That we may see, how little Doctor _Mead_ understands the Method of _Preventing_, and also how practicable it is: We find _Hippocrates_ values himself for being the first that foresaw a Disease; and he tells us, That [20]_Diseases do not come upon Men of a sudden; but being collected by degrees, shew themselves afterwards in the bulk_. And [21]_Galen_ says, That _all Physicians are agreed, that there must be some Time for breeding a Distemper_. Now, if Diseases take a Time before they are bred; then it is an obvious Consequence, that Diseases may be prevented. Surely this is consonant to common Sense; for an _Embryo_ Disease must be far more easily cured, than a Disease after it is formed, and settled upon any Person; and thereby his Strength, or Constitution, destroyed: For however _Curative_ Method, and _Preservative_, are different Words, they only signify the same Thing at different Times. Curing a nascent Disease is _preserving_ us from being hurt by it; and curing a settled Disease, where the Instruments of Action are hurt, is curing it in the common Acceptation. [Footnote 20: Lib. 1. _De Vict. rat._ Lib. 3. _De Diæta_.] [Footnote 21: Lib. 1. _De loc. affect._ Pag. 13. Junt.] And therefore our Doctor seems to have no manner of Notion of these Words, when he would tell us that it is as impossible to prevent the Plague; as to have a _Specifick Preservative from the Small Pox_; which we find is far from being impossible. But why a _Specifick_? Must he have a Specifick, because Dr. _Anodyne Necklace_ has one? I cannot find any other Reason, especially, that it now plainly appears, and is evident, that curing a Disease, and preventing it, is the same Action, and may be done with the same Tools, whether they are Common, or Specifick, in the strictest Sense Physicians use those Words. This his Misunderstanding the Doctrine of Physicians is further manifest from the last Paragraph of his Discourse; that his Directions may _be of Use towards establishing a better Method of Cure_, than Authors have commonly taught, which might be true, if that Doctrine had been drawn from the Nature of _Infection_ or _Contagion_; but, at present, he knows as little of the grammatical Sense of these Terms, as he does of the Things themselves.