in all Diseases. Suppose your self to be troubled with any Distemper, it
matters not which, for all is one to him you send to; upon his Arrival he
feels your Pulse, and with a fix'd Eye upon your Countenance, tells you
your Spirits are low, and therefore it's high time for a Cordial; the next
Interogatory he puts gravely to you is, When was you at Stool, Sir? if not
to Day, he promises to send you a laxative Clyster by and by; and if you
complain you have a Looseness, then instead of one laxative, he will send
you two healing Clysters: If besides you intimate a Pain in your Stomach,
Back and Sides, then, responding to each Pain, you shall have a Stomach
Plaister, another for the right Side, another for the left, and one for
the Back, and so you are like to have a large Patch and well fortified
round the Middle. Now before we go farther, let's compute the Charge of
the first Day. There is the Cordial, composed by the Direction of some old
dusty Bill on his File, out of two or three musty Waters (especially if it
be towards the latter End of the Year, and that his Glasses have been
stopt with Corks) _viz._ it may be a Citron, a Borrage and a Baum Water,
all very full of Spirits, if River Water may be so accounted; to these is
to be added one Ounce of that miraculous Treakle Water, then to be
dissolved a Dram of _Confectio Alkermes_, and one Ounce of nauseous Syrup
of July-Flowers; this being well shaked in the Vial, you shall spy a great
Quantity of Gold swimming in Leaves up and down, for which your Conscience
would be burthened should you give him less than Five Shillings; for from
the meanest Tradesman he expects, without Abatement, Three and Six pence,
the ordinary and general Price of all Cordials, tho' consisting only of
Baum Water and half an Ounce of Syrup of July-Flowers. Your Clyster shall
be prepared out of two or three Handsful of Mallow Leaves and one Ounce of
common Fennil Seeds, boiled in Water to a Pint, which strained, shall be
thickned with the common Electuary lenitive, Rape Oil and brown Sugar, and
so seasoned with Salt; this shall be convey'd into your Guts by the young
Doctor, his Man, through an Engine he commonly carries about with him, and
makes him smell so wholsome; for which Piece of Service if you present
your Engineer with less than Half a Crown, he will think himself worse
dealt with than those who empty your necessary Closets in the Night; the
Master places to Account for the Gut-Medicine (though it were no more than
Water and Salt) and for the Use of his Man, which he calls Porteridge,
Eight Groats. _Item_, For a Stomatick, Hepatick, Splenetick, and a
Nephretick Plaister, for each Half a Crown: What the Total of this Day's
Physick does amount to you may reckon. The next Afternoon or Evening the
Apothecary returns himself to give you a Visit, (for should he appear in
the Morning, it would argue he had little to do) and finding, upon
Examination, you are rather worse than better, by Reason those Plaisters
caused a melting of the gross Humours about the Bowels, and dissolved them
into Winds and Vapours, which fuming to the Head, occasion a great
Head-ach, Dulness and Drowsiness, and Part of 'em being dispersed through
the Guts and Belly, discompose you with a Cholick, a Swelling of your
Belly, and an universal Pain or Lassitude over all your Limbs. Thus you
see one Day makes Work for another; however, he hath the Wit to assure
you, they are Signs of the Operations of Yesterday's Means, beginning to
move and dissolve the Humours; which successful Work is to be promoted by
a Cordial Apozem, the Repetition of a carminative Clyster, another Cordial
to take by Spoonfuls, and because your Sleep has been interrupted by the
Unquietness of swelling Humours, he will endeavour to procure you for this
next Night a Truce with your Disease, by an Hypnotick Potion that shall
occasion Rest: Neither will he give you any other Cause than to imagine
him a most careful Man, and so circumspect, that scarce a Symptom shall
pass his particular Regard; and therefore to remove your Head-ach by
retracting the Humours, or rather, as you are like to discern best, by
attracting Humours and Vapours, he will order his young Mercury to apply a
Vesicatory to the Nape of your Neck, and with a warm Hand to besmear your
Belly and all your Joints with a good comfortable Ointment for to appease
your Pains: The Cordial Apozem is a Decoction that shall derive its Virtue
from two or three unsavoury Roots, and as many Herbs and Seeds, with a
little Syrup of July-Flowers, for three or four Times taking; which
because you shall not undervalue by having it brought to you all in one
Glass, you shall have it sent you in so many Vials and Draughts, and for
every one of them shall be placed Three Shillings to your own Account,
