Pharmacologia anti-empirica, or, A rational discourse of remedies both chymical and Galenical wherein chymistry is impartially represented, the goodness of natural remedies vincidated, and the most celebrated preparation of art proved uncapable of curing diseases without a judicious and methodical administration : together with some remarks on the causes and cure of the gout, the universal use of the Cortex, or Jesuits powder, and the most notorious impostures of divers empiricks and mountebanks / by Walter Harris ...

CHAP. IV.

Chymistry Defined. Some of its Prepara∣tions Ʋseless; some Ʋseful, and others Dangerous. Every man to judge as he finds Best. The most Beloved Notions to submit to Matter of Fact. Diseases to be Cured with Remedies, not with Eloquence. Fernelius a good Latinist, but not the most Fortunate Practiser. A Learned Physician at Padua, but a very sorry Practiser, and why. Philoso∣phy good for a Student, but not to be dwelt upon, in the time of Practice.

CHymistry, as it relates to Physick, may properly be called art Art, that teaches us how to Separate the Principles and Virtues of mix'd Bodies. And ac∣cording as it Separates the Virtues of things, either away into the Air, or into Proper or Pernicious Medicines, becomes Ʋseless, or Safe, or of Dangerous conse∣quence. If we should make an Extract

of Aromaticks, or things of a very Vola∣tile Nature, we spend our time to no manner of purpose, and make a Prepara∣tion that is good for Nothing. If we draw out the Virtues of some Bodies, whether Mineral, Animal or Vegetable, in a suitable Menstruum, and by time and gentle degrees of Heat make an efficaci∣ous Tincture, we assist Nature with our pains, and furnish our selves with an Ʋseful Remedy. Lastly, if by violent force of Fire, and repeated Rectifications and Cohobations we render things Corrosive to the highest degree, and that which was Naturally Mild and Good we make de∣structive of the Principles of Life, our Remedy proves a Dagger, and the Expe∣riment becomes Fatal.

So that certainly it is the True Interest of Physick, to have as right a notion as may be, of either the Goodness, the Va∣nity, or the Injuriousness of Chymical Pre∣parations. We ought neither to be Slovens, nor over-nice. And because people are generally apt to run into one Extream, and some especially have Magnified the meer Curiosities of Preparation, so as to dazle the Eyes of most, that they cannot see the difference between Truths and Counterfeits, between Realities and Pre∣tentions,

I shall make it the design of the following Discourse to unvail some things that have been held Sacred, be∣cause Mysterious, and in every thing to deliver my self with as much Indifference, and as little Prejudice as possible.

And I am so far from offering to Dictate Magisterially, or peremptorily Im∣posing my own Thoughts, as a certain Rule in these matters, that I would ra∣rather beseech my Reader not be of my mind, if he finds better Reason, or more sufficient Evidence to the contrary. Our main End, that all our Endeavours ought to aim at, must be the Health and welfare of our Country, and whatever Notions are contrary to that End, how∣ever Plausibly they may be drest up, how Learnedly soever represented, we ought to avoid them as so many Rocks, though the Sweetest Syrens sing, and allure us to them. And if men had more seriously adverted to this main End of Physick, they would not have been so zealous in the Justification of their little home-bred Hypotheses, they would not have called Heaven and Earth together to their assistance, and so impatiently have born any Civil Contradiction to their own Opinions and Mistakes. They would ra∣ther

have delighted to be led into the Right way, than to Wander still on, though an Ignorant Clown should shew it. But it is the unhappy temper of Mankind in general, (though some Countries, as well as persons, do partake of that Tem∣per more generally than others) that they are most unreasonably averse to the acknowledgment of an Error; and they esteem it more Honourable and Glorious, obstinately to persist in an Error they have once Espoused, than to draw back their Foot into the Right, and hazard the Im∣putation of Levity. We often pass the Complement, Humanum est Errare, to others, but would by no means have it thought, we our selves can fall under a Mistake.

