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Medicina Flagellata Or, The Doctor Scarify'd By: Anonymous |
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Ægrescitque medendo. Virg.
Si tibi deficiant Medici, Medici, tibi fiant:
Hæc tria, Mens læta, requies, moderata dieta.
LONDON:
Printed for J. BATEMAN, at the Hat and Star ;
and J. NICKS, at the Dolphin and Crown ,
both in St. Paul's Church yard . 1721.
Medicina Flagellata :
OR, THE Doctor Scarify'd. Laying open the VICES of the Faculty, the
Insignificancy of a great Part of their
Materia Medica ; with certain RULES to
discern the true Physician from the Emperick,
and the Useful Medicine from the Noxious and
Trading Physick. WITH
An ESSAY on HEALTH,
Or the
POWER of a REGIMEN. To which is added, A Discovery of some Remarkable Errors in the
late Writings on the PLAGUE, by Dr. Mead ,
Quincey , Bradley , &c. With some useful
and necessary RULES to be observed in the
Time of that Contagious Distemper. LONDON :
Printed for J. BATEMAN, and J. NICKS.
M. DCC. XXI.
PREFACE.
It being usual for Authors, in Prefaces, to render an Account of the
Occasion which gave Birth to their Writings, and to acquaint the Reader
with the Design and Scope of their Discourses; I thought it convenient to
continue a Custom approved by many illustrious Examples. The Motive of publishing this Tract, is not the Intercession of Friends,
for none had ever the View of any Part of it; and that it is not Design of
Applause that has engaged me in this Undertaking, the Care I have had to
conceal my Name will, I suppose, free me from such Suspicion: the chief
Inducement proceeds from an Inclination to Mankind, to instruct them to
preserve and prolong their Lives, thereby to prevent them from using
fraudulent Quack Medicines (which are now become so universally vendible
amongst them) or advising with such as are wholly ignorant; and I should
think my self sufficiently rewarded for my Pains, if I could arrive to
the Point of reforming the Abuses of the present, and restoring the
Simplicity of the ancient Practice, by laying open to the World my
Observations of the pretended and fallacious =Methodus Medendi=, and the
Insignificancy of a great Part of their =Materia Medica=. And here I will particularly address my self to all those Persons
concern'd with me, who are the People or Patients; and the Physicians with
their Followers, the Chirurgeons and Apothecaries: This Discourse is
chiefly intended for the first, it being they who are most highly injured
by the unwarrantable Practices of those we have therein accused; for
although many understanding Persons among the People are sufficiently
satisfied of the Abuses we have mentioned; and that it is of absolute
Necessity some Reformation should be made: Yet all are not thus perswaded;
for we may daily observe, that many who are less discerning, being
deceiv'd by an imaginary Good, covet their own Ruin; and unless they be
given to understand which is the Evil, and which is the Good, by Persons
they have Reason to confide in, they must necessarily run much Hazard. I have here endeavoured to undeceive them; which I should dispair of, did
I only foresee Inconveniencies afar off (the Vulgar being led by Sense,
and not by probable Conjectures); but since they do now actually labour
under many, and those obvious, Inconveniencies, how short sover their
sight be, the Senses of Feeling being no less acute in them than in
others, I persuade my self, they will readily assent to those Truths I
have largely discovered. And here must I venture through all the Barricadoes and the
Fortifications of popular Resentment; but Satires, like Incision, become
necessary when the Humour rankles, and the Wound threatens Mortification;
when Advice ceases to work; when Loss, Experience, and Disaster will not
convince, then Satire reforms, by making the Error we embrace ridiculous:
Shame works to make us forsake a Thing, which Instruction augments, or
Persuasion could have no Effect upon... Continue reading book >>
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