Natures to be the more trusty by how much the more they find themselves to be trusted and to be therefore the more scrupulous of doing an Injury by how much the more they perceive it left to the Liberty of their wills to do an Injury if they please But there are some in the world so highly conceited of their own dear selves they had rather die the Death than acknowledge a Fault and therefore no wonder they had rather others should do so than be reduced to the same Inconvenience And yet this being liable to Mistakes is a Matter so very common nay a property indeed so inseparable from humane Nature that he whose demeanor is such as if he believed himself exempted from that which is every ones lot deserves in my mind rather to be pitied for his real folly than envied at for that imaginary preheminence he is apt to fancy to himself above all other men And seeing the so much controverted Point of Phlebotomy lights so directly in our way it may not be amiss before we take leave of it to enquire into the Causes how it came to gain such footing in the world that was so rarely practised and with so great caution and wariness in former times Certain it is that mens Bodies are for substance now the very same they were heretofore And if we peruse ancient Authors we shall find the Definitions of Diseases to be likewise much the same As for the Climates we live in they are as unalterable as the Heavenly Bodies which make them and men were every whit as ingenious and learned and wise then as they are now and yet to one that was let Blood amongst the Ancients we may oppose Multitudes of our own experience there being scarce a Disease incident to mans Body for which Blood-letting is not prescribed by some or other as a principal Remedy And those whose Opinions scarcely agree in any one thing besides are observed however oft-times to concur in this the breathing of a Vein and taking away a little blood so that it may seem now to pass amongst us for a kind of a Catholicon the help at a dead Lift and being so oft made use of for contrary Ends Purposes to become the only Medium that was ever yet found out for the reconciling contradictions a thing hitherto believed impossible and beyond the power of Omnipotency and therefore what can in no wise be freed from the imputation of a contradiction in it self Surely there must be somewhat of Mystery in this Matter more than what is commonly discerned and therefore to be at a little pains about the searching into the Reasons thereof may perchance deserve to be accounted of as something more than barely lost Labour if it be but to give light into some mens Actions which might be apt to pass otherwise unobserved and to caution divers unwary people how to behave themselves when they come to be concerned in a like Case I have heard one Bird chirp a different Note from all the rest of the Wood besides and if we may believe him the Original of that pernicious Custom was first of all derived from the French Nation from which all the rest of our New Modes and Fashions do receive their Institution The Physitians amongst them had so long time intrusted the Apothecaries with the perusal of their Bills and the making up of their Medecines and they on the other hand by their obsequious demeanour and diligent attendances had so far forth gained upon the good Opinion of their Patients that at last they e'en made bold to take upon them the Profession of Doctors themselves and to administer Physick oâ— their own Heads without so much as staying for the others either Leave or good liking And when the Physicians objected their want of Skill and busying themselves about such Matters as they had never been bred up to and consequently had nothing to do to meddle withal they Nicked them again by shewing the People a way how to save Fees and few being such infidels as not to believe what seemingly made for their profit though otherwise attended possibly with many real and preponderating Disadvantages which they could not be wrought upon so throughly to apprehend A great number of wealthy persons who had Money good store in their Purses to have paid an able Physitian for his Advice had they so pleased but not Brains enough in their Heads to understand wherein the Fallacy lay that was put upon them instead of sending for a Doctor when they came to be sick would take a shorter Cut by half and only apply themselves to the Apothecaries How this was relished by all such whose Interest lay at stake and were made sufferers thereby is no whit hard to conjecture and yet it would have mended the Matter but little to have used many Words in disputing the Case with such as were bent upon their own ways and to less purpose would it have been openly to have fretted and fumed at it though there 's no doubt to be made but that in secret many did both especially seeing the minds of men are generally so perverse as to be but the more forward for the doing of a thing by how much they perceive others whom they delight to vex to be offended at their Actions Whereupon some of the Physitians who had more wit and less honesty then the rest bethought themselves of a timely Expedient to put an end to this so growing a mischief before it was too late to regain their reputation amongst the people they were now more then in danger of losing bring back their wandering Patients that had gone astray from them and all this without any noise or the least suspition of being detected in what they went about They agreed amongst themselves whenever they should be sent for to advise concerning a Patient to bleed him at all adventures by one joynt and common consent and if it so fell out that it had been done beforehand by any one singly and of himself then they which came afterwards were to justifie the Action by giving it an approbation 'T is
