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CHAP. IX. The Character of a true Medicine.
SOme will say, How shall we know how to distinguish betwixt good and bad? That will be too large for me here to lay open to you all the ways to know a good Medicine from the bad; for it is well known that it is very difficult to know some sorts of Me∣dicines by an Oculary Judgment; therefore it lieth and consisteth in the honesty and uprightness of the Operator, or those that sell those medicines; for there are some who buy of Chymists Medi∣cines Cheaper than ordinary, and the other sell for little profit, when they know that it is not as it ought to be: Therefore this lies and consists too in Experience. Your best way therefore is to confide in an ingenuous and approved Chymist, or an honest Apo∣thecary, Drugster, or the like, by which you will not fail.
There is one thing more which casts a great scandal upon our Medicines, viz. A mistake of the Doctor, or by his un∣skilfulness; First, in not Administring such of them as ought to be, or in the quantity of the Dose, and so it works not the expected Effects, for which we bear the blame. Secondly, by unskilful∣ness, for there are many who go under the Title of Doctor, who know not what Humour or Disease they are to Cure; neither can they give an accout of what they take in hand.
Si tu Cupis peritus esse in arte Medendi, debes in hac Oratione se∣quenti, (id est) de Medicina & Astrologia gnarus esse: Nam hic ad studendum satis tibi praebet. Scilicit, Sympathia & Antipathia, nec sunt Planulae quibus totum Medicinae Corpus vertitur & Deducitur; hoc fundamentum tibi datum est ad tuam erigendum Constructionem.