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Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
cause_n	woman_n	worm_n	wound_n	14	3	7.1577	4	false

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ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A63873	Apologia chyrurgica A vindication of the noble art of chyrurgery, from the gross abuses offer'd thereunto by mountebanks, quacks, barbers, pretending bone-setters, with other ignorant undertakers. Wherein their fraudulent practices are plainly detected by several remarkable observations, their fair promises prov'd fictions, their administrations pernicious, their confident pretences injurious and destructive to the welfare of the people. By Daniel Turner, practitioner in chyrurgery. Imprimatur. Datum in comitiis censoriis ex ædibus collegii nostri, Jan. 11. 1694. John Lawson, president. Samuel Collins, Richard Torless, Edward Tyson, Martin Lister, censores.	Turner, Daniel, 1667-1741.	1695 (1695)	Wing T3272; ESTC R219447	69,694	162

a Chyrurgeon requires for a small and inconsiderable Cure Having made this learned Harangue to the People and rehears'd the same two or three times over he leaves them to pause a while and then diverts them with an Interlude of his fantastick Drollery which being over and Monsieur the Doctor majestically withdrawn his Confederate Juggler almost as good an Oratour as himself begins to this effect Gentlemen I would earnestly entreat you for your own safety to embrace this fit Opportunity of purchasing these most infallible Medicines whilst you may have the great benefit to find the Doctor in Town which will be but a week at farthest At the same time he designs to stay till he is forc'd to fly the Town But continues he I 'll assure you Gentlemen you will never meet with the like Opportunity as long as you live The Doctor First of all presents you Gentlemen with his most famous Orvietan which is the greatest Wonder in Nature to procrastinate your Health and Lives Secondly He almost gives you his Pilulae Excellentissimus in English The most excellent of Pills Thirdly Here is the Dr's Pulve●e Vermibus or his Pouder to kill all manner of Worms in Men Women and Children Fourthly You may have his Emplastrum divinum or a Plaister to cure all manner of Aches Pains Swellings or Tumors whatsoever Fifthly and lastly Gentlemen here is the Dr's Balsamum multutum vertarum which heals all Wounds Ulcers and other Accidents proceeding from what Cause soever You have all the whole Pacquet Gentlemen for the inconsiderable price of one Shilling Gentlemen 't is not the small Gain which is gotten hereby that maintains the Doctor 's charge of his Coach and Horses no Gentlemen he does it purely for the benefit of poor People as well as others who are willing to be rul'd by his Directions Now Gentlemen those that are willing to be Masters of these serviceable Remedies let them throw up their Mony in Glove or Handkerchief and the whole Pacquet shall be return'd them therein If you make not use of the present time you must not blame the Doctor when it shall please him deservedly to debar you of this great privilege by his speedy absence I have been the rather willing to impose the trouble of perusing these great Impertinencies in regard that from this exact Copy of the Original the whole Design may be more commodiously guess'd at for first of all his elevating the Minds of the conceited Vulgar with the title of Gentlemen without which he scarce repeats a sentence argues his Endeavour from bringing them into a high opinion of themselves that they may harbour the same of him and that he the more unsuspectedly may carry on his Cheats Secondly His frivolous Circumlocution and repetition of the same Discourse implies as well his Ignorance as his incessant appetite of Lucre. Thirdly His thus openly publishing himself to the World doth clearly indicate his want of Merit to be sought after and the shift he is put to for to purchase a Living by making this abominable fabulous proclamation Fourthly His vain Ostentation by the antick Fooleries of his Tumblers and Ropedancers bespeaks him to be the greatest Spend-time of the People who are the rather willing to tarry when the thought of their Business is diverted by the Conceits of Merry Andrew and the Mountebank in the Interval finds the Sweets of an opportunity to put off and vend his Empirical Compositions Truly this Fellow may most justly be accounted the Common Enemy of the People not only for the Time he cheats them of which should be otherwise employ'd but also for their Money which if they want not for their own or their Family's subsistence and know not to employ it more advantagiously is better thrown to Swine who will not evilly