which is five Parts more than the Whole stands him in; for the Cordial
Potion as much; for the Hypnotick Potion the same Price; for your
Carminative Clyster no less; and for the Epispastick Plaister a Shilling:
Thus with the Increase of your Disease you may perceive the Increase of
your Bill; and therefore it's no improper Observation, That the
Apothecaries Practice follow the Course of the Moon. The third Day
produces an Addition of new Symptoms, and an Augmentation of the old ones;
the Patient stands in need of new Comfort from his Apothecary, who tells
him, that Nature begins now to work more strong, and therefore all Things
go well (and never ill;) but because Nature requires all possible
Assistance from Cordials and small Evacuations, he must expect to have the
same Cordials over again, but with the Addition of greater Ingredients, it
may be Magistery of Pearl, or Oriental Bezoar in Powder, besides the
Repetition of a Clyster, and the renewing of your Plaisters, for the
Profit of your Physician, you must be persuaded to accept of a comfortable
Electuary for the Stomach, to promote Digestion; of a Collution to wash
your Gums to secure you from the Scurvy, serving at the same Time to wash
the Slime and Filth from your Tongue; of a Melilot Plaister to apply to
the Blister that was drawn the Night fore; of some Spirits of Salt to drop
into your Beer at Meals; of three Pills of Ruffi to be swallowed down that
Night, and three next Morning, which possibly may pleasure you with three
Stools, but are to be computed at two Doses, each at a Shilling; the
Spirit of Salt a Crown the Ounce; for the Stomach Electuary as much, for
the Clysters as before; for your Cordial in relation to the Pearl and
Bezoar, their Weight in Gold, which is Two-pence a Grain, the greatest
Cheat of my whole Discourse; for dressing your Blister a Shilling; for the
Plaister as formerly. Here I presume that Candour in you, as not to
believe me so disingenuous, as to take the Advantage of Apothecaries in
producing any other than the best Methods of their Practice, and that
which favours the least of their Frauds, for in Comparison with others
(though these are very palpable, in regard there is not a valuable
Consideration regarded as a _quid pro quo_) they are such as may be
judged passable; yet when you are to reflect upon the Total that shall
arise on the Arithmetical Progression of Charge of a Fortnights Physick,
modestly computed at about Fifteen Shillings a Day, without the Inclusion
of what you please to present him for his Care, Trouble, and Attendance, I
will not harbour so ill an Opinion of him, or give so rigid a Censure as
your self shall upon the following Oration your Clysterpipe Doctor
delivers to you with a melancholy Accent, in these Terms: Sir, I have made
use of my best Skill and Endeavours, I have been an Apothecary these
twenty Years, and upwards, and have seen the best Practice of our best
_London_ Physicians; my Master was such a one, Mr. ------ one of the
ablest Apothecaries of the City; I have given you the best Cordials that
can be prescrib'd; 'tis at your Instance I did it, I can do no more, and
indeed it is more properly the Work of a Physician; your Case is
dangerous, and I think, if you sent for such a one, Dr. ---- he is a very
pretty Man; if you please I will get him to come down. Now, Sir, how beats
your Pulse? The Loss of your Monies your Bills import, give Addition to
your Pain, through the Remembrance it is due to one that hath fool'd you
out of it, and deserv'd it no other way, than by adding Wings to your
gross Humours that before lay dormant, and now fly rampant up and down,
raking, and raging; which had you not been Penny wise and Pound foolish,
you would have prevented by sending for a Physician, who for the small
Merit of a City-Fee (for which you might also have expected two Visits)
would have struck at the Root of the Distemper, without tampering at its
Symptoms, or Branches, and by Virtue of one Medicine, restor'd you to your
former Condition of Health from which you are now so remote, being
necessitated, considering your doubtful State, to be at the Charge of a
Physician or two, to whom, upon Examination of what hath been done before,
the Apothecary shall humbly declare, he hath given you nothing but
Cordials; which Word Cordial, he supposes to be a sufficient Protection
for his erroneous Practice; and I must tell you, that had his Cordial
Method been continu'd in a Fever, or any other acute Distemper, for eight
or ten Days, your Heirs would have been particularly obliged to him for
giving you a Cordial Remove out of your Possession, and that through
Omission of those two great Remedies, Purging and Bleeding, the exact Use
whereof, in respect of Time and Quantity, and other Circumstances, can
only be determined by accomplish'd Physicians.