according to this Hypothesis she would be taken up about the Continuance of Matters purely contingent as depening upon the Will of a meer voluntary Agent and that ofttimes such a one as is determined in his Resolutions not by the Dictates of right Reason as he ought but it may be by chance or Fancy or something worse than either And can any be so vain as to think that so perfect an Agent should ever busy her self in doing things at all adventures as when She makes such solemn Preparations for humane Bodies in general in all Ages past that were to be made use of but in ours or in times not long preceeding them or but in some parts of the World only and those so very inconsiderable in Comparison of the whole for as for such wounds and effusion of Blood as are occasioned by popular Tumults and publick Calamities of War those though too too frequent are yet nothing at all if compared with those premeditated ones which happen in time of Peace and besides they likewise depend upon Principles altogether as uncertain Much less can she be supposed to act in a Contradiction to her own purposes at the same time as she must unavoidably do in case this Method were to be admitted her common intendment being believed and that with reason enough to be the Welfare and Preservation of humane Bodies in the gross and yet this would be the ready way to ruin and destroy them for nothing else can be the true meaning of this hoarding up of such Superfluities of Blood as the Abetters of this Opinion must necessarily suppose which let be in what Quantity it will if more than is at present sufficient cannot well be imagined but by its rankness and turgescenty to breed something of anoyance to those Bodies it shall be bestowed upon there being commonly as many Mischiefs fall out arising from the Excesses as the Deficiencies of things in almost all Cases that can be instanced in but however most undoubtedly in this as might be made appear evidently enough by multitudes of Examples that might be collected to that purpose and which every ones Capacity though never so mean may be able sufficiently to furnish him withal Noâ— the direct Course Nature Steers in the Provisions she is wont to make about Matters of this kind is such as may comport with her Designations as she is a universal Agent and whatever reaches not up to that one Standard of being universal falls as much Short of being Natural and that may serve as a Direction to Judge by what ought to be accounted of as Natural and what not The whole World as considered in its universal Extent is the adequate Object of Natures Care and the Preservation and Ornament thereof is chiefly and in the first place intended by her as is attested among other Experiments more especially by that common one so much taken notice of by Philosophers to wit her great Solicitousness about the recording a Vanity which rather than it shall be permitted what ever particular beings happen to be near hand where such outrage is attempted they are all to be summon'd in to give their attendance upon that one common Cause and if need require put upon it to suffer in its Rescue But the World as taken in that Sense is too complicated a thing not to call for a more particular Regard made up of the several sorts of Creatures contained in it as they again of Individuals comprehended under them and 't is the good of those divers Species Nature in the Second place is wont to be concerned for and below that Degree of Universality never vouchsafes to Condiscend 't is true indeed Universals are all founded in Particulars and can have no Subsistance not so much as that which is imaginary but by their means and that common Influence bestowed upon the World in general could never reach the affect it was designed for did it not first light in a very particular manner upon them but that being not intended at all for their Sakes under the Strict Formality of their being Singular but upon the Account of that one common Agreement in which they all meet and concenter what is one way applied ought alwayes to be looked upon as otherwise intended to wit for the Benefit and Advantage of the whole Community without any respect at all had to this or that individual Person or thing and that it is to which way soever we cast our Eyes upon the works of the whole Creation there may be and are from each Degree amongst them Pregnant Instances afforded us let us take a view of inanimate Bodies Vegetables and bruit Creatures as they stand divided into their several Ranks and Orders and they will be found to have one common Nature in which they all concur and upon the account of which the Individuals belonging to each of them are at an exact Harmony and Agreement one with another From thence it is that they all of them partake of the same outward Form and Portraicture so that it is an easy matter at the very first appearance to distinguish one kind from another and to refer each of them in particular to their own proper Class