Medicina Flagellata; Or, The Doctor Scarify'd — John Shaqi
Medicina Flagellata; Or, The Doctor Scarify'dAnonymous
Science
Medicina Flagellata; Or, The Doctor Scarify'd
Anonymous
Hygiene; Medicine -- Practice -- Early works to 1800; Plague -- Early works to 1800; Quacks and quackery
inclined to Wantonness by reason of his Youth, or sly Countenance, then
the fore-mention'd Disease is to be call'd the Pox. In most Diseases of
Women, they accuse the Mother. In Children, their Guess seems far more
fallible; for a Child within the six Months being taken ill, restless, and
froward, if there appear no evident Disease, he ever affirms it's troubled
with Gripes; upon which he prognosticates, that if not speedily remedied,
the Child will fall into Convulsion-Fits; but this not happening according
to his Prediction, to prevent the Forfeiture of his Skill and Repute,
endeavours to possess the Mother, and rest of the Gossips, it had inward
Fits. The Child being past six Months, and falling indispos'd, then
instead of Gripes, it is discompos'd by breeding of Teeth; but having bred
all his Teeth, and being surpriz'd with any kind of Illness, the Doctor
then avouches it is troubled with Worms: In short, take away these three
Words, Obstruction, Consumption, and Scurvy, and there will remain three
dumb Doctors, the Hackney Physician, the Prescribing Surgeon, and the
Practicing Apothecary.
Hitherto we have only discovered to you the Ordinary Physicians
conjecturing Compass, whereby he steers his Course, to arrive to the
Knowledge of his Patients Diseases: There yet remains we should unlock the
other Ventricle of his Brain, to behold the Subtilty of his Fancy in
groaping at the Causes of Diseases, which, tho' the Poet declares (_Felix
qui potuit rerum cognoscere causas_) to be cloathed with the darkest
Clouds, yet by the Virtue of this following Principle, aims at this Mark
immediately, _viz._ That most Diseases are caus'd by Choler, Phlegm,
Melancholy, or abundance of Blood: Of these, two are suppos'd to be hot,
namely, Choler, and abundance of Blood, and the other two cold, to wit,
Phlegm, and Melancholy, and consequently Causes of hot and cold Diseases:
These four Universals being reduced to two general Categories; under the
Notion of hot and cold, any one having but the Sense of distinguishing
Winter from Summer, may, in the Time of an _Hixius Doxius_, instantly
appoint a Cause for almost every Disease: So that a Patient discovering
his Trouble, it may be a want of Stomach, bad Digesture, Fainting, Cough,
Difficulty of breathing, Giddiness, Palsy, _&c._ his Vulgar Physician has
no more to do, but take him by the Fist, to feel whether he be hot or
cold; if he finds him cold, then summons in his old Causes, Phlegm, and
Melancholy; which ready, and quick pronouncing of the Cause upon a meer
Touch, doth almost stupify your Patient, thro' Admiration of _AEsculapian_
Oracle, hitting him in the right Vein to a hair's breadth: For, quoth he,
indeed, Mr. Doctor, I think you understand my Distemper exceedingly well,
and have infallibly found out the Cause; for every Morning as soon as I
awake, I spit such a deal of Phlegm, and moreover, I must confess my self
extreamly given to Melancholy. This jumping in Opinions between them,
makes Mr.
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