to assert That whosoever took Chymical Medicines although he were cured for the present yet in the revolution of a year it would cost him his life So that in their fury they have cast into the Kennel out of a very honest and able Apothecary's Shop a most safe innocent and effectual Chymical Medicine and afterward have endeavoured the ruine of the poor man A quondam noted Galenist in greatest part reclaimed from their fopperies and almost got out of that durty practice protested that he knew a most eminent Doctor of the Colledge that passes for one of the most learned amongst them that did not dare to venture to give five or six grains of Antimonium Diaphoreticum which we can give with confidence security and good effect often to thirty or forty grains They formerly cried down Oyl of Vitriol by no means fitting to be taken into the body because it did corrode a Glove supposing it would act the same in the Stomack As for Mercurius dulcis and other Preparations of Mercury they concluded them all to be little better then poyson which now they frequently make use of not scrupling to give it to Children but we fear to their destruction sometimes as they order the matter by their method and a careless preparation of it which they alwayes referre to another Yet it is not long since that a Galenist of great fame did upon some Discourse of Mercury confidently affirm that he knew he could do as much with crude Mercury as any with it never so well prepared which he dares not we are sure maintain to be true by any visible instance but spake it meerly out of a Vatinian hatred to Chymical Preparations which nothwithstanding he and his Fraternity are forced to make use of closely labouring to pump and fish them out of others Now at length finding that they have strived in vain against truth by their obloquies and false suggestions still kicking against a prick and finding they cannot obscure the bright beames of Pyrotechnical Philosophy they take now another supplanting course and of a sudden will all become Chymists but Galeno-Chymists as monstrous and Anomalous as a Centaure or Syren and hereby they think to blear the eyes of the world to make them believe that their Method sweetens all our sharp Vitriolate Medicines allayes all our Corrosives fixes all our Mercurial Preparations and in short makes all safe and sound which otherwise would be destructive in our fingers Thus they still juggle with and delude the world still protracting and spinning out the time very unwilling to part with ease gain and honour notwithstanding thousands suffer by their indirect practice e're they will come in quietly and sincerely submit to the truth for the good of the Nation although they know at last they must be forced to yield time bringing that to light which is their principal study to involve in obscurity For we make no question but that posterity will admire their obstinacy herein and abhorre them for it Well come what will come for ought we can see they are still resolved to maintain their State and Grandure as long as they can for their present life and then let the world hereafter censure them what care they 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as the Greek Poet hath it Yet it hapned that one of their greatest Donns being questioned by a Perspicacious Gentleman what the reason was that he ordered something very incongruous in reference to his Patient and being charged home by him whom he knew would not be baffled made this express answer Hang it quoth he we are but a Company of Cheats This was reported to us by a person of Quality that dares testifie the truth of it to the face of him that spake it CHAP. V. In what space of time a good Physician may resolve his Patient of the Event of his Disease HE is unworthy the name of a Physician that in Acute Diseases doth not on the fifth or sixth day after his admission either make Nature master of the Disease or else on the sixth or seventh give a positive prediction what will be the conclusion thereof and that with so much certainty that he should seldom be mistaken but as a man For it is a grand ignominy and an intollerable disgrace to see a Mechanick to engage himself to bring to pass what he undertakes and a learned Physician either not to dare to promise you any thing of a Cure or wholly to frustrate your expectation It is no wonder if some men taking advantage of your weakness in this particular have cast it in our teeth that our Art is altogether conjectural and that we do all things therein by hab nab happy be lucky hitting the mark with as much uncertainty as those people called Andabatae that fought with one another winking we wish these Scoffs and Taunts might lie at the doors of those that have justly deserved them In Chronick Infirmities a longer time must needs be required to give satisfaction to the Patient concerning his Recovery the matter of the Disease