from thence it is that their whole Structure Make and Composition when ever searched into admitts of so true a Proportion and that the Actions and Operations proceeding from their Inward Principles come so Universally to agree how else could it ever be possible for the Trees of the same kind to bud blossome and bring forth their Fruits together and all after the same likeness and similitude were it not for this universal Concourse of Nature and how else could they be Imagined to keep Time and Pace and Proportion so exactly in every thing they do but that there is a secret and common Influence imparted unto each of them and the like may be said of each and every particular thing that can be pitched upon in the whole Creation 't is but reducing it to its own Species and then it will be found to agree with all other particulars of that kind besides it self in its Shape Tendency and Operations And 't is the Preservation of that Consent and the maintainance of that common Agreement that Nature alwayes aimes at in what she propounds to her self and so that may but be kept up no matter what becomes of the several Individuals contributing thereunto they may all perish and moulder away successively as we see they do and yet the other for all that be upheld to perpetuity And look what may be affirmed of other sorts of Creatures up and down in the World the same doubtless holds proportionably true in Mankind as well as the rest And so all Persons that partake of the same common Principles will not fail to share in the production of the same common Effects the Faculties of their Souls and the Affections of their Bodies will be universally the same and the several Parts and Members
A-la-mode PHLEBOTOMY NO GOOD FASHION OR THE COPY OF A LETTER TO Dr. HVNGERFORD Complaining of and Instancing in the Phantastick Behaviour and Unfair Dealing of some London Physitians when they come to be Consulted withal about Sick Persons living at a Distance from them in the Country Whereupon a Fit Occasion is taken to Discourse of the Profuse Way of Blood Letting formerly unheard of though now adays so mightily in Request amongst vs here in England By RICHARD GRIFFITH of Richmond in Surrey M. D. Formerly Fellow of University Coll. in Oxon and now Fellow of the Coll. of Physitians of LONDON 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Phocylid LONDON Printed by T. B. for Joseph Hindmash at the Black Bull in Cornhill 1681. TO THE READER READER I Know 't will be expected and 't is I confess no more than what is Reasonable that I should here give thee some Brief Account of the Causes inducing me to make these ensuing Lines Publick If either I or another man have received any Personal Injuries in Relation to our selves or our Professions what has the World to do with that Those and those only are to be made Acquainted therewith whose Particular Concernment it is to Arbitrate and do Acts of Justice between Man and Man To raise a Hue and Cry for the Loss of every Triffle and set the Beacons a burning upon the Approach of every Petty and Inconsiderable Vessel would make but a strange kind of Disturbance in a Kingdom or Commonwealth And no less degree of Madness may it appear to be for Men of Private Condition to write Letters of Sad Complaints to one another about the Matters appertaining to their own Particular Affairs and then to put them in Print when they have done with an Epistle before an Epistle and Solemn Appeals to the whole Body of the People to pass their Verdict upon the Case who are most like to be in the Right and who in the Wrong And then to make a Description at large how such an one was taken Ill and what several Sorts of Medicaments were thought upon by one Physitian which were all again disallowed of by another and so by that means to swell up a Publick Narrative with little else beside an Account of their own Fewds and Janglings and Paltry Discontents may seem to be an Enterprize of just as weighty a Concernment as the other was before and undertaken to every whit as Wise and Useful a Purpose Because if they do fall out or fall in as the People are wholly uninteressed in the Quarrel so are they likely to be neither much the better nor the worse which Party soever gets the Victory Is it not usual for most men whose Livelyhood comes in after the same Manner to Wrangle and Squabble and render one another as Despicable as they can to the end that those who appear to be the Bravest Champions in the Encounter may be able to bear away the Greatest Share of the Employment to their own Side And is it not enough for the Spectators to be set a Laughing at them for their Foolery when they do so But that Proclamation must be made for all others that would be apt to pass by without taking the least Notice of what had happened to be invited to come in and deride them likewise These two as they lie the fairest in the Way so are they the most Material of all other Objections beside that I can think of and could we but get clear of them I see no great Reason to the contrary but that the whole of what has been Propounded did it not fail in some Points relating to the Manner of its Performance might be looked upon as Passable enough but that is a Thing not at all to be either Disputed or Justified by us here in this Place but rather to be left to the more impartial Determination of such as shall be willing to be at the Trouble