Anecdotes of the Manners and Customs of London during the Eighteenth Century; Vol. 1 (of 2): Including the Charities, Depravities, Dresses, and Amusements etc.Malcolm, James Peller
History
Anecdotes of the Manners and Customs of London during the Eighteenth Century; Vol. 1 (of 2): Including the Charities, Depravities, Dresses, and Amusements etc.
Malcolm, James Peller
London (England) -- Social life and customs -- 18th century
The above elegant production has a parallel in the following modest
notice of August 1717. "This is to give notice, that Dr. Benjamin
Thornhill, sworn servant to his Majesty King George, _seventh
son_ of _the seventh son_, who has kept a stage in the Rounds of
West-Smithfield for several months past, will continue to be advised
with every day in the week, from eight in the morning till eight at
night, at his lodgings at the Swan Tavern, in West-Smithfield, till
Michaelmas, for the good of all people that lie languishing under
distempers, he knowing that _Talenta in agro non est abscondita_, that
a talent ought not to be hid in the Earth; therefore he exposes himself
in public for the good of the poor. The many cures he had performed has
given the world great satisfaction, having cured 1500 people of the
King's evil, and several hundreds that have been blind, lame, deaf, and
diseased. God Almighty having been pleased to bestow upon him so great
a talent, he thinks himself bound in duty to be helpful to all sorts
of persons that are afflicted with any distemper. He will tell you in
a minute what distemper you are troubled with, and whether you are
curable or not; if not curable, he will not take any one in hand, if
he might have 500_l._ for a reward.
"N. B. The Doctor has an infallible cure for the Gout, which in a few
hours gives ease, and in a short time makes a perfect cure; likewise a
never-failing remedy for the wind colic in the stomach and bowels."
The Original Weekly Journal of December 28, 1723, contains a set of
queries, which seem better suited to the ideas of a person despising
Quacks than to have been written by one. "An appeal to the judicious
part of mankind, if it is not the grossest imposition imaginable
to cram the public prints in so fulsome a manner with infallible
specificks, arcana's, Italian boluses, and innumerable Quack-medicines
put to sale at Toy-shops and other places, only to hide the shame, and
screen from the resentment of injured people, the preparers of such
notorious cheats. Are the best physicians or most eminent surgeons
ashamed of their prescriptions? Can men of sense be gulled out of
their money by the severe affliction of another's pocket (though, in
his own words, of their body), because his pretended charity to their
deplorable circumstances has induced him to publish what he does not
own? Are not the degrees of distempers and the constitutions of men
various? Was ever any one thing infallible? Can all people eat the most
innocent food with equal advantage? Have we not ingenious Physicians
and Surgeons, who act in public, not only to their own honour, but
that of their country, and are, by their transcendant skill, become
inimitable in all the world? Are not some disappointed in the success
of a prescription from the most judicious hand? and will they depend
upon what has no known author, and who refers them to the advice of
some able Surgeon after cheating them himself? Shall any man's misery
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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