reward them than given to these deceitful Quack-pretenders who prey both on their Purse and Persons Fifthly and lastly which is the number of his Medicines His inconsiderately ascribing so many and different Vertues to each single and improper Remedy without reflecting on the various Intentions and Alterations that are especially made in Surgery before we can accomplish the cure of any compound Indisposition doth absolutely demonstrate him to be ignorant and knavish and as great a Novice in Surgery as his Hireling Jack-pudding Having given you this cursory view of the Mountebank upon his Stage we will now conduct you to his Lodging which is commonly near thereto in some publick Victualling-house or Inn where his Host perhaps for botching up some former Clap or out of an expectation of Custom to his House suffers him to live Rent-free His Chamber is commonly set off with Skeletons of Puggs Doggs Rabbits and other Animals which he has got some Butcher's Boy to anatomize and set together for him There are likewise the stuff'd Skins of Crocodiles Panthers and Sea-Lyons and these he tells the People are such as have been presented him for some remarkable Cures in his dangerous Travels thro' the remotest parts of the World In his Window it 's possible you may find half a peck of Teeth some of which as he tells you he threw out on the Stage with the Point of his Sword others with an imperceptible touch of the fore-finger of his right hand In other parts of his Chamber you may see Humane Bones being such he would insinuate as he hath amputated or dismember'd on necessitous occasions yet by a more particular Enquiry we shall find he procur'd them after the same manner as his Caemiterean Teeth or those from the Church-yard I shall conclude these Remarks with the recital of an Account I had given me some time since of a certain famous Empirick who upon a Visit made him by a Gentlewoman for his Advice about a Pain in her Breast she chanc'd to espy under a Glass in his Closet a very black and deform'd piece of Flesh which out of curiosity enqui●ing af●er the Mountebank very impudently told her that it was a Cancer'd Breast which he had taken from the Body of a certain Indian Queen whom he had recover'd in three weeks afterwards The Gentlewoman surpriz'd at the Skill of this famous Operator when she came home imparted it to some of her Neighbours upon which the whole Imposture was detected and the Breast prov'd no other than that of a poor Womans by which Excision he had sent her into the other World and kept her Breast as a Pledge for payment of the Mony till she should come back again to redeem it which when he had boyl'd as Ketch does his quarter'd Members to preserve them from being tainted by the Air he kept as a Monument of his admirable Dexterity It would be too tedious to enumerate all the Cheats such Persons practise to render themselves famous and therefore waving their particular Enarration I shall give you as short an account of his Education or Initiation in the Practise of Physick by which you may perceive the utmost of his

still the Patient is left in a condition much worse than before is it not unjust that the Chyrurgeon who is last consulted when he hath diligently recover'd and restor'd them to their Health should be so meanly look'd on or so evilly rewarded I remember where a late Upstart Pretender was entertain'd by a Gentlewoman in order to treat a Scrophulous Tumor on her Son's Knee when for Two Years attendance he demanded but Forty shillings he was thereupon thought a very honest and able Artist till it was made apparent to the Patient's Friends that they had better have given him as many Pounds never to have undertaken it When the good Gentlewoman perceiv'd no likelihood of her Son's recovery she thought fit to dismiss the Undertaker who as a Mark of his Judgment left behind him this Prognostick That if they waited till Time or some casual application should put the Swelling on Apostemating there would then be no question of a probability for cure In some months afterwards the Wish of their presaging Chyrurgeon was accomplish'd but so fatally to the Patient that soon after the discharge of an indigested wheyish matter and sometimes a slimy viscous Pus there ensued an inveterate Synovia accompanied with a most foetid Stench proceeding from the parts affected and undoubtedly arguing a Cariosity the Ligaments were corrupt and the Joynt so loose that the Apophyses or Extremities of the Bones at length shew'd themselves in the Absces as perfectly separated as in a dislocation This Gentleman was truly the most miserable Spectacle under such-like Circumstances that I have seen and so far from hopes or a possibility of cure without Amputation