throughly to examine it As for what concerns the former of these I have only this to plead on my own behalf That notwithstanding the Instances put may indeed seem to have a Respect but to one or two particular Persons at the most Yet the Reason of the thing is of a much larger Extent as comprehending under it no less than a whole Community of Men there being scarce a Countrey Physitian now living in England but who either has been already or else at some time or other in probability may come to be involved therein and therefore what has been affirmed of one or two may in a Sense proper enough be applied to them all in General And then the Benefit arising from the Memorandum's given can never be excepted against as restrained unto a few And albeit it be scarcely to be imagined for any actually Resident in the Country to be so invincibly Stupid as not to be convinced before-hand of the Truth of what they shall find asserted either through their own Experience or the Complaints of those they at some times or other may happen to have had Communication withal Yet ought it not however to be esteemed of as lost Labour to be confirmed in the Belief of what they knew to be so by the concurrent Testimony of others besides themselves The doing so friendly an Office may serve as an Additional Corollary to their Heap and be useful to them if for no other purpose yet at leastwise to excite their Care and awaken their Diligence for the preventing such Inconveniencies for time to come as without it might possibly have been so much the more apt to have befallen them But as for such young Gentlemen who are in a manner unacquainted with the World and who living still in the Universities have both their way of Employment and Place of Residency as yet wholly to choose Such an Allarmâ—s this may prove to be of much greater Consequence to them for they by making a due Improvement of so Seasonable an Advertisement may consider the better how to dispose of their own Affairs and not be ensnared in a Noose all on the sudden they never so much as dreamt of as thousands others have been before them to the utter undoing both of themselves and Families as might be easie to shew how and which way but that all is so manifestly discovered in the Sequel of this Tract I shall therefore make the more haste to the other Objection as yet behind And here again though the Examples produced may be but one or two for Number yet are they virtually as many as the Inhabitants dispersed up down the whole Nation who might all of them have been served with the very same Sauce had they but fallen under the same circumstances the others did and but sent for the same or such-like Wise and Faithful Counsellors to have afforded them their Assistance or may yet in good time when ever the like Difficult Occasion happens to present it self And then neither can the Usefulness of what has been Observed
be manely a â—le to Exception upon the latter Score Because all such as in succeeding Times shall chance to fall ill of any Dangerous Distempers have an Item given them if they please to take â—t of divers Material Points which oâ—herwise perchance they would not have been altogether so well aware of As first of all to take it into their Serious Consideration Whether or no it may not be much better to make a Beginning with a London Physitian if it must â—ome to that at last as a surer means â—o engage him to the greater Faithfulness and Circumspection in what he Undertakes Secondly Whether having consultâ—d with a Neighbour at the First it may â—ot be adjudged convenient to Adhere â—o much the closer to his Directions Thirdly Or if it shall be held meet â—o seek out for an Assistant that may be Partaker of the same Cares It may â—ot be good Advice to make choice of â— Person as well remarkable for Honesty as Learning it being the most likely for such an one to be Contriver of the least Mischief as well as to be in a Capacity of doing the greatest Good My Meaning is to have it well weighed whether such men as cannot be denied to have a Competent Stock of Learning in their Heads but withal are known to have a great deal more of Pride and Malice and other such-like Naughty Principles in their Hearts may not be apt to pull down more with one Hand than they are able to set up again with both and so prove in the Issue instead of Helpers to be the greatest Hinderers of all Or Lastly to have it debated Whether or no some earnest Injunction tâ— deal clearly and uprightly in the Matters they are intrusted withal withouâ— either Prejudice or Humour or Affectation of Vain Glory or out of any other By-respect whatever besides purely the good and wellfare of the Patient they are sent for to Consult about may be e're a whit unseasonable I know some will be apt to smile at this last as supposing it to be a meer Folly to go about to oblige those by Obsecrations and Intreaties that could never be prevailed upon by any Sense of Honour and Conscience and the Engagements they have sometimes taken But then they are such as have neither Conscience nor Honesty to which an Obligation if to any thing ought to be fastned that we have been all this while speaking about and so they are soon answered Besides 'T is none of the smallest Obligations they lye under to treat one another civilly as oft as they meet together in Consultation which Rule how well 't is observed the many Slanders