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CHAP. LXXXIV.
Of Apothecaries.
ANd now for their Cooks, whom they call Apothe∣caries, the Titles of whose Boxes contain Reme∣dies, the Boxes themselves Poyson, or as Homer signs,
Compounded Medicines, many hurtful, many good.
For when they themselves will be a• no loss, they compel us to purchase our deaths at great prices; while they causing us to take one thing for another, or mix∣ing some old rotten Druggs whose vertues are quite lost, they many times give us a deadly Drink, in stead
Page 300
of a Restorative Potion: while they buy old Emplai∣sters, Unguents, Collyries, and Pill-messes, made for gain of the dregs of the Druggs; and not able to di∣scern otherwise, are cheated with the Sophistications of the barbarous Merchants. I could here shew their most pernicious Quarrels about the simple Medicines which they use, and their Errours about the Names of their Medicinal Druggs, by them misunderstood, and worse made use of: all which Nicholaus Leonicenus has discover'd in a large Volume. I pass over their prodi∣gious Compositions, their Mixtures of many external Simples; which while they jumble together, thinking to make one Medicament agreeing with all Constitu∣tions, they effect nothing but what is said of that Poe∣tical Chaos:
—A rude and undigested heap,
A sluggish weight, and without form or shape.
The disagreeing seeds of things ill joyn'd,
While to one Lump confin'd:
Cold fights with Heat, Drowth Moisture would deprive;
Soft things with hard, and light with heavie strive.
Grant that there be some Compositions invented by the ancient Physicians which may have prov'd useful, and which by the Vote of Experience may be receiv'd; yet are they far from the true Method, and condemn'd by the Physicians, by the compulsion of their own Con∣sciences, and every way exploded by Pliny, Theophra∣stus, Galen, Plutarch, Hippocrates, Dioscorides, Erasistra∣tus, Celsus, Scribonius, and Avicen; whose words to repeat here, would be too tedious. Nor are they so much blamed by those ancient Authors, but also by many of the Moderns; among which, Arnoldus de Villa nova thus asserts, in one of his Maximes: When a man has Simples at hand, I doubt whether it be conveni∣ent
Page 301
to use Compounds. But while Simples are either wholly neglected, or else not known, all Medicaments are fetcht from those two great Luminaries of the A∣pothecaries and Druggists Treasuries, Mesues and Ni∣cholaus, and the gilded Pictures and Inscriptions of their followers. Hence it comes to pass, that while Physicians for their own ease submit the lives of men to their Confidence in the Apothecaries; and while they without Learning, without Knowledge, trusting to the barbarousness of Merchants for their own pro∣fit, make a strange and confused Medley in their Shops, that there is more harm got by the Medicament than by the Disease. Now as concerning the Sophistica∣tion of costly Druggs, which are sometimes counter∣feited with so much Art, that many knowing persons are deceiv'd; it would be better for the general Health of men, and for the Commonwealth, to forbid the use of all Exotick Medicaments, which are brought in by Pyratical Merchants, at such Miraculous prices, to the bane of the Inhabitants; to reduce the Physicians to a Method, and to binde up the Apothecaries by such a Law, as once Nero is said to have made in Rome, when it was better than now it is, by which they were com∣pell'd to use onely those Medicaments which the Coun∣try produces, as being most agreeable to the nature of the Natives, as also fresher, of more choice, and to be gotten with less cost and difficulty, and with less dan∣ger than those forraign ones, the greatest part where∣of are to be suspected as sophisticated, or damaged in the Ship, or else not gathered in due time and place; from which arises eminent hazard: for Coloquintida not ripe, causes Bleeding and Death; and that which grows alone, is absolute Poyson. So the Male Agarick is deadly, and by how much the more old, the more Le∣thiferous. Scammony and Terra Lemnia are both So∣phisticated, and there is no Credit to be given to the
Page 302
Seals. Now I would fain know what need there is to use these Forraign Medicaments, when our own Coun∣try produces those which are of equal vertue and effi∣cacie? Is it not an egregious piece of Folly, to fetch those things from India, which we have better at home? As if our own Soyl and Sea did not suffice; but pre∣ferring forraign things before the growth of our Coun∣try, Costly before Cheap, and hard to be got, before easie to be obtain'd. Is it impossible to cure the Spleen without Armoniack, or the Liver without Sanders? Is it impossible to cure the Ulcers of the inward parts without Bdellium? or to give ease to the head without Musk and Amber, or to the Stomach without Mace and Coral? Were these Medicaments convenient for our bodies, Nature, that provides abundantly for all things, would have provided um among us. Did not our forefathers live more healthy without um? And therefore it is the Slothfulness of the Age, that search not into the nature of our own Simples, but prefer the Trifles and Inventions of Apothecaries, who consult not the Common safety, but their own Profit; perswa∣ding us that there is no Health but in Costly folly: to whom the Prophet Jeremy thus speaks: Is there no Balm in Gilead? is there no Physician there? In all Lands and Regions, Nature produces Herbs, and ap∣propriates them to the Constitution, Age, and Climate wherein the people dwell. Should we grant that some Druggs are of greater force and efficacie in some places, and at some times, yet can we not be∣lieve um wholesome, but to the people in those Coun∣tries where they were produc'd. But there are some Robbing Empiricks that perswade us that none but strange and uncouth Medicaments are most available, without which there can be no Health; trying their Experiments at the expences of the miserable; ming∣ling the most hurtful Insects and Reptils in their Medi∣caments;
Page 303
and as if all other Remedies were defective, using humane fat, and flesh of men embalmed in Spices, which they call Mummy, which they cause men to eat, as it were to atone Nature.
