THE

TRYAL, &c.

On the Day appointed for the Tryal, the great Council of Mandarins

assembled in a great Hall, in the second Court of the King’s Palace, the

President was seated on a Throne, under the Canopy of State; the Ensigns

of his high Office being carried before him, and attended by twenty four

Officers with drawn Sabres in their Hands, who stood round the Steps of

the Throne; the rest of the Mandarins were ranged on each Hand of him in

their Robes of Honour. Silence being commanded in the Name of the

Emperor, the Prisoner was brought to the Bar, to which he approached by

making three Obeysances, and then lay prostrate on his Face, till the

President commanded him to rise; acquainting him, that he had nothing to

fear but his own Guilt; for if that was not found in him, the Court

would not only acquit him, but load him with new Honours; after a short

Speech to this Purpose, Silence was again commanded, and the _Mandarin_

Secretary, was ordered to read his Indictment; which was conceived in

Words to this Effect.

You _Nosmoth_, Doctor of the Divine Science of Physick, stand indicted

before this Sovereign Court, at the Suit of our Sovereign Lord the most

High, mighty, and Puisant Emperor, _Abdaer_ Emperor to the World, Lord

of Vast Territories, Commander of Kings, and Beloved of the Sun, to whom

all are Slaves &c. &c. For, that you not having the fear of the Mighty

Gods before your Eyes, but being Instigated thereto, by the Suggestion

of the Black Angel, who Commandeth the Burning Lake; and with malice in

your Heart, and out of Envy and premedicated spite, to the Great

_Mandarin Tonwin_ Slave of our Great Emperor, and Treasurer of his

Invincible Armies, Didst on the Sixth Day, of the Second Month, of the

Year of our Empire, six thousand seven hundred and forty six, conspire

and contrive the Death of the said _Mandarin_; that is on one or other

of the Days of the said second Month; thou didst maliciously, with a

certain Instrument made of Steel, called a _Lancet_, stab the said

_Mandarin_ in the right and left Arm, and didst take from him, a large

Quantity of his Blood, to the amount of fifty seven Ounces; and likewise

didst prevail with the said _Mandarin_, by false unreasonable, and

scandalous Suggestions, to swallow certain Quantities unknown, of

poisonous Drugs, for sixteen or seventeen Days together; and likewise

caused during the said Space of Time, to be introduced into the _Anus_,

(Anglice A——se,) of the said Mandarin, a certain Machine, call’d a

Clister-Pipe, through which was squeezed a certain further Quantity of

poisonous Drugs, into his Bowels; and contrary to the Duty of your

Profession as a Physician, ordered the said Mandarin, then your Patient,

to eat of Meats and Drinks, improper for his Condition, and neglected to

administer such Medicines, as you knew by the Help of the great God

Paphor,[A] would have restored him to Health; by all which your Acts of

Malice, before-mentioned, you permitted the Angel of Death, to carry

away the said _Mandarin_; by which Means our great Emperor, has lost a

faithful Slave, the Empire an useful Member, and the distressed a great

Protector; this is your Accusation, are you Guilty or not Guilty.

-----

Footnote A:

The God of Physick amongst the _Chinese_.

_Council for the Prisoner._

My Lord President, before we, that have the Honour to be of Council for

the Prisoner, can permit him to plead, we humbly beg Leave to offer some

Reasons to the august Court, why an Indictment in this Case does not lye

against our Client, we humbly apprehend, that the Consent of the Friends

of the Deceased, ought to have been specified in the Indictment, since

the great Mandarin, the Manner of whose Death is now in Question, is not

of the Blood Royal; there never has been an Instance before, where a

Physician has been tried, but upon the Application of the Friends of his

Patient: This is introducing an unheard of Practice, and subjecting the

Gentlemen of that Profession, to uncommon Hardships; who are already but

too much at the Mercy of the designing and malicious: We have an

Affidavit ready to read to your Lordships, sign’d by the nearest agnat

of the deceas’d Lord; wherein they disclaim the Prosecution, and express

their Satisfaction; both of the Skill and Integrity of our Client;

therefore we hope this august Court will quash this Indictment.

_Council for the Emperor._

My Lord, We are not a little surpriz’d to find the Council for the

Prisoner, make such an extraordinary Motion; when they must certainly

know, what gave Rise to this Tryal: The Prisoner at the Bar, in

Conversation with some of his own Profession, found that they did not

approve of his Method in this Particular; he was offended at their

pretending to find Fault with his Practice; which he asserted he could

justify; This produced a Dispute amongst them, in which he thought he

was scandaliz’d, and brought his Complaint before this Court, for the

Scandal: Your Lordships did not think fit to try the Cause upon that

footing, but to come at the Bottom of the whole Affair, order’d the

Emperor’s _Seniscal_ to prosecute in this Manner.