being many times fixt in the Body and as it were settled on the lees the ferment of the parts being either vitiated or in great part abolished and the Archeus or vital Spirit being much diminished the immediate instrument of the Soul by which it acts for our health or sickness in which every Disease nestles and is primarily seated and characterized without the power of which none can be cured of which the Galenists have been too ignorant until such time most Acute Helmont like a bright star of truth made it appear As the matter stands thus a Physician may very well assume a fortnight or three weeks at most finally to conclude what he is able to do for his Patient whether he be capable as he conceives to be restored to health if not then to resign him up to another that may be able to do more for this wier-drawing course in Physick to keep a Patient long in suspence without any relief peradventure for some private ends is to be abominated 'T is a strong Argument of great Weakness or Deceit in a Physician when in some reasonable time he cannot or will not give an account what is like to be the Issue of his labours such an one is to be avoided as the Plague that is blinde and cannot discover the Mark he is to shoot at or aims at the Purse of his Patient rather then the Recovery of his Health Be advised whosoever thou art not to suffer him that waits for a Crisis and cannot give thee in a short time a sufficient Testimony of an effectual Cure to proceed any further for be assured that a good Physician never looks after a Crisis standing still as a meer spectatour while Nature is oftentimes worsted upon unequal terms by its enemy but with all expedition unroosteth that unwelcome Guest that hath taken up its lodging in the vital Spirits wherein the longer it lurks the more difficult it
Galeno-pale OR A CHYMICAL TRIAL OF THE GALENISTS That their Dross in PHYSICK may be discovered With the grand Abuses and Disrepute they have brought upon the whole Art of PHYSICK and CHIRURGERY in their Method touching Phlebotomy and Purgation Their vain Curiosity in Anatomy reprehended and their false Rule of Contraries in the Cure of Diseases manifested Also a full Answer to the Objections charged by the GALENISTS against the CHYMISTS and Chymical Medicines vindicated To which is added an Appendix De Litho-Colo or An History of Three large STONES excluded the Colon by Chymical Remedies By GEO. THOMSON Medicinae Doctor 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Homer Odys 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 London Printed by R. Wood for Edward Thomas at the Adam and Eve in Little Brittain 1665. To the most Reverend Father in God GILBERT By Divine Providence Archbishop of Canterbury Primate and Metropolitan of all England and one of His Sacred Majesties most Honourable Privy Council May it please Your Grace AMong the many Moecena's of Hermetick Philosophy I conceive none more fitting to protect the Medicinal Verities here set down then Your Grace who hath been pleased to express very much kindeness and love for this Noble Art to the no small encouragement of the Professours thereof And all things duly pondered where can Chymical Physick better shelter it self against Maligners and Opposers of it then under the wings of Divinity on which it ought to attend as an Hand-maid yea there should be a Synergie and conspiration of all Arts and Sciences to advance Theology which makes the better Part of us happy How can the Soul act aright when there is an Atonie Ametrie and Dyscrasie in the Body Sith as the Chyle is such is the Chyme or rubified juyce as is the Chyme so is the Sanguis or purest part of the Blood and as this is so are the Vital Spirits the immediate instrument of the Soul either luminous and clear or dark and muddy and so capable to act well or ill How sollicitous then should we be to search out those great Arcana's in Nature which the good Creator hath ordained for the preservation and redintegration of these Bodies which upon slight occasions from within and without are obnoxious to be valetudinary and put out of frame that the Diviner part may operate the more freely vigorously and orderly Certainly there is no better way to attain this then by Spagyrick Philosophy which separates Tribulos Spinas what is Hurtful and Superfluous in every Concrete from the profitable pure and sincere bringing it to such an Entelechie and Excellency that it is able to display that radiant Virtue which God hath implanted in it for the good both of Body and Soul And were this course closely followed and generally countenanced those rebellious and enormous Vices of the Minde too grassant at this day among us which in great part arise from the Feral Anomalous unheard of Prodigious and untractable Diseases of the Body might in some measure be reformed and certainly if there be not some timely prevention mox daturi progeniem