Backbitings and sometimes open Reproaches which are wont to fall out upon that Occasion do more than sufficiently witness And then let any one shew me a Reason why those that are false to their Engagements in one Respect should not as well be the same to them in another whenever it suits with their Interest to be so And though 't is true a good Man may do well for the Sake of Virtue alone and though he should have no Supervisor at all to oversee him in his Actions 'T is neither impossible nor unlikely but that the Bad may receive the Surest Check of all to put a stop to the fullest Career of their evil Practices from some Accidental Considerations such as is the Fear of Shame and Censure and Publick Report And if they have any feeling left them what the meaning of these things is 't is scarcely imaginable but that they should have the Faculty â—omething the more quickened and rubbed up when they perceive their Doâ—ngs pryed into and had in Suspition by other men Some other things there are which were all people but so Charitable or â—ngenuous as to take in the sence they were either intended or did naturally â—mport would stand in little need of â—n Apology they are so Innocent and Harmless as namely the Insisting for â—o long a time together upon the Sickness of a single Person the seeming Reflections that are made in some Passages upon the Female Sex and the cause of Scandal offered to all Physitians â—n general by laying so foul Aspersiâ—ns to the Charge of some of their Particular Members But in regard there are so many turbulent Spirits in the World apt to cavil at and pervert the Meaning of almost every thing they meet withal that is but capable of a wrong Interpretation as well as a right I shall for their Sakes and for the preventing any ill Consequences that might be apt to ensue upon their distorted Commentaries crave leave to add a few words for the Vindication oâ— them also In answer to the First of which iâ— may not be altogether unworthy the Noting that the Composing huge large Volumns filled with nothing else but the Observations that have been made by Physitians upon the variouâ— Estates of several Diseased People and the Remedies applyed to each of them together with the different Successes and Events that have followed thereupon was never that I could yet hear of looked upon by any though the mosâ— Critical in their Judgments as any matter of Absurdity at all And then whaâ— just Reason can there be assignable whâ— the same Favour should not be alloweâ— of when an Example comes forth unaccompanied and single by it Self especially seeing such a Case is like to be so much the more narrowly sifted into and set forth with all its Circumstances whereas many things of a like Nature thronging in a Croud together cannot be attended to with an equal Regard but must and will of necessity prove an hinderance to one another Whence it often happens that what might very well have deserved a more serious and thorough Disquisition comes to be huddled over with too much Brevity which in all Cases is no other than the immediate Parent of Obscurity and the Grandmother of Confusion and Mistakes and by that means a Necessity is occasioned of making Repetition of the same things several times over as we find it in divers Authors which had they been handled more copiously at the first and debated upon with that deliberation which the matter might have required might have served but once for all and those other Tautologies which we meet withal so often afterwards have very well been spared And then in the Second and Third Places for the Reason is one and the same to both because some few of a Kind or Profession have been represented as Blameworthy therefore to imagin that either any others or all the rest of those Orders who neither are nor ever were intended to be such should find themselvs agrieved thereat is just such another wild and fantastical Surmise As to suppose that all the Individual Persons belonging to any Community whatever should be either Wise or Learned or Good if that could but be made out for an Hypothesis to build upon then indeed the taxing of any one of the whole Rank might well be
it and over and above the Medicament beforre cited against the oppression at her Chest there was Syrup de Marrubio appointed for her to be licking of at pleasure On the Monday I found her Estate to be but low and considering that many things had been refused at the first of her illness which were not at all fitting to be directed now nor she in a condition fit to receive them if they should I began to cast about with my self to conclude on something that might be answerable to several indications at once and that without too much disturbance to an enfeebled Body in the applying of it That which occurred to my thoughts upon that occasion was a Plaister to be laid to the Region of her Stomach and Chest yet so as to take in all those other parts adjoyning by the accession of whose heat the Stomach it self is supposed to be comforted and digestion promoted recip Rad. Aristoloch Rotund Gentian Bacc. lauri an cum proportione duplice Myrrhae cum Mellis q s reducantur in formam Emplastri Upon the Tryal of which Remedy I laid no little stress could it but have been permitted to have continued on First of all because the Application being outward and nature but weak I apprehended it the more fitting because it