‘So truly _Horoscope_ its Virtues knows, To this bright Idol[91] ’tis, alone, he bows; And fancies that a Thousand Pound supplies The want of twenty Thousand Qualities. Long has he been of that amphibious Fry, Bold to prescribe, and busie to apply. His Shop the gazing Vulgar’s Eyes employs With foreign Trinkets, and domestick Toys. Here _Mummies_ lay, most reverently stale, And there, the _Tortois_ hung her Coat o’ Mail; Not far from some huge _Shark’s_ devouring Head, The flying Fish their finny Pinions spread. Aloft in rows large Poppy Heads were strung, And near, a scaly Alligator hung. In this place, Drugs in Musty heaps decay’d, In that, dry’d Bladders, and drawn Teeth were laid. An inner Room receives the numerous Shoals Of such as pay to be reputed Fools. Globes stand by Globes, Volumns on Volumns lie, And Planitary Schemes amuse the eye The Sage, in Velvet Chair, here lolls at ease, To promise future Health for present Fees. Then, as from _Tripod_, solemn shams reveals, And what the Stars know nothing of, reveals.’ Medicine in the last century was very crude. Bleeding and purging were matters of course; but some of the remedies in the pharmacopœia were very curious. Happy the patient who knew not the composition of his dose. Take the following:[92] ‘Or sometimes a quarter of a pint of the following decoction may be drank alone four times a day: ‘Take a fresh viper, freed from the head, skin, and intestines, cut in pieces; candied eryngo root, sliced, two ounces. Boil them gently in three pints of water, to a pint and three-quarters, and to the strained liquor add simple and spiritous cinnamon waters, of each two ounces. Mix them together, to be taken as above directed. ‘The following viper broth (taken from the London Dispensatory) is a very nutritious and proper restorative food in this case, and seems to be one of the best preparations of the viper: for all the benefit that can be expected from that animal is by this means obtained: ‘Take a middle-sized viper, freed from head, skin, and intestines; and two pints of water. Boil them to a pint and a half; then remove the vessel from the fire; and when the liquor is grown cold, let the fat, which congeals upon the surface, if the viper was fresh, be taken off. Into this broth, whilst warm, put a pullet of a moderate size, drawn and freed from the skin, and all the fat, but with the flesh intire. Set the vessel on the fire again, that the liquor may boil; then remove it from the fire, take out the chicken, and immediately chop its flesh into little pieces: put these into the liquor again, set it over the fire, and as soon as it boils up, pour out the broth, first carefully taking off the scum. ‘Of this broth let the patient take half a pint every morning, at two of the clock in the afternoon, and at supper-time.’ In the same book, also (p. 97), we find the following remedy for cancer: