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
But least you should think me overbalanc'd with a Prejudice to those that
so much abuse that noble Profession, I'll conduct you into their usual
Road and Method of examining their Patients, and making Enquiry into their
Diseases, wherewith being acquainted, you may, without any farther
Conviction, pronounce a Verdict.
This Knack doth chiefly consist in three Notions; _viz._ _First_, That a
Patient's Grievance is either a discernible evident Disease, which his own
Confession makes known to you, what it is; or, _Secondly_, an inward Pain;
or, _Thirdly_, one of those two Endemic Diseases, a Scurvy, or
Consumption; or, a _Fourth_, the Pox. This is their Theory, which is so
deeply ingrafted on their _Dura Mater_, and may be acquired with less
Industry than fourteen Years Study at one of our Universities; for so
much Time is requir'd to make a Man grow up a Doctor, the Formality
whereof in most Places consists in this Elogy; _Accipiamus pecuniam, &
dimittamus asinum_.
If a sick Man makes his Address to a vulgar Physician, he demands his
Complaint; t'other replies, he is troubled either with a Vomiting,
Looseness, want of Stomach, Cough, bad Digesture, difficulty of Breathing,
a Phtisick, Faintness, Jaundice, Green-Sickness, Dropsy, Gout,
Convulsion-Fits, Palsy, Diziness, or Swimming in the Brain, Spitting of
Blood, an Ague, a continual great Heat or Fever, _&c._ These are all
evident Diseases the Party himself expresses he is troubled with; but his
Sickness not being an evident Disease, which he himself can explain, the
Vulgar Doctor concludes, it must be either an inward Pain, or an Endemick
Disease: The Patient then making complaint of an inward Pain, to his old
way of guessing t'other goes, enquiring first in what Part? If he answers,
he feels a Pain in the right Side, or under the short Ribs, he tells him
it is an Obstruction, or Stoppage in the Liver; if in the left Side, in
the opposite Part, then 'tis a Stoppage of the Spleen; if in the Belly, he
it may be calls it a Cholick, or Wind in the Guts; if in the Back, or
Loins, he perswades him it's Gravel, Stone, or some other Obstruction in
the Kidneys; if a Stitch in the Breast, he terms it Wind, or other times a
Pleurisy: Lastly, if the Party be reduc'd to a very lean Carcass, by
reason of a long tedious Cough, Spitting of Blood, or want of Stomach, or
Feebleness, or almost any other Disease, or Pain, then besure he tells
him he's in a Consumption, or at least falling into one: But being
troubled with several Diseases and Pains at once, as running Pains,
Faintness, want of Stomach, change of Complexion, so as to look a little
yellowish, duskish, or greenish; then t'other whispers him, he is troubled
with the Scurvy. If diseased with Ulcers or running Sores, red, yellow,
blue, or dark Spots, Pimples, or Blotches in the Face, Arms, Legs, or any
other Part of the Body, that's determin'd to be the Scurvy likewise,
supposing the Party to be a sober discreet Person: But if appearing
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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