I cannot better describe their Unaptness for so great a Work, nor express
the great Difficulties that must be conquer'd to deserve the first
Character of a compleat Physician, than in the Words of that eminent and
learned Physician Dr. _Fuller_; 'It requires (says he) to understand the
learned Languages, Natural Philosophy, all the Parts of the Body, and the
Animal Oeconomy, the Nature, Causes, Times, Tendencies, Symptoms,
Diognosticks, and Prognosticks of Diseases, the Indications of Cure, and
contra Indications, the Rules of Errors of living as to the Six
Non-naturals; we must have the Skill to judge to whom, for what, when, how
much, how often to prescribe Bleeding, Vomiting, Purging, Sweating, and
other Evacuations; as also to Opiates, Calybiates, Cortex, and the
numberless other Alteratives: We must be very well acquainted with the
Virtues, Faults, Preparations, Compositions, and Doses of Vegetables,
Animals, Minerals, and all Shop Medicines; and lastly, to compleat all,
must be able, upon every emergent Occasion, to write a Bill for a Patient,
readily, pertinently, and in Form according to Art. Now to accomplish all
this, a Man had need be rightly born, and set out by Nature, with a
peculiar Genius, and particular Fitness, and with a strong prevailing
Inclination to this Study and Practice above all others.
'He must endeavour with Diligence, Sagacity and Gravity, Integrity, and
such a convenient Briskness and Courage as will bear him up, and carry him
through Difficulties, without presumptuous Rashness or barbarous
Hard-heartedness; and then 'tis necessary he should be a Man of a
competent Estate, to answer the great Expence of Education and
Expectation; for he must be brought up directly in it from the Beginning
of his Studies in the University; he must lay out all his Time and Talents
upon Reading, Advising, Observing, Experimenting, Reasoning, Remembering,
with an unwearied Labour of Body and Application of Mind; he must run
through Courses of Anatomy, Botany, Chymistry and _Galenick_ Pharmacy: And
when he hath done all this, cannot handsomely compleat himself, except he
see good Variety of others practise, which (by the by) it's probable he
will have more Time for than he could wish, before he can get any of his
own.'
Now each of those singly will require a great deal of Pains, Expence and
Time to be attained; and yet all these and much more that can be in short
summed up, ought to be done and in some measure accomplished, before a Man
can be rightly and duly qualified even to begin Practice.
And as to Matter of Fact, few (very few, God knows) there have been, or
now are, who tho' they spared not for Education or Diligence, ever work
themselves up to a tolerable Sufficiency: Nay, _Hippocrates_ himself,
that great Genius, is not ashamed to confess, in an Epistle to
_Democritus_, That though he was now got to Old Age and to the End of
Life, yet he was not got to the End of Physick; no, nor was _AEsculapius_
neither, the Inventor of it.
