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ther? I remember, that, fome Years ago, there was an Epidemical Disease, very dangerous, and for the most part mortal, that raged in the Towns about us: The Storm being over, which had fwept away an infinite Number of Men, one of the most famous Phyficians of all the Country published a Book upon that Subject, wherein, upon better Thoughts, he confeffes, That the letting of Blood in that Disease was a principal Caufe of fo much Da'mage.' Moreover, their Authors hold, That there is no Phyfic which has not fomething hurtful in it.' And if even those that are of Service to us, do, in some meafure, offend us, what must those do which are totally mifapplied? For my own Part, though there were nothing elfe in the Cafe, I am of Opinion, That to those that loath the Taste of Phyfic, it must needs be a dangerous ' and prejudicial Endeavour to force it down at fo in' commodious a Time, and with fo much Aversion; and believe, that it marvellously disturbs the fick Perfon, at a Time when he has fo much Need of Repose.' And, befides this, if we confider the Caufes to which they ufually impute our Difeafes, they are fo light and nice, that I thence conclude a very little Error in the Difpenfation of their Drugs may do a great deal of Mifchief. Now, if the Miftake of a Physician be fo dangerous, we are in a scurvy Condition; for it is almoft impoffible but he must often fall into those Mistakes: He had Need of too many Parts, Confiderations, and Circumstances, rightly to adjuft his Defign: He must know the fick Perfon's Complexion, his Temperature, his Humours, Inclinations, Actions, nay, his very Thoughts and Imaginations: He must be affured of the external Circumstances, of the Nature of the Place, the Quality of the Air and Season, the Situation of the Planets, and their Influences: He must know, in the Disease, the Causes, Prognostics, Affections, and critical Days; in the Drugs, the Weight, the Power of Working, the Country, the Form, the Age, and the Difpenfation; and he must know how rightly to proportion and mix them together, in order to beget a perfect Proportion wherein if there be the

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Phyficians very Jubject to Miftakes; and their pernicious Confequences.

leaft

Book II. least Error; if, amongst so many Springs, there be but any one that draws wrong, 'tis enough to deftroy us: God knows with how great Difficulty most of these Things are to be understood. As (for Example) how shall a Phy⚫fician find out the true Sign of the Disease, every Disease being capable of an infinite Number of Indications ? How many Doubts and Debates have they amongst themfelves upon the Interpretation of Urines? Otherwife, from whence fhould the continual Debates we see amongst them about the Knowledge of the Difeafe proceed? How would we excuse the Error, they fo oft fall into, of taking one Thing for another? In the Diseases I have had, were there never fo little Difficulty in the Cafe, I never found three of one Opinion: Which I inftance, because I love to introduce Examples, wherein I myself am concerned.

A Gentleman at Paris was, by Order of the Physicians, lately cut for the Stone in the Bladder, where was found no more Stone than in the Palm of his Hand; and a Bishop, who was my very good Friend, having been earnestly preffed, by the major Part of the Phyficians in Town, whom he confulted, to suffer himself to be cut in the fame Place; to which also, upon their Words, I added my Intereft to perfuade him: When he was dead, and opened, it appeared that he had no Stone but in the Kidneys. They are least excufable for any Error in this Disease, by reason that it is, in fome fort, palpable; and 'tis by that, that I conclude Surgery to be much more certain, by reason that it fees and feels what it does, and fo goes lefs upon Conjecture; whereas the Physicians have no fpeculum Matricis, by which to discover our Brains, Lungs, and Liver. The very Promises of Phyfic are not to be credited : For, being to provide against diverse and contrary Accidents, that often afflict us at one and the fame Time, and that have almost a neceffary Relation, as the Heat of the Liver, and the Coldness of the Stomach, they will needs perfuade us, that, of their Ingredients, one will warm the Stomach, and the other cool the Liver; one has its Commiffion to go directly to the Kidneys, nay, even to the Bladder, without scattering its Operations by the Way, but retaining

The Promifes of the Phyficians generally incredible.

its

its Power and Virtue through all the Stops, in fo long a Course, even to the Place to the Service of which it is defigned, by its own occult Property: One will dry the Brain, and another will moisten the Lungs. All thefe Things being mixed in one Potion, is it not a kind of Madness to imagine, or to hope, that thefe differing Virtues should feparate themselves from one another in this Mixture and Confufion, to perform fo many various Errands? I should very much fear, that they would either lofe or change their Labels, and take up one another's Quarters: And who can imagine but that, in this liquid Confufion, these Faculties muft corrupt, confound, and fpoil one another? And is not the Danger ftill more, when the making up of this Medicine is intrufted to another, to whofe Honour and Mercy we again abandon our Lives?'

