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
And here give me Leave to be serious, in examining their general Practice
in all Diseases. Suppose your self to be troubled with any Distemper, it
matters not which, for all is one to him you send to; upon his Arrival he
feels your Pulse, and with a fix'd Eye upon your Countenance, tells you
your Spirits are low, and therefore it's high time for a Cordial; the next
Interogatory he puts gravely to you is, When was you at Stool, Sir? if not
to Day, he promises to send you a laxative Clyster by and by; and if you
complain you have a Looseness, then instead of one laxative, he will send
you two healing Clysters: If besides you intimate a Pain in your Stomach,
Back and Sides, then, responding to each Pain, you shall have a Stomach
Plaister, another for the right Side, another for the left, and one for
the Back, and so you are like to have a large Patch and well fortified
round the Middle. Now before we go farther, let's compute the Charge of
the first Day. There is the Cordial, composed by the Direction of some old
dusty Bill on his File, out of two or three musty Waters (especially if it
be towards the latter End of the Year, and that his Glasses have been
stopt with Corks) _viz._ it may be a Citron, a Borrage and a Baum Water,
all very full of Spirits, if River Water may be so accounted; to these is
to be added one Ounce of that miraculous Treakle Water, then to be
dissolved a Dram of _Confectio Alkermes_, and one Ounce of nauseous Syrup
of July-Flowers; this being well shaked in the Vial, you shall spy a great
Quantity of Gold swimming in Leaves up and down, for which your Conscience
would be burthened should you give him less than Five Shillings; for from
the meanest Tradesman he expects, without Abatement, Three and Six pence,
the ordinary and general Price of all Cordials, tho' consisting only of
Baum Water and half an Ounce of Syrup of July-Flowers. Your Clyster shall
be prepared out of two or three Handsful of Mallow Leaves and one Ounce of
common Fennil Seeds, boiled in Water to a Pint, which strained, shall be
thickned with the common Electuary lenitive, Rape Oil and brown Sugar, and
so seasoned with Salt; this shall be convey'd into your Guts by the young
Doctor, his Man, through an Engine he commonly carries about with him, and
makes him smell so wholsome; for which Piece of Service if you present
your Engineer with less than Half a Crown, he will think himself worse
dealt with than those who empty your necessary Closets in the Night; the
Master places to Account for the Gut-Medicine (though it were no more than
Water and Salt) and for the Use of his Man, which he calls Porteridge,
Eight Groats. _Item_, For a Stomatick, Hepatick, Splenetick, and a
Nephretick Plaister, for each Half a Crown: What the Total of this Day's
Physick does amount to you may reckon. The next Afternoon or Evening the
Apothecary returns himself to give you a Visit, (for should he appear in
the Morning, it would argue he had little to do) and finding, upon
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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