By all which, it's undeniably evident, that the Science and Practice of
Physick is one of the largest Studies, and most difficult Undertakings in
the World; and consequently, not any the best Collection of Prescripts
that ever was, will, or can be writ or printed, can alone make a compleat
Physician, any more than good Colours and Pencils alone can make a fine
Painter. And yet every illiterate Fellow and paltry Gossip that can make
shift to patch up a Parcel of pitiful Receipts, have the Impudence and
Villainy to venture at it; and in hopes of a good Pig, Goose or Basket of
Chickens, shall boldly stake their Skill (forsooth) against Mens Lives,
and lose them; and at the same Time scandalize and keep out true
Physicians, that might probably save them.
And this leads me to the third Consideration, The great Danger and Damage
occasioned by the rash tampering of such as are not educated rightly and
qualified for it.
You that enter not by the Door into the Profession, but climb up some
other Way, ought to take it into your most serious Thoughts, that Mistakes
and Mismanagement in so difficult a Business easily happen; often the
Mischiefs occasioned thereby are impossible to be retrieved; and being
upon the Body, perhaps Mind of Man, sometimes produce such undoing
Misery, such deplorable Ruin, as would make even an Heart of Stone break
and bleed, and Death to think of it. Suppose one should lose his Limbs or
Health, and live unhappily in Pain, Sick or Bedrid all his Days through
your improper Applications or ignorant Omissions; Would it not turn your
very Bowels within you, and make you wish a thousand times you had never
been that unadvis'd Busie-body to act thus foolishly and unfortunately?
But put the Case again: You behold a dead Man (which to me is the most
lamentable of all lamentable Spectacles Upon Earth) I say, put Case a poor
dead Man were laid before your Eyes, that your Heart tells you might
probably have lived many a fair Year, had it not been for your physicking
of him: Such a Sight, such a Thought, (if you have the least Humanity
left) cannot fail to pierce your very Soul; and ever after the
Remembrance, yea, the evil Conscience of it must haunt you and give you
Horror and Terror, and a sort of Hell to your dying Hour.
Perhaps it may be an only and hopeful Son, in whose Life his aged Parents
Lives were bound up; and they die too, or linger out a miserable Life in
Sorrow and Anguish worse than Death.
Perhaps the good Father of a many little Orphans, who being poor and now
helpless, must pitiously perish, or being fallen into bad Hands, and
cheated of what was left them, may suffer Poverty, Contempt, Injury and
Misery all their Life long.
Perhaps a Wife, who might have brought forth an useful eminent Man, a Hero
of his Generation, and the Head of splendid Families; and so the Mischief
you do may fall upon not only the present but future Ages.
But Possibilities and putting of Cases are endless, the Upshot of all
this, if you take upon you to cure the Sick, and be not licensed and
otherwise qualified for it, if you presumptuously thrust in your self, and
bar out another that is authorized and able, though no ill Event chance
thereupon, yet well it might, and was likely to do so for all you; and
therefore good Providence that protected your Patient, and fenced off the
Evils, is alone to be thanked, and you nevertheless to be blamed.
But if Death ensue your arrogant Intermeddling and pernicious Quackery,
be assured of it, 'tis a sort of Murder in the Court of Conscience, and
probably will be adjudged so in the last Great Court.
This is not my private Opinion only, but the Judgment and Decision of the
Legislature of our Land; for the _Present State of_ England tells us, That
by the Law of _England_, if one who is no Physician or Surgeon, and not
expresly allow'd to practise, shall take upon him a Cure, and his Patient
die under his Hands, this is Felony in the Person presuming so to do.
'Tis not enough for you to say, If I can do no Good, I'll do no Hurt,
(which you may as well invert, and say, If I do no Hurt I'll do no Good)
no, you interlope, you injure the Faculty, you discourage Education, you
keep out better Advice, you trifle with Mens Lives, you lose the golden
Opportunity, you prolong the Case 'till it gets head, and grows incurable
and mortal, or else extremely hazardous and almost helpless; and this is
doing Hurt with a Vengeance.
