Galeno-pale, or, A chymical trial of the Galenists, that their dross in physick may be discovered with the grand abuses and disrepute they have brought upon the whole art of physick and chirurgery ... To which is added an appendix De litho-colo ... / by Geo. Thomson ...

CHAP. V. In what space of time a good Physician may resolve his Patient of the Event of his Disease. (Book 5)

HE is unworthy the name of a Physician, that in Acute Diseases doth not on the fifth or sixth day after his admission, either make Nature master of the Disease, or else on the sixth or seventh give a positive prediction what will be the conclusion thereof; and that with so much certainty, that he should seldom be mistaken but as a man: For it is a grand ignominy, and an intollerable disgrace, to see a Mechanick to engage himself to bring to pass what he undertakes, and a learned Physi∣cian, either not to dare to promise you any thing of a Cure, or wholly to frustrate your expectation. It is no wonder if some men taking advantage of your weakness in this particular, have cast it in our teeth, that our Art is altogether conjectural; and that we do all things therein by hab nab, happy be lucky; hitting the mark with as much uncer∣tainty as those people called Andabatae, that fought with one another winking; we wish

these Scoffs and Taunts might lie at the doors of those that have justly deserved them.

In Chronick Infirmities a longer time must needs be required to give satisfaction to the Patient concerning his Recovery, the matter of the Disease being many times fixt in the Body, and as it were settled on the lees, the ferment of the parts being either vitiated, or in great part abolished; and the Archeus or vital Spirit being much diminished, the im∣mediate instrument of the Soul, by which it acts for our health or sickness, in which every Disease nestles, and is primarily seated and characterized, without the power of which none can be cured; (of which the Galenists have been too ignorant, until such time most Acute Helmont (like a bright star of truth) made it appear) As the matter stands thus, a Phy∣sician may very well assume a fortnight or three weeks at most, finally to conclude what he is able to do for his Patient; whether he be capable (as he conceives) to be restored to health, if not, then to resign him up to an∣other that may be able to do more: for this wier-drawing course in Physick, to keep a Pa∣tient long in suspence, without any relief, (peradventure for some private ends) is to be abominated.

'Tis a strong Argument of great Weakness or Deceit in a Physician, when in some rea∣sonable time he cannot or will not give an account what is like to be the Issue of his la∣bours: such an one is to be avoided as the Plague, that is blinde and cannot discover the Mark he is to shoot at; or aims at the Purse of his Patient, rather then the Recovery of his Health. Be advised whosoever thou art, not to suffer him that waits for a Crisis, and can∣not give thee in a short time a sufficient Testi∣mony of an effectual Cure, to proceed any further; for be assured that a good Physician never looks after a Crisis, (standing still as a meer spectatour while Nature is oftentimes worsted upon unequal terms by its enemy) but with all expedition unroosteth that un∣welcome Guest, that hath taken up its lodging in the vital Spirits, wherein the longer it lurks, the more difficult it is to eject; for cunctando crescit, and so at length confounds the Oecono∣my of the whole Body: wherefore an Honest and Prudent Chymist, Principiis obstat, falls forthwith upon the extirpation of any malady, whereas the Galenist labours to circumcise and lop off here and there the Branches or Symptoms, lulling his Patient asleep with some incorrect∣ed Opiate, mitigating sleight pains by Ano∣dines,

quenching his Thirst by cooling Iuleps, bedaubing his Feet, Wrists, and Front, with Cataplasms, and the like, to the wearisomness and vexation of the sick Man, without any real casement of his Grief. Hence it falls out that some of our learned Galenists have pro∣tracted an Acute Feaver, to the one and twen∣tieth day, and that in hope of a Crisis, which we are confident might have been taken down before the seventh. Hereby they hatch up some Chronick tedious languor, which usual∣ly follows at the heels of most Malignant Feavers they take in hand, because they never searched the Soar to the bottom, but onely skinn'd it over. Oftentimes do these Botching Galenists bring to light a viperous Generation of Long Infirmities, that might easily have been destroyed at first in Ovo the Embryon, which afterward growing too headstrong for them, elude and slight all their trivial Applications.

And all this they can still do under the no∣tion of safe Medicines; when indeed a gene∣rous man had better have dyed Caesars death, and nimbly to have been sent into the other world by some precipitate Quack, or ventur∣ous Pseudochymist, where he might be at rest, then to crumble and moulder away in a lan∣guishing

feeble manner; and withal to sustain those torturing and racking Carnifications, by their Blisterings, Cuppings, Scarifications, Cauteries, and Setons, with their loathsome Po∣tions, Consuming Purgatives, their severe Cooke∣ries, and rigid Diet-drinks, and at length to drop into the pit. Let any discreet man judge whether such Doctors as these deserve a Pa∣tent, who have nothing wherewithal to ex∣cuse their Homicide, but that they perform it with the fairest Method in the world.