XLV. This inattention, is without doubt what produces, and what keeps up
in the world, men’s estimation for an infinite number of useless things,
on which they bestow the noble epithet of remedies; and this false
notion, has filled the medical books and the apothecaries shops, with an
infinite deal of trash, the reading of which fatigues the memory; and
the taking of which, ruins the health and constitution of the patient.
You will find accumulated in them, a great number of remedies for slight
diseases, which if left to nature, would cure themselves; and although
all practitioners do not approve of the same remedy for the same
disorder; does this prove, that the patient of each got better by taking
this or that thing? I say does this prove it? for neither the imprudent
sick person, nor those about him, hardly ever reflect, that there were
many others besides him, who were affected with the same disorder, and
who without taking any medicine at all, recovered as well, and as quickly
as he did?
XLVI. A benign or favourable sort of catarrh, as is very frequently the
case, becomes epidemical in a city; for which, some call-in the doctor
and take medicines, and others do not; and such is the blindness of those
who have had advice as it is called, that they believe they owe the
recovery of their health to the doctor, although they evidently see, that
all those recovered as well as they, who had no advice, and who took no
physic.
XLVII. The delicate fine lady, who whenever she feels a slight pain in
her head, sends for the doctor, is fully persuaded, although the pain
continues for the space of twenty or thirty days, that the capital pills
he prescribed for her, removed it; but it does not occur to the poor
lady, that many of her friends and neighbours, who at times have the same
sort of pains in their heads, and who take nothing for them, get well as
soon, and frequently sooner, than she with the help of all her pills.
XLVIII. It is very common for those who have pains in their teeth and
jaws, (and I say the same of all those affections which come and go of
themselves,) to fancy, and give the preference to a particular remedy,
which they are of opinion relieved them; but it is proper to observe
here, that every one applauds his own, and reprobates as insignificant,
that which is used by other people. From whence does this arise? some
will say, that as peoples temperaments are different, it may happen,
that in the same species of complaint, the remedy which does good to one
man, may have no effect on another; but this is a common and inefficient
evasion, and such a one, as overturns and levels to the ground, the
use of all medicinal applications; for if this was the case, as all
individuals have distinct temperaments, no less than distinct faces,
it would be necessary to contrive a distinct medicine for every single
individual, and in all his disorders, to apply particular remedies,
different from those, which in the same species of complaints, should be
administered to every other person.
XLIX. The cause then of this opposition of sentiments, is most probably
as follows. The first time a man is attacked with a pain in his teeth
or jaws, it is very common for him to make use of various applications,
for besides those which are ordered by the doctor, all those who have
felt the same pain, recommend, some one thing, and some another; and as
the sensation is acute, the poor patient anxious to be relieved, proceeds
in succession, to apply all those remedies, at length, perhaps at the
end of eight, ten, or fifteen days, the pain abates; and as there is not
one of those days, in which the patient has not made use of one or other
of these receipts, happy is that which he used the last; for to that he
attributes his relief, and reprobates all the others as insignificant.
Another diseased person, proceeds to take his medicines in regular order;
but the course of this regulation, frequently depends upon the casual
concurrence in opinion of the people who are consulted, or the power
that one of them has of prevailing over, and leading the rest; from
whence it frequently happens, that this man of persuasive eloquence,
advises the using a medicine in the first instance, which some other
practitioner might think it advisable to administer last. The result of
which is, that in case the patient does well, his recovery is imputed
to the application of the last remedy; and hence it comes to pass, that
one reprobates a medicine which another applauds, and so _vice versa_.
Thus all the reputation the remedy acquires, be it what it may, depends
upon the casual application of it, just at the time nature was disposed
to terminate the disorder by a favourable crisis, and hence it is, that
the relief came to be attributed to the medicine. And notwithstanding
that afterwards, upon another occasion, by using the same medicine in
the first attacks of the same complaint, they did not experience the
same effects from it; still the same prepossession is continued in its
favour, that was formed on its supposed success on the first trial; and
although the patient, did not find himself better for several days after
taking it in this last instance, they persisted in imputing his recovery
to the favourite receipt, and in thinking that without the assistance of
it, the disease would have been more tedious, and more severe. Nor is
it of any avail to remove this prejudice, their seeing that others, who
neither make use of that or any other remedy, do not suffer more prolix,
or more acute pain than those who apply it; for although they see they
will not perceive it; and if they do perceive it, they will not attend to
or acknowledge it.