To bring this home to you, and make it more plain. If an House be on Fire,
and you come and pretend to put it out your self, and absolutely keep off
others, and then fling in Dust instead of Water, and so the Flame gets
Mastery; in this Case, though you did not directly intend any positive
Hurt, though you did not actually pour in Oil, nor stir and blow up the
Coals; yet forasmuch as you would needs be an Undertaker, and could not
extinguish it your self, and suffered not others, used to and skill'd in
the Business, who coming with Water and proper Engines, might have done
it, you are really and truly the Cause of it being burnt.
Think not to excuse your self by pretending you did it out of Charity, and
meant well, though it fell out ill; no, no, be it known to you, such a
Charity as did not appertain to you, and proved murderous, was
unpardonable Presumption, and therefore will not cover the multitude of
Sins.
If you are not sufficient for those Things, you'll do well and wisely to
desist from this difficult and dangerous Practice, and fall into such a
Trade of Life as you well understand and rightly can manage. And then like
the Men who used curious Arts (_Acts_ xix. 19.) you may burn all your
Receipt-Books; so shall you keep your Innocence, save your Conscience,
secure your Quiet, and yet reserve Room enough to exercise your Charity.
For if at any Time your Heart move you to pity and succour a poor sick
Neighbour that can't pay for Advice, there will be no Necessity that you
should try your Skill upon him, 'till you mischief or murder him by way of
Charity. Do but you send him a Physician, Medicines and Necessaries
without Hope of Requital; and trust me, that will be an handsome
Assistance, most nobly becoming a generous Mind and a charitable Man.
Now that not one of our Apothecaries, or indeed very few of our modern
Traders in Physick, have these requisite Endowments, I shall leave it to
any considerate Person to judge of; and how far they stretch beyond their
Knowledge, we have a many miserable Objects in our daily View, woful
Instances of their great Rashness, Folly and Ignorance.
That the Profession has sunk into the Craft of deceiving, and amusing, and
making Profit by new Medicines, or useless Preparations brought into
fashion, and highly esteem'd, as long as the Mode of crying them up shall
last, and the Fallacy which imposes them can support it, the unhappy
People suffer themselves to be deluded, and cheated of their Lives, and
their Money. The Rich please themselves that they can purchase the
Alexipharmic, which has Power to controul the Disease, and have not any
Doubt within themselves, that by the often Use, their Lives become almost
immortal; they look down with some small Pity on the Vulgar, who they
think must die before them, being not able to pay the Ransom. They please
themselves, because Health and Life are of the highest Demands for these
Rarities peculiar to them. The Gentlemen of both the higher and lower
Faculty have not been wanting to make use of the Credulity and Weakness of
the richer Patients; and I shall now lay open to your great Surprize, that
the most despicable and useless Stuff have been brought into the highest
Esteem to be rely'd on in the most difficult and dangerous Distempers.
And _First_, of the _Bezoar_-Stone, an obvious Instance of our _English_
Practice, from whence you may concur with the Physicians abroad, with what
Skill, and Art, and Integrity the Profession continues to be practised
here.
_Bezoar_ (which has neither Smell nor Taste, and upon taking into the
Stomach gives no Sensation perceivable) has held its Name and Reputation
almost sacred with us, though exploded long since in almost all Parts of
_Europe_. The _French_ are well convinced that they have been impos'd upon
by the trading Physicians returning from the _Indies_, to take off the
pretty Trifle at a very great Price; they had made it to be admired, by
asserting that it was able to encounter Poisons, that no malignant
Distempers were able to resist its soveraign Virtues; but their overdoing,
spoilt their Market, the more curious and wiser Part of the Nation
discerning the Abuse, had the Opportunity of promoting the Experiment,
which they procured by the King's Command, two Criminals who had Poison
given them, with Promise of Life, if _Bezoar_ could procure their Pardon.
They lost their Lives, and the Physicians and the Stone their Reputations.