which he would not admit that when he had languish'd many months he painfully resign'd his Breath I was the rather guilty of this prolixity since the Example seems to afford us as pregnant a demonstration as we need desire of the Abuses committed by unskilful People in their Chyrurgick Administrations for first of all when the Patient had got an Accident of a contus'd Wound he was committed to the care of one who went by the name of a Barber-Surgeon where when he had suffer'd considerably through Ignorance to rectifie the Mistake he referr'd himself to a most incomparable Doctress who was Mistress of a famous Pultiss to work Miracles Under her hands the Tumor was render'd schirrous and the Joynt immovable When there was an unlikelihood of recovery perceiv'd here being still misguided and flatter'd by fair Promises he unhappily submitted himself to the management of another Pretender and finally dy'd under the too late care of an eminent and approv'd Chyrurgeon whose Advice or that of any judicious Practitioner if he had first been govern'd by I think it is not to be imagin'd that so slight a Contusion in the worst habit of Body should ever have arriv'd to so incurable a Malady Whilst I was writing these Observations I was diverted for some little time being call'd upon to let one Blood who took occasion in Discourse to tell me That he had never been blooded more than once before and that was by reason of a Wound he had receiv'd into his Body which he said had like to have cost him his Life hereupon his Mother being by immediately slip'd back his Shirt and shew'd it me I ask'd him who had been his Surgeon he reply'd One Mr. a very able man in C street I told him 't was like the Workmanship of such an Intruder on our Art Truly answer'd the good Woman we have great cause to respect him since he sav'd my Son's Life for he told us when we came to him first that the Wound was but an Hairs breadth from his Heart and that had it been a little larger his Bowels would have fallen out yet notwithstanding this imminent danger her Son had been recover'd in about three weeks time Thus the Case had been represented the most notoriously false that could be and therefore to solve the Doubts of the surmising Reader I shall impart the Truth in all its Circumstances that we may see how easily the People are impos'd on and take all for granted that is put upon them by deceitful Men. The Wound was a Puncture occasion'd by a Fall against an Iron Spike superficially entring the Cutis and Carnous Membrane and stopping without hurt to the Sternon a hand 's breadth or more above the Ensiform Cartilage This insignificant business which would not unlikely have admitted of a Cure by the first intention and perfectly healed in two or three days time by the application of Agglutinatives was tented so long and afterwards ignorantly dressed up with some slabby Sarcotick Unguent till an Hypersarcosis thrust forth as large as a Small Nut which the Operator not knowing what to do with or what it was however thought it necessary to alter his Medicine and by chance most probably dressing it with some powerful Epulotick at length produc'd a Cicatrix thereon leaving the same deform'd as if there had been a Ganglion or Wenny Substance Could any man have plaid the Knave and Ignorant in a greater measure than this Pseudo-Chyrurgus First his keeping open a not penetrating Puncture secondly his suffering a Fungus to thrust forth and thirdly his not correcting the same but cicatrising on the Excrescence doth as evidently declare the weakness of his Judgment as his unbecoming Arrogance the former in so irrationally treating an inconsiderable Puncture and the latter for his ascribing so much of Art and Industry where there was nothing more visible than the greatest want of Honesty and Discretion I cannot chuse but reflect moreover on the Patient's Weakness who could so easily believe that a Protuberance on the Breast-bone was occasion'd from some of his Bowels pressing forwards to get out We have really considering the over-credulity of the People in Chyrurgick matters great cause to bewail the neglect of the Civil Magistrate and all other Powers therein concern'd who are so little careful to suppress Pretenders and to take notice after what manner Men are qualified for the publick profession of the Art of Surgery I am satisfied that the enterprizing such a Task as this would be extreamly commodious and the Reasons for such an Undertaking are I think as extraordinary weighty if it were but on consideration of those evil and dangerous consequences continually resulting from the toleration of illegal Practitioners a fatal Instance whereof you may find from the subsequent account A Youth aged about Fifteen years labouring of a malignant Feaver when by a Metastasis or critical translation the peccant matter was thrown forth of the bloody mass it produc'd an Erysipelas spreading it self on the right Arm from the Cubitus or Elbow to the top of the Os Humeri upon which the Patient began his complaint of a violent and intense heat affecting his whole Arm in order to the removal whereof it was thought necessary by his Friends to send for a Barber-Surgeon of their acquaintance who coming to take a