Of Apothecaries.
ANd now for their Cooks, whom they call Apothe∣caries, the Titles of whose Boxes contain Reme∣dies, the Boxes themselves Poyson, or as Homer signs,
Compounded Medicines, many hurtful, many good.
For when they themselves will be a• no loss, they compel us to purchase our deaths at great prices; while they causing us to take one thing for another, or mix∣ing some old rotten Druggs whose vertues are quite lost, they many times give us a deadly Drink, in stead
Page 300
of a Restorative Potion: while they buy old Emplai∣sters, Unguents, Collyries, and Pill-messes, made for gain of the dregs of the Druggs; and not able to di∣scern otherwise, are cheated with the Sophistications of the barbarous Merchants. I could here shew their most pernicious Quarrels about the simple Medicines which they use, and their Errours about the Names of their Medicinal Druggs, by them misunderstood, and worse made use of: all which Nicholaus Leonicenus has discover'd in a large Volume. I pass over their prodi∣gious Compositions, their Mixtures of many external Simples; which while they jumble together, thinking to make one Medicament agreeing with all Constitu∣tions, they effect nothing but what is said of that Poe∣tical Chaos:
—A rude and undigested heap,
A sluggish weight, and without form or shape.
The disagreeing seeds of things ill joyn'd,
While to one Lump confin'd:
Cold fights with Heat, Drowth Moisture would deprive;
Soft things with hard, and light with heavie strive.
Grant that there be some Compositions invented by the ancient Physicians which may have prov'd useful, and which by the Vote of Experience may be receiv'd; yet are they far from the true Method, and condemn'd by the Physicians, by the compulsion of their own Con∣sciences, and every way exploded by Pliny, Theophra∣stus, Galen, Plutarch, Hippocrates, Dioscorides, Erasistra∣tus, Celsus, Scribonius, and Avicen; whose words to repeat here, would be too tedious. Nor are they so much blamed by those ancient Authors, but also by many of the Moderns; among which, Arnoldus de Villa nova thus asserts, in one of his Maximes: When a man has Simples at hand, I doubt whether it be conveni∣ent
Page 301
to use Compounds. But while Simples are either wholly neglected, or else not known, all Medicaments are fetcht from those two great Luminaries of the A∣pothecaries and Druggists Treasuries, Mesues and Ni∣cholaus, and the gilded Pictures and Inscriptions of their followers. Hence it comes to pass, that while Physicians for their own ease submit the lives of men to their Confidence in the Apothecaries; and while they without Learning, without Knowledge, trusting to the barbarousness of Merchants for their own pro∣fit, make a strange and confused Medley in their Shops, that there is more harm got by the Medicament than by the Disease. Now as concerning the Sophistica∣tion of costly Druggs, which are sometimes counter∣feited with so much Art, that many knowing persons are deceiv'd; it would be better for the general Health of men, and for the Commonwealth, to forbid the use of all Exotick Medicaments, which are brought in by Pyratical Merchants, at such Miraculous prices, to the bane of the Inhabitants; to reduce the Physicians to a Method, and to binde up the Apothecaries by such a Law, as once Nero is said to have made in Rome, when it was better than now it is, by which they were com∣pell'd to use onely those Medicaments which the Coun∣try produces, as being most agreeable to the nature of the Natives, as also fresher, of more choice, and to be gotten with less cost and difficulty, and with less dan∣ger than those forraign ones, the greatest part where∣of are to be suspected as sophisticated, or damaged in the Ship, or else not gathered in due time and place; from which arises eminent hazard: for Coloquintida not ripe, causes Bleeding and Death; and that which grows alone, is absolute Poyson. So the Male Agarick is deadly, and by how much the more old, the more Le∣thiferous. Scammony and Terra Lemnia are both So∣phisticated, and there is no Credit to be given to the
Page 302
Seals. Now I would fain know what need there is to use these Forraign Medicaments, when our own Coun∣try produces those which are of equal vertue and effi∣cacie? Is it not an egregious piece of Folly, to fetch those things from India, which we have better at home? As if our own Soyl and Sea did not suffice; but pre∣ferring forraign things before the growth of our Coun∣try, Costly before Cheap, and hard to be got, before easie to be obtain'd. Is it impossible to cure the Spleen without Armoniack, or the Liver without Sanders? Is it impossible to cure the Ulcers of the inward parts without Bdellium? or to give ease to the head without Musk and Amber, or to the Stomach without Mace and Coral? Were these Medicaments convenient for our bodies, Nature, that provides abundantly for all things, would have provided um among us. Did not our forefathers live more healthy without um? And therefore it is the Slothfulness of the Age, that search not into the nature of our own Simples, but prefer the Trifles and Inventions of Apothecaries, who consult not the Common safety, but their own Profit; perswa∣ding us that there is no Health but in Costly folly: to whom the Prophet Jeremy thus speaks: Is there no Balm in Gilead? is there no Physician there? In all Lands and Regions, Nature produces Herbs, and ap∣propriates them to the Constitution, Age, and Climate wherein the people dwell. Should we grant that some Druggs are of greater force and efficacie in some places, and at some times, yet can we not be∣lieve um wholesome, but to the people in those Coun∣tries where they were produc'd. But there are some Robbing Empiricks that perswade us that none but strange and uncouth Medicaments are most available, without which there can be no Health; trying their Experiments at the expences of the miserable; ming∣ling the most hurtful Insects and Reptils in their Medi∣caments;
Page 303
and as if all other Remedies were defective, using humane fat, and flesh of men embalmed in Spices, which they call Mummy, which they cause men to eat, as it were to atone Nature.