The greatest and most learned abroad have freely own'd that they have been
deceiv'd by it, but their Patients much more, who had used it without
Success, and any observable Effect.
Doctor _Pauli_ tells you, he has left the Use of it many Years, and had
given to better Purpose, the more powerful and certain Cordials taken from
Plants; and supports his Opinion with the Suffrages of _Casper_,
_Bauhinus_, _Casp. Hofmanus_, _Rectius_, _Fabricius_; The learned and
judicious _Deemoebreck_ in his Treatise of the Pestilence, declares he had
no Regard to it, that he gave it often _absque ullo fructu, movebat aliquo
modo exiguum duntaxit sudorem_. It did, says he, no good to those who
used it; scarcely mov'd so much as a little Sweat: It was of the best
Parcel chosen of any coming from the _Indies_, or ever was sent to
_Europe_, but gave them not the least Relief, though they had promised
themselves the greatest from it: To confirm his Opinion that it is worth
nothing, he produces the Opinion of _Hercules Saxonias_, and _Crato_
Physician to three Emperors, and refers you to many others. Doctor
_Patin_, late Royal Professor of Physick in _Paris_, decides the Pretences
to its being of any kind of Use: He says it neither stirs the Blood, nor
puts the Spirits in any Motion; besides, some of the above-nam'd
Physicians, he appeals to the Judgment of many others, and his own
Experience of more than thirty Years. The lately corrected _Leewarden_'s
Dispensatory leaves it out of their _Gascoins Powder_, condemning it as a
useless and frivolous Ingredient.
_Bontius_ tells you, that if we must give Stones, we ought to put a
greater Value upon those cut out of the Bladders of Man, a more noble
Creature, fed with Meat of the highest Nourishment, and his Spirits warm'd
with Wine, than that of a Goat starving upon the Mountains. He assures you
that he has given the _Bezoar_, from the Gall or the Bladder, with better
Effect than he ever observ'd of those from the _Indies_. The Physicians
who first began the Amusement and Cheat, made themselves ridiculous by
dreading to give for a Dose more than five, or six, or seven Grains: You
may take forty or fifty with no other Advantage or Alteration than your
Imagination shall raise; and with the same Effect, ten times as much
more. It may, with modern Observers, pass for a Sweater, and a Cordial,
when they have given it with good Cordials, and Sweaters, but the most
visible Operation it has, is seen when the Bill is paid. Our Physicians in
their private Conversations, talk of it as a thing altogether worthless;
but because the People are willing to be cheated with _Bezoar_ and
_Pearl_, they dare not entertain a Thought of undeceiving them, fearing
the Consequence to their own Disadvantage: And I pray with what Art can
the high Rate of Medicines be maintain'd, if the World could not be amused
with the Imagination of being kept alive in all the Distempers, by the
Force of these two?
_Pearl_ is a Disease in a Shell-Fish, as _Bezoar_ is in the _Quadruped_:
They are very different in Shape and Bulk, the whitest and most glittering
are most in Esteem; the sickly Fancy conceits it will revive the Blood as
it pleases the Eye; and that it will brisk up the Spirits and Mind, when
it reflects on its being dear and fashionable. But this has been despis'd
by the honest Physicians, who prescribe for the Cure of their Patients.
The famous _Plater_, after the Experience of a many Years Practice,
rejects the pretended Virtues of Pearl, or Metals, which have no Taste or
Smell, to give the least Pretence to rank them with the Vegetable
Alexipharmicks.