vitiosiorem most of our Posterity is like to be born diseased Seeing therefore no Medicine is able to mortifie these Seminal Principles of Diseases or wash off those Radical Tinctures which have been traduced to us from our Parents but the best sort of Chymical Preparations exalted to the highest degree of perfection some of which have been of late years brought to light by the indefatigable industry of some Ingenious men whom the Galenists have endeavoured to eclipse and despitefully to suppress by Calumnies and Reproaches we humbly beg Your Graces favour to stand up for the defence of our Art so far as truth sound reason and Optical Experiments shall permit and that Your Grace would be pleased to joyn with some other Heroes of the Nation either to stop the mouthes of these Anti-Chymists or to constrain them to make good by matter of Fact and fair equal Trials here proposed what they alledge against us that there may be a full discovery made who are the Physicians quos creavit Altissimus and who are they that go about ludere cum corio humano And this present and future Age shall be bound to celebrate Your Praises My Lord Your Graces most humble and obedient Servant Geo. Thomson To the Reader Courteous Reader BE pleased to bestow what time you can well spare in perusual of this short Treatise which how contemptible soever it may seem to thee may perhaps be a means to save thee from the jawes of untimely death and prolong thy dayes The main Scope of the Author is to do thee his Countrey and the whole World service in reference to that which according to the innate law of Self-preservation every Creature desires that is Life which if not accompanied with Health cannot but be very tedious That therefore thou mayest enjoy a sound Body and Soul next Temperance in all things embrace an Honest and Able Physician not one whom thou fancies but who is really so according to these infallible signs here described The sum of this Discourse is nothing but a Touchstone depending upon matter of Fact to try whether a Physician be as he professes himself and ought to be one that having a Commission from the Angel Raphael is endued with the gift of Healing not palliating dawbing and plaistering upon an unstable foundation Here thou mayest learn to keep thy Blood wherein is the Life and not prodigally to spend it upon every trifling occasion which may do thee more service sometimes then the best Doctor in England and help those Diseases he cannot Here thou mayest be instructed to beware of uncorrected Purgatives which do but colliquate and putrefie the wholesome Chyme or juyce of the Body enervating it without any considerable ease unless accidental and to value that Physick which carries off the occasional Morbifick matter to thy benefit without any notable Debility succeding In this Enchiridium thou wilt finde the difference between a sincere and corrupt Physician one that dares act subdio in the face of the Sun that men may behold him whether he doth right or wrong and so justifie him or condemn him and between him that studies to be in the dark and cast a mist before the Spectators eyes that he may play legerdemaine with them Lastly thou wilt see whose Actions are able to bear the test of the Fire best by which every Work is to be tryed the Galenical or Helmontian whose facts like Gold or Silver leave the least Scoria or Dross behinde and whose like Lead or other base mettals leave most We hope no man that desires the preservation of himself King and Countrey but will allow these Operative Propositions to be just equal profitable and laudable to put an end to that which garrulity and multiloquacity will never determine Wherefore Candid Reader all that we shall request of thee is to stand still and see that we may have right done us forbearing
acknowledge to have received most part of our Instructions CHAP. XII Of the two grand Supporters of the Galenical Physick Phlebotomy and Purgation DId the World rightly understand what destruction of mankinde hath been made by this Sanguinary way of curing Diseases in all Ages since this prodigal emission of Blood came first in use suggested without all doubt by that sworn Enemy to mankinde the Devil it would being enraged utterly abominate any such Physician or such a pretended remedy How happy may those Nations be reputed in this particular witness their Longaevity and Sanity above ours whom Nature hath so well instructed as not to part with this precious treasure of Life unless against their wills through some violent separation of the connexed parts And certainly were we but governed by Nature which intends all things for its own preservation and never erres therein unless interrupted or put by its scope through some transverse contingent we would by no means admit of this Bloody course for a Cure being sufficiently convinced that this Solar Balsom the pure Blood called by the