might be made use of with little or no trouble Secondly I perceived her Stomach and Chest to be much oppressed with Wind and this I looked upon to be a proper means both to dissipate and expel it I have somewhere met with an Author who in the Discription he gives of the Region of the lower Belly and the parts contained within it makes mention of a person who by accident had hapned to be deprived of his Cawl that common Apron as it were of the Bowels and that he was from that time forward so seized on with a perpetual chilliness in those parts that were wont to lye over against it that he was forced to wear a Cloth bound round about him on the one side of his Belly in lieu of what should have been placed innermost for the space of his whole Life time afterwards Whether this be so or not I have only my Authors words to bare me out But as for the Plaister before described which in maâ—y respects may seem to hold a proportion with it I have had frequent experience of that and whereever reason experience concenter in one I love to make my self a party and strike in with them if I can and when I have so done 'T is not every budg conceited mans opinion that shall make me quit my hold again There is nothing but reason or at least some shew and appearance of it that can ever seem to be a fit match to encounter reason and he who has reason on his side in matters of this nature and can yet sit down well satisfied and suffer himself to be overborn by meer pertness and confidence and a Set of idle pretensions which when they come to be enquired into vanish into emptiness and nothing deserves in my opinion no other Encomium for this his so high an instance of patience than that of a contented Coward As for uny own experience that I confess is a matter carrying but little of conviction along with it in reference to another man But Truth is Truth by whomsoever spoken and he who is able either by the self-evidence of the thing or any good close way of arguing to make out what he has to say to be but consonant thereunto has little cause to trouble himself a-about the censures of the world but may deliver his mind freely without either Apologie or Preface But now these Ingredients above-mentioned being in severalty such as included a potential warmth in each of them What could be more consentaneous then to expect that when their Forces come to be united as it were and congregated into one they should be apt to impart something thereof unto those parts over against which they had been so directly placed and were so very nearly in conjunction withall The Stomach though it be both the place and principle Instrument of Concoction is not however supposed to disdain the Concurrent Aids of other Assistants in the performance of that work But the Livâ—r Spleen and Pancreas together with all the other Neighbouring Parts ought to be looked upon as so many Fellow-helpers together with it if for no other reason than as adding barely heat to heat and so contributing something of an Auxiliary Force so oft as there should be occasion upon which Score some have not unfitly resembled them to use but a homely comparison to the Fuel disposed of about the sides and underneath the Cauldron which being once enkindled it self is an apt means to set the other a boiling and then maintain it so when it has done and therefore I was in hopes whether groundlesly or no let others judg that what was of so enlivening and comforting a Nature and withal could be so contrived as to involve them all and communicate liberally of its virtue to each of them might prove the most effectual Expedient above all others for the answering such an Intention that is to say the subduing that excess of windiness that had been both generated and sheltered in those overchilled and empty Passages which I apprehended as well I might to have been one main occasion of her so frequent Vomiting For though I deny not but that many other Causes may and do often concur in the producing the same Effect Yet is it Wind especially that gives a disturbance to the Stomacks of such as have lost their Appetite beyond any of the rest and therefore ought in reason to be principally regarded Nature we all know to abominate a Vacuum and whatever space is not replenished with something else will and must unavoidably be filled up with Wind. But after a Fit of Vomiting the Stomack is become emptied of that Sustenance which of right ought to be contained there And if it be at a time when it is weakned with much Sickness is unable to take more into the room of it Whence wind succeeds of course according to the supposition but now laid down and from thence is conveyed by an easie passage into the Bowels cavities of the Spleen Liver and Sweetbread and divers other hollow Parts and Passages whâ—ch for the performance of several good Offices are disposed of thereabouts and from thence is returned back again frequently to annoy the Stomack especially that which is pent up in the Colon is by constant experience found troublesome in this respect for that being for Scituation higher most of all the other Intestines besides and immediately placed under the lower Region of the Stomack by its perpetual heaving and raising up that part scarce ever suffers it to rest in quiet but having given it a disturbance once is as ready as before to hasten on another Fit and so on for a continuance till either Nature