_MADAM,_
Your _Author_ is not onely against Phlebotomy or Blood-letting, but
against all Purging Medicines, which he condemns to _carry a hidden
poyson in them, and to be a cruel and stupid invention._ But certainly
he shall not have my assent; for if they be Poyson, they are a very
beneficial Poyson; and Physical Purgations, in my opinion, are very
necessary and profitable for the prolonging of life, and taking away
of diseases, provided they be proper for those diseases in which they
are used; and so is Phlebotomy, Vomits, and the like: but Medicines are
often wrong applyed, and many times the disease is so various, that
it is as hard for a Physician to hit right with several Medicines,
as for a Gunner or Shooter to kill with Powder and small Shot a Bird
flying in the Air; not that it is not possible to be done, but it
is not ordinary, or frequent: neither doth the fault onely lie in
the Gun, Powder, or Shot, but in the swiftness of the flight of the
Bird, or in the various motion of the air, or in a hidden wind, or
mist, or the like; for the same Gunner may perhaps easily kill a
Bird sitting in a bush, or hopping upon the ground. The like may be
said of Diseases, Physicians, and Medicines; for some diseases have
such hidden alterations, by the sudden changes of motions, that a
wise Physician will not, nor cannot venture to apply so many several
medicines so suddenly as the alteration requires; and shall therefore
Physicians be condemned? and not onely condemned for what cannot be
helped by reason of the variety of irregular motions, but what cannot
be helped in Nature? For some diseases are so deadly, as no art can
cure them, when as otherwise Physicians with good and proper medicines,
have, and do as yet rescue more people from death, then the Laws do
from ruine. Nay, I have known many that have been great enemies to
Physick, die in the flower of their age, when as others which used
themselves to Physick, have lived a very long time. But you may say,
Country-people and Labourers, take little or no Physick, and yet grow
most commonly old, whereas on the contrary, Great and rich Persons
take much Physick, and do not live so long as the common sort of men
doth. I answer: It is to be observed, first, that there are more
Commons, then Nobles, or Great and rich persons; and there is not so
much notice taken of the death of a mean, as of a noble, great, or
rich person; so that for want of information or knowledg, one may
easily be deceived in the number of each sort of persons. Next, the
Vulgar sort use laborious exercises, and spare diet; when as noble
and rich persons are most commonly lazie and luxurious, which breeds
superfluities of humors, and these again breed many distempers: For
example, you shall find few poor men troubled with the Gout, Stone,
Pox, and the like diseases, nor their Children with Rickets; for all
this cometh by luxury, and no doubt but all other diseases are sooner
bred with luxury, then temperance; but whatsoever is superfluous,
may, if not be taken away, yet mediated with lenitive and laxative
medicines. But as for Physicians, surely never age knew any better, in
my opinion, then this present, and yet most of them follow the rules
of the Schools, which are such as have been grounded upon Reason,
Practice, and Experience, for many ages: Wherefore those that will
wander from the Schools, and follow new and unknown ways, are, in my
opinion, not Orthodoxes, but Hereticks in the Art of Physick. But to
return to your _Author_, give me leave, _Madam_, to consider what his
opinions are concerning the Purging of Choler; _Come on_, says he to
the Schools,[1] _Why doth that, your Choler following with so swift
an efflux, stink so horribly, which but for one quarter of an hour
before did not stink?_ To which it may be answered, That though humors
may not stink in themselves, yet the excrements mixt with the humors
may stink; also the very passing thorow the excrements will cause a
strong savour. But your _Author_ thinks, That _by passing through so
suddenly, the humors cannot borrow such a smell of stinking dung from
the Intestines._ Truly, 'tis easily said, but hardly proved, and the
contrary is manifest by putting clear, pure water into a stinking
vessel, which straightway is corrupted with an ill smell. He talks
also of _Vitriol dissolved in Wine, which if it be taken, presently
provokes vomit; but if after drinking it, any one shall drink thereupon
a draught of Ale or Beer, or Water, &c. he indeed shall suffer many
stools, yet wholly without stink._ I answer: This expresses Vitriol
to be more poysonous, by taking away the natural savour of the bowels,
then Scammony, Coloquintida, Manna, Cassia, Sena, Rhubarb, &c. to
all which your _Author_ is a great enemy; and it is well known to
experienced Physicians, that Medicines prepared by the art of fire are
more poysonous and dangerous then natural drugs; nay, I dare say, that
many Chymical Medicines, which are thought to be Cordials, and have
been given to Patients for that purpose, have proved more poysonous
then any Purging Physick. Again your _Author_ says, _It is worthy of
Lamentation, that Physicians would have loosening things draw out one
humor, and not another, by selection or choyce._ My answer is, That
natural drugs and simples are as wise in their several operations, as
Chymists in their artificial distillations, extractions, sublimations,
and the like; but it has long been observed by Physicians, that one
simple will work more upon one part of the body, then upon another; the
like may be said of humors. But give me leave to tell you, _Madam_,
that if your _Author_ believes magnetick or attractive cures (as he
doth, and in whose behalf he makes very long discourses) he doth in
this opinion contradict himself. He may say, perhaps, There is no such
thing as what Physicians name humors. But grant there be none, yet he
cannot deny that there are offensive juices, or moveable substances
made by evil, as irregular digestions, which may be troublesom and
hurtful to the nature of the body. Or perchance he will say, There are
such humors, but they are beneficial and not offensive to the nature
of the body. I answer: Then he must make an agreement with every part
of the body, not to make more of these humors then is useful for the
body. Also he mentions some few that took Purging Physick, and died.
Truly so they might have done without taking it: but he doth not tell,
how many have died for want of proper and timely Purges. In truth,
_Madam_, 'tis an easie thing to find fault, but not so easie to mend
it. And as for what he speaks of the weighing of those humors and
excrements, which by purging were brought out of some Princes body, and
how much by the Schools rules remained, and of the place which should
maintain the remainder; I onely say this, that all the several sorts
of juices, humors, or moveable substances in a body, do not lie in one
place, but are dispersed, and spread all about and in several parts
and places in the body; so that the several Laxative medicines do but
draw them together, or open several parts, that they may have freedom
to travel with their chief Commanders, which are the Purging medicines.
But your _Author_ says, the Loadstone doth not draw rust. And I say, no
more do Purging drugs draw out pure Matter: for it may be as natural
for such medicines to draw or work onely upon superfluities, that is,
corrupted, or evil-affected humors, juices or moveable substances, as
for the Loadstone to draw Iron; and so it may be the property of Purges
to draw onely the rust of the body, and not the pure metal, which are
good humors. But few do consider or observe sufficiently the variety of
Natures actions, and the motions of particular natural Creatures, which
is the cause they have no better success in their cures. And so leaving
them to a more diligent inquisition and search into Nature, and her
actions, I rest,
Madam,
_Your faithful Friend_
_and humble Servant._
[1] In his Treatise of Fevers, _c._ 5.