Thus the Tryal was at first brought on by the Doctor himself; which he

now declines, why? because it’s not in the Shape he projected, which

shews a more than ordinary Kind of Obstinacy in his Temper, an

Ingredient very unfit to compose a Physician.

But my learned Brother is likewise mistaken in Point of Law; Tho’ we

have not the Precedents he mentions; yet it’s founded on the Nature of

Things: The august Emperor has an Interest in the Life of every Subject;

and is in Reality in the Quality of Father to each of them; and often

more a Parent than their own natural Fathers: Does he not in all other

criminal Cases, prosecute without the Consent of the Party damag’d; why

may he not then in this? Unless the Physicians claim a Priviledge not

common to the rest of the Subjects of this Empire.

The Court, after a short Debate, overruled the Objection to the

Indictment; and ordered the Prisoner to plead; he thereupon pleaded not

guilty; and submitted to the Judgment of the Court.

Here the Court broke up and adjourned the farther hearing to next Day,

when the learned Body being again assembled, in Court, and the President

seated in the Formalites as before gave Orders for proceeding on the

Tryal, which was accordingly done by the Council for the Emperor, who

rising up opened the Case as follows.

_Council for the Emperor._

My Lord, the Prosecutors for his Imperial Majesty, are so far from

taking any rigorous Advantage of the learned Genman at the Bar, that

they are resolved to try the Cause upon his own State of the Case now in

the _Mandarin_ Secretary’s Hand: They are to suppose, that he has

according to his Duty, fairly stated the Symptoms of the Disease under

which his Right Honourable Patient laboured; and that he has given a

just Account of the Medicines he ordered to be administred in order to

effectuate a Cure; and from this his own State of the Facts, we hope to

convince this august Court, that the Doctor, has followed a Practice,

quite different from those prescribed by your Lordships in similar

Cases; apply’d Medicines improper for the Patient’s Distemper; and in

every Circumstance, acted, as if he rather intended, to increase the

Malady, than save his Patient’s Life; we shall make it appear, that the

Doctor instead of assisting Nature, has endeavoured to convert the Order

of Things, and obstructed her as much as lay in his Power; and we shall

likewise make it appear beyond Conjecture, that the Method used with the

Patient, during the Process of his Illness; hasten’d his End, much more

than the Fever it self: Out of Respect to the _Diploma_ issuing out of

the Court, which entitled the learned Gentleman to practice the divine

Science of Physick, we dare not attribute his Misconduct to Ignorance;

Charity forbids us to suppose it Malice; and good Manners hinders us to

use the Word Obstinacy; but to whatever Motive we may ascribe it the

Facts are incontestable, and the Effects have been fatal to the noble

Lord once an illustrious Member of this great Court.

Your Lordships, will observe from the Case, that a reumatick Fever,

attended with Pains in the Limbs and a sore Throat, was the Disorder

which afflicted the _Mandarin_ TONWIN, and there never was during the

seventeen Days which the Fever lasted, any thing else administred, to

obtain a Cure; but Bleeding and Purging; how far that was proper in the

Patients Circumstances, we shall very soon determine, we are to observe,

that from the Beginning of the Doctors Attendance, the Patient shewed a

great Disposition to sweat; especially in the Night-time, when it was

sometimes according to the Doctors Report, to Excess. This My Lord, we

look upon as an Attempt of Nature, to get rid of the malignant feverish

Matter, which oppress’d her, by Means of Perspiration; and is by all

Physicians, looked upon as the most common as well as the most natural

Crisis of all feverish Disorders; it was my Lord the Doctors Duty, to

have taken hold of this favourable Disposition of Nature, to have

assisted her, by giving Medicines which would have provoked

Perspiration: But he followed a quite different Course; he willfully

obstructed the Grand Physician; instead of encouraging the Sweat, he

made the Patient get out of Bed to avoid it; seem’d obstinately bent to

obtain a Cure by nothing but purging and bleeding.