Most of our Writers are of his Sentiment, and give it only a common Place
with the others usually prescrib'd in the Heart-burning, or windy sour
Humour offending the upper Orifice of the Stomach: But the Shell of the
Fish that breeds them, pretends to, and is allow'd by all our best Authors
to have the same Virtues. Nature has been very liberal in this Sort of
_Alkali_; all the Shell-fish, all the Claws of Crabs, or the Tips, if you
please to value them most, the two Stones of the Craw-fish, and the Shells
of Eggs are directed frequently with the Pearl: The two Corals, _&c._ and
the numerous Earths of the absorbing Kind, the Chalk, the Marles, are
judged by many preferable to it, or are used with the same Success: So
that we have the greatest Reason to believe, that the debauched Practice
of the _English_ Preservers of Health have made use of it, with Design to
extract Sums out of the Purse, rather than of making the Crasis of the
Blood better, or the Spirits more vivacious; and if you have Oyster-Shells
or Crabs-Eyes in its Stead, which are generally made use of under that
Name, they will have the same, if not a better Effect.
Gold is by our Chymical Writers stil'd the Sun, and the King of Metals.
The Kings and Princes of the last Age were amus'd and defrauded, their
Lives made less durable than their Subjects, who were beneath the Use of
Gold; the Chicken they eat had the Happiness to be fed with it, that they
might extract the Sulphur and prepare it by their Circulation, and
volatize it for their Use. But the Physicians were contented to collect
all the Gold which past unaltered and undiminished thro' the Poultry, into
their Pockets. This, with many other Artifices of this Stamp, are by many
laid aside, because the Publick begin to be sensible that the Gold, as the
_Bezoar_ and the Pearl, were of more Cordial Virtue to the Adviser and
Confederates than to the Subject of their Care and Attendance.
The _Aurum potabile_ is sometime the Entertainment of Conversation, when
the poor Alcymists or their vain Pretensions are considered; there being
no Humour in any Animal which can alter or dissolve it, no Effect or
Operation can be expected from it, it deludes the Eye and Fancy in the
Cordial Waters, and on the Bolus and Electuaries, but must pass away
sooner or later as it adheres more or less to the Stomach or Bowels,
without acting or being acted on in any Part of the Body; the Pills,
either purgative or cordial, are as often dismist entire, having been
covered with Leaf-Gold, which is able, though thin, to dismiss the most
subtil and penetrating Parts of all Humours. The Value of the Leaf is not
worth your Enquiry, the Book being sold at a low Price. The Fulminating
Powder is a rough violent Medicine, and has been lately neglected, and
given Place to others more useful and less dangerous.
Silver and Lunar Pills are as vile and disregardless as Gold, when they
are considered with relation to the Cure of Diseases.
The precious Stones have constantly been put into the old Receipts by that
Sort of Writers who prescribe every Medicine very faithfully, and design
to please and amuse the Readers with the Bulk and Length of the
Prescription; but they have been neglected by the practical Authors, who
had the Trouble of considering, that no Manner of Vertue could be expected
from so hard and therefore impenetrable Bodies; as the Diamond, Ruby,
Hyacinth, the Sapphire, the Smargad and Topaz, _&c._ who are not capable
of a Dissolution, and of altering or acting upon the Fluids, and as it is
most certain that many very cheap Medicines have greater and more
observable Effects, it's ridiculous to give a hard gritty Powder, which
may for many Reasons corrode and offend the Stomach and Bowels in their
Passage.
Among the many Foreign Vegetables imported here, I must take Notice of
Sarsaparilla, as it has had the Preference before many others, especially
of our own Growth, in many difficult and chronical Cases, will have
obtain'd its Credit and Reputation by being in good Company, and by being
prescrib'd with the cheapest Drugs, but of the greatest Virtues, _viz._
Guiacum, Sasaphras, China, and the Seeds of many most useful Plants. If it
has been by it self beneficial, in the Practice of the _West-Indies_, it
has lost its Qualities in the Passage into the colder Climates, being a
soft and thin Root, it may evaporate and exhale its most active Parts;
many of the late Writers have given this Judgment of it, that it is
_nullius Saporis vel Odoris_, of no Smell or Taste.
The Physicians have not yet done, but contrive to thrust into the Stomachs
of their Patients, not only the most loathsome, but the Parts of Animals,
which after their Death, are void of all Spirits or Oils, and are a dry
and unactive Earth.