Latines to distinguish it from Cruor Sanguis the very Stamen and Subtegmen the subject and material foundation of Life is never exterminated or cast out of the Body by Nature unless extimulated through some exasperating and hostile matter that is gotten into it And indeed to let out promiscuously Sanguis and Cruor good and bad together which is unavoidable for qua data porta ruunt is equally absurd as to cut off part of the fleshie substance of the Finger that the Splinter or Thorn therein fastened may be removed or to suffer generous Wine to run out that some distasteful and fracedinous odour contracted from the Vessel may be taken off or that the Ebullition or Effervescence thereof proceeding from the impetuous Spirits endeavouring a segregation of impurities in it may be asswaged whereas it is more consonant to reason to pick the Thorn out of the finger to impregnate the Wine and Vessel with some odoriferous fume or liquor that it may become fragrant and pleasing in smell likewise to take down the fermentation of the fretting acide Atomes thereof by some artificial means that is able to lenifie and appease the Spirits and settle all quiet Doubtless the same may be accomplished in mans Blood when at any time through some preternatural occasion it becomes tumultuous exorbitant and degenerate from its genuine goodness by ridding it of that pungitive acidity and cadaverous foulness which makes it disturbed and restless as long as it remains in it for omne vivens mortui impatiens esse solet And this we are certain an able Physician can effect being admitted while there is a competent strength which we are alwayes most careful to preserve and augment contrary to the tenour of your Practice For so soon as we have discharged the first and second Digestions of what did burthen and clog them we either exhibit some potent Arcanum which upon its first entertainment into the Stomack doth either pacifie the fury of the vital Spirit or by its illuminating beams doth disperse the black Atomes that obnubilate the same Spirit that it cannot act for the good of the whole Or we give some Volatile Alkali enriched with the specifick Virtues of fit Concretes capable to be circulated with the Blood into all parts of the Body being allied to the foresaid Spirit and symbolizing with it These are powerful in Opening Cleansing Expectorating Volatilizing any congealed Blood invigorating the natural and correcting the preternatural Ferment extinguishing the acidity of the Latex in the Blood dissolving Scirrous and Tartareous-like matter with which sometimes the Veins Arteries and other parts of Body are as it were parietted These are Diuretick Diaphoretick and Antimalignant mortifying Erysipela's breaking and profligating Vomica's or any Abscesses in the Body and this we can engage our selves to perform without any notable diminution of the strength or fear of recidivation or any dangerous lapse into some Chronick Disease which the Phlebotomists dares not promise with any security for it often happens that the Patient is sent Piece-meal to his grave being as it were grated into his first Elements because his Disease was never rightly mannaged in the beginning Now the greatest Plea the Galenists have for Blood-letting is taken from Plethora sanguinis an extraordinary fulness of Blood quoad vasa or quoad vires as they call it that is when the Vessels are over-filled or the strength oppressed with too great redundance of Blood and here they speak equivocally leaving us to seek what Blood they mean either that which is properly named Sanguis the most pure sincere and sublimest juyce in our Body in which the Soul is chiefly seated or that crude lately rubefied liquor called Cruor oftentimes abounding with superfluities and recrements If they take their Indication of Bleeding from the first we can confidently upon sound Arguments deduced from some experimental Demonstrations which we would set down at large if succinctness which we aim at did permit assert that there is no such thing really existent in the Body of man for never had any man too much of that most vital Balsom called Sanguis the encrease or diminution of which shortens or prolongs our dayes for could there be every way a plenary absolute and continuate reparation of the same our Lives would be protracted to an exceeding great length beyond what they are This therefore is by no means to be exhausted or squandered away upon trivial occasions at the unreasonable and arbitrary commands of a desperate Galenist but to be precisely preserved and hoarded up as the onely Treasure and Stock of Life Well if they take their Indication to Bleed from fulness of the last called Cruor then sith this consists of partly excrementitious matter and partly wholesom juyce disposed and in a fair way to be made Sanguis by long Circulation they must necessarily by opening a Vein let out without any election