reafon to re

As we have Doublet and Breeches Makers, distinct Trades, to cloath us, and are fo much the better fitted, while each of them meddles only with his own Pattern, and has lefs to trouble his Head withal, than a Taylor who undertakes all; and as, in Matter of Diet, great Perfons, for their better Convenience, and to the End they may be better ferved, have diftinct Offices, of Boilers and Roasters, which one Cook, who fhould undertake the whole Service, could not fo well perform; fo fhould we be treated in our Cures. The Egyptians had ject this general Profeffion of a Phyfician, and to divide it to feveral peculiar Diseases, allotting to every Part of the Body a particular Operator: For this Part was more properly, and with lefs Confufion, provided for, because it especially regarded this alone: Ours are not aware, that he who provides for all, provides for nothing;' and that the entire Government of this Microcofm' is more than they are able to undertake. Whilft they were afraid of stopping a Looseness, left they should put him

Every fick Perfon had his particular Phythe Egyptians. fician among

into a Fever, they killed me a Friend that was worth more than the whole Pack of them put together. They counterpoise their own Divinations with the prefent Evils; and, because they will not cure the Brain to the Prejudice VOL. II.

of

Weakness and Uncertainty of the Reasons on which the Art of Phyfic is grounded.

Book II. of the Stomach, they offend both with their mutinous and tumultuary Drugs.' As to the Variety and the Weakness of the Reasons of this Art, it is more manifeft than in any other Art. 6 Aperitive Medicines are proper for a • Man fubject to the Stone, by reafon that, opening and dilating the Paffages, they help forward the flimy Matter, whereof Gravel and the Stone are ingendered, and convey that downward which begins to harden and ga⚫ther in the Kidneys. Aperitive Things are dangerous for a Man fubject to the Stone, by reafon that, opening ⚫ and dilating the Paffages, they help forward, towards the Reins, the Matter that has a Tendency to breed the • Stone, which, by their own Propension that way, being apt to feize it, 'tis not to be imagined but that a great ⚫ deal of what has been fo conveyed thither must remain • behind. Moreover, if the Medicine happen to meet ⚫ with any Thing a little too grofs to be carried through ⚫ all those narrow Paffages it must pass, in order to be ex'pelled, that Obftruction, whatever it is, being stirred by these aperitive Things, and thrown into those narrow Paffages, coming to ftop them, will occafion a most cer⚫tain and most painful Death.' They have the like. Confiftency in the Advices they give us for the Regimen of Life. It is good to make Water often, for we experimentally fee, that, in letting it lie long in the Bladder, we give it time to let fall the Sediment which will concrete into a Stone: It is not good to make Water often, for the heavy Excrements it carries along with it ⚫ will not be voided without Violence,' as we fee by Experience, that a Torrent which runs with Force, washes the Ground it rolls over much cleaner than the Course of a flow and languid Stream. Likewife it is good to have ⚫ often to do with Women, for that opens the Paffages, and helps to evacuate Sand: It is alfo very ill to have ⚫ often to do with Women, because it heats, tires, and weakens the Reins. It is good to bathe frequently in hot Waters, forafmuch as that relaxes and mollifies the • Places

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• Places where the Sand and Gravel lurks; and it is alfo ill, by reafon that this Application of external Heat helps the Reins to bake, harden, and petrify the Matter therein difpofed. For those who are at the Bath, it is moft healthful to eat little at Night, to the End that the Waters they are to drink the next Morning, may have a better Operation upon an empty Stomach, on the contrary, it is better to eat little at Dinner, that it • hinder not the Operation of the Waters, which is not yet perfect; and not to oppress the Stomach fo foon af• ter the other Labour, but leave the Office of Digestion to the Night, which will much better perform it than the Day, when the Body and Mind are in perpetual • Motion and Action.' Thus do they juggle and cant, in all their Disputes, at our Expence, and cannot give me one Propofition, againft which I cannot erect a contrary of equal Force. Let them then no longer exclaim against thofe, who, in this Confufion, fuffer themselves to be gently guided by their own Appetite, and the Advice of Nature, and commit themfelves to the common Fortune.

I have seen, in my Travels, almost all the famous Baths of Christendom, and, for fome Years past, have The Ufefulness begun to make ufe of them myfelf; for I look of Baths. upon Bathing as generally wholefome, and believe, that we fuffer no flight Inconveniences in our Health, by having left off the Cuftom, that was generally observed, in former Times, almoft by all Nations, and is yet in many, of bathing every Day; and I cannot imagine but that we are much the worfe by having our Limbs crufted, and our Pores ftopped with Dirt and Filth: And as to the Drinking of the Waters, Fortune has, in the first Place, rendered them not at all unacceptable to my Tafte; and, fecondly, they are Natural and Simple, and, at least, carry no Danger with them, if they do no good: Of which, the infinite Croud of People, of all forts of Conftitutions, that repair thither, I take to be a fufficient Warrant: And although I have not there obferved any extraordinary and miraculous Effects, but, on the contrary, having more curiously than ordinary enquired into it, I have found all the Reports of fuch Operations, that have been spread Q92 abroad