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
If I have reproached the Vulgar Physician for executing his Employ with so
little Ingenuity, far greater Reason may move me to condemn the
Water-gazer, who by the Steams of the Urine, pretends to gratify his
Patient's nice Curiosity, of being resolv'd what was, what is, and what
Disease is to come; and what is more, some by their great Cunning aiming
to discover as much by the Urinal, as the Astrologer by the Globe. The
Fame unto which the _English_ Doctor, who some Years ago residing at
_Leyden_, promoted himself by his wonderful Sagacity in Urins, is not
unworthy of your Note, hundreds, or rather thousands repairing to this
stupendious Oracle, to have the State of their Bodies describ'd by Urine.
But when I relate to you the first Means that gave Birth to our
Countryman's Repute, I shall soon remove your Passion of admiring him.
Upon his Arrival at the Place aforemention'd, he had in his Company a
bold Fellow, that haunted the most noted Taverns and Tap-houses, who by
way of Discourse divulg'd the good Fortune that was happened to the Town,
by the Arrival of an _English_ Doctor, whose great Learning, and
particular Skill in Urins, would soon render him famous to all the
Inhabitants. This being pronounced with a Confidence suitable to the
Subject, occasion'd three sick Scholars (two Hecticks, one Hydropical)
then present, to make Trial of the Truth of his Words; the next Morning,
agreeing to mix all their Urins in one Urinal, and commit the Carriage of
it to him that was dropsical. In the Interim, the Doctor advertis'd of it
by his Companion, which made him so skilful, that when the Hydropical
Scholar presented him with the Urinal, to know the State of his diseased
Body, he soon gravely reply'd, that he observed three Urins in this one
Urinal, whereof the two lowermost Parts of the Urin, appear'd to him to be
consumptive, and the third that floated at top dropsical, and with all,
that their Conditions were desperate, and at the Expiration of six Months
they should be all lodg'd in their Graves. This admirable Dexterity of
discerning Diseases by the Urinal, was soon proclaim'd by the Scholars
themselves, who all having finish'd the Course of their Lives, within the
Time prefix'd, proved an undoubted Argument of his unparallel'd Parts in
the Art of Physick, which immediately procur'd him an incredible Concourse
of People for many Years together.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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