the laudable as well as the depraved parts in the Cruor and its inseparable companion the Sanguis and all to satisfie one supposed palliating Scope of little moment in comparison of the rest an inanition of that which erres in quanto which being attained produces more hurt then profit any way and might easily have been corrected by Diaphoreticks and those proper Medicines that respect a Quale in the Blood and cause a free Diapnoe thereof consuming insensibly according to Sanctorius his Statica no small quantity of our Substance in four and twenty hours sufficient in a very short space with Abstinence joyned thereto to take down any Athletick habit of the Body so that the principal Indication in this case ought to be taken from Cacochymie which frequently infests us to our destruction and that imaginary and insignificant plenitude to be neglected There is we confess something to be said for the defence of immediate derivation of some degenerate Blood impacted any where as when in a Phlegmon the
Vein contiguous to the part affected is opened that the faeculent Blood contained therein oppressing it may be directly and moderately discharged that thereby the residue may be more difflable and easie to be discussed Likewise when there is some muddy foul Cruor restagnant about the Spleen and Womb threatning an Abscess or some other malady c. in this condition the Opening the inward Haemorrhoides or Uterine Veins may sometime profit without dammage to the whole supposed the Physician be destitute of those generous Arcana's that are able without any solution of continuity to reach the part affected and to conquer the Disease radically by mundifying the Blood and by ridding it of that Thorny Vexatious and Virulent acidity of the Latex that oftentimes gets into it All this seriously weighed who would not avoid this Blood-sucking course and rather commit himself to such a Physician who not as a meer illiterate Empyrick or Quacksalver ventures his Medicine at random without any sound reason or intellectual notion of what wherefore when and how much of it he gives but being throughly acquainted with the Diagnôsis of the Disease is able upon very firm grounds to make a Prognôsis of it and so to proceed to a Therapeia according to just necessary and direct Indications accurately designing an Adaptation Appropriation and Adaequation of the Remedy to the Disease Away then with this detestable lavish Phlebotomy that hath destroyed more then Tobacco or the Sword together may it be banished the Court City and Countrey nor ever be depended upon hereafter in this Island or any of His Majesties Territories for the cure of any difficult Disease but let it be confined and inflicted as a feral Plague upon all those that delight in Blood and hate our Gracious Sovereign and all his loyal Subjects CHAP. XIII Of the second Supporter fruitless Purgation T Is not without great reason that excellent Hippocrates mentions one Aphorisme no less then four several times 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that is If that be carried out of the Body by Purgation that ought to be the sick man findes himself the better for it and his spirits more chearful and better able to bear his Disease as if he had foreseen the great mischief that was like to come upon indiscreet Evacuation with deletery Catharticks which putrefie and colliquate the lately tinged Chymus into a faetide and cadaverous substance whereby some juggling Physicians take opportunity to impose upon their credulous Patients that they are in a fair way of recovery though they finde it otherwise sith so many ill Humours as Choller Phlegme c. are purged out of their Bodies whereas in very truth not a jot of the morbifick Cause hath been so much as touched We have a History to confirm this out of Helmont experto credamus for the worthy Author tells us that taking his leave of a young Lady holding her by the hand he caught the Itch whereupon he sent for two of the most eminent Galenical Physicians in that City to consult with for the cure of it who upon the sight of a Purulent Scab presently delivered their opinions That there was abundance of Adust Choller and Salt Phlegme in his Body which occasioned a depraved Sanguification in his Liver Upon this account after they had largely bled him and prepared the Humour forsooth with their fulsom and nauseous Apozemes containing about fifty Ingredients with addition of Agarick Rhubarb every fourth or fifth morning to the end that this supposed retorrid Choller and Salt Phlegme might be drawn forth according to that innate similitude of Substance that they would fain make us believe is between the Purgative and the Humour and at length they gave him those virulent Pills de Fumaria every third day three times which wrought so liberally that they almost filled two buckets with the foresaid Humours But hear with what event in his own words Iam venae mihi exhaustae erant Genae conciderant vox rauca totus corporis habitus concidens tabuerat descensus quoque è cubiculo atque gressus erant difficiles quia genua me vix sustinebant That is Thus at length were my Veins emptied my Cheeks fallen away and I could hardly speak for hoarsness my whole Body was wasted so that I could hardly get down out of my Chamber it being most tedious to me to stir for my Legs were scarce able to bear me up yea my Stomack failed that I had neither Appetite nor Digestion and withall my Itch was as bad as ever Thus was this great Philosopher who at first setting aside this Cutaneous infection was found Winde and Limb as we say brought almost to the gates of Death by this enormous Purgation who without doubt might have been cured very suddenly if that true peccant matter which is the principal occasional cause of Diseases and is but little in quantity had been carried off by some appropriate Solutive and the Miasma which stole in through the pores of the Skin and there settled in the innate Archeus had been mortified which course Helmont at last took for his recovery after he had been macerated and excarnified by a Hypercatharsis alwayes accompanied with a Dysphoria and ill effect This remarkable Story of Helmont the same being re-acted many thousand times since may give men a strict Caveat how they put their Lives into the hands of such desperate persidious Evacuators who cast men into Purgatory and yet never expiate the Disease Assuredly those Physicians that exterminate out of the Body good and bad at random the Cruor or good Juyce and the Scoria or Dross with such uncorrected Catharticks that are no better then absolute poison leaving sometimes an impression behinde hardly deleble seldom giving any alleviation unless as clavus clavum expellit per accidens may be very well compared to a mad person that in cleansing a foul house casteth out with the filth some of the most useful Furniture belonging to it And yet what is more commonly practised amongst the Galenists who being consulted do upon the bare inspection of the Urine frequently and rashly prescribe Bleeding and Purging the last whereof being best of the two though bad enough as they order the matter doth generally more mischief then good We speak not this utterly to condemn some moderate Evacuations both by Vomit and Stool sith we our selves oftentimes intend the same and make it our Scope but we never give them so uncorrected as they to the injury and impairing of Nature but they are such that are alwayes 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 consentient and competent Remedies for the profligatiag the Disease leaving behinde an Euphoria an alacrity of the Patient and an abatement of the Infirmity according to his capacity Neither do we depend upon Solutives simply as sufficient to cure any difficult Disease but having often that most excellent Rule of Hippocrates in our thoughts 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that is to carry the Morbifick matter that way Nature
to be approved in the Iatrical Art to make it his principal pains and study to be throughly acquainted with the Practical use of those Medicines he possesses so exactly and accurately as a Shoo-maker with his Last or an Artificer with his Tools that knowing what he can trust to he may after a judicious examination of the Sickness begin and proceed in the Sanation of the same with confidence and no less real performance CHAP. XVIII Of the Galenical Method OUr Adversaries do much glory and vaunt in their Method of Curing asserting that if a man have never so excellent Medicines if he be ignorant therein he cannot discharge his duty as he ought We desire first to know of these learned Grecians what according to the Etimon this word Methodus signifies Is it we pray any more then a short way of healing Maladies How short ye come of this the world may easily judge who keep your Patients in a course of Physick so long till ye run them quite out of breath and all under a pretence of Method Is it worthy of a Physicians Method to dally with his Patient some moneths even years and not absolutely satisfie him whether he be curable or no or perhaps after he hath exhausted his strength and purse to send him into the Countrey to the Wells or Bath yea sometimes into France that the less notice may be taken of it if he chance to dye as we have known by the way Is not this a rare Method to see a Physician keep a pudder and make a great noise about a sick mans Diet precisely to enjoyn him upon loss of his Life not to violate the least punctilio strictly forbidding those things which given by the Nurse or standers by and concealed from the Physician have cured him To see a sick wretch in a vehement Feaver almost parched up for want of moisture and not a draught of small Beer allowed him to quench his unsatiable thirst or a little Wine to refresh his drooping spirit is enough to make a man afraid of such a Method To hear them when a man is in a peracute Feaver Logically discourse of their Indications General Subalternate and Specifick Profitable and Unprofitable Artificial and Inartificial Condications and Contraindications with those they call Consentientia Correpugnantia and Permittentia and be extreamly ignorant of Indicata or Remedies proportionable and competent to cure the Feaver suffering the Patient either to perish or to fall into some desperate Chronick Disease and so to twindle and moulder away at length whereas if things had been rightly ordered all this might have been prevented is sufficient to make a man explode and nauseate their Method When we hear how curiously they examine which of the four Humours arising from the mixture of the four Elements which never had an existence in Nature as Helmont hath sufficiently proved abounds in the Body that thereby they may finde out a convenient Purge as Rhubarb for Choller Agarick for Phlegme c. loosening the Body by stool sometimes fifty or sixty times to the consumption of the strength of the Sick party without any ease the Morbifick matter still remaining behinde untouched When they learnedly babble concerning Complexions Temperaments Constitutions being grosly ignorant of the Seminal Formal and Vital Properties of things not able to discover in the least without relation or to give any plausible reason thereof from their durty Elements Humours and Qualities that this man naturally abhors Posset-drink a second Honey a third an Egg which if they should take into their Bodies in some Diseases were enough to cost them their lives When they stand so superstitiously upon the Season of the Year the Climate of the Countrey the Qualities of the Air the Time of the Day that before they can take an opportunity the Patient is ten times more hard to cure or perhaps past relief All this rightly understood would justly provoke a man to condemn abhorre renounce and defie their Method Who that hath any spark of charity in him but must needs pitty that distressed wretch who hath a Physician attending him that gapes for a Crisis even to the one and twentieth day doubtful what is like to be the issue then and in the mean time exhausts the purple Soul of his Patient by frequent Phlebotomy spending his Spirits by some torturing course marring the ferment of the Stomack and is so far from assisting and furthering Nature that he becomes a remora or hinderance to her so that if strength of Body be not extraordinary 't is impossible such an one should escape without a miracle Certainly a man may not offend to say that this is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Satans device and plot to destroy mankinde Or we may justly censure this Galenical Method as the word Methodus signifies according to another interpretation Fictio or Ludificatio a meer Imposture or Cheat. Had not a man better either to trust to God and Nature or if he can be procured make use of some honest plain Physician who without any deceit or pompous Preludium shall fall to his work of curing you 'T is a sad thing to behold a young man in the flower of his years in full strength of body abounding with Vital Spirits sending for a Physician in the beginning of his Disease to be thus Methodized into his Grave by them that pretend to be such grave learned Doctors who if he had dyed in the Field bravely ought little in comparison to be lamented Can any sober wise man blame any one that knows this to be true and dares demonstrate it that he is Satyrical and invective against these notorious actions That man questionless that knows he can prove these things to be so cannot but damnifie his Soul if he make not a timely discovery of them for his Countreys good We invocate the supreme Power that 't is not malice to any mans particular person nor a principal Design to be known in the World to our advantage that hath excited us to declare our selves thus to the detriment of any mans individual credit and reputation Far be it from us for these things if it could have consisted with Charity and a good Conscience should never have been published and we hope our future actions will sufficiently demonstrate our sincerity herein though we expect from our Adversaries nothing but harsh censures underminings quick eyes to discover our lapses calumnies and reproaches But 't is sufficient that we have done our duty to give the world a fair warning of these Abuses which if it make not good use thereof let it be upon their score sith we have done what we ought CHAP. XIX Of the Helmontian Method AS you magnifie your own Method so ye often cast it in our teeth that we use none and that we can give little account of what we do but as Empiricks As to this we would willingly know of you whether of the two performs things more orderly and methodically he