As to the purging, he alledges the Patient was costive; we admit he was;

but does it follow from thence, that he must be purged for seventeen

Days together: The harder the Patient was to work upon, the greater

Reason the Doctor had to desist purging; especially using any Medicine

that would inflame the Bowels, which Jallop certainly does; purging

naturally weakens the strongest Constitution, without the Assistance of

an acute Distemper; but how weak must that Patient be, who suffer’d the

Weight of both, and another Evacuation as destructive of natural

Strength as the other, _viz._ Bleeding. As to the Bleeding, the Doctor

would insinuate from this Case, that he could not take too much Blood

from the Patient, since notwithstanding the monstrous Quantity taken,

the Vessels seemed overcharged, and it burst out at the Nostrils; but

the Doctor is not aware that two Causes absolutely different, will

produce the self same Effect as too great a Quantity of Blood may

produce an Hemorrage; and too small a Quantity the same; in the one Case

the Vessels are distended beyond their proper Tone, and in the other as

much below it; which was certainly the Case of the honourable Patient

unhappily the Subject of the present Debate; the Texture of the Blood

and Vessels were broken by the vast Quantity taken away, and a

Mortification of the Ulcers in the Throat naturally followed; as Nature

had not sufficient Strength left, to stimulate the Blood, and keep it in

its proper Motion; besides, the Regimen of Dyet prescribed by the

Doctor, was quite preposterous; Milk is naturally hot, and as it is of

the Nature of prepared Chyle, turns too soon to Aliment, to be proper in

those Diseases, which require the Patient to be kept low; upon the whole

your Lordship will be of Opinion, that Nature itself would have operated

a Crisis, had she not been interrupted by the Doctor; and that the

excessive Bleeding and Purging, only hastened the Approach of his Angel

of Death; therefore we hope your Lordships will find the Prisoner

guilty, in order to deter others from following their own Conceits, in

Cases where the Life of a Subject is concerned.

_Council for the Prisoner._

My Lord, the Charge against our learned Client, as open’d by my Brother

the Attorney General, is of a very deep Nature; but I hope we shall

convince this august Court, that the whole Prosecution is founded upon

Malice, and has no other Foundation; but the Envy of some of the Doctors

Brethren, who can not with any Patience, see any Reformation in their

old Practice; they are Men so wedded to old antiquated Opinions, and

superanuated Customs, that the strongest Reason cannot convince their

Understandings, or the most glaring Truths, have any Influence upon

their obstinate Minds, they are all a Parcel of old Women, who have

learned a Sett of Notions from their Grandmothers, which they argue upon

without Reason; and put in Practice necessarily on all Occasions, and

are now so old, that like Children they cannot walk without

Leading-strings.

Your Lordships are sensible, that its impossible to lay down any certain

Rules for the Practice of Physick; they must differ as Constitutions,

Times and Seasons, alter those Regulations, which might have been

reasonable in the Days of our Grandfathers, are now out of Date; the

Luxury of the present Age, the difference in Dyet, Exercise and

Diversions of the present Generation, have produced a new Catalogue of

Diseases, unknown to our Ancestors; and for which our antient Writers

have not so much as dreamed of a Cure now; when the old Women of the

Faculty meet with any such, they still persist in their old Recipes; and

by that means killed thousands of his Majesty’s Subjects every Day with

Impunity; and that out of Laziness, that they will not be at the Trouble

to search for new Cures to new Cases; now our Client has been more

indefatigable, he has found out not only a Cure more expeditious for our

old Native Distempers; but one that will totally eradicate all our

exotick Diseases with which this great Empire abounds; he does not mean

to keep this great Catholicon a Secret, he is proud of having this

Opportunity of divulging it to Mankind, for whose Benefit he has

laboured till he is grown expert in the _Profession_; his _Recipe_ is

short and eazy, its only _Bleed_ and _Purge_: He apprehends the

Reasonableness of this Practice, is like a self-evident Truth in the

Mathematicks; all Diseases flow from peccant Humours, being mix’d with

the Mass of Blood, which are so closely united to it, that they cannot

be discharged by Perspirations or other natural Secretions; _but if you

purge and bleed away all the Humours in the Body, we are sure none that

are peccant will remain Quod erat Demonstrandum_. This answers all

Cases, all Circumstances, Times, Seasons and Climates, and is an

Improvement in Physick, for which we hope our Client will be rewarded

with a Statue instead of a H——r.

They have made a deal of Pother about Sweating, but is it not plain,

that alone would not have served the Patient; when its well known that

in Spite of all the Doctors Endeavours to hinder it, it increased

immoderately, and yet produced no such wonderful Effects as they would

attribute to it: Grant that Bleeding and Purging weakens; so does

Sweating; our Client My Lord, apprehends, that if he had bled more

plentifully, he would at least have got the better of the Fever some

Days sooner than he did; the Patient might have died its true, but that

would not have been his Fault if he had used the Means to disburthen him

of his Blood, where the Malady lay; therefore we hope the Court will

acquit the Prisoner.

Its not the Custom in that Country for the Judge to give a Charge as

there is no Jury, but the Prisoner was ordered to withdraw, and in a

little Time he was called back and acquainted with his Sentence, which

we must beg of the Publick to excuse us from publishing.

_FINIS._

------------------------------------------------------------------------