It is not Ornament, or Eloquence that can Cure Diseases; Morbi non Eloquentiâ, sed Remediis curantur,* 1.1 said the Latine Hippocrates, Celsus. Good Practical Ob∣servations of Matter of Fact, and not fine spun, curious Problems; not the Trinkets of Rhetorick, but the Applicati∣on of Remedies in a Proper Method, ac∣cording as the subject requires, are the things that constitute a Physician. And I am much of the same Celsus's mind,* 1.2 Quod siquis Elinguis usu discreta remedia bene no∣rit,

hunc aliquantò majorem Medicum futu∣rum, quam si sine usu linguam suam exco∣luerit. Fernelius writ Incomparable La∣tine, and his Institutions will for that rea∣son, as well as the Intrinsick worth, be always the Admiration of Young Stu∣dents in Physick. And yet I have heard it said, and not lightly neither, that he was no very Fortunate Practiser, that he made but few Eminent Cures, though he was the Glory and Ornament of the Schools. And indeed his Method of Curing Feavers, and other Diseases, is wholly Pathological, and seems to insinuate as if the Curative part of Physick, by the Application of Re∣medies, would e'en drop into a mans mouth, whether he would or no, if he has but well consider'd the Method of Talking Scholastically about Feavers, and other Diseases.

* 1.3And this brings into my mind a very strange, but possibly true Story, I have read somewhere in our Primrose, who speaks of a most Eminent Physician, and Professor at Padua, that was followed by more Scholars (the greatest sign of Re∣putation there) than any other Professor in the Ʋniversity. He taught è Cathe∣drà with the greatest Applause, and ac∣cording to the most Learned Rules of Art:

And yet (I am sorry, and very sorry that it prov'd so) this so great a Master, and Teacher of Physick, was so Ʋnfortunate in his Practise, that is was an exceeding rare thing for a Patient in a Feaver to escape under his hands. A sad Considera∣tion indeed! but what must necessarily infer, that something else was requisite at the Patients Bed-side, besides Scho∣lastick Platforms, and well-couch'd Institu∣tions, to wit, a very narrow Inspection in∣to the Alterations of Nature there, and the making Method follow, as well as go∣vern, the Events of Remedies. The In∣dications were not to be made before-hand in the Schools, but to be taken as they were, pro re natâ, with the Patient. He should not have scorn'd to decline his Beaten Roads, if he found they lead to the Grave. For the difference of Feavers in all places does much depend on the vari∣ous Constitutions of the Air; and ac∣cording as the Season does alter its Con∣stitution, it makes very different Impres∣sions on our Bodies and Tempers, and consequently all Epidemical Feavers will be attended with New, or Unusual Symp∣toms; and a those Symptoms do differ from one another, the Indications of Cure must be variously derived. And con∣cerning

the rise of Diseases from the Constitutions of the year, the Famous Car∣dan has writ an Excellent Treatise, cal∣led, De Providentiâ ex Anni Constitutione. Nor has Hippocrates been silent in this matter.

Notwithstanding what has been said, it is not to be imagined that Learning is any Prejudice to Practice, but rather the best Foundation to build success upon. Without this solid Foundation, a man can be no more capable of attaining the Art of Physick, than he can Travel without Eyes or Legs. He must begin with Phi∣losophy, and School-Instructions, as the first steps he is to make; but if his Head is always fix'd upon Rudiments, and his narrow, or lascivious mind can never Advance beyond them, he is like to make but a sorry Progress in Physick. Ʋbi desinit Physicus, ibi incipit Medicus. Where the Philosopher Ends, there the Physician does Begin. A Physician without Philo∣sophy will ever be a raw, and fortuitous Practitioner; and he that in Practice does not End with his former Philoso∣phizing vein, and apply his mind to dili∣gent Observations from Experience and Practice, will often find himself over∣come in matter of Cure, even by Ideots

and Women, who never understood Phi∣losophy. He that intends for Sea, does well to Speculate the Principles of Navi∣gation first; but if after he has been some Voyages, and is appointed Pilot of a Ship, instead of minding his Duty, he shall ra∣ther enter into a deep Study concerning the Causes of the Tide, and thereby ne∣glect Steering the Ship as he should do, every dirty Tarpaulin can easily decide the Controversy, what was best to be done by him, and what will be the Event of his Studious Folly.

Notes

• * 1.1

  Lib. 11
• * 1.2

  ibid.
• * 1.3

  De vulg. error▪ in Medic.