speaking thereto I might seem to impose on the Duty of a Physician but I am well satisfied that should we go about to debar our Female Practiser of this her most admirable Salve she must wholly desist from farther intermeddling in Chyrurgick Practice there being a great number of them who have nothing more to support their ridiculous Pretences than a Gallypot or Box of Lucatellus's Balsam and a Roll or two of Paracelsus Plaister It should seem reasonable that I beg excuse if in the present Section I lay too great an imposition on the Patience of any judicious Person more particularly on that of my Brother the Chyrurgick Reader Although it be altogether unlikely to advantage him who already knows the truth of what I shall deliver yet it seem'd highly convenient for the benefit of many in this incredulous Age we live for illuminating their Understandings and removing of that Veil of Ignorance which hath beguil'd them with a false prospect of our just and honest Intentions I should have had the less concern upon me had I perceiv'd their Frauds to have taken place and pass'd undiscover'd by no other than the inferiour Rabble-Proselites like themselves but when I found that the Minds of a more understanding People such of far greater Worth Reputation Credit and sometimes Quality were not exempt or freed from the same Mist of Ignorance this Consideration gave me Grounds for the most profound amazement as well as pity and was indeed a great incitement to induce me to lay this Injunction not yet that I know of so fully perform'd by others upon my self I shall not trouble the Reader with a rehearsal of many particulars nor do I see occasion where the general Rule of Practice is altogether preposterous Thus against that Maxim of Contraria contrariis in a recent Contusion where a repellent Topick as a Defensative should take place we find her tampering with hot Cerecloths or Pultisses whereby a ready way is made for the Influx and when the Tumor happens to be considerable or the Extravasation large there often succeeds an incommodious Suppuration or Inflammation at best a vexatious itching the old Gentlewoman's sign of healing heat and excoriation accompanied with a very troublesome sence on the part so grieved It is not without cause that I am ready to think this to be a great occasion of our meeting with so many obstinate and perverse Humours attending an inconsiderable Wound Ulcer or Contusion whose Descent hath been first invited by the improper application of hot Pultisses Unguents or Emplasters so that we find that which if then rationaly treated would have been little troublesome now impossible to admit of healing till the intemperies brought upon the part be carefully removed You will scarcely believe that a simple Herpes exasperated by a Woman 's improper application should make such an inveterate improvement in its erosion as not to admit a check under a fortnight's time and it may seem as strange to you that a bare solution of continuity on the superficial parts of the Body where 't is probable there hath been nothing more than the Cuticle and Cutis divided by the efficient cause or that a meer Excoriation by the scratch of a Pin or Nail should by improper Medicines especially where there is a salino-sulphureous Dyscrasy of the Blood predominant occasion three or four months trouble to overcome I was some years since desir'd to look upon a Woman who from a trivial Accident suffer'd at that time under the formidable Symptoms of a putrid phagedenick Ulcer upon her Leg so extreamly corrosive that in a little time it had spread it self to the compass of a hands breadth and when the Sordes or Slough was thrown off it expos'd the fore part of the Tibia denudated and carious I will not affirm this arriv'd at first from a famous Doctress her dressing the said Leg with an Ointment of Tobacco and Marshmallows enwrapping the same about with a stiptick Plaister of Paracelsus but I dare appeal to any discriminating Artist whether any thing much better could be expected from such a treatment As I shall by no means seek to ingratiate my self into the favour of any anti prejudic'd Person or such an one as may unreasonably bear an aversion to the honourable Professors of our Art so neither shall I require the admission of his Faith to any thing I have said farther than the prevalency of right Reason will constrain or beyond a confirmation of the Truth he may receive from those remarkable Instances which continually emerge Let him take but a serious view of the weekly Presentations made to those two sacred Sanctuaries for the Sick I mean the Hospitals of St. Thomas and St. Bartholomew or supervise those great numbers which are daily offer'd to the Undertakings of the more private Practitioners in our Art and after a free enquiry into their Distempers with the former management thereof he will I doubt not receive information that the greater number of their Maladies some of them by delay now grown incurable had their foundation laid in or took their original from the hands of some confidently-pretending Baggage or other fair promising Female Undertaker Is it not a very usual thing for People to consult us about any troublesome Accident being dissatisfied in their Doctress and we oftentimes find where they have been deluded under the notion of a Sprain that their Limbs have been obscurely broken and a Callus although deform'd for want of Art thrust forth attended with the disadvantage of an ill-shap'd crooked and sometimes almost useless Member The like may be said of Dislocations which are by base unlearned Women treated for no other than simple Contusions and so long neglected that there is no hope of Remedy which might at first with as much facility as success have been administred Indeed it is much the same comparatively in all other cases where there has been admitted a Feminine Chyrurgick Operator who if one undertaking succeed although a score miscarry that one proves a sufficient Basis for the light Fabrick of her Reputation Nay she being most commonly the proclaimer of her own Fame you shall not want to hear the flying Stories of her Fortunes whilst those of her unbounded Ignorance are buried in as deep a silence and revive not otherwise than through the Courtesie of some sorrowful Mother who is beholden to this famous Doctress for making of her Child a Martyr She is one who if she finds you wavering in your Opinion of her Skill or dissatisfied at her Proceedings knows how to terrifie you from falling into the Chyrurgeon's hands where you are to expect nothing less than the unspeakable Tyranny of Probation Incision and Scarrification whereas she like a tender-hearted Woman makes use of no such Cruelty she has none of those frightful Instruments to perplex and disquiet you but is willing to cure you with her soveraign Balsam or Plaister which she will admit you to take off and put

right Breast had been Aposte-mated and broken out in many holes A Woman famous in the City for dressing fore Breasts was her Chyrurgeon I had observ'd that the Breast had at first broke in the upper part in a small Pin-hole and the Matter not having had sufficient discharge had subsided and so made the other Openings and afterwards passed an inch lower than any of the Openings and could not be discharg'd otherwise than as it filled up the Sinus and ran over or was press'd from below upwards with her Hand By this means the Breast continued inflam'd and apostemated insomuch that it was impossible to cure it by that method till it had apostemated the whole Breast I pitied the Patient and wonder'd that a Woman so fam'd for such Cures could be so ignorant and yet preserve her Credit with that Sex I shew'd the Patient the Cause of her Pain and the unlikelihood to be suddenly cured by such a Chyrurgeon and prevailed with her to permit me to lay a Caustick on the Depending Part and having made an Eschar the compass of a Threepence open'd it and gave vent to the Matter and left her a little Unguentum Basilicon by which she was Cured in few Days THE CONCLUSION I Have now discharg'd my self of what I thought an Obligation by endeavouring to evidence the notorious Abuses arising from a sufferance of unallowable Practitioners in the Chyrurgick Art which is so dark and obscure so unintelligible in the Practick as well as Theorical part thereof to the Judgment of every one unless that of its Professors that he who is minded to act a dishonest part or play the Knave therein shall carry on the most fraudulent Designs imperceptibly to the People and so far it 's possible from meeting with interruption that it is no wonder if he be nobly rewarded very honestly accounted and as charitably thought of for so doing Indeed whilst this liberty is granted to every impertinent Intruder who hath Confidence enough to carry on his Pretensions whilst their frequent Failings are so little heeded their male Practice no ways minded nor themselves in the least question'd how qualified for the same whilst these I say are buried in silence we must expect no other than a perpetual decay of Knowledge a discouragement of Learned Men and let our Care otherways be never so great must be incident to the greatest Calamities occasion'd from so prejudicial and shameful a toleration Were either Galen or Hippocrates now living to see this spurious Issue made so much of their Pretences unquestion'd their Abuses even countenanc'd and they advanc'd whilst their legitimate Offspring are degraded and disesteem'd were they inform'd of this worthy Rabble who basely take upon them the exercise of our Art or did they know how every Water-flinging Piss-prophet boasts himself as great a Doctor as the most gradually-commenc'd Physician how the most contemptible Mechanicks such as Tinkers Coblers c. not only make it a point of Controversie but endeavour with all their might to monopolize the Art and exclude the worthy Artist were these Worthy men in a capacity of inspecting these matters we may suppose they would not a little wonder at the Age we live in and grieve to behold our miserable Neglect who suffer the most honourable of Arts to be render'd the most despicable that Art which they themselves were not more painful and laborious to new model and compleat than we are careless to support and prevent its final overthrow There is truly at this time so little care taken to correct and punish the Presumption of any illiterate Person that if a man have but an Inclination thereto though the most injudicious or unknowing if he have Wit enough to hang out a Bloodporringer to call himself a Barber-Surgeon to set forth a Urinal or Scheme of the Celestial Houses with any other Hieroglyphick of his Skill he shall pass in the Crowd for the most learned Professor of Physick as well as Surgery What is worse let his Ignorance be as manifest as the Injustice of his Claim he goes on unmolested without danger of opposition I believe there are at this time some Thousands of false Practitioners in the City of London besides those whom we more peculiarly entitle Quacks and Mountebanks at least such as undertake to bleed cut Issues set broken and disjoynted Members or to administer Physick and the one half of these no other than ignorant and foolish Women whose enormous Practice hath been one great cause as well to lessen the number of its Inhabitants as to bring the most ridiculous Contempt and Scandal on the best of Arts. If you take a Prospect of the outparts of the Town you would imagine there were a plenary Indulgence granted to all Empiricks Quacks Barbers Old Women and others whom it shall please to take upon them the Profession of Chyrurgery you will either think this Art the most easily attainable of all others since a meer Pretence to the same will carry a man very far into the good Opinion of the People or last of all you will find just reason to imagine this formerly sublime Profession is now become a kind of Sanctuary or Refuge for decay'd Tradesmen who know not to live longer upon their own Employments I remember saith an ancient Author when I was at the Wars of Mutterell in the time of the most famous King Henry the Eighth there was a great Rabblement that took upon them the Practice of Chyrurgery such as Tinkers Sowgelders Shoemenders and the like this noble Sect perform'd such wondrous Cures that they got to themselves a perpetual Name in two or three dressings they most commonly cured their Patients making them whole and sound for ever When the Duke of Norfolk who was then General understood how the People dy'd of inconsiderable Wounds he sent for me and certain other Chyrurgeons requiring us to make search how these men came by their Death whether it were by the grievousness of their Wounds or through want of Knowledge in the Undertakers According to his Command we made search throughout the Camp and found many of these Good fellows who took upon them the Titles of Chyrurgeons not only so but the Salary also We enquir'd with whom they had been brought up and they shamelesly would answer With some Skilful Person or other who was dead some time ago We farther demanded to see what Medicines they had to Cure the Wounded and they would readily shew us a Pot or Box which they had in a Budget wherein was such Trumpery as was only fit to grease Horse-heels withal others who were Coblers and Tinkers made use of Shoemakers-wax and the Rust of old Pans wherewith they compounded a Noble Salve as they term'd it In the end this worthy Rabble were committed to the Marshalsea and threatned by his Grace to be hang'd for their Wicked Deeds except they would declare the Truth